Introduction
This mod was largely inspired by several other Wizard Slayer revision mods which came before it, most notably Gray Acumen's Kit Improvements, Konalan's Tweaks, Ashes of Embers and Kitanya's fixes (by SixOfSpades). This version is a bit more conservative and attempts not to stray too far from the original kit design. In summary, it tries to enhance the Wizard Slayer's inherent strong points while adding some of the best features from the aforementioned mods. This should make the kit a bit more balanced and fun to play while staying mostly true to Bioware's original concept. This mod is fully compatible with BG:EE, BGII:EE and IWD:EE. It also works on normal Baldur's Gate II games as well as either of the two Baldur's Gate conversion projects: (Easy)Tutu and Baldur's Gate Trilogy (BGT).
Compatibility notes
This mod should be compatible with most other WeiDU mods. Here are some notes on a few specific mods:
- If you intend to use this mod alongside Refinements, a specific install order must be followed. The kit revision component of this mod should be installed before Refinements while its High Level Ability revision component should go after Refinements.
- In case you are using TobEX, make sure that you are using the most recent version.
- Since this mod is largely inspired by similar components of Gray Acumen's Kit Improvements, Konalan's Tweak Pack, Kitanya's Wizard Slayer Fixes and Ashes of Embers it is not intended to be used together with them.
Installation
This mod is packaged and installed with WeiDU.
Windows
The primary Windows distribution of Wizard Slayer Rebalancing comes as a self-extracting WinRAR archive. To start the installation procedure, simply double click on the self-extracting archive and point the installer to your Baldur's Gate 2 folder (default path C:\Program Files\Black Isle\BGII - SoA\). If you are installing this mod for BG:EE, BGII:EE or IWD:EE point the installer to the folders of those games instead. In case you are installing this mod for a BG1Tutu or a BGT game point the installer to your BG1Tutu/BGT folder instead. Before starting the installation procedure make sure that neither Baldur's Gate 2 nor any third-party editors such as Shadow Keeper and Infinity Explorer are currently running. After installing the mod you can re-run "setup-wsr.exe" in your BG2 folder to reinstall, uninstall or otherwise change its components.
Other systems (Linux, Mac)
The primary Wizard Slayer Rebalancing distribution for non-Windows systems is a standard, platform-independent .zip archive. To use it you also need to download a copy of WeiDU. Place the WeiDU and WeInstall binaries on your path. If you don't already have one it is recommended you create a directory in your home directory, add that directory to your path and place your binaries there. If you are on Linux, or another case-sensitive environment, you also need the tolower binary.
Extract the Wizard Slayer Rebalancing archive to your game-installation directory. Open a terminal in your installation directory. Run tolower if you need to. Issue the command WeInstall wsr and follow the instructions.
Components
Wizard Slayer kit revision
Advantages:
- Starts with 10% base magic resistance
- Gains an additional +2% bonus to magic resistance for every level of experience
- Gains the Disrupt Magic passive ability at first level
- Gains the Shatter Magic ability at first level and every 8 levels thereafter
Disadvantages:
- Cannot use any magic items except for weapons, armor and healing potions
- Cannot dual-class
Disrupt Magic:
Whenever a Wizard Slayer lands a successful hit on an arcane spellcaster the target is afflicted with a cumulative spell failure penalty. During the next 3 rounds, the victim has a 10% base chance to miscast any arcane spell plus 1% for every experience level the Wizard Slayer attains. This passive ability is always in effect.
Shatter Magic:
A Wizard Slayer can channel his innate magic resistance into his weapons in order to break through the magical defenses of arcane spellcasters. During the round when this ability is activated, each successful hit removes one combat and one specific protection from his target. However, this temporarily nullifies the Wizard Slayer's innate magic resistance making him vulnerable to magic during the next 2 rounds. Until his magic resistance recovers, the Wizard Slayer cannot use any special abilities that rely on it.
Wizard Slayer High Level ability revision
An experienced Wizard Slayer eventually learns to channel his innate magic resistance in a manner which allows him to reflect magic back to its source. For 3 rounds after this ability is activated, all spells targeted directly against the Wizard Slayer are redirected back to the original caster. However, this temporarily nullifies the Wizard Slayer's innate magic resistance making him vulnerable to any spells that are not directly targeted at him. This vulnerability takes effect when the ability is activated and persists for 3 rounds after it expires. Until his magic resistance recovers, the Wizard Slayer cannot use any special abilities that rely on it.
Arcane Bane (replaces War Cry)
An experienced Wizard Slayer can apply a special technique to his attacks making them extremely effective against wielders of arcane magic. For 2 rounds after this ability is activated he gains a +5 bonus to damage against all arcane spellcasters. Furthermore, the Wizard Slayer's attacks become so forceful that his opponents must save vs. death with a -4 penalty or lose one of their memorized spells on each hit.
Revised Wizard Slayer item restrictions
The Minimal changes option will allow the Wizard Slayer to use items which increase magic resistance, such as the Amulet of 5% Magic Resistance, Kaligun's Amulet of Magic Resistance, Amulet of Seldarine, Cloak of Balduran and the Potion of Magic Protection. On IWD:EE the following items are also included: Potion of Magical Resistance, Potion of Arcane Absorption, Potion of Aura Enhancement and Potion of Dissipation.
In addition to everything mentioned above, the Moderate changes option allows the Wizard Slayer to also use items which provide protection from magic in some form, such as the Cloak of Mirroring, Belt of Inertial Barrier, Amulet of Spell Warding, Ring of Spell Turning, Potion of Magic Shielding, Potion of Magic Blocking and the Red Potion. On IWD:EE the following items are also included: Ring of Lesser Resistance and Ring of the Protector +2.
BG2-style icons for WSR content
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Does this mod work on BG:EE, BGII:EE and IWD:EE?
A: Yes, this mod is fully compatible with BG:EE, BGII:EE and IWD:EE.
Q: Do I need the Throne of Bhaal expansion and the latest official patch in order to play this mod?
A: Yes, the Throne of Bhaal expansion as well as the latest official patch (version 26498) are both required in order to play this mod. However, if you are running BG:EE, BGII:EE or IWD:EE there is no need to separately install any patches or Throne of Bhaal. Simply update your game to the latest available version.
Q: Do I need one of the unofficial fixpacks in order to play this mod?
A: It is strongly recommended to download and install the G3 BG2 Fixpack before installing this mod. However, if you are running BG:EE, BGII:EE or IWD:EE there is no need to install the G3 BG2 Fixpack.
Q: Can I use the Baldurdash fixpack instead?
A: Possibly, but since Baldurdash doesn't fix some of the recently discovered bugs, certain issues may arise in that combination.
Version History
- Added the Italian translation (courtesy of Aedan)
- Both subcomponents of "Revised Wizard Slayer item restrictions" now allow the Amulet of Seldarine to be worn on BGII:EE
- Updated the French translation
- The "Moderate Changes" subcomponent of "Revised Wizard Slayer item restrictions" now allows wearing the Ring of Lesser Resistance on IWD:EE
- The mod is now compatible with IWD:EE
- Added the Polish translation (courtesy of Cahir)
- TRA files now use UTF-8 encoding on BG:EE and BGII:EE
- Updated to WeiDU 236 and added a BGII:EE specific check
- The mod is now compatible with BG:EE and BGII:EE
- Added the Spanish translation (courtesy of Lisandro and William Imm)
- Added the "BG2-style icons for WSR content" component
- The installer no longer erroneously references a file from aTweaks. Previously, this could make the installation fail in case aTweaks wasn't present in the BG2 folder
- The "Revised Wizard Slayer item restrictions" component can now be installed on SoA-only games
- Wizard Slayer Rebalancing now uses ENGINE_IS to determine the type of your installation (i.e. BG2-SoA, ToB, BGT... etc.)
- Added the German translation (courtesy of Florianthure and Jarl)
- Updated the Russian translation
- Added the Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese translations (by Hindo's Doom)
- Added the French translation (by Sanctifer of the d'Oghmatiques)
- If TobEx is detected, this mod will now set the "Magic Resistance Mod Fix" option in TobExCore.ini to 0 in order to avoid some compatibility issues
- Added the Russian translation (by Silent, Hawkmoon, Njkzy and Prowler - Arcanecoast.ru)
- First public release
Credits
- Much of the content in this mod is inspired by Gray Acumen's Kit Improvements, Konalan's Tweaks, Kitanya's Wizard Slayer Fixes (by SixOfSpades) and Ashes of Ambers. Original design credits belong to the authors of those mods.
- This version of the mod was compiled by aVENGER.
The creators of the Baldur's Gate series:
Tools Used in the creation of this mod:
- WeiDU by Westley Weimer and the bigg
- Near Infinity by Jon Olav Hauglid
- DLTCEP by my namesake Avenger
- IESDP maintained by igi
- BAM Workshop by Glenn Flansburg
- Infinity Explorer by Dmitry Jemerov and bigmoshi
- SConrad and K'aeloree of Spellhold Studios for providing a forum and hosting for all my mods
- Wisp for maintaining and supporting my mods
- Kevin Dorner for creating the Baldurdash BG2 Fixpacks and in doing so inspiring me to start modding the game myself
- CamDawg and the G3 BG2 Fixpack team for letting me borrow some of their code
- Idobek, Littiz, CamDawg, Nythrun, devSin, the bigg, Ascension64, cmorgan and pro5 for clarifying various intricacies of WeiDU coding
- Everyone else from the Black Isle Studious, Interplay, Bioware, Spellhold Studios, Gibberlings Three, Pocket Plane Group, Black Wyrm Lair and the other Infinity Engine gaming and modding communities who offered their help and support
- Russian: by Silent, Hawkmoon, Njkzy & Prowler - Arcanecoast.ru
- French: by Sanctifer of the d'Oghmatiques
- Chinese: by Hindo's Doom
- German: by Florianthure and Jarl
- Spanish: by Lisandro and William Imm
- Polish: by Cahir
- Italian: by Aedan
Legal Notice:
BACK TO TOP- This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.