Oversight

A Gibberlings Three Mod
Author: Kish
On the web: Home page and discussion forum

Version 13 - Check for the most recent version
Languages: English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Russian, and Spanish
Platforms: Windows and Mac OS X

Have you ever played a paladin in Baldur's Gate II?

I have.

Have you ever played a paladin all the way through Baldur's Gate I as your first character, relied heavily on Detect Evil, imported the character to Baldur's Gate II, and realized before you got out of the starting dungeon that Something Was Terribly Wrong?

I have.

A lot of the alignment codings in Baldur's Gate II are, to put it nicely, insane. Good brigands and murderers. Neutral paladins. Evil actors, major-domos, Priests of Lathander, and other characters who are entirely helpful and friendly. The Alignment Correction component of this mod was written to correct these errors.

Additionally, in Throne of Bhaal, David Gaider created excellent Tougher versions of four members of the Five, which are most conveniently available as part of Ascension-WeiDU, located at http://www.weidu.org , but no Tougher version of Sendai, Throne of Bhaal's ultimate spellcaster. Already markedly weaker than her brother Abazigal, whom players could encounter before facing her, Sendai became the weakest of the Five when all existing Tougher versions were installed. The Tougher Sendai component strives to rectify this, making Sendai approximately as deadly as Tougher Abazigal.

For bug reports and suggestions please visit the Gibberlings Three forums.

This mod is designed to work with BG2: Shadows of Amn, with or without the expansion pack Throne of Bhaal. The Cleric Kits component will not work with the Multiple Stronghold component of the Ease-of-Use or BG2 Tweak Pack mods. It will, however, work with the NPC Strongholds mod.

Windows
Oversight is packaged and installed with WeiDU and is distributed as a self-extracting archive. To install, simply double-click the archive and follow the instructions on screen.

Alternatively the files can be extracted from the archive using WinRAR. If properly extracted, you should have an Oversight folder, setup-Oversight.tp2 and Setup-Oversight.exe in your BG2 folder. To install, simply double-click Setup-Oversight.exe and follow the instructions on screen.

Please run Setup-Oversight.exe in your BG2 folder to reinstall, uninstall or otherwise change components.

Mac OS X
If the mod was previously installed, uninstall it before extracting the new version. Oversight is packaged and installed with WeiDU. To install, simply extract the contents of the mod into your BG2 folder.  If properly extracted, you should have an Oversight folder, Setup-Oversight.tp2, Setup-Oversight, and Setup-Oversight.command in your BG2 folder. To install, simply double-click Setup-Oversight.command and follow the instructions on screen.

Oversight contains the following components which can be installed independently of one another:

Alignment Correction
This component will change the alignments of the 700-some-odd creature files with alignments that seem at odds with their BG2 behavior. This component changes the creature files to the alignments I believe make most sense for them; this is inevitably a judgment call.

Be aware that this component will only change those creatures whom your character has not yet seen. If you wish to experience the full effects of the mod (that is, if you simply can't live with having killed a Neutral Good otyugh in the starting dungeon), you will need to begin a new game after installing. However, every miscoded character whose first appearance is after installation of this mod will be corrected, and every miscoded character (including the otyugh) will be corrected in any future games you play.

If you feel the mod is good for the most part but that I've changed a coding in error, or left a coding alone in error, feel free to email me. However, be aware of the following principles this component depends on:

1. Inherent evil makes for lame stories. An email which goes, "But you can't make X good/evil, all members of that species are evil/good" is unlikely to sway me. I'll be far more likely to make changes you suggest if your argument takes the form, "This character should be evil/good/chaotic/lawful/neutral because in the game she does x, y, and z."
2. The original coding of the game characters is a bad joke. "There isn't a compelling enough reason to change the coded alignment of that character" is unlikely to sway me. Any reason at all, down to and including "That looks like a Chaotic hairstyle to me," is more compelling than the game's original coding.
3. I will not tread on another modder's toes. Don't ask me to make WeimerSolaufein or Ascension Balthazar Lawful Neutral, or to change anything else from a mod. Make your case instead to Westley Weimer (for Solaufein), David Gaider (for Ascension), or the designer of the mod in question (other mods).
4. Good ≠ Nice. Just because a character is rude does not mean that character is evil. It doesn't even imply that that character is not good.
5. Tabletop D&D was not consulted for any of these. I've been playing D&D for twenty years, and I've never played in a game without house rules. If a character's actions in BG2 indicate a different alignment from a D&D supplement (a character listed in a supplement as Neutral who acts blatantly evil in BG2, for example), I take that to indicate that BioWare changed the character and accordingly changed the character's proper alignment, rather than that the actions are to be ignored.

Class Tweaks/Fixes
This component changes those creature files with weird/inappropriate classes. I expect this component to be far more controversial than the Alignment Correction component. I doubt anyone will disagree that kobold shamans and hobgoblin captains shouldn't be coded as paladins, but what I do expect to draw more dissent is my reassigning of the Innocent class.

I consider this mod component entirely a fix as many of the class codings are just as insane as the alignment codings; however, I realize some others will disagree, so I've named it Tweaks/Fixes. Call the changes tweaks or fixes (or something unprintable if you'd rather), as you please.

As with the Alignment Correction component, you are free to send me an email and make a case that I've changed a class inappropriately. However, again, there are some principles you should take into account.

1. Reputation serves a dual function in the Baldur's Gate series: It reflects how you are seen, as its name suggests, but it also reflects how good you actually are. I use the coding "Innocent" primarily to reflect the latter, and I believe the game's coding, schizophrenic as it is, supports the idea that this is the true purpose of the class. I am thus unlikely to be convinced by arguments that take the form, "So-and-so shouldn't be an Innocent because no one would ever know if I killed him," or, "so-and-so should be an Innocent because even if she's evil she's still a respected member of the community." I take the position that a plurality of characters in the world are True Neutral. Some Neutral and Good characters may be unpleasant, but if a character is actually Evil with the Alignment Correction component of this mod, he or she is guilty of something bad enough that some people will consider you a hero if it becomes known you killed that character.
2. This component is written for a world affected by the Alignment Correction component. "He shouldn't be an Innocent because he's evil" is a compelling argument for me to change one of those qualities in the character in question--but only if the character is an "evil Innocent" when both the Alignment Correction and Class Tweaks/Fixes component is installed.

Tougher Sendai
This component will make Sendai an opponent on par with the rest of the Tougher versions of the Five. It will change her stats to match those of the Sendai, who appears for the final battle in the Ascension mod, and give her equipment and spell choices that enable her to make full use of her powers.

If you play on Core or below, she functions with strict limits on what she can or cannot do. On Hard or Insane, she is much more interested in kicking your ass than in being "fair" about it. Hopefully, you should notice a marked increase in the difficulty of the fight on any difficulty setting, but the tactics and abilities she uses will be different for each difficulty setting. (If you are curious, a list of the differences is available, but I strongly advise against looking at it before you fight Sendai, as it will ruin the surprise for you.)

Within the limits of BG2's AI, she attempts to be as deadly as an intelligently played PC. This is not a game to her; even on Novice, she has no compunction about abusing the engine to achieve the Greater Good of kicking your ass and thus saving her own. If you can think of anything that you think would be an effective tactic for a character with her stats in her situation and that she does not already do, by all means, email it to me. If you can think of tactics that work on her that ought not to work on an intelligent opponent, let me know as well.

Altered Spells
This component revises three of the spells in BG2 which are too weak to be worth casting. A ranger's Charm Animals ability will now automatically and permanently befriend every animal on the map. Know Alignment now targets every character on the map, like Detect Evil, and allows no save. It also detects lawful or chaotic alignment, instead of just good and evil. Comet is now unaffected by magic resistance and the damage it inflicts is crushing, making it no longer a weaker choice than Dragon's Breath for every situation.

Improved Continuity
This component changes the soundset of the final villain of Shadows of Amn, in the final battle, to the soundset he's used throughout the game, instead of the ogre soundset he currently uses. It also prevents Saemon Havarian from returning in Throne of Bhaal if he has died in Shadows of Amn (and only if he has died--dark and terrible rumors suggest some people actually like him; if you didn't kill him in SoA, you don't need to worry about him failing to show up in ToB).

Cleric Kits
In Baldur's Gate II, clerics can choose a kit, and gain a stronghold, based on one component of their alignment--Good clerics serve Lathander, Neutral clerics serve Helm, and Evil clerics serve Talos. However, while Lathander works as a blanket Good deity, Helm is perhaps the single most intensely Lawful deity in the Realms, and this shows in his stronghold quests. This component has four effects:

1. It changes the alignment restrictions to serve each of the deities to go with the alignments of the deities. Lathander's alignment requirements are unchanged, Helm accepts worshipers of any Lawful alignment or True Neutral, and Talos accepts worshipers of Chaotic Evil, Chaotic Neutral, or Neutral Evil alignment. Chaotic Neutral Anomen stands as an anomaly, but since Sir Anomen is an anomaly in the unmodded game, it makes little difference.
2. It fixes a longstanding and infamous bug that prevents cleric/rangers from being recognized as part cleric for stronghold purposes.
3. It offers a cleric stronghold (Lathander, or Helm, as appropriate to alignment) to monks, as well. Monks still have the option of taking the fighter stronghold instead.
4. It changes the holy symbols cleric party members get to go with the new alignment requirements of the deities, so that a Lawful Evil PC will get a Holy Symbol of Helm which works for Lawful and Neutral PCs while a Chaotic Neutral PC will get a Holy Symbol of Talos which works for clerics within one step of Chaotic Evil.

Be warned that this component will not work with the Multiple Stronghold component of the Ease-of-Use or BG2 Tweak Pack mods. It will, however, work with the NPC Strongholds mod and with the Holy Symbol Fix component of Ding0's Tweak Pack.

Monk High Level Abilities
In unmodded Throne of Bhaal, monks have access to the same pool of High Level Abilities as fighters. This seems lame. This component will give monks their own set of High Level Abilities instead, most of which should be quite familiar to anyone who has played through Throne of Bhaal before.

Shadowless Kick
This kick throws the target back, knocks the target unconscious, and deals 4d8 points of damage.

Tiger Strike
A more powerful form of Shadowless Kick, this power ensures every blow for the next round is a critical hit. In addition, every blow for the next two rounds throws the target back and knocks the target unconscious.
Prerequisite: Shadowless Kick.

Dragon Fist
With a blow, the monk strips away the magical protections of the target.

Faster Than The Eye
By concentrating briefly on another area within 4000 feet, the monk can instantly transport herself there.
Prerequisite: Feet of the Wind.

Flip Resistances
The monk's magic resistance converts into physical damage resistance for a number of rounds equal to twice the monk's level. The monk also becomes immune to backstab for the same duration.

Solar Stance
Solar Stance renders nearby enemies more vulnerable, reducing the saving throws of any within 60 feet of the monk by 4. It creates a cloud of glittering golden particles that fill the air for twenty feet around the monk, revealing invisible creatures. All enemies in the cloud must roll a successful saving throw vs. spell or be blinded (-4 to attack rolls, saving throws, and Armor Class) until the dust fades, after 4 rounds. Also, a blast of fire emanates from the monk, scorching and throwing back everyone in a 30 foot radius, though the stance protects the monk from the flames.
Prerequisite: Tiger Strike.

Lunar Stance
A monk who strikes this stance gains a +5 bonus to Saving Throws vs. Death, a + 2 bonus to luck, and becomes immune to Slay, Imprisonment, Petrification, Level Drain, Disintegrate, and Time Stop. The duration of this power is four rounds.
Prerequisite: Solar Stance.

Shadow Stance
This stance causes the monk to instantly become both invisible, as per the spell Improved Invisibility, and immune to divination spells such as True Seeing. This power lasts for 23 rounds.
Prerequisite: Lunar Stance.

Feet of the Wind
Each time this ability is chosen, it greatly and permanently increases the monk's movement rate.

Second Wind
By concentrating briefly, the monk can shrug off even the worst of wounds, once per day. The effect of this power is to fully heal the monk instantly.
Prerequisite: Flip Resistances.

Stunning Blow
The monk has one more use of the Stunning Blow ability per day.

Quivering Palm
The monk has one more use of the Quivering Palm ability per day.

Holy Liberator Kit
This component adds a new paladin kit to the game, a conversion of a 3ed D&D Prestige Class.

A Holy Liberator is a cousin to the paladin, dedicated to the overthrow of tyranny. These champions of freedom are strong-willed, independent-minded, and virtuous.

In most respects, Holy Liberators are much like paladins. However, they shun positions of leadership and value wisdom over charisma. The trademark quality of the Holy Liberator is that their nature is entirely hostile to mind control abilities, whether those abilities are used by putative allies or enemies.

Holy Liberators are as intensely dedicated to Chaotic Good as paladins are to Lawful Good. For both, goodness is paramount, but while paladins follow carefully codified rules of conduct, Holy Liberators follow their own consciences. However, the standards they hold themselves to are no less strict.

Advantages:
- Immune to Charm.
- Gains Subversion ability, which temporarily protects all in the surrounding area, regardless of allegiance, from mind-affecting powers, once per day per four levels, starting at first level with one use.

Disadvantages:
- Cannot Lay On Hands.

Kish created this mod. Visit The Gibberlings Three Forums for information on this and any other Gibberlings Three mods on which I may be working.

Detectable Spells
Vulgar Zildrah
Kensai Ryu
Eric Cirerrek

This mod incorporates the Detectable Spells mod, which was created by Vulgar Zildrah and Kensai Ryu and packaged by Eric "Cirerrek" Kerr, with permission. If you install Tougher Sendai, you will have Detectable Spells installed as well, whether you did beforehand or not; it will make no difference to anything except modding scripts. Thanks to those people for making it possible for Sendai to be as deadly as she hopefully is.

Additional coding
Joost R. Meerten
"Cam" Camagna
Gospel
SimDing0

Cam revised the mod's coding to be far more efficient and to make all the components work without Throne of Bhaal. He also created the icons used by the Monk High Level Abilities. Joost rearranged the Monk High Level Abilities and fixed the bug that made Second Wind unselectable. Gospel created the item which prevents Sendai from dying before her Chain Contingency goes off. SimDing0 implemented the checks for Lawful and Chaotic alignment in the Know Alignment spell, and designed the new Comet visuals.

Technical assistance
"Cam" Camagna
Neriana
SimDing0
Jesse "Ghreyfain" Meyers
Japheth
Jason Compton
Gebhard Blucher

CamDawg, SimDing0, Jesse Meyers, Japheth, Jason Compton, and Gebhard Blucher answered my many tedious coding questions. Without them, this mod would never have gotten past the first line of code. Neriana identified several dozen creatures with no alignments to be added to the Alignment Correction component.

Author of Ascension
David Gaider

The Ascension mod gave me the idea for Tougher Sendai, and Tougher Sendai's stats and powers are based on the Sendai who appears there. Looking at the Detectable Spells ReadMe, I also thank David Gaider for requesting the one update to Detectable Spells which features most prominently in Tougher Sendai-- detectable Spell Immunities.

WeiDU author
Westley Weimer

Playtesters
Jason Compton
Slayne
SimDing0
Gospel

Translations
Isaya, Emmanuel Teyssier, Barren Fischa, and Graoumf (French)
Bhasbuto and Immortality (Spanish)
Helene Schurz and Caswallon (German)
Andrea Colombo, Antonio Favata and al17 (Italian)
Godimir and Damien Staniszewski (Polish)
AERIE.ru (Russian)

I would like to thank Gospel for inspiration. The Holy Liberator Kit was all his idea, and would never have been created if he hadn't asked for it. I also want to thank Kevin Dorner for discovering a number of typos in the Alignment Correction component that converted those creature files to silly alignments instead of appropriate ones.

Finally, I would like to thank Stephen "Karkadinn" Mackey for his interest and moral support.

Infinity Engine Tools Used in Creation
BAM Workshop by Glenn Flansburg
IESDP maintained by igi
Near Infinity by Jon Olav Hauglid
WeiDU by Wes Weimer

Q: Hey! I wanted the animals to be friendly!
A: You can still have them friendly easily enough. Just install Altered Spells and play a ranger, or take Minsc or Valygar.

Q: Monks get all these new powers and the fighter high level abilities too?!
A: No, monks do not still get any of the fighter high level abilities.

Q: Aren't these new monk high level abilities just a port of Balthazar's powers? Isn't that unbalanced?
A: Most of them resemble Balthazar's powers, but few (only one actually) of them are direct translations, and in that case, it's because I felt that that power worked perfectly as a HLA without alteration. I gave careful thought to balance, and while they are more powerful than, say, War Cry, I consider them appropriately balanced with Whirlwind/Greater Whirlwind, Critical Strike, and Dragon's Breath. A monk with these powers is more powerful than a monk with fighter HLAs, but that is because these powers are tailored to a monk while the fighter HLAs are tailored to a fighter.

Q: I just used Charm Animals at Trademeet and now everyone is attacking me! What is this?
A: The people of Trademeet locked Cernd up for being a druid, because they saw someone directing the animals attacking the town. Even if you act completely civilized, some of them are suspicious of you. You just walked in and demonstrated to the whole town that you, just like their assailant, have the power to control the animals who have been attacking them. This is a suboptimal way to make a good first impression.

This mod may not be sold, published, compiled or redistributed in any form without the consent of its author. Oversight is ©2004 - 2007 Kish.

Version 13 - March 2, 2010

• Removed setup.bat, updated to WeiDU v213

Version 12 - January 7, 2008

• Updated the French translation

Version 11 - December 7, 2007

• Updated the Spanish translation

Version 10 - March 23, 2007

• Updated the Italian translation

Version 9 - October 1, 2006

• Due to a bad copy-and-paste, the compatibility code to allow the Holy Liberator kit to work with Divine Remix v4+ would actually cause an installation failure as it was trying to copy the wrong file
• Extended ability table for the Holy Liberator to level 50 for better compatibility with XP cap removing mods

Version 8 - September 18, 2006

• As part of the Altered Spells component, Comet now does 100% crushing damage instead of 50% crushing, 50% cold so that it will no longer destroy enemy equipment
• The Holy Liberator will now install fine after Divine Remix
• Updated stats.ids patching code to eliminate reported issues with line breaks

Version 7 - October 16, 2005

• Russian translation added
• Extra security added against a bug that showed up occasionally where Sendai would start buffing before the PC was actually in the room with her, as per a suggestion made by Rastor
• Updated Detectable Spells component

Version 6 - April 23, 2005

• The German translation will now work
• Detectable Spells is now Patch-riffic
• Comet now appears more appropriately icy

Version 5 - February 8, 2005

• The Second Wind HLA no longer displays an erroneous string
• The description of Solar Stance has been changed
• ToB holy symbol change has been included in the Cleric Kits component
• Icons used for selecting Stunning Blow and Quivering Palm as HLAs have been changed
• A few dozen characters who had no alignments at all have been added to the Alignment Correction component

Version 4 - January 15, 2005

• The Second Wind HLA actually works now
• The .tp2 is better organized
• Priests of Helm, Talos, and Lathander will be addressed as such
• Monk HLAs have been rearranged and have different icons
• All components that affect Shadows of Amn at all (that is, all except Tougher Sendai) can be installed without requiring Throne of Bhaal
• Charm Animal will now affect all animals, instead of mysteriously not working on spiders

Version 3

• Replaced the Friendly Animals component with the Altered Spells component
• Fixed some bugs in Alignment Corrections
• Added the Second Wind HLA
• Added Italian and Polish translations
• Makes minor tweaks to most components

Version 2.5

• Made the animals in Trademeet hostile again
• Fixed a few miscellaneous bugs
• Added translations

Version 2

• Fixed some Sendai bugs
• Removed a couple of the more egregiously supposed-to-be-hostile animals from the Friendly Animals component
• Gave Sendai Dragon's Breaths on Insane
• Added the Cleric Kits, Monk High Level Abilities, and Holy Liberator components