I dared to start the game again with the BGT mods (so playing BG1 with BG2 engine). I had never played Durlag's Tower before so it was one of the first places i entered as soon as it appeared on the map. It was super hard. After many deaths and reloads, i managed to cleanse the tower. It was very satisfying.

But there is a small problem now. The rest of the game became super easy after leveling up like crazy and with the stuff i found there. I cleaned Larswood, Peldvale and Bandit Camp like i was doing a trip in forest. Almost nothing was able to cause me any challenge. I remember those bandits were a serious problem in my earlier playthroughs.

I havent finished the game yet but i felt like i should warn others. Or am I wrong? My characters became level 8.

Tnx.
Engin.

No, you're not wrong. Durlag's Tower was designed to be played late game, and adds tons of XP (TotSC raises the cap from 89,000 to 161,000). It should be noted that if you had gone there as one of the first places in vanilla (not BGT/TuTu) you would not have even been able to get past the sentries outdoors -- your weapons would not be able to touch them, and they would have chopped you to pieces in a heartbeat.

Yup, pretty much. The area is gated quite throughoutly. BGT sort of fucks up the intended difficulty and feeling of progression you were supposed to get from the original - whether that's the price you're willing to pay for BG2 engine and ruleset, that's up to you I suppose. Now I wonder if there's some sort of rebalance patch, but I assume most of the changes come precisely from changes in the ruleset.

Thank you both. I knew something was wrong when it took me 50 deaths to kill those death Knights. I just thought my level 4 characters (and I) sucked but i was determined and with the power of Magic Missile Wands I was able to defeat them. Those 4 wards keeping the door to first floor killed me instantly at my first try. I was able to kill them with a glitch i guess. They killed eachother.

I will leave the tower to last on my next time. Thanks again.

You don't need to leave it last. When you were dying over and over, your gut should have told you something was wrong. If it was too hard, simply continue with the main game and come back. If you can continue, great, if not, no big deal, just leave the tower and continue with the main story as before. Come back when you have a level or 2 and better gear.

Durlag's Tower doesn't have to be finished in one go and it definitely doesn't need to be grinded through.

I remember during my very first playthrough of BG, I couldn't figure out how to get into BG. So I went through everything, including Durlag's Tower, before getting to BG. It took ages, but I was able to get clear it at a fairly low level.

I've tried in my later playthroughs and haven't gotten close. :)

I'm used to play Durlag's Tower and all of the Tales of the Sword Coast expansion just before entering the city of Baldur's Gate itself. Not easy but it works. In any case, using BGT, the number of creatures you invoke is limited which adds quite a challenge playing the extension and the final battle against Sarevok.

This happened to me until I discovered the trick of casting a Dispel Magic to snuff out the flaming swords those Battle Horrors wield. But even then, I believe I could only hit them with melee weapons as opposed to missile weapons. At the moment, I can't recall, but I think even the melee weapons have to be +1 or better. Correct me if I'm wrong.

This Dispel Magic trick did not, however, work for me in BG:EE. I had to 'roid up on potions and cast Haste, Barkskin, etc. Those guys are tough!

The enhanced edition was quite right to correct that bug, if it was one -- I've never come across it -- because the battle horrors wield a real sword, not a summoned one. I suspect that only the flaming effect was dispelled.

As for hitting them, the reason for difficulty is not immunity to weapon level, but that they have -2 base AC, and at early levels a character's hits are just never going to land. Plus they are classed as golems, funnily enough, so missile weapons are pretty much useless.

Battle Horror's statistics.

STR 18/10
DEX 17
CON 15
INT 11
WIS 14
CHAR 13

HP 58 (base)
AC : -2
3 Attacks per round.
They have 100 resistance to Missile weapons. AKA immune.

It says their level is 6/9/5. I dont know what that means. As if they are Fighter/Mage/Thief.

I found out that Magic missle is the best solution to kill those guys. Or you have to make criticals which always hits. Also, pray that they dont kill your tank before you kill them.

That is just a leftover from creature file copy/paste -- they still have the thief ability points. But they are level 6 single class Iron Golems with human fighter appearance and animations.

Actually, it is possible to implement "make the flaming effect dispellable but not the sword". This would be dune as follows:

Battle Horrors would start the battle with ordinary swords. Then, immediately on spawning, they would ReallyForceSpell a spell that gives them flaming swords. (Think Flame Blade, but with permanent duration.) This would result in the enemies having flaming swords to wield against the party, but dispel magic would remove the effect and force them to use normal swords. (Note that the enemy will drop the normal swords, not the flaming ones, if killed.)

How does one go about finding out the background stats/info on the game's enemies? Interesting stuff.

As I recall, once hit with the DM spell, they were reduced to swinging at me with their fists. And while they were indeed hard to hit even with decent party members using melee weapons, I swear I recall missile weapons giving the "weapon ineffective" message.

Anyway, as another poster mentioned, MM works pretty well, but you'd better have lots of them ready to go (multiple wands and/or higher level caster).

The other tactic I've used against them in the original game was to backstab them with a F/T or F/M/T. Even then, I liked to be 'roided up and/or speed-oiled or hasted. Having an invisibility potion handy is preferred - in case hiding in shadows fails. If using a F/M, then Mirror Image is a must, as these guys don't miss very often it seems.

All this talk makes me want to load up the 'mission pack save' and go take those SOB's on again right now!

Thinking about your comments regarding their status as golems (which makes sense, given that they were evidently "constructed" to guard Durlag's Tower and also Daeveorn [sp?] in the mines), I now recall backstabbing the golems at High Hedge in the original game whereas I couldn't do so in the EE version.

So when you mentioned something about being a bug, perhaps that is indeed true. The only BG2 golems I can recall getting a backstab bonus on are the "lesser" clay golems in the starting dungeon. Those two also don't require blunt weapons to hit.

By looking at their creature files with an editor like Near Infinity. You can also use Sword Coast Keeper or Shadowkeeper, but you get less info from those.