I'm attempting to mod the skills file so that I can start Geralt off with Whirl, the ability that lets you strike enemies you aren't focusing on. I personally find it ridiculous that this isn't something 'unlocked' from the start of the game as its like saying I can't hit a tree that's to the side of me while focusing on a sparring partner because I don't have the 'skill' needed for it.

Please help! I found the ability and I am wondering if there's a way I can have it set to automatically unlock from the outset without the need to use skill point on it without having to level up the prior two abilities.

Can't help with the modding, but just wanted to chime in and let you know that one of the patches (don't remember which one) made it so that you damage nearby enemies with your sword strikes. I believe how it works now is that you can damage enemies who you aren't aiming at, but for far less damage than they'd suffer with the Whirl upgrade.

I didn't quite see that in any of the patch notes, and I was just reading over the upcoming 1.3 patch notes. Do you have a source for this?

First-hand experience, having played 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2.

But I'm pretty sure it's what #11 on the patch 1.2 notes is all about. "Also, player character responsiveness in combat has been improved, and Geralt can attack more than one target during normal combat."

Just my 2 cents, it's probably easier to hit a few enemies when you use the strong attack.

Oh, so that's what this is about? Here I thought that might be the "feature" where your focus suddenly jumps from the target spot on in front of you, that only needs one more quick hit to be beaten, to another one right behind you.

What kind of responsiveness? I don't think I felt any difference between the patches.

I agree with the OP: in a real swordfight, it is harder to not hit someone close by once you start swinging.

I recall this one mod at the Nexus, where the modder unlocked one specific alchemy skill (maybe impregnation). You should find that one and ask them about it.

Edit: found it. Maybe not that good of a solution, but it might be a step in the right direction.

Not that you're bitter about it or anything :) I agree that there didn't appear to be any real changes to the responsiveness of combat. Maybe it was one of those things like the GOG monk link in the "Extras" that was supposed to happen, but for some reason never worked. It is, indeed. Strong attacks tend to be wider and more consistently hit multiple enemies, though that spinning fast attack tends to hit a bunch of enemies reliably, as well.

Yes, since 1.2, Geralt should automatically have a 'whirl-like' ability, causing 0% damage to nearby targets. This means you can hit them and stagger them, but there won't be any damage caused. If you want to raise this value (to that of two points spent in Whirl: 100%), it's done in the geralt_basic.xml file (you must unpack it from the game, of course). Under #Damage group, look for group_hit_mult, and change the number values from 0.0 to 1.0 (this will be 100%). If you do this, grabbing two points in Whirl will in that case make you cause double damage to nearby targets, since it will then read 200%.

The mod Better Combat sets this value to 25% (reads 0.25) by default, and alters the Whirl bonuses to make it a total of 100% with two points spent. It's a great mod, but if you want only this value changed (instead of a big overhaul of the abilities in general), you can apply it quite easily as I've described. Once the file has been altered to your liking, place it in The Witcher 2\CookedPC\abilities (if the folder does not exist, create it yourself.)

I don't know how much experience you have modding files like these, so if you want only this change made, I'll gladly do it for you and upload it somewhere for you to download. By the sounds of your initial post, however, it seems you've already done some modding, so I assume it won't be a problem. :)