difficulty enhancing mods... fun or not?

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alright i beat the game couple of times with tob on insane and i can say i'm a fairly experienced player. i've looking for mods that make the game harder and the most noticeable one is probably what u guys call "Tactics". i read a few reviews about the mod and i was so freaked out when the guy was talking about fallen devas and demons in the irenicus's dungeon and how a couple of thugs, are now high level mages who can cast chain contengencies and stoneskins. i do like challenges and such but not powergaming, character stat points rolling, and hours of reloadfest the reviewer is talking about. because i still want to "enjoy" the game. so i wonder do u guys find the mod balanced? fun? easy/hard? i don't want to start if it is, indeed, too hard cuz i always want to finish a game and sometimes if it's too hard, i lose interest and frustration sometimes makes me stop playing the game forever(like i did with diablo2 and i don't want that to happen since i just love BG2). also is there any alternative, mods beside tactics? if u think tactics sucks and there's no other, maybe u can give me some ideas like not using specific items, spells, npcs, and such to make the game more challenging.

 

I think a very well rounded mod is Sword Coast Stratagems II by DavidW. It does enhance the difficulty, but you can decide how much enhanced difficulty you want. It mostly goes for game wide changes, such as making enemies use smarter scripts and have better spell selections, but it also enhances a few specific encounters. You can also make powerful items unavailable or harder to get.

I like SCS II, because for me, its difficult enough to require thought, but not hard enough to encourage abuse of Power Word: Reload. It also doesnt change the flavour of the original game - you can still tackle quests in the original order and the story and quest content is unaffected.

Improved Anvil is not for everyone - its uber difficult, and also limits the player in some aspects (eg some spells and items are not available anymore). Its also more of than just a tactical mod - it adds a lot of new content too, but be warned it isnt really compatible with other mods due to its nature (I imagine its readme will tell you what it does and does not work with). Those that play Improved Anvil tend to love it, but its not for me.

Choose wisely!

 

i have treied a run through with improved anvil, but i didn't fin it quite as exciting as everyone else.

and if you do try IA and the tactics mod, try setting the difficulty of the vanilla game a bit down, you can always raise, and that ensures that you won't loose interest because it is to difficult

 

Improved Anvil is the most difficult mod out there, no doubt. If you are not a very experienced player who loves reloading a lot of times, avoid it. Reloading until you find an enemy's weakness is very common in IA, especially if it is your first time playing. Its content is very rich and entertaining though, the game feels almost like an entirely different adventure!

SCS II is very customisable, you can select which components you want to install, and therefore customise the game to yoru liking and skill. It has many cool components and ideas as well. I also like spell protection removal tweaks, among other things.

Tactics is not that hard once you get it, you can beat a guy capable of summoning Fallen Deva if you play smart. Ascension is a must to have for the real challenging, majestic and fun ending of ToB. These are mostly compatible with SCS II too. (but none are compatible with IA, however.)