Legacy of Bhaal

This article is about the Legacy of Bhaal game difficulty setting for the Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition and Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition. This setting is frequently abbreviated as "LoB".
==Introduction==
When starting a new game, the player is able to select a game difficulty setting. The most difficult setting offered is the Legacy of Bhaal setting. 
Once selected, it cannot be changed later in the game. It is essentially "locked-in" for the entire Baldur's Gate I saga, or Baldur's gate II saga. 
The description in the game creation display gives a general explanation of what the setting will do, but it doesn't describe everything. The player will most likely understand that this is going to make combat actions much more difficult. And that will be true.
==What the setting does==
First, the Legacy of Bhaal selection incorporates all the elements of the Insane difficulty setting.
Legacy of Bhaal can only be selected at the start of the game and once selected cannot be changed.
The LoB setting doesn't change anything about the player characters. For instance, it does not gimp, reduce or adjust anything about the player's party to make them less capable.
Instead, the setting improves and boosts non-party creatures and enemies across the board. Including the following changes:
* Hit point Modifier: All creatures base hit point totals are multiplied by three, and then another +80 are added - (base HP)*3+80.
* THAC0 Modifier: All creatures receive a -5 bonus.
* Saving throw Modifier: All creatures receive a +5 to each save value.
* Attacks per round Modifier: All creatures receive 1 extra APR.
* Armor Class Modifier: All creatures receive a -11 AC bonus.
* Level Modifier: Monster level is raised by 12 in all classes, increasing spell casting level, turn undead difficulty, and making them immune to lower level-dependent spells like Sleep.
A special mention is needed for Summoned creatures in the Legacy of Bhaal game, which applies to enemy and party creatures alike.
* Summoned creatures base hit points are configured separately. They are multiplied by two, and then +20 HP is added - (base HP)*2+20.
Some examples between Non-LoB / LoB settings:
Creature 	Hit Points	THAC0 	Armor Class	Saves 	APR
Kobold Commando BG I 	7 / 101 	15 / 10 	5 / -6 	16/18/17/20/19 / 11/13/12/16/14	Two / Three
Ogre BG I 	30 / 170 	14 / 9 	5 / -6 	10/12/11/12/13 / 5/7/6/7/8 	One / Two
Drizzt Do'Urden BG I 	92 / 356 	-4 / -9 	-16 / -27 	1/3/4/4/5 / -4/-2/-1/-1/0 	Five / Six
Sarevok Anchev BG I 	135 / 485 	2 / -3 	-9 / -20 	5/7/6/5/8 / 0/2/1/0/3 	Three / Four
Vampire BG II 	75 / 305 	8 / 3 	-2 / -13 	10/12/11/12/13 / 5/7/6/7/8 	One / Two
Kangaxx the Lich BG II	126 / 458 	9 / 4 	2 / -9 	6/2/5/4/-1 / 1/-3/0/-1/-6 	One / Two
Demogorgon BG II 	290 / 950 	-22 / -27	-16 / -27 	3/5/4/4/6 / -2/0/-1/-1/-2 	Five / Six
==Gameplay on Legacy of Bhaal Setting==
The LoB selection means that beginning characters in BG 1 are at a big disadvantage. Even the most innocuous and weak opponent in a standard game is now many times tougher than before. A giant rat or kobold will require multiple weapon strikes before it is slain. A Fireball will only wound them, and nothing will be killed with a single fireball.
Thief snares and traps aren't automatic killers any longer. Backstabbing isn't a guaranteed instant kill either.
The LoB setting won't change any scripts. Enemies and NPCs will behave as before. Spell casting enemies will cast the same spells as usual, however their spells will be boosted in casting level, and depending on the specific spell and how that spell is designed for scaling, can be much more potent. A level 5 Hobgoblin Priest casting Dispel Magic (priest) will be able to Dispel the entire party's buffs in one cast (because it would cast at level 17). The party's mage may find it difficult to dispel any protections on the enemy, because of the casting level difference.
The party will be successfully hit by enemies with missiles and weapon attacks more frequently due to the LoB THAC0 bonus for enemy creatures.
LoB creatures will successfully make their saving throws more often.
The party's Armor Class won't protect as well as it did on the non LoB game settings. Conversely, enemies will be more difficult to be successfully hit due their boosted AC.
==Bug==
As of EE 2.6.6 (and maybe applicable to earlier game update versions) there are reported bugs with the LoB difficulty implementation. The general gist of the problems encountered are regarding the LoB Saving throw bonus. It seems through gameplay testing and observed game behavior, that if an enemy creature has an existing saving throw lowered so that the value is less than zero, such as -1, or -2 etc. - then the value actually doesn't compute correctly, resulting in a saving throw penalty to the particular saving throw instead.
Creatures in the game with normally pretty good saving throws - such as a saving throw of 1 versus spell will see their adjusted LoB saving throw not change to -4 as it should, but instead it will move in the opposite direction and be as poor as 20. This bug is known to Beamdog and is assigned a fix ticket - that is if they release a patch or perhaps a 2.7 game update.
==Mod content==
If the player is able to install modifications, then consider raising the game challenge using the popular and battle tested Sword Coast Stratagems mod in lieu of the LoB option. If the player is particularly masochistic, then play LoB settings and install SCS as well. Good luck with that. You'll need it!
Category:Game mechanics