4 items
About this mod
Darkest Dungeon Rebalance Mod to make game slightly easier and more forgiving.
- Permissions and credits
I enjoy Darkest Dungeon alot, but as some players I do not agree with certain design choices of developers considering gameplay mechanics. I perfectly understand their intended focus of this game, but I believe we are free to shape game in such ways, so we can can have fun in our own concept.
Important Notes:
Beauty of this mod is that you DON'T need any effects being added for it to function properly. Another thing is that this mod is basically consists of different components. You can install one thing, ignoring another, and it still will work, like maybe you need only hero rebalance, and no inventory and speed changes, no problem, just copy files you want. Also since files have pretty open format you can tweak some parameters and details on your own if you want to, but be careful, some tweaks may result in crash or worse if you're not sure what you're doing.
Tested on existing campaign in progress and on new game, worked without any issues in both cases. Report any bugs if you encounter, though unlikely, possibility still exists.
Description:
I made these tweaks quite some time ago purely for myself, and as I enjoy this game alot with those changes, I felt like sharing, maybe others would appreciate it too. But regarding the tweaks, I tried to preserve as much vanilla DD as possible, the only things I changed are aimed to:
- Make it a bit more forgiving for those who are unfamiliar with game mechanics or those who want less tense and more relaxed Dungeon Crawling.
- Drastically decrease grind.
- Increase variety in class choices and roles. I don't like single class stacking or any other cheesy tactics, though I have nothing against those who do.
- Inspire replayability, since with this mod you can finish game faster than usual, so you can start a new one. I personally don't feel much joy being stuck in single campaign for longer than I want to.
- And many other things not worth listing, better see them for yourselves, right?
But don't misjudge it, it maybe easier early game, but if you're unlucky or unprepared, you still can get wiped in level 5 and final dungeons, even in level 3 sometimes, RNG is still there. General difficulty isn't actually changed too much, I just made it so you can get back up faster from previously catastrophic failure resulting in brutally boring tedium of grind in vanilla game.
______________________________________________________________________________
Update 1.8
For build #15015
Changes:
Those will be numerous this time. Firstly made sure it works with new build, updated files structure. Secondly, now it will be one single file without any optionals, because there's not really any sense in that I think. Musketeer files will just hang in there and won't cause any troubles if you don't have it, and dialogue string won't hurt, and will be good to have anyway, just in case, since it's completely neglected by devs for some reason. Anyway, you can NOT copy these files.
Installation slightly changed, I'm not sure if that's good idea, so leave feedback.
IMPORTANT: Added colored tooltips fix, for some of you who might not like them and want it to look as it was in previous version, I made some changes.
New installation instructions:
- Extract archive with with 7z or something like that anywhere you want.
- Choose and copy contents you want to your game folder (usually C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\common\...) and overwrite when prompted.
Optional:
- Copy heroes/musketeer folder ONLY if you have Musketeer hero and want my class changes.
- Copy localization/dialogue.string_table.xml ONLY if you have Musketeer hero and want this fix, then run localization.bat file to integrate changes in game.
- Copy colours/colours.darkest ONLY if you need colored tooltips removed and look as in previous version.
MAKE BACKUPS!
And minor balance tweak:
Arbalests' Battlefield Bandage skill now can be applied to any position, in vanilla it only allows you to heal 3,2,1 positions, which doesn't make much sense in my opinion.
If anything isn't clear enough, check ReadMe section or ask in Posts. As usual, leave suggestions and feedback.
Update 1.7
For build #14620
Changes:
Minor bugfixes and such, but main tweak is Crusaders' Holy Lance now moves him forward by 2 positions instead of 1, should improve utility of this skill.
Update 1.6
For build #14620.
Changes:
No balance tweaks this time, I actually fixed bug: forgot to modify restriction of higher level heroes in lower level dungeons in previous version, now it works as it should. Also made sure it works with latest build and updated localization file (Musketeers' dialogue string fix) for newest version.
Update 1.5
For build #14584. Basically update of new file structure to avoid any possible conflicts and misbehavior.
Changes:
- Few balance tweaks for Plague Doctor, Hellion and Musketeer. Covered in ReadMe, as always.
P.S. Should work with most subsequent updates, not containing major changes like recent Town Events one, will keep updating as necessary.
Update 1.4
For the same builds as previous version. Mostly tweaks and balance.
Changes:
- Few tweaks for Vestal and Musketeer.
- Plague Doctors' Battlefield Medicine received slight tweaks and is now mass heal/cure skill.
Idea behind this is to replace Vestal as main healer to open up sustainable parties with non-Vestal groups. Thing is, there are currently 2 best healers: Vestal and Occultist (with luck) who can pretty much sustain health of party on their own no problem (while Vestal is kick ass absolutely best healer even in vanilla). Also I made Crusader as front line healer, and he basically still sucks, but not as vanilla one and I won't buff him to rival Vestal in this. With little help from either Plague Doctor or Antiquarian, Crusader+another healer are able to sustain party at least on par with Vestal. Mass cure is pretty much unique skill which no one has, and it may look a bit overpowered on paper, but in practice it's really not, because in bleed/blight heavy runs (especially in final dungeon) you always stock up on curatives, and PD doesn't save the world here, it's just made her role as healer more appealing, so you'll be facing hard choice between powerful blight, stun or healing, and that's the idea.
Update 1.3
For builds #14030/14065 (in fact should work with all builds from #13916). Minor tweaks, balancing and bug fixes.
Changes:
- Minor buff to Crusaders' Battle Heal skill, because it didn't make any sense to have it healing values similar to mass heal.
- Numerous tweaks and bug fixes for Musketeer.
- Important - fixed Musketeers' dialogue string bug on Clean Musket camping skill, those who have her probably noticed error code in dialogue window when using it. Follow instructions in ReadMe for the fix.
Update 1.2
Works for same builds as previous update, purely class balance tweaks.
Changes:
- Crusader' Battle Heal is now single target mediocre heal skill with stress healing taken from Inspiring Cry, which is now decent mass heal skill without stress healing but +Torch ability remained as in vanilla. Mass healing values are reverted from ver.1.1 to ver.1.0 ones, because those were a bit too much.
- Antiquarians' Fortifying Vapors (healing) is now launched from position 2,3 (middle) instead of 3,4 (back).
- Musketeer received numerous tweaks again, most important among them is Smoke Screen now has only 66% to trigger mass stress healing and values reduced. It still removes -5 Torch but increased Dodge buff on each level. Aimed Shot can target 2,3,4 positions instead of 3,4 as before. This should compensate 50% hit chance and make skill more desirable I hope.
As always, numbers covered in ReadMe.
Update 1.1
For builds #13985 and #13916. Should work with both Steam and GOG versions.
*Should also work with build #14017 since it fixes enemy animations which my files aren't related with and don't modify in any way.
Changes:
- Game speed for critical melee and ranged increased by ~50%, as I basically made same value changes, crits are still very slightly slower than normal attacks, so it didn't really lose it's immersive effect. Normal speed crits felt like combat pace breaking a little. Still, optional, you can use them or not.
- Buffed Hellions' skill Breakthrough, now it does more damage, but retains its exhaust debuff effect. This skill is now useful as weak mob killer or finisher, spamming this skill is still a bad idea, because debuff stacks and your Hellion will barely do any damage at all in the end. Became pretty powerful one-time attack, good for balancing Hellion, who is rather squishy melee character with huge focus on high DPS.
- Slightly buffed Crusaders' healing to be more appealing front line healer.
- Rebalanced Antiquarians' Fortifying Vapors (Healing) and added blight resist debuff on each level. It really doesn't hamper this skill alot, I just wanted to give it more personality and some minor drawback, because there's a situation: Antiquarian has an artifact - Candle of Life, which gives +50% healing with no drawbacks and it makes Antiquarian very potent healer with my tweaks. Now it really feels balanced and her role is improved IMO.
- Several tweaks for Musketeer, it's really tricky to balance this class well, but it improves little by little.
For numbers info you can check ReadMe, covered everything there. Will keep updating and tweaking, leave your feedback and ideas in posts.
Enjoy.
______________________________________________________________________________
Inventory:
Increased stacks of almost everything:
Gold - 5000
Provisions - 16
Torches - 12
Firewood -3 (you still get quantity according to dungeon length, no buy/sell)
Most Heirlooms - 12 (Crests - 24)
Curatives - 8
Skeleton Keys - 8
Gem stacks changed according to price so it varied
All Quest items - 3
Antiquarian Relics - 20 (sell price - 100)
Rare Antiqarian Relics - 10 (sell price - 600)
Antiquarian bonus gold stack - 1000.
*I'll explain later why I nerfed Antiquarian a little.
Game Speed:
Increased Melee, Ranged and Friendly skill execution times roughly by 50% (both your party and enemy),Criticals are unchanged for immersive effect. Nothing else changed.
Hero dungeon restrictions:
Level 6 heroes can go in level 5 dungeons.
Level 5-3 heroes can go in level 5-3 dungeons.
Level 3-0 heroes can go in any level dungeons.
Let's face it, level 1 and 3 dungeons are mostly a cakewalk even in vanilla, sending level 3 heroes in level 1 dungeon won't save the day or break balance too much, cause you would do that either way, same with lvl 5 hero in lvl 3 dungeon, though it opens up one very funny opportunity, take one low level hero with high level and geared party. I laughed hard how this poor fella psyching out all the time accompanied by 3 deadly cold and calm comrades, totally worth to see without resulting in 90% failure like it would in vanilla. Also now you do runs which you feel like doing, not the ones you absolutely need to, want it or not. And as I mentioned, level 5 and final dungeons gonna still pretty much kick your ass, especially for unprepared and undergeared, bad rolls still happen.
Hero rebalance:
Now to the main and trickiest part. As I said, I wanted more roles and options to be viable choices. Thing that was bugging me the most is this:
I take Vestal on the run - it goes buttersmooth with very rare exceptions. I DON'T take Vestal and there's a big chance I get beaten up pretty badly or completely wiped (if I decide to risk), so it turned into text-book situations many times, when you just have to bail. The problem isn't actual abandoning quest, the problem is that game strips you of possible risk-reward situation, which takes out any excitement from the game, and that's bad. If you have Vestal (healer) it turned many times that I get in trivial encounter and heal up in combat (it also turned sour sometimes, when encounters were too hard to handle, and that's what I was looking for), and since Vestal is basically the only healer in game (which won't kill you in the process and doesn't sacrifice main DPS source) you're pretty much doomed with anyone else, and it gets worse further you progress. So I decided to spread healer role to other classes, which won't have your 3-4 slots occupied 24/7 by Vestal on tough runs. That's not all though, some other things I tweaked as well... So here we go with quick hero rebalance overview:
Crusader:
It's no secret that he is pretty mediocre tank and fighter, and one thing this game is missing badly is front line healer. So here it is - I buffed his Battle Heal alright, and now it heals full party at once. Pretty useful, though less powerful than Vestals' mass heal.
Arbalest:
Now she's (or is it he?...) Religious, like Crusader, Leper and Vestal, so no go in party with Abomination and Occultist*.
Occultist:
Rebalanced his Wyrd Reconstruction, so now it's pretty badass heal skill, you get guaranteed healing at level 1-4 so applied chance of bleeding now makes sense and upgrading this skill is totally worth it.
Important! He is now banned from religious parties, just like Abomination (which makes sense considering his powers and rituals...), so now you can't take him in parties consisted of Crusader, Leper, Vestal or Arbalest.
Plague Doctor:
Minor buff to Battlefield Medicine healing power, it was truly useless to upgrade before, now it isn't. She won't save the day, but will drag fella from deaths' door and maintain some injuries when there's is nothing else to do.
Vestal:
Slightly buffed her both healing skills for few reasons: to remain best healer in game as her main purpose originally was and to avoid +heal trinkets stacking. Since healer role is more widespread, trinket with such effects might be useful for other classes, this will also reduce annoying trinket swapping.
Antiquarian:
I pretty much understand what devs were trying to pose this character as, but it baffles me that complete class is mostly useless in combat, and her vanilla no-grind gimmicks are also well... pretty much useless. It also no brainer that game basically lack full buff focused hero, and I have hard time imagining who might take her in final dungeon... and why? It's even pretty dangerous to take her in level 5 long runs. Now it changed. With my overall inventory and loot rebalance she's even more useless as grind-killer, but I turned her into decent healer-buffer for the party, so she would be considerable help even in high level dungeons.
Flashpowder - has now Clear All Corpses effect, at least something, considering her acc debuff fails like 80% of times...
Invigorating Vapors - now has mass Clear Stun and Clear Marked effect, aside from pretty much useless Dodge buff, now this skill is worth picking.
Fortifying Vapors - received considerable healing power buff, slightly less powerful than Vestals'.
Musketeer: (optional, if you have one)
Simple Arbalest reskin for gorgeous brand new class is lame IMO, feels like a waste, so I completely reworked her.
Aimed Shot - is now kinda gamble skill, has 50% hit chance on each level, but gradually increases damage (up to 200% at level 4) and pretty high crit chance, so if it hits - bye-bye, bad guy.
Smoke Screen - amplifying mass stress heal for full party (not too much) along with minor dodge buff with pretty bad downside; it kills your torch (-5). You don't wanna spam it.
Call The Shots - Dodge and Speed Debuff on single enemy. No marked target.
Buckshot - feels like a shotgun, hits both enemies in front row, does some damage and debuffs -Prot%. I'd say it's her main focus skill now, as Arbalest works on back enemy rows, Musketeer is good at taking out fronts.
Sidearm - Simple damage skill with move 1 position back, mediocre accuracy and some crit chance.
Patch Up - Mediocre single target heal skill with Cure Bleed/Blight effect, almost as Plague Doctors' one, with a difference that it doesn't have Self Cure.
Skeet Shot - Single friendly target skill, buffs Speed, Accuracy and Crit chance.
Added Caretaker goal (level up hero to 6)
Camping skills are UNCHANGED because those felt fine for me, so feel free to leave them as they are or pick someone else's, since there are already few mods that rework Musketeer.
Some skills may seem overpowered or broken in one way or another, but since this isn't final version of my mod, I will make many more tweaks to make things more balanced, but I won't change main focus of this mod. So leave your thought and suggestions in Posts section.
*For more accurate info with numbers and all, check ReadMe section, I covered everything there.
Installation:
- Extract archive with with 7z or something like that anywhere you want.
- Choose and copy contents to your game folder (usually C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\common\...) and overwrite when prompted.
- Copy heroes/musketeer folder ONLY if you have Musketeer hero and want my class changes.
- Copy localization/dialogue.string_table.xml ONLY if you have Musketeer hero and want this fix, then run localization.bat file to integrate changes in game.
- Copy colours/colours.darkest ONLY if you need colored tooltips removed and look as in previous version.
MAKE BACKUPS!
Check ReadMe section if something isn't clear, ask in Posts section otherwise.
Mod supports latest build, should work on both, GOG and Steam versions.
Will do my best to keep it updated, but just as a sidenote, if changes aren't too global, like minor patch, overwriting files will usually do the trick and mod will work fine.
Compatibility:
Mod is not compatible with other ones modifying corresponding files listed in ReadMe (BACKUP) section.
Legal:
"Dim Lit Dungeon" is not an official Red Hook Studios product or product modification, and Red Hook Studios Inc. is not responsible in any way for changes or damages that may result from using the mod. Furthermore, "Darkest Dungeon" and the Darkest Dungeon logo are trademarks of Red Hook Studios Inc., all rights reserved.
Important Notes:
Beauty of this mod is that you DON'T need any effects being added for it to function properly. Another thing is that this mod is basically consists of different components. You can install one thing, ignoring another, and it still will work, like maybe you need only hero rebalance, and no inventory and speed changes, no problem, just copy files you want. Also since files have pretty open format you can tweak some parameters and details on your own if you want to, but be careful, some tweaks may result in crash or worse if you're not sure what you're doing.
Tested on existing campaign in progress and on new game, worked without any issues in both cases. Report any bugs if you encounter, though unlikely, possibility still exists.
Description:
I made these tweaks quite some time ago purely for myself, and as I enjoy this game alot with those changes, I felt like sharing, maybe others would appreciate it too. But regarding the tweaks, I tried to preserve as much vanilla DD as possible, the only things I changed are aimed to:
- Make it a bit more forgiving for those who are unfamiliar with game mechanics or those who want less tense and more relaxed Dungeon Crawling.
- Drastically decrease grind.
- Increase variety in class choices and roles. I don't like single class stacking or any other cheesy tactics, though I have nothing against those who do.
- Inspire replayability, since with this mod you can finish game faster than usual, so you can start a new one. I personally don't feel much joy being stuck in single campaign for longer than I want to.
- And many other things not worth listing, better see them for yourselves, right?
But don't misjudge it, it maybe easier early game, but if you're unlucky or unprepared, you still can get wiped in level 5 and final dungeons, even in level 3 sometimes, RNG is still there. General difficulty isn't actually changed too much, I just made it so you can get back up faster from previously catastrophic failure resulting in brutally boring tedium of grind in vanilla game.
______________________________________________________________________________
Update 1.8
For build #15015
Changes:
Those will be numerous this time. Firstly made sure it works with new build, updated files structure. Secondly, now it will be one single file without any optionals, because there's not really any sense in that I think. Musketeer files will just hang in there and won't cause any troubles if you don't have it, and dialogue string won't hurt, and will be good to have anyway, just in case, since it's completely neglected by devs for some reason. Anyway, you can NOT copy these files.
Installation slightly changed, I'm not sure if that's good idea, so leave feedback.
IMPORTANT: Added colored tooltips fix, for some of you who might not like them and want it to look as it was in previous version, I made some changes.
New installation instructions:
- Extract archive with with 7z or something like that anywhere you want.
- Choose and copy contents you want to your game folder (usually C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\common\...) and overwrite when prompted.
Optional:
- Copy heroes/musketeer folder ONLY if you have Musketeer hero and want my class changes.
- Copy localization/dialogue.string_table.xml ONLY if you have Musketeer hero and want this fix, then run localization.bat file to integrate changes in game.
- Copy colours/colours.darkest ONLY if you need colored tooltips removed and look as in previous version.
MAKE BACKUPS!
And minor balance tweak:
Arbalests' Battlefield Bandage skill now can be applied to any position, in vanilla it only allows you to heal 3,2,1 positions, which doesn't make much sense in my opinion.
If anything isn't clear enough, check ReadMe section or ask in Posts. As usual, leave suggestions and feedback.
Update 1.7
For build #14620
Changes:
Minor bugfixes and such, but main tweak is Crusaders' Holy Lance now moves him forward by 2 positions instead of 1, should improve utility of this skill.
Update 1.6
For build #14620.
Changes:
No balance tweaks this time, I actually fixed bug: forgot to modify restriction of higher level heroes in lower level dungeons in previous version, now it works as it should. Also made sure it works with latest build and updated localization file (Musketeers' dialogue string fix) for newest version.
Update 1.5
For build #14584. Basically update of new file structure to avoid any possible conflicts and misbehavior.
Changes:
- Few balance tweaks for Plague Doctor, Hellion and Musketeer. Covered in ReadMe, as always.
P.S. Should work with most subsequent updates, not containing major changes like recent Town Events one, will keep updating as necessary.
Update 1.4
For the same builds as previous version. Mostly tweaks and balance.
Changes:
- Few tweaks for Vestal and Musketeer.
- Plague Doctors' Battlefield Medicine received slight tweaks and is now mass heal/cure skill.
Idea behind this is to replace Vestal as main healer to open up sustainable parties with non-Vestal groups. Thing is, there are currently 2 best healers: Vestal and Occultist (with luck) who can pretty much sustain health of party on their own no problem (while Vestal is kick ass absolutely best healer even in vanilla). Also I made Crusader as front line healer, and he basically still sucks, but not as vanilla one and I won't buff him to rival Vestal in this. With little help from either Plague Doctor or Antiquarian, Crusader+another healer are able to sustain party at least on par with Vestal. Mass cure is pretty much unique skill which no one has, and it may look a bit overpowered on paper, but in practice it's really not, because in bleed/blight heavy runs (especially in final dungeon) you always stock up on curatives, and PD doesn't save the world here, it's just made her role as healer more appealing, so you'll be facing hard choice between powerful blight, stun or healing, and that's the idea.
Update 1.3
For builds #14030/14065 (in fact should work with all builds from #13916). Minor tweaks, balancing and bug fixes.
Changes:
- Minor buff to Crusaders' Battle Heal skill, because it didn't make any sense to have it healing values similar to mass heal.
- Numerous tweaks and bug fixes for Musketeer.
- Important - fixed Musketeers' dialogue string bug on Clean Musket camping skill, those who have her probably noticed error code in dialogue window when using it. Follow instructions in ReadMe for the fix.
Update 1.2
Works for same builds as previous update, purely class balance tweaks.
Changes:
- Crusader' Battle Heal is now single target mediocre heal skill with stress healing taken from Inspiring Cry, which is now decent mass heal skill without stress healing but +Torch ability remained as in vanilla. Mass healing values are reverted from ver.1.1 to ver.1.0 ones, because those were a bit too much.
- Antiquarians' Fortifying Vapors (healing) is now launched from position 2,3 (middle) instead of 3,4 (back).
- Musketeer received numerous tweaks again, most important among them is Smoke Screen now has only 66% to trigger mass stress healing and values reduced. It still removes -5 Torch but increased Dodge buff on each level. Aimed Shot can target 2,3,4 positions instead of 3,4 as before. This should compensate 50% hit chance and make skill more desirable I hope.
As always, numbers covered in ReadMe.
Update 1.1
For builds #13985 and #13916. Should work with both Steam and GOG versions.
*Should also work with build #14017 since it fixes enemy animations which my files aren't related with and don't modify in any way.
Changes:
- Game speed for critical melee and ranged increased by ~50%, as I basically made same value changes, crits are still very slightly slower than normal attacks, so it didn't really lose it's immersive effect. Normal speed crits felt like combat pace breaking a little. Still, optional, you can use them or not.
- Buffed Hellions' skill Breakthrough, now it does more damage, but retains its exhaust debuff effect. This skill is now useful as weak mob killer or finisher, spamming this skill is still a bad idea, because debuff stacks and your Hellion will barely do any damage at all in the end. Became pretty powerful one-time attack, good for balancing Hellion, who is rather squishy melee character with huge focus on high DPS.
- Slightly buffed Crusaders' healing to be more appealing front line healer.
- Rebalanced Antiquarians' Fortifying Vapors (Healing) and added blight resist debuff on each level. It really doesn't hamper this skill alot, I just wanted to give it more personality and some minor drawback, because there's a situation: Antiquarian has an artifact - Candle of Life, which gives +50% healing with no drawbacks and it makes Antiquarian very potent healer with my tweaks. Now it really feels balanced and her role is improved IMO.
- Several tweaks for Musketeer, it's really tricky to balance this class well, but it improves little by little.
For numbers info you can check ReadMe, covered everything there. Will keep updating and tweaking, leave your feedback and ideas in posts.
Enjoy.
______________________________________________________________________________
Inventory:
Increased stacks of almost everything:
Gold - 5000
Provisions - 16
Torches - 12
Firewood -3 (you still get quantity according to dungeon length, no buy/sell)
Most Heirlooms - 12 (Crests - 24)
Curatives - 8
Skeleton Keys - 8
Gem stacks changed according to price so it varied
All Quest items - 3
Antiquarian Relics - 20 (sell price - 100)
Rare Antiqarian Relics - 10 (sell price - 600)
Antiquarian bonus gold stack - 1000.
*I'll explain later why I nerfed Antiquarian a little.
Game Speed:
Increased Melee, Ranged and Friendly skill execution times roughly by 50% (both your party and enemy),
Hero dungeon restrictions:
Level 6 heroes can go in level 5 dungeons.
Level 5-3 heroes can go in level 5-3 dungeons.
Level 3-0 heroes can go in any level dungeons.
Let's face it, level 1 and 3 dungeons are mostly a cakewalk even in vanilla, sending level 3 heroes in level 1 dungeon won't save the day or break balance too much, cause you would do that either way, same with lvl 5 hero in lvl 3 dungeon, though it opens up one very funny opportunity, take one low level hero with high level and geared party. I laughed hard how this poor fella psyching out all the time accompanied by 3 deadly cold and calm comrades, totally worth to see without resulting in 90% failure like it would in vanilla. Also now you do runs which you feel like doing, not the ones you absolutely need to, want it or not. And as I mentioned, level 5 and final dungeons gonna still pretty much kick your ass, especially for unprepared and undergeared, bad rolls still happen.
Hero rebalance:
Now to the main and trickiest part. As I said, I wanted more roles and options to be viable choices. Thing that was bugging me the most is this:
I take Vestal on the run - it goes buttersmooth with very rare exceptions. I DON'T take Vestal and there's a big chance I get beaten up pretty badly or completely wiped (if I decide to risk), so it turned into text-book situations many times, when you just have to bail. The problem isn't actual abandoning quest, the problem is that game strips you of possible risk-reward situation, which takes out any excitement from the game, and that's bad. If you have Vestal (healer) it turned many times that I get in trivial encounter and heal up in combat (it also turned sour sometimes, when encounters were too hard to handle, and that's what I was looking for), and since Vestal is basically the only healer in game (which won't kill you in the process and doesn't sacrifice main DPS source) you're pretty much doomed with anyone else, and it gets worse further you progress. So I decided to spread healer role to other classes, which won't have your 3-4 slots occupied 24/7 by Vestal on tough runs. That's not all though, some other things I tweaked as well... So here we go with quick hero rebalance overview:
Crusader:
It's no secret that he is pretty mediocre tank and fighter, and one thing this game is missing badly is front line healer. So here it is - I buffed his Battle Heal alright, and now it heals full party at once. Pretty useful, though less powerful than Vestals' mass heal.
Arbalest:
Now she's (or is it he?...) Religious, like Crusader, Leper and Vestal, so no go in party with Abomination and Occultist*.
Occultist:
Rebalanced his Wyrd Reconstruction, so now it's pretty badass heal skill, you get guaranteed healing at level 1-4 so applied chance of bleeding now makes sense and upgrading this skill is totally worth it.
Important! He is now banned from religious parties, just like Abomination (which makes sense considering his powers and rituals...), so now you can't take him in parties consisted of Crusader, Leper, Vestal or Arbalest.
Plague Doctor:
Minor buff to Battlefield Medicine healing power, it was truly useless to upgrade before, now it isn't. She won't save the day, but will drag fella from deaths' door and maintain some injuries when there's is nothing else to do.
Vestal:
Slightly buffed her both healing skills for few reasons: to remain best healer in game as her main purpose originally was and to avoid +heal trinkets stacking. Since healer role is more widespread, trinket with such effects might be useful for other classes, this will also reduce annoying trinket swapping.
Antiquarian:
I pretty much understand what devs were trying to pose this character as, but it baffles me that complete class is mostly useless in combat, and her vanilla no-grind gimmicks are also well... pretty much useless. It also no brainer that game basically lack full buff focused hero, and I have hard time imagining who might take her in final dungeon... and why? It's even pretty dangerous to take her in level 5 long runs. Now it changed. With my overall inventory and loot rebalance she's even more useless as grind-killer, but I turned her into decent healer-buffer for the party, so she would be considerable help even in high level dungeons.
Flashpowder - has now Clear All Corpses effect, at least something, considering her acc debuff fails like 80% of times...
Invigorating Vapors - now has mass Clear Stun and Clear Marked effect, aside from pretty much useless Dodge buff, now this skill is worth picking.
Fortifying Vapors - received considerable healing power buff, slightly less powerful than Vestals'.
Musketeer: (optional, if you have one)
Simple Arbalest reskin for gorgeous brand new class is lame IMO, feels like a waste, so I completely reworked her.
Aimed Shot - is now kinda gamble skill, has 50% hit chance on each level, but gradually increases damage (up to 200% at level 4) and pretty high crit chance, so if it hits - bye-bye, bad guy.
Smoke Screen - amplifying mass stress heal for full party (not too much) along with minor dodge buff with pretty bad downside; it kills your torch (-5). You don't wanna spam it.
Call The Shots - Dodge and Speed Debuff on single enemy. No marked target.
Buckshot - feels like a shotgun, hits both enemies in front row, does some damage and debuffs -Prot%. I'd say it's her main focus skill now, as Arbalest works on back enemy rows, Musketeer is good at taking out fronts.
Sidearm - Simple damage skill with move 1 position back, mediocre accuracy and some crit chance.
Patch Up - Mediocre single target heal skill with Cure Bleed/Blight effect, almost as Plague Doctors' one, with a difference that it doesn't have Self Cure.
Skeet Shot - Single friendly target skill, buffs Speed, Accuracy and Crit chance.
Added Caretaker goal (level up hero to 6)
Camping skills are UNCHANGED because those felt fine for me, so feel free to leave them as they are or pick someone else's, since there are already few mods that rework Musketeer.
Some skills may seem overpowered or broken in one way or another, but since this isn't final version of my mod, I will make many more tweaks to make things more balanced, but I won't change main focus of this mod. So leave your thought and suggestions in Posts section.
*For more accurate info with numbers and all, check ReadMe section, I covered everything there.
Installation:
- Extract archive with with 7z or something like that anywhere you want.
- Choose and copy contents to your game folder (usually C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\common\...) and overwrite when prompted.
- Copy heroes/musketeer folder ONLY if you have Musketeer hero and want my class changes.
- Copy localization/dialogue.string_table.xml ONLY if you have Musketeer hero and want this fix, then run localization.bat file to integrate changes in game.
- Copy colours/colours.darkest ONLY if you need colored tooltips removed and look as in previous version.
MAKE BACKUPS!
Check ReadMe section if something isn't clear, ask in Posts section otherwise.
Mod supports latest build, should work on both, GOG and Steam versions.
Will do my best to keep it updated, but just as a sidenote, if changes aren't too global, like minor patch, overwriting files will usually do the trick and mod will work fine.
Compatibility:
Mod is not compatible with other ones modifying corresponding files listed in ReadMe (BACKUP) section.
Legal:
"Dim Lit Dungeon" is not an official Red Hook Studios product or product modification, and Red Hook Studios Inc. is not responsible in any way for changes or damages that may result from using the mod. Furthermore, "Darkest Dungeon" and the Darkest Dungeon logo are trademarks of Red Hook Studios Inc., all rights reserved.