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Version used for review: 4.7

The Artisan’s Kitpack is a behemoth of a mod, and considering the sheer amount of new content that it adds and old content that it changes, it can make it quite challenging to detail every little part of it in a review. So that’s exactly what I’m not going to do — trust me, I tried. For the sake of my own sanity, and out of respect for your time, I’ll talk about the Kitpack in blanket terms, and try and communicate what I love so much about the mod; where it succeeds, and where it may succeed for someone that isn’t me. I would also recommend having the website for the mod up on an alternate tab, since it has all the class descriptions available for easy access.

The Kitpack is as its name suggests: a very large pack of subclasses available for use in Baldur’s Gate I & II and Icewind Dale. There are, at the time of writing, about 19 new kits that it adds to the game.

The new kits themselves are barely half the package, though, because the Kitpack also completely reworks almost every kit already existing in the game, as well as the base fighter, ranger, paladin, and monk classes — so far. The most important thing to note here is that every single kit and class-rework is completely optional. The Kitpack will allow you to pick and choose whatever you want to take from its exceptionally vast options.

We’ll look at the reworks first, because there is some very interesting stuff here.

The primary directive of this mod seems to be to increase the depth of options available to the player and to give each class a unique identity, while still keeping them what makes them unique. It also serves to make single-classes more powerful compared to their multi and dueled counterparts.

The fighter is already an exceptionally powerful class, but most of its actual gameplay comes down to deciding what equipment you want to give them before you command them to attack, at least until you gain High Level Abilities. The Kitpack seeks to change that by making them more of a jack-of-all-trades of the martial classes, granting them situational access to a selection of the new, Kitpack-introduced modal abilities.

These modal abilities are Power Attack, Expertise, and Rapid Shot. The all offer some sort of advantage — extra damage, extra armor class, extra attacks per round. In this case, the fighter sacrifices some THAC0 for as long as the ability is active. These abilities are fine and they go a long way to making the fighter more distinct, I’m just not a fan of toggleable abilities in Baldur’s Gate, perhaps due to them being hidden behind a second toolbar. Despite my personal disdain for them, however, they’re not at all a bad addition.

All of the class descriptions have been appropriately updated in the character creation menu, but one thing that consistently stood out to me was how wordy everything was. Everything is written well, it’s just that there’s an excess of descriptive text that can counterintuitively make it more difficult to understand a mechanic than if it had just been stated in plain terms. Thankfully, everything is pretty self-explanatory when playing the classes firsthand.

The ranger and paladin have also been overhauled in interesting ways. Rangers now have the ability to find set traps, and if you have EEEx installed, find traps/illusions (though not disarm), and they receive bonuses to movement when outside. Paladins gain the Smite Evil ability from Icewind Dale, which is something I have long yearned for, and they now have an aura that grants all within line of sight some minor bonuses. This makes both classes much more interesting, and they feel almost like a Fighter/Druid/Thief and Fighter/Druid/Bard, respectively. These are some of the highlight of the overhauls for me.

Most importantly of all, though, is the monk overhaul. It is so good, and not in the sense that it’s outrageously overpowered or anything — I try to avoid throwing that word around. It’s just so much more fun than the original monk. Though it IS more powerful.

The new monk receives 2 attacks per round with the option to activate Flurry of Blows, which will grant an additional half-attack per round in exchange for THAC0. They have new bonuses to speed-factor, and their damage progression has been slightly enhanced as well. Lay on Hands has been replaced by Wholeness of Body, which heals an additional hit point per level in comparison.

Most importantly of all, the monk finally gains bonus armor class from Wisdom. They also gains immunity to critical hits while unarmed at level 15. These are two of the biggest things holding the monk back in the unmodded game, and it feels like more of an oversight than it does a feature. The Kitpack fixes this, and adds a slough of new resistances and immunities to boot. All of this makes the class feel so much more unique and powerful, and it does so while remaining quite clearly balanced — and not just in comparison to the other reworks.

The kits also get some significant attention too. The Dark Moon and Sun Soul Monks are powerful in their own right and shockingly unique. Even if you’re not willing to try it out yourself, I’d recommend picking up Rasaad with this component installed. It’s a lot of fun.

It took me quite a while to warm up to some of the changes, especially those within the Paladin kits, but I have since come to really enjoy — and dare I say… prefer — the way that many of them play. The Kitpack succeeds in giving classes a clearer identity, and the most important thing for me, personally, is that it actually makes me want to play as a Monk, Ranger, Paladin, or any of their kits.

Speaking of classes that I want to play, let’s discuss some of the new kits, now.

When I first wrote this review, it became a roughly 12,000 word discussion of the new kits introduced, but that turned out to be thoroughly unreadable and, honestly, not very useful as a review. Not all of these kits or overhauls suit my playstyle, but that doesn’t mean that they’re bad. I’m just something of a purist, and I like to think that my recommendations are geared toward those with a similar mindset. There’s something for everyone in the Kitpack, including me, which is why it’s so good that it has a modular install process.

From the new fighter kits, we have the Vanguard, Arcane Archer, Siegemaster, and Dreadnaught. The Vanguard is pretty much a cut-and-paste of the Dwarvern Defender class, reflavoured to suit any race. The most important thing is that humans can be Vanguards, so that means that you’ll be able to dual-class into a Cleric and stack its effects with Defensive Stance — though if you’re using the overhauled Defender, then the ability is different for both classes. Confusing, right?

The Arcane Archer is one of my favourites of the new kits. In Baldur’s Gate, archery doesn’t usually involve anything more than pointing and clicking once, save for the Archer’s use of Called Shot. Arcane Archers, however, receive some very fun abilities that make the experience feel more varied (though not overcomplicated). They will still have a lower damage output than the Archer kit itself, though.

The Arcane Archer also has a multiclass associated with it: the Arcane Archer/Mage. As much as I enjoy the single-classed version, I can see very little reason to pick it over the multiclass, due to one reason. The Arcane Archer/Mage can still obtain grandmastery in ranged weapons, which is a confusing feature to give it, considering that by default it makes the single-class near irrelevant. For that reason I’d say give it a pass.

The Siegemaster and the Dreadnaught are two sides of the same coin, though I prefer the former. They both focus on hitting hard — VERY hard — once per round. The Siegemaster focuses on ranged weapons while the Dreadnaught is purely a two-handed weapon character. These are very gimmicky, but they are exceptionally fun to try out.

The only new ranger kit available for the player is the Dark Hunter, a non-alignment restricted stalker/assassin/bounty-hunter hybrid. It’s the ultimate espionage kit, so if that’s a class fantasy you’re interested in, then I highly recommend it. They do receive a trap ability that does an absurd amount of damage (10d10+20), and while they won’t get it until Baldur’s Gate II, it does kind of put me off the kit somewhat.

There’s another ranger kit, but it’s only available for Minsc, and it may be my favourite part of the mod — the Rashemi Berserker. It’s indisputable that Minsc is an iconic, beloved character. It’s also indisputable that he kind of… sucks, just out of merit of being a ranger, which is a generally underpowered class, especially without the Artisan’s reworks. The Rashemi Berserker kit pulls Minsc out of the shadow of other martial companions and into his own, very deserved niche.

With this kit, Minsc gets a d12 Hit Die, meaning that he’ll have more hitpoints. This is great, because out of all my martial characters in both BG1 and BG2, Minsc is always the first to die. The Rashemi Berserker also gets to achieve mastery in any melee weapon — that’s three proficiency slots, which I feel is an excellent way to make Minsc into a better character without making him too powerful. His Berserker Rage ability has also been improved.

Previously, Berserker Rage was an extremely situational ability that you could use to pull Minsc back from the brink of death in BG1 and potentially dish out some more damage. However, it also makes him uncontrollable, and he could just start attacking your party. This, along with the Cursed Berserker Sword, is what I would call anti-fun game design. Sure, you could argue that it’s a risk/reward mechanic in place for balance, but it’s just not very fun, is it?

Now, Minsc gets a slough of bonuses while remaining in control. The tradeoff, however, is that he may not cast spells or use items, and receives a significant penalty to his Armor Class. That means no healing potions, and getting hit a lot! This makes Berserker Rage a much more useful ability, as long as you have a cleric on standby. Under the rage, Minsc will get +2 to strength, a bonus attack per round, and immunity to the usual suspects — including Level Drain. As Minsc levels up, the strength bonus increases.

When the rage ends, Minsc will have reduced THAC0, AC, and damage, meaning that you have to be very particular with how you time the use of this ability. When he reaches 12th level, Minsc’s rage will make him immune to all movement-hindering effects and Imprisonment. At 16th level, the winded effect is removed, meaning that Minsc remains an effective fighter after the ability ends. At 18th level, Minsc cannot die within the first two rounds of being enraged, which just delightfully powerful.

An actual fighter is still going to be a more effective melee combatant overall, but it’s good to see Minsc brought closer to the top.

The disadvantages are nothing to sneeze at, though. Minsc won’t be able to wear anything heavier than Splint Mail, which I have to praise, since Splint Mail is probably the least-used armor type by any character other than Barbarians, and I have a soft spot for it. Minsc will cast one less priest spell per level. He can’t set traps, which is a feature of the Artisan’s ranger overhaul, and he can’t specialise in ranged weapons.

Minsc will be a purely martial character, removing him from the pool of companions that are handy with a longbow. It’s a good tradeoff to make, I think.

Minsc’s Rashemi Berserker counterpart is Edwin’s new Red Wizard class.

Edwin’s conjuration spells, as a “Red Wizard (Conjurer)”, have a +4 bonus to bypass saving throws. This affects: Flame Arrow, Grease, Glitterdust, Prismatic Spray, and most Power Word/Symbol spells. I don’t know if this was strictly necessary, considering that specialist mages already get a +2 bonus. The description uses a LOT of words to describe a very minor change.

Edwin can now cast an extra spell per level, which replaces his amulet. It means that he’s going to be one spell slot ahead of other mages and two behind the way he used to be. He also gets a bonus to spellcasting level and conjuration defense that improve as he levels up.

The tradeoff is that he can’t cast illusion spells. Okay, I guess. As it stands, I see no reason to use this unless you just want Edwin to use amulets.

Onto the Paladins, we have the Divine Champion, the Martyr, and the Mystic Fire. The Divine Champion can be of any alignment, as they may be in service to any god, and they’re more focused on their own power than they are supporting their team. They do get very powerful, to the point that I’m not too keen on them. They can achieve High Mastery in any weapon, and gain an ability at level 5 called Divine Wrath that grants some insane bonuses with no tradeoff.

Many players will be familiar with the Martyr through Sirene, one of the Artisan’s NPC mods. The kit is very much designed to be a tank and support type class, with a d12 Hit Die and abilities that boost damage resistance and armour class.

It certainly seems interesting at first glance, but in practice I don’t find it particularly fun to play with — at least as the player character. The Martyr receives a Defensive Stance ability named Martyrdom, which can be activated for one turn. They do half their usual damage but their “size” temporarily becomes larger. Enemies in the affected radius cannot pass the Martyr, and the Martyr cannot walk through doorways, similar to Iron Golems. This makes the Martyr an incredibly effective character to funnel enemies into a hallway or behind a door, leading to some pretty devastating AOE opportunities.

At level 12, the Martyr’s melee attacks will also heal the closest ally within 10-ft for 1d6+2 on EVERY hit. This ability will turn the Martyr into a rather effective healerl. Give a Martyr Foebane +5, and they’ll be healing themselves on every hit as well as the closest ally. The more attacks per round they have, the better. I’ve tried this. It’s too powerful, in my opinion. But hey — what do I know? I’m just a chump. I don’t even play on the hardest difficulty. To be honest, I don’t even… play the game… I just… review mods. I’m so tired. I live in a cage.

The Martyr also gets an ability where they grant bonuses to their party when they die, meaning that sometimes the most effective strategy to save yourself from death is to sacrifice the Martyr. Very funny, very cool.

The Mystic Fire is almost like a Paladin/Mage class, and they get a limited selection of arcane spells that they can start casting alongside their usual cleric spells. The most notable ones are Stoneskin and Mirror Image, which are very fun to cast while clad up in full-plate. They also receive an ability called Shatter Spell which applies a Breach effect to your next successful hit. They receive some pretty noteworthy penalties with not being able to choose certain martial High Level Abilities, not gaining an aura, being able to use Smite or Lay on Hands. This is a very fun and reasonably balanced class to play.

The two new druid kits are extremely easy to understand. The Elementalist gains elemental arcane spells but can’t shapeshift, wear armour, or cast any animal summoning spells — I like this one. The Hivemaster is a druid that focuses entirely on shapeshifting into different spiders, and eventually they can cast spells while shapeshifted and can change shape at will, with no cooldown. If you want to try these out, the mod offers to make Cernd into an Elementalist (do it) and the Artisan’s Pai’Na is a Hivemaster.

There are a number of thief kits as well, but I am not a connoisseur of the rogue archetype. I generally don’t enjoy playing them and that doesn’t change here. The four new kits are the Rogue Archer, the Magekiller, the Invisible Blade, and the Trickster.

The Rogue Archer is essentially the ranged version of a Swashbuckler. In Baldur’s Gate, if a thief isn’t backstabbing, then they’ll probably be sitting in the backline slinging arrows and bolts for most of the time. The Rogue Archer leans into that by making them better at doing exactly that, which is powerful, but kind of… boring. That’s the way I play with thieves anyway, and it doesn’t make it more interesting just because they’re doing more damage.

Rogue Archers can achieve Mastery in missile weapons, and at Level 18, they basically receive the equivalent of a sneak attack. Attacks made while invisible or stealthed are automatic critical hits. If you give a Rogue Archer the Use Any Item HLA and Staff of the Magi, you end up with a character that has never-ending Critical Strike. That’s ridiculous.

At best, the Rogue Archer is inoffensive and uncomplicated, and I’m sure someone out there will enjoy it, because it does make the thief playstyle of sitting in the backline shooting more powerful. The Kitpack asks if you want Imoen to be a Rogue Archer, but she’s never going to reach the sneak attack feature, so it really just depends on whether or not you want Imoen to be better at shooting or not.

The Magekiller is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a thief that has a chance to apply a Breach effect on their backstab, and they have an innate use of Breach once per day. It’s exceptionally easy to grasp to the point where I have almost nothing to say about it. It does mean that you’re going to have very early access to Breach in Baldur’s Gate I, which I suppose is going to be very useful if you’re playing on higher difficulties.

The Trickster is the homebrewer’s dream. It’s a class that can, as it levels up, select abilities from other classes, to a total of six abilities at level 40. This is an extremely cool concept, even I have to admit.

I’m sure that someone out there could devise dozens of different builds for this class that totally break it, but that person is not me. I don’t have the pure theorycrafting power required for such a task.

You can select the obviously powerful skills: things like the Berserker’s Rage, the Archer’s Called Shot, the Dwarvern Defender’s Defensive Stance, the Shadowdancer’s Shadow Step, but these abilities don’t really have any synergy with one another. The real challenge is to find a combination of abilities that works for a specific build, so the Trickster is the type of class that you need to plan out Pathfinder-style.

Other than the Mimicry ability, the Trickster has passive luck that also increases as they level up, allowing them bonuses to their THAC0 and minimum damage, as well as healing rolls, Saving Throws, and some bonus thieving skills. Luck is, of course, a powerful boon for any character in the game, but the Trickster may be the only character that I’d consider stacking Luck on.

The Invisible Blade is one of those classes that I feel is described to be wildly more complicated than it needs to be. At its heart, it’s a thief that’s really good with daggers and backstabs with powerful bleeding damage in place of having modifiers.

That’s all you really need to know about the class, but they also receive a feature called ‘Unfettered Defense’, for which I had to seek out an explanation. The explanation is remarkably simple, in that for every point of Intelligence above 12, the Trickster gain a +1 bonus to AC. Please, there’s no need for mathematics. My brain is tiny, as is my capacity for understanding new concepts.

So the Invisible Blade, aside from having insane Armor Class, caps their backstab modifier at x2, and in place can deal a bleeding wound with their dagger. It deals increasing bleeding damage as the thief levels up. What makes this different to an Assassin using their poison weapon is that there’s no Saving Throw to be made for it — which in my opinion, is slightly less interesting. It means that a hit on a spellcaster means that they will be guaranteed to be interrupted every turn, which is powerful in a way that isn’t terribly exciting.

Can you tell that I don’t like the thief class?

So let’s talk about a kit I do like! The Pale Master Sorcerer. Upon installation, you can select whether or not you want the Pale Master to receive Divine Necromancy spells (for free), and if so, then if you want all Necromancy (like healing) or just the “unholy” spells. I think giving a Sorcerer all Divine Necromancy spells is a little overkill, but the offensive ones don’t feel too out of place. That being said, they’re not all that useful, either.

The Pale Master can cast Raise Undead as a special ability once per day, and upon reaching level 6, the Pale Master will permanently lose access to one of their ring slots, having cut off the arm. In its place is an undead prosthetic that gives a +2 to Strength and grants the usage of the ‘Undead Graft’ ability, which can instantly kill enemies and raise them as vampires.

On top of all this, the Pale Master gains immunity to stun, hold, and poison at level 12, and critical hits, death magic, and level drain at level 18. Although they can then be affected by spells that only impact undead creatures, though I don’t know who’s casting Hold Undead at level 18.

Since the Pale Master has so many benefits, it’s only fair that they have some pretty major downsides too, right? Well, other than losing their right hand (and gaining a power stronger than any ring in the game in return), they incur a -4 Charisma penalty, can’t be good-aligned, and cast one less spell per day.

If Sorcerers actually used Charisma as a spellcasting ability, this would matter, but Sorcerers are still one of the best classes in the game regardless of their ability scores, so this really doesn’t hurt that much. Unless you were hoping to be a really charming zombie.

I think that this is the class that a lot of people wish the Necromancer was, and if you enjoy that sort of playstyle or class fantasy, then I do indeed recommend the Pale Master to you.

Alongside the monk reworks, we’re also treated to a new monk kit: the Brawler. I think that the Brawler is a monk for people who don’t like monks — they can be any alignment, they have no targeted abilities nor standard monk resistances and immunities, and they’re designed to be a lot more physically impressive.

They have a Hit-Die of 12, a little bit of physical damage resistance every 5 levels, and they rapidly regain hit points when they fall too close to death. None of the standard monk abilities you’d expect to find in a kit are here, making the Brawler feel unique in its own right. I think that the Brawler deserves its place here among the monk kits, and I do recommend it.

This review took me so long to write that while I was working on it, two more monk kits were released. They’re classified under Cleric and Sorcerer, though, being the Sacred Fist and the Enlightened Fist respectively. They are unique in that they fully rely on EEEx being installed, due to the class fundamentals being changed.

Both classes have a lower cap on damage progression compared to the reworked monk, with it being 2d8 opposed to the standard monk’s 2d12. The Sacred Fist can memorise spells as a cleric would and the Enlightened Fist has the same spell progression as a sorcerer, though cast one spell less per day.

The Enlightened Fist is a little more unique in that they can apply touch-based spells to their melee attacks, which is conceptually very cool, though there aren’t THAT many of them to use, unfortunately. These are still exceptionally unique classes that provide a new way to play, and I commend them for that. If you’re willing to download EEEx to try them out, do it. You won’t regret it.

The last single-class kit added by the mod is the Warhorn Shaman, and it is perhaps the mod’s greatest success in that it actually makes the Shaman fun to play.

The Warhorn Shaman is so powerful in comparison to the original Shaman that it completely removes any reason to play an unkitted Shaman. The mechanical features of the class are very true to the fantasy of playing it: it’s a warrior shaman, so they get a Hit Die of d10, they can specialise in Shamanic weapons, they can use Barbarian rage, and the warrior spirits that they can summon are actually powerful.

The spirits are powerful enough that — situationally speaking — it’s actually worth it to stand around and dance instead of casting spells or attacking.

The Warhorn Shaman is to a Fighter/Druid multiclass what a Blade is to a fighter/mage multiclass. I genuinely think that this modded kit is a more thoughtfully designed version of the class than the original.

Although the Warhorn Shaman loses access to the Shaman-specific spells, they get some unique ones of their own that I also very much enjoy. Most of them focus on improving the Shaman’s physical combat abilities, which is much-needed at high level, because they won’t receive martial High Level Abilities like Hardiness or Critical Strike.

Overall, I think this class is absolutely worth checking out, especially if you already like the Shaman (or wish it was better).

The Arcane Trickster and the Eldritch Knight are the last kits we have here, and they are multiclass kits. I’m generally not a fan of these, as I feel that they do little to carve out a niche for themselves compared to the standard multiclass without just being clearly more powerful.

The Eldritch Knight does exactly this. The issue I take with the Eldritch Knight is that there’s so little reason to take the Fighter/Mage over it, which is problematic because the Fighter/Mage is already incredibly powerful.

The Eldritch Knight gains +2 to Armor Class, the ability to wear armour while casting spells, an increased casting speed if there are enemies within 5 ft., and the Eldritch Strike ability.

The reason why the Eldritch Knight needs +2 to AC is totally inscrutable to me. They can wear armor. It’s practically the whole concept of the class! Why do they need bonus AC? Increased casting speed if there are enemies within 5 ft. is incredibly powerful as well, though at least there’s some risk involved with it.

Eldritch Strike is gained at Level 3 and makes your next attack reduce an enemy’s Magic Resistance by 25% and Saving Throws by 2. For comparison, the fifth level mage spell ‘Lower Resistance’ lowers magic resistance by 10% + 1% for each level of the caster. At level 6, Eldritch Strike doubles its potency, and at 12th level it reduces the target’s magic resistance by 100%. This is crazy. But do I… kind of enjoy playing it? Yes. Yes, I do.

The same can’t be said for the Arcane Trickster. It’s a class that basically HAS to be weird, because it already exists in the game. It’s called a Thief/Mage. The Arcane Trickster seeks to be a bit more mage than it is thief, but its the unique ability it receives that really pushes it over the edge.

The Arcane Trickster, when invisible, casts all spells with a casting time of 1. Of course, my mind immediately went to the Staff of the Magi, which makes you invisible every time you reequip it. That means with a little bit of micromanagement, the Arcane Trickster will have a permanent casting time of 1.

Throw in invisibility potions, spells, and any other items that grant invisibility, and suddenly the Arcane Trickster becomes the god of spellcasting. I like to give classes the benefit of the doubt but even this is a little too much for me.

Overall, I think that these kits offer some fascinating new features to the game. If you’re looking for something new and exciting, try out the Trickster, Dreadnought, or Hivemaster. If you’re more of a purist like me, then you may find more enjoyment in the simpler kits, like the Arcane Archer, Elementalist, or Warhorn Shaman. I have nothing but praise for these last three.

Well, that’s it. That’s all of them. Trying to review this mod has been… soul shattering. It drove me into nihilism — a never-ending spiral of self-doubt. Why am I here? Why am I reviewing this mod? Am I just screaming into the void? But we’re finally here now, at the end, and now I can say what I wanted to say all along.

The Artisan’s Kitpack is pretty good! While I may only use some of the components, the ranger and monk overhauls are now absolute musts for me, and you won’t find me playing either class without this mod. If you want to find more discussion about this mod, then I recommend checking out The Artisan’s Corner.

Thanks for reading.