Planar Sphere - Solamnic Knights bug

[Lemernis]

When my party takes on the halfling cannibals near the entrance to the planar sphere, the Solamnic Knights turn hostile. It seems I can get around this bug for now by sending a stealthed character far enough ahead and Ctrl+J'ing the entire party out of the knights perception range. Though I still have to get the win in this battle to find out--whatever spell that is the halflings cast with the red clouds and lightning bolts is rough!

[Lemernis]

I was able to work around this bug with Ctrl + J and reshutting the door to the knights' area while invisible. I defeated the halflings and the knights are still neutral.

 

Wow, that's a tough battle with those halflings.

 

I made it a little easier on myself by jumping to the end of the line (with Ctrl + J) and immediately going after the spellcasters--i.e., the cleric who first uses Blade Barrier, and if he gets the chance Storm of Vengeance (?), and a mage who uses (Minor?) Globe of Invulnerability. It was tough, even given that I cheated my way past the frontline halfling goons.

 

Here I got the win by slogging it out with buffs that fortunately did not get stripped when an enemy mage casts Dispel (here he got chunked before he could do that). Had my buffs been dispelled I'm not sure I could have won.

 

I'm reminded again how helpful potions can become with SCS. I now wish I had gone potion shopping before entering the sphere. Ah well.

[DavidW]

Knights going hostile: it looks as if they're using the same Help script as the halflings. (I think that in principle the same problem could occur in the vanilla game but probably SCS's help scripts are more susceptible to it.)

 

As for the fight: the cleric is an 18th-level spellcaster with 2 L7 spells. The auto-spell-swap bit of SCS II is swapping them for something more sensible. Since you've got the "HLAs in SoA" component installed, "something more sensible" usually ends up as a mixture of Storm of Vengeance, Summon Fallen Deva and Implosion. Personally I find this a bit overpowering for SoA (that's why I don't actually recommend installing that component) but I'm glad to see it does work properly!

 

You actually got off lightly with the wizard: she has two Symbol: Stun spells which she uses in the vanilla game but doesn't risk using in SCS II because she might stun her allies. I should probably have those spells swapped for something else that you can safely cast in battle.

 

You may have chosen a very dangerous place to start: the Planar Sphere is full of high-level spellcasters, and they're probably the creatures that SCS II improves most (that's certainly the feedback I got from the original SCS). Good luck!

[Lemernis]

I did complete the planar sphere. It was the party's second quest of the game, after Korgan's. As for my spellcasters, Edwin was at level 10-11 and Anomen at level 11-12. I didn't have better than +2 weapons, and near as I can tell I lacked the proper equipment to defeat the baddest golems. By virtue of the Tweak Pack I'll be doing all the strongholds, so I can deal with them later.

 

The SoA spellcasters are what I had hoped for, btw. Wow, the battles against them are tough--they really demand some cleverness on the player's part. I may regret installing the HLAs. But it seems there's always a way to win no matter what the enemy throws at you. I'll just have to find it versus enemy HLAs.

[Lemernis]

Re: the planar sphere battles, I just wanted to add that the lowly spell Glitterdust really helped me out a lot. I don't recall ever having used that spell before, but it's great. Until I tried it, I didn't realize that it mass blinds--and the high level casters I was facing often did not save against it. I could keep reloading until I got everyone in the area of effect blinded. I noticed that enemy spellcasters who were blinded would run around frantically and waste a lot of their spells. And this is realistic enough since they're under attack, and can't see anything, and could panic in the ensuing chaos. If you then Dire Charm one or more of the enemy you're good to go. (I didn't have that spell at the time unfortunately.)

 

It's a pleasure to see a low level spell working on such high level opponents, so please don't change any of this.

[DavidW]

Re: the planar sphere battles, I just wanted to add that the lowly spell Glitterdust really helped me out a lot. I don't recall ever having used that spell before, but it's great. Until I tried it, I didn't realize that it mass blinds--and the high level casters I was facing often did not save against it. I could keep reloading until I got everyone in the area of effect blinded. I noticed that enemy spellcasters who were blinded would run around frantically and waste a lot of their spells. And this is realistic enough since they're under attack, and can't see anything, and could panic in the ensuing chaos. If you then Dire Charm one or more of the enemy you're good to go. (I didn't have that spell at the time unfortunately.)

 

It's a pleasure to see a low level spell working on such high level opponents, so please don't change any of this.

 

That's very interesting. When you say "waste their spells", what do you mean?

 

I'm also surprised that the wizards, at least, were affected - they've normally got minor globes of invulnerability running. Or did you take those down somehow?

 

I should probably also tell clerics to be a bit more efficient at removing blindness - they already cast cure spells to remove fear or paralysis, but I forgot about blindness.

 

(None of this is intended to stop the spell working - I'd just like to make sure enemies are responding realistically to it.)

[Lemernis]

In the room just north of the lab where you build the golem (south door x=485, y=935) with Necre, Taibela, and two halfling warriors: when you cast Glitterdust from outside their range of perception, Necre casts Globe of Invulnerability, Shadow Door, Spirit Armor, Protection from Norrmal Missiles, Mirror Image, and Mord's Sword. Taibela casts Haste and Chain Lightning.

 

They don't always waste that many spells. The results vary. Sometimes they cast less spells than that. I sometimes see a spell sequencer and/or a contingency in effect. And in one case I saw "Immunity: Divination: Necre."

[DavidW]

OK, so it's before their defences go up... that makes sense. Well played, in that case!