Items re-allocation

[Ardanis]

Well, I have to agree with Demi and JBeau that moving a single piece is a good way to reduce the overwhelming power of this item. Two pieces still make multiple parts to combine, so Keep's plot line will not suffer, and fire and acid heads are still as effective vs trolls as +3 version is. For the cold one, the ice room in Planar Sphere seem a fitting place, much better anyway than Abazigal carrying the electrical head on him (or maybe that's an amulet he used to wear in dragon form? Hm...)

 

But, since it does involve quite a work, and new Cromwell/Cespenar upgrades are left on hold for v4, I say let's keep things as they are now.

[yarpen]

I also think that it's a good idea. Still, it'd be nice if there would be a possibility of getting into Keep for non-warrior characters. Probably after rescuing it should just stay open - we can get into someone's house - why not into keep. Ice Room in Planar Sphere - I think it's too much from logical point of view. Planar Sphere was absent from this plane for many years as far as I remember. They should be placed somewhere where Nalia's father could really put them safe. I'd say it should be somewhere in Athkatla/Trademeet.

 

I'm also seriously thinking about thing like this - what sort of items we can find in places like Planar Sphere and Planar Prison? I think most of "normal" background items (like Gloves of Ogre Strenght) should be moved from that. Both of these are the best places for items with "Planar background". Rift Hammer?

[Ardanis]

Still, it'd be nice if there would be a possibility of getting into Keep for non-warrior characters. Probably after rescuing it should just stay open - we can get into someone's house - why not into keep.

Well, that's only as a part of Quest Revisions, and even then I think there should be a reason to re-visit the keep.

 

Ice Room in Planar Sphere - I think it's too much from logical point of view. Planar Sphere was absent from this plane for many years as far as I remember. They should be placed somewhere where Nalia's father could really put them safe. I'd say it should be somewhere in Athkatla/Trademeet.

Both poison and electrical heads are simply Cespenar's additions to the original flail forged by rakshasa. So, following the suit, another head may be treated as just a suitable piece with magic properties found by Charname somewhere in their adventures.

 

Ice head is the best candidate, because it doesn't disrupt the idea of "make the anti-troll weapon" subquest. And ice room in magic-filled Sphere is the most logical place to find a fitting piece in. It also is probably the most difficult of all strongholds to cleanse.

[Demivrgvs]

Flail of Ages

Well, I have to agree with Demi and JBeau that moving a single piece is a good way to reduce the overwhelming power of this item. Two pieces still make multiple parts to combine, so Keep's plot line will not suffer, and fire and acid heads are still as effective vs trolls as +3 version is. ... But, since it does involve quite a work, and new Cromwell/Cespenar upgrades are left on hold for v4, I say let's keep things as they are now.

My feelings exactly.

 

I also think that it's a good idea. Still, it'd be nice if there would be a possibility of getting into Keep for non-warrior characters. Probably after rescuing it should just stay open - we can get into someone's house - why not into keep.

Well, that's only as a part of Quest Revisions, and even then I think there should be a reason to re-visit the keep.

Like finding out who was the secretive one Torgal was talking about?

 

Ice Room in Planar Sphere - I think it's too much from logical point of view. Planar Sphere was absent from this plane for many years as far as I remember. They should be placed somewhere where Nalia's father could really put them safe. I'd say it should be somewhere in Athkatla/Trademeet.

Both poison and electrical heads are simply Cespenar's additions to the original flail forged by rakshasa. So, following the suit, another head may be treated as just a suitable piece with magic properties found by Charname somewhere in their adventures.

The way I see it all five heads belongs to the original item crafted by rakshasas. Nalia's father could just have 2-3 heads of it and not know there were others scattered in the realms, lost in one of those countless battles between FoA's owners and rakshasas.

 

Ice head is the best candidate, because it doesn't disrupt the idea of "make the anti-troll weapon" subquest. And ice room in magic-filled Sphere is the most logical place to find a fitting piece in. It also is probably the most difficult of all strongholds to cleanse.

I just wanted to say I'm not so much into the "make the anti-troll weapon" subquest. I think it's a case of "convenient item" just like having tons of fire arrows in the keep was, but at the same time I don't think it's a terrible idea because not having any way to deal with trolls could actually break the game (much like not having anything to deal with golems within the Planar Sphere). I'm just saying that as long as there are a couple of ways to handle trolls (e.g. a bunch of arrows from the guards outside the castle, Hammer of Corrosion) the flail could as well keep fire and cold heads, but I'm relatively indifferent.

 

 

Planar Sphere

I'm also seriously thinking about thing like this - what sort of items we can find in places like Planar Sphere and Planar Prison? I think most of "normal" background items (like Gloves of Ogre Strenght) should be moved from that. Both of these are the best places for items with "Planar background". Rift Hammer?

Well, non-unique items like Ripper and GoOS are kinda fine if you ask me. Why can't a copy of them be in the sphere? Regarding unique items instead it's just a matter of checking if their background clashes with such allocation, but I don't have any such case in mind.

[phordicus]

I know you moved Belm to the grove raks, but moving a FoA head to there would be fitting. Just put Belm somewhere else.

[polytope]

Planar Sphere's loot

The Sphere has zero +3 weapons, has 2 enemies (unavoidable if you let them spawn) that require them, and if you can't beat it, you're stuck. Granted, the Keep has more Fighter toys because it's the Fighter stronghold, but I don't recall a similar preponderance in favor of Wizard items in the Sphere. But I do seem to remember that there's a Staff+1 in there, which could easily be replaced with a +3. As could the Stiletto of Demarchess, another possible Mage tool.

I'm really against "too much convenient allocations", but I'm sympathetic in this case because you cannot exit the sphere, that's why I'm fine with moving here a +3 item if we think it's necessary.

 

Considering I kinda agree Backbiter could be considered unique and moved somewhere else (still within early SoA imo), I could vote for replacing that staff +1 with a Staff of Striking, though in a SR game adding there a scroll of Enchanted Weapon fixes the issue in a much better way imo (assuming I don't care about soloers and every party should have at least one characters able to read the scroll).

I know that I'm replying to an old post, but since V3 hasn't been released yet, I may as well.

 

A simple solution for the sphere requiring +3 weapons is to replace the iron golems that spawn here with bone golems, they're appropriate guardians for a necromancer and most importantly can fit through the narrow passages of the sphere - Suldanessellar seems to be the only map where iron golems don't get stuck.

 

I know you moved Belm to the grove raks, but moving a FoA head to there would be fitting. Just put Belm somewhere else.

Moving a FoA head to the rakshasas may break some questpack stuff (they're supposed to notice the flail).

 

Moving Belm would be okay, perhaps Istar Jae'llat could use it alongside Water's Edge.

[J Beau]

FYI about the sphere:

 

The new version of aTweaks -

The PnP Fiends component now handles the demons inside the Planar Sphere a bit differently. Lea'liyl is now treated as a Marilith, one of the two generic Tanar'ri becomes a Glabrezu while the other remains a Nabassu. Some previously unused dialogue lines for Lea'liyl and the Nabassu have also been restored

[Demivrgvs]

Planar Sphere

A simple solution for the sphere requiring +3 weapons is to replace the iron golems that spawn here with bone golems, they're appropriate guardians for a necromancer and most importantly can fit through the narrow passages of the sphere - Suldanessellar seems to be the only map where iron golems don't get stuck.

Changing creature's spawns seems too much for this IR's component. We even discarded less drastical changes (e.g. changes to creatures stats or proficiencies to better fit their equipment) and it's probably better to keep a low profile here, whereas it could fit Quest Revisions if we'll ever work on it.

 

FYI about the sphere:

 

The new version of aTweaks -

The PnP Fiends component now handles the demons inside the Planar Sphere a bit differently. Lea'liyl is now treated as a Marilith, one of the two generic Tanar'ri becomes a Glabrezu while the other remains a Nabassu. Some previously unused dialogue lines for Lea'liyl and the Nabassu have also been restored

Does this affect us in any way? Marilith and Glabrezu are immune to +1 weapons, while the Nabassu is vulnerable even to +1 ones.

 

Flail of Ages & Belm

I know you moved Belm to the grove raks, but moving a FoA head to there would be fitting. Just put Belm somewhere else.

Moving a FoA head to the rakshasas may break some questpack stuff (they're supposed to notice the flail).

Mmm, I do thought about the few rakshasas encounters but if we move one head out of the keep I think it should be harder to obtain as the whole point of moving it was to lower the early game supremacy of FoA +3.

 

FoA scripted checks and various tie ins are amongst the reasons we seemed to agree about not doing anything for now (too much work).

 

Moving Belm would be okay, perhaps Istar Jae'llat could use it alongside Water's Edge.

Scimitars are kinda rare (IR adds an early-game flaming scimitar, but even with it we only have 3 specimens before UD), and having two specimens in the same late-game place would seriously hamper their early game appeal imo.

[SixOfSpades]

Flail of Ages

I'm undecided about whether or not I like the idea of splitting up the flail heads at all . . . it has its upsides and downsides, most of which have already been posted. One thing that I know I dislike, however, is putting the Cold head in the Ice room of the Planar Sphere. The simple fact is that Lord de'Arnise would have had absolutely no way of putting it there, and the completed +3 Flail specifically says that he had used the whole thing when he was younger. On a minor note, I for one think that the "elemental rooms" theme has been done to death. I don't even like the placement of the Poison and Electric heads.

 

A far better implementation, to my mind, would be Rakshasa-based. Give one Flail (not just the head, but the actual Flail of that head) to the Rukh Transmuter in the Windspear Hills. Or have UB's Jafir drop a head as he leaves. The Rakshasa actually want CHARNAME to have the entire Flail, to make it more sporting when they kill him to get it back. I also thought of giving part of it to Irenicus, because he's a known associate of Rakshasa and would need some pretty tempting bait/payment to get them to work with him . . . but finding a head in the starting dungeon would be waaaay too early (not to mention strongarming the player towards the Keep), and finding it in Spellhold would just be insulting, since you've got to slog through all of Chapters 4 & 5 before you can get back to the Keep or Cromwell. Even if you got the head as loot / reward from Bodhi, that leaves us with the problem of what else Irenicus could pay the Chapter 7 Rakshasa with, as he obviously doesn't have the Flail head any more.

 

Or, we could just live with its current implementation and work on frying our bigger fish, of which we have many.

 

Moving Belm would be okay, perhaps Istar Jae'llat could use it alongside Water's Edge.

Scimitars are kinda rare (IR adds an early-game flaming scimitar, but even with it we only have 3 specimens before UD), and having two specimens in the same late-game place would seriously hamper their early game appeal imo.

Particularly since its current location is already right on top of Rashad's Talon. I would leave Belm on Ihtafeer, but move either Rashad's or Water's to Desharik on Brynnlaw. As for Khan Zahraa's reward, does he even specify that it's a sword, let alone the type of sword?

[Incantatar]

Is there a complete list of the re-allocations?

 

If not, perhaps someone can tell me where the ring of air control is located?

[i30817]

Suggestion about item placement for BGT/BG1TuTu

Do you think that Berserker's Sword is really appropriate for this guard from Nashkel? He seems to become rather evil than just being berserker. It's also a bit stupid that character who's wielding Berserker's Sword isn't so bad. What about granting to him instead Helm of Opposite Alignment (or even better something which turns character into Chaotic Evil).

Yes, it's appropriate for him and he isn't just a guard, he was an officer, guard captain or something. It's also mentioned few times that he just started killing people, including his own family, just after getting a new sword. And he didn't become evil, he just started uncontrollably killing people near him and was afterwards really sorry and depressed because of it.

 

Dialog would need editing, many people mention it is a sword.

[i30817]

It's very easy: after Cloakwood, when you are going to the city of Baldur's Gate for the first time, make sure you have Kivan with you when you walk through the bridge. Then on the other side of the bridge(after dialogue with Scar) you will see an elven woman wearing elven chain (surprise!), surrounded by wolves. Talk to her with Kivan in party. You'll find out that she is Tazok's evil mercenary, and a fight will probably happen. Afterwards, the chain is yours. I don't think finishing Kivan's quest(Tazok) is mandatory, but it's what I usually do, yes.

Did you install some other mods which add more quest for Kivan? I did what you said, I met Scar as usual, and looked around, but there was no evlven woman in Bridge to Baldur's Gate location.

 

It's from BG1 NPC

[Dakk]

I hope you to add basic Elven Chain on BG1 part.

I was just looking at Ardanis' code this evening and I can confirm he didn't touched BG1 for now. I think he wanted to play it agian himself before messing with BG1 stores and item allocations. If you (I mean any player, not just you) can convince him to work on BG1 and have good suggestions about it you're welcome.

 

That being said, an Elven Chain Mail in the late part of BG1 is really fine imo. Even if BG1 NPC mod is a must have imo, we may or may not rely on it as soon as we start working on BG1 items re-allocation, but I'm glad it can offer you a solution in meanwhile (and a good/balanced one).

 

Maybe. It's been almost five years since I've played BG1, so I really don't remember it in details. Considering that, I think it would be better to postpone the BG1 part revision until I re-familiarize myself with it. Should happen the next year.

How you doing Ardanis, any luck getting some quality BG1-time in? I'd like to re-allocate some gear...

[Ardanis]

The second person in six hours who wants me to work with BG1... I'm not falling a victim to this conspiracy

Or rather -

 

That said, if you're desperate and familiar with Near Infinity and WeiDU readme, you can try it yourself. The patching template is quite simple, just change resource names and adjust values.

[ancalimohtar]

Looks like I have two instances of Bala's Axe and Staff of Striking, from other mods.

 

Bala's Axe drops off Pebblecrusher, and also found in the Planar Sphere trapped cache in the engine room (UB). Staff of Striking is sold by someone, and then I found it as loot recently (Angelo mod encounter).

 

Seeing as how UB (though a bit rough around the edges still) a very common mod, and Angelo is one of the most highly regarded and polished NPCs mods, is there a way to take these spawns into account? Staff of Striking I don't really think is an issue, it's not OP, you can't dual wield it, and the lore makes it non-unique, but I think Bala's Axe is problematic.