Items re-allocation

[Ardanis]

Malakar

Does anyone know a suitable place for Malakar katana from Spellhold Maze? It's carried by a spirit troll, much like Flame of North is carried by an illithid. The problem is that there're very few kitted chars in game, of kensais I offhand only know Koshi (Celestial Fury), a guy in Samia's party (Firkraag's dungeon), ST-Bodhi night encounter. The second one sounds good, but FoN is already moved to Tazok, and moving the second item to the same location may not be wise. Even if FoN is assigned to Glaicas (already is in, in commented out code), Samia's party ain't that difficult, so Malakar might be a waste there.

[Demivrgvs]

Few notes for Ardanis, and in case players want to join the discussion:

 

- Azuredge: Bernard's special stock -> Bolumir the cleric of Tempus, fighter stronghold

No, he already get the Girdle of Beatification and the Horn of Valhalla, and both those items are much more appropriate. Also, isn't this a store available only with fighter's stronghold? If yes, the Horn alone may be enough imo, mainly because there are rally too few girdles...I know that I've even modified the girdle's lore for this, but maybe Trueblood's Ioune Stone can replace it, what do you think?

 

- Scroll of Crom Fayer: shadow dragon, Temple Ruins -> death knight, Underdark

Good aligned parties shouldn't really do this mini-quest...I'd move the scroll to somewhere else, like the end of UD beholder's lair. I've just noticed you've moved there the Sling of Arvoreen...if both are too much I don't know, but the scroll re-allocation is a priority imo.

 

- Ring of Earth Control: De'Arnise Keep -> svirfneblin storekeep, Underdark

And what have you put in its place? I'd say leave it where it was, the Ring of Invisibility for the svirf is enough. I'd remove the Ring of Invisibility from Cattie (her bow alone is uber powerful now).

 

- Hammer of Corrosion: golem room, De'Arnise Keep -> forge, same place

Eh?!

 

- Vhalior's Helm: Deidre -> Gromnir (or Ribald's special stock otherwise)

I'm moving it to Gromnir in the main component.

 

- Robe of Vecna: Deidre -> Azamantes, Watcher's Keep (or Ribald's special stock otherwise)

As above, and there's no "otherwise".

 

- Flame of the North: illithid, Spellhold maze -> Glaicas

Have you to kill him for that? If yes it's a no no, I'm really against a bigger reward for those who kill him. "Curing" him is one of the most unique roleplaying things in this game, thus I don't want an incentive to ignore that.

 

- Helm of Darkness: -> Raamilat, Suldanessellar

? He's a mage...

 

- Varscona

Have you moved Varscona to Ribald's store? Keep it on him too if you wish, but make both the sword and the Ring of Regeneration undroppable.

 

 

I'll try to update the first post as soon as possible...

[Ardanis]

Ring of Invisibility

added to svirfneblin storekeep, Underdark

Yes, I knew something [/i]was[/i] wrong, an outdated entry. Instead it's removed from Crooked Crane lich (he already has Daystar, Rod of Terror, several wands). Cattie-Brie and Mencar's rogue still have it.

 

- Ring of Earth Control: De'Arnise Keep -> svirfneblin storekeep, Underdark

And what have you put in its place? I'd say leave it where it was, the Ring of Invisibility for the svirf is enough. I'd remove the Ring of Invisibility from Cattie (her bow alone is uber powerful now).

 

- Hammer of Corrosion: golem room, De'Arnise Keep -> forge, same place

Eh?!

Well, there're three containers in golem room, with bow, axe, hammer and FoA'a head, four in total. So I placed the hammer near the forge, where the Earth ring was. Some tool for a smith to use

 

- Vhalior's Helm: Deidre -> Gromnir (or Ribald's special stock otherwise)

I'm moving it to Gromnir in the main component.

 

- Robe of Vecna: Deidre -> Azamantes, Watcher's Keep (or Ribald's special stock otherwise)

As above, and there's no "otherwise".

I thought you've said you've been stripping main comp of some things, no? Well, whatever, I'm deleting both entries then.

 

Azuredge

Ok, back to Bernard then.

 

Varscona

Yes, did move. Looks I forgot another entry to update. Hope that's all though.

 

Scroll of Crom Fayer

So far, beholders Equalizer part, Amulet of Spellwarding, the Sling. Not too much. I guess they can have the scroll. I wish there was a container near the lair's boss, but adding it there feels out of the mod's scope.

 

Flame of the North

Can make him to hand it over in dialog.

 

Helm of Darkness

1) He's a mage, yes... Sadly, there're no other drows up there, and for a semi-boss he's lootless atm

2) The Death Knight in UD is certainly better, but three top items?

[Demivrgvs]

- Hammer of Corrosion: golem room, De'Arnise Keep -> forge, same place

Eh?!

Well, there're three containers in golem room, with bow, axe, hammer and FoA'a head, four in total. So I placed the hammer near the forge, where the Earth ring was. Some tool for a smith to use

A corrosive hammer seems the perfect tool! Jokes aside, I think you're breaking a trigger because taking the hammer from its original allocation animated some of the golems, while taking the flail's head does not.

 

- Vhalior's Helm: Deidre -> Gromnir (or Ribald's special stock otherwise)

I'm moving it to Gromnir in the main component.

 

- Robe of Vecna: Deidre -> Azamantes, Watcher's Keep (or Ribald's special stock otherwise)

As above, and there's no "otherwise".

I thought you've said you've been stripping main comp of some things, no? Well, whatever, I'm deleting both entries then.

SCS re-allocations are a "special case". Anyway, as soon as I have the final version of the mod I'll send it to you to check it.

 

Azuredge

Ok, back to Bernard then.

It's better yes, though the axe is actually too powerful right now (it has a total +5 enhancement bonus).

 

 

Scroll of Crom Fayer

So far, beholders Equalizer part, Amulet of Spellwarding, the Sling. Not too much. I guess they can have the scroll. I wish there was a container near the lair's boss, but adding it there feels out of the mod's scope.

They lose the Greenstone Amulet (which now costs 10000gp to players) they get the scroll.

 

 

Flame of the North

Can make him to hand it over in dialog.

Why should he? It's his sword...I'll try to think a better place for the sword.

 

 

Helm of Darkness

1) He's a mage, yes... Sadly, there're no other drows up there, and for a semi-boss he's lootless atm

2) The Death Knight in UD is certainly better, but three top items?

I've a pending issue with this helm because I've replaced the Helm of Opposite Alignment, which is used by some mods such as Salk's Cursed Items.

 

Other than that yes, I think the Death Knight would suit it very well. It doesn't have the Belt of Giant Strength after all, though it never used it.

 

 

I've updated the first post...let me know if I missed something.

[Ardanis]

Ring of Earth Control

Alright, let's make it clear - are you pro or con? Moving it outside of the keep, I mean.

 

Flame of the North

Ch.3, siding with ST. The second task includes ambushing deserters, who are being contacted by Bodhi's fighter with 2hander. He got somewhat good stats and crap thaco, overall is no match for Tazok/Glaicas.

 

Helm of Darkness

Given to DK. I have serious doubts, really, but whatever.

Need to add an option for good chars to cleanse the place. I'll have to think about it someday, just you wait...

 

 

So, other items, hanging in the air begging for attention, are:

- Azuredge

- DEX gauntlets

- Roranach's Horn

[Demivrgvs]

Ring of Earth Control

Alright, let's make it clear - are you pro or con? Moving it outside of the keep, I mean.

Long story short, I don't see any reason to move it.

 

 

Flame of the North

Ch.3, siding with ST. The second task includes ambushing deserters, who are being contacted by Bodhi's fighter with 2hander. He got somewhat good stats and crap thaco, overall is no match for Tazok/Glaicas.

I suppose you mean Gracen. Actually Tazok and Gracen are really pitiful compared to Glaicus...but I never understand why before taking a good look at him: he has an unexplained base 2.5 apr (thus +1.5 more than all the 'normal characters') and grandmastery in large swords (very few fighters have it in vanilla!), which means he has 4.5 (5 with True Grandmastery) apr as soon as he drinks his Potion of Speed.

 

The problem imo is that while SCS makes mages a lot more effective, poor warriors are almost as weak as before (though SCS makes them use potions which is great), and vanilla's warriors are more often than not pathetic, with bad stats, no grandmastery, not so great equipment, no kits, ...

 

Anyway, after looking around I do think the only other character worth this blade is Anarg (the leader of the Fallen Paladins). He's a 15th lvl fighter with good stats and ++++ in large swords, he doesn't cheat like Glaicus (no +1.5 apr) and doesn't use a Potion of Speed, but while you fight Glaicus alone Anarg has 4-5 fallen paladins with him.

 

 

Helm of Darkness

Given to DK. I have serious doubts, really, but whatever.

Need to add an option for good chars to cleanse the place. I'll have to think about it someday, just you wait...

Why should they? It's an evil temple, and there's nothing for them there anymore (both Death Armor and Soul Reaver cannot be used by good-aligned characters).

[Dakk]

Given to DK. I have serious doubts, really, but whatever.

Need to add an option for good chars to cleanse the place. I'll have to think about it someday, just you wait...

Why should they? It's an evil temple, and there's nothing for them there anymore (both Death Armor and Soul Reaver cannot be used by good-aligned characters).

Because real heroes cleanse evil temples and smite their inhabitants.

 

Really, I don't think "there's no loot for good chars" is a valid reason to not let good heroes take out the trash. I would really welcome such an option.

[SixOfSpades]

Gauntlets of Ogre Power and Hammer of Thunderbolts

Swap their locations. The GooP's description clearly states that they are the only such item in the world, and the PC (very likely) had them in his party's possession in BG1 (less than a year ago). How, then, can he transition to BG2 and discover that they've been sealed away on another place of existence for hundreds of years? It's much more plausible to say that they were taken from him by either Irenicus or the Shadow Thieves, sold to Ribald, and then bought by an adventurer who wore them into the Temple District Sewers and was captured by Illithids.

As the Hammer of Thunderbolts is a BG2-only item, there's no continuity problem there.

 

Sewer Key

This is dropped by Tazok because . . . um . . . ah? More reasonable carriers would be Lady Jysstev or The Thumb, but that would require the addition of some text. Possibly dropped by the Temple Sewers Rakshasa, or given to you by Quallo.

[Demivrgvs]

Gauntlets of Ogre Power and Hammer of Thunderbolts

Swap their locations. The GooP's description clearly states that they are the only such item in the world, and the PC (very likely) had them in his party's possession in BG1 (less than a year ago). How, then, can he transition to BG2 and discover that they've been sealed away on another place of existence for hundreds of years? It's much more plausible to say that they were taken from him by either Irenicus or the Shadow Thieves, sold to Ribald, and then bought by an adventurer who wore them into the Temple District Sewers and was captured by Illithids.

As the Hammer of Thunderbolts is a BG2-only item, there's no continuity problem there.

I don't remember right now if Ardanis still intended to move the gauntlets but I've replaced their lore with the one used by NWN: "While these magical items have been around for thousands of years, their popularity never seems to decrease. Recently, a party of adventurers out of Calimshan uncovered a vast treasure trove, filled with magical items like these. The sudden influx of magical gauntlets does not seem to have decreased their value, as every adventurer across the land clamors for the assistance of these useful artifacts."

 

These gauntlets cannot be unique for various reasons, two of which are:

- it's a not so rare item in PnP lore

- Silverblade created another pair of these gauntlets for Crom Faeyr, making the old lore incorrect for BG2

 

 

Sewer Key

This is dropped by Tazok because . . . um . . . ah? More reasonable carriers would be Lady Jysstev or The Thumb, but that would require the addition of some text. Possibly dropped by the Temple Sewers Rakshasa, or given to you by Quallo.

The most appropriate "place" is The Hidden but I think only a party with Jan would meet him, and I don't even know if you can kill him (I never did such quest). The same is true for Lady Jysstev. Though you may be able to pickpocket the key from one of them, or we could simply put the key in a chest in Jysstev's Estate (you visit it for Sir Sarles quest too...).

 

The Raksahsa instead seems a rathar bad choice just like Tazok imo, and I don't know why Quallo should have the key. Let's see what Ardanis think about this...

 

P.S It would be a dream come true a mod which ties up all those cool sub-plots such as Twisted Rune, Illithid's plan, Slaver Compund, and so on. Speaking of the Temple District's Slaver Compound I've recently found out that having Nalia in the party and investingating Roenall's Estate lead to a quite huge clue!

[Ardanis]

Gauntlets of Ogre Power and Hammer of Thunderbolts

As Demi says, we came to leave things be.

 

Sewer Key

Moving key for the sake of moving sounds silly, and without related quest I'm not sure it will make a difference where it's obtained, be it Tazok, a street beggar or Cyric avatar in Pocket Plane.

 

If someone has a decent draft (but not very large) in mind for how the illithid lair should be handled, I'll code it in the mod pack I'm working on.

I never had Jan in party but I heard his quest involves flayers. Don't know if there's a direct connection though, turnip belching gnomes disgust me too much to play through the sequence just to find out.

 

Speaking of the Temple District's Slaver Compound I've recently found out that having Nalia in the party and investingating Roenall's Estate lead to a quite huge clue!

Yes, iirc there's a note in Roenall's estate that leads to GC, which in turn should have a lead to TR. The latter wasn't implemented well though, but Baldurdash restores it.

[SixOfSpades]

Gauntlets of Ogre Power and Hammer of Thunderbolts

These gauntlets cannot be unique for various reasons, two of which are:

- it's a not so rare item in PnP lore

- Silverblade created another pair of these gauntlets for Crom Faeyr, making the old lore incorrect for BG2

Huh. Didn't know about the first one, and I'd forgotten about the second. Okay, as long as you change the description so that they're no longer the "Hands of Takkok" I'm fine with it, particularly as it leaves future modders room to bring in the "original" BG1 pair as a near-duplicate item. (Which also holds true for the Cloak of Protection+2, by the way.)

 

Sewer Key

I am astonished that neither of you guys ever played a single game with Jan. I for one find him to be extremely useful. But, anyway. My motivation for moving the Sewer Key is that its current location makes absolutely no sense whatsoever: A character at the other end of the country, with no ties to the Illithids in any way, and with no Illithids anywhere nearby, controls the ONLY means of access to an important Illithid colony? This is bullshit.

 

I agree, the best person to carry it would be The Hidden, but as he's a Jan-only encounter, that's a no-go. (Yes, you can kill him in-game, even though I think you shouldn't be able to.) You could also get it from one of the contacts in Jan's quest that are present even if he's not a party member (Lady Jysstev, The Thumb, Uncle Gearhardt), but the more I think about it, the less I like that idea, largely because Jan's quest really sucks.

 

I'm leaning more toward the Rakshasa, really . . . Rakshasa eat humanoid meat, Illithids eat humanoid brains. By employing him as their "fisherman," they get a constant influx of slaves/food without revealing their presence. By working "for" them, he gets to be his own boss and lord it over some Kobolds, also getting first pick over the magical items carried by his prey. The only problem with this (that I can see) is that the Rakshasa & Kobolds are an extremely easy kill, compared with the Illithids & the Temple Sewers gang.

 

I don't know why Quallo should have the key.

True, but I also don't know of any reason why he shouldn't have the key. (Neither does he, incidentally.) He'd simply be a hell of a lot more logical than Tazok.

[Shaitan]

Concerning the Sewer Key (and in so many other occations) I agree with SixOfSpades.

[Ardanis]

Sewer Key

I take it there's a consensus on the matter. In such case, the key should belong to a killable opponent, else no illithid lair and Crom Fayer (for those who like it). It also should be within Athkatla.

 

There's Valeria's party in Bridge District, hanging in some warehouse or whatever those stinking rottings that lay around may be. To my knowledge, she has no ties to any quest, neither do I know if some mod tries to fix that. I don't know why flayers would leave the key to thralls outside, but at least the thrall theory can explain party's immediate hostility, totally uncalled for.

 

 

 

And, I can't discern whether it's good idea or not - to move 9th scrolls, scattered around in Suldanessellar, to Reirra's store. I've been thinking for maybe two weeks, yet undecided.

Pros:

1) Why in hells would elves keep Gate and Meteor Swarm scrolls under their pillows?

2) This is cheap loot, cheap in a sense 'designers were running out of time'

Cons:

3) Reirra is a priestess, not magician

4) Purchasing those scrolls would be well expensive, even if 3-4 of them

[SixOfSpades]

Sewer Key

There's Valeria's party in Bridge District, hanging in some warehouse or whatever those stinking rottings that lay around may be. To my knowledge, she has no ties to any quest, neither do I know if some mod tries to fix that.

I seem to recall some UB-esque mutterings that if you take the Lawful path through Anomen's quest, originally BioWare's intent was that you would discover new evidence regarding his sister's murder, evidence leading to Dracandros & Co. But I have no idea just how "official" that is, and of course I almost always kill those guys before Anomen's quest even triggers anyway.

 

That said, I don't think I like the idea of placing the key with them. As I said, I'd give it to the Rakshasa but buff him up to a respectable level (give him some thrall allies like the actual Mind Flayers have, and/or let him cast spells like rakshasa are supposed to do), but that's not within the field of IR. Failing that, I have to ask: Is it possible to make a locked door that can be opened by lockpicking OR with a key? It would seem balanced to make the sewer door open to a 95% or better Lockpick, and give the Sewer Key to both the Hidden and a unique Ulitharid in the Underdark Illithid Tunnels--whichever one gets killed first sets a global variable that tells the game to remove the key from the other one, when/if it's encountered.

 

 

Suldanessellar scrolls

Give 'em to Raamilat. Yeah, everything about this place is lame as hell ("We've helpfully named all of our buildings after the obscure plot-essential items stored in each one!"), but I don't find that as annoying as the fact that these oh-so-cultured and enlightened Elves are trying to fight Iron Golems by using unenchanted Chain Mail and Longswords.

[Shaitan]

Give 'em to Raamilat. Yeah, everything about this place is lame as hell ("We've helpfully named all of our buildings after the obscure plot-essential items stored in each one!"), but I don't find that as annoying as the fact that these oh-so-cultured and enlightened Elves are trying to fight Iron Golems by using unenchanted Chain Mail and Longswords.

agree though.