Improved Final Battle

[Guest Krazy]

But there's no way you get a lvl 12 druid unless you've been farming xp like mad.

Usually, by the end of BG1 my party has about ~250kxp.

 

No, perhaps you introduced different druid spell progression tables? Level 11 druid is all you need for a 6th level slot, and that's 200k XP and it's 300k for level 12.

 

Yes, with a 'bit' of farming, like repeat resting on Werewolf isle, you can easily get even Jaheira to level 11. I had respawns set to 80% chance after 7 days.

[Guest Aranthys]

But there's no way you get a lvl 12 druid unless you've been farming xp like mad.

Usually, by the end of BG1 my party has about ~250kxp.

 

No, perhaps you introduced different druid spell progression tables? Level 11 druid is all you need for a 6th level slot, and that's 200k XP and it's 300k for level 12.

 

Yes, with a 'bit' of farming, like repeat resting on Werewolf isle, you can easily get even Jaheira to level 11. I had respawns set to 80% chance after 7 days.

Aye, Druids progress like Clerics in my Games.

But the lvl 12 part of my message was from one of the previous message.

i forgot druid levelling was so fast untill you got to 1.5m xp (if i remember well ?)

[Saros]

If you think that SCS II Shade Lord is frightening, then what would you say about the Improved Anvil one...

 

Back to the topic: I thought that under TOTSC xp cap a druid can achieve level 9. Jaheira cannot, but a dualled fighter->druid can. Of course this means only one 5th level slot, but compared to clerics (who cannot achieve 5th level slots at all) is still very good, not to mention that 5th level druidic spells are superior to the 5th level clerical spells in BG1. Especially against mages. I mean, an Insect Plague + a thief with Detect Illusion 100% is all you need vs any enemy mage (with the exception of those nasty magic resistant battlemages of the Cult).

[Ilyich]

A single class Druid can reach level 10 under the TotSC experience cap. A dual class at Fighter level 5 (or earlier) can also reach this level. A level 6 or 7 Fighter can dual to Druid level 9.

[Guest Aranthys]

If you think that SCS II Shade Lord is frightening, then what would you say about the Improved Anvil one.../quote]

When you absolutly don't know the encounter, yeah, he's really difficult.

Once you've figured how to deal with his abilities, he becomes quite easy.

 

I don't know Improved Anvil, and honestly, SCS is good enough for me.

I want a challenging game, not uphill battles.

[ldmn]

Greets,

 

just a personal opinion on "improved final battle".

 

And also would like to congratulate on and thank thee for thy Mod, it was really fine to play with, really everything was very well thought out and realised - until the final battle.

 

So,

Having had my first runthrough, so not extremely hard-core gamer I had the impression (with SCS ver. 12):

 

- bug, after having killed Sarevok, the game cant be continued.

- about the battle:

on my 2nd serious try I succeded it really without great efforts, although used much prebuff and summoning.

 

Would suggest make it tougher (preferably with selectable difficulty levels in "de luxe edition"), as this battle really finishes (if ver.12. werent buggy) the complete game.

 

But again, really really this mod is essential, not any thinking being should ever omit it ! Very great experience it was, hope SCS2 will be fine, too!

[DavidW]

I've actually heard quite varying things about final-battle difficulty - some people say it's too easy, others, too hard.

 

As for the bug, are you running BGT or EasyTutu?

 

EDIT: don't worry, I see you've reported the bug elsewhere.

[ldmn]

Important thing, which I forgot:

 

I presume the fine-tuning for the final-battle is already built in in an indirect way, through the smarter Mage / Priest component.

I selected a relatively easy difficulty in this component, so maybe that is why the final - battle was beatable without too much effort.

[Guest Guest_Loz_*]

For me the battle was actually quite easy, I did it on my first go(though i got the bug where the game didn't finish). Even the party outside with the ogre took me a couple of attempts. This is because at this point you use everything you have, all potions wands etc. because it's the last fight. I found dispell arrows made it much too easy to kill angelo and semaj while summons kept sarevok and tazok busy. Diarmand hardly seemed to do anything when he was caught in melee.

 

My suggestion would be to change Diarmand into another class. A cleric has been suggested but i think a thief with the cloak of non-detection(there are two in the game already, move one if nessesary) would be more effective. He could avoid the summons and go to backstab crucial members of the party. Thieves were one of the opponents I found to be most challenging in scs as they constantly went for the weaker party members. Of course the cleric spell physical mirror could also help survive those dispell arrows, so that is something to consider too.

 

Overall I'd like to see them deal with dispell arrows and summons more effectively, though the two things may be linked since angelo and semaj are the ones with aoe to clear the summons.

 

Great mod DavidW!

[Salk]

I've actually heard quite varying things about final-battle difficulty - some people say it's too easy, others, too hard.

 

I just wonder, isn't the difficulty also very much depending on what party you face the game with (classes and level)? And what items you have at your disposal?

 

On a pure theoretical base, would it be possible to dynamically adjust the difficulty level of the encounters by checking the number of the party members and their level?

[Guest Guest_agris_*]

Just chiming in here: I too had the bug with the unresolved Sarevok battle at the end. Near as I can tell, there was a problem with his minHP item, so he died before firing the script. I made a post about this a while back, David, and we were never able to track down the root of the issue or fix it.

 

I still have the save / weidu log if you're interested.

[DavidW]

On a pure theoretical base, would it be possible to dynamically adjust the difficulty level of the encounters by checking the number of the party members and their level?

 

Not going to happen, sorry. Take your own risks

[Salk]

On a pure theoretical base, would it be possible to dynamically adjust the difficulty level of the encounters by checking the number of the party members and their level?

 

Not going to happen, sorry. Take your own risks

 

Yes, I didn't even think of that myself.

 

I was just curious if it was technically possible.

[DavidW]

On a pure theoretical base, would it be possible to dynamically adjust the difficulty level of the encounters by checking the number of the party members and their level?

 

Not going to happen, sorry. Take your own risks

 

Yes, I didn't even think of that myself.

 

I was just curious if it was technically possible.

 

Yes, but not straightforward.

[PetrusOctavianus]

Personally I found the final battle to be too brutally hard. I was able to get Sarevok down to Almost Dead, but he moves and kills so fast that I gave up. Samej is also very hard to kill with all his contingencies and stoneskins. So even if using hit and run tactics on Sarevok with my main and Kivan pumping +2 Arrows into him it was too hard with Samej added to the equation.

I use Hard Times, so no Gauntets of Dexterity or Ogre Power and only 10 Arrows of Dispelling in the whole game. And I don't use other mods that add loot, except the NPC Project.

I can kill Tazok, Angelo and Diarmid relatively easy while an army of summons and skeletons keep Sarevok busy, but I just can't kill them fast enough, and even after casting Greater Malison they make most of their Saving Throws.

So I ended up editing Sarevok in NI, reducing his HP back to 120 and removing all his "cheese" items. Then it was doable.

 

BTW, there was no ending to the game and no exit from the Temple after killing Sarevok. Is that normal?