IA v6 Final

[isleepwithfucking goats]

A Stalker needs to have the UAI HLA to be on equal ground with the F/T multi. And the only advantage after getting it will be the ability to cast Armor of Faith for 10% additional physical damage resistance. This is no small bonus, definitely, still a F/T multi will have a better backstab multiplier.

 

Backstabbing with the Grandfather main-hand is ill-advised. It's better to backstab with a good crushing weapon. Clubs or staves. Then the damage dealt to a Skeleton Grandlord will significantly increase. Probably if you were to activate Assassinate in the beginning of the Orcus fight with a F/T multi with MultiClass Grandmastery tweak active, grandmastery in quarterstaves, str 24 or 25 (use a Holy Symbol) and the staff of the ram +4 equipped, you'll do something like 80 average dmg per hit to a grandlord, probably even more. That's unbalanced. Or you could kill 3 Gem Golems in just 1 Assassination attack in the Oasis fight.

 

Critical Backstabs are even more unbalanced, those are completely possible with a F/T who has the Robe of Eloquence equipped. Of course, you won't be able to wear both it and Jan's armor. And you'll have small problems healing the F/T afterwards. Thing is, Assassinate doesn't guarantee that all 7 or 8 attacks will hit, while CS added to it does. But yes, most of the time the extra damage will come only from the backstab multiplier.

 

The main drawback for a F/T is the multiple items he requires as equipment, so I'd not consider him unless applying some gold exploits.

 

Considering an Archer: Fun, but not strong. There are enough Arrows of Piercing in the starting chapters, both Aledrian and the Genies sell 360 each, and I think that the fletcher in the promenade also has some (200?). Naturally they're expensive, another reason why an Archer is not worth it.

 

Not a big fan of multi-classes, considering IA level progressions.

 

I don't know, I find it a bit odd to backstab with a crushing weapon, and as you say crushing maybe be a bit too much under assassinate, but with piercing only it's lackluster. Therefore the Thief is a definitely a big pass, as it needs buffing/balancing from multiple angles. Too much hassle.

 

Critical + Backstab will not work at the same time, unless Eloquence comes into play. Which I would never wear on Thief. One has to be retarded to mess the thief up with the robe, for a few rounds of damage.

 

 

The Archer will be very fun I think. Arrows can be reduced in price a bit and made more abundant in shops.

 

But needs some nerfs to Called Shot. Right now it does -1 Thac0 for over 10 seconds, considering the Archer gets about 9 Attacks under IH, probably looking at -12 Thac0 on average for the enemy that the Archer hits. A bit too strong. Probably will lower the -1 Thac0 to 4 seconds? What do you think? This way ( assuming the Archer hits each time ), the enemy shouldn't have a his Thac0 lowered by no more than 5 points at any given time. 4-5 Thac0 decrease to little maybe? Thoughts please.

 

Called shot also gives -1 to Str for about 10 seconds ( worthless in IA, as most if not all IA monsters are immune to stat modifications ). This will probably be changed to something else. Tell me a useful ability to replace this one. I was thinking -1% resistance to magic damage resistance for 10 seconds or so. This to possibly do slight damage with offensive spells to bosses and other such enemies which have 100 Magic Damage Resistance. But I'm not very convinced. Would probably make more sense to soften the target ( lower piercing resistance ), by maybe 1% for 5-6 seconds. This way he would be able to do some damage to enemies that are 100% resistant to piercing. The damage will be very little when their resistance is lowered to 95%, but at least he would hit ( probably do around 1-2 damage ). Have to keep in mind he has limited number of Called Shots in mid-game, so he would be able to damage them for short periods only. There will also probably not be another char with piercing weapon, so he would be the only guy doing piercing damage.

 

Called shot also does -1 to save vs. spells, not sure if this is imbalanced. What do you think? Maybe replace it with something more useful? Remember I will be probably giving up a Riskbreaker for the Archer, so he needs to be very viable throughout the game.

 

The +2 Damage from Called Shot is pretty nice, translates to +1 damage which is added on top of his normal attack. So vs. a Warlord he does 5+1 damage. This will stay as it is.

[kreso]

@isleepwithfucking goats

You thinking on releasing this tweaked IA of yours ? It actually seems quite balanced from your writings.

[Saros]

 

The Archer will be very fun I think. Arrows can be reduced in price a bit and made more abundant in shops.

 

But needs some nerfs to Called Shot. Right now it does -1 Thac0 for over 10 seconds, considering the Archer gets about 9 Attacks under IH, probably looking at -12 Thac0 on average for the enemy that the Archer hits. A bit too strong. Probably will lower the -1 Thac0 to 4 seconds? What do you think? This way ( assuming the Archer hits each time ), the enemy shouldn't have a his Thac0 lowered by no more than 5 points at any given time. 4-5 Thac0 decrease to little maybe? Thoughts please.

 

Called shot also gives -1 to Str for about 10 seconds ( worthless in IA, as most if not all IA monsters are immune to stat modifications ). This will probably be changed to something else. Tell me a useful ability to replace this one. I was thinking -1% resistance to magic damage resistance for 10 seconds or so. This to possibly do slight damage with offensive spells to bosses and other such enemies which have 100 Magic Damage Resistance. But I'm not very convinced. Would probably make more sense to soften the target ( lower piercing resistance ), by maybe 1% for 5-6 seconds. This way he would be able to do some damage to enemies that are 100% resistant to piercing. The damage will be very little when their resistance is lowered to 95%, but at least he would hit ( probably do around 1-2 damage ). Have to keep in mind he has limited number of Called Shots in mid-game, so he would be able to damage them for short periods only. There will also probably not be another char with piercing weapon, so he would be the only guy doing piercing damage.

 

Called shot also does -1 to save vs. spells, not sure if this is imbalanced. What do you think? Maybe replace it with something more useful? Remember I will be probably giving up a Riskbreaker for the Archer, so he needs to be very viable throughout the game.

 

The +2 Damage from Called Shot is pretty nice, translates to +1 damage which is added on top of his normal attack. So vs. a Warlord he does 5+1 damage. This will stay as it is.

 

You could modify the Arrows of Piercing to not allow a save vs death.

 

Called shot:

Lowering all enemy resistances by 1% for 10 seconds may be a good replacement for the useless -1 to str.

If you're going to give up the Riskbreaker for an Archer, then it's pretty conceivable that an Archer could benefit from the RB's pool of abilities. You could implement the "risk increment" to some extent - something like an AC penalty of 1 for 10 seconds under Called Shot.

You could also apply some version of "Hard Hit" instead of that stupid -1 to save vs spells. I have other ideas but they all look very imbalanced - like 5% chance of triggering Limited Wish on each Called Shot.

[isleepwithfucking goats]

@isleepwithfucking goats

You thinking on releasing this tweaked IA of yours ? It actually seems quite balanced from your writings.

 

I'm afraid I would have to charge premium membership for it ( fees, server costs, lunch money, and all that ).

 

The other option is to release only to friends who supported me during hard times. Also you would probably need to have the adequate "tactical reputation" to experience the new version, which you don't, and therefore are not worthy kreso. Sorry.

 

I lol.

[isleepwithfucking goats]

The Archer will be very fun I think. Arrows can be reduced in price a bit and made more abundant in shops.

 

But needs some nerfs to Called Shot. Right now it does -1 Thac0 for over 10 seconds, considering the Archer gets about 9 Attacks under IH, probably looking at -12 Thac0 on average for the enemy that the Archer hits. A bit too strong. Probably will lower the -1 Thac0 to 4 seconds? What do you think? This way ( assuming the Archer hits each time ), the enemy shouldn't have a his Thac0 lowered by no more than 5 points at any given time. 4-5 Thac0 decrease to little maybe? Thoughts please.

 

Called shot also gives -1 to Str for about 10 seconds ( worthless in IA, as most if not all IA monsters are immune to stat modifications ). This will probably be changed to something else. Tell me a useful ability to replace this one. I was thinking -1% resistance to magic damage resistance for 10 seconds or so. This to possibly do slight damage with offensive spells to bosses and other such enemies which have 100 Magic Damage Resistance. But I'm not very convinced. Would probably make more sense to soften the target ( lower piercing resistance ), by maybe 1% for 5-6 seconds. This way he would be able to do some damage to enemies that are 100% resistant to piercing. The damage will be very little when their resistance is lowered to 95%, but at least he would hit ( probably do around 1-2 damage ). Have to keep in mind he has limited number of Called Shots in mid-game, so he would be able to damage them for short periods only. There will also probably not be another char with piercing weapon, so he would be the only guy doing piercing damage.

 

Called shot also does -1 to save vs. spells, not sure if this is imbalanced. What do you think? Maybe replace it with something more useful? Remember I will be probably giving up a Riskbreaker for the Archer, so he needs to be very viable throughout the game.

 

The +2 Damage from Called Shot is pretty nice, translates to +1 damage which is added on top of his normal attack. So vs. a Warlord he does 5+1 damage. This will stay as it is.

 

You could modify the Arrows of Piercing to not allow a save vs death.

 

Called shot:

Lowering all enemy resistances by 1% for 10 seconds may be a good replacement for the useless -1 to str.

If you're going to give up the Riskbreaker for an Archer, then it's pretty conceivable that an Archer could benefit from the RB's pool of abilities. You could implement the "risk increment" to some extent - something like an AC penalty of 1 for 10 seconds under Called Shot.

You could also apply some version of "Hard Hit" instead of that stupid -1 to save vs spells. I have other ideas but they all look very imbalanced - like 5% chance of triggering Limited Wish on each Called Shot.

 

With the Thac0 penalty I did: Called Shot lasts 6 seconds and lowers Thac0 by 1 point for 3 seconds. It's lowered by 5 on average for a short period ( you have to keep using called shot to maintain the lowered thac0 ). It takes about 3-4 seconds for it to be lowered to -5 points where it lasts only for a very short period, after which it slowly goes up again, unless you activate called shot again next round ). This assuming you are under IH and Grandmastery. At lower levels ( can't Grandmastery from the Start with the Archer, only 2 Proficiency points ), it will probably be much less effective.

 

Yeah RB style Called Shot sounds interesting, will post here the final version of the ability once it's all tested.

 

LOL saros, 5% Limited Wish, that's about 40% chance in a round. xD.

[isleepwithfucking goats]

Called Shot: lasts 6 seconds:

 

LVL 4: Lower Thac0

LVL 13: Lower Thac0 + Lower Piercing Resistance

LVL 16: Lower Thac0 + Lower Piercing Resistance + Lower AC + 5% Chance for 8D6 Crushing

LVL 19: Lower Thac0 + Lower Piercing Resistance + Lower AC + 5% Chance for 8D6 Crushing + 2 Extra Damage

 

Wanted to start it at lvl 10, but had to put something at LVL4. Lowers 5% on average the most, for all effects. 5% chance for 8D6 Crushing Damage is for Skeletons mostly, it only lasts 6 seconds therefore will probably almost never trigger ( unlike Riskbreakers Hard Hit which is permanent and also higher damage 10D6 ).

 

 

Removed save vs death piercing damage from Arrows of Piercing +4, and lowered base damage a bit. Bought a few thousand arrows for about 18.000GP in Chap 2/3 ( they go fast lol ). Modified a few more arrows to do Piercing Damage. Also removed immunity to bullet projectiles from the "Dragon Ring" and made a few late game Sligns do Piercing Damage as well. This way Sligns should still be viable in late game if Mages go under Tenser and they somehow manage to score a hit.

 

I like the Archer so far, does a bit lower damage than the B/M or RB vs. most enemies. Vs. Skeletons does significantly lower damage of course. It's cool to have somebody do damage and at the same time be out of CC 3xADHW sight. Archer Thac0 is insane btw, about -7 ( +4 Thac0 from bow, +4 from Arrows ) while the RB is -5 with Phosphorus. He can indeed get Grandmastery from the start ( I was afraid he wouldn't be able ). He is basically a ranged Kensai concerning Thac0. Later he'll get Contact with Nature and Criticals/Hardiness/War Cry.

 

 

Didn't want to pick up Mazzy for this run, as she is a bit hard to get for my taste. I wanted to get her for her Invoke Courages. Instead I did something else. HLA "War Cry" changed to be basically Invoke Courage ( sort of like a War Chant/Song that gives courage ). Will pick 1 of those in late game for each fighter. So that will probably be 2x of those before the fight ( no more ). Seems fair to me, better than to stack 3/4 Invoke Courages all throughout the game.

 

Went with Necro, Sorcerer, B/M, Archer, RB, R/C. All Custom except Jaheira R/C ( won't be using her harper pin this game). Insane again, to micro a bit. Can't really change the line-up too much, because there is nothing interesting to play.

Palandin average even with Grandmastery, also needs certain tweaks to be viable

Thief awful even with multiple tweaks/buffs and probably a hassle to backstab in early/mid game.

Monk never lol

Bard no go with LVL 5 spells and no permanent alacrity. The B/M is 10x better anyway with Thor/Belm even vs. the older version Bard. B/M has 10 attacks from which 8 with Thor, lvl 9 spells, massive HP, Enrage, etc..

Druid no go, 1APR = pass, besides the R/C is a Druid, a Fighter and a Cleric.

Barbarian, I considered him with Grandmastery, but still not enough to make it in my party and much weaker and less fun compared to a RB. Damage Output > Resistances even on Insane.

Pure Cleric never, have R/C.

Auramaster, maybe if he had 8 APR and Grandmastery I would possibly consider him over a R/C, even then I'd have to test him first.

Kensai, his Thac0 is good until you gain Criticals. After that pretty much irrelevant. His Damage bonus I think is sort of worthless due to high physical resistances of enemies. At most I think he will do 1 extra point of damage in late game. Played him in v5 I think last time, much much weaker compared to a v6 RB. Also poor AC.

Vagrant, still good and versatile imo even as non-PC, but I played him not too long ago, had no room anyway in this run for him. Too bad he can only GM in Axes, this is his downfall. Will never play a Vagrant PC again, due to retarded quests ( too many golems and no xp lol). Necro's quests are 10x better.

Protector, may look interesting and good on paper for the untrained eye. But I'm certain he is average and not much fun to play. Mental Equilibrium is a solid spell for sure tho in early/mid game, wish it was available to my R/C.

Bersker, lower damage compared to a RB, not a good tank compared to a B/M or R/C. Would take a Barbarian with Grandmastery over him.

 

As you can see, not much to work with.

 

The other thing I thought about was, taking 5 NPC's changed them to whatever my current party is and not use any of their special items. Basically for their quests. I don't like to change NPC's and tag them along only to trigger their quests one by one. This way, you get the quests, you get the banter, you get the soundsets, but essentially they are like Custom/Multiplayer created NPCs.

 

AId ( Cleric Spell ), as AoE after lvl 14 is really cool. Shadow Jailors AID also goes on the Skeleton Lords and Wolves. Drow Ambush Underdark also AID on spiders. Awesome imo, makes the minions a bit tougher. There are numerous other such Clerics that will buff up their minions, these were just two examples. I will only use it as prebuff, never during the fight, as I mentioned in earlier posts.

 

There will probably be no modified items this game, except Dwarven Thrower and Rimed Club ( removed dragon scale component ).

 

Has anybody played a Druid protagonist? Or know anybody that played one? Curious, because this run I will try to trigger the Great Auramaster duel which is only available to druids. He will fight my Necro if I successfully manage to trigger the encounter xD. Should be fun, as I never did this quest before and I'm always up for a good pit fight xD

[isleepwithfucking goats]

This run sure is interesting, not only because of the Archer but other things. I probably wouldn't have played a standard game with just him, so I did a few other things.

 

First, I used "exploits". Lol. I drained Elemental Golems of minions starting with Guardian of the Crown in Underdark. Also a few Ghost Spiders here and there. Except Kruin, I fought all the minions at once ( ie: no B/M under PFWM alone ).

Kruins battle: I did the leave area trick, this was awkward I gotta say, leaving the area and coming back with the B/M under PFMW, will probably not do it again. Doing this for the first time, it was a "challenge" but felt awkward nevertheless.

Alhoon: killed Alhoon with Fighters in 4+1 rounds as usual, while Necro was busy with the Greater Elemental in a different room and waiting for all his minions to appear. After that, baited all minions to my party, while Necro kept the Elemental busy for a little while more until I finished the minions. This made the battle more difficult and more interesting.

Guarded Compound Elemental: drained too, not so easy due to Ambers. Tough fight nevertheless this way.

Carston WK Level Elementals: drained too, not too hard as there is lot of room to maneuver and had lots of summons available.

Auriel Ultra & Elemental: Mazed Auriel, killed the Ultra Golem before his 2nd Purge Magic landed. Only one Amber gated. Then worked on the minions from Elementals. Not too hard at this point.

 

 

 

Did the Great Auramaster duel. He dies in the first round from one Dragons Breath. Reloaded, let him cast a few spells. No go this way, can't let him go nuts with his Aura and Creeping Dooms. Didn't have Alacrity on Necro at that point ( shortly after Underdark exit ). Killed him with two Triggers in 2 rounds. Major let down fight.Obviously designed vs. an Auramaster. However if I had Alacrity on Necro, I'm sure I could have toyed around with him for several rounds more and the battle may have been more interesting.

 

Did the Dracco Ferrus Dragon. Druid quest. Basically a Golem Dragon, gates in Gem Golems, takes quite a few rounds to bring him down. Does not use PFMW IIRC. I wish all Dragons were as resilient as this one. I like the design of the Dragon, but the minions are a let down ( Gem Golems lol ). Supposedly you meet the Grand Druid after this Dragon, but I think the quest is unfinished in v6.

 

Did all the Vagrant quests up to saving Auriel. Haven't done these since v5. They were interesting so far.

Illusionists Phantasm Killer in the Sewers, asked me to disbelieve him. Which I did, and it worked since my Necro had high intelligence. I have no clue how that fight panned in my v5 runs. It's been so long

 

Before Hell, I have Twisted Rune, Orcus, Supreme Leader and the rest of WK, Necros Lavok-Post-Mortem quest. I'm LVL 25 Mage, probably about 2 Levels above normal here. Will probably be LVL 26-27 at Orcus. So even though I drained Elementals and did the Vagrant/Druid/Jaheira/The Four quests, I'm still 4-5 Levels behind Saros. I lol.

 

Gold seems to be more abundant this game due to the draining of Elementals. However I also have the Archer who did not require much upgraded items. Being 2-3 levels above normal, also helped with Rakshasas in Elven City and in the Necro Quest ( not being dispelled, my remove magic actually working ).

 

 

The Archer: Balanced him well I'd say. He definitely does less damage vs. most, compared to the B/M or RB. Advantages: Does not need much PFME, Hardiness ( except vs Assassins. In the Grandfather of Rune Assassins fight he was mostly running away lol ). Basically does not need much buffs, Thac0 is excellent. Has +4 Arrows in Chapters 2/3 ( useful vs. Kangaxx, made the fighter a tad easier due to having two +4 weapons, the other being Phosphorus on the RB of course ). Good HP. Wields Gesen Bow after Underdark ( 10% for 20 Electrical Damage, balanced/nerfed piercing damage a little ). Would be better balanced if he had Tansherons Bow +3 before Underdark, this way I could have made use of those +4 Piercing Arrows after Underdark. This will do however . The Archer is also a little calculator, albeit a little bit broken . For example all mages/liches die in 4+1 rounds normally if you count the rounds. The Archer can be the caculator, however it's not advised to rush the lich/mage after the first Arrow hits, because it may not be enough to finish the mage in whatever seconds are left in that round. So once the Arrow hits simply wait another round to finish the lich/mage off. So 5+1 rounds. Anyway, this may be useful for those who don't count rounds ( not that it's hard to count to 4, but I can see it being a bit more relaxing when dealing with lich/mages ). Overall a nice character for a change.

 

 

 

SS after Auriel Golem fight.

[kvote]

Isleep, will you consider making your tweaks available? sounds quite interesting (if only allowing all IA strongholds and making some orphan classes competitive) to try.

[isleepwithfucking goats]

Isleep, will you consider making your tweaks available? sounds quite interesting (if only allowing all IA strongholds and making some orphan classes competitive) to try.

 

Unfortunately I wouldn't know how to compile them to make it as simple as just installing the mod.

 

What classes were you interested in particularly? I only made the Archer viable so far. Palandins/Barbarians should only need Grandmastery to be competitive with other Fighters ( that's easily done in Shadowkeeper when you start your game ).

 

As for doing the Vagrant quests as a Necro, I could post some instructions how to do it. You would only need the Near Infinity tool and about 20 mins at most. I haven't done all of them, as I haven't progressed that far.

 

Basically you can modify the stuff while you play/progress with your game, you don't need to do all of them at once.

 

 

 

Did the Orcus fight at LVL 25 Mage ( before Supreme Leader and the rest of WK ). Here another RB would have helped quite a lot. Basically the Vampires started spawning before I finished off the initial Grandlords. The Archer was not very viable in this fight with his piercing damage, but that's perfectly fine. He does very well vs. Coins and bigger Golems. This game I had no save to silence, so the Sorcerer just stood idle almost the whole fight. What the fuck is that? Orcus, again, threw Grave Silences (AOE), so everybody except Necro was silenced. Haven't seen any single target Silences as Saros mentioned ( maybe he throws those when Necro is not present, or at much higher party levels xD )

 

 

 

I'd consider making the Monk viable for my next run, if somebody could tell me how to remove his immunity to haste.

[kreso]

I'd consider making the Monk viable for my next run, if somebody could tell me how to remove his immunity to haste.

This is rather easy to do. Either use NI to edit his clab file (clabmo01 I think), search for level 5 abilities and remove the one which gives haste immunity.

Or, create your monk, save, edit via Shadowkeeper, remove the stuff you don't need.

I can't check now (I have Kit Revisions installed) for what exactly you should remove but it shouldn't be too hard.

Also, make sure you change those boots of speed to be usable by them as well.

[isleepwithfucking goats]

I'd consider making the Monk viable for my next run, if somebody could tell me how to remove his immunity to haste.

This is rather easy to do. Either use NI to edit his clab file (clabmo01 I think), search for level 5 abilities and remove the one which gives haste immunity.

Or, create your monk, save, edit via Shadowkeeper, remove the stuff you don't need.

I can't check now (I have Kit Revisions installed) for what exactly you should remove but it shouldn't be too hard.

Also, make sure you change those boots of speed to be usable by them as well.

 

Good thinking Batman. That was easy. Thanks.

[kvote]

@isleep: for classes, I was thinking about archer and thought (wrongly) you also had modified paladins/barbarians. I would gladly like to know how to make vagrant quest available to Necro .

[isleepwithfucking goats]

@isleep: for classes, I was thinking about archer and thought (wrongly) you also had modified paladins/barbarians. I would gladly like to know how to make vagrant quest available to Necro .

 

 

Go to Umar Hills, rest outside of your cabin for several days (a week?). Delon will appear and tell you of some "shimmering light". Rest until you talk to him two more times. Now go to the right of Valygar's cabin, you will find a ranger and a little girl. Talk to them, they will be taken by MNORH. Go to the village (mayor's house), rest outside of it a couple more days. Chief Inspector Auriel will come and give you tasks to accomplish. First task is to defeat an Enchanter in the Druid Grove (just above the Troll Mound) - don't kill his dominated Paladin and Ranger slaves, or you'll lose tons of reputation! Second task is to kill an Illusionist in the Temple sewers, level 1, SouthEastern angle (down-right). Here the battle is substantially harder, you will need NPP and probably PC won't be able to join the gang attack vs the Illusionist, but you'll make it. Next go to Umar Hills and rest again outside your cabin for a couple of more days. Delon will talk to you again. Now go to the Umar cave. Prepare to battle a Mithril Golem inside (only with a different name, Greater Doppleganger, same guy though). Report to Auriel with the proof taken from his body. Now go to MNORH, Keldorn's quarters (there is the Ranger under custody), and talk to the Paladin guard to get the quest xp and reward.

 

Here you will get one half of a note. To get the other half, you need to defeat the Rune Assassins' Guildmaster inside FIrkraag's lair, which is the first Extended Paladin Stronghold task (lady Vanya). This task will be unavailable to you if PC is evil or party reputation is below 20.

 

The note says to check a table in the sewers below the Copper Coronet. Only when you have assembled the two halves of the note, you can find a second note on this table, which says it pretty clear where to look for the Grandfather of the Rune Assassins. Prepare well, for this fight is maybe a bit harder than the one inside FIrkraag's lair (much more Master Assassins).

 

Now I'm not so sure if the Good, the Bad and the Ugly quest can be triggered prior to defeating the Grandfather of the Rune Assassins or without the Ruby of the Gods. Probably not. In short, enter the Ranger Cabin, you will find a Swanmay here asking for your help. For this quest you need to sacrifice a powerful artifact (give away something useless, like the Holy Avenger or the Green Wyrm Plate). The Diviner's location is in the Five Flaggons inn, 2nd floor. The thief for which Auriel tells you outside of the inn is inside Mekrath's laboratory (take the central stair up to find him). He will give you a wardstone (Ugly Stone). Now use the other staircase in Mekrath's lab (the one that's unfinished in the vanilla game). You will find the diviner here who says you will have to fight to save Auriel (she's been lured to the Umar Hills). She's just to the left of Umar's cave. The area is completely closed until you complete the quest, keep that into consideration. You will have to fight an Ultra Golem and 3 Elemental Golems.

 

Thing is, if Auriel dies, you die as well. Tricky, huh? Sikret's not-so-very bright or fair idea was to force you to babysit yet another like your PC. Moreover, you have no control over her. Also, at a certain point (if you manage to kill the Ultra golem, who's the most dangerous of them all, plan for his Purge Magic, that's it) all other golems (including minor summoned ones) will gang on Auriel (fair, yeah, like hell), and even if you spam Heal like crazy, it still won't be enough in most cases.

 

So my advice to ease this otherwise extremely hard (no-reload wise) fight is: use Maze on Auriel, this will effectively remove her from the battlefield for a turn, then kill first the Ultra, then focus on the Elemental golems, watch out for Auriel's re-appearance (use second Maze), since all golems (even if you led them on the other side of the map) will rush towards her location.

 

Travel back to Mekrath's lab, you will find the quest item (some gemstone of the swanmays) here + some nice magical scrolls.

 

The reward from this quest is a decent +4 axe for the Vagrant + 125k gold.

 

To trigger the last of the quest series, you need to have the Ruby of the Gods.

 

Go to the Tree of Life in Suldanesselar with the Ugly Stone in your backpack. Take the only one other stair. You will meet a Swanmay that will give you a mirror. You will also lose the Ruby here.

 

The door the mirror opens is just above the Priest's house in Suldanesselar.

 

I don't advise taking this quest. The reward is small, and the fights are very, very tough. No-reload wise it's not a sound thing to do. Anyway.

 

In this building you'll talk to a ranger-ghost. Long, sad story about the elven race (who cares about them, I'd say let them all die). Problem is, when you enter, your swanmays are cursed. Now each time you summon one, a hostile Elemental golem (no xp) will appear next to it.

 

First - back to the tree. Some magical nuts in a container. Back to the other stairs on the tree. Talk to a squirrel (easy to miss). Give nuts. Travel to Athkatla, Bridge district, Mrs Cragmoon. Buy a special oil from her for 1000 gp.

 

Go back to the Tree of life. Prepare for combat.

 

Many Mirrored Snakes. You'll be meeting Mirrored opponents from now on a lot. Those have undispellable Mirror Image, and are extremely tough. Weakening them is possible with a Swanmay, but they're still formidable. Kill all snakes (no xp, in the end one drops the Ruby).

 

Back to the Ranger-ghost's house. There is a broken mirror on the wall. Use the ruby to fix it:

 

First is a mirrored Skeleton Grandlord. Second is a mirrored Windmaster. Third is a mirrored Whisper spider. OK I may've mixed up the order here a bit.

 

Mirror repaired, you can go for the keys. All fights extremely unpleasant.

 

The Wooden key location: Drowned Soul + a lot of spiders. This fight is only easy to do if you have Cernd spamming Creeping Dooms on the Drowned Soul under Alacrity, otherwise it's borderline insane.

 

Fighting the anti-ranger one on one - for this fight (on Insane) you have to waste a good amount of Barbarian essence potions.

 

Third fight I didn't do, and supposedly there is one last finishing fight of this quest.

 

This is Saros posts on how the quests pan out. What you take from his post, is the areas, basically where the quests trigger.

 

Use this link to match areas with Area Codes: http://gemrb.org/ies...sts/bg2aref.htm

 

Ex: AR1100 = Umar Hills

 

Open Near Infinity: Search -> Text Search -> BCS -> type the area ( for ex: AR1100), results will show the AR1100 BCS file. The BCS file has all the triggers and scripts for specific areas.

 

 

Click on any of those 1100BCS results. This will pull up the AR1100 BCS file.

 

Then you look for vagrant specific triggers. Usually you will recognize them if you did the Vagrant quests before, otherwise it may be a bit harder.

 

First Vagrant specific trigger in the Umar Hills area, as you can see from the screenshot is the Messenger of Light ( that gives you potions every week ).

 

The scripts work like this: "IF this is true THEN this will happen".

 

Normally it would be "RANGER_ALL". You basically change "RANGER" to "MAGE". So it will be "MAGE_ALL". You do this for several areas, where the Vagrant quests trigger. You do not need to do this to get randomized items from various encounters, ex: Ancient Dragon will also have an "IF" RANGER_ALL, but that's to drop specific items. You don't need to do this. Only try to spawn the Vagrant specific creatures/quests in their specific areas.

 

Mine is already edited, see SS below:

 

 

Another example, further down in the AR1100 BCS:

 

 

Every creature that starts with "S!xxxx" is a IA creature. So you can easily recognize them.

 

Areas that need to be modified on top of my head:

 

Umar Hills, Umar Hills Ranger Cabin: AR1100 and AR1107 ( don't confuse Merellas Cabin, with Ranger-Protector Cabin, they are the same house but use different area codes ).

Change all RANGER_ALL to MAGE_ALL ( assumming you have a mage protagonist ). You do this wherever you need to spawn a vagrant quest specific creature ( ex. Auriel, Delon, Roshan, Enchanter etc. )

 

Five Flaggons Inn 2nd Floor: Diviner

Same as above, except you may also need to remove the Vagrant variable ( simply delete that line ). It's looks like this: Global("Iamvagrant","GLOBAL",1) . That needs to be removed often in these areas if you see it. Check for this varible also in Umar Hills and Ranger-Protector Cabin, it might be there as well. Also in the locations below.

 

Druid Grove: Enchanter

Same as above, also check for the "iamvagrant" variable.

 

Temple Sewers: Illusionist

Same as above.

 

Bridge District: Ugly Thief ( his script is located in the Bridge District BCS, even thou you enter from Mekraths Lab in the Temple Sewers, you end up in the Bridge District. That's where Malbar spawns.

Same as above.

 

Mekraths Lab: Take secret stairway with Ugly Stone. This is the room where the Diviner is located the 2nd time you meet him. ARIA18 is this room called. ARIA18 BCS needs to modified to get the wetland relic, scrolls, potions after you save Auriel.

Same as above.

 

Umar Cave: Elite Doppelganger

Same as above.

 

Small Theeth Pass: Granfather of Assassins

Same as above

 

Radiant Heart: Roshan/ Half of the Note

Same as above

 

Copper Corronet Sewers: Table near Quallo, Reveals Granfathers Location note, when you have acquired both Half of the Notes ( I believe ).

Same as above.

 

Possibly Firkaags Lair: Rune Assassins Battle. Half of the Note.

Same as above.

 

TRANIA20 and TRANIA21 or Mekrtahs Lab areas:

Ugly Stone given to you by Malbar might disappear, check these three area scripts and remove any lines which say "IF ugly stone, then destroy item ugly stone". Alternatively you can go close to the Staircase, pause, CLUA the stone, then quickly click on the Staircase. This will teleport you to the Diviners secret room. This might work, I can't remember.

 

 

 

 

When you edit a BCS file. After you are done editing, click "Compile". Then "Save".

 

 

 

 

The Archer is the same. I'll try to upload the Call Shot files for you. He can Grandmastery from the start. Best to take Long Bow ( Fighter Stronghold has an excellent Long Bow ).

 

It's the main Called Shot Spell File, and 4 EFF files, which Called Shot uses.

 

Arrows only need to be modified from Missle to Piercing. You can bring Enchantment to +2 for Fire/Acid/Cold/Biting arrows, also change them to piercing. So you have something for early game.

 

Arrows of Piercing +4 is what you would use most of the game, until you get Gesen Bow. Remove the "Save vs. Death Damage" from these, and lower their damage to 0D6 +4 ( not sure what regular is, might be 1D6 ). Also don't forget to change Missile to Piercing Damage.

 

 

You can also look for the Arrows of Piercing in shops, and modifiy their quantity. Also change their price to something very low, like 3-5 GP ( actual price due to conversion or something will be higher I believe, also you will use up several thousand arrows by the time you return from Underdark ). See SS below how to search for the shops that carry those Arrows. "Find Reference to this File". Check the ***.sto results.

 

 

Remember Enchantment of Bows, don't really matter as far as I know. Only the Arrows. So you can have a +3 Bow, equipped with +4 Arrows and you will hit Kangaxx.

[isleepwithfucking goats]

Here are the Called Shot files.

 

Extract all to Override Folder. ARCHXXX are the EFF files that the spell uses. Test to make sure everything works correctly.

 

http://www.sendspace.com/filegroup/5CaWUF7VH6sZPYtOzABLBiF1d%2B0TinX9gK9gEGyh23a9jk87qCG7gA

 

Nothing should be lowered more than 5%. Thac0 was further nerfed, should only lower it to like -3 at most I believe. Check to make sure.

 

I can upload 'AID AOE" and "Warcry" as well, if anybody wants it. But it's easy to convert Invoke Courage. Should not be picked more than once imo and 1 character only. Invoke Courage is pretty strong if stacked in some situations.

 

 

 

 

Almost finished all of the Vagrant quests. Swanmay is needed on Necro for the last 3 fights. 1 basic Swanmay is enough tho.

 

Mirrored Vipers: Mass Creeping Doom, otherwise no chance. Didn't use Swanmay here.

 

Mirrored Grandlord: Easy, no Swanmay needed.

 

Mirrored Windmaster: Swanmay needed, as he has 100% resistances to everything.

 

Mirrored Whisper Spider: No Swanmay needed, is vulnerable to Slashing and Piercing. Very easy.

 

Mirrored Elemental Golem: Can't remember, but should have a Swanmay on Necro picked starting with Windmaster.

 

Anti-Ranger: 1v1 vs. my Necro. Necro won xD. One swanmay was used and she survived to the end. Took a few tries to apply the proper strat. I had completely forgot these encounters, even tho they don't give XP, it was refreshing for a change.

 

Drowned Soul: Coming next.

[Saros]

@isleepwithfucking goats

 

Your party consists of 6 members, which is why your levels are way lower than mine. Moreover, you missed some good xp caches like delivering Yoshi's heart twice to different Temples of Ilmater for 400 000 xp. On the other hand, you did eliminate the guardians from "the Four" mod which I don't have installed. So it's basically the 5-person party that gives me the additional +3-4 levels. That's the price you pay for playing with fun, non-essential characters like the archer.

 

You could implement a sufficient amount of Arrows of Detonation in different stores. Those will be very effective vs Rune Assassins for example. That said, you could also modify the existing arrows of Ice and Acid to actually cast a powerful cold/acid spell on impact (20 lvl Cone of Cold, 20 lvl Melf's Acid Arrow).