My Playthrough / Questions

[faure]

I'm going to play SCS2 with nearly all components installed in their most difficult variant. The exceptions are that I'm not doing the shadow thief price increases, and on the toughest spawns I did "almost max" so I don't see liches right away.

 

My party will be:

 

evil halforc F/T

viconia

korgan-->sarevok

edwin

haer'dalis

yoshimo-->imoen

 

I have rogue rebalancing, wheels of prophecy, dungeon-be-gone, and a bunch of tweak pack components installed.

 

the reason I'm making this thread is because hopefully it will motivate me to actually complete this playthrough. I've never completed a playthrough with scs2 before but on previous versions I started solo runs and got bored with them. Trying to use a party this time and trying not to be cheesy in my tactics.

 

I hope to use this thread to update my progress, give thoughts on difficulty etc., and post questions.

[faure]

I have had a bug: game crashes with "assertion failed in ChVidimage.cpp at line number 1910 when fighting in the southern tunnels beneath graveyard for Korgan's quest (I think a vampire caused crash)

[faure]

Hmm, another strange bug. When exiting graveyard district I encounter Suna Seni party. I start fighting them and I'm clearly going to lose and have to try again. But when Korgan, Viconia, and Yoshimo had all died (leaving my PC only alive), the screen changed to the graveyard district and my PC stayed alive, but I could not see him anywhere or select him or anything like that (as if he was not in the district). It didn't happen again though after reloading, which I've done a lot because...

 

 

...I cannot beat Suna Seni party. Yoshimo is useless even when he enterers the fight hidden in shadows... as soon as he becomes visible he's dead in one or two hits. Viconia can get off one spell before she is killed also. My PC and Korgan are less frail but once the enemies focus on one of them they are dead in a couple rounds.

 

I guess a conceivable path to victory is to immediately charm someone in the party using ring of human influence, and have Viconia use her one spell to cast hold person and get completely lucky to hold as much of the party as possible. But I hate that sort of based on luck strategy, so maybe I will start over again and retool my party as I think that Viconia and Yoshimo are going to be pretty much too frail to be useful (also worried about Haer'Dalis though I don't have him yet). Maybe I'll start over again using Level1NPCs to change them into less delicate classes or something.... unless anyone has major tips on winning the fight with my current party?

[lynx]

get a mage if you don't have one and then you can use the awesome wands from the chateau.

[faure]

Well I couldn't leave the graveyard withotu encountering her party so I couldn't get a mage.

 

In any case I've retooled with a new party so its less frusterating:

 

Blade PC

Fighter/Cleric Viconia

Sorcerer Imoen

Berserker Korgan

Conjurer Edwin

Swashbuckler Jan

 

Although Jan and I are already having difficulty freeing Viconia! It would be easy if I pre-buffed somewhere (don't have magic license yet) but that's cheesy, plus I have the component installed that makes most indoor areas spawn cowled enforcers. Even with four traps layed down by Jan I can't win this normally easy fight haha. Maybe I'll go get Korgan to help free Viconia...

[faure]

Ok, got Viconia free thanks to horror bhaalpower.

 

BUG: Staff of curing does not cure disease from mummy (it says in its description it cures disease).

 

This party is so much more strong already with PC/Jan/Viconia/Korgan.

[faure]

Completed Korgan's quest, no problems there.

 

Next up did Mae'var so I could get Edwin. Easy fights all around... Reyic Gethras was silenced which made that fight trivial. Against all the thieves and assassins in the Mae'var guildhall Jan's detect illusions made all the fights easy.

[DavidW]

I don't think the "staff of curing" bug is anything to do with SCS.

[faure]

In typical fashion for me, I always end up switching around parties too much.

 

To that end, I've decided to try solo and see how that goes. Party management gives me a headache.

 

So I'm using a solo R/C on insane.

 

I will note all oddities/bugs I notice, but certainly some of them won't have anything to do with SCS2. If you want futher info about any of them or to see my weidu log or whatever let me know.

 

First update:

 

General: New AI is much, much, much smarter than in vanilla or in other mods I've played. Mages in particular are way more tough, and I like how enemy rogues actually fight like enemy rogues instead of just hacking at you as if they were fighters.

 

1. Circus: Easy fights, but possible BUG: Kalah shot one of his shadows with a magic missle?

 

2. Hendak: Beastmaster falls to glyphs of warding + charm his grizzly bear and Tabitha (the beastmaster himself killed "his loyal tabitha")

 

Next I cleared out some of the Graveyard, did those quests (stuffed bear, mourning paladin, start of buried alive). At this point I've gotten enough XP for ironskins, thus making me way more durable.

 

3. Suna Seni: Entangle, nymphs, kithix, holy smite.

 

...give money to Gaelen for XP + amulet of power...

 

4. Mae'Var: holy smite, insect plague, melee. I like how Mae'Var uses spells etc., and the change to insect plague makes this fight better so that Mae'var himself isn't just neutralized by insect plague.

 

...buy Sleeper mace so I have a +2 magical weapon...

 

5. Slavers Ship: Easy fights, but BUG: I entered via the sewer under effect of sanctuary. Once I broke the sanctuary to cast holy smite, Captain Haegen gave his usual speech and then stood right next to me, hostile but not attacking, for the duration of the battle. I hit him with spells and melee, and kithix attacked him too, and he just stood there until he died.

 

...buy DoE. Now 35% resistant to slashing/piercing/crushingwith armor of faith...

 

6. Harpers/Xzar: Easy fights, nothing of note.

[mikel123]

Captain Haegen gave his usual speech and then stood right next to me, hostile but not attacking, for the duration of the battle. I hit him with spells and melee, and kithix attacked him too, and he just stood there until he died.

 

This happened for me too, but I don't use Sanctuary. My party at the time was a Barbarian, an Assassin/Fighter multi, and two Barbarian(9)->Mage duals.

[faure]

Going though D'Arnise keep now with my solo (R/C)... Clearing the keep was easy but I think I might have to come back for the Tor'gal fight... the yuan-ti mages and the spirit troll flamestrikes make pretty quick work of me even if I can make the mages waste some spells on a fire elemental first.

 

So far in general in SCS2 I've noticed that non-casters have not been much more difficult (probably due to the mod's admirable philosophy of not arbitrarily giving creatures ridiculous immunities and resistences) but casters are always a big issue. If I end up having to abandon the R/C at some point in the future I'm sure it will be because of casters

[faure]

rkarej;hlkaeja

 

arg I forgot that I had installed G3 Tweak Component "Max HP on level up" which is a massive cheat... Must uninstall and restart game.

 

I also think that I will go back to a party. Solo is just so weird... makes basically every fight easy except vs casters which become extra difficult. I'm thinking:

 

undead hunter pc

berserker korgan-->sarevok

barbarian minsc

archer nalia--->imoen

sorcerer jaheira

mage/cleric aerie

[faure]

This party is very powerful... noteworthy fights so far:

 

Orog/Slaver Bandits: Surprisingly tough if I didn't metagame and showed up only with long term buffs.

 

Ihtafeer: Fun fight... zone of sweet air, breach, and true sight were the winners here!

[faure]

D'Arnise Keep cleared... Tor'gal, Umber Hulk elders, giant trolls, spirit trolls, etc. were all no problem... thanks to SCS2 intelligent AI the yuan ti mages are by far the most dangerous foe. I'm extremely impressed so far with the caster AI, and even more so thanks to the fact that they don't all behave the same.

 

BUG: Faldorn just stood there and let Jaheira kill her. I suspect this might not be SCS2 related, because I used level1NPCs to turn Jaheira into a sorcerer so the whole fight was kinda odd anyways.

 

Next up I think I'll do Aran's quests, go far enough into Bodhi's lair to get the MoD, then go take care of the umar hills. Minsc with rage and mace of disruption, undead hunter with azure edge, korgan with rage and flame tongue.... undead will fall like flies and I'll have three tanks immune to level drain, charm, and hold.

[Reverendratbastard]

BUG: Staff of curing does not cure disease from mummy (it says in its description it cures disease).

 

no longer have my pnp gear, but iirc mummy rot was some sort of 'curse that behaves like a disease' and which required a minimum priest level for proper removal, or paladin's original curing ability. i know that doesn't necessarily translate to the engine or any particular mods, but it might be why that is not working for you (if anyone).