Version 24(BETA) of Sword Coast Stratagems released

[ancalimohtar]

Dragons on the other hand will wreck you... until your buffs are undispellable and you're immune to fire. This may really be a balance issue SR and IR need to address, but I had to cheese the Shadow Dragon with Lower Resistance, Malison, and Feeblemind, while by the time I got to Firkraag I soloed him without taking any damage.

May I ask what do you mean by that? Which is the balance issue (SCS dragons are too powerful? Thank god if they are!) and how's that related to IR or SR?

 

Well, for one, you've posted that the planned SR v4 will get rid of SI, which is currently the lynchpin that makes a Fighter/Mage basically unkillable until enemies can unload tons of antimagic spells. (Speaking of which, currently SI:Abj prevents Dispel/Remove, which is the best reason to cast SI:Abj as a player; but enemies cast SI:Abj to block players' Breach. SR v4's Spell Shield will therefore block both Breach and Dispel/Remove? Will Breach/Dispel Magic remove the new Spell Shield, or will only antimagic attacks--like Secret Word/RRR remove it?)

 

Secondly, the Dragon set is very cool, useful, unique, thematically excellent, just all-around great; but it makes a F-M unstoppable against dragons. My F/M was buffed past 100% FR, then with the helm, sword, and shield (despite normally being a dual-wielder), plus stoneskin/MI, improved haste, some standard AC/thac0/saves buffs, all capped off with a simple SI:Abj, and he just stood there and did 30 damage to Firkraag probably 5-6 times a round. Sorcerer stood a bit away casting Pierce Magic/Secret Word/Breach.

 

I'm not saying SR/IR made dragons too easy for high level F/Ms--I'm saying fixing the discontinuity in the difficulty curve should probably be done by IR/SR rather than SCS. For people playing without a F/M, or people not optimizing heavily, SCS does its job right.

 

@ancalimohtar

I have deep undying hate for fighter/mage multiclasses .

Thax'llsyllia is dangerous for his chunk-level drain, and Firkraag does the same with fire.

Note, I did buff their HP to 500% of the original in SCS install.

I don't think I'll be fighting them without HLA's (Alacrity, most important).

Can't see how IR or SR makes them any easier/harder to defeat. There are some neat new items like Dragon Scale shield which is of great use vs dragons, but otherwise no item will grant protection from fire more than vanilla, for example.

SR introduces "Know Oponnent" which is exellent against everyone, but I'd hardly consider it OP. Magic Missiles/Lightning Bolt/ADHW is what I mostly use for dragons, and these are very alike vanilla spells.

 

Yeah I think I chose 300% for dragons' HP, which is a big deal if you're running your party around trying to cast spells and sneak in a couple hits before the next wing buffet, but if you're sitting on the dragon's tonenails impervious to his special attacks and wailing on him 6 times a round with the Dragonslayer longsword, the dragon's HP only matters if you run out of stoneskins or SI:Abj. I don't think I would have lost a hitpoint against Firkraag if I buffed him to 1000% HP, honestly.

[April]

That's more an inherent flaw in AD&D. The fact that no matter how powerful (or weak) an attack is, stone skin nullifies it at a ratio of 1 attack = 1 skin. If stone skin was more like 3rd ed then the dragons 30 hp punches would still be felt even when fully buffed.

[kreso]

He's got AC of -11, and you can hit him consistently with a multiclassed fighter before he removes 4 or 5 instances of Stoneskin?

[ancalimohtar]

He's got AC of -11, and you can hit him consistently with a multiclassed fighter before he removes 4 or 5 instances of Stoneskin?

 

This isn't from the Firkraag fight; this is from a Lich fight, so the Prot Fire etc is missing. Also, not casting Tenser's only drops THAC0 to -4.

 

-6 - (-11) = 5, I hit Firkraag 75% of the time.

[kreso]

Some character you've got there .

[ancalimohtar]

Some character you've got there .

 

It's really not the character, it's really SR making every spell useful--it means previously useless spells like Shield and Barksin all add to my AC, for example.

[Wisp]

Smarter Mages and possibly other components will not install on Linux because SSL sometimes creates files with names containing upper-case letters (e.g., stratagems_external/workspace/ssl_out/DW#KRUIN.baf).

[kreso]

I mentioned that Blade Barrier doesn't show it's animation on enemies. Same seems to be true for all Fireshield-like spells (at least with SR is installed). An exeption are guardians of the mask in Firkraag's lair, and similar efreet enemies.

"Smarter Vampires" breaks Tanova. If it isn't installed, Tanova behaves as intended.

Also, mages seem to love casting Imprisonment on PC, even tough readme states otherwise.

Summoned Demons (Glabrezu) seem to be attacking their summoner, even if the AI summoned them (SR install)

[kreso]

The issue with "not showing animations" seems to exist only if the spell was cast as a part of pre-buff. If any enemy casts Fireshield:Red or similar via sequancer, it shows animation. If it was ("cast previously") animation is hidden, even if spell actually works.

The mage in Guarded Compound (Sion) cast a Wish (for inhuman speed for allies). All of my party was granted imp.haste.

"Upgrade Ust Natha" doesn't seem to make any changes, at least not if I want to go back there after visiting Suldanesselar.

[kreso]

Some more bugs:

Even if I installed "Imp.Bodhi" I got vanilla, not "Tactics" version I wanted.

Mages with Gromnir don't bother checking out if Gromnir (who sees invisible) is fighting or not, and can be ignored completely.

CTDs in Centeol's Lair, Crooked Crane Inn, Githyanki Lair. Restoring the areas from backup fixes those. Also CTD when a mage or cleric casts a Necromancy summon (this may be, or not, an issue with SR's Create Undead).

One of the "mage" statues in level 1 WK doesn't seem fo activate corrrectly (I went there early, and not all statues spawned). If party AI is on, they attacked him even if he had no selection circle, and was immune to damage. He was constantly casting "shield" spell onto himself. I could go down to level 2, and as I went through the portal his script kicked in firing his buffs. Weird.

Afaik he shouldn't have even been there (the female statue and 2 clerics were not).

 

Some gameplay feedback:

I'd like to see more Imp.Mantle/Mantle over PFMW, since those targets are easy pickings for non-enchanted arrows/weapons.

Minor sequencers with invisibility/mirror image are predominant in BG1...up to the point of frustration if you don't have an Inquisitor/Helm Priest/thief with detect illusions. Would like to see less of those and more stuff like 2xmagic missile/acid arrow and similar.

I was very surprised when a Lich summoned a Boneguard from Refinements!

Glabrezu demons are awful with their almost permanent images.

Irenicus in Hell was quite easy for some reason (levels I guess), and I miss that Tactics relic.

[InKal]

Tanova's script is broken, she stands idle (an is very hard to kill for some reason).

In Spellhold cutscene, those thieves Irenicus kills with "Rapture of the father" get potions (not that it breaks anything, just immersion).

Also, AI seems quite improved and I'm surprised by the difficulty level of some BG2 encounters. First ambush on streets can be very hard, especially if you don't buff with invisibility.

Fighter types seem to hit quite more often.

Shadow thieves headquarters (not modified by RR, just SCS) are full of mages casting Finger of Death and similar stuff.

Vampires aren't very hard, but are annoyingly difficult to kill. I didn't like those.

Of Dragons, I've only had several tries with Shadow Dragon, which is nigh impossible to kill by any non-cheese way prior to levels 11-12 or even above, so I left him be for the time being.

This mod is (imo, but I'm sure very few would agree with me) harder than Anvil, if for nothing than for the fact that AI is "AI", not programmed scripts.

 

heh, there's no such thing like AI, only programmed scripts. all of it.

SCS is better than Anvil in the sense that ..hmm.."wrong" playing style will not break the AI scripts. In SCS there's no "wrong" playing style. In IA there's is oh, so plenty of wrong, baaad playing style ;] no chicken run, only step by step controlled retreat, etc. etc.

ah, you mean "AI"? OK then :]

in IA, for exemple, cowled enforcers will refresh all their spells to prevent cheating them via hit and run tactics, which is quite impressive. no AI, yep, programmed scripts, I think I see your point.

 

but I'm thinking in my head and "translating" my toughts: intelligence is always the same, adjective/atribute "artificial" is all about intelligent subject, not about intelligence itself, which is always the same..."AI" is a thought abbreviation.

 

and sorry but imo IA (v5) > AI

;]]

[kreso]

I'll reply in General Mod Discussion not to get off-topic here.

[ancalimohtar]

I remember in the original game there was a bug where Sime had a dialogue loop after the Saemon betrayal. Not sure what fixpack fixed that, but glad it's fixed. Now I'm wondering if she's supposed to just stand around while 3 vampires ambush me?

 

Sanik stands around and eats 3 crossbow bolts from the assassin before dying. My party just loafs around dumbly because it's a cutscene. Not sure if this was in the original game, or whether a mod gave him more hitpoints, but it'd seem more realistic if the assassin came up and backstabbed him to chunks in one hit.

[kreso]

...or whether a mod gave him more hitpoints...

BG2 Tweaks - maximum hit points for NPCs

[kreso]

Daveorn casts Flesh to Stone. Baaad. Also seems to have 3 or more Sunfires. Took 4 reloads before I nailed him. In addition, and quite unbelievable, he had a ToB-like Superior Healing potion, which I looted from his dead body.

 

He's 11th level (in the vanilla game, and in SCS), and so shouldn't get Flesh to Stone (and doesn't have it on my install). And unless something is seriously wrong, only wizards of level 22+ should get Superior Healing potions in SCS. Any chance you're using some other mod that might have increased his level?

This (healing potion issue) happened several more times, now I'd definitely call this a SCS bug. One thing I've noticed - if he has a Superior Healing Potion, he doesn't drop Stoneskin scroll (shouldn't he?).