Pre-Pre-buffed mages and feedback on Karhk

[Mahatmah]

Good evening all, first sorry for potential english mistakes, it's not my mother tongue.

 

I'm roaming around Baldur again, with the latest version of SCSII installed, and most (90%) of the components including of course, the pre buffed mages for BG1. I'd like to discuss a weird feature of prebuffed mages, and it's effect on some battles.

 

About Pre-pre-buffed mages :

 

This mod is quite challenging and i like it, i cannot count how many times i did see a minor globe popping, ulcaster wolf is great fun, red mages from Thay are awesomely annoying, all in all, i love it. Tho, i love playing thieves and backstabbing is a core part of my gameplay strategy, i love to delete the mage of a group when the fight starts, and with those pre-buffed b*****s that usually come in pairs, i never felt ashamed to do so ! Still i found it impossible to do with some crucial mages in the game, but not all of them, a few examples :

 

- The human mage in the firewine bridge dungeon (forgot his name)

- Hareishan, mage in -2 level of cloakwood mines, Natasha at level -3 and Davaeorn

- Karhk the ogre magi

 

Each time, the target seems protected against any physical damage, but still takes the one frost damage from my Varscona longsword. They are not prebuffed yet at that point, as the fight did not even start. So question :

 

- Is it normal that some mages are immune to backstabs and physical damages before any pre-buff ? (edit : magic damage seems to work, except on Khark, see below) The pre-buffing was supposed to mimick a spell sequencer, but this backstabbing immunity is rude !

 

- If this feature is not a bug, is it normal that only SOME mages have this immunity ? Why not the red mages of Thay then ? Is there a particular criteria ?

 

 

About Karhk the ogre magi :

 

I wanted to provide special feedback for this guy, because i think he is way too big at this point in the game. When he spawns, he has this particular immunity i mentionned PLUS a weird globe providing magic immunity, even before his dialogue and hostility triggers. After that, he pre-buffs with another globe, and other decent spells. So :

 

- Karhk cannot be engaged by a backstab or a spell, as he is immune to everything before turning hostile.

 

- Once engaged, it looks like i can remove his invisibily, and dispell the minor globe, but the initial globe he spawned with remains, and there is nothing to do except waiting (so i decided to wait the end of this weird buff to engage and turn him hostile, otherwise it was simply impossible to beat this guy).

 

- Even with a regular pre-buff, well ... i believe this guy is too big. Alacrity/3 attacks per round you can't dispell from vanilla game, sick save throws from vanilla game PLUS a HUGE prebuff and a ridiculous AC you can't even dream to bypass except on crits (i had a level 6 Shar Teel with 7 THAC0, and other good fighters, and I read in the forum that i was not the only one hitting him with crits only, I found almost impossible to believe that he only has 3-4 AC).

 

As a conclusion, i know that Karhk is almost Vanilla, just having pre-buffs, better AI and spellbook. Still, in his actual state he is just way too strong for a level 4-5 party, and he his still VERY hard for a level 7 party like mine. Even with wands, this guy kills the fun. I suggest a little nerf on this particular creature for later versions of SCSII, or maybe, make it part of a separate special component of the mod.

 

 

Thanks for reading, and congratulations on the mod !

 

Mahatmah