Hoverdawg

he was a good man. what a rotten way to die

I, on the other hand, am a very big fan of this component. It's a really nice change of pace.

My bad. (honestly I was surprised he wasn't there)

2 hours ago, ratatosk said:

A separate issue with the 'party's items are taken in Spellhold' component: the readme indicates that Imoen has the 'Enchanted Weapon' spell memorized. However, in my install Imoen doesn't come with that spell. It might be a good idea to have that component add a Enchanted Weapon scroll somewhere early on in the dungeon.

Honestly, since SCS gets rid of the clay golem, Enchanted Weapon isn't all that important anymore.

Gethras or Mekrath weren't ever a problem in my recollection (even before SR was a thing) - they're not high enough level to have those really punishing spells and can be safely defeated quite early into the game.

Tolgerias (spoilers for my BG2 recap, which is on hold due to getting burnt by twisted rune) was a bit easier than when I fought him the last time (a few years ago), although I believe I am playing better now too. He did Imprison one of my characters and gated something, I believe. BTW - one SR/SCS compatibility thing - SCS by default is supposed to prohibit using Imprison on Charname, right? It does not work this way with SR, possibly because Imprison works like a 5 turn Maze that ends in death.

As for AoE spells - true, mages are reluctant to use them (although I have seen Vitriolic Sphere a couple times), but rakshas and efreeties are not.

A very small update:

Fucking twisted rune, man.

Another one of these - Monster Summoning VII has an Animal Summoning scroll icon.

Also, Chaotic Commands has a really annoying sound&visual effect that repeats itself every few seconds.

Are kuo-toan/sahuagin bolts supposed to weight 1lb each? It makes them nearly unusable for most archers (Jansen or Imoen). (is it a IRR thing or a SCS one, though?)

I had a small, curious bug: after the fight with "Bhaal" and arriving in the Spellhold maze, I still had all my items. I'm pretty sure it was caused by my character (and Bhaal) being too far from Imoen, as her dream ending dialogue did not play. Retrying the fight and keeping closer to Immy did the trick - everything proceeded as should.

On 7/1/2020 at 8:18 AM, Endarire said:

@DavidW
Should we still avoid Wheels of Prophecy in this modern age?

I asked this recently and unfortunately the answer is yes.

7 hours ago, DavidW said:

Great, thanks for this. A few specific comments:

- I probably don't want to start down the rabbit-hole of level-dependent scaling. I'm not a great fan of it in a game like BG2, even if I can see the point of it in the situation you're describing. 

- Davaeorn should still be teleporting. Did he not do it in any of your tries? If so, something may be wrong.

- The end-of-chapter-6 battle has been waiting for an upgrade for ages, after I deprecated my first stab at it. To be honest I couldn't think of anything very interesting... but that was years ago. I should come back to it sometime.

- I'm not sure what to do about the chessboard; I'll consider your suggestion. 

- I'm a little torn about the Coronation battle. Liia is a 16th level invoker (and Belt is a 19th level fighter), so of course with sensible spell choices and AI, they way outshine the party. The obvious thing to do would be to lower their levels, particularly, Liia's... but the designers didn't choose those levels (and Liia's specialisation) randomly. They're taken from the AD&D 2nd edition 'Forgotten Realms Adventures' sourcebook entry on Baldur's Gate. It feels like vandalism to erase that!

- Yeah, I'm not a fan of level scaling either. This would be probably the single place where I would use it, just because the level 1->2->3 power jump is so high.

- I don't think he jumped around, but I can't be 100% certain, I did BG1 maybe a month ago, so some small details may have eluded me. 

- Yup, Ch6 battle is by far the least SCS-y encounter.

- Honestly I have no complaints about the coronation. It's nice to be able to sit down and watch others do the dirty work for once.

Quote

I don't think I knew it was dispellable. It's an innate power, isn't it, and from the vanilla game? That sounds like a bug - but maybe I'm missing something.

I don't think it is. At least none of the dispels that did hit him made any effect.

Recently I've installed Baldur's Gate yet again with the ambition to finally finish the trilogy all the way, with SCS installed (I'd always run out of steam in ToB before). I will use this thread to 
I would call myself a decent enough player, although I'm no pro that can no-reload solo the game or anything.

Technical stuff: I'm using EE for ease of use, even though I'm not a big fan of how "enhanced" this version is. Mods-wise, I prefer a lean install, so I'm using Ascension, Item and Spell Revisions Revised (thank you @Bartimaeus for your great work!), Tweak Pack, Unfinished Business and a couple of NPC expansion mods. No quests, no overhauls. Tactical difficulty (so far at least). Bhaalspawn is a Half-Elf Fighter/Mage.

I have finished BG1 and currently am about halfway through BG2. 

Baldur's Gate 1
I used multiple NPCs throughout the game - thanks to the new addition to SCS, I was no longer required to keep the same group for XP's sake. Imoen, Monty, Xzar, Khalid & Jaheira, Xan (switched to Sorcerer), Safana, Tiax (switched to Fighter/Cleric), Viconia and Minsc were all part of the team at some point. The final party included Imoen (dual-classed to Mage at Thief level 5, I believe), Tiax, Viconia, Shar-Teel and Xan.

The very early game is, of course, a crapshoot. Tranzig fight especially, you either manage to hit him and interrupt his spells or you're in for a hard time. But he's still a wizard of not-so-high a level, so there's not that much he can do and goes down fast when the wand of magic missiles is used on him. I wonder if giving him such a wand (with 1 or 2 charges) would make his damage output a bit better.

The Karlat fight in Beregost is surprisingly hard, he's tough and his AC is low enough for lvl1 characters to miss all the time. Marl is a pushover though. I do some stuff here, kill the spiders, grab the ring of protection and move to Nashkel. 

Neira in the Nashkel inn isn't much of a problem, she can hold one or two characters, but it's hard for her to inflict any real damage - but that is a common cleric problem. Now it's wilderness time. None of the encounters there are deadly (Sendai demo version is probably the toughest), but I feel they're fine as they are. I get some levels along the way (~4000XP) and try to tackle Bassilus now, but, even without his skeletons, he still has too many spells. I give up after a few defeats. That's fine, I can wait.

Improved Nashkel mine is easy for level 3 (or multiclass 2) characters, and Mulahey is a pushover. However, I get that this dungeon is hard to balance as many players will enter it while still being at level 1. Would it be possible to add some level-dependent guards to Mulahey himself? Like a couple of skeletons, or kobold guards and a kobold shaman, that would only appear ~4000XP+?

After Nashkel I'm doing a bigger sweep of the wilderness areas. Ogre Berserkers are nothing to trifle with, as their crits can easily one-shot anyone. Mutamin is a tough bastard if you're using spell protection, but with IRR's undispellable Potions of Mirrored Eyes, he's back to being a minor annoyance. Assassin parties are always a treat - challenging (no time for prebuffing!) but doable. I wish there were one or two more. Sirines are ugh - poison and charm is not a fun combo; you have to prepare well or get lucky. I also try to kill Bassilus again - and this time, he goes down. Firewine Bridge is just a pain, the less we talk about it the better (but that's just the dungeon design, ogre mage fight is ok). Ulcaster Wolf is a fine set piece, even though Resist Fear makes it much easier, all the wolves running around still make it dangerous for less armored characters. Icharyd is mean. He packs a punch, resists magic, and when you accidently trigger some kobolds that are standing nearby it's even worse.

I tackle Bandit Camp at level 5 (~20000 XP). God, I love this fight. It won't ever be as mind-blowing as the first time, when you're casually trying to kill a lone bandit and suddenly have the whole fucking army zeroing in at you, but it's still epic. It's not that difficult if you've done your homework: Webs and Fireballs clean up the place nicely.

Cloakwood. The fight against Centeol is nasty - there are enough webbing spiders that every time at least one character got isolated, paralyzed, and killed. Good times. I was nice around druids and skipped fighting with them. The party fight outside the mines was fine. A quick Fireball made the mages less of a threat, and the warriors were susceptible to Horror, but they did deal some damage. None of the enemies inside, however, including the mages and the ogre, posed any sort of challenge. 

Davaeorn was the first really difficult boss fight. At first, I wanted to lure the horrors out, make him spend some energy on summons, bunker down and fight off the reinfocements. However, this tactic proved to be less than ideal, as I couldn't outpace the guard spawn rate. So, after a few tries, I decided to just YOLO bumrush, spread out, and focus fire on the big D. And it worked, someone did get killed, but Davaeorn ultimately fell. He was no longer teleporting around, as he had been doing the last few times I'd played, I suppose that's intentional. Overall, a very satisfying fight.

Baldur's Gate has surprisingly few difficult challenges. The Maulers of Undermountain are a party fight, which is always welcome, even though it's a cakewalk when the third party engages. Degrodel's guardians require . I think I did Red Wizards at this point too. Theywere tougher than they should be, and that's because I had a long-lasting (essentially until the end game) brain fart that made me forget that I can dispel enemy buffs with something other than Breach. Thus, I just brute-forced the encounter. Finally, the Iron Throne fight was great, easier than I expected - I think I had more trouble in my earlier playthroughs - but challenging enough.

Candlekeep is a bit disappointing. I like the Ogre magi surprise attack. No time for prebuffing always makes things much more hectic and dangerous (that's why I kinda like Knights of the Chalice's no-casting-outside-combat system). The rest is... not that great. Rieltar & co are pushovers. Crypts are more of a mood-setter, so I don't mind just slashing through the doppelgangers. The Prat fight does need a major boost, I believe. Right now I had more trouble with the spiders nearby than with these folks. Maybe there should be another goon, or two, to help?

Back to Baldur's Gate. You really shouldn't use AoE during the Slythe & Krystin fight, but other than that, they went down easily. The Coronation is a funny example of unforeseen consequences of mages being smart. Liia Janath could probably wipe the floor herself (note: it might be an exaggeration. I haven't actually tried to make her fight on her own). Now, to the Undercity... wait, there's still some stuff to do!

So, Durlag's Tower. What a magnificent dungeon. There are only three fights of note here, which is fine: the mobs and traps will drain you of resources just enough. So, the Warder fight first. Very tough, but not impossible. Love & Pride are the biggest offenders here. Love got protections up, charmed Shar-Teel easily, while Pride is just a stone wall. I dealt with the other two, somehow managed to not get everyone dead, then took down Love's spells, killed her, and finally (with everyone still going) whittled Pride down. Awesome.

Chessboard can be the most difficult battle in the game, and, honestly, I'm not a big fan of it. There's only one good strategy here: prebuff beforehand (before. or while defeating the last guardian - slime is the best target here), and, after teleportation, immediately unload all the fireball wands you have saved so far (I had like four). If you don't, you just get swarmed, and the knights are quick and hit hard, so even a tough PC (like my F/M) can go down fast. I'm not sure what changes should be applied here, because the whole chessboard theme is not the best fit for a real-time game. At least, without some heavy scripting, which I don't think would be worth spending time on. Perhaps tone down the knights a bit, but make everyone resistant to fire? Napalm strike won't be so necessary then, but at the same time, it won't be as efficient.

Finally, the demon. I prebuffed, charged... it was a very swift battle, one of my mages died, but so did the enemy, easily. It was a bit underwhelming, but, at the same, time, rewarding. Back to Ulgoth's Beard... the ambush is, as all ambushes, a good, challenging fight - mages will die if you won't stoneskin or at least mirror image them asap. I think I got two deaths here. The other cultist fight inside the warehouse is just as interesting, thanks to those fucking enforcers. On the other hand, Aec'Latec was a major disappointment. Maybe it was the Mirror Eyes issue again, maybe something went wrong with the scripts (all the cultists, sans Tracea, did nothing), but it went oh so smoothly. No deaths, no problems, no close calls even.

Back to the Undercity. The Iron Throne investigators - well, they're more of an aperitif, and they might just as well not be there, honestly. But, the Sarevok fight. My god. This fight is just amazing. Epic. One of a kind experience. It has everything. An immortal (for a time) magic-proof killing machine you have to tank (with summons of course, no character can stand up to him). Henchmen fighters for that additional punch. Two mages who just love to dispel your buffs and make your life miserable. Oh, and their skeleton reincarnations. I managed to win this fight on the first try this time, but it took a while and featured lots of kiting, chunks of hobgoblin meat flying around, emergency raise dead, arrows of dispelling and detonation used indiscriminately, potions, wands, and fireballs. Sarevok himself was not that powerful when finally he was the only one enemy standing. This fight is a true piece of art.

another small issue - scrolls of Summon Shadows have a Sunburst? Sunscorch? Flamestrike? Whatsitsname? icon. The same spell has its proper (I think - it's the old fat fiend summon) icon when copied in the spellbook.

23 minutes ago, Splicer_777 said:

Yeah I really wanted an archer. Valygar only gets 2 points in bow proficiency, I have him using that bow that the dwarf blacksmith makes, the bow that shoots limitless lightning arrows...

I wish I could have brought in Corwin from SoD... yeah that game sucks (wish I had skipped it) but I really like the Archer class and wish I could have one in my party.

However I will never have a gnome in my party. I'm racist against gnomes

Btw, is a fighter with a +4 crossbow more effective than in melee with a +2 longsword?

with one of SCS's components you can easily make anyone (like Valygar) into any class, including Archer.

Not sure if posted before:

I rescued Haer'Dalis and he was made the owner of the theatre. Then I removed him from the party for a while, to make place for Valygar for the Planar Sphere quest. After finishing it and re-replacing him with Haer'Dalis, I talked with the playmaker. He mentioned the play being a flop and the stronghold quest ended, even though it hardly ever started. I suppose it's due to kicking HD out of the party, but I can't be sure (no saves before it).

(I don't know if I should post it here or in the IRR thread)

Remove Magic scrolls (bought in a temple) currently have the Dispel Magic icon.

11 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

...The rest of those aren't in order, either. Could you upload your (game folder)\spell_rev\languages\english\arcane.tra file? Also, is this a BG2:EE game?

BG2EE, yes. And the description in arcane.tra seems to be correct (no screen).

34 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Haven't touched their descriptions in a while, that's super weird.

Right from the descriptions file of V1.3.30 per github:

  Reveal hidden contents

@598=~Secret Word

Level: 4

School: Enchantment

Range: Long

Duration: Instant

Casting Time: 1

Area of Effect: 1 creature

Saving Throw: None

When a Secret Word spell is uttered, it will dispel one spell protection of 7th level or lower on the target. This will always dispel the highest level of spell protection on a target first. If a target has two or more protections tied for the highest level, the choice will be random. Magic resistance does not affect this spell.

The spell protection spells dispelled by Secret Word are: Minor Spell Deflection, Non-Detection, Minor Globe of Invulnerability, Spell Deflection, Spell Shield, Globe of Invulnerability, Greater Spell Deflection, and Shield of the Archons.~

No Dispelling Screen mentioned here. So...another mod is adding it, which seems unlikely, or it's being patched in by another part of the mod? Can't say for sure I've read all the description of Secret Word post-installation (as opposed to reading it in this descriptions file, which is where I work from), so I guess I'll test that out. Let's see...
 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Secret Word
Level: 4
School: Enchantment
Range: Long
Duration: Instant
Casting Time: 1
Area of Effect: 1 creature
Saving Throw: None

When a Secret Word spell is uttered, it will dispel one spell protection of 7th level or lower on the target. This will always dispel the highest level of spell protection on a target first. If a target has two or more protections tied for the highest level, the choice will be random. Magic resistance does not affect this spell.

The spell protection spells dispelled by Secret Word are: Minor Spell Deflection, Non-Detection, Minor Globe of Invulnerability, Spell Deflection, Spell Shield, Globe of Invulnerability, Greater Spell Deflection, and Shield of the Archons.

 

No change as far as I can see. Can you list/show exactly how it's mentioned...and maybe supply your weidu log? This is such an oddly specific thing to SR that I don't see how another mod could be doing it, but just in case...

here's my weidu:

and Spell Thrust's description:

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

Secret Word et al. are not supposed to get rid of Dispelling Screen - only Dispel Magic and Breach. If you're using SRR, none of the descriptions for these spells should state such a thing (and I just checked and they don't - SR, on the other hand, I think erroneously does for a few spells). Remove Magic and Dispel Magic should work the same in regards to Dispelling Screen - are you finding that they aren't?

that's weird, I do have SRR (specifically, Revised V1.3.30, installed maybe a week ago) and both Secret Word and Thrust have Dispelling Screen mentioned.

and Dispelling Screen might work with Remove Magic (haven't tested it really), but it's not written in the description.

how does Dispelling Screen work exactly? Its description states that it blocks a single Dispel Magic or Breach. Spells like Secret Word and Spell Thrust, in their descriptions, are supposed to get rid of Dispelling Screen, among other spells. However, in my (albeit limited) experience, it seems that these spells do not dispel the Screen at all, and I have to use either Dispel or Breach to cancel the Screen. 

(also, I think the Screen should also be able to block Remove Magic, in addition to those two spells).

Is the Ascension-Wheels of Prophecy compability fixed now, or should I refrain from using WoP for now?

Prebuff beforehand (which means you should do ooze room last, cast your buffs, then quickly destroy the slime with wands of heaven/fireball), and then yeah, napalm strike ASAP. Fireballs might miss one or both of the knights if you're not precise, but it's still possible to kill them afterwards, if you focus fire (again, wands of heaven, flaming arrows, hold person works too IIRC)

On 4/9/2020 at 3:12 PM, Guest The_sextein said:

The EE Versions of the game don't have a path finding node adjustment because it is maxed out by default so they removed the option to lower it.  The problem is that characters spawn on top of each other and get stuck on each other.  So if you are playing on a really high difficulty level like LOB mode you lose the battle if everyone doesn't do exactly what you tell them to because a couple seconds delay can ruin a fight.  I fixed the Flail of Ages and Foebane and I have a great GUI that I downloaded that replaces the EE abomination.  There is a fix that will roll back the pathfinding to version 2.3 but that still leaves LOB mode that is bugged out.  I was lucky enough to download the older version from the steam console before that got screwed up so I would rather just stick to 2.3.  If that means using SCS 31 instead of 32 then that is fine with me but I figured I would ask to be sure that SCS 32 won't work with EE 2.3.

I just use CTRL+J to break them apart.

On 4/9/2020 at 3:44 AM, Bartimaeus said:

Area of Effect: 1 creature

That's really weird. Could swear I fixed that eons ago. At least the actual spell description makes it clear that it's multiple targets. Thanks. Fixed on the latest repo along with familiars' inventory items' now being correctly set to "Familiar", plus Fighter HLA's should get the correct names and descriptions again.

(e): @Hoverdawg

"Another one that's broken is Giant Spider's webbing ability."

Giant Spider's webbing ability? Giant Spiders don't have webbing, could you explain more?

I think it might be added by SCS or something. And by broken I mean the text displays some random dialogue. Sorry for being obtuse.

Another one that's broken is Giant Spider's webbing ability.

Also, Haste's description states that its target is only 1 creature, rather than AoE - probably wasn't updated from base SR.