Misc. Questions on Difficulty, Party Composition, and Spell Selection Options

[nataben1314]

It seems as though, judging from another and not having actually played the mod yet (waiting for v4), that mages are now in a situation where they are used almost totally for dispelling, immuning other characters, and creating summons. Would those in the know (esp. sikret/thetruth) agree with that? I'm not trying to imply that this is necessarily a negative if true, I'm just interested for the sake of future spell and party selection

Speaking of party selection, do you think I'd be making things too hard for myself to make a party of single-class characters? I've always disliked multiclasses unless soloing, and am not too keen on having a party full of five fighter/x's and one ranger/cleric.

And on difficulty, I wonder if it would be possible to make a rough difficulty guide for the quests of chapters 2 and/or 6? What I envision is something like e.g. "windspear hills: level 9-13 minimum" or whatever. With all the new content its difficult for me to know which are the easier quests and which are the ones best left to chapter 6. And for a player of my (low) skill level, it is difficult to determine if you are losing a fight due to wrong tactics, or due to the fact that you're simply too low of a level for that fight. So a general quest difficulty guide (at least for chapters 2/6 where the game is not very linear, and maybe a minimum avg. level before going off to spellhold) would likely save me much frustration and/or lots of me making HELP threads

thanks, and I can't wait until v4.

[thetruth]

My experience suggests that in Sikret battles a fully charged Rod of Resurrection (ranged heal) works better than a cleric. Do you advise that I keep the RC, thetruth?

Hey a Cleric is more powerful than a Rod of Resurrection

Besides Greater Restoration full-heals ALL your party members at once.
But yes they are more useful during SoA than in ToB.

A RC though is much more powerful than a simple Cleric, so it is a difficult choice.

Also, I was frustrated that my Inquisitor's Dispel Magic wasn't so helpful. I guess it was that when I really needed that spell, the target(s) were immune.

Inquisitor's Dispel Magic will work if target doesn't have SI: Abjuration.
And there aren't many enemies with immunity to Dispel Magic.

I also have not found backstab or even high level traps to be very helpful.

Yes most enemies are immune to traps (except Timetraps of course).
Backstab isn't very helpful either since some of the enemies have immunity and /or can see through invisibility (though you can still backstab someone who can see through invisibility and is not immune IIRC).

On my first time through with this party of 4, I often have to reload at least once during the Sikret battles. When facing Firkraag at level 15, I probably had to reload 3 or 4 times.

Reloading at least once/IA battle and 3-4 times for improved Firkraag is not much.

The first game with IA is a new experience and like with other similar mods (Tactics,I.Battles,Ascension) do not expect to win the battles without some reloads

[Sikret]

And there aren't many enemies with immunity to Dispel Magic.

Actually, none of the enemies are immune to dispel magic. But in addition to SI:Abjuration, your dispel magic can also fail for the difference between levels of experience. A 10th level inquistor casts dispel magic at level 20 and it can still fail against high level enemies even if they don't have SI:abjuration.

[rbeverjr]

And there aren't many enemies with immunity to Dispel Magic.

Actually, none of the enemies are immune to dispel magic. But in addition to SI:Abjuration, your dispel magic can also fail for the difference between levels of experience. A 10th level inquistor casts dispel magic at level 20 and it can still fail against high level enemies even if they don't have SI:abjuration.

If you are immune to level 5 spells or lower, then I suppose that makes you immune to this spell, right? Likewise if you are immune to level 9 spells or lower, then you are immune - is this only the demilich? With Spell Immunity: Abjuration, you are immune also - at least temporarily. The improved creatures also usually have layered defenses. Is it worth a level 9 slot for Spell Strike to take them down all at once? Is it worth the time and spells to remove the layered protections in a more conventional manner?

I was somewhat dismayed because in the vanilla game, Keldorn's Dispel Magic almost aways succeeded even from the beginning regardless of his opponent. His Dispel Magic seemed much less reliable in Improved Anvil, which makes me less a fan of this class for this mod compared to the overpowered classes (for the unmodified game) of the fighter-mages, mages, ranger-clerics, etc.

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Hiya thetruth: rather than PM'ing you, I'll ask here because other people may be interested in your answer. I'm trying to keep to a party of 4. I realize that a cleric can always be useful to a party, regardless of his type: berserker>cleric, ranger>cleric, ranger-cleric, etc. What I am wondering is if some other class may be more helpful in a party of 4 for ToB in Improved Anvil V3. With your experience, do you think that the morituri, sorcerer, FMT, and RC ....OR..... the morituri, sorcerer, swashbuckler, and kensai 13>mage would be the easier win? (Note: I also have the XP cap removed and the Improved Battles of Ascension except the final battle and the battles that Sikret has already improved.)

This post has been edited by rbeverjr: Mar 9 2007, 02:59 PM