Must forge items Options

[Mongerman]

Thought I'd start a thread discussing must forge items introduced by IA, so new players can decide where to spend their precious gold on.

Must forge items

1. Boots of impr haste - With belm in off hand, and gauntlets of extraordinary spec, its like having permanent GWW activated! Whats not to like? With these boots, you are free to take multiple critical strikes.

2. Memory of the Apprenti - 3 extra spells per level. With specialist class, thats 4 extra spells per level. You could stand forever in the midst of the most powerfull melee monsters and emerge without a stratch.

3. Holy avenger - When multiple RoR still dont work, never fret, holy avenger is here! Combine with time trap and a WW for extra effectiveness.

4. Improved Cat Figurine - Greater restoration on steriods, without exhausting the user. Enough said.

I havent gotten around to forging more weapons yet,so no opinions there for now.

[GotWangi]

Can't say I like these changes either. It feels like a cheesy way to force players to play certain class, and IMHO an ineffective one at that.

I dare say that not many people will play the same protagonist for a second time, so your comment about making other class more attractive seems rather moot. In fact, as I read through this forum, not too many people are using f/m or r/c as their protagonist either. I would say that applying more of your excellent extended stronghold quests to other class would prove to be more lucrative, no matter how underpowered that class may be.

I fail to see how making f/m unable to use those 2 swords will significantly help to bridge the power-gap either. Hence, I really doubt it will sway people away from people who hasn't really played f/m before.

Carsomyr, in my experience is not really useful even with time-trap. But part of this is perhaps because I upgraded it very late in SoA and by that time timestopping is not always a good idea, nor were there too many mages encounter left. Still though, I like the idea of UAI staying as it is, nerfing it just doesn't seem right considering how underpowered they already are compared to other classes.All in all, a change I don't really mind too much.

Now, the boots. I'm really against this change. IIRC unlike v3, you can only forge a pair in the entire game, and as others stated this is more like a convenience item rather than anything else. In the early level, this is a great jump in allowing your party to finally experience a "fun" epic encounters, rather than getting frustrated watching your whole party swing at that last stripped-of-all-protection monster, and yet unable to beat its regeneration rate. Also, forcing the upgrade to boots of agility really mess up with the way you play the npcs. Almost all of them require the gauntlet to be even remotely acceptable as a tank in IA, and there's only one pair in the game IIRC. To be frank, again this feels like a really desperate attempt to force players to use ranger, which most people already use anyway for the new contents.

Most of all though, I'm just really worried if this is any sign of the direction this great mod is heading. I really would prefer to see more new encounters, using different tactics, rather than more nerfing. Just my 2 cents.

PS : Off topic, but was the druid spell progression changed ? In my game Jaheira just hit that elusive level 15 druid and she didnt receive any additional lvl 7 spell?? IIRC druid received a huuuge power jump upon finally going over that 1.5mil exp wall. She's 16 now and still no sign of more lvl 7 slots =\

[thetruth]

PS : Off topic, but was the druid spell progression changed ? In my game Jaheira just hit that elusive level 15 druid and she didnt receive any additional lvl 7 spell?? IIRC druid received a huuuge power jump upon finally going over that 1.5mil exp wall. She's 16 now and still no sign of more lvl 7 slots =\

This is strange, she should have one 7 level spell at 14 level and six at 15 level. I had Jaheira in my party and she didn't have a similar problem.

[Sikret]

PS : Off topic, but was the druid spell progression changed ? In my game Jaheira just hit that elusive level 15 druid and she didnt receive any additional lvl 7 spell?? IIRC druid received a huuuge power jump upon finally going over that 1.5mil exp wall. She's 16 now and still no sign of more lvl 7 slots =\

This is strange, she should have one 7 level spell at 14 level and six at 15 level. I had Jaheira in my party and she didn't have a similar problem.

Those who have installed the Unnerfed THAC0 tables and pnp spell progression component of Ease-Of-Use won't receive those huge number of spells when their druid hits level 15.

[thetruth]

Those who have installed the Unnerfed THAC0 tables and pnp spell progression component of Ease-Of-Use won't receive those huge number of spells when their druid hits level 15.

Really? I thought that the PnP spell progression of EoU followed the 2ed rules.
And in the 2ed Druids do receive this huge number of spells when they reach level 15 (six 7 level spells).

[Sikret]

Those who have installed the Unnerfed THAC0 tables and pnp spell progression component of Ease-Of-Use won't receive those huge number of spells when their druid hits level 15.

Really? I thought that the PnP spell progression of EoU followed the 2ed rules.
And in the 2ed Druids do receive this huge number of spells when they reach level 15 (six 7 level spells).

Just checked my copy of 2nd edition "Player's Handbook" and didn't find six 7th level spells for 15th level druids. Druids actually use the same table that clerics use. I don't have access to the companion books at this moment though. Have I missed anything or is my book outdated?

[thetruth]

Just checked my copy of 2nd edition "Player's Handbook" and didn't find six 7th level spells for 15th level druids. Druids actually use the same table that clerics use. I don't have access to the companion books at this moment though. Have I missed anything or is my book outdated?

Ehm I don't know. From my Player's Handbook:

The Grand Druid and Hierophant Druids
The highest ranking druid in the world is the Grand Druid (15th level). Unlike great druids (several of whom can operate simultaneously in different lands), only one person in a world can ever hold this title at one time. Consequently, only one druid can be 15th level at any time.
The Grand Druid knows six spells of each level (instead of the normal spell progression) and also can cast up to six additional spell levels, either as a single spell or as several spells whose levels total to six (for example, one 6th-level spell, six 1st-level spells, three 2nd-level spells, etc.).
.........................................................................
Beyond 15th level, a druid never gains any new spells (ignore the Priest Spell Progression table from this point on). Casting level continues to rise with experience. Rather than spells, spell-like powers are acquired.