My experiences with IA and Auramaster Options

[Shadan]

Well I have played 2 days with IA now. It seems very cool to me, just I feel it is a bit hard yet. My party still weak for most of the IA fights.
Here is my party: gnome fighter/illusionist lvl 9/10, Keldorn lvl 9, Haer'Dalis lvl 11, Anomen lvl 10 clr, Cernd lvl 12, Nalia lvl 11 mage.
My PC is very good now with +3axes and Hill Giant Str. belt.
Keldorn: True Seeing very usefull, but I haven't seen any success with Dispel Magic in IA battles... And he is very weak even with -5 AC in hard battles...
Haer'Dalis: When he is buffed, he is very good tank. He isn't very good damagedealer yet. I found his Offensive Spin + Melf's Minute Meteor bugged, since when he press O. Spin, his attack lowered to 2 with meteors. I haven't tried more time yet btw. Without buffs he is like a chicken in fights. I like him.
Anomen: Very good and strong char with his buffs, melee etc. DUHM overshine even Holy Power and Champion's Strength, and you have alot lvl 2 free slots...
Nalia: I dislike her low thieving skills, when I cannot disram a trap or open a lock. But he will do all what a mage should do in IA.
Cernd: He is very good in this early stage. He was at least 2 lvl higher than rest of the party, and it helped a lot.
His spells:
lvl 1: Doom very good spell. Burning Hands: Not the best, but good to kill trolls.
lvl 2: There are not really good spells here. Invis: good only for scouting. Mirror Image, Barskin: good defensive spells, but Cernd usually sit at back, so he don't need this too many times. Charm: sometimes good to get cannon fodder for a short time.
lvl 3: Flame Arrow shines here. Summon Insects: Not so usefull now with nerfed save. Stregnth of One: I used this often till I found a strength belt. Usually I mem FA all but 1 Dispel Magic.
lvl 4: Call Woodland being: not so good as was berfore. Defensive Harmony: good, but he lefts this for Anomen. Greater Malison and Emotion shine here. I like them. Fire Shild useless on him.
lvl 5: Sadly Chaotic Command demands lower usefullnes of other spells here. Iron Skin, Insect Plague good when don't need CC. Also Prot from Acid will be good in certain fights.
lvl 6: Unleash Enetgy is great. Conjure Animlas would be good but most of the enemies Death Spell all summoned ones immiditaely... Conjure Fire Elem would be good also. I use Heal also. Chain Lightning and Death Spell is unused atm.
All in all, Cernd is very good char yet, especially cause he can cast high lvl spells which aren't blocked by (Minor) Globe of Inv. and with a lot of FLame Arrows he can deal good damage also.

[Shadan]

I had some hours to play again, so I went to Tower of Deception. As others wrote here, it was a mistake. Most of the enemies was a cake, but I didn't know that IA makes ToD enemies harder. My party is still lvl 10-11, and I spent a lot of reload with lich... I figured out that spells are ineffective agaisnt him, cause of Spell Imm. Abj. and lot of spell protection, so Nalia triggered his pierce magic and his sequencer with confusion, then 4 of my hasted melee went in and hit him as fast and as hard as they could. Sometimes he was able to cast PfMW or Stoneskin, so I was not able to beat him fast, but many times I was able to do it. Just when he was in near death state, 3 Abi Dalzim triggered... Since I hadn't access to lvl 6 arcane spells yet (Prot from Magic E.), it was killer. I tried Spell Imm. Necro, but then lich casted Ruby on my F/I. It was hard to interrupt Ruby cause spells were ineffective, and melee interrupt a bit of luck. With a couple of try I was able to do it, and to run away from other melees in precise time. Meanwhile my PC had to continue to damage him to trigger his spells. Well, was a lot of tries. Then Marileth came... And she was too much for me. Spell Imm. Div. and Impr. Inv. made him immune to targetting spells. I was able to bring down his 1st Impr. Inv., Breach him etc. then 2nd Impr. Inv. came, and my melees were not able to bring him down more than injured. PfMW, and she we in full HP again. And she made too much dmg on my melees...

Then I reloaded my save before I started ToD. I went to check Pebbelcrusher party. There was not success again. I killed all of his goon, but I was not able to kill him cause of his regen and hardiness. So I went to sleep. On next day, with some new infos from this forum, I killed them with my 2nd try. What were those infos? Breach brings down hardiness, Sunfire, Vampiric Touch ingores magis res., Slow cut regen rate to half. I didn't use Slow and VT in this fight btw, Breach and Sunfire was enough. So at least I had a small success after some very frustrating failure. I am ready to continue my adventures today evening.

Also just a short info about my game: I haven't used any potions, srolls, charged items yet. I am stockpiling them to sell later, and I want to use any consumable only in those fights which is undoable and I don't want to skip it for later try.

[Raven]

Sometimes he was able to cast PfMW or Stoneskin, so I was not able to beat him fast, but many times I was able to do it. Just when he was in near death state, 3 Abi Dalzim triggered... Since I hadn't access to lvl 6 arcane spells yet (Prot from Magic E.), it was killer.

Mirror image is effective against ADHW (even 3 of them). And the short sword Ilbratha +1 (reward for completing the golem quest in Umar hills) allows fighters to cast it once a day too.

Also just a short info about my game: I haven't used any potions, srolls, charged items yet. I am stockpiling them to sell later, and I want to use any consumable only in those fights which is undoable and I don't want to skip it for later try.

I agree with this strategy - I always stockpile everything too (cheers Ribald for 'lending' me that bookshelf in the back of the Adventurer's Mart ).

This post has been edited by Raven: Jul 19 2007, 09:28 AM