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]

Iroumen: Difference is exactly 9 HP, since warriors get +4 HP on first 9 lvl with 18 Con, and +5 with 19 Con. Anyway, I would like halfling vagrant protagonist. I am playing now with gnome protagonist, and the only shorter race is the halfling. It would be so much fun for me...

Sikret: I just cleared Bodhi's Lair and it was so crap easy, so it is not fun anymore. OK, maybe I was a bit high lvl to there cause of lot of IA fights what I made earlier. Why don't you make some improvements there? Not too hard encounters, just a bit more enjoyable Bodhi's Lair.

Also you are removing inbalanced spells from the game (Simulacrum, PI) or limits them (Skull Trap, Insect Plague, Miscast Magic, Summon Insect etc.). Why don't you make some really really crap spell a bit better. I don't mention spells like Chill Touch here, since low level spells don't count in ToB, but there are some really weak high level spell also. For example I maybe miss sthing, but don't understand how can be Storm of Vengeance lvl 10 spell? OK, it kills enemies below lvl 8, but those enemies is max. 1 round when I have HLAs... And that 3D6 damage with 3 rounds duration is nothing. Even Firestorm and Incendiary Cloud much better and they are lower lvl spell. And surely I can mention some other really weak spells.

Question: While I was very experienced AD&D 2nd edition players some years ago (now I am playing D&D 3 and 3.5 in PnP), I haven't understood what exactly mean those number at hit rolls in BG. Now seems I need to know to calculate probably AC and THACO at enemies. So when I see for example 10+6=16 Miss. 10 is a natural roll, but what is that +6? If I have -10 AC, this roll means, my enemy has THACO 7 or worth, right? Also similarly at my chars I see this roll+x number.

Progress report: I reached Marvella's last challenge in mage stronghold. Well all those Marvella's challange were great, but this ending is so fun and so good fight... I LIKE it. Anyway, I skipped the fight for a while. Elemental golem is not an enemy for me, I usually kill them very slowly to get out max. summoned coin and gem golems. But that rakshasa sthing summons horrid rakshasas also. And that greater Marileth and with her Abyssal Consorts not an easy enemies for me also, even I killed one trio of them in former Marvella's quest. My decision was to get 1-2 more lvl in a bit easier quests, fights, and I will come back later just before I want to go to Spellhold. Probably I will spare 1-2 hours try if I am a bit higher lvl. And I haven't decided which kill order is the best for them.

This post has been edited by shadan: Aug 22 2007, 01:57 PM