Opinion on the mod so far Options

[Patrick_hindman]

I have to say i'm finding this to be the best mod of baldurs gate 2 i've ever played, the battles to me always feel fresh having to switching tactics and not using the same one every time like in the vanilla game till it became a chore to even complete it (congrats on the ai, its the best i've experienced). I have to say after beating torgal i have not had such a adrenaline pumping battle since ascension (and i'm eager for more as i go through the mod). I like how its all balanced and nothing seems overpowered in the game. Though i would make a criticism in that the most frustrating part was probably starting out since most battles were too difficult for low level parties and finding doable battles was hard so i would suggest you mod in some extra content for lower level parties (such as the slavers encounter at the beginning which was pretty good).

Oh i know that you've been bugged alot about this already but i would like some more evil content in the game ie. items and quests. For starters why not allow evil characters to work for firkraag. As i have never modded before and this is too much of a demand just ignore it but keep up the good work you've done an excellent job so far.

[Kerkes]

hello everybody! I am playing IA5 for some time now, love it. Compered to other tactical mods, IA is waaay ahead, by any and all means. New battles are great, enemies as crafty as you, new items are also great - very powerful (that +5 halberd with dragon breath ability is awsome). But what I liked the most was the battle with twisted rune. AMAZING. Wish I could upload a video of it, it was very long lasting, took about two hours of real time to finish it and I really felt great after finishing it without loosing any of my npc, took me 7 reloads due to that big floating blob Vax who killed my pc's buffs (he was a gnome f/i) and that lady Layenne... AMAZING. Great AI in IA, really.
I've read a lot of posts about the difficulty, how enemies are very strong and your npc get slaughered easilly and all that - that's not true. I had similar toughts about IA when I first played it and tried to backstab that guard in copper coronet, got killed 1 minute later. First time in Planar Prison, with Elite Bounty Hunter? Don't ask. Got so frustrated I deleted the mod. Now, after playing IA some time, it's a breeze. I played a lot of different mods, so I got used to using some "never-fail" strategies, but they just don't work here. For example, ever tried dualing a figher to a mage and casting "mislead"? You could easilly clean up whole game using that and imp.hate .Is that fun? No. IA forces you to think what all of your characters do in a round. It's the only mod I know of which IMO must be played with a full 6 person all-time-active party. Maybe 5 would work also, but I never tried it because there are so many exellent items that it's a waste not to use them.
I am currently playing 2 games, started one with a gnome fighter/illiusionist multi and am currenty stuck with Yaga-Shura but he will go down, trust me. I finished WK and after getting all the cool stuff there my little guy fears nothing. In this run I took Valygar, cause you must have a ranger IMO for those boots and the flail, Anomen, Imoen, HaerDalis - also a must, his armor is the best item in the game and his remove magic is very powerful and a custom dwarf berserker for 2-h weapons. I'd actually suggest this kind of party for anybody new to IA.
In my second game I'm playing as a Vagrant. I don't think he is as nearly as powerful as my gnome but it will be doable, I'm sure. With him I took a custom figher/thief multi (again, dwarf - you'll need good saving throws in IA far more than 19 dex), Anomen, HaerDalis (LOVE this guy, just LOVE him - do take him!!), Cernd (duel with Faldorn is a very good example of how to survive some battles in IA - if you don't disrupt spells those mages/clerics/druids cast at you - your're dead) and Immy, who is also a must take for me. This party will probably require much more micromanaging but I'm currenty at the end of SoA, with only the best battle ever (twisted rune) left and then off to tree of life.
I wouldn't reccomend this mod for players who like to "fly" through the game, and if you don't like verrry tough battles with lots of reloading and thinking. For example, in my first try with twisted rune happened something like this (note- I finished WK before tis battle). My pc had these buffs along with ALL clerical
(prot evil, fear, chaotic commands, resist fir, fire/cold, def harmony...) - stoneskin, blur, mirror image, shield, armor, ghost armor, prot energy, acid, magic energy spell deflection, spell turning, prot elements, and what I tought it would really be a winner - spell shield . EVERYTHING but spell trap. Ok, Shangalar shows up. Yadda, yadda - up comes Vaxall, fires some ray at me and destroys every single buff I had. That vamp goes after me. I cast prot magic weapons - spell failure. If you don't like that kind of stuff (e.g.enemies killing your buffs, getting mallisoned in every battle, enemies using the most powerful combos such as wish/time stop/alcatry there are, you won't like this mod. If you are bored with vannila game, and (IMO) vannila mods such as Tactisc or SCS, you'll love IA. Consider it as a candy. The more you play it - the more flavour you'll recieve.
There is still something I wish for for the future versions - 1) improved Bodhi would be great. That one from Tactics was a lot of fun, and if you had Solaufein NPC it was brilliant. Cheesy, but still much better than Bodhi in IA. She should be much more powerful IMO.
One other thing from Tactis was also made better than in IA - 2)Irenicus in hell battle. They are both hard, in a way, but Tactis versiond had a much more roleplaying flavour than IA, and for me, it was more fun. NOT that I'd like to see those Tactics monsters with IA scripts.
And a final word on IA - scripting is phenomenal. Great work!! If you want to feel like your're playing BG against a very good player and not a buged up computer, download this mod. You will regret it, but you'll soon learn to love it.