IA 5.0 experiences by saros, [Topic split by Baronius] Options

[saros]

Editor's foreword (by Sikret):

Since we have thoroughly tested most of the things saros reports in this thread and have found most of them totally false and misleading, we would like to emphasize that the content of this thread is not reliable and can even be misleading for new players. It's worth noting however that none of the things he has written (not even one single word) has been deleted. We could of course delete the entire topic, because we are not supposed to publish false and forged reports about Improved Anvil, but we decided to keep it as an evidence to show how the game should NOT be played for future reference.

saros is playing the game in an illegitimate way with lots of cheats. Many of the things he reports are totally false and can be misleading for other players. So, those who want to read reliable information about IA, should not waste their time reading this thread, because it can affect their mentality about the mod in an invalid and misleading way. As he has admitted in one of his own posts, he is just playing the mod in order to prove that he can win it with a solo character even if it means using cheap methods and cheats.

Even worse than his cheats are his lies. He has reported several nonexistent bugs; for example, each time he fails to win a battle, he retorts by saying that the battle was bugged and such things. Improved Anvil's testing team has thoroughly examined all of his alleged bug reports and has found all of them to be false and fake. Some of them can be interpreted as mistakes of an unskilled player who doesn't observe the events carefully, but some others are so obvious that they can only be interpreted as deliberate and intentional lies.

The best way to tell a lie and make it believable is to tell a big lie and then say "everyone is welcome to test it for himself". This is exactly what saros does. Of course, everyone is indeed welcome to test what he reports and see that he is lying (as we did), but saros is counting on psychological effect of his words and knows that most players won't actually test what he says. I don't really understand what motivates him and what is his purpose of writing so many lies. As I said, most of the lies he writes can't really be interpreted as simple mistakes; they are so obvious that can only be intentional. To see a concrete example of his lies click here. Examples of his lies and false reports are really numerous, but I don't have any extra time to waste on composing a complete list of them.

Of course, at first, we decided to help saros play the mod in a legitimate way in a friendly tone, but he kept refusing to listen.

Cheaters never prosper. True winners never cheat. Liars are even worse than cheaters.

As a newer and recent discovery, saros had actually more than one nickname(s) here at BWL and had cross-posted some of his lies with another nickname as well. When someone is not honest, he is not honest in many ways.

==============================================


Hi again.

I'd also like to share my experience so far with the fifth version of the IA mod and I will describe some methods which may prove helpful to all. This is my intention. Some of the methods are pure cheese by certain player's standard, but none of them is cheating. And I have an absolutely official installation of the required only components in the right order, with the exception of an added Happy tweak from the EoU mod. According to Sikret, it's no big deal.

My personal opinion is that everyone is welcome to play the mod as he/she wants. With this I mean with or without cheesy methods. I personally do not like cheating.

The experience I've collected so far concerns primarily the first hard steps in Athkatla, and some methods to create a higher level party.

In Chateau Irenicus, it is good for the PC to play solo through the dungeon. It would be immensely helpful if the PC is some sort of wizard or thief, because these classes offer an additional xp boost (from traps, locks and scrolls).
If the PC is not a thief, then he/she may consider joining Yoshimo, but only for the traps and locks in the dungeon, meaning that Yoshi should be avoided until everything else is cleared. Avoiding him is easily done via Invisibility, Hide In Shadows or Sanctuary.
After the PC has cleared the way to the exit, he then may start to collect NPCs: first Minsc, then(after temporarily disbanding Minsc) Jaheira, and finally Yoshimo. This way, the joining NPCs will be with a starting xp of 161 000. If an NPC is joined right away after the start of the game, his or her xp will be only 90 000.
This way, not only your PC will get more overall xp in chapter 1, but also the joined NPCs will have 71 000 free xp points gained.

SPOILER!

If you want to gain some extra xp, leave one Mephit portal active and kill spawning mephits. Sure, they offer only 420 xp points, but their spawning is endless if the portal is alive.
If your PC is a Cleric/Wizard of some kind, then combining Animate Dead and Invisibility cast on the Ice Mephit Portal will provide you with some free time to read a book or watch a movie while your PC gains xp. Skeletons are immune to cold damage, they stay 8 hours, and if they do not see the Invisible mephit portal, then they don't attack it, but instead attack only spawning Ice Mephits

After going out, and collecting the quest xp reward for chapter 1, it would be wise to kick everyone out of the party and temporarily play solo. The logic in this is, that most of the new NPCs will join a high level character also at higher levels(up to 1.2 million xp for a joining NPC).

I suggest completing the Circus tent for the xp and spell scrolls, and afterwards, sleeping over in order to wait for the first two night encounters. As we all know, these contain gems, gold and several spell scrolls, namely Find Familiar, Spell Thrust, Stoneskin, Minor Spell Turning, Disintegrate and Contingency. All of these are useful, most are qute rare and hard to come by.

The most dangerous part of the solo starting strategy are the first two random city encounters, and especially the first one, Suna Seni. I've had experience with her party with a low level solo F/M/T and F/M/C. It's easy for a F/M/C to win this battle with the proper domination/disabling spells. It's harder for a F/M/T since the two actually active classes in the battle are the fighter and mage, the thief does absolutely nothing. Here is my experience:

SPOILER!

Suna Seni and her goons have various immunities and protection spells running. The most effective strategy so far was casting a Greater Malinson, followed by a couple of Web spells. The big problem here is the lack of spell slots at lower levels. My F/M/T entered this fight equipped with two +3 long swords, Stoneskined, Improved Invisible, with two Rings of Protection equipped, with Spirit Armor, Shield, Blur, Pro Evil, Mirror Image, with Frost Giant strength potion consumed, with Draw Upon Holy Might and also Hasted. This can be done the following way:

Creating two +3 swords, memorizing Stoneskin, rest.
Casting Stoneskin, memorizing Spirit Armor and Greater Malinson, rest.
Casting Spirit Armor, consuming an Oil of Speed, a Potion of Frost Giant Strength(from Ribald), casting the rest of the buffs in proper order. An Improved Invisibility should be activated from a scroll on top of all of this.

When the battle started, my PC disrupted the cleric's True Sight spell by engaging him in melee. Afterwards, I began to circle around in order to avoid the melee fighters. My AC was -14 anyway due to buffs. Afterwards I activated Web. Web has a chance to catch everyone, including Suna Seni, but the cleric and the mage are immune to its effects. No matter. The cleric falls in a couple of rounds. The mage cannot survive long in melee, even with his Mirror Image and Stoneskin. But I found it more convenient to carry two additional scrolls of Web and one of Improved Invisibility, just in case anything goes wrong. And furthermore, it is good to focus on Suna Seni while she's webbed, since she dies in a couple of rounds, and afterwards to concentrate on the enemy wizard.

The PC can save without failure vs the web effects while his Improved Invisibility is still active.

When the cleric, mage and Suna Seni are dead, the rest of the fight is relatively easy.

My third level slots were filled with Fireball spells, which work great on malinsoned webbed enemies: they're like sitting ducks.

The second random city encounter is much easier thanx to the Breach spell obtained from the corpse of the first encounter's enemy wizard, and fewer enemy fighters.

There are a few unmodded quests in Athkatla. No need to rush to Trademeet.

The relatively free xp which may be collected(apart from spell scrolls for an arcane caster):

Copper Coronet: fight with Amalas
Outside Copper Coronet: fight with Corvale
Find out what happened to Montaron: catching the bird without completing the quest(yet). Xzar may be looted for his scrolls and gems. Spectral Harpists may be killed for extra xp.
The Graveyard quests plus all of the monsters in the crypts, except for the Spider Lair.
The kidnappers who buried Tirdir(bridge)
Mae'var's quest, without getting the quest xp reward from Renal.
The illithium ore quest.
(revised)
The skinner murders.

Note: It is not necessary to collect the Reputation rewards from such quests. Remember that by donating gold to a temple you can raise your reputation up to 16, and afterwards collect reputation reward from both this and the Circus Tent quest.

SPOILER!

There are other ways to gain a lot of xp and gold, and spell scrolls, and green protection scrolls, and potions, ammo or even some enchanted items:

Looting amnish guards who interrupt the party's rest on the streets of Athkatla: a decent hasted thief can do it. These guards carry sometimes valuable spell scrolls.

Dropping your reputation to 3 or lower(despised) and starting to kill Amnish patrols which appear. Those come with a standard equipment and some random item slots. The standard equipment includes five full plate mails per patrol, which are worth from six to nine thousand gp when sold on the market.
The random item slots may contain one of the following:

1. A random magical item. Those are occasionally of +1 enchantment, but there are exceptions, like Short Bow +2 or even a Spear +3.
2. A potion. The potions may be: of Healing, Oil of Resurgence, Potion of Vitality, Potion of Strength, Potion of Invisibility, Potion of Fortitude, Potion of Agility, Elixir of Health.
3. A random jewel or a small sum of gold. The most valuable gem that may be obtained this way is the Black Opal, while the most valuable necklace is the laeral's tear.
4. A spell scroll. Here is the (almost) full list:

Magic Missile
Shield
Burning Hands
Protection from Evil
Shocking Grasp
Color Spray
Minor Spell Turning
Monster Summoning III
(these low level scrolls can be dropped far more seldom than the higher level scrolls)

Summon Nishruu
Carrion Summons
Prot from Magic Energy
Globe of Invulnerability
True Sight(very seldom)
Mislead(very seldom)
Death Spell
Tenser's Transformation
Spell Sequencer
Spell Turning
Sphere of Chaos
Summon Harkeashar/Djinni/Efreeti
Mordenkainen's sword
Protection from Elements
Ruby Ray of Reversal
Khelben's Warding Whip
Control Undead
Cacofiend
Spell Trigger
Protection from Energy
Pierce Shield
ADHW
Incendiary Cloud
Tenser's partial
Summon Fiend
Spell Trap

Green scrolls:
Cursed scroll of Petrification
Prot from Cold
Prot from Fire
Prot from Poison
Prot from Level Drain

Killing Amnish guards may continue as much as one wants. This way may be collected free xp, gold and scrolls.

There is a price, however. After the first few won battles with such patrols, a bug appears, and arcane spellcasting on the streets does not trigger the appearance of Cowled wizard patrols. I've tested it. So no fight is possible with the Cowled wizards after this exploit is deployed. And since they carry some valuable scrolls like Improved haste, this is a waste somehow.

[saros]

Hi Ryel ril Ers!

1. I will most certainly not reveal any more locations of upgrade ingredients anymore. I thought that it's safe to give away such locations under Spoiler tags.
2. As for the topic, since I started here, I don't see the reason why shoud I flood the forum and create another topic with a similar name.

As for the adventure afterwards, since I'm currently playing with a powerful F/M/T solo, this is what I'll be writing about. Along the way of my walkthrough, there will be still more advices for players who don't want to use xp or gold gain exploits too, so I think that all will profit in the end.

After attaining a decent amount of xp(10 500 000 total), I've decided to stop killing Amnish Guards and focus on some other stuff. I quickly raised my reputation by donations to a temple to Average since I didn't want to be chased for now by Amnish patrols:

SPOILER!

Reputation raising sums:

From 1 to 2 : 5000 gp
From 2 to 3 : 3000 gp
From 3 to 4 : 2500 gp
From 4 to 5 : 2000 gp
From 5 to 6 : 1500 gp
From 6 to 11 : 1000 gp
From 11 to 12: 1500 gp
From 12 to 13: 2000 gp
From 13 to 14: 2500 gp
From 14 to 15: 3000 gp
From 15 to 16: 5000 gp

After selling a little plate mails, spell scrolls, potions and jewels gained through the extensive fights with Amnish patrols, I was able to buy Dak'kon Zerth's blade, an Amulet of Protection +1, an additional Ring +1(I have 4 now), a Knave's Robe.

Another very interesting and rare(for the start of the game) item was dropped in the Amnish Guard fights - a Bastard Sword +2.

I re-visited the City Gates District.

SPOILER!

For all who don't know - after the first visit to the city gates, and taking the Trademeet Quest, one may revisit the City Gates district after several days, and will find a merchant bullied by a thief. By rescuing the merchant, he offers *one* only opportunity of shopping. This merchant has a lot of hard to obtain spell scrolls, including Spell Deflection, Contingency, Lower Resistance and Protection from Fire.

I bought all scrolls from this guy, as well as some potions of Hill Giant Strength. The Spell Deflection was what I needed.

With previously bought scrolls at the Bridge District(Spell Immunity, Improved Haste, Protection from Cold),the Watcher's Keep(Prot from Electricity) the Promenade(Protection from Acid) and with all obtained scrolls from Amnish Patrols, I was ready for the Pirate Cave fight. I dropped to Cromwell to get a Ring of Protection +2, and thus my rings in the subsequent fight were RoP+2 and a RoP+1.


SPOILER!

With a high level F/M/T (20/18/23) the fight was relatively easy. My armaments were Namarra main-handed and Dakkon Zerth Blade off, with ** in Long swords and * in katanas. I buffed extensively with the Protection from various elements spells, as well as Prot from Magical Energy. Unfortunately, this left me with only three Spell Immunity spells, but it turned out that they were sufficient. Spirit Armor was also cast, as well as Shield, Blur and Prot from Petrification, Spell Turning, Spell Deflection and Spell Trap. To this I added Protection from Evil, Improved Haste, a potion of Hill Giant Strength and Draw Upon Holy Might, and as the last buff, SI: A was in order. I switched amulets

When I entered the cave, I quickly retreated behind enemy's Line of Sight and activated a single Time Trap. This Time Trap activated twice due to a bug in the original game and I was able to slay the Pirate captain during its effect.

My Contingency triggered and erected a Globe of Invulnerability around my PC.

I've found out that while Mirror Image, Improved Invisibility and other similar spells trigger the Pirate Coordinator True Sight casting, Blur itself does not. So it's good to have several Blur spells since they will not be dispelled, while at the same time they provided my PC with AC and saving throw bonus.

The pirates fell quickly afterwards. The Time Trapping during the first three rounds apparently messed with their initial potion gulping script (they quaff potions in the very beginning of the fight), since they didn't use any potions afterwards, and this was one of the most valuable moments in the fight, since my PC obtained three of the valuable and rare Potions of Magic Shielding, plus three Oils of Speed.

After all but the Pirate Coordinator were slain, I waited patiently for him to cast his spells. I released a Death spell on three of his summons (my last 6-th level spell). Bty the way, it seems that (Minor) globe of Invulnerability protected him from a couple of my Remove Magic spells! I should try this in my next fight.

I ate his two Ruby Rays, which removed my Spell Trap and Spell Turning.
Note: if he's engaged in melee, the Spell Turning, Deflection and Trap will be quickly consumed by his Fireshield Blue, because each successful melee hit punishes my PC with a 4-th level backlash(Fireshield). I should've picked a nice missile weapon too...

I almost got Breached one time when my first SI: A expired, but I managed to re-cast SI:A a second before he finished his Breach spell.

After his Globe of Invulnerability and SI: Divination expired, I released my Spell Sequencer with three Remove Magic spells, which removed his Mirror Image and Invisibility. He recast Mirror Image, and I dispelled it again with Remove Magic. I had 4 Remove magic spells remembered, and had already wasted three plus my Sequencer.
The last Remove Magic went on his last Mirror Image.

Then I remembered that I am a thief with 100% detect illusions ability

He showered me with Emotions, one Greater malinson(which were ineffective since I was under a globe), and a Chaos spell vs which I saved successfully(I had either -4 or -5 save vs spells)

Remove Magic always dispells Mirror Image, even if cast by a low-level caster on a very high-level caster.

Then I began approaching the Coordinator in Melee. I killed his last summon in melee(a skeleton warrior). The Fireshield Blue did not harm me. He cast two or three Absolute Immunities, but eventually they ended. I cast my last SI: Abjuration, activated my Spell Trigger containing GoI, Spell Deflection and Improved Haste and killed him in melee.

Note: I had three Mantle and three Improved Mantle spells memorized which I didn't have to use. Otherwise, they provide complete protection against all melee attacks in this cave except for Coordinator's Mordy Swords.

Note: One of my Stoneskins was removed in this fight by the Coordinator with his sling, but I had three more Stoneskins remembered.

With the Bag of Holding obtained in this fight, I went back to the Promenade to better collect and sell Amnish Guards plate mails...