another ia v5 progression thread Options

[Toverkol]

Hey there fellows, first of all another introductory saying hello, after my post in the belching dragon tavern and having hung around in the chat with igi and sir-kill. Thanks for this what-seems-to-be-lovely mod, if it turns out as good as it looks, and i can up my game to its standards i will be having lots of fun and replay value, and also thanks to all the contributors around here that have posted so much useful tactical information to read, so i dont have to ask every question myself (and probably would be the 462nd asking).

I'm in doubt a bit how to start this thread, for several reasons, one of which is i dont want to know too much, i want the mod to surprise me, though on the other hand, the level of the mod seems so high certain things seem tactically wrong (or impossible) choices and i wouldnt like noticing this only halfway my game. An example of this is the Skald class which is talked about in one of the party-composition threads below here, if i remember correctly i solo'd trough the game with one of those (or was it even a jester?), and would not directly see reason why this character class would have trouble in IA, had i not read that thread. This would be a minor thingie if the skald would be a custom, easily replaced (i like coping with including the available characters into resource-management), this example brings me to my first question to you guys:

I have been thinking about my party-composition as well, as many here seem to do, and something which is always nice to discuss about, gathering the knowledge displayed in earlier threads on this it seems i would need 4 'fighters', 2 mages and 2 divine mages, something i would've chosen myself probably. However, in picking the two arcane ones, i notice nobody seems to pick Edwin over here, is there a tactical reason for that, apart from him not being able to cast divination spells (True Sight), which could be taken care of by second mage or divine means. Many players here seem to favor Nalia, but i dont see the added value of her, she has no specialist school which means she'd lose spell slots over Edwin (not even taking into account his extra spells), and she loses xp to a in my opinion redundant amount of thieving abilities, especially when considering Mirror Image, Knock and other spells. Anything i'm missing here or need to know?

I already made a small venture into the mod, being knocked around by Suna Seni a bit, I was planning to pick up my old favorites for this, like Haer, Edwin and Jan, or Viccy for her MR, but reading trough the different composition threads here, that doesnt seem to well an idea, especially for this being my first hand at the mod, which leads me to following some of the more accepted thoughts on parties, being a Vagrant, a Berserker->Cleric and a full class Half-orc Barbarian. Adding to that i will try to use Imoen as a sorc, Keldorn (tank/backup divine) and Edwin. I'm a bit in doubt on that last one though, i think i can easily say he is my favorite bg-series npc, but as said, reading trough all the topics here it seems there's something to say against him.

Hmm, thinking about Edwin another time, he is a tad evilish of course, and that would deny me 18+ reputation, please tell me that is not obligatory. I seem to remember a few things from threads about 'evil' being a bit underrewarded in this mod compared to 'good', if this is so, how severe is this, both in terms of content as tactical/itemwise power?

I will be using this thread some more to post my advancement and ask questions, though it will not be of an AAR type, mainly because it seems Sikret does not like people doing so without first proving they can do such things detailedly and accurately, and i'm not sure how well i score in those areas . (as in i dont want to be misleading, and my aars might very well be that, not that i allow myself to be misled by such things, but hmm, trailing off here, hmm since im trailing off anyway, i remember a bug from waaaay back in that solo game, which i didnt see amongst the fixed issues, not that i tried to find if it were fixed, but in BG2 i could sing bard songs with my misled bards image. (you see what reminded me of that one )

Hmm, i might as well ask the cheating question here as well, i will of course play along Sikrets rules, its his mod, so its his rules i play, but i do wonder about some do's and dont's following from the somewhat overstretched domains of the cheats listed, what i mean is, before i step on anyones toes, what can i change around with a tool like shadowkeeper, the pdf states any use of this or alike tools is cheating, and shelved under the cheating part that can create bugs, but when reading trough the different party composition threads i see several people adapting npcs classes to other ones, like Jaheira -> fmc, Imoen->bard, etcetera, and it doesnt seem these people are warned that will destabilize their games, which then brings me to the question what does instabilize my game? Does adding a bag of holding do such? Does changing a chars con to 16 do such? Does the do not use tools just apply to chars with custom equipment (even though imoen has a belt)? Does opening and saving the file with no change already corrupt things? Is there no issue at all and is it just a zero-tolerance policy to keep players from trying their hands at it? Please explain, even though i am unsure whether i will even use a tool like that (preferably not) the way things are written up regarding the issue make me clouded towards it.. (better said, examples, examples, please, more examples, and that comes from a former logics-student )
(hrmm, maybe another small thought on this, i was just rereading the pdf on cheat and cheap again, and i noticed the removing/relearning of spell scrolls is in the cheap section, while xp/gold/item exploits are in the cheat section, i dont really see the difference between that and summoning monsters for xp, or selling items from alchemy abilties, isn't it just adding xp, which you could just as well via the clua.. (and maybe even more wrong than the others regarding role play)?

fyi by the way, my game is Vanilla+patch+baldurdashfix&dialog+Dungeonbegone+easeofuse+the 5 bugfixes from the bugs thread+IA. Ease of Use fixes tweaks are: infinte stacking, true grandmastery, shut up you know which sound, fast cut scenes, unnerfed tables, xpcap, multistrongholds, bonus merchants, female edwina, dialog&romance bugfixes, all from the v27 version which i saw advocated somewhere as the best version. (edit, ah yes, in case you were wondering the the several reasons, i seem to have vented them a bit already as well, they were regarding the AAR and cheating policies, which are written in such a way i'm a bit afraid to open up the subjects, but it seems i did anyway.)

[Toverkol]

Thanks for the quick replies!

Raven: thanks for the info, i'll deinstall the gametext as well, just to be sure nothing goes awry here, seems especially the scripting is something put much effort into, won't risk anything there. As for the character alterations, yes i will indeed just create mp chars for that (to be sure again, does it matter if i move the mpsave to the single player directory next? (making sure the item randomizer has started of course)), the questions were just because i dont know where to draw the line when editing in stuff is concerned, maybe Sikret might shed some light on this though i must admit i will prolly not do so myself anyway (i pretty much only use editors to put in quest-specific items that were lost and made me unable to advance, for instance i once lost the symbol of Mulahey in TuTu due to freezing him with the wand of frost, which not only cracked the storyline, but as well didnt allow me to rest anymore).

Matti: hmm, i feared as much on the Nalia case , we'll see, i guess i'll use both until i get Imoen back, as for Anomen, he was not among those for a reason, he is one of my old favorites, but i guess he's good enough for IA (Although i do tend to follow his evil path, which might make him less useful), i just coined Viconia because it seems resistances are key in this mod, and she already starts with a high one in magic, on the other hand she is very weak in hp indeed, and lacks the apr. I'll take that Ber->Cler over him this time though, i already enjoyed Ano again my last game. Cernd might be an idea, but what i gather from the Auramaster kit i rather have a fourth tank with Keldorn, who has a little divine power as secondary in the late game, along with a good dispel, as well i am not that much into custom kits and characters, so i guess including one of them (the Vagrant) is already enough to start out with. He could use the upgrade indeed, and i will prolly try him out in the not so distant future, i can stomach Cernd pretty good as well.
Use Any Item, whoops, forgot about that one once again, let me think if i can fidget that in somewhere, is dualclassing the barb (no halforc then though) an idea? indeed the buffing of rogues will be pretty important, and i expect backstabbing opportunities will be less around and decisive as well. I have also been doubting on the Blade, he is my more favorite UAI type actually (why i listed Haer), but it seems he might be a weak choice for a first-timer as well, i guess a F->M will do better (i was thinking the Qst grandmastery type). UAI isnt very needed prolly of course, but it does give you much more treasure to enjoy in the late game instead of not being able to use it altogether and having to sell it and wait a long game again.
As for that Bag of Holding, as said above, i prolly wont get around to it, but it is indeed one of those cheats i would allow a lot of people, especially when they play with fewer party members and such, though indeed the management can be much fun, in my BG1 no reload runs Strength was a great level 2 spell, and Potions of it were all bought and sorely needed to get the treasure of my dead companions to church, even the purple one .

This post has been edited by Toverkol: Nov 15 2008, 11:36 PM