Powerful mage and game rules, [Topic spllit by Baronius] Options

[Baronius]

I understand what he's saying. I was surprised by it too, the first time I fought him. You're expecting a powerful mage, not a physical powerhouse, and yet none of your fighters can deal any serious damage.

I have never understood this type of approach. Why can't a powerful mage have very powerful "physical" resistances via her powerful magic and knowledge? Should every wizard be protected by 9 golems so no one can reach her? Because without resistances, wizards could be killed very easily, considering their low natural hit points and physical defense.

[Bress]

Hi, I just played through Tower of Deception (version 3), and thought I'd give you some feedback.

First of all, congrats to Valiant and all others involved for producing a brilliant mod, it is a worthy addition to the whole BGII experience. The storyline and concepts are good (which is not true of so many other mods), and the whole tower is implemented in an effective, interesting and balanced way.

My only criticism is with aspects of the Ustrain encounter, which I went through last night.
The idea of him chasing down the party for revenge is a good one in principle, but I did find that part of the story very unrewarding, both literally (in terms of loot), and in terms of game enjoyment. I managed to beat him, after a couple of attempts, only by getting my 20+ level party of 6 to throw everything they had at him. I don't mind a challenge, but when I got to the end of it, after blowing about 2 dozen potions of superior healing, all that was left in the huge pile of summoned monster bodies was a +1 cloak, some gold and a Lareal Tear Necklace. And the fact that it happened in Suldanessar, right before the Irenicus battle, was frustrating since it meant that I had to take 8 hours rest in the middle of a warzone crisis, which somewhat undermines my original intention to keep moving from the moment I got into the Elven city.

Having read through this forum, I can understand your reasoning for making the battle so extremely difficult, for giving him little in the way of loot, and even for placing the encounter in Suldanessar (to make sure the party cannot miss the encounter). However, my feeling after the battle was basically, "why did I bother? I think I'll uninstall this part...". And only 35000 XP for going through all that? I would have hoped for at least 250,000, which would not be an imbalance to the game at that stage.
On a technical level, the whole battle looked good and worked perfectly, and the dialogue was appropriate as always. But as it stands, I wouldn't want to go through that component of the mod again. Just wanted to share my thoughts with you.

As this may be a spoiler, feel free to move this post to another thread, or to withold it and just PM me, I understand.
Again, great work, this is the best add-on for BGII I have come across, and it far exceeded my expectations in general.