Suggestions for the coming release Options

[forthenature]

I’ve run through this game twice in the recent one and a half month. It is admirable that even I’ve played the mod so many times, it’s still attractive. I am very appreciate with the changes of the recent releases. I’m so glad that this mod is still under updating and I am quite looking forward for the next release. So here are my personal suggestions for it.
1.Relief the constraint on whether the protagonist is a necromancer.
The single factor that affects the difficulty and game experience of the mod most is whether the protagonist is a necromancer. I should admit that the adventure and item designed for necromancer is very fantastic and the battle with the Old Ones is one of my favourite. However, after so many tries I would like to start the game with other roles. Unfortunately, the game difficulty could be quite different, especially in the battle with the Great Wyrm. One way to do this is to make Memory of the Apprenti and Amulet of Hades available for all characters, or other wizard should have counter abilities against Greater Silence. As a trade off, necromancer should be nerfed. RVE is a bit too powerful for a necro that in late game you nearly need no other healing method.
2.Make cleric more powerful.
Just as I said, with RVE you nearly don’t need a healer in your party. And what makes things worse is that in the recent release druid over compete cleric from nearly all dimensions: stoneskin, new items and new kits, and more useful HLAs. So to maximize party fighting power, there is no room for a cleric. But cleric is one of my favourite role in the game(and also in other PRGs), so I would like it to be buffed in the next release. I think a single class cleric should be as the same attractive as Jaheira.
3.Make ranged weapons a choice.
Damage dealt by ranged weapons can be lower than melee weapons instead of no damage.
4.Make paladin more powerful.
Comparing to other warrior roles(ranger, barbarian, champion of arvoreen, risk breaker), paladin is far less attractive. It should be buffed a bit.
5.Nalia should be buffed
She should at least have access to the 9th level spells. And her first class and low wisdom make her not a good party member. But she is one of my favourite character.

These suggestions are ordered. And I do hope the first two to come true. I think they will be beneficial for further development of this mod.

[SparrowJacek]

Here's a very little teaser of the changes that I will be introducing for the new beta version of IA:

Reworked Repulse Undead:

~Weaken Undead
(Abjuration)

Level: 5
Range: 0
Duration: 6 rounds
Casting Time: 5
Area of Effect: The caster
Saving Throw: None

This powerful spell creates waves of anti-negative energy that sweep outward from the caster. These waves disrupt any undead that attempt to attack the caster, reducing the physical damage they deal by 10% and decreasing their chance for critical hit by 5% for 7 seconds. There is one wave per round for the duration of the spell, which renews the effects, but does not stack with itself. All undead are affected with no Saving Throw, this spell bypasses Magic Resistance.~

I don't think that there was any use for the original spell in IA. Now it can be helpful, when encountering powerful undead, especially Skeleton Grandlords, that hit very hard! Also this spell will have a short area of effect, which will be my way of pushing Clerics closer to the front lines and this trend will be visible in some of my other changes.

Art apr.
You can give kits the ability to follow the warrior thac0 bonuses via clswpbon = ~1 m n~, just check the weidu or kit tutorials for that. Alternative is to give them Apr via effect upon reaching a certain
level but I am not sure that plays well with improved haste.

That's new for me, great to know, that such things are possible unfortunately this enables both APR from levels and from weapon specialisation, there's no way to activate them separately.

Wrt alacrity
I often use a homemade spell that gives alacrity for 3 seconds and casting speed of - 3 as a convenience, just in order to prebuff a bit faster. The main issue with priests is that you need casting speed rather than alacrity because everything takes so long, and therefore the better buffer is the auramaster currently.

For this issue I have some ideas, both for general Cleric progression and for some interesting HLAs, but they might be broken if you dual into a mage... We really don't want to introduce this stuff only to Cleric kits and restricting these kits from dualling. That's why I hope you will be able to provide some feedback

This post has been edited by SparrowJacek: Oct 10 2022, 01:26 PM