Congratulations V7 and remarks Options

[HTRT]

Hello,

I just wanted to congratulate everyone involved for V7 and Sibel. I completed a playthrough with Auramaster protagonist, Mazzy, Wizard Slayer, Neera, Riskbreaker and Sibel.

I enjoyed the druid stronghold a lot. The dialogues were nice, the story made sense to me, the fights and enemies were great and special. I like that there's some explaining going on, for example about the vulnerabilities of some new enemies, as well as journal entries. It was exciting and felt right.

Sibel I enjoyed a lot too, even though I was being paranoid in her village about not missing out on anything haha. She is a strong character that brings a lot to the game with her content.

Very enjoyable and quality content, well done.

I have written some remarks about my run that may or may not be important, but here they are regardless, in no particular order :

- Mazzy's quest (her halfling sibling) triggered during a part of Buried Ambitions in Trademeet, which felt a little bit weird.

- SPOILER!

In Sibel's village, I cast Speak with animal on a certain target and it was flagged as hostile and teleported me out. It seems said target can be interacted with without the spell.

- Mazzy's original dialogues have a few banters about a healing touch that she does not have (yet has as a champion of Arvoreen)

- Bolumir the De'Arnise keep cleric spawned at the entrance of the Svirfneblin village in the Underdark (noooo idea what happened there lol)

- SPOILER!

An entangle effect from a certain Buried Ambition's villain seems to ignore Free Action, dunno if intended or not.

- SPOILER!

Coran's werewolves in the Forest of Tethyr are not improved (pretty much the only ones left untouched I think)

- Summoning a Planetar, then an Archdeva works, but summoning an Archdeva then a Planetar does not.

- SPOILER!

Elowen in SOA asks for rune of Clangedin (a tob item) for the stonefire axe (no big deal)

- SPOILER!

An ambush part of Sibel quests seemed a little bit clunky : it is not very intuitive that opponents need to be killed in a certain order, plus the elf got stunned during the fight and was elligible for killing based on the order, but because he was stunned I had to wait for the stun to wear off for him to become killable.

- Ancient lich is vulnerable to poison, for example from a storm of vengeance, which seems pretty rare for IA

- SPOILER!

Janneth says "raise to the ground" instead of a more likely : "raze to the ground".

- Vampires (at least brides, probably others) will target a champion of Arvoreen with Shield of Light, thinking the target is vulnerable to level drain effects.

- SPOILER!

An important character of Buried Ambitions can be killed by party before the end of the quest. It's no big deal, but usually in IA this is prevented or the character teleports away with a reputation penalty.

- SPOILER!

Regarding druid protagonists, some things seem unclear to me. For example, is there a favored one ? Like Shaman ? An auramaster protagonist may wear Cernd's cloak, which looks like some effort was made to make them appealing and not overshadowed by Cernd, yet at the same time Cernd's improved versions of his staff cannot be worn by an auramaster protagonist. There is indeed a nice item that can be forged for said protagonist. My point I think is that the appeal in terms of power of using a druid protagonist, well differentiated from Cernd or Jaheira, is not as clear as it is for a Necro or Vagrant protagonist. Aside from the very entertaining new improved stronghold, of course.

- SPOILER!

An important character of Buried Ambitions says : "Lo, that scroll in your hand" presumably instead of "Look" ?

- Sling of Everard seems like the only sling that doesn't use Strength bonuses, dunno if intended or not.

- SPOILER!

During the final battle of Buried Ambitions, the cut scene did not trigger properly. Somoene who was supposed to speak never spoke and I got stuck. I was not able to replicate the bug but didn't try very hard to.

- SPOILER!

During the final battle of Buried Ambitions, I spent a lot of time and resources trying to tackle the main opponent directly, to no avail. Even though there's some evocation of that in the dialogues, it was not that clear at least to me. Maybe said opponent could be invulnerable similarly to the sahuagin prince ? Sahuagin prince cannot even be touched by weapons until the last sea vipers are summoned.

- SPOILER!

During the final dialogues of Buried Ambitions, an important character says "you have no idea the extent of my ambition", presumably instead of "you have no idea about the extent of my ambition" ?

- Peridan long sword is now a +3 weapon, yet states +2 damage in its description and seems to be +2 damage in game.

- SPOILER!

Many of the new items that can be forged through Sibel's content may be worn with high protective items, such as a +4 ring of protection. This seems to go against the philosophy of the mod which was to prevent using a better than +2 protective item with such an armor. For example, great wyrm plate armor cannot be worn with a +4 ring, but Ultimate Plate Armor can. Red Coral armor +6 can't be worn with a +3 ring, yet Red Coral Armor + 8 can.

- It would be nice I think if Hardiness and Defensive Stance had different portrait icons.

- Dragon disciples (the sorcerer kit) do not have the same unnerfed spell progression table enjoyed by their sorcerer counterparts, even accounting for the -1 spell per day that they get with their kit.

- SPOILER!

The new optional fight at the end of Drow City is very nice (and challenging). It seemed to me though that reward-wise, it barely covers (if it does at all) the quest xp rewarded from telling the demon to go back to the abyss.

- It states in the readme that Vagrant cannot forge Judgement Day anymore ? Is it true in game ? I don't think vagrants can reach 100 physical resistance with the new nerfed JD sword, and even if they could, wouldn't it be better than if Vagrants could still forge it but not use it themselves ? I am assuming what the readme states is true in game, but haven't played with a Vagrant protagonist yet.

- SPOILER!

Necro can reach 100 physical resistance, at least to crushing, with the new staff against golems. I think there has always been a lot of effort made so that this does not happen.

- SPOILER!

Chaotic command on party members from the new Fruitful Attempt ring is blocked by spell turning, whereas the free action from the improved cat figurine is not. They seem like effects that should follow the same rules.

- SPOILER!

Vampires attack auramaster with his new amulet as if the protagonist were vulnerable to level drain, which is not the case with said amulet.

- Vampires attack a Wizard Slayer with Tower of Resilience active, as if Wizard Slayer were vulnerable to level drain, which is not the case with Tower of Resilience.

- Wizard Slayer may use certain abilities, such as Purge Magic, while silenced. Dunno if intended or not.

- SPOILER!

In foret of Tethyr, 8k xp werewolves can wake you up an infinite number of times when you sleep.

- My Sibel (swash 9 dual to cleric) got a problem at level 36 with her proficiencies : she was getting a point yet couldn't invest it, so she couldn't get a new HLA at that level. I remember that I saved her points before reclaiming her swashbuckler abilities, in order to invest a second * into clubs instead of wasting it in a cleric proficiency that would get eventually covered later on in her progression.

- Wish scrolls are worth 1500 GP instead of 3000 like the other level 9 scrolls.

- SPOILER!

The final opponent of Sibel's quests is a little big sometimes to properly trigger its electrical discharge effect. The distance from its center and a character attacking them can make it so the spell fails.

- Defender of Arvoreen + 4 is only worth 300 GP (who would sell it after forging it, but still )

- Rakshashas will cast slow at Mazzy despite wielding her improved sword.

- Cloak of the Shield stacks with itself an infinite number of times, which probably should not be allowed.

- SPOILER!

The favorite helper servant of Sibel quest content seems to be made immune to methods of healing, yet mass cure and especially a champion of arvoreen's lay of hands work. The latter means a full heal, which is massive.

- Treefolk + 4 or + 5 versions implementation of the extra damage vs unnatural creatures does not work. It seems to work on paper but does not in game. They use a different implementation than the +3 version which is the only version that works as far as the +tach0/damage vs unnatural is concerned.

- SPOILER!

Phosphorus + 5 seems slightly underwhelming compared to most other weapons from the new Sibel content. It has no lightning damage and or resistance added for instance, whereas everything else has some of it.

- SPOILER!

Spear of withering is a little unimpressive; poison is irrelevant for almost anything IA related

- SPOILER!

Regarding a gift during Sibel content, the item description says : "In the end, Howard's plan had proven". I am no English expert and it could be argued both ways, but "has proven" seemed more adequate to me.

- Spell trigger 3x chain lightning doesnt make invisible mage partially visible, exemple sorcerous Amon in Waukeen's Promenade den of the seven vales.

- SPOILER!

Greater Amber Golems display strings of X levels drained, although level drain doesn't actually affect them

- I was almost disappointed to see that many enemies in later Sibel content do not use silencing abilities, as would be expected for enemies of their type.

- Dragon Lord halberd in its description states a speed factor of 9, but has 6. Poseidon's wrath, which is also a +5 halberd, states 5 and has 5.

- Rune of Clangeddin didn't seem available in my game ? It is usually found by the woodcutter's house at Sendai's enclave.

Thank you !

This post has been edited by HTRT: Mar 6 2026, 07:26 PM

[critto]

Hi, HTRT.

Thanks for the feedback, lots of astute observations. Wish we had you on as a tester :-) I'll comment on some things (not all, as many or pretty obvious or self-explanatory), and maybe even try to do some work to fix these some time this year (no hard promises).

- Mazzy's quest (her halfling sibling) triggered during a part of Buried Ambitions in Trademeet, which felt a little bit weird.

I tried to make sure nothing vanilla happens during the Trademeet part but might've missed some of it. Can you give more specifics what it was exactly that triggered for youo?

- In Sibel's village, I cast Speak with animal on a certain target and it was flagged as hostile and teleported me out. It seems said target can be interacted with without the spell.

I think we already have this bug somewhere in our todo list.

- Mazzy's original dialogues have a few banters about a healing touch that she does not have (yet has as a champion of Arvoreen)

That's a bit of an oversight, indeed.

- Bolumir the De'Arnise keep cleric spawned at the entrance of the Svirfneblin village in the Underdark (noooo idea what happened there lol)

Looks like some kind of vanilla bug, first time I hear of it.

- An entangle effect from a certain Buried Ambition's villain seems to ignore Free Action, dunno if intended or not.

Can you spoiler-tag who it is?

- Coran's werewolves in the Forest of Tethyr are not improved (pretty much the only ones left untouched I think)

I don't remember if this is intentional, probably not. I tried to cover all such enemies.

- Elowen in SOA asks for rune of Clangedin (a tob item) for the stonefire axe (no big deal)

The rune is actually in a different place that you can get to earlier, this is intentional. But I don't remember the specifics without looking up stuff.

- An ambush part of Sibel quests seemed a little bit clunky : it is not very intuitive that opponents need to be killed in a certain order, plus the elf got stunned during the fight and was elligible for killing based on the order, but because he was stunned I had to wait for the stun to wear off for him to become killable.

That's a bit of a spoiler and an intentional puzzle :-) Once you see the solution it becomes pretty obvious.

- Janneth says "raise to the ground" instead of a more likely : "raze to the ground".

Who's Janneth? Is this a vanilla thing?

- An important character of Buried Ambitions can be killed by party before the end of the quest. It's no big deal, but usually in IA this is prevented or the character teleports away with a reputation penalty.

I believe I still has this on my todo list. I wanted to tighten things up and make the quest terminate in a logical fashion in case of such behaviour, but I'd required extra work for little payoff, and therefore got postponed.

- Regarding druid protagonists, some things seem unclear to me. For example, is there a favored one ? Like Shaman ? An auramaster protagonist may wear Cernd's cloak, which looks like some effort was made to make them appealing and not overshadowed by Cernd, yet at the same time Cernd's improved versions of his staff cannot be worn by an auramaster protagonist. There is indeed a nice item that can be forged for said protagonist. My point I think is that the appeal in terms of power of using a druid protagonist, well differentiated from Cernd or Jaheira, is not as clear as it is for a Necro or Vagrant protagonist. Aside from the very entertaining new improved stronghold, of course.

No, there isn't a well-defined favourite. In fact, I made a conscious choice to avoid going the same route, even if this feels a bit underwhelming in comparison. In the end, I think we succeeded in having the respectively classed be protagonist be at least as strong as the NPC of the same class (Cernd or Jaheira) which allows for some variety in party composition.

- An important character of Buried Ambitions says : "Lo, that scroll in your hand" presumably instead of "Look" ?

The texts were proof-read by an editor. Hard to say out of context, might a be typo, but might as well be an archaic turn of phrase (lo and behold, etc.)

- During the final battle of Buried Ambitions, the cut scene did not trigger properly. Somoene who was supposed to speak never spoke and I got stuck. I was not able to replicate the bug but didn't try very hard to.

Yes, cutscenes sometimes bug out in a weird fashion in the EE, I'm not sure if it's the engine to blame or some hard-to-track implementation error. The engine is mostly a black box and there's no good instrumentation for proper debugging.

- During the final battle of Buried Ambitions, I spent a lot of time and resources trying to tackle the main opponent directly, to no avail. Even though there's some evocation of that in the dialogues, it was not that clear at least to me. Maybe said opponent could be invulnerable similarly to the sahuagin prince ? Sahuagin prince cannot even be touched by weapons until the last sea vipers are summoned.

Well, on the bright side, that gives you an opportunity to bring his health down a bit while you're at it.

- During the final dialogues of Buried Ambitions, an important character says "you have no idea the extent of my ambition", presumably instead of "you have no idea about the extent of my ambition" ?

I believe this is intentional, and gives some flavour to the phrase.

- Many of the new items that can be forged through Sibel's content may be worn with high protective items, such as a +4 ring of protection. This seems to go against the philosophy of the mod which was to prevent using a better than +2 protective item with such an armor. For example, great wyrm plate armor cannot be worn with a +4 ring, but Ultimate Plate Armor can. Red Coral armor +6 can't be worn with a +3 ring, yet Red Coral Armor + 8 can.

I don't remember if these were meant to be intentional. Probably not.

- It states in the readme that Vagrant cannot forge Judgement Day anymore ? Is it true in game ? I don't think vagrants can reach 100 physical resistance with the new nerfed JD sword, and even if they could, wouldn't it be better than if Vagrants could still forge it but not use it themselves ? I am assuming what the readme states is true in game, but haven't played with a Vagrant protagonist yet.

It's probably true.

- Necro can reach 100 physical resistance, at least to crushing, with the new staff against golems. I think there has always been a lot of effort made so that this does not happen.

Probably an oversight. Easy to miss considering that a high level Necro has plenty of magical means to become temporarily invulnerable to physical damage.

- Chaotic command on party members from the new Fruitful Attempt ring is blocked by spell turning, whereas the free action from the improved cat figurine is not. They seem like effects that should follow the same rules.

Fair observation.

- My Sibel (swash 9 dual to cleric) got a problem at level 36 with her proficiencies : she was getting a point yet couldn't invest it, so she couldn't get a new HLA at that level. I remember that I saved her points before reclaiming her swashbuckler abilities, in order to invest a second * into clubs instead of wasting it in a cleric proficiency that would get eventually covered later on in her progression.

I wonder if this might be a vanilla problem.

- Rune of Clangeddin didn't seem available in my game ? It is usually found by the woodcutter's house at Sendai's enclave.

As I mentioned earlier, it's relocated under specific circumstances, this isn't a bug. But I don't remember the details.

Cheers

[HTRT]

Hi I added some spoiler tags in my original post, my bad !

- Mazzy's quest (her halfling sibling) triggered during a part of Buried Ambitions in Trademeet, which felt a little bit weird.

I tried to make sure nothing vanilla happens during the Trademeet part but might've missed some of it. Can you give more specifics what it was exactly that triggered for youo? SPOILER!

Quest is Save Mazzy's Sister, Pala. Danno Fairfoot is the messenger who casually appeared during the battle (at the beginning) to tell me that I needed to return to Trademeet/Mazzy's house to help Pala.

- An entangle effect from a certain Buried Ambition's villain seems to ignore Free Action, dunno if intended or not.Can you spoiler-tag who it is?

SPOILER!

I'm not in front of my computer, but it was Ferrou Gan I think his name was, as a greater elemental avatar form. He was able to entangle whoever he wanted to attack in my party, despite free action. I think this was my favorite fight of the quest by the way.

- Elowen in SOA asks for rune of Clangedin (a tob item) for the stonefire axe (no big deal)The rune is actually in a different place that you can get to earlier, this is intentional. But I don't remember the specifics without looking up stuff.

Maybe I missed it then ! At some point near the end of ToB I went to investigate a little with the files and realized it is set to vanish from the Woodcutter's hut.

- An ambush part of Sibel quests seemed a little bit clunky : it is not very intuitive that opponents need to be killed in a certain order, plus the elf got stunned during the fight and was elligible for killing based on the order, but because he was stunned I had to wait for the stun to wear off for him to become killable.
That's a bit of a spoiler and an intentional puzzle :-) Once you see the solution it becomes pretty obvious.

I will pay better attention next time !

- Regarding druid protagonists, some things seem unclear to me. For example, is there a favored one ? Like Shaman ? An auramaster protagonist may wear Cernd's cloak, which looks like some effort was made to make them appealing and not overshadowed by Cernd, yet at the same time Cernd's improved versions of his staff cannot be worn by an auramaster protagonist. There is indeed a nice item that can be forged for said protagonist. My point I think is that the appeal in terms of power of using a druid protagonist, well differentiated from Cernd or Jaheira, is not as clear as it is for a Necro or Vagrant protagonist. Aside from the very entertaining new improved stronghold, of course.No, there isn't a well-defined favourite. In fact, I made a conscious choice to avoid going the same route, even if this feels a bit underwhelming in comparison. In the end, I think we succeeded in having the respectively classed be protagonist be at least as strong as the NPC of the same class (Cernd or Jaheira) which allows for some variety in party composition.

Yes this objective is well achieved in that case.

- During the final battle of Buried Ambitions, I spent a lot of time and resources trying to tackle the main opponent directly, to no avail. Even though there's some evocation of that in the dialogues, it was not that clear at least to me. Maybe said opponent could be invulnerable similarly to the sahuagin prince ? Sahuagin prince cannot even be touched by weapons until the last sea vipers are summoned.
Well, on the bright side, that gives you an opportunity to bring his health down a bit while you're at it.

Good point

- Janneth says "raise to the ground" instead of a more likely : "raze to the ground".Who's Janneth? Is this a vanilla thing?

SPOILER!

I can't remember right now unfortunately, but I am pretty sure it was some dialogue of Buried Ambition.

Anyway, it was really nice content and additions to the mod, all of it.

SPOILER!

I would not say Sibel destroys the game. It is true that she is very powerful, even as a Swash dual to Fighter which I tested after my run with the Console. Her fast casting speed as a cleric seems too much on paper, but when you actually play it rather feels satisfying. She can cast most of the times without interruption and fights in the meanwhile, which is a nice alternative to a ranger/cleric or fighter/mage/cleric. A ranger/cleric with druidic spells is still a serious rival to Sibel with boots of the ranger lord, critical strikes, even though Sibel is better. As a fighter, Sibel can offer a very good usage of two handed weapons under Improved Haste, 10 attacks with Damascus Blade, 9 with halberds and staves. If she had to be nerfed, I think she only has a little bit too much of everything, especially AC and AC vs specific weapons. Her club + 5 is aquired kind of early, considering how hard the mod usually makes you work to get good enchanted + 4 weapons over the course of the game. Maybe it could be a +3 version and get the +5 at some point in chapter 6.

SPOILER!

One last thing, a Kensai cannot wield Damascus Blade. I am assuming it is because it would feel too strong on them. I think I would rather see the blade slightly nerfed and available to them, but no big deal !