Progress report for IA v6 Options

[Sikret]

The progress report is categorized and I will edit it as the work proceeds.

For quests and encounters which are still "in progress", I welcome the help of anyone who is willing to participate (for example: dialogue writing or any new ideas, etc)

Estimated Date of Release: Public release is postponed. For more information and early access to the mod, visit Improved Anvil Fan Club.


1- New quests:

- Expanded Druid Stronghold (Postponed to IA v7)
The reason for postponing the Expanded Druid Stronghold to v7 is that the person who had promised to make a new wilderness area for the expanded stronghold didn't make it in time. He presumably had too many real life occupations to finish the promised work in time. Eighteen months after starting to create it, he finally sent me an incomplete version of the area. He has done most of the work (for which we thank him), but the new area is still incomplete and requires some works to be done before being usable. I can do the rest of the work to complete the area for IA v7.

- The existent Expanded Mage Stronghold will be enriched with several more new quests. The expanded stronghold will be available only to single-class mages; the new quests will be available only to good-aligned Necromancers. The complete list of new quests of the expanded mage stronghold is as follows (those written in italics are the new ones added to v6; those written with small letter are already existent in v5 and are just mentioned here for completion):

- Magical container
- Furnaces may malfunction
- The Mystery of the Jewel Casket
- Treasure in the Ice (Or 'Why is it so cold down here?')
- Does Marvella always say the truth?
- Danger at harbors! (Or 'Is it safe to go to Cromwell anymore?')
- Story of The Old Ones
- My new apprentice and research programs
- Activating an old device
- The Wine and The Sandalwood
- Lavok's postmortem request (or "A second journey to demons' plane")

- Squirreled Away (or "A hard nut to crack"):
A quest which can be found in Waukeen's Promenade, will continue in Umar Hills, and will continue again in the Bridge District in Athkatla. The quest has also an addendum (a side-quest which could have been even listed as a distinct quest). The addendum is intentionally not so easy to find (and i don't intend to spoil the fun of finding it--at least for a while). This quest and its addendum will be available to single class mages, single class druids and single class rangers.

- Extended Twisted Rune (in progress): This is TOB content (postponed to IA v7)

- The Ancient Secret of Suldanesselar (A new big quest available only to Vagrant rangers):

Elhan is very conservative when talking with you about Irenicus and Bodhi. He thinks that their elven background and what they did is probably the most important secret of elven community which should not be discussed with others. Perhaps, he doesn't know that the elven city of Suldanesselar has one other and far more mysterious secret hidden behind its walls.

- How many of the residents of the city know about the mysterious staircase?

- What is that house with no entrance you see inside the city?

- What has happened in that house far long ago and how can one enter that building?

- Do you have the intention and courage to investigate the case and enter one of the most ancient, mysterious and dangerous adventures related to elven community? If yes, then The Ancient Secret of Suldanesselar is exactly what you are looking for.

2- New Tactical challenges:

- Improved Crypt King

- Encounter with the Amnesic Librarian in the library in spellhold.

- Duels with drow mages in the tavern in Ust Natha are slightly improved.

- Improved Beholders.

- Improved Prophecy Verification Challenge (Sahoagin City).

- Improved Challenge for the "Great Druid" title (one on one duel with the "Great Auramaster")

- Improved Bodhi (chapter 6)

- Improved Demon Knights in WK (3rd lvl)

- A new encounter with an entirely new creature type is added to Firkraag's maze (the same dungeon in which you meet Samia).

- Guarded Harpist's House (in Suldanesselar)

- Slightly Improved Rayic Gethras

- Slightly Improved Mae'Var

- Improved Vampires

- Improved Vampiric Mists: Vampiric mists will now have their pnp ability of enveloping targets; additionally, they will also pick their targets much more intelligently.

- Slightly Improved Trolls

- Improved Ruhk Conjurer and Kamikaze Kobolds in Windspear Hills.

- Improved Screaming Statue (in the area leading to the temple of forgotten believers)

3- Other types of new content:

- Another new ranger kit added and assigned to Valygar.

- A new 2nd level druidic spell, Speak with Animals, is added to the game (none of the existent spells is replaced though; it's a new addition to the collection of 2nd level spells).

- Nine more item upgrade recipes added.

- Riskbreaker kit is revised (improved).

- Two new druidic HLA are added to the game.

4- Fixes applied to the vanilla game:

- Garren Windspear and Sir William Reirrac will not attempt to retrieve your paladinhood if you are not actually a fallen paladin.

- Free Action spell and Freedom potions are fixed to grant immunity to stun.

- Root of the Problem and Bone Club's magic levels fixed.

- Enemey mages now use a different version of Improved Inivisibility spell which protects them against spells such as Breach if cast from scrolls.

- Ilbratha is fixed to cast Mirror Image rather than mimicking the effect.

-Cernd's script for when he is not in party is fixed (thanks to LZJ).

- Book of infinite Spells has some bugs in the vanilla game. Fixed it and also replaced its spells with some more useful ones.

- A bug in Grandmaster's Armor +6 is fixed.

- Spirit animals' weapons fixed. The spirit animals summoned by totemic druids had unenchanted weapons in the vanilla game. The enchantment numbers were set on 5 or 6, but the "magical" flags were not set properly. Now, they are fixed so that they are indeed magical but also fixed to have +3 enchantments rather than +5 and +6. The level drain effect of the wolf's attack and the horror effect of the bear's are omitted and the bear's claw is fixed to do crushing damage rather than slashing (to be in harmony with other bears).

- The Ogre Jelly form of Polymorph Self spell had wrong attributes (such as 100% MR instead of 10% which is the correct MR of an ogre Jelly). This and all other similar bugs related to Polymorph self are fixed.

- There is one certain condition under which Nalia "unfairly" gives you 650 gold pieces instead of the usual 10650 gp as the reward of saving the keep. This is fixed. Thanks to leonidas for drawing my attention to this case. (there is also a second condition under which she gives you 650 gp, but that second case is not "unfair" and I didn't touch it.)

- Two of the game's stores still had bad buying and selling prices which would allow earning money by buying and selling items. The exploits are fixed (thanks to leonidas).

- Clerical Holy Symbols' prices reduced to zero (thanks to Clown).

- A few more spells which were not properly flagged as "hostile" spells in the vanilla game are fixed.

- A minor bug in Spirit of the Grove's dialogue file fixed.

- Wizard Slayers' miscast magic ability is fixed to match the kit's description.

- Comet spell is fixed and tweaked. It's fixed not to be bounced by Spell Turning; it will no longer show the false "Stun" Icon either. and it's also fixed not be blocked by SPell Immunity: Invocation. Its throwing effect is also tweaked not to allow saving throw. Its unconsciousness effect's duration is shortened considerably but is also tweaked not to allow saving throw.

- One of the dialogue options with the djinni of "Wish" spell didn't match with the spell the djinni actually granted in the vanilla game. The bug is fixed. Also, the "Breach on enemies" option would make ally summons hostile. This is fixed too. The related dialogue option is also changed to "Breach on everyone in the area except party members" to indicate the fact that the breach will affect allies and neutral creatures in the area as well (though as mentioned above, this particular version of breach won't be considered as a hostile action by allies and neutral creatures and won't make them turn hostile).

- The second level mage spell "Strength" is fixed and tweaked: It's casting range is fixed to match the spell's description and the spell's duration is shortened.

- Staff of The Earth and staff of Air are both fixed to function similar to Staff of Fire in regard to the number of elementals they summon. The elementals summoned by all three staves are slightly improved to behave more intelligently during battles. Moreover, the lesser elementals summoned by the Air and the Fire staves were using the wrong animation/avatar in the original game, which are fixed too.

- Drizzt's level and THAC0 were not matching together in the vanilla game. A compromise has been decided. His level is increased to 18 (from 16) and his base THAC0 is changed to 3 (from zero). As an 18th level ranger, he will also have one use of HLA per day which he will use in Bodhi's lair if you invite him to help you in that battle.

- Some of the Stoneskin scrolls in the game were not usable by daul-class mages. This is fixed.

- Whirlwind and Greater whirlwind are both fixed not to be overridden by "Haste" spell.

- The Spirit Armor spell could stack with itself in the vanilla game resulting in more and more saving throw bonuses. The bug is fixed. The spell is also tweaked to have shorter duration, and the damage it inflicts to the recipient will be applied with no save (thanks to Ymarsakar for drawing my attention to this issue).

- The "Mist, Horror" creature, its natural weapon, and the version of "Chaos" spell it casts had some bugs and inconsistencies in the vanilla game, which are all fixed.

- A cheesy exploit while talking with the Black Dragon fixed.

- An xp exploit in the tanner's hideout blocked and a similar xp exploit in spellhold are both blocked and fixed (thanks to Clown).

- The extra and incorrect +4 bonus to AC in the 4th level spell, Improved Invisibility, is omitted. Being improved invisible automatically applies a -4 penalty to the attacker's "to hit" roll, there was no need to have it as an extra effect in the spell's file. The bug is fixed (thanks to Ymarsakar for drawing my attention to this latter issue and thanks to Clown for performing the relevant tests for me).

- Ice Storm spell's description is fixed and its damage is set according to pnp AD&D. Fire Storm and Meteor Swarm, on the other hand, are fixed to match their BG2 descriptions.

- Demiliches' and Bone Golems' immunity to 9th level spells are fixed to include immunity to 'Dragon's Breath' spell.

- Potion of Magic Protection is fixed to match its description and to set MR at 50% (rather than adding 50% to MR).

- Maheer would take all of your diamonds or Beljuril gems to upgrade
horns of Valhalla if those gems were stacked in one inventory slot. The bug is fixed (thanks to Dago for drawing my attention to this issue).

- Transmuters couldn't learn "Larloch's Minor Drain" and "Vampiric Touch" spells in the vanilla game. The bug is fixed.

- The undead destroying effects of both versions of Runehammer are fixed (in the vanilla game, the undead could roll a saving throw vs. Death "twice" rather than once).

- Wand of the Heavens had wrong power numbers assigned to its efffects and the amount of damage it would inflict was wrong as well. The bugs are fixed (Raven).

- Rings of Elemental Control are fixed. Their bugged charm abilities are omitted and their abilities (which were mostly using wrong effects) are also fixed to cast the relevant spells rather than mimicking the effects. The Ring of Fire Control's bonus to fire damage is also reduced to 25%.

- Some of the options of wish spells had wrong spell power in the vanill game which are all fixed (Raven).

- Warriors summoned by Horns of Valhalla (excpept the improved one from IA) had bugged weapons which are fixed. Their number of attacks are also fixed and now they use Berserker Rage ability and fight a lot more intelligently (raven).

- A bug/exploit in the vanilla game which would allow the player to gain access to Imoen during the dream in spellhold without losing one point of one of his or her attributes is fixed.

- 'Scribe Scrolls' and 'Alchemy' HLAs are all fixed not to turn to a source of infinite gold. The scrolls and potions created by these spells won't have any market value and can't be sold (the same fix is also applied to the 'Create random potions' & 'Create random wands' options of wish spell--see below)

- There was a bug in the vanilla game which would allow fighter/thieves to pick more than one Assassination HLA. Another bug would also prevent the fighter/thief from picking 'Avoid Death' if he had already picked Assassination. Both bugs are fixed.

- All traps are removed from bards' HLA table.

- The constitution bonus in Obsidian Ioun Stone and Malla's Soul Stone are replaced with hp bonus.

- Some bugs in Abyss trials fixed.

- The scripts the player could assign to party members (to be used when the party AI option is 'on') had some bugs which are all fixed. The scripts are also slightly improved (however, despite the improvements and bugfixes, I still do not recommend turning on the party AI; a true tactician should be able to play much more effectively than one can expect to gain from any such scripts).

- In the vanilla game, you could return to the drow city even after exiting underdark (in chapter 6). The bug is fixed. You can return to underdark, but not to the drow city.

- All bugs related to blades' Offensive Spin ability in the vanilla game are completely fixed.

- Death Ward spell's casting time didn't match the spell's description in the vanilla game. The bug is fixed.

- One of the effects in the first level spell, Doom, had a wrong power number. It's fixed.

- Staff of Curing's cure disease effect is fixed to remove the disease icon as well (thanks to geh4th).

- Summoned skeletons and some other undead creatures were not immune to charm in the vanilla game. the bug is fixed (LZJ).

- Wakizashis were usable by druids despite the items' descriptions. The bug is fixed (Raven).

- The first level mage spell, Magic Missile, used to inflict a wrong amount of damage per missile in the vanilla game. It is fixed to match the spell's description (Raven).

- Evasion and Greater Evasion could stack with each other in the vanilla game. The bug is fixed (Raven).

- The names of some scrolls had typos in the vanilla game. They are fixed (Raven).

- The skullcrusher mace had a bug in the vanilla game. Its bonus damage would be applied even to the second weapon the character might wield. The bug is fixed (Raven).

- The Fireshield (Blue) spell had a bug in the vanilla game which would allow it to affect even rakshasas, liches and demi-liches. The bug is fixed (Raven).

- Shield Amulet is fixed to actually cast the spell rather than mimicking the effects. The item is also now usable only by mages.

- Berserker's enrage ability protects against level drain, but the message "x levels drained" would still appear on the screen. The bug is fixed.

- A hidden bug in the vanilla game sometimes causes the exit of the sphere to lead to the Slums rather than the demons' plane. The bug is fixed (Raven).

- Boots of the North displays a wrong icon on the wearers portrait in the vanilla game. The bug is fixed (geh4th).

- Due to a bug of the original game, sometimes Melissan would appear prematurely during the battle with Gromnir and his guards before the battle was completely over. The bug is fixed (Raven).

5- Tweaks applied to the vanilla game:

- Namarra is tweaked to cast Cure Serious Wounds rather than Silence 15' r.

- Staff of the Magi is nerfed and its usability conditions are changed as well (the item is now usable by a more limited subset of mages and can't be used by thieves at all).

- Darksteel Shield's pointless +10% resistance to poison is replaced with +10% resistance to electricity.

- Rangers have a slightly better spell progression table (though still capped at 3rd level spells). Bards, on the other hand, have a slightly nerfed table (capped at 5th level spells). Bard's level progression table is also nerfed. It never made sense to me that in the vanilla game, a high level bard could cast a better Remove Magic spell than a mage with the same amount of xp.

- "The Answerer" long sword and the Harper Pin item are nerfed.

- Vocalize spell will only cure silence (not greater or grave silence though); the spell doesn't grant immunity to silence for any duration.

- The fifth level clerical spell, Magic Resistance, is tweaked. It adds (rather than setting) +5% per three levels MR to the cleric upto 30% at 18th level. But it cannot be cast on any other character or creature than the caster. Multiple uses of the spell won't cumulatively work together either.

- Chaos Shield and Improved Chaos Shield spells are both nerfed: Shorter durations and less Wild surge Bonuses. The improved one had actually a wrong (too long) duration even compared with its vanilla description.

- Cerebus, the creature summoned by the Moon Dog Figurine is tweaked: His spell-like abilities and innate immunities are omitted, but on the other hand, his +1 claw is improved to have +3 enchantment and his number of attacks are increased (from 1) to 3. He has much better morale during the combat as well.

- Joolon, the lion summoned by the Golden Lion Figurine is improved: His +1 claw is changed to +3 and he fights more intelligently.

- Helm of the Rock is tweaked. Resistance to poison is replaced with Ac bonus vs. blunt weapons. The improved helm will cast Horror (rather than mimicking the effects).

- The "Cavalier" kit was one of the kits of the vanilla game which had too many advantages with almost no significant disadvantage. The kit is tweaked and rebalanced by omitting the permanent immunity to fear effects from the list of advantages (immunity to fear effects would unjustifiably make the cavalier immune to evil clerics' turning ability, which was a big edge over other paladins; with this change in IA v6, enemy clerics will attempt to turn cavaliers as well; in the previous versions of the mod, enemy evil clerics would only try to turn a paladin if he was not a cavalier).

- Harp of Discord is tweaked to actually cast 'Confusion' rather than mimicking the effects.

- The "Pick for me" button will choose the best and most useful 1st through 3rd level spells to be used in IA for your sorcerer. This is a cool feature added for the benefit of less experienced players (thanks to Raven for the suggestion).

- The two first level mage spells, 'Armor' and 'shield', are both tweaked to work much similar to each other except for one point: Armor will add additional AC bonus to 'piercing' and 'slashing' weapon types, whereas 'Shield' will grant additional bonus to 'missile' and 'blunt' weapons. 'Shield' will no longer grant immunity to 'Magic Missile' spell.

- Thieve's Hood is tweaked not to grant immunity to backstab.

- Improved Mace of Disruption is Tweaked not to grant immunity to level drain. The item is too easily available in the game to have such a powerful ability.

- The 4th level spell, "Enchanted Weapon" can't be cast more than once a day (24 hours).

- More Sensible Wish spell (Wish spell is rebalanced to work in a more sensible and balanced way):

- Time Stop + Improved Alacrity:

This option will be offered only to those who practice pure arcane arts (= single class mages). To be honest, It was never making sense to cast time stop and then attack the enemy with a sword rather than casting spells. Now, Multi-class mages can't have this option of the wish spell.

- Magical Rest:
(Note: changes applied to this option of the spell are still at testing stage and are open to further modifications and reconsiderations)

This option is also rebalanced to be offered only to single-class mages and work more sinsibly as follows: When you wish "Make it as if the entire party has just rested a full night", your wish will now have a chance to indeed make it as if you have rested, which means there will be a chance for your enchantments and protections to expire (due to resting) and also a chance for new hostile creatures to appear (during the night). The first time you use this option of the wish spell, the chance of negative effects will be zero, but if you repeat choosing this option during the same day, the risk of the side effects will increase seriously.

- Create random potions & random wands:

These two options are fixed not to turn to a source of infinite gold. The potions and wands created by this spell won't have any market value and can't be sold.

- Increase all stats to 25:

Certain cheesy applications of this option of wish spell have been blocked by changing it to increase only Strength, Dexterity and Constitution to 25.

- Time Trap is replaced with a more sensible HLA. The new HLA fits much better with the thief class (it was never making sense that a thief could stop the flow of time mimicking the effect of a most powerful arcane spell).

- Improved Anvil has now its own xpcap-modifier and will not work with any xpcap-remover. This new feature of the mod does not remove the xpcap, but extends it to 12.2 million xp (it was 8 million in the vanilla game).

Notes regarding the xpcap-modifier:

1- This amount of xp (= 12.2 M) is more or less equal with the total xp each party member can gain in the entire game with a party of 6 members. So, players who play the mod with a party of 6 won't even notice that a cap exists (regardlesss of whether they play single-class or multi-class characters). In other words, such players won't notice any change in their characters' level progressions. Even those who play with a party of 5 members will notice the cap late in the game. Playing with a party of 6 is recommended.

2- The new xpcap is still enough for single class characters of all classes (even rangers and paladins) to reach level 40 regardless of the number of party members.
The only single-class characters who can't reach level 40 are the mage and the bard who will stop level progression at level 36; but even such characters won't notice the cap if the game is played with a party of 6 members, because even without the xpcap, there is not more xp to gain in the game.

3- While the new xpcap won't affect single class characters in any remarkable way, it will adequately and sensibly block absurd level progression of multi-class characters in a game with no xpcap and in a party of few members. Actually, the only character type whose level progression will be practically and noticeably affected is a multi-class character who is NOT a member of a full party.

- Chain Contingency spell can't be cast more than once per day (thanks to LZJ for suggesting this tweak/fix).

- Multi-class thieves and Swashbucklers' HLA tables are revised (swashbucklers have now a much more appealing HLA table than before). Also, Fighter/Clerics won't gain the warrior Resist Magic HLA (they have their own Improved Magic Resistance Spell instead).

- Multi-class mages won't have access to Improved Alacrity (Thanks to Raven).

- Revised THAC0 tables: While the nerfed THAC0 tables of the vanilla game are not ideal, the totally unnerfed THAC0 tables of Ease-of-Use are not satisfactory either. Improved Anvil has now its own custom THAC0 tables (something between the nerfed tables of the vanilla game and the unnerfed tables of Ease-of-Use).

- Characters will be able to wear minor and mid-power protection rings and cloaks with each other and together with armors, but the powerful (+3 and better) ones can't be worn simultaneously or with magical armors. The related component of Eas-of-Use which allows unlimited use of such rings and cloaks together and with armors will no longer work with IA.

- Monsters who spawn to interrupt the party's rest no longer carry any treasure nor do they have any xp value. The same tweak is applied to monsters who can respawn infinitely during the game.

- The mage spells Skull Trap, Minor Spell Deflection, Minor Spell Turning, Spell Deflection, Mislead, Cacofiend, Delayed Blast Fireball, Summon Fiend, Power word Blind, Spell Trap and Gate are replaced with new spells. The clerical spells, Glyph of Warding, Gate and Holy Word are replaced with new spells as well.

- Wizard Slayers are no longer allowed to dual-class to mage and thief classes.

- Amulet of Power and Amulet of the Master Harper don't grant immunity to Silence (Amulet of Hades and The Lord of the Underworld still do).

- The clerical HLA, Mass Raise Dead is replaced with a new clerical spell/HLA and is only available to clerics (not druids).

- The third level mage spell, slow, is tweaked not to incur any AC or THAc0 penalties. It just now slows the target.

- Some items in the vanilla game grant small and negligible resistances to elemental damage AND add the icons to the characters portrait as well. During battles the protection icons added by these items can play a negative role, because they prevent the player from noticing that the main protective spells on the character are expired or dispelled. Such misleading icons are mostly removed from those items.

- The Spectral Brand +5 is tweaked not to grant immunity to level drain.

- Dwarves, Halflings and Gnomes won't gain more than +1 racial bonus to their saving throws.

- Learning spells from scrolls won't grant any xp. The xp of disarming traps and picking locks is also modified (lowered).

- Specialist mages won't be able to dual-class.

- Short Swords of Mask (+4 and +5) are fixed and tweaked. Wrong power numbers in their effects are fixed. The +4 sword's chance per hit to entangle the target is reduced to 10%. The +5 sword's ability to level drain is omitted, but its chance to entangle is 15% per hit.

- More realsitic points to start gaining HLAs:
- Single (and dual) class characters start gaining HLAs (approximately) at 3,400,000 xp (not new; it was such in v5 too).
- Double-class characters start gaining HLAs (approximately) at 5,100,000 xp (not new; it was such in v5 too).
- Triple-Class characters start gaining HLAs (approximately) at 6,800,000 xp (this one is new in v6)

- The Negative Plane Protection spell is now working almost similar to its pnp version. In pnp, the spell protects the character only for one single shot. Now, vampires have a chance to dispel the NPP spell with each successful hit. If we wanted to make the spell work exactly similar to pnp, we should have set the dispelling probability at 100%, but we thought that 100% might be overkill and didn't go that far. Vampires used to be a joke in the vanilla game, with this change they are (hopefully) going to be as fearsome as the legends tell us.

- The spell, Melf's Acid Arrow is tweaked to inflict its entire damage instantaneously in one shot. The total amount of damage will be 2d4 + 2/three levels of the caster (capped at 18th level for 2d4 +12)

- The Stonefire and Frostreaver axes are tweaked to have a chance per hit to inflict their elemental damage (rather than 100% chance per hit which they had in the vanilla game). The amount of damage is increased instead. A similar tweak is applied to Flail of Ages (all versions) and Crom Faeyr.

- The cheesy method of hiding the silver blade somewhere in order to go to Cromwell's shop before confronting Kruin is blocked. Cromwell's shop won't be accessible as long as you haven't dealt with Kruin.

- The infinite gold exploits are removed from strongholds.

6- Fixes applied to the mod's content:

- The cosmetic battle between alibakkar and Lurraxol guards in Trademeet pub is fixed and now the alibakkar guard defends himself.

- Some elemental golems in the game had unintended immunity to 'Ray of Fragmentation' spell. The bug is fixed. (Thanks to LZJ). Those who have not installed this fix yet and want to install it right now, can find it here.

- Vigil Knights' scripts had a non-critical bug. It's fixed. (Thanks to Aegor). Those who have not installed this fix yet and want to install it right now, can find it here.

- Sunfire scrolls' descriptions fixed.

- A minor and non-critical bug in custom NPCs farewell dialogues is fixed. Those who have not installed this fix yet and want to install it right now, can find it here.

- There was one certain condition under which Ancient Dragon wouldn't drop one of his items. The item should be dropped if the protagonist qualifies the conditions to use it, but sometimes (not always) he just wouldn't drop it even when he should. The glitch is fixed now. Those who have not installed this fix yet and want to install it right now, can find it here. (Thanks to Clown for reporting the issue)

- There was a specific but rare condition under which an item might disappear from your inventory in Cromwell's shop or in Pocketplane unintendedly. The problem is fixed. Those who have not installed this fix yet and want to install it right now can find it here. (thanks to Vardaman for reporting the possible issue).

7- Improvements and Refinements (as distinct from bugfixes) applied to the mod's content:

- The difficulty of the battle with Shade Lord now varies depending on your xp.

- The battles with various (already) improved enemies are improved further.

- The Drow ambushes in underdark are toned down a bit.

- Some possible cheesy exploit and cheats while fighting with Tarnor and his party in sewers are blocked.

- Some possible cheesy exploits and cheats while fighting with Warden in planar prison are blocked.

- A minor possible exploit in spellhold blocked.

- Three more items are added to the item randomizer program.

- You won't meet monsters who require +4 weapons in spellhold.

- Dragon Lord halberd is changed a bit. It's 10% chance per hit ability to level drain is replaced with 20% chance to inflict additional Acid and Fire damage.

- Firkraag is improved even further.

- Black Dragon is improved a lot further.

- A possible cheat in the battle against Samia's party is blocked (They can't be killed before turning hostile or by casting 'Time Stop' offscreen before the battle has actually begun and while they can't see you).

- Swanmays, Greater Swanmays and Swanmay Queen are tweaked as follows:
- Swanmays and Greater Swanmays will be more different than each other.
- Swanmays and Greater Swanmays' resistances to elemental damage is decreased but their resistance to magic damage is increased a bit.
- Swanmay Queen's resistance to magic damage is increased (her resistance to elemental damage is not changed)
- All types of swanmays will be immune to protective spells which grant resistance to elemental and magic damage (they already have good resistances, but you won't be able to increase their resistances any further by buffing them with such spells).

- Some of the encounters and enemies will grant a bit less xp, but on the other hand, some resources for gaining a bit more money are added.

- High level thieves and assassins will now detect barbarians and will not waste their backstabbing attacks on them.

- Irenicus at Tree of Life is improved even further. Despite the fact that you interrupted his link to the tree, he has already stablished some links and can use the power of the tree against you during the battle. His dialogue is also revised and he will tell you about his connection with the tree.

- Summoned Elemental Princes are slightly improved. Their natural weapons (= claws) have now +4 enchantments and they fight smartly.

- A possible cheesy exploit while fighting with the Master Brain in mind flayers lair in underdark blocked (thanks to LZJ).

- Most of the enemies in the game are now bullet-proof against the timestop-melee cheat.

Revisit this topic frequently.

This post has been edited by Sikret: Jun 2 2010, 10:29 AM

[Shaitan]

Can't you improve Neb? He just stands laughing while chopped and yields 3500 xp...

[Vardaman]

How about improving the Rejiek Hidesman fight in Trademeet? He's supposed to be a mass-murderer but he and his skin dancer companion are basically the weak skeletons from High Hedge in BG1.

Maybe he could drink some potions of Invisibility and try to backstab. Both of them should have more hit points and maybe the Skin Dancer could have a negative energy or stun touch attack.

[lroumen]

What about a slightly toughened up Circus? I wouldn't make the encounter to difficult though since it's a starters quest for many players, but right now it's still far too easy.

Suggestions:
1. The commoner orcs on Level 1 (AR0604) could be doubled (from 2 to 4).

2. An added Creature on Level 2 (AR0605), something like a Phase Spider... sounds slightly Illusionistic to me and is not too tough for the party. After all, the commoner was polymorphed into a spider too.

3. Kalah in the Circus focuses his spells mainly on Quayle rather than the party and he has so few spells to begin with. It would be nice if he were to put a few minor spells on the party rather than only Quayle. I can think of the following bits.

Now: Kalah (enchanter!!! gnome, level 8) now has: Magic Missile (4), Horror (0), Monster Summoning I (1), Melf's Acid Arrow (2), Larloch's Minor Drain (0), Invisibility (Innate 1). 46HP, Base AC1, 50% resistance to missile damage

Future: Kalah should be an Illusionist gnome, level 8 gives him 5x1, 4x2, 4x3 and 3x4 spells (amount per level) due to being a specialist. Base AC10, No resistance to missiles (I have a better suggestion).
Suggestion for a tougher version:
- level 1: Magic Missile (2), Shield (1), Reflected Image (1), Spook (1)
- level 2: Stinking Cloud (1), Blur (1), Melf's Acid Arrow (2)
- level 3: Flame Arrow (1), Monster Summoning I (1), Slow (1), Protection from Normal missiles (1)
- level 4: Polymorph Other (2), Minor Sequencer (1)
- Innate: Invisibility

- Shield, Blur, Reflected Image (at start, it's a good defense)
- Magic Missile on Quayle (after starting talk)
- Stinking Cloud on the party (after the talk and after pelting 1 magic missile spell at Quayle).
- Slow on the party (some time after Stinking Cloud).
- Minor Sequencer -> Melf's Acid Arrow + Magic Missile (stored and used on party or on Quayle... his focus is still partially on Quayle after all).
- Flame Arrow (on party or on Quayle).
- Polymorph Other (not on Quayle, since he is polymorphed already).

conditional:
- Spook when attacked by melee
- Invisibility when struck by a spell
- Protection from Normal Missiles when hit by a ranged weapon
- Monster summoning after his use of Invisibility or when his shadow fiends are dead


That should toughen him up for low level parties and fix his creature file since it's a bit off. His death Creature file is disturbing btw... totally different again (Enchanter level 8 with the same mage spells but with Priest Spells as well?... strange)

[Ryel ril Ers]

I like the Kalah's idea, but it is possible that he has some mage scoll like mislead because he has a misterious master who help he create the illusion world.
I suggest mirror image to level 2, and the following scrolls:
1 mislead, 2 mirror image
He must concentrate the thief of the party because he/she the only who can dispel illusions in unlimited amount.

I suggest also not do this battle too hard because if every battle in the game modified, what the players do in the start.

[lroumen]

Mislead is a bit much though. I would prefer to keep any type of Improved Invisibility out of this battle.

This post has been edited by lroumen: Jan 7 2008, 06:47 PM

[Sikret]

- Encounter with the Amnesic Librarian in the library in spellhold.

This part (which was in progress) is now completed.

I won't send a new post every time I update the initial one; so, keep checking it frequently if you are interested in following the progress.

[Vik]

I would definately like to see Firkraag, the Red Dragon encounter improved. I thought of something like adding to the fight some challenge. As Firkraag, is old dragon he can have sons . I think adding two sons to the batlle will do great.
One of them is a sorceror and second is Fighter/Mage lvls may vary according to party lvls .
about the fight itself: his two sons will appear then you attack Firkraag and they will fight till near death and run away till they will be ready for revenge and next time they will appear in real forms of a dragon . or something like that

I thought about it because i found it strange that a party which was searching in the maze were tougher chalenge than Red dragon.

This post has been edited by Vik: Jan 21 2008, 06:43 PM

[Sikret]

The possibility to encounter Skeleton Grandlords in spellhold (who require +4 weapons to hit) has raised some questions that if a player goes there with a high level party but without any +4 weapons, he may have a very hard time defeating them, because he has to rely on Mordenkainen swords and Greater Swanmays to hit them.

As you can see in the initial post of this thread, I have modified the conditions in the favor of players a bit, but it's still in principle possible to face that problem. I have an idea for solving this problem for good, but I need your opinion on a certain point. I will write my proposal first and will ask my question afterwards:

The proposal:

I can make a new version of Skeleton Grandlord creature for spellhold. This new version will be identical with the main Skeleton Grandlord with one single exception: It can be hit by +3 weapons.

The question:

Do you think that the inconsistency of having some Skeleton Grandlords who are not immune to +3 weapons is a problem or not? I ask this, because I'm not going to make all Skeleton Grandlords vulnerable to +3 weapons. These creatures are used in other places as well and I need them to be immune to +3 weapons in general. The only problem is spellhold and the solution which occurred to me was to make a new and weaker version of the creature (with the same name) for spellhold. However, one may argue that this is an inconsistency: Skelton Grandlords are either immune to +3 weapons or they are not. It should not vary depending on where you meet them. Do you have the same impression or do you think it's not a problem to have two versions of the creature one of which is immune to +3 weapons whereas the second version is not?

Feedback and comments will be most appreciated.

Edited for typos

This post has been edited by Sikret: Jan 27 2008, 07:56 AM

[luan]

I personally don't really have a problem with it.
It's like summoning a Pit Fiend or a Balor. I wouldn't imagine every Pit Fiend/Balor in the hells or abyss to be exact clones of each other. Some are simply more powerful than others. Just as not every bhaalspawn is alike.

[Sikret]

Thanks, luan!

Another possible solution is to make an entirely new type of skeleton creature, stronger than Skeleton Lord, but weaker than Skeleton Grandlord. What do you think?

However, I have to admit that I can't find a good name for such a creature at this moment. Skeleton Cavalier or Skeleton Chevalier both did occur to me, but they have implications of "good" alignment, or am I wrong here?

Skeleton Knight is probably a valid choice, but I doubt that "knight" properly implies to be stronger than "lord".

[luan]

Well, you can simply make the ones in Spellhold "Skeleton Grandlords" and make the even more power varients "Skeleton Kings"!

[Sikret]

Well, you can simply make the ones in Spellhold "Skeleton Grandlords" and make the even more power varients "Skeleton Kings"!

If I decide to go for the solution to make a new creature with a new title, I prefer it to have a title between Lord and Grandlord (the title, "Skeleton Grandlord" is too good to be confined only to those you meet in spellhold, IMO).

I'm not sure if any of these titles will be suitable:

- Skeleton Knight
- Skeleton Overlord
- Skeleton Champion

The point is that the new title should properly indicate to be higher than Lord but below Grandlord. This requirement makes it difficult, I guess.

[Baronius]

How about Skeleton Warlord?

Warlord can be considered as the main vizier of an army or local army, but in our case, it could just mean it's a very powerful Lord. So it's a Lord, but beyond that, it's more powerful than an average Skeleton Lord.

[Raven]

How about Skeleton Warlord?

Warlord can be considered as the main vizier of an army or local army, but in our case, it could just mean it's a very powerful Lord. So it's a Lord, but beyond that, it's more powerful than an average Skeleton Lord.

I think that Warlord is a good suggestion.

But IMO it would be best if there was some distinction between the new intermediate Lord and the Grandlord beyond the vulnerability to +3 weapons, for instance that their stats/resistances were slightly different.

[Sikret]

How about Skeleton Warlord?

This is an excellent suggestion, Baronius! Thank you.

But IMO it would be best if there was some distinction between the new intermediate Lord and the Grandlord beyond the vulnerability to +3 weapons, for instance that their stats/resistances were slightly different.

I agree.

[Gorwath]

I have a suggestion based on the encounters where various skeletons are concerned.
I think that there shouldn't be alot of Skeleton Grandlords on one spot. I mean they are the best of the best and they must have a lot of minions around them but for example encountering 4 Skeleton Grandlords on one spot seems a little out of place.

I would like it if there is some sort of Skeleton War party which contains lets say:
1 Grandlord(Commander, chief whatever you want)
2-Warlords (the lieutenants of the Grandlord)
3 Lords
6 Warriors

I just think that this should be a basic encounter for people who encounter the Grandlord for the first time since they don't have to fend of multiple guys and get frustrated.

I think you could tone those encounters down when encountering the first Warlord or Lord.
You can even enhance this war party with a lich and maybe 2 Grandlords but that can be discussed.
The question is if those skeletons should still be a difficult encounter even at high levels

cheer
Gorwath

[Raven]

I would like it if there is some sort of Skeleton War party which contains lets say:
1 Grandlord(Commander, chief whatever you want)
2-Warlords (the lieutenants of the Grandlord)
3 Lords
6 Warriors

I think this is a good idea. However there is the difficulty that all these enemies look identical; there are four different types of Skeleton in your example and I imagine it could be a pain to keep track of what's what, so to speak.

[luan]

Good point. Effects could be added around them, such as the rotating green orbs on Yagashura, or even a fireshield red/blue, globe of blades, etc.

[Gorwath]

I think this is a good idea. However there is the difficulty that all these enemies look identical; there are four different types of Skeleton in your example and I imagine it could be a pain to keep track of what's what, so to speak.

I don't know if thats possible but maybe one could change the colors of the skins of the basic Skeleton warrior so that they all have different colored torsos or sth like that.

Or just like luan said, add some specific buff to them