Improved Encounters Options

[Berzerkerzz]

Buried Ambitions at Helter Stop:
https://odysee.com/@Githzerai:e/Helter-Stop-Druid-Quest:5

Kruin:
He has better gear and stats here, double the HP and uses a slightly weaker version of Body Equilibrium. What this battle really needs though is one less Elemental Golem and tougher Githyankis, it could be more fun that way.

https://odysee.com/@Githzerai:e/Kruin:8

Bodhi Hideout in Chapter 6:
I really like the way this battle came out, though it wasn't perfect as I had trouble with the vampires prioritizing targets (I still haven't figured it out yet). All the Vampires here are more resilient, particularly the named Vampires, but it's the way they are repositioned that really makes this encounter fun. There is an Eminent Vampire at the first junction and then a bat nearby slowly fleeing towards the blood pooled room thus drawing the player to the first part of the battle. The second part of the battle is in the dining hall and that's when the Guard makes his appearance as well. I could have added 1-2 more vampires at the entrance, medium difficulty like Eminent or Brides. This could be a good place to make use of some Level Drain scrolls instead of saving them all for the Orcus fight.

https://odysee.com/@Githzerai:e/Bodhi-Hideout-Chapter-6:5

This post has been edited by Berzerkerzz: Apr 9 2025, 05:16 PM

[Berzerkerzz]

Firkraag:
Dragon has over double the HP and is slightly more dangerous in it's attacks. Forgot to add raised visual effects for the Skeleton Warlords spawning, also tempted to replace one of the Skeletons with a Red Abishai in the future.

https://odysee.com/@Githzerai:e/Firkraag:f


Zallanora:
I redid this one as I felt I could do better. First off, Zallanora and Khollynnus are more resilient and more dangerous here, and now the Cowled Wizards as well. Golems are slightly more dangerous too, though very similar in stats as the Coin golems. The initially layout looks better now in my opinion, more spread out and you can actually make out what is happening and who is casting spells. I'm happy the way this one came out but there is still room for a few more improvements. I paid for the license to cast spells in the city so I can face Kruin in the Promenade but then revoked it so to speak later on.

https://odysee.com/@Githzerai:e/Zallanora:9

This post has been edited by Berzerkerzz: Apr 21 2025, 02:15 AM

[kilorew]

So whats with the changes? Are you working on an Improved Improved Anvil ?

[Berzerkerzz]

So whats with the changes? Are you working on an Improved Improved Anvil ?

Yes, I'm further improving some of the enemies and adding a few more here and there, besides that some cosmetic changes and visual effects.
Some other changes as well but they aren't actually in the game. For example no Breach or Remove Magic on enemy clerics or the Avenger with no Clan Hunter, Smilodon or Word of Wisdom.

[Berzerkerzz]

Bodhi Lair Chapter 6:
The vampires are more resilient in general and I swapped the Fledglings with Eminents for this fight. They all drain one level only, except the Masters and Lords who drain two and Bodhi drains three levels. The Kensai here got slowly lowered to level 12 and didn't die within a round to level drain effects, I think this works well so far. They way it's currently set up is for vampires to target mostly unskinned characters and wounded, though it's not set in stone yet and I'm still working their attack behavior. I also removed the gaseous form of vampires, though I will add it back once I manage to make them properly ethereal and pass through objects, in their current form they are blocking other vampires and NPCs especially here in the Lair since everything is so crammed.
Finally I added a Lich here as well though I'm still working on him, he casts a weaker version of Creeping Doom that lasts about half the normal time. Died a bit too prematurely, he was supposed to last a while longer. I did weaken Bodhi here with Holy Water, since I'm still in early-mid Chapter 6 around 4.3m EXP. She took a 100 HP hit, -4 STR and CON, slowed down her regeneration and reduced her movement speed slightly, all this for one turn.

https://odysee.com/@Githzerai:e/Bodhi-Lair-Chapter-6:f

This post has been edited by Berzerkerzz: Apr 18 2025, 09:55 PM

[Berzerkerzz]

I've redone the Zallanora fight and updated my remarks as well. Overall I'm happy the way it came out. I'm still looking for some visual effects to go with the initial spawning points. Since the spawns are not based on coordinates, I don't see how I can enable the visual effect before they actually appear.

I'll probably do Bodhi's Lair again as I want to fine tune the Lich a little bit more.

[Berzerkerzz]

Kangaxx:
It's now finally finished. It took a lot of time to get the spawn location, visual effects and the transition into his other form right but it's now done and it came out excellent considering the limited effects that are available. He curses everybody on sight and then the battle begins. He can't be pushed around with any rings anymore so that he stays in the center all throughout the fight. The only place to hide is by the entrance door but from what I can tell it's only got room for one character or maybe two, so all other PCs will be in his sight. His lich form has now PW:Kill entries, AoE entries, among other things, he is a real challenge now. The demi-lich form uses mostly Breach instead of Remove Magic for debuffing and I think it works better here. He will still cast Remove Magic if the party is too buffed. Took a lot of attempts to finish this one but I'm quite happy the way it played out now, it's been a real pleasure playing this.

https://odysee.com/@Githzerai:e/Kangaxx:a

This post has been edited by Berzerkerzz: Jul 12 2025, 09:22 PM

[Berzerkerzz]

Ancient Priest:
I had to redo this one as I knew I could squeeze more out of this encounter. The Lich is more resilient here and better equipped, he has 30% to drain two levels but his buffs slowly wane so he becomes more vulnerable towards the end. Added some effects and offsets for the spawns as well. 8 Rounds of spawns, some of which dispel protections others paralyze targets and others drain levels. Increased the AoE for Storm of Vengeance and Fire Storm here as well which makes everything more unpleasant for the player. His Purge Magic ability is now single target and he will use it every couple of rounds on each character. Took over 20 minutes which is significantly better than the initial attempt which was around 8 minutes.

https://odysee.com/@Githzerai:e/Ancient-Priest:b


Lich Priest, Altar Level:
The guardian golems get activated as soon as the Lich turns hostile. He raises two higher level Skeletons and although they drop the usual clerical scrolls they only give 4000XP. Changed the Cloak of Fear spell to run each round for four rounds in total, then I added the Symbol Weakness as 7th level spell from Spell Revisions (-4 STR/DEX/CON for 1 Turn with no save). The Lich starts out with an improved form of Stoneskin and has two in total. He was supposed to heal himself before dying but died a bit prematurely due to Critical Strikes and Whirlwind.

https://odysee.com/@Githzerai:e/Priest-Alta...Watchers-Keep:a


Statues, Altar Level:
Nothing remarkable here. All the statues here are buffed up though not by much, they also start out with a stoneskin effect and will hang around a bit longer than usual because of that. Once the ritual is complete all the statues get activated though there is a slightly delay from what I can see. Changed the Unholy Blight to affect neutral alignments as well since I have 4 neutral aligned characters in this run and I want enemy clerics to use that spell more often in general.

https://odysee.com/@Githzerai:e/Statues,-Al...Watchers-Keep:e

This post has been edited by Berzerkerzz: Jun 19 2025, 06:22 PM

[Berzerkerzz]

Chromatic Demon:
I redid this one since I realized his physical attacks are a bit too weak for this stage of the game, he does about 20 damage against Hardiness now. He has almost double the HP here and his minions have about 30% more and better thac0 as well. He also heals himself between the morphs, which are not randomized anymore btw, so that everything plays out the way it's supposed to. The morphs happen ever three rounds instead of four. Bolts of Glory didn't do anything here and they should be reworked I think, could then be useful against Liches as well. Unleash Energy did well here on the other hand. Cloud based spells are too easily countered in general and his Acid Fog could have been immediately neutralized, I wonder how this can be balanced and I'm thinking about replacing Zone of Sweet Air with something else, just an idea though for now. A level 3 spell neutralizing a level 8 spell like Incendiary Cloud, which has a casting time of 8 btw, doesn't sit right with me.
I also nerfed the Soul Reaver here since I realized it's way too powerful in certain situation and it was causing the Demon to miss every attack, instead of lasting one turn the effects now last four rounds only. I also changed the Blade Barrier and Globe of Blades spells recently and I'm happy with the changes so far, they aren't set in stone and will need some further testing to see how they behave in different situation but so far everything worked out ok.
https://odysee.com/@Githzerai:e/Chromatic-Demon:6

This post has been edited by Berzerkerzz: May 1 2025, 04:51 PM

[Berzerkerzz]

Squirreled Away:
I had to redo this one. Everybody is tougher here, more HP, better gear, higher resistances, lower thac0. Dracandros goes under Alacrity in the first round and hastes some of his friends, he now makes better use of his sequencers and contingencies as well. Pitre starts under Alacrity because the first two rounds are critical here, he casts a few Unholy Blights (affects neutral aligned too) and Sunrays (more damage) among other spells. It was a pretty good fight overall, the timings are really tight now. Took several attempts and a bit less than half an hour. Party was below 5M XP.

https://odysee.com/@Githzerai:e/Squirreled-Away:60

This post has been edited by Berzerkerzz: May 15 2025, 12:45 AM

[SparrowJacek]

Cloud based spells are too easily countered in general and his Acid Fog could have been immediately neutralized, I wonder how this can be balanced and I'm thinking about replacing Zone of Sweet Air with something else, just an idea though for now. A level 3 spell neutralizing a level 8 spell like Incendiary Cloud, which has a casting time of 8 btw, doesn't sit right with me.

You can extract specific projectiles to different 2DA files and make ZOSA have less than 100% chance to remove some of them, the opcode is suited to do so. That's a possibility, though it's mostly the enemies that are helpless against cloud spells, so I don't think we should touch that spell.

Your implementation of Kangaxx fight is really impressive Though if you were really mean, you could probably increase his vision by a bit, in order to make him see all of the area.

I also changed the Blade Barrier and Globe of Blades spells recently and I'm happy with the changes so far, they aren't set in stone and will need some further testing to see how they behave in different situation but so far everything worked out ok.

What changes did you make?

[Berzerkerzz]

Cloud based spells are too easily countered in general and his Acid Fog could have been immediately neutralized, I wonder how this can be balanced and I'm thinking about replacing Zone of Sweet Air with something else, just an idea though for now. A level 3 spell neutralizing a level 8 spell like Incendiary Cloud, which has a casting time of 8 btw, doesn't sit right with me.

You can extract specific projectiles to different 2DA files and make ZOSA have less than 100% chance to remove some of them, the opcode is suited to do so. That's a possibility, though it's mostly the enemies that are helpless against cloud spells, so I don't think we should touch that spell.

Your implementation of Kangaxx fight is really impressive Though if you were really mean, you could probably increase his vision by a bit, in order to make him see all of the area.

I also changed the Blade Barrier and Globe of Blades spells recently and I'm happy with the changes so far, they aren't set in stone and will need some further testing to see how they behave in different situation but so far everything worked out ok.

What changes did you make?

Thanks.
I removed the save on Barrier(5 feet range and party friendly) and Globes(4 feet range) then lowered the damage by a lot. It's not very effective in later parts of the game but might be more dangerous around Chapter 3 and 4. The blades seem to hit twice per round under haste, which is ok but would have been better if it did that without haste as well in order to be more consistent.
I'm still thinking about ZOSA, leaving this one for later though. To me it looks like enemy clerics have ZOSA as some type of anti-cheat measure. Anyway I wonder if I can script enemy mages and clerics to leave the cloud area if the player casts cloud based spells, just a thought I haven't looked into it yet.

[SparrowJacek]

I removed the save on Barrier(5 feet range and party friendly) and Globes(4 feet range) then lowered the damage by a lot. It's not very effective in later parts of the game but might be more dangerous around Chapter 3 and 4.

This allows for very easy abuse, you just stand next to a caster and interrupt all of his spells, they decrease enemy number of stoneskins and they ignore PFMW/Absolute Immunity and work on Improved Invisible characters. I agree that the spells are kinda weak as they are now, but I'd prefer some other approach.

The blades seem to hit twice per round under haste, which is ok but would have been better if it did that without haste as well in order to be more consistent.

Yes, all periodic opcodes apart from opcode 333 are affected by haste/slow (even Regeneration), which is a huge problem for me, as there is no pretty implementation that would ensure that these spells/effects are triggered exactly once per X seconds. I have a rework of GoB and BB to trigger only once per round, but it's very low on my todo list.
Oh and opcode 333 has many other problems so it's still best to avoid using it whenever you can.

Anyway I wonder if I can script enemy mages and clerics to leave the cloud area if the player casts cloud based spells, just a thought I haven't looked into it yet.

It's not easy and most probably won't work if more Cloud spells are cast at the same area, but I'm planning to reimplement what SCS did. It changed all Cloud spells to summon an invisible creature at the center of the cloud, so that enemies could use RunAwayFrom action. If there's a wall or another obstacle, they won't be able to deal with that and if they run away too far they might still be forced to come back into the cloud just to see our characters, but that's the best solution that you can achieve with the engine.

This post has been edited by SparrowJacek: May 4 2025, 05:38 PM

[Berzerkerzz]

Guarded Compound:
I redid this one again and now everybody is behaving properly, simplified their fleeing strategy as well. The slavers are stronger and better equipped and all of them back on AttackOneRound as AttackReevaluate simply didn't work out at all, Koshi has over -30 thac0 for example. Everybody hits here including Sion who is under Energy Blades several times throughout the battle. The Arvoreen Champion, was a bit too strong here initially and I nerfed him a little bit after this encounter, he had about -27 slashing armor so even Koshi was missing hits on him. Olaf and Maferan only hit about 4 times per round but they do some decent damage now. Sion got off his Time Stop this time followed by ADHW and Energy Blades. Stalman did well too I think, he was stalling in earlier tries as I tried to prioritize his healings. Now he casts his offensive spells without issue. He is pretty resilient for the first turn after which he slowly becomes more and more vulnerable to attacks. He got off an Earthquake spell too, which I reworked (2 Rounds of Damage only, less shaking and a different visual effect which I think is much better suited). Gave Implosion a different animation which i think is slightly better suited though far from perfect. The Assassins also have better thac0 so better chances to hit the player. Made Ketta stronger, she is a mix of a Fighter/Thief/Swashbuckler now, takes off not long after the fight starts and rejoins later on. She has very good thac0 now though not many attacks. Party was still below 5M XP here. This one took over 40 mins and several reloads, definitely a late SoA encounter now.
The video quality should be better as well and slightly more saturated, it was a bit blurry before as the resolution was not quite set correctly.

https://odysee.com/@Githzerai:e/Guarded-Compound:4

This post has been edited by Berzerkerzz: May 13 2025, 11:29 PM

[Berzerkerzz]

I removed the save on Barrier(5 feet range and party friendly) and Globes(4 feet range) then lowered the damage by a lot. It's not very effective in later parts of the game but might be more dangerous around Chapter 3 and 4.

This allows for very easy abuse, you just stand next to a caster and interrupt all of his spells, they decrease enemy number of stoneskins and they ignore PFMW/Absolute Immunity and work on Improved Invisible characters. I agree that the spells are kinda weak as they are now, but I'd prefer some other approach.

The blades seem to hit twice per round under haste, which is ok but would have been better if it did that without haste as well in order to be more consistent.

Yes, all periodic opcodes apart from opcode 333 are affected by haste/slow (even Regeneration), which is a huge problem for me, as there is no pretty implementation that would ensure that these spells/effects are triggered exactly once per X seconds. I have a rework of GoB and BB to trigger only once per round, but it's very low on my todo list.
Oh and opcode 333 has many other problems so it's still best to avoid using it whenever you can.

Anyway I wonder if I can script enemy mages and clerics to leave the cloud area if the player casts cloud based spells, just a thought I haven't looked into it yet.

It's not easy and most probably won't work if more Cloud spells are cast at the same area, but I'm planning to reimplement what SCS did. It changed all Cloud spells to summon an invisible creature at the center of the cloud, so that enemies could use RunAwayFrom action. If there's a wall or another obstacle, they won't be able to deal with that and if they run away too far they might still be forced to come back into the cloud just to see our characters, but that's the best solution that you can achieve with the engine.

Regarding clouds, it would really be about enemy casters leaving the cloud in order to not be interrupted. I don't personally use clouds often since they disrupt my own castings, whereas enemy mages have higher magic resistance than the player and could still dodge the spell failure, but perhaps in early and mid game that's different. The main issue is the player having access to a level 3 spell that can neutralize the cloud, instead of just repositioning his characters. This needs a simple solution I think.

As for Barrier and Globes, usually by the time my characters are getting closer to mages these spells either expire or get breached/dispelled. I didn't realize these spells are not blocked by PfMW and AI, perhaps adding protection from these two spells to PfMW and AI spells, would that help? As for stoneskins, I don't know what to say, it's in their description that they remove skins and I think that's fine, I also think these blades should strike twice per round ideally even when the character is not hasted but I understand the current limitations. The way I see their animation and how fast it moves, I think the game mechanics should reflect that but once per round would be fine too.

[Berzerkerzz]

This is how Globes and Barrier are set right now: Blocked by Stoneskins/Ironskins. Blocked by PfMW, Imp Mantle and Absolute Immunity. Blocked by Barrier/Globes and blocked by Shield of the Archons, so now Clerics and Mages have a very good chance to not have their spells interrupted. Clerics will refresh Shield of the Archons as well if the player casts Barrier/Blades after one turn.

Sunray: More base damage, less damage vs. undead. Essentially undead damage is the same but base damage is increased to 7D6.

Earthquake: Two rounds of damage, sleep for one round failing the save, third round is just aftershocks so no damage. Added some visual effects which are much better suited for this spell. Might add some additional fire damage if I can figure out a simple solution to it.

[SparrowJacek]

What visual effects did you use? The spell would benefit greatly from something more than just the screen shaking in terms of visuals, so it's a great idea

[Berzerkerzz]

What visual effects did you use? The spell would benefit greatly from something more than just the screen shaking in terms of visuals, so it's a great idea

The Implosion visuals, slowed down over two rounds. It's in the Guarded Compound video at min 25:00.

[Berzerkerzz]

Troll Mound:
I wanted to add some new animations for the trolls here but I haven't managed to install Infinity Animations. I downloaded the latest Master release but it doesn't have an executable and older version(5.12) doesn't seem to work with EE games. As it is right now, I just gave the King and Queen different colors. All the other trolls are stronger as well though not too much, some go down to a fireball sequencer. The Noble Trolls are bit more resilient than usual here, I removed their fleeing strategy in the end as it was too much. The King and Queen try to stick together and she heals him as well now. I did a major change here to the Troll Queen for this encounter, she is now a Druid though not just any druid. She goes under Alacrity in the first round. I had to do this encounter one more time since Fireshield or Spell Turning messed up her casting at the end in the last attempt. It came out pretty nice, I'm happy with the outcome and the way everything played out now, took several reloads to get it right. The timings are pretty tight here, the dispel magic just kept on coming though I toned that down now a little. Took over 40 minutes.

https://odysee.com/@Githzerai:e/Troll-Mound:d

This post has been edited by Berzerkerzz: May 23 2025, 10:14 PM

[morpheus562]

These are things I can do if you want. I'm going through and adding many of the new golem animations into the game (e.g., flesh, clay, stone, iron, adamantine, mithral, and shield golems) right now that you are free to use once they are released as part of Tactics Remix. If you do want the new troll animations, it will likely be a couple weeks before I have the bandwidth to make them. Also, please let me know if there is anything else from NWN that you would also want to use.

This post has been edited by morpheus562: May 17 2025, 02:57 AM