Diary of Caramip Nimbletoe, an unlikely IA player characters., Veteran mod-dweller tries on full ia_rebalance Options

[pekkae]

Prologue

Welcome. Another Journal.

Goal is the usual:
- dominate encounters
- try out new kits / changes
- still end up with something very destructive overall.
- the up above is understatement, looking to end up with something blatantly over the top, haha.

We will play with
- rotating crew memebers in the the beginning
- maxing out exp throughout
- insane all the way (at least the most difficult parts)
- there's a few fights we will skip, as in liches @ temple ruins.

Core of the crew.

Caramip Nimbletoe, Fighter/Illusionist: STR 18, DEX 18, CON 18, INT 17, WIS 17, CHA 5.
Cernd (insta-heal all throughout everything)
Sibel (either Swashie or S/F -> both would be completely new for me)
Neera (Wild Mage . also completely new for me)

So this would let me test quite a lot of the new things at once. And having a wild mage instead of a sorceror let's me also try out the new spells & abilities.

Then I’d need some more muscle on top of that and this is the most likely character we'll have.

R/C -> lots of new cleric stuff to try (with of course cheated so has access to druidic spells... superbly powerful, completely overblownly effective tank)
Paladin -> Keldorn the Inquisitor with all the new Inquisitor tweaks (EDIT. Most likely will swap Inquisitor for Wizard Slayer).

With this party we can spread the “most destructive weapons” around the party and there isn't much overlap. Main goal is still to end up with something that can just steamroll once it gets going, while trying out as much of the new stuff as possible.

"Cheats", or cheats for full transparency. I think powerwise we're still below Necro/Vagrant PC.

- Since we're not going to get any special gear (necro, vagrant etc.) we will give our F/I IA
- C/R has access to druidic spells
- We have BA questline available
- As well as extended mage strnghold + extended ranger stronghold
- I think that's it....
(edit: we also give cleric a kit, which we won't use that much ... but just to see the changes)
- Some items are treated as consumables, like blade of roses, in my game it shall give permanent +2 to charisma. same for reaching ring and some of the thieving equipment. will not micromanage those.

This post has been edited by pekkae: Jun 20 2026, 10:02 PM

[pekkae]

Start:

Chapter 0 (or maybe chapter 1, as in Irenicus Dungeon)

up exp to bg2totsc levels
join imoen
join jaheira (avenger)
join minsc (berserker)

library gives some troubles
join yoshimo for now
mephit portal, full rest before, room is haaaaaard.
do everything
get all geart
exit

start chapter 2
sell gear, monies at 8k, buy a few scrolls (flame arrow + emotion) + scroll case + potion case
exp at 230k per character or so.

do circus tent (leave +1 reputation for later)

pick up Sibel, drop Yoshimo (I think we'll pick him up later)

do the CC quests with our first actual fight:

Bestmaster is much, much tougher than I remembered - though we are playing with very limited arcane capability & handicapped offence here.

Sol. We arrive to free the slaves. Instead we meet… this guy. A self-proclaimed “Beastmaster” and his pet Tabitha, who are caging .. gibberlings?!? We have a chat: “You. You flea circus manager. We’ve seen more threatening wildlife in a mildly upset chicken coop. And that… thing you call a pet? We are looking to make mittens out of it!!" We feel terrible afterwards, animal cruelty isn't for us. We think in this case it's ok, as it was self-defence. Anyway, as long as we can interrupt CD, we're pretty good. PC with skins, ghost armour, armour + shield, blur & mirror images is a phenomenal early game tank. CS tanks Tabitha.

We survive, though it takes maybe 10 tries.

to docks
loot thieves guild
start find proof of mae'vars treatchury
loot mae var
pick up full plate from slaver @ sea's bounty

to city gates
pick of location of trademeet

to temple district
start cult of the eyeless
start sir sarles
visit talo's temple & buy belt
start anarg & fallen paladins

back to docks
mae'var, the talos thing

to bridge district
start skinner murders
pick up horn
loot saerk farrah estate

***
monies almost at 30k
****

solve skinner murders
Long story short, max prebuffs, summon CS + some ogrillons. Grotesque Creature hits hard, looks worse. PC just tanks it at -17 vs crushing and is not even close to being hit at any point - we almost feel bad for it. Almost. We throw everything we have at the enemies, it’s enough. Done. Efficient. Sibel gets stunned. PC under free action doesn't

visit temple and buy 4 points of reputation (1200,1500,2000,2500)
meet neera
meet with anarg's lieutenant (de chatellion or what's hid name)
meet neera in the intersection

to temple district
pick up nicklace from talos's temple
pick up anarg's cup
whack fallen paladins
return cup
do rest of mae'var things
rayic gethras + rest of mar'var questline
whack nmae'var (we're already op for this)
refuse stronghold
get nice sword


****
we're about 460k exp. monies at 44k. we still have oodles of stuff to sell. maybe I should pickup Neera next.

(edit: we don't pick up Neera yet but we ocntinue our escapades in amn
****

save viccy
save jan
talk to sir sarles
visit ore merchant
upgrade silver horn to bronze horn
whack neb (cutpurse sells minor sequencers, we buy 2)
return head
reputation at 18 and we haven't left amn yet
meet sir sarles
visit temple
start "another mission from the temple"

****
I think we're ready to travel out from amn, we have been succesfully avoiding the suna seni fight thusfar. We're a little low on muscle & arcane casting powers, but let's see how this goes.

party at 480k exp. next up, pick up cernd, maybe pickup neera as well? if we pick neera we should definitely pick up those high level summon spells, for they can NRD'ed.

we're in dire need of charisma, haha.
****

windspear hills
start rescue garren's child
return acorns
whack werewolves

trademeet
pink up 1000 gp + 1000 exp from the tent
start animal trouble in trademeet
meet genies
pick up cernd

****
Here we realize a few things.

1st. We should have gone to Umar HIlls before, since we're most likely going to need the shield of the lost (or what's it's name).

The 2nd thing we realize is that we haven't accounted for Mithril Golem - we do not know how to play it, since regen doesn't stack anymore. Argh. this might be a problem.

The 3rd thing we realize here is that with ia_rebalance changes Wizard Slayer isn't that far APR wise from the Inquisitor. So we're probably not going to play Keldorn the inquisitor but Keldorn the Wizard Slayer. Or maybe Dorn the Wizard Slayer, or ... maybe Minsc the Wizard Slayer. That also means that Ultimate Plate Armour doesn't go to "waste" as it does a little bit if it's with R/C, who's protected enough even without it. The only things we need to adjust here is that we're not going with the "non-hasted" WS version. We need to upgrade the speed, I just don't know how it can be done. Normally I would just give WS access to boots of speed, but since WS has it's own boots I can't do it like that. Let's see.
****

druid grove
max buffs, a few elemttals, haste everything and storm through
faldron falls to 3x flame arrow
start BA
druid grove part (Nilthiri)
sibel makes a level, olé!
whack the rakshasha, adratha or what's her name

return to trademeet
finish genies
finish animal trouble
helpin' tiris in trademeet launches immediately, that's nice

to umar hills
do mimic's blood
mae'var questline
invdstigate deaths at umar hills, get shadow temple location

****
hmh. maybe we should do de'arnise keep here? even though we are very limited with our casting ability.
****

we visit trademeet and pick up staff +3 & staff of striking (in order to hit tor'gal).

so, de arnise keep we go.
great yuan ti + wp: max prebuffs, whack spider immediately + just breach yan-ti.
we get 4 spiders from glaecus or what's his name
keep viper tests our limits, we just make it.
we have a look at tor'gal and... oh boy. it won't be pretty. there's the noble trolls - I was hopin' our exp would be so low that they wouldn't appear yet.

We don't make it. It's too much. After 10 tries we give up. Our h2h capabilities are in practice awful, we need a lot more muscle here in order to have a go here. in addition we screw up the saved games so we end up loading a game from before starting the de'arnise keep. We'll be back later when we have more than 1 fighter to dish out damage.

****

A few thoughts on WS vs Keldorn.

We do a bit more play testing and!!! Mein got!!! We're SOOOOOO going for the Wizard Slayer!!!!!

While Keldorn with the right equipment is a complete monster (like pointed out in the thread) we are here to completely dominate. As far as I can tell (and count) the WS can dish out 200pts of damage per round and gets to adequate number of attacks, so it doens't even lose out that much to a "traditional" fighter type like 6.5 Barbarian or so. And it even has special abilities vs. golems, which should work very nicely towards our favor.

But the thing is, in my original thinking I saw WS as being major help in a handful of fights, but I think I was just dead wrong. I think WS will be superbly overly useful easily in the majority of the fights. What it should do is it lets me skip out a lot of difficulty in the game while losing out only a notch to a more traditional fighter type.

The only thing that really bugs me is that it's too slow to play, I won't make it through the game with a WS slouching behind the crew as it's not fun - so to balance it out I think I'll just make it go a little bit faster. If I recall correctly regular speed is about 9, hasted 18 - so will probably give the WS a speed of 15 or 16 or so. That way it's still slow, behinf everything but it won't be waaaay behind everything else as in "not even useful" with my style.

I think that's an ok balance while I do appreaciate the overall work the team has done for that specific Kit and I do get that that downside is sort of required.
****


to amn
do cernd's child
suna seni, we do here - whack cleric, emotion + spell thrust for mage
go to graveyard
start kidnappers who buried tirdir
start wellyn
clear surface area + smaller crypts
we are sooo short on h2h capabilities it's almost embarrasing. we're still with 5 characters & we have just 1 fighter (minsc the berserker). as avenger has been nerfed it's somewhat useless in a lot of the fights.
pick up renfeld's body

start find out what happened to montaron
pick up littleman
pick-upo hexxat/clara (or what her name)
return littleman
whack dragomir, rescue hexxat
clear some spiders
prebek's house
baron ployer
harper hold ambush #1 (galvarey)

***
we visit cromwells and come back with improved yeti hide, which doesn't seem to stack with other equipment. it's a bit shame, that's why we forged it. (I could replace with something but let's see...)
***

finish find the kidnappers who buried tirdir
visit graveyeard and do rest of the crypts and the small quests
clear lower tombs as well

***
We're at about 770k-780k of exp. Next up possibly Neera's / Hexxat's / Rasaad's questlines, or maybe all 3. Or possibly we could do Korgan + Jan Jansen quests here, but let's see. That would get us quite close to getting 6th leel mage spells meaning a major power up. But if we take the wizard slayer route our major level up power wise is soming at 2mexp. So we'll be waiting for that I think.
***

***
[continuing after a break]

we can't really do proper quests here, for we lack the h2h prowess. hmh

***
so pick of rasaad from trademeet
go to abandoned amphoteater
heretic temple (try to max out as much as possible)
drop rasaad, whack the remaining heretics
to grove
whack some harpers (jaheira's things trigger here)
sleep in the grove to get marek quest
whack chaos

***
give all characters +10k exp points, that are missing
***

we pick up hexxat
fast forward the cabrina trigger
sleep, sibel launches here
do claw of the black leopard
and immediately shroud of the unproved
we don't bother with anything, max buffs and whack everything as fast as possible
hexxa leaves for cc to meet cabrina

***
now it's either neera's stuff or sibel's stuffs. hmh.
****

pick up korgan
visit tomb
visit pimlico's
whack creq on top of cc
jaheira triggers, so we meet with dermin, she leaves, we pick her up & do the final fight
meet with terminsel, get the pin & drop jaheira

****
So. sibel's triggered and neera is still to start. we're about 930kexp or so. without doing any major quests yet.

We pick up Yoshimo (he's now a multiclass F/T and turn Minsc into a R/C multiclass (with a kitted cleric with superpowers we won't use, but a few nice additional spells). Since F/T can get 3* in 2H Weapon style, but it doesn't give out the 1/2 APR, we add it manually. Yoshimo looks immediately like a stud. Nice.

Next up, pick up Neera (so we'll be 6 after Neera joins), and then we're off to get Sibel her superpowers. Not sure if we should do something else here? maybe jan jansen questline? or anomen's? That's tiny amount of EXP to gain. We also have a few easy exp gains as in jumping to chapter 3 & doing Aran's tasks.

our plan is to keep Yoshimo until spellhold and then drop him for Imoen the Wizard Slayer. Though would love to a few quests with a WS even before that - e.g. Samia + Liches @ Temple Ruins.
****

so, we drop yoshimo
and pick up wilson! (the first for me!!)
go to wild forest
pick up neera
do all hidden refuge quests
drop wilson to hidden refuge
since we're in the vicinity we jump to wk
sibel's village
max out coins, craft sibels's stuff, talk to reginald, get blessing, ambush, book, and we go.
since we're here, buy numerous scrolls for neera from vigil knights
pick up yoshimo (the F/T)
chapter 3

****
1,1-1,2mexp per character, not sure if we've sold anything. looks like we could start doing some of the proper quests here.
****

we do slavers here, it takes a few tries -the enemy cleric has new tricks ole!
mook
to temple district and cult of the eyeless
we get undead, instead of yuan-ti - that's nice
ashideena guardians while we're at it
we don't have a single pure warrior, but we seem to be quite good damage deadling wise
whack beholders (triple emotion is quite nice here)
whack as meny cultists as possible
de'arnise keep
tor'gal requires numerous tries, but we make it at try #4 or so.

****
crew almost at 1.5mexp. i think we've done 2 quests. there's no way I can fit everything before spellhold, that I'd need to do. argh.
****


cleric1 finishes
temple ruins
skip liches
whack thax, is it much, much harder now or am i hallucinating?
breeze through shade lord (r/c tanks throughout)
cleric2
forge shadow ankheg armour
ranger 1
de'arnise keep 1
cleric 3
ranger 2
cleric4 (whack the talos)
keep 2
keep 3
keep 4
start umar withc here, so I won't miss it.
start squirreled away
do borinali here (ring of locks picks here, how nice!)
guld contacts here

****
neera is 25k away from level 7 spells. stuff we need to do before spellhold

- ba
- screaming statue
- pirates cave (only because cernd needs his stuffs)
- planar sphere
- pai'na (probably, then we can fught spider queen post spellhold, pre-kruin).


stuff we need to postpone after spellhold, I think
- belm
- graveyard king & queeen
- mencar pebblecrusher
- sewer gang
- mekrath's lair
- limited wish questline
- planar prison
- fiescue garren's child (at least some parts of it)
- firkraag
- lilarcor.
- sewer lich
- de'arnise keep part 5-->
- umar witch
- kangaxx + elemental liches or whats their name

*****

WE go to graveyeard and fiinish bodhi, with improved npp it's rather straightforward
we meet a druid at docks, but the dialogueis broken
windspear hills to the dungeon. we have fits with the 1st golem party. argh. pick up note.
back to grove
We do BA & Jagdu here (we had 1 RRoR scroll left, we used it here)
next sibel thing triggers right after BA map switches back to normal trademeet map
we visit grove and talk to master druid
visit umar hills to talk to squirrel and het hazelnuts
visit de'arnise keep (roenall is there)
drop yoshimo to cc
back to umar hills, pick scrolls + valygar
go to government district, show valygar to tolgerias - who teleports away
talk to corneil who informs us that dradeel is in spellhold
open sphere, drop valygar
we cheat here, as Lavok has ST+GOI+SI:Abjuration and we have only 2 RRoR's (Both with Neera). And we need a RRoR scroll.
whack the demons at the demons plane
finish sphere and we're above 2mexp

****
drop F/T and welcome WIZARD SLAYER - YAAAAAYYYYYYYYY
****

rest - whack pirates, purge & muahaha.
visit sphere, get belt, turbocharge apprenti forging (it's APPRENTIBUILDTIMER)
get reaching ring, ole!

****
we forge: Cernd' cloak + ring of burglary here. Ring of burglary doesn't stack with normal ring of protection, that's a shame.

we're almost at 2.2mexp. the spellhold limit is getting real close now. we have screaming statue, pai'na and samia to go.
****

samia, more difficult than I thought even with a wizard slayer on board. samia attacks if you giver her the key back, I think that's a nice route to do here. anyway, WS helps immensily here even though we end up using the "trick with true sight" then storm for Kaol. we get 2 scrolls of absolute immunity. nice.
next, forging

***
we forge water's edge +4, druidic circlet, 3 pairs of boots of speed.

we're completely out of monies but we figure out we need to get the druid potion, so we sell everything we can and make +50k more.
***

mage stronghold, ceremony
we go to forge druid potion (we'd want to have 7th level spells for screaming statue) - but we don't have a manual of elaboration?!? (the one we got went somewhere. luckily I now where one is & we have just the right type of powers to blast through it).
but first, to bridge district and hand out nuts
sleep, slay city gates lich (ws dominates)
forge cern'd potion
go to bridge district to sleep, whack some exterminators
while we're at it, we hop to graveyard & whack pai'na
(we have alook at orcus, ooooooh, it looks nice - but why can't we have skull traps?!?!?)
cernd takes his potion and he's +2,5mexp
then to temple district & screaming statue, with cernd & 7th level spells. we just breeze thru' well, master vampire is tough to kill. but other than that we're pretty good.
I am missing a kensai here, oh boy.
then we're off to brynnlaw. PC at 2.275 exp, it's real tight .... rargh.

****
so much stuff left to fo post spellhold: writing this up here so I don't have to remember it all.

- graveyard king & queeen
- the dualling families of trademeet
- mencar pebblecrusher
- sewer gang
- mekrath's lair
- limited wish questline
- planar prison
- firkraag & rescue garren's child
- lilarcor
- mage stronghold quests (apperentices are finished)
- de'arnise keep
- umar witch
- everything at wk

****
chapter 4

we whack dwarf
buy potions & belt from temple of umberlee
do "island concerns"
turn galvena into a chickecn & milk all guards
only 1 coin at perth (perth drops two additional cloaks of mystra, now I have 3)
whack trolls & shadows & wraiths at spellhold
desharik send us to spellhold
drop Yoshimo the wizard slayer and
join imoen the Wizard Slayer.

***
we're 30k exp over the improved spellhold limit. we still do the easier version.
***

***
end journal part 1 with a short analysis:

This run has been much fun, again.

A few thoughts so far.

Wild Mage seems like a super nice character to have around. NRD is superbly powerful, and it's been fun to try out the new spells and abilities. Definitely a keeper.

Wizard Slayer has been the other big surprise. Making toughness go away is superbly useful, and the kit is just a lot of fun to play. The downside is the movement speed, though. I simply won't play a WS dragging along behind the rest of the crew. I've given Imoen speed 14 (assuming 9 is normal and 18 is hasted), so she's still slower than everyone else but at least playable. I think that's a fair compromise.

The new skills are really nice as well, even though we've only seen a glimpse of them so far. There's a lot more to explore here.

Overall, I think the game feels more balanced now. There are a few additional resources around, such as Permanency scrolls, which give you some more options. Let's see how this develops as we get further into the game.

One thing that really stands out is how much you need to plan in chapters 2–3. It's simply impossible to fit everything in before Spellhold, so you really have to think about what you want to do and what can wait. I've always found it difficult to balance the XP here. Since there's only a limited amount of XP to be gained from Brynnlaw, I think the better checkpoint is when going for chapter 4. That should be much easier to control.

Our crew is also having some trouble with the lack of proper fighters. Having half-a-fighters is all fun and games until you actually need to dish out some serious melee damage. And now that we've lost the Bhaal powers, things are getting even more interesting. We've just lost DUHM, and we have only limited ways of improving Strength. Let's see how this goes.

Still, I expect the crew to be more powerful in the end. We just need to push through this phase and get to the good stuff.

I'm expecting a breeze through the Spellhold maze, followed by some nice areas to play through. The Underdark isn't particularly intimidating either, since we know how to deal with most of the encounters there. The Wizard Slayer should also be a nice addition against the dracolichy.

And then there's the R/C. Even though we're double-cheating it with access to druidic spells and Blessed Bracers, it's an absolute monster. Some combinations are just ridiculously effective, haha.

And since we we're with a F/T for most parts of chapter 2-3, it as well looks like a really playable character now. Our F/T mostly picked open locks & finds traps and after that focusing solely on "pick pockets", and it turned out quite powerful! The new changes bring a nice balance and make the thief class potent & dangerous, even though we had the half-a-fighter version we took along! It's a real shame the ring of burglary doesn't stack with the rings of protection, as it definitely looks like an item that should - in my book at least .

All in all, this has been a fun run so far. The Wizard Slayer is much more fun than I expected, the Wild Mage is looking very promising, and there's still a lot of new stuff to explore. The next stretch should be interesting, especially with our somewhat unusual party composition.

our crew, in it's final form:

PC F/I
Cernd as Cernd (who just got his superpowers!)
Neera as Wild Mage (I think she'll be ridiculously effective very soon)
Sibel Swashbuckler/Fighter version (Expecting her to be ridiculously good once we get thieving skills back)
Minsc as a Ranger/Cleric (ridiculously good tank)
Imoen as a Wizard Slayer (superbly useful)

This post has been edited by pekkae: Oct 13 2026, 08:38 PM

[pekkae]

Next chapters, unused for now.

[pekkae]

Unused for now.

[pekkae]

next chapters unused for now

[pekkae]

Notes, listed here for convenience so they won't be scattered around.

- Aerie the Shaman has mage avatar & she's also wearing mage gear
- Tabitha's Hide / armor doesn't fit into a bag of holding (most likely resolved)
- CERND has -4 to con & -4 to str (effects related to auramaster kit)
- The Shadow's Blade (from rejecting thieves guild) cannot be equipped in off-hand?
- 1st ambush at harper hold, galvarey -> they all die from death spell but it also destroyes all gear & doesn't give any exp?
- improved yeti hide cloak says the bonuses stack, but they don't. i wear a full plate, ring of protection +1 and yeti hide and the only thing that is counted is the yeti hide (we lose out on the ring of protection +1)

*** [new]
- chaos doesn't drop chaos essence?
- finishing chaos quest doesn't give 20k exp points, it only gives 10k exp points?
- giving a character 3* in 2H style doesn't give the character an additional 1/2APR (EDIT: it did, this isn't correct)
- druid that comes to give us clues at docks (chapter 3, at 1.7mexp) says "NO VALID REPLIES OR LINKS" and the dialogue ends.
- Perth drops 2 additional cloaks of Mystra? We had already one from Samia fight (Kaol maybe?) do we need 3 for something?

This post has been edited by pekkae: Oct 13 2026, 07:30 PM

[SparrowJacek]

- Tabitha's Hide doesn't fit into a bag of holding
- Mail of the dead doesn't fit into bag of holding

Which Bag of Holding did you use and how did you obtain it? All BoHs and merchants should properly interact with these items, however the item types they can buy are put into save files. So for example, if you did not have IATweaks properly installed when starting the game, then the BoH you find in Irenicus Dungeon might have vanilla settings, which are not updated after reinstall, and its vanilla version is put into your save. Other such iems/stores will act properly.

This post has been edited by SparrowJacek: Jun 16 2026, 11:57 AM

[pekkae]

Which Bag of Holding did you use and how did you obtain it? All BoHs and merchants should properly interact with these items, however the item types they can buy are put into save files. So for example, if you did not have IATweaks properly installed when starting the game, then the BoH you find in Irenicus Dungeon might have vanilla settings, which are not updated after reinstall, and its vanilla version is put into your save. Other such iems/stores will act properly.

The one form Irenicus's dungeon.

That sounds plausible, I had to do multiple re-installs of the mods because I missed multiple strongholds (I didn't have that installed when starting the game) and then had to re-install ia_tweaks numerous times.

I hope that doesn't mix up the game too much.

[SparrowJacek]

All new areas and all of their content should be unaffected and scripts/dialogues can be patched dynamically, even if you've already visited an area/talked to a character (they're not put into save files), so I don't think you have to worry.

But just to ensure that the merchants/BoHs work OK in general, can you sell an armor to any merchant in Athkatla and check if you can put armors into S!BAG01 and BAG04 files (obtained via console)?

[pekkae]

All new areas and all of their content should be unaffected and scripts/dialogues can be patched dynamically, even if you've already visited an area/talked to a character (they're not put into save files), so I don't think you have to worry.

But just to ensure that the merchants/BoHs work OK in general, can you sell an armor to any merchant in Athkatla and check if you can put armors into S!BAG01 and BAG04 files (obtained via console)?

Alright!

But no, can't sell armors to any merchants, but some do accept armors.

S!BAG04 doesn't accept armors but S!BAG01 does.

[SparrowJacek]

But no, can't sell armors to any merchants, but some do accept armors.

Can you check a merchant from an area you haven't visited yet? When did you perform the reinstall?

S!BAG04 doesn't accept armors but S!BAG01 does.

That's good. S!bag4 is tied to a store with the same name(yes, under the hood all containers are just stores), no matter if it's a new instance of the item or not, so the only way of allowing it to keep armors would be to edit the save file. But since s!bag01 works, that means that the patches to stores were installed properly.

[pekkae]

Not sure when I re-installed.

All merchants i.e. in Umar Hills work fine.

[pekkae]

Can I somehow revert Damascus Steel Blade to the "original one".

As far as I understand, I now have 2 damascus steel blade files (one from Sibel & one from ia_tweaks).

I think it's less micromanagement for me just to revert it back to the original? But is that doable easily? (can i just copy the file from the sibel mod somewhere or so?)

Thanks again !!

[SparrowJacek]

Can I somehow revert Damascus Steel Blade to the "original one".

As far as I understand, I now have 2 damascus steel blade files (one from Sibel & one from ia_tweaks).

IA_tweaks patches the file, so there's still just 1 DSB file (s!ssw01). The item is also updated with logic regarding +1/2APR when the wielder has *** in 2h, so simply copying the file from Sibel-mod into the override won't work properly.

Probably the easiest way to get non-changed version is to install option 2 of IA_tweaks instead of option 4, as it avoids rebalancing Lady Elowen's creations altogether and I know you like your powerful items

Another way would be to open file:
IATweaks\lib\components\IA_rebalancing\sibel_items.tph
in some kind of text editor and remove the part related to DSB, look for "Damascus Steel Blade" or simply "s!ssw01". The only problem with that is that you'll have to make that change every time you download a version of the mod with new fixes.

This post has been edited by SparrowJacek: Jun 17 2026, 03:09 PM

[pekkae]

IA_tweaks patches the file, so there's still just 1 DSB file (s!ssw01). The item is also updated with logic regarding +1/2APR when the wielder has *** in 2h, so simply copying the file from Sibel-mod into the override won't work properly.

Probably the easiest way to get non-changed version is to install option 2 of IA_tweaks instead of option 4, as it avoids rebalancing Lady Elowen's creations altogether and I know you like your powerful items

Another way would be to open file:
IATweaks\lib\components\IA_rebalancing\sibel_items.tph
in some kind of text editor and remove the part related to DSB, look for "Damascus Steel Blade" or simply "s!ssw01". The only problem with that is that you'll have to make that change every time you download a version of the mod with new fixes.

Alright. If there's changes about *** in 2h with the sword itself, then I won't make those changes.

The problem with installing #2 of ia_rebalance is that it then changes a few other key items as well, like the ranger boots. and the sibel ioun stone thingy.

I'm looking to play with the full changes, haha

[SparrowJacek]

The 3rd thing we realize here is that with ia_rebalance changes Wizard Slayer isn't that far APR wise from the Inquisitor.

That is true only until you get HLAs, then all non-WS warriors get a huge boost to APR, Inquisitor with unnerfed DSB can even reach 10APR for a short while and consistent 8, or 9 (with Paladin Gloves) for a longer period of time, while WS can only get 4,5APR (right?).

Also unnerfed DSB with Keldorn armor will deal massive damage probably on par with Kensai.

This post has been edited by SparrowJacek: Jun 21 2026, 01:37 AM

[SparrowJacek]

Inquisitor with unnerfed DSB can even reach 10APR for a short while

With reworked Whirlwind Attack

and consistent 8, or 9 (with Paladin Gloves) for a longer period of time

With reworked War Cry

We need to upgrade the speed, I just don't know how it can be done. Normally I would just give WS access to boots of speed, but since WS has it's own boots I can't do it like that.

If you want, I can prepare a spell that will permanently increase his movement speed, or add the effect to the creature directly of you send me a save file

CERND has -4 to con & -4 to str (effects related to auramaster kit)

Yes, that penalty to stats was reworked, as previously it was too easy to just equip an item, drink a potion or cast a spell to temporarily or permanently get rid of that negative effect.

[pekkae]

Inquisitor with unnerfed DSB can even reach 10APR for a short while

With reworked Whirlwind Attack

and consistent 8, or 9 (with Paladin Gloves) for a longer period of time

With reworked War Cry

We need to upgrade the speed, I just don't know how it can be done. Normally I would just give WS access to boots of speed, but since WS has it's own boots I can't do it like that.

If you want, I can prepare a spell that will permanently increase his movement speed, or add the effect to the creature directly of you send me a save file

CERND has -4 to con & -4 to str (effects related to auramaster kit)

Yes, that penalty to stats was reworked, as previously it was too easy to just equip an item, drink a potion or cast a spell to temporarily or permanently get rid of that negative effect.

Thanks a lot Jacek!

Added some thoughts about WS to the thread itself.

The thing about Cernd is that now he has 9 str + 9 con and he can't equip his own items anymore.

[SparrowJacek]

The thing about Cernd is that now he has 9 str + 9 con and he can't equip his own items anymore.

You're right, the effect got applied twice, it's fixed now.

- The Shadow's Blade (from rejecting thieves guild) cannot be equipped in off-hand?

Yes, it's stated in its description. A few items that grant bonuses to Stealth Strike and Seeking Sword (which is now a standard equippable item). Is that problematic in any way?

[pekkae]

If you want, I can prepare a spell that will permanently increase his movement speed, or add the effect to the creature directly of you send me a save file smile.gif

Thanks! I'll keep this in mind if I need it.

Yes, it's stated in its description. A few items that grant bonuses to Stealth Strike and Seeking Sword (which is now a standard equippable item). Is that problematic in any way?

Right. I just assumed it was the same sword as before.

I think it's ok, just a minor thing - now I can't use it for offhand for Nalia, which would give her 2 weapons +3 quite early on (that blade + long sword +3 from enhanced weapon).