Just a note - IA's forging requires a lot of diamonds but almost no other expensive gems (sapphires, king's tears, etc.).

It would be nice to use also rings/necklesses in forging of items. And I would like to second Ardanis's statement.

I would like to see an improved Long Bow:
Elven court Bow
Breach scroll
permanency scroll
50.000
10 jasper gems

gives improved elven court bow +4
arrows also grants 1 point of chrusing dmg

Something like that. Anyway I feel there's need for an upgradable long Bow

Boots of the Unstoppable Runner
Haste & Free Action

Mantle of Invisibility
Req:
-Cloak of Protection +2
-5 Scrolls of Improved Invisibility
-Permanency Scroll
-x gold
Grants permanent Improved Invisibility to the wearer.
After a invisbility purging effect takes place the mantles magic is disabled for 2 rounds.

Gloves of Purity
Increases the number of spells cast per round by one.

Only useable by clerics.

Cloak of Thousand Gems +[1 2 3 4]
Req:
- That charisma cloak at Mae'Var or its previous upgrade
- [1 2 3 4] Rogue Stones, Kings'tears, Smaragds, Diamonds,.. ?
- 20.000 gold
- Permanency scroll //only the first time

Grants 30% damage resistance to magial weapons of +1 +2 +3 +4 and lower.
+[ 1 2 3 4] to charisma.
Or maybe as a full fledged armor?


Longbow of Spiders +3
Req:
-Elven Court Bow
-5 Scrolls of Web
-Scroll of Free Action
-Permanency Scroll
-x gold

Grants immunity to web and entangle.
10% Chance to web the target(no save) for 1 round.

Or no upgrade at all and give it to Illasera


Metabolism Armor +2 (Leather)

Haste and hp Regeneration

Only useable by druids.

Metabolism Armor +5

Improved Haste and hp Regeneration

As for gem ingredients (other than Diamonds):



Did I really have to copy and paste all of these here? You could review the documentation yourself. (Though, it's also probable that it was just a test to see if I even look at this topic or not, eh? )

got it

Heh, no need to copy/paste. What I've said was based upon detailed studying of list. Yes, there is a lot of diamonds required and almost nothing (compared to them) of other high valued gems: two dozen of diamonds, ~ten RSs, very few sapphires and KTs, ~5 emeralds. Besides I see no use for last ones, since they are required for forges that unlikely will be needed. The same about "of Protection" things - there is a number +2 of them already in game.

In case it's still not clear - Charname's pack will always contain sapphires, emeralds, and RSs but not diamonds.

I suggest that you play the mod, Ardanis! (if you see what I mean)

Two of the upgrades which require totally 10 diamonds, are very difficult (and expensive) upgrades which require other hard-to-attain components. Your main problem for forging them will never be lack of diamonds but lack of their other and more important ingredients (and money as well):



Now, if you decrease these 10 diamonds from the two dozens diamonds of the list, you will have 14 diamonds left which are required for other (less difficult) item upgrades. Are you actually playing the mod in practice? I don't see the point of complaining about the number of diamonds at all. They can hardly prevent a player from enjoying the game and the mod.

I feel you've got it wrong way
I meant - should I get a lots of diamonds I can use them for forging (20 is a fair amount nevertheless) while other gems - in fact only for selling. Gold is already a valuable resource, why not ro make the same with gems?
That's what I'm pointing at - it's not a problem to get enough gems. And thus - it's less funny.

+5 throwing warhammer of acid does 2d4+5 damage +1d6 acid damage, can also be used in melee (doing so does not penalize AC), speed factor 1

An alternate ranged weapon that does crushing damage. Trade in Bloodbane (Red Badge of Tactics) for this one.

Notice there aren't many Chain mail/Splint mail upgrades. Seems there are better leathers available!
Even in unmodded BG there weren't many good mail options.

Maybe something to further personify barbarians or even make fighter classes consider using chain.

Supreme Chain Mail +6
Red Dragon Scales
Barbarian Essence
2 Kings Tears
2 Diamonds
5 Potions of regeneration
Scroll of Protection from Normal Weapons
Scroll of Protection from Magical Weapons
Scroll of Protection from Normal Missiles
Manual of Elaboration
150,000 Gold

->

War Chain of the Barbarian Lords
Armor Class: -2
+40% Resistance to Fire
+1 Strength, +1 Constitution
20% resistance to physical damage
Regenerates 1 hit point per round
Immunity to slow and fatigue
Requires 19 Strength
Weight: 7
Not Usable By:
Lawful characters

A more magically styled chain:

Supreme Chain Mail +6
Kaligun's Amulet of Magic Resistance
2 Amulets of Protection
2 Potions of Magic Shielding
2 Potions of Magic Protection
6 Diamonds
Manual of Elaboration
150,000 Gold

->

Diamond Link Mail
Armor Class: -2
+50% Resistance to Fire, Electricity, and Ice
+25% Magic Resistance
+5 to all saving throws
Immunity to all mind affecting spells
+20% chance that an enemy spell will be absorbed and heal the user for 20 hit points
Weight: 7

The Real Hesperus
The same or similar to Hesperus as described. Although Sunray torched undead in the regular game, many of the tough undead seem very resistant - MR or immunity. Triple damage doesn't mean squat when you are not getting through the liches defenses.

The improvement: 10% of the time the strike will penetrate all defenses of an undead target, including protection from magical weapons. None of the defenses are dispelled, but you are insured a hit 10% of the time.

...I have no idea if there is any way to script this ability into the game engine, but it would be nice.

Since Divine Remix limits druids to leather I'm sorely lacking in my accustomed ability to drop Jahiera's AC enough so she can effectively tank once her Ironskins is beaten down. She's wearing Aeger's Hide right now, but it would be very nice to be able to make a special armor for her since she doesn't get any special items at all. Unfortunately most of the available leather armors are utilized for either thieves or Valygar. So perhaps starting with:

Leather +3
Helmet of Charm Protection
Harper pin
3 piles of Adamantium dust
Amulet of Protection +1
Scroll of PfNW
Scroll of PfMW
2 Emeralds
10,000 gp

yields
Nature's Defender
AC-2
Saves +1
Immune to charm

This isn't anywhere near as good as Valygar's armor, but doesn't cost anywhere near as much, in either items or gold.

One of the things that seem to have been overlooked when Sikret deprecated the ItemUpgrade mod were a number of convenience oriented item upgrades. These aren't necessarily all that powerful, but do consolidate abilities of various items. Seeing these adapted for IA would be nice for 4.3 if Sikret thinks that they're worthwhile. I'd recommend a second look at the Amulet of Ilmater, Rings of Preservation, Quivers/Case/Bag of Plenty +3, Enhanced Robe of the Archmage, Aeger's Hide +5 and the Sorcerian Ring. Some of these would have to be modified a bit, but I think that they would all be useful.

How about dakkons zerth blade ?

Mayhap a certain component say "The Circle of Zerthimon " which gets given to the protagonist by kurin -non drop able- in exchange for "doing teh right thing" RE the silver sword ?

I'm thinking a proper implimentation of the concept of the blade from planescape torment - which frankly was lost in the BG2 version of the blade.

So a item that can only be used by a protaginst with a suitably high wisdom score , which leads to the prob "bonding" with the blade and then increasing its stats at various points - maybe a combination of unlocking various circles in combo with gaining level status ?

The END result being a +5 blade which while doesn't add strength bonus to damage , can hit ALL monsters regardless of damage type / resistance - unless protected by absolute immunity / prot. magical weapons that is .

That's the only factor I'd like to see tweaked in that regard - the other bonuses should be scalable , but not to a point where the sword wields the player and not the other way around the whole point is to add the content , maybe even a limbo related quest as part of "activating" the sword / unlocking the mystery - insert improved gith encounter as needed , not creating yet another "judgement day" . Not a bad thing , JD that is , but its already implemented , so why repeat?

o Mebe make it a risk breaker only sword ? <- random idea

Note 1: I play a kensai protagonist and felt that getting the judgment day sword would be worth my effort for my first complete run through of Improved Anvil. It took several reloads and a lot of time, but I finally succeeded. I truly believe that this artifact weapon saved me time in the long run. I’d suggest keeping this weapon in the game. It has a nice background story and a brutal final battle to keep it. Thereafter, this sword is of tremendous value for people like me to make it through ToB.

Note 2: I would like to suggest a weapon that is useful for “weaning” off the judgment day sword. This weapon may be more powerful than other weapons, but is a lot less powerful than the judgment day sword. I’m sure a monstrous foe would guard it (or its ingredients). This weapon would be for fighters only and would provide them with their own defensive magic. I like flails for my dwarven kensai hero and would like to pair it with the flail of ages. So:

+5 Flail of Defense

Does 1D6+5 damage and +1 acid damage

Heals wielder for 5 points with each successful hit (something like vampiric regeneration)

Acts as a ring of regeneration. (As I understand, it regeneration rates typically don’t stack under the game engine, and this regeneration should not stack with other regeneration items or spells.)

10-25%??? chance on each hit of doing one of the following:
Protection from Magical Energy
Mirror Image
Stone Skin
Hardiness (Like the Wish spell, this Hardiness will stack with the HLA, but it will not stack with itself. Furthermore, the duration will only be 4 rounds. Alternatively, you could just use Protection from Magic Weapons, but I consider that spell to be more powerful.)

Restricted to use by straight fighters (any kit) of any alignment.

Thus, Absolute Immunity or Protection from Magic Weapons on the target renders this weapon almost useless. As you can see, it is far less powerful than the judgment day sword. It is also less powerful as an offensive weapon than the flail of defending and wounding. In fact, the flail of defending and wounding is probably more powerful, but I think Sikret is limiting that to straight rangers.

Note 3: I am using Keldorn who is dual wielding The Truth and Belm. I think that Sikret will make this impossible in the next version. I wish it wasn’t so because you often find paladins fighting demons and devils. The cavaliers, in particular, should love this weapon. So, I request that both paladins and fighters be allowed to use this weapon.

The Truth Sword will be usable by single-class warriors, which includes paladins and rangers as well as fighters.

Judgement Day will remain in the game. I don't remember anyone saying that it will or should be removed. The idea of a new "Evil" weapon in the JD plot seems good to me, but I think it should be only available to those who cooperate with the demons and forgo the main plot. For example, if a character agrees to surrender the Angurvadal to the demon, he may receive something in return which may open a path to make the new weapon. Is that what you had in mind, rbeverjr? If so, it seems to be a good idea. Forging the new "Evil" weapon may also trigger another encounter in its turn. How's that?

At least I would love that as my feeling is that evil guys get a bit... uh... well, let's say there are more reasons to play good than neutral or evil.

Something else about the items already in the mod: Why do they lose the abilities they had before? Take Hesperus as an example. Daystar had the ability to let the wielder cast Sunray. Hesperus lost this ability, but on the other hand gained the ability to inflict one while striking an opponent. Care to explain why?
Another thing which is quite irritating to me: Memory of the Apprenti. Um... well... it's quite the ultimate robe. Which looks like a cheap Adventurer's Robe in the beginning of the game o.O. Maybe make it a hooded one? It's not terribly annoying or something but somehow strange that the ultimate arch mage robe doesn't look like one (talking about the Robes of the Archmagi).

I've had an upgrade idea myself:

Chromatic Dragon Armor (or something like that... names aren't my strength)

-> An armor made of scales of likely every dragon there is. I mean at the end I had spare Red Dragon Scales. The same is true with Abazigals blue scales and the white scales (the armors simply aren't really useful in IA, imho). So, why not add black scales to the dragon in Suldanessalar and maybe green (or is it brown?) ones to Draconis. Or make the dragon in WK in level 5 a green one (again), so one could collect scales from him. Another option would be the dragon you encounter during the abyssal tests - get something for being evil, I'll say!
So, after you have red, black, white, blue and maybe green scales you could forge them into a single multicolored armor made of dragon scales. It would offer protection against all the respective elements. As total protection would be slightly overpowered I would suggest something between 50% (take the Red, White and Shadow Dragon Scale for an example) and 75% (take a look at Valygar's family armor) Add in a good AC (let's say something like -3 at the least, as even the White Dragon Scale has -2. One could argue that due to the [of course enormous] amount of gold involved and all the hassle of actually collecting those parts it might be -4 or even lower [higher... you know what I mean]) and you have some serious suit of armor. Not sure about the type of armor though. Maybe a chain mail or leather type? The latter would be usable by likely all non arcane classes, while the former would be nice for the barbarian lovers among us. Some sort of Elven Chain Mail (so it may be usable by F/Ms and allow casting) might be too overpowered.

While this may seem somewhat overpowered I like the idea mostly because one would get something out of killing all different kinds of dragons. And don't forget that you get to kill Abazigal at the very end of the game... what's so bad about getting one last awesome item then?
Another possibility might be the involvement of a Manual of Elaboration and some scrolls, including one of Permanency. Or you would have to forge all the dragon hide armors (the black one being like the Shadow Dragon Scale armor) and then combine them into one armor. Would cost even more gold . Maybe one would some other new component as well, which could be in possession of the WK dragon (as s/he is "the oldest dragon alive" s/he could have a powerful soul essence, for example). Or one would need the (improved) Dragon Helm as well as the Dragon Scale Shield.
Or let's say being evil and slaying Adalon would be worth it - as you could use Adalon's silver scales instead of the white ones. Or use them to make the armor more powerful, with more cold resistance, more AC or something similar.

That's good news to me concerning The Truth longsword. I'm also glad that the judgment day sword will remain in the game; although, it is my goal to not need to use it some day.

I also like your idea of an alternate judgment day plot involving an evil weapon. However, my idea was simply a weapon that could be used by a fighter of ANY alignment which offered him some protection, but wasn't so powerful as the mighty judgment day sword. I was thinking of using this weapon instead of the judgment day sword, and then maybe some day only the nerfed standard game weapons. You see, I hope to be really good at this game some day.

@Arkain

In v4.3 the following changes have already been implemented:

1- The Ancient Dragon has now different scales than other red dragons. It's called "Great wyrm Scales" and can be used to forge the ultimate Dragon plate armor.

2- A Green Wyrm is added to the game. Wyrms are very old dragons (though not as old as 'great wyrms' such as the ancient one) and he has his own scales which, according to Cromwell, can be used to forge a grand suit of armor: Green Wyrm Plate.

War Hammer of Antimagic

This war hammer was constructed of an exceedingly rare material obtained by accident from another dimension. The material of this hammer is so hard and strong that no natural armor or hide is immune to its damage. (Of course, physical resistance still applies, as does immunity to crushing damage.) Furthermore, the material has antimagic/ antisupernatural properties which will allow it to damage any foe, including those only struck by +5 weapons. However, this weapon is not magical and does not confer a bonus to hit or damage. The antimagic property of this material also provides the wielder with 20% magic resistance. Furthermore, each time a foe is struck by this hammer, there is a 20% chance that a randomly selected ongoing spell of the target will be terminated. Finally, the antimagic ignores any spell protection that would normally render a weapon useless, including Protection from Magic Weapons (it’s not magical), and Absolute Immunity and Mantles (antimagic renders these spells useless against this weapon).

EDIT: The antimagical properties of this weapon prevents its use by spell casters. If any character tries to use it who can cast spells (clerics, bards, wizards, sorcerers, high level rangers, high level paladins, etc.), they will be stunned for 1d4 rounds and will drop the weapon to the ground. There is no way to prevent this effect.

Could we get a ring or other item that can cast Ruby Ray of Reversal 1-2 times a day? The early mage fights are hell because you're at too low of a level to cast the spell so you're stuck waiting out the mage's spell protections.

I don't know if it would be easiest to have it be a found item, early (ish) quest reward or a forge-able item. It could even require a ruby ring as a component.

Could we get some sort of an upgrade for scimitars? There aren't many ones to combine. Belm, Water's Edge, and Rashad's Talon could be combined to make a +3 or +4 scimitar with an extra attack per round. Or you could combine the Scarlet Ninja-to with Drizzit's scimitars for an evil only +5 weapon with +1 APR, poison, +2 AC and frost damage.

And it would be nice to have a decent mace besides the MoD+2.

In looking over the item upgrades, I noticed that the only bow upgrade pertains to jan's xbow.No other bows can be upgraded.

Generally speaking, it seems that two particular classes got nerfed in IA, namely backstabbing thieves and archers. Unfortunately, these are among my favorite classes in the game.

I would love to see upgrades to some of the bows, such as tuigan, tansheron, and darkfire so that the archer class becomes a viable choice. Ive never liked the Gesen bow due to its slow missle (lightning) animation. A good ammo-less +5 bow, with dex based (or str based) extra dmg would be nice. Or perhaps a bow similar to Judgement Day sword (but not as powerful) which has a chance to proc various debuffs or disabling spells on hit.

Also, to make backstabbing thieves worthwhile again, I would like to see an upgrade (perhaps to the shortsword of backstabbing) so that it has a chance to dispell on hit (even if no dmg is imparted to the victim due to backstabbing immunity). This would make a backstabbing thief a viable option for reasons other than just chunking the victim, and would add a some new strategy to certain battles.

Im not looking for anything overpowered, just something to bring backstabbing thieves and archers on par with other builds in IA.

Another thing that seems to be lacking from the game right now is a really nice Katana (that isn't usable by Valygar only).

Valygar's Katana is great, no question, but the person who just loves giving katana's to his/her protagonist, for example, is going to be pretty challenged to find one that keeps up.

Celestial Fury just isn't what it was in the vanilla game, especially when many foes can't be hit by anything less than +4 weapons. I think I can count on one hand how many times I actually managed to stun an enemy (and most of those were enemies that were killed in a couple of hits).

In my current game I have a swashbuckler/fighter with grandmastery in katanas who stopped using katanas altogether around halfway through the game. And more, celestial fury is a "component" for hammer of thor, so if you want to create that item you must sacrifice CF altogether.

So, a new nice +4 or +5 katana would be a very welcome addition.

Since the Helm of Clarity is more of a convenience item, does it have to consume a Permanency scroll?

It would be great if there were scale (medium armor) versions of the plate counterparts. You could use roughly the same core ingredients too. Medium armor selections are lacking!

I love the idea of a sentient, talking weapon. There's only one in the game (Lilacor), and I didn't even find it powerful enough to use very long in the regular game. I think it needs to be enhanced - a lot, in order to be preferable to using 2 weapons. I know that whirlwind can help ramp up the damage of 2 handed weapons, but I still think that an improve hasted 2 weapon wielder will do more damage in many battles due to limited HLAs. You can get 10 APR just be dual wielding with cutthroat (and the grandmastery patch). So, here's what I propose.

1d12 +5 enchantment bonus +2d4 psionic blast
chaotic commands while equipped

The psionic blast affects any target that is hit. Stoneskin does not prevent the weapon from hitting, rather it prevents the regular damage (1d12+5). Stoneskin will not protect against the psionic blast. Magical resistance does not apply, and there is no saving throw. Anything that prevents the hit (high AC, mirror image, etc.) will defend. Also, immunity to psionics or the spell chaotic commands will protect against this effect.

The average IA player should not be able to obtain the ingredient needed to improve Lilacor while at a low level. I think the best place for it would be in Watcher's Keep in the mindflayer lair. Perhaps, it could be the brain of a "noble" mindflayer (a new Sikret creature). Alternatively, the location of the ingredient could be randomized in the loot of suitably challenging creatures in SoA.

EDIT: Hmm. This may still be a might small compared to 9-10 APR dual wielders using Critical Strike. I suppose even this sword would interest solo characters, for those who like to solo.

The main idea behind permanency scrolls is to make "permanent" the effects added by potions and scrolls during the item upgrade. Since scrolls of Chatioc Commands are needed as ingredients to forge the helm, a permanency scroll is also added as an ingredient.

I see that it makes perfect sense in roleplaying terms but who's going to use a rare Permanency scroll to make it?


Anyway, here are a few ideas I thought of yesterday:

Belm
Rashad's Talon
Sword of Flame +1
Famir's Blade (LS+2 that adds 1 cold damage)
10,000 gp
----->




Druids have several new items so here's one for clerics only:

Ring of Holiness *change the game's script so you always get this for completing the temple quest
3x Turquoise Gem (for the good luck effect)
Ring of Protection +2
20,000 gp
----->



Why should Bards get all the Lore?

Glasses of Identification
Potion of Insight (18 wisdom)
Potion of Genius (+4 int)
1,000 gp
----->



Great off-hand weapon for a bard:

Dakkon's Zerth Blade
Malakar (Katana +2 that gives +2AC vs slashing)
Medium Shield +2
15,000 gp
---->



Ruby Ring
Scroll of Ruby Ray of Reversal
Beljuril (or Scroll of Limited Wish or Permanency scroll, anything kind of rare)
5,000
----->



Short Sword of Backstabbing
Ectoplasmic Essence (new item from Shadow Jailer or Shade Lord, could use vial of blood .BAM and change it to black)
4 Horn Coral gem
4 Potion of Power
Manual of Elaboration
30,000
---->

Rare? o.O Later on I had like 10 or more of those scrolls which I couldn't use, because there was nothing to be done with them. Or at least nothing which would have yielded something useful. They may be rare early on but, imho, later on they aren't that rare.
Btw: The Potion of Insight as well as those Potions of Genius no longer exist - or are nowhere to be found at the very least - if you install IA, iirc

I can see that now but early in the game (when you'd want to actually forge this helm) you don't many to spare. Anyway, it's a minor thing.

As for the potions of Insight and Genius - I guess I haven't even noticed if they were still in the game or not. I'll have to check some temple stores or something. XD
They could be replaced by something else. I was just going for an item that increases Lore.

The good guys have better weapons, i ask revenge.

Adjatha the Drinker
Blackrazor
Energy Drain scroll
Black Blade of Disaster
3x Vampiric Touch
and something rare
and lots of money
Permanency scroll

--->
Bloodlust of the Nosferatu +5
3 hp damage to wielder after each miss
Set wielder strength to 20
Wielder heal 2 hp on each strike
10% chance drain 2 level on strike and the wielder heal 20 hp temporary (no save heal like the vampiric touch)
15% chance stun the target (save vs paralization -2)
20% chance cast Vampiric Touch on Strike (6-36 damage save vs spell for half)
3x Minor drain per day
5% change rage and improved haste on wielder (the player lose the control of the character and she/he attack the nearest creature)
d8+5 damage

usable only evil fighters

*****************************************

Robe of evil archmagi
Skull of Death
3x scroll of Animate Dead
1x scroll of protection of level drain
1x finger of death spell
Powdered body of the Dracolich
lots of money

---->
Robe of the Pale Master
cursed
wearer heal from harm spell and damage him/her the heal spells and healing potions
wearer immune to ressurection
-1 constitution permanently after each clothing

AC 4
+10 lore
+5 save vs death
immunity to death magic
negative plane protection
protection from evil
2x Skull Trap per day
2x Animate Dead per day
2x Hold Undead per day
1x Control Undead per day
1x Finger of death per day
1x Death Spell per day
once per day summon a random undead creature (10% chance to attack the necromancer)

usable only necromancers

*****************************************

As I haven't played IA yet (waiting for 4.3), I do not know if something has been done about this item already. I have not looked at any IA items, to have everything be a surprise when I finally play it

I'd love to see the soulstone you get from the lich in ToB changed so you can consume the soul of the girl for a serious bonus, making the evil path tempting. It would also be very interesting to have it cause a random effect chosen from a list of effects, all or most should be permanent. Or you could save it for melissan, maybe something like "I sacrifice this soul to become immensly powerful for a short period of time". One charge, potion style.
If you don't like it, or can't do anything around that, adding some kind of upgrade recipe to it (usable only by evil characters of course) would be very interesting. I sure hope you haven't changed this stone already, I'd be looking like a fool for not knowing

How about improving the golem summoning book?

Upgrading it so from juggernaut golem to coin,gem,ultra and supreme golem
will be great.

I'd love the weapon's abilities to be more useful. Most of the enemies worth forging an improved weapon are immune to most effects (like the Diamond Sword's vorpal hit, the Slow from the Flail of Ages/True Sword of Arvoreen, the bleeding damage from Valygar's katana, etc).

Only greater gods can construct supreme golems; there is a piece of dialogue in IA v4.3 which gives you more information about them.

Maybe not supreme golem but it still can be upgraded to something more durable
and helpful on the later battles like gem or ultra or whatever.

Besides if Cyric can come and interfere and you can those golems thrown
at you at later stages I'm sure someone god like Helm can help or a different
option that with all the golems the protagoinst encouters and than promptly
backwards engineers he will be able to put golems together blind folded.

Hardened Skin of the Ghoul (or something alike)

Recipe:
(Recipe should only be triggered when Skin of the Ghoul is present in the inventory of the party. Cromwell/Cespy should say something along the lines of "I can harden that Ghoulish skin if you hand me an Orcish Leather as well as some .....etc etc" )

- Skin of the Ghoul
- Orc Leather
- 5 potions of fortitude
- 5 potions of stone form
- gems?
- ??? gold

AC: 0, 1 or 2
Immune to Poison and Paralysis
25% resistance to missile and cold damage
10% resistance to slashing and piercing damage
Charisma -1
Ghoul Touch 3x/day
Chill Touch 2x/day
Contagion 1x/day

Would be nice if those spells were slightly tweaked to make them more useful.

Ghoul Touch: Duration 10 rounds
Amount of attacks fixed at 3 per round for the duration of the spell
Touched Creature takes 2d8 damage
Must save vs spells at -4 or be paralysed for 5 rounds.

Chill touch: Duration 1 turn
Touched Creature takes 1d8 damage
Touched Creature takes 1d2 cold damage/level (maximum of 20d2)
Must save vs spells at -3 or be THAC0 drained by -2 (cumulative).

Contagion: As original but save at -2



The reasoning is that these two armors would make a nice combination. There are some good armor crafts available, but they are mostly scale and plate. The Leather armors available are Human Flesh for evil characters and Spirit of the Night for thieves only. There are several classes (thieves, druids, stalkers, archers) which have armor restrictions to leather and adding an interesting variant might bridge the gap a little.

A slight bonus to innate resistances and a boost to those spells might provide interesting (emergency) melee options for these classes, but maybe most players will just use it foremost as defensive gain. The resistances can be removed (though missile resistance of at least 10% should remain as innate to the Orc leather).


EDIT: Added
Normal ghouls have 0% resistance, but higher level ghoul creatures seem to have innate resistances scripted as:
- cold (listed 100%)
- magic cold (listed 100%)
- missile (listed as 50% and 60%)
- piercing (listed as 25% and 30%)
- crushing (only the ghould lord has 25%)
- slashing (listed as 10% and 25%)
/EDIT


The two melee spells use the short sword proficiency which not every character may have and may have to be set to at least 1 star unless the character already has one or more stars. (mages casting the normal spells for instance still get proficiency penalties iirc)

AC of 0 would also enhance melee capabilities, but may be a tad too much. An AC of 1 or 2 may be more appropriate. Potions of Fortitude and Stoneform seem to be logical when calling it hardened. The -1 charisma penalty is standard to the Orc Leather and maybe a constitution bonus of +1 may be added as a bonus after the forging with the potions.

Overall the item would be quite balanced I think and characters such as Druids, Thieves, Stalkers, Archers and Thief/Druid kits would be able to put it to good use.


EDIT added:
Maybe the Recipe would require the three scrolls: "Ghoul Touch", "Chill Touch" and "Contagion", and of course a "Permanency Scroll", but I think one can imagine those innate to a ghoul's abilities.
/EDIT


I would have proposed an alternate upgrade for Human Flesh + Skin of the Ghoul, since that would truely mix well, but would that be okay since Human Flesh already has a recipe? If such an upgrade would have been made possible, I think the combination would have been at least a true "hide armor" (not normal leather or studded leather)... not sure whether thieves, druids and the ranger kits can wear hide armor though.

Hmm... reading that missile resistance is lessened in the next version of IA, we could do with some more interesting new missile weapon upgrades, so maybe we have to come up with some (since there are none currently except for Jan).

1 Returning Dagger/Dart Recipe
1 Longbow Recipe
1 Shortbow Recipe
1 Crossbow Recipe
1 Sling Recipe

I can think up something later.

EDIT: If there are already new ones added then of course disregard my post. I only played I think Anvil version 2.0 so I don't know what's added since (except for the item list in the readme thread of course).

Hmm.. there are a bunch of good launchers available so I don't think they all need a new recipe. Maybe an upgraded Tuigan Bow would be nice, but then Gesen and Darkfire will probably not be as useful as they are currently. Same things can be said for longbows and crossbows, though maybe a stray here or there can be made into something nice (heartseeker, ripper, necaradan).

The ones that would benefit a +4 variant are throwing daggers and throwing darts. Maybe something like the following would incorporate decently:

- Crimson Dart +3
- Cloak of the Stars
- 5 Aquamarine Gems
- 5 Water Opals
- 5 Pearls
- 5 potions of cold resistance
- gold

Yields:
Cyan Dart +4
- Thac0: +4
- Damage: 1d3+4, +2d3 cold damage
- Cold Resistance +20%
- Dart returns to owner

The cold bonuses are just a thought. Creativity by Sikret or other people would probably introduce a better one. Similarly, the following is fiction, but the availability of a +4 throwing dagger is quite justified.

- Boomerang Dagger +2
- 5 Poisoned Throwing Daggers
- 5 Chrysoberyl Gems
- gold

Yields:
Boomerang Dagger +4
- Thac0: +4
- Damage: +4
- Poison Immunity
- Returns to user

In the longer road mod Irenicus takes the souls of the dead bhaal spawns and turns them to items with souls.
Instead of just killing them and send all the essence to somewhere something can be done with it.
Like an upgradable item like sword or a ring or an armor or even making a set of items.

Something from Sendai will improve spell casting,Yaga Shura for physical resistence and along this line.

A mysterious figure could come at Saradush or after the statues and give an item and after killing all of
them and come for the items because he manipulated the protagonist and have a big fight.

Hi! I recently decided to play to BG2 again and I found out mods and an active community! Improved Anvil seems great and I decided to try it as soon as I can.

I would like a sword for Sarevok. The sword given by the Djinn in the dugeon of Irenicus could get back its powers when Sarevok get it. He could try to complete the few Essence of Bhaal he still has with Demon hearts, Gate Scrolls etc. And new items for monks would be nice! "Gauntlets of Devastating" are not really fun, every weapons have special powers, Gauntlets should improve monks in the same way.

The Ascension mod already does this. If you give Sarevok his sword back he makes a short remark and upgrades it slightly.

Hi, alphablabla!

Welcome to BWL!


I'm glad to hear this.

As for Sword of Chaos, it already has an upgrade in IA:


And if you don't like this recipe, you can use the Ascension mod to have Sarevok's new sword (as aVENGER pointed out).

As for new items for monks, you may want to consider forging 'Grandmaster of Flowers'.

Cheers

Something which came to my mind a long time ago, but which I forgot to ask about: why is there no upgrade for the Staff of Earth?
You can upgrade the Staff of Fire and Staff of Air and even combine those - but there's no such option for the SoE.

On the other hand: these great melee staffs are only usable by mages, iirc. While this is a pity (imho) there is another "problem" associated with it: fighter type characters wielding staffs have no real option here, except for the Staff of the Ram, of course. The same is true for spears. I don't really have any ideas, but more items of those weapon classes would surely be nice.

How about some armor for Minsc, Jaheira, and upgrade for Imoen's belt!

I was paging through an old Monster Manual and thought of an idea for a new splint mail.

Behir splint mail +5
AC: -1
100% resistance to Electricity and Poison

It would be pretty good mid-game or whenever you expect to fight Amber golems.

any possibility of creating blunt/piercing damage arrows? because as far as i can see all my archer types npcs are useless. most of the enemies are immune to missiles; darts, throwing daggers, arrows, bolts, bullets are rather useless in the game...

Sikret earlier said, that in 4,3 arrows will be more usefull