The demon hearts from level 3 of WK don't work.

I got to level 4 and saw the improved horde and ancient dragon.I haven't
defeated them yet.

I took a break from WK and finished the troll mound and found protector
of the second there.In the mind flayer compound in the sewer I found
finaly the robe of venca.I also found second dagger of the star and I
have two of them now.

Wow, 2 daggers of the star? I don't recall finding 2 in my last runthrough, and I was pretty thorough about doing every single quest offered to me.

I did notice that there are 2 items that require this dagger (IIRC, Valygar's improved Katana does, as does Grandfather of Assassins dagger). So if 2 daggers are intended, that would solve a small problem for me.

Eh? I thought sikret removed all the duplicate items.

This dagger of the star thing seems to be a weird phenomenon, first time through when I had Valygar in my party I found two daggers, the other two times I've only found the one in its usual place.

I've found two myself. Mhm... as one could need two to reforge Valygar's katana and forge Grandfather of Assassins I thought this was intentional though.

I'm assuming all of you are playing 4.2.

I didn't find 2 daggers in my first IA game, only 1, but I also didn't have Valygar in my party. I do have Valygar in my party this time, and would have absolutely no objections to finding 2 daggers of the stars (there are plenty of stars in the sky, why not 2 daggers to represent them!), as I would most certainly find good homes for the enhanced Corthala blade and the grandfather of assassins in my party.

I finished Gaax that fell thanks to one F/M,another F/M/T both with SI
to protect them from imprisionment,improved hasted and other stuff
like spell shield and planeteer(gated) and some more summons.

I than finished tower of deception,now it's not much of a challenge with
a 4 million and a little more six charecters party.I finished watchers
keep and pretty much all of chaper two except the twisted rune and the
encounter after forging JD and of course the planar sphere mod and
the ritual.

I am now thinking what items to forge.I haven't found defender of easthaven
yet for the flail of defending and wounding but I can pretty much make
JD,Valygar's equipment,improved spider and other stuff.

The dragon lord I can't just yet as one halberd is probably at a party
in the underdark.I have to decide wht to forge,I have about 750,000
gold.

Edit:Just finished the ritual.Next thing to do is to forge improved items
and go after the twisted rune and judgement day sword battle than I'll
finish chapter 2.

I'm not sure if it's experience scaled but it wasn't too much of a challenge with a .4 million 6 character party either (well compared to IA baddies like Torgal and the slaver ship).

Keep us posted on the Twisted Rune and JD encounter (I tried the former a few times with my 1.5mil xp party...and wow o.O - I didn't do too well to say the least)

I'm doing the judgement day battle now.It's a tough one.There's the demon lord,
death lord and elemental golem and lots of noble mariliths and escorts.

I got killed two times and got the demon lord to barely injured.Breach
doesn't seem to work on him.And he keeps summoning marriliths and escorts.

And he is immune to every damage.I don't even hit him.

Anyway,I get there,the battle begins,I stoneskin everyone that can,hardiness,
and start to take out the death lord and elemental golem first.That's goes
fine.Than there's the mariliths and demon lord and I can't kill them.

It seems like a waste of time to target them as he summons hordes of them.

Edit:Got him to near death than everything was ineffective aginst him.
Couldn't even remove his defenses.

Mhm... did you try to "stun" some of the enemies? Implosion for example does a good job as a stunning spell and ignores magic resistance.

The main problem is: the Demon Lord has a very high AC (use The Answerer for this, if this isn't quite the option you should use Critical Strike on your fighter characters) and keeps summoning strong creatures. Maybe you shouldn't ignore them totally but don't spend all your time trying to kill them. You might want to use all slots for Stoneskin and PfMW, so you've got some time to actually do something without being harmed. Don't forget that you have scrolls of those spells (you do have some right? RIGHT? ) as well as wands etc. as tools for a easier battle. You could use one of those wands with Breach and Pierce Magic on them against the Death Lords, buffing themselves with SI:Divination and invisibility (iirc), for example. Or use the one you can buy from the smugglers which is charged with Ruby Ray of Reversal.
I don't know if it works but you could try using a Simulacrum as a distraction. Load it up with PfMW spells and scrolls and hope it isn't destroyed by a enemy's spell

It sounds as if you're always moving from one place to WK to start the battle. When you're already in ToB and have a save before forging Judgement Day my tip would be to load it. Then move to WK, teleport into your pocketplane and forge the sword. This way you can buff beforehand, set up a Contingency spell etc..

My strategy with this battle, similar to yours, was to get the death lord and elemental golem (+ any friends he summoned) out of the equation first.

After that the Demon Lord is who you need to bring down next. Just make sure you keep him vulnerable to damage, and keep the GWW and critical strikes up. Tons of superior healing potions should be available to all party members, and hopefully you have plenty of greater restorations (do NOT let your cleric get killed, and the improved cat figurine is nice too). Hopefully you've also got a few potions of barbarian essence (this is certainly a good time to use them) - in addition to the stoneskins, PFMWs and other spells that have already been recommended. Bring in the best summons you can (noble spider, Devas, etc).

If one of your party members is getting too much attention, run him/her out of the fight and try to kite some of the mariliths for a bit (and heal up with potions as you run). If I didn't mention, keep you cleric alive for greater restorations, I am now. And if I did, it's worth repeating!

Keep your damage output on the demon lord maximized. Use casters for summons and crowd control (dragon's breath is nice for knocking the mariliths back - thus buying you a few seconds to pound on the demon knight without too much opposition. Once the Demon lord is dead, just take out the marilith's one at a time, they are very challenging. Make sure the when you get their defenses down, that you damage them QUICKLY, and hopefully kill them before they're able to get them back up.

I spent the greater part of this battle attempting to take out all of the mariliths, because it's just a pain in the arse to get past their magical defenses.

Lot's of patience. Make sure you've got your game set to pause at the end of the round (easier to control the action that way), and just be patient!

I defeated the twisted rune.The fighter,beholder and vampire were easy
for a 4.5 million XP party of six characters with improved items.Lots
of them and pre-buffed.The lich was similar to the city gates lich I think.

The mage,Layanne was tougher.In the first try she saw my protagonist and
fired away her double length time stop with improved alacracy
and fired away tons of spells and killed him.

So in my second try summons and other members went to get her.She was invisible
and I think she used the staff to return to invisibile.Keldorn's dispel
and lots of RRoR didn't seem to effect her.She fell down in the end.

The battle with the demon prince was harder.I ended up defeating him on
easy level.Did lots of reloads and wanted to get on with the game.
I have a save before so I'll try another time.

I still haven't found defender of easthaven or the efreet bottle and
pretty much finished all of chapter 2.Maybe there other items on
later chapters.

Does someone knows what Layenne did with the spell defenses excatly?

Yeah I think Layene uses the Staff of the Magi to go back to being invisible after every spell she casts. That's what she seemed to do in my game.

BTW you'll probably find the Judgement Day fight easier if, as Arkain says, you wait til TOB so you can buff before going to the WK area, plus you'll have all the other good items by then too (defending and wounding flail, greater djinni summoning ring, hammer of thor etc.)

I finished the planar sphere mod and defeated Melanthium.I know this
isn't part of improved anvil but I like lots of the new spells and items
added there.

I almost wanted a dialog options added there like something insulting
him about his lack of golems,demons or 95% physical resistence.

When I read such unappreciative comments, I feel totally exhausted and tired of all the time and hard work I have spent on making IA. Which mage in IA has 95% resistance to physical damage, Roy? If you don't like IA, don't play it please. But don't send baseless comments which are not true and can drain me of energy to work on the mod. I re-arrange my daily agenda to find some free time to sit behind my computer's desk to prepare the new version of the mod as soon as possible. I say to myself, let's check the forum first! But when I see such unappreciative posts, I feel totally discharged of energy. Let's postpone modding to another day and get back to other daily programs for the rest of today.

Sorry Sikret.I like this mod a lot.I mean I'm playing it.I like the battles
and challenge.I meant it was the lack of chellenge compared to imoroved
anvil.Personly I think your mod kicks ass.

I'm sorry for misreading you post and for my reaction to it, Roy! The tone of your post sounded ironic to me and I was already too tired of many baseless things I read about IA in different forums.

Adding so much/many new content/quests to the game without even one single critical bug; creating such a big number of new creatures, items, scripts, encounters, fixes, tweaks, ...(et al) are what I am proud of. It took me so much time. I can't estimate how much money I could have earned if I had spent all these days and hours working for money elsewhere instead of spending it on creating this mod. Yet, every now and then I read things which really discourage me.

Thanks again for clarifying your comments, Roy; and sorry again for my previous reaction.

Cheers

Same could be said by every other modder. I've felt that way myself, on occasion.

Indeed, Sikret has devoted his recent years to Improved Anvil -- an investment which fruit is delivered to many players in the form of tens of hours of fun & sweat.

I cannot overemphasize how glad I'm for all the work every modder puts into it. I shows a great humility to the charity towards BG and all their audience. Thanks

I stopped my journey after reaching the TOB expansion (life has put gaming on hold, doing job interviews and about to relocate overseas! Also I'm waiting for v.5 for the full TOB experience! )

Improved Anvil is by far, the most rewarding version of a BG incarnation conceived. Definitely surpassing even my own conceptualization of what a great BG experience could be!

Clearly Improved Anvil is very niche, but for that niche, we can't thank you enough! Thank you Sikret for making perhaps my favorite game of all time even greater!

I humbly look forward to experience all your future works!

It's cool Sikret.You put in lots of time and effort into it.I think that
making a really good game is a form of art and doing other stuff(not mods) I know it's not fun being critisized for it and that it can be a bit of a sore spot.

I appreciate your work and time on the mod a lot.About the money thing,I learned
in the last year that some things are more imporant than money.It's the things
you do because you want to do and love to do,not the jobs you hate for shit you don't need.But that's just my opinion.

Anyway I got into spellhold.Met the dwarf in Brynlaw.I got lots of XP and
items from doing every possible quest in chapter 2 including the watchers
keep it looks like that my F/M/T with judjement day can solo a lot of stuff
on his own.I had the challenges in WK so now the rest is easier.

The amber golems with the kobolds were a cool addition.I think the vampire
master got weaker compared to version 3 of the mod.

Yes, the same is true to some extent for all modders, but it's not equally true for everyone of them. It all depends on the volume of the content (of the mod) and the required time to implement those content.

Heh, I was almost sure that someone would show up sending such a reply to me. It actually somehow proves the point of my previous post.

@ luan, Shaitan and Baronius:

Thanks for the very kind words.

I almost finished the asylum dungeon,fought Bodhi put the horns on the minotour
and defeated the mithril golem guarding the machine.However there's the door
beyond the umber hulk door that has golems and the gesan bow string that
I can't pick and says it's warded aginst simple spells.

Does anyone knows how to open it?

Edit:I loaded the auto save,went that room first and it was open.Weird.

Which version of the planar sphere mod did you install, Roy? I have received contradictory reports from different players regarding the compatibility of Planar sphere mod and IA. So, I guess that probably some of its versions are and some others are not compatible with Improved Anvil (though it's a rough guess).

Who gets to decide whether a modder who has given every free moment to modding, while attempting to keep a job or family from falling apart, has given enough time for their sacrifice to be meaningful?

When someone gives all they've got, it's still all they've got.

My point wasn't to discount your efforts, but rather to point out that many modders feel exactly as you do. Yes, you did put in a lot of time on IA. Well done. And the same goes for all the modders who pursue their hobby with the same dedication.

I installed planar sphere version 2.2.It works fine.I did Marvela quests
first and than began the other stuff.Anyway I did just her quests one after
the another.I rested in the sphere to get the items form the apprentices
than did her quests than continued.

Finished the maze and the drcolich.He only had a powedered body,barbarian
essence.and a limited wish scroll.I guess I thought a dragon will have a serious
treasue.

I didn't understand how his defenses worked as I didn't touch him in melee
but I found another weakness to kill him with.

Mapping the entire maze and checking every single passage solved the maze.

It was a tough improved balor in the gnome village.My F/M/T needed Kelsey's
to take down his spell defenses.Got to figure out what he did there.

I went to the mind flayer dungeon.I tested the vampiric touch on a admantite
golem I summond and it did him about 20 damage.The elemental golem guarding
the brain got 6 or 7 damage from spell every time.And I checked a lot
with improved alacricy.It's nice aginst golem.Not insanely difficult aginst
the elemental but nice.Got to still check it with coin and gem ones.

The imroved battle with the master brain was nice.

Still no defender of easthaven and ring of djinn summoning.

Edit:Yea,I meant the efreet bottle.

I finished WK,mind flayers,beholders and every quest I could find
on chapter two.Maybe it's in the underdark somewhere where I haven't
looked.

Anyway,thought a little on the vampiric touch compared to a high level
improved hasted tank and equiped.Tank can reach7 to 10 APR doing more to
tough golems compared to a sorcerer with improved alacracy unloading all
his vampiric touch in one round.Maybe at lower levels.

I assume when you say 'ring of djinn summoning' you mean Efreeti Flask (since in fact you forge the basic djinni ring yourself)? If so then don't worry because I know for sure you haven't missed the flask. Just make sure to do all quests fully in the Underdark, explore all areas etc. and you'll find it.

Not so sure about the flail - it was in the demilich crypt in WK in my game so I guess if you didn't find it there it must be randomised.

As I found the Defender of Easthaven in WK level 5 it is randomised, actually.

The Vampiric-"golemkiller"-Touch isn't as great as some people tend to think. While it's a nice spell against golems, it will only do like 6 damage or something like that. Thinking about how some golems have like 200 or even more HP you will need quite some castings of VT if you intend to kill them with it . If you have the time lowering their magic resistance and firing some Skulltrap spells would be more efficient, imho (6-36 vs. 20-60 damage).

Skull Trap and Vampiric Touch inflict the same type of damage, which means that if a golem has some resistance to that damage type it will be applied to both spells. In other words, if VT's 6d6 has been reduced to 6 for a particular golem-type, Skull-Trap's damage will also be divided similarly and won't do significantly more damage. The difference is that for skull-trap to work you need to lower the golems' MR first which is both time consuming and requires too many Lower MR spells when you meet a team of golems. (Also note that Skull-Trap is tweaked not to inflict more than 10d6 damage in v4.3).

At least, your sorcerer/mage is not a mere buffer/debuffer sitting back unable to perform any offensive action (as some people used to keep constantly telling us and complaining and making accusations that this mod has changed the game to a mere hack&slash thing and has made mages useless or has turned them to mere debuffers). This was the gist of my tip about Vampiric Touch and it was just one example of how new offensive tactics can be found. I didn't say that your mage will be a substitute for your warrior.

Doh! one of my fav spells gets nerfed

Plus:

1- Skull Trap inflicts half damage if the target makes its saving throw.

2- Elemental Golems are immune to Lower MR.

So, in general I believe that VT is Way more effective than Skull Trap against golems while playing IA.

I know. But if the golem has like 75% resistance to magic damage and you intend to kill him only with one of those spells VT would deal 1.5-9 damage, while Skull Trap would deal 5-30. If the golem has 150 HP you wold need (assuming max damage everytime) 16 castings of VT or five castings of ST. Add in two additional castings: Spell Trigger with three Lower Resistance + a normal Lower Resistance (or four castings of Lower Resistance if you like - still only nine castings all together). A golem immune to spells which lower magic resistance is a different case all together, of course.
Actually I don't like this nerf. With 10D6 Skull Trap is as good as Fireball - only with a smaller radius, the proximity effect and a different damage type (which is often resisted via a spell or natural resistance anyway).

No, most of the times the golem will make its saving throw and will take half damage from the skull trap. 5-30 assumes that the golem will fail all of its saving throws which is very unlikely. So, even if we don't consider the nerfed Skull Trap in v4.3, the damage would be 2.5-15.

Moreover, as I said, only golems lesser than the "Elemental" ones can be affected by Lower MR. Wasting 4 Lower MR spell on a Gem/Coin golem just to make it vulnerable to Skull Trap doesn't look to be a brilliant tactic. Plus, Skull Trap can also hurt your own summons and party members who are engaged in hand to hand battle with the golem. A mage casting VT, on the other hand, can safely help the party against golems without requiring to waste his Lower MR spells on the golem and without the risk of damaging summons and party members. Note that the mage is not supposed to kill the golem singly (and only with VT). He is just helping the party and proves that he is more than a buffer/debuffer. (Of course, if we consider the game's standard golems, the damage VT applies is more considerable and a solo mage can even kill the golem without difficulty. Moreover, with the Golem Slayer rod and with the new anti-golem spells in v4.3, a solo mage has very good chances to kill even the more powerful types of golems.)



Yes, both are 3rd level spells.

Just a bit of anecdotal evidence to the case: In my initial attempts at taking the Amber Golems in the Chromatic Demon fight they lasted way longer than any of the other summons (ie Salamander Princes). In my final attempt I used plenty of Vampric Touches and they fell much easier (probably about 1/2 the time it took me to remove a Salamander prince). Also, Scull Trap doesn't really allow you to hack on the golem with your warriors at the same time (unless they have some major spell protections before hand) and it's also quite difficult to keep them in one place for two long without placing someone in the path of the spell.


I was just wondering, what is the difficulty order of Golems? I'm assuming something like Coin<Gem<Amber<Elemental<Supreme<Ultimate (or something to that effect).

Basically your order is right except Supreme Golems are more powerful than Ultra Golems (there is no 'Ultimate Golem' - I guess you meant Ultra).

Whether coin/gem golems are easier just depends on what type of weapon you have.

There are also Brain Golems which are improved by IA. They fall probably below Amber and above Coin/Gem.

Just change the place of Supreme and Ultra in your list and you have a rough approximation of their powers correctly. Coin, Gem and Amber ones have different resistances against different weapon types; so, depending on the weapon you have in your hands, you may find one of them tougher than the other two under certain conditions; though in general the order you mentioned is correct specially if we don't consider their resistances to weapon types and consider their HP, Level, THAC0 and special attacks.

Mithril Golem stands just below the Elemental ones, but there is only one Mithril Golem in the game.

EDIT: Thanks, Raven! we were posting at the same time (and you are a touch-typist! )

First hand I agree. Skull Trap shouldn't be more powerful than a Fireball. But Sikret, pls keep in mind, that ST has a some drawbacks. Much easier to cast protect your party agains Fireball, ST has a smaller radius, trigger method, which makes it harder to use properly in the fight. On the other hand, enemies can defend against FB more easily, and ST can be used before fight as a trap. So with 10D6 limit, Fireball is slightly better imho, I would vote to leave 12D6 as max.

Also I think you could make some nerf on Sunfire also in v4.3. It is a regular tactic at me to buff my party with Prot from Fire, and Nalia cast Sunfires as fast as she can. Even Haer and my PC can hurl in 1-1 Sunfire. No need any Lower Resistance. etc. Sunfire has a same drawback as Cone of Cold: harder to cast properly with a mage, who likes to sit back. Fireball is more easier.

... yes. I wasn't talking about brilliant tactics but more about what would do more damage with less castings total involved if only one of those spells is used to damage and kill a golem. That's why I assumed max damage everytime. ST deals more damage (which is still higher in 4.2 if the enemies make their saving throw). The 10D6 ST in comparison to VT is kinda weak, of course - especially because of the saving throw for half damage involved.

Did the mystery of the third color quest and it was a nice quest.
Spoiler
*
*
*
*
Found the efreet bottle and ran into the noble efreet on the upper level
of Deirex tower.
*
*
End spoiler

Now only to find the defender of easthaven.Can't wait to get to Cromwell already.

Forged Dragon Lord halberd,ring of greater djinn summoning,improved horn of valhala at Cromwell.
Also finished Bodhi and got into chapter 7 and met Rammilat and the Dragon in the forest clearing that was
much easier the the one at WK.

I really like Dragon Lord halberd.Unfortunately lots of the tough enemies are immune to fire.
I always forget to use the summons,I usually buff everyone and attack while breaching
and dispeling their defences.Are the greater djinn and noble spider usful in those stages and TOB?

Still no defender of east haven.And I looked nearly in all the SOA including WK.

I found the Greater Djinni pretty useful because he lasts quite a long time due to his many stoneskins/mirror image spells. One thing to be aware of though is that he has a haste spell which he'll use - kinda annoying as it overrides I.Haste on your party members (so actually makes them worse if they had I. Haste on them). So I made sure to have him cast the spell before combat started, well away from my character(s) with I.Haste.

Finished SOA part and haven't found defender of easthaven.It was a lovely fight at the end with the improved
minions.Valygar and Keldorn are levels 38,Kelsy level 32 and that's I guess high but that came from doing lots
and lots of quests and also added ones from mods.

The Illesera fight was interesting.I have no idea how she was hidden from true sight.She used critical hit and backstab.
Maybe she used non detection or something.I just have no idea how.The party around had the standart mage,Cleric
with insect plague and fighter and the normal stuff.

I had no idea how to get her in melee and she was going to backstab everyone to death that wasn't buffed with PfMW,
stoneskins and the like so I resorted to area effect spells.Other than that and running around until something on
her wears off or she runs out of potions is there another way to get her?

Just fought Gromnir and friends with his ancestor ghost and he didn't want to die.He had a golem like physical
resistence.JD is a cool sword with all the constant defensive buffs.
Maybe I shouldn't write this.I wrote about hiding the protagonist from Layenne line of sight and it got nerfed.

I'm still thinking how to use spells so Kelsey will do someting in battles.
One method is to buff him with PfMW and get him to absorb attacks I'm still working on others.
Maybe that and vampiric touch but it's still not that effective,

Regarding the mages,it takes about 7 RRoR to take down their SI:Abjuration,I have no idea how it's just
spell shield,SI and maybe spell turning.

Roy, did you fire several RRoR at the mages at the same time (or almost the same time)? Spell Shield takes a second or two to be dispelled after being hit by a RR, in which time any other RR are wasted (as the shield is still up). As far as I know there is nothing that can be done about this.

The Spellshield spell is also bugged meaning sometimes it is never removed no matter how many spell-protection removing spells are cast into it. Although if you did eventually get rid of SI:A then this is probably not what was happening.

Be careful about putting 3x RR into Chain Contingency. Because of the reason I explained, above only one RR will be effective (the other two are effectively wasted). 3x RR in a CC is fine if your enemy is not using Spellshield.

No, Roy! This was reported to me several times long ago before your post about hiding your protagonist.

Haven't played for a while because I was busy doing other things.So I did the final SOA battle again and Illesera.
Another reason was using the new special ability for the planar sphere mod that made my protagonist
permanetly fatigued.

I thought about the Illasera battle again and I still can't figure out how she remained invisible without me detecting
her and than returning without cheese.When someone drinks a potion it says invisible in the text box.

She is I guess a fighter/thief and had scrolls so had use any item and used a scrolls before the battle.