I typically buff to the utmost for the many hard battles. It seems like it takes forever to do this and is no fun - quite tedious, in fact. Is there some way I can just press a function key and have selected spells cast in a selected order. I heard that the Soulafin mod had something like this but am unfamiliar with the details.

That would be pretty funny. Walk into a room with a lich that can't be turned by a level 21 cleric. The lich pops off 7 spells or so in an instant becoming "invulnerable" and then so does 4 of my 6 characters. Can someone point me to a mod, tutorial, or provide some help on creating a buffing script?

The Solaufein Mod does have such scripts. There's a button for long time buffs (Resist Fear, PfE etc.), one for short ones, which are intended for battle only (Mirror Image, Blur, Improved Haste...). MMM and free action have separate buttons. If the AI is active the characters will be iron/stoneskinned if they have the possibility to do so (cast Stoneskin if it's gone while in battle, after rest or whatever). Potions are used as soon as it makes sense and the characters attack automatically. Quite useful. But in my oppinion you should do several things yourself - even with the script. The reason is the targetting. As the script always sets the caster as the main target. So if you have one spell memorized that protects you against some kind of elemental damage and want it on your fighter the mage would cast it on himself. Did I mention that you cast Improved Invisibilty just to break the invisibility effect with more buffs, thus reducing it to a "hard to target with spells" spell?

Another reason you should consider is that it's in fact some sort of cheat. While it's true that several spells are hard to use because they have such a sucky duration (Chant and Bless anyone?) the way this scripts use... well, one might argue about it. Essentially you gain an aura cleansing effect for like one round and each spell is cast instantly. So you have all your buff spells ready in one second. Although one might argue that the enemies do so on their own... (speaking about like ten or more buffs after they become *hostile* which is quite unfair, but somewhat necessary to make them "hard")

You could try the following with your mages: spell sequencers and contingencies with buff spells. Seriously. If you use a sequencer with something like "Improved Haste, Spell Shield, PfMW" followed by "Fireshield Red/Blue, Stoneskin" after your buffs were just dispelled can be quite the help.

Let's not forget that enemies can't "prepare" for the battle, unlike the player. For example, even in the worst case, you will carefully prepare your party for your second attempt of a battle in a party-required area -- before entering the area. What about the villain's preparations? If the villian isn't supposed to expect you to come, then it's OK. But normally, it wouldn't be a fair battle if the enemy was forced to cast its protection spells only from the point you've attacked him. I don't think BG2 could have solved it in a better way than giving all protections to the villains instantly.

From a role playing point of view, you should assume that enemies have already cast those spells on themselves, but you just learn that they have pre-buffs only after you engage in practical combat against them. In other words, you should assume that they don't cast those spells all instantly; they had cast them beforehand. You just receive the messages on the screen instantly as soon as you start the battle. In some cases, such as the halflings in planar sphere, you even do not receive the messages on the screen. The game's engine has its own limitations of course; so you need to use some imagination to justify things in a better way. One important point, however, is that the number of spells enemies cast (pre-buffs included) never exceed the number of spells they can legally memorize (considering their classes and levels of experience).

True. And that's the very reason this buffing method is used, I guess.
But one might argue that it's quite unfair if an enemy can set up several 1 round/level spells within the blink of an eye while you literally have to spend several rounds doing so. Let's say you cast something like: Mirror Image, Fireshield Red/Blue, SI: something, SI: yet another thing, Improved Haste. Then you've lost 5 rounds of MI's duration, 4/3 of the Fireshield Red/Blue duration, and 2/1 of the SI: whatever duration. If a spell is only active for like 20 rounds 5 of them is just 1/4 of the whole duration. Maybe an somewhat extreme example.

[edit] Oh well, this (the spell per day thing) was something I wanted to ask anyway. Thanks for the answer, Sikret. Nice explanation by the way . Fantasy seems to be quite important in RPGs anyway, right?

Nevertheless I do wonder to what degree the difficulty affects the tactics etc. of the nemies anyway? Is the maximum reached at core already or at insane? [/edit]

Well, the game is all about fun to me. I think I'll see if the Soulafin mod can make this buffing chore easier. If it gives a momentary improved alacrity, I suppose that the enemy gets the same. I will still have to buff the kensai and swashbuckler, but maybe this script can cut down on some of the tedious chore. Unfortunately, I wonder if it will use buffs on my sorcerer that I don't want (chosen to buff the fighters). If it does, I guess that means I'll just have to rest more often. We'll see.

---I also wonder if the difficulty has any influence on the AI. I know it does in another mod, but what about IA?

You could activate autopause if a spell is cast (I do so, helps during those I.A.s used for low level spell bombardement ). After the first few buffs are cast (you will surely understand the casting schema after a short while) or even after the effect is activated you could buff yourself up manually. It's after all a lot faster than the regular routine (instant casting speed and such ).

Yeah the soluafein mod has the best script i've seen for doing this. It is cheating though, imo.

It would be nice to have a script that cast buff spells normally.

I think the enemy gets the same benefit; so, you might say you are being cheated if you don't do it.

Personally, I don't care about this cheating business, because most people (myself certainly) play individual games. Fun is THE priority. These long drawn out buffing sessions are taking away my fun. Before IA, I tended to charge in with only a few of the long term buffs up. That doesn't work very well in IA. (No, I wouldn't expect it to.) The converse is also true. In the original game, I did not do many things that were legal because I found it made the game too easy for me. So far, I have not found IA to be too easy, myself. It will be a while before I start trying to make the game even harder.

I think Solaufein includes his own D-door ability. Does that make it incompatible with IA? I also don't see how to activate autobuffing. I've never used this mod; so, perhaps, I am overlooking it? I'm just wondering if this is not another indication that this mod is incompatabile with IA? Does anybody know about this?

It's a script. The character needs it first, but I guess you are already at this point? ^^
If you read the description carefully you will notice the several buttons which are mentioned to activate the features. IIRC these are D for Freedom of Movement, N for MMM, S for long duration spells and F for short duration, combat oriented spells. So, turn the AI on, press the button and wait. If it doesn't work press it again. If nothing happens, move around. Maybe you need to reload. It's somewhat buggy at times and just won't start.

D-Door: Should be compatible. It's a teleporting spell which moves you around the area, not from one area to another one. Although I might be wrong.

I don't recall Sola having priest spells.

The script isn't just for solaufein.

The Sola script does not work for me. Has anyone else tried it with IA? If so, did it work for you? If not, is there some other autobuff script available. This is really becoming tedious going through a very, very long buffing session before each battle.

Have you selected in the character's script the Solo or Party Autobuff script before pressing the buttons?

Yes, I did.

Then I don't know what's the problem.
It should work. (You had the party AI on,right?)

Yep, I'll keep trying. I really want a break from this buffing routine - even if if I may not consider the new buff routine as optimal. As I understand it, you don't have to have sola in the party for this script to work? (I don't see why you would need to...)

Yes, he doesn't have to be in your party.

Well, it finally worked for me. Sometimes I have to press the key a few times before it works, but eventually it does its thing. I have to change the scripts around to the autobuff prior to buffing and then to my standard script afterwards, leaving AI on. (If I don't do this, I often end up letting my characters just stand around because I play when I should sleep. Of course, there are occasions when I do turn the AI off.)

The buff routine uses up some of my spells that I would choose that it did not and doesn't use some of the buffs that I want it to, but overall it does make the buffing for the constant hack-n-slash less tedious. This mod gets the thumbs up from me.

As an aside: Twisted Rune is a good reason to play a fighter-mage as the hero. It's nice to be as invulnerable as the enemy when the Big Nasty "magically" knows who the leader is, seeks him out, and unleashes hell. Personally, I don't think that omniscience was appropriate.

It's just the Improved Twisted Rune you see in v4+; you should wait to see the extended one in v5!

Just forgot to reply to this part:



Knowing the identity of the hero of Baldur's Gate and the kidnapped Bhaalspawn, doesn't require "omniscience"! Twisted Rune is a very powerful organization with many ears and eyes everywhere. Besides, even in the original game, much less informed people know your protagonist's identity very well.

Also, if you don't want to be on the receiving end of layene's timestop ramage, just keep CHARNAME out of her line of sight.

OK, I'll take your word for it. I never was aware of the background story behind this side battle (not even a quest). You get warped to another plane and find vampires, liches, beholders, etc. coexisting - and to what point? I always found that strange. And why would they be interested in a son of Bhaal? I'm not saying that there are not reasons behind this, just that it wasn't apparent to me in my game play.

I think that bombing the hero may not always be sound tactics - except to cause game engine to produce the game over. If it was player vs player, who would you attack: (1) the hero who was hiding in the closet (because he learned in the previous battle what happens once his protections are stripped); or (2) one of the 2 mages with the shiny balls of protections that you can't quickly remove closing in on you with an assortment of ruby rays and summoned planetar, etc.? If you killed the hero, would that really mean that the remaining group just says, "kill me too"?

I'm not trying to be offensive, I just didn't think it appropriate. At any rate, I have thought of new tactics for this battle. Of course, the plan must hinge on taking out this single 30th level conjurer before she spots the simple kensai hero....

That only works for a while. She will advance to bring him into sight. I had previously tried to deal with Shangrilar and the small fry first, but Layenne is by far the biggest threat.

In IA v5 (Extended Twisted Rune) more background and story of Twisted Rune will be revealed. More of their plans will become concrete in the game and you will have a big quest on your way after/beside defeating this small group.

Twisted Rune is actually a very powerful organization and may have very good reasons for killing the protagonist. Initially, I wanted to implement this feature of the mod (along with the Expanded Fighter Stronghold) into IA v4, but lack of time and our delay in releasing v4 (and players who were constantly asking for a quick release of v4) made me decide to postpone them to v5.

She'll only advance if she doesn't have a player character to attack.

That was not so in my game. She most definitely had someone closer to her who was dealing damage to her buddies. The hero was quite a bit further into the room.

@Sikret: I much appreciate story to go along with combat. I expect that by version 5 my tactical play will have improved.