Thanks guys for your help. I guess I have drawn a wrong map so I did not explore everything in the maze

Thanks for the PM Raven and I'll try to be better about hiding or prefacing any quest specific questions.

Are any of the new Monsters killed by greater deathblow?
Or is this feat useless. I'm asking becasue i have to choose my HLA soon and I don't want to spend point in stuff that I don't need

Gorwath

Some of them will be killed, some others won't. That particular HLA is not one of my favorites and I have not thought about it much either. It's not useless of course, but you have better HLAs to pick.

any ideas where to find some remove magic scrolls? im close to brynlaw and dont wanna go witout them

The first time I was able to find one was on SPOILER!
. They are hard to find and I didn't see one in any shop.

SPOILER!

Regarding the Shadow Dragon:

During my first attempt at IA (v.5), I encountered what apparently was a vanilla bug which made the dragon's PfMW unbreachable. It occurred once or twice, was annoying, but a reload generally fixed it. Now, I am playing again, with a new party and more experience, and find he's unbeatable because his PfMW is almost never breachable. I reloaded five times in a row, and in each case, Breach got the "Spell: Ineffective" message.
I believe the fight would not be a big deal compared to even, say, Conster and his buddies if Breach worked as it rightly should; the way it is, I simply cannot outlast five or so PfMW with an (Improved Hasted) dragon bearing down on me.

So my question is: Is this some sort of unfixable vanilla game bug? And if yes, is there at least a workaround (other than cheating, which would be justified but boring and apparently risky)? I only have explicitly compatible mods, by the way.

I'll ask the obvious question about if you removed his spell protections before trying to Breach him. I reloaded an old save on Core difficulty and he started the fight with Spell Turning and Spell Shield. Did you use Ruby Ray of Reversal to get rid of them before Breaching? He also has a spell trigger that fires Protection from Magical Weapons and Spell Turning so you'd have to get rid of that Spell Turning as well.

You are right that some enemies (liches) are immune to level 5 spells (Breach). That can be frustrating that the only way to deal with PFMW then is either waiting them out or being high enough level to Dispel/Remove Magic them. I don't think the the Shadow Dragon is immune to level 5 spells so I'm not sure what's going on in your case.

@Zarathustra

Yes, it's the famous unfixable bug of the spell Sheild spell which reappears randomly every now and then. See the mod's readme (fixes' document) about spell shield again.

However, if you installed my recently uploaded fix for "Dragons' spell shield", the bug won't appear by any chance if you cast a "SpellStrike" spell on him first. The fix makes the dragon's version of the spell identical with the mage version (which was already fixed by me in v5). SpellStrike is a 9th level spell, but I guess you have already found a couple of scrolls.

Thanks, Sikret! I'll install the fix and use a Spellstrike scroll if necessary.

Which is the best choice for a Warblade additional ability, which should be used by a low HP fighter (swashbuckler > fighter dual) who also use halberds and staves?

1- Magic Resistance: +20%
I am not too big fun of low MR. Usually I like to do 1 party member with 50+ MR, so that is more reliable. Simple fighter won't reach this.

2- AC Bonus: +3
This is not bad, but he has -16 AC now, and his AC will be imporved with some better prot. rings, cloak, Girdle of Lordly Might. I think he will reach max. -24 easily later.

3- 10% resistance to damage taken from all weapon types
This is very tempting.

4- Bonuses to attributes (+2 bonus to strength and dexterity)
This is tempting too. +2 Dex. means 20 Dex. +2 Strength means 20 Strength, and I am intended to use Girdle of Lordly Might on, which could mean Str 23.

5- Miscellaneous immunties: Immunity to backstab, Fear and poison
I am not sure how handy is this. Fear is not too useful, since I have 3 arcane and 1 divine caster with Remove Fear. Also my blade can do it from HLA. Backstab is useless, since enemies will chose another target for their BS. Poison is not bad, but not enough to chose this.

6- Regeneration: 3 hp per round
Worst ability from this 6, I think.

So Str or weapon res > AC or MR imho.
Anyway I will use this mostly when I need Immunity to Confusion or Charm, or when I need slashing weapon. I am sure, my fighter will use his halberds mostly cause of their given immunities and higher damage.

I would pick resistance for certain... unfortunately I have no fighters in my current party that use two-handed weapons .

I would pick the Str and Dex modifiers. Btw what level did you dual at? I'd guess 10...

Afaik 20 dex doesn't get you anything more than 18 dex. You only gain a bit when you reach 21, and then it's only 1 AC and some bonus for ranged. Also, if you're going for the girdle of lordly might then the +2 strength bonus will not matter that much either, but of course without the belt it will.

I find it much more useful to keep my characters from taking damage or at least reducing it as much as possible.

Yes, I dualed at lvl 10. Thanks for the tips, probably the resitance will be chosen, but no money yet for this upgrade.

2 strange things:

1. I cannot chose impr. bard song as HLA for bard. Does any prereq for that?

2. Shade Lich still hard enemies, since they can't be breached and lvl 25 Remove magic is not enough for them. I killed 2 of them so far, both of them on very strange mode. Usually 1 of my fighters and 1/2 summoned monster are hitting him, while I am waiting till he is out of more PfMW. But Swanmays killed them both time within a sec with their Wing Swing. 1 secs, and almost my full combat text window is full with swanmay's Wing Sing on lich. Like this:
Swanmay Wing Swing Shade Lich
Swanmay did 1 damage to Shade Lich
Swanmay did 3 damage to Shade Lich
Swanmay did 2 damage to Shade Lich
Shade Lich cursed
Shade Lich Fire Shield Red: Swanmay
Shade lich did 1 damage to Swanmay

This is repeated like more than 10 times, and lich died within a sec.
Suppose this is a bug.

I don't know anything about that, I'm afraid.


Yes we're aware of this happening. It's feedback between the Fireshield and the Wing Swing, which sometimes gets out of control and constantly deals damage back and forth until one creature is killed (which thanks to the Swanmany's fire resistance will be the lich). However, I had tested it some time ago and found it did not occur very often in my tests (the Wing Swing would usually deal damage only once). Have you seen this often? Did it happen first time in both battles with Shade Liches?

It happened 2 times only, but I ddin't have to many fights with Shade Liches. Anyway, now I know it is a bug and I will try to avoid swanmays when Fire Shielded enemy is there.

I'm am having most severe trouble with the 1st Drow ambush (I doubt the second one will be easier). My party is:

Vagrant
Minsc (Barbarian)
Anomen
Jaheira (Cleric/Ranger)
Haer'Dalis
Imoen

All have slightly above 2 million XP and decent (+3) equipment, though I did not forge any IA items before Spellhold.

I have already lured out and killed all the spiders without trouble; but despite trying about six times I have never managed to take out more than two Drow before the lights go out. The usual buffs (Free Action, Chaotic Commands, Improved Haste etc.) are in place, and a Death Spell takes care of the summons (except the Fallen Devas), but to no avail. The fact that I am constantly in danger of running into a stray Earth or Air Elemental (from the portals) doesn't help either. Can I divide the group somehow?

I will appreciate any suggestion whatsoever; the difficulty of this battle exceeds even the Mithral and Amber Golem fights in Spellhold, which took me long enough.

I'm stuck in the Good, the Bad and the Ugly quest.

SPOILER!

Vardaman I'll send you a PM about the quest.

I just finished up the planar sphere. The hardest part for me was without question <Big Spoiler. Don't read if you haven't done this yet.> SPOILER!

Zarathustra:

SPOILER!


Hope it helps.

Thanks, Shadan! I did finally manage to beat them.

Actually, I have a question not relating to tactics etc. When I find Amariel's brother in his lamentable condition, I don't know how to free him. All the conversational options lead to his death. Could someone PM what to do, please?

anybody know if the rod of smiting which u buy from ust natha(+10 vs golems) is any good vs IA new golems? he also has chance to kill golems unless save vs. death. This will also work vs. the new IA golems? any help is thx

The bonus damage will be effective, but I'm pretty sure none of the IA golems will be affected by the instant death effect.

SPOILER!


@shadan and Raven

I'm not yet sure whether we should mark the phenomenon of the resonance of Fireshield and Wing Swing as a "bug". It may even happen even if your own F/M uses Fireshield and attacks the lich. We can just consider it as an advantage of swanmays (as specialist lich-killers). Moreover, as Raven mentioned, the phenomenon happens very rarely and sometimes it even ends with the opposite result (the swanmay's death).

And does the character have to have a minimum Int or Wis score? I seem to remember not getting the dialogue option you need with one of my characters so I had to reload and have my mage talk.

I have done some experimenting with Samia's group. I have concluded that it is probably not wise to engage in this fight with a level 13-15 party in a no-reload game. I can win the battle at his level, but not dependably. Do the experts agree that this fight should be done later? If not could you suggest some tactics that would allow me to consistently win this battle? Kaol is my big problem.

Yeah, and killing him before he turns red isn't a good idea since a great item won't spawn on him (if the randomizer set it to spawn on him in your game).

I know it really helped to focus on Akae first. Layer up some spell protections and hope Kaol spends time dispelling them with RRR, etc. His 3x ADHW is always a pain.

This will be a hard fight in a no-reload game. What are your conditions or rules?

I am by no means an expert in playing IA no-reload (I don't think anyone is). But I'd say that this is a fight best left until chapter 6.

OK, if Raven agrees that this battle should be Chapter 6, then my metagaming map for my no-reload game will reserve Samia for chapter 6. My current game is not a no-reload game as I'm still refining my tactics. Each game I expect to have less reloads. It was that way in the one and half games I played in IA4.2. I don't know when I will succeed in a no-reload game, but even if I someday manage to complete the game with 5 or less reloads, I'll feel like I've accomplished something.

"What are my conditions or rules?" No cheating, except that I will give myself a bag of holding at the beginning. Inventory management is a chore I hate.

No, it's not necessary to have a minimum stat.



SPOILER!

I know it cannot be fixed, but Swanmay/Greater Swanmay killed some Amber Golems and Salamander Princes with her Wing Swing... I wonder if they will kill Raksasha Prince as well within a sec? I will try it, however I am trying to skip to summon them when I see enemy with FS or similar ablitity.

Hmm, if you've had the Wing Swing feedback effect against several other monsters as well as the liches it would suggest this happens more often than my testing led us to believe.

What are the specs of your computer, out of interest?

In my own game, the phenomenon happens very rarely and even when it happens, it ends with the swanmay's death more than 50% of the times.

As I said before, it's a vanilla game issue which can even happen if your own F/M has fireshield and fights a fireshielded enemy; so, I don't consider it as an IA bug in need of being fixed.

PS: Rest assured, shadan! It won't happen against Rakshasa Prince. (Yes, I know you were joking.)

OK, the "some" was not exact.
Swanmay killed 2 elemental liches (lich at Teshal and one lich in demilich's body quest). And she killed 1 Amber Golem and 1 Salamander Prince at Chromatic Demon, and 1 golem earlier. Surely is doesn't happen always, but in my game it is far from very very rare also. This is why I try to skip to summon them.

I am looking for some tips regarding either the Illusionist battle or - more importantly - the Queen Spider battle. Both are rather more difficult than I had expected; I don't have a problem with delaying the epic battles with Orcus and the Dracolich as long as possible, but it really annoys me that some puny insect is keeping me from doing even the first level of Watcher's Keep.

Note: Only two of my characters can hit the Spider Queen, and forging another +4 weapon is not possible.

Vagrant 19
Minsc (Barbarian) 20
Sir Anomen 22
Jaheira (Cleric/Ranger) 14/13
Haer'Dalis 23
Imoen 18

Aside from the encounters mentioned above, there isn't much left for me to do before Suldanessallar, except the post-Firkraag Windspear quest. I would really like (in fact, will probably need) some WK loot and experience before wrapping up SoA.

Thanks in advance, everyone.

*nvm

Zarathustra:

I don't know what is "Illusionist battle", but about Queen:
SPOILER!

i have 2 questions, first i imported a 6 man party from BG1. All the chars have around 300k exp so they are about 2 levels higher then a new character would be, they also have some higher stats from the book increases in BG1 for example my cleric has 21 wisdom from the 3 books of +wisdom. i was wonder if this will make the game to easy, i played through the first dungeon and the circus and even in insane difficulty it was kind of easy.

my second question is if the ease of use component "ware magic armor and rings" is recommend or not recommended, i played through the game before with no armor restrictions and havening a fighter with -20AC makes the game to easy, but dose the AI difficulty balance this out?

Hi!

The circus and Irenicus' dungeon hasn't been changed by Sikret, so that's why they'll appear so easy.

At first Sikret recommended the EoU component which let you wear more RoP and the sort, but you'll have to look in the readme or wait for Sikret to emerge to get the correct answer to that. I don't use it.

Some enemies are going to hit your fighters even with -26 AC so I don't think wearing magic rings and armor is too broken but it's up to you.

Don't blame yourself for finding the Spider Queen a tad more difficult than what you had expected. She is not a "puny insect". She is a lesser goddess and is surely tougher than Dracolich. The battle with Spider Queen is optional though. You don't need to do that battle to complete the first level of WK.

As for the Illusionist, send either me or Raven a PM and explain your problem. We may be able to provide some tactical hints.

Malakar +2 is randomed or still in asylum?

???

Apparently Malakar is randomized. At least it is no longer where it was in the vanilla game.

ok thx man

what about usuno blade? didnt find in wk 1st lvl tt

Play and find it out for yourself during the game, Nexiam.

When an item is not where it was in the vanilla game, its location is either randomized or simply changed to a different fixed place.