The problem with improved Spellhold is that after your rest a random encounter happens. A really tough encounter and you have to use some of your spells to survive it. You do not get XP or treasure from the fight, so it is really annoying.

Meh, I thought that the fights would just be harder, but all there is is more opponents, and lootless as well? How boring. I've always reloaded those kind of encounters, though I suspect that it is impossible in that case. Will see what I'll do. Thanks for the answer, anyways

Improved Spellhold also means several fights is harder. Honestly, I tried once in V5, I don't really want to do it again.

About strongholds: SH quests stop to continue when you enter the elven city. So you have to do all SH quests before that.
You won't get any more money from strongholds or scrolls from mage and ranger SH (if your protag is mage or ranger) after you reached the limit in each SH, but you don't lose SH itself.

Tried Temple Ruins and it looks like it's the first improved/tactical fight I've seen in IA v6 thus far.

Is it to be assumed that all of the improved fights disable your ability to exit the dungeon entirely? I didn't realize this, and the battle is quite literally impossible for me at the moment, so I guess I'm intended to go back to my Auto Save?

I'm surprised you didn't find the fight with Suna Seni challenging.

As for the Temple Ruins - once you enter the place, you have to kill the Shadow Jailor. Then you can exit the place. So if you can't do it with current party levels, just go to the auto-save, yes. There are other places like that where you have to kill certain enemy(ies) to be able to leave.

Speak of the devil. I actually haven't ran into Suna Seni, until now.

Party is:
PC - Vagrant 9
Yoshimo - Swashbuckler 11
Valygar - Ranger 8
Mazzy - Riskbreaker 9
Jan - Mage/Bounty 8/8

(yes, I CTRL-Q'ed Mazzy and got out of there, given that most people here seem to start the game with their custom 6).

The Suna Seni fight, I'm not really sure how to handle. It seems any buffs applied before hand are auto-stripped upon entering the area. I'm not fast enough to run out of the area before my party gets Greater Command-ed, and inevitably one of them fails the save and I can't leave without them. I've got about 4 seconds to prep for Greater Command and Confusion, and thus far I've been pretty unsuccessful.

I'm currently in the docks, so I figure I'll try to eke out a few more experience points before I decide what to do. So I head to the pirate cave in the Sea's Bounty, and get Chain Contingency Finger of Death x 3 and then Comet right out of the gate :/

2 mikel123:

have you checked out the topic on recommended quest order? It's a good way for a new player to grab a bunch of experience with a new party before attempting the first improved encounters. Any way, you should start with easier fights like Suna-Seni or the Copper Coronet. Things like temple ruins and the pirate cove are better be left for a party with levels around 11 or 12.

PS: having a pure thief isn't the best course of action for you. I'd recommend leaving Yoshimo and picking up another pure fighter.

Managed to defeat Suna Seni.

Well, frankly I didn't expect the pirate cove to be that tough! It's one of the easiest in vanilla.

I find it amusing that there's a topic on recommended quest order, but spoilers are frowned upon here :/

Agree that Yoshimo is terrible. I was on my way to pick up Keldorn, and then Edwin, so I could drop him, when Suna Seni stepped in. I would like to pickpocket some of the better known targets first (Djinni in Trademeet, Aran Linvail). I see Ribald's ring has been removed...

You'll find nothing worth pickpocketing. Well, maybe a few potions of Extra Healing and Frost/Fire Giant strength will be your top picks. Don't expect powerful random spell scrolls - the random slots have been revised. Well there may be some valuable ones like Summon Efreeti or Invisible Stalker, but that's pretty much it. The Efreeti Bottle is not in Trademeet, don't bother pickpocketing the Genie. Aran also has nothing worth mentioning. If you fight against him, you'll loot his entire gear anyway, but even the Elven Chain +1 is not that good in IA. Oh, and there is no Ring of Djinni Summoning in his chest. Boots of Speed have also been removed from Renal Bloodscalp's inventory.

If you're lucky, you could also pickpocket a green scroll of Protection from Poison. As you can see, nothing special. Elminster's ring +2 and other items are not pickpocketable. Not sure if you can kill him with stat drain, and in IA, that's not easy to achieve anyway.

We have "spoiler tags" for those who want to write spoilers. Spoilers are OK as long as they are written in spoiler tags.

It is false and misleading statements that are frowned upon here. Huge difference. Example: Someone doesn't install the mod properly or uses cheats, then he experiences certain problems in the game and then blames the mod for what was originally his own fault. Then he refuses to admit he cheated or didn't install properly and insists on sending false information. It is this kind of posts we frown upon.

I know this info's gonna be deleted, but will still make an attempt:

Example: One chooses to pick a Fighter/Mage multiclass or to dual his Berserker or kensai protagonist to mage at the very beginning of the game. He then fights Pai-Na and finds no Spell Immunity scroll in the treasure trove. The scroll can be found with any other type of protagonist.

Example: Someone decided to join Cernd and forge his cloak +4 with, He goes to Windspear hills and engages Tazok with 3-man party (Cernd included). Tazok doesn't drop Cloak of Balduran. Fight replayed with 5-man party with Cernd in it - Tazok drops cloak.

There are more such examples, but I think these two speak for themselves.

I personally played the mod with and without the "Happy" tweak. Despite Sikret's claims that the original v6 mod is different from the Premium mod I had so far, I found no differences at all. Also, the mod with or without the "happy" tweak from EoU components is pretty much the same.

This is an excellent example of such misleading information I mentioned earlier. It also proves not installing the mod properly or using exploits and cheats can ruin your game. The fact is there are loads of differences between the final copy of IA v6 and the beta. The player doesn't notice them, which means he is either not a good observant or those changes never happened in his game because of bad installation or cheats or an overpowered character (cause of using exploits) who won battles so fast that the changes never found the time to appear.

PS: Tazok detects cheats and punishes cheaters. Thanks for proving all my points.

And from things you are writing I am pretty sure that you are using console commands to mess with variables as well. Your cheating extends just using gold and xp exploits.

Mikel, you have to be familiar with IA. It is really not easy and you will be really angry sometimes, just believe me.

First of all, I do not suggest to use CluaConsole commands to make your life easier. Sikret can tell you if CTRL-Q-ed Mazzy will ave an effect of your game but it could be. It is better if you do not use CluaConsole commands at all. Second thing is, do not try to escape fights. You can miss a lot of items this way and it will can definitely affect you in the long run. Third, you have to find out what is the best order to do the different quests. I suggest the following:

1. do the Bridge District quest (the skin quest). It is easy, give you XP and reputation.
2. Check some other small quests you can do (free Viconia, quests in graveyard and so on).
3. Trademeet is a good place to continue.
4. ...

Check journals to find out the orders, you can find several examples.

One very serious issue is there with your party composition. You have no single mage at all. A typical effective IA party consist of the following members:
- 2-3 fighters
- 1-2 single class mage/sorcerer (can be dualled to mage also)
- 1 single class cleric (can be also dualled)

Other combinations are also possible of course, it is just the traditional way to do. I suggest to reorganize your party or just start over it from the beginning.

Thanks for the info. I do think it's strange to alter things like scroll loot based on protagonist choice (I'd think this should be in the "Tweaks" text file included with the mod), but to each his own I guess. And I am impressed that the coding of the mod allows for detection/alteration of some of these things.

I actually do enjoy the surprise of seeing which encounters are beefed up and which aren't, so I probably won't read the journals for that reason. Suna Seni and Shadow Jailor are sort of exceptions here since they're both unescapable (the latter because I want Mazzy in my group).

FWIW, Edwin is my next pickup, and I plan on keeping Imoen when Yoshimo is dropped. In most difficulty mods, I find that arcane magic always has an answer, so I do plan on being heavy with them as the game progresses.

I don't know if people post tactics here, but the key to Suna Seni for me was to Charm the priest. Interestingly, he was in the middle of a Greater Command cast at the time, and since he was green by the time it resolved, it affected enemies.

Oh, back onto the topic of random questions... the Nymph Cloak costs like 30k in Mae'var's guild. Is this intentional? It certainly has some cool uses, but it's far from one of the more powerful items in the vanilla game. I do see the purpose of increasing the price on things like the bracers of AC 3 though.

Some do, it is in spoiler tags within journals
for meSPOILER!



Some items price have been increased for two reasons I think (maybe Sikret will correct me ), first avoiding cheap "powerful" items (like nymph cloak), second for a more general purpose, to have player manage his money and plan forging of items. Money is not an unlimited ressource in IA (though you may collect huge amounts) when you play it with no exploit, so before investing player has to make choice. For example, will you spend 30k on nymph cloak which can be useful early on some occasion but may not be of great help later or forge ring +2 (or cloak +2) for example which are very useful all game long or save money for a later expensive upgrade, or buy potions that can be very helpful (may be life savior) in some improved early fights,....

Your strategy for Suna Seni makes sense. Sadly, I didn't have any of those spells available :-)

The price increase makes sense - the whole reason I'm spending time pickpocketing commoners is because I definitely see this emphasis on managing gold. It's a nice touch of the mod. I was just surprised that the Nymph Cloak, of all things, would get such a price increase. 95% of playthroughs, I never buy it. Heck, I only spend time to steal it in vanilla playthroughs about 20% of the time. Keeping it cheap would allow some new tactics to be tried in the Suna Seni battle, and would allow non-magic parties to have a reasonable shot at beating it. So I think that's worth considering as well.

Is the thief's Detect Illusions now a Divination-based spell?

It was always a great move when enemies would cast Spell Immunity: Divination while invisible. Doesn't seem to work very well here though.

Yes, read the mod's fixes and tweaks document.

Ah, I should do that again. I did it once before I started the game, and haven't since :-)

Thieves are comically nerfed in this mod. Their traps work on, perhaps, 5% of enemies. I understand why you want to make them less effective, but I'd suggest just removing the ability from thieves altogether. Maybe you could replace it with "Avoid Death" or "Evasion", which tend to never get picked in HLAs anyways.

Swashbuckler is actually buffed in IA, but probably still a tough choice for someone new to the mod. I recommend you use a strong party for your first run. If you need a thief for detecting traps and picking locks, either use Nalia or some other custom dual class thief. Once you get enough experience with the mod, you can try your hand with swashbuckler.

What's the deal with Charisma impacting shop prices? Usually the person who talks to the storekeep is the one who's charisma is checked. I actually don't see any difference regardless of who does the shopkeeping. So I can't tell if it's (a) the Protagonist charisma that's checked no matter what, (b) Charisma has no impact on store price, or (c ) something else altogether.

Yeah, I saw mention of Swashbuckler in the docs. It's a cool kit in vanilla, curious to see what it gets here.

If I save the game before the item randomization finishes his work and later I reload the game from that point and I see the message that it was successfully executed then is it ok? Or could it be that somehow it is messed up?

Best course of action IMO is to save after message.
But since message appears, may be all is ok, though I would wait for Sikret advice on it...

Question about the Flail of Ages...

SPOILER!


And about the Copper Coronet...

SPOILER!

Yes to both questions.

Yikes, OK thanks.

Regarding Immunity to Abjuration... what options do I have as a level 12 sorceror to combat this? For example, against the Shade Lord? I used my only Ruby Ray scroll to write in my mage's book. I can't magic the shade lord to death, as I don't have enough firepower and he regenerates pretty quickly. I managed to beat him with a lot of running around, but just wondering how others do it with low-level characters.

Also, regarding the ranger stronghold extended quest... would I miss out on this if I complete the normal stronghold, and then go to Spellhold before or in the middle of the extended quest?

I only know one way, collect other RRoR scrolls! (you will need 2 IIRC, check shade lord buffs, I think he has only GOI and SI:Abj, if Spell turning you need 3 scrolls)
Where to collect? I remember 2 enemies well furbished:
SPOILER!

or
SPOILER!



Wait for Sikret or Critto advice, IIRC no problem while you do not have "time limit" when leaving (like Umar IIRC, if Delon talks to you about Umar, talk to major in Umar before leaving for spellhold and everything is OK even if you don't fight umar)

Tell me where you are in the quest and I may provide safer advice

Cool thanks. I haven't begun the stronghold quest yet, was just curious. I don't want to miss out on it; I'm right about at the point at which I'll go to spellhold (protagonist has about 1.6M experience as a Vagrant; should hit level 13 and get that extra half-attack as soon as I tell Aran I'm ready to go).

So I figured, I'd love to try the ranger stronghold now. But I don't want (a) to be too high a level when I got to spellhold, nor (B) to find the expanded quest too hard and end up losing it if I postpone it until after spellhold.

In case you would like to know, spellhold cap is SPOILER!

Which means you should not leave SPOILER!

In your case,If I may say so, I advise you SPOILER!

Oh, interesting, thanks for the tip. Maybe I will try to complete the stronghold now. The Moon Dog Figurine is one of my favorite items in the game (although I think I read it is nerfed in this mod, which is unfortunate).

Sorry, missed this one, It is the first char whose charisma is checked (I call first the one on top of your left screen, aka party leader), the one who talks to shopkeeper does not matter.
To make a long story short, highest charisma has to be party leader to have discount
Don' t ask me about charisma impact ratio, have no idea of it

The charisma discount maxes out at 20 (so cha 21-25 does nothing extra), and it's something like a 20-25% discount. It also works along with the rep discount, I think the maximum discount with rep 20 and cha 20 is around 45%. Easiest way to get cha 20 is have a mage with base cha of 14+ cast the Friends spell, but even if you can't get up to 20 it's worth having the highest cha character up in the top portrait spot for shopping.

Hi, I'm new here.
Here are some questions I have(I'm convincing myself at the moment, that I'm able to get through this mod )
1 Is there possibility to use both IA6 and refinements mods? (I love how the latter changes LHA!) and can it make the game even harder(hope not)
2 Is it better to make F/T or to dual that class with +backstab to fighter? (or is such character pointless? (those items for thief are awesome))
3 can mage use for example vecna(or upg. vecna) and upg gaxx at the same time?(it doesn't work with armors, but what about robes?)

Hi and welcome.

No, there is no possibility, but sure mess if you use both (I did try once long ago)


Thief is mainly convenient for disarming/opening locks, period. Don't expect anythingfrom traps or backstab, period.
Best course of action is to dual early to fighter or mage (Nalia for example is a GREAT NPC in your party)

This comes from having tried a 2 thief party (swash and assassin)



Yes sir!

Ehh... so, if You tried that combination with ref. then I'll just use IA for now (but who knows what the future will bring )

Personally I hate traps, and never used them but... since one of the advantages of the best dagger for thief is +1x to backstab... why is that useless? (I mean, even as F/T I won't have many occasions to backstab some nasty foes, or...? )

In IA v6, swashbuckler is still a bit hard to play early game (particularly for someone new to the mod), but becomes stronger as you get closer to the end of the game. In v7, swashy will be a good addition to the party even from early stages of the game, as we are adding more to the kit.

Backstab isn't useless. Altough, you might want to try a Stalker instead of a F/T. Also note that some enemies are not immune to backstab even if they can see invisible creatures. Take some micromanagement, but I believe that a Stalker is well worth playing.

Errr... It's me again

The problem is: I've started making characters, everything went right until I tried to make RB, because I can't select alignment, and so I can't finish making him... >.<
(I have ONLY those mods/components which are in readme)

What operating system do you use on your computer?

Try these steps:

1- Uninstall the entire game.
2- Install it again without using the disk auto run. Manually run the install file as adminstrator
3- Install in a custom directory and folder (ex: D/games/BG2), not the default one.

In the original game, there was a way to be admitted into Spellhold by talking to Desharik. Is that option disabled in IA v6?

Maybe it's just my lack of knowledge... but how making enemies cast SI divination and II+PFMW can make the game more challenging? It's always just: pray that char has successful saving throw, and wait till afmw wears down or be raped by that dude... OR cast as much AoE spells as you can... (I've started the game recently for the first time, and it's just annoying how almost every single fight ends like that)

When enemy has II then there is no way one can dispel his protections(dispel magic doesn't work) am I right or just n00b?

Btw, spellshold becomes improved after main char gets 15 lvl, or after certain amount of time?

And... I went to sewers, but couldn't beat that greater crawler( ) but he was blocked in door. I decided to leave... and that dude somehow followed me, and still waits somewhere in slums (yes, outside...) Is that normal?

If you are high level enough (more than enemy), you can remove Si:div with remove or dispel magic, otherwise it will never work.
Challenge (IMO) comes from the fact that you have to devise how you will "endure" this enemy according to your level and spells/abilities available. (Which will be very different accross the game and enemies, pay attention to other buffs than Si:div and II, they vary a lot between enemies and are also key as how to deal with them)

At low levels, there are still means to hurt enemy:
SPOILER!
you can also distract enemy from casting
SPOILER!
And no need to expose all your party at once....
Early, not that many enemies with this combo IIRC, if previous info unhelpful for you, please tell me which enemy you speak of, I might give more appropriate tips.


After protag level 15 (or more) or has more than 2 350 000 xp when meeting Imoen in spellhold
Safe course is to leave for Brynnlaw with SPOILER!




greater crawler can only be hit by +3 (or more) weapons

edit: second part of question, I am at a loss, I never could domesticate greater crawler

Epic.

Question about screaming statue.

I tried it when I did the unseeing eye quest, expecting free xp like in v5, but the freaking mists... level drain was too annoying so I decided to leave it for after I got the amulet of power. And then I forgot to go back to do it before leaving for spellhold.

Now I'm in chapter 6 and finally remembered it on my way to ashideena, but the "examine" icon is gone on the statue. Is this working as intended? Do I have to do it before chapter 4 or else it's gone? And if so, what did I miss? I hope there wasn't a crucial randomizer item in there...

The screaming statue is a completely improved encounter and targets partys before spellhold. The fact that you cannot do it now in chapter 6 is because the encounter is no longer accessible if you get there with a certain amount of xp which is too high.

It is indeed sad that you missed it, but know that the reward (both xp and item/gold) is relatively small. For further runs you could attempt it before leaving for spellhold or earlier if you want more challenge.

I concur that mists are annoying but that's part of the challenge !

Anyway, nothing can be more annoying than a whisper spider scoring a 20 on her first hit

Ya I went at level 8 to get the quest xp stockpiled for my dual classes, and then I forgot to go back after getting amulet of power like i planned... ugghhhh oh well I'll just reload at chapter 2 savepoint so I can at least try it out... It's not just that I was level 8... I also had almost no spells/summons to tank for me because all the pre-dual class characters

The Screaming Statue fight is intended for a party of average level 14-15. You can't seriously hope to win that fight with characters level 8-10. Plus, the Master Vampire (toughest opponent) is vulnerable only to +3 or higher weapons. You need at least 3 powerful fighters under Improved Haste, all wielding +3 weapons to have a decent chance.
I somewhat disagree that the rewards are small, since they include a Barbarian Essence potion and a Permanency scroll - both very useful, especially at that point of the game when there are only a few Permanency scrolls that easily available. Also, 4 Invulnerability + 4 Superior Healing potions are the blessing of any Riskbreaker.
The mists aren't annoying if you have the right summon to block them - namely, Skeleton Warriors.

don't really care about the invulnerability pots, with the saving throw component removed.
but WTF essence and permanency scroll... That's big enough to make me to wanna restart, since I'm somewhat of a completionist.

Jesus...

If you have a riskbreaker or a kensai then this potion is really valuable.

However I think this potion is overpriced. It gives just 1 better AC than Potion of Defense and the price difference between the two is huge.