Do we have a thread to post questions that don't really belong anywhere else?

Why can't I find the Ring of Holiness? Do I have to import a game from BG1?

For all of the weapons that grant an extra APR, the weapon in the main hand is always the one that takes the extra attack, right?

Does Sikret's item randomizer keep everything that used to be in SOA in SOA or does some stuff get dumped to TOB only areas?

Location(s)
Temple District - Possible reward for intercepting the thief who stole the Dawn Ring and returning it to the Temple of Lathander


right


I don't know, but I hope that SoA items remain in SoA. That seemed to be the case in the one game that I've played.

Yes the SoA items remain in the areas accessible prior to actually starting the ToB campaign....however, that includes WK. So the item you are seeking may very well lie with the seal bosses, hehe.

Not sure if Demogorgon is included in the randomization scheme. I hope not, because if you decided to skip him and lock him up instead of fighting him, then you would lose those items forever.

Hmm, my main character was a cleric and didn't even get the ring. Is there a time limit? I know I accepted the quest early in the game but didn't complete it until I was a higher level.




That's kind of what I was expecting.

Well, this is true, except, of course, for the small area by Demogorgon's door that allows you to return even after you've sealed him in!

Wait, what, I'm talking crazy now! Just ignore what I said.

IIRC, if you are a priest of Helm (only) you get to choose between 3 items as a reward for completing the Illithium quest. One of them is the ring of Holiness.


And Demogorgon doesn't drop any items since you don't actually kill him.

I'm not really sure where to post this, but i was wondering if it would be possible to divide the mod into 2 separate components, 1 with the various improvements and upgrades to the game, the second with all the nerfs and item removals. Maybe have the item randomization in a 3rd component, although that isn't as big a deal. The reason for this is that i like what the mod adds, but what it takes away i find quite annoying. For me, a big part of playing BGII is the familiarity, and although additions don't seem to disrupt this at all, suddenly having my favorite items either removed or nerfed because they were deemed too powerful (probably the reason i liked them in the first place) is not good. I know this is probably all in the attempt to make the game more challenging, but i'd rather just give the enemies more power (or just turn the difficulty slider up) than apply handicaps to myself, because then the familiar feeling is still intact

http://forums.blackwyrmlair.net/index.php?showtopic=2862
http://forums.blackwyrmlair.net/index.php?showtopic=1950

Ah, I see that I am not the first person with these sentiments. Its a shame that it is impossible to split them. I suppose I probably wouldn't have kept this mod due to incompatibilities with some of my other mods anyways. I guess I'll just try Tactics or some other substitute instead.

I noticed that an item (eternal melody bard armor) has "wearer's aura is cleansed" as one of its abilities. What does that mean?

It means the wearer can cast spells without the usual pause between them. It's a permanent "Improved Alacrity". The ability is very powerful but the armor is only usable by Bards. Also, in IA v4.3, "Use Any Item" ability will not help M/Ts C/Ts and F/M/Ts to wear it. It's exclusively for bards.

Oh so that's what it does. That makes bards pretty good spellslingers then. Pity they are just low level ones, but of course that makes it balanced. Maybe I ought to try our Haer'Dalis.

That's a very interesting item. Can't wait for 4.3 so I can finally play this game

I do see why you nerf UAI, but from what I've read, thieves are mostly weaklings brought along just for the traps and saving spell slots for something else than Knock. Do you feel that a single class thief is pretty much as good for a party as most/all other classes? If not, does this bother you?

Of course I can't speak for Sikret, but my guess is that the changes to UAI are not intended to reflect overpoweredness of singleclass thiefs (a class which is one of the weakest in IA I believe), but thief multiclasses. Imagine, if you will, a F/M/T or M/T with that bard armor. It's a decent armor in to begin with without the alacrity part, and stack on top of that permanent improved alacrity! As part of a four person party, and with the XP cap removed as the mod documentation recommends, you would be absolutely insanely powerful. Toss on the ring of power to improve casting speed, and you could go absolutely nuts with spells on top of being already superpowered!

Ideally (IMO), UAI would remain universal for pureclass thiefs and have some restrictions for those multiclasses, though I don't know if this is feasible from a coding perspective and it also seems rather difficult to justify from a RP perspective. So I think Sikret's solution is best. It's not like those superpowered classes need to become even more powerful anyways.

I agree, the only way to exploit that armor would be playing a triple class F/M/T, which has a painstakingly slow advancement anyway. I think it would be better not to restrict UAI, after all Use Any Item should allow a thief to use *any* item...

Of course I understand that a singleclass thief gains nothing from permanent improved alacrity and that certain items were not meant for clerics (cleric/thief UAI), fighters or mages. My question regarding the value of a thief was meant specifically for single classed thieves. You surely know there are other powerful items, and more changes to the class than just UAI. No stealing, plenty of see stealth or immunity to backstab on powerful monsters etc.

I can't really get it down to one easy sentence which covers it all, but something like "is thief worth a spot in the group for mostly pick lock/disarm trap while reducing xp for others or taking a spot from a better kit?" It would be nice to see other people's thoughts and views, as I tend to use Imoen, possibly Jan, as only thief, and never even used UAI. I'm inexperienced in good use of thieves, but I do know of the "exploits" like using SotM and backstabbing for ever.

I don't think you can actually use SoTM to backstab. Although it is a staff which is traditionally a backstab weapon, it is not a staff normally available to thiefs pre-UAI, so it is not considered a "thief weapon" and thus cannot be used to backstab. I could be wrong though. AFAIK the main infinite backstab trick is Mislead + SI: Divination + SI: Abjuration (of course you couldn't do this in IA because you can only use one spell immunity at a time.

Except for some logical options like potions, wands, minor spells and armor usage, you probably won't find many singleclass thieves going that far outside the thief epos when items are concerned. Weapons may provide bonuses, but they're better suited in a warrior's hands, plus you won't have the proficiency for them. Armors may seem great, but they disable thieving skills and you will just pick leather again and use some illusion spells or potions to buff yourself (mirror image or something alike).

I think the main bonus for melee oriented single class thieves would be the usage of Tenser Transformation, but where would you find that many scrolls? Mislead for backstabbing yes, Tensers... no. The Eternal Melody chain may look interesting for single class thieves who want to use spells, but you will need many scrolls and you can only keep up a small selection of spells (3 quickslots) unless you intend to swap a lot of scrolls.
I think Use Any Item doesn't necessarily have to be nerfed for single class thieves... that is, unless I have been using my single class thieves in a completely wrong way the last few years.





All thief kits lend to different play styles. And here are my generic tactics. Maybe someone can see where I go wrong then.

A swashbuckler mainly befits 2-handed weapons, some buffing magic scroll usage, AC lowering gear/potions and some strength potions. An increased attack speed helps, but I don't always choose to use it since mages can buff you as well.

An assassin mainly befits a backstabbing weapon, mislead scrolls (for that nice longlasting invisibility), single weapon fighting, Tuigan shortbow or light crossbow of speed and use envenom weapon for either melee or ranged. Increased attack speed for melee is essential as well as strength or thac0 reducing potions such as potions of power / heroism / something-giant-strength.
Sometimes I go for sword and shield style too and use darts or throwing dagger (venomous or not) as ranged ability using the cloak of the star (nice with envenom weapon).

A bountyhunter goes insane with trap setting and ranged attacks, casting buff scrolls whilst lowering enemy resistances, saves and combat abilities with scrolls that allow such things (greater malison, ray of enfeeblement, enfeeblement, things like that).

BTW... I always max out my detect illusions because it can sometimes help in a lot of situations. Besides these generic things, I can come up with little tactics for a single class thief that would make him overpowered. Now when you go multi or dualclass.... yes, then you can whip up a lot of cheesy tactics.

in IA, swashbucklers are extremely effective, though not generally for their thieving ability. At high levels they have a fighters THAC0 and permanent -24AC. For HLAs they should go UAI, then whirlwind attack and time traps.

You can't.

The way I use my thief post-UAI is to give them all the wands and scroll cases in my mages/sorcerers inventory. I then use them as kind of a backup caster, so I can launch an extra fireball on sight, or an extra lower resistance etc. A single class thief with improved alacrity would be a nice bonus imho; a multiclass mage/cleric thief would be obscene.


Can you use it to go invisible and then backstab with another weapon? or does changing the weapon break the invis before you can get a hit off? What about really fast speedfactor=0 weapons? (you can see I've always left SoTM with my mage )

changing weapons will not break its invisibility. But it's strange, I remember me using it for backstabbing quite often....

I used it with my theif a few times for scouting and occasionally used hit and go invisible tactics against those what-until-recently-seemed very tough Iron golems at low level (yes I used to take on twisted rune at low level, yet struggle with golems )

It will break invisibility

How many total mithril tokens are there in the game (with IA, of course)?

I think there's 21 in the original game, I'm not sure if any were added.

Once you kill the Mithril Golem, he will break into pieces of Mithril. 10 of those pieces will be usable as Mithril Tokens.

Some/few more Tokens are also added here and there in the spellhold IIRC.

Question:

What is a good quest to complete (that is, which is the lowest difficulty quest) for my party to go for now? I've done all the minor quests in and around Athkatla, Mae'Var quests, Unseeing eye, slavers, Renfield/Harpers quests, Trademeet quests (except the trademeet tomb).

Just curious as to some ideas for which quests might be in my league at this point

You could do WK level 1, or you could do the Chapter 3 quests for Aran Linvail. They shouldn't be too difficult since they are not improved by IA much.

But I can understand if you want to leave the Chapter 3 quests until just before you go to save Imoen. In that case have you done the small things like the golem-making in Umar Hills (is not improved by IA and the shortsword Ilbratha +1 which casts Mirror Image once/day is very useful)?

Onto the harder quests. I reckon de'Arnise hold is easier than, say, Planar Prison (the imprisoned actors), Umar Temple or the Planar Sphere. And if you don't mind doing bits of a quest and then leaving the rest you could start the Windspear Hills stuff.

Yeah, I'd say give Watchers Keep a shot - parts of level 2 are pretty doable, though chromatic demon is very challenging. I found De'Arnise very difficult (though I did it at level 8-10) though not as tough as the end of the Umar Hills bit (which I did at a higher level).

Planar sphere is very, very well done - the difficulty was perfect for my lvl 12-13 party and it was quite fun.

Oh, I just checked in-game. I could have sworn it didn't break invisibility when you switched weapons.... but it does. And it apparently doesn't go for backstab either. Odd.

You can only backstab with weapons usable by a single class thief.

Yes and no. A quarterstaff is usable by a thief - but Staff of the Magi isn't a thief weapon, if you're precise. That is, it's a mage only weapon which nobody but mages and users of UAI can use. That's why. I think so, at least.

A generic Quarterstaff is usable by a thief, the SotM isn't: the ability to backstab with weapon X isn't determined by the weapon's class but by the usability of the individual weapon. The SotM could be wielded by a dual/multi mage/thief without UAI, but you couldn't backstab with it anyway.

Since there has been no that much activity in this topic, i hope someone will be reading this....

First i want to congratulate Sikret for his mod. I have been following this forum for some time and I myself am playing IA5.0. At first it was really hard for me becaue i did not know of the recommended quest order and started with the wrong quests and got way to hard encounters for my lvl... but after reloading a dozen times i survived and went on
I have a specific question now to anyone who is able to help me...(it's a bit spoilerish so i guess I'll wright it in spoiler tags...)

My Party:
Jaheira lvl 12/11
Minsc lvl 13 ( thers some mod which makes him to a beserker as a ranger kit
Keldorn lvl 13
Nalia lvl 14
Yoshimo lvl 16
Archer(i know he's not recommended but i managed until now ) lvl 15

I am at the Planar Prison, now here's where the spoiler begins...

SPOILER!


any help is appreciated
thanks
Gorwath

Welcome, Gorwath!

SPOILER!

Thanks for the fast reply Sikret!
There's another question i have concerning spiders


SPOILER!

@Gorwath

SPOILER!

Two more random questions,

1. Why is the mod called 'Improved Anvil', was there ever an 'Anvil'? My best guess is that it's a reference to Cromwell.

2. I know if I become too high a level before Spellhold then it will be much harder(15 I think) but what about if I waste lots of game time before going there? I'm currently in day 151 but only level 14. And does the level restriction come into play when I hit Brynnlaw or Spellhold itself?

1) Cromwell was the original reason for Improved Anvil AFAIK.

2) I think Spellhold gets tougher after level 16-17, I don't remember precisely. Concerning time: I do not now of any troubles with timelimits unless ofcourse some specific quests in ie Underdark.

ok, i guess here's a few new questions:

1) how to beat grave liches? ive gotten past their SI w/RoR, but i cant seem to breach his other protections. it always says, spell ineffective...ive tried the lower resistance spell too, but to no avail. the one i encountered was in the crooked crane.

2)mekrath's tower: in IAv5 the staircase that was once not in use, is now accesible, but i need a wardstone to get in there. is that in a fixed place, or is that also affected by the item randomizer?

3)Some items like, Iron Horn of Valhalla and a few other items that Sikret has picked up during his run (yup, following his run cause it's real helpful...and im still new to IA) i haven't found. did i miss them or are they somewhere else in the game due to the item randomizer? thx..

1.) Liches are immune to 5th level spells (even in the orig. game) so that's why Breach doesn't work. Dispel/Remove Magic will work if you're high enough level.

2.) There's a wardstone added to IAv5 but I haven't found it yet. Perhaps someone else can answer if it's random or found during a quest.

ive even used multiple ruby ray's on the grave lich, but i can only seem to take down his SI. the screen is saying that im removing his spells....but perhaps fireshield can only be gotten rid of by either breach or dispel? as for that wardstone...i dont feel so bad anymore now that i hear im not the only one who hasn't found it yet. i got a chapel key from the windspear hills dungeon. where does that go to?

3) The horn of valhalla is in the northest house in the bridge district like in the original game. What are the other items you interested in?

wow, i cant believe i missed the horn so easily....i suppose im also wondering where one of the ingredients for phosphorus is: mauler +2 (or something like that). i know/have all the other parts, i cant seem to find that one. maybe because of item randomizer? oh, and thx for the help guys!

There is no time limit for spellhold's difficulty to kick in.



Brynnlaw.

It can be bought from Bernard after freeing Hendak.

During the battle with the Supreme Leader of the Githyankis on WK lvl 4, do the M'lar and Grak___ keep spawning in as long as the Leader is alive? Will a second set of them not teleport in until the 1st set are dead or do they just keep coming in every couple of rounds? I'm trying to figure out what enemies to focus on first to minimize the crush of bodies that appear.

this is my first time here,so, hi everybody and thank you Sikret for this great mod
my question is how or where do i start the Guarded Ashideena encounter..I looked everywhere..I think

thx for the help guys...btw, this thread is awesome.