1- Evil Clerics will control undead and turn paladin.

2- Slightly Improved Faldorn

3- (Heavily) Guarded Lilarcor

4- Clash of powers (a new quest in the 3rd level of WK: There is a conflict between two very poweful creatures based on an incident which has happened 100 years earlier. You need to choose and to kill one of them, if you can!)

5- Fixed and improved Demon wraith in the 3rd level of WK.
(In the vanilla game, the Demon Wraith in the third level of WK has a bug in his script which makes him cast infinite Symbol of Fears and no other spell. He is not only fixed but also improved. His minnions are improved as well.)

6- The elemental golem in the 2nd level of WK can no longer be ignored.

7- A new 4th level, a new 7th level and a new 8th level wizard spells are added.

8- Five new armors, one new pair of boots, one new axe, two new amulets and one new type of potion added to the game. Potions of Mind Focusing are removed.

9- FoD&W is nerfed and is only usable by single class rangers

10- Thetruth and JD sowrds only usable by single class warriors

11- Many more fixes applied to the vanilla game (their complete list is lengthy; you will see them in the mod's documents when v5 is released).

12- Some upgrade recipes have changed; brand new ingredients are added to the game.

13- Vagrant kit is improved.

14- The apprenti's chance of success to forge the robe now varies depending on whether the protagonist is a pure mage, a mult-mage (what kind of multi-mage) or a sorcerer and with which stats. Moreover, if they fail the first time reloading the game will not change the result. If they fail the first time they will keep failing even if you reload forever.

15- More items are added to the randomizer program.

16- Improved Chaos monster (druid stronghold)

17- The "Tracking" HLA is replaced with a new and more useful high level ability.

18- Imoen's class is changed to Sorcerer.

19- Orcus, Dracolich, Elite Doppleganger, Elite Nishruu, Cat O'Nine Lives, Shadow Jailor and Keep Viper are improved further (as per players and testers' requests).

20- New level Progression tables are applied to all classes.

21- If the party delays too long before setting out for Spellhold, they will find Irenicus' control over the Asylum has strengthened and it will be far harder to escape after rescuing Imoen. (Note: The recommended levels to go to spellhold are levels 13 or 14 for single class characters.)

22- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: A new quest added to the expanded ranger stronghold.

23- - Improved Alchra Diagott

24- Slightly Improved Raevilin Strathi

25- Several new types of monsters are added to the game.

26- Elemental golems, Ultra golems and Supreme golems have more powerful fists.

27- Slightly Improved Tanova (chapter 3)

28- The battle with the Supreme Leader of githyankis is improved Even further.

29- Twisted Rune is improved even further: (1) Vaxall the beholder is improved considerably. (2) Layene will use her wish spell in a new and different way if you hide your protagonist from her line of sight. She will also summon Twisted golems (instead of Coin ones).

30- General: Slightly Improved Githyankis

31- Weapon proficiency stars of Valygar, Keldorn and Anomen are revised and optimized for IA. Anomen (in particular) had a wrong number of proficiency stars in the vanilla game which is fixed now.

32- Faldorn's duel with the protagonist is fixed. The duel is supposed to be a fair one-on-one combat. Now, you won't be able to pass any items (weapons, potions,...) from your NPCs to your protagonist during the battle. You can't actually interfere in any way. Moreover, all of your buffs will be dispelled before starting the duel (Faldorn also starts the duel with no buffs). This is in addition to item no.2 above which refers to Faldorn being slightly improved during the duel.

33- Slightly Improved Dalok and companions

34- Slightly Improved Nevaziah

35- The tips the game displays every time you load a new game are revised. Some unimportant tips are omitted, some new and more helpful ones are added.

36- Improved Mekrath and the Imp

37- Donation to temples is made more expensive (suggested by Ryel ril Ers) and it won't raise your reputation above 16.

38- Slightly Improved Lonk the Sane

39- Improved Irenicus at spellhold (this feature will also be affected by item no.21 above).

40- Fixed and (slightly) improved Demon Knights and Death shade gated by Deck of Many Things.

41- Slightly Improved Unseeing Eye

42- Guarded Compound is improved further.

43- A new (and different) version of Auramaster Druid Kit is added to Improved Anvil. players of IA should not install the (stand-alone) Auramaster mod separately.

44- Now, if you defeat the slavers in the ship buidling in Slums prior to going to the Guarded Compound in Temple district, you will find a document showing the relation between Guarded Compound and slavers. Hence, good-aligned parties will be well-justified to attack the GC and will also have an additional dialogue option while talking to Sion.

45- Draconis (human form) is improved even further. Now he casts as many spells as his level permits and will use HLAs as well. In previous versions he had no HLAs and would cast fewer spells than his level.

46- The Globe Machine in the 5th level of WK is improved even further.

47- The location of the bag of holding in spellhold is changed. It's still in spellhold, but it takes a bit of work to find it.

48- Improved Rakshasa Ambush in Suldanesselar (this is something different than the Noble Rakshasa who guards House of the Talisman).

49- Nalia will give you 4 more days before starting to complain about your delay to go to save the keep (suggested and tested by Shaitan).

50- Improved Drow Ambush in underdark (before the Deep Gnomes' village)

51- Improved Drow Ambush at the bridge in underdark

52- A new (and different) version of Riskbreaker Kit is added to Improved Anvil. players of IA should not install the (stand-alone) Riskbreaker mod separately.

53- Don't panic! Take a deep breath and read the next item. For those who may have heart disease, I'll put it into spoiler tags :

SPOILER!


54- The Elder Orb in underdark is improved even further.

55- It's recommended to fight with Conster and firkraag together in firkraag's lair. If you choose to fight with Conster alone in the other area, you won't find him alone. He is also generally improved (regardless of where you fight him).

56- Kruin is (considerably) improved further. Perhaps it's better to give him the blasted silver blade now!

57- The guild's contact (Gracen) is improved further. First, The cheats which were still available to the players in this battle are all blocked (i.e. you can no longer kill him before he turns hostile; you can't pickpocket his equipments before he turns hostile; you can no longer close the doors or exit the area waiting for the duration of his magic shielding potion to expire). Furthermore, he will have some backup during the battle; every 10 rounds, a vampire bride will enter the area through the stairs and will join the battle as long as he is alive.

58- Most of the higher level (and smarter) enemy mages will reserve their "Ruby Ray of Reversal" spells only for when you are protecetd by SI:abjuration and will use other protection removal spells (mostly spellstrike) instead in cases you don't have SI:abjuration to block them (provided that they have the spellstrike spell or its scroll, of course).

59- Slightly Improved Spider Ambush at the entrance to Pai'Na's hideout

60- Minotaurs are fixed and improved further. Now they have all of their pnp abilities and more. (They now have their pnp abilities of grappling and charging targets. The missed immunity to maze is also implemented and enhanced with immunity to charm and confusion. Moreover, they have better THAC0s and equip better weapons; they are fearless and their pnp bonus vs. surpirse is interpreted as immunity to backstab.)

61- Mithril Golem is improved further.

62- Improved Azamantes:

(He is changed to a Grave Lich. In the vanilla game, he was a non-standard lich with a stupid combat script but with good resistances and a decent THAC0. Now, he is a Grave Lich in its full calibre and has some backup and reinforcement to prove himself as a worthy opponent in the 5th level of WK. Even a Grave Lich (alone) could not be counted as a challenge in that stage of the game.)

63- First level of WK: Guarded Bell and Candle

64- Prince Villynaty is improved further.

65- Bone Golems now have their pnp ability of issuing Hideous Laugh; they are also fearless as per their pnp description. Their number of attacks per round was also incorrect in the vanilla game which is now fixed (reduced to 1).

66- Umar Witch and the Wondrous Imp are improved even further. The difficulty of this battle varies depending on the protagonist's total xp (and class).

67- All dragons are improved even further.

68- Improved guardians of pieces of Burial Mask

69- General: Smarter summons: Summoned creatures (enemies and allies) will behave more intelligently. (Examples: They will shift target if they see that their weapons are ineffective; they will no longer stand idle if no enemy is in their line of sight (for example, after being wing buffeted by a dragon to a remote location in the area), they will move/approach to see what's going on in the battlefield.)

Revisit this topic frequently on these days; I will write more.

I trust you are checking this thread frequently, as I'm constantly updating it. I don't send a new post or a reminder each time I update the initial post.

Imho it would be good if single class thiefs and thief/warrior dual and multiclasses could use them. Basically all, who can't cast any spell. I think they desperately need those procs from JD sword.

Due to #31 you probably have to state in the readme, that components of the "Ashes of Embers" mod, particular those who alters Anomens & Keldorns profs is not recommended/incompatible.

Well, since you install Improved Anvil after all other mods, IA's weapon proficiencies will take precedence and you will correctly have IA's profciency stars for Keldorn and Anomen (though the new equipment added to them by some other mod may look weird or unsuitable for their proficiencies).

Nonetheless, I checked AoE's readme and found almost all of its changes to the game quite inappropriate (specially the one which alters the duration of Stone Skin spell which can even potentially cause problems during some of the improved battles). So, in general, while the mod may be technically compatible with IA, it is definitely conceptually incompatible and it's strongly recommended that you do not install any of its components with IA.

Sikret, based on all the changes I keep reading about (updating level progressions, etc) I'm not sure it makes a lot of sense to continue calling this IA 4.3. Just my opinion, but I think you've gone further in terms of magnitude and quantity of changes then what an increase from 4.2 to 4.3 would seem to indicate. Just semantics, I suppose, but is this possibly IA 4.5, or even 5.0 at this point?

Sikret, I agree with this. IMO it should really be 5.0.

A name, what's in a name? A rose by any other name....

I'll go ahead and chime in that I disagree that it would be IA 5.0. I'd say IA 4.35!

It will be IA 5.0 when the changes discussed in the IA 5.0 thread are implemented!
Especially the grand finale and bhaalspawn powers!

Although the number of novelties & changes greatly justify a change in the major version number, I suggest not changing on it -- IA's upcoming version has been announced as 4.3 everywhere. A version change may also cause confusion*. The content is the important. This isn't a commercial project anyway which has to follow certain rules.

* Of course, v4.3 is also confusing, because it implies that only minor changes were implemented. But it's no problem, because those who are looking forward to it have been continously paying attention to the forums and news.

Well, that's really a big part of why I'm making this recomendation. Those who played 4.2 may not be likely to revisit the game if they see that the latest version is 4.3. If they see a more dramatic change in the numbers, I think people (the ones who aren't following these boards as regularly) may be more apt to check out what's new with the mod. I can't imagine that the "confusion" this would cause would be a big deal. People looking for 4.3, will probably be excited to see that 4.5 is already out! And a note in the readme of the new version explaining the version change (e.g. 4.3 grew into something much larger than originally intended, and due to the large number of changes implemented, we felt that a more dramatic version increase was warranted...).

So I'm almost afraid of asking, but is there perhaps a slightly chance this week?

Regards

Since after the release of the forthcoming vesion of IA I won't have time for modding for at least 6 months (my RL agenda will change and I'll have more occupations), I'm trying to make the mod as perfect as possible before releasing it.

I've changed my preference. I would also favour v5.0.

Version number is changed to 5.

Sikret, you've had so much momentum recently! Keep up the good work!

I enjoyed reading a physicist's compliment.

Thank you very much.

Some one had suggested No.51 but I can't recall who to add the name to the mod's readme. If (s)he reads this post, I'll appreciate if (s)he sends me a reminder (either here or in a PM) with a link to the post in which the suggestion was made. Thanks!

Vardaman brought it up here.

Thanks, Baronius!

Good memory, Baronius. I thought it was something I had said but couldn't remember what thread I posted it in.

Also mentioned in my old post, improving the WK seal guardians (specifically the party of 6 that includes a beholder, siren and a drow) would be another good encounter to improve in the future. I'll try to think of some unique ideas for it.

Hi Sikret

The list of new features, content etc looks pretty cool. Look forward to playing v5 when it's done.

Just one question - as someone who likes to play a character through from BG1 Tutu, will this still be possible with the new auramaster/riskbreaker kits bundled with IAv5? In other words, if I start in BG1 Tutu with a riskbreaker from the standalone riskbreaker mod, can this character be imported into BG2 so they assume the characteristics of the IA version of the riskbreaker? Are there many differences between the standalone riskbreaker kit & the IA version?

I also mentioned this elsewhere, but would it be possible for you to release a BG1 Tutu-compatible Vagrant kit mod, so players can go through the BG trilogy & IA with the same Vagrant character?

Thanks

coaster

Hi, coaster!



I'm afraid, no.

Yes, they are very different.



Not in the near future, sorry.

One other important point for players who play BG trilogy to notice is that once you finish the BG1 portion of the game and start BG2, you will need to uninstall every tactical mod you had for BG1 (if they tamper with STATS.IDS file or use detectable stats).

If you play Tutu, there is a component in BG2tweakpack that allows you to change your walking speed.



When I installed this component it didn't have any bg1 content issues, but when I exported my character from the savegame and imported it in a BG2 game (modded or unmodded), the walkingspeed of my character remained slower as in BG1. This is because there is an effect added to your character in the .cre file which lowers your walking speed (something with the number 192 if I recall it correctly). If you delete this effect, everything should be fine for BG2 (DLTCEP or shadowkeeper may even do that).

I still had an unexplicable problem though... when I deleted the spell effect and imported my character into a new BG2 game, the starting cutscene was broken. So.... I advise against installing the component.

OK thanks, not to worry. IIRC I can play through as a plain ranger in (vanilla, not Tutu) BG1 and when I import that character I should be able to select a Vagrant kit at that point. At least that's how it works when selecting Bioware's own kits after importing a BG1 character.

Slower walking speeds? lol, usually I can't wait to get the Boots of Speed...

In BG1 everyone walks slower than in BG2. BG2 walking speed is running compared to BG1 walking speed. Since BG1tutu exports everything from BG2 onto BG1 the walking speed for BG1 is also severely increased. The walking speed tweak is to give us back the old BG1 feeling... but it's a bit buggy.

I thought it was also one of the reasons why in BG1 ranged combat is much more efficient than in BG2. Characters just walk slower and can be hit more before they reach you.

Anyways, nothing to do with IA v5. I just wanted to make you aware that switching from tutu to bg2 can provide some issues. Carry on, carry on

OK, thanks for the warning Iroumen - as you probably gathered from my post I don't usually install that component . After countless runs through BG1 & 2, I'm not exactly keen to slow the game down!

Sikret! The readmes for 5.0 are ready? If yes can you released the readmes? Especially (in)compatibily list and Itemupgrades? Only to building the playing modlist and create the party. First on Paper (or in excel)

The newest installation document is attached to this post.

The newest Item Upgrade document is attached to this very post which you are reading. Both are tentative and subject to possible changes; you should read the final documents when the mod is released.

I attached a new document to my previous post. There was a small mistake in the description of "The Truth +5" sword (the item's description inside the game was correct but I had forgotten to update it in the attached document).

Any hints as for when ver. 5 gets released? It's hard to dechifer the list with new (great) stuff for a kind of bearing towards when this mod is released

Why is Imoen being turned into a Sorceress? That sucks for me, because I've always used Imoen has a thieve, not a mage, and turning her into a pure sorceress just makes it so I have to replace a "favored" companion with someone like Jan. Also, having Irenicus gain power overtime doesn't make any sense, because it's not like he lost any power going to Spellhold, nor is he gaining anymore, he's not giving the power to himself, but to Imoen; Bodhi. Bodhi is the one gaining power, for Imoen is getting more power, only to be taken away when Bodhi comes to take her soul. And as mentioned in the first journal of Irenicus, "I marvel at her hunger, and how she seems so *alive* in her undeath. Perhaps it is the soul of Imoen." As well as the second journal of Irenicus, "Victory! I am restored! <CHARNAME> has given exactly what I needed, exactly as I demanded, and now I see where Bodhi has found such fire!" Sure, he might get a little stronger while you're going through the challenges of the Gauntlet, but not much, it should be Bodhi who gets the gain, not Irenicus. Also, "The battle with the Supreme Leader of githyankis is improved Even further." Sorry, but I haven't seen this supreme leader of the Githyanki's, what is his/her name? Sorry, but this might seem to be a little much, but I thought I should discuss this. Oh yes, one more thing, 14. "Moreover, if they fail the first time reloading the game will not change the result. If they fail the first time they will keep failing even if you reload forever." I hate you. lol

I'm pretty neutral about Imoen becoming a sorceress, but from what I understand Imoen will maintain all here thieving abilities. In fact, points are redistributed to make her thieving *more* useful in IA.

I actually don't recall Irenicus being difficult at spellhold at all... definately not a memorable encounter compared to other IA components, perhaps this will fix it!

Spellhold is a prison to all sorts of crazy/warped minded but *powerful* magic users. It's entirely plausible that Irenicus learned or even siphoned power directly from the inmates!
Hell, anything that makes the mod even harder is a good addition in my books lol.

The supreme leader is named "Supreme Leader" in game if I recall correctly. In a non-bugged game, he should be on WK4.

@Selvanus

If you read what I wrote again, you will see that I wrote "If you delay in going to spellhold too much, you will find that Irenicus's control over asylum has strengthened". It's the enitre spellhold which will become more difficult if you delay in going there (not Irenicus himself). The spellhold's Irenicus is improved regardless of when you go there, but if you go there with too much delay, you will find everything more difficult. Even the battle with Irenicus will look more difficult but not because Irenicus has learned new spells. It's something else which I don't intend to spoil now.

As for Imoen, we have already had enough discussion about this feature of the mod. It's a bit too late now for discussing it further. The original game had two identical NPCs (Imoen and Nalia). Almost everyone ageed that one of these two should change. We discussedthe case and the majority voted for Imoen to be the one who should change.

@luan

Imoen won't have any thieving skills (she will know "Knock" spell though). It's Nalia whose thieving skills are re-distributed.

The IA component that improves Spellhold the longer you wait (do quests in Chapter 2) basically just matches the power of your party level so that Spellhold does not become too easy.

My interpretation of the component is as following.

The protagonist has never actually seen Irenicus act to his full potential. The Cutscene that shows him casting some spells at the cowled wizards is only a meager display of power. Since he's taken to Spellhold before he proves his worth, you can't really rate his power until you meet him in Spellhold. So in basic, you cannot tell that he has gained more power since he's gone to Spellhold.
Furthermore, you could imagine that once he's taken over Spellhold, he's had a bit more time to summon more allies since you're not showing up on his doorstep the next day and he probably has spies all over the place who keep an eye on your progression. Whatever power Irenicus or those allies have is irrelevant. You have never seen any of them before anyway.
So I don't see it as if Irenicus has learned to gain power from the inmates, or gain power from Imoen, or gain power out of nothing.... I just see it as the first time I actually meet Irenicus face to face and see his true potential for the very first time. And since he was able to capture me before, he'd better be a powerful wizard with a lot of helpers and aids, because as protagonist I would be so very much ashamed if he turns out to be a complete pushover.


All that IA does is make Spellhold more difficult than Spellhold-Vanilla. How difficult doesn't matter story-wise since I've never been there before. IA can summon 50 demiliches for all I know...

All very good points, Iroumen!

Just a coin for me regarding Imoen or other points "under discussion"...can "Imoen change" be put as a "optional component" so that u wish or don't wanna install it?

mm75

I have already asked everyone (several times) not to comment about Imoen anymore. The decision is made and implemented. As mentioned before, those who don't want Imoen to be a sorceress can simply SK her back to a thief-mage in their own games (though they will also need to erase the new 4th level spell, Ray of Fragmentation, from her spellbook. Scrolls of this spell are rather rare in the game; a sorcerer can easily have it, but a mage needs to find the spell's scroll.).

Ok sorry, i didn't know that ;-)
Anyway ... i was speaking "in general", not only regarding Imoen. If u need or want to change something that people could like or not i simply think that an optional component is a fair choice so that people can install it or not (of course i'm not speaking of core components).

just my 2 cents,

mm75

http://forums.blackwyrmlair.net/index.php?showtopic=1737

Of ourse you could ask yourself how "deeply interrelated" the "new" Imoen and all the other (way more important) changes are
As far as I know IA was and is intented to be a one-component-mod. So you have to live with it. As Sikret pointed out: you can always SK her back. I mean, beforehand some players SKed her so she actually was a sorceress or whatever.

Okay, sorry I haven't gotten back to you guys, I thought there would be SOME delay in the replies, but obviously not...
Anyways, yes, I suppose you could just Shadow Keep her into a mage/thief again, or, as I would do, a plain thief, since I didn't dual class her in Baldur's Gate I. I suppose it makes sense to have more minions and spies and the sort if you take too long. It's already hard enough, why not just make everything harder, eh?

Sorry for double posting, and posting probably in the wrong topic, (but either I can't find the suggestions for the mod topic, or there isn't one) Anyways, I just found it quite odd that some of the demons in SoA and ToB don't have Demon Hearts just because they aren't in some weird plane. So, I thought that some of the major demons, (such as the one at the deep gnome village in Underdark, Swirfenbelm?) should have a demon heart at least, if not all the Baalors and etc. in the game, (except for summoned ones, of course). If this is in the wrong section, please move it because I couldn't find the suggestion topic. (Edit) And another thing, I was reading the readmes of IA, (because Sikret basically told me to), and I saw that in one of the readmes, can't remember which, it said that enemy spell casters CAN'T, (or shouldn't, at least), break the rules. If this is so, and they have to play legally, I ask you why when a battle starts, about ten protections, (more or less), pop up on an enemy spell caster like they had just activated three chain contingency's, which, I find quite ridiculously retarded and makes it harder than it should be. If you can't do this feat, no matter what level you are in spell casting, I don't see why other random Copper Cornet Guards whom are wizards, should. (Edit) Another blasted edit. I'm not meaning the extremely strong guys, such as the Shade Lord, or Firkraag, I mean just random low level wizards/sorcerer's casting so many protection spells at once. Like the Cowled Wizards, they only have spells that are at max like level 6. It doesn't make alot of sense that they have a bunch of Chain Contingency in store, even though they can't cast it.

The pre-battle casting script is designed to even out the playing field in regard to pre-casting. The idea behind it is that the PC can spend 5 or so rounds buffing before running into a fight against an enemy who is (in the vanilla game) completely unprepared. The script is not a contingency, it cannot be done part way through battle and is designed purely to alleviate the engine restriction of the enemy not being able to intelligently anticipate the entry of the pc and cast a few spells before he comes into sight.
Demon heart thing is probably more of a gameplay mechanic - I mean they're meant to be rare right? Don't you end up burying the demon in the deep gnome village?

No problem. Generally, if you can't find the proper topic, feel free to start a new one. I've moved the posts (because they have nothing to do with IA bug reports) to this new thread.

The demon in Deep gnome's village actually already has a droppable heart in IA v4.2. Don't you think that you need to play the mod for at least one run-through before making suggestions? Otherwise, you will run into the risk of suggesting something which is already there in the mod.

As for the other point, just reade Stu's reply.

And I merged it with the "progress Report for IA v5" topic (as it is the topic players should typically send their suggestions to).

Thanks.

Oh, really? I did kill it. I don't remember it dropping a demon heart, but than again, I never get anything from demons, so I probably didn't even bother to see if he dropped anything.



Yes, that's all very well, but I never pre-buff unless I know I'm going to be fighting. (Which, everytime I play, I don't ever memorize where the battles are), so I guess other's do . And think of it this way, if you run into a room when you're going to kill everyone, when usually there's no battles, they ARE going to be completely unprepared. I mean, if they're waiting for you, sure, like Jon Irenicus, (even though he didn't get this script, at least, not in my game), but I don't understand why lazy guards whom work at the Copper Cornet get this script, for they're not going to cast these spells everyday, are they? No, they should have to start casting them, because they don't fight every day, in fact, if I remember right, in the slaver compound the guy said something about bribing the Amnish Soldiers into not arresting them, so it's not like they're even going to fight Amnish Soldiers either. All I'm trying to get across here is that guys like Copper Cornet Guards, or Drow Priestess' shouldn't get these buffs at the second a battle starts because they're going to be unprepared. Whereas say the Shade Lord or Irenicus should get these buffs because they ARE prepared for you. Obviously Irencius knew you got out of the Gauntlet. Obviously the Shade Lord felt a disturbance in the temple, it's not like they're going to sit there and go unprotected while you put a sword through their gut.

(Edit) Oh yes, and sometimes I repeat myself by accident. :S

You didn't bother to see what he drops and yet you suggest to add something to him which he already has?



I think just like the case of the demon (above) you are again talking about something you don't remember exactly or you didn't bother to notice accurately. Copper Coronet guards have only three pre-buffing spells: Stoneskin + Ghost Armor + Minor Globe of Invulnerability. If having these three requires 3 Chain Contingencies, then perhaps you are playing a different game than BG2.

I'm tired of such exaggerations. They waste my time, because they make me go and check something unnecessarily just to find out that the report was baseless. This will only delay the release of the mod's next version. My time is very limited.

I think the "three Chain Contingencies" thing is meant to be rhetorical, not literal.

Isn't the literal point, though, whether general pre-buffing is justified? Note that Minor Globe, at least, is a "short-term" spell that couldn't plausibly be case hours in advance, so if the script auto-casts it, it's got to be justified on "well, the PC gets the chance to put up short-term spells, so why shouldn't we" lines. (I approve of general pre-buffing, personally, but the argument against is pretty defensible.)

I think the experience itself is more important than underlying mechanics. BG2 would simply be way too easy for me otherwise.

Regardless, using our imagination we can justify almost anything. Maybe the wizards hearing the death cries of their coworkers would be strong incentive to buff up. Or more simply, perhaps they just felt something was wrong (sixth sense, intuition, etc)