I like a challenge, that's why I choose to play solo with a multi-class character. I have a lot of experience with tactics, cheesy ones and not so cheesy ones. The cheesiness of many tactics is a matter for debate though. I.e. my favorite current tactic: Chain contingency on helpless self > Project Image, simulacrum, (variable summon), then project image to trigger.

There are some tactics that I would just call "fun" that this mod completely removes as viable ways of beating some enemy's of the game:

1. Being invisible, hitting a mage who's casting truesight, then going invisible again does not do what you would expect. The enemies (usually hasted) follow and crowd your character no matter where you go. They don't attack, they just follow you. Not very realistic compared with the vanilla version of BG2 where they tend to wander aimlessly, just like someone really disappeared in front of them (allowing you to get behind them or off-screen).

2. area of effect spells are rendered completely useless by the mod since you can't hold or web the enemy (which most are now immune to), AND/OR you can't go truly invisible after casting these spells (see number 1).

3. Setting traps: I noticed that the enemies are immune to the spells for the high-level traps, couldn't they just take less damage or something? It makes getting your 20th level thief abilities seem pointless. I know it's unfair to set traps around a dragon and then talk to it, but there has to be a better way then nerfing the traps altogether.

4. Hitting and running away is pointless because of the extreme regeneration. Also if you are not a high level fighter with many hit's per round, you will see the enemy's HP going up faster then you can get it down.

This last one annoyed me the most, so I used NearInfinity to remove the regeneration effect from most of the non-dropable weapons with a "!" in them. Then there were some gauntlets that almost every enemy had due to the mod that grants regeneration and the effect was removed from this item as well.

Well, with all that tedious work, it still bothers me that a mage/thief is rendered almost useless because of the invisibility thing. This is a script that I would need to remove or change back to the originals however, and I don't want to remove ALL the challenges of IA, just the one's I mentioned above.

Any suggestions for modding this potentially interesting mod? Or should I just get all the fighters I can find into my party?

This has been discussed several times before, search the boards to get some answers.



Beeing a bit harsh aren't we? I don't think Sikret approve the way of changing his mod, but I guess it's up to you, how to mod your mods . Don't expect any help with bugs/troubles from him. I still find mage/thiefs still very capable, but it requires some changed strategies. It's up to yourself to make the most of this mod, but "potentially interesting"? Don't expect to get these kinds of infos around here, as it has been made very clear, that Sikret wants players of his mod to play it like intented. Read the readmes. Search the boards.

Hi urizen,



Playing solo in IA is very difficult; unlike other mods only a few class combinations can finish the entire game successfully. The two easiest classes to solo with are IMO the triple-classes (F/M/C and F/M/T) and the Fighter/Mage multiclass (based on my experiences of trying to solo the mod with many other character types).

Because of the reasons you mention, mage/thief is not an especially powerful soloing class in IA. With the right tactics I actually think most of the game could be completed with a solo mage/thief, without resorting to cheese/exploits. Of course this would mean playing a very different mage/thief from that you'd use in other mods, and would also require very sound knowledge of the mod and the BG2 game system. It's not something I personally would want to attempt.

I can't offer much advice on modifying IA; to be honest by removing the regeneration ability of enemies the balance of the mod is completely broken, since enemies have vastly varying regeneration rates, for different reasons (what few people mention is that there are actually LOTS of powerful IA enemies that do not have fast regeneration rates at all). By just removing this feature for most or all enemies the relative difficulty of battles is drastically altered and the ordering of battles/placement of monsters in the game will cease to make sense.

Don't get me wrong: I don't intend to distribute any modifications I make; it's all just for my personal enjoyment. The changes I've made with NearInfinity are just experimental anyway, just to see if I could use any tactic to beat, for instance, the Beastmaster with a level 7/8/8 fighter/mage/thief (actually I ended up beating him without the regen modifications but when I got the random encounter with the slavers, I was getting killed hopelessly, with or without them regenerating).

I did a search for "invisible" and did not come up with an answer, or anyone else talking about the issue. Sorry, I guess I'll look again.

Perhaps the extreme difficulty of this mod is meant to balance out the insane weapons it provides, but I don't think I'd completely throw it off balance in the early stages, levels 7-15 say, by removing the 4 things I described from the enemies you'd only encounter in those stages. IMO it makes soloing a non-option, and it cuts off (from what I've read and played) certain areas of the game from low level characters unless you know the area is NOT modded ahead of time.

Reloading and doing something else has never been a "strategy" of mine, and I'm sorry if I sound like a troll for saying so. It also doesn’t seem very balanced: Enemies being extremely weak in some places and extremely hard in others.

As far as the "potential" thing goes: Yes I've always wanted something that makes the game harder. The thing is, not to be redundant, but I only feel like I'm kicking too much ass in the later stages. I can't remember a time where I didn't blow through Ust Natha like a serial killer on a rampage. But by the same token, you'd have to think about tactics early on, because that group of yuan-ti are kicking your ass every time you bum-rush them.

So to sum up: I love the mod in theory. The AI tactics are wicked and would be fun as hell for a 20th level character. But when I start a new game I feel like a babe out of the womb who's getting slapped around traumatically before he even has a chance to do anything "cheesy".

Soloing the early parts of IA is very doable. As you say, it does rely on knowing where certain strong enemies are ahead of time. I can sympathise that you don't want to use metagame knowledge of what areas/battles are modded but doing so if surely preferable to tweaking the mod. I stand by what I said about the regeneration messing up the balance of the game; even early on some IA enemies regenerate several hp/second, while others do not regenerate at all. Putting them on an equal footing by removing the regeneration is IMO a really bad idea. Even with using metagame knowledge of which areas are improved and which are not the game will still be challenging with a solo character, trust me .



Yep I understand exactly what you mean. This is because IA is a work in progress. When it is completed it is my understanding that there will be greater uniformity across the game (in other words almost all the encounters of the game will have been improved at least slightly and the juxtaposition of very easy and very hard battles will not be as prevalent). Of course Sikret may be able to shed more light on this than I can.

This is the well-known cheesy method of creating 4 PIs and an army of summons. There is nothing debatble about its cheesiness and it's blocked in v4.3.
Yes, if you use thet term "fun" for those cheesy methods, then IA is not for you. My advice is to uninstall the mod.


As Shaitan mentioned, this has been discussed before. It's intentional to block some cheesy methods based on invisibility exploits.

This is not true; many Area of Effect spells (such as "Emotion", "Chain Lightning", "Greater Command") are most useful. Some of them are even more useful than they were in the vanilla game (see the readme about "Greater Command", for example)


The regenration rates are not extreme. They are just exactly high enough to block the hit&run cheese.
If you modify the mod (even for your personal use), you are on your own and should not send any reports to the forum if you encounter a problem.


You need to learn better tactics rather than just becoming invisible and sneaking around if you intend to play this mod.


You are asking the wrong question. The right question would be:

"Any suggestions for helping an unskilled player to improve his skills?"

But you didn't ask the right question; so, alternatively, I suggest that you see the readme. This mod is primarily for tactical experts. Less experienced players can also play it provided that they have the patience to draw a learning curve for themselves and start to improve their tactical skills during the game. I think you had better uninstall it and save all of us a good deal of time.

Sorry, but I'm currently too busy with preparing the next version of the mod to have the time for such repetitive and pointless arguments. All of them have already been discussed and adequately replied to. Topic closed.