Ok, play the game the way you enjoy it most, Iroumen! I just wanted to let you know that for your first IA v5 run-through, you will miss a large amount of new content if you play with a druid protagonist.

As for the vagrant being overpowered or not, this was one of my main concerns during the testing process. I asked three of my best testers to play the whole game with a vagrant and all three reported that the kit is not overpowered.

The minimum charisma requirement is actually a serious disadvantage for the kit, because it will deprive the player from mini-maxing his stats to gain high scores in all melee-related attributes. It's actually extremely difficult to make a vagrant with excellent stats unless you just sit there and re-roll the whole day and night.

Have fun!

I don't really see a problem for min/maxing a ranger/vagrant.

Ranger requirements are 13/13/14/3/14/3 (iesdp: abclasrq, 3 comes from race minimum). To have enough points to max the primary stats above 13 or 14 you need to get an 18 in intelligence for your roll (may take 30 seconds or something to roll that). The 18-3=15 points from intelligence can be distributed to str/dex/con for a final score of 18/18/19/3/14/3. Since you always have some extra points in the other stats if you roll 18 for intelligence (say you roll 14 dex and 7 cha as well = 5 points), you can probably have intelligence around 8-9 or even higher (18/18/19/9/14/3).

A vagrant would be 13/13/14/3/14/12 requirements and with a roll of 18 intelligence, the points can be distributed to 18/18/19/3/14/12. It looks much better than having 2 stats set to 3. The same thing applies as above, that if you have 14 dex and 7 cha with 18 int, then the vagrant can have 18/18/19/8/14/12, or distribute it to wisdom and end up with 18/18/19/4/18/12.

Not really that hard. I usually roll paladins (min is 12/3/9/3/13/17, so only look at dex>15 and int>15 during rolling) and rangers to 90+ points within a minute if I only look at the lowest minimum scores. Then you can use that to distribute all those points to other stats.


I think that if the minimum requirements for str/dex/con are lower than 13/13/14 for a vagrant (put the minimum for vagrants at 12/9/9/0/14/12 for instance), then the min/maxing is more difficult because you also need to get lucky rolls for these three stats to offset the low base stats because you cannot make that up with only a roll of 18 in charisma.



As you can see I know how to get my scores maxed easily in BG . Generally though, I only max out dexterity and my primary casting requirement. The other stats are not that important since there are spells and enhancing gear you can pick up along the way. If I am to make a vagrant the scores will likely be 17/18/16/9/14/12 or something alike.

I will play IAv5 with a lot of enjoyment I'm sure. I don't really mind that I'm missing a few quests here or there, there is probably plenty of new content since I played v2, so I'm in for enough surprises along the way. I will hardly notice that I cannot forge Judgement Day on this first run through. I will just do so in the next one .

Yes, but only if you are ready to have a protagonist with 3 intelligence, which means that the first mindflayer you meet will send you to oblivion! (Not to mention that there is a new monster in one of the quests of the expanded ranger stronghold who drains intelligence mercilessly.)

Keeping intelligence at a minimum of 10, I re-rolled 300 times and failed to make a vagrant with excellent stats (while I can do this easily with other rangers by decreasing their charisma).

Well, you only need some protection from normal weapons to avoid the mind flayer drain from happening, but it's not available to Vagrants. Then again, you're not going to meet that many mind flayers, and otherwise you can still conjure some monsters to distract them from killing you. Oh well, none of that to worry about just yet. The game hasn't started yet.

It's a pity that low intelligence does not affect the conversation options you can take as it's implemented in Fallout for instance. There a low intelligence would render your speech to: "aarghh.. uuuuuuh....... hum, hum.."

Actually, you at least need "Mantle" to be protected from the mindflayers' attacks in the vanilla game. In IA, you require "Improved Mantle".

Well after taking a gander at the new level progression tables , the new item restriction and the fact that i've yet to play past chapter 3 in this mod , I decided to take my triple class + sk-ed kits type tutu character for a spin - Berserker , Mage , Cleric of Lathander - to be precise

Added to that was a multiplayer created npc - a tiefling named Anna - a Bezerker swashi duel class

bio ware Npc's were -

Aerie- sk'd into a pure class wild mage

Anomen - as he is - proficiencies switched around to more usable gear though

Minsc - sk'd into a cavalier ( because i can )

Haer'Dalis- His improved bard armour and high levels make him priceless as a spell spammer / dispeller

I am currently at round about 5 million exp point party , did every quest i could lay my greedy leetle paws on ( im an exp. slattern i must confess ) - including all strongholds and the expanded mage stronghold have finished almost everything in chapter 6 , just need to to the post FK quests (the rune assassin army battle was amazing - very well done sir )

and then watchers keep , then its off to the elf city to have quite word with a particular mage who has been causing a bit of bother it seems

but im fairly shocked at just how well this all works together , the fights are tough , level is a factor but you still need to think and thats what im really enjoying - that and the intense satisfaction that comes with taking out the same berks who annihilated you the first time you met them ( crooked crane lich comes to mind )

as this is my first real tactical mod , the learning curve has been steep , but once you crack the "rhythm" of the encounters , your in good stead

cant wait to see what nasty surprises are still in store

come version 5 , im going to be taking a vagrant pc ( judging from the quality of the new quests , this is way too good to pass up the new content )

a npc risk breaker ( depending on what the final kit is like though )

Nalia - as wild mage

Imoen

Cernd - Auramasters are quite potent

either a multi / dual class character to be named later - depends on the dynamics of the existing party - might even go with Haer'Dalis again - just have to play and see how it all works out

thanks again for all the hard work Sikret and co.

Thanks for the kind words, muddymissfit!



I'm glad you enjoyed it. Did you know that the full story of these rune assassins will only be revealed if you are a ranger? It's not literally part of the expanded ranger stronghold, but it has relations with 'The Mystery of the Shimmering Light' quest. If you are a ranger, the two quests will merge together. I say this for your next run-through in which you decide to have a vagrant protagonist. (EDIT: the mentioned relation between the two quests is not something new; it already existed since IA v4.0)

Yes, a vagrant protagonist is simply the best choice for those who want to see and play more new quests.



Without question!

Auramaster's immunity to silence will prove itself to be really important in IA v5.

Cheers