So I've made ready my line up for a game with ver. 4,3 installed. Rather I've two lineups:

The first will be with a party consisting of:
Me T->C dual hammer/maces or hammer or flail
Jaheira (romance) dual scimitar/club
Keldorn two handed
Valygar dual katanas?
Nalia->Immy Shortbow
Xan ?

The second will be:
me F/M dual long swords / flail or hammer?
Ariella (custommade T->C) Slings
Jaheira (romance - what a surprise) dual scimitar/club
Valygar dual katanas?
Kivan Longbow
Nalia->Immy Shortbow

Don't know yet wich to choose... thus I would like some opinions.

I'll have the following mods:
Kelsey SoA+ToB
Allison
Kivan
Xan
Auren
Enhanced BG2
Dungeon Crawl
Tower of Deception
BanterPacks
something from EoU
and ofcourse IA

What say you?

I plan on changing the kits of some of the bioware NPCs before starting a new game. Afterwards, party selection will be by role playing my PC. For example, if the PC needs to resurrect Edwin 3 times in one play session, he might decide to kick Edwin out due to his ineffectiveness. Or if Haer'Dalis makes an insightful comment about how Yoshimo is bearing "heavy chains", maybe the PC is convinced there more to Yoshi than he's revealing and he'll get kicked out.

I guess I'll take Viconia along for the whole ride though, because I've never played with her.

If a player's priortiy is to see more new content and quests, here is the list of the quests which have some kind of requirements. Those not mentioned don't have any particular requirement.

- Expanded Mage Stronghold: Protagonist is a sorcerer or a mage (single/multi/dual)

- Danger at horbors (Or 'Is it safe to go to Cromwell anymore?'): Protagonist is a pure single-class mage or a sorcerer + Memory of the Apprenti is forged.

- Encounter with Orcus (Prince of the Undead): Grave Lich is defeated; No class requirements.

- Expanded Ranger Stronghold: Protagonist is a ranger.
( - The mystery of the Shimmering Light: Requires 20 reputation.
- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Protagonist is vagrant)

- Post-Firkraag Adventures: Protagonist is not evil, reputation 20, Firkraag has been killed for at least one week.

- The mystery of the Third Color: Amariel is not betrayed to drows

- Encounter with Spider Queen: Pai'Na is defeated

- Clash of powers: No special requirements, though it has both good and evil paths to follow.

- Judgement Day (part 1): Protagonist is single-class good aligned warrior, the Supreme Leader of Githyankis is defeated.

- Judgement Day (part 2): Protagonist is single-class good aligned warrior, JD sword is forged.

- Epic Divine Encounter: No special requirements, though mage protagonist may have a different experience than others.

Other new quests or encounters (including 'Deeper than the Underdark') have no special requirements.

Hmm, perhaps I should post this as a separate message and pin it, eh?

Yes, perhaps your post alone would be good as a guideline to new players (or older)

Does this mean that to face the second battle of the Judgement Day plot the PC has to be a single-class warrior?

I had thought that any good character could forge the sword, is this wrong?

Even the first battle, yes. (I edited my previous post and added the first part of the quest too)


In v4.2, any good character could forge the sword. In the forthcoming version (v4.3 or v5 whichever we call it) only single class warriors (including fighters, rangers and paladins) can forge it. F/Ms will no longer rule in IA. (not only for the new level up tables which makes it much harder for multi-class characters to reach high levels, but also for these item-forging restrictions). Other examples are the new Golem Slayer rod and the 'Memory of the Apprenti" which won't be usable by multi-class mages.

I'm currently playing a solo game with an evil F/M/T until v4.3 comes out.

I think I'll play something like this and then I'll find out where I end up.

1. Elven Vagrant with Halberds
2. Jaheira (nice quests like Ployer and the Harper hold)
3. Nalia
4. Aerie -> Haer'Dalis
5. Keldorn -> Valygar -> Mazzy
6. Cernd -> Imoen

Additional mods:

Tower of Deception
Parts of Ease of Use
Parts of Rogue Rebalancing
Unusual Oddities Store
Maybe Virtue

I have 2 plans also. I want only 5 man party since I am tired in micromanagement for 6 characters.

PC party:
human Vagrant PC: dual flails, clubs
gnome F/I: halberds, dual axes, short swords OR human blade / Haer'Dalis
human ranger 9 > cleric: dual hammers, maces
human swashbuckler 10 > fighter: dual long swords, daggers OR halfing fighter/thief
wild mage

Pro: all classes what I want in my party, weapon prof. and attributes are distributed by me. I always wanted to try wild mage.
contra: no NPC quests, no NPC improved items

NPC party:
human Vagrant PC: dual flails, clubs
Haer'Dalis
Viconia
Korgan or Mazzy or Jaheira or Jan or a mod NPC
Edwin or Imoen

Pro: NPC quests, some NPC improved items
Contra: hard to get 20 repu with evil party or hard to keep evil chars in party with good protagonist, and I want those NPCs who I haven't tried in my previous 4.2 run. Few item upgrades fot these NPCs.
Mazzy interferes with Haer regarding short swords. No thief or Jan is very slow leveling due to 4.3 altered level progression. Imoen is too late coming char.

I think I will bring the final decision when all 4.3 changes, items etc. is published.

Due to Sikrets quest list I might just go with the F/M. But I can change my mind for each day it takes before 4,3 sees the daylight notch notch, know what I mean...

The problem is that as it stands, there are seemingly few real bonuses (read known items) to play the game as an evil character. Sikret also seems to place the spotlight a bit on the Vagrant and Mage protagonists. This kind of means that I will not be playing an evil game in IA and I've been wanting to try out an Avenger, but I probably won't be doing that in IA either. Maybe I'll change my mind once the new itemlist comes out... maybe I'll play a Bard...

I think when it comes down to the new XPlists, the single classes are favoured more, the F/M is toned down and the weight switches from rangers (forgetting the vagrant) to pure mages (necros especially) and pure fighters (I guess still berserkers are best). And non-evil are also favoured even more, I think Sikret don't tries to hide, that he fokuses on good parties.

I've thought it over and I think an Avenger would be nice to try out in IA.
I think I need to check some things concerning items and such.

Druids must be neutral, so I'm going to make him/her neutral evil. I'll be playing neutral/evil after all. Avengers are restricted to leather armor, so I'm guessing that means studded leather is out too? hmm... if neutral evil avengers can wear the improved human flesh then I'm definately in.

Nature's gift may seem too expensive (50.000 gold?) for a mere 500.000 experience, but if the tables are slowed then I guess it looks good again. Can single class druids wear helmets though? The improved Dragon Helmet description doesn't say it's restricted from druids, but I recall that druids cannot wear helmets. At least they'll be able to wear Ioun Stones and the Circlet of Golden Flowers later on. They're pretty good.

Shapeshifting rocks and the HLA shapeshifts are available as well. Coolness. 5 attack sword spider early game should pack a punch, especially boosted by gear.

There need to be some extra good spears, clubs and scimitars for druids though. Club of Detonation ftw.

No, when it says 'Druids must be neutral', it means they must be True Neutral.


Yes.

Iroumen, why not play an Auramaster? Later on in the mod the Avenger won't be very powerful.

About evil characters: not only do you lose content by playing an evil character, you also risk losing access to magic items which may be components for IA items in 4.3 (since these may be placed in areas/with enemies you are unable to face as an evil character)

@ Sikret: if you think this is a spoiler and want to edit it out then of course feel free, I just thought people should be made aware of it to prevent disappointment later.

I guess it's no secret anyway.

It's good that you mentioned it. Yes, there are certain quests and items an evil protagonist won't have access to.

As for druid protagonists, there is indeed one new item upgrade recipe which is specifically for druid protagonist (and incidentally, it's a helmet. )

Sikret, do you plan new content for evil characters?
I know this is a heroic fantasy and the main plot is built for good characters but we are different and somebodz enjoy play like good guy others (like me) loves the dark side.
If anybody want play a real lawful good character he/she must skip the maevar quest and the shadow thief thread (and the bodhi thread too) and he can't sail to asylum.

The good way to handle alignment is in the planescape torment, but i know this would be a gigantic work.

I only ask:
Could you please make a balance in the game (make new content for evil characters too, new quest and new items)?

And a minor modification:
The temple donation system in baldur is laughable, because if you collect 10k gold in the beginning and after this do the circus and the slaver quest your reputation is 20 and you trad with good prices. (if you donate to talos you also popular)
Make the donate more expensive (dont kill it because the evil characters suck with the militia)

This seems to be a good suggestion. Any objections or comments?

It would like to propose a increased price for ressurrection at temples. I could suggest 1000 goldpieces per level as per igi's tweaks.

Otherwise no objections to a good suggestion from Ryel ril Ers.

I've never used the donate option, but yes, I think it is a good suggestion.

I can edit "alignmnt.2da" and place a "1" at all the five Neutral combinations (NG, CN, NN, LN, NE) and then Druids can be created with a Neutral Evil alignment. That should be bugfree or at least I cannot fathom any bugs appearing with that.

I don't really like the Auramaster kit because I don't really want a pure caster druid. I want to go melee with him/her so it's not an option. The lack of armor and the decrease in stats is just too much. I always liked the idea of the avenger and eventhough s/he's not that powerful later on (about in par with a normal and totemic druids) I'm pretty certain s/he'll fare well.



It's a pity if I lose some encounters when I go evil, but I don't really mind.

In theory, though, an evil person doesn't have to do everything the evil way but s/he can take the 'good' conversation choices if the protagonist temporarily shows signs of remorse or mercy. It would then open up the 'good rewards'.

Areas should only be blocked resulting from 'evil choices' in a quest component or conversation rather than being tied to alignment, or the questst must be tied to the protagonist class (such a vagrant quest logically not being available for mages).
- If in the end I cannot finish the evil weapons because of locked content, then there's a minor design-flaw somewhere which I'll happily report to Sikret.
- If any of the upgrade components to druid, cleric, mage or thief specific items only drop during a vagrant specific quest then there's also a slight flaw.

I trust these two scenarios will not be the case, so I can happily play IA when it comes out.



Besides, Cernd is already an Auramaster.

Implemented!

As always, credits to Ryel ril Ers (as the player who suggested the tweak) is also added to the readme.

After a good deal of consideration am I thinking of a pure mage. I never before played a pure mage - not in BG1 and not in BG2. This could be fun, anyone with a tip or two for the choice of weapon?

I'm playing a good char, and have my own swash->cleric with me. Any opinions on other partymembers?

Then, I recommend a Necromancer (you will see the reason in the game; I trust you don't want to be spoiled now).

Pure mages don't have much of a choice for their weapons. QuarterStaff is a must. You can choose three others during the entire game.



I think I should leave this one for others to reply. But I think it mostly depends on a few factors:

- Which NPCs you like more than others (= ?)
- Whether you want NPCs with good personal upgradable items (Valygar comes to mind)
- Whether you want to consider creating another custom multi-player NPC (If yes, a half orc Berserker is magnificent)
- Whether you want an Auramaster in your party (Cernd is there to pick)
- Whether you want Imoen in your party (if not, creating a custom sorcerer can also be a good idea)
- whether you want a powerful dispeller (Keldorn comes to mind as an excellent choice -- though he may be somewhat weak against high level clerics who will surely try to turn him.)

Yes a Necromancer has crossed my minds, but I tend to think of him as an evil magetype. Perhaps I should reconsider this also.

Valygar was I thinking of, and I'm sure gonna try Immy as a sorcerer.

Keldorn could also be funny - especially if gets turned

I won't do more custom NPCs oneis more than enough for me.

I haven't played Cernd for many years, but I'm thinking that his position should be taken by Xan/Nalia, what says people

Haer'Dalis is an excellent choice as tank and powerfull dispeller (since he level faster than other classes). He has improved weapon and that bard armor is fantastic...

If they are the only two choice, than Xan, because his mod is very good, and his character is far better than Nalia.



But a suggestion.

I finished yet TS (Tortured Souls) and began again, with IA.
TS with his items, banters, and characters will give the game some new flavour.
Ther are many excellent Clubs, which your swashbuckler-Cleric could use, and some other items too. If you want some spoiler, give me a PM.
My party is
Aerielle (PC Cavalier with Excellent Elemental Resists,and saving throws, so the most of the harmful spell doesn't hurt much)with two handed sword and style. (the target is the 100% MR)
Sime (CG) (half-Elf Ranger-CLeric MACE+Flail romantic interest)
Yoshimo (NN, later CG) (bounty Hunter->Fighter with dual wield Katanas. Dual after he pickpockets whole Athkathla). Again if you want some spoiler, give me a PM.
Kachiko (LN later CG) (Kensai->Mage with Dual wield Katanas again. With her the levelspecific upgradeble Dak'kon Blade is the key). Fare more better tank as HD
Imoen (Thief->Mage I don't care wat is Immy's Class. She is my favourite BIoware BGII character)
Jaheira with Club and Shield. (And with some protective spellz)

Thank you very much Sikret!!!
I haven't enough time to play BG (i am do my last year on University, and i work too ), but if i have a good idea i write it.

When you suggest the necromancer you think the EVIL necromancer or a GOOD necromancer? No spoiler please.

@Ryel ril Ers: Probably an good necromancer.

@trufa: funny enough my T->C is called Aerielle , no spoilers please

@Sikret: Any opinions on making ressurrections more expensive?

@shadan: Haer tends to annoy me as Anomen does, so for the moment I have a break with him

Welcome.

Thank you. Do write your suggestions.



I guess "neutral" will do as well. (You can't see Judgement Day quest with a mage protagonist anyway; and being "non-evil" is enough for post-Firkraag adventures. At the moment, I can't think of any difference between a good necromancer and a neutral one regarding the mod's quests. If I have forgotten something, Raven can surely refresh my memory.)

Shaitan: You are misunderstanding me. I wrote my party.
With these NPC-s, your swash-Cleric will fit nice.

I wrote

I finally made a decision (I've been thinking about 2 weeks now).

My party involves some subs in case I feel like I want to play one or the other(s). I added them in the order of expected appearance into the party.
Generally: 1 druid protagonist (melee and ranged), 2 fighters, 2 mages, 1 cleric (though of course I should write 2.5 fighters etc)

1. Female Avenger (evil, darts, scimitars + buckler, 16-18-10-14-18-15-ish)
2. Jaheira (club, shield) -> Imoen (staff, sling)
3. Aerie <-> Haer'Dalis (short swords, katana)
4. Nalia (crossbows)
5. Keldorn (two-handed sword, halberd) <-> Valygar (katana) <-> Mazzy (short swords, long swords, short bows)
6. Cernd (staff, sling) -> Anomen (mace, flail, hammer + shield, is a twisted love interest into a failed knighting possible?)

Additional mods:

Tower of Deception (extra challenge)
Parts of Ease of Use (obvious)
Parts of Rogue Rebalancing (fun)
Unusual Oddities Store (odd underused items)


Own edited files:
- alignmnt.2da (to allow my druid to be evil)
- maybe profs.2da and similar files (to allow my druid to gain proficiency points faster by one and to allow weapon specialisation to 2 stars as well as full specialisation in weapon styles).

I'll be doing a lot of melee with scimitars and I think there's a few nice darts (magical and non-magical) available in the realms (the cloak of stars would be nice to use for once). Shapeshifting early game is quite powerful and druids are quite powerful casters late-game.
The helm of opposite alignment might help me become good so that I can do some post-firekraag quests


I hope v5 is coming out sometime this month... not v4.3 anymore I noticed .

Overpowered items with design errors. I used to use that mod too, but not anymore

well, since it's only a shop I can have a look at it and not buy the overpowered ones

There's only six items AFAIR, better of with iitems or the like.

I like Under-represented Items (from IWDII). Some of the weapons have really high elemental damage bonuses but some of the other ones are fair.

The belt of Bless and Elven Chain are probably my favorite items from that mod.

Oh my, it seems I made a mistake . I did mean the Under-represented items from Weidu.org.... how did I ever think about Unusual Oddities? Hmmm... well, it's the IDW darts that I planned on using and there are some nice spears in there that may be helpful.

Just remember to buy you license before throwing those daggers I like the bastard swords which I find severly lacking in the SoA part.

BTW does anybody know if a sword ie +1/+3 against xx actually works as a +1/+3 against xx or just as a +3?

Regards

In the vanilla game, a +x/+y against z creature type weapon has the +y enchantment (the higher number) against everything. So, for example the war hammer +1/+4 against giantkin can hit Kangaxx though it will have the +1 THAC0 and damage bonus against him.

In IA it's the other way round. All such weapons have the +x enchantment level to determine what it can hit and what it can't. The +y bonus only applies to THAC0 and damage when it hits that specific creature type z.

Ohh thanks! I had given it some thoughts.

BTW Sikret: I have some spare time after the weekend (my mariage) to help with smaller issues ie like that with Nalia.

Regards

there are some inconsistencies in vanilla though. Daystar is +2/+4, but it doesn't strike as a +4 There are some other items but since we'll be playing IA it shouldn't matter

The +4 bonuses are written in Daystar's description in THAC0 and Damage sections under the statistics title (not in the sword's name). But yes, there are indeed inconsistencies in the vanilla game in this respect. The best example is the Kondar sword (Bastard sword +1, +3 vs. Shapeshifters) which has +1 enchantment to determine what it can hit (hence, I didn't need to modify it ).

I've stuck with this design philosophy for the RR items as well. For example, there's a dagger which counts as +4 to hit and damage vs. Trolls, but its enchantment level remains at +2 nonetheless.

Personally, I think it works better this way because some powerful creatures require highly enchanted weapons to hit (i.e. Adamantine Golems, Kangaxx, the Demon Lord...etc.) and I didn't want to grant that ability to many weapons, especially not the ones which are readily available for purchase at the start of the game. Thus, most powerful weapon which RR introduces is a +4 short sword (the Silent Death) and that is only available in Chapter 6.

I agree.

When I play IA v5 I intend to shop at the Underrepresented items, but many of them are +4 or +5 enchantmented and that's quite unnecessary. I'll only buy a couple of items that aren't overpowered to such extent. Otherwise that game just becomes too easy.

Don't you want to play any of the two expanded strongholds? The expanded ranger stronghold (in particular) has two big quests which you shouldn't miss.

You can have your female avenger druid as a custom NPC. There is no need to have her as the protagonist. I will extend the druid stronghold in IA v6. So, I suggest that you postpone playing a druid protagonist to that time.

Just my thoughts.

There are plenty of quests in the game. I think I can miss a few of the stronghold ones. Besides, I don't like NPCs that say nothing and have no interactions with other NPCs (i.e. a multiplayer party).

I see. Well, it's really upto you to decide whether you want to see more new quests in the game or you prefer to read one additional NPC's same repetitive banters and interjections for your 100th time and over again.

I like interjections , besides, I'm going to have some NPC combinations which I've never had before.

One custom NPC (the druid you want) occupies only one single NPC slot in your party. So, you will only lose the banters and interjections of one NPC, not more.

The question thus would be, is it a good choice to miss a large amount of new content in the game just for the repetitive banters of one single NPC? As I said the decision is yours to make. I'm just drawing your attention to other possibilities and choices you have in order to see more new content while playing the mod.

Actually it's a slightly bigger reduction than it seems.

5 NPCs --> 10 lots of banter
4 NPCs --> 6 lots of banter

(i.e. a 40% reduction in banters, and a 20% reduction in interjections)

I have no idea whether that's overall a good idea, but the mathematician in me couldn't resist pointing it out.

Well to be honest, I've played enough wizards in the game so I don't feel like replaying another one of them again anytime soon.

I have taken a look at the Vagrant kit and at first glance it looked quite good and I was thinking of replaying a ranger. On second glance I find it much too powerful for my first run through IA since v2. It has many more bonuses than any other class except the monk, but the monk has many cons which the vagrant doesn't really seem to have.
- melee capabilities of a warrior (2 stars or 5 stars is not a shocking difference in the game)
- elemental immunities of a druid (even better than a druid and much earlier than a druid too)
- some other immunities and save bonuses (that's quite okay, comes at the same time for monks for instance)
- very powerful summoning as innates rather than spells (i.e. no spellbook slots need to be sacrificed, this is really too good)

The cons are not really cons.
- charisma minimum is not a restriction (for instance, a roll of 5 is increased to 12, winning 7 points on the whole roll. It's for instance easy to roll a 90+ stats paladin due to his many minimum requirements and it's much harder to roll an 85+ fighter)
- no dualclassing... since clerics can only use blunt weapons this means you can only use hammers, maces, flails and the likes of it. The problem however, is that the main feature of Ia v4/5 is the forging of Judgement Day for good aligned single class protagonist warriors, so if you're ranger primary who is best built around melee.... there is not really a reason to dual-class and it's quite smart to keep it a normal ranger so you can use Judgement Day yourself. Of course you can give it to Mazzy or Keldorn, but it's still the protagonist that you'll want to keep an eye out, so the bonuses of the sword will probably best suit the vagrant.
- restriction to studded leather... this is how I always played rangers, since with armor higher than studded you cannot use thieving skills and rangers excel in stealth already very early on in the game. There are some nice ranger stealth armors out there anyway, so that's not really a bad thing.


I think I will play IAv5 as a Vagrant, but only after my first run through with an avenger. If I play Vagrant I think I might even try it soloing or with only one mage party member (Aerie -> Imoen for instance). I've never played a primary druid before and I'd like to try out the Avenger now and see how well it functions. I've played with Cernd as a werewolf of course and I know the strength of the melee capabilities of druid spells using Jaheira a bunch of times. I think I am forced to allow it to get proficiencies faster though so I can get 1 star in all primary weapons so I can try them all out once I find them.

I know that exporting a multiplayer game to singleplayer only renders 2 characters speechless. I just like having my characters with something to say, even if I've seen it plenty of times before. There's also some combinations I haven't used yet, so that may give me some fun talks in between the adventuring and in between the difficult battles. I don't play BG solely for the strategic fights, I like the whole storyline and interjections very much (and for such reason I've helped with some NPC projects). I could always make an Avenger NPC mod though.