As Ryel asked, I will write about my party and my game also here. I was not able to resist to start the game, despite of I wanted to start only in some weeks, when I will have more time. smile.gif
I hesitated alot with my party selection. I wanted 5 man party earlier, but after reading Sikret's progression, I changed my mind to 6 man party. I wanted to use at least 3-4 custom NPC, but hesitated abit on 1-2 bioware NPC also. Since I am an attribute fun, at end I started with 6 custom made chars. Maybe in v6, I will do with Bioware NPCs again, and it seems druid protagonist. smile.gif

So my party:
Human vagrant (as usual:)):
I gave long sword **, axe, club, flail * and 2weapons *** to him. Luckily I pickpocketed an Enchanted Weapon scroll for my mage, so in dire situations I am able to give him +3 long swords and +3 maces to my cleric. I have The Root of the Problem and Flametongue now, so at lvl 9 I put 2nd * in the club. And I think I will increase his flail skill at lvl 12.

Human swashbuckler lvl 10 - fighter:
This character gave the most thinking to me. Finally I chosed staff** and 2handed weapons ** for him. At lvl 10 I changed him to fighter. Now he is lvl 8 and has halberd **** and 2handed sword **. He will be very versatile character in damage type (halberd - piercing, staff -crushing, 2handed swords - slashing). I chose him to handle locks, traps and illusions, so he has 100 % pick lock, find trap and detect illusion. I want to buy Harmonium halberd for him, if I will have money for this, since 19 Str is huge upgrade considered to pure 18.

And the four sisters:
Half-elf blade
I liked Haer'Dalis in my 4.2 run, so I chose blade again. Reasons are in this topic in my former post. I hesitated alot between Haer and custom NPC, I chose custom cause of better attribute distribution and earlier join, but I lost easy upgradable Chaos Blade and ** in short sword. I started her with scimitar, katana *, 2weapons: **, but since I haven't found any magic weapon for her, she used Melf's Minute Meteor in fights. Sadly it is bugged with offensive spin as I wrote in bug report topic, but she was very good with MMM anyway. Now I have got Rashad's Talon which is a great weapon for her. She has 18 charisma and with a Friends she has 24, which means almost best buying price.
There were no need in good tanks so early in the game as I am now, but later she will be the best tank ever. smile.gif And she did a wonderful pickpocket tour at start, and I am planning to do it again after I get back to the city.

Human ranger 7 - cleric:
I dualled her immidiately after start. She started with 2weapons ***, warhammer**, shield and sword **, flail *. As cleric, I chose mace *, sling *, club * and put 2nd point into mace at lvl 8. The main reason to chose her above Anomen (who was great in my 4.2run) is Ironskin, better attributes, and some druidic summon at start. Price was loosing the option of 5* proficiencies, Anomen’s doesn’t have any good improveable item. She will use the usual maces, hammers mostly.

Elf sorcerer:
She is the 6th member who was not in my original party conception. She has the following spells (* means she had that spell at start):
lvl 1: Armor*, Shield*, Spook*, Magic M.*, Larloch’s M. Dr.*
lvl 2: Melf’s AA*, Horror*, Mirror Image*, Vocalize
lvl 3: Flame Arrow*, Skull Trap*, Vampiric Touch, Slow (Remove Magic planned)
lvl 4: Emotion, Spider Spawn (Ray of Fragmentation and Stoneskin planned)
lvl 5: Breach (Lower Resistance, Sunfire planned)

Half-elf summoner:
I hesitated alot between Nalia and custom NPC. Nalia has a nice upgradeable ring, but a specialist mage is better at start. Decision was made since I WANT to cast that damned Wish with her.

I am basically following Sikret’s quest order. Well, more or less and mostly only at start. I did some pick pocket tour after circus (I was lucky to get a Spell Trap Scroll, 2 Mord. Sword scroll and some others, but no manual or Perm. Scroll), then I went out to Umar and Trademeet. I encountered with Suna earlier, and she suprised me, but after reload and some spell casted before map change, I easy managed them. Fladorn was a bit hard, but when I killed her, I made 1st challenge immidiately after rest. It was funny, since I thought I am itemless again, and started my usual Faldorn tactic, after 2 rounds I realized I have weapons, so beat that druid very fast. smile.gif Rakshasa in the tower were not too big challenge. I went back to Trademeet for rewards. Now I will go back to the city, and will do some minor quests when I have time to play again. At this time I won’t follow Sikret’s order, but mostly I will do those quests what he did, just not in that order.
My only big concern are Crowled Wizards. In my 4.2 run I didn’t pay to them. I killed their members easily, but the last fight was very very hard. I was able to kill them only just before I went to Spellhold (I did all available quests in chapter 3 in that game as well as WK 1st and 2nd lvl). I was not allowed to cast arcane spells on the streets, but as far as I remember this was not so big problem in that game, not too many fights are on the street. Now maybe Anarg and his followers could cause problem. My only headache was Borinal, since it was a very hard fight with new enemies in my 4.2 run, and I was not able to cast defensive spells before his door, so I had to go to Oghma temple for casting. Now I don’t know if I should pay, or suffer a bit hindrace sometimes while I am not able to kill their lasts members.
End of my report now.

New part
I was not able to resist playing a while yesterday. I pickpocketed a large part of the city and I've got a Helm of Glory. (If it is a cheesy, I can tell the location, Sikret.) Well I can do a paper armor from Identify and Shocking Grasp scrolls what I pickpocketed. smile.
I also killed Valeria and her goons. They surprised me, when I went in with badly injured chars while Iexplored the city and did the pikcpocket tour, so I had to reload. smile.gif) And did the tanner quest.
End of my report now.

I hope Sikret doesn't mind if I continue my reports here. I don't want to write complete diary, just some feedbacks and thoughts.
Lets start with some "interesting" things:

SPOILER!


2 interesting pickpockets:
Deed to the Windspear Hills - from Garren
The Genie's Flask - from named nymph at Windspear ( I don't really know what is this item for. )

The Genie's Flask is for releasing the Genie trapped in Chateau Irenicus (he gives you The Sword of Chaos +2 in return) in the vanilla game. The flask is in possession of the nymphs, but they graciously give it to you when asked, no need to pickpocket it (I never tried, didn't know it was possible, actually). I didn't think they would still keep it when teleported back to Windspear Hills, they probably use the same CRE files. Don't know if IA alters anything about this, though.

@Shadan

Did you use Dongeon-be-Gone? I think that mod cause it.

@Daulmakan

The fastest way in the first dungeon
go to golem chamber kill the golems
go to golem room pickpocket the golem key
go to the nymphs pickpocket the flask and get the air statue
get the portal key and some loot
kill the duergars
free the genie
and go to the next level

Hmm, it seems I forgot to do that Genie quest in the dungeon... Yes, I installed Dungeon Be Gone, but I didn't use it, I played thorugh the whole dungeon.

Darn huh? You just missed 19500 xp and a great twohanded sword

Why should I mind? As I said before, IA's forum is the default place for sending journals and reports. Just as a probably unnecessary and redundant reminder, be your own policeman and don't use any sort of cheese. Some examples:

1- Don't use hit&run methods.

2- Don't steal quest-related items (even if some of them are still stealable)

3- Don't cast spells from offscreen. All of the improved enemies in IA have anti-cheese blocks in their scripts for such cases, but those enemie which I have not touched can still be vulnerable to the cheesy method.

4- Don't try to flee an area before the battle is over. In most cases, I have blocked the exit, but even if the exit is available in some cases, don't use it.

5- Don't use scrolls (of Breach and other similar spells) on Improved Invisible characters. I have fixed this vanilla bug for the next version of the mod.

In general, if a battle is too difficult, simply postpone it to a later time rather than seeking tricks to win it with cheese.

Doesn't it depend a little on how you're playing?

I normally stealth one of my characters, then explore an area for creatures. Sometimes I come across a party that has a mage that casts True Seeing. It wastes the spell since by the time I've past the spell activates (better if they use an oracle scroll and save True seeing for mid-fight).

Then after a little while I go back to my party. I buff some spells if my thief came across some hostiles or an awkward looking party (generally a party of 5 neutral characters of which 2 are obvious warriors, 1 thief and 1 cleric and 1 mage). Then I initiate dialogue (though more often they initiate it when my party moves into their field of vision).

It's not unheard of to lay some traps and maybe place a strategic Delayed Blast Fireball, Ward or Skulltrap in case they want to sneak up on me from one of the flanks during battle. That's why they're in the game.
Also, if the creatures are already hostile and you have scouted them properly, do you consider it to be cheesy to engage combat with an off-screen fireball or off-screen silence spell to disable potential mages?

In other words... what exactly do you mean with nr 3?




PS: I like specialist mages. I've tried them all out, but I'm undecisive which one is best. Normally I see Summoner/Conjurers and Necromancers when I scroll the boards and of course also Illusionists when they're gnomes. I'm wondering why you picked a Summoner/conjurer?

I've currently started a second IA game for fun where I'm playing as Fighter/Transmuter/Thief. My own thrill is the inability to use Abjuration Spells.

@Sikret
1) Can you share with us what is the difference between the tactical retreat and a hit and run method? I think there is a different between the two method but the line is narrow.

2)No comment.

3) If i can explore the area with an invisible caster can i use my first spell with that caster offscreen? In role playing reasons (i know you hate this word ) that choice is logical, and the most of IA monsters immune to it. And what is if i cast 2-3 farsight to explore the arean in front of me?
I though that case when i cast only one spell and after i rush in the battle don't use another one. (So why i always need the second in the battle).

4)An interesting from my first game (i try a solo sorc Oh my good!) i flee from the battle with the sewers party, i leave the sewers but the are follow me i go back to the sewers and i must fight with two party because a clone party appaered in the streets, and that is also follow me, so with 3 run i must fight 4 group That was in 4.2.

5)Hmm i didn't know this. I think possible that i use it without i knew, because i run out of spells and the SI and MI hide the real characters so possible that some mages was invisible when i try breached them.
I will be more perceptive with it in the future.

The difference is as clear as the difference between "running" and "walking". Tactical retreat takes place step by step and slowly just to take better positions while still engaged in combat. Hit&Run (the cheesy method) is either to waste time (to allow the enemy's protections to expire) or to run fast out of the enemy's line of sight or to use cheesy methods with ranged weapons or other similar things. I think every player knows the difference.

OK, I did some quests now, so I would like to comments my characters. These comments reflect my feeling and thoughts about them in the 1st quarter of the game.
I did the following quests:
Circus
Umar Hills small quests
Trademeet druids
Trademeet raksasha
Suna Seni
Druid stronghold 1st duel and 1st quest
Maevar’s quests and killed him (declined thief stronghold)
Paid to Aran and Aran’s 1st quest
Copper Coronet and beastmaster
Buried alive
Xzar/Harper quest
Anarg and fallen paladins
Illithium
Cult of Unseen Eye (accepted priest stronghold)
Quest for potion seller in sewers
Child and her bear
Killed Valeria and his goons
Murder at docks
De’Arnise keep full cleared (accepted fighter strongold)
Returned acorns to dryads
I am now in Firkraag’s Lair halfway.

My party now:
Vagrant lvl 11, Swashbuckler/fighter 10/11, Blade 13, Ranger/Cleric 7/11, Sorcerer 11, Conjurer 11.

My PC is Vagrant:
He is a usual character. He has good THACO, and moderate damage. He has the most kill in my party, since my others melees are duals or blade (which is weak at start). His elemental resistances are useful, but not too big thing yet. His weakness is his armor. Leather armors are weak at start, and Spirit Armor takes up a very valued lvl 4 spell slot. I found Green Leaves Armor, so it is a bit less problem now. Charm Animal is very useful ability at low lvl. His sneak skill makes him to perfect explorer at new areas.
I made a minor mistake with his weapon skills. I started her with long sword **, club, flail, axe *, 2weapons ***. I chose club 2nd * at lvl 9, since my best weapon was The Root of the Problem at that time. Now he as a FoA and Frostreaver, but sadly no ** in axe or flail... I will put my 2nd * to axe at lvl 12. And I am intended to forge Treefolk’s Arm for him asap, I have all ingredients now, just need a little more money. I will give FoA to my cleric if my PC has that imba +4 club which will raise his strength to 19.

Swashbuckler dual to fighter at lvl 10:
He was my weak point, since it took a long time to regain his 1st cast. I had no trap and lock handler guy for a while, so I had to use a lot of Knock, and endure many traps. He was also weak fighter cause of his low level and bad weaponry. When I bought Harmonium Halberd for him, he became incredible with 19 Str, 5* in halberd and 2* in 2handed weapons. (He has +2 2handed sword and a cleric staff+3 with 2* in staff and 2handed sword.) He is the 2nd in kills now. Now he can use Detect Illusion continuously while he is hitting. He has only one frustrating thing: he cannot pick lock or remove trap in full plate armor. I have to put down his armor always when I want to use thieving skills. Maybe I will give him Supreme Chain Mail instead of Huskar Lord’s Armor. I lose 3 AC and missile immunity, but I will gain 20 % fire res and I don’t have to remove armor always at thieving.

Blade:
She is my favourite character. She was very weak at start, since she didn’t have good weaponry, her THACO and saves are very bad. So I gave the best protection items (rings, amulet, cloak) to her. Ha started with scimitar, katana *, 2weapons** and I chose short sword at lvl 12. I miss only the 3rd *from 2 weapons now. She is a good damage dealer with Melf’s MM with a mediocre THACO. She is the best tank with Spirit Armor, Stoneskin, Mirror Image, Blur and my favorite: Defensive Spin. With Defensive Spin I can reach -24 AC for her even at this early stage. My favorite tactic to run in with her, wait 1 round till all enemies attack her, then bomb enemies with AoE spells or my other 3 melee chars proceed and kill enemies. I did this many times, for example at golems in De’Arnise keep and Firkraag’s Lair, or at vampires in Firkraag’s Lair. She is master pickpocketer. And when she is out of defensive/tank spells and spins and no more Melf’s MM, she starts to sing to encourage other chars to fight.  She is at 4th-5th in kills, but she is the most versatile character.


Ranger dual to cleric at lvl 7:
3rd in kills. She uses Blackblood club and Club+3 now, occasionally she use weapon + shield when enemy has a very good AC (so no hit with left hand), or when she is tanking with Ironskin. She is what can I expect from clerics, plus he can charm animals, can hide a bit. (I have 3 characters with hide, when I wants to move near to enemies, so I don’t really needs Invis. It was useful at beholders/gauths for example.) Summon Nymph is very good early spell, since nymph can heal a lot, and nymph can summon some cannonfodder also.  Iron skin is very good also. My only problem that her level 5 spells are a bit crowdy (Chaotic Command, Iron Skin, Mass Heal etc.). Her level 4 and 3 spells are free. On level 3 I have some Holy Smite, 1 Remove Par. and 1 Zone of Sweet Air. On level 4 I have Def. Harm. and Prot from Evil 10’ (Prot from Lightning, Restoration when it is needed). Nymphs starting to be not too useful at this stage.

Sorcerer:
Good supporter/bomber. 4th-5th in kills. Her 1st lvl 6 spell is Prot from Magic Energy. Good spells of her: Spider Spawn, Emotion, Sunfire, Vampiric Touch, Flame Arrow. I am currently trying if Glitterdust works against Impr. Invis + SI: Div. combo or doesn’t... Sadly the guardians in Firkraag’s Lair successfully rolled all saving throws against Glitterdust despite of Gr. Malison, so my question is unanswered still, but it is not big thing if it works, since saving throw and MR makes it irrelevant tool most of the time.

Conjurer:
Good supporter, last in kills.

There are 2 other things:
- When I 1st tried to dispel illusion with my regained swash/fighter it didn’t work. I didn’t understand why, and when I checked his thief skills, they were only the base + dex. modifier. For example his DI was 0. I loaded my lot of earlier saves with Shadowkeeper and I figured out he lost his all thief skills on character sheet between 2 saves when he was lvl 9 fighter only (his rogue class was not regained yet). So I changed her old skills back with SK, but I don’t know why he lost those skills. I will check his AC bonus as swashbuckler soon, I hope it is counted now.
- Prot. from Fire (wizard version):
All wizard version prot. spells (Fire, Cold, Acid, Magic) has 1 turn/lvl duration. In priest version Resist Fire/Cold, Prot from Fire basically 1 round/lvl, Prot. from Lightning 5 rounds/lvl. So I used to use wizard version, since it is long lasting buff. In spell description it says it gives only 50 % resistance (while priest version gives 80%), but in the game I have found it protects completly from fire. On char sheet there is 100% fire and 50 % magic fire res, but my characters don’t get any damage from Fire Shield or Sunfire at all. It was same in 4.2, just I had many elemental resistance with my high level characters there, so it was not so obvious as it is here. Is it a bug, or bad spell description?

Don't equip your swashbucker with chain!
The thieves only able to use their skills in...
leather
studded leather
hide armor
elven chain

The blades can use their pickpocket in chain too but thieves don't.
Equip him with...
Bracers od ACX
or Shadow Armor (have AC 4 if i know properly)
or Hide armor (have AC 5 and ~20% penalty on skills)
and add him lots of protection item if you install multiple prot ring part of ease of use (it is recommended or not recommended Sikret?)
In the PnP the character can use multiple ring but only the save bonus stack the ac not so i don't know what is the better option.
My cleric thief used shadow armor but i don't bring him to the front. With my blade i don't wear any armor i always use with him a bracer AC6 (if enemy cast remove megic) and i always cast spirit armor on him with my sorc (+3 saves against spells too). My sorc always used 4 spirit armor on level 4 and the other 2 cast was malison/emotion or spirit armor too. I am a big fun of this spell.

I suggest memo only one ironskin with your ranger/cleric and if she injured badly you can save her life.
Do you use draw upon holy strength + holy power + (righteous magic: with club and hammer not too good because the low max damage) combo? She will be a very brutal fighter and she still can cast spell. If your blade has high thaco you can cast on her a champion strength next level and she get +12 hp and +4 thaco (but your cleric lose her spellcasting ability).

Ryel:
I will use plate then with my swashi... he is a front line char, he need better protection than a simple leather. I only have to put down his armor, when he wants to handle trap or lock.
I don't use any armor with blade yet, I sold bracers to get money. I use Spirit Armor on blade and vagrant. My sorc uses Shield, conjurer uses nothing... If I need AC suddenly, I can cast Armor, so I don't need any bracers above AC4.
I am using DUHM wtih vagrant and cleric, bad it has so long casting time. I don't use Holy Power and Righteous Magic. I think my ranger/cleric has enough offensive power. She has 18/98 strength as basic. I think hammer and mace are the best weapons at endgame for clerics, clubs are the best at early game. I don't care with max. damage, since I don't have slot for Right. Magic yet. Later I will have. Now I memo 1 Iron Skin and 1 Chaotic Command.
And yes, multi prot item mod is recommended for IA as it is written in intsallation documents, I have that one installed.

What about my question concerning wizard version of Prot. from Fire? Is it normal if it protects me fully from magical fire?

The game does not use the Magical Fire damage type, as it causes crashes if it does killing damage. Therefore, protection from normal fire is sufficient. It is the same way for Magical Cold damage as well.

Well, I just realized I have played IAv5 at hard difficulty. I was very suspiciuos for a while since normal, not improved monsters hit too hard, but I always forgot to check it. Now I did it, and changed to core.

In that case your defeat of Torgal at (relatively) low level was even more impressive!

Does anyone know where can I buy or find Morningstar+2? I have found only one of them, and need 2 for Phosphorous. I am near to leave to Spellhold, and I don't want to go before I forge Phosphorous.

I'm having trouble finding them too. I found a ton of places that sell Flail +2 but Morningstar +2 seems to be non-existant.

EDIT: The Elite Bounty Huntress in the Planar Prison has a Morningstar +2, if that helps.
EDIT2: The Shadow Jailor in the shadow dungeon also has one.

Did anyone else have a hard time finding a scroll of Remove Magic? I didn't see it in any shops and the first time I looted it off a body was from Gaius from the sewer toll party.

Thanks Vagramant, I have found them also. Since Planar Prison was one of the hardest place in my 4.2 run, I left this to last before Spellhold. It was hardest because I was new in IA, my party was a bit low level (no Ruby etc.), I didn’t have good save game before PP, and Haer’Dalis was my party member. So I suffered alot with that warden in 4.2. But lets go back, and continue from my last report.
I did all quests what Sikret did, except sewer party and Shade Lord. I am sure, I could handle them, but I was a bit afraid because I didn’t want to go to Spellhold with too high level. Since I did cleric stronghold quests also, finished Planar Sphere and student graduating, and did more part in fighter stronghold, there was a possibility to reach the magical XP number for improved Spellhold. So I did Firkraag’s Lair except Samia and Firkraag. Conster was a quite challenge. I skipped ToD to chapter 6 also, cause of similar reason. I wanted to do pirates in the docks, but at end I forgot them, and I went to Spellhold. I was in deep Spellhold, when I realized this, and I was angry, because I missed the loot from pirates, but I didn’t want to play whole thing again.
Planar Sphere was challenge also in luck of Ruby Ray. Prison was interesting, since I had Ruby Ray (my sorcerer and conjurer leveled to 14 after Planar Sphere), so warden was too easy with destroying the gem. I was able to burn down hounds really really fast, and 2 Ruby Ray 1 Breach, and warden was dead. After this I realized that I cannot go down to last 2 pits (minotaurs and slaver captains+golems). So I choose to reload and my blade ran down to those 2 pits. Of course warden attacked, but I intended to destroy gem when my blade was out of pits with some pit monsters. But, I clicked only once, and didn’t realized that I would have to click twice. Anyway, I killed all yuan-tis, warden, some minotaurs etc. and appr. 8 planar hounds + the warden of course. Well more XP, more loot. I went down into the 2 pits, and cleared the remaining monsters there also. At this time I realized my mistake with gem, so I destroyed it, but I didn’t get XP. Anyway, I had got more XP and treasure than with usual method, and I didn’t want to do the whole thing again, so I missed 20+k XP with gem destroying.
So I went to Spellhold which is one of my favorite place in Improved Anvil. Vadek and Lady was a bit easy, the narrow corridor caused the most problem for me, not the enemies. Perth was easy also, so I reloaded and tried to endure as long as I can to get more coin golems. So I dispelled his spell protections, and my casters just stood there and tried to interrupt his spells with Larloch M. Dr., while my fighters killed golems very fast. I had got 3 or 4 golems, I didn’t see anymore for a while, so I killed the mage. I tried to dispel his melee protections also, but he used up scrolls very fast, so I decided not to Breach him, so scrolls left as loot when he died. Some bonus Abs. Imm. scrolls are always good to sell. 
Spellhold was fun. Shade Lich and skelly lords was a challenge, since my Remove Magic at lvl 17/18 from my blade was not enough to dispel Impr. Invis from lich. So I used brute tactic there. Vampire lord was good also, he immidiately shifted from my blade, when she casted PfMW. This is reasonable from an ancient vampire lord, but I think brainless golems and monsters with low intelligence shouldn’t change always to most vulnarable target...
I agree with Sikret, Cat O’Nine Lives was too easy...
Amber golems and guardian spirits was enough hard. I don’t know how, but those guradian spirits killed my blade within 2 rounds. He had -20 AC, Stonekins, Mirror Image, fire, lightning, magic damage res was max. Maybe they do cold damage, and I realized I missed prot. from cold from my blade at buffs, all of my fighters had it. Anyway, Stonekin didn’t protect agasint them. If they do cold damage, it is fine, since cold res. is less important resistance, so I am glad if I have to use it. Anyway, brute force and some summon helped to win this fight. Those swanmays are really good. Sadly I think old summons from spells are really crap (Spider Spawn was good at start, now it is a bit useless. Skeleton Warriors are mediocre, Mordi Swords are OK, but other summons are crap), only item summons worth something.
Ancient Tome was too easy. I went to Brynnlaw with lvl 13 vagrant. He was lvl 14 at tome, my sorcerer and conjurer was lvl 15. Those spiders not too big challenge at this stage. Probably all ppl did spiders at lost temple or in ogre tower before Spellhold, so this Tome is too easy, I would recommend another 2 weaves of mobs (maybe skip the first 2, since they are joke). I recommend this even at normal (not Improved) Spellhold.
My first suggestion:
Minotaur King with high melee capabality. And a dozen (10-20) of nomral minotaurs. Fighter should concentrate on king, while casters should AoE the normal ones. Or alternatively some summoned meatshields could hold normal ones for a bit. I would appreciate if I could use old Fireball and similar spells.
My second weave suggestion:
3 demons: All demons should have crushing, piercing and bludgeoning resistance above 90 %. Their magic resistance 100 %, but no elemental resistance at all. Good saves, but weak offensive power. They wouldn’t use any dispelling method, but they would use many elemental damage spells (Acid Fog, Delayed Blast Fireballs, Chain Lightnings, Flame Arrows, Cone of Colds etc.), so all type of elemental resistance would be an important factor in this fight. (Don’t forget, this would be the last weave at tome, so some of your buffs could be down cause of duration.) And these demons could summon a lot of smaller demons with mediocre melee capabilities, but 100 % magic resistance (immune to Lower Res. also.). So the ideal battle strategy would be this:
as much elemental resistance as you can, many Zone of Sweet Air
fighters and summon should kill small demons (there should be really alot (like 5-6 from 1 summon, and they shouldn’t die from 1 hit)
casters lower big demon’s magi res with Lower Res., and they have to kill them via spells. I would like to use that useless low level damaging spells also.
All in all, I left Spellhold. Now I’m going to back to Brynnlaw again.
End of report.

Shadan, could you share some experiences on how melee enemies switch targets, for example do they attack the one with the highest ac, or the one dealing the most dmg to them etc etc?

Sorry, I really don't know. I just noticed some enemies instanly changed their targets from my blade, when she casted PfMW. Also I saw many other target changes after 1-2 rounds when my character was protected with Stonekin.

Conditions of shifting targets are various depending on the enemy type and his attack mode. Some examples:

- An enemy whose weapon is ineffective against you, will shift target
- An assassin trying to backstab or a warrior with Critical Strike (HLA) will try to pick a target who is not stoneskinned or mirror imaged (if possible).
- A monster whose claw causes "Hold" effect will try to pick a target who doesn't have Free Action on himself (if possible to find such a target; otherwise, he will attack nonetheless).
- A monster with (say) piercing damage type will try to pick a target whose resistance to Pierce damage is not very high.
- Sometimes they just randomly shift target to make any sort of pre-calculation difficult for the player.

One important point in IA is that conditions of shifting targets are set in a way NOT to be exploitable by the player. (Some other tactical mods have this problem: For example, they script the enemy to attack the Worst AC target or a mage target in such a strict way that the player can easily exploit it. For example, the player could keep the enemy at a doorway with a good AC fighter and a mage just behind the fighter. Since the enemy sees the mage, he tries to attack him but since his way is blocked by the fighter, he just stands there doing nothing till killed. Similar exploits are possible by surrounding the enemy with summons. That kind of exploits are very effectively blocked in Improved Anvil. Enemies realize whether they can reach and hit a target or not.)

Of course, as shadan noted as well, not all enemies are equally intelligent.

Edited for typos

@shadan

What makes the Ancient Tome challenging is actually the time limit to complete its battles. If the time limit expires, the player will not gain the maximum possible treasure from the tome. Adding even one single wave to the tome will make it impossible for 13th-14th (or even 15th) level parties to complete it within the time limit.

Of course, I can increase the time limit and add new waves if the majority of the players believe that it can make it more interesting.

Time limit? Do you mean you cannot rest between fight, right? Not some irl time, I hope. I don't know if I did it in time if not rest is counted. I just made a very small prebuff (long lasting buffs only) and pressed tome, killed, pressed tome, killed again etc. I didn't rest and those fights were easy. Last spider wave was a bit challenge since I was not prepared for them, I didn't remember from my 4.2 run what types and how many enemies will come. So I hadn't Chaotic Command and Free Action up, but I killed them without too much trouble. I had most of my spells with mage, sorcerer and priest at end of battle, my chars were almost unhurted, maybe I casted 1 Greater Resto or 1 Heal, I don't remember now.
Can you at least PM to me what time limit is exactly there and what type of rewards?
So upgrade depends on what kind of time limits is exactly there. Anyway I would suggest some more waves even if costs longer time limit.

Resting in between the battles will surely make the time limit expire; but it's not just about resting, there is an actual timer working there and will cause the limit to expire if the player is not fast enough.

In my own game, I managed to complete the battles very marginally in the time limit. If there was one more wave, I couldn't complete it.

Since you have done the battles fast, I think that you have also managed to complete the battles within the intended time limit. Nonetheless, I will send you the PM you requested.

Thanks Sikret! I did it in time then. But I am not sure how much time left for me in that fight. Anyway, my vote is for 1-2 more waves even with longer time limit.

Some new fights:

I forgot to mention Irenicus fight in Spellhold. There were two very irritating things in this fight.
1. I had to endure his SI: Div. since my dispel was not enough high to remove it. And those worthless "helpers" always surrounded Irenicus, so my fighters were not able to reach him. This annoying feature prevented me to do usual tactic: 1 fighter near to the mage, others are farer to spare them from Remove Magic, triggers. AoE spells. I had to keep all 4 fighters near to him and prevent those crazy ones to approach to Irenicus...
2. My comp. and game is always slowed down when many spell effects (SI, Mirror Image) or many enemies are there. I don't know why... In my 4.2 run I thought it is caused by bottomless bag of holding mod. But now it is not installed. I decreased video performance (only kept resolution 1124x768), but my cursor still slow, my fights still slow. It was same at Sahuagin Prince with many corpses or at 1st drow ambush with many SI and Blade Barrier (see these later). Any help would be appreciated.

Sahuagin Prince:

SPOILER!


First drow ambush:

SPOILER!


My current party:
character (weapons) hardest enemy killed kill (XP) % in party
Vagrant lvl 16 (Phosphorous + FoA+3) Mithril Golem 35 (36) %
Swash 10 > fighter 16 (Harmonium halberd, cleric staff+3, Lilalcor) shadow dragon 36 (40) %
Blade lvl 19 (Short Sword+3 + Belm/Dak'kon's Blade or Melf's MM) adamantite golem 10 (6) %
Ranger 7 > priest 17 (Treefolk's Arm+4 + Club+3/Shield) gem golem 8 (10) %
Sorcerer 16 amber golem 6 (4) %
Conjurer 16 Nilthiri 2 (1) %

I finished the Underdark. The 2 drow ambush were the hardest battles for me. I wrote about 1st one earlier, 2nd one is hard cause of
SPOILER!


Master Brain was not too dificult, but I encountered with a strange thing:

SPOILER!


Dracolich was not too hard, imho was very good fight. Took 3 reload to understand fully all details of this fight, then I killed him. Happily my sorcerer and conjurer have got their 1st HLAs just before the dracolich, so I started Improved Alacrity with them. Summons were very handy in this fight.

Demonknights were not easy, but I used the brave method: charge and kill as many as you can with your fighters.
SPOILER!


So I left Underdark, talked with elves, and oh well 3 messangers waited for me from my keeps (mage, warrior, bard). When I traveled to the city, gyths attacked my party. I was without spells, low HP etc. so end came very fast in this battle. So I reloaded, rested, memorized and went to sleep, since there was midnight.
I am eagerly waiting to kill those gyths and forging some new cool equipment.

I did almost all SoA, I am in elven city now. I did all quests and fights except Twisted Rune, Viper Queen, Orcus and the new ranger quests. I did 1st and 2nd level in WK also. I am planning to kill dragon in elven city, and wait with Tree of Life and Hell till I do all other quests and probably 1 more level in WK. Sadlt Delon havent appeared yet despite some time passed after I killed Shade Lord. Hope it is not broken, or I haven’t missed him somehow.
The game was surprisingly easy after I came out from Underdark. I am sure next time I will do Shade Lord, Teshal, Firkraag, pirates in the dock, barbarian attackers in bard stronghold, Troll King & Queen before Spellhold even if I will get Improved Spellhold for high level. These fights was so easy in chapter 6... Samia & co was easy also, but I am not sure if I can do it before Spellhold without many reloads. Same with sewer party... Both group are too hard in chapter 3, but too easy in chapter 6.
Fights which were good in chapter 6:
Improved Slaver HQ (cause of traps there + ring guardians from The Four + a surprise fight there)
post Firkraag assassin quest
Teshal together with Skeleton Grandlords and elemental lich
Trademeet Tomb cause of antimagic
Chromatic Demon (WK 1st and 2nd level is easy, however you cannot finish 1st level in chapter 3 probably due to Spider Queen)

As Sikret wrote: money is big concern. To tell the truth I am a bit frustrated by money. According to Sikret, you will have to chose among 2 paths: you spend money on potions or on upgrades. I have never bought any strength or healing potions (only some Magic Shielding and Prot. from Magic), what else I sold almost all healing potions what I have found. I bought only some important spells and items, always with max. possible reputation and with 24 Cha. I always sold items on highest possible price. I am almost finished SoA as you see and despite this there are many important or mediocre important upgrades which I was not able to do due to lack of money. Here is a short list (maybe not full since I am writing this at my work from memory): Supreme Shelter, Poseidon’s Wrath, Hammer of Thor, Warblade +5, Improved Cat and Spider figurine, Robe of Elemental Resistance, Cutthroat+5. I did 1 Cloak of Protection +3, but If I would skip that, I could make only 1 item from the previous list. And you cannot do Cloak +3 in ToB, so you have to do it in SoA. Maybe prices/drops are too nerfed in v5 compared to my v4.2 run. Or maybe scrolls from mage stronghold gave so much money in 4.2 to me, so I didn’t have this kind of problem. All in all I think some prices should be a bit lower in v6...

I'm sure that it's not broken; but I fear that you might have missed him somehow. Delon sometimes appears offscreen in a bad way; you should always keep an open eye for him or revisit Umar Hills regularly. In my game, when I exited underdark, he was standing somewhere behind the trees. The elf and Delon tried to initiate dialogue simultaneously and I fear that something similar may have happened in your game and you may have missed him and lost your stronghold. Go to Umar Hills immediately and make sure that you have not lost your Cabin. Talk to the mayor and also check the underdark exit for Delon.

I agree, the prices of most upgrades increased dramatically for v5 while the sell prices of gems (like the ones you get from Gem golems) dropped. The price multiplier for selling at the Sahuagin temple was also removed. The way it stands now, you may have to wait until TOB to make some of your upgrades.

Some, like the improved Boots of the Ranger Lord, cost 250K+ just for improved Haste and a few points of Dex. Who's going to ever forge that? The last upgrade is just gravy and shouldn't cost 125K itself.

And the chunks of Amber should be worth more than 600 gold. They're tougher than Coin Golems and yet you get less gp for killing them.

Agree with Vardaman... And Cloak of Res +3 should be able to forged in ToB also.

There is a big number of possible item-upgrades in the list, but it doesn't mean that you should be able to practically forge all (or even most) of them. You need to think and choose. This is what makes it interesting and what adds to the game's replaying value even further. This is my opinion about the item-upgrade portion of the mod. With different party compositions and different general strategies you choose for yourself, you find some of the items more useful or appropriate than others and you decide to forge them and leave the other ones for your next run-through when you play with a different party.

PS: Amber golems give more xp than Gem golems. Do they also have to give more gp?

I like the way Sikret handled the huge amount of GP in the game. I always found it dubious to carry around 400k GP - that must weigh a lot.

I've rarely had more than 100k at the end of the game. I simply never sold anything but rather stashed it all... all those +1 and +2 weapons and armors.... completely useless lol.

Personally I think ppl like new improved items... I like them too... It is not so big fun when I cannot forge MANY of them. If you don't have money for a FEW ones, and you can chose the important ones, that is OK, but now I have a VERY long list of unforged items. Put The Truth and IMproved Ring of Gaxx to that list. What is really frustrating, many from these list should be the main weapons for my fighters...
So imho there should be cheaper prices or more sellable loot in v6...
About amber golems: yes harder mobs should mean more XP AND better loot.

I guess one of the main reasons Sikret did what he did with prices is the overall playability. If said party is capable of forging several deadly weapons it could be turned into a killing machine: It's (probably) about game balance If you've tried Item Upgrade (Weimers) You should know, that having too many uber weapons make the game a walk in the park.

I don't think so... Well not in IA I mean. I had all upgrade in my 4.2 run, and there were some good hard fights in ToB, what else EDE was very hard despite of all improved items. So I think I forge ALL items, IA is still not a walk... But I don't want to forge ALL what my chars can and want use, I want to forge... well say 80 % of them, which are most important for me.

Well actually I wouldn't know about that as I haven't tried it, I spoke out of experience from the original game. I guess it is perhap just a mater of taste

I would like to forge a majority of good items, but in the end it all comes down to tactical play anyway. The only thing that you really need to find in items is +% resistances or immunities and +x enchantment for hitting certain foes.

Currently I've forged quite a few items already, but all of them have cost less than 50k each. The ones more expensive than that I could only afford after going through TOB or selling some good weapons that I will not be using with my characters in any part of the game. It's all part of the gameplay. You have to be picky about what you want to forge and that is not necessarily a bad thing.

As for the upgrade prices, I don't have anything new to add to my previous comments. Shaitan and Iroumen also made good points.

About Amber golems, shadan wrote:



Two points:

1- Coin, Gem and Amber golems don't have any "loot" (in that sense). A Coin golem drops coins, because he is made of them (not because he carries money). Once he collapses, you can collect the coins. A Gem golem drops gems, not because he carries gems, but because he is made of gems. Similarly, Amber golems are made of amber and once they collapse, you can collect the chunk.

2- Even regardless of the first point, I don't agree with the generalization that (for any given x and y) if creature x is tougher than creature y (and gives more xp than y), he necessarily has to carry better loot (than y) as well.

I can only second what Sikret has written.

These are so-called design decisions, they have nothing to do with the world of BG2, AD&D or anything similar. They don't follow from any well-defined thing. Of course, a mod maker can consider (or not consider) balance and other aspects when he makes the design decisions. There is no explicit "good" or "bad" decision, though later it may prove to be practical or impractical, favoured or disliked etc.

In my opinion, such simple, trivial rules ("the bigger fight/effort, the greater reward") shouldn't be followed in every case, because it can make a mod predictible and thus boring. Sometimes there should exceptions for such rules, to make the game more colourful. (For example, you don't get anything special for killing Demogorgon in BG2. Needless to say that starter players often suffer with that battle.)

Of course, once the player gets disappointed (e.g., he gets little reward or XP for slaying a dangerous monster), he or she will know what to expect next time (i.e. what to expect in the next battle with that creature type). This is why it's important to provide (positive) surprises as well, possibly with a p<1 probability (such as Item Randomizer).

Yes I know this. We call as "treasure" even the collected parts of the monsters. It is only just a gamebalance thing: chunk of amber should be a bit more expensive...



I am a DnD gamemaster in PnP since almost 20 years. In my experience players are waiting more and/or better treasure from thougher enemies. Of course there can be a roleplaying or gamabalance exception (for example as Sikret wrote: golems don't have treasures), but in long term most GM should follow this rule. I didn't write it is a MUST rule.
Anyway my opinion is unchanged. As Baronius said, players shouldn't be too dissapointed, I think this is the goal of all GM. I am dissapointed when my Bag of Holdings are full with upgrade components and I cannot afford the upgrades cause of low money. Of course I am only ONE player, maybe others aren't dissapointed cause of this. Anyway I found at least a very very slight cure for money problem, but still it is a problem for me.
I consider this discussion over, since we cannot convince each other.

And isn't it 200 lbs of Amber each drop?

I don't care that much about increasing the sell price but I thought it would be nice to see it go for ~1-2K. I was just disappointed when I went to sell my extra Amber chunks after forging Hammer of Thor and they were only 600 gp each.


One other thing that bugged me was during the last Vagrant quest:

SPOILER!


I am just complaining but it's frustrating to see money be so tight in this v5 game (compared to 4.3) when most item upgrade costs exactly doubled while many were nerfed in power or usability.

What's the price of a pound of amber in your opinion (compared to gold)?



How was the quest regardless of its final reward? Reply in the relevant topic, please.

As for the reward:
SPOILER!


Edited for typos

Don't feel to lonesome. I haven't commented simply because I have not progressed far enough in the game to make a valid conclusion. I'd like to be able to forge many of the items that Sikret has made, but don't feel the need to make all of them or almost all of them. And some day, I would love to be able to do it thetruth-style - without using any at all.

I do feel like money is tight early on if I want to make any items. In particular, +3 weapons are needed. Sikret himself has commented that money is tight several times in his walkthrough, and the spending of the money must be carefully considered. That's OK.

One thing that I already know that I would like more of is dropped healing potions. However, there's some guy who posted that he is selling healing potions. I guess I should stop using healing potions after a battle. Instead rest and pray for healing spells, heal, and rest again, but that is such a micromanagement drag to me...

More money would certainly be useful for those who want to try a no-reload game too.

However, as of right now, I am not really expressing a concrete opinion that there should be more money or that the present money level is just right, because I have not progressed far enough into the game to know.

Don't you basically get infinite gold if you've completed the fighter/thieves/bard strongholds? [unfortunately unless you have the multiple strongholds fix, ranger types wouldn't have access to these supplies of funds].

Of course this might be considered an exploit.

Hmm, seems I am in big trouble. I cannot finish bard and ranger stronghold it seems.
Bard SH: The performance should start but 1-2 weeks passed and Higgold still says it will be on next evening. Higgold is on both level of the inn. And I traveled between areas alot, no messenger and Higgold still say his stupid "next evening".
Ranger SH: I did 1st quest, now comes the Orcs, but Delon didn't appeared at all within several weeks. My cabin is not lost. Minister Lloyd is friendly, but he doesn't give the new quest. I spent 2-3 weeks with traveling, and nothing.

Any idea or suggestion?

Maybe because I started the elven city SH events don't continue? I summoned spirit in elven city, so only Tree of Life and Hell left, but I did Roenall in fighter SH and ranger SH 1st quest after this. But no new event in bard and ranger SH for weeks...

Since you have not lost your cabin yet, there is still hope for you to find Delon. As I wrote previously, he sometimes appears offscreen in a bad way. In some areas, he may spawn offscreen somewhere in which he can't see you to initiate dialogue. That's why you should constantly keep an open eye for him. For example, in the main (wilderness) area outside Watcher's Keep, there is the danger that he might have spawned upstairs while your party was actually downstairs (you might have exited the WK through one of the side doors).

Go and check that area as well as the underdark exit and see if you can find Delon or not.