Hi everyone.

I am a quite experienced BG2 player (as in: the vanilla game provides zero challenge anymore, but Ascension is still a struggle). Having recently started my first IA game, after perusing this forum for a while, I must say that IA is a very polished mod, and highly enjoyable once one accepts what it tries, and does not try, to do (some people seem to have difficulties with that).

However, I am - of course - up to my neck in trouble with most of the new encounters. So, I have opened this thread to occasionally ask advice once a battle has me stumped for hours on end. Any help would be appreciated; both general advice and moderate spoilers are welcome. Many thanks in advance!


My party consists of:

PC (Vagrant, 11) - very powerful kit, by the way; just I what I need for IA!
Valygar (11)
Anomen (12)
Jaheira (10 / 11)
Yoshimo (13) - he seems rather useless in IA, but I like him (it's not like he'll last anyway).
Nalia (12)

I have cleared the De'Arnise keep and done all the unmodded quests except the Unseeing Eye cult (if it even is unmodded). So you might be surprised to hear the Shadow Lover in the Lilarcor quest presents me with great difficulties. Tanking him seems impossible due to his low AC, his regeneration and his strength drain ability; and spells seem not to affect him, not even Bolt of Glory, which was a disappointment. Help? I am quite impressed that Sikret and others did it with lower-level and less-well-equipped parties.

Welcome to BWL, Zarathustra!



It's good to hear you say that and I'm sure Sikret will appreciate it. You hit the nail on the head when you say people have difficulty accepting what the mod is for and who it is aimed at.

A reasonably strong party, I think. Yoshimo is the weak link as you say. Taking Imoen instead would be a good plan (I guess you may well be going to do this anyway).



I'm not surprised to hear you found that battle difficult. The fact that Sikret and other players can manage it with weaker parties doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong - remember it is Sikret who wrote the mod after all . He will know the best strategies to use in almost all situations.

Once you've played IA more you'll start to figure out new buff combinations and so forth that are effective. It does take time to adjust to the new level of difficulty and the style of IA battles.

A little advice for this particular battle:

- make sure you are attacking with the optimum weapon type. Many IA monsters have different resistances to different weapon types (crushing, piercing, slashing) - it makes a big difference if you find which are most effective. It's important to spread the proficiency points of your fighters over numerous damage types.

- improved haste would be my suggested 6th level spell slot for Nalia. You can buy scrolls of this vital spell from a cutpurse who appears near Neb's house in the Bridge District at night. It will make a big difference to double the number of attacks of one of your fighters.

BTW the Unseeing Eye quest is not unmodded but the core part would be doable by your party (there are two optional battles mentioned in the readme which are harder and should be tackled later).

Thanks! I'll give the Improved Haste a try. Luckily, my proficiencies are nicely spread already.

Just my two cents on the yoshimo issue, I strongly suggest going to get a hold of Haer' dalis instead. In my opinion bards are one of the very best classes in IA and will help you out no end in huge numbers of the improved encounters. I think this will probably be better over all than waiting for imoen as you already have one very proficient straight arcane caster in the party and bards in IA can be better casters in many situations.

Hi, Zarathustra!

Raven's remark about using different damage types was very important and the key point to defeat some of the enemies in the game. Whenever you observe that your weapon does little damage to an enemy, change the weapon to another one with a different damage type and try to find the appropriate weapon type for that enemy. In some cases it makes huge difference. Lazy players and cheaters may do this by looking at the creature's file in an editor to find out its weaknesses, but a serious player will do this inside the game and during the battle.

As for Yohsimo, I, too, think that he is weak for the level of challenges introduced in IA. You already have Nalia for your needs of thieving skills. Replacing him with Imoen is a good idea, IMO.

Although I'm not a big fan of bards, I concur that even Haer'Dalis can be much more useful than Yoshimo (though not as useful as Imoen can be). You can take some NPC instead of Yoshimo for now and then replace that NPC with Imoen in spellhold. (You may even like that other NPC and decide to keep him/her; who knows? )

Thanks for the replies, everybody. The Shadow Lover lies defeated, and Lilarcor has been 'liberated' (only to be sold, however).

I was indeed planning to replace Yoshimo with Imoen, as I will definitely need additional arcane power sooner or later. However, would you recommend replacing Nalia with Haer'Dalis at this stage? I think her high-level spells will make her more useful, and she has served well so far. Not sure how she will fare later on, though.

More importantly, I am somewhat at a loss as to what to tackle next. I have already dealt with the Captain Haegan, Pai'Na, the Guild Contact, Mencar's party, the Horrid Rakshasa, an Amber Golem and Mekrath's Imp. I am now torn between:

A: the Shadow Dungeon (maybe I can complete it up to and including the Shadow Dragon, then return for the Shadow Lord later?);
B: Firkraag's Dungeon (again, up to and including Conster perhaps?);
C: the Planar Prison;
D: the Planar Sphere.

I have already tried the Pirates' Hideout and the Sewer Bandits, and they seem too hard at the moment. The problem with the others is, I don't want to spend hours fighting through a large level only to run into a fight I truly can't handle.

Incidentally, my Vagrant is now level 12 and Yoshimo is level 14 (not that it matters much), with Nalia soon to level up to 13. I don't have any +4 weapons yet (as you may have guessed).

Again, any hints and advice much appreciated!

Congratulations!

No, I would prefer Nalia to Haer'Dalis.



You can surely do A and B.
C and D are more difficult but still doable, though with a big amount of challenge and difficulty. If you want to do them postpone them for after you did A and B.

Check again my walkthrough to see the quests I did before going to chapter 4.

Hey Zarathusa,
My take on the character issue would be that you are best served keeping Nalia as she has access to a very good personal item and you need a pure arcane caster throughout the game for acces to certain spells. However I would still sugest taking on board Haer Dalis instead of Yoshimo as a blade will be of more help than a second arcane caster. This is as a bard with the new armour becomes a superlative caster, being able to cast his spells faster, at higher level than a pure mage or sorcerer plus permanent aura cleansing. This makes him a superior buffer/de-buffer than any other character. Couple this with Imp. bard song, superior equipment, combat abilities and time traps and a blade offers far more to a party than a second pure mage/sorcerer.

As for quests any of A to D should be do-able but planar prison will probably be very tough, I would personally go for the shadow dragon as he is probably the easiest from that list.

Well, as Haer'Dalis is currently sitting in the Planar Prison, I shall postpone my decision about him. Maybe I will even replace Jaheira, since her offensive spells are pretty useless, Anomen is a competent healer and Haer'Dalis could tank even better than she can (and she is a good tank indeed). Food for thought.

Thanks for your input; I will give the Shadow Dungeon a try!

If you want to replace any of your characters in chapter 2, do it soon, because if you delay the new character's xp will be much lower than your party's average xp.

Oh, dear if Haer Dalis is already imprisoned then it might not be such a good idea as by the time you are strong enough to free him he will surely be much lower xp than your other characters. Best of luck with the shadow dragon.

I have Haer'Dalis in my 2nd run-through and was wondering if he gets imprisoned with Raelis even if he was in your party at the time? Also, how long can I delay bringing the planar stone to the Playhouse? I don't want to have him suddenly leave after a month. He's only complained once so far.

Haer'Dalis does get imprisoned if in your party but you can get around him leaving by visiting the play house but not talking to Raelis. A soon as you enter the tavern he should have a dialogue and once he's said his piece he will stop complaining and you can then tackle the planar prison when ever you want.

Well, I made it through the Shadow Dungeon, although I had to sacrifice more than one party member during each of the two lich battles - which were actually fun, in a painful way.

The Shadow Dragon, however, looks set to give me another little headache... After naive 'Breach & Bash' predictably failed, I tried a summons-heavy approach. This tactic still admits of some refinements, so I am not asking for spoilers yet - though I might have to, in the end. My first aim is finding out (legitimately) how many castings of PfMW the beast has in reserve; then I'll try to Breach as many PfMW as possible and outlast the rest by distracting Thax with summons. If that's like a terrible plan - well, I guess I'll find out.

Can breach take down PfMW?

Yes. Don't tell me you've played IA all this time and didn't know that .

But be aware that some enemies will be immune to the Breach spell. For instance, even in the vanilla game, liches are immune to spells of level 5 and lower. Since Breach is level 5, they are immune to it. Other enemies may be immune to Breach for other reasons.

yeah well sort of

Well, here I am again. I gave up on the Shadow Dragon for a while and did the Windspear Dungeon instead, excluding Samia, Conster and Firkraag (obviously). Then I did the Unseeing Eye, cleared Bodhi's lair and rescued Jaheira from the false Harpers; also, Anomen has been knighted.

I have pretty much run out of options, though I think I could win the battle with the pirates; but I would much appreciate a hint or two for the Shadow Dragon battle, since getting the Shadow Dragon Armor is one of the pre-Spellhold priorites for my Vagrant (now level 13, by the way). Maybe I will then postpone Firkraag and the Planar Prison and Planar Sphere quests until Chapter 6, with Imoen at my side. Does that sound like a good idea, or would Spellhold and the Underdark be too much for me, seeing as I have no +4 weapons and no IA forged items (I am saving up)?

Thanks in advance.

I am not a very good player and have given up playing now but I was able to do the Planar Sphere and Prison and Conster but never got past the Lich in the Shadow Dungeon so I suggest you do those, they are much easier. Try to be the highest level possible before going to Spellhold as long as you don't go over the difficulty limit.

What specifically is causing the problem in the Shadow Dragon battle?

The main problem is that he tears me apart before I wear him down. I may not have paid quite enough attention to the battle log, but I think Nalia's Breach failed to affect him at least twice. Does he perhaps run SI:A? Or can Spell Turning block Breach? If it's the latter, I could perhaps try Secret Word + Breach. In any case, the second big problem is his Remove Magic - though I once managed to have it affect only a single character by sending the targeted Jaheira away from the frontline. The fact that he heals himself if given half a chance doesn't help either (well, it helps him).

I guess it's entirely possible I just have to keep trying and hope for a lucky shot; but if there's something obvious I have overlooked, please tell me.

Edit: By the way, Olbas, I am astounded you found Conster more manageable than the liches. I might try that one again as well before Spellhold. Thanks.

Spell Turning does not block Breach.

I can't emphasise enough the importance of reading the dialogue box. You're making things much harder for yourself if you don't know exactly what an enemy has cast.

SPOILER!

Thanks, Raven. I have killed Thax now, mainly by using Nalia's Breach spells more sensibly.

Well done!

I am currently on the first level of the Spellhold maze; the Tutor, Cat o'Nine Lives etc. have been dealt with. In order to progress, I must defeat the Kobold guardians and their crackling friends.

SPOILER!


Any tactical advice is very welcome. Thanks in advance.

SPOILER!