I really like Improved Anvil (IA), and am very appreciative to Sikret and also the play testers for this mod. I dabbled in it as of IA3. I played apx. 1.5 games in IA4-IA4.2, and have started a game of IA5. I have killed the shadow dragon, red dragon, Conster, Samia, and even the first drow ambush (geesh) among other things. So, while I am not nearly as accomplished as some players, I’m not exactly a novice either. I hope that Sikret will consider the following changes for future versions of IA. These changes would make IA more enjoyable to me, and I am confident that there are many people who will agree (to one degree or another) with one or more points that I make below.

(1) I have noticed that each version of Improved Anvil becomes more difficult than the next. However, I truly hope that a route remains open to allow me (and particularly newcomers to IA) to level-up without facing too much frustration. This is allowed in IA5, as long as you follow Raven’s advice on quest order (or a very similar quest order). I hope that this avenue remains open in future versions (i.e. no or no further improvements on the first few initial quests/battles).

(2) I still think that there should be mook battles. These battles don’t necessarily have to be unimproved, just improved only slightly. For instance, I have always thought that the sewer toll keepers should not be that difficult. Why would such skillful and rich folk seek employment as toll keepers in a sewer?! I think this group should be easily handled in Chapter 3. More groups that are only slightly improved (great for Chapter 3 or before) would seem to be part of a more realistic world and grant a more immersive role playing experience. (After all, not everyone you meet should be 20+ level, particularly in SoA.) I would expect dragon, demon, and quest battles to be tough, but does every group you meet have to be tough? The people who only want a tactical battle game would definitely say “yes.” However, some people may agree with me that this is not the best answer for an immersive role playing experience.

For another example, I faced the first drow party in the underdark. Even after taking care of one group of nasties (divide and conquer), the other group spanked me. I managed after a few reloads. I’m glad this battle will be weakened in the future. This is a “random” encounter of a group of drow right? It seems like it was the cream of the crop, elite assassination party – just waiting for the off-chance that gnomes may wander past? LOL. They didn’t even drop any chain armor.

Of course, once on Pirate Isle and for the remainder of the game, I don’t mind if all encounters are improved to one degree or another over the unmodded game. “To one degree or another” means that there should be clear differences in difficulty that remain when comparing mook battles with the plot’s major battles.

(3) The ability of the player to use backstab effectively has largely been done away with. I suppose that is reasonable to enhance difficulty, even though it pretty much crushes the class. (Personally, I favor allowing backstab, but allow backstab to do progressive additional damage rather than multiplicative damage.)

Well, ambushes are like backstab. When two parties are played intelligently, but one of them is buffed (the ambushers) and the other is not (the ambushed), who will win? When you greatly increase the difficultly of those type encounters, I think most players must rely on metagaming (knowledge of the upcoming ambush and knowledge of the scripted attacks) to succeed. At least, I would find it extremely hard or impossible to beat Samia’s group without pre-battle buffing. The duration of some spell buffs have been shortened to make it even more important to be able to put up buffs just prior to battle.

I personally *hate* relying on metagaming as my only recourse to win. Once again, it ruins the roleplaying experience to me. I would suggest that hints be provided that we need to prepare for a dangerous battle – or that the ambushers not be so dangerous. After all, there are numerous battles in IA which are not ambushes, but are very difficult. You don’t need to be ambushed to find yourself in a very dangerous battle.

(4) Added content is what really adds to the role playing value. I look forward to the fighter stronghold. Relatively few people play druids; so, I hope the fighter stronghold is next. Additionally, quests that are open to all parties regardless of protagonist class would be awesome!

(5) A double length time stop and improved alacrity on an enemy who intends to unload their spell book on the hero is *not fun* in my book. Depending on how many ruby rays the mage has and the memorized spells, she should be able to kill anyone. I think it will be a huge effort to learn the mage’s spellbook and determine what *equipment* is needed to keep you alive during this period – much metagaming. Everyone knows that equipment is expensive and hard to get (ingredients). You certainly don’t want to buy equipment for a single encounter. I know that this encounter is optional, but I have *always* done this encounter. I don’t want to stop now. I also expect that I will be able to complete this fight, but won’t be surprised if I require tactical advice. My point is that there are some tactics that make the enemy dangerous, but don’t make the game fun. I don’t like to kill monsters in time stop, and I don’t like to be killed by them in time stop.

(6) I was surprised at the price of the freedom scrolls in the underdark. In IA 4.2, I noticed that money limited forging early in the game. Matters may be worse in IA5 in this regard. However, before the final conflict in ToB in IA4.2, I had money to forge whatever item for which I had the ingredients. I think this is appropriate. Components, rather than money, should be the limiting factor in what you can forge. After all, characters are practically demigods before they even face the epic divine encounter. I think they should be filthy rich. This may also be true in IA5, but I don’t know as I have just made it to the underdark.

In future versions in regards to the money issue, I would like to see more extra-healing potions dropped, and perhaps their price decreased. I would also like to see the price for upgrading (by Cromwell) to +3 weapons decreased. After all, +3 weapons are needed to hit many monsters, and a +3 weapon without any special ability is not an overpowered weapon.

(7) I would like each of the traditional DnD classes (including bard and thief) to be able to make a significant contribution to the team in IA. A pure class thief (other than a swashbuckler) would be chosen for a team in order to enhance difficulty more than anything else. *I love choices and avenues for differing play styles.* I hope that some accommodations can be made for each class. For example, magical and elemental resistances have primarily nerfed the ability of mages as an offensive power compared to the unmodded game. (By the way, I agree that some nerfing was appropriate for a challenging game.) Now, Sikret is introducing some spells which allow the mages to contribute more to the team’s offense. Similarly, I think changes could be made to bring the thief up to par and to make the bard a viable option in IA6 (when the bard will be nerfed in some other ways).

I too prefer to have more quests available to parties regardless of the protagonist's class. I was excited to find that the staircase in Mekrath's dungeon was expanded but disappointed that only Vagrants get to actually get there. Also, missing out on the Grandfather of Rune assassins is disappointing.

I know there are roleplaying reasons to limit these quests to certain classes but could you key the requirement to having one in your party?

QFT, as they like to say. Though as regards (7), either Bards or their IA items actually need some nerfing. Haer'Dalis in Chapter 6 with Eternal Melody and Meodic Fury is very powerful... and a player-created, min-maxed Blade would be obscene. Non-Swashbuckler Thieves are definitely out of the window for me, though; even Thief multiclasses don't seem to be worth it, with trapping and backstabbing all but useless in the new battles.

I agree that right now, the bard becomes powerful. My experience in IA5 is that the blade (HD) is not very potent at level 19. Someday, his Remove Magic should actually work. If I decide to let a Mislead image (ONE) sing while he fights under PfMW, then he should be a very powerful character. He may even actually hit his target with the addition of the ring from The Four. PfMW is nice, but he's not even serving as a great tank, because the intelligent scripts mean he just want be targeted (provided that there is another target nearby). But defensive spin = dead bard against the tough monsters of IA.

The real problem comes in when the changes are imposed in the next version - no Mislead, no PfMW, and no spells at all of level 6 or higher for the bard. If something isn't done to improve the bard, I certainly won't be hauling his dead weight around SoA in future versions of IA.

I actually found Haer'Dalis very useful from the start, though his power increased vastly once Eternal Melody was forged. You are correct that PfMW is not useful for tanking duty, I use it only to get him (or Imoen) out of tight spots safely. His remove magic started to become useful around level 20, I think, so hang in there: at level 27, he makes most mage battles a walk in the park. I never used Defensive Spin, the power of Offensive Spin is too tempting.

I do think that taking away level 6 (and higher) spells is a serious nerf; I would have much preferred tuning down the armor or maybe the improved bard song. As it stands, Blades (perhaps not even Bards in general) are just about right early on and somewhat overpowered in mid-game (end stages of SoA). I agree that a plain Bard or Jester would seem to be relatively useless in v.6. But then, who plays straight clerics in IA? Some classes just are less powerful in a combat-oriented, melee-dominated mod. I would say that as long as at least one kit or multi-class or dual-class combination is viable for any given class (as Swashbuckler for Thief or Blade for Bard or Berserker -> Cleric for Cleric), diversity is sufficiently secured.

I support your points about the general level of difficulty and occasional lapses in immersiveness. Tactical combat is the main focus of IA, and that is a good thing, but certain trappings of RP and coherence should be preserved. A golem or wyrm in WK that could take on every single vanilla game enemy at once and barely suffer a scratch? Acceptable, given the mod's purpose. A party of sewer-crawling thugs that could take down a bunch of unmodded dragons in no time? Somewhat over the top. I can only speak for myself, but even a tactically fun battle can leave a bad taste if it sits badly with the environment and spoils immersion. I wouldn't know exactly where to draw the line in every case, but it's worth pointing out that there has to be such a line, somewhere. This isn't even criticism: it's just that Sikret's experience and skill as a player might sometimes cloud his generally good judgment as a modder. It can be hard for an expert to imagine what things look like to a novice, and that's basically why I'm chiming in: heed the voice of inexperience!

I can only support rbeverjr in all his points.
You just said everything I ever wanted to say about IA
Thank you

Thanks again for the comments and suggestions, rbeverjr and Zarathustra!



Currently, several paths are open to start the game with. They will remain open in the next version too.

This is not entirely true. Backstab still works against most enemies. Of course, golems and dragons and some other particular foes are immune, but they have always been even in the vanilla game.



The expanded fighter stronghold is in my agenda as well. thetruth had sent me ideas and suggestions for the fighter stronghold; I need him back before starting to work on the expanded fighter stronghold.

The mod already contains a good number of such quests and I intend to add more. However, quests which are specific to certain classes are also very nice IMO, because they add to the game's replaying value.



I belive that all non-cheesy playing slyles are already open in IA.

I may add a new thief kit to IA. I need to think more about it.



I agree. Bards and their specific armor will be both nerfed in IA v6. The ring from "The Four" mod will also be nerfed in its next version.

One request for next version, please nerf Orcus.

Couldn't you tweak the old kits (not just the thief kits), so that people will still have an incentive to choose them for their characters?

Hi Sikret,
Not sure if I am really entitled to post in this forum as I haven't even tried IA5 yet...still on 4.2!, But I am enjoying it and appreciate all your effort and the time you must put into modding! I noticed you mentioned that you might introduce a new thief kit, and wondered if a few ideas I had might interest you? I am not a modder, so have no idea how easy to implement they are, but I thought they were cool in terms of concept:
1/ The Sniper.
There is already the Archer for rangers, and some other kit mods that essentially make other classes more missile combat effective.. With this one (and with the idea of sneakiness in mind), the difference is to swap Backstab with a hand to hand weapon, with a similar effect achievable with a missile instead. ie, the character has to be 'in hiding' and behind the target. In IA, many players have complained about the ineffectiveness of backstab now (not me- I like that my thief skulks around the edge of combat and takes out the weaker opponents, leaving the big baddies for the hero warriors!)...this might be a good alternative if implemented properly!?
2/ The Spy/Disguise Master
This kit enables the character to appear as a favourable alignment, race and class in any situation. Eg, can get multiple strongholds, immune to 'know alignment', can use any item usually restricted by alignment, can do class specific quests, can do any romance, possibly can even appear to have a different Reputation?! Special abilities: Friends, Horror?
3/ The Rustler
The rural cattle thief! Could have a lasso ability like the Warden in the Planar prison!? Special abilities: entangle, hold person, charm animal, hold monster? (Non-magical effects?) Restriction: No/reduced pick pocket (urban skill), weapon proficiencies go into 'rope-lasso' use?
4/ The Gypsy tinker: Has the ability to try and upgrade items (as per Cromwell & co)...requires ingredients (and a reduced cost for expenses?), but success isn't automatic..depends on level and item complexity (+1-+5). Failure means all ingredients are lost (a non-resavable feature as per the Apprenti?), success means one cheap item! Benefits: Can use Warhammer (smithing tool), Restriction: No backstab? Chance of catastrophic failure-wild magic rolls?Other items from inventory lost? Could also include time factor and randomness: "after sometime [the Gypsy tinker name], approaches-"i think I might be able to make [anything from dagger +1 to Judgement Day]." Alternatively, this could be the 'Gnome tinkerer', and could be applied to Jan?
Just some creative ideas...feel free to use or ignore:)
Look forward to seeing more of your good work!

I have some suggestion for next version of IA also. My suggestions are based on classbalance, gamebalance, consistency and roleplaying. Some of them should be written in some other posts (like bug reports for example), but easier to write them in single post, so I write them to here. Well, I won’t be short.

1. Mass healing and mass buffs: I have noticed that while Mass Heal spell heals all summoned helpers and other allies, Greater Restoration and different party heals from Wish doesn’t. Also some mass buffs works on summoned helpers, some don’t. So I think there all should work similarly. All mass healing (Mass Heal, Greater Restoration, Wish) should heal all summoned monster and other allies in fight. Similarly all mass buff (Pr. from Evil 10’, Haste, Defensive Harmony, Strength of One, Bless, Chant, Wish and Limited Wish buffs) should affect all allies and summoned monsters. And I would suggest to change Strength of One, it shouldn’t lower the Str scorew if it is higher than 18/75. Was very annoying when at Irenicus fight in Spellhold, those crazy casters lowered my Str score with this spell.

2. Experience: I think levels are still too high at end of the SoA. I don’t know exact number, but my blade is above lvl 30, may mages are appr. lvl 24-25 now. My installed XP-giving mod beside IA was only ToD, which doesn’t give too much XP. So almost all XP came from IA. I did all quests and WK 1st and 2nd level. Only Twisted Rune, Tree of Life and Hell left.
I have 2 suggestions:
a. Cut the experience value of all monsters to half when they are gated after the 1st or initial wave. I mean the new gating monsters like Orcus with undeads, Sahuagin Prince with sea snakes, some golems with other other type golems (this is the main priority, since this is the most frequent, and golems can be kept in bay easily with Stoneskins, Ironskins, Mirror Images etc.), various type of rune assasins in last fight with them etc. The main problem when player can prepare for the fight, they can kill so many waves of these summoning mobs, which gives a very good XP boost. And this is cumulative: if you are higher level, you can endure more weaves in next fight > you will be more higher level, so more weaves in next fight etc.
b. Beside the former suggestion, I would like to recommend to lower the experience reward for high level monsters, especially for new monsters (like golems, skeletons, vampires etc.) OR slower the level progression even further above lvl 16-17.

3. Weapons which give +1 attack: These are mostly the most useful offhand weapons, since your main hand weapons usually better than your offhand. Even if you can’t hurt the enemy with an offhand weapon (because it has not enough high enchanment) you trade and offhand weapon attack for a main hand one, which is usually better since your 2nd best weapon for that character is always worst than main hand weapon. And this doesn’t change with Impr. Haste, since that doubles the bonus attack also, not only the left hand attack. As far I see you since you nerfed Cutthroat, only Belm and Scarlet Ninja-to left in the game with this ability. I would like to suggest to add back some of these weapons with a limitation: Put +4 and +5 type weapons with this ablity, but only usable by characters without any warrior (ranger, fighter, paladin) level. As far as I see in IA there are plenty of hard melee oriented fights. And bards, thieves are weak not only cause of bad THACO, but because of 1 attack per round. If they could use a good offhand weapon, with a bonus attack, they can attack 3 per round, 6 with Improved Haste, which would make them a bit more useful. I think single class warriors has enough attack per round, and multi/dual ones are strong enough, so they don’t need this power boost. I would suggest similar weapons for druids and clerics as well, but they cannot use dual wielding if they are not multi or dual, so it would be pointless to give this type of weapon. I would suggest the Grandfather of Assasins for thieves, since +1 attack per round is most useful imho than permanent Impr. Haste. For bards I would suggest the Cuthroat nerfed back as bard (or bard/thief) only weapon.

4. Well, and we arrived to bards. I disagree to remove lvl 6 spells from bard, but we discussed this, so instead of future discuss about this, I would like to make some constructive suggestions to balance out this (and bard bard armor) nerf. Bard HLAs are very bad. Avoid Death, Gr. Evasion are mediocre, warriors HLAs much better. UAI is good. Enh. bard song was good also with Mislead, without that not so good. Magic Flute is not so good. All in all these are ok, but those trap HLAs are useless for bards, since they don’t have Set Trap skill. So my suggestions are two-folded:
a. Bards should be able to song while they are fighting, similarly how thieves can fight while Detect Illlusions with Detect Traps. If they start to cast, song should be stopped.
b. You should replace those 3 trap HLA’s at bards. Now Enh. bard song gives 4 AC, THACO, damage immunity to fear, stun, confusion, and 5 % MR. Maybe there could be 2 types of song:
Song 1: 4 THACO, damage, AC, 10 % damage resistance
Song 2: 4 to saves, 10 % MR, immunity to fear, confusion, stun, paralysis, charm (maybe imprisonment).
And 1 other trap HLAs should be replaced by one item summon, like Magic Flute. This new item could cast 2-3 useful spells, for example 1-2 spells of 6 or higher level spells, the new Remove Enchantment spell etc. We could find a good HLA to replace last trap HLA also.

5. New quests, encounters: I think players could feel the new quests and encounters as part of the game and the world, if you should give a bit more world specific things to the quests. So the far land shouldn’t be only a “far land” but it should be named, there are a plenty lands and countries in Fearun. Similarly with those (demi)gods, godesses. They shouldn’t be named only as god of XY, but you should chose a god from the very wide palette of the gods of Faerun. Of course you should mention the god’s portfolio also, not only his name, since not all player knows Fearun very well.

I really appreciate your work, Sikret. You and testers did and are doing great work, and I hope my constructive recommendations just help to make the game even more better.

Yesterday I forgot 2 points:
1. Vagrant and rangers: Considering the ranger/vagrant only upgraded items, and those which requires 19 Con, and considering the new ranger HLA (which is very very good, better than Hardiness maybe), I think ranger is now the strongest class in the game. Especially vagrants. Elemental immunity is very very useful, with an Improved Dragon Helm you reach 95 % elemental resistance easily, so your vagrant don't need protection. Only magcial and physical damage left. Magical damage can be handled by Red Coral Armor (or Cloak of Magic Shielding earlier) and Belt of Internal Barrier. They together give 75 % res. Red Coral Armor + FoD&W can protect against physical damage, and with good AC (many protection items),Hardiness/Contact with Nature, high HP cause of 19 Con means my vagrant is unstopable. I hardly can imagine how can a non arcane or non vagrant protagonist survive the double length Time Stop in Twisted Rune. My vagrant died 3 times with 75 % magic damage res (ADHW, MM), 95 % fire res (Flame Arrow), 10 % physical res (Energy Blades) and 220 HP. He was barely able to survive 4th time with Hardiness and Armor of Faith. Most protagonist cannot use even the Cloak of Magic Shielding due to new 19 Con restriction.
So I would suggest a very very slight nerf for Vagrant. Vagrants now at high level have a lot of very good summons. I think the better summons shouldn't be a new summon but an upgrade for older summon. So Vagrants always can could summon only 2 swanmays. For example now Vagrant can summon 2 normal and 1 greater swanmays at certain level, according to my suggestion, they should be able to summon 1 normal and 1 greater at that level.

2. And we have arrived to summons. It is very annoying, when a simple summoned mosnter from a level 7 spell (Mordi Sword) hit as +4 weapon with a good thaco, damage and resistances, but the mighty Devas and Planetars from a level 10, yes level TEN spell, hit only as +2 weapon. And they die more easily than swords. So they are mostly useless in fights when you reach HLAs... They should hit at least with +4 weapons, and they should be a much more harder. This would make the priest-type enemies a bit stronger also, since all enemy clerics summon fallen deva first. And mage type enemies always much harder than priest type... Priest type enemies need only 1 Remove Magic or Breach, and they are dead despite of their Shield of Archon. Imho Shield of Archon should protect against Dispel and Remove Magic, Breach and all spell defense remover below lvl 8. In this case clerics would be better either as enemies or party members, and Spellstrike and Pierce Shield would be a bit better spell, not always the Ruby Ray will be used...

1 Y i think its impossible for non vagrant to survive layene wish combo, my kensai had to hide cuz never survived 2x TS, i had belt of barrier, poseidon, girdle of might, etc. , so imo when u say "we have tested her wish combo even with a ranger" its rlly stupid, cuz y vagrant very overpowered imo and mb is the only one who can survive her wish combo, thats why i dont play him, summons=cheese for me, cuz already 6 party members, and enemys bosses never more than 3-4, sometimes even alone, which is already good advantage. I never used summons except in dracolich fight, and twisted rune for shangalar distract, cuz these hardest battles imo, and need a bit of cheesy summons

2 y lol planetars devas rlly poor fighters, even mordekainen sux vs. IA monsters

Hi, Polecat!



Why still on v4.2? It's true that installing v5 requires starting a new game, but I assure that it is worth it.



Thank you, Polecate! I took notes of your suggestions and will surely consider them anytime I decide to add new thief kits to the game.

@shadan

Thanks for your comments.

A few points:

1- I think that the current level progression tables are fine. The high levels you reach in your game were probably due to a local problem in your game, because as I read in your journal, you deliberately killed time during many battles just to kill more gated creatures. For players (such as myself) who are their own policemen and don't practice that kind of playing style or exploit, the level progression tables are fine.

Of course, one may say that the possible exploit should be blocked anyway and I agree. I have already blocked the exploits LZJ reported in planar prison and the one you reported during the battle with Prince Villinaty (LZJ had reloaded the game and avoided the exploit though )

2- As for new areas and creatures having unique name, I believe most of them have unique names. If you have any particular area or creature in mind, send me a PM with the name(s) you suggest for them.

3- Devas and Planatars have +3 (not +2) weapons and they also cast very good spells and have smart scripts. It's true that they don't wield +4 weapons but I don't think that they are less effective than mordenkainen swords (specially because Mordenkainen swords are vulnerable to Death Spell).

4- Vagrant's resistance to elemental damage is of course an intended advantage of the kit, but those certain foes who rely on their elemental attacks can also lower those resistances quite quickly when needed. I see that you have not proceed far enough into the game to see Raven's point when he wrote "Vagrant is powerful but not overpowered".

I can make the improved Dragon Helm not usable by rangers though. It may be a fair exchange and compensation for those items which are usable only by rangers. What do you say about this idea?

Thanks Sikret for reading my points. My short answers:
1. I have never found exploit to wait till more mobs are gated in. I always thought it as a challange. Of course this is just point of view, but I think treasures from gem and coin golems is also very tempting. This why I suggested to lower expreience reward for these monsters. If I will play again with IA next version, I will try to avoid to do this. Maybe with a weaker party, I won't need more challenge, but I am not sure if I can handle hard fights with weaker party. Be sure, I didn't do this tactic with Orcus. In that fight I wanted to kill Orcus as fast as I could. Was a very very good fight.

3. Hmm, for example the Good, the Bad and the Ugly quest last fight: Planetars were useless, Mordi Swords was able to damage the enemies. Anyway it is strange when a simple lvl 7 summon can do damage, but a level 10 epic summon can't. At least their weaponry should be +4.

4. I didn't say Vagrants are overpowered. I said it is the strongest cast imho if you take vagrant/ranger only items into consideration. But imho in IAv5 you need strong protagonist. This is why I am dubious about other protagonists than an arcane magic-user or vagrant. Imho if you make Impr. Dragon Helm not usable by the rangers, then simple Helm of Protection or Helm of the Rock would do almost the same. Doesn't worth it. I would take away from his summons, as I wrote.