Hello everyone.

This is my first post on the forums and first off I must say this mod is the most challenging one I have played yet. I got up to the druid grove fighting in the pit part (it's late and I can't remember the Shadow Druid bosses name other than it begins with F). She rips me apart in the pit. Well she doesn't..the bears do.

After that trial and seeing the learning curve i am going to start a new game. I am having issues deciding on a party as I would like to use in-game NPC's. I have Valen, Tashia (love the character and banter really...and sorc kit rocks) and Sola mods installed, though not using them other than the scripts from the Sola Romance one, they are handy and I like to run with a sorc so she rapidly buffs herself for those annoying mage hunters that seem to be around in IA.

Now on to the guts of the post.

My first run I used a Vagrant and after 20 minutes or so of stat rolling I managed to get what I wanted. She was great in the first run and I am looking forward to getting Swanmays (any indication WHAT they are besides lyncropes (sorry spelling) and their progressive abilities? I cannot find it in the read me and I don't know anything about modding/IE tools to find out that way).

Now with my decision to go with ingame NPC's I have got to decide with various things.

The following is who I KNOW I want in the group:

KEEPERS

Natlia <--- Mage and semi thief that is needed, nice ring once upgraded
Cernd <--- Looks like a fun character, upgraded gear looks pretty good and I want to try out a druid finally
Tiefling dude (Heir'Deliss?) <-- OS/DS, lore, pick pocket and minor spells (is it true he can get to level 8 spells? Though max was about 5?) His upgraded sword is pretty funky too...maybe that and Zerth Blade?

Now that leaves 2 more slots to fill. I am thinking of taking :

HOPEFULS

Amorin <---90% sure on this dude cos I need healing...though cernd may assist there? (never used him or any druid)
Paladin dude in sewers <-- Silver sword/upgraded and Holy Avenger
Custom Sorc <--- Flexibility and powerful spell slinger
Tashia <--- As above but with some fun banter added in
Minsc <--- Cos he is a funny bugger and may make the hard game more enjoyable. Also bloody strong and good with weapons


Any insight to what is to be expected with IA V5 would be good with the above options in mind. I have read others run throughs and it looks tough (not played BG2 for about a year now) but learning the hard battles first makes the rest easier, you get better party control and know what to get out of cirtain spells/items/situations.

Looking forward to being shown some things I never considered and some general helpful advice.

Regards

EDIT:
Added Minsc to the list of hopefuls

Welcome to BWL, GreyArea!


Wait and see . They are powerful summoned creatures who are very useful in almost all of IA's battles once they're available. They all have a melee attack and a special ability called 'Wing Swing'. Greater Swanmays have a better attack and improved Wing Swing and the Swanmay Queen's abilities are more powerful yet.

So the party you are considering is:

Vagrant
Nalia
Cernd
Haer'dalis
+ 2 more

Seems to me you need more melee muscle. Nalia and Cernd are very much supporting characters who are not at their best when on the front lines of combat. Given you want to play with ingame characters I would recommend Minsc and Anomen. Anomen and Cernd between them will cover your healing needs easily (although Cernd is very useful for many other things as well). Anomen's clerical buffs mean he can make himself into a capable fighter. The problem with Keldorn is that he is vulnerable to turning by enemy clerics, which effectively takes him out of many battles. Of course, he's a powerful character and has useful special abilities but overall I wouldn't recommend him to someone relatively new to the mod.


I recommend following my quest order (a sticky topic in the forum), it keeps you away from the tougher fights for some time so your characters can gain a few levels and some decent equipment. Which character were you using to fight Faldorn in the druid duel?

Spread your fighters' weapon proficiencies between the three types of melee weapon (crushing, slashing, piercing) because different enemies have different vulnerabilities in IA. Gold is important; as you can see in the Item readme IA items are very expensive so think carefully before you spend money.

Btw about Haer'dalis, yes he currently gets access to level 8 spells eventually, thanks to the un-nerfed THAC0 tables recommended in the IA readme. This will be revised for the next version of IA (v6) and bards will be limited to level 5 spells.

OK I read that about the level 5 max for the bard spells just then. That is much better (balance wise) in my (inexperienced) opinion.

If I were to go with make a party with pure custom characters i would of gone with more fighters than casters as i know IA is brutal, so brutal that casters generally die pretty fast and easy if you miss something (least when low level and inexperienced).

Minsc will more than likely end up with Halbreds and staffs (or maces..don't know, would be a waste of two handed weapon style but with ranger bonus in two weapon style being wasted...) for damage balance there. Cleric with hammers and the rest with the usual ones.

Now to go and try it out.

OK after trying it out a bit (got to the same place in the druid grove and stopped there to do a comparison with my previous attempt.

Haer'dalis I am still unsure about. I think it is because I am not used to bards at all, and getting him was a painful process straight from the dungeon. I had to draw the earth golem's from the imp to be able to tackle the imp by himself. Summons helps with the baiting for a bit and I managed to somehow get the mirror and run back to get Haer'dalis. Next game i think I will run with a custom Blade and dump him when Haer'dalis is a possibility to get without the need of MANY reloads.

To get to him alone was a pain having to circumnavigate the sewers and go all the way around clockways to aviod the party to the north. Was fun but fustrating with such low level characters with no reasonable enchanted items (managed to get 2 +2 Battle axes from some minitors after getting Haer'dalis but they were not needed then cos the earth golem is somewere else and I have NO idea were in the sewers he trundled off to. Guess a fun surprise for my next visit?

Anyways onto the party comp.


It's going well, I like Amoen even though his personality is a tad annoying, it's funny at the same time.

Minsc as always is great to have around and he is having 'fun' with the Sword of Chaos as he should be

Cernd I am unsure about as he has only been with me for a small leg of the journey.

Nat is good for the extra spells she can memories and general spell slinging.

I am however noticing a drop in magic 'power' (arcane) without a sorc. This may just be because I am still getting used to Haer'dalis being effectivly a F/M with less hitpoints, less thaco (I think) and having a few extra combat enhancements. *Shrugs* Possibly a fighter/mage would be a better choice than a bard to be able to buff up then wade into the fray or sit back and spell sling (If I took a sorc it would be Imoen eventually and a custom one until then maybe)

Here is the revised list I am going thinking of testing out tomorrow:

KEEPERS

Vagrant
Natlia
Cernd
Minsc
Amoen


UNDECIDED

Tashia/Imoen/Custom Sorc
Haer'dalis <--custom until I get to him
Other (something I may be overlooking)


As I see it the above 5 I have 1 Divine with minor support (Amoen major, Vagrant and Minsc minor), 1 Arcane with backup (Nalia major, Cernd minor in a way), 1 Druidic (Cernd..with bit of the others too), and 3 Melee characters (Vagrant, Minsc, Amoen). The possibility of strong summons (Arcane and Divine and Swanmays (inability to be death spelled away!)) which will boost melee sponge/tar pit for the casters to get the shots in that count without having to worry as much (an summon replacement summons should the originals fall).

The lacking part is an arcane caster I think. I would love to be able to craft that cloak/robe that gives 3 extra spells per level but alas I cannot get that for being a Vagrant so Nat will have to do with her ring. The thing is only so many spells can be sent in any given turn as it stands now. With a second arcane caster more spell interruptions are possible (and less likely for me to be shut down for a turn with interruptions should I forget stoneskin) with a second major spell slinger.

Possibly Cernd will be able to assist with this but my testing of him has been limited due to only having to fight trolls with him really isn't much of an indicator). Having a Blade would be handy due to rapid leveling (thief/bard leveling anyways) so spells get stronger faster and level 8 spells are still good (ADHW anyone?...hows about in a trigger (think thats possible..can't remember now *shrug*) when in combat for an extra oomph?).

A sorc is just a powerhouse. Get them to have TS and Alacraty and you seem to be able to pretty much shut the battle down pretty quickly after that (least int he un-IA version of the game...hope it's different now). Also being able to select and cast X from each level of spells has it's perks, and cons

Pretty much any help with this would be great


Final thing though:

Plantars/Divas...they are still Deathspell killable like all other summons (bar Swanmays)? Are they modified in any way also? not seen in the readme but I may of missed them, same for Druids Elementals-Princes.

Thanks a lot for reading through that, just trying to get tactics and character battle positions sorted out befor I take the serious plunge.

Cheers

This list is OK. You could have a more powerful group by using third party NPCs or custom NPCs, but this group should suffice. Minsc really doesn't add a lot. He doesn't have any special quest of his own nor Sikret enhanced personal items. However, you do need melee power. So, if you replace him, it should be with a melee-type.



A sorcerer is definitely good and complements a wizard well.

The major strength of the bard in IA is Remove Magic at high levels. As far as I'm concerned, the blade hardly pulls his weight in the early game. Later on with the nice items, he becomes very powerful. Enjoy him while you can. I don't think he will be the best choice in the next version of IA.



There's been a lot of talk about the power of the arcane in IA; however, the truth is that you should not expect any arcane caster to decimate an improved battle within 4 rounds like they could in the unmodded game. It wouldn't be a very difficult mod if that was the case, after all. In IA, mages are invaluable for buffing, debuffing, spell interrupting, and occasionally for spell zapping a little bit of offense and clearing away the mooks in the improved battles. With patience, their spells can take a more dominant offensive role.



The HLAs summons are gated and definitely are not subject to Deathspell. I think all gated creatures avoid the effects of Deathspell.