I open this topic to the players able to discuss our ideas, so we spare Sikret's free time, and he don't get useless suggestions.

I want to share my thought first about the IA's class system:

I develop RPG games about 10 years so i have lots of experience about creating game systems. There are two mayor mentality when you want to create a class (this isn't the only solution but the game engine only support this) system. The balance oriented development and the world oriented development.

The balance oriented planning
pros: every character has the same chance to become powerful
cons: sometimes ruin the world of the game and very hard to create it.

The world oriented planning
pros: very intimate and reflect the world of game well
cons: there are very weak classes and the fans of these classes become frustrating, and if they are beginner players they easily heat the game

The ideal solution is between the two mentality. The IA's class system are world oriented very much and I think need some rebalancing.
The vanilla game also world oriented there are powerful and overpowered classes and there are weak classes too, but there is a difference:
In the vanilla game you can choose any class for your party members (multiplayer) or only the protagonist (single player), and you can enjoy your game and you can finish it. In IA if you choose a bad character class than you only dig your grave and you will be very frustrating and not necessarry restart it again. When i started the game I choosed sorcerer and after that i choosed archer.

Maybe you can warn the players in the sorcerer class description to the spell system different than the vanilla game so read the official forum of the game, or use the pick me up button or choose a kitted mage instead.

I was very frustrating because they was very weak so I restart the game. When I choosed the wild mage as protagonist I also frustrated because he was owerpovered. (this problem maybe solved in the next version).

The problem not is that the auramaster and the vagrants are too powerful. They are powerful but they are very good part of the game.
I think the problem is there are a very huge gap between classes and their kits. The solution is make usable the weak classes in IA or delete them in my opinion.

I am very thankful because this brilliant mod, and Sikret's mentality about the cheese classes and methods, and I fully support to break their cheese powers but they must get somethink instead it.

I think Sikret is in a very good path now (swashbucker), but he need aid and ideas because this is a very huge work. I think the following classes need rebalance in the game:

-:
Wild mages (maybe more disadventage needed)
Bards (solved with the level 6 spell removation), thieves(solved if the Time Trap and the UAI removed)
+:
Wizard slayers (the monk and some other classes with items overpowered them)
Kensai (they are very powerful but some crowd controll ability needed maybe to player able to save his ass)
Beastmaster (some new summons and maybe items neede)
Archer (maybe must removed, because there are lot ranger kit exits, or some abilities what works on arrows maybe change this kit useful /elemental damage, stun, dispel maybe/)
Priests (the berserker, ranger dual too good, so some new abilities and single class cleric items needed)
Druids(the auramaster is very good, but some players love the other kits too, so some new spells for avanger, some battle enchant for shapeshifter and some powerful summon for totemic ones needed)
Bards (some supporting skills maybe acceptable, like new bard songs etc)
Thieves(some ability in combat what not fighting and spell based, or some dirty trick what lower the enemy AC /crippling strike/ or a the d&d snake attack maybe enough)
Monks(their weapon echantment come too late and they are very weak in the beginning)

What's your opinion?

Sikret just mentioned that wild mages will be nerfed further.

For Bards, I think the removal of lvl 6 spells will make lots of people choose not to play it. Bards would not be able to affect any Liches with their spells! I think that they should have some new HLAs which reflect their song abilities as well as their role as a jack-of-all trades. For instance, a HLA giving them an additional 5% store discount? Some offensive sound ability usuable once a day, like Cacophonic Burst? Or perhaps some defensive/Mass Cure ability usuable a few times a day?

I'm not too sure about how powerful (or weak) Wizard Slayers are, as I don't really use them. The restriction only allowing them to use magic weapons and armour kind of puts me off, but the Miscast Magic ability can be really useful against powerful casters (I do not know which, or whether any enemies are immune to this effect though), especially with a GWW attack.

For Kensai, I'm not sure they really need crowd control... normal fighters don't have it anyway. The main benefit of Kensai is their superb THAC0. In the early game, many enemies have rather low ACs and fighters in general need to drink some Giant Strength potion to score hits frequently. The Kensai does not. I would favour them getting better AC as their level progresses though.

Beastmaster: yep, their summons are rather lousy. Perhaps a new item idea would be to allow the Beastmaster to upgrade the Golden Lion figurine (Golden Lion + Golden Spider + Golden Cat figurine perhaps?).

Archer: missile weapons were nerfed on purpose in IA as it allows for cheesy hit-and-run tactics, and this is a conscious decision I can agree with. Poor Archer!

With regards to the archer, I think it should be removed from the game in V6. It would be too easy for someone to choose this class, and then be frustrated about its ineffectiveness, and then either quit the game or restart. Where's the fun in that??

In my opinion, it's slightly irresponsible to leave it in.

Wizard Slayer is crap imho. If enemy mage is protected by Stonekin or PfMW, WS's miscast nagic ability doesn't work. If you can dipsel protection from a mage, he is always dead within a few secs... only very enemy is exception. So basically they get a crap ability and a small MR in change for magic items usage...

I have an idea about Wizard Slayers. What if there attack not only means +10% casting failure but also temporaly drain 1 intelligence (let's say for 1 turn)? That could affect scroll reading also (when enemy mage intelligence lowered below 9).

Shadan!

I think stoneskin does not protect against the wizard slayer ability. Are you sure about it?

Only protection from magical weapons and mantles spells that actually protect you from getting hit work against wizard slayer's ability.Stoneskin only prevents physical damage when you are hit by a weapon,elemental damage and any other effects the weapon or class your using might give, bypass this protection.

IA is a good tactical mod,i played it to the end 2 times, but the lack of variety of good kits that on the mid-latter stages of the game don't become like you were battling monsters on a wheelchair, is keeping me from playing it again.Classes i used to really like when playing vanilla, or tactics mod, like the monk, wizard slayer, archer, totemic druid, in IA they simply are dead weight later on compared with others like sorcerer, vagrant, etc.Some kind of balancing would be nice, i want to play IA again, but i am already tired of the classes used in standard IA party.

Yes, I was wrong regarding Stoneskin, but it doesn't change too much. Most enemy mages has a lot of PfMW or Absolute Imm. spell or scrolls...

Encounter suggestions: gimmicks/ideas for either new encounters or improving old ones, that are also fairly easy to implement scripting wise.

Give some bosses a team of healers
-A very hard to kill set of healers, (accompanying say, dracolich) who are constantly trying to cast heal on hurt targets. Make them disruptible, of course, and very low offensive capabilities.

Simultaneous death requisite
-for example the two minotaurs in WK4, make them fall down like trolls and revive in a few rounds at full health unless both fall at once.

More enemies who require specific damage to kill
-high health, physical immune, magic damage only
-by the same token, crushing weapons are too popular in this game, not enough mobs that are immune to crushing and only hurt by slashing/piercing/etc.
-or by a certain element (ie like WK2 chromatic)

Add an encounter where the enemy tries to run away permanently
-one chance to kill him, if he runs away hes gone, along with his itamz. Make him a difficult fight until a certain amount of damage is dealt to him, at which point you must land a sleep/charm/hold/root etc to finish him or else he escapes

More multi-phase fights
-sorta like demilich or draconus etc. Beat one stage/form, next one comes with new abilities new set of challenges, with no chance to rebuff/heal/rest

Throw in some more ranged enemies
-only decent ranged encounter is orc horde in wk5. They run out of arrows too... and so become useless after awhile

Throw in a brainless smasher in some encounters
-a slow moving, extremely durable idiot, who does a ton of damage per hit. So, unless he is killed first (not a good idea since hes so durable), the player must move his characters around while dealing with the real threats, for example rotating every few rounds or so, around in a circle to avoid the durable idiot. meanwhile dealing with original encounter, maybe say... tolgerias+mage crony, if tolgerias dies idiot golem dies along with him etc.