This is my first post. I've played Improved Anvil with an assassin protagonist for a few days now and I like the difficulty and the general idea of the mod.

There are some things though that I consider to be a bad ideas.

No merchants to steal from? Really? Apart from the fact that it nerfs the thieves badly, there are parts of the game where the game clearly expects you to steal from merchants. The best example would be Gorch, the fat merchant in the Mae'Var's Guild. He has some valuable items, but nothing that could be considered overpowered. When you are about to get your own thieves guild you have to kill all the people there - Gorch included. Now if you don't want his entire selection of items to disappear from the game you better buy everything magical/useful he sells or you steal these things from him. Buying all of his stuff isn't even an option at the moment. The Nymph Cloak (with it's new price) alone would annihilate my budget. So apparently I am now forced to wait until Chapter 6 to get my stronghold because I do not foresee having enough money to buy his whole stock in the next few chapters of the game.

Another point: the enemies do not cheat. Really?
Why are spellcasters who cast from scrolls uninterruptable? My spellcasters are interruptable when they cast from scrolls, aren't they.

Why do even the simple muggers on the street follow my hidden assassin as though they could see him clearly?

Why does the whole Mencar Peeblecrusher gang attack me when I set a trap completely out of their sight? How is that not cheating? How do they know that I am even there and what I am doing so exactly?

Similarly: How is it possible that Rayic Gethras always follows my hidden assassin so that I cannot leave his view. He clearly can't see me or he would attack, but apparently he sees me enough to follow me around.

Why is Edwin at 161000 Experience Points when I get him, although I am a Level 11 Assassin with more that 400000 EXP. Am I supposed to build my party immediately after stepping out of Irenicus' dungeon, or suffer the consequences?

Why are there no items anymore that can grant Non-detection?

[irony]
I am surprised that I can still set traps, hide in shadows and backstab. These overpowered abilities should be nerfed as soon as possible [/irony]

The game doesn't expect you to own everything Gorch has in his shop and no other player really feels the need to postpone the thief stronghold quests to chapter 6 just for a few items in that shop. Stealing from shops has been blocked for good reasons.



Yes, really.

No they aren't interruptable even when you use scrolls.



Well, you want to set traps while they are still neutral to have an easy victory and they nullify your plan. I would call this smart enemy behavior rather than cheat. I wonder why you even play IA if you don't want the challenge to fight the enemy and seek cheap methods and expect the enemy not to react to what you do.

Even from a role playing point of view, you are setting traps in their room only a few meters away from where they stand and you expect them not to notice?!

You need to learn new tactics to play IA.



The cloak of non-detection and a few other items which could have been exploited in cheesy ways are omitted from the game.