Overall this has been a lot of fun so far. Albeit quite a GRIND. Tons of running back and forth from challenge to challenge... every time I get a new item or spell or level, to give another shot at the previously impossible challenges.

While some of the shop prices seem silly (Nymph's Cloak for example), I do like the emphasis on money. I'm maybe halfway through Chapter 2/3 and have 75k gold and don't want to spend any of it!

As far as comments/suggestions, here is my .02.

I think the Paladin kit nerf for Inquisitor makes sense. Cavalier, not so much. Fear is one of the easiest immunities to acquire, thanks to the level 2 spell. And the entire nerf of paladins (the "Turn Paladin" ability) seems unwarranted. When the grandmastery "fix" is recommended, that's your Paladin nerf right there. There's an extraordinary benefit to having a fighter class, which IMO outweighs the benefits of any Paladin.

Thieves aren't of much use here, which is well known. I've mentioned in another thread I think, that I'd suggest removing the ability entirely. It's only useful against enemies you don't want to use it against anyways. I think the HLA abilities of Evasion or Avoid Death might be a flavorful replacement.

I also think you could make thieves more useful again with some edits to the traps in the game. I don't know how feasible this is, but if a trap was randomized... that is, you didn't know if it would be a petrify trap, a fireball trap, a level drain trap, etc... you wouldn't be able to just buff one character with the appropriate defense (since we know all the existing vanilla trap effects) and open it. Additionally, adding some higher level traps (i.e. casting Comet, or Creeping Doom or something) would be cool too. That would also let thieves have some usefulness.

Bounty Hunter, Beastmaster, and Monk could use some beefing up. The kits provided in this mod are cool, but extremely powerful. It would be nice for the mod to allow more diverse parties on initial playthroughs. For example, the monk could be shifted a little towards a Riskbreaker, ability-wise, to allow it to be more used in the game.

For areas like the Trademeet Crypt, which seems like some kind of no-magic zone, it would be nice to put the status icon on characters like they do in the Watcher's Keep level 3 no-magic zones.

One other thing I'd suggest is more complete documentation around the special quests and items. Especially since many of them appear to be protagonist class dependent, it would be nice to be able to pick your class based on some of this.

As I said above, all in all this is a very enthralling mod and I've enjoyed the challenge thus far. Looking forward to continuing to explore.

Just a comment on paladins, I think undead hunter is quite good in IA V6 (agree with your comment on other paladins)
Turning paladin can be avoidedSPOILER!


Your idea to "drift" monk towards something riskbreaker-like is a very good one IMO

Apart WK 3 and trademeet crypt, it is likely you will find later one other "no-magic area" Be warned, first time it is a hell of a surprise!

Yeah, I thought it was odd that the Cavalier got nerfed, but not the undead hunter. Immunity to Level Drain is a valuable and hard to attain ability in this mod, it seems. So that seemed like it would be the second one to get nerfed (after the inquisitor dispel).

It's not about whether or not it can be avoided... it's about the purpose of it. I just don't see it. I'd rather play a Berserker than a paladin in the vanilla game. That gap gets even wider with "fixed" grandmastery. Why make the gap even wider by adding one other disadvantage to paladins?

IMO, the single biggest issue with this mod is that it is so heavy-handed with class and kit choices. That makes it easier to develop the mod and attain the desired tactical difficulty, but it doesn't make for the best user experience. The only reason I'm still playing Baldur's Gate 2 for the 20th or 30th time is for the variety in classes and kits. Cutting some out, or encouraging some over others, lessens the ability to do that IMO.

Nicoper, I think it is time to move your journals to the public section. I mean especially your weird and other special walkthrougs.

LOL, Vuki! We are kinda used to premature judgements about the mod from some new players. If they stay and play the mod long enough they will change those "initial" judgements.

LOL!

@vuki: thks, but I am afraid I plagued enough this forum with my journals

First: The guy to ask for original parties is Hideous The Wu Jen

Second: Let's just say I tried several parties, some because I wanted to prove "underdogs" (like thieves, paladins,...) can make it too

Here are 4 samples (on top of 2 journals I put on public forum), If anyone wants journal, let me know, I will semd it (or publish it on the forum, but I fear overdose)

Necro
Undead hunter
Undead hunter
multi R/C
dual Berserker->C
Jaheira

Fate: Made it to EDE, lost EDE because not enough firepower against Prince (and patience from myself maybe) lost after Prince 4th AI

Necro
RB
Vagrant
Valygar
Swash
Assassin

Fate: Won EDE

Vagrant
Berserker
RB
Undead hunter
Cernd
Imoen

Fate: won EDE (Prince did not stood a chance)

Party of 4
Necro
RB
Valygar
Cernd

Fate: won EDE

First, Sikret, your comment is obnoxious and childish and I'm bummed that I read it again when I opened this thread.

Nicoper/Vuki, you guys are kind of proving my point, aren't you? If I walked in here and said I was going to try this mod with a party of PC Monk, Yoshimo, Jaheira, Minsc, and Edwin, you'd tell me I was in for a rough time. The fact that one can easily complete the game with such a party on their 5th run through (or perhaps not, given Nicoper's failure to win with one of those custom parties above?) is irrelevant to what I was saying.

On a side note, what's EDE? Is that BG2 lingo, or IA lingo?

Not really. Starting to judge the mod before even completing it for once is a bit premature. But no hard feelings here. I even used smileys.

What Nicoper, me and others recommended is that you start playing the mod with a strong party and recommended protagonist types in your first couple runs. Once you get more experienced with the mod you can indeed play other classes and kits more easily. Playing the recommended party compositions will also give you the opportunity to see more new content and quests added to the game by the mod.



EDE = Epic Divine Encounter. It is from IA.

Thanks for the acknowledgement nic but a lot of times I don't get as far as I want with those parties. Monk, Blade, Archer, Riskbreaker, Auramaster and Necromancer party really had trouble against monsters that require +4 weapons to hit. A certain spider battle is where I got too frustrated and had to stop that party.
My current party including a Priest of Helm>Mage and Priest of Lathander>Ranger are doing fine in TOB.

So I agree with Mikel that for me part of the replay value of BG2 is party composition. But after being around here for a few versions I see that Sikret and the testing team can only implement so many new kits and changes to kits without having to go through and testing everything. Which they do a great job of since the mods are just about 100% bug free. Therefore I think it's better to just have patience and eventually new versions will cover classes, just like I hear Druids are worked on in v7.

Keep at it though Mikel, while frustrating at times, once you get to know the ins and outs of it it's a walk in the park. Err, maybe more like a marathon.

Thanks Hideous! We are proud we have made such a huge mod bug free. I had the chance to work with the best BG2 players in my testing team.

And yes, v7 is druid's version of IA.

If the beginning of the game is too hard for certain classes... and everyone here is suggesting that new players not use certain classes... then clearly it is not premature. It doesn't matter if Monks dominate Chapter 4-10 if they can't get out of Chapter 1-3.



This is precisely my point. My suggestion is that there would be no such thing as a "strong party" if you buffed up Monks and made Thieves a bit more useful. The recommendation to start with a "strong party" is exactly what is a bummer to me.

This is just one comment of many. It is not a judgement of "good" or "bad", but just a suggestion about what *I* think would make it more fun for first-timers.

May I did not express myself correctly (English is not my native language)
I never intended to compel anyone here into picking a would be "mandatory" party pick.

Everyone is free to chose and test what he/she wants
Only things Worth mentionning IMO:
- some protag class have (very) extended stronghold quest, some have not (or not yet), this is important to know (but does not prevent anyone from picking his own protag)
- It is important to have fighting power and arcane power otherwise party will not make it very far (devising how one builds fighting and arcane power is one's business...)

Yes, we are working on all classes and kits little by little and version to version. It is recommended to play the protagonist types that have new content/quests and we have worked on them first. It will make you an experienced IA player. Then you will find that playing other character types is not as hard as they look at the first glance.

As for the suggestion to randomize trap effects in the game, we had that suggestion before as well and discussed it. It's not a bad idea; it is just too much work for very little gain. The player can simply reload the game over and over again to get the desired trap effect he wants or is prepared for. In the end, we decided to spend our limited time for adding new content and quests to the game instead.

BTW, we are now discussing with the testing team how to buff Swashbuckler kit even further. You will see something new for them in v7.