*Contains spolers*
First of all, thank you Sikret & Critto for the great mod. The BG trilogy was my favorite game 20 years ago and still is, though I had almost a 20yr gap on playing the game. This is the best mod I have ever had for this game. It's essentially a new game. It is also easily the most challenging mod (majority of the mods for BG2 don't really add to challenge, they make challenges easier). For a player like me, whose biggest fun in the game used to be going to WK with a very low-level party and beating all of the battles, this adds a supreme & thorough layer to the game. Once you take your quite plain and low level party to WK and beat everything, the rest of the game is quite *meh*.
The dull thing about the **vanilla game** used to be getting ultra-powerful & ultra-powerful stuff but having near-zero challenges with them (I already killed the Demogorgon, a dragon last for less than two rounds against me but now you want me to help you find your missing kittens). This mod does a great job of addressing just that, adding difficult to ultra-difficult battles throughout. Also, because how it's set-up you need to essentially revamp your whole approach to spellcasting. So finally I found uses for so many spells that originally were completely useless (i.e. enchanted weapon).
I've played the game through a number of times with different characters & combinations. Originally my favorite character used to be the plain ranger/cleric, which was back when the series was released quite an overlooked character (message boards raved about the Kensai/mage). It's nice to see that combination getting love here and it looks like it's still a relevant character in IA
. My favorite character along with the dualled R/C were the Berserker/Mage dual and ofc the plain C/M, an amazing ultra-powerful combination.IA changes things quite a lot.
It's the first time I started the game and played through "druid grove" and rested for 3-4 times. I had to be well prepared for almost every encounter, even with spiders. Also, this mod does an amazing job of tying up loose ends throughout the game completing the stories and adding another layer on them altogether.
The frustrating part in IA comes from stuff working by "new rules" instead of the ones you are used to, whether it's the characters and how they develop or changes in rules / spells that block your prepared character from reaching the heights they could in the vanilla game. Below a few examples.
I started this game with about the most powerful combination of characters I could think of (based on my exp with the vanilla game), but I had to make so-so-so many adjustments along the way.
Original crew:
Protagonist: Necromancer
Minsc
Berserker (lv 10) -> Druid (I use Jaheira for this with Jaheira's stats)
Cleric/Mage (I use Viconia for this, with a tweaked INT)
Fighter/Thief (I use Hexxat for this, with Hexxat's stats)
=> in the vanilla game, this crew can quite easily tackle all of the challenges if developed properly. It's super powerful. It also is diverse enough to make good use of the most powerful equipment in the game. In the vanilla, Protagonist would have probably been the F/T and the Necro would have been replaced with Edwin, because you know, the amulet, but fundamentally something like that. Eventually, the C/M becomes the most powerful member of the crew.
After reaching level 10 with Berserker I dualled -> paid the fee and jumped to chapter 3 immediately going from level 1 to level 7/8 with the Druid part of my dual class. This broke my game as I just didn't have enough punch to go through well, pretty much anything. My front line was made of paper and a crew of a few spiders was a huge challenge -> I had no chance against a single (gem) golem.
After some tinkering I made a few changes and alterations and revamped my crew:
Protagonist: Necromancer
Minsc
F/D (so almost 1:1 to the original Jaheira)
Cleric/Mage
Fighter/Thief
Kensai
I had a lot of troubles with this crew and most of the battles were extremely difficult. In a game where lagging a single level is sometimes crucial to your success (with the most apparent example being after your mage can cast 6th level spells it opens up a variety of new battles for you) -> I understood that my crew is heavily lagging behind but was clinging on t the hope that eventually they would be super powerful.
So I hopped along, killing a few enemies here, a few enemies there - it took me 3 different visits to finish half of the first floor of WK. Everything was moving along as planned. I finished the beginner's parts (they weren't easy) and become the hero of Trademeet, met the mimic, crushed Pebblecrushers, cleared the sewers, did the mundane stuff, freed Hendak & went through slavers (that battle was amazing and took about an hour or so), got Flail of the Ages and moved to spellhold because I had read a few warnings that you should go there quite early (I was at 1,5mexp)
Perth the adept cost an arm and a leg, for it required too many scrolls of Ruby Ray of reversal for my budget, as I couldn't even cast 7th level spells at the time.
Halfway through the maze, I realized that the fighter/thief I was dragging along wan't going to make it. I wasn't using the thief parts of the character, it was just dragging down the development of the fighter side without adding anything to the mix (traps don't work, hiding in shadows is useless -> backstabbing doesn't give you any meaningful edge, detect illusions is nice but so is true sights). So I knew I had to make changes again and get rid of the thief but I didn't want to go thiefless. It's not a good realization to have when in the spellhold maze, and no NPC's around that can fix it. Had I been in Athlathla, I would have most likely gone with Jan but an additional problem is that the pieces in the crew support one another so one change causes a number of other changes.
Eventually, I found a solution I really liked with an unlikely combination. My F/T became a Swashbuckler (lv 3) -> Fighter. Put all point in the only semi-useful skill in "find traps". Essentially you are missing some hit points for the first 3 levels, but they are nicely compensated with having access to thief-specific gear (adding diversity) and the Swashbucklers powerful melee enhancing special abilities. This character works very well. So halfway through spellhold my crew was:
Protagonist: Necromancer
Minsc
F/D
Cleric/Mage
Swashbuckler (lv 3.) -> Fighter
Kensai
I clear out the maze, spellhold, where I run into a fight I can't win in Mithril Golem. I search the forums and have a look at the various journals and find out that my most advanced characters are about 3-4 levels behind the characters people on the journals here on this site are describing. It's frustrating. There isn't anything I can do about that, so I end up skipping the fight. So in addition to dragging along a few late-blossoming characters my most advanced characters are way-way behind where they should be.
I manage though. Irenicus is only manageable because I exploit the terrain to my advantage. Otherwise, my crew would be toast, no chance.
However, after that things ease a bit. Sahugin's are manageable, so is Underdark and I'm beginning to beat some battles with the first try, a rarity with IA improved encounters. There are a few notable exceptions to that in the elemental golem in the beholder lair, the master brain, and the Dracolich. Every one of those being a 45-60 minute battle with every single action planned and optimized. Auto-pause full on. 5 different tries.
I trudge through and make it to the surface, the crew is nearing 3mexp. Then I meet Kruin.
I try this battle 10 times, with different approaches. I can annihilate everyone else (besides Kruin) before they materialize, which leaves me with elemental golems & Kruin. This I could manage somehow, I can whack one golem to "near death" with having enough to take care of both Kruin & the other golem but then they start spawning the gem's and coin's. There is no way my crew can make it. My C/M doesn't even have access 7th level mage spells. I had been clinging to the hope that one day when this character get "simulacrum" it will be marvelous, but you know, that spell doesn't even exist in the game anymore. No warrior HLA's, no nothing. No Cromwell upgrades because Cromwell is unavailable before Kruin is cleared.
So I'm screwed.
So I go back to the drawing board to revamp the crew to make final changes (I'm hoping to finish the game with this). We dump the C/M which causes another change since we are severely lacking in priest spells.
Final crew:
Protagonist: Necromancer
Minsc
Kensai
Fighter (lv. 9) -> Druid (because I need a full priest)
Berserker (lv. 13) -> Mage
Swashbuckler (lv 3.) -> Fighter
The Fighter -> Druid gets the nod over Ranger / Cleric because the F/D has access to much more diverse weapons (access to slashing / piercing / crushing) and a number of great items (e.g. paws the furious cat).
I trudge along Fearun and finish of everything I can think of, get the exp and gain HLA's for warriors and Improved Alacricity for Necro (a few great items from Samia also are a big help). Then meet up with Kruin.
!