I hope for Horn of Valhalla item summon to last longer than 1turn. Like if cast boosting spell on it, will be quite wasted due to summon dissappear so fast. So I suggest 5 turn for all version of that item.

Thank you for the offer sadly, I still have many things half-done so I doubt it would be possible to play smoothly without problems.

But worry not. On my todo list there are less than 10 fights that will require more work (with Abazigal and Sendai being the most involving ones) for the upcoming patch and I'm actively working on them.


That's a good suggestion, however don't forget that the creature will get a standard debuff after 1 turn, when Enrage ends

Alright cool, no problem

What do you guys think of Paladins and Paladin kits?

Pally's are ok, with right equipment.

In 6.5 version they were underpowered compared to ranger kits and some fighter kits (my personal favorite as in the DD in particular). Or alternatively, Pallys needed the proper gear to play smooth (6.X JD works great on a pally), then hey are great fun to play - even Keldorn with his very sub-optimal stats.

The "saving grace" for Pallys used to be blessed bracers, as it's an unique quite powerful piece of equipment specifically for them that's not overlapping with any other gear. That plus blessinsgs + proper weapons (= JD) made them quite powerful. And inquisitor was a nice kit, that definitely made 3-5 tough fights much easier or alternatively Undead Hunter with permanent immunities was pretty good.

Then the 7.0 changed things. Many of the fighter kits got comprehensive turbo-boosts (RB & Barbarian in particular) while Pallys didn't get anything, besides nerfed JD (haven't played a pally though at 7.0). And their unique piece of equipment is now usable by Mazzy + Barbarians. Power wise Vagrant, Protector, Berserker, RB, Kensai, Barbarian, DD, Chamooin of Arvoreen and the Wizard Slayer are just way more powerful (imo.). They don't really compare. So is especially the 6.5 Swashbuckler/Hexxat.

Undead Hunter is still viable. So is the inquisitor. Cavalier could be fun to play as mediocre fighter kit that it is but with superpowers vs dragons & demons (don't know what it could be besides immunities to most devastating effects, maybe + hit / damage rolls, a special ability or something).

Hi pekkae!

I generally agree with your comments. I'm glad you liked the bracers - they were fun to see come together into a nice little Ch 6 item.

Do you think the solution is to nerf the other classes or buff paladins? If buffing paladins, what would make them more viable while remaining unique compared to the other classes and say a fighter/cleric or ranger/cleric?

Yea, that's a real nice piece of equipment - especially in 6.X versions where those type of equipment were super rare.

I think with Jacek's improvements the F/C (especially dwarf F/C) will be very powerful & viable option for everyone. It will leave the pally in the dust. And ofcourse especially the "full access to druidic spells" R/C will be a monster. (I'm looking to play that, haha)

But about Pallys. I'm not sure what to do with Keldorn, it seems he's quite difficult to balance out. He used to be quite good with JD, then with the new armour + equipment he was drag to play until he got everything and afterwards it was quite smooth sailing (with 9 APR dual wielding JD + The Truth for example).

If we drop out Sibel + Lady Elowena enchantments from 7.0, then Pally's are better in line with the rest of the fighter kits and are kind'of'ok. It's just that Lady Elowena / Sibel doesn't add anything for Pallys in particular. Easy fix would be to cobble together Carsomyr/Holy Avenger + Damascus Steel Blade. That's a very powerful piece of equipment.

One possibly fun type would be to tweak the Cavalier into having truly powerful abilities against demons & dragons. I think it's in line lore-wise as well, as that's what the Kit is supposed to do. That would be a nice addition, in many ways quite mediocre character power wise but with superpowers against a few very difficult monster types.

Thanks pekkae!

Sibel mod is technically a separate mod, but you're right, there are no nice Paladin-specific items among the recipes of Lady Elowen.

Barbarians? Because Champion of Arvoreen is a Fighter kit and item restrictions are quite rigid in BG games, the item might be usable by pure Fighters, but I had no idea Barbarians also qualified for that

I finally finished Paladin Rebalance mini-component and decided to share it with you:

Lay on hands finally becomes a good ability and no access to it becomes a real penalty to some kits. I like to envision Paladins as knights with a sword and a shield, so they can now use both of those items with greater skill.

Yes, Inquisitors regained their ability to cast spells. That lack of 10PDR from Armor of Faith made them a poor choice for some more hardcore runs and 4th level has some quite nice spells, so they're still at a disadvantage.

Just a tiny change, the kit needed at least a small disadvantage in comparison to non-kitted Paladins. If you have any ideas on how to change the damage/thac- bonuses, it would be great, as the bonuses from spells, abilities and items don't stack with each other and might lead to non-optimal and confusing bonus calculations, so I'd like to switch that to something else, I'm just not sure yet what could it be.

Yes. I think this is really good, as Barbs were in quite the disadvantage before. Without Elowen upgrades Barbs is at a major disadvantage, the DD is just a superior choice (especially in 6.X version where cloak of atonement/SoA is accessible). access to the gauntlets of blessed might improves the situation quite a bit to balance it out, without making Barbs too powerful (they are still at a disadvantage compared to numerous Kits/Classes). But obviuosly then 7.0 + Sibel/Elowen brings nerfed DD + nerfed cloak of atonement + Barb get superpowers, so it's a the other way around now .



Thaks! I appreciate that!

This looks quite nicely balanced, without going OP. The abilities are useful and without Sibel/Elowen, looks like quite nicely in line with the other Kits. The Pally with a sword & shield definitely "looks the part", but I think the problem is that with Elowen/Sibel mod the Damascus Steel Blade is the superior choice for a weapon. Maybe add a Elowen recipe for a Bastard Sword for Pally's still, that combines Purifier +4 (is that still in the game?) + Death of a thouseand cuts + water's edge + holy avenger/carsomyr into a single uber sword for Pallys? And maybe a shield or an amulet? (Say sensate amulet + permanent protection from evil + something that enhances Pally's "natural" abilities...?)



That helps. Though in my games I just skipped AoF (play pally as a 2-handed specialist until JD and then just rock away with DW). I've only ever played Keldorn as an inquisitor and he doesn't make a tank at any point - as lowe hp's, low dex -> low ac and not really proper DR makes sure of that.

To me it looks like the Cavalier is still at disadvantage compared to the other (and isn't probably played that much as a result). Could the Cavalier's abilities vs. Dragon's / Demons be further enhanced? One unique ability would be the ability to neutralize fear/hold/silence/greater malison - that would be quite unique and powerful.

That would also make it a very compelling choice in a necro-less party, as it would have supplementing skill-set to i.e. a Sorceror / Avenger protagonist (or why not a pally protagonist...)

And a few additional notes about possible tweaks:

1) I'm not sure of the "detect evil" is useful skill at all? Could that just be removed?
2) About PfE (possibilities to make the ability actually useful)
- Could the protection from evil be worked so that it's actually useful thing in a fight? (maybe switch pfe to protection from evil 10" with low casting time)
- Or could it not be limited to level 20? so the duration (as it's supposed to be) will last ... vey long?
- If it's a single target spell, with a long duration and maybe becomes non-dispellable at say level 25 (=> the amount of PfE's should be limited (say a level 25 pally gets 6 so it can buff teh entire crew...))
3) maybe insted of 1 remove fear per level per day the pally could have a "remove fear ability", that last for 1 round per level. that keeps "pulsating". so essentially casts remove fear once a turn. affects everything nearby? (that's more useful and sort of the same power wise, I think).

If we have a cavalier, without even equipment upgrades, but with

- Up above rebalancing by Jacek
- PfE tweak: that makes the spell more useful than the current one (with up above changes or something similar)
- Remove Fear tweak: more useful now
- Some further boosts agains dragons / demons
- Gets lay on hands every 15 levels, can't use missile weapons, gets only 1* in staffs and spears

That would actually make for a nice and quite ok balanced character, without being OP at all. (imho of course.)

Oh btw.

I've been toying around in AI image generators (again).

I think there's a fair to good chance, that a trained AI could provide nice maps for the game. It just needs a little bit of proper training / context to do it.

Not sure of those are needed and I of course don't have that much understanding of how big of a process these things are but it looks like a nice way to refresh.

Hmm, was Barb that much worse than DD? I've never played with a DD, so I might be missing something, but Barb immunities that he gets from level 1 are amazing. Actually, I don't even remember any nerfs to DD that were introduced in v7.0, what were they?
And I have good/bad news regarding the Cloak of Atonement - it will be heavily changed in the upcoming patch, but it will still grant access to Shield of Archon or AoF.


Good! That's what I'm aiming for

And what about poor non-kitted Paladin? He's also left behind...


Yeah, DSB is a problematic weapon, but there's only one instance of that weapon, so not everyone can use it at least.

As mentioned before, ideally, I'd want to get rid of that +thac0/dmg bonuses that the kit gets and substitute them with something else, so all ideas are welcome


To my knowledge it's useful in exactly one situation during Paladin Stronghold quest. Oh and you can potentially detect evil characters and kill them without penalties and without staining your consciousness for roleplay purposes.


Those are some really nice ideas, thanks!

Yes. Much worse

6.X> DD reaches lower effective AC (much lower) and has 45% non-dispellable DR (gets to 40% DR in chapter 3), while barbarian gets 20% non-dispellable DR (much later) & much worse AC. Barbarian gets the immunities, but DD gets better saves - it actually has so ridiculous saves that it sort of gets "immunities" as well. DD can quite comfortably run through improved webs in uderdark already, for example.

7.0> DD is nerfed so that it only reaches 40% non dispellable DR (innate + defensive stance). Barbarian gets to non-dispellable 40% with the new armour + innate. And the Sibel/Elowen introduced new equipment mean, that Barb can reach similar low levels of AC while it gets a boost to damage dealing (as it can use the pall bracers). DR is now a superbly useful strategy on a barbarian, but not for the DD. So Barbs now has several advantages over the DD.



Haha, that's good. The 6.X DD with Cloak of Atonement was like a continuous cheatcode, it made things waaay too easy.

Well. But isn't the non-kitted ranger quite behind as well? As well as the non-kitted fighter? In that way I think it's in aligned .




Hmh. Okay. So for Cavalier

How about then removing the dmg+thaco bonuses vs. dragons & demons and introduce an ability, that nullifies the most devastating effects of a dragons/demos (so silence, fear, gives fire resistance or so ... let's say it's an "aura effect", 10" radius, pulsating 2x/round, lasts for 4 rounds). But keep the Cavalier otherwise in line with what was discussed previously. To me, it would look like this achieves the following:

-> the abilities & their usefullness are quite dependant on the party composition. In a Necro party, they are quite useless. But if you are playing a sorceror (or avenger, or a Pally), they are highly useful and almost crucial.
-> the kit isn't very powerful on it's own, it's just like a mediocre fighter kit with one very superpower against quite rare creature types (5 fights or so).
-> if the ability is limited to say 3/4 rounds, it still requires skill & understanding to use; it's not a simple thing that makes dragon fights super easy. You need to be prepared & have a good understanding to properly use it.
-> if heavenly shield + pfe + remove fear modifications are added, can add disadvantages as well. Maybe inrtoduce reduction to 2-handed weapons ability (only 1* on quarterstaff), this is a real limitation that hinders it's effectiveness, as it doesn't make much of a front-line tank at any point. So for parts of the game it will be leaning in 2H wespons (or positioning for those who know how to use it). In addition, if that's an aura effect, that is truly powerful, maybe it can have devastating consequences - if the ability is made super powerful but it then comes at a big disadvantage - say pally gets -9con, fatigue, non-dispellable slow and -5 to thac0, +5 AC after the aura effect runs out or so?

Yup. Maybe it can have one or so? (I don't think anyone has used the 30 or se detect evils it gets in any version of the game , but might be wring of course.



I'm happy I can do something here.

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind for any further changes to Barbs/DDs. Barb immunities are amazing at the beginning, but you're right, later on you get amazing Saving Throws, so only immunities to no-save effects stay useful (like Level Drain or Imprisonment). Barbs are still much more mobile than DDs, especially if they use their Stance ability, right?


There's a huge difference between those. Paldins can't dual/multiclass, which means that all forms of Paladin should be relatively equal in general power, as there's no possibility for a powerful combo with some other class or kit. Luckily I got some ideas from our discussions here


Thanks, the more ideas to choose from, the better

what about an ability to finish dragon and fiends of more quickly.
for example dealing extra energy damage for a short period of time or countering bleeding and slow effect.
giving him some resistance against slashing which comes from most demons would be nice or lets say u can choose which enemy u face and get resistance like the valygar kit.

OR if we say chavalier is a special shield user, then lets make him tanky comparable to dd at the cost of weapons restrictions like not pierce weapons or only slash weapons

u can also see this paladin as the tank/support and use anomen as a npc for that.
as a tank support damage reduction has to be in or spells which enhances the ac of himself or the group. i could imagine that a short duration spells like the ice dust potion could work for him. to protect against the breath weapons or the triple horrild wilting. lets say a 20 percent damage reduction boost for 3 seconds .

OR make him offensiv like a planetar. with blades curling around him and insta kill abitliy like a vorpal attack against demons like mariliths or rakhshasa. if vorpal effect is to strong lets make them get bleeding effect which hinder them to cast protection from magical weapons.

Yes. Barb is much more agile. But especially the 6.5 DD is amazing, as the defensice stance helps with saving throws + it gets the DD that +25% non-dispellable DR. So the DD doesn't need much to stay afloat vs. say Ancient Golem (assuming you can start the fight with -31 effective AC vs crushing. Just a little bit of regen/healing needed and it can completely rock the encounter. While a 6.5 barbarian has no chance and needs constant help. It also means that the DD doesn't really need "hardiness" so it can just choose something else for HLA's, while Barbs needs to invest in Hardiness'es.

Right, Pally's cant dual class. Maybe that should be taken into account. But I'm having a little hard time trying to figure uot how

Thanks for the ideas, I think I now have enough to work with for all Paladins apart from Blackguard, which might be rewoked at some later point.

I don't think that the game will allow for a true P/X multi/dualclass. Many things regarding classes are hardcoded and can be changed only with Eeex, which is a Windows-only thing.


Ok, here's another teaser of what's to come:



I hope you'll like the kit and will give it a try. Since it's a Beast Master I wanted to almost exclusively focus on the kit's bond with animals. It should also synergize well with Druids and their summons, if you decide to pick both.

Looks really interesting, great work!

What party would you recommend to get the most out of all the changes?

I suggest new item (that would be obtainable prespellhold and +4):
Mace of Disruption +4
-Double dmg vs undead

Crafted from Mace of Disruption +2 and permanency scroll and 50k gold.

https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Mace_of...f_Disruption_+2

That's a tough question. There will be many changes, but I think that all, or at least most of my rerowked classes/kits are still weaker than the staples of IA, which are Auramaster/Necro/Vagrant protagonist/RB/Kensai/DD. So I think that players will have to balance between new stuff and battle-tested old kits in order to pass the mod

But if you were feeling really advanturous, then maybe something like:
1. Beast Master protagonist with IATweaks components that grant access to Vagrant items and quests (though you won't be able to use FoDW)
2. Abjurer
3. Assassin Halfling
4. Auramaster
5. Priest of Tempus
6. some powerful melee kit like a RB, Kensai or DD
This party is probably very suboptimal, but it should encourage you to use as many of the new/reworked aspects as you can to survive I also hope that Abjurer + Auramaster will be a powerful combination, especially on higher levels. There are 2 fully reworked kits: BM and Assassin, that should be a breath of fresh air.

or:
1. Shaman protagonist
2. Priest of Talos/Viconia
3. Cavalier
4. Edwin
5. Illusionist/Fighter (or a B=>M, as faster spell progression might be required)
6. some powerful melee kit like a RB, Kensai or DD
There are no "fully" reworked characters here, but all 5 get at least some improvements.


I'd love to see players experimenting and can't wait to read some journals/smaller posts with detailed info of their adventures, but because IA is very difficult and there will be many things changed, I think I should encourage some degree of caution:)


The game definitely needs a good mace recipe, thanks for pointing that out! Mace of Disruption seems like an obvious choice here too.

Hm. From my part I always have quite an easy time with dragons, if I have a necro PC (or alternatively Cernd works ok here as well, a little bit). If I don't, they become quite a lot more difficult.

I'm not sure if a necro-lead party needs to have easier time with dragon fights? And if the part isn't led by a Necro, then the difficulty comes from dragon's abilities (mostly silence, fear, lowering of resistances etc), right?

Ha. This looks like a very nice addition to my personal favorite "party type" in general, which is the "max summons" party. Even without these addons, that particular party type is strong enough to blow through the entire game, but this makes that type even stronger. The only downside is that this overlaps a little bit with Vagrant armour-wise.

Are any of the existing NPC's going to be turned into a beastmaster? I think it would fit Minsc the best, probably. Valygar would be a nice choice here as well, if only because the armour works nicely on a beastmaster. But still probably Minsc.

So....

Necro (PC)
Valygar the Vagrant
Minsc the Beastmaster
Jaheira the Avenger
Sibel the S/C
Cernd the Auramaster

=> This crew should have all of the best possible summons in the game and ample capability for buffing them, without that much overlap weapons wise or some akward combinations like having multiple same class/kit characters in a party. Cernd will be crucial as the -5 version of the Auramaster can keep the summons alive, even vs the supreme golem.



A new mace would definitely be needed, as the existing are quite terrible . There's a few nice templated in the game though that could be improved, like the mace of disruption that Dequ proposed.

I can't guarantee that the Dragons will be much tougher, but if you decide to install Controversial Changes component, then the gap between Necro and non-Necro protagonist should be a bit smaller when facing Dragons. And ofc you can skip Cavaliers if you have Necro protagonist


I view Beastmasters as an alternative to Vagrants, their summons might be worse in general, but they have an endless supply of them and if properly buffed, even the summons should be able to pack a punch. With Animal Fortitude and Unified Minds your Smilodon can have 216HP and 75% physical resistances, which should help greatly with its survivability.

Some new kit choices should be added to IATweaks, but I'll do that last, when I'm finished with everything else, but I agree that Minsc andd Valygar are probably the best choice here, though Valygar won't be able to use his katana and Minsc his sword...


Conjurers were also buffed

they do look like the part.

wasn't it so that Smilodon's cant be IH'd? do I remember correctly?

And is the noble spider (one my all time favorite summons) considered "an animal", can those buffs be used on the noble spider?

Also, as a sidenote, the 6.6 Shaman used to be quite the "cheatcode" with the max-summons party, especially entropy shields were very, very good with summons. is Shaman staying like @ 7.0 or might it be getting some of it's superpowers back?



great! giving mages more dimensions would certainly be quite welcome, imo

care to share some spoilers?

That's right. But you can still increase its APR through Animal Rage, as it's a plain APR bonus, not some form of haste.


All Spiders in the game are classified as Monsters, not Animals.

Well, Entropy Shield was quite problematic with its PDR bonuses, it was an amazing spell, but it allowed some characters/creatures to reach 100PDR without Barb Essences, which is a thing we'd like to avoid. Though it's now quite weak for a 5th level spell and works OK only if you devotet a character to stacking AC... Some boost would be probably welcome, maybe just 2 choices: slashing+crushing and piercing+missile AC? And if we're talking about Shamans, Cure/Mend spells were reworked, so it should be easier to keep the summons alive.


Each Specialist apart from Necro (let's be honest, Necro protagonist is the most powerful caster in the game anyway) got at least one unique ability/spell. They won't be all equally balanced as I doubt it's even possible, but different party compositions should benefit more from specific Specialists now. Oh and there are no new penalties, just bonuses, as all kits apart from Wild Mage and maybe Sorcerer were worse than B=>M. Since the topic of summons was brought up, here's the description for Conjurer:

Alright. I think it's actually good that those can't be IH'd. Otherwise the "max summons" tactic becomes ridiculous (it sort of already is....)



Alright. But the temple of bhaal in underdark does want one to sacrifice an animal, and spider will do fine there .

But I understand. The Noble Spider is such a nice summon it doesn't really need extra buffs in addition to the buffs that can be casted already.

Yea, I think the balancing thing is quite impossible. There are so many differenct comibations that the only possible solutions are limit the amount of deviations (classes/kits) or accept that there might be combinations that are just over the top, or in the vicinity. Conjurer looks great btw. So maybe the "max summons party" will be along the lines of:

Avenger PC
Edwin Conjurer
Cernd
Minsc the Beastmaster
Valygar the Vagrant
Sibel S/C




The thing about Shaman's is that a properly develop auramaster is a better healer for most parts of the game than the Shaman. So in a sense Shaman has one area where it's supposed to be amazing and it loses currently even there. I do like the Shaman though, but would definitely upgrade the capabilities towards the 6.6 version, but overall I think those abilities should come better paced rather than having i.e. mending from day 1. (but that's just me).

Humans are animals too :


I didn't check that properly, but I think that any non-hostile non-party-member creature works here. (yes, I dismissed Edwin from my party to get that result).


How come? Auramasters have mainly Mass Cure and 3 Natural Restorals, other spells require touch and are mostly longer to cast, so that even Auramasters have problems with insta-casting them.

yup



auramaster can be (with or without sibel) developed to -5, that gives it instant

cure light wounds
cure medium wound
mass cure
natural restoral

Especially mass cure is way more effective, as towards the end auramaster's mass cure will heal up to 50hp (or so), while Shaman's will heal 12hp.

Auramaster will blast away the Shaman in the amount of HP's it can heal in a single round very easily + Auramaster has wayy more spells + auramaster can "re-charge" via wonderous recall (under alacrity) and Auramaster's regeneration is more effective than Shaman's.

They are a little but different healers but I'd say in general Auramaster easily beats out Shaman on the healing front in majority of the fights. And auramaster then has it's other superpowers, like it can't be silenced + it can easily dish out amazing amounts of damage. In most fights Auramaster has exactly the right toolkit to keep the crew (and even summons) alive, while Shaman's toolkit works better i.e. in Demogorgon fight - as it's one of the rare occasions there's multiple very, very strong enemies which need to be dealt with all at once vs. e.g. fighting Supreme Golem.

Mass cure can heal up to 28 HP, from level 20 it's 20 + 1d8 to be precise and doesn't grow any further.

Haha, right. I have not realized that.

It's still more than double the amount on average, with Auramaster having almost double the amount of 5th level spells and double the amount of 6th level spells (so wonderous recalls). Those things stack up.

So essentially without resting the Auramaster can push out 45-50 Mass Cures, in a span of a few rounds (assuming we calculate, don't run out of alacrity and use the required 4-5 IA's to recharge). This is #1 more than the Shaman in sheer amount of spells + #2 auramaster mass cure heals 2x vs. Shsman. Also, Natural Restoral works better on an auramaster as it is instant & ranged (Shaman's version doesn't have mending so it effectively ends the mending sequence).

If I recall correctly.

Obviously Shaman has then mending versions of everything which narrows it down but I'd say the Auramaster beats the Shaman in amount of HP's it can heal, on most fights (my assumption, memory is a little bit shady but this was my reasoning behind the last game I did)

Yup, that's already reworked, Mend spells will be somewhat weaker, but not to that extent. I guess there will be some use for both Mend and Cure spells in Shaman's spellbook.


Well, you have to invest some time to cast those additional spells and thus use up slots of level 6 and 7 for that + you have to get your timing right + even with +5 casting speed both WR and Improved Alacrity still take up 4/10 of a round, so it's a bit of a tradeoff and it's less flexible than a Shaman that can start his Mend onslaught at any moment and keep healing your party steadily till he runs out of spells. Of course, I understand that Auramaster is far more versatile than Shaman, so Shamans should excel in healing, as it's their main specialization, I hope that my changes to cure/mend spells will make them more balanced.

Btw when you're talking about Auramasters getting +5 casting speed without Sibel Mod, you mean Auramaster after winning one of the most difficult fights of the game, which is Demogorgon, right? So until then (which for most is somewhere in ToB), it's still +4 casting speed for Auramasters.

Ok, great! My 2cents is that the 6.6 was too strong and the 7.0 wasn't strong enough . Somewhere in between should be quite good. Might it be possible for the Shaman to gain mending spells based on level, so they could not be picked? This would also fix the issue with those healing spells turning into mending spells in the spellbook but then one can pick them again when leveling up (so if you pick cure light wounds it's turned into mend light wounds but you can then pick the cure light wounds again when leveling up)

So say men light wounds is added level 10
mend medium wounds is added level 12
mend serious wounds as added level 14... etc. or so.



that's of course true + timing is critical. then again in the most difficult situations it's imperative that one can keep the entire crew (+ summons) alive for a few rounds, even though they are a lot of damage so that few rounds is very critical. (or that's how I play the game, other might play of course differently). this is where auramaster excels very, very well. I think Shaman manages as well, but the way I approach it I prefer the Auramaster (in 7.0 while in 6.6. Shaman is superior).



Yup. But you can of course pace it differently and do that fight in chapter 6 as well . (or chapter 7). the tradeoff being that once you hget the superpowers the rest of the fights are quite the breeze- through.

Ok, I made quite a nice progress in the last 7 days. Weapon Styles are finalized, all of them have 3 slots now and all should be viable for some kits and classes. Paladins should also be more powerful, with Cavalier gaining most of the new skills and abilities. But that was mostly side-tasks, as the most important thing to me now is to rework some fights. Time to work on Orcus, I think this will take some time, as I want to make the fight more dynamic after the 1st stage, where it was mostly you waiting for his 6 or so PFMWs to run out and killing some occasional Vampires.

Orcus fight is done, I hope that now he will be the main threat, not his minions, at least after the first wave of Grandlords. Big thanks to morpheus for providing a new set of animations for Orcus

Always beat Orcus fight the same way, might have to look for a new way

While you're going by chance at you going to rework Irenicus in hell fight? Always felt like that fight should be way harder, being the final boss, of SoA that is.

I do have some ideas for Irenicus in Asylum and in hell, but sadly they won't be present in the upcoming patch. I have limited resources and I had to set some priorities for myself in order to be able to publish the patch in foreseeable future There are many items on my list, so who knows, maybe there will be some further patches in the future.

This sounds great

I want to add some more variety to different aspects of the game, encouraging players to use a wider range of spells is one of the ways I try to achieve that.

I'm almost done with SoA, just a few small changes left. I think next week I'll be able to proceed to ToB/WK.

nice work man, just came back again to IA. Nice to see the best bg2 mod is still being worked on

That's super cool! ToB will definitely take a lot of time, but you already know my opinion on that

To tell you the truth, it shouldn't take too long. I only have a few fight from ToB and maybe 3-4 from WK that I want to change more drastically than by simply reworking enemy AI. There are also a few fights that I want to rework, but have very low priority and take too much time to change to do it in the upcoming release. Reworked Balthazar, EDE and Amelissan fall into this category.

Which are those 3-4 encounters in WK out of curiosity ?

For those who do want to get spoiled before the release:
SPOILER!

Nice! definitely agree with those encounters. Is this update suppose to be out within the next few weeks you think?

It's still too early to make any statements. I do what I can and I really want to publish the patch as soon as possible I should be able to say more near the end of November.