I've played the mod (well, SoA parts anyway) with three, almost four, different parties and though the most difficult fights in the game with all different difficulty levels. As a somewhat experienced player of the mod this is my opportunity to say thank you for the designers and developers of the mod. (Thanks again for making my all-time favourite game so much more enjoyable!). When writing this I'm currently in the pocket plane with my latest incarnation of a "uber powerful party", so I've witnessed everything in the mod except the very last fight against Melissan.

My favourite thing is to tinker with party composition, it's sort of a "puzzle to solve", where in addition to characters and their respective strengths you have to take into account the items in the game to make best use of them. For example if you don't have a way of using Judgement Day efficiently, your game will be much-much, harder (or I might just lack tactical knowledge). Some very powerful items come with class restrictions so the only way to get around that is with UAI.

Here's my notes and best hints on who to choose & how to develop them:


Overall party composition

As the beginners guide says you will need at least two full-time fighters to hit things efficiently in the game. But having only two full-time fighters will make game the game ridiculously hard, as so many of the encounters are melee heavy even with much extended spell-slots of casters. Having three capable fighters is good, but if you can have more that's even better. Or you don't need the "fighters" in excess of 2 to be full time fighters, you'll just need those characters to be able to fight like fighters, when needed. What you need is 3-4 character who have high attacks per round (preferably 7-10 APR under improved haste), ways of protecting themselves in h2h combat and a low Thac0 of at least -14 but preferably -16/-17 or so and hit point preferably staring from 180+. In addition that group will need access to variety of weapons, preferably access to all three of blunt-, piercing- and slashing damage to be able to dish out damage effectively in the game.

In addition to fighters, you could have a Thief (preferably a dual-class of you do), you almost must have a divine caster (cleric or a druid or a muti-/dualclassed one) and arcane spell casting power, that is 1-2 full time wizards weather mages or sorcerors. Keeping in mind our starting point of having 3-4 capable fighters, our choices for party composition are already beginning to narrow down quite a lot. Cernd, the former "shapeshifter" now as an"aura master" is the best divine caster you can have. But Cernd is almost useless as a supportive fighter due to low APR's & low HP's & a low Thac0, all of which you can't improve a whole lot.


On protecting yourself

In classic BG the way to protect yourself was having a low AC. Couple that with high hit points and occasional "heal" - spells and you were good. In IA, as a rule the enemies will hit you, almost regardless of you AC, so having a low AC provides only limited protection. If this "enemies will hit you always" is a rule, there are a few notable exceptions where you can reach ridiculously low AC which will actually protect you somewhat. Though you'll need a few buffs still to survive. The AC is capped at -20 + dexterity bonus, so having a low ac starts with -24 and then bonuses and buffs on top.

High level warrior will gain the HLA "Hardiness" giving you 40% resistance to all physical damage. Also there is a variety of items giving you bonuses on physical resistance plus a few classes that do as well. Every point of physical resistance will come in very handy and at later stages, the mod provides the player with an uber powerful potion that also grants physical resistance.

The third and final way of protecting yourself is by spells. High-level mages & druids can cast stone-/ironskins, replacing the need for "hardiness" (except in cases where they do not) and of course there is PfMW: protection from magic weapons, mantle and "absolute immunity", which is the best way of protecting your character in h2h combat. The only classes that can achieve all 3 ways of protecting oneself are the multi classed fighter/mage & fighter/druid.

Having low AC is the worst way of protecting yourself, physical resistance achieved through items, abilities or warrior HLA's is better and in most fights the best way is to protect yourself by spells, so you won't in fact get hit at all. Though of course there are exceptions because different enemies will have different powers & abilities.


Player Character:

Necromancer is the most powerful PC. The alternative most common PC would be Vagrant, but it is nowhere near as powerful. Necromancer's power comes from a few different sources, but mostly:

1. It has insane amount of spell slots (my 35th level Necro has 16 level 7 spell slots),
2. Casting time bonuses (can reach -5)
3. A new spell (though the spell is available to sorcerers as well a Necro has the most powerful version of the spell)
4. Access to a few specific items (Necro's amulet being the most powerful item).

There's no way around this and no way to compensate.


Fighters:

One of the most important things about fighters is to plan your equipment choices so that everyone on your front line will have 24/25 Strength as soon as possible. It will make a massive difference in the game starting from the early chapters. The easiest ways to reach that goal is by gaining the STR through planned use of of items, capabilities + bonuses. I always have one character wielding Crom Fayer (/Hammer of Thor), another one with girdle of cloud giant strength (23STR) + judgement day (+2STR) and the last one where I will use a tome (+1 STR), deck of many things (+1 STR), Machine of Lum the Mad (+1 STR) and Girdle of Lordly might (+3 STR) for a combined +6 STR. Last there's "Phosphorous +4" which will grant you a STR of 24. This is a very handy weapon to have as you can access it in chapter 2/3, even though I rarely use it in the later stages of the game. Also the mage spell "giant strength" is in regular use in my games.


The kit's and classes I use.

Melee-oriented characters Fighters

Dwarven Defender: This is best (fighter) tank you can have in the game and it's not even close. Gains up to +20% phys resistance naturally, can use platemails and is able to reach -17 Thac0 with items & abilities (without buffs). Has defensive stance from the start, giving the DD an ability to add +25% to phys resistance so DD reaches +35% phys resistance in chapter 2. Also, defensive stance doesn't dispel so in some fights it's so much more useful than "hardiness" (which is dispel- and breachable). Dual wield & equip Hammer of Thor on main hand with Belm / Water's Edge in Off-hand for maximum effectiveness. Alternatively use tomes + machine of lum the mad + Girdle of Lordly Might with Axe / Belt. Potential for -20AC (or so).

Barbarian: Like the DD, but instead of defensive stance has "enrage" that is very useful in some fights. Not as effective as DD due to enrage being not as useful as Defensive Stance + doesn't get to use heavy armours + lacks' weapon mastery so has lower Thac0 + develops resistance later than the DD.

Inquisitor: One of my personal favorites. Is able to dispel in numerous fights, when every other party member won't be able to. This will make a huge difference in 5-10 very hard fights. Otherwise this character is sort of a weakling. Lack of mastery means sub-optimal APR's with sub optimal Thac0. (<- both are fixed by a paladin specific Item though). Equip Judgement Day with belm / water's edge in off-hand. If you use JD on an inquisitor, make sure it has 18 wisdom to maximize benefits. If JD is not an option, you can use Carsomyr / Staves / Halberd's, but then you will lack APR's and you need to babysit the character because otherwise it will be in trouble all the time.

Kensai: Oh lordy, please please take a Kensai! At later stages a Kensai will have insane advantages over any other fighter class in the game. In numerous fights your Kensai will hit on average with 50% of attacks (so 5/10 attacks per round will hit), while your every other character will be relying on "critical hits" to be able to hit (even a Riskbearer will hit on average only with 2/10 attacks). The Kensai is so powerful, that it will almost break the difficulty of some fights. It's natural defensive disadvantages are almost completely offset by using Judgement Day, so I always use Girdle of cloud giant strength + Judgement Day on a Kensai. A half-orc Kensai can reach from the start 19STR, 18DEX, 19CON with 18WIS. Use Staves / Halberds if you play a Kensai from the start and always position behind a tank before you get JD, though a Kensai reaches quite a low AC in the beginning as well if you use potions. Very useful throughout though will grow to be an unbeatable machine of death by the end. In later stages using "criticall strike" will hit for 100+pts of damage per hit, so you will be able to dish out almost a 1,000 pts of damage per 1 use of CS. Even with 85% of phys resistance on an enemy, that's still 150pts / damage / round. And even without CS a Kensai will hit anything IA throws against you party. In a pinch, if you have a (high-level) cleric, you can "champion's strength" Kensai to give it additional -9 to -10 in Thaco, so you should reach a Thac0 of -40. That's hit on every strike besides a critical miss, against every enemy (I think).

Berserker: Berserking is very valuable in the beginning and against level draining opponents, but you will notice you won't be using the ability that much in later stages of the game as a berserker will get winded after berserking, this having bonuses is nice but it's countered by well, having almost equal minuses for almost(?) an equal duration so in the difficult, hard and long fights plays mostly like a regular fighter.

Riskbearer: Supposedly the most effective fighter. Will grow as you progress but it's massive natural abilities are subject to interruptions so they are not nearly 100%. If used properly very deadly.

Swashbuckler(2)/Fighter: This is essentially a basic fighter with permanent special abilities from the Swashbuckler class. This character is able to reach -18 Thac0 unbuffed with -24AC (with defensive harmony) while dualwielding. Can use some thief specific equipment, like amulet of the master harper (-3AC) Thanks to Swashbuckler's abilities ("mirrored blade") can drop the characters ac as low as -37 or so in any fight by itself, assuming it can hit the enemy. Very high melee potential with dual wielding, grand mastery for APR's + full access to warrior HLA's with the possibility (if successful mirrored blades) for the lowest AC in the game.

From the other classes and kits Vagrant has a nice set of abilities required to survive IA, the protector is great (but thanks to Valygar's upgraded items there's no need to make a protector yourself, as Valygar is better than a custom made character) and the rest of the Paladin kits are all worth while and will have their moments when they shine. Also Mazzy's new kit looks to be very efficient and she has access to a few very good items incl. her one personal item upgrades.


Other characters with melee potential:

Fighter/Cleric: dual- & multi classes. Better than a pure cleric, but not worth it in my opinion. For cleric doesn't have iron skins so you can't use it in the front line without constant babysitting. Dual-class doesn't have access to warrior HLA's, so no phys. resistance. And even if the multi class version can get hardiness late in the game, it still doesn't have access to anything else than blunt weapons. The Ranger/Cleric is a fighter/cleric, but without advanced weapon specialisation but with access to a few druidic spells in levels 1-3.

Berserker/Druid: The Berserker/Druid dualled at level 9 is one my personal favorites. One of the best tanks in the game and a complete divine spell caster. It is able to use some very powerful druid specific equipment in the circlet of the woods & the paws of the furious cat*. That -1 casting time & +1 APR will play a big role in usefulness of this character. Reaches 9 spells per level, -24AC (with effective ac of -28 without buffs). Has access to ironskins and buffs to drop you effective AC to -32. Not as good as Swashbuckler/Fighter, but near. Can tank a greater elemental golem (or a supreme leader) by itself in chapter 6 once you get the character up to level 20 something & with proper equipment. With 25STR reaches Thac0 of -10 (-12 with Berserking) with 3,5 APR (without IH & with shield / 2-handed weapon). The only drawback to this dual class is that a druid required 17 charisma to dual class, so even with very high ability scores planning is needed. Oh, and gets immunity to poison early on.

Alternatively you could develop a multi classed fighter/druid, which is essentially the same character in most fights. You will lose out on some spell slots (especially level 6/7), some hit points, mastery in weapon types and "berserking" but you will gain warrior HLA's and lower Thaco (-14 without buffs) and an extra +0.5APR from warrior level 13, though ofc. you'll lose 0.5 from lack of grand mastery).The dual-class is stronger for the majority of the game while the multi-class will be more effective in the end due to warrior HLA's.

(* or should be able to. IA v. 6.52 doesn't allow dual classed F/D to use the item, even though a multi-classd F/D can)

Swasbuckler/Cleric dual-class: If you must have a cleric and a thief, this is probably as good as it gets. Obviously inferior as fighter to the Figter/Cleric but the swashbuckler's natural abilities compliment the Cleric's abilities quite nicely. Can reach 180 HP's, Thaco of -12/-10, AC -24 with 4 APR's while dual wielding (holy power + call upon holy might + foreknowledge).

Kensai(13)/Thief: it's like a regular fighter, but supercharged. One of the most effective & diverse characters in the game. Can reach continuous 50-60% phys resistance quite easily via items while having 9-10 APR's with 2-handed weapons. Reaches Thac0 of -24 (or so) & 420+ HP's under "tenser's transformation" (from Noble staves / Royal elemental staff) with -24AC (with greater evasion) The key is obviously "use any item" so if you don't have a paladin utilise paladin's bracers on K/T or "paws of the furious cat". Also is able to use Cloack of the daywalker and you can get 5* in staves / 2h swords (for golem slayer / carsomyr) or use "improvised blend" in offhand while whacking away with "flail of defending and wounding".

Assasin(31)/Fighter: Essentially a fighter with "use any item" and some assassin bonuses. Can use any item in the game so makes for great tank if equipping wares that enhance physical resistance, where the character can reach +85% without hardiness.'Potential for Thac0 of -20 with equipment, without buffs. So essentially a turbocharged fighter, with low hit points though & a vacuum time of 1/3 of the game in total.

Fighter/Mage (dual-class): Whether a Kensai(7/9/13)/Mage or a Berserker(7/9/13)/Mage, they end up with approximately similar stats. If dual-classed at 13th level, you won't need "Tenser's Partial Transformation", but you'll have much longer vacuum time. This is basically a fighter with ok potential for casting spells. In any case this character will lack the most powerful spells and won't even in the end be a very effective spell caster, due to almost full casting times for all spells. But works nicely as a complimentary caster besides a Necromancer, has potential for 350+ HP's (Tenser's Transformation), 9 APR (with improved haste), AC -20 or so. Can debuff enemy spell casters in the beginning and the activate TT through a spell trigger. Very versatile and effective.

Fighter/Mage (multi-class): Another type of fighter. Lacks advanced weapons specialisation & access to the most powerful spells so it's at best a very mediocre spell caster. Plays like a little bit underdeveloped fighter with access to mage spells. This character is a master of protecting itself, though it's offensive output is a little bit limited. Doesn't reach high hitpoints so the self-preservation powers will be needed. No access to improved alacricity & more powerful version of Wish, which both limit the spellcasting capabilities enormously.

Avenger: The melee oriented druidic kit. Powerful summons and some melee capability. Doesn't compare to properly developed F/D though, or at least that's my calculation. A nice set of complimentary abilities, because of bonus spells.


Full Sspellcasters:

Necromancer: The most powerful character in the game for reasons discussed earlier.

Auramaster: If you want a pure divine caster, take Cernd. Thanks to Cernd's personal weapon upgrades, he will be better than a custom made character. Auramaster has access to number of extremely useful spells and the decreased casting time together with "aura clensing" will come very, very handy while tanking & buffing your crew say against elemental damage. Personal upgrades to cloak & staff ensure that the character stays competitive until the very end.

Sorceror: Probably the best supportive arcane spellcaster you can have. Early access to rare spells and a lot of spell slots in the beginning. By the end, a specialist mage will outnumber the spellslots of a sorcerer by a lot though. If your secondary main spell caster is a sorceror/mage, take Neera. She is better than any custom made character you can have. She'll have access to all of the most important spells, can reach -4 in casting time & has 2 additional spell slots per level with her personal item upgrade. There's no way you can beat that with a custom made character. Plus you can create potions of dexterity through alchemy, so you'll have a never-ending source of potions to get you to 18DEX. In my game we can drop Neera's ac to as -24AC (Soul Armour (0), Ring +4 (-4), Cloak +2 (-6), Foreknowledge (-10), Improved Invisibility (-14), blur (-17), Defensive Harmony (-19), Ioun Stone (-20), Dex -4 (-24)).


A few example crews.

So on both crew's we'll have one character with better than average Thac0, two full spell casters and the rest of the crew supports in the best way they can. I'm quite sure you can't really get much more powerful than these, no matter what you do. This composition also lets you use the most powerful equipment in the game effectively (with #2 excelling in effective use of equipment thanks to UAI of K(13)/T).

1. Necromancer, Cernd, Berserker(9)/Mage, Swashbuckler/Fighter, Inquisitor, Kensai.
2. Necromancer, Neera, Berserker(9)/Druid, Kensai(13)/Thief, Dwarven Defender, Valygar

I will probably start an IA run after my current playthrough (Never tried it before completely new but heard its rather difficult which is fine)

1. When you recommend the playable characters like Cernd/Neera/Valygar are they tweaked or edited in any way?

2. So which crew which you recommend, sounds like you were leaning towards #2? Also what weapons for each fighter I assume its a healthy mix between them? (I have real grasp of the plethora of new items/weapons)

Well, IA is a little ibitt different than the vanilla game but for sure I've had the best time playing BG2 than ever before! In the beginning, it was a struggle though .

1. No tweaks / edits. Well, the only edit I do is I sometimes max their hit points,but in the end it doesn't make a big difference. Neera for example is as powerful as you can get, with her as she is. Same with Cernd (well, besides the hit points in Cernd's case - I think he has -10HP's compared to what he could have)

The power of those NPC's largely comes from having personal item / weapon upgrades, that are better than generic ones. Like Neera's robe or Cernd's cloak.

2. For first time play through, assuming you are playing on easy (you need to adjust if you play on Core rules):

Necro (PC)
- weapons largely irrelevant, any staff with +4 / +5 (there are plenty)
Neera
- slings, any staff with +4 / +5 (there are plenty)
Customa made Berserker(9)/Druid*
- Scimitars, Club's & Spear's (Treefolkl's fury / Yamato, Spectral Brand / Ixil's spike & "supreme shelter" -shield work very well).
Korgan (as Dwarven Defender from IATweaks)
- Dwarven Thrower & Frostreaver in the beginning. Crom Fayer / Hammer of Thor / Axe of Unyielding with possibly Belm off-hand later on). I always us Phosphorous in off-hand for this character to get ridiculously low Thac0's early on.
Valygar
-Flail of Ages, Flail of defending and wounding (assuming you get it), Corthala family blade, Corthala family true blade, short swords
Custom made Inquisitor (Max out Wisdom, Dex & CON, as this character gets Judgement Day & will always use a belt for strength)
- Staff's / Halberd's and Judgement Day in the end with "water's edge" in off-hand.

The B(9)/D should get the "paws of the furious cat" but they are not usable by that character even though the description says fighter/druid's can use them (has been reported) . So you need to fix it locally, or otherwise a large part of what makes that character great in combat in chapters 2&3 is wasted.

For as easy time as possible, Inquisitor can be swapped for a custom made (Half-Orc) Kensai at half-way through chapter 6.

Or something like that.

( I always assume I have the tomes from BG1 to use on my characters though mostly I use them on the PC. )

Alright thanks for that write up, I'll use it as a guide.

1. I must admit in my many playthroughs I've never really used Neera (or a wild mage) isn't she a little inconsistent with her wild surges?

2. I see you mentioned the tomes so I assume you can still CLUA stuff in, is there a list of item codes for the new items would like to do some theory crafting myself before I dive fully into it?

All item upgrades are available in the readme. It's kinda hard to theory-craft if you haven't seen what the mod throws at you.


The majority NPCs are adapted to the reality of the mod, yes. Some more than others. Once again, the readme has some suggestions on party compositions and recommended NPCs.

...

In IA Neera is a sorcerer. What makes her the best choice for a supportive arcane caster is her personal item upgrade.

Yes, console still works ofc. And no, I don't think there's a list of item codes for the new items. Would generally recommend trying out different things and combinations before deciding a path, as it might not work the way you intended in IA.

Edit: Though as Critto pointed out, it's pretty difficult to find a winning strategy before you know what you are up against.

( for example I would have loved to play a Swashbuckler/Mage, dual class when we get UAI. But that class doesn't have UAI in IA. Additionally, the most powerful version of "Wish" isn't even available for that character. I'm quite happy I put all of that together in advance before spending 3-4 weeks in developing such a character in the actual game. )