First of all v7 seems to have toned down a few encounters and maybe rightfully so but this Sibel mod is completely overpowered. I played it once, though dualed to a Mage. First thing I noticed was this character gets a +5 damage weapon in chapter 3 that deals ridiculous damage like 5d6 or something like that. All other items are overpowered as well. Immediately toned it down to a 2D6 damage but the heal and ironskins were still powerful throughout the game, I should have toned down the percentage as well, perhaps around 5% or so.
Then I got stuck in the Arcanis village with no way of getting out and that was very uncomfortable for a few reasons, one being the whole village feels eerie to me with those few NPCs there gathering in the middle trading leather, reminded of those movies where all the characters are in on some conspiracy in the town and they all have that creepy vibe. There are other things that make the new area eerie, maybe the color palette as well but it's so much more.
At some point some Arcanis character gave all the party a significantly HP boost for no reason, then there are some other items that this mod introduces that give permanent attributes. I end up using very few upgrades in the end from this mod, they are just too overpowered.
Some of the encounters were.. not sure how to put it. I think of the Pitre/Dracandros/Exterminator fight which is an excellent and interesting fight and then on the other end you have something like the Sibel encounters, the opposite of that basically.

Riskbreaker: Kit was overpowered before and now ever more so. I removed all the speed bonuses but kept the speed bonus from the new boots later on. Did not upgrade the boots as they are very overpowered. Also the potions of invulnerability makes the Riskbreaker lose all it's cons. I didn't end up using the Heal ability as it's overpowered as well. Also thanks to the new Flail of Ages buff this kit is ridiculously overpowered now. Even before v7 I was using the Improved Haste ability only once my mages got lvl 6 slots, otherwise it comes a bit early and throws the game off balance. So to recap: no heal/damage spell, no speed bonus, no use of invulenarbility potions, and either tone down passive damage or even the new Flail of Ages damage too, and don't use IH until your mages get it as well.

Wizard Slayer: I played this with Haste, not Improved. So he had one extra attack throughout the game, around 4 if I remember right. There was no way to play without it and have a character limping behind when moving around the map. I didn't upgrade the Regiment boots either as they are overpowered. I tried not to use the purge magic ability too often because it makes the battles too easy. Purge Magic was used on a few dragons and other foes to speed up their demise. Some notable encounters where this ability was useful, a bunch of Grave Liches in WK and Demogorgon fight. Sibel was my only arcane caster in that run, dualed to a Mage at 9 wearing Vecna, and the Demogorgon fight would have been not doable without the purge magic from the Wizard Slayer. I did cast it in the middle so everybody got purged including Rozvanke which I baited towards the middle, and so it made the fight significantly easier. It really strips the enemies of their buffs this one. Anyway, Purge Magic is very powerful and I tried not to use it, perhaps it would be better balanced as a single target instead of area of effect. It's a strong kit now with ridiculous regeneration but needs basic Haste and the Purge Magic ability throws the game off balance if not use sparingly.

Avenger: Did not forge the Avenger Dream gear as it seemed a bit too overpowered, stayed with Rust Armor. Overall this kit is very strong and in another run I'm using it without the Clan Hunter summon, much more balanced imo without that powerful summon.

Archer: Once you change missile damage into piercing he becomes a viable character. A ranged Kensai basically. However Called Shot needs nerfing, I set mine to 4 seconds for the effects. So with about ten shots per round, it would lower the Thac0 by about 8 max and Strength about similar. Seemed a bit too strong still, I think the effects should last 3 seconds, this way it would lower Thac0 by about 5-6 max and STR as well but only to the target that he is focusing on. The point is to soften the target. Archer comes in handy in many tight places but is a bit boring to play and the gear selection is not quite linear.
I set Fire, Acid and Ice arrows to +3 and lowered prices for +4 Arrows. He was using Gesen Bow most of the game and switched to Tuigan Bow and +4 Piercing arrows for the tough fights.


Party was: Avenger, Wizard Slayer, Riskbreaker, Sibel(Swash9/Mage), Shaman, Archer
Difficulty: Hard
No use of tomes, no max hp on level up, no milking of spawns as it throws the game off balance completely, no doing quests of random NPCs and no breach on clerics as their power is severely diminished if breached.

Hi Berzerkerzz.

Thanks for the honest feedback. You are right, some of the stuff is indeed more powerful. A less experienced player might appreciate these opportunities, whereas an experienced one can limit themselves to more reasonable options :-) Unless you are of the opinion that everything should be strictly hardcore. Wizard Slayer was intentionally made with those restrictions because Purge Magic is that powerful. Overall, one way to look at it is you can use these more powerful combinations if you're doing some kind of a challenge run or trying out other classes that are less performant than others.

Fair enough, but we could only do so much with our limited resources. I'd say the vibe is just right in that sense, but to each his own, I guess. Overall, the village segment is merely a puzzle and a few small encounters. You can probably do it in an hour or so.


Avenger was actually toned down quite considerably, including the summon. I think it is a sturdy enough character right now, definitely not super-OP compared to other choices that perform well in IA.

Archer is, I presume, a local modification, we did not touch that kit in v7. It's a valid idea, but ranged weapon overall is a tricky subject. With ranged weaponry there's a good chance kiting would become a regular tactic, not something we want to endorse, necessarly. We pondered on some ideas in these past few years on how to make the kit playable in a way that's agreable with our philosophy, but haven't had much success so far. But I'm glad you've found it enjoyable (or so I gathered) with these relatively small changes. Perhaps this is something that merits further investigation.

How did you find the shaman class?

No breach on clerics is an interesting self-limitation.

Yes the Archer was locally modified of course. I forgot to add that some enemy items might need some immunity to projectiles removed, memory is a bit vague now. Called Shot definitely needs a nerf though.

Shaman: I only played him once only and since I had plenty of melee characters he did not see much fighting action. A divine sorcerer I guess with some melee capabilities. Perhaps in another run I could make better use of him. It's a good class I'd say, those spiritual clarities come in handy in mid game even though I had an Avenger with permanent chaotic commands from the potion, Lilarcor user and there is also a Shield of Harmony in the game, but a handy spell nevertheless. Good quick healer in the midst of battles and he can give up his healing capabilities for a few rounds of melee prowess.

It's too bad some encounters still haven't been improved, like Balthazar, Heart Key at the Final Seal in WK, Mind Flayer mini-boss in Sendai's Enclave, War Party in the Underdark (Boz, Simbja, Nashtar, Demien), Abazigal Lair still has a lot of unimproved fights, Bodhi is still too weak in certain encounters, and there are several others. It was pleasant to see the Demon encounter improved after the ritual in the Drow City, it's a good fight really and optional too from what I remember. I also restored the Drow ambush to his original level, it's a bit too nerfed now being based on XP. The Drow bridge ambush I guess is alright now, that Ghost Spider just made things annoying and you had to basically split up your party.

The Druid Stronghold quests are good overall, was glad to see some new monster animations introduced. I guess AI was used for the stories and dialogues, it works well though. The Alpha Smilodon is pretty strong but apparently immune to Heal, regen works well on him though. Makes the final fight more bearable, I also remove the four purges from the Prince and have been doing this for many runs now. Yes it's easier without the purges but a much more pleasant fight. The Rakshasa has plenty of remove magics plus the minions he spawns also cast remove magics. I generally play without using the Wish spell, so no Wish for Rest usually in my runs which means limited numbers of improved hastes.
I also did the Old Ones fight with the Avenger in this run, it's obviously not suited for it and involves a lot of running around and using summons to make space. In a more recent run, also with an Avenger, I skipped the Old Ones fight and went straight for the Lesser Force fight, it's those Balors I was really after.

Another thing I noticed, the Elite Bountyhuntress and possibly the Warden or another foe now use Minor Globe of Inv instead of Globe of Inv, which means only two Ruby Rays are needed to remove the Spell Immunity. I had extra Ruby Rays left before leaving for Spellhold. I'll also mention this here, Planar Prison is best done before Spellhold. If you do it after yes you get a lot of those war dogs spawning but the encounter becomes too easy, the Warden is too weak for a chapter 6 fight. Another thing it's best not to deactivate his thralls because the encounter becomes a little easier that way. If you don't deactivate his thralls he has two extra mages with him and some other minions. You can always deactivate the Orb from the brazier after the fight is over, this way you get some extra dogs spawning but the Warden fight remains more challenging.

Thank you for this detailed input! Each such comment allows us to see the mod from a different angle and gradually make IA better!

Are you sure that strength bonuses applied properly to the enemies? Most creatures have an item that prevents any forms of strength modifications to them in IA. I assume this is done mostly to prevent stat-drain chunking and things like casting Strength (2nd level arcane spell) on enemies to lower their strength from 25 to 18 and similar weird applications of such spells.


You might be interested to check the IA_Rebalance component of IATweaks, whenI finish it. At least some of those encounters will be reworked and improved there. If there are any other enemy groups that you think that should get a boost/rework then let me know I post news regarding the current state of the mod in "Suggestions for the coming release" topic if you're interested to read about them or write your own suggestions/comments.

Well strength lowering might indeed not work on certain enemies, but thac0 and saves do work, it's like a cumulative doom. Extremely strong in it's vanilla form, especially if you have low AC, like your Riskbreaker using potions of Inv and having -24 armor already.

Effect available from the start: +1 penalty to target's THAC0 for 20 seconds
Effect unlocked at level 8: +1 penalty to target's save vs Spell for 15 seconds
Effect unlocked at level 12: -1 penalty to target's Strength for 6 seconds in BGEE and 10 seconds in BG2(EE)
Effect unlocked at level 16: +2 Piercing damage

I've never tried Called Shot in it's vanilla form because I knew from the start it's overpowered, so I lowered all of them to about 6 seconds then did a few tests and settled for 4 seconds. 20 seconds with 10 shots per round you are looking at +30 thac0. At 3 seconds duration you are looking at +5 or +6 thac0 and saves so much more reasonable, but some low and mid level enemies will have their strength lowered as well by 5/6 so an even higher thac0 for them.
To be honest the Archer had 8 attacks per round throughout most of the game, so my 4 seconds Called Shot ability was not that strong, but for the difficult fights Tuigan Bow and 10 attacks is the way to go.


I'll post my input in that thread then.

I did another run since then.

Avenger: I tried not to use the Clan Hunter but ended up needing some powerful summons in a few fights (Demon at Drow City ritual, Rakshasa Prince, Demon Prince at Judgement Day). I always played the Avenger with Treefolk and dual wielding but used Staves this run, Silent Hunt +4 and then Staff of Earth. Lower thac0 with staves so he makes a better fighter overall, Staff of Earth came around mid ToB but does a lot of damage.

Aerie: A bit frail in early and mid game, didn't go as well as I expected. The plan was to get her Improved Alacrity at Mage level 18 but that happened only in the middle of ToB somewhere after the Gromnir fight IIRC, so very late into the game. Her +4 Hammer gave me some headaches as using Energy Blades and Black Blade of Disaster messes up the spellbook. I ended up transferring the attributes from the hammer to a Ioun Stone she was using, towards the end of ToB she was using Hammer of Thor. Only 2 APR with the +7 Shield though. Her thac0 with the Avariel hammer was not that great, only with the Black Blade did she get to around -15 thac0. The best part was putting Chant + Bless in a Minor Sequencer and firing it once the fight started. Blade Barrier was changed to the same projective as Globe of Blades, so party friendly. Spell Trigger was usually Holy Power + Righteous Magic + Blade Barrier. She did ok in the Demogorgon fight, a bit slow on the speed casting side with only +1 from Foreknowledge. Chain Contingency was Spell Turning, Globe of Inv and a priest spell due to the Archpriest focusing on her (most enemy spellcasters targeted her instead of the Necromancer throughout the game), Spell Trigger here was Breach + 2x Lower Resistance on Belcheresk. Edwin had CC (3x Ruby Rays) on Kargoth and then manually 3 Ruby Rays on Blecheresk. Her damage output was rather small in this fight, two Spell Sequencers, a few Magic Missiles and a few Acid Arrows, Edwin did the bulk of damage with the second Chain Contingency of 3 Horrid Wiltings. She could have used some item to improve her casting speed throughout the game, Amulet of Power was mostly on other characters. The most important feature of this run was Aerie using the F/M/C potion before Spellhold to gain 500k experience points, 750k is too much and 250k too little. I felt 500k was just right and she gained one level in each class. Next time I would probably go with Imoen as a Cleric-Mage multiclass. Her amulet would work better and not break the spellbook, I would probably remove the +25% magic damage and Level Drain immunity and add the +1 Priest Spells per Level instead, this way she would get some casting speed as well.

Edwin (Necromancer): Chaotic Neutral Alignment. Turned his Amulet into a Ring and only +1 spell per level instead of two for balance purposes. The other ring was Reaching Ring. He got the Hades Amulet somewhere in late SoA to deal with Silence and eventually Lord of the Underworld. Poor natural wisdom and I don't really like to use the Wish spell anyway. Weapon was Rod of Smiting throughout most of the game. Necromancer fits him well, I like the party banter he brings. I also played him as a Sorcerer in the past.

Minsc (Champion of Arvoreen): Flails and Long Swords, that's Flail of Ages and Belm most of the game and eventually Judgement Day towards the end. Also in ToB in the off-hand was the picture attached (I usually leave that part of Watchers Keep for ToB and by that time +4 weapons are a must). First time playing this kit, it's pretty good overall, lot's of positives and few drawbacks but not as overpowered as the Riskbreaker kit. Nice thac0 boost, nice regen and armor, and level drain immunity comes in handy in the early and middle part. I'd pick this fighter kit again over all other fighters currently, powerful but more balanced compared to the Riskbreaker and Wizard Slayer (the purge magic ability is too strong and breaks the difficulty of many fights, yet no Haste also breaks this kit)

Haer Dalis: It's been a long time since I played the Blade, there was no need to nerf this kit. First he started out with Mastery in Katanas and eventually reached Grandmastery. Memory is a bit vague right now on what +3 weapon he used in the early game, but eventually a +3 Katana (likely from Samias party as I always do that fight in Chapter 3). Restored the "mxsplbrd.2da" to vanilla settings so he had level 6 spells eventually. Offensive Spin was also restored with +1 attack per round and I think it blocks Improved Haste if cast after, so that needed to be fixed as well. The Hood of Honorless comes in early and is a must for this kit. Thac0 is the main problem of this kit. He was wielding Githzerai Blade +5 and Celestial Fury +4 in off hand starting sometime in late SoA until the end. A decent fighter with 6 attacks per round, stoneskin and spell immunity. Thac0 was only about -11 at 23 Strength with a +5 weapon in late ToB, with some spells like Aid and Bless this can be increased to -13 or so, still not quite optimal. I think those Wondrous Gloves that come in mid ToB or so, should give -2 Thac0 instead of just -1. Perhaps even Foreknowledge as a High Level Ability (Innate).
I did the Planar Prison with him in my party, he was not taken hostage by the Bounty Hunters. This caused some problems and a huge headache when Raelis was rescued and she had to teleport the party back to the Inn. It's waiting for Haer Daelis to trigger certain variables for the teleportation back and well he was in my party so they weren't triggering. Eventually I managed to figure it out which Cut Scene was causing the stall, it's kind of complicated and I didn't write any of it down for another Blade run.

Keldorn: Not much to say, I played him with Mastery in Two-Handed Swords so he had a slightly better thac0 than usual and 16 dexterity instead of 9. The gloves of dexterity could make up for his Armor Class, but he had to use those Paladin Bracers eventually. The dispel magic, while often useful, can be tricky to use. Remove Magic would makes things much easier and I might try that in another run. For example I relied on Necromancer and Blade with spell sequencers (3x Remove Magic) for Rozvankee, which worked ok but sometimes it doesn't work because of the level difference and instead I could make use of that Inquisitor dispel however you waste about half a round pulling back fighters. Anyway, dispel magic is still alright with some skill and practice. I usually get the Dragons Lord Halberd to deal with Wing Buffet from enemies (Elite Fire Giants, Yaga Shura, Demon Prince), but somehow the Demon Prince kept switching targets and throwing them around the map. I didn't remember him switching targets like that in the past.

Lots of good insights here, thanks. I don't have the time to dive deep into them at the moment, but I've added to whole thread to the todo list for the future endeavours.

And no, there was no AI involved in production of story and dialogue for the new quest. Not sure if it was a compliment, or a criticism :-)

I guess that was the point, if you want to have him protected, you have to use some of your finite resources that can be easily dispelled.

Is the reworked FoA that much better now? How do you think it compares to Treefolk's Fury?

The dialogues were surprisingly good and it was cool to see some cutscenes introduced. There are several IA encounters that could use some type of cutscenes, Judgement Day fight is one of them. The fight is forced upon you as soon as you enter the area and the creatures spawn right next to you, very annoying for one but probably done on purpose. Anyway it could use a cutscene, where perhaps the Demon Prince and the party walk towards each other, some taunts perhaps and then the confrontation starts. Also perhaps some animations added for the creatures the Demon spawns instead of just appearing out of the blue. I vaguely remember some animation with some type of mirrors that are animated, I think the Vagrant quests use it for the Mirror Master fights, wonder what it's named and where you find them, projectiles perhaps?



The kit is too strong, his fragility was his only con. Too much gold in the game and too many of those potions freely available. You don't even need to buy any for having one in your party. Maybe if you have two of them you might need to buy some, it's really just for some tough fights.

The flail does double damage to most improved foes frankly, about 10% of the time initially and then eventually one in four attacks. If you add the Riskbreaker passive damage, you are looking at a lot of double and sometimes even triple damage.
I haven't really forged Treefolk anymore since using Staves on the Avenger. In the past on a Vagrant but I usually stopped at the +4 version. They are all a bit overpowered because the 8d6 damage is too high, it should be more like 3d6 or something like that. The last Avenger run that I used Treefolk with, I toned down the damage to about 3d6 or 4d6, even on the +3 version I toned the elemental damage to about 10 instead of 20.




It's simply too much damage, sure it doesn't work on many foes like Golems but on those it does work it makes the fights too easy and can break them. Don't remember if Golems are considered unnatural but if they are that's almost triple damage against them, much better than Golem Slayer or any other weapon in the game.

First Part: https://files.catbox.moe/bljlb3.mkv
Second Part: https://files.catbox.moe/v4bn3a.mkv


I improved the Kobold Krystal fight and uploaded a video. The three Guardians are only slightly improved, a bit lower thac0 and 25% physical resistance. They now hit for about 20 damage on Hard but they are still frail and fall quick. The Guardian Mage is somewhat more improved, but also more fun. Now it's a little party. Also two Amber Golems instead of one or three. Edwin, my only mage survived with 1 HP. This fight does have a bit more potential in it though, I might improve it a little bit further next time.

I've redone it, it's only slightly tougher and perhaps better themed:

https://files.catbox.moe/nzufgg.mkv
No audio due to file size limitations. Google now requires phone numbers and who knows what else to sign up so no more easy uploading.