ToB Improved Baddies

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I have installed the ToB improved baddies in my game. I have now played the tougher Illasera, Improved Gromnir will folow next.

• Improved Illasera
  First of all: Don't try them with a new char! I imported two chars from SoA and they were on ToB beginner level of 2.500.000 xp. Illasera and her friends wiped the floor with them.
  Yesterday night I again started ToB and I found the fight well manageable with my party of at least 3.000.000 xp consisting of a halfling cavalier, halfling archer, Minsc, Aerie (my only spellcaster) and Imoen (made as she should be: a pure thief ).
  The fight against this party was really fun, good and powerful opponents. I liked that huge orog type; the mage and the cleric were pretty mean too.
  
  Only one thing I disliked about the fight: The core of Illasera's party died rather quick under the massive attacks of my party - except Illasera.
  For one simple reason: She was invisible after drinking some mysterious potion. That invis effect was neither dispellable nor to be overcome with detect Illusions/ true sight. That seemed a bit rigged to me, anyway, even her invisibility only delayed her end.

Stay tuned for Gromnir il Khan.

PS: Don't post ANY SPOILERS on the ToB baddies I haven't played yet !!! Only comment on the ones I played already!

PPS: Improved Balthazar will bot be installed. The normal fight is so terribly rigged already that I doubt the improved Balthazar will be any better. However, you can still convince me that it's worth it without spoilers.

[This message has been edited by Ragusa (edited April 23, 2002).]

 

I didn't realise you could import them individually?!

I thought the improved baddie stuff was all or nothing

I'm just trying to imagine some of the fights that were nip and tuck with the normal bosses, being beefed up... I spot a challenge. I think I shall have to take more than 3 characters through this time though....

 

Yes improved Illasera is impossible to beat for a char that started right in ToB, you need to be at the SoA XP cap with a full party and all the goodies. You have much fun in front of you Ragusa, no spoilers but the Abaizigail fight is the funniest most intense fight in the entire series.
Havent played Ascension though, there seems to be some pretty tough fights too.

 

Besides: What is the difference between the indivuidual improved baddies and the Ascension mod?

 

What do you mean rigged? I only tried the improved balthazar and it is fairly easy if you got a fighter or two.

 

Indeed, what do you mean by rigged in that case? Did you mean it was tweaked to be hard? Odd, as I thought Balthazar was the easiest 'boss' in the game, he was a breeze, but I had trouble with all the others (including the Ravager). And no, I haven't tried any improved fights. The normal ones (except Illasera and Balthazar) are hard enough already.

 

Eh, I installed all the Improved Mods and soloed a FMT through SoA. Then I dropped right into ToB and had to go for some different tactics for that Illasera battle. Sheez, she can fire arrows like I drink beer.

I had to turn into the Slayer (I was a bit weakened, and also didnt have many spells left) after the battle with Irenicus and the whole damn Nine Hells (I didnt rest - just to try out something).

Very cool fight. Did it again with a full party, still easy to do, but way more rewarding than the original ToB encounter with Illasera.

And yes, do NOT try it with a newly created character.

 

You completed SoA just to test it?! Why don't you just cheat to the level? (I know it's, well, cheating, but still...)

 

Gromnir il Khan:
Gromnir il Khan was giving a nice fight - Actually difficulty was significantly improved, compared to the original fight. I even had, and that rarely happens, to reload once after my char died one sec before Gromnir (he was slowed, therefor unable to drink a potion in time). Geez.

Second attempt was smoother (as usual): Aerie casted greater malison and double doom on Gromnir, followed by doom and ray of enfeeblement, followed by emotion (stopped Gromnir's funny pet), chaos (for the two mages) and Abi Dalzim for everyone. My cavalier meleed Gromnir while my archer, Sarevok and Minsc took care for the thief and the fighter dudes. Gromnir's new company was a nice surprise and made the fight much more of a challenge. With his Bhaalpowers Gromnir also was much tougher to kill

PS: After downloading Ascension and reading the txt I decided two things:
[*]First to play ToB with the improved baddies only
[*]Maybe after that (given I find the time) replaying the thing with the Ascension mod.

[This message has been edited by Ragusa (edited April 24, 2002).]

 

Nice thread, Ragusa...keep 'em coming. I haven't downloaded the harder baddies, yet, (frankly they give me the willies), but I'm seriously considering it.

Incidentally, have you downloaded the additional Bhaal powers mod? It says in the readme that they removed it for game balance, but after playing it I get the sense that with the tougher baddies mod the game is definitely balanced in favor of the baddies. I think the most powerful spell you get is mass cure, or some such, and the others don't make much difference at all.

 

Where does it say they removed it for game balance? David Gaider said that it was removed just because to resulted in a lot of clutter in the 'special powers' section. Bhaal powers, high level powers, other wierd stuff, etc all at the same time was deemed too confusing. I certainly think you could add them in without a problem: they aren't that powerful, IIRC. Certainly, they don't increase player power nearly as much as the improved bad guys and/or Ascension does for the villains.

Aloha
Vormaerin

 

After a while it's going on:

After killing Gromnir, my heroes marched to the wicked witch and then to the marching mountains where they conquered the heart of Yaga-Shura. On their way back to Mirkwood Camaris heared about the mysterious Watcher's Keep (actually a meta-gaming decision I wanted foebane, the purifier, stat increases for my main char (he has str-19 and con-20 now ... ), the white dragon scale and the gauntlets of improved weapon skill for my archer and I wanted to complete the ravager and the axe of the unyielding before fighting Yaga Shura).

So my heroes battled their way through the stories of the building until they met the ultimate evil there: Demogorgon. Pissed off about Odren's possible betrayal he decided to test him and told him he had already killed Demogorgon.

Demogorgon was having fallen helmites for lunch when the heroes appeared and turned the tide of battle. However, Demogorgon killed Minsc, so I had to resurrect him (btw, he got new toys: the axe of the unyielding fits him perfectly , and the fortress shield gives him de-luxe protection). I now notice I fought unimproved Demogorgon, I'll make an update on the improved beast as soon as I find time.

Yaga-Shura:
Interesting fight, as usual I started defenive on top of the bridge, securing my back with spike traps (btw. I found spike traps much deadlier than traps of detonation, the latter however are excellent for dispersing enemy parties, allowing to fight one enemy after another).
[*]Imoen did an excellent job securing the back and supported the party affectively with the light crossbow of speed and the quiver of plenty +2, in melee she used the staff of ram to good effect, limited only by her shitty number of attacks.
[*]My halfling cavalier Camaris used the formidable 1 handed 3 to good effect: impr. Foebane, unimpr. Purifier and the Flail of the Ages +4. My halfling archer was using Ixil's Thorn (great spear - he pinned down plenty of attackers on the bridge when they closed in for melee).
[*]Aerie's blade barriers and this lvl-7 cleric fire aura were extremely effective against wannabe backstabbers as well as against mages and clerics. After the protections wore off she got a nasty backstab, triggering the lvl-9 protective sequencer: heal, impr. blade barrier and aura fo fiery death Poor thief. Combining mage and cleric spells is awesome !!!
[*]While Minsc was happily chopping enemies with the axe of the unyielding, Sarevok used the impr. Ravager and the Silversword.
The fight against the core of Yaga-Shura's army was lengthy and great fun.

Then I casted my protections and started to wait for Yaga-Shura. And when the protections wore off I was still waiting for Yaga-Shura. That sucker just didn't want to come to me and run into my well prepared trapped archer ambush (Imoen w. light crossbow of speed, Sarevok with Firetooth, Minsc with Taralash and my halfling archer with Gesen's - quite a lot of firepower).
To my disappointment Yaga Shura was waiting somewhere in his camp instead. So Camaris ran to him, trowing insults at the moron, poking foebane in his legs. This made him furious enough to follow. A little unexpected, Yaga Shura's colleagues were the ones to run into the traps, so only the fighter-mage Lieutenant, the cleric and the mage were supporting Yaga-Shura.

Tough little fight though, except the waiting and probbably a few more attackers on the bridge I didn't really feel a difference except one thing: Maybe that Yaga-Shura's damage resistance has been beefed up a little bit - haven't checked that.

Travelling to Amkethran was next and I noted another difference: The soldiers attacking us in the oasis were much better scripted, I encountered 8 lancers and about 14 archers at once (I remember for I counted the loot before selling ), plus 3 officers and the general. That was a pretty lovely fight. All the archers and mages focussed on poor little Aerie, not realising that she was using shield and cloak of reflection

Now my party reached Amkethran and has refreshed up funds by selling all enchanted Loot gathered in WK, the Yaga-Shura fight, the oasis and Amkethran. So my gold grew from about 97.000 gp, Cespenar is one greedy little bastard , to 300.000 gp again.

Next fights: Test in hell, Mr. Von Goethe and then Sendai or Abazigal. Stay tuned

[This message has been edited by Ragusa (edited May 02, 2002).]

 

i'd try sendai first: shes a really REALLY interesting fight!

 

Where can you get those inproved badguys? I want them!

 

They are available in the BG2 section of this website, as well as on the Baldurdash site.