Gearing Up For My First IA Run-Through

Remove all ads!

Hmmmm.....good luck finding a magical katana early. Celestial fury has been nerfed and the party guearding it has been improved. So dont expect any good katanas for a while.

 

That's okay. I can use longswords in the meantime. And I suppose that Celestial Fury was rather in need of some nerfing.

 

Marceror, this is a very powerful party indeed. From my experience, the combo of Anomen and Jaheira make for an incredibly powerful tanking and divine spellcasting pair in any party.

I agree with your desire to have a competent rogue in your parties. It's one reason that so often when I've played, I feel pulled into playing some sort of thief PC. (The last party that I just completed last night had an elven Ftr/Thief PC.) I think that on those occasions when I played a non-thief, I've used Jan Jansen as my party's thief until I rescued Imeon.

As an aside, I soooo wish that Bioware had left Imeon as a thief. It makes like difficult for a non-thief PC if you have to replace Yoshimo or Jan with Imeon as the party's thief. Frankly, this is why I so often have used thief (pure or MC) PC's, so I was certain to have a solid thief in the party without screwing up party balance when rescuing Imoen (I always keep Imoen, for RP reasons).

 

Sometimes I feel like I must be the only one that didn't think that Celestial Fury was anything super special and sold it half the time anyway. But then maybe that's because I usually found something else quicker and easier than magical katanas.

I always enjoyed the axes and Halbards myself.

Anyway. sounds like you got an interesting time going and that IA has got a lot of particulars about how to get through parts of it. That could be a challenge in and of itself.

As for the Solid thief. Imoen as pure thief would have been nice but you just know they would have screwed her numbers up like they did to the thieves in BG1. i more wish they hadn't done to Yoshimo what they did and instead have chosen somebody else for that kind of role. I could see Jan getting stuck in a bad situation like that rather easily. specially after listening to most of his stories several times. I'm still looking (very slowly) for a solid NPC thief to install myself because of the situation with the core NPC's.

 

Honestly, I think that I ignored Celestial Fury, or perhaps wasn't aware of it's power, until the past year or two.

In my earlier games I may not have even thought to enter the building where this sword can be fought for. And like you, Katana wasn't an "obvious" weapon choice to spec out my characters with.

Then, in one of my games, I acquired it, gave it to Valygar, and almost crapped my pants (emphasis on almost here, okay). Have been using it ever since

 

CF is a great weapon for backstabbers. I gave the TOB Axe of the Unwielding to my CF wielding Ftr/Thief in my most recent party and discovered that Axes aren't usable for backstabbing. So I would switch back and forth between CF and AotU.

I think that the thing that makes CF so potent in its stunning ability. In a really busy melee, I found it useful for my CF wielding Ftr/Thf to switch to another target after stunning her first target, and leave the stunned baddy to another tank. This way, she could stun as many enemies as possible, thus limiting the numbers of attacks on my party.


As for halberds, I guess that I've never been all that excited by the SoA halberds. About the only BG2 halberd that I'd use is the TOB Ravager. Of course, I have to admit that my PC and NPC choices tend to make my weapon decisions for me.

 

@omnigodly

Not in Improved Anvil though. Enemy spellcasters cast so many dispelling and protection removal spells that he would be dead in no time, since with TT active he can't cast them again. (TT doesn't get dispelled)

 

I've never really had a dedicated Backstabber. When I take Valygar is usually when I keep it. Or when I get it for Yoshimo and then it ends up on Imoen who's primary tasks for me are slinging spells and using a bow so it doesn't get a whole lot of use for me.

If I had or played a dedicated backstabber more often it might be more valuable to me so maybe that is part of it like you said.


As for TT if they use so many Dispelling and protection removal spells. Wouldn't some of them remove the TT as well? Returning your spell casting to you? Or is it some odd spell that changes you and just can't be dispelled until it wears off?

 

CF is always worth keeping. I am curious how it is downgraded via IA though.

And yes I agree with starwalker, won't TT also be dispelled by enemy mages in IA?

 

No, nothing can dispel/remove Tenser's Transformation.

 

^Hmm strange I never knew that, though I almost never use TT in my games, as I can't feel comfortable when I lose the ability to cast spells. Thank you, thetruth!

 

Its chance to stun the target is decreased. (See the list of tweaks in the mod's readme.)

It's still a good item to seek, because it can be used as an ingredient to forge some other item. (See the list of item upgrades.)

 

^Thanks but I don't want to read the documents to find out which item is affected how and which new and groundbreaking item recipes are available. I wish to learn by playing and exploring, hopefully.

 

I agree about the new items, but I recommend that you read the list of tweaks/fixes to know how things are working in the game. Otherwise, you may wonder (for example) why that spell is not working as it used to work, etc...

 

Sure, but I already know many spell-changes thanks to former discussions here on SP or over BWL forums. For example, Spell Immunities no longer stack, SI:Abjuration now blocks all other spell protection removal type spells except Ruby Ray (which is alteration) and Finger of Death spell forces a save vs death magic. Anything else I should know? Say 'yes' and I will check the file ASAP.

Sadly, I still did not have time and chance to start an IA V4 game and it really hurts. I have to wait for one or two months, till the summar holiday. Sigh. By then v5 may even be available?

 

You already know most of the major changes; however, there are more. For example, Hardiness cast via wish spell no longer stacks with itself or with warrior hardiness, Tenser's Transformation no longer stacks with itself (if cast from scrolls), Harm spell, Teleport Field and all blinding spells are nerfed, multiple blinding effects will not cause multiple penalties any more (because a blinded character is already blind and blinding him again should not cause more penalties), Ironskins is fixed to be removable by "Breach" spell, assassins' Poison Weapon ability is fixed, Stalker's spells are fixed not be blocked by his own MR, and several other changes... (I can't list all of them here. See for yourself.)

So, it's not bad if you review the list of fixes/tweaks before starting an IA game.

IA v4.3 will be released in a couple of weeks, but IA v5 won't be released sooner than January.

 

Ooo I see, thanks, I will check the tweaks and changes throughly. The changes you made sound reasonable and good as always though.

So I can catch up with the V 4.3 it seems, I must visit the BWL forums more often! Thanks once again!

 

Is this due to volume of content needing to be worked on, or is RL getting a bit busier between now and then?

A second question: you mentioned v4.3 in a couple of weeks, is this intended to be the last for a while or do we get a couple more between now and v5?

 

It's mostly because of the volume of the content we intend to add to the mod, but yes, RL also affects my speed.

I hope that v4.3 will be the last release for the next few months.

 

Alright, 'twas just a couple of questions that came to mind when I saw that. Thanks for satisfyng my curiosity.