Improved Anvil Adventure *spoilers*

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Having played through the beginning of SOA a few times with IA, I would like to offer my opinion of the optimal party to defeat the improved encounters. Sikret, feel free to copy and paste this anywhere you like.

Slot 1

Berserker – Your main tank. I use either Korgan or a Sk’ed Minsc. Korgan has slightly more hitpoints and better saving throws, while Minsc has some priceless banters. In most improved encounters, his main role is simply to rush forward and engage the boss/mobs. Use berserk freely. I know most players have a tendency to give their PCs all the best items, but in IA you should give them to your tank. Yes that includes the shiny Ring of Gaxx you fought so hard for. With enhanced items, your berserker should hit -20 ac by spellhold. Resist giving him 2 weapons, cool as it might sound, and stick a good shield on.

Slot 2

Spellcaster 1 – Edwin. With +3 spells per level, he is better then any PC mage you can create other then cheating.

Slot 3

Thief/Mage – Read my earlier posts to see why you need a thief with high detect illusion. A secondary mage is useful for buffing/debuffing enemies as well. For this slot, I’m using Imoen, with her points in pick locks transferred to detect illusion using SK. Yes you can pick up Nalia earlier, but no party feels right without Imoen.

Slot 4

Archer – Some people might dispute this, but the same people haven’t seen an improved hasted archer firing 10 arrows per round. I SK Viccy or Aerie to an archer for their racial bonus and dex bonus. The main aim of this character is a mage killer. Most mages won’t live beyond 2 rounds of having their defences breached. You can pick another fighter for this slot, but I prefer not to have to wade through swarms of summons just to get to the source.

Slot 5

Blade or F/M. Both share the role of secondary tank/caster. There are certain enemies who ALWAYS hit no matter what your AC is. That’s where this character comes in. Stoneskin + mirror image is your friend here. F/M has 1 ½ more attacks per round by lvl13/lvl13, and does 2 more dmg per hit. Blade has higher casting lvls, his spins, and UAI (I have in mind a certain short sword for ascension yaga shura…). GWW is not that important, as IA has boots of improved haste which sets your attacks to 7-10 attacks per round anyway. IF you have true grandmastery and grandmaster for multi-classes (which makes sense to me. Giving up diversity for specialization) installed, I would take the F/M. Otherwise stick to the blade.

Slot 6

Sikret advocates Cernd with auramaster installed, but i found him more to be icing then the cake itself. He does have nifty abilities that makes most fights go faster, but its nothing essential. Having said that, you do need a cleric/druid. And with his new abilities, Cernd is much better then Viccy. Jaheira is acceptable though, especially if you dont want to micromanage too much

[ October 10, 2006, 04:28: Message edited by: Mongerman ]

 

Improved Anvil can actually be played with any sort of party depending on the player's tactical style. (However, any hints to be useful for average players would be welcome. Thanks, Mongerman!)

I have some comments here. Among the tips Mongerman sent, the first one (the one about Berserker) is a very good one, for sure. Enrage ability will be your friend without question. Equipping a shield rather than wielding two weapons is also a very good tip.

On the other hand, I can hardly recommend an Archer. An Archer can do almost nothing at later stages of the game and specially against some of the mod's new and powerful monsters (such as the new types of golems) who are completely immune to missiles. An Archer can be useful at earlier stages of the game, but later you will regret and may want to SK the Archer to change his/her class which is surely a cheat if done in the middle of a game. Hence, it's perhaps better to forgo the Archer and to replace it with a more useful character unless you have mentally prepared yourself for having an idle and useless character in some of the most difficult battles at later stages of the game. (Haven't you yet encountered or got seriously engaged in a battle against an "Elemental Golem", mongerman?)

As for Cernd (the Auramaster), it all depends on how much you can make yourself familiar with the kit's new spells and abilities and how to make the better of it in your tactics. Installing Auramaster kit and having Cernd in the party is still strongly recommended.

One last point is that I strongly recommend not to use Shadow keeper to tamper with the game's NPCs. It is certainly sort of cheating if you give kits to multi-class non-human NPCs and if you give abilities to a character that he/she cannot legally have. Playing the game with cheats is no fun and your feedbacks about your victories in battles will not be much useful. Try to find tactics to win the enhanced battles without this sort of cheats. (This is a general advice to all players; I'm not addressing Mongerman here.)

 

Like I said, the archer is not there to kill bosses, but rather mages and clerics, which he/she does a very good job of.

And I agree with Sikret, cheating is no fun, but using SK to adjust NPC's within the games rules is ok. I see no diff there between creating a multiplayer game and modifying NPCs.

 

A minor update. My party is out of the underdark. Regarding the difficulty, its not a biggie as long as you did all the battles in athkatla honestly. They are like a *really* difficult tutorial, but which prepare you for the more difficult battles up ahead. I'm left with only Windspear now.

More spoilers - You look through the items document, see judgement day, go Ooooooh! and put all your proficiency points in longsword, only to find it doesnt do jack against some of the new monsters. You have been warned. Be sure to diversify your dmg types.