Questions about tactics mod

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Hi!

I feel my game is a little to easy by now.
What exactly happens when I increase the difficulty?
Do the monsters only get more HP and damage or do their attacks and spell dcs also improve?

What do you think about tactics mod?What does it change exactly?

Can I install and use it even if I already started a game?
Also can I uninstall it without much trouble?

 

First, raise the difficulty to Insane. If that's not enough for you, try Heart of Fury mode.

If you want to try the Tactics mod, take a look at the release notes first.

You can potentially use it if you've already started the game, but as with any mod that makes changes globally, you'll really want to start a new one.

 

I'll assume you're talking about the tactics4iwd2 mod, since that's the only tactics mod i'm aware of for icewind dale 2

From the mod's page : "About 90% of the creatures have been enhanced, the enhanced respects are: Stats, Spell Selections, AIs" so yeah, it does change things beyond the mobs HP and damage, that's basically the whole point of the mod - if you want mobs acting like normal jut with more damage and hp, just increase the difficulty.

I'm not actually sure if you can install the mod and run it on an existing play-through, but for safety's sake i would advice you to simply start a new game. you can always choose to export & then import your charaters from your old saves.
Once installed, you should be able to run "Setup-Tactics4IWD2.exe" again from the game directory and be prompted to either reinstall or uninstall the mod.

 

Does starting a hof mode game with an imported party also count as starting a new game in the case of tactics mod?

 

My game gets slower and slower.What can I do about it?

 

this is a known problem, get the slowdown fix from the main sorcerers site : http://www.sorcerers.net/Games/IWD2/index_editors.php

if that doesn't work, you might benefit from the ddraw fix : http://bitpatch.com/ie_ddrawfix.html

 

Wow, this mod is very hard but also lots of fun!

Do you have some tips for making the fights a little easier?
Which spells are still good in tactics and which ones can I forget about?

What are good tactics against casters who protect themselves?

 

dispel should work for your general defense-stripping needs, AFAIK Icewind dale 2 doesn't contain spells such as breach/ray of reversal.
Be sure to buff up and use your own protection spells.

I don't think there's any spells that are turned out-right redundant by the tactics mod, though it's likely mobs have better saves so you'll want to se your saving throw reducing spells before firing off your damaging ones.

Early on, the Feeblemind spell is useful - creatures affected by it won't be able to cast spells, though from what i gather from capter 3 on out this tactic won't work anymore.
Insect plague should also help to stop enemies from casting.
Other then that, make sure to get rid of mage's defenses, throw meat shields at them (animated undead work well for their natural magic resistance) and prepare for their spells by casting the appropriate protection spells on your party.

Finally, sorcerers actually hosts a IWD2 + Tactics4IWD walkthrough here :
http://www.sorcerers.net/Games/IWD2/tactics2/index.php
if you ever get stuck somewhere, you might want to refer to that.

 

Thanks!

In the mod readme it says that summons have much fewer hitpoints.
Does this also affect summons of my enemies or only mine?

Do you think I should use the improved holy avenger component of ease-of-use mod?

 

your summons as well - wouldn't be much fun if you could play the entirety of hof hiding behind your summons, now would it ?

Decide for yourself if you want to install the improved Holy Avenger component. it makes the sword a bit more powerful, giving it +2d6 damage vs chaotic and dispel on hit, though that also means the game will be marginally more easy.

 

Does the tactics modified game get more challenging in heart of fury?

Because by now I think the game is too easy even if I dont use any summons.

Does the tactics mod set the hof difficulty to the hardest possible automatically?

Are there some too cheap spell tactics that I shouldnt abuse in hof?

Do I start with zero money at the start of hof?

 

everything the tactics mod does in normal mode is added on top of the HoF modifiers.

HoF (with or without tactics mod) Gives all monsters 80 + 3x their usual HP.
So 10 HP becomes 80 + (3 x 10 = 30 ) for a total of 110 health
a monster which had 20 hp in normal mode gets 80 + (3 x 20 = 60) for a total of 140 health, and so on and so forth.

in a similar fashion for experience gained, you get a base of 2000 exp for every kill and 4x the usual xp the monster would usually give.

The tactics mod does change creature stats, so some of them might now have higher HP values then they would usually have, resulting in even more hp in HoF mode.
Let's say a goblin had 8 hp in a game without tactics, it would have 80 + (3 x 8) = 104 HP.
Now, if tactics changes the goblins stats and it now has a health of 10 HP, that translates to 110 hp instead in HoF.

AFAIK, HoF does not change monster levels/spells available, so they will probably stick to the same ability/spell tactics as in normal difficulty.

also, on th estarting equipment, it depends - tactics4iwd has a component that gives you 300,000 gold and some wizard spell scrolls when you start a HoF game, but it all depends on the fact if you've installed the component or not, since i believe it's optional. i obviously don't know if you chose to install that particular one on your install though

 

Also IIRC the BAB and AC of the monsters goes up, but I forgot the exact formula and don't recall the link to the page that describes in detail everything HOF mode does.

 

from what info I've been able to find online all enemies get :

 

When is the last opportunity to export my characters for heart of fury mode?

 

Just before the end/final battle of your normal playthrough.
once the game ends you obviously can't export characters, so yeah

 

Most of the data posted above about changes in HOF mode is wrong.

Here's what REALLY happens:
- Additional 10 (not 12) Challenge rating for all mobs, ie. more exp for kills.
- Additional +20 (not +12) attack bonus, on top of any changes caused by the autobalancing system trading weakling monster types to more/better ones as you reach higher level for every map. NOTE: Monsters with a "touch" attack such as slimes seem to get much higher bonus than that - I've seen all the way up to +107 base with Olive Slimes in Dragon's Eye.
- +10 bonus to saving throws and all stats.
- The HP formula of triple normal mode HP + 80 is only a working hypothesis, although it gives a fairly good ballpark estimate for most mobs.
- All damage against player CHARACTERS is tripled. Note that summons and/or charmed mobs do not count as such and only take normal damage, slightly boosted by HOF base stats but without the tripling part.

 

Tactics4IWD2 adds damage reduction to armours, which benefits you but also armoured enemies. Random stat-improving potions were also coded to drop incertain places. HoF with Tactics4IWD2 also grants you a bunch of extra HP and AC. These reasons cause many players to conclude that Tactics4IWD2 makes things considerably easier.

In its defense, Tactics adds challenging new (sub)unit types and extra difficulty to some already difficult encounters with well-positioned enemy spawns. I enjoyed the challenge.

There is also a way to deactivate the HoF bonuses you get: It's in my IWD2-4dummies zipfile. The (un)tweak does 2 things: Avoids an alignment change after making a decision in chapter 6 (I didn't like my party being forcibly made good or evil; imagine a neutral Paladin unable to equip Paladin gear), and remove the application of HoF bonuses. The most obscene advantage of Tactics mod is now removed.