Survival Horror – or another boring sorcerer spell list...

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If I were you, I would not miss "Burning Hands" (a good spell for finishing trolls and also for close fights against all sorts of enemies).

The conjunction of "Greater Malison" and "Emotion" is an excellent combo. Don't miss "Emotion" as one of your 4th level spells. Pick Emotion even sooner than Greater Malison. Even without GM, Emotion is a great spell, espeically against low level enemies. You may win a fight very easily and quickly after casting two successive Emotions.

 

A-D already explained why no Burning Hands:

Plus he's already level 8, so it's too late to change it.

 

Let me prefix my Cloakwood adventures with the sad fact that I wasn't able to defeat Davaeorn...

Before travelling to said area I gathered more XP to reach character level 9. I chose Web, Slow and Stoneskin as additional spells, however I'm convinced now that picking Stoneskin instead of Farsight wasn't a good choice. Seriously! Furthermore, I bought the Robe of the Neutral Archmagi for about 29.000 gold. Had to sell all loot I had hoarded to scrape the necessary money together.

I headed straight for the mine site ignoring all ambushes and subquests in Cloakwood. Since I desired the Boots of Speed, I had to deal with Drasus, Genthore, Rezdan and Kysus. After a pretty unlucky spider assault, I retreated invisibly to the south of the map - where suddenly the mages Kysus and Rezdan appeared who had never been on the same screen as my sorcerer. The two fighters who had even seen me didn't. Strange. So, I didn't kill the mouthy one first, but the two magic-users, before the dreaded Web/Spider Spawn-combo made short work of the fighters

Unseen as usual I strolled through the mine only securing a small part of the third level near the stairs to allow a safe retreat. On Davaeorn's level I sent a phase spider as guinea pig across the trapped area - and the Battle Horror-trap sprang. The landlord himself, fully buffed, was attracted by this ruckus and teleported right next to me (sponsored by SCS) - but couldn't spot me. Nonetheless, I retreated to the upper level and rested, intentionally. That's a pretty cheap trick, since in regular BG1 (without SCS) Davaeorn's protection spells expire. But hey, my sorcerer didn't survive, because he is the epitome of fair play... Besides, I suspected that SCS would auto-buff him again.

After the rest I cast the usual protection spells plus Stoneskin, put on the Boots of Grounding and went up the stairs again. The seemingly unprotected Davaeorn and his Battle Horrors were still standing in the antechamber where I had left them eight hours ago. I rushed through the trapped area losing all my mirror images and started to cast the usual spider routine plus Haste and Remove Fear in the next room. I ordered them to attack Davaeorn himself and watched the fight invisibly from a safe distance. When Big D got hurt, his SCS-protection routine kicked in, as I had suspected. With Davaeorn almost untouchable the tide of the battle which had relocated to the narrow corridor at the level entrance began to turn. Well, until the mighty mage decided to get rid of the last spider by casting Fireball... While he was protected by a Globe of Invulnerability, his Horrors were not - and turned on him! My sorcerer was just standing there shaking his head in disbelief, while Davaeorn was slain by his own Battle Horrors...

[ August 29, 2006, 20:05: Message edited by: Ascendency-Down ]

 

Protection from evil seems a weak choice for a spell. I would rather recommend:
Level 1:
Armor - One of the most used spells (by me), long duration and equal to a studded leather armor.
Shield - Extra AC and protection from missiles, including magic missiles
Magic Missile - Enough said.
Chromatic Orb - The best level 1 spell.
Shocking Grasp - One of the most underrated spells. Many players don't realise that this spell has no ST (at least in BG1 and IWD1).
Grease - Good spell that prevents the enemy rush.

 

@ Clixby

The stats I chose are pretty unspectacular. Typical sorcerer build, I guess:

STR 18 - Not really necessary, but since I have no compliant simians (=party members) to carry the loot...
DEX 19 - Helps to get a decent AC and to hit at least sometimes with darts.
CON 16 - Wanted the maximum HP right at the start of the game.
INT 10 - Enough to read scrolls...
WIS 18 - Will be handy in case I should ever reach level 25.
CHA 9 - Minimum for a sorcerer.

I'm out for the evil Bhaalspawn powers, so my reputation is pretty low all the time. Around 7 oder 8, not completely despised by the whole Sword Coast. At least I thought so, until Drienne, the little girl missing her cat Pixie, accused me of having murdered her cat (resulting in no XP at all), when I brought her the corpse. I knew that - depending on reputation and CHA - there were two more or less positive responses, but I haven't gotten this answer in umpteen runs through the game. I really craved an dialogue option like "throw dead cat at ungrateful little girl"...

[ August 29, 2006, 21:00: Message edited by: Ascendency-Down ]

 

Hi,

Just following up a couple of the oddities in SCS you mentioned:

- Davaeorn and the rebel horrors: yep, I think I can see why they're doing that. (They're programmed to attack the last attacker of Davaeorn, which in this case was Davaeorn himself). Will fix in the next SCS release - sorry about that.

- Kysus and Rezdan: can I check I understand right? You started the fight, had Drasus and Genthore but not Kysus and Rezdan on screen, then ran away, and Kysus and Rezdan followed you but not Drasus and Genthore?

Incidentally, the Harder Spiders won't make your game any easier: it doesn't affect summoned spiders. (That's not deliberate exactly: SCS was designed with BG1 magic in mind, so I hadn't considered Spider Swarm. Though I think probably I wouldn't have added it even if it had occurred to me.)

 

After a short visit to Candlekeep I returned to the city of Baldur's Gate to confront Slythe and Kristin in the Undercellars.

I tried the usual buffed phase spider-rush, but Slythe used Potions of Invisibility and proceeded to backstab my poor spiders. I cast several Web-spells at the area, but he is either immune to hold effects or has godlike saves. When he slew the last summon in straight melee, I was sure that he had spent all his potions. I cast Invisibility on myself and retreated to the area exit, when suddenly Slythe ran up to me. When he reached my invisible PC, he just kept standing beside me. When I moved, he did, too. I couldn't outrun him, even with Boots of Speed (though I sometimes had the feeling during my game that the Boots of Speed didn't work properly). I knew that he would rip me to shreds at this range the moment I go visible, so I decided to retreat to the Blushing Mermaid. But guess who became so fond of me that he left the Undercellars with me: Slythe. I went back to the Undercellars - and now things got surreal. A second un-hostile Slyth had spawned, while the first one was still close on my heels. I knew that I had to shake him off, so we both went back to the streets of Baldur's Gate. Finally, I managed to get rid off him by travelling to another city area. I chose the point of exit in such a way that I wouldn't run into him, when I returned.

I rested, buffed and went back to the northeastern part of Baldur's Gate. When I was about to cast the third Spider Spawn-spell, Slythe (who had been left two screens away...) ran up to me and started hacking at the spiders. I tried again to web him but without success. When all of a sudden Kristin appeared - can't say if she Dimension Doored to this area or had followed Slythe and me invisibly -, I cast Invisibility to make a strategical withdrawal once again. While the two assassins were still busy with the spiders, I hid in a small corner in the north of the map. Bad mistake... Homing Slythe found me as usual and ran up to me, right between me and the exit of my little hideout. I was trapped. It was a stalemate: He could't attack me, while I couldn't leave anymore. I considered my options and decided to risk a direct attack using Vampiric Touch. Slythe took 37 damage and returned the favour with four or five hits blocked by Mirror Image and Stoneskin, before I went invisible. I recast Stoneskin and Mirror Image, while he could do nothing - and Vampiric Touched him again finally killing him.

I tried to leave my little prison - and Kristin materialized right before my feet, still blocking my exit and fully buffed... I guess she must have been right behind Slythe invisibly, though I can't say why she didn't act during my first attack on Slythe. I knew that she had one free shot at me, since I had just used an ability and couldn't run. This was bad, but I had still one or two active stoneskins and two mirror images left as well as triple-digit HP (due to the Vampiric Touches). Well, she cast Confusion and I failed the save. I survived the following four direct damage spells, before she started to attack me with her weapon missing all the time. I just began to think that I had a chance to get out alive, when I read the words over Kristin's head that sealed my fate: "uses scroll". I survived the initial Lightning Bolt und finally died, when it bounced back from the wall behind me.

With the benefit of hindsight I am aware of several solutions which would have saved me. But alas, I'll have to start anew. Besides, I should pratice to beat the improved final battle a few times before confronting Sarevok in a no reload-game.


@ David_W:
I enjoyed playing your mod and will do so in the future. In fact, I recommend it to everyone who doesn't feel challenged anymore by good, old BG1. So, please don't get me wrong, when I use the opportunity to have the mod's creator at hand to name the few things I disliked about SCS:

- On the one hand Slythe's unerring targeting does indeed make the game harder, especially for a soloing PC, but on the other hand it doesn't make any sense in my opinion. Furthermore, there were other occurrences, when enemies kept following my invisible sorcerer for some time (but not permanently like Slythe). The named example regarding Kysus and Rezdan is one of them. While I'm "only" very sure that both mages never shared the same screen with my sorcerer during the intital attack, I'm completely sure that I was all alone and unseen, when I cast Invisibility on the little bridge to the mine during my retreat. After that I ran to the southern border of the map. Didn't hinder the two mages to follow me. When they had reached the invisible sorcerer, they seemed to lose track and kept standing at this place.

- I'm no avid fan of the Tactics-mod, but I prefer its "honest" buffing. When you entered a new area, you saw at once which enemies got protection spells and even which protection spells were active. In SCS some apparently unprotected foes receive their protection all of a sudden not until the moment they get attacked. Extreme example: Firebead Elvenhair in Beregost (who shouldn't even anticipate an attack) seems completely unprotected, but receives Protection from Normal Missiles, Protection from Evil, Mirror Image, Minor Globe of Invulnerability, Shadow Door and Spirit Armor the second you attack him. I didn't like this element of uncertainty if an enemy mage has a bunch of "hidden" protection spells (far more than the number of spells which can be placed in a Contingency) or not.

[ September 01, 2006, 05:19: Message edited by: Ascendency-Down ]

 

No problem at all; I'm very glad to have feedback. In fact, if you don't mind I might copy some of the comments over to the SCS forum at Gibberlings 3 (unless you want to do it yourself?)

as for the comments themselves:

- Okay, the Slythe behaviour is hilarious, but it wasn't intentional. Basically in playtesting, I found that Slythe and Krystin tend to get a bit lost and wander out of view of the party. I wrote a quick hack to avoid this, but (among other things) it doesn't work that well chasing an invisible foe.
I'll fix it next time I release; in the meantime, if you have another go any time soon just download this and this and put them both in the Override directory of whichever directory you're playing BGTUTU from.
The second non-hostile Slythe is a problem with the game engine: it handles creatures going between areas very badly. I can't do anything about it.
As for your webs: he does indeed have "godlike saves" (he drunk a potion of Invulnerability just before the battle started, so until it wears off or is dispelled his base save vs. spells is pretty good).
I make no apologies for the Lightning Bolt scroll!

- Enemies dogging your steps generally: this is a bit trickier. What's going on is that if monsters have just been in a fight, but can't see or detect an enemy (that is: there's no enemy, invisible or otherwise, on their screen), then they wander towards a random PC for a few seconds. This is supposed to help with monsters "getting lost" in battles (particularly a problem with mages since they wander around randomly between spells). It works basically fine with a party (the more so since it all happens "off-stage") but I'm not surprised to find that if you have one invisible, solo character then it can seem a bit odd.

I'm not 100% sure what to do about this but I'll keep it in mind. (Incidentally, if you'd waited a bit I suspect Kysus and Rezdan might have tried a Detect Invisible...)

- Auto-buffing: the problem is that Tactics exploits the large number of spells like contingency, spell sequencer etc available in BG2, as well as the many long-duration defence spells like Stoneskin, to make sure that most wizards start battles with the bulk of their protections active. (Even then it cheats a bit: I've never come across a "tattoo of power" in the Adventurers' Mart!) Basically none of this is available in TUTU (it's a deliberate design decision to avoid BG2-specific resources like Stoneskin and Minor Sequencer, to preserve the slightly different "flavour" of BG1).

That means in practice, creatures either insta-buff (as they do at present) or don't really have any buffs at all. And the latter gives a huge advantage to players, who can scout, prepare and pre-buff all they like. The instant-cast thing is supposed to simulate, albeit in a rather abstract way, the fact that enemy wizards and priests might also have some warning of a fight. (In the readme, I suggest that if you're worried about realism you might assume that spellcasters can always "deactivate" their defences temporarily, hiding them until needed.)

Of course, if you've got your own theory of realism (some people don't do pre-buffing of their own either) or if you just want a certain style of play (as with your solo sorceror) then you can uninstall the "mages pre-buff" and "priests pre-buff" components without upsetting the rest of the mod. (You'll find enemy mages then tend to go invisible as soon as they have a chance and raise their defences invisibly, which might cause you challenges of its own since I don't think your sorceror carries Detect Invisible?)

Notwithstanding all this, I agree that there are some mages who realistically shouldn't have a chance to pre-buff (judgement call as to who, to be sure). Silke doesn't, for instance. I'll add Firebead Elvenhair to the list (to be honest, I always play virtuous parties so SCS doesn't always catch "evil options"!)

Thanks again for the comments.

 

Enemies who use all kinds of potions, wands and scrolls are perfectly okay. Even the admittedly somewhat polemically sounding "godlike saves" were not meant as criticism (but nonetheless it's good to know that there is a valid explanation for them). After all, I wanted a mod that makes the game more difficult. I am blaming your mod by no means that my sorcerer met his maker. After seeing Slythe in action, I should have anticipated that he would find me again, so hiding in a place with a single small exit was my mistake alone.

Hmm, perhaps another word or two regarding buffing and realism. As you hinted, realism is a difficult subject in a computer game with limited AI, even more so in a fantasy RPG. Tactics is probably one of the worst examples of realism in a BG-mod (but it's by no means a bad one). It cheats a lot, sometimes even horribly and evidently. In general, your approach of making the enemies more difficult by giving them some decent items like scrolls or potions, adding an additional foe here and there and levelling them up a bit in some cases is much more reasonable and seems very balanced to me - especially considering (Easy)TUTU which allows the player to choose powerful kits. As I said, the one and only matter which seems to be a bit questionable in my opinion is the point in time, when the buffing happens. Let's compare the buffing-procedures of Tactics and SCS:

Tactics: Player enters area, mage X immediately gets protection spells A, B, C and D.

SCS: Player enters area, mage X gets nothing, player thinks that X is easy prey and attacks, mage X then gets protections spells A, B, C, and D.

For example I attacked Firebead Elvenhair, while my PC had a very low level. I wouldn't have done this, if I could have seen his protections. In my opinion the Tactics-procedure is creating a better illusion that the enemy had prepared beforehand instead of getting a lot of protections in the most advantegous moment. Okay, the Tactics-method offers the player the possibility to wait until all the protections expire. This is a bit problematic, I admit that. But if the player uses an invisible mage or thief to scout and realizes that some extremely well protected mages are waiting for the party, it's reasonable not to start an instant direct assault but to wait patiently. Besides, the scout is much more in danger, since the mages and priests alike really are fond of casting Detect Invisibility in SCS.

But I see the reasoning behind the way you chose. First, since you deliberately set BG2-spells like Stoneskin, Minor Spell Sequencer or Melf's Minute Meteors aside to keep the BG1-feeling (A wise decision IMHO!), the protection spells that last more than two minutes realtime are not exactly numerous. Second, the mages have much lower levels in BG1 than in BG2, so the spells have a shorter duration. Third, on large unexplored maps - and BG1 is famous for its large outdoor areas - it can occur that the party won't even reach reach some spellcasters, before their spells run out. But there are still some notable exceptions: Armour, Shield, Invisibility, Resist Fear, Ghost Armour, Protection from Normal Missiles and Spirit Armour are the ones that come to my mind. These may be less powerful than Mirror Image and Minor Globe of Invulnerability, sure, but why shouldn't some mages favor a much longer but less effective protection?

Oh, and please feel free to copy anything you consider somewhat useful to your G3-forum.

 

Sorry to dredge it back up again, but sunfire most definitely bypasses magic resistance. The reason that sunfire always bypasses magic resistance is because it actually targets the caster, so there is no way to actually check the enemies' magic resistance. G3 & co would love to fix it, but they haven't found a way to do it, yet, and it's unlikely that they will. I'm content to call this one a "feature", myself.