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Hoverdawg

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  1. he was a good man. what a rotten way to die
  2. I, on the other hand, am a very big fan of this component. It's a really nice change of pace.
  3. My bad. (honestly I was surprised he wasn't there)
  4. Honestly, since SCS gets rid of the clay golem, Enchanted Weapon isn't all that important anymore.
  5. Gethras or Mekrath weren't ever a problem in my recollection (even before SR was a thing) - they're not high enough level to have those really punishing spells and can be safely defeated quite early into the game. Tolgerias (spoilers for my BG2 recap, which is on hold due to getting burnt by twisted rune) was a bit easier than when I fought him the last time (a few years ago), although I believe I am playing better now too. He did Imprison one of my characters and gated something, I believe. BTW - one SR/SCS compatibility thing - SCS by default is supposed to prohibit using Imprison on Charname, right? It does not work this way with SR, possibly because Imprison works like a 5 turn Maze that ends in death. As for AoE spells - true, mages are reluctant to use them (although I have seen Vitriolic Sphere a couple times), but rakshas and efreeties are not.
  6. Another one of these - Monster Summoning VII has an Animal Summoning scroll icon. Also, Chaotic Commands has a really annoying sound&visual effect that repeats itself every few seconds.
  7. Are kuo-toan/sahuagin bolts supposed to weight 1lb each? It makes them nearly unusable for most archers (Jansen or Imoen). (is it a IRR thing or a SCS one, though?)
  8. I had a small, curious bug: after the fight with "Bhaal" and arriving in the Spellhold maze, I still had all my items. I'm pretty sure it was caused by my character (and Bhaal) being too far from Imoen, as her dream ending dialogue did not play. Retrying the fight and keeping closer to Immy did the trick - everything proceeded as should.
  9. I asked this recently and unfortunately the answer is yes.
  10. - Yeah, I'm not a fan of level scaling either. This would be probably the single place where I would use it, just because the level 1->2->3 power jump is so high. - I don't think he jumped around, but I can't be 100% certain, I did BG1 maybe a month ago, so some small details may have eluded me. - Yup, Ch6 battle is by far the least SCS-y encounter. - Honestly I have no complaints about the coronation. It's nice to be able to sit down and watch others do the dirty work for once. I don't think it is. At least none of the dispels that did hit him made any effect.
  11. Recently I've installed Baldur's Gate yet again with the ambition to finally finish the trilogy all the way, with SCS installed (I'd always run out of steam in ToB before). I will use this thread to I would call myself a decent enough player, although I'm no pro that can no-reload solo the game or anything. Technical stuff: I'm using EE for ease of use, even though I'm not a big fan of how "enhanced" this version is. Mods-wise, I prefer a lean install, so I'm using Ascension, Item and Spell Revisions Revised (thank you @Bartimaeus for your great work!), Tweak Pack, Unfinished Business and a couple of NPC expansion mods. No quests, no overhauls. Tactical difficulty (so far at least). Bhaalspawn is a Half-Elf Fighter/Mage. I have finished BG1 and currently am about halfway through BG2. Baldur's Gate 1 I used multiple NPCs throughout the game - thanks to the new addition to SCS, I was no longer required to keep the same group for XP's sake. Imoen, Monty, Xzar, Khalid & Jaheira, Xan (switched to Sorcerer), Safana, Tiax (switched to Fighter/Cleric), Viconia and Minsc were all part of the team at some point. The final party included Imoen (dual-classed to Mage at Thief level 5, I believe), Tiax, Viconia, Shar-Teel and Xan. The very early game is, of course, a crapshoot. Tranzig fight especially, you either manage to hit him and interrupt his spells or you're in for a hard time. But he's still a wizard of not-so-high a level, so there's not that much he can do and goes down fast when the wand of magic missiles is used on him. I wonder if giving him such a wand (with 1 or 2 charges) would make his damage output a bit better. The Karlat fight in Beregost is surprisingly hard, he's tough and his AC is low enough for lvl1 characters to miss all the time. Marl is a pushover though. I do some stuff here, kill the spiders, grab the ring of protection and move to Nashkel. Neira in the Nashkel inn isn't much of a problem, she can hold one or two characters, but it's hard for her to inflict any real damage - but that is a common cleric problem. Now it's wilderness time. None of the encounters there are deadly (Sendai demo version is probably the toughest), but I feel they're fine as they are. I get some levels along the way (~4000XP) and try to tackle Bassilus now, but, even without his skeletons, he still has too many spells. I give up after a few defeats. That's fine, I can wait. Improved Nashkel mine is easy for level 3 (or multiclass 2) characters, and Mulahey is a pushover. However, I get that this dungeon is hard to balance as many players will enter it while still being at level 1. Would it be possible to add some level-dependent guards to Mulahey himself? Like a couple of skeletons, or kobold guards and a kobold shaman, that would only appear ~4000XP+? After Nashkel I'm doing a bigger sweep of the wilderness areas. Ogre Berserkers are nothing to trifle with, as their crits can easily one-shot anyone. Mutamin is a tough bastard if you're using spell protection, but with IRR's undispellable Potions of Mirrored Eyes, he's back to being a minor annoyance. Assassin parties are always a treat - challenging (no time for prebuffing!) but doable. I wish there were one or two more. Sirines are ugh - poison and charm is not a fun combo; you have to prepare well or get lucky. I also try to kill Bassilus again - and this time, he goes down. Firewine Bridge is just a pain, the less we talk about it the better (but that's just the dungeon design, ogre mage fight is ok). Ulcaster Wolf is a fine set piece, even though Resist Fear makes it much easier, all the wolves running around still make it dangerous for less armored characters. Icharyd is mean. He packs a punch, resists magic, and when you accidently trigger some kobolds that are standing nearby it's even worse. I tackle Bandit Camp at level 5 (~20000 XP). God, I love this fight. It won't ever be as mind-blowing as the first time, when you're casually trying to kill a lone bandit and suddenly have the whole fucking army zeroing in at you, but it's still epic. It's not that difficult if you've done your homework: Webs and Fireballs clean up the place nicely. Cloakwood. The fight against Centeol is nasty - there are enough webbing spiders that every time at least one character got isolated, paralyzed, and killed. Good times. I was nice around druids and skipped fighting with them. The party fight outside the mines was fine. A quick Fireball made the mages less of a threat, and the warriors were susceptible to Horror, but they did deal some damage. None of the enemies inside, however, including the mages and the ogre, posed any sort of challenge. Davaeorn was the first really difficult boss fight. At first, I wanted to lure the horrors out, make him spend some energy on summons, bunker down and fight off the reinfocements. However, this tactic proved to be less than ideal, as I couldn't outpace the guard spawn rate. So, after a few tries, I decided to just YOLO bumrush, spread out, and focus fire on the big D. And it worked, someone did get killed, but Davaeorn ultimately fell. He was no longer teleporting around, as he had been doing the last few times I'd played, I suppose that's intentional. Overall, a very satisfying fight. Baldur's Gate has surprisingly few difficult challenges. The Maulers of Undermountain are a party fight, which is always welcome, even though it's a cakewalk when the third party engages. Degrodel's guardians require . I think I did Red Wizards at this point too. Theywere tougher than they should be, and that's because I had a long-lasting (essentially until the end game) brain fart that made me forget that I can dispel enemy buffs with something other than Breach. Thus, I just brute-forced the encounter. Finally, the Iron Throne fight was great, easier than I expected - I think I had more trouble in my earlier playthroughs - but challenging enough. Candlekeep is a bit disappointing. I like the Ogre magi surprise attack. No time for prebuffing always makes things much more hectic and dangerous (that's why I kinda like Knights of the Chalice's no-casting-outside-combat system). The rest is... not that great. Rieltar & co are pushovers. Crypts are more of a mood-setter, so I don't mind just slashing through the doppelgangers. The Prat fight does need a major boost, I believe. Right now I had more trouble with the spiders nearby than with these folks. Maybe there should be another goon, or two, to help? Back to Baldur's Gate. You really shouldn't use AoE during the Slythe & Krystin fight, but other than that, they went down easily. The Coronation is a funny example of unforeseen consequences of mages being smart. Liia Janath could probably wipe the floor herself (note: it might be an exaggeration. I haven't actually tried to make her fight on her own). Now, to the Undercity... wait, there's still some stuff to do! So, Durlag's Tower. What a magnificent dungeon. There are only three fights of note here, which is fine: the mobs and traps will drain you of resources just enough. So, the Warder fight first. Very tough, but not impossible. Love & Pride are the biggest offenders here. Love got protections up, charmed Shar-Teel easily, while Pride is just a stone wall. I dealt with the other two, somehow managed to not get everyone dead, then took down Love's spells, killed her, and finally (with everyone still going) whittled Pride down. Awesome. Chessboard can be the most difficult battle in the game, and, honestly, I'm not a big fan of it. There's only one good strategy here: prebuff beforehand (before. or while defeating the last guardian - slime is the best target here), and, after teleportation, immediately unload all the fireball wands you have saved so far (I had like four). If you don't, you just get swarmed, and the knights are quick and hit hard, so even a tough PC (like my F/M) can go down fast. I'm not sure what changes should be applied here, because the whole chessboard theme is not the best fit for a real-time game. At least, without some heavy scripting, which I don't think would be worth spending time on. Perhaps tone down the knights a bit, but make everyone resistant to fire? Napalm strike won't be so necessary then, but at the same time, it won't be as efficient. Finally, the demon. I prebuffed, charged... it was a very swift battle, one of my mages died, but so did the enemy, easily. It was a bit underwhelming, but, at the same, time, rewarding. Back to Ulgoth's Beard... the ambush is, as all ambushes, a good, challenging fight - mages will die if you won't stoneskin or at least mirror image them asap. I think I got two deaths here. The other cultist fight inside the warehouse is just as interesting, thanks to those fucking enforcers. On the other hand, Aec'Latec was a major disappointment. Maybe it was the Mirror Eyes issue again, maybe something went wrong with the scripts (all the cultists, sans Tracea, did nothing), but it went oh so smoothly. No deaths, no problems, no close calls even. Back to the Undercity. The Iron Throne investigators - well, they're more of an aperitif, and they might just as well not be there, honestly. But, the Sarevok fight. My god. This fight is just amazing. Epic. One of a kind experience. It has everything. An immortal (for a time) magic-proof killing machine you have to tank (with summons of course, no character can stand up to him). Henchmen fighters for that additional punch. Two mages who just love to dispel your buffs and make your life miserable. Oh, and their skeleton reincarnations. I managed to win this fight on the first try this time, but it took a while and featured lots of kiting, chunks of hobgoblin meat flying around, emergency raise dead, arrows of dispelling and detonation used indiscriminately, potions, wands, and fireballs. Sarevok himself was not that powerful when finally he was the only one enemy standing. This fight is a true piece of art.
  12. another small issue - scrolls of Summon Shadows have a Sunburst? Sunscorch? Flamestrike? Whatsitsname? icon. The same spell has its proper (I think - it's the old fat fiend summon) icon when copied in the spellbook.
  13. with one of SCS's components you can easily make anyone (like Valygar) into any class, including Archer.
  14. Not sure if posted before: I rescued Haer'Dalis and he was made the owner of the theatre. Then I removed him from the party for a while, to make place for Valygar for the Planar Sphere quest. After finishing it and re-replacing him with Haer'Dalis, I talked with the playmaker. He mentioned the play being a flop and the stronghold quest ended, even though it hardly ever started. I suppose it's due to kicking HD out of the party, but I can't be sure (no saves before it).
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