So somebody earlier in the thread was adamant about the superiority of Wizard Slayer (15) / Thief. As someone who's thinking about playing through BG2 again, and possibly BG1 as well with Tutu or whatever mods allow for that kind of chicanery: Break it down for me a bit?
"Class (x) / Class", like mentioned above, means that you take the first class to X level and then dual immediately upon reaching that level? So, I'm guessing you take your Wizard Slayer to level 15, get the proficiency point, and then immediately into thief.
Yep.
How many levels of thief will the game allow you to reach within the BG2+TOB xp cap? Is there any benefit to dualclassing earlier?
Level 15 Wizard Slayer (Fighter) is 1.75 million xp. The ToB XP cap is 8 million. 6.25 million xp left over lets you get to 38 Thief. For the record, 8 million xp in nothing but Thief gets you level 40.
Benefit to dual-classing earlier? Well the main benefit is that you'll get your Fighter levels back sooner. Another thing is that simply getting to level 15 as a Fighter in the first place means you've almost exhausted most of the sidequests you can do in Chapter 2 of BG2 so you're likely going to be switching over to a level 1 Thief at one of the absolute worst possible times to do so - you probably won't be getting your Fighter levels back until damn near Throne of Bhaal.
People sometimes suggest level 15 Fighter because it's the highest reasonable level you can attain and get most all of the benefits of a high-level Thief on top of having better magic resistance as a Wizard Slayer, but dual-classing at level 9 Fighter is much saner. 13 is the absolute latest I would do it.
I'm also understanding that the Wizard Slayer gets a lot of that awesomeness from (1) magic resist + Carsomyr and (2) thief class backstabbing. I know you need Use Any Item from your Thief levels in order to use Carsomyr. I take it from the post above that you can't backstab with it, though... Given that the Wizard Slayer CAN use magic weapons and armor though, would you be better off rocking the Flail of Ages / Crom Faeyr? You CAN backstab with those, right?
In default, unmodded Baldur's Gate, the only weapons considered suitable for backstabbing are melee weapons single-class Thieves can become Proficient (one *) in. Long swords, short swords, daggers, katanas, quarterstaves are the limit I believe, so no backstabbing with war hammers. Of course nothing's stopping you from backstabbing with the Staff of the Ram and then switching to Carsomyr or some other insane weapon to finish a straight-up fight with or using Crom Fayer in your off-hand for the Strength bonus while backstabbing with a better weapon. Of course you could just equip Angurvadal and use that as your primary weapon in that case.
Also: Do the tweak pack / fix pack / item revisions kill this class? I know you need the tweak pack to have ranged weapons apply the spell failure affect. Does item revisions kills the 50% Carsomyr magic resist?
The Fixpack and Tweak Packs don't "kill" Wizard Slayer, but Item Revisions makes it a lot more difficult to cheese due to properly flagging some items that Wizard Slayers shouldn't be able to use but could in vanilla due to oversights. Of course, Use Any Item renders all of that moot anyway and Item Revisions doesn't touch HLAs.
Another possibility: Archer/Cleric? I've seen a lot of people rave about it. Tell me about it?
Human Archer-kit Ranger who dual-classes over to Cleric at level 9 or so. It's pretty straightforward, since Clerics can't normally get more than Proficient in weapons while an Archer is limited to Proficient in melee weapons, while able to get ***** in missile weapons. It's pretty much just a standard Ranger/Cleric dual class for access to both Druid and Cleric spellbooks on a single divine caster except with a focus on ranged attacks instead of dual-wield melee. I'd rather have a standard Ranger/Cleric (especially multiclassed) instead, to be honest. You lose *** in a missile weapon and a couple uses of a called shot per day, but you are actually capable in melee in exchange.
Another thing: While I've never played with Mazzy before, I did enjoy having Keldorn in my party the first time. I'd be kind of bummed about taking Carsomyr away from him? Is he viable with the Mace of Destruction (I forget the name, the undead-slaying one) or something else? Should I just grab Mazzy?
There are other nice Paladin-centric weapons like the Purifier Bastard Sword, which is essentially a one-handed Carsomyr with a lower enchantment level. By the time a Wizard Slayer/Thief gets high enough in level to grab Use Any Item, Keldorn would have plenty of time to get ** in Bastard Swords to use Purifier if you so wished. That said, Mazzy is really good, but she has ***** in Short Bows and **** in Short Swords by default, which are by far the two most common proficiencies for NPCs in BG2, so she has a ton of competition for gear. Using the mod Level 1 NPCs to turn her into a Halfling Paladin (which she essentially is already) or change her proficiencies to something else (doing so with L1NPCs will change her unique bow and sword to use those proficiencies instead) is something you could do as well.
Which brings up: Party concerns. Who should I take, for a generally good-aligned party? I'm thinking about the above Wizard Slayer / Thief as my PC, or an Archer / Cleric. I'd like to bring Imoen (as my mage), too, considering how central she is to the plot of the game. Keldorn is awesome, or Mazzy if people tell me I'm really missing out. That's three people - what about the other three?
I've heard Jan is fun, although the slapstick is a bit odd to me. Jaheira is grating, so I don't want to bother. I've played with Minsc before, and I just wound up leaving him for Sarevok once I got to TOB. Who should I grab?
Going back to the XP talk from above, if you're going to run a 6-man band, dualing over to Thief at 15 Fighter is sheer folly due to the XP being split six ways; never dual that late unless you're running with 4 people tops. If you go Wizard Slayer/Thief and dual at 9 WS, you can grab Aerie to be a combo Cleric/Mage, Anomen to be a competent frontline fighter and an okay Cleric to support Aerie (he also has some good interactions with Keldorn) and Yoshimo to be your Thief while your own thieving skills develop. Mazzy, if you keep her as her default Fighter, is excellent ranged support.
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ExtreaminatusGo forth and amplify,the Noise Marines are here!Registered Userregular
edited April 2012
I would like to say that the Mazzy/Keldorn interactions are the best.
Man. I've ran the begging of the game through a few times because I can't decide what I want to play. Not to mention I can't decide if I want to go selfish/evil for a playthough or butt-kicking-for-goodness (in which Mazzy and maybe Keldorn as well would be required). Speaking of which... what Paladin class would be best for Mazzy if changing her: Undead Hunter or Inquisitor?
Jester was stupidly effective, but playing the main character as a support instead of some unholy engine of destruction just feels wrong.
Assassin made me cry about Thief THACO and not being able to hit anyone with backstabs.
Barbarian seemed alright, but was really simple. Huuuge damage numbers and great, but not sure if it's what I want to play.
I might do Wizard Slayer single or dual (into Cleric or Thief). I've also installed a mod that makes their MR leveling more 'even' (12% + 4/level not slowing down in ToB). That, or the remixed Monk.
ExtreaminatusGo forth and amplify,the Noise Marines are here!Registered Userregular
I'm playing an assassin now, with RR and BGT, and it feels...not great. I'm thinking about starting over with just a regular theif (or Swashbuckler) and dual to mage in SoA, but I just can't make up my durn'd mind about it.
I'm playing an assassin now, with RR and BGT, and it feels...not great. I'm thinking about starting over with just a regular theif (or Swashbuckler) and dual to mage in SoA, but I just can't make up my durn'd mind about it.
Go Fighter/Thief dual or multi and hit people with high-damage backstabs. More importantly... actually hit them.
I think Undead Hunter would suit Mazzy best, especially considering the circumstances in which you find her. A second Inquisitor alongside Keldorn would just be tacky. She'd still be able to use her bow and the only thing she loses is Lay on Hands, which she probably keeps anyway by virtue of being Mazzy. Are you going to run her through Level 1 NPCs or manually edit her via Shadowkeeper?
Speaking of Assassins, I'm half-tempted to just Shadowkeeper Shapiro's base THAC0 to somewhere between a Cleric's and a Fighter's and be done with it, seeing as I added an Assassin to my troupe in order to stab things, not lob missiles from thirty feet away because his melee THAC0 sucks too badly. My only worry is that his THAC0 will end up being too good, especially once I get Death Strike next level (16) and better gear begins rolling in. Maybe toss him Mastery in Short Sword for a little extra THAC0 without really going overboard? It's not like he can go over 2 attacks/round while dual wielding anyway, unless I have him off-hand Kundane or - once he gets UAI - the Scarlet Ninja-to (which Item Revisions, bizarrely, neither nerfs nor moves from its merchant).
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ExtreaminatusGo forth and amplify,the Noise Marines are here!Registered Userregular
Yeah, actually hitting something with a backstab would be so fucking nice.
You move a Thief (or a Stalker) who is successfully Hidden in Shadows with a suitable weapon in hand behind an enemy's back (you can backstab slimes and oozes, but good luck telling back from front) and then you attack. You will stay Hidden until you hit or after 6 seconds have passed after initiating the attack, whichever comes first.
Due to engine limitations, however, enemy Thieves can successfully backstab you from any angle, even right in front of you.
korodullin on
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And how much bonus damage do you get? Seems you'd lose a round or two of normal damage trying to get into position so it'd better be good.
Suitable weapon is just dagger?
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ExtreaminatusGo forth and amplify,the Noise Marines are here!Registered Userregular
It's any weapon a theif can put at least one * into.
So, short swords, long swords, daggers, staves. I'm pretty sure I'm missing something, but that's a pretty good list of stuff your theif should be using anyway.
And how much bonus damage do you get? Seems you'd lose a round or two of normal damage trying to get into position so it'd better be good.
Suitable weapon is just dagger?
You can move freely while hidden in shadows (as long as you keep making your Hide in Shadows checks) and take your time positioning your backstabber before sending the rest of your party in to initiate combat so there's generally no time lost. Boots of Speed help get your Thief out of line of sight of the enemy to re-hide while in the middle of combat.
Backstabs start at x2 damage at level 1, moving up to x3 damage at level 5, x4 at level 9, and x5 at level 13. If you are an Assassin kit, you gain two more levels of backstab multiplier, ending at x7 damage at level 21.
Suitable weapons for backstabbing are any melee weapons a single-class Thief can put a single * into: daggers, short swords, long swords, katanas, and quarterstaves. Mods can change that, of course.
Basic question, but how does stealth/backstab work in BG? I've had Imoen as an archer throughout so far for lack of understanding.
You move a stealthed thief behind an enemy and then attack. They'll miss and the enemy will turn around and gib them. Next question.
The next question would be: "how does stealth/backstab work in BG2?"
The answer in that case would be: You move a stealthed Thief behind an enemy and then attack. You'll hit, but the mage you're attacking has Stoneskin up so you'll only do 2 damage. He'll then immediately cast Shadow Door and your Thief will be Mazed for the rest of the battle.
korodullin on
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The next question would be: "how does stealth/backstab work in BG2?"
The answer in that case would be: You move a stealthed Thief behind an enemy and then attack. You'll hit, but the mage you're attacking has Stoneskin up so you'll only do 2 damage. He'll then immediately cast Shadow Door and your Thief will be Mazed for the rest of the battle.
You cast Improved Invisibility or quaff an Invisibility Potion before a fight starts. You shank the mage dead before he even knows you were there. Then you continue abusing Invisibility for backstabing things that aren't covered in mage protections.
In ToB you click the Assassinate (or whatever it's called) HLA button while dual wielding and under Improved Haste and have all your attacks that round deal backstab modified damage.
Cheers for that. I won't bother starting to try it until level 5 then. A lot of fiddling to get a one off 2x stab damage really doesn't sound like it'll beat the current archery death tower she is acting as.
One of the mods (atweaks I think?) adds a script where a thief will constantly try to hide in shadows (or find traps). It's pretty nice for getting off a backstab without alot of extra effort. Just gotta remember to leave a melee weapon selected, for some reason switching causes you to leave shadows.
I keep meaning to type up a big progress update, but I've been kind of absorbed in Grimrock the past couple days. Oops.
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SummaryJudgmentGrab the hottest iron you can find, stride in the Tower’s front doorRegistered Userregular
edited April 2012
So, I've got everything installed and modded (big thanks to Korodullin for that write-up about load order and whatnot a page back). I've got my first char generated, but I'm thinking about running a second (maybe even a third PC) - how do I go about starting a single-player game with multiple PC's?
I made my first PC, started the game, and made a saved game as soon as I wound up in Irenicus' dungeon. I know I can use this saved game as an import for a char...I just have to start a TCP/IP multiplayer game, and import the second PC the same way? Once I've got an instance launched with both PC's in it, I can save and load it like a normal single player saved game? I don't need an internet connection, do I?
EDIT: Going over party comp one last time...thoughts? I would like to roll with 6.
First PC is a Ranger/Cleric. Dualing him at 9, stats are 18/06 str, 18 dex, 18 con, 10 int, 18 wisdom, 8 charisma. Naturally rolled. Should be okay?
Second PC is a Wizard Slayer/Thief, dualed at 9. Haven't rolled him yet. Assuming max str/dex/con are my only worries?
Imoen - Dualed immediately into a mage, or maybe just rolled as a pure mage (Tweakpack had level-1 NPCs.)
Keldorn - Paladin(Inquisitor)
Anomen - Fighter/Cleric
Empty Slot - Do I need another fighter (Mazzy or Keldorn)? Another mage? I could grab Edwin..
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Some days Blue wonders why anyone ever bothered making numbers so small; other days she supposes even infinity needs to start somewhere.
So, I've got everything installed and modded (big thanks to Korodullin for that write-up about load order and whatnot a page back). I've got my first char generated, but I'm thinking about running a second (maybe even a third PC) - how do I go about starting a single-player game with multiple PC's?
I made my first PC, started the game, and made a saved game as soon as I wound up in Irenicus' dungeon. I know I can use this saved game as an import for a char...I just have to start a TCP/IP multiplayer game, and import the second PC the same way? Once I've got an instance launched with both PC's in it, I can save and load it like a normal single player saved game? I don't need an internet connection, do I?
It's easier from a purely convenience standpoint to roll your primary character and other custom-made characters through multiplayer when you first begin a new game, but you can do it from a normal single-player save as well.
In your BGII-SoA folder there are two folders for save games: "save" and "mpsave"; if mpsave doesn't exist, make it. Go into "save" and move your save game (preferably a "hard save" and not a quick save) to the mpsave folder. Then you start Multiplayer, TCP/IP and all that jazz and then hit Load Game from the session creation menu (it'll be a long button at the bottom of the screen where you put in a session name and password). Load up your save game and you should see a big party generation menu with your main character in the large slot in the upper-left, Imoen in the slot below, and four more empty slots. Click an empty slot and you can make a new custom-built character (or Import one you rolled from the "Pre-Generate Character" thing on the main menu) and add it to the party. Do this for however many customs you want (though keep in mind that you end up with 5 characters total halfway through the beginner dungeon), click the check marks to ready them up, and start the game. You'll have them in your party and you can make another hard save and then move it back to the normal "save" folder and have it available in single-player with that party.
First PC is a Ranger/Cleric. Dualing him at 9, stats are 18/06 str, 18 dex, 18 con, 10 int, 18 wisdom, 8 charisma. Naturally rolled. Should be okay?
Pretty much okay to me. What proficiencies did you go with? Also, it's slightly cheesy, but it's acceptable in my book to bump all your stats up by 1 (and WIS by 3) to simulate eating all the stat tomes in BG1. That's just personal preference though, seeing as you'll be really powerful either way.
Second PC is a Wizard Slayer/Thief, dualed at 9. Haven't rolled him yet. Assuming max str/dex/con are my only worries?
STR/DEX/CON are your main stats, yeah. If you're looking for optimization, dump CHA all the way to minimum and also try to get INT up to 14-15 or so to act as a buffer against Mind Flayer melee attacks, which drain INT on hit. What kind of proficiencies will you toss this one? Wizard Slayers tend to make pretty good ranged support with points in Long or Short Bows due to their equipment restrictions making them a bit squishier on the front lines. 3-5 stars in either Shortbow or Longbow combined with a decent weapon can be quite excellent. Of course, dual wielding is always an option.
Imoen - Dualed immediately into a mage, or maybe just rolled as a pure mage (Tweakpack had level-1 NPCs.)
Imoen starts as a Thief that dual-classed to Mage at 7 in BG2 unless you change her. I personally think she works best that way, since she ends up being a pretty good Mage by the end.
Keldorn - Paladin(Inquisitor)
Anomen - Fighter/Cleric
Empty Slot - Do I need another fighter (Mazzy or Keldorn)? Another mage? I could grab Edwin..
Anomen and Keldorn are both solid picks, especially once Anomen completes his personal quest, provided you do it the Good way. Mazzy is excellent ranged support, but a Wizard Slayer/Thief might even make a better candidate for that as I mentioned earlier. Edwin is a really good Mage, though a really Good-aligned party like you're setting up may have a hard time keeping him around unless you either game your Reputation to keep it below 18 or install a "Happy Patch" to keep him from leaving. If you don't want to do either of those things, rolling a pure Mage as your third PC is an option too.
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SummaryJudgmentGrab the hottest iron you can find, stride in the Tower’s front doorRegistered Userregular
Mmhm, so I think I figured it out. There was some kind of chicanery involved in actually getting the multiplayer session to launch with just me (the option was grey-ed out for some reason, I think I had to tweak something with permissions? Don't remember.) Saved the game with my two PC's, copied the save folder from MP to SP, and re-launched SP, loading said game. Success! Although, please someone tell me if I've borked something doing it this way.
Some days Blue wonders why anyone ever bothered making numbers so small; other days she supposes even infinity needs to start somewhere.
That's pretty much all there is to it. The "chicanery" involved was probably just making sure your protocol was set up right, since you can't start anything multiplayer until that's done.
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wizard slayer spell failure doesn't do much since mages will die before it stacks too high(if you are whacking a mage with stone skin.. cast breach already)
I'll start writing my own progress reports as I get further in. Still in initial quest and party pickup... too bad most of the people I want to use right now will tale a bit of work.
Characterne is a Fighter/Thief Half-Orc multi. It's not like I haven't played the class all the way through twice already. I seem to always get called back to my favorite... Best backstabber in the game eventually when tjey have spell/potion support, HLA traps, and Detect Illusions being bloody invaluable especially on those assholes that cast improved invisibility and spell immunity divination later on (and freeing up mage spell slots)
Viconia is a dual-classed Swash (at lvl10) to Cleric to improve her combat abilities and give me an alternative to the awesome Jan. She's focused on removing traps and unlocking chests so Charname can focus on placing traps, illusions, and backstabbing. Throwing daggers (and maybe hammers) will give her ranged attacks.
Trying to decide if I want to play an evil party or mixed neutral party. My problem is that I love Keldorn and Mazzy but I don't know if I want to lock myself into being a champion of justice and not just a rogue seeking power and revenge.
I'm also going to have to decide quick if this Charname is romancing Edwin or Angelo.
That last line made me do a bit of a double-take. I don't think I've ever seen anyone use Angelo, much less romance him... or Edwin for that matter.
Any preference? What would be more amusing to write on? The narcissistic and hilarious (thought not in the way he wants to be) Edwin or the middle aged 'asian' mercenary?
On a side note, the next time I play I'm totally going to have to play a male Bhalspawn and use this portrait for a gentlemanly rogue or mage. The 'stache is just too epic.
This is my current character. It's kinda hard to find a good female half-orc portrait or picture that can be made into a good one. I'll settle with the sultry beautification (though I wish it looked stronger).
That male portrait is actually the same one I use for my current Sorcerer in NWN1, amusingly enough. It's such a good one.
As for romance, I'd probably prefer to see Angelo's, if only to mitigate the chance that Edwin will be ruined for me by some modmaker's romance dialogue.
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ExtreaminatusGo forth and amplify,the Noise Marines are here!Registered Userregular
Man, just found Lilarcor again.
Best sword in the game.
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ShadowenSnores in the morningLoserdomRegistered Userregular
This is my current character. It's kinda hard to find a good female half-orc portrait or picture that can be made into a good one. I'll settle with the sultry beautification (though I wish it looked stronger).
Huh. I think I know the person who commissioned that pic, and the artist who did it. (The character's half-orc, half-elf.)
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DunxcoShould get a suitNever skips breakfastRegistered Userregular
Been a while since the last update, and I've gotten a lot done. Last I left off, I'd just completed the oddly easy De'Arnise Keep. I decided to go ahead and finish up the Thieves Guild questline for its XP and the reward weapon at the end.
Like the De'Arnise Keep, this too went really really well for some reason I can not fathom. Rayic Gethras, the Cowled Wizard who normally grinds the questline to a screeching halt when you go to face him, went down like a sack of bricks, Shapiro's poison preventing him from doing any spellcasting while he pretty much panicked as I beat him down while dispelling everything his sequencers and contingencies threw up. Everything else went fine until it came time to fight Mae'Var himself, which is a bit different in SCS2, as all of his helpers are beefed up and Mae'Var himself is no slouch as a Fighter/Thief/Mage. I, however, was going to have none of that so I cheesed the hell out of the fight with Web, Free Action on Callic who made himself immune to cold via magic, and , as @Cantido would put it: "Copious amounts of Ice Storm." I actually had to reload the fight a few times until I made sure Callic got the killing blow on Mae'Var while he wasn't frozen from Ice Storm, as someone being "chunked" while frozen destroys all of their equipped items and leaves you with a tiny pittance of gold (about 30, regardless of how much the person was carrying) as a consolation prize for being a cheesy asshole. Easy peasy all told, and I walked away with some decent gear and 10,000 more gold.
Next up, Umar Hills to do the Shade Lord's temple and snag Mazzy. Did all the Imnesvale stuff (avoiding Valygar's cabin for now) and headed to the temple. Almost nothing about the place is changed, so it was little more than business as usual grabbing Mazzy and navigating through the place, doing all the puzzles. I decided, out of an abundance of caution, to do my Shade Lord battle prep outside the Shadow Dragon's room, even though I had the wardstone. Turns out that was a good idea since - whoopsiedoodle - the wardstone didn't work for some reason and the dragon attacked me anyway. I panicked a bit and sent Callic in to melee while Shapiro pulled out his crossbow and Bolts of Lightning to snipe from one end while Mazzy did the same with +1 Fire Arrows from the other. Jaheira threw down a Call Lightning while Jan and Xan laid down dispels and Breaches followed by Lower Resistance. Things actually went pretty well for a while (despite Callic getting completely mauled by the dragon - turns out having 20% physical resist doesn't beat losing 4 AC after all!) until it turned and nailed Mazzy with its dragon breath, doing a bunch of acid damage... and draining, no shitting, about 25 levels to kill her instantly. Luckily by this point he was about dead, so I gritted my teeth and soldiered through, Xan getting the final hit after buffing with Tenser's once his spellbook was drained. Collected my spoils, rezzed Mazzy, rebuffed, and went to fight the Shade Lord. The SCS Shade Lord fight is pretty fun, though it's so chaotic and cramped that you never really have the chance to process everything going on to really appreciate the fight's changes. Callic got pointed at the Shade Lord (who buffs with a bunch of unique shadowy spells that add a bunch of combo effects) and told to have fun while Mazzy plugged the Shadow Altar - which was spewing level-draining shadows out at a rate of one per round - while Xan and Jaheira took care of Mazzy's zombie ex-boyfriend and the adds. Altar went down, Patrick went down, then the Shade Lord bit it. Collected my spoils and left. Sent Mazzy home to Trademeet (for now), grabbed Valygar, and it was off to the Planar Sphere!
Fuck. This. Dungeon. Mage-fight after mage-fight, but with a boatload of powerful melee attackers thrown into the mix. I always dread doing this place as a Mage for the Stronghold, much less when I do it on any other class. The Sahuagin room and first Feral Halfling fights weren't too bad, with Valygar and Shapiro putting aside their vast differences of alignment to form ~Team Brostab~ and do coordinated shankings of multiple spellcasters while Callic charged in to take out the head honchos and the rest of the crew went about the usual lockdown/mop-up duties, usually with Xan casting Horror while Jan lays down some Slow. The second group of Halflings was a bit rougher, with Team Brostab getting caught by an errant True Sight before they could run away fast enough to avoid being revealed, causing the fight to begin before I was really totally ready. I recovered fairly quickly and took control of the fight, downing one of the casters and one of their fighters when the other caster Shadow Door'd away and began summoning a Death Knight (which replaces Gate for Clerics). Death Knights are no joke in SCS: they've got 170 HP, -4 AC, incredible THAC0, swing a +3 greatsword, have high magic resistance, can cast all Power Words (including Death), and Symbols Weakness and Death. Unfortunately (for it), it's considered Undead, and thus the Mace of Disruption instakilled it after a couple of hits. Whoops. After that I activated the golem, helped it kill an Elder Orb, and then prepared for the guy running the place, Lavok.
Fuck SCS Lavok. Fuck him. Fuck him right in his smarmy unique NPC graphic'd ear. I am almost convinced that he is not possible to beat with a party that tackles the Sphere as their first stronghold subquest unless you do something like cast Mislead from a scroll followed by a Finger of Death scroll and hope he fails a save. Level 21 Human Necromancer, has all the spells you'd expect a mage of that level to have, but his level 9 spell slots are taken up by all of three spells that will make your life a living hell: Time Stop, Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting, and Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting. If he so chooses, he can kill at least 4 of your party members outright just by starting the fight with Time Stop followed by both Horrid Wiltings, which he did twice. He also has Absolute Immunity and Spell Trap, the latter of which is extremely difficult to dispel because it can only be removed (at my level with the spells I have access to) by Pierce Magic, and he layers other Pierce-able stuff on top of it to make it even more difficult to remove. Fights like this in SCS 2 are where Wizard Slayers would really shine since they'd have plenty of time to get spell failure built up on Lavok while he just absorbs hit after hit. My first couple tries had him down fairly good, but when he hit 50% health, out popped the Chain Contingency with Stoneskin, Mantle, and... ABI-DALZIM'S HORRID FUCKING WILTING. Most of my party died then and there, but he was getting really close to dead so I dispelled as best I could (really difficult when Dispel/Remove Magic only has a 30% chance of success per effect and you've exhausted all your Breaches) and got him to Near Death... when he cast Absolute Immunity. I said "fuck this" and reloaded.
I then sent Callic, Improved Invisible, with Harm pre-cast and his THAC0 buffed to the stratosphere up to Lavok and one-shot him (harm with Spell Revisions does 150 damage - half with a save - instead of 90% of max HP... a huge nerf against dragons but a godsend against annoying mages) before he could even trigger his initial dialogue. Fuck doing that fight properly.
The rest of the dungeon went fine. Tolgerias and his lackey went down easily to Team Brostab (Tolgerias even kindly dispelled his partner's initial invisibility in a failed attempt to reveal my hidden stealthers) and the demon plane was basically free XP thanks to Death Ward preventing some of the more dangerous things the buffed demons can do. I then had Callic smash some golems since he's the only one who can reasonably go toe-to-toe with them and not have to inhale a dozen healing potions and then it was back to Athkatla where I am at currently. Valygar was sent back home, and now it's off to Trademeet to reunite with Mazzy and do a whole bunch of stupid Druid bullshit.
Loot time! I got a whole fucking lot of it. What I'm listing here is either stuff I have/had equipped through this update or stuff that's really interesting. There was far more stuff that I picked up, like the armor Protector of the Second, but that stuff was kinda garbage in vanilla BG2 and it's still kinda garbage with Item Revisions so I'm not even going to bother listing it.
Boots of Jansenkind
Made by Jan in a new Banter Packs dialogue. They do exactly what they say they do. They are the best boots in the game and anyone who says otherwise is a communist.
Shadow Armor +3
Peeled off of Mae'var's frozen corpse, it's essentially the same as in vanilla BG2, except it allows spellcasting and has a slightly lower Hide bonus. Incredibly useful for Thief/Mages and maybe even Fighter/Thieves if you don't have Xan for BG2 installed for easy access to Elven Chain. Went onto Shapiro for lack of a better candidate until it was replaced by...
Mielikki's Gift +3
Replaces the Night's Gift +5 that you get as a reward for beating the Shade Lord and is really really good. It's basically Plate Mail +2, but leather. It also frees up a Barkskin spell slot from Jaheira, who also has equipped...
Shadow Dragonhide Armor +5
Still ridiculously powerful, though not the hands-down best armor for Thieves anymore due to the large stealth penalty it has now that it's classified as Hide armor. Its immunity to Level Drain is far nicer than the original's 50% acid resistance. It also frees up a Negative Plane Protection spell slot from Callic, who, to continue the pattern also happens to have equipped...
Plate of Balduran +2
Already a very excellent piece of armor in vanilla BG2, Item Revisions makes it even better for some unfathomable reason by giving it +1 more HP and 5% magic resistance to go along with the rest of the Balduran set. The 20% physical resistance from the Armor of Faith that Callic was wearing prior is great and all, but a difference of 4 AC between the two armors is pretty enormous. Unless something absolutely amazing comes around, this could potentially be Callic's best armor.
Bow of Arvoreen +2
Mazzy's bow. Previously a plain Jane +2 shortbow, IR gives it a damage buff (like with all magic bows) as well as Free Action. It's nice, but it'll probably be replaced before I know it.
Sword of Arvoreen +2
Item Revisions removes its Slow/Stun immunity and changes its save-or-be-slowed effect to a much more generally-useful ability. This is actually Shapiro's new current weapon, since Mazzy's unique equipment, unlike most other characters' unique gear, can be equipped by any Halfling.
Stiletto of Demarchess +2
Always a great entry in an underrated weapon category, the Stiletto is given a fun little no-save bleed effect (which is rare) and its 20% proc chance ability changed from Stun to the more useful Hold, which guarantees hits afterwards. Was in Valygar's offhand while he was in the party, but I dunno if it'll see any more action.
Ripper +2
Originally a plain +2 composite long bow, it's been given a significant damage boost (+3!) over its vanilla counterpart and a potentially fight-changing no-save AC lowering effect, though at the cost of a much higher STR requirement than regular composite long bows, which have had theirs lowered to 16. If you have the stats for it and some points in Long Bow, it's an incredible weapon that'll serve you probably for the rest of SoA.
Ring of Acuity
The one and only. One of those essentially mandatory items you simply must get in your playthrough, it actually replaces the Ring of Wizardry that is otherwise dropped from an enemy during one of Jaheira's sidequests and moved to Lavok's body. There are now three Rings of Mage Spell-Giving in the game: two Rings of Wizardry (one giving double 1st level spell slots, the other giving +1 slot for levels 1-4) and the Ring of Acuity. Currently sitting on Xan, as he's the only one who has the level 6 spell slots to make use of it.
Ring of Earth Control
Significantly buffed with IR. +2 bonus to AC as opposed to vanilla's +1, and the previously near-useless Charm Elemental replaced by a once-per-day Stoneskin (!) and an instant-cast summon. Also on Xan to help shore up his AC and give him an awesome defensive tool.
Ilbratha +1
Mostly the same as vanilla's original, IR gives it a +2 AC bonus to further complement its defensive nature. Currently nestled in Shapiro's off-hand being awesome.
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ExtreaminatusGo forth and amplify,the Noise Marines are here!Registered Userregular
Love these updates.
I have an IR question, though. If I install it after having started a game and getting some items, will it affect those items I already have?
It should. IR (and anything that modifies items, like Level 1 NPCs altering NPCs' unique items to let them be usable by different classes) actually goes in and hard-changes all the stats and info. You may have to unequip and re-equip stuff to make it work 100% though. If you use Level 1 NPCs or the Tweak Packs or anything of that nature, you'll want to install Item Revisions before them, otherwise any item settings you alter through some of the components of the latter mods will have no effect.
Edit: Just to be on the safe side, since I don't know your BG modding experience: If you haven't ever gone back and inserted a mod into your load order in BG2, bear in mind you must uninstall all mods leading back to where you want to put the new mod in one at a time, like peeling back layers of an onion.
As an example for anyone who hasn't had to do it before, let's say your mod list is this:
And you want to install Item Revisions. You would have to go in and completely uninstall everything in the Tweak Pack (this is where having either a separate checklist of what mod components you've installed or a backup of your weidu.log, since weidu.log gets auto-updated to account for mod uninstalls) and SCS 2, then install Item Revisions followed by reinstalling SCS and the Tweak Pack.
This is annoying as shit for mods that have to go before Level 1 NPCs, since that means you have to go back and re-do every single individual NPC you changed. It's a massive - but necessary - pain in the ass.
korodullin on
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ExtreaminatusGo forth and amplify,the Noise Marines are here!Registered Userregular
Yeah, I knew about the order since I've been fiddling with BG mods since high school, but I wasn't sure if I could just install a mod and have it take effect in a saved game or not, since I've only modded before ever starting a game.
I never noticed rangers could dual class. an archer/cleric would be an offensive spell caster that does a lot of damage with a sling, sounds interesting
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Yep.
Level 15 Wizard Slayer (Fighter) is 1.75 million xp. The ToB XP cap is 8 million. 6.25 million xp left over lets you get to 38 Thief. For the record, 8 million xp in nothing but Thief gets you level 40.
Benefit to dual-classing earlier? Well the main benefit is that you'll get your Fighter levels back sooner. Another thing is that simply getting to level 15 as a Fighter in the first place means you've almost exhausted most of the sidequests you can do in Chapter 2 of BG2 so you're likely going to be switching over to a level 1 Thief at one of the absolute worst possible times to do so - you probably won't be getting your Fighter levels back until damn near Throne of Bhaal.
People sometimes suggest level 15 Fighter because it's the highest reasonable level you can attain and get most all of the benefits of a high-level Thief on top of having better magic resistance as a Wizard Slayer, but dual-classing at level 9 Fighter is much saner. 13 is the absolute latest I would do it.
In default, unmodded Baldur's Gate, the only weapons considered suitable for backstabbing are melee weapons single-class Thieves can become Proficient (one *) in. Long swords, short swords, daggers, katanas, quarterstaves are the limit I believe, so no backstabbing with war hammers. Of course nothing's stopping you from backstabbing with the Staff of the Ram and then switching to Carsomyr or some other insane weapon to finish a straight-up fight with or using Crom Fayer in your off-hand for the Strength bonus while backstabbing with a better weapon. Of course you could just equip Angurvadal and use that as your primary weapon in that case.
The Fixpack and Tweak Packs don't "kill" Wizard Slayer, but Item Revisions makes it a lot more difficult to cheese due to properly flagging some items that Wizard Slayers shouldn't be able to use but could in vanilla due to oversights. Of course, Use Any Item renders all of that moot anyway and Item Revisions doesn't touch HLAs.
Human Archer-kit Ranger who dual-classes over to Cleric at level 9 or so. It's pretty straightforward, since Clerics can't normally get more than Proficient in weapons while an Archer is limited to Proficient in melee weapons, while able to get ***** in missile weapons. It's pretty much just a standard Ranger/Cleric dual class for access to both Druid and Cleric spellbooks on a single divine caster except with a focus on ranged attacks instead of dual-wield melee. I'd rather have a standard Ranger/Cleric (especially multiclassed) instead, to be honest. You lose *** in a missile weapon and a couple uses of a called shot per day, but you are actually capable in melee in exchange.
There are other nice Paladin-centric weapons like the Purifier Bastard Sword, which is essentially a one-handed Carsomyr with a lower enchantment level. By the time a Wizard Slayer/Thief gets high enough in level to grab Use Any Item, Keldorn would have plenty of time to get ** in Bastard Swords to use Purifier if you so wished. That said, Mazzy is really good, but she has ***** in Short Bows and **** in Short Swords by default, which are by far the two most common proficiencies for NPCs in BG2, so she has a ton of competition for gear. Using the mod Level 1 NPCs to turn her into a Halfling Paladin (which she essentially is already) or change her proficiencies to something else (doing so with L1NPCs will change her unique bow and sword to use those proficiencies instead) is something you could do as well.
Going back to the XP talk from above, if you're going to run a 6-man band, dualing over to Thief at 15 Fighter is sheer folly due to the XP being split six ways; never dual that late unless you're running with 4 people tops. If you go Wizard Slayer/Thief and dual at 9 WS, you can grab Aerie to be a combo Cleric/Mage, Anomen to be a competent frontline fighter and an okay Cleric to support Aerie (he also has some good interactions with Keldorn) and Yoshimo to be your Thief while your own thieving skills develop. Mazzy, if you keep her as her default Fighter, is excellent ranged support.
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Aside from calling Viconia a bitch, that is.
Jester was stupidly effective, but playing the main character as a support instead of some unholy engine of destruction just feels wrong.
Assassin made me cry about Thief THACO and not being able to hit anyone with backstabs.
Barbarian seemed alright, but was really simple. Huuuge damage numbers and great, but not sure if it's what I want to play.
I might do Wizard Slayer single or dual (into Cleric or Thief). I've also installed a mod that makes their MR leveling more 'even' (12% + 4/level not slowing down in ToB). That, or the remixed Monk.
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
Go Fighter/Thief dual or multi and hit people with high-damage backstabs. More importantly... actually hit them.
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
Speaking of Assassins, I'm half-tempted to just Shadowkeeper Shapiro's base THAC0 to somewhere between a Cleric's and a Fighter's and be done with it, seeing as I added an Assassin to my troupe in order to stab things, not lob missiles from thirty feet away because his melee THAC0 sucks too badly. My only worry is that his THAC0 will end up being too good, especially once I get Death Strike next level (16) and better gear begins rolling in. Maybe toss him Mastery in Short Sword for a little extra THAC0 without really going overboard? It's not like he can go over 2 attacks/round while dual wielding anyway, unless I have him off-hand Kundane or - once he gets UAI - the Scarlet Ninja-to (which Item Revisions, bizarrely, neither nerfs nor moves from its merchant).
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Due to engine limitations, however, enemy Thieves can successfully backstab you from any angle, even right in front of you.
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Suitable weapon is just dagger?
So, short swords, long swords, daggers, staves. I'm pretty sure I'm missing something, but that's a pretty good list of stuff your theif should be using anyway.
You move a stealthed thief behind an enemy and then attack. They'll miss and the enemy will turn around and gib them. Next question.
You can move freely while hidden in shadows (as long as you keep making your Hide in Shadows checks) and take your time positioning your backstabber before sending the rest of your party in to initiate combat so there's generally no time lost. Boots of Speed help get your Thief out of line of sight of the enemy to re-hide while in the middle of combat.
Backstabs start at x2 damage at level 1, moving up to x3 damage at level 5, x4 at level 9, and x5 at level 13. If you are an Assassin kit, you gain two more levels of backstab multiplier, ending at x7 damage at level 21.
Suitable weapons for backstabbing are any melee weapons a single-class Thief can put a single * into: daggers, short swords, long swords, katanas, and quarterstaves. Mods can change that, of course.
The next question would be: "how does stealth/backstab work in BG2?"
The answer in that case would be: You move a stealthed Thief behind an enemy and then attack. You'll hit, but the mage you're attacking has Stoneskin up so you'll only do 2 damage. He'll then immediately cast Shadow Door and your Thief will be Mazed for the rest of the battle.
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You cast Improved Invisibility or quaff an Invisibility Potion before a fight starts. You shank the mage dead before he even knows you were there. Then you continue abusing Invisibility for backstabing things that aren't covered in mage protections.
In ToB you click the Assassinate (or whatever it's called) HLA button while dual wielding and under Improved Haste and have all your attacks that round deal backstab modified damage.
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
I keep meaning to type up a big progress update, but I've been kind of absorbed in Grimrock the past couple days. Oops.
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I made my first PC, started the game, and made a saved game as soon as I wound up in Irenicus' dungeon. I know I can use this saved game as an import for a char...I just have to start a TCP/IP multiplayer game, and import the second PC the same way? Once I've got an instance launched with both PC's in it, I can save and load it like a normal single player saved game? I don't need an internet connection, do I?
EDIT: Going over party comp one last time...thoughts? I would like to roll with 6.
First PC is a Ranger/Cleric. Dualing him at 9, stats are 18/06 str, 18 dex, 18 con, 10 int, 18 wisdom, 8 charisma. Naturally rolled. Should be okay?
Second PC is a Wizard Slayer/Thief, dualed at 9. Haven't rolled him yet. Assuming max str/dex/con are my only worries?
Imoen - Dualed immediately into a mage, or maybe just rolled as a pure mage (Tweakpack had level-1 NPCs.)
Keldorn - Paladin(Inquisitor)
Anomen - Fighter/Cleric
Empty Slot - Do I need another fighter (Mazzy or Keldorn)? Another mage? I could grab Edwin..
It's easier from a purely convenience standpoint to roll your primary character and other custom-made characters through multiplayer when you first begin a new game, but you can do it from a normal single-player save as well.
In your BGII-SoA folder there are two folders for save games: "save" and "mpsave"; if mpsave doesn't exist, make it. Go into "save" and move your save game (preferably a "hard save" and not a quick save) to the mpsave folder. Then you start Multiplayer, TCP/IP and all that jazz and then hit Load Game from the session creation menu (it'll be a long button at the bottom of the screen where you put in a session name and password). Load up your save game and you should see a big party generation menu with your main character in the large slot in the upper-left, Imoen in the slot below, and four more empty slots. Click an empty slot and you can make a new custom-built character (or Import one you rolled from the "Pre-Generate Character" thing on the main menu) and add it to the party. Do this for however many customs you want (though keep in mind that you end up with 5 characters total halfway through the beginner dungeon), click the check marks to ready them up, and start the game. You'll have them in your party and you can make another hard save and then move it back to the normal "save" folder and have it available in single-player with that party.
Pretty much okay to me. What proficiencies did you go with? Also, it's slightly cheesy, but it's acceptable in my book to bump all your stats up by 1 (and WIS by 3) to simulate eating all the stat tomes in BG1. That's just personal preference though, seeing as you'll be really powerful either way.
STR/DEX/CON are your main stats, yeah. If you're looking for optimization, dump CHA all the way to minimum and also try to get INT up to 14-15 or so to act as a buffer against Mind Flayer melee attacks, which drain INT on hit. What kind of proficiencies will you toss this one? Wizard Slayers tend to make pretty good ranged support with points in Long or Short Bows due to their equipment restrictions making them a bit squishier on the front lines. 3-5 stars in either Shortbow or Longbow combined with a decent weapon can be quite excellent. Of course, dual wielding is always an option.
Imoen starts as a Thief that dual-classed to Mage at 7 in BG2 unless you change her. I personally think she works best that way, since she ends up being a pretty good Mage by the end.
Anomen and Keldorn are both solid picks, especially once Anomen completes his personal quest, provided you do it the Good way. Mazzy is excellent ranged support, but a Wizard Slayer/Thief might even make a better candidate for that as I mentioned earlier. Edwin is a really good Mage, though a really Good-aligned party like you're setting up may have a hard time keeping him around unless you either game your Reputation to keep it below 18 or install a "Happy Patch" to keep him from leaving. If you don't want to do either of those things, rolling a pure Mage as your third PC is an option too.
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wizard slayer spell failure doesn't do much since mages will die before it stacks too high(if you are whacking a mage with stone skin.. cast breach already)
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Characterne is a Fighter/Thief Half-Orc multi. It's not like I haven't played the class all the way through twice already. I seem to always get called back to my favorite... Best backstabber in the game eventually when tjey have spell/potion support, HLA traps, and Detect Illusions being bloody invaluable especially on those assholes that cast improved invisibility and spell immunity divination later on (and freeing up mage spell slots)
Viconia is a dual-classed Swash (at lvl10) to Cleric to improve her combat abilities and give me an alternative to the awesome Jan. She's focused on removing traps and unlocking chests so Charname can focus on placing traps, illusions, and backstabbing. Throwing daggers (and maybe hammers) will give her ranged attacks.
Trying to decide if I want to play an evil party or mixed neutral party. My problem is that I love Keldorn and Mazzy but I don't know if I want to lock myself into being a champion of justice and not just a rogue seeking power and revenge.
I'm also going to have to decide quick if this Charname is romancing Edwin or Angelo.
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
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Any preference? What would be more amusing to write on? The narcissistic and hilarious (thought not in the way he wants to be) Edwin or the middle aged 'asian' mercenary?
On a side note, the next time I play I'm totally going to have to play a male Bhalspawn and use this portrait for a gentlemanly rogue or mage. The 'stache is just too epic.
This is my current character. It's kinda hard to find a good female half-orc portrait or picture that can be made into a good one. I'll settle with the sultry beautification (though I wish it looked stronger).
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
As for romance, I'd probably prefer to see Angelo's, if only to mitigate the chance that Edwin will be ruined for me by some modmaker's romance dialogue.
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Best sword in the game.
Huh. I think I know the person who commissioned that pic, and the artist who did it. (The character's half-orc, half-elf.)
Such a missed opportunity for unique banter between Minsc and Lilacor.
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Like the De'Arnise Keep, this too went really really well for some reason I can not fathom. Rayic Gethras, the Cowled Wizard who normally grinds the questline to a screeching halt when you go to face him, went down like a sack of bricks, Shapiro's poison preventing him from doing any spellcasting while he pretty much panicked as I beat him down while dispelling everything his sequencers and contingencies threw up. Everything else went fine until it came time to fight Mae'Var himself, which is a bit different in SCS2, as all of his helpers are beefed up and Mae'Var himself is no slouch as a Fighter/Thief/Mage. I, however, was going to have none of that so I cheesed the hell out of the fight with Web, Free Action on Callic who made himself immune to cold via magic, and , as @Cantido would put it: "Copious amounts of Ice Storm." I actually had to reload the fight a few times until I made sure Callic got the killing blow on Mae'Var while he wasn't frozen from Ice Storm, as someone being "chunked" while frozen destroys all of their equipped items and leaves you with a tiny pittance of gold (about 30, regardless of how much the person was carrying) as a consolation prize for being a cheesy asshole. Easy peasy all told, and I walked away with some decent gear and 10,000 more gold.
Next up, Umar Hills to do the Shade Lord's temple and snag Mazzy. Did all the Imnesvale stuff (avoiding Valygar's cabin for now) and headed to the temple. Almost nothing about the place is changed, so it was little more than business as usual grabbing Mazzy and navigating through the place, doing all the puzzles. I decided, out of an abundance of caution, to do my Shade Lord battle prep outside the Shadow Dragon's room, even though I had the wardstone. Turns out that was a good idea since - whoopsiedoodle - the wardstone didn't work for some reason and the dragon attacked me anyway. I panicked a bit and sent Callic in to melee while Shapiro pulled out his crossbow and Bolts of Lightning to snipe from one end while Mazzy did the same with +1 Fire Arrows from the other. Jaheira threw down a Call Lightning while Jan and Xan laid down dispels and Breaches followed by Lower Resistance. Things actually went pretty well for a while (despite Callic getting completely mauled by the dragon - turns out having 20% physical resist doesn't beat losing 4 AC after all!) until it turned and nailed Mazzy with its dragon breath, doing a bunch of acid damage... and draining, no shitting, about 25 levels to kill her instantly. Luckily by this point he was about dead, so I gritted my teeth and soldiered through, Xan getting the final hit after buffing with Tenser's once his spellbook was drained. Collected my spoils, rezzed Mazzy, rebuffed, and went to fight the Shade Lord. The SCS Shade Lord fight is pretty fun, though it's so chaotic and cramped that you never really have the chance to process everything going on to really appreciate the fight's changes. Callic got pointed at the Shade Lord (who buffs with a bunch of unique shadowy spells that add a bunch of combo effects) and told to have fun while Mazzy plugged the Shadow Altar - which was spewing level-draining shadows out at a rate of one per round - while Xan and Jaheira took care of Mazzy's zombie ex-boyfriend and the adds. Altar went down, Patrick went down, then the Shade Lord bit it. Collected my spoils and left. Sent Mazzy home to Trademeet (for now), grabbed Valygar, and it was off to the Planar Sphere!
Fuck. This. Dungeon. Mage-fight after mage-fight, but with a boatload of powerful melee attackers thrown into the mix. I always dread doing this place as a Mage for the Stronghold, much less when I do it on any other class. The Sahuagin room and first Feral Halfling fights weren't too bad, with Valygar and Shapiro putting aside their vast differences of alignment to form ~Team Brostab~ and do coordinated shankings of multiple spellcasters while Callic charged in to take out the head honchos and the rest of the crew went about the usual lockdown/mop-up duties, usually with Xan casting Horror while Jan lays down some Slow. The second group of Halflings was a bit rougher, with Team Brostab getting caught by an errant True Sight before they could run away fast enough to avoid being revealed, causing the fight to begin before I was really totally ready. I recovered fairly quickly and took control of the fight, downing one of the casters and one of their fighters when the other caster Shadow Door'd away and began summoning a Death Knight (which replaces Gate for Clerics). Death Knights are no joke in SCS: they've got 170 HP, -4 AC, incredible THAC0, swing a +3 greatsword, have high magic resistance, can cast all Power Words (including Death), and Symbols Weakness and Death. Unfortunately (for it), it's considered Undead, and thus the Mace of Disruption instakilled it after a couple of hits. Whoops. After that I activated the golem, helped it kill an Elder Orb, and then prepared for the guy running the place, Lavok.
Fuck SCS Lavok. Fuck him. Fuck him right in his smarmy unique NPC graphic'd ear. I am almost convinced that he is not possible to beat with a party that tackles the Sphere as their first stronghold subquest unless you do something like cast Mislead from a scroll followed by a Finger of Death scroll and hope he fails a save. Level 21 Human Necromancer, has all the spells you'd expect a mage of that level to have, but his level 9 spell slots are taken up by all of three spells that will make your life a living hell: Time Stop, Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting, and Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting. If he so chooses, he can kill at least 4 of your party members outright just by starting the fight with Time Stop followed by both Horrid Wiltings, which he did twice. He also has Absolute Immunity and Spell Trap, the latter of which is extremely difficult to dispel because it can only be removed (at my level with the spells I have access to) by Pierce Magic, and he layers other Pierce-able stuff on top of it to make it even more difficult to remove. Fights like this in SCS 2 are where Wizard Slayers would really shine since they'd have plenty of time to get spell failure built up on Lavok while he just absorbs hit after hit. My first couple tries had him down fairly good, but when he hit 50% health, out popped the Chain Contingency with Stoneskin, Mantle, and... ABI-DALZIM'S HORRID FUCKING WILTING. Most of my party died then and there, but he was getting really close to dead so I dispelled as best I could (really difficult when Dispel/Remove Magic only has a 30% chance of success per effect and you've exhausted all your Breaches) and got him to Near Death... when he cast Absolute Immunity. I said "fuck this" and reloaded.
I then sent Callic, Improved Invisible, with Harm pre-cast and his THAC0 buffed to the stratosphere up to Lavok and one-shot him (harm with Spell Revisions does 150 damage - half with a save - instead of 90% of max HP... a huge nerf against dragons but a godsend against annoying mages) before he could even trigger his initial dialogue. Fuck doing that fight properly.
The rest of the dungeon went fine. Tolgerias and his lackey went down easily to Team Brostab (Tolgerias even kindly dispelled his partner's initial invisibility in a failed attempt to reveal my hidden stealthers) and the demon plane was basically free XP thanks to Death Ward preventing some of the more dangerous things the buffed demons can do. I then had Callic smash some golems since he's the only one who can reasonably go toe-to-toe with them and not have to inhale a dozen healing potions and then it was back to Athkatla where I am at currently. Valygar was sent back home, and now it's off to Trademeet to reunite with Mazzy and do a whole bunch of stupid Druid bullshit.
Loot time! I got a whole fucking lot of it. What I'm listing here is either stuff I have/had equipped through this update or stuff that's really interesting. There was far more stuff that I picked up, like the armor Protector of the Second, but that stuff was kinda garbage in vanilla BG2 and it's still kinda garbage with Item Revisions so I'm not even going to bother listing it.
Made by Jan in a new Banter Packs dialogue. They do exactly what they say they do. They are the best boots in the game and anyone who says otherwise is a communist.
Shadow Armor +3
Peeled off of Mae'var's frozen corpse, it's essentially the same as in vanilla BG2, except it allows spellcasting and has a slightly lower Hide bonus. Incredibly useful for Thief/Mages and maybe even Fighter/Thieves if you don't have Xan for BG2 installed for easy access to Elven Chain. Went onto Shapiro for lack of a better candidate until it was replaced by...
Mielikki's Gift +3
Replaces the Night's Gift +5 that you get as a reward for beating the Shade Lord and is really really good. It's basically Plate Mail +2, but leather. It also frees up a Barkskin spell slot from Jaheira, who also has equipped...
Shadow Dragonhide Armor +5
Still ridiculously powerful, though not the hands-down best armor for Thieves anymore due to the large stealth penalty it has now that it's classified as Hide armor. Its immunity to Level Drain is far nicer than the original's 50% acid resistance. It also frees up a Negative Plane Protection spell slot from Callic, who, to continue the pattern also happens to have equipped...
Plate of Balduran +2
Already a very excellent piece of armor in vanilla BG2, Item Revisions makes it even better for some unfathomable reason by giving it +1 more HP and 5% magic resistance to go along with the rest of the Balduran set. The 20% physical resistance from the Armor of Faith that Callic was wearing prior is great and all, but a difference of 4 AC between the two armors is pretty enormous. Unless something absolutely amazing comes around, this could potentially be Callic's best armor.
Bow of Arvoreen +2
Mazzy's bow. Previously a plain Jane +2 shortbow, IR gives it a damage buff (like with all magic bows) as well as Free Action. It's nice, but it'll probably be replaced before I know it.
Sword of Arvoreen +2
Item Revisions removes its Slow/Stun immunity and changes its save-or-be-slowed effect to a much more generally-useful ability. This is actually Shapiro's new current weapon, since Mazzy's unique equipment, unlike most other characters' unique gear, can be equipped by any Halfling.
Stiletto of Demarchess +2
Always a great entry in an underrated weapon category, the Stiletto is given a fun little no-save bleed effect (which is rare) and its 20% proc chance ability changed from Stun to the more useful Hold, which guarantees hits afterwards. Was in Valygar's offhand while he was in the party, but I dunno if it'll see any more action.
Ripper +2
Originally a plain +2 composite long bow, it's been given a significant damage boost (+3!) over its vanilla counterpart and a potentially fight-changing no-save AC lowering effect, though at the cost of a much higher STR requirement than regular composite long bows, which have had theirs lowered to 16. If you have the stats for it and some points in Long Bow, it's an incredible weapon that'll serve you probably for the rest of SoA.
Ring of Acuity
The one and only. One of those essentially mandatory items you simply must get in your playthrough, it actually replaces the Ring of Wizardry that is otherwise dropped from an enemy during one of Jaheira's sidequests and moved to Lavok's body. There are now three Rings of Mage Spell-Giving in the game: two Rings of Wizardry (one giving double 1st level spell slots, the other giving +1 slot for levels 1-4) and the Ring of Acuity. Currently sitting on Xan, as he's the only one who has the level 6 spell slots to make use of it.
Ring of Earth Control
Significantly buffed with IR. +2 bonus to AC as opposed to vanilla's +1, and the previously near-useless Charm Elemental replaced by a once-per-day Stoneskin (!) and an instant-cast summon. Also on Xan to help shore up his AC and give him an awesome defensive tool.
Ilbratha +1
Mostly the same as vanilla's original, IR gives it a +2 AC bonus to further complement its defensive nature. Currently nestled in Shapiro's off-hand being awesome.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
I have an IR question, though. If I install it after having started a game and getting some items, will it affect those items I already have?
Edit: Just to be on the safe side, since I don't know your BG modding experience: If you haven't ever gone back and inserted a mod into your load order in BG2, bear in mind you must uninstall all mods leading back to where you want to put the new mod in one at a time, like peeling back layers of an onion.
As an example for anyone who hasn't had to do it before, let's say your mod list is this:
Fixpack
Banter Pack
Spell Revisions
SCS 2
Tweak Pack
And you want to install Item Revisions. You would have to go in and completely uninstall everything in the Tweak Pack (this is where having either a separate checklist of what mod components you've installed or a backup of your weidu.log, since weidu.log gets auto-updated to account for mod uninstalls) and SCS 2, then install Item Revisions followed by reinstalling SCS and the Tweak Pack.
This is annoying as shit for mods that have to go before Level 1 NPCs, since that means you have to go back and re-do every single individual NPC you changed. It's a massive - but necessary - pain in the ass.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)