What mods should I install?

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Nah, don't ever listen to me.

 

OK, this is becoming a problem, about the order. So, if there is anyone good at this, I'm asking him for help. These are the mods I intend to install: Oversight (only for improved Sendai), Unfinished Business, D0Quest Pack, Ease of Use, Item Upgrade, Tactics, Ascension, Improved Asylum, Solaufein Mod, Super Firkraag and maybe Banter Pack (I'm not yet sure about this one yet). I don't intend to add other classes or kits to the game thorugh any these mods. Please, please, help! Thanks in advance.

 

This is from Kish on PPG forums:

If the mods you have are WeiDu format, there shouldn't be a problem in how you install them. Though the Flirt Pack and Banter Pack should be installed *last* as Compton said. Most of the readmes say whether the mod is WeiDu and what other mods it is compatible with.

My $0.02 is this and I've never played any of these, so YMMV:

Tactics
Ascension
Oversight
Improved Asylum
Ease of Use
Item Upgrade
Solafein
Super Firkraag
Unfinished Business
D0Quest Pack
Banter Pack

 

I began playing. I'm doing it at Core Difficulty, with a Sorcerer as the main character, and a multi-classed half-elf, Ranger/Cleric. Imoen, Minsc and Jaheira are my first companions.
So, here's my progress 'til now. It isn't much, since most of my time I'm at work.
Mainly, I've encoutered the first group of Duergar. Not small was my surprise when, instead of the regular goblins, I've met the Duergar in my first fight, after the genie who summoned the Ogre Mage (forgot his name). And I thought I'm a good BG2 player... This fight made me reload the game at least 10 times! I'm not kidding. The AI is improved, I can't make an enemy stop chasing one of my NPCs just by blocking his path with another. Now one of the Duergar is continously following SkyHigh, my PC Sorcerer (so this makes him kinda useless), while the others hack at the rest of my party. And most of the time, 3-4 hits from them is more than enough to kill a party member. Now they are tough. And it seems normal to me this way.After all, they are dwarfs, just like Korgan or any other fighter dwarf PC. They hit alot more often, (probably they have more proficiency points in War Hammer, or the THAC0 is fixed, so it will match with the one of a fighter with the same level they are; or maybe both) and their HP is definetely improved. Before the mods 3 Melf's Minute Meteors would've been more then enough. Not now, anyway. Speaking of Melf's Minute Meteors, this is a spell I love. And I was surprised to see the Duergar Party Memeber (the mage) casting and using this. Beating this low level mages is now more of a challenge, and this is how it should be. Now they cast Web and confusing/stuning spells (this is annoying, you know) which are very hard to save against at this level. And their saves are rather good, since many times they managed to save against my Silence radius spell. However, I think there is a bug. Most of the time, they don't seem to be afected by Skull Trap. The few times that they were, they died from the first (at most, the third). Now they cast Protection from Normal Weapons and Protection from Normal Missiles, which makes this encounter a lot more difficult. I finally found an use for that priest spell which makes the caster wield a +1 club (forgot the name of that one).

It took me more than half of hour to get rid of that group. Anyway, the XP pays back the time spent. 2000 xp points/Duergar killed. If things continue this way, I thing I'm going to spend a looooong time playing. Hopefully, this weekend I'll have more time for that, and Monday I'll post about my encounter with improved Illych and whatever else I'll find new in this adventure.

 

^Yes, that duergars are very tough and require good strategies! Here are some:

*As you found out, fighters chase one target exclusively! It is generally the first character they see, so abuse this! Approach them via stoneskinned/mirrorimaged Imoen, be careful not to be seen to the mage, who is behind the fighters. Just attract the fighters, and let Imoen run around in circles. By the time, Minsc can shoot them with longbow, Jaheira can launch bullets from slings, and you can hit them via spells and melf's minute meteors, they will fall easily! Just be careful, they must not touch Immy! Or, have Immy cast Fireshield, and they will suffer as they try to tear her mirrorimage and stoneskin!

*If you encounter some wild dogs, charm them via Minsc's charm animal ability! This is the only stage it will come to use!

*Mages have a nasty contingency: Protection from Magical Energy, which makes them immune to Skulltrap! If you can launch two magic-misiles when you saw one, if you are fast enough, they may die before contingency kicks in!

*Have Imoen cast Minor Globe Invulnerability! It absorbs lots of spells, except confusion so watch out! Practically, Immy will be immune to web and minute meteors, flaming arrow, and hold person, but NOT confusion!

*Resting is very dangerous as you will meet more duergars! The best way is having Yoshimo, and setting traps here and there BEFORE each rest, this will take care of duergars!

*Or, when a mage spawns, QUICKLY, cast magicmissile on her, both you and Imoen, this can take care of the mage immediately, if you are fast enough to avoid contingency! Having auto-paused when enemy sighted helps!

*Attention! If you encounter Ilych, his gang is far TOO POWERFUL to beat in a one&one fight! Your only hope is to attract one person at a time, if they attack you in groups, reload, you have no chance! Scan the area with Farsight spells from Jaheira or your cleric. Only if all of the party attack one target at one time you have a slight chance of killing it! After killing one, run! RUN! All of the gang will rush to the place where their friends were killed, and if they can't see you there, they will return to their posts!

*Hisgang has lots of nasty abilities, you may even be shocked! Trust me, it is doable! Only, every party member needs different strateiges and weaponry. (some are immune to magic, some require a certain weapon, some are too tough etc.)Just be patient, and if you can not figure out, I will be here to help!

 

Happened to me, too. However, if you uninstall the mod that summons the best enemies when you rest (I forgot that mod's name, too), from the Tactics mod collection, I think this will be more likely not to happen. I'm not sure, but I will try.

 

^Why do you want to uninstall it? It is the part of the fun! I agree it is rather distasteful that you can't even rest peacefully and you know what? It will last till you escape the dungeon!!!

SO rest less, that is the solution! Have your characters drink coffee!

 

I checked. It isn't from that mod. Is just a feature of the Improved Illych. Anyway, I finished the dungeon. It was easier than it seemed at first glance. It was necessary though to go and take Yoshimo with me first and take the wands from the second flor. In fact, I've cleared all the 2nd flor and only then I went back and fought the great battle with Illych and his new friends. The only difficulty was to drive them out of the library one by one. First it was the monk. Died fast. While I was fighting with him, the cleric casted Summon Falen Deva somewhere out of my sight. So, I killed the monk and ran as fast as I could. The duration for the Deva was quite short. So I didn't have to wait long. The cleric was next. First of all I have to mention something. I wrote in a previous post of mine how much I love Melf's Minute Meteors. Now I love them more! This was the spell that got me through all this battles. It inflicted damage to anyone of those super-duper enemies. Now, about the cleric... I ran into one of the tunnels, south of the Otyugh chamber (that was also an interesting battle). The cleric followed me and started casting something... I don't know what spell did he tried to cast, 'cause he died quite quick. Yoshimo was shooting his arrows at him, Imoen casted Magic Missiles and SkyHigh, my sorcerer was attacking him with the meteors. In the six seconds time when Imoen couldn't cast another spell, SkyHigh threw his Magic Missiles also. Another spell from Imoen turned the cleric to dust.

Next it was the wizard slayer. He didn't last long, neither. Neither did the demon, since it was afected too by the fast attacks from my meteors and beside that, he was greatly outnumbered. It was a battle of 6 vs. 1. My team won.

The hardest battle it was with Illych himself. He casted a weird spell, something related to Asia or something, and slowed my whole party. After that he killed them all one after another. So a reload was needed. Priest, my multi-classed Ranger cleric drew upon himself Holy Might and aproached Illych all by himself. The rest of my party was at distance... so the weird Asia-related-spell afected only Priest. He tried a quick retreat, but Illych was kinda in a hurry, so he reached him quite fast. So, the battle begun. Minsc came to help, screaming something about 'the bigger they are... the harder I hit', and indeed it was so... He missed more than hit, since Illych was kinda small... Once again, I had to rely on my magic. Jaheira was of great help, having two memorized spells of Cure Critical Wounds. Priest was a little little behind, since his god didn't grant him that spell... yet. So Jaheira casted Insert Plague. Damn! No effect. Illych managed to save against that one. My fighters were quite in a bad shape, so I had to take advantage of a little bug (I hoped it didn't have to come to this, but I was disperate): the Doom spell. Jaheira and Priest casted simultaneosly Doom on Illych. Ha! No save against that one, Illych, my friend... It was only normal to be that way. Now he was not hiting that often. And Minsc had his chance to actually hit something (before that he was to busy drinking healing potions). SkyHigh kept throwing his Meteors... But the number of attacks was kinda low... So, rather than using the Oil of Speed on 3-4 party members, I nicely asked Imoen to cast a Haste spell. Now the odds were on my side. Sure, Illych didn't gave up one minute, being the fact that he had some potions on himself... I had to summon some animal friends and monsters, but it isn't worth mentioning, since they had quite a quick death.

What can I say... Illych fell. Eventually, he did. I didn't manage to recover any healing potions from his body, and I had to use 10 or so potions of mine in this great battle. So, I was kinda cripled myself. But the way to the surface was now clear. However, I took my chances and rested. I disposed quickly the two duergars who disturbed me after I awoke. It was piece of cake after the previous fight I had.

So... this is how it happened for me. Like I said before, and I'll repeat it everytime I have the chance, Melf's Minute Meteor was the big help in this part of the game.
More details about my adventures will come soon...

 

^Astounding! See, you are more experienced than me, and this just shows it! I was getting crazy at that fight, but yours was relatively easy I presume?

Oh that doom glitch is not a bug, have you seen my Doom thread? It is my favourite lvl 1 priest spell!

A few notes on the battle:

*Cleric had a undroppable full plate mail +2 which makes his AC ridiculously good, so any kind of attacks, including Melf's meteors (even they have +5 bonus you use crappy mage THAC0) are next to useless at this point. But, cast a magic missile on him whenever he casts a nasty spell (Fallen Deva!) to disrupt him!

*Ilych has a Classic Blunder: Land War in Asia ability which fatigues and slows the victims. However, if you approached him via mirror imaged PC or Immy, mirror image CAN stop that spell, and he only casts it once.

*Golem could only be hit by Quarterstaff+1 found in the dungeon, but as you killed it I am sure you found it, or Shillelagh spell can help too?

*Neophyte Galebresu requires +2 enchanted to hit, but vulnerable to spells (low MR) plus Melf's Meteors can hit him too (they even hit Demi-liches!)

*Now you looted them right? they have nice +3 weapons welcomed at this part of the game, and lots of potions. (if they could not drink them)

Anyway, what quest are you going to do now? Nalia's keep is extremely hard, so wait till you level up a few bit. Try unchanged quests like Circus etc. for XP and then tackle BIG ones!

Do not forget to post your adventure, I am here to help but it seems you do not need any? Hope your luck continues. (Just wait to see Improved Liches, Mages, Kangaxx Guards, Firkraag, etc. and Bodhi (human shredder) and Irenicus (as powerful as he is in the cutscenes!!!)and cry down for help! Hehehe! )

PS:Hope you re-installed Tactics component 'Toughest Spawns?' It really adds combat and XP! And fun too! OK?

 

@Silverstar: I'll comment some things you said in your last post.

Well, it wasn't as easy as I let the people think from reading my post. I tried to give the post a more epic touch... I kinda failed. In fact, it took me half a day at least to finish the dungeon. And it was needed many reloads, just for dragind them out, one by one. If you try to take them all in one shot, you don't stand a chance. At least, I didn't. OK, maybe you do, but with imported characters. So, I'm not that experimented.

Ok, here I'm a little bit . But, if you remember, I had a post there, too... So I know what you think about Doom.

Somewhere earlier in this post I wrote the stats of my Sorcerer. It has 19 Dex. Trust me, it hits most of things. Melf's Minute Meteors are, first of all, missiles. So they are based on Dex as in the + to hit and the + to damage (at least I presume it is this way; since I hit many things with it, it must be this way). Surely, 3 out of 5 or so, he missed. But on regular enemies, trust me, is deadly. And has more attacks per round, too (not just the 1 attack, like most classes do in the beginning; from this point of view, he is better than a fighter.

I did know he casts it only once, but I didn't know about the Mirror Image trick... Like I always say... Everyday you learn something new...

Shillelagh helps, because it acts like a +1 club in every aspect (it makes you proficient also, for the duration). And I had 2 priests to cast it (Priest and Jaheira). However, this was not the way for me to kill it. Seems I have to say this again. I'll do it with great pleasure. Melf's Minute Meteors rocks! Maybe it doesn't inflict the piercing damage (at least I think is piercing, never checked), but it does inflict the fire damage on everything it hits. And the Jail Golem hasn't great HP. Priest, Jaheira and Minsc kept it busy (Jaheira and Priest also could inflict some damage with Shillelagh, Minsc was there just for distraction), while SkyHigh was using this.

Indeed, Neophyte Galebresu also felt to the Meteors. They act like +2 enchanted weapons and, this time maybe, the fire damage doesn't help, however the piercing one is always welcome.
Now, I'm not that sure about the usefulness of Melf's Minute Meteors on Demi-Liches... I love the spell, however, I don't remember to be of any use against those. Demi-Liches need +4 weapons or better to do damage on them, so neither the fire or the physical damage don't help, since it doesn't connect (like I said, the missiles are considered +2 in every aspect). I'm quite sure that Melf's Minute Meteors it's kinda useless here... However, this is the reason why one can get Energy Blades as a High Level Ability.

Yes, I did get the weapons... However, I wasn't fast enough to get the potions. Not for Illych, at least.

From what I saw, The Circus quest, the Illithium quest and maybe there are more, are changed. I'm talking about the Unfinished Business mod.

I'll continue to post as soon as I progress through the game and as soon as I have the time to do so.

 

Umm I hit Kangaxx with Melf's Minute meteors once and it did damage to him! This means meteors are pretty high enchanted, to the point of +6 perhaps? (AFAIK nearly every weapon or touch created by spells are +6 enchanted? Somebody confers this?) Of course, I could do only 1 damage to Kangaxx and he regenerated quickly, also I missed often (with 8 dexterity yay! ) I am not sure if high dex adds bonus to attack though. The meteors themselves give +5 bonus, so check your THAC0! See the difference between your base THAC0 and current one with meteors! But we are getting off-topic!

Anyway, UB adds lots of enhanctments on quests bıt does not make them very hard like Ilych. Still, if you have hardest spawns, slightky smarter mages&liches, you will have great fun! Have you ever faced a true mage? Even minor magelings are something to be feared now, and liches (if you play on insane they will have so many extra abilities and defenses) are just way too SMART! Try and see, if you can manage to live and tell the story though!

BEWARE! Every lich is accompanied by one Improved Pit Fiend! This PF is equally as powerful as its pen&paper counterpart. He has 6 attacks per round, and all attacks are poisonous, victim must save vs poison (death) or die, (take 999 damage, it means instant death!) they have these spells: Symbols, Dispel Magic, a 20d6 fireball, occasional demon fear, improved invisibility! I am writing these for you to make it clear what will kill you when you face them. I remember some players calling them buggy as they managed to kill (N)PCs alike quickly! NO, they are not buggy, it is just pure pen&paper AD&D!

I will leave it to you to find a way to deal with these. Beware, their scripts are near perfect and they use their powers soo smartly! Good Luck!

 

Melf's Minute Meteors are +5 iirc.

Glad you got the mods working!

 

^Was there a good chance they might not work?

Come on, these are WEIDU mods mostly they do not produce much problems IIRC?

Oh and for Melf's meteors, as I said, they hit Kangaxx, so they are at least +4, I thought +6, you say +5, oh well, a little mystery is good here and there...

 

I did a little checking with Melf's Minute Meteors. The spell description says they're +5, HOWEVER: they work against a character protected by Absolute Immunity. Assuming the description to Absolute Immunity is correct, the meteors must be +6. And yes, they work against demi-liches.

 

^Thanks for clarfying that, it is as I suspected.

Damn, am I good or what?

Though I think we are getting a little off-topic, so...

end of melf's minute meteors enchantment discussion, ok?

Anyway I still feel like Hyperion is a better player than me, but I am just curious how he will fare against improved beholders, mindflayers, elder brain, oh you know the fun?

Keep posting Hyperion!

 

Sometimes, mods don't work together as well as expected even though the readmes say they do. Especially if you're installing a lot (I'd say 10 is too many imo) and can't figure out which way to install. Weird bugs are known to happen - usually people saying the wrong things.

Absolute Immunity confers invulnerability to all weapons except for those of +5 enchantment or better. Melf's Meteors are +5.

 

People saying the wrong things is 99.999% of the time a user install error (specifically installing a non-WeiDU mod or patch after WeiDU mods or installing mods or patches with the game or a game editor running).

 

You may correct me, but if I recall "Banter Pack" is non-WeiDu, and it should be installed on top of everything else even WeiDu?

 

Banter Packs is WeiDU, I'm possitive... And it should be installed after all mods it effects (i.e. NPC's and such)...

 

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