Gearing Up For My First IA Run-Through

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You didn't mention it yesterday because in my post before last (the one you responded to before) I mentioned my that I had a sorcerer, I only mentioned my fighter types in my last post as response to your concern that if I dualed my berserker I'd be less well off in fighter HLA department.

Just to clear everything up
Inquisitor lvl 10 - two handed swords - (14% of kills)
Berserker lvl 10 - flail/mace - (24% of kills)
multi Cleric/Ranger lvl 9/9 - scimitar - (17% of kills)
multi fighter/mage (pc) lvl 9/10 - longswords - 18% of kills)
multi fighter/thief lvl 9/11 - longswords - (17% of kills)
Sorcerer lvl11 - darts -(6% of kills)
So yeah, my berserker is doing most of the kills, but it's kind of even overall, so I think we can kind of take the hit.
I'm not really using Beserker rage that often at the moment, I think I still haven't used the full three in a day, so given that, is lvl 13 still recommended? (I think this is the first game that I've opted to dual anyone to anything, so sorry about the newbishness)

 

Dualling at level 13 is recommended because fighter types get an extra 1/2 ApR.

But it's true that if you dual your Berserker he will become less effective in melee especially in ToB.

 

Oh, okay, well then you're set with arcane power

It's your call, but in my game I sometimes find myself using 5 - 6 rages a day with Minsc. When you consider all of the immunities this ability grants you, there are just a lot of situations when you don't want to be without it. For any significant battle involving mind flayers, beholders, vampires, or hell, any enemy caster (and there's "a few" of those in IA) I always want to have rage. It's like adding half a dozen or so buffs into one ability that can't be dispelled. I mean the combat bonuses it grants are really just gravy in my opinion.

So it may very well be worth your time to get to level 13. That said, you'll be without that ability for a nice long time while you get your cleric levels to 14, but that's the breaks of dual classing, right?

 

Extra 1/2 attack sounds good, so 13 it is then...or will be after a few hundred k XP. Thanks guys!

 

Quick question. I just forged the improved Corthala family armor and gave it to my swashbuckler with UAI. Everytime I do that, the armor moves from my swash's body to my protagonist's inventory (i.e. my swash can't wear it).

I tried Valygar's improved sword with the same effect.

This seems too calculated to not be intentional, but just thought I'd double check that this wasn't a weird bug. Good thing I know to save before I forge expensive items like these


Also, a note to Sikret, if this was intentional it might be a good idea to consider adding a new powerful katana and/or katana recipe to Improved Anvil. I note that celestial fury is significantly less powerful in your game, and is actually an upgrade component for Hammer of Thor. So other than Valygar's Katana, there doesn't appear to be any really powerful Katana's in the game at present.

Adding some sort of powerful +5 Katana usable by someone other than Valygar seems like just a swell idea'r for a future release!

 

Of course it's intentional. Some of the special items which are not supposed to be usable by thieves (specially those items which are forged to be specifically usable for particular NPCs) won't be usable by thieves even with the UAI ability.

 

Thanks Sikret. Just to be clear, I wasn't questioning your logic (you'll notice that there were no complaints in my post), just doing what I call "playing it safe."

When something unexpected like this happens, I at least have to ask. Odd bugs do crop up, especially with a good number of fan made mods. I just wanted to double check.

By the way, I'm just about to head to suldanessalar as I've done just about everything there is to be done in Amn (including the viper queen -- had to use my thinking cap on that one!). One item I haven't found yet is Borok's fist. I'm getting concerned that I might have missed/overlooked it. If it's in Suldanessalar, then no worries, but should I be worried that I haven't found that item yet?

I've decided to go ahead and use celestial fury to create Hammer of Thor. CF just isn't cutting it in IA, so my swash is now dual wielding short swords (he is grand master in both katana and short sword). That means CF is available for Hammer of Thor, but gotta find that fist.

Oh, and by the way again, two thumbs way up Sikret on the Ancient Dragon fight!! Was the most exciting battle I've had in improved anvil so far. My heart just about dropped into my chest when I finally got the ancient to "near death" and he managed to get off a heal spell. Minsc's sword arm was sore for 2 weeks after that fight!

 

No worries. I understood what you wrote exactly in the way you intended.

Yes, you may have just missed it.

 

Heh, I just found it in Adventurer's mart, where I sold it a long time ago. /slaps self

Didn't realize it was called Borok's Fist, but I nearly had the same problem with Ashideena, so I sort of put two and two together. Always a good idea to read an item's description I guess!

 

I did the Windspear Hills bit last night (minus Firkrag and Samia's party). I must say that the whole dynamics of the dungeon have changed - usually I wipe the floor with the vampires with a Daystar/protection from undead combo with only one character (and then mop up the mummies/skellies with the rest of the party). This time round I needed to draw just one out at a time with a protected from level drain character and hope for the best (the Daystar lich is just to difficult without ruby ray now). Also enemies that I traditionally found to be difficult (ie mobs of wolfwares and regular golems) are now going down in less than a few rounds.

My initial two attempts at Tazok were pretty unsuccessful - Missile weapons effectively did nothing (his regeneration rate was greater than what my ranger/cleric, inquisitor, Beserker and Sorcerer could do, and he was working through my summons/stoneskins/images way to quick). I eneded up going all out melee with as many buffs and stoneskins as I could and just made anyone taking damage run out of the fray for a bit to re-heal. Pretty cool fight though.

Btw has anyone figured out a way of taking out gem and coin golems - I've tried just about every weapon in my inventory and the only thing that seems to damage these guys is the Flail of the Ages, and it only does around 3damage/hit.

 

For the gem and coin golems, I'm pretty sure that you need weapons of at least +3 enchantment to damage them. Blunt weapons are best, but decent slashing weapons will inflict damage as well.

Flail of Ages certainly works, and 3 damage is about normal, you might do 6 on a critical hit. I think cleric's staff +3 would also connect. I'm not exactly sure where I got it, but I had Jaheira using a +3 club for quite some time, which did it's part as well.

The Frostreaver axe from D'Arnise Keep isn't as effective, but that should help. Shortsword of backstabbing. Lilacor is another possibility early on.

Do you have any of those? Are they not doing the trick?

These golems are extremely tough in the early part of the game, but the key is to keep chipping away and eventually you'll take them down. You'll probably eat through a lot of healing potions trying to keep you guys alive, but the good news is that the golems don't attack particularly fast. So get those +3 (or better) weapons equipped, and just do as much damage as quickly as you can.

As golems go, these are Sikret's "starter" golems. He's got a couple others that are significantly tougher!

 

I couldn't get any slashing weapons to work at all - this included Lilacor, Flame tongue (treated as +4 iirc) and a +5 2handed sword from tower of deception that I never use (all of these gave weapon ineffective notices)
The +3 club worked though (I think I got mine from the druid grove), as did the Clerics staff +3 and warhammer +1, +4 vs giant kin(always treated as +4). Of these I'd previously only tried the warhammer (as no one in my party has prof. points in the others) and for some reason I dismissed it as useless (I must have just missed them a lot in previous tries).
Also arrows of piercing +4 seemed to do alright when fired from my +3 elven court bow - other amuntion (normal,+1, +2, fire and acid) did nothing.
But yeah, so far only +3 or greater blunt weapons and arrows of piercing have done it for me.
They golems haven't been too difficult for me yet, they just take a while. Having said that I doubt that I'd fair too well fighting two or three of them at the same time.

 

As mentioned, you'll need at least +3 weapons. Vs gem golems, FOA + improved haste or WW is enough. Vs coin golems, piercing or crushing dmg will do. If you have trouble fighting more then 1, use your sorcerer to tank them. They have a low number of attacks per round, and MI will last a long time against them.

 

Yes you need +3 weapons against them.

Gem golems are less resistant to Crushing dmg (but even weapons that do slashing dmg can damage them).

Coin golems are less resistant to Piercing (sh.swords, halberds, spears) and Missile dmg.

 

Oh my god... I'm shaking....

I just finished the judgement day battle with the demon lord. Oh my god... I think I'm going to need therapy now. That fight wound me up so tight!

It was my 3rd attempt that I finally got through it, and I want to say that that attempt lasted around 75 - 90 minutes (not exactly sure). There were no party deaths, and had there been one, I likely wouldn't have succeeded. Everyone played a vital role.

I had a high level party, so that helped (we're in the 7.5 million xp range atm). I burned through practically every high level ability I had at my disposal (hardiness, critical strike, GWW, WW, Dragon's Breaths (to give my guys breathing room). I cast 6 greater restorations, 5 or 6 heals, and drank god knows how many healing potions.

I took out the demon knight first, then 2 elemental golems, and the next kill was actually the demon lord. Once he was dead I still had 2 noble marilith's and around EIGHT!! abyssal escorts to contend with!! I used every breach I had memorized and went through nearly 2 wands of spell striking before all was said and done.

But I got them all. They're all dead!!

One question though, I would have expected the JD sword to say something to me afterward, or have some indicator that I'd completed the quest. There was nothing like that, so (worry wart that I am) I thought I'd double check whether I should have had something special happen after the fight.

My party members are all still outside watchers keep. I haven't rested yet, or done much of anything. No real treasure from the fight but gems. Hopefully this is all normal, as I don't want to attempt that fight again anytime soon!

Wow Sikret. I'm in awe. I'm highly disturbed. I can't believe I finished that incredibly challenging fight... and kept my entire party alive. Truly like nothing I've experienced before in the game! Epic is every sense of the word. Oh yeah, and hard, hehe.

EDIT: okay, so I had my party rest for like 2 weeks just as a test and didn't lose the sword, so I'm calling this good.

[ June 20, 2007, 08:23: Message edited by: Marceror ]

 

If you remember, when the sword talked to you when you forged it, at the end of his/its dialogue he/it said: "I'll say no more."

 

Thanks for pointing that out, I didn't necessarily recall that line.

That said, I've had plenty of girlfriends (before I met my wife, of course) tell me that they never wanted to talk to me again, only to have them call me the next day. I guess when a sword says it's done talking....

So if I'm interpreting all of this this correctly, talking swords, are, on average, more reliable, than talking females? Hey, that puts a lot things into perspective for me!

You see, it's not just gaming; there's life lessons to be had here as well!!

/runs before he gets beaten

 

Well, just epic divine encounter and melissan left to go!

I plan to write a more formal review once I've completed the game, but just wanted to share how much I've enjoyed the mod. I'm really enthused to get back at it again with a new party (and move the difficulty slider from normal to core or hard (probably core)).

One thing that I wanted to point out, is I really like how in some improved battles you still include "rank and file" soldiers. Like Yaga Shura's army. He has powerful fire giants in it, and some elite human soliders as well, but he also a good number of very typical soldiers.

Just because we're playing an uber tactical mod, it's nice to see that occasionally we get a few reminders of how powerful we truly are when we are able slaughter our much, much lesser foes with such unbelievable ease. I hope, Sikret, that you'll always keep some of that in the game as you continue to work through it and add continued updates.

Sendai and Abazigal battles were really fun. Balthazar wasn't at all challenging, though. Doesn't look like you've done anything to him yet, so I hope he's on your radar for an upcoming release.

Not sure if I have it in me to work on EDE tonight. I got my arse handed to me on first attempt, but that was expected!

Great work Sikret. You've challenged and entertained the heck out of me

 

I'm very glad to hear that you have liked the mod and have enjoyed playing it, Marceror!

With every new release we will add more content to the mod. Moreover, playing the mod with different protagonists will result in different encounters and quests. For these two reasons, I guess that this mod will never become old and repetitive for players. You can replay it several times and have new experience each time.

Stay tuned and keep visitng the mod's forum for news.

Cheers

 

As Mongerman mentioned, I'd use the mod that makes Nalia's current class a thief (switched at 9th level M/U). That makes her something other than a Imoen clone. Also (beware spoiler to follow)


at Spellhold switch out Jaheira for Imoen, so you have one M/U who is advancing at single-class speed. You shouldn't miss Jaheira as you already have enough tank capability without her, and you have Anomen for healing. I guess you could drop Anomen as an alternative, but I'd drop Jaheira if it were my choice.

Postscript. Until I reviewed what I posted, I never realised this was 6 pages of posting. I had only looked at page one. My apologies for comments that are now rather out-of-date for you.