Am I doing things right?

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Right now I am in ToTLM and I feel kinda confused. My party is:

Bard
F/M/T
Paladin
F/D
Thief 9/Cleric

I always played on insane dificulty from scratch. I also had AB mod and a few useful tweaks, and level 40 patch.

I reached lower Dorn's deep and initiated chapter 6; then went for HoF. Then I started to gain obscene amounts of XP from very easy quests. 840K xp is just too much, my characters kept leveling up. But the game was fun and chalenging, Burial isle was...really scary, I played for the very first time and those Wailing Virgins did a lot of damage to my party by their Undying Laments. Many loads and tries there. It was fun.

Then I decided to add another party member, a R/C. She leveled up VERY fast and became useful fast enough, this also slowed my party's too fast level up advancement. I was thankful.

When I was about to travel to Sea of Moving Ice, I started ToTLM, it is soo fun and challenging too! Still, there was a few problems.

1)First, I know something is wrong when a bard starts casting 9th level spells! He was level 25+ or more and was able to cast three level 9 spells. I thought it was wrong. I uninstalled level 40 component of AB, and got a seperate level 40 patch. It worked, my bard now can cast only 1 8th level spells, as appropriate to the high level campaigns book. Did I do the right thing?

2)Also, was I right to add R/C? She is very useful, a capable healer and reviver (since my dualled cleric was evil he lacked raise dead)and slowed down my group's annoying level up spree.

3)Now I am still in ToTLM, and my party has very high levels, but too high? My bard hit level 30, and my F/M/T has 16 mage levels. You do the count and tell me if I have too many XP or not?

4) I was planning to do the whole game again in HoF mode, sicne this was how I did in IWD2. But now my characters are about to hit XP cap. Will playing HoF be pointless? Will it still be fun and challenging enough? What say you?

 

If you have fun you are doing things right.
It's your game, you can do what you want with it.

1)IWD + AB is a computer game with rules made for it, not an adventure in the "high level campaigns book".
But if you like changing in-game mechanics then feel free to do it.
Your other level40 pack might also change the spells for your other spellcasters, thac0 or saving throws making the game even easier or harder.

2)see first line.

3)I don't see a problem.
You have the XP you were supposed to get when playing with a 5 person party at a double XP level. Most players like having many XP, they even fight respawning monsters for it.
For the originally intended game feeling you should play a 6 person party in normal mode without AB without prior knowledge and the goal of as few reloads as possible.

4) I can't read your mind. Are BG2 games pointless for you once you reach the XP Cap ?
Since you seem to be rather a prior knowledge and bug exploiting hardcore strategist than a no-reload roleplayer it will be probably more adequate for you starting with an unequipped level 1 party.

 

1. Bards aren't supposed to be able to cast level 9 spells, but the level 40 cap that ships with AB allows them to do that. I remember being equally surprised the first time I played with AB.

2. Referring to the R/C, you said yourself: "I was thankful." Therefore it's quite obvious that you did the right thing. The only "right" thing is what makes the game more enjoyable for you. (see kmonster's post)

3. Last time I played the game on Insane my Bard ended up at level 35 or thereabout, so I suppose your advancement is alright. I don't think the game really gets easier on Insane even at high levels, so you shouldn't have a problem.

4. Start a HoF game, and see if you're enjoying it. If you get bored before reaching Dragon's Eye, then you probably should go through HoF with a different party.

 

Thanks for the replies.

Yes I liked my new R/C. I RP that our party has found her in Lonelywood (this was where she joined us), and became a great support for the party fast enough. Yes I like her, just she has the worst save vs spells and thus Beholders just LOVE to petrfy her. Oh well I had many stone to flesh scrolls. Lucky they never casted Disintegrate on her. They kept swinging Disintegrate rays to my C/T, and he made a save vs spells:0 and survived; ofcourse he was buffed up to the max.

I also agree that even we are high level, the game is still excitingly challenging. I love it. I tend to have at least one casualty in major battles. Which means the game is still hard or I am still newbie, in any case this means I will have to play more and more IWD! YAY!

The game was suprisingly exciting and addictive, I spent most of my weekend at home playing IWD, just could not save and exit the game even when my vision got blurry! I also played BG2 for my new run, it was soo fun thanks to my spiffy new PC and party and a few new mods; I played for the whole day, ahh this was such a fun holiday for me!

I have one question though. I love the idea of increased HP of all monsters in HoF mode, but will it also alter their saving throws, THAC0s, ACs, etc. like it did in back IWD2. If not, those 100+ HP goblins will be horribly weak, they can not hit my uber AC characters, and no matter how high HP they have, they will all fall to one hit KO spells like Flesh to Stone, Disintegrate, Finger of Death etc since their saving throws are crappy.

 

Attacks and damage are doubled,thacO and AC are improved, but not as much as in IWD2.
The HoW goblins will still need a critical to hit your perfectly equipped party memebers.

I don't know if saving throws are improved. Sunscorch often didn't blind the goblins and hold person failed about half of the time against them but the orcs in lower dorn's deep didn't save against recitation + symbol of hopelessness.

 

Hmm. Can someone clarify the monster modifies for HoF mod, in regards monster THAC0, AC, and most notably saving throws.