Met their cousins so far. The ones that appear when your reputation is too high. Cryic followers. Got about 10,000gp from selling off their loot, in addition to a lovely Full Plate Mail +1.

The one thing I love about these guys is that they are so obliging in staying under persistent area damage spells such as Cloudkill or Death Fog. [img]tongue.gif[/img] Just got to be careful about innocents.

They are also very, very, VERY vulnerable to poison. Rena, my Assassin, can easily incapicitate her target using the Army Scythe with Bolts of Biting and Poison Weapon.

Rings of the Ram are also very useful in disorienting their fighters. Backstabs are laughably wasted on Jaheira's Ironskins( if they connect at all in the first place... Jaheira has a natural -11AC at the moment, and she's still only using a normal Full Plate Mail...). Acids Arrows and Arrows of Dispelling take care of the Mages, when their PfMWeapons expire.

Oh, and of course. Call Lightning from Jaheira and Minsc is always fun to watch.

i was under the impression that you can cast spells when you are ambushed withing the city. the cowled wizzards dont appear when i do it...

If you're talking about when you're ambushed by Suna and her cohorts in between maps, then you are indeed correct, TT. However, the random encounters introduced by the Tactics mod take place inside the standard city tiles (the ones you can access via map.) There, the Cowleds still come by.

thanks moose. i dont play tactics, so that is where i am wrong!

Dundee,

thx for this beautiful story so far. I always admire the hard work people put into their game and their posts. Looking forward for many nice screenshots to come.(How about a nice family photo of all your collected NPC´s at your HQ).

Kind regards!

Now that Kelsey can cast Death Spell... I no longer fear the Random City Encounters(RCE). In fact, I now look forward to them. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Kelsey Begins To Angst More Over His Powers Of Destruction
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...SpellRocks.gif

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Leisurely walking to and fro from Athkhala to the Druid Grove finally triggered the Jan Jansen's quest. By that time, I had already eliminated three groups of RCEs. I was rolling in potions and gold due to that.

Adios, Jan.

Korgan was next, and his quest was very straightforward. Easily done, the party bidded farewell to Korgan as well.

"Yes, that really is a Full Plate Mail +1. I got plenty of those from RCEs."

It was around that time that I learnt something new about BG2. [img]tongue.gif[/img] Imagine that... something new after five years. The inn I was using as a base, was not actually ownerless.

Maheer, the merchant who can upgrades your Horn of Valhalla, owns the inn, and goes inside at night. Say hi to Maheer.

Haer'Dalis was next on the agenda, and completing his related quests was no problem by this point. After spending 25,000gp, a Rogue Stone, sacrificing Ilbrata and Arbane, and scrolls of Chaos and Greater Malison; I upgraded his short swords and left him in the inn.

The group shot, as of now.

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The party has now recruited Keldorn, and is currently in the Pits of the Faithless. Once Keldorn's subquests are done, I move on to Chapter 4. [img]smile.gif[/img]

I forgot to add.

Part of the fun in leaving them in an inn, is positioning them and getting them to face the right direction. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Lol! So Maheer owns the inn. Do you pay him a monthly fee ?

Nope, I robbed him blind instead. [img]tongue.gif[/img] In order to get the maximum price for selling my loot, I have to constantly sweep his store clean. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

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Had my first and last taste of the component, 'Slightly Tougher( My Ass) Demons'; or more accurately, 'Slightly Tougher Demons, and Overpowered Pit Fiends'.

999dmg strikes? What the heck? Unlimited Improved Invisibility? Chain Gating in more Pit Fiends?

To make it worse, they do not get unsummoned... They stay by the Lich's side... FOREVER, even if I had already killed the Lich... ...

...
...
...
...

It is bad enough dealing with Liches that have unlimited Time Stops, unlimited Spell Sequencers/Triggers, unlimited Finger of Deaths, unlimited Teleport Fields, unlimited Emotion:Hopelessness, unlimited this, unlimited that, than to add on more craziness with the Pit Fiend.

COMPARED to the Pit Fiend, the Improved Lich was a walk in the park. I had to resort to setting traps and simultanously nailing the Pit Fiend with TWO Rings of the Ram to more or less instantly kill it before it could gate in another Pit Fiend.

Uninterruptable Chain Gating is not fun/enjoyable, period. Maybe if the player was masochistic, then yeah, go ahead, install the mod. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Urgh... I am this close to just sticking with the G3 mods for future gameplay... Unfinished Business is fun. Kelsey is fun( if a bit needy ;) ). 'Slightly Tougher Demons' is not fun.

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To be fair, most of the Tactics Mod's component are enjoyable. Even the Gnome Illusionist one. Under most circumstances, they are doable with any party combination.

Will be entering the Pit of the Faithless soon. This will be my first time trying out the 'Smarter Beholders' component. I am capitulating to the Shield of Balduran cheese though, along with some Guard cheese. After my recent BG1 run, I am not really a friend of the 'Rest all the time, anytime' methodology anymore. I think in the thirty odd games days so far, I have rested less than twelve times.

I have only tasted the 'Improved Mind Flayers' once, but that was with a solo Archer with GBB HLAs. This will be my first time attempting IMF with a party. With no ToB HLAs to turn the tide this time, it will be interesting to see how I will fare this time. Hopefully I will not need to resort to ludricrous methods to deal with them.

I have not tried the 'Improved Small Tooth Pass' either. Will report on that when I get there. So far I have not heard good things about the 'Improved Fire Giants', but for the sake of fairness, I will give it a try.

I gain far more satisfaction from winning a battle with methods that I know I can share with the average gamer and expect them to use them. If I ever do something... unusual, it is more for the humour effect than for powergaming purposes.

Cheers.

[ 05-31-2006, 08:15 AM: Message edited by: Dundee Slaytern ]

The point with tactics imo is: Install the components you enjoy, simply skip the others. Im doing my very first tactics run atm and i was sure from the beginning: I dont want "tougher demons" or "improved mind flayers". Both components sound to scary for me. But i agree: Most components are enjoyable.

Cheers.