In this thread I will chronicle my progress through BGII (SOA and TOB) while using the Tactics mod, among others. Since this is my 1st game with this mod any advice from regular users of the mod is welcome.

The mods I am using are as follows:

Tactics (except Improved Irenicus, toughest random spawns, wilderness encounters and streamlined trolls) Imp. Irenicus got an error, the others I chose not to install.

Some of Ease-of-Use
Item Upgrade
Underrep. Items
Divine Remix (the extra kits didn't show up on my game for some reason though)
Rogue Rebalancing
Ding0's tweak pack
Oversight
Unfinished Business
G3 tweak pack
Some of the Ding0 quest pack
NPC kit pack
Virtue


So far my progress has been promising, I have dealt with one Duergar party, and have reached the sewage golem. One of the above mods makes traps sensitive to every creature on the map, so Ilyich, Rasputin, Karamazov, Zhivago and the Neophyte Glabrezu have all triggered one of the traps on the 1st level of CI, wasting several potions and in the case of Zhivago, a Heal spell. More updates as I progress.

Edit:
My character, Amschat B'hal Zoon is a CE Anti-Paladin with the following stats. (Edited in Shadowkeeper to get the effects of the BGI tomes. The original roll was a 93)

Str: - 18/75
Dex: - 18
Con: - 19
Int: - 11
Wis: - 16
Cha: - 19

[ 10-28-2005, 05:10 AM: Message edited by: Ilyich ]

A small update. The Neophyte Glabrezu is dead from a trap, and several more Duergar parties have been killed. I have the Portal Key, and there is one more party to deal with (guarding the portal near the Dryads) before I go to level 2.

If you edited the stats for the BGI tomes, why is your strength an 18/75?

krunchyfrogg, that was the strength roll on the unmodified stat roll, ie before adding or subtracting stats. I subtracted a point of strength to add to constitution, and then shadowkeepered the point of strength. The exceptional strength (the 75) would have returned with a tome, wouldn't it?

I finished Chateau Irenicus earlier today, my impressions of the components I have encountered are below:

Spoilers
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Improved Ilyich.
The duergar parties that spawn in the dungeon are a welcome change from the goblins that they replace. The Proliteriats are good fighters, but once you figure out their flaws, they are fairly easy to defeat, though they have a surprisingly long range with those war hammers.

The mages also provide a good challenge, especially the first group, where the only magic weapon available is the dagger. They have also shown me that Melf's Minute Meteors is very dangerous if used well.

The Greater Otyugh was not too bad, although this is primarily because I got lucky with a Nymph (summoned by Jaheira) and its Hold Monster spell.

Ilyich and his gang was, as I expected very tough, even though they used all their potions recovering HP lost from the trap near the Cambion. (A component of the Ding0 tweak pack allows NPC's to trigger traps) The dialogue was very funny, and I was lucky enough that I managed to escape from Ilyich after the dialogue, as I had not yet been to the second level. Upon returning, Rasputin was killed by the Cambion trap, and I was attacked by the Golem, who was reasonably difficult. More Cambion trap madness followed, with Karamazov coming off best. (Least HP lost)

Zhivago never got his Deva thanks to some Larloch's Minor Drain, and along with Ilyich, fell to some traps (placed by Yoshimo) in the corridor between the Otyugh room and the Dryads. This was after a reload, which was required after Ilyich took out my party alone and unaided.

Karamazov fell to a full party rush just beyond the library. The acorns were a useful summon for the Air Plane and Mencar's group, and will likely prove useful later.

The mass buffing employed by the mages I have encountered is another excellent way of improving mage fights, from what I have seen so far.

As you can see from the text above, I got lucky in CI, and I will likely redo this part of the game without the NPC Trap triggering component of the Ding0 tweak pack, in order to see how hard Ilyich and his gang really are.
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Spoilers.

To end this post, I would like to share some suggestions for Improved Ilyich that I feel will improve the general feel of the component. Feel free to counter these suggestions with any neccessary arguments and rebuttals.

1. Instead of Ilyich and the gang scouting from the moment you escape. have a Duergar Scout in the library instead of the mephit. The purpose of the scout is to warn Ilyich about the escape of the party. From then on Ilyich will patrol from his room to the Otyugh room (in pairs perhaps) until their death. (or yours) If pairs are better I would suggest Ilyich and Rasputin, and Zhivago and Karamazov together. The golem and glabrezu could pair up as well. This is mainly for the benefit of those with the NPC Trap triggering installed, which can cause the death of one or more members of the gang before you even encounter them. Perhaps the scout could have an increased movement speed to avoid getting killed by the party. He could even join the patrols later.

2. The duergar mages have a name that perhaps does not do them justice. They are the leaders of the duergar parties from what I can discern from the dialogue, so perhaps a name like Duergar Battlemage or something similar.

3. If possible, add a couple more duergar parties on the second level, it is very easy compared to the first level.

4. Finally, a suggestion for Item Upgrade. Ilyich's cold hammer, in my opinion, would make a useful weapon if combined with Ashideena and a scroll of Aganazzars Scorcher to create a +4 hammer that does extra fire, cold, and electricity damage. Its damage could be 1d4+5 +2 fire, +2 cold, +2 electricity. Perhaps a cost of 10,000 gold.

Also, if possible, could the Mercykiller ring be combined with the Gloves of the Master Thief, adding both effects together in one item, again for 10,000 gold.

Apologies for the length.

[ 10-19-2005, 03:56 PM: Message edited by: Ilyich ]

I would encourage that. I'm no mind reader, but I imagine that the authors didn't accommodate for the dungeon floor traps causing (so much) damage to the Russians.

I'm pleased that you're giving the Anti-Paladin kit a shot, but in my experience it was unbalanced due principally to the 'dispel magic on hit' feature.

What level of difficulty are you playing on?

i like the idea of the NPC trap component if it was also possible to make the party set off your own thief traps . . ;)

enjoy exploring more of tactics

Cam_H, I'm playing on Core rules.

I have a question about the game. Is it possible for me to get Edwin and side with Bodhi?

The reason I ask is I wish to have an evil party (Korgan, Edwin, Viconia and Mr.S, along with Jan or Imoen for thievery) and also wish to side with Bodhi, which I have never done before, and it will enable me to skip Improved Bodhi until Chapter 6, when I am far more likely to be ready for the fight.

[ 10-20-2005, 11:16 AM: Message edited by: Ilyich ]

you can get Edwin easily - just complete the thieves guild quests (renal bloodscalp / maevar) and recurit Edwin before you agree to work with bodhi

I've made minor progress today. I did Maevars quests and picked up Edwin, sorted out Baron Ployer, and am now about to complete Korgans and Edwins quests. The only problem being large amounts of Improved Undead and my parties low levels.

Good luck. I remember when I first installed tactics and soloed a Skald, it was a hair pulling marathon of frustration [img]tongue.gif[/img]

And, I thought Bodhi would refuse if you worked even for Renal? I could be wrong, and evidently I am. could someone confirm this?

Bodhi only refuses single-class thieves. Having done the Shadow Thief quests doesn't preclude you from working for Bodhi. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Not that you actually have to complete Improved Mae'Var in order to secure Edwin, but it's another little bit of excitement waiting around the corner.
;)

For the heck of it, I did Improved Ilyich with Ilyich's party. Imoen and the Anti-Paladin work well in concert with cowardly cloud-of-war attacks, while life would be much happier if Yoshimo didn't have a set snare of 35% ... and even then I'm doubtful it's that high (I chose not to 'bottomless traps'). Jaheria was surprisingly the weakest link in the group, albeit Summon Woodland Being and Strength-of-One were handy.

The undead in the dungeon were not too bad, and I have 2 quests done for my party. I am now in the middle of the kidnapping of Boo quest.

As an aside, the animated Ioun stones look excellent. I also dropped in on the Lich in the Docks to get a vague idea of what she has to offer. She beat me very quickly, unsurprisingly.

Which mod animates the Ioun Stones?

krunchyfrogg, Ding0's Tweak Pack animates the Ioun Stones.

Mae'var is dead. Jaheira summoned 2 Fire Elementals (from 1 Summon Fire Elemental spell, somehow) and Amschat used the Acorns. Edwin then used Haste, and Amschat used a Horror centred near Mae'var to attract his group. I then gang mobbed each Assassin after a True Sight and they fell one by one. (they are surprisingly strong) Korgan was then Chaos'd and killed Minsc, and a Dispel Magic on the group was cast before going after the Priest, who fell quickly. Mae'var then killed Yoshimo, but was killed in the same way as his assassins within a round. His Mislead unsummoned just prior to his death.

Edit: Improved Mae'var was probably the hardest fight I've won so far. I would imagine Kuroisan, the Lich in the Docks and Kangaxx's guardians will be more difficult in Athkatla, but for an early game fight, it is tough and took 6 reloads to finally get the strategy down. (and the neccessary luck for the dual Fire Elementals)

[ 10-23-2005, 03:01 PM: Message edited by: Ilyich ]

Cool, where can I get that?

The download for the tweak pack is available here;
http://tinyurl.com/coh93
The information on each component is here;
http://tinyurl.com/d63nk

It installs using Weidu, so it is compatible with most other mods.

Kuroisan is hard largely because of his weapon. It's, well, truly unique. Mae'Var's assassins are really nasty. I'll tell you a little secret . . .

[Tactics technical detail spoiler]
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They're actually dual-classed fighter/thieves.

[ 10-24-2005, 09:48 AM: Message edited by: Western Paladin ]

Edit: Wrong button.

[ 10-24-2005, 09:47 AM: Message edited by: Western Paladin ]

A small update. I've paid Bodhi, and done her 1st two quests. I've also cleared out some of the tombs in the Graveyard.

What I am also doing in this game is entering areas that have liches and powerful mages to see what they are capable of. They are all making short work of my party, but it gives an idea of what I'm against. Kangaxx's guardians are the toughest I've seen so far.

The Umar Hills are done, with the exception of the Shadow Dragon. I have also killed Galvarey, and CLUA'd in Terminsel for the Harper Pin and 100K experience (out of laziness) I then replaced Jaheira with Viconia before realising that Jaheira is the only NPC capable of using the pin. I will go over my current party and equipment in my next update.

I have just cleared out the De'Arnise Keep, and received my stronghold. The Spirit Trolls and Umber Hulks are a strong challenge for a party of my level, especially if they get past my frontline. (Amschat and Korgan) Also, Flamestrike and Greater Command are dangerous if you fail your saves.

Torgal himself, however is to be honest, not all that intelligent. He would have pulverised any of my characters one on one, but his AI makes him target the 1st target he sees, seemingly indefinitely. This poses a problem for him if his target is hasted and he is being attacked by Amschat, Korgan, an Aerial Servant, and Edwin and Jan are using Flame Arrow, Acid Arrow and Magic Missile spells, while Yoshimo (the target) was running around like a headless chicken. (Shadowkeeper says 30% MR, it didn't stop one spell) Jan eventually killed him.

His lackeys in the final room however, are quite tough.

Now, as promised, here is my party and their current equipment. The Profs section will only outline the profs for their current equipment.

Amschat B'hal Zoon.
Level 12.
Dual-wielding Blade of Roses and Queen of Spades (Ilyich's +2 cold hammer)
THAC0 mainhand 2 and offhand 3.
Profs: - Long Sword; 2
War Hammer; 3
Two Weapon; 3
Wears Full Plate and Helm of Balduran

Korgan.
Level 11.
Uses Stonefire or Frostreaver and carries Shield of the Lost.
THAC0 2.
Profs: - Axe; 5
Wears Full Plate and Helm of Charm Protection.

Yoshimo.
Level 14.
Uses Katana +2 or Tuigan Bow.
THAC0 10 or 8 respectively.
Profs: - Katana; 1
Short Bow; 1
Wears the Nights Gift and Pale Green Ioun Stone.

Viconia.
Level 12.
Uses Mace of Disruption +1 and carries Reflection Shield +1.
THAC0 13.
Profs: - Mace; 1
Sword and Shield; 1
Wears Darkmail and Pearly White Ioun Stone.

Jan.
Level 11/11.
Uses Flasher Launcher or Arbane's Sword.
THAC0 9 or 13 respectively.
Profs: - Crossbow; 1
Short Sword; 1
Wears Jansen Adventurewear and Jansen Spectroscopes.

Edwin.
Level 12.
Uses Delner's Eye Gouger or Torgal's Claw.
THAC0 12.
Profs: - Dagger; 1
Dart; 1
Wears Robe of Vecna and Dusty Rose Ioun Stone.

I beat the Improved Driud Grove today, with the exception of the Troll Mound. I thought it provided an excellent challenge, although for some reason the shambling mounds near the ogre's house didn't give me any experience. Faldorn was left to Cernd, who defeated her easily. She didn't cast any spells, so I guess that was part of the weaker Improved Faldorn in one of the newest updates of Tactics.

You're lucky you didn't encounter the previous Improved Faldorn. Although I haven't played Tactics as of yet (broken computer) I've heard naught but bad stories about her. Overpowered uber-munchkin being an understatement.

As far as I know, the only "weakness" that Weimer gave Improved Faldorn is to give Cernd thousands of hitpoints if he's not in the party, giving him a 50/50 chance of killing her. But then, I'm not exactly keeping up with the latest Tactics releases.

Why not?

I still won't touch the component with a 10-foot pole though...

My solution is to download & install it, then delete FALDORN1.CRE from the Override file. Improved Druid Grove, non-Improved Faldorn.

I notice Weimer didn't mention removing Nature's Beauty from her spell list....gee, what a surprise. :rolleyes:

The strange thing was that she never used those spells that she had, she just turned into the Panther and did 24 damage to Cernd when she hit him. (except criticals) She does still have her Nature's Beauty spells, though my guess is that she won't use spells on Cernd if he is not under party control, only on a party controlled Druid.

Anyway, a status update. I defeated the Temple Sewers gang quite easily. I had Edwin use Power Word:Silence on Gaius under the effects of a Shadow Door, and then ran back to my party. The group followed and they were quickly pulverised by Amschat and Korgan.

I am now in the Planar Prison, and have just reached level 13. I will try to get some screenshots if you want to see them.

Has anyone beat Aran Linvail under the Tactics and Rogue Rebalancing enhancements? Here is aVENGER's readme text for this fight.

The final battle with Aran is a story of its own. Although I've removed all of his 'extra' stats
that were put there by Bioware (his DEX, Thac0 and HP were too good), properly recreated his
classes (he was actually multi classed) and even replaced his Elven armor +1 with a standard
suit of Elven chain (so that he can now actually wear his Ring of Protection +2) his new AI
still makes him pretty tough. Aran now dual wields the Dagger of Venom and the improved Short
Sword of Backstabbing which means that Bodhi fans can now get this weapon as well, and earlier
than the do-gooders to boot [img]smile.gif[/img] He no longer casts 'Summon Cacofiend' since the demons proved to
be too unreliable and often blocked the doorway for the other characters during my testing.
Instead, he will now cast Black Blade of Disaster (from a scroll). As he now has Protection From
Magical Weapons, Mislead and Improved Haste in his spell trigger, every one of his 4 attacks per
round is considered a backstab. He will try to re-cast PfMW whenever he looses it (as a level 14
Mage he has three of those) and he uses a couple of potions (Magic Blocking, Clarity, Rogue
Strength...) before the battle as well. Also, he is a fairly decent mage and his
Chaos/Confusions/Feebleminds are not to be underestimated. Be very careful around his inner
sanctum since it's littered with poison/dispelling arrow traps and floor spike traps which will
all reset until disarmed.

Most of the enhancements on Aran himself I can deal with fairly easily, he is basically a tougher version of Mae'var (better weapons, higher levels etc), the group he has with him however is easily the toughest fight so far, especially with the traps in the small corridor outside his room that seemingly only appear after the door to his room is opened.

Each of my party members (Korgan, Yoshimo, Viconia, Edwin, Jan and Amschat) has above 1.1 million XP, and is pretty standard insofar as spells and special abilities. Any thoughts on this?

Because I haven't played the Tactics component as of yet (but I may soon!! if all goes well I will have a pretty decent computer in January!!) my advise may sound stupid:

1) Summons may help you out a lot, especially Skeleton Warriors. Viconia should be more than able to help you on that point. If you have the Dryad Acorns you could use those, I heard those summons are pretty nifty.

2) Set up a few traps using Yoshimo well outside the range of Aran's lackies. Dispell their Protections with Edwin and/or Jan and make them follow you to the traps. Then you can use Yoshimo to backstab while Korgan keeps them busy.

3) As you've got an anti-paladin in your party you should use his special abilities wisely. His dispell magic is powerful enough to wreak havoc amongst the thief/mages in Aran's home, n'est-ce pas?

IN EACH CASE: Avoid fighting in the inner sanctum as much as possible because of the traps mentioned. It might be an idea to disarm the traps using Jan while the others keep Aran and his goons busy. Dunno if that'll work though.

Just a bunch of thoughts.

Just a little addition: use Aran's weapons to your own advantage. Poison arrows, for instance, or spells such as Spook, Confusion, Blindness and most of all Hold!!

Sometimes spells that incapacitate rather than deal damage are 10 times better ;)

Indeed. We usually tend to think too difficult when it comes to battle, preferring the red spells (dealing damage) over other ones.

After reloading 20 times you really hit yourself in the head ( [img]graemlins/doh.gif[/img] !) when you find out that some low-level spell did the trick just nicely. And there you were tossing Implosions, Fireballs and the such around!

Exactly. Maybe you were getting overrun with baby spiders... casting magic missle all about, when all you need was a simple sleep spell...

Well, I've managed to beat him. I had Yoshimo place traps in front of the door to his room. (Cheesy, but there is a slight roleplaying justification in that someone with 11 Int and 16 Wis should be able to deduce that their target should be in the one room they have not explored, having searched everywhere else) The traps killed his two mages, and some of his goons, some of the others were killed as they ran out.

I managed to get away from the door fast enough to avoid Aran's dialogue (which triggers the traps and some extra guards in the narrow corridor) until his Mislead wore off. A quick Dispel Magic from Amschat was followed by a Power Word:Silence from Edwin. Aran (being immune to silence, a fact I only remembered after both Aran and Edwin were dead) quickly killed Edwin with his guards. He was quickly cut down for this. I killed the last of his guards and removed the traps, before resurrecting Edwin with the Rod of Res. Edwin died 3 times in the Shadow Thief Guildhall, but now I'm off to Spellhold for Imoen after doing some shopping.

Edit. Viconia cannot summon Skeleton Warriors yet, she reached level 14 during the fight, so I should have them before the Underdark.

[ 11-25-2005, 02:17 PM: Message edited by: Ilyich ]

I have reached the Underdark now, and have just freed Vithal and cleared the elemental portals. Spellhold itself was not all that difficult, the Pit Fiend on the second level proving the most difficult fight.

The Sahaugin city was more difficult, but once you realise the Sahaugin will melee someone with the Shield of Reflection (Viconia in my case) it was easy to set traps for them. The Priestess was just a standard Mage type, she was killed quickly. The Minor Avatar was soloed by Korgan, so he wasn't too bad either. Summons helped deal with the King.

Some basics about my party is below: -

Amschat B'hal Zoon.
Level 16 Anti-Paladin.
Dual weilding Adjatha and Queen of Spades.
THAC0, -4 and -2 respectively.
AC, -7.
Profs. 3 * in Two Weapon, Long Sword and War Hammer.

Korgan.
Level 15 Battlerager.
Weilding Frostreaver and the Fortress Shield.
THAC0, -2.
AC, -7.
Profs. 5 * in Axe.

Viconia.
Level 16 Cleric.
Weilding Maulers Arm and Reflection Shield. (Also has Shield of Harmony and Shield of Balduran)
THAC0, 7.
AC, -7.
Profs. 1 * in Mace and Sword and Shield.

Edwin.
Level 14 Conjurer.
Wielding Cleric's Staff.
THAC0, 13.
AC, 0.
Profs. 1* in Staff.

Jan.
Level 12/14 Illusionist/Thief.
Wielding Arbane's Sword.
THAC0, 12.
AC, 0.
Profs, 1 * in Short Sword and Single Weapon.

Imoen.
Level 16/7 Conjurer/Adventurer.
Wielding Tansheron's Bow.
THAC0, 9.
AC, -4
Profs, 1 * in Short Bow.

Edit: - The Pit Fiend was most difficult because the Stronger Demons part of Tactics turns them into absolute monsters which are very hard to kill. The Ulitharid took me to 1 Int, so it came closest to killing me.

[ 11-30-2005, 01:32 PM: Message edited by: Ilyich ]

Probably good riddance for his betrayal ;)

so true...