Is it balanced? Truth be told, I like what I see and I want to try them out, but I have two sides, powergamer and roleplayer. Right now my roleplayer side has doubts on whether the items are overpowered. I definitely did not want it for my solo Sorcerer, because to give him the Sorcerian Ring in conjunction with the Ring of Gaxx... ...

I plan to play a party of six Mages soon though, and it is going to have a storyline( hopefully). From a roleplaying perspective, are the items overpowered?

I like the Item Upgrade mod, myself.
Most of the Items are well balanced.

Exceptions are Impaler +4 (give your Kensai Whirlwinds and Grandmastery in Spears... :eek: !), and Soul Reaver +6 (Come on... Soul Reaver +4 and Carsomyr, COMBINED!).

Each item must be weighed separately; each has its roleplay value and its powergaming value. The Rings of Preservation, for instance, make a lot of roleplaying sense. Whether or not they're overpowered is up to each individual player--I think it's a little bit over the top, but not notably so. Certainly less powerful than the Ring of Gaxx--but then, what isn't?

(For the record, Weimer actually made my Holy Buckler of Amaunator more powerful than I'd intended: I had thought that one False Dawn per day was enough.)

-- Alson, you have a point with your note on the potential abuse of the Soul Reaver: The existing most damaging weapon, the Staff of the Ram, cannot be Whirlwinded in this way because of the Knockback factor.

-- Also, now that I think about it, a Kensai under GWW, using the Impaler as a THROWING SPEAR 10 times per round, is just broken. Turning the Spear of the Unicorn into a Throwing Spear is OK, the Impaler is not.

-- quote from the README:
10% chance of Summon Insects would be more reasonable.

-- Combining all the Thief items into the Gloves of the Master Thief seems overpowered as well, not to mention the fact that they also set your base AC to 3.

-- Another quote:
-- The Sorcerian Ring is, essentially, 3 Rings and an Amulet all worn on one finger. That's too much. I would knock the Ring of Protection out of the equation.

-- The Ring of Elemental Mastery incorporates the "hidden" +1 bonus to Saving Throws included in the Ring of Earth Control, even though BioWare confirmed that the Earth Control's Save bonus was an oversight that they forgot to correct. (BaldurDash fixes it.)

That makes a total of 7 items that I think are definitely overpowered, and need to be toned down. The rest of the items are OK; my opinion of them seems to vary directly with the number of component items combined into the finished product. For instance, the various Boot upgrades are fine, as they all combine only 2 pairs of the original Boots, and SoA Boots only; the Sorcerian Ring, and Gloves of the Master Thief, however, both combine at least 4 items, with no weakening of the original enchantments whatsoever.

So, 7 overpowered upgrades out of 42 total upgrades equals a result of 85.71% legitimacy. (By my standard of "overpowered," anyway.)

I like it.

Some items are overpowered, but there are some drawbacks to getting these. For example, the belt which combines the belts of crushing, slashing, and piercing will combine. Therefore you have one really good belt, instead of three normal ones. If you are playing with a party you might prefer to have one of three characters.

In my opinion, however, Cromwell should not be able to upgrade any items. Save that for ToB.

Overall a good mod.

I was going to download this MOD but some of the items listed seemed to powerful. I mean a +5 katana in Chapter 2?!?!?

I won't be making up my mind until I finish my current solo Sorcerer. The ToB forum is quite bare anyway, will take some time before more people give their opinions.

A question though, what is the Water's Edge +3?

I think that there are some overpowering items in the mod. I really question whether there shouldn't be something more necessary than money, after all, you're drowning in it partway through chap 2, so there's really nothing to stand in the way of getting those items WAAAAAAAYY too early. In NWN they have a lvl requirement, but I mean, a +5 katana in Chap 2 is a tad too much, especially when the only other +5 weapon in SoA is also guarded by...well, you know who. ;)

<font color="lightblue">A scimitar (sp ??) that you find in Ust'Nathar; in the House Deirex (the one with the lich). </font>

I thought it was in Spellhold.

theses items are like cheating to me [img]smile.gif[/img]

i haven't gotten the mod to work so i'm just posting on the basis of what i read.
I think they got a little carried away but overall a good mod. I really want my celestial fury +5, while i certainly don't think the fury is underpowered, +3 can cause difficulties
the stacking of magic items is where the mod gets really overpowering, you can practically build your own ring of gaxx and the ring of socerian is insane

This is the waters edge, a very competent Scimitar

I actually like it-I have no objection to SR+6...makes sense seing as one of Weimar's mods adds an anti-paladin kit as well, y'know? *shrugs*

I disagree.
Thieves in BG2 needs better equipment.

</font>[/QUOTE]There are MUCH better summons...
It is powerful, but certainly not unbalanced.

It's the other way around.
Baldurdash added the bonus, becuase BioWare forgot to implement it.

As quoted from Baldurdash... ...

AFAIK, the unfixed ring gave +1 to all saving throws.
The fixed one gives the bonus only to elemental saving throws.

Erm... Alson. There are only save vs death/petrify/breath/polymorph/spell/etc... but there is no save vs elemental.

I think you are getting mixed with this bugfix,
ADD] The bottom line is, the Ring of Earth Control is not supposed to give a saving throw bonus at all.

[ 11-08-2002, 12:33 PM: Message edited by: Dundee Slaytern ]

Yes, after playing for a few years now, i now the saving throws system quite well... [img]tongue.gif[/img] ;)
What i meant was that you get +1 to saving throws vs. damage from elemental source, eg. Fireball or Fire Breath weapons. ;)

Maybe i am confusing the bugfixes, but this is what i seem to remember.

Erm... there is no such thing. Fireball uses the save vs spell, period. Dragon's Breath( the enemy, not the spell) uses the save vs breath. IE does not cater to such detailed things.

ADD] Besides, what the heck does the Ring of Earth Control have to do with elemental spells?

[ 11-08-2002, 12:52 PM: Message edited by: Dundee Slaytern ]

You sounds certain.
I stand corrected, then. [img]smile.gif[/img]

The Soul Reaver is indeed a good roleplaying weapon, but it's probably a tad overpowered, since you're probably going to be giving it to Sarevok, the Walking Munchkin himself. But this is only a trifling bit of overpowering, and the least important of by 7 objections.

I believe you find the Water's Edge in the House Je'ellat, not Deirex's Tower. Decent Druid weapon, but Blackblood is better.

As far as the Gloves of Master Thievery go, you're right, Alson, in that the Thief items make Thieves a lot more fun to play in SoA, so you can get good skill-scores relatively quickly, and then wean yourself off the items as you gain points. My point in objecting to the Gloves of Master Thievery is that it's overkill to combine all the Thief gear into ONE item, and it's an insult to toss in the Bracers of Defense and a Ring of Protection as well. What's the point of setting the user's AC to 3? You're going to be wearing armor anyway.....unless you're a Kensai->Thief, in which case this item is just cheese for the cheesers.

About Kitthix: There may be better summons, but from a Fighter or Thief, this Improved version seems too powerful. I would set her base AC to 1, all Saving Throws set to 10, remove the Save penalties for her victims to resist her Poison and Web, and remove her resistance to physical damage.
Not to mention that the requirements for the upgrade are ridiculously low: Scroll of Spider Spawn, Scroll of Web, 5 Poisoned Throwing Daggers, and 5,000 gold. That's chump change, you'll get a ToB-worthy summon in less than a week.

I will say that on the whole, I like most of the upgrades. Any upgrades that I consider overpowered, I simply won't have them done, or at least I'll wait until the resulting item will be appropriately powerful.

You know what I would like to see? A +5 enchanted returnable throwing dart.

Ingredients:
--------
</font>

1. Crimson Dart +3</font>
2. 20 Asp Nests</font>
3. 80 Darts of Wounding</font>
4. 4 Emeralds</font>
5. 10,000 Gold</font>

Crimson Dart +5: v1.01
--------
The small size of this weapon belies its great power. Immediately after striking its target, this dart reappears in the hand of the wielder, ready to be hurled again. This weapon has been further improved by enhancing its' enchantment and adding poison to its' tip.

STATISTICS:

Dart returns instantly to user's hand after being thrown.

Combat Ability: Poison
2 hit point damage to the target for every 2 seconds for 24 seconds unless a cure poison is cast, or an antidote is drunk. Save versus poison with a -2 penalty for half-damage.

THAC0: +5 bonus
Damage: 1D3 +5
Damage type: missile (piercing)
Weight: 0
Speed Factor: 0
Proficiency Type: Dart
Type: 1-handed
Not Usable By:
Cleric

EDIT] To reflect new input.

ADD] To compare with the Asp's Nest, the Asp's Nest lasts for 20 rounds. My idea, makes it only 4 rounds, and a much lower poison damage. This weapon will not go through Absolute Immunity as that requires a +6 enchanted weapon. Neither will the poison bypass Stoneskins. The dart itself has to make contact with the target before the poison is applied.

[ 11-09-2002, 11:30 AM: Message edited by: Dundee Slaytern ]

That dart is a bit too much, i think...
I never though i would say THAT! :D

Considring the fact that Darts have a base ApR 3, this Dart is too much.
MOST enemies don't memorize Cure Poison OR carry an Antidote.
So, to the common SoA-ToB foe, this darts mean 1D3+5, +40 (20 if saves) poison damage and spell diruption for 4 rounds (3 full rounds, and the begining of the forth round, but enemies always cast at the begining of every new round), x3 per round... :rolleyes:

Hmmmm... I was trying to balance how the Asp's Nest works, and the Dart of Wounding. The Asp's Nest has no save, and will always deal 40 poison damage( 1 per 3 seconds). The Dart of Wounding deals 20 poison damage if the target fails his/her save( 1 per second).

Since this is an infinite weapon though, maybe I should allow the save to negate the damage? Nah... regular weapons can deal just as much, if not more, damage with similar ApR.

I guess I will just reduce the damage to 2 poison damage per 2 seconds for 24 seconds. Save versus poison with a -2 penalty for half-damage. This is very weak already when you consider we are combining the Asp's Nest and the Dart of Wounding.

Most Bosses and all Undead plus Monks are immuned to poison.

1D3 +5 +20 (40 if save failed)?!
Refresh my memory about this "regualr weapon"...

I, too, think the poison is too strong. I would shorten its duration to a single round. (Also, can this poison through Stoneskins? A weapon that gets through Absolute Immunity 3 times a round, and disrupts spellcasting, through Stoneskins, from a distance, is way too much. "Mage? What Mage?")

To Alson:
----
I was thinking Flail of Ages +5 with all the STR bonuses. As a ranged weapon, the Crimson Dart will not benefit from any STR bonuses.

To SixOfSpades:
----
To compare with the Asp's Nest, the Asp's Nest lasts for 20 rounds. My idea, makes it only 4 rounds, and a much lower poison damage. This weapon will not go through Absolute Immunity as that requires a +6 enchanted weapon. Neither will the poison bypass Stoneskins. The dart itself has to make contact with the target before the poison is applied.

True, but only if the save is failed.
FoA+5 average damage is 19.5.
25 STR is another 14, so we have 33.5 DMG per strike.

The poison alone is more damaging. ;)

I have reduced the poison damage to 24, 12 if save.

ADD] Although, when you think about it, heck... the Asp's Nest is more damaging too. :/

[ 11-09-2002, 09:13 AM: Message edited by: Dundee Slaytern ]

True, but Asp's Nest are in short supply. This weapon, just like Crimson Dart, is 'unlimited', because it returns to the thrower's hand.

So is it balanced now?

Yes. I like it.

Not too powerful, but a great weapon for character who will actually bother to equip Darts - Archers, Thieves, and Cast&Attack Mages/Druids. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Eons ago, I created a Dartmaster and a motley crew of weirdos. That game has long disappeared though, because it was frustrating to keep going back to merchants to replenish my supply of Darts.

Now that I have Ease of Use, I might resurrect the party. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Don't laugh, ;) but the PC was an Elf Fighter who Grandmastered in Darts. Other party members included a Dwarf Berserker who used Throwing Axes exclusively, an Assassin who used Throwing Knives, a Barbarian dualwielding daggers and a Beastmaster dualwielding clubs.

It was a fun if... unusual party. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Can you help me pass this idea to the mod creator? Thanks for the assist in advance. I am currently thinking out an idea on a suitable thief armour.

ADD] I have edited the relevant post on the first page to contain all the necessary data. You may copy and paste from there. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 11-09-2002, 11:33 AM: Message edited by: Dundee Slaytern ]

Hmmm.DJG creates items and Jcompton, the rather well connected WeiDu ninja [img]tongue.gif[/img] can occasionally be found advertising FW projects on this board [img]smile.gif[/img]

No problem.
I'll inform Weimer for you.