[IWD2] Ways to 'unpatch' Animate Dead spell..
 

This may come as too late but better late than never... :P

Before patch 2.01, with the Animate Dead spell you can summon these.

4lv: skeleton warrior or greater zombie
7lv: boneguard or shadow
10lv: wraith or wight
13lv: greater boneguard or zombie lord
16lv: cold bones or drowned dead
19lv: mummy king or barrow wight
22lv: boneguard lord or greater drowned dead
25lv: appocalyptic boneguard or festering drowned dead

Somehow somewhere BIS deemed that the Animate Dead spell was way too powerful and cheesey. So in come patch 2.01 and the Animate Dead Spell was limited to.

4lv: skeleton warrior or greater zombie
7lv: boneguard or shadow
10lv: wraith or wight
13lv: greater boneguard or zombie lord

Upon searching the net I found that SPWI501.SPL is the code for Animate Dead spell. After doing some 'detective' work i found that in order to reverse the effect of patch 2.01 has on the Animate Dead spell. Go to the Override folder of your Icewind Dale 2 folder.

For example -> C:\Program Files\Black Isle\Icewind Dale II\Override

Look for the file called SPWI501.SPL (easiest way is to look from bottom to up) and either delete (not recommended) or cut and paste (Do this) the file to other folder (My Document for example).

Now load your game, depending on what level you are. You'll now be able to summon back the pre 2.01 patch undead monsters. Hooray!!! :D

But wait! Is the undead monsters are HoF compatible? Well, I did some testing on this with a level 30 cleric.

Let's take the festering drown dead for example :

Normal mode - festering drown dead has 252hp (give and take)
HoF mode - festering drown dead has 680hp (give and take)

As you can see, the hp difference between normal and hof mode is quite alot. Which suggests that the undead monsters are quite compatible with HoF mode.

Warning 1 : Due to a festering drown dead natural property. Summoning a festering drown dead might kill your own character. So either save your game before you start summoning or pray that the summons won't kill you. :P

Warning 2 : Also due to a festering drown dead natural property. Having a festering drown dead summon will make you unable to save your game. To be able to save your game, let your characters kill the festering drown dead or move to another map area.

Now you are able to play a patched game but with an Animate Dead spell that can summon any undead.

Enjoy!

Re: [IWD2] Ways to 'unpatch' Animate Dead spell..
 

COOL!!

Re: [IWD2] Ways to 'unpatch' Animate Dead spell..
 

I agree, cool. Thanks for telling us this.