Aurils Bane: Who has tested it and what's your verdict?

[CerebroDragon]

G'day to all ol' faithful Icewinders,

As the cold of Winter doth encroach upon my area of the world, so too does my memory linger over the past years that I've spent playing Icewind Dale synchronously to enhance the beautiful environmental chilliness that the game exudes!

Thus, I am considering a new challenge and yet another adventurous romp through the game! Having completed TotLM in my last play through, the next logical choice I think is to try out any existing mods, of which the most common and popular seems to be Grog's Auril's Bane. Hence some questions!

1) What do people think about the mod? Do you reccomend it to me?
2) Does it deepen dialogues at all?
3) Was your experience relatively bug-free?
4) Is the content highly noticable to even the casual eye?
5) When I think of Auril - I immediately remember the female cleric from the Vale of Shadows and some of the neat dialogue in which she espouses her beliefs. Is this encounter affected by the mod? (As a hunch...)
6) Any other mods I shouldn't overlook aswell?

I guess there is also HoF mode for me to try, but I am a little loathe to go that hardcore - I've read enough of the crazy stories about it in the forum here which makes me think that it probably isn't for me!

Think I might wander over to the chosen of mystra forums now and download it!
I might not start for a few weeks yet (playing fallout 2 at the moment) but it'll take me some time to start throwing around ideas for a different styled party to what I have played in the past. A Gnome Illusionist is a definite...and maybe two clerics or mages...

Cheers,
CD

P.S:
Figured out the main majestic notes from early parts of the Easthaven theme on bass the other day. Sounds sweet even distorted!

[Raffin]

AB is a fairly well made mod, IMO. I've put it on my permanent (or at least long-term) install because a few features really help things in the game:

1. There's the early spell scorlls, which you can buy from a vendor in Easthaven, which means your mages and bards can cast spells before Kuldahar.
2. There are a few new spells that really help out, especially in the realm of creative damage dealing.
3. There are some interesting NPCs, and new vendors, new weapons, and new armor in Kuld that give useful alternatives to the old automatic weapon/armor choices.

Now I won't say it's bug free-there are two persistant bugs I haven't been able to beat (even with the creator's help), but both are minor-one is a weapon/book that doesn't do anything and isn't useable, the other is a minor vendor who never shows up when I'm in town.

As far as I can tell, nothing much was done to the encounter with the Aurlite Priestess. The content flows well, and generally fits in fine with the rest of the story.

All in all, it's a really good mod, IMHO, and adds a lot to the first half of the game. Hopefully the creator will continue to add to and tweak it, as I really enjoy what it adds.


-Raffin

PS. You might give HoF from start a try sometime-it's actually doable with the right character classes, and it can be fun to get 2,000 xp from killing a CHICKEN [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Raffin]

PPS. As to other mods to check out, be sure to get the other compatible mods along with AB:

http://chosenofmystra.net/forums/vie...057fb8d29c85aa

Especially the ammo, potion, scroll stacking components. IMHO, Icewind Dale is much more fun when inventory management isn't so challenging.

-Raffin

[Aerich]

You know, HoF from the start isn't that bad. A little patience is needed because you have to hit a goblin 10 times to kill it instead of once. However, the enormous XP levels up the party quite quickly, allowing you to take full advantage of multiclasses and high level dualclasses. Even the single-classes aren't bad - for example, a maxed paladin can clear 80% of the Watchknights' Crypt with turn undead.

To get a feel for it, you could just take some or all of the characters from an old savegame and export them to a HoF game with some beginners. Even one or two mid-level "shepherds" should really increase your comfort level.

[Roboghost]

Note that the math for terminating a hostile in Heart of Fury is:

Normal x 4 + 2000

Example: the little red beetles - which will be your first kill - are worth 35 points normal mode:

[35 x 4] + 2000 = 2,140 experience points HoF

[ZFR]

Yup. I'd like just to add that the above is only for the XP from kills. For quest XP it is "only": normal x 2

[Olorin]

So don't neglect the cows and chickens:

1 x 4 + 2000 = 2004

Just be careful you don't blunder into an ambush chasing them around.

[xander12402]

I obviously did not take advantage of the killing of livestock, only killed one chicken and it was annoying chasing it around, so did not bother to do it again.

[Kyrvias]

Heh. 2004 xp for a chicken. Now *that's* good eatin! [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[CerebroDragon]

Hmm, well, a big fat greasy dose of SPAM for all who post off-topic here. I didn't want this thread to turn into a HoF pros/cons or random fact association or whatever.
In fact, I think I was quite specific with my questions, so many thanks to Raffin who gave his own opinion on Aurils Bane.

All references and discussions on HoF are thus [img]graemlins/beheaded.gif[/img]
Only those who have played Aurils Bane and have some thoughts on it need post! [img]tongue.gif[/img]

I'm currently trying it out in my new game, up to the second level of Severed Hand. I decided to experiment with a couple of multi-class characters, something I never usually do. I also wanted to try tanking my clerics instead of the usual figher/paladin types with a heavy reliance upon missile combat.

Human Ranger
Half Elf Figher/Thief
Half Elf Cleric/Ranger
Elven Cleric
Human Druid
Gnome Illusionist

I'm looking forward to the new quest, which I've read begins somewhere after Dorns Deep. Anyone who wants to reveal precisely where and when I should look for it, feel free!

I've noticed alot of extra ammo types, spells, an item here or there but generally I find it a little hazy to seperate TotLM/HoW content from the actual mod stuff. As convenient as it is, I'm feeling guilty about carrying quiver stacks of over 300 arrows at a time.

One last question - the encounter with the two drow in the Kuldahar Inn. I'm struggling to resist the urge to click on the 'die drow scum' option, the other dialogue choices not seemingly going anywhere. Is there a point to their existence, or are they merely extra decoration?
It'd be a shame to resort to violence after all.