Aria, Half-Elven R/C: Early Adventures in Athkatla
I spent most of the afternoon agonizing over the screenshot issue, but Aria made some progress nonetheless. She has escaped the Chateau, restored the Circus, cleansed the Copper, visited the Graveyard District, and nixed Suna Seni.
I don't have any screenshots from the Chateau, but that's hardly a tragedy: it wasn't super-exciting. Aria stealthed through most of it. All the evadable enemies were left standing. The only encounter worth mentioning was the mephit-fest. There, Aria used skeletons to attract the mephits' attention. She then stealthed to the portals and destoyed them without taking any damage. The RoP was recovered after that. Aria hit the shadows and made her way to the surface.
Aria's character record and inventory upon exiting the Chateau and selling what loot she found.
The Circus Tent quest was mostly uneventful, but I did note something troubling. Kalah had a little targetting trouble. I hope that doesn't mean this install is fracked...
Anyhoo. The loot from Kalah's corpse gave Aria enough gold to start building a potion collection. She purchased a Potion of Freedom, a Potion of Firebreath, an Potion of Invisibility, and an Oil of Speed. With those potions on hand, she headed to the Copper.
The Beasmaster encounter was an excercise in frustration. Charmed animals behaved in an uncharming fashion, reverting to hostile almost immediately. The Beastmaster and his pets fell nonetheless. Most were killed at range with Aria's unenchanted sling, although the Beastmaster himself fell to Doom->Hold Person->Quarterstaff.
Seeking to raise gold to finance purchase of the the Ring of Air Control, the Reflection Shield, the Sling of Seeking, and a Staff Mace, Aria ventured into the Graveyard District. Now with Iron Skins to complement her cleric buffs, Aria is a formidible early BG melee fighter. Holy Power->DUHM boosts her THAC0 and brings her strength to 21. Iron Skins, Armor of Faith and Chant foil or cushion damage. Defensive Harmony and Protection from Evil buff her AC. Doom tilts the odds further in her favor. She fought the Crypt King toe-to-toe with Holy Smites providing additional damage.
Selling Namarra permitted Aria to purchase the Reflex. Travelling under Sanctuary allowed Aria to thwart Suna Seni's ambush.
Withdrawing to buff and then opening with a Potion of Firebreath assured victory.
Holy Smites finished the rest.
The sale of Arbane and and Eldarin's armor allowed Aria to purchase the a Staff Mace and the Sling of Seeking.
Aria is now resting at the Copper Coronet. Her next opjective is to fill out her defensive potion collection.
The Cowled Wizards allowed Scintilla to exploit Lavok's Sphere. Her first activities there were sending three Solamnic Knights home and setting three apprentices to work. (They would create a dagger for the Gnome, fail at the production of a Mislead scroll, and forge a Ring of Wizardry. Sadly, the latter feat cost the lives of two of the apprentices, but on the flipside, Cromwell would merge the ring with a Ring of Acuity, Metaspell Influence Amulet, and Ring of Protection +1 into the Sorcerian Ring, which gives one extra spell for levels 1-7, +1 AC, +1 Saves).
Scintilla retrieved a dawn ring from Talassasan Thieves for the Temple of Lathander,
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and went vampire hunting after that. Her Deva, equipped with Mace of Disruption +2, and her trusty Aerials plus Kitthix helped Scintilla breeze through Bodhi's lair.
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Tanova fell to a Dispel Magic followed by a vorpal(?) hit from the Deva.
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The only problem was Bodhi herself. I'm not very well-informed of her SCS abilities, as my rogues simply shut her up with traps, but this time I learnt she had a Touch of Death that removed Scintilla's Skeletons and Aerials. She also paralyzed the Deva.
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Scintilla summoned Kitthix, and got pissed off at Bodhi when the Vampire ignored her Sanctuary, which caused the Gnome to retreat. Apparently Bodhi was too lazy to follow Scintilla; she had learned enough from the encounter.
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I'm thinking of manipulating Sanctuary (if I can) in NearInfinity. I strongly disagree with its dispellability through detection spells and with certain enemies simply ignoring it and attacking. Sanctuary isn't an illusion; it's a temporary safeguard from the Cleric's God, during which the priest can heal, buff etc. unmolested. Kind of like a Resilient Sphere within which non-hostile actions (except conversation) can be carried out.
In the sewers a Beholder and two Gauths were no match for Scintilla's Deva and Aerials,
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but in Ghoul town Scintilla had a much harder time. This was a technical issue, resulting in a reload. Scintilla entered the undead lair to create space on the bridges outside the lair that led to the Unseeing Eye den. In the undead lair the continuous lagging was unbearable presumably due to a Lich's spells, a spellcasting Skeleton Warrior, and Scintilla herself with her spells and summons. At first Scintilla engaged the opposition, but I soon found that that only mad ethings worse. I had her flee toward the Unseeing Eye den, and she actually made it there, but several undead, including the lich, followed her. The lagging continued there. The screen would freeze for seconds in which spellcasting or following Scintilla's enemies' movements was pretty much impossible, until Scintilla was killed by Beholders (her Invisibility was probably removed at some point by the Lich or a summoned Glabrezu). Although I considered throwing my laptop out of the window and accepting the end of this run, I decided not to. As I said, this was purely a technical problem, and there was nothing I, as a player, had done wrong.
The second time the game was still laggy, but Scintilla made it through with minimal buffs (MSD, Haste, Spell Shield) and no other spells, no summons etc, to minimize lagging. Some of the Undead followed her again into the Beholders' lair, but Invisibility and (continued) Haste allowed Scintilla to leave them behind without being followed.
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The lagging worries me though. I hope this is not what the game has in store for me further down the road, in battles with many enemies, some casters.
Inside the Unseeing Eye lair, Scintilla's summons dealt convincingly with the Unseeing Eye, its Death Tyrants, and a few more Gauths and Beholders.
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Interestingly the Gnome and her entourage didn't find a group of Beholders and Gauths they would have gladly killed as well.
On her way back to the Temple of Helm, Scintilla ran into Tarnor the Hatchetman and his friends. (I had forgotten to take the southern path). A rest that was followed by summoning her Skeletons, Aerials and Deva, made sure these enemies wouldn't present much trouble. The summons dispatched all the warriors and priests; Gaius the Mage lastest longer but fell eventually to Scintilla's Blackblood after she repeatedy removed the wizard's protections.
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Scintilla was rewarded with no less than 8k GP by the Temple of Helm, and made a cohort of the church, even though she didn't worship Helm.
At the Den of the Seven Vales, Scintilla had a dust-up with a group of brigands. A Spell Triggered Holy Smite and summons showed them they had picked on the wrong Gnome.
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A far more interesting encounter took place in the Bridge District, at least that's where it started.
The home she thought she entered proved to be a portal to a secret Twisted Rune council. Buffed with nothing but a Potion of Stone form, she was greeted by a Lich, retreated to cast PfUndead on herself, and Stoneskin when a Mordy's Sword came after her (I forget Stoneskin way too often before resting).
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The Mordy's Sword was dispatched with five Magic Missiles, one of which from scroll. A fiend, another courtesy of the Lich, was felled after Scintilla buffed with the holy triumvirate of HP, RM and DUHM.
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From a distance Scintilla observed two other enemies besides the Lich, a warrior and a Hive Mother (judging by the fact that it targeted invisible Scintilla). The warrior followed Scintilla as she retreated to the entrance. Heavy blows were exchanged, including some Holy Smite damage that Scintilla inflicted. The Hasted fighter panicked and threatened to get back to his buddies, but Scintilla prevented that with her Sloing of Seeking.
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The Gnome then summoned her Deva that was later joined by an Aerial and by a Skeleton Warrior. Much to Scintilla's satisfaction, the Deva soaked up a number of Fingers of Death from the Lich during a Time Stop, before it proceeded to slay the Hive Mother.
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Farsight revealed to Scintilla that her Aerial Servant went after a Vampire, even when the summon got dominated, but eventually it fell to a Death Spell cast by a female wizard.
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The female approached and dispelled Scintilla's Invisibility with an Oracle (thankfully not a True Sight), which the Gnome remedied with a potion of invisibility, while a second Aerial Servant occupied the Lich.
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The Lich's Fireshields eventually killed the Aerial, but it had nevertheless provoked its opponent into wasting varioius spells, which was a good thing because Scintilla was no longer PfUndead at this point. Invisibly she snuck past the female wizard to the Vampire. Kitthix made short work of it,
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and went straight after Shangalar. In order for Kitthix not to burn herself on the Lich's fireshields, Scintilla removed the latter's spell protections, allowing the Spider to poison and kill the Lich.
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Scintilla summoned a second Skeleton Warrior and had it approach the female wizard. The woman targeted it with various spells, but none of them affected the highly magic resistant Skeleton Warrior.
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Khelben's Warding Whip followed by Breach then effectively removed the female's protection, leaving her defenseless against the Skeleton Warrior and Kitthix' attacks.
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On the wizard's corpse Scintilla found a very nice staff. She kept it as her main weapon (as she had just become proficient in Staves).
Wow. I never knew poison affected the Undead....gj anyway. I can't remember the last time I fought this bunch - Lich + Beholder + Vampire = bad.
Neither did I to be honest. Not sure if it applies to all types of undead. For corporal undead such as Liches, it kind of makes sense, but for spectral or skeletal undead much less so.
Neither did I to be honest. Not sure if it applies to all types of undead. For corporal undead such as Liches, it kind of makes sense, but for spectral or skeletal undead much less so.
All Undead should be immune to poison afaik, regardless of "meat percentage" on them.
I checked him out on my game, he indeed has poison immunity there (then again, I don't really remember when I last used any kind of posion against anyone, so it's irrelevant. )
Hehe. Ok I could imagine poison eating away the tissue, and thus injuring the victim (living or undead), but I'm no expert on p&p. Maybe that's more what acid is supposed to do.
In my case I also intended to use Kitthix for her many physical APR (not for her poisons), and expected that Scintilla would to step in with Blackblood or spells.
After visiting Roger and filling out her potion collection...
Aria solved the Skinner Murder and the confronted the kidnappers. The battle with Reti and Camitis was a complete disaster. Despite being hostile, Reti made a break for the district border. He made it. Camitis stood his ground and had the fight of his life. I couldn't believe the rolls he got. Eventually, a Hold Person allowed Aria to finish him but he forced three Potion of Extra Healing quaffs. And since Aria has lost a couple of healers to a pair of Shadow Thieves the night before, her supply was tapped.
A visit to Arledriah replenished the stock, but Aria felt the need to change up her weapon setup. She purchased the Sleeper and started dual-wielding. That's better.
Aria now felt ready to finish the Slaver Quest. The pre-buffs here were Ironskins, Potion of Hill Giant Strength, Resist Fear, Protection from Evil, Free Action, Chant, Armor of Faith, Draw on Holy Might, and RoAC II. Ready for battle.
(Apologies for the goofy screenshots. I'm still getting used to the new screenshot procedure.)
The Priest of Cyric was Aria's first target. He fell within two rounds.
A pair of Holy Smites helped Aria make quick progress on the guards.
Haegan was put to sleep by the sleeper and then chunked. He's usually a nuisance.
The children were freed and the trolls were evaded. Aria is now ready to leave Athkatla.
Best,
A.
Btw. I'm un-fond of the G3 v10 changes to the casting times of Doom and Iron Skins (they've both been changed to 1 round, which significantly impairs their usability). I'm considering rolling back those spells to their un-modded state.
Hey Alesia, love the Holy Smites. My Cleric/Illusionist unleashes them quite often as well. Question: why did you enter the Slaver Stockade in plain studded leather? Was that a roleplaying decision or did you plan to use stealth? I would have probably gone for better armor, even with ironskins. Either way, judging by your screenshots you didn't suffer any damage, so well done there.
Fwiw, I agree with you on the casting times of the spells you mentioned, especially Doom which is supposed to be an in-battle spell.
I personally changed Sanctuary this afternoon to become undispellable as it has always been in my experience with vanilla BG. The constant 'Illusion dispelled' message after enemies cast True Sight or Oracle began to annoy me a bit. Sanctuary isn't an illusion.
Hey Alesia, love the Holy Smites. My Cleric/Illusionist unleashes them quite often as well. Question: why did you enter the Slaver Stockade in plain studded leather? Was that a roleplaying decision or did you plan to use stealth? I would have probably gone for better armor, even with ironskins. Either way, judging by your screenshots you didn't suffer any damage, so well done there.
Aria had intended to switch to plate armor before entering the Slaver Ship, but a wandering kobold nudged her into entering sooner than planned. Ultimately it didn't matter.
Fwiw, I agree with you on the casting times of the spells you mentioned, especially Doom which is supposed to be an in-battle spell.
We all owe a debt of gratitude to the G3 Fixpack team. The original game was loaded with deeply problematic bugs. On balance, the G3 Fixpack creates a more sensible and coherent game world. I'm grateful for that.
Sometimes you have to take the bad with the good. And that's kind of the case with the Fixpack. The team has been at it for over a decade, and they like to stay active. They're constantly looking for bugs to squash, and sometimes they look too hard, leading them to change things that don't really need to be changed. Their choices aren't arbitrary -they reason through each decision- but sometimes the logic isn't enitrely compelling. At other times, decisions which are well reasoned when examined in isolation are problematic from a broader perspective.
Happily, there is no reason why the player can't minimize the bad by reverting undesirable changes. I'm inclined to take that approach with Doom and Ironskins.
I personally changed Sanctuary this afternoon to become undispellable as it has always been in my experience with vanilla BG. The constant 'Illusion dispelled' message after enemies cast True Sight or Oracle began to annoy me a bit. Sanctuary isn't an illusion.
I've had that thought before. There have definitely been times when I've felt that Santuary shouldn't be dispelled by Divination spells. I've also questioned whether enemies who detect the invisible should be able to attack Sanctuaried creatures. Does anyone know how PnP handles these issues? I don't see PnP behavior as decisive in these cases, but I'm curious.
If Sanctuary could not be dispelled by Divination spells, and if it protected priests from enemies that detect the invisible, it would help mitigate the casting time issues that divine casters often run into. In tough fights at high levels, I find the majority of divine spells virtually useless on account of their long casting times. It would be nice to be able to cast Sanctuary and then buff if only because it would permit priests to bring more of their spells into play.
With a C/I, I doubt making Sanctuary undispellable would make much difference for me, since I'd almost invariably be running SI:D when around casters, but for single class clerics, R/Cs, C/Ts, and F/Cs that would be a boon. I'll stick with vanilla Santuary, personally, but I respect your choice.
Btw. I'm un-fond of the G3 v10 changes to the casting times of Doom and Iron Skins (they've both been changed to 1 round, which significantly impairs their usability). I'm considering rolling back those spells to their un-modded state.
That's a G3 Fixpack bug, one of many. They consider it a "fix" but it's very odd that Stoneskin has CT=1 and it's counterpart a round. If I played non-SR game I'd make Ironskins have CT of 1, like they should. Otherwise, the spell is virtually useless for most of the time.
That's a G3 Fixpack bug, one of many. They consider it a "fix" but it's very odd that Stoneskin has CT=1 and it's counterpart a round. If I played non-SR game I'd make Ironskins have CT of 1, like they should. Otherwise, the spell is virtually useless for most of the time.
Understood. I'd discourage use of the term "bug" here. The term "bug" implies an error or glitch, which subverts intent. The change to Ironskins and Doom was deliberately implemented by the team on the basis of evidence that they found compelling. The manual and the original description did say 1 Round. When they encounter conflicts between spell descriptions and spell behavior, they implement the description. As they see it, this is the best way to realize developer intent. It's a defensible position. Reasonable people can disagree.
The fact that Stoneskins has a casting time of 1 isn't decisive. Stoneskins and Ironskins function similarly but they are different spells, and within the game world the mechanics of casting would be different.
My understanding is that the casting time of Iron Skins is 1, not one round in PnP. That's interesting, though in and of itself not decisive.
On balance, it seems to me that there isn't really enough evidece to divine developer intent. The spell may have been in error or the description my have been in error. We don't have anyway of knowing. The G3 team's practice of implementing the description isn't unreasonable, but my inclination would be to use a more conservative rule with respect to game mechanics. Specifically, I'd acknowledge that descriptions can be in error as easily as spells, and I would leave the game mechanics unchanged unless there was clear and convincing evidence of developer intent.
I feel some of the G3 Fixpack bashing that goes on in the BG community is a bit misguided. Does the Fixpack over-reach at times? Perhaps. But on balance they've done a service to the community, and that same passion and involvement which can lead to over-reaching underlies all the good they've done. I appreciate what they've done for the community, even if I might feel the need to scale back certain changes.
The manual and the original description did say 1 Round. When they encounter conflicts between spell descriptions and spell behavior, they implement the description. As they see it, this is the best way to realize developer intent. It's a defensible position. Reasonable people can disagree.
They generalize a lot. This philosphy is prone to error, naturally.
The fact that Stoneskins has a casting time of 1 isn't decisive. Stoneskins and Ironskins function similarly but they are different spells, and within the game world the mechanics of casting would be different.
The "bug" with original Ironskin is that it's coded as a "spell protection" (even if it won't protect you against any spell) and Secret Word and similar would remove it, rather than Breach. This isn't fixed by Fixpack. For techincal standpoint - Ironskin and Stoneskin are identical in their effects (stoneskin effect). This alone isn't proof that CT=1 is correct, but it's a valid assumpion considdering how this spell is to be used.
What makes me believe that the error with this spell is in the description rather than CT is that Ironskins have several headers, depending on level on which it's cast. They *all* have a casting time of 1 (actually, 0 in vanilla game).
Aside the oddity that even if Druids refuse to use Iron, they cover themselves in iron skins.....
Specifically, I'd acknowledge that descriptions can be in error as easily as spells, and I would leave the game mechanics unchanged unless there was clear and convincing evidence of developer intent.
Heh. The problem is, Fixpack will "fix" it anyway; rather than "let it be" if unsure. With v10 Fixpack, one can dress archers in Ankheg/Red Dragon Plate and silmilar. Soul Reaver won't do THAC0 drain no more etc. I don't like it.
I feel some of the G3 Fixpack bashing that goes on in the BG community is a bit misguided. Does the Fixpack over-reach at times? Perhaps. But on balance they've done a service to the community, and that same passion and involvement which can lead to over-reaching underlies all the good they've done. I appreciate what they've done for the community, even if I might feel the need to scale back certain changes.
I use Fixpack as well, but I comment out about 50% of it I see as "fixes" without real, consistent proof. Ex: most of alignment changes, which a purely arbitrary assuptions on "how it should be".
(Fixpack makes War Elves Chaotic Good, while I firmly believe that the original alignment Lawful Neutral fits them much better, same goes for 90% of alignment changes).
The Fixpack's "over-reach" is a bit (a lot) too far off. Playing the game w/o it is much different than playing with it. If I'd played vanilla, I'd definitely use much less intrusive Badurdash. Those are purely fixes. Fixpack has tweaks - while I like my game modded, Fixpack (if it wants to be true to it's name) should skip "tweaks".... I for one don't like Archers parading in Red Dragon outfit. That's intrusive.
I've had that thought before. There have definitely been times when I've felt that Santuary shouldn't be dispelled by Divination spells. I've also questioned whether enemies who detect the invisible should be able to attack Sanctuaried creatures. Does anyone know how PnP handles these issues? I don't see PnP behavior as decisive in these cases, but I'm curious.
If Sanctuary could not be dispelled by Divination spells, and if it protected priests from enemies that detect the invisible, it would help mitigate the casting time issues that divine casters often run into. In tough fights at high levels, I find the majority of divine spells virtually useless on account of their long casting times. It would be nice to be able to cast Sanctuary and then buff if only because it would permit priests to bring more of their spells into play.
Sanctuary is a bit different in PnP. You aren't invisible, but if someone attacks you he must save (Will save) or be unable to attack you (via weapons or targeted spells) for the duration of the spell.
Fwiw, SR makes Sanctuary "undispellable" by Divinations (apart True Seeing and Detect Invisibility, which work differently - they don't dispel it, but one who has TS active can cast/attack Sanctuaried creature), it has a casting time of 1 and lasts much shorter. The spell can be altered to provided full "immunity to oponnents" similar to how Pro Evil/Undead makes one immune to Demons and Undead, but it would be grosely OP for a level 1 spell. Unfortunately, there's no way to make one benefit from invisibility against oponnents which have the natural ability to see through it in this game.
@Alesia, @Aasim, you make interesting points. I wasn't aware of any G3 bashing going on in the community (but then I've only been part of the no-reload community since little more than one year). Personally I'm appreciative of their efforts, as I'm appreciative of the efforts of many modders.
At the same time substantiated and respectfully phrased criticisms like Aasim's in his above post seem ok to me. They could even give the G3 modders new insights.
As to my changing of Sanctuary. I guess my C/I shouldn't need it thanks to SI: Divination, but she finds that her buffs often don't last long enough in big battles and likes to use Sanctuary to rebuff. In P&P, the spell works differently from how it does in the game. Apparently it only prevents an opponent from attacking, physically or with spells, for the duration of the spell if they fail a will save when they first try to attack.
The "bug" with original Ironskin is that it's coded as a "spell protection" (even if it won't protect you against any spell) and Secret Word and similar would remove it, rather than Breach. This isn't fixed by Fixpack.
That strikes me as odd as well. Odd doesn't necessarily mean unintended, however.
My understanding is that G3 left that untouched since they lacked a developer source (textual or verbal) to base a judgement on.
SCS does address this. I did opt to install the SCS component.
For techincal standpoint - Ironskin and Stoneskin are identical in their effects (stoneskin effect). This alone isn't proof that CT=1 is correct, but it's a valid assumpion considering how this spell is to be used.
The fact that they are implemented via the same effect doesn't necessarily imply anything with respect to casting time.
This alone isn't proof that CT=1 is correct, but it's a valid assumpion considering how this spell is to be used.
With a long duration, Ironskins is suitable as a pre-buff, but less suitable for in combat casting. The developers could very well have intended for that to be the case. There isn't really anyway of knowing without a developer source.
What makes me believe that the error with this spell is in the description rather than CT is that Ironskins have several headers, depending on level on which it's cast. They *all* have a casting time of 1 (actually, 0 in vanilla game).
And of course, that evidence could be spun in the other direction. A casting time of 0 could be seen as suspicious and suggestive of error.
All in all, both positions are defensible. I don't see clear and convincing evidence in either direction, even if I might have my suspicions. G3's approach is to side with the descriptions in these cases, since the descriptions are seen as explicit statements of intent. Others might prefer to leave the mechanic unchanged in the absense of compelling evidence. Both approaches have their merits. I prefer the latter, but I acknowledge that the former is reasonable as well.
The problem is, Fixpack will "fix" it anyway; rather than "let it be" if unsure.
We're not really disagreeing, Aasim. I'm just choosing gentler diction out of appreciation for the constructive accomplishments of the G3 Fixpack team. The Fixpack team has been generous with their time over the years. I prefer to be generous in my assesment of their work in return. I'd encourage others to do the same, even when there are points of disagreement. It's a small community. We should be nice to each other.
Sanctuary is a bit different in PnP. You aren't invisible, but if someone attacks you he must save (Will save) or be unable to attack you (via weapons or targeted spells) for the duration of the spell.
Interesting.
Fwiw, SR makes Sanctuary "undispellable" by Divinations (apart True Seeing and Detect Invisibility, which work differently - they don't dispel it, but one who has TS active can cast/attack Sanctuaried creature), it has a casting time of 1 and lasts much shorter.
Noted.
The spell can be altered to provided full "immunity to oponnents" similar to how Pro Evil/Undead makes one immune to Demons and Undead, but it would be grosely OP for a level 1 spell.
Bad news. I've observed another instance of strange mage behavior. It's possible that SCS didn't install properly. I intend to do some testing, which may lead me to retire Aria or, in the alternative, import her to my older install.
So everyone knows, Aria has completed the Trademeet and Umar Hills Quests. She's now in the Docks after having paid Gaelen.
@Alesia, @Aasim, you make interesting points. I wasn't aware of any G3 bashing going on in the community (but then I've only been part of the no-reload community since little more than one year). Personally I'm appreciative of their efforts, as I'm appreciative of the efforts of many modders.
At the same time substantiated and respectfully phrased criticisms like Aasim's in his above post seem ok to me. They could even give the G3 modders new insights.
Makes sense. I agree that respectful criticism can be constructive.
As to my changing of Sanctuary. I guess my C/I shouldn't need it thanks to SI: Divination, but she finds that her buffs often don't last long enough in big battles and likes to use Sanctuary to rebuff.
Btw. I should take a moment to thank Aasim and CrevsDaak for their help over on the G3 SCS forum. I would have thanked them over there, but I never received the registration confirmation email and consequently can't sign in there any more.
@Alesia - Don't get me wrong - I do use Fixpack - many of real bugs are indeed fixed by it. I just don't use "whole" of Fixpack (40%, rough estimate), since I don't really agree with the philosophy behid it.
As per developer sources, Baldurdash fixpack is indeed made in conjuction with original developers - if they decided to leave Ironskins as a fast-casting spell is good enough for me never to bother with anything else. Then again, I play with Spell Revisions, hence those fixes are irrelevant for me.
I'm glad you got your game sorted out; in any case.
A few quick notes, because I don't have much time.
Scintilla took up Lord Firkraag's offer to clear his lands in the Windspear Hills of bandits only to discover that he was the bandit.
With the SotM now in her possession the Gnome's strategy against hostile casters was to dispel their protections with the staff, leaving them vulnerable to her summons (still the Aerials, more than anything). The Ruhk Transmuter and Kaol could attest to this, had they still been alive.
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Scintilla's summons also worked well against the Elder and Ancient Vampires (with Scintilla's True Seeing), and the Guardian Genies (who remained blue-circled while attacked). Improved Kitthix poisoned and killed the Director. And to deal with nearly unkillable Greater Wolfweres, Scintilla allowed herself various rests. Spell Sequencered Holy Smites were the recipe there.
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Combat buffs (PfMW, Stoneskins, Blur, MI, Cleric buffs) allowed Scintilla to take on the treacherous adventuring party, except above-mentioned Kaol, who had walked off after Scintilla went invisible.
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The various Golems were left to the trusty summons again, but she dispatched Tazok herself (with Energy Blades, Magic Missiles and a Holy Smite after a Limited Wish saw some of her spells restored.
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She buffed extensively for her confrontation with Conster, then proceeded to dispel his protections and have the Deva finish him off.
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She decided to leave Firkraag be, at least for the time being.
In Athkatla there wasn't a lot left for Scintilla to do. Planar Prison, d'Arnise Hold (a few hours from Athkatla), Illithids, and Kangaxx. The Gnome opted for the latter quest. PfUndead she had little to fear from the Elemental Lich and the Shade Lich, except their pre-cast ADHWs and their summoned Demons. But those didn't measure up to her own summons' firepower,
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although the Elemental Lich cruelly imprisoned her Deva.
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Haste allowed Scintilla to avoid the Liches' Remove Magics cast on self, whenever she was close to them to dispel their protections with her staff. She slew the two Liches with her SotM and her upgraded Mace of Disruption repsectively.
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Divine buffs + Haste (still active from her dealings with the Elemental Lich) facilitated the slaying of three Battle Horrors,
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before Scintilla took a rest for her confrontation with Kangaxx.
The Lich got the same treatment as the previous two Liches, i.e. Scintilla dispatched a gated Gelugon with the helo of a Mordy Sword, and then the Lich by herself.
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Kangaxx the Demi-Lich is another story in my setup: it happily pelted Scintilla with MMMs, and it various ADHWs, Flame Arrows, Emotions, Cloudkills, Breaches, and other dispellers at her, some of which during a Time Stop.
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(In fact, Kangaxx cast I think three Time Stops,but only cast offensive spells at Scintilla, during a Time Stop in which she had been within her opponent's visual range.)
Protective magics (PfME, Spell Deflection, Spell Shield etc) and a few area transitions enabled Scintilla to exhaust Kangaxx spell repertoire. At that point she hoped to finish the creature with the help of her summons, but apart from a few expected Death Spells, Kangaxx had its 'Trap the Soul' ability which it could use at will. This meant that Scintilla had to deal with her foe all by herself. With his good saves, 100 MR, and 90 physical resistances, that looked to be an impossible task, until she found a Wand of Fire in her pack. She cast clerical Magic Resistance on the Demi-Lich, to set its MR at 34, and then finished the creature off with Aganazzar's Scorchers cast from her wand.
Spoiler
Scintilla made it to lvl 18/16 Cleric/Illusionist there, earning her access to lvl 8 spells (of which she had but one: Simulacrum).
I'm thinking of taking Scintilla to Spellhold, though I might have her try and pick up the FoA first, as a possible dualwield weapon (with Blackblood under IH and clerical buffs).
@Alesia - Don't get me wrong - I do use Fixpack - many of real bugs are indeed fixed by it. I just don't use "whole" of Fixpack (40%, rough estimate), since I don't really agree with the philosophy behid it.
I use the Core Fixes and almost none of the Optional But Cool components, so our utilization percentage may be the same.
To be fair, the Optional But Cool components are explicitly advertised as questionable from a patch perspective. They're in the middle ground between fixes and tweaks. I don't use them, but I don't see them as any more objectionable than other tweaks.
As per developer sources, Baldurdash fixpack is indeed made in conjuction with original developers - if they decided to leave Ironskins as a fast-casting spell is good enough for me never to bother with anything else.
I don't think that argument really holds because the developer collaboration period had a limited duration and communications with the developer team following the Baldurdash era revealed that not everything was addressed during that time. In the post G3 era, the Fixpack team has implemented multiple changes which were made in consultation with developers. Baldurdash didn't catch everything.
The point I'm making here isn't that they're right, necessarily, but rather that their position isn't unreasonable. There was a conflict between the spell behavior and the description. Their preference in those circumstances is to implement the description, since it is an explicit statement of intent. That isn't a bad rule of thumb. The evidence was not sufficient to motivate a different approach in the individual case of Iron Skins. That makes sense, even if I'd prefer a different mechanic in my install.
Anyhoo. I'm grateful for the G3 team's work. But I can empathize with those who feel the Fixpack should reach a state of completion, as well as those who feel the Optional But Cool components should be in the Tweakpack. And I agree that we should get back to No Reloading.
Writing this, I remembered I skipped the Circus. Meh, I'll get on it. Anyhow, rather than doing the Circus, we ramped up the Mecar party right of the bat. We spent some resources to buy four Potions of Explosions, and used them + Ice Storm + Web on the evil party.
Result -one death - Rizze (backstabed, happily not chunked), and all oponnents dead.
Mencar failed to save vs Hold Monster, and is completely immobile here.
Next, slavers. Hold Monster wins the day and saves healing potions.
Slaver's boat was a bit surprising, since Haegan decided to see who's killing everybody (he usually waits). Regardless, he got 2xFlame arrow and a Skull Trap the moment he poked his head through the door.
The circled body is his.
My Avenger Loa hit level 9, obtaining some pretty neat spells. With newest SR, there are a few new additions - every level has an "Animal Summon" spell (example: at level 1, druids can summon - Bats!), and as a 5th level spell they can memorize this thingie - Animal Growth. This buffs up summoned animals quite a bit. It's a late-game spell however, since HP boost is percentage-based, so it's best to use it when really powerful animals (Bears) come to play.
Anyhow, for now, Loa memorizes an oldie but a goldie - Insect Swarm. Decided to do the sewers gang. Opener - Ice Storm x2, Web, Explosion Potion.
They never got out...massive disable/damage combo. I like this party.
Finally, we entered the slaver's house, killed Nishruu/Ogres crap, and exited. The guys above are a bit too crafty for now (especially since there's yet no way to protect ourselves from PW spells).
Sorry Alesia, about your inconveniences. Hopefully Aria can soon continue her adventures.
Thanks, Blackraven. Aria will be able to continue one way or another. Worse case, I'll just import her BG1 save into my old install and restart her from the Chateau.
I wonder what strange behavior the mages displayed.
Kalah targetted a Shadow with a Magic Missile. Fortunately, I haven't seen that behavior since.
More troublingly, I've seen two ambush mages wander around aimlessly without casting any spells, save their pre-buffs and an opening Remove. In both cases, this happened when Aria was running specific protections while under RoAC Improved Invisibility.
I'm not sure whether these mages were behaving as intended. They may have been. Their opening Removes failed. And if they lacked Divination spells -while also having their books were filled with AoE disablers and single target damage spells- then pacing around was all they really could do.
Here's my concern though. In order to avoid crashes that occur when SCS v 21 and above are installed on the GoG OS X version of BG, I disabled ToBex and SCS's engine hacks. Amongst other things, the hacks effect how the scripts can interact with II creatures. I'm worried that the lack of the hack may be causing unintended behavior in the presence of II creatures.
Either way, I'm thinking that updating my install makes sense. I recently noticed that CrevsDaak suggested a solution to the crash issue that permits use of ToBex. I'd like to try that, rather than the heavy handed approach I employed. My intention is to setup a new install and then let Aria resume from the last save before the point when I suspect she may have benefitted from a misbehaving script.
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