First screenshot I decided to take, for some reason...no idea why. Fights like this one, that were generally trivial in vanilla BG2 have become a bit more interesting thanks to AI modifications and additional abilities/items. Fighters pick targets more intelligently, Thieves make ample use of potions of invisibility to backstab squishy party members, and casters can pre-buffto keep pace with the party. I used to be a strong purist when it came to BG2, and only installed the bare minimum of SCS components, but tried the gamut of options and mostly enjoy it.
Dark Sun halfling fight becomes a bit more fun when their psion actually uses abilities intelligently rather than blowing his load on whatever summon-fodder you send ahead. Here you can see Insect Swarm wrecking house; these guys don't use Fire Shields, which SCS2 can modify to cancel out the effects of the spell. My purist side hated this at first, but it does make the spell a bit less overpowered against casters.
Obligatory
(jeez, that smiley code is long).
Party is generally towards the power-gaming end, picking more of the powerful NPCs. Edwin and Anomen are top-tier, Jaheira is no slouch, Yoshimo is swapped out later, and the other slot is usually a "rotating" one for quests and whatnot. Would really have liked either Keldorn of Aerie, the other two high-tier NPCs, but they conflict with "bad" Anomen and Edwin. End up settling on Viconia who is...okay, I guess. Might ditch her after the Underdark and pick up Jan or Haer'Dalis, but I am tempted to keep her in the party solely to do some Limited-Wish-As-Busted-Summon-Spell shenanigans in Throne of Bhaal.
Oh, and Berserker/Mage dual-class for the main character.
Torgal "got gud". It's nowhere near as insane as the Improved Keep component of Tactics (the mod that encouraged my purist leanings), but does a decent job making the fight more interesting, mostly due to the addition of some backup in a tougher umber-hulk, some spirit troll shamans, and a couple of yuan-ti mages.
Speaking of the snakeman spell-slingers, those guys are nasty in SCS2, probably the toughest encounters in the early quests. If you install the component to increase the level-scaled spawns, for added difficulty, you'll often be facing 2+ mages in certain areas and they know how to protect themselves and sling spells quite well. Easily the biggest source of challenge from the particular mini-modification besides maybe the few Beholder encounters in the Unseeing Eye quest (that go from a couple Gauths to 3-5 "real" Beholders) or, if you're crazy and install the highly unrecommended version of the component, the liches that start jumping into scaled undead encounters.
Butchering the Druid Grove because it's far more fun that having Jaheira/Cernd cast Ironskins, transform, and beat the shit out of Faldorn. By the way, Ceernd got kind of butthurt about this.
Feels good to not be on the receiving end of ludicrous backstabs.
This fucker became very nasty with SCS2. I installed the component to grant dragons/demons/celestials increased HP totals for shits and giggles...and it actually works pretty well for dragons. Two-hundred HP is a ton in P&P, but is quickly shredded by cRPG parties that are min-maxed and packing monty hauls of loot. Five-hundred is a bit faier to the dragon, while not being out of reach.
But what really makes that dragon a beast is how well it utilizes it's breath weapon. It aims it perfectly to do the most damage, and Shadow Dragons drain levels with their breath. Each use of the breath weapon is likely to kill 1-2 characters via hitting negative levels, else-wise incapacitate them as level 3 adventurers aren't much of a match for a dragon.
Had to hit it with the cocktail of Lower-Resistance and Greater Malison before launching as many disabling spells that it lacked immunities to. Dragons, ironically enough, are particularly vulnerable to fear effects, such as Spook or Insect Plague. Chain a few of those together and there's a bunch of time to whittle it's HP down. Burning through a lot of consumables (scrolls/wands/potions) and sacrificing Valygar and Mazzy were some of the other keys to victory.
Should be interesting to see how the other dragons play out. Saved Firkraag for later so Adalon is next on the chopping block. The black dragon should be particularly...fun.
Like I said, inordinate screenshot gaps.
Drow are pretty difficult in SCS2, especially with Imoen and Viconia often being dead weight in many circumstances. Their spells would often be a waste, and their fighting abilities leave a lot to be desired. Edwin has stupid amounts of spells, so wasting a few is no big deal. Shepard, Anomen, and Jaheira all fight very well, and do the majority of heavy lifting against hardy, magic-resistant foes.
Simula-Shepard's first use. Hilarious, both in how effective a killing machine he is, and how the custom audioset sounds with the Simulacrum "slow down" effect. Two berserk, dual-weapon freakazoids much short work of what would otherwise be an incredibly tough battle.
Previously, in Chapter 3, I tried assaulting the mind flayer outpost in the sewers. That went poorly, suffering a lot of casualties in the two Ulitharid-filled rooms leading up the the end-chamber, which seemed pretty insurmountable. The Alhoon (an illithid lich, granted a heapload of extra abilities from an SCS2 component) can do a number on your party, mainly dispelling any instances of Chaotic Commands, allowing the Ulitharids and Umber Hulks to mess up your non-Berserker party members. The Greenstone Amulet, Brine Potions, and Simula-Shepard could come in awfully handy there upon return from the Underdark.
First legitimate lich kill. The City Gates lich doesn't really count, as I cheesed it to death relatively early on (it's kind of a cheesy fight in general, what with the extremely small combat area), and the Nether Scroll lich isn't a "true" lich (however, SCS2 does give him some serious upgrades). Summons gummed up his Pit Fiend (or was it a Balor? I forget), allowing for pleny of time to dispel his layers of protection over and over again. All the summons also pushed his AI to use a Death Spell during his Time Stop to kill off the first wave of critters, rather than dropping Meteor Swarm or Abi Dhalzim's Horrid Wilting on the party.
Liches aren't afraid to use some nasty Spell Immunity setups with SCS2. SI: Divination and SI: Abjuration were both seen, one in pre-buffs and one stored in a Chain Contingency.
I hear the Shade Lich, Elemental Lich, Shangalar, and Kangaxx are particularly mean. Should be interesting.
Fun little rumble here. A lot of the drow city fights have been overhauled a bit. This one added a few more Ghaunadaur Priests to the mix, but some of the other modifications are downright nasty. The fight with Qilue becomes a bit more hairy with, count them, five mages that can cast 8th level spells. And the optional raid on House Jae'llat has a bunch of extra guards (11th level drow fighters with ~100 hp), priestesses, mages, and a named archmage to spice things up. It's downright nuts...in a good way.
One component even adds additional spawns to the defense of the drow city should the disguise be blown or the player decides to waltz in sans Silver Dragon shenanigans. The mod creator designed it to be nigh unbeatable. That only makes me want to try it later on.
Gentlemen, BEHOLD!...
...cheesy monster infighting.
Beholders gain tremendously from SCS2. No longer are they cheesetastic monsters that are flummoxed by a simple Spell Turning/Deflection. No, now there are floating orbs of cheese that make extremely effective use of their Anti-Magic Ray in order to clear out anything that might be in the way of half-a-dozen painful eye rays. Fighting them profitably is difficult.
Regular Beholders and Gauths aren't too bad in smaller numbers, but the Hive Mother added in by an optional component of SCS2 is
really difficult. Constantly casts stoneskin, has insane defenses, and can even regenerate. Taking her down is tough, and she can dish it out with Death/Stone rays after using Anti-Magic.
The component also, logically enough, places the Elder Orb deeper in the dungeon, so I have yet to fight one of those.
. They give the illusion of a bigger town in Balmora, Ald ruhn and Sadrith Mora. It really is more immersive, the city looks more like a true city...but of course, it doesn't change the game much (alone).
