<3sRichardSimmons
Arcane
Oh my god don’t ask him about stealth. He already derailed the thread for like 5 pages about it once.
Thief is a waste. Your wizard should be able to do most things the thief does, assuming you are actually detecting traps and such (Disable Device is Int based; just cross class it). The modal method that IWD2 uses for traps detection is a pain in the ass as you really have to micro the guy when he is doing it or he is going to wander into a group of bad guys and get murdered. Unless you can cast Invis, of course.I'm trying IWD2 once again. Never finished it, last time I got stuck at the goblin fortress and drifted away.
Apparently the enemies in this game get buneses to hit at higher difficulty levels. That would explain why those fights are so damn difficult to manage, especially with limited tools. Not that they're impossible, but they usually take me a couple of tries if I don't want anybody in my party to die, and that get's quite tedious after a while. And it makes sense why characters die if they're getting hit so often without any real way of tactically dealing with it other then buying all the potions avaible, or creating a powergaming party.
I switched the difficulty to core and the fight that took me 3-4 attempts was a cakewalk. That was just one battle though, and it's supposed to be easy, it's right after Targos.
My question is. Should I switch the difficulty to core and enjoy the game as it was intended, or should I treat it as a challange because it will get better once I have more tactical options?
My party is 5 members strong, maybe I should get another tank or a sorc?
I have a:
-warrior
-monk
-cleric
-thief
-wizard
Only a monk has unusually high stats because I dumped his charisma and intelligence to minimal values. All the other characters are optimal at best and the cleric has a wasted weapon proficiency feat.
Anyway, the game is nice, I hope I'll finally finish it after all those years.
Multiple times, actually. Guy's a cunt.Oh my god don’t ask him about stealth. He already derailed the thread for like 5 pages about it once.
There is no point arguing with a cunt who uses a mainlander as a source of his "facts". Just ignore the fool so as to not derail the thread again.Cael Massive butthurt detected.
In short: stealth only works for 1 round when you are within the visual radius of an enemy. At the end of the round it will fail. Move outside of the visual radius and it works as normal.
This was eventually verified by Lilura. I consider it a crowning achievement to my IQ that I'm pretty much the only gamer anywhere that has discovered this. And I challenge anyone to post a video of stealth working for more than 1 round when they're adjacent to an enemy in IWD2.
It's quite funny really.
There is no point arguing with a cunt who uses a mainlander as a source of his "facts". Just ignore the fool so as to not derail the thread again.Cael Massive butthurt detected.
In short: stealth only works for 1 round when you are within the visual radius of an enemy. At the end of the round it will fail. Move outside of the visual radius and it works as normal.
This was eventually verified by Lilura. I consider it a crowning achievement to my IQ that I'm pretty much the only gamer anywhere that has discovered this. And I challenge anyone to post a video of stealth working for more than 1 round when they're adjacent to an enemy in IWD2.
It's quite funny really.
Maybe it's too late to reply, but monks and rogues are close to useless in IWD2. Pure rogues are completely useless, because you can easily cover their out-of-combat role with other characters: you can "force" doors and containers instead of picking their locks, and you can easily tank traps' damage due to how few traps you find in the game. The best solution are to give a single rogue level to your wizard or just ignore the class altogether. Monks are just underwhelming, and serve no real purpose in a party.My party is 5 members strong, maybe I should get another tank or a sorc?
I have a:
-warrior
-monk
-cleric
-thief
-wizard
I'm done with playing with two arcane spellcasters for now. I want to try to make things harder., a sorcerer
Get a paladin for Cera Sumat.Thief is a waste. Your wizard should be able to do most things the thief does, assuming you are actually detecting traps and such (Disable Device is Int based; just cross class it). The modal method that IWD2 uses for traps detection is a pain in the ass as you really have to micro the guy when he is doing it or he is going to wander into a group of bad guys and get murdered. Unless you can cast Invis, of course.I'm trying IWD2 once again. Never finished it, last time I got stuck at the goblin fortress and drifted away.
Apparently the enemies in this game get buneses to hit at higher difficulty levels. That would explain why those fights are so damn difficult to manage, especially with limited tools. Not that they're impossible, but they usually take me a couple of tries if I don't want anybody in my party to die, and that get's quite tedious after a while. And it makes sense why characters die if they're getting hit so often without any real way of tactically dealing with it other then buying all the potions avaible, or creating a powergaming party.
I switched the difficulty to core and the fight that took me 3-4 attempts was a cakewalk. That was just one battle though, and it's supposed to be easy, it's right after Targos.
My question is. Should I switch the difficulty to core and enjoy the game as it was intended, or should I treat it as a challange because it will get better once I have more tactical options?
My party is 5 members strong, maybe I should get another tank or a sorc?
I have a:
-warrior
-monk
-cleric
-thief
-wizard
Only a monk has unusually high stats because I dumped his charisma and intelligence to minimal values. All the other characters are optimal at best and the cleric has a wasted weapon proficiency feat.
Anyway, the game is nice, I hope I'll finally finish it after all those years.
In the early game, the explosive potions are a godsend. They will be your primary AoE attack until you get to level 3 and the orc area, where you can buy the level 2 Snowball for your wizard.
To make things easier, I'd run with a wizard and a sorcerer (because scrolls are hard to come by, and gated by progress, while the sorcerer doesn't care). I'd also replace the warrior with a second cleric spec'd for physical combat. They can tank as well as a fighter, and become combat monsters when they get level 4 spells (to a lesser extent, level 2 spells).
As IWD2 is based on the Infinity Engine, ranged weapons are overpowered for what they are. Not as bad as IE, but still noticeably better than they should be. Make sure everyone is equipped with one and start combats with them before switching to melee. You will cut down on the pain.
Give one of your your Clerics one level of Paladin.Get a paladin for Cera Sumat.Thief is a waste. Your wizard should be able to do most things the thief does, assuming you are actually detecting traps and such (Disable Device is Int based; just cross class it). The modal method that IWD2 uses for traps detection is a pain in the ass as you really have to micro the guy when he is doing it or he is going to wander into a group of bad guys and get murdered. Unless you can cast Invis, of course.I'm trying IWD2 once again. Never finished it, last time I got stuck at the goblin fortress and drifted away.
Apparently the enemies in this game get buneses to hit at higher difficulty levels. That would explain why those fights are so damn difficult to manage, especially with limited tools. Not that they're impossible, but they usually take me a couple of tries if I don't want anybody in my party to die, and that get's quite tedious after a while. And it makes sense why characters die if they're getting hit so often without any real way of tactically dealing with it other then buying all the potions avaible, or creating a powergaming party.
I switched the difficulty to core and the fight that took me 3-4 attempts was a cakewalk. That was just one battle though, and it's supposed to be easy, it's right after Targos.
My question is. Should I switch the difficulty to core and enjoy the game as it was intended, or should I treat it as a challange because it will get better once I have more tactical options?
My party is 5 members strong, maybe I should get another tank or a sorc?
I have a:
-warrior
-monk
-cleric
-thief
-wizard
Only a monk has unusually high stats because I dumped his charisma and intelligence to minimal values. All the other characters are optimal at best and the cleric has a wasted weapon proficiency feat.
Anyway, the game is nice, I hope I'll finally finish it after all those years.
In the early game, the explosive potions are a godsend. They will be your primary AoE attack until you get to level 3 and the orc area, where you can buy the level 2 Snowball for your wizard.
To make things easier, I'd run with a wizard and a sorcerer (because scrolls are hard to come by, and gated by progress, while the sorcerer doesn't care). I'd also replace the warrior with a second cleric spec'd for physical combat. They can tank as well as a fighter, and become combat monsters when they get level 4 spells (to a lesser extent, level 2 spells).
As IWD2 is based on the Infinity Engine, ranged weapons are overpowered for what they are. Not as bad as IE, but still noticeably better than they should be. Make sure everyone is equipped with one and start combats with them before switching to melee. You will cut down on the pain.
Beware. The time is now. Turn back to avoid the tidal pull.It would be very interesting to compare the .CRE and .BCS (AI) files of Yxunomel and other boss monsters or monsters of interest from 1.00 to 1.06, and then to the HoW patched version (1.42?). I could see a tactics AI mod that restores some of the original, punishing AI. Anyone have a link to the patches, up to 1.06?
edit: IncendiaryDevice was there any chatter about other boss or non-boss creatures changing across the patches?
I believe there's an option in one of the mods to make Yxunomel harder and it adds +2 immunity to weapons.Beware. The time is now. Turn back to avoid the tidal pull.It would be very interesting to compare the .CRE and .BCS (AI) files of Yxunomel and other boss monsters or monsters of interest from 1.00 to 1.06, and then to the HoW patched version (1.42?). I could see a tactics AI mod that restores some of the original, punishing AI. Anyone have a link to the patches, up to 1.06?
edit: IncendiaryDevice was there any chatter about other boss or non-boss creatures changing across the patches?
i've checked Yxunomei's creature files, items, and AI scripts in the following versions:
i've skipped v1.40 (original HoW release) and v1.41 (its first patch); i have them lying around but they're not too interesting for this topic i would say
- v1.00 from 2000-06-22 - source: my old CDs (i could only find CD1 for setup, the CD2 play disc has been lost...)
- v1.01Beta (aka "IWD Patch Beta v1.3.053018", or 1.03 from the Interplay website) from 2000-06-30 - source: dug up on the internet
- v1.05 from 2000-07-21 - source: internet
- v1.06 from 2000-07-28 - source: internet
- v1.061 from 2000-08-16 - source: my 3-in-1 Icewind Dale DVD boxset
- v1.42 from 2001-06-15 - source: GOG
i've attached the files if anybody wants to take a look
the interesting bit is that Yxunomei has always had "IMMUNE2" equipped as a ring - granting protection from non-magical and +1 weapons:
and this has not changed in any of the above updates
- Protection: from Melee Weapons [120] Type 2 - Non-Magical weapons
- Protection: from Melee Weapons [120] Type 0 - Magical weapons ('Enchantment' and below), Enchantment 1
the other un-lootable ring equipped ("YXURESI") grants immunity to poison and cloudkill (and later, confusion), and 50% resistance to fire and cold (+magical fire and magical cold); what's funny is the creature definition grants 100% fire and lightning resistance and 70% magic resistance?
the "S2-16" sword (SKULL) deals 2D8 slashing damage
so, either those old claims of immunity to +2 weapons (requiring +3 to hit) are mistaken, or possibly some of the early versions of IWD had an off-by-one bug in the opcode 120 implementation? since my v1.00 play-disc is missing, i have no way of checking directly
the only Yxunomei-related changes i can detect in the patches are:
other stats since i'm already here:
- v1.05: added immunity to opcode 128 (Confusion) to "YXURESI", AI updates (as per patch notes: Adjusted location of Yxunomei when leaving the level, resting, and coming back.)
- v1.42: added "POTN14" (Oil of Speed) to inventory, some AI updates (movement, door locking/unlocking?)
CE tanari cleric 13 / mage 13
91 HP, AC -4
THACO 7, 5 attacks / round
STR 19 INT 17 WIS 17 DEX 14 CON 14 CHA 14
3 level 5 wizard spell slots
known spells: cloudkill, animate dead
never mind immunity to +2 weapons, what stands out is how Black Isle didn't bother to add other spells - considering level and attributes, there should be ~25 wizard and ~30 cleric spell slots to fill, both up to level 6 - now that would be a fun enemy
IWD2 on hardest is not very interesting, the +10 bonus to hit that they get just means that for the meantime you'll be exploiting their targeting system which sucks big time. If you want difficulty it's better to either play Heart of Fury which is difficult in the sense that it's a mass exploitfest that at least provides a different kind of experience. You'll be having uber loot and uber experience for the price of goblins having 60 AB and 400 HP. So not "truly difficult" but let's say "weirdly difficult". HOF gets a bad rep but it's not bad at all, just strange. Another thing you can do is to install Tactics4IWD2 which provides a more "truly difficult" experience. Same loot, same exp but better monster spawns and monsters have more challenging spelllists. If you're experienced with 3.0 DnD I would consider installing Tactics, since the game becomes a cakewalk somewhere after chapter 2 (literal cakewalk where you just attackmove through the mobs). Besides you can uninstall Tactics anytime so no harm done.I'm trying IWD2 once again. Never finished it, last time I got stuck at the goblin fortress and drifted away.
Apparently the enemies in this game get buneses to hit at higher difficulty levels. That would explain why those fights are so damn difficult to manage, especially with limited tools. Not that they're impossible, but they usually take me a couple of tries if I don't want anybody in my party to die, and that get's quite tedious after a while. And it makes sense why characters die if they're getting hit so often without any real way of tactically dealing with it other then buying all the potions avaible, or creating a powergaming party.
I switched the difficulty to core and the fight that took me 3-4 attempts was a cakewalk. That was just one battle though, and it's supposed to be easy, it's right after Targos.
My question is. Should I switch the difficulty to core and enjoy the game as it was intended, or should I treat it as a challange because it will get better once I have more tactical options?
My party is 5 members strong, maybe I should get another tank or a sorc?
I have a:
-warrior
-monk
-cleric
-thief
-wizard
Only a monk has unusually high stats because I dumped his charisma and intelligence to minimal values. All the other characters are optimal at best and the cleric has a wasted weapon proficiency feat.
Anyway, the game is nice, I hope I'll finally finish it after all those years.
makes senseCappenVarra Well done sir!
I half-expect BI didn't add the rest of the spells because they had a very set idea of how the fight would play out - principally using those spells. The stock AI was pretty poor at spell selection, such that if you add all the other spells, the default AI routine wouldn't even know what to do with them.
There's probably something to learn from SCS on that front.
Beware. The time is now. Turn back to avoid the tidal pull.
i've checked Yxunomei's creature files, items, and AI scripts in the following versions:
i've skipped v1.40 (original HoW release) and v1.41 (its first patch); i have them lying around but they're not too interesting for this topic i would say
- v1.00 from 2000-06-22 - source: my old CDs (i could only find CD1 for setup, the CD2 play disc has been lost...)
- v1.01Beta (aka "IWD Patch Beta v1.3.053018", or 1.03 from the Interplay website) from 2000-06-30 - source: dug up on the internet
- v1.05 from 2000-07-21 - source: internet
- v1.06 from 2000-07-28 - source: internet
- v1.061 from 2000-08-16 - source: my 3-in-1 Icewind Dale DVD boxset
- v1.42 from 2001-06-15 - source: GOG
i've attached the files if anybody wants to take a look
the interesting bit is that Yxunomei has always had "IMMUNE2" equipped as a ring - granting protection from non-magical and +1 weapons:
and this has not changed in any of the above updates
- Protection: from Melee Weapons [120] Type 2 - Non-Magical weapons
- Protection: from Melee Weapons [120] Type 0 - Magical weapons ('Enchantment' and below), Enchantment 1
the other un-lootable ring equipped ("YXURESI") grants immunity to poison and cloudkill (and later, confusion), and 50% resistance to fire and cold (+magical fire and magical cold); what's funny is the creature definition grants 100% fire and lightning resistance and 70% magic resistance?
the "S2-16" sword (SKULL) deals 2D8 slashing damage
so, either those old claims of immunity to +2 weapons (requiring +3 to hit) are mistaken, or possibly some of the early versions of IWD had an off-by-one bug in the opcode 120 implementation? since my v1.00 play-disc is missing, i have no way of checking directly
the only Yxunomei-related changes i can detect in the patches are:
other stats since i'm already here:
- v1.05: added immunity to opcode 128 (Confusion) to "YXURESI", AI updates (as per patch notes: Adjusted location of Yxunomei when leaving the level, resting, and coming back.)
- v1.42: added "POTN14" (Oil of Speed) to inventory, some AI updates (movement, door locking/unlocking?)
CE tanari cleric 13 / mage 13
91 HP, AC -4
THACO 7, 5 attacks / round
STR 19 INT 17 WIS 17 DEX 14 CON 14 CHA 14
3 level 5 wizard spell slots
known spells: cloudkill, animate dead
never mind immunity to +2 weapons, what stands out is how Black Isle didn't bother to add other spells - considering level and attributes, there should be ~25 wizard and ~30 cleric spell slots to fill, both up to level 6 - now that would be a fun enemy
You don't need any kind of thief in IWD; I'd swap that out for a mage.
Drop the half-orc. Starting with 19 in Strength breaks the game.Any other tips for IWD beginner?