You guys know how the Cowled Wizards come up whenever you cast a spell in the city...

[Edar Macilrille]

/me points at post somewhere where I list the priorities of roleplayers at various ages in RL, I guess we here have an indication that the same is true for computer versions ;-)

[Saros]

That particular weapon is pretty useless in IA, although I had several occasions to put it to good use.

@Kerosene: I don't know if you're experienced enough with the game to actually win all the IA fights needed to obtain the necessary parts for the Grandfather. The lesser item, Guildmaster's Dream +4, is assembled relatively easy in chapter 2 - it still offers immunity to Poison, one Assassination, and the bonus to Backstab Multiplier plus the poison damage (which is bugged btw, far less than stated in the description), but in order to obtain the Dagger of the Stars (needed to create the Grandfather of Assassins), you need to cleave your way through level 1,2,3 and 4 of Watcher's keep, and there are loads of improved fights.

I have heard of the 'IA lite' mod, which actually adds only the powerful items (and not the improved tactical challenges), but have no idea where to find it (never needed it).

[Kerosene]

Yeah, well I'ma do it.

I want that dagger. But I really think I should get a few more levels before I do it...

[Edar Macilrille]

I advice also some more tactical cunning first, which comes only with experience playing the game. Remember you complained about Kuriosan being difficult. The IA fights are probably much worse.

The slow way is to play loads of time and reading tactical guides.
The fast way would be multiplayer apprenticeship at one of the good tacticians, but I doubt they are willing. Somestimes slowly, deliberately and carefully does it; for women and for games...

[Kerosene]

Kuroisan WAS hard, but I eventually beat him with ease.

In my head, time eventually will get you the things you want.

[Stworca]

Kuroisan was hard you say?

He's just a mini boss compared to some fights in Tactics / SCS2 / Ascension / Solaufein / Improved Asylum.

But i'd say that you can go on and play Anvil. As long as you play a single multiclass character, IA is a walk in the park. But then again, with a single multiclass character so are all the mods.

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

Kuroisan WAS hard, but I eventually beat him with ease.

In my head, time eventually will get you the things you want.

[url="http://www.idi.ntnu.no/~joh/ni/about.html"]Well, sure, that's one way...[/url] - for your current want I suggest taking the Short Sword of Backstabbing and adding a backstab multiplier or two, or making every hit a backstab (I did this and made it Thief-only), etc etc. Since the SSoB doesn't really have any special effects and fits the idea already it's fair enough, and is easier than creating a weapon from scratch.

Don't go nuts now, if you make everything stupidly overpowered or use overpowered items all the time the game's no fun. Don't forget to make backup copies of original items and keep them until you're sure you have what you want right (test any new/altered items thoroughly), remember that the easiest way of adding effects is to find an item that already has that effect and copy the desired effect from the item, read the instructions and check on the Near Infinity boards if you're stuck - not many of us here know much about this stuff (me included) so check with the experts.

[Stworca]

not many of us here know much about this stuff (me included) so check with the experts.

Yes. We're the muscle, not the brains!

*with this beign said, i shall crawl back into my hidden lair, to add a few finishing touches to Stworca's tactical mod of doom!*

[Saros]

As long as you play a single multiclass character, IA is a walk in the park. But then again, with a single multiclass character so are all the mods.

I don't know if you completed the IA 5.0 with a solo multiclass character, but this IMO is kinda misleading. Sikret (the mod's author) stated that this is impossible without cheating a long time ago. Some battles are indeed much easier for a solo (in the early and midgame), but as game progresses, you realise you need more than one titan in order to make proper use of all equipment, items, and all in all - more active characters, more options, more spells and more overall HLAs than even one max-leveled F/M/T would have.

For example, no multiclass will be able to complete successfully IA solo if it doesn't include the F and M classes. No R/C or F/T, or even C/M can do it.

Moreover, some of the battles are so exhausting and resource draining, that only proper tactic round-by-round planning got me to victory. A party of six high-leveled characters would've fared much, much easier. And finally, the EDE - if not for a lucky chance I wouldn't have noticed the Spell Trap's usefulness in that battle, which was practically essential for winning that fight solo.

[Stworca]

Getting six characters to high level takes much longer than maxing out one, and unless you have six characters with arcane spells, it is also harder to keep them all alive. Since IA does not allow you to get -all- the items, due to limited amount of scrolls / demon organs etc, your party will also be much worse equipped than a single character. Your firepower will surely be higher, but with all those random immunities it matters only AFTER enemy protections run out / are dispelled, and a single chopping machine is enough in that cases.

The difficulty with one character (obviously beign a F/M or F/M/C or F/M/T) are the encounters on the very beginning.
In boss fights like Orcus (where you have to tank lots of creatures for a long time, until his pfmw's run out) the only difficulty is the timing when switching pfmw (that you'll run out of) to absolute immunity.. or having pfmw scrolls ofcourse!

Enemy AI may be lacking, but you have to use 6 times more buffs per encounter with a full party, divide potions, scrolls, powerfull items and above all else - your atention.

Unless i missed a very challenging fight for a single character somewhere in IA, i'd say that the mods author would be wrong. Unless ofcourse there is some content that just blows your mind with difficulty. However i must confess here, that i surely did not face all of the encounters that IA adds.

You.. or your shadow follower has soloed quite a lot of it as a blade. I admit that im impressed with it, i cannot imagine some of those encounters without ruby rays, spell traps and others.

As impressed as when i've first seen a "warrior ascension solo" video.

Regards

Edited the post a bit. After all Anvil is a solid and well programed mod, which took lots of work to put together, and deserves lots of credit. I was a bit too criticising, my apologises to it's creators