The following is a record of my current opinions regarding some of the mods of Tactics. My opinion sometimes changes and certainly everyone is entitled to their own opinion. These opinions are based on what I’ve read on the forums, as well as what I have experienced personally. I will probably add to this list as I go. I am currently playing with some of the tactics mods and all of the ascension mods installed.
These opinions will certainly be affected by my own prejudices. I personally try to avoid cheese in a very strict sense of the word, especially in regards to high level casters. I enjoy the simplicity of point and click (fighter types), rather than extensive buffing and multitudes of spell casting (even though I realize the advantages of doing so). I also often end up playing the game late at night when I can no longer think well enough to do my 2 jobs. I am currently using a 4 man group: (1) morituri (a custom kit, which becomes the most twinky non-spell casting fighter [with possible exception of fighter-thief variants] at ToB levels but not so good at the beginning of SoA); (2) sorcerer; (3) ranger-cleric; and (4) inquisitor.
Please express your opinions and give your favorite tactics for dealing with the different mods called Tactics.
IMPROVED ILYCH
This mod is inappropriate. Irenicus alone should be able to deal with the capture characters. He also has the help of his sister. An elite cadre is unnecessary. This prison should not be a maximum security prison with security that is not affected even during an assault from the thieves’ guild. The tactics required to beat this mod are tedious and cheesy by necessity. It’s not for me.
IMPROVED MAE’VAR
This mod is inappropriate. The loot you get from this one is not so great in terms of twinky magical items. It could easily be one of the first quests you attempt, and it is very difficult for a small party of low levels without equipment. What if you want Edwin in your group? To obtain him, you basically fulfill this quest and then receive orders to kill Mae’Var. It really doesn’t make since for you to ignore those orders. I tried it with a party of Morituri (fighter) L8, Sorcerer L9, and Ranger-Cleric L8 with only the equipment from Irenicus’ dungeon and could not beat Mae’var without CTRL-R and CTRL-Y. A huge problem for me was I was casting Chaos repeatedly, and it never affected anyone! That by itself could have made a difference. I think this problem arose when I changed Tashia’s spell list. Perhaps, when Shadow Keeper lists identical spells, you should choose the last listing. Heck, even some fireballs could have probably helped. You may be able to kill Mae’var at a relatively low level, but you can’t be half asleep when trying, and you need to be properly equipped. At the very least, you need True Seeing; use a scroll or spell – Keldorn can do it. This is a thieves’ guild; you can expect potions of invisibility, mislead, and other such tactics. You need your guys protected against backstab: stoneskin and mirror image, ironskin, barbarian, morituri, surrounded by summoned monsters, etc. You need a charged wand of animal summoning. Keep monsters on the field. This is particularly important for small parties.
IMPROVED GUARDED COMPOUND IN TEMPLE DISTRICT
This mod is probably appropriate as you get Celestial Fury here – probably the best weapon in SoA. So, it really shouldn’t be easy. However, don’t expect to get this sword at level 10. I was using the party above with an Inquisitor level 10 for a party of 4 and had to resort to CTRL-R to live. I also used CTRL-Y to kill their summoned monsters. A wand of Cloudkill may have helped some. More people in the party would have definitely made things easier. I think my party of 4 could have killed them when my party reaches level 16 and know it could once my sorcerer gets Time Stop. Any way, this mod pits you against a high level party with good scripting. They use Time Stop, multiple summons, many buffs, and immediately the fighters assault you. Yes, and Koshi still wields Celestial Fury with impressive effectiveness. I do kind of like this mod as it will provide a nice challenge, without frustration, to a party of the appropriate level. On the other, you can get the Flail of Ages, another fantastic weapon and the best in ToB, without nearly this much trouble. And even without the tactics mod, this can be a challenging battle for a small in number, low level party. The standard fight is not so tough for a party of 6 with 3-4 casters in the group using the proper tactics, but even in this case someone can die if you have bad luck, with the most likely killer being Koshi or the thief.
ACID KENSAI
This mod is generally inappropriate. This beast is soooooo cheesy. I’ve been told that he can be killed by having the group invisible and allowing someone to kill him using the Crossbow of Searing (from the Adventurer’s Market) with normal arrows. You could also kill him by putting an antimagic field on him (Protection from Magic scroll) and using normal weapons. If you don’t realize the proper tactics (and how could you know?), this guy can kick a party’s butt. This is a mod that you can basically do without. If you get Celestial Fury too early (low party XP level, as can be done with the unmodded guarded compound) and don’t have the gear to combat this guy, he will kick your party’s butt. This dude showed up when my PC was level 9. In the unmodded game, I can get Celestial Fury that early. I countered this guy's cheese with my own cheese. I put him under the antimagic field and chopped him up with non-magical weapons. He didn't even seem to attack me after that. I guess the script called for him to use magic. Well, that wasn't very fulfilling. If you get Celestial Fury late and then beat this cheesy guy without using cheese yourself, it could be more fun. At any rate, this is not a story line encounter, but a definite “side-quest.” The only reason I play this mod is if I want the guy’s katana, which is also soooo cheesy. A morituri, who can use only magical weapons (and can be proficient only in swords), magical boots, and healing potions, would definitely benefit from this sword. Still, I will only use it to regenerate at night and when facing the toughest encounters of the game - and may decide not to use it at all. Other than that, this katana is really too unbalanced.
TOUGHEST RANDOM DUNGEON ENCOUNTERS
I love this mod and wouldn’t consider playing without it! The game adjusts difficulty (through HP I think) of your opposition based on the number of characters in your party. This stops that and makes sure you always fight the toughest opposition. This opposition is not cheesy tough or anything ridiculous. You expect to find opposition in dungeons and this opposition is typically quest-related.
RANDOM CITY/WILDERNESS ENCOUNTERS
I don’t like these mods. One mod introduces city encounters, some times tough encounters depending on your level and characters. It really doesn’t add anything to the story line, and makes me wonder how this major city can be so lawless and deadly. The common folk should always hide behind the city guard! The country encounters are at least a little more understandable. You could encounter a dragon or wyvern out there. Still, I prefer my dangers to be quest-related. In fact, I don’t like my quests and the story to be constantly interrupted by hack-n-slash encounters. I might endorse these mods still, simply for the tactical challenge, if the scaling was better. For challenging but not frustrating play, your opposition should relate to your level and party composition; rewards should also be fitting to the level of the opposition. Although it’s plausible, being caught unawares by a cheesy wyvern can be irritating. Constant fighting in the streets can become a drag, and even be very deadly when you are first starting out – poor, poorly equipped, and relatively inexperienced. That’s the key for my play style. If you give me a little time to get equipped and some desirable spells, I feel like I can steam roll most opposition. Before that happens if I face really tough opposition, I may have to resort to tactics which may be cheesy or not heroic – I hate that.
IMPROVED COPPER CORONET
There is little increase in difficulty with this mod. That's good. This is definitely one of the first quests players generally go through, and I disapprove of cheese fests like Improve Ilych for initial quests. So, install this one and be sure to go through this quest first (or maybe after the Circus in the Promenade). The loot and XP from this quest will help with other improved battles.
Tactics mods, opinions and advice [spoilers]
I posted this a while ago, but i cant make link work, so:
Tactics Mod - some random thoughts
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Improved Bodhi: five star mod. In chapter three i just had to flee her for 10 rounds to proceed, in chapter six she is a worthy opponent for a strong party. In my current game i havent done her yet but last time through this was a fantastic and memorable battle. Highly recommended, especially as vanilla Bodhi is so poor.
Random City Encounters: The groups that come to kill you are well thought out and can be tough, especially if arcane spell-casting is not allowed. I have enjoyed this mod and at times have deliberately avoided travelling the city at night, or at least made sure the whole party was invisible first. My one criticism is that their appearance is too predictable - it would be better if you were not *guaranteed* to run into these foes every time you pass certain points.
Liches: The Pit Fiend that accompanies liches can make things interesting, however Protection from Evil can often nullify its presence. Also I dont like the way the Pit Fiend kills off the other nasties in the area before my party gets there. Another high level summons might be better, and provide more of a challenge.
The liches' new trick of summoning the party to them (in a teleport field) if 'off-screen cheese' is being used is fantastic. My one complaint is that the trick is accompanied by a cheat dispell, whereby all my party's buffs are immediately stripped. The dispell should still be there, fair enough, but it should keep to the rules of dispelling and leave us with a chance to retain some buffs.
Pit Fiends: they are scarier and more powerful which is a good thing. I have fought some without using Protection from Evil, but stopped doing so when I suffered the cheesy instant death on hit (999 damage) routine. This just spoils some good fights, and so now I buff first and killing pit fiends is like killing any 'feeble-minded' opposition. Shame.
Mind-Flayers: I was really enjoying the improved mind flayers, and fully support them having new abilities, especially the see invisible. Unfortunately on two occasions my party suffered instant deaths AFTER the flayers were dead and gone, which i still dont understand. A shame, but this had to be un-installed.
De Arnisse Keep & Torgal: I have used this mod twice and recommend it, although it probably means the keep is not a good choice for the first quest, as the spirit trolls are tough in their numbers. In my current game i did not install it for two reasons - I wanted to do the keep first without too much stress, and secondly because the weapon that Torgal drops is overpowered.
Docks Encounters: The three new liches and the illusionist in Valygar's home are all welcome additions for higher level parties. Well implemented and highly recommended.
Kuroisan: This is an excellent mod, and everyone should experience the encounter at least once. In my present game I didnt install it however, because the weapon he drops is too overpowered for my current taste. Having said that, I applaud the imagination and detail of the design of the Katana - a work of art.
The Ritual: A high class mod which ultimately provides you with another dragon to kill at higher levels, so it is a must-have. The quest itself is imaginative and largely well implemented, with some atmospheric text and dialogue. The only thing that annoys me is that the skulls have the crippling level-drain ability. If it wasnt for this, I would relish each battle in the quest and take them on toe-to-toe. Perhaps I will try this again in the present game, but previously im afraid it has been a case of Farsight - Project Image - Timestop - Obliteration, to save hassle.
Fire Giants: these needed an upgrade and i was excited to meet them; a good use for all the fire-resist equipment and buffs i thought. Sadly, you can wear all the fire-gear you want and have the best buffs, but they soon decrease your resistance to zero and kill you with meteor swarms or something similar. This meant that head-on combat seemed impossible, and the mod was uninstalled. They needed to be improved but this goes too far - and just creates hassle in my opinion.
Guarded Compound, Twisted Rune, Mae'Var: Much needed and well implemented mods. If they ever 're-released' BG2 it's mods like this that should be coded into the vanilla game. Must-haves.
Creature Improvements: Apart from the fire giants and mindflayers, all the other creatures benefit from the tactics mod. I particularly like the skeleton warriors casting spook and so on. The beholder lair in the underdark posed new problems for the party, even with the cheese shield. Improved mages and golems are sound and sensible. Demon Knights were a fun battle for once.
Small Teeth Pass+ North Forest: By the time I do these areas it is fairly easy, but all the same a welcome addition to the two ignored areas on the BG2 map. hint: approach the Small Teeth Pass from the south if you dont want to get lynched straight away.
Red Badge: I managed this once after 50 reloads in a previous game. Too hard and unrewarding for my tastes, although it is well designed and implemented as a major challenge. Far too painful.
Sahaugin City: I was enjoying the improved difficulty of fighting the fish-people, and that component of the mod was well done. Unfortunately, the avatar thing later on kept insta-killing party members so the mod was uninstalled. This spoiled completely for me a good mod.
Improved Irenicus: When I tried this a couple of years ago I was highly impressed with the new battle, but simply had to uninstall it because it was too hard for me. Last time I played the game I had vanilla Irenicus and it was a joke: far too easy and a major disappointment after the excellent Bodhi battle. So I have it installed in my current game, and hope to beat this mod with a high powered party. Wish me luck
Overall: Im not a power-gamer and I avoid using cheese as much as possible, so aspects of the Tactics mod are unsuitable. This still leaves a lot of good additions and alterations within the package, and the components are all installed seperately so it is not a problem. Dont avoid Tactics just because it sometimes has the reputation of being cheesy or overpowered. Selective installation of the components makes for a much-enhanced gaming experience for anyone.
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since i wrote that i have used NearInfinity and removed the liches' ability to remove all your buffs. They still summon, and this is more balanced.
Improved Mae'Var is one that I like, simply as the vanilla version is too easy. My magic heavy party loaded the area with webs and cloudkills. The odd assassin and skeleton that came out alive were dealt with swiftly enough.
Tactics Mod - some random thoughts
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Improved Bodhi: five star mod. In chapter three i just had to flee her for 10 rounds to proceed, in chapter six she is a worthy opponent for a strong party. In my current game i havent done her yet but last time through this was a fantastic and memorable battle. Highly recommended, especially as vanilla Bodhi is so poor.
Random City Encounters: The groups that come to kill you are well thought out and can be tough, especially if arcane spell-casting is not allowed. I have enjoyed this mod and at times have deliberately avoided travelling the city at night, or at least made sure the whole party was invisible first. My one criticism is that their appearance is too predictable - it would be better if you were not *guaranteed* to run into these foes every time you pass certain points.
Liches: The Pit Fiend that accompanies liches can make things interesting, however Protection from Evil can often nullify its presence. Also I dont like the way the Pit Fiend kills off the other nasties in the area before my party gets there. Another high level summons might be better, and provide more of a challenge.
The liches' new trick of summoning the party to them (in a teleport field) if 'off-screen cheese' is being used is fantastic. My one complaint is that the trick is accompanied by a cheat dispell, whereby all my party's buffs are immediately stripped. The dispell should still be there, fair enough, but it should keep to the rules of dispelling and leave us with a chance to retain some buffs.
Pit Fiends: they are scarier and more powerful which is a good thing. I have fought some without using Protection from Evil, but stopped doing so when I suffered the cheesy instant death on hit (999 damage) routine. This just spoils some good fights, and so now I buff first and killing pit fiends is like killing any 'feeble-minded' opposition. Shame.
Mind-Flayers: I was really enjoying the improved mind flayers, and fully support them having new abilities, especially the see invisible. Unfortunately on two occasions my party suffered instant deaths AFTER the flayers were dead and gone, which i still dont understand. A shame, but this had to be un-installed.
De Arnisse Keep & Torgal: I have used this mod twice and recommend it, although it probably means the keep is not a good choice for the first quest, as the spirit trolls are tough in their numbers. In my current game i did not install it for two reasons - I wanted to do the keep first without too much stress, and secondly because the weapon that Torgal drops is overpowered.
Docks Encounters: The three new liches and the illusionist in Valygar's home are all welcome additions for higher level parties. Well implemented and highly recommended.
Kuroisan: This is an excellent mod, and everyone should experience the encounter at least once. In my present game I didnt install it however, because the weapon he drops is too overpowered for my current taste. Having said that, I applaud the imagination and detail of the design of the Katana - a work of art.
The Ritual: A high class mod which ultimately provides you with another dragon to kill at higher levels, so it is a must-have. The quest itself is imaginative and largely well implemented, with some atmospheric text and dialogue. The only thing that annoys me is that the skulls have the crippling level-drain ability. If it wasnt for this, I would relish each battle in the quest and take them on toe-to-toe. Perhaps I will try this again in the present game, but previously im afraid it has been a case of Farsight - Project Image - Timestop - Obliteration, to save hassle.
Fire Giants: these needed an upgrade and i was excited to meet them; a good use for all the fire-resist equipment and buffs i thought. Sadly, you can wear all the fire-gear you want and have the best buffs, but they soon decrease your resistance to zero and kill you with meteor swarms or something similar. This meant that head-on combat seemed impossible, and the mod was uninstalled. They needed to be improved but this goes too far - and just creates hassle in my opinion.
Guarded Compound, Twisted Rune, Mae'Var: Much needed and well implemented mods. If they ever 're-released' BG2 it's mods like this that should be coded into the vanilla game. Must-haves.
Creature Improvements: Apart from the fire giants and mindflayers, all the other creatures benefit from the tactics mod. I particularly like the skeleton warriors casting spook and so on. The beholder lair in the underdark posed new problems for the party, even with the cheese shield. Improved mages and golems are sound and sensible. Demon Knights were a fun battle for once.
Small Teeth Pass+ North Forest: By the time I do these areas it is fairly easy, but all the same a welcome addition to the two ignored areas on the BG2 map. hint: approach the Small Teeth Pass from the south if you dont want to get lynched straight away.
Red Badge: I managed this once after 50 reloads in a previous game. Too hard and unrewarding for my tastes, although it is well designed and implemented as a major challenge. Far too painful.
Sahaugin City: I was enjoying the improved difficulty of fighting the fish-people, and that component of the mod was well done. Unfortunately, the avatar thing later on kept insta-killing party members so the mod was uninstalled. This spoiled completely for me a good mod.
Improved Irenicus: When I tried this a couple of years ago I was highly impressed with the new battle, but simply had to uninstall it because it was too hard for me. Last time I played the game I had vanilla Irenicus and it was a joke: far too easy and a major disappointment after the excellent Bodhi battle. So I have it installed in my current game, and hope to beat this mod with a high powered party. Wish me luck
Overall: Im not a power-gamer and I avoid using cheese as much as possible, so aspects of the Tactics mod are unsuitable. This still leaves a lot of good additions and alterations within the package, and the components are all installed seperately so it is not a problem. Dont avoid Tactics just because it sometimes has the reputation of being cheesy or overpowered. Selective installation of the components makes for a much-enhanced gaming experience for anyone.
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since i wrote that i have used NearInfinity and removed the liches' ability to remove all your buffs. They still summon, and this is more balanced.
Improved Mae'Var is one that I like, simply as the vanilla version is too easy. My magic heavy party loaded the area with webs and cloudkills. The odd assassin and skeleton that came out alive were dealt with swiftly enough.
Thanks for those 2 posts. I like other people's opinions.
I hate ever having to use CTRL-R or CTRL-Y, the ultimate cheese. In both cases where I did it. I was not given a choice to escape. While that prevents a common cheesy tactic, it also keeps you from escaping to try again when you are better experienced and/or better equipped.
I could have use a quicksave point, but I also hate playing things over that I have just played. I could have moved the difficulty slider from Core Rules to Easy. I should have done that, but didn't think about it. I'll remember next time.
They say that the Improved TorGal is tough at low levels. Geesh, it seems that with all the tactics mods installed that many of my initial quests become much more difficult. We'll see. Hopefully, I'll have time to make it through this weekend. Personally, I want some initial quests that aren't so difficult (relatively speaking) which will allow me XP/GP; so, I can more easily handle the "improved" quests later on.
--Oh, and webs and cloud kill should work quite well against Mae'Var as Earnest suggested. I've used that combo before - because I despise using just cloud kill and watching the victims die without trying to leave the area. The point of my post above is that, depending on your party, no longer can this be one of your very first quests. With the appropriate party or a well equipped party, you should succeed. Still, I think this is a mod that I can do without. If it is going to be hard, then give me some very nice loot.
I hate ever having to use CTRL-R or CTRL-Y, the ultimate cheese. In both cases where I did it. I was not given a choice to escape. While that prevents a common cheesy tactic, it also keeps you from escaping to try again when you are better experienced and/or better equipped.
I could have use a quicksave point, but I also hate playing things over that I have just played. I could have moved the difficulty slider from Core Rules to Easy. I should have done that, but didn't think about it. I'll remember next time.
They say that the Improved TorGal is tough at low levels. Geesh, it seems that with all the tactics mods installed that many of my initial quests become much more difficult. We'll see. Hopefully, I'll have time to make it through this weekend. Personally, I want some initial quests that aren't so difficult (relatively speaking) which will allow me XP/GP; so, I can more easily handle the "improved" quests later on.
--Oh, and webs and cloud kill should work quite well against Mae'Var as Earnest suggested. I've used that combo before - because I despise using just cloud kill and watching the victims die without trying to leave the area. The point of my post above is that, depending on your party, no longer can this be one of your very first quests. With the appropriate party or a well equipped party, you should succeed. Still, I think this is a mod that I can do without. If it is going to be hard, then give me some very nice loot.
My experience of Tactics and other uber mods is that unless you're a power gamer who uses a lot of cheese they're best left alone.
Some of them, like the Torgal mod are simply ridiculously over-powered, especially for a quest like the keep, which as has been pointed out the first quest you're forcibly offered.
The Bohdi mods are IMHO outrageous, as if it wasn't bad enough that you weren;t allowed to kill he until BI said you could. Surround her with anti-magic shells and she still miraculously escapes, big cheat or what? Beefing her up, but allowing you to kill her if you were capable, fine, but beef her up just so you could get even more frustrated? No thanks, same applies to having her chase you around the asylum.
One of the things I found annoying about the BG series was all the in-game cheating Black Isle built into the game. Fail to pick the pocket of Renal, or Maevar's barkeep, if you want to see how bad BI's cheating can get!
So personally I find the idea of importing mods that take the cheating to an even lower level ludicrous. I did try them, but uninstalled them fairly quickly.
A shame, because there were some very good ideas in some of those mods, but they were ruined as far as I'm concerned.
Some of them, like the Torgal mod are simply ridiculously over-powered, especially for a quest like the keep, which as has been pointed out the first quest you're forcibly offered.
The Bohdi mods are IMHO outrageous, as if it wasn't bad enough that you weren;t allowed to kill he until BI said you could. Surround her with anti-magic shells and she still miraculously escapes, big cheat or what? Beefing her up, but allowing you to kill her if you were capable, fine, but beef her up just so you could get even more frustrated? No thanks, same applies to having her chase you around the asylum.
One of the things I found annoying about the BG series was all the in-game cheating Black Isle built into the game. Fail to pick the pocket of Renal, or Maevar's barkeep, if you want to see how bad BI's cheating can get!
So personally I find the idea of importing mods that take the cheating to an even lower level ludicrous. I did try them, but uninstalled them fairly quickly.
A shame, because there were some very good ideas in some of those mods, but they were ruined as far as I'm concerned.
[QUOTE=Darth Gavinius;1096098]Distrbution of games, is becoming a little like Democracy (all about money and control) - in the end choice is an illusion and you have to choose your lesser evil.
And everything is hidden in the fine print.[/QUOTE]
And everything is hidden in the fine print.[/QUOTE]
IMPROVED TORGAL AND KEEP
I can not comment fully on this mod. I think it is OK, but it seems that the primary monster is now the Spirit Troll. What is a spirit troll anyway? I always thought that was a ridiculous idea. Anyway, I got a nasty surprise on the first floor in the audience chamber. I noticed a couple of giant trolls and the nasty confusion-inducing umber hulks. Little did I realize that when the battle was joined there were 4 or so spirit trolls too. The spirit trolls are invisible until they attack. Well, I lost 2 of my party of 4 to impress me that the keep was not necessarily a push over any more. Proceeding with more care, I chopped up the spirit trolls as I proceeded. I was of mixed feelings about that. I love collecting XP, but on the other hand the game’s challenge decreases as I level. I never met TorGal because the game somehow became corrupt….
IMPROVED KANGAXX AND GUARDIANS
From what I’ve heard, there’s a lot of scripted cheese involved in this battle. And the easiest way to beat cheese is with cheese. That really doesn’t interest me.
IN GENERAL
I like the idea of increasing the difficulty of the bosses (specifically the defenders of Carsomyr, the Ring of Gaxx, Staff of the Magi, Celestial Fury, and the Flail of Ages, Bodhi and Irenicus) by improving their AI without using cheese. From what I’ve seen tactics can improved the difficulty of the encounters, but I don’t necessarily always like how this was accomplished. For instance, the defense of Celestial Fury was OK, the defense of the Flail of Ages was ridiculous, and the defense of the Ring of Gaxx just doesn’t interest me from the tactics it has been reported that the defenders employ.
I hate the idea of making every mook more dangerous. If you are constantly having to be on your toes, it is less pleasure for me and also diminishes the power of the bosses. In particular, I hate it when encounters are made seemingly without explanation. That just turns into a hack-n-slash. So, I can definitely do without many of the tactics mods. Additionally, these extra encounters are just making you level faster which can also diminish the challenge.
There are one or two mods in Tactics that I definitely want. The first is the “Always Toughest Dungeon Encounters.” I don’t like it when the game tries to adjust the difficulty. This mod simply makes sure that you face the toughest standard foes in the game – not lesser foes because you have a small party, for instance. When I play a morituri, I want the Kuroisan, acid kensai, mod. His katana will allow me to regenerate, because morituris can not wear rings of regeneration or the Ring of Gaxx. However, I plan on using that katana only for regeneration and perhaps Ascension battles.
I have 2 type pages of restrictions that I play under – for which others have ridiculed me. Nevertheless, those restrictions help make the game more challenging. While I would really like to try out the tactics mods (all of them), crashed games or no fun. So, I will use only a relatively few mods. Thus, this concludes my review of Tactics.
CRASHED GAME
When entering De’Arnis keep, I faced a posse of trolls and friends as described above. I have never faced such opposition before; so, I believe that the Improved Keep had been installed. However, I cleared out the second level, and it was the same as ever, including providing all 3 flail heads. So, I knew something was wrong. I ran tactics setup again and tried to install the Improved Keep. I entered the second level and proceeded to hack through spirit trolls, but then things went wrong. Dialogues didn’t work correctly, and the ease of use “No traps or locks” wasn’t working. I reinstalled all the same stuff as before:
SoA, ToB, ToB official patch, ToB Baldurdash fixpack
Ascension (all)
Unfinished Business
Oversight (tougher Sendai, Improved Continuity, and Alignment Correction)
Item Upgrade (which I used very limitedly)
Ease of Use (Infinite stacking, True Grand Mastery [installed simply because I anticipate a bigger challenge with Ascension], Shut up, CP cap remover, Turn off hideous animation, Unlimited bag of holding, Bonus merchants, Imoen ToB dialogue fix, Female Edwina, Romance bug fixes, PC can romance 1 NP regardless of race, Happy, and No traps or locks)
Tactics (most of it)
Dungeon-Be-Gone
Yasraena
Saerileth
Tashia
Banter Packs
NPC flirt
Cross-mod banter pack
Quest pack
Turnabout
Morituri kit
Plasmo-pics
The game was still messed up! I reinstalled again. This time I only installed:
SoA, ToB, ToB official patch, ToB Baldurdash fixpack
Ascension (all)
Oversight (tougher Sendai)
Item Upgrade (which I used very limitedly)
Ease of Use (as above except locks are back in)
Tactics (only Always Toughest Dungeon Encounters and Acid Kensai)
Dungeon-Be-Gone
Saerileth
Tashia
Morituri kit
The saved games still did not work properly; however, I was able to start a new game that seemed to function OK. Geesh. I play this game for pleasure not to have trouble shoot the computer! I had notice previously that I could not unload the different tactics mods when I decided that I did not like them. I don't know what was causing these problems...
I can not comment fully on this mod. I think it is OK, but it seems that the primary monster is now the Spirit Troll. What is a spirit troll anyway? I always thought that was a ridiculous idea. Anyway, I got a nasty surprise on the first floor in the audience chamber. I noticed a couple of giant trolls and the nasty confusion-inducing umber hulks. Little did I realize that when the battle was joined there were 4 or so spirit trolls too. The spirit trolls are invisible until they attack. Well, I lost 2 of my party of 4 to impress me that the keep was not necessarily a push over any more. Proceeding with more care, I chopped up the spirit trolls as I proceeded. I was of mixed feelings about that. I love collecting XP, but on the other hand the game’s challenge decreases as I level. I never met TorGal because the game somehow became corrupt….
IMPROVED KANGAXX AND GUARDIANS
From what I’ve heard, there’s a lot of scripted cheese involved in this battle. And the easiest way to beat cheese is with cheese. That really doesn’t interest me.
IN GENERAL
I like the idea of increasing the difficulty of the bosses (specifically the defenders of Carsomyr, the Ring of Gaxx, Staff of the Magi, Celestial Fury, and the Flail of Ages, Bodhi and Irenicus) by improving their AI without using cheese. From what I’ve seen tactics can improved the difficulty of the encounters, but I don’t necessarily always like how this was accomplished. For instance, the defense of Celestial Fury was OK, the defense of the Flail of Ages was ridiculous, and the defense of the Ring of Gaxx just doesn’t interest me from the tactics it has been reported that the defenders employ.
I hate the idea of making every mook more dangerous. If you are constantly having to be on your toes, it is less pleasure for me and also diminishes the power of the bosses. In particular, I hate it when encounters are made seemingly without explanation. That just turns into a hack-n-slash. So, I can definitely do without many of the tactics mods. Additionally, these extra encounters are just making you level faster which can also diminish the challenge.
There are one or two mods in Tactics that I definitely want. The first is the “Always Toughest Dungeon Encounters.” I don’t like it when the game tries to adjust the difficulty. This mod simply makes sure that you face the toughest standard foes in the game – not lesser foes because you have a small party, for instance. When I play a morituri, I want the Kuroisan, acid kensai, mod. His katana will allow me to regenerate, because morituris can not wear rings of regeneration or the Ring of Gaxx. However, I plan on using that katana only for regeneration and perhaps Ascension battles.
I have 2 type pages of restrictions that I play under – for which others have ridiculed me. Nevertheless, those restrictions help make the game more challenging. While I would really like to try out the tactics mods (all of them), crashed games or no fun. So, I will use only a relatively few mods. Thus, this concludes my review of Tactics.
CRASHED GAME
When entering De’Arnis keep, I faced a posse of trolls and friends as described above. I have never faced such opposition before; so, I believe that the Improved Keep had been installed. However, I cleared out the second level, and it was the same as ever, including providing all 3 flail heads. So, I knew something was wrong. I ran tactics setup again and tried to install the Improved Keep. I entered the second level and proceeded to hack through spirit trolls, but then things went wrong. Dialogues didn’t work correctly, and the ease of use “No traps or locks” wasn’t working. I reinstalled all the same stuff as before:
SoA, ToB, ToB official patch, ToB Baldurdash fixpack
Ascension (all)
Unfinished Business
Oversight (tougher Sendai, Improved Continuity, and Alignment Correction)
Item Upgrade (which I used very limitedly)
Ease of Use (Infinite stacking, True Grand Mastery [installed simply because I anticipate a bigger challenge with Ascension], Shut up, CP cap remover, Turn off hideous animation, Unlimited bag of holding, Bonus merchants, Imoen ToB dialogue fix, Female Edwina, Romance bug fixes, PC can romance 1 NP regardless of race, Happy, and No traps or locks)
Tactics (most of it)
Dungeon-Be-Gone
Yasraena
Saerileth
Tashia
Banter Packs
NPC flirt
Cross-mod banter pack
Quest pack
Turnabout
Morituri kit
Plasmo-pics
The game was still messed up! I reinstalled again. This time I only installed:
SoA, ToB, ToB official patch, ToB Baldurdash fixpack
Ascension (all)
Oversight (tougher Sendai)
Item Upgrade (which I used very limitedly)
Ease of Use (as above except locks are back in)
Tactics (only Always Toughest Dungeon Encounters and Acid Kensai)
Dungeon-Be-Gone
Saerileth
Tashia
Morituri kit
The saved games still did not work properly; however, I was able to start a new game that seemed to function OK. Geesh. I play this game for pleasure not to have trouble shoot the computer! I had notice previously that I could not unload the different tactics mods when I decided that I did not like them. I don't know what was causing these problems...
OK all, I'm back in this gig. I got very bored in the underdark (where I often in up quitting the game). I decided to risk crashes and install some tactics mods again. So, the review continues... Unfortunately, my group is now high level and very well equipped; so, the usual encounter is now easy.
"Chunk" is my term for when the character is dead and can not be raised.
IMPROVED BHODI. I loved it! I faced this encounter late at night. I arrogantly entered without buffing. I noticed some of my characters just standing around. Yikes, I had the AI turned off. Hmmm, it wasn’t pretty. I was beaten. The improved Bhodi has powers no single mortal should, but I just pretend that some of those powers are coming from her minions. Reload. Buff. Slaughter Bhodi and her coven. Easy as pie when I took her seriously. I liked this much better than the standard Bhodi. I didn’t notice if the reward is improved though. I had my 3 people for the assault, each with 1 or 2 HLAs, and the standard Viconia who was conveniently located at the entrance. Viconia was only level 14 or so.
LICH IN THE DOCKS: I was not impressed with the extra lich in the docks district. I missed the explanation as to why yet another lich was hanging out in the city. At high level, this encounter is cake walk. It could be challenging to low levels or those not well equipped, because you can’t get to the lich quickly and Azuredge failed (in my case) to take out the lich on its first toss. Any way, I’m against hack-n-slash encounters that do not integrate well into the story. For me, it generally just means more XP, which makes the boss fights less challenging.
IMPROVED SMALL TEETH PASS: This is another component that I think you should skip unless you need an extra set of red dragon scales (one for the game’s plate armor and the second for item upgrade incardine elven chain). They’re just dragons. They will easily fall to a high level party and just takes a little bit of effort for a lower level party. However, you may face a dragon immediately upon entering this area. If so, be sure that your mage gets Mirror Image up. Otherwise, there is a chance that the dragon will munch him beyond the ability to resurrect. That’s irritating. “Reality” check, what are 3 different color dragons doing hanging out in this one small area? Is there dragon-nip here are something?
IMPROVED NORTH FOREST: It didn’t seem very improved to me. I *think* it’s basically the same encounter, but with a more capable party. So, I’d say it’s a keeper, but it’s not much of a challenge.
RED-BADGE ENCOUNTER: This is a difficult fight without cheese and knowing what to expect. Metagaming, using player knowledge instead of character knowledge, is also cheese. I was getting my butt kicked the first go around. The second time, I did the butt-kicking, but my mage got chunked. The third time the mage was chunked again through mirror image in a corner – bad luck. This seemed to be a theme. It wasn’t until the fifth time that I managed to beat it with the team intact (2 had to be resurrected). The fallowmist targeted the mage with a poison cloud and tracked her despite she being invisible (Staff of Magi) with a cloak of non-detection. It drains levels and seems to require a non-magical weapon to hit. I had to cheese this encounter. I used chain contingency to force cast an offense. I hate doing that. I centered 2 wiltings and an incendiary cloud on Tashia. I was unsure if the foes were immune to wilting. Regardless, this seemed to work. It damage most of the foes and successfully killed Tashia (in combination with their poison) without sending her to chunks where she could not be resurrected. Then with high level abilities I was able to beat the remaining forces. Without level nine spells, I think this encounter would be virtually impossible. Has any one else figured out tactics that would allow a low level party to succeed? Ah, I see in the readme that you must have at least 3 million XP to trigger this encounter – more is definitely better. This encounter is a nice test of your abilities, but why does it happen? It seems rather a forced in hack-n-slash. You get a twinky spear for your trouble, but it’s not that good. So, I have mixed feelings about this one.
THE RITUAL (PONTIFEX): I was able to kill their soldier groups without cheese. Unfortunately, their thieves occasionally chunked a party member. It may be possible to counter those backstabs using True Sight, but I did not have a lot of those in memory. This method quickly became work. So, I decided to turn Tashia loose. She would weaken them with a chain contingency of 3 wiltings and run away. When needed, she would summon up a genie to give her back her spells and rest for everyone. I would lure some of the foes to the group, however many would follow, to keep away from the skulls. Thus, I used a lot of cheesy tactics. At least, the game was less work. The foes had their own cheese – it seemed the skull could drain 2 levels, knock back, and some times knock out using a spell/distance attack. I hated that. Even using cheese, these fights were tedious. The same sort of parties with the same mediocre loot were encountered repeatedly.
Pontifex, the yellow dragon, is absolutely ridiculous. He will use spells in a way that a player may, plus has wing buffet and breath weapon. Spell trigger, chain contingency, and contingency all happen at once. Thus, he becomes temporarily invulnerable (some how he also summons a bunch of sand golems) and enters time stop where he chunks my maiden wielding Carsomyr. I said no to that cheese with the classic cheese of my own – a lot of spiked traps. These traps resulted in a total of 517 HP damage, but the dragon somehow survived and entered his time stop uninjured. I did not see any report of him healing himself or somehow avoiding/negating the damage. Maybe it was the classic, you have to kill dragons twice: once in human form and once in dragon form, but I did not get any XP for the first kill or any notification that a kill occurred. Pontifex immediately shifts into dragonform regardless whether you set deadly traps or not. It was late at night and the dragon always seemed to chunk someone. Then I remembered that characters don’t get chunked under Normal difficulty. So, I just kicked Pontifex at that difficulty setting. The next day, I was able to kill Pontifex in 2 rounds on Insane with 1 of my team chunked. I finally succeeded in killing him on Insane without anyone chunked, but honestly my success was due a little to my knowledge of cheese and a LOT to luck. I don’t think that this will be a mod that I use in the future. The loot is OK. There’s good armor for a thief and some nice boots. This is a challenging mod. In beating this encounter, it will help demonstrate your own knowledge of the cheese of the game. As I don’t like using cheese, this is not much of a redeeming factor. You will learn to deal with a very tough enemy. I think he makes the standard Draconis seem easy.
BIG SPOILER
Incidentally, Pontifex seems to be the bad guy. It was reported that one way of fulfilling his wishes is using a Mindflayer circlet on the priestess to bring her to Pontifex. Another person suggested Imprisonment on her. You can let the ritual complete, stop the ritual and kill the priestess, or stop the ritual and bring the priestess to the dragon. I stopped the ritual and killed the priestess, and it didn’t seem to make any difference to my game. I don’t know what results the other options bring.
"Chunk" is my term for when the character is dead and can not be raised.
IMPROVED BHODI. I loved it! I faced this encounter late at night. I arrogantly entered without buffing. I noticed some of my characters just standing around. Yikes, I had the AI turned off. Hmmm, it wasn’t pretty. I was beaten. The improved Bhodi has powers no single mortal should, but I just pretend that some of those powers are coming from her minions. Reload. Buff. Slaughter Bhodi and her coven. Easy as pie when I took her seriously. I liked this much better than the standard Bhodi. I didn’t notice if the reward is improved though. I had my 3 people for the assault, each with 1 or 2 HLAs, and the standard Viconia who was conveniently located at the entrance. Viconia was only level 14 or so.
LICH IN THE DOCKS: I was not impressed with the extra lich in the docks district. I missed the explanation as to why yet another lich was hanging out in the city. At high level, this encounter is cake walk. It could be challenging to low levels or those not well equipped, because you can’t get to the lich quickly and Azuredge failed (in my case) to take out the lich on its first toss. Any way, I’m against hack-n-slash encounters that do not integrate well into the story. For me, it generally just means more XP, which makes the boss fights less challenging.
IMPROVED SMALL TEETH PASS: This is another component that I think you should skip unless you need an extra set of red dragon scales (one for the game’s plate armor and the second for item upgrade incardine elven chain). They’re just dragons. They will easily fall to a high level party and just takes a little bit of effort for a lower level party. However, you may face a dragon immediately upon entering this area. If so, be sure that your mage gets Mirror Image up. Otherwise, there is a chance that the dragon will munch him beyond the ability to resurrect. That’s irritating. “Reality” check, what are 3 different color dragons doing hanging out in this one small area? Is there dragon-nip here are something?
IMPROVED NORTH FOREST: It didn’t seem very improved to me. I *think* it’s basically the same encounter, but with a more capable party. So, I’d say it’s a keeper, but it’s not much of a challenge.
RED-BADGE ENCOUNTER: This is a difficult fight without cheese and knowing what to expect. Metagaming, using player knowledge instead of character knowledge, is also cheese. I was getting my butt kicked the first go around. The second time, I did the butt-kicking, but my mage got chunked. The third time the mage was chunked again through mirror image in a corner – bad luck. This seemed to be a theme. It wasn’t until the fifth time that I managed to beat it with the team intact (2 had to be resurrected). The fallowmist targeted the mage with a poison cloud and tracked her despite she being invisible (Staff of Magi) with a cloak of non-detection. It drains levels and seems to require a non-magical weapon to hit. I had to cheese this encounter. I used chain contingency to force cast an offense. I hate doing that. I centered 2 wiltings and an incendiary cloud on Tashia. I was unsure if the foes were immune to wilting. Regardless, this seemed to work. It damage most of the foes and successfully killed Tashia (in combination with their poison) without sending her to chunks where she could not be resurrected. Then with high level abilities I was able to beat the remaining forces. Without level nine spells, I think this encounter would be virtually impossible. Has any one else figured out tactics that would allow a low level party to succeed? Ah, I see in the readme that you must have at least 3 million XP to trigger this encounter – more is definitely better. This encounter is a nice test of your abilities, but why does it happen? It seems rather a forced in hack-n-slash. You get a twinky spear for your trouble, but it’s not that good. So, I have mixed feelings about this one.
THE RITUAL (PONTIFEX): I was able to kill their soldier groups without cheese. Unfortunately, their thieves occasionally chunked a party member. It may be possible to counter those backstabs using True Sight, but I did not have a lot of those in memory. This method quickly became work. So, I decided to turn Tashia loose. She would weaken them with a chain contingency of 3 wiltings and run away. When needed, she would summon up a genie to give her back her spells and rest for everyone. I would lure some of the foes to the group, however many would follow, to keep away from the skulls. Thus, I used a lot of cheesy tactics. At least, the game was less work. The foes had their own cheese – it seemed the skull could drain 2 levels, knock back, and some times knock out using a spell/distance attack. I hated that. Even using cheese, these fights were tedious. The same sort of parties with the same mediocre loot were encountered repeatedly.
Pontifex, the yellow dragon, is absolutely ridiculous. He will use spells in a way that a player may, plus has wing buffet and breath weapon. Spell trigger, chain contingency, and contingency all happen at once. Thus, he becomes temporarily invulnerable (some how he also summons a bunch of sand golems) and enters time stop where he chunks my maiden wielding Carsomyr. I said no to that cheese with the classic cheese of my own – a lot of spiked traps. These traps resulted in a total of 517 HP damage, but the dragon somehow survived and entered his time stop uninjured. I did not see any report of him healing himself or somehow avoiding/negating the damage. Maybe it was the classic, you have to kill dragons twice: once in human form and once in dragon form, but I did not get any XP for the first kill or any notification that a kill occurred. Pontifex immediately shifts into dragonform regardless whether you set deadly traps or not. It was late at night and the dragon always seemed to chunk someone. Then I remembered that characters don’t get chunked under Normal difficulty. So, I just kicked Pontifex at that difficulty setting. The next day, I was able to kill Pontifex in 2 rounds on Insane with 1 of my team chunked. I finally succeeded in killing him on Insane without anyone chunked, but honestly my success was due a little to my knowledge of cheese and a LOT to luck. I don’t think that this will be a mod that I use in the future. The loot is OK. There’s good armor for a thief and some nice boots. This is a challenging mod. In beating this encounter, it will help demonstrate your own knowledge of the cheese of the game. As I don’t like using cheese, this is not much of a redeeming factor. You will learn to deal with a very tough enemy. I think he makes the standard Draconis seem easy.
BIG SPOILER
Incidentally, Pontifex seems to be the bad guy. It was reported that one way of fulfilling his wishes is using a Mindflayer circlet on the priestess to bring her to Pontifex. Another person suggested Imprisonment on her. You can let the ritual complete, stop the ritual and kill the priestess, or stop the ritual and bring the priestess to the dragon. I stopped the ritual and killed the priestess, and it didn’t seem to make any difference to my game. I don’t know what results the other options bring.
IMPROVED IRENICUS
I did not get a chance to play through this one and probably won’t. I did get my butt kicked during the first wave, but wasn’t really trying too hard. I was just trying to learn something about my foes. (Shame on me. If I was too tired to try, I should have went to bed.). Unfortunately, the game somehow became corrupted, and I had to spend more time troubleshooting – do mods always cause this much trouble. I suspect that Improved Irenicus is, like Illych, a bit much. I am an experienced player. For my own personal enjoyment, I don’t want to have to reload more than 3x to successfully (no characters chunked) beat an encounter. I also want to succeed without using player knowledge of which my character would be unaware (metagaming). The Pontifex/Ritual flunked that test, because one or more team mate would be chunked repeatedly (I did finally succeed). The same applied to the Red Badge/Poison encounter. And here, I actually did metagame by taking out the most dangerous foe with a katana that was not enchanted. I strongly suspect that Improved Irenicus would also flunk this criteria. I heard some of yesteryear’s top players exclaim over the difficulty of this mod. It’s just ridiculous for a player to enter the first fight, expecting to loose, and recording what scripted spells and actions the foes have in order to beat them upon reload. I suppose it is OK to learn the best cheese (by what’s done to you and what you must do to overcome such situations), but such puzzles are not usually my choice of entertainment when I am too tired to work. As I hear the final battle of Ascension is of a similar difficulty level, I may give it the skip too.
I did not get a chance to play through this one and probably won’t. I did get my butt kicked during the first wave, but wasn’t really trying too hard. I was just trying to learn something about my foes. (Shame on me. If I was too tired to try, I should have went to bed.). Unfortunately, the game somehow became corrupted, and I had to spend more time troubleshooting – do mods always cause this much trouble. I suspect that Improved Irenicus is, like Illych, a bit much. I am an experienced player. For my own personal enjoyment, I don’t want to have to reload more than 3x to successfully (no characters chunked) beat an encounter. I also want to succeed without using player knowledge of which my character would be unaware (metagaming). The Pontifex/Ritual flunked that test, because one or more team mate would be chunked repeatedly (I did finally succeed). The same applied to the Red Badge/Poison encounter. And here, I actually did metagame by taking out the most dangerous foe with a katana that was not enchanted. I strongly suspect that Improved Irenicus would also flunk this criteria. I heard some of yesteryear’s top players exclaim over the difficulty of this mod. It’s just ridiculous for a player to enter the first fight, expecting to loose, and recording what scripted spells and actions the foes have in order to beat them upon reload. I suppose it is OK to learn the best cheese (by what’s done to you and what you must do to overcome such situations), but such puzzles are not usually my choice of entertainment when I am too tired to work. As I hear the final battle of Ascension is of a similar difficulty level, I may give it the skip too.