GameBanshee Forums

Re: Impaler

You only get this weapon in chapter 4. Too late since I usually spend most time in chapter 3. My short rule: a melee weapon category with no +3 weapons in chapter 3 or earlier is not worth it for a fighter, but may be acceptable for other classes. But I only give Val the hammer proficiency because of Crom Faeyr, becasue there's no other one to wield in it your party. If you plan your proficiencies carefully, you might be able to keep the spears. I admit there are some nice +2 spears in chapter 3, with some really useful special abilities.

Alternatively, you can put Mazzy in the last slot where I suggested Cernd, and change her proficiencies to your taste so Val can keep his. As Thrain said, Mazzy does make an excellent tank, only she's so inconveniently placed that I rarely have her in my parties. If you do this, I recommend cheating a Bag of Holding in. You can then take equipment for Mazzy to the remote location where you will find her. I recommend cheating containers in right from the start anyway. Inventory management will take lots of time even if you have them.

Re: challenge and Jaheira

Since you said you're going to install Tactics, you can play the extreme powergamer and be quite sure there's a lot of challenge left. Apart from that, I don't like Jaheira. Although she has a nice far-flung quest.

Re: Tsujatha

He only romances good characters, not neutral or evil ones. The mod does check this. I know very well because I changed his script so that my true neutral Archer/Mage gets a chance. But his story and the way the romance is written makes no sense for an evil protagonist. I imagine my character as borderline good, or I would not be able to follow the romance without feeling bad about it. See also my notes about his alignment abovethread.

Impaler +3 is the most damaging weapon in SoA.
Flail of Ages+5, Ixil's Spike +6, and Staff of the Ram +6 in ToB.

In fact, Impaler may be the most damaging weapon of all, I think the 1d4 piercing damage is missing from the Ram staff. . .

I finally got my game this morning, it appears to company forgot to post it, so they quickly sent it 1st class and here it is.

"(1) Ease-of-Use
Components 0-6, 9-10, 15, 18, 20-21
Skip the faster cutscenes, it's incompatible with Tashia and a few other mods.
Skip Multi-romance and multi-stronghold components, they may cause problems.
Skip No Traps and Locks, the game loses a lot that way.
Skip Bottomless Bag of Holding, use G3Tweaks' Bottomless containers instead.
(2) G3 Tweak Pack
Components 0-2, 4, 10, 12-13, 15-16, 21-23
(3) SimDing0's Tweak Pack
Components 0-4, 7-8, 10
(4) Oversight
Components 0-4
Skip the altered Monk HLA tables - Refinements does it better.
(5) Cleric Remix
Components 0, 3-4
(6) Dark Ritual
Components 0-2
(7) Revised Forgotten Wars Item Pack
Most of these items are grossly overpowered. I haven't used any of them yet.
(8) Underrepresented Items
(9) Ascension
All components. Install this before Kelsey if you use him. He has Ascension-specific dialogue
(10) Tashia
(11) Kelsey SOA
(12) Kelsey TOB
(13) Tsujatha
(14) Chloe
(15) Rogue Rebalancing
All components
(16) PnP Celestials
(17) Unfinished Business
All components except the kits. I have grown wary of what new kits can do to the game, so I only install what I need, even though it's a hassle to answer 22 times yes and 2 times no.
(18) SimDing0's Quest Pack
Components 0-2, 4
(19) Rahul Kanakia's Potion Quest
(20) Planar Sphere Return
(21) Improved Oasis 2
Both components
(22) Improved Battles
Components 2-14, 16-18, 24
(23) Tactics
Components 1-3, 6-15, 17-25, 28-29, 31-35
Plus the Generic Archer kit which is one of the skipped numbers.
(24) Pocket Plane Banter Pack
Components 0, 2 (no accelerator, I don't play fast)
(25) TOB Refinements
Components 0-3"

This is my list, and I have installed those mods in the order I posted, and you quoted. You can get them all via links from the modlist at http://www.pocketplane.net . I've had a few minor glitches, such as the mage in the Underdark starting his Elemental Plane exploration even without the ritual book he sends you to retrieve, but nothing problematic until now (Chapter 6).

As for installing them, all mods come with their own installer, some are auto-extracting archives, some are zips or rars that must be extracted manually before installing. I recommend using Total Commander to manage your archives (V6 can extract rars as well as almost everything else). I converted all auto-extracting files into zips by selecting an empty directory instead of the BG2 directory at install so that the WeiDU installer crashes without actually installing anything, then zipping everything but the debug file into a new archive. That way I can read the readme files before extracting and installing the mods, and use the same installation procedure for all mods.
As for mod order, the important thing is the order the WeiDU installers for the mod are run. If you don't have auto-extracting archives, you can extract them into your BG2 directory in any order you choose, then run the WeiDU installers (usually named XXXXX-setup.exe or setupXXXXXX.exe with XXXXX=short mod name) in the order specified.
There were two installation bugs in the mods on the list when I installed them. One was in component 19 of Unfinished Business. A new version has been posted a few days ago, where this is hopefully fixed - use V13 or higher. The other one is in the Improved Mind Flayers component of Tactics, and you can ignore the error message because the mod works regardless of what the installer says.

Other mods: I haven't tried the Turnip Golem. The other thing you're talking about would be Dungeon-Be-Gone, which is nice if you are fed up with Chateau Irenicus. If you want to have Chloe in your party, you must not use it since you meet her somewhere in the dungeon, in any other case it's your choice, as far as I can say it's compatible with pretty much everything else on the list.

Ah, and just in case someone hasn't already warned you: some of the Tactics components are very difficult. I had to cheat in the fight against Faldorn, and there's a chance that I'll lose patience with the final Ascension battle as well, although I hope not.

For more information, use the forums at

http://forums.forgottenwars.net
http://forums.pocketplane.net
http://forums.gibberlings3.net
http://chosenofmystra.db-forge.com/mystra_forum

Where you may also find information on even more mods.

Meow, I'll be curious to see how well all those mods work in the game, together. Let us know if you have any problems.

[QUOTE=me0w]
Now for my party, I need help, I'm sure on Haer'Dalis. I've never used him, but I know love blades.
[/QUOTE]

Excellent choice I advise you to pick him up as soon as you can, he will grow an excellent companion with great skills and he's such a wonderful lad anyway

I see you like the same NPCs as I do. Interesitng, I'd pick exactly the same ones, except that I'd keep Imoen, she's my sister, after all But this isn't about me so let's go on to your choices

Who is Tashia? And I'm really curious why you picked Cernd? I find him an interesting character, but I'm not very familiar with his skills. What do you use shapechange for? I mean, is he really powerful as a wolf or bear or whatever he can chage into?

[QUOTE=Brynn]Who is Tashia? And I'm really curious why you picked Cernd? I find him an interesting character, but I'm not very familiar with his skills. What do you use shapechange for? I mean, is he really powerful as a wolf or bear or whatever he can chage into?[/QUOTE]

Tashia is a Sorceress NPC introduced by the mod that bears her name. An excellent character and a nice romance if you want.
If you install Refinements with Shapeshifter Rebalancing and the mod that changes Druids' level progression tables to that of Clerics, Cernd becomes a formidable character. In Greater Werewolf shape (available at level 13+) he is a very good fighter - remember all that trouble you had with the Greater Werewolf when you encountered one for the first time? One of his new HLAs gives him +3 claws so he can hit demons. Add the Druid HLAs like Elemental Prince call, and his load of spells. I have him in my current party as the only priest-type character, and I don't miss anything so far.

Ok. After a good hour I found all the files and downloaded them.

I'm about to install them, but I was wondering wether its worth installing : Totemic Druid kit for Cernd (although I don't really understand how it changes the game, or how usefull it is.

Now where can I find kelsey, and I'm still not sure to go for either Anomen or Jaheria.

But yeah, I also got a file called "CRSoA_Beta2" I can't remember what mod it is, I guess its kind of important for mod order. (damn I'm silly)

All help appreciated, and thanks again.

Totemic Druid kit: let Cernd stay a Shapeshifter and don't install this component. With Shapeshifter rebalancing he's much more useful.

Kelsey: read the readme (BTW: *do* read all the readmes. Some contain important information). Government district, near Firecam estate.

The file: extract it into an empty directory - that way it won't install - and read the readme that comes with it. I don't recall this name.

So I'm modded up. I've started the game (went for kensai mage, kind of dissapointed in my self, but I have to play it)

Anyway, I'm gonna rush off to get all my team together, as I'm sticking with the team, and I'm not gonna add people to fill slots like I used to.

So, how can I quickly access the sewers, and also, how can I quickly reach Umar Hills (someone has to tell me about it first, but I forgot who)

Sewers: Just visit the temple district and enter them from there, no other requirement. Though Keldorn will only show up when you accepted the quest to look for the cult of the unseeing eye.

Umar Hills: Either talk to Delon (?), the boy in the government district, or speak to Valygar's servant in his house in the docks district and look for some documents there.

I recall Delon meeting me at the Gate District. As for getting the quest (valygar that is) you might want to get Umar on the map by talking to Tolgerias in the Big Government Building (forgot the name), he will give you the quest. Than go to DOcks district to find Valygars stuff and ull see that Umar is on tha map

I'm just finalising my party now.

Now theres me (kensai mage) Nalia (prime theif+mage), Valygar as changed, Haer'Dalis, Kelsy then either Anomen/Jaheria or Cernd.

however Chloe seems good, should i replace anyone for her? And do I really NEED imoen for her to stay on the team (my char is female).

Thanks for any replies.

You'll absolutely need Imoen if you want to keep Chloe, whether you're female or not.

Ok thanks, she's out'a there!

Ok got me Haer'Dalis now. (man that sewer fight is hard, but then again thats the whole game now, I even got some beholders and gauths spawn next to me as I walked back through the sewers.)

Now I'm off back to government to sort out getting valygar.

Well I have one problem. (I think I already posted about it, but anyway) I have the "appears busy" bug, I only installed TOB patch (thinking it would be like Tales of SC patch that covers both the game and expansion, I guess its not the case but will me installing SOA patch affect all my mods. And if so how? I guess I'm going to have to do it anyway, if I must, I'll remove my saves and re-install it all)

Also, I feel I have a bug with my mods. On the first city travelling fight you get (an attack by slavers, where you get a fire looking wepeon) Anyway, in this fight I only got like 64 exp for the mage, and 14 exp for the fighter with the magic armour and sword. This just seems low. Its every so often I seem to get less exp than is due. Even imps give me 420 (which is normal) but then good creatures sometimes give me 64 - when I'm sure I deserve 640. Damn you game!

Arg, Now I traveled to Valygars Cabin (in Umar) (after talking Tolgaris, and Valygar's servant) Without doing any real quests or fighting many enemies, but now I'm at his cabin, with my party almost complete (just him) I can't find him, I went at day, walked in, saw nothing, walked out, rested, walked back in, still nothing. Do I have to use "detect hidden" or something. I recall something like that (detect traps maybe) and he appeared. But that was long ago, and I just can't remember. So if anyone can help me find the bum I'll be greatfull.

Anway, I need to sleep for college, any help appreciated.

You have installed Unifnished Business, right? Then you must first speak to the servant in the Corthala family home, who puts you into contact with someone else whom you must contact. Only then will you meet Valygar at his cabin.

I guess I do have it installed.

However the servant just mentioned he might be in umar because he was in the scouts.

I'll load back and chat again to him, I hope it works.

Also, can I install SOA (official) Patch without ruining my mods?

You shouldn't need the SoA patch if you already have installed the ToB patch...
And yes, installing a patch after mods is not a very good idea