GameBanshee Forums

Recently I've installed extra NPCs - Sola , Kelsey and Tashia.
I was going to take them all into my new party - but good heavens - that party would be so godly it's scary.

My current party -
Fighter/Cleric
Valygar
Minsc
Jaheira
Nalia
Jan

is awfully strong (meaning - my mages no longer have to cast spells - apart from pierce magic - fireballs from wands etc. , fighters beefed up with potions of mind focusing , insight , they all had 3.2 + million exp entering ToB which means 2+ extra abilites, top quality ammo for archers , didn't get rings of Gaxx , don't use any regeneraton rings ) - seems I could do well kicking out 2 ppl from the party.

My question is - what would make the game more of a challenge ? I've heard about Tactics mod but it seems stuff happening there ain't that cool either - more frustration then fun. (unstoppable mind flayers etc.)

What type of changes/fixes would you guys recommend to make the game a bit tougher - but not too freaky ?
I'm not interested in solo-games.

I really haven't seen anything in Tactics mod that is ultra cheesy - with 2 exceptions - Kuroisan & Imp. Irenicus Dungeon. But then again, you don't need Kuroisan if you don't want his sword, and the imp. dungeon is not mandatory ..
You would have seen the real benefits of Tactics mod in SOA as compared to TOB. It is very difficult for non-mages to survive some of the tactics fights - imp. mae'var & imp. Torgal comes to mind. And the imp. liches are real threats now, not the pathetic bags of bones they were earlier. I would not take on a lich as a magic user until I had access to 8th level spells.
My recommendation - install Acension and the imp. 5 encounters, and play TOB, or install tactics mod and start over in SOA. It's a whole new game...

My 2 gold worth...

I think Tactics is hugely more fun, at least for people who like a challenge, especially with Spell 50. Whether it's right for you, who knows?

I can tell you, the mind flayers aren't unstoppable, or even unreasonably hard - all of the encounters are winnable without cheese (well, maybe not Kangaxx, but he's optional anyway)

NB - I played with an almost identical party (swap Edwin for Nalia) - a melee heavy group like that can just chop most opposition to ribbons, and Jan can spike trap the bulk of the bosses, so it does tend to trivialize things. And, based on what I've heard, if you want a REALLY unbalanced party, get Valen

Anyway, my recommendation - try it, and uninstall it if you don't like it. It's probably best as a clean start with either a new character, or an import of your old one - it would be sad to do tactics without Improved Ilyich

Hmm speaking of Ilyich - there's a Dungeon-be-gone mod - does it make you skip all of it ? No items , no exp (foes,locks,scrolls) ? (just the exit exp thing ? ) It would be a waste not to get Helm of Baldie , all the wands ... Can someone clarify this ? (info at Forgotten Wars doesn't say much.)

I'm off to gather info about Tactics.

havent been able to get it to work yet but is says you get the magic items and 100000 xp wich is a little more than what you really should have got but im not compainig