Mostly Missile Party

Remove all ads!

Yeah - I was talking specifically about Fire Tooth.

I've been meaning to try that one out. Have to go find it now...

Kivan would replace Valygar.

EDIT: And Coran instead of Jan. I don't need no stinkin' mages.

 

If your interested in Coran, he is still in the Elven Forest, but the mod opens it up right away so can go there and retrieve him in Chapter 2.

Also, Coran has his own mod as well. You pick him up in the City Gates.

 

Without Valygar you won't have someone who can caste Haste, which can be useful when you need to constantly reposition your guys in some of the more difficult fights (assuming you decide to tackle them a bit earlier). Ultimately though you should be able to give everyone Boots of Speed, so at least until then.

 

I didn't think Valygar (or any ranger) could cast haste. Also, I thought you only got two boots of speed in SoA. Granted, in Throne of Bhaal you can get at least three more before leaving Saradush, but he's talking about starting a party in SoA. HLAs and loot you get in ToB aside from Watcher's Keep is a long way off.

 

Valygar is a Stalker. Stalkers get a few mage spells including haste.

 

I forgot about that. In my current game Valygar has just gotten his first 2nd level spell, and I didn't pay much attention to what was available to notice any mage spells as I thought I remembered what was there. I haven't played in over a year.

 

You probably did not notice them because most if not all of the mage spells are 3rd level.

Do notice that since this is BG2 and not IWDHoW ranger caster level sucks so beware that spell durations tend to be short if they are based on CL. (anyone else out there think "screw adherence to RAW" and allow for some of the advancements in HoW be used like caster level for warrior classes, evasion that is real evasion for the thief and monk, and the full spell progression for the bard? That would have been a great mod).

 

But caster level is based on your actual class level for Paladins and Rangers in BG2. Or at least it is, in the unmodded version of the game. I thought they only started implementing the whole gimped caster level for warrior/rogue classes thing in NWN. From early-mid game the difference between the level of a cleric and a ranger/paladin is around 2-3, and the druid is actually stuck at level 14 for most of SoA while Ranger/Paladins can get to level 17.
A lot of the spells in the IWD series scale with caster level. Combined with the XP/level progression of the bard this helps offset the bard's slow spell progression. Balance aside though, yeah. It would a good mod.

 

Caster level of Paladin = class level - 8
Caster level of Ranger = class level -7

So both can max out (caster level 20) eventually (though pretty late in the game)
when reaching level 28 and 27, respectively.

edit:
I'm aware that per DnD rules it should cap at caster level 9/8 (the manual will say so, too),
but the engine works differently, actually.
Baldurdash doesn't change it, as well. I'm not sure about G3 fix, since I don't use it
In my opinion, I like it, since it doesn't necessarily unbalance the game (the caster level will increase VERY slowly),
but makes those two classes a tad more interesting.

 

Rechecked in-game and confirmed that Ranger/Paladin caster level has a penalty. I honestly never noticed in until now, I knew that per D&D rules it was different but I always thought the developers decided not to implement this for BG2.

 

I honestly didn't know that there wasn't a penalty in IWD:HoW. I take it there WAS a penalty in the vanilla game that was removed in the expansion?

I've been trained too well by the old Gold Box games and 2nd edition P&P, which was the order I encountered AD&D.

 

It has been a while but as I recall original IWD was relatively true to the root AD&D rule set. When they added HoW they added stuff to the classes most of which was related to what was going to be in the new 3e game (which I don't think was out yet when they were designing the game). For instance rogues received evasion and could choose to have sneak attack instead of back stab (both of these abilities were similar but not exactly the same as the abilities in 3e). Paladins were made immune to fear, gained a smite evil ability, and their spellcasting was improved (spells could go up to 6th level and caster level was equal to your level instead of limited to level 9). Rangers also received better casting. Ironically the casting in HoW was better than the spellcasting they received in 3e (which was half level CL and 4th level spells). I really liked having evasion with my thief as it made him much more durable.

 

I'm not running all that many mods (can't remember exactly which ones, but mostly standard stuff: fixpack, UB, etc. - i.e. no major changes) so I think this is unlikely to be due to a mod, but when I killed Renal Bloodscalp (he should never have trusted me, the uppity fool) he dropped a pair of Boots of Speed. That makes 3 pairs in SoA.

 

I do not recall Renal dropping Boots of Speed - you do get Boots of Stealth from his lock box, along with the incriminating correspondence.

So I think you're right with your initial thought about only two Boots of Speed in SoA. But there are at least two others in ToB. And then there's grandmaster's armor that also grants that same effect.

 

That's Mae'Var you're talking about, Renal is the one who wants you to find the evidence against Mae'Var.

 

You're right - I'm mixing up my shadow thieves.

 

It can be forgiven, they're hard to distinguish, being in the shadows

 

Have just confirmed my thoughts by checking this on Shadow Keeper; typing "Renal" into the filter for Creature Browser gives his one and only existing file, in which he's wearing Boots of Speed. So there are 3 pairs in SoA + 3 in ToB = 6 = you no longer have to screw up Immy's spells by making her wear the Grandmaster Armour! Unless of course you don't want to kill Renal, in which case maybe a kleptomaniac thief could lift them off his still-living feet.

*EDIT: Forgot I'm not meant to swear. Tidied that up now.

 

OK, so what's the full list then?

We get boots of Speed in SoA from:

Planar Prison
Token Machine
Renal Bloodscalp

Then in ToB:

Illasera
Merchant
and ?

 

Not sure which merchant you mean. There are two: The innkeep at the Tankard Tree, and Lazarus the librarian at Arcana Archives, both in Saradush. Each will sell one pair of BoS, if I recall correctly.