Okay, so I plan to start a new IA run through with version 5. I already pretty much have my party laid down:

Me - Vagrant wielding FoA/??
Imoen(using a PC until she becomes available) - Sorcerer wielding ??
Jaheira - Ranger/Cleric wielding ??/shield
Minsc - Berserker wielding ??/shield
PC - Fighter/thief(dual at 9) wielding ??
Aerie - Ranger/Mage wielding ??

Ignore the question marks for a second. On this run through I'll be playing on core rules rather than insane (which I was playing on in the game I was going at until v 5 went live), because I'm soon running out of free time and would very much like to be able to finish the game before I do.

Now I have a couple of questions I didn't really consider when last I played:

1) How many items can I roughly count on being able to assemble doing SoA if I don't waste my cash on anything but the powerful ones, and don't purchase items from other vendors but rather rely on what I can find?

2) Associated with the above question: Now if you look at my party you'll see quite some question marks. My question is which items you'd recommend I focus on using for the above characters?

3) Again associated with question number one and two: Which specific items would you recommend that I forge/upgrade, and why?

4) How would you divide your proficiency points? Max out the main weapon immediately, or divide the points over a broader spectrum of weapon types and then max out your main weapon? I'm asking because afair a lot of the new monster-types are often vulnerable to a specific weapon type, and it varies a lot.

5) Never really having been much fond of Clerics, but having been told over again that they're powerhouses in IA, which specific spells are it that make them such and why?

There'll most likely be more, but I'm tired now and need my rest :p.

Thanks in advance!

1) How many items can I roughly count on being able to assemble doing SoA if I don't waste my cash on anything but the powerful ones, and don't purchase items from other vendors but rather rely on what I can find?

By the time I got to the end of SoA in 4.2, I was able to forge basically everything I wanted including many of the high end, expensive items. I was generally frugal with my gold, and sold basically everything that would turn a decent profit. I was always sure to use a high charisma member and tried to get my rep nice and high early, so I got the best returns I could. Oh, and I sold PLENTY while I was among the shark people, who paid extra handsomely.

2) Associated with the above question: Now if you look at my party you'll see quite some question marks. My question is which items you'd recommend I focus on using for the above characters?

Well you can go a lot of different ways here. Here is a possible way to go

Me - Vagrant wielding FoA/Judgment Day Longsword. Replace FoA with Flail of Defending and Wounding
Imoen(using a PC until she becomes available) - Sorcerer wielding -- Does it matter? How about Staff of the Magi
Jaheira - Ranger/Cleric wielding Crom Faeyr/shield
Minsc - Berserker wielding TheTruth Longsword or Hesperus +5/shield
PC - Fighter/thief(dual at 9) - Cutthroat +5/Grandfather of Assassins
Aerie - Ranger/Mage wielding Maybe she can use Flail of Ages and something else, an axe perhaps. How about a big Halberd that's twice her size! Use your imagination. :)

3) Again associated with question number one and two: Which specific items would you recommend that I forge/upgrade, and why?

Several are listed above. The reason for each would be superior stats.

4) How would you divide your proficiency points? Max out the main weapon immediately, or divide the points over a broader spectrum of weapon types and then max out your main weapon? I'm asking because afair a lot of the new monster-types are often vulnerable to a specific weapon type, and it varies a lot.

It depends. You probably want to get someone like Minsc to Grandmastery pretty quickly, so you've got someone who's really good at connecting. You'll also want to make sure you've got most if not all of your party members with some space for blunt weapons, since you'll want these for golems. Otherwise, just try to time it so that when you roughly think you'll be getting that target weapon, you'll be able to use it well. In general, I think the more focused your characters are, the better off you'll be.

5) Never really having been much fond of Clerics, but having been told over again that they're powerhouses in IA, which specific spells are it that make them such and why?
Greater Restoration, hands down. That's the spell that absolutely sets a cleric apart. They are also strong tanks, especially if they have some fighter abilities, and you just can't have too many tanks in the game! I recommend 2 clerics!

As Imoen's weapon, I would go for the Golem Slayer rod.

Ok, finally got around starting the game and decided for the following party:

Me - Vagrant wielding Flail of Defending and Wounding/Judgment Day Longsword
Imoen(using a PC until she becomes available) - Sorcerer wielding Golem Slayer +5
Jaheira - Ranger/Cleric wielding Crom Faeyr/shield
Minsc - Berserker wielding TheTruth Longsword/shield
PC - Fighter/thief(dual at 9) - Cutthroat +5/Grandfather of Assassins
Jan - Thief/Mage wielding Staff of the Magi/crossbow

Items to create:

Flail of Defending and Wounding
Judgment Day Longsword
Golem Slayer +5
TheTruth
Cutthroat +5
Grandfather of Assassins

Stuff needed to create the above:

GP: 950000

GEMS:
17 Diamonds
4 Bloodstone gems

MISC:
Judgement Day Essence (Barbarian half)
Judgement Day Essence (Mage half)
Blood of a Demon Lord
Hilt of The Truth
Blade of The Truth
A demon Heart
10 Mithril Tokens

WEAPONS:
Cutthroat +4
Kundane +2
Short Sword +3
Long Sword +3
Guildmaster's Dream +4
Dagger of the Star +4
2 +3 Daggers
Neb's Nasty Cutter
The long sword, Angurvadal +4
Rod of Smiting
QuarterStaff +3
Cleric's Staff +3
Defender of Easthaven
Gnasher club
2 +3 Flails

SCROLS:
Scroll of Spell Trigger
Scroll of Black Blade of Disaster
Scroll of Wish
Scroll of Improved Haste
Scroll of Greater Malison
3 scrolls of Ray of Fragmentation
4 Permanency Scrolls
4 Manuals of Elaboration

Figure I'll have a good shot with the above build :).

Good luck, olimikrig! :thumb:

Keep us updated and also keep visiting the mod's forum for news.

Cheers. Figure it'll help a lot that I've done so much of the early parts of the game before (and that was even on insane, going core rules this time) and have all the tactics I used written down :p.

Swapped Aerie for Jan Jansen instead so my F/T can focus on doing what he does best: backstab and scout. I might miss out on some clerical powers, but you can't have it all.

--

Hmmm. I'm doing the Trademeet quest at the moment and I can move my party next to thet pit and transfer items to Jaheira just as in older version, wasn't this supposed to have been fixed? :bad:

According to my readme it *is* version 5 that I'm playing.

EDIT: did some testing, buffs are cleared correctly. And go me, resisted the temptation to cheese, just threw hold person and owned her :p.

Figure it'll help a lot that I've done so much of the early parts of the game before (and that was even on insane, going core rules this time)

I'm afraid, as strcitly mentioned in the mod's readme file, you have to start a new game after installing v5 (even if you already had a previous version).

Transferring items during the duel with Faldorn is fixed only when your protagonist is fighting Faldorn. The vast majortiy of players do install the multiple stronghold component of Ease of Use (it's recommended); so, I didn't bother to fix it for Jaheira.

Oh, i'm afraid you're mistaken. I have started a new game mate, just referring to the fact that I have knowledge about how to deal with a lot of the earlier fights, making them easier to deal with a second time :).

Transferring items during the duel with Faldorn is fixed only when your protagonist is fighting Faldorn. The vast majortiy of players do install the multiple stronghold component of Ease of Use (it's recommended); so, I didn't bother to fix it for Jaheira.

Arh that would explain it. I had figure you'd do something along the lines of mazing the other party members or some such.

Gah, now the chronic restarter in me is starting to surface in me as it appears I'm missing out on some sweet stuff by neglecting ease-of-use :p.

Oh, i'm afraid you're mistaken. I have started a new game mate, just referring to the fact that I have knowledge about how to deal with a lot of the earlier fights, making them easier to deal with a second time :).

Good to hear.

Gah, now the chronic restarter in me is starting to surface in me as it appears I'm missing out on some sweet stuff by neglecting ease-of-use :p.

Certain features of other strongholds are improved by IA. So, yes, it's a good idea to have the multiple stronghold. The new quests in the mage strognhold can't be played by a non-mage protagonist though. Similarly, the new quests in the ranger stronghold can't be played by a non-ranger. But the improvements applied to the vanilla quests can be seen and played if you have the multiple stronghold.

Finally up to having done all I had previously done in my last game. Things have gone very smooth so far, except the one time where I made the mistake to think I could take on Chaos from the Druids Stronghold quest at level 11ish :p.

I've swapped Minsc for Anomen, simply didn't feel Jaheira as an R/C could cut it by herself, so my Berserker I had planned to dual to thief at 13 became my Tank instead. with a 93 point roll he does that a lot better than Minsc did anyway :heh:.

Doing De'Arnise keep now and just killed the Greater Yuan-Ti, so I'm ready to forge FoA, which Anomen will be using. The Yuan-Ti was fairly manageable this time around knowing how to get the protections down and disable it. And with a combo of Shield of Harmony, Potions of Clarification and a couple of Chaotic Commands, the spider wasn't too bad either. Now Torgal awaits.
Still have my potion of resurgence, which I bet I'm going to be using in that fight.
Only thing I'm going to save is probably the keep Viper. That is one nasty bugger (no clue how the heck I got it last time). Only had one attempt where I managed to get it to Near death using Oil of Resurgence, armor of faith, holy might and haste on my Vagrant also having transfered a couple of +2 prot rings, a +1 necklace and the helm of balduran to my Vagrant using him to tank it. It wasn't enough though, as soon as the oils duration ended my vagrant got his ass handed.

Cleared Bodhi's lair (and took out Pai'Na as well), Tanova was quite the challenge! Was she upgraded for version 5? didn't recall having that many troubles last time.
Went for Torgal afterwards. He really had me frustrated at some point because he would summon so many creatures that they would block the doorway so I couldn't retreat from his storm of vengeance :mad: (Note to self: bring death spells next time!). In fact that happened continuously, so in the end I decided that enough was enough:

loaded all my frontliners with the 4 fire giant strength potions and 4 oils of resurgence I had left and simply just took him in an all-out assault spamming breach non-stop. he was down before he could even cast his first storm. Afterwards the golem and trolls was a small matter, I simply just threw rays of fragment and meleed the bugger down (root of the problem and FoA)... I still somewhat regret having to resort to using those expensive potions on all my front liners, I was just a little tired of having to rely on luck to interrupt his storm or loosing 1-2 each time he threw it because the summons was blocking the doorway.

Suffice to say I was very relieved when the bugger finally went down and I still had all my members standing. And despite the frustration at times it really just made the victory all the sweeter :).

I'm pretty well off. I have some 140k GPs and my party is 12ish. Considering purchasing some weapons seeing as I haven't really got anything noteworthy but FoA.

Now awaits the slaver ship and the planar sphere!

Meh, of course I made the big mistake to rush through the Fighter Stronghold quest, and now I'm getting my ass handed by lord Roenall and his goons; and the only save (besides quick and auto saves just prior to the battle itself) I have is right before going to Bodhi's Lair :bad: :doh:. Don't think I really stand a chance at beat him at this point, especially given the fact that I haven't really got any access to purchase potions and I cannot sleep to try out different buffing combinations 'cus then he'll breach the walls.

1- Yes, Tanova is improved in v5.

2- Lord Roenal's battle takes place several weeks after defeating TorGal. What were you doing during this long period of time? :)

Heh, I was just sleeping :p. I usually do the stronghold quests this way to get 'em over with so I don't have to concern myself with them anymore. I had just forgotten that Lord Roenal was improved :doh:.

Okay, back on track, cleared the keep and the lair one more time and just done the lillacor quest. It wasn't too much of a problem, but then again my party is level 12 now.

Not sure if this is a bug, but the glowing pool isn't that supposed to be invisible (http://www.sorcerers2.net/outbreak/screenshots/lillacor.jpg)? seems a little odd with a guy standing in the middle of it :p.

Okay, back on track, cleared the keep and the lair one more time and just done the lillacor quest. It wasn't too much of a problem, but then again my party is level 12 now.


If your recycle bin was protected (Norton Protected for example), you could alternatively retrieve a deleted saved game from your recycle bin. I'm sure it's doable unless you have overwritten the desired saved game over and over again and a long time is passed.

Not sure if this is a bug, but the glowing pool isn't that supposed to be invisible (http://www.sorcerers2.net/outbreak/screenshots/lillacor.jpg)? seems a little odd with a guy standing in the middle of it :p.

Yes, it's a vanilla game issue. See this post (http://forums.blackwyrmlair.net/index.php?s=&showtopic=2751&view=findpost&p=27105).

I've overwritten the games so there's nothing I can do, but it wasn't that bad, I only had to smack Torgal and Bodhi again, and I'm actually past where I was before now, so no problems :).

Yes, it's a vanilla game issue. See this post.

Okay, didn't think it was IA related either seeing as as far as I could see you hadn't touched him or his dialogue. My problem deviate slightly from Shaitans in that I didn't dispel his invisibility, he was just visible.

jeebus, you now have the slaver wizard joining the battle with the captain as well :jawdrop:. Guess I'll have to purchase yet another load of potions.

EDIT: Got the bastards :D.

Had loaded anomen, jaheira, my zerker and my vagrant with frost giant strength potions, oils of resurgence and jaheira with a magic protection potion. Improved haste and the usual buffs on the party and prot from fire on jaheira. Immediately went for haigan with all but Anomen who stayed to protect Jan and my sorc from assassins. As soon as the mage entered I had Jaheira go occupy him. She had Root of the problem to hit through his skin. When the captain died Anomen joined Jaheira with FoA while the rest took the priest and then cleared the guards afterwards. man what an epic fight! it was total chaos :shake:.

Just smoked Lavok..

Took a whole lot of metagaming to get the bugger down this time as I had to figure out how many ruby rays, breaches, etc. he had and more importantly WHEN he was going to throw them :p. Last time I recall having had a scroll of ruby ray myself and just straight smacking him down. It was really nerve-wrecking just standing there waiting for his SI:A to wear off so I could take down the fire shields! I'm just glad he didn't have the chance to start his dreaded time stop/energy blades combo on the last attempt. Was pretty much what was owning my party over and over again.

Now I need a break :p.

EDIT: Decided to go for the Demon Plane as well, went pretty smooth this time :).