BTL Spellhold Encounter Feedback **SPOILING**

[Zyraen]

I'm not sure if anyone has played to this point in the Mod, but if so, would like to hear feedback on the Spellhold Encounter and the ensuing encounter not too far after that

Look / Feel? Positioning? Difficulty? Quality of Dialogue? etc etc...

[Alyth]

I've just recently completed the Spellhold encounter. It was a fair challenge, considering I had mainly spellcasters in my party, with Kiyone being the only fighter-type in my group.     I think I would have had an easier time if I'd taken a little bit more time to level up. My party wasn't at the levels I generally try to have them before going to Spellhold. Dialogue was fine. Difficulty is also fine for coming out of Spellhold. Actually, I had to do it twice. The first time, I'd forgotten to rest the party and Kharen alone took out most of my party.     I can see why you just had the one Cowled Enforcer with her. She doesn't need much help. So far, so good.       Keep up the good work.

[Zyraen]

Thank you for the feedback Glad you liked it.

That's odd - there should always be 3 Cowlies with her, at least, with 2 closer to the party and 1 on near to her. Did you get that or did 2 Cowlies not show up? (the type of Cowlies that show up though, are XP dependant)

BTW thanks for the note about Kharen I was a little worried she'd be too tough because I sort of wrote her AI Script myself (I weakened it from the original, which was used for Kova, actually ^^;;. In future I have some voicing for her as well.. well.. because I think she's cool, I guess ^^;;

Just some notes on her - how did she come across in her dialogue, her personality and its effect on the player? Did she backstab, were the attacks effective (bar stoneskin etc in effect)?

PS : Off a side note, if you haven't completed most of the BTL Alpha Quests you may want to CLUAConsole to mainland to continue, or to check out their interjections for other Quests.

[Alyth]

That's odd - there should always be 3 Cowlies with her, at least, with 2 closer to the party and 1 on near to her. Did you get that or did 2 Cowlies not show up? (the type of Cowlies that show up though, are XP dependant)

No, there was only one Cowlie with her and he appeared behind the party. My party was around level 11-12.

Just some notes on her - how did she come across in her dialogue, her personality and its effect on the player? Did she backstab, were the attacks effective (bar stoneskin etc in effect)?

She did all her shielding (stoneskin, minor globe of invulnerability, etc.) She didn't do any backstabbing. She was too busy firing off fireballs. She might have if she'd run out of spells, but during the whole battle, she didn't run out of spells, not that it lasted long after I figured out how to get past her shields. She managed to kill a few of my party members, even those with really good AC. Personality-wise, she seemed okay.She didn't say much about who Kova was supposed to have taken from her which I gathered was supposed to be purposely vague in order to try to convince the PC to hand him over or, if they refused, to plant doubts about his innocence. Good job on that.   The discussion between Kova and Kiyone about Kova's innocence triggered immediately after the battle. So far, it's great! :wink: Already tackled the Saughin city.  Next up: The Underdark! :

[Zyraen]

Ah ok I'll need to check about the number of Cowlies and stuff, run some tests on her AI and effects.

Then was there any encounter following that, in Brynnlaw, btw? How was that?

If you read the Readme, the Mod's content ends after Sahuagin City ^^;; now might a good time to stop, or CLUAConsole:MoveToArea to a place to continue the Mod, before Moving back to Underdark / Sahuagin City to finish the Mod content when an update or the Beta has been released.

[Alyth]

Then was there any encounter following that, in Brynnlaw, btw? How was that?

Uh-oh, how on earth did I manage to miss that? Unless you're talking about getting off Brynnlaw? :? Probably the roundabout path I took. I'll see if I have a saved file close to there and see what I can do. If not, well, I was thinking about starting another file, anyways.

[Alyth]

Then was there any encounter following that, in Brynnlaw, btw? How was that?

Did you mean the Shadow thief wizard?  :?  I walked right past her without her saying much of anything, that's why I didn't think much about her. Let me try that again with a different file and I'll get back to you. It could be something else interfereing. Don't worry about it for now. If it happens a second time, then you can fix it.

Btw, who did you have lined up for Kiyone's voice? Just curious.

[Zyraen]

Currently I have 2 voicers, which I'm waiting to see who will finish with her first. One is Capt Immort and the other is Ashalind.

The ST Mage should have spoken immediately to you, so there may be some problem with the script I have for her...

CRAP. I tested the encounters quite a few many times too back to fixing.

[Alyth]

The ST Mage should have spoken immediately to you, so there may be some problem with the script I have for her...

Well, she did speak. She said, "Pardon the intrusion. I'm looking for someone." That was it. Like I said, don't worry about it until I run through it a second time. It never takes me long to get to Spellhold, anyway.  So worry about other things and let me run through it once more, okay?

[Zyraen]

Just to let you guys know, the Shadow Thief Mage has been fixed on my version, as well as warping in my foes. I've also since provided a DM-like warning prior to the encounter before that.

Meantime, if anyone would like to discuss tactics for dealing with the encounter before that, feel free to post here Let's just say that this encounter is not meant to be easy, BUT Parts 5 & 6 could well be considered *harder*.

[Princeps]

Did the Kharen encounter with my 11-13 lvl party.

Dialogue worked fine. Good options, good writing, as generally in the mod.

K was accompanied by all 3 cowlies, so that worked as well.

The battle itself? Well, hard battles are really not my thing...

After the first, 'lets-charge-and-hope-for-the-best' attempt proved a complete and utter failure in seconds, I decided to use A TACTIC. That took care of the cowlies. Then we got a nice lesson in how intelligent AI works as Kharen showed off her repertoire. Spontaneous applauds from my party and a few more reloads. She did backstab. This happened rather late in the battle after she fired off 3-4 sunfires in rapid succession. The victim of her backstab was my custom NPC stalker who happens to be immune to backstab, but he took quite a beating anyway. I'm not certain of the exact effects of the backstab, since I was busy running my stalker back into Spellhold again, where the rest of the party waited, hoping that Kharen would follow far enough to run into the snares we had set outside the gate. She did. Perhaps we missed any dying words she might have said that way, but we decided we could live with that (well, it appeared to be the only way we could *live* at all). When we got out again after a few (gulp)s she was good and dead.

BTW, she had no problem seeing my stalker in stealth mode with the cloak of non-detection on, but I suppose there's a good reason for it.

We have just come down to Brynnlaw again, so the rest is silence.

I play by core rules, by the way. Yes, I'm a sissy, I know...

Right, so "Parts 5 & 6 could well be considered *harder*."? Oh, bugger...  : But the rest of you do it on 'insane' with one hand tied behind your backs, I presume...

EDIT:
After having been notified by Zyraen that I had indeed messed up things by killing Kharen I was happy to find that I had a mid-battle savegame to go back to. This time I let my party stay in the same area as Kharen, and her end-of-battle dialogue triggerd as it should, as did the comments from K&K.

[Fantasy]

Did the Kharen encounter with my 11-13 lvl party.

Right, so "Parts 5 & 6 could well be considered *harder*."? Oh, bugger...  : But the rest of you do it on 'insane' with one hand tied behind your backs, I presume...

Heh, I do play it on insane, but it's a bit too difficult to play it with one hand tied behind my back, or without several reloads... Of course, once you start to discover a few good tactics it becomes a lot easier.

[Princeps]

Heh, I do play it on insane, [...]

<joke> Oh, so we're playing on insane, are we? Getting all high and mighty, eh? Well, I'll tell you something... </joke>

Of course, once you start to discover a few good tactics it becomes a lot easier.

'Good tactics'. Hmmm... Naaah. Fireball some sense into them, I say!  :twisted: Or do the old backstab, yeah! OK, so it didn't work - well, run like hell! What? Protection spells? Ah, you mean Stoneskin! Yeah, I use that. :nod: Now, what do you mean, 'Did Minsc teach you battle tactics'...?  

[Zyraen]

Fantasy : You ought to put up the tactics you use to survive Insane Frankly, I probably wouldn't try BTL on Insane myself. Jus too much reloading to be worth my time.

[Undertaker]

Fantasy : You ought to put up the tactics you use to survive Insane Frankly, I probably wouldn't try BTL on Insane myself. Jus too much reloading to be worth my time.

I played BTL on insane, remember :wink: And tactic is simple: traps, traps, tanks, blunts, lot of area spells + I hope it works + OOPS! Kiyone has been backstabbed again=load