No Shadow Armor on Mae'Var

JuliusBorisov

An interesting find, I think. I'm amazed there has been no similar topic. This is what I'd like to share with you:

During my latest run with an assassin charname in BG2:EE with the SCS mod installed I've just completed the Find evidence against Mae'Var quest.

The 6th stage of this quest is the Elimination of Mae'Var's guild. According to various resources (http://www.sorcerers.net/Games/BG2/Walkthrough2/SoA/chapter-2/quests/class-thief-find-evidence-against-maevar.php , http://www.essortment.com/shadow-armor-baldurs-gate-2-110490.html , http://mikesrpgcenter.com/bgate2/armor/armor.html#shadowarmor) and to my memory as well, one could always find the Shadow Armor on the Mae'Var's coupse.

But for me it wasn't the case. No Shadow Armor dropped by Mae'Var.

This problem is also mentioned by @Pblack‌ (http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/31177/shadow-armor-in-scs-missing ) and is discussed here: http://forums.gibberlings3.net/index.php?showtopic=26322

I have no mods except the SCS installed but it seems this mod has nothing to do with the Shadow Armor. So, this seems to be a change in BG2:EE.

Not a big deal, of course, because the Nights Gift +5 (AC 3, +20% to Hide in Shadows) that is given by Minister Lloyd in the Mayor's House in the Umar Hills after the Deaths in the Umar Hills quest, is better than the Shadow Armor (AC 4, +15% Hide in Shadows).

P.S. Also, although Renal Bloodscalp gave me 10,500 GP and offered me to take over the Mae'Var's guild, he didn't give me the Short Sword of Backstabbing.

P.P.S. I'm currently a little bit away from my usual activity here but I've been able to play BG a little bit and thought I should share this with all of you.

Tresset

It wasn't changed, so Mae'Var should have dropped it. I would try fighting him in an unmodded game and if he drops the armor then it may be the SCS.

If you are a thief then Renal will offer you the gold and the guild as your reward instead of the sword. If you say no to the guild he still gives you the sword.

Troodon80

What Tresset said. I've also just tried it and he does drop the armour in an un-modded game. The only advise would be to not just uninstall the mods, but actually start fresh (clear the override folder, then delete the appropriate .beam and .status files, run the client and repair the installation) and start a new game. If it still does it, then you can report it as a bug. If it only does it with mods, then I would suggest asking/reporting it to the mod author. After doing a quick search, I haven't found anything reporting about the missing armour, but that's not to say there is nothing out there.

xzar_monty

I've got SCS and plenty of other stuff as well. He did drop it.

Troodon80

@bengoshi, I don't suppose you happen to have a save game from prior to killing Mae'Var?

bbear

Doesnt SCS (or Tactics) remove the Shadow Armor from his armor slot in order to enable his spell casting abilities? Try pickpocket him first (require 250+ pickpocket skills).

I recall pickpocketing all MavVar's thieves in Tactics before the fight. Those thieves couldnt drink invisibility potions afterward.

simples

what's weird is that mae'var is actually a mage/thief with a reasonable spellbook. why would he even wear armour?

DreadKhan

Did you notice the crazy? Cuz hes kinda batsh-stuff, er, bat stuff crazy. Hes almost xzar level crazy.

Aerakar

@JuliusBorisov , this just happened also in my game. Did you ever resolve this? I am running SCS, tweaks Anthology, and Rogue Rebalancing as current mods.

Does the armor drop or appear elsewhere in the game? And did you succeed in pickpocketing the armor before he goes hostile?

JuliusBorisov

I think I just consoled the armor in.

Aerakar

I eventually felt cheated by this armor not dropping as intended and used EE Keeper to add it to my inventory.

Artona

I ctrl+q'd SCS Mae'var to my party. He is mage/thief and has no armor. I don't recall him dropping Shadow Armor in vanilla game (it's been a while since I played it), but it makes sense that he doesn't have one.

Aerakar

@Artona is this an EE change perhaps, or in fact SCS? All the old guides also say that he drops shadow armor (prior to EE).

Aerakar

And if does not drop it, where is it now in the game, either in EE or with SCS?

JuliusBorisov

This is an SCS change.

Troodon80 said:

I've also just tried it and he does drop the armour in an un-modded game.

Mae'var should have that armor in both un-modded BG2 and un-modded BG2:EE.

I've just looked in the Near Infinity (really, everyone should use it to find stuff about items, characters and dialogues). Mae'Var doesn't have this item with SCS installed.



After that I've searched for the Shadow armor (LEAT08.ITM) in my current SCS install.



All of those NPCs have Flags (Not stealable(1) Undroppable(3) ) for the Shadow armor. Except for: Renal - he only has the Flag (Not stealable(1), so it should be dropped; and CSGAYL (but it's the assassin from the famous cutscene who says "We know of your treachery, Irenicus! Where have you taken our brethren?!").

Thus, you can try to kill Renal for that armor in SCS (which can only be done in certain circumstances).

UnderstandMouseMagic

@JuliusBorisov

Bit confused by the above post, who's saying what and "near infinity" I have no idea how to use it.
So to keep it simple here is my question.

Last night I killed Mar Vae he dropped the armour, I have SCS installed.
Is that meant to happen or not?

Lord_Tansheron

UnderstandMouseMagic said:

Last night I killed Mar Vae he dropped the armour, I have SCS installed.
Is that meant to happen or not?

Meant to happen as in that is how the mod seems to work right now, yes.

However it is unclear whether the mod removing the armor off Mae'var is actually intended by design, or some strange oversight. Only @DavidW can answer that.

JuliusBorisov

Near Infinity is a program which lets you read game files. https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/30593/new-versions-of-nearinfinity-available#latest

As for dropping/not dropping the armor - it depends on which SCS components you have installed, i.e. are Mae'Var and his encounter changed by SCS or not.

Aerakar

He did not drop it in my SCS install, nor was it possible to pickpocket the armor before he turned hostile.

I also use the improved shadow thieves component from Rogue Rebalancing by the way.

UnderstandMouseMagic

@Lord_Tansheron and @JuliusBorisov

Thank you for the answers.

Reason I asked is that my installation is all over the place, that I know. And I'm really not capable of managing things and doing the necessary steps to clear it all up (downloading a clean install of the game and knowing where to put it, then starting from there, uninstalling SCS and other mods from all over the place ect.)

For instance I've lost the ROV because the merchant Deidre doesn't turn up even after I tried to correct that component. So just have to live without it.

SomeSort

It looks like:
1. If Mae'Var is a M/T, he shouldn't have the armor, which makes sense because a mage couldn't cast spells in it anyway.
2. If Mae'Var is a plain Thief, he should have the armor

@UnderstandMouseMagic since Mae'Var dropped the armor in your install, I'd guess he was not a M/T. Does that square?

ThacoBell

SomeSort said:

It looks like:
1. If Mae'Var is a M/T, he shouldn't have the armor, which makes sense because a mage couldn't cast spells in it anyway.
2. If Mae'Var is a plain Thief, he should have the armor

@UnderstandMouseMagic since Mae'Var dropped the armor in your install, I'd guess he was not a M/T. Does that square?

Pretty sure Mae'Var is a mage/thief in vanilla and EE. He also always drops the shadow armor for me. I don't use SCS or the thief kit tweaks of RR.

UnderstandMouseMagic

SomeSort said:

It looks like:
1. If Mae'Var is a M/T, he shouldn't have the armor, which makes sense because a mage couldn't cast spells in it anyway.
2. If Mae'Var is a plain Thief, he should have the armor

@UnderstandMouseMagic since Mae'Var dropped the armor in your install, I'd guess he was not a M/T. Does that square?

Nah, he had loads of spells.
Would have thought it's more straightforward that he did as players do, carries the armour in his backpack for some encounters, wears it in others.
Drops the lot when dead.

SomeSort

You guys are jerks ruining a perfectly sound theory with all your "data" and "observations".

UnderstandMouseMagic

SomeSort said:

You guys are jerks ruining a perfectly sound theory with all your "data" and "observations".

Sorry.

Though you have "won" the discussion in the Nalia/Imoen thread based on......"data" and "observations".

So you see, we can do it too....sometimes...as long as there are no figures involved.

Aerakar

No definitive answer even still unless I am reading posts wrongly.

That means I am still ok ethically with my EE-keepering of the shadow armor into my bounty hunter's inventory (at least until convinced this is unintended behavior with/without SCS/RR)

ThacoBell

@Aerakar Maevar SHOULD drop the shadow armor. I suspect that something in your mod setup is causing the issue.

Aasim

He drops it if you have Item Revisions installed (there it allows castzing). w/o IR, Mae'var can't cast spells while wearing it, so SCS deliberately takes it away. Probably @DavidW should give him the armor in an inventory slot.