Is it true on Enhanced Edition? Mass Invisility gives a cumulative +4 bonus, but neither do Improved Invisibility, Shadow Door or Mislead improve saving throws, nor do they make incoming attacks provide more favorable save requirements? (e.g. a vorpal effect that imposes a -2 penalty, won't end up giving a -2+4 = +2 bonus)
Improved Invisibility also gives a +4 bonus to saving throws (or at least that's what the wiki says). Not sure though if it stacks with itself.
For the fact, Mass Invisibility is actually Mass Improved Invisibility.
EDIT: Just to confirm this, I tested it now in-game with Imoen. Nothing's better than a practical proof.
So Improved Invisibility works as intended, at least in the Enhanced Edition.
Damn, there are so many combat changes between original and enhanced editions. I'm starting to think that the difference is large enough to make it pointless to compare strategies or share advice with someone with a different edition, just like it is between a standard game and an SCS modded one.
Ok, so to sum up, in case I or someone else update the wiki:
Original edition: Mass Invisibility stacks the saving throw bonus. No other invisibility spell grants it.
Enhanced edition: Mass Invisibility doesn't stack the bonus. Improved Invisibility provides it too. I'm guessing Shadow Door, Mislead, and maybe even regular Invisibility provide it as well. Less likely for the latter as it's a different kind of invisibility in the eyes of the Infinity engine. I can't check for any of those anyway.
I doubt bonuses stack between different types of invisibility either in EE, e.g. Improved Invisibility + Mislead (assuming it gives +4) does not give a +8 bonus to saves, I would guess.
Damn, there are so many combat changes between original and enhanced editions. I'm starting to think that the difference is large enough to make it pointless to compare strategies or share advice with someone with a different edition, just like it is between a standard game and an SCS modded one.
Ok, so to sum up, in case I or someone else update the wiki:
Original edition: Mass Invisibility stacks the saving throw bonus. No other invisibility spell grants it.
Enhanced edition: Mass Invisibility doesn't stack the bonus. Improved Invisibility provides it too. I'm guessing Shadow Door, Mislead, and maybe even regular Invisibility provide it as well. Not sure for the latter as it's a different kind of invisibility in the eyes of the Infinity engine.
I doubt bonuses stack between different types of invisibility either in EE, e.g. Improved Invisibility + Mislead (assuming it gives +4) does not give a +8 bonus to saves.
Thanks for the feedback guys.
im pretty sure that in the original game improved invisibility also gave a +4 saving throw bonus for at least bg2, not 100% sure of bg1, but i would almost bet money that bg2 had the bonus
Enhanced edition: Mass Invisibility doesn't stack the bonus. Improved Invisibility provides it too. I'm guessing Shadow Door, Mislead, and maybe even regular Invisibility provide it as well.
No, regular Invisibility doesn't give a saving throw bonus. Shadow Door and Mislead actually put the caster under the "Improved Invisibility effect", so they provide the saving throw bonus just like the Improved Invisibility spell itself.
I doubt bonuses stack between different types of invisibility either in EE, e.g. Improved Invisibility + Mislead (assuming it gives +4) does not give a +8 bonus to saves, I would guess.
I don't think the bonuses would stack, because all those spells just use the same Improved Invisibility effect (along with some additional effects for the respective spells).
Well, I am richer by an unspecified amount then, if BG2:TOB v2.5.26498 counts as original!
Improved invisibility reduces the opponent's thac0 by 4 if he can't see the invisible, but no saving throw is affected, whether on the attacking side or the defending one.
@Rik_Kirtaniya Thank you, so I think with that we've got everything rounded up
Well, I am richer by an unspecified amount then, if BG2:TOB v2.5.26498 counts as original!
Improved invisibility reduces the opponent's thac0 by 4 if he can't see the invisible, but no saving throw is affected, whether on the attacking side or the defending one.
@Rik_Kirtaniya Ok, thank you, I think it's all sorted for both original and enhanced editions now
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, that translation from english to the language you are using in your game ( french perhaps? ) is AMAZING
one of your saving throws is against what looks to be; baguettes as in the french bread?
never have i ever thought in all the realms would it be necessary to be able to save against the most vile and despicable of tasty breads made by the most eviiiiiiiiiil of bakers
Sceptre would be rod, yeah, so the other way around
A sceptre tends to be bigger or heavier, things ending with -ette don't give that kind of feel. A king wielding a baguette would either be ridiculous or about to have lunch
Hahahahaha I just laughed so much too! I never realized that about the french version of the game, I think I didn't play it once since the EE came out. Good one guys, good one.
To sum it up @ProbablyNotANumber , in the EE nothing stacks but everything works. You can't stack Bard's Songs, Blur, Improved Invisibility, Protection from the Elements, etc. But at the same time, all spell descriptions should be accurate, I highly recommend you to play it if you haven't already
Back on topic, my most epic moments in ascending order are probably :
-Annihilating Irenicus with my solo FMT
-Going through ToB blind no-reload with my Blackguard.
-Playing multiplayer no-reload with Julius, Tresset and CrevsDaak, these were really really good times. I remember a time when Julius, who played the Bhaalspawn, got trapped in a Web spell during the Warder battle in the Durlag's Tower, we paused the game and contemplated the scene with horror. The last Warder was about to reach him in melee and chunk him, ending our run. We had no way to save him or to disable that last Dwarf and so I came to the only possibility of saving our game. I ran into the middle of the Web spell, between Julius and the Dwarf, in order to get webbed too and to trick the AI into killing me instead of Julius (the Warder would attack the nearest disabled target), giving him at least a round to make another save vs spell and escape. And it worked. I lost my FMC, as I didn't authorised myself to get resurrected, and our run continued. Making the ultimate sacrifice to save my friend felt so so good and epic.
This is how I remember this at least, it's been 3 years. But yeah, multiplayer no-reload SCS was very very very thrilling and epic (the Bandit Camp ... my god).
Holy Spaghetti monster, it was the most challenging battle I ever fought in any video game.
Ascension's final fight, with Sarevok and Balthazar both in the red team, nobody on the green team, and with the set of rules below. I wish I could record it, but Bandicam slows things down too much.
I had to study and own every nook and cranny of what was going on, but I didn't want to repeat the fight a lot. Partly because I thought it would not be showing respect to the challenge ahead and partly to prevent a "getting old" factor to grow from the repetitiveness. I relied on NearInfinity instead and found interesting approaches I would not have tried out through trial and error. I could discuss them at length but since I'm the only one doing this challenge right now, it's probably not as fun to read and share
Anyway it's done now, I guess I can soon move on from Baldur's Gate and not touch it until 2023 or so! Or maybe BG3 will happen in between?
Rules used, hidden to reduce visual clutter. Character was a Kensai-mage 13/28, with base saving throws of 5/5/6/5/6.
- Solo, insane difficulty
- Start the fight with no buff at all, not even long lasting ones like Stone skin. Don't over-rely on summons besides a simulacrum, so that all enemies are really focused on us. In particular, nothing should be summoned before combat starts, not even a simulacrum.
- Avoid cheesy item such as the always-dispelling Staff of Magi or Carsomyr, the Cloak of Mirroring or Reflection, equipment sending stuff back to the emitter, basically anything fancy except the Robe of Vecna and the Flail of Ages +5, which are admittedly pretty fancy in their own right. No consumable either, not even Wish scrolls. No exploit or cheesy tactics.
- The strategy should be reliable and a sure win, which means resilience to a reasonable amount of mistakes, bad timing, bad luck or detrimental bugs.
- We try to stick to BG2:EE rules, so that the strategy works on both editions. That means no stacking two of the same spell, including elemental resistances, and no relying on oddities that might have been fixed. Reproducibility on the SCS mod is out of scope.
- Clone rules: One first-gen Simulacrum is allowed to fight or support, but can't use consumables either. One first-gen Projected Image with its second-gen Simulacrum can be created, but only for the purpose of casting Wish, and from the spellbook alone. Only exception: They can use Potions of perception if the character doesn't have 18 Wisdom, it's a hindrance anyway as they lose 6 seconds.
Note: In original edition at least, a 1st-gen simulacrum does not benefit from the caster's saving throw bonuses, whether obtained from items or hell trials. That's a significant weakness that has to be covered for because large saving throw penalties are legion in this battle. On the upside, this Kensai-mage's simulacrum is 13/18, which means it has one level 9 spell and good melee capabilities. For dual class, the formula that defines a simulacrum's mage level is Round[MageLevel - (OldClassLevel+MageLevel)/4]
1. Bork-My Barbarian Dwarf who dual wielded war hammers 2. Edwin 3. Safana 4. M'Khinn 5. Voghiln 6. Corwin
We had managed to dispatch all of Belhefit's minions with relative ease, leaving only Hephernaan and the devil himself.
Very quickly, Safana was chunked into oblivion and the rest of my party members began dropping like flies until the only two left were me and Voghiln (plus Caelar). Voghiln was pretty beat up but with one last mighty swing he managed to fell Hephernaan before being incinerated by Behelfit leaving only Bork and Caelar.
Bork and Caelar fought tooth and nail, Bork occasionally retreating to drink a potion or three before casting another Barbarian Rage before going into battle.
By the end, I had used all my rage and Caelar was swinging her sword mightily and Belhefit was Badly Injuried and I thought the fight to be won.
But alas! Belhefit began gating in the devils!
Though we fought bravely (Caelar even managed to kill one and get a 2nd one to Near Death), Belhefit summoned a 3rd foe and tore Caelar into chunks as well before he descended on me.
With naught but half health, I charged forward with Bork in hopes of a phyrric victory but my three foes were too much for the exhausted dwarf and his mighty hammers.
Though Belhefit felt the sting of Sundermal and reached the edge of death, Bork rolled one last hit before he too fell to the darkness.
Tis a heroic last stand fit for a bards song, but in the end it was evil that won that day.
I hate those vampires that lower Con instead of draining levels. Every time I forget about that and send my enraged Barbarian to die. Not fun. :< Ad rem: 1. I remember defeating solo Coldhearth with my rebalanced Wizard Slayer without using that dwarven thingy. Well, it wasn't solo run, but I had my party hidden in one of the other rooms, and my Charname did all the work. He was one of my favourites - I changed his appearence to rogue silhoutte because I wanted more specialist look on my slayer instead of typical warrior. I found out that using heavy armour reverses your look to warrior anyway, so I played with self-imposed limiation to chainmail. Anyway, it was fierce battle, since lich didn't hesitate to lower my MR, forcing Charname to fall back, use potions, kite, trigger lich's defenses, and so on. Finally lich was out of spells and I shot him down with my trusted crossbow. 2. My last battle with Shadow Dragon was pretty epic - mostly because I was decided to come back later in the game. I was relatively low level, had only access to 5 level spells, and took prior to doing quest took Anomen and Mazzy to party just for interaction and dialogue, so they had no gear. Also - I used SCS to give them much more HP, and Shadow Dragon had almost 600 HP. But I thought "eh, let's give it a try", fully expecting to be decimated, so my only buffs were Resist Fear and Haste. Fight started with dragon casting PfMW, but Adrian (mod-NPC mage/priest) managed to Breach it - and it was last thing he did before getting drained. Same thing happenned with Anomen (despite his boasting), so I lost both arcane and divine support. As usual, warriors had to complete the job. Thankfully, my barbarian had elephant figurine (it's mod item, I believe). Elephant figurine boosts your damage resistance by 65%, by halves your movement speed. Charname already had innate 15% resistance, so it was raised in total to glorious 80%. Luckily dragon focused on barbarian, and they went toe-to-toe in melee. It took some time, but finally I killed the beast.
Ok so I was in Candlekeep Catacombs during my ongoing no-reload run, breezing through everything (I'm Level 7 so everyone in here is a piece of cake) when I suddenly spring a web trap. I managed to kill the Spiders but lost Neera in the process.
This is when I immediately realize that I have no Potions of Mirrored Eyes and without Neera I can't cast Protection from Petrification
Quickly I gathered my thoughts and came up with a solution that would hopefully fix my problem. I fitted Ajantis with the Cloak of Protection +2, Adoy's Belt and a Potion of Storm Giant Strength (He also already had on Boots of Speed). I then cast Defensive Harmony, Chant and Bless just to be safe and finally had Ajantis chug a Potion of Invulnerability just to be safe.
I started the battle by having Ajantis throw a Potion of Explosion. He took the brunt of the damage by managed to hit the Basilisks, I then had Ajantis charge in and give the Basilisks everything he had and he managed to tank them in just over three rounds very nearly being turned to stone on several occasions.
When everything was said and done my heart was racing faster than it had in a very long time and I was quite proud of myself as well as Ajantis.
A Paladin 7 with a +2 protection item, Adoy's Belt, and a Potion of Invulnerability saves vs. petrification on a -3. Basilisk gaze attacks have a -4 to save against, so ... you were completely safe against the petrification attacks. There are no critical failures for saves in the BG series. It may have felt epic, but it was actually just good play.
@jmerry
I'm still proud of myself for coming up with that on the fly. It turns out taking a detour earlier to complete Neera's sidequest ended up saving my no-reload run.
Comments
For the fact, Mass Invisibility is actually Mass Improved Invisibility.
EDIT: Just to confirm this, I tested it now in-game with Imoen. Nothing's better than a practical proof.
So Improved Invisibility works as intended, at least in the Enhanced Edition.
So, no becoming invincible with super negative saving throws.
Ok, so to sum up, in case I or someone else update the wiki:
Original edition: Mass Invisibility stacks the saving throw bonus. No other invisibility spell grants it.
Enhanced edition: Mass Invisibility doesn't stack the bonus. Improved Invisibility provides it too. I'm guessing Shadow Door, Mislead, and maybe even regular Invisibility provide it as well. Less likely for the latter as it's a different kind of invisibility in the eyes of the Infinity engine. I can't check for any of those anyway.
I doubt bonuses stack between different types of invisibility either in EE, e.g. Improved Invisibility + Mislead (assuming it gives +4) does not give a +8 bonus to saves, I would guess.
Thanks for the feedback guys.
Improved invisibility reduces the opponent's thac0 by 4 if he can't see the invisible, but no saving throw is affected, whether on the attacking side or the defending one.
@Rik_Kirtaniya Thank you, so I think with that we've got everything rounded up
one of your saving throws is against what looks to be; baguettes as in the french bread?
never have i ever thought in all the realms would it be necessary to be able to save against the most vile and despicable of tasty breads made by the most eviiiiiiiiiil of bakers
That's conveniently where the name of that type of bread comes from. Would you have preferred we call it chibre ?? Would it really taste better ?
...
HAHAHHAHAHAHHAHHAHA
and i just got the joke with chibre, nice hahaha
A sceptre tends to be bigger or heavier, things ending with -ette don't give that kind of feel. A king wielding a baguette would either be ridiculous or about to have lunch
To sum it up @ProbablyNotANumber , in the EE nothing stacks but everything works. You can't stack Bard's Songs, Blur, Improved Invisibility, Protection from the Elements, etc. But at the same time, all spell descriptions should be accurate, I highly recommend you to play it if you haven't already
Back on topic, my most epic moments in ascending order are probably :
-Annihilating Irenicus with my solo FMT
-Going through ToB blind no-reload with my Blackguard.
-Playing multiplayer no-reload with Julius, Tresset and CrevsDaak, these were really really good times. I remember a time when Julius, who played the Bhaalspawn, got trapped in a Web spell during the Warder battle in the Durlag's Tower, we paused the game and contemplated the scene with horror. The last Warder was about to reach him in melee and chunk him, ending our run. We had no way to save him or to disable that last Dwarf and so I came to the only possibility of saving our game. I ran into the middle of the Web spell, between Julius and the Dwarf, in order to get webbed too and to trick the AI into killing me instead of Julius (the Warder would attack the nearest disabled target), giving him at least a round to make another save vs spell and escape. And it worked. I lost my FMC, as I didn't authorised myself to get resurrected, and our run continued. Making the ultimate sacrifice to save my friend felt so so good and epic.
This is how I remember this at least, it's been 3 years. But yeah, multiplayer no-reload SCS was very very very thrilling and epic (the Bandit Camp ... my god).
IWD2 eh? I keep forgetting this forum is for more than just Baldur's Gate.
My favorite French word is quatre-vign-dixhuit (98, pronounced "kahtra-vah-deez-weet").
Ascension's final fight, with Sarevok and Balthazar both in the red team, nobody on the green team, and with the set of rules below. I wish I could record it, but Bandicam slows things down too much.
I had to study and own every nook and cranny of what was going on, but I didn't want to repeat the fight a lot. Partly because I thought it would not be showing respect to the challenge ahead and partly to prevent a "getting old" factor to grow from the repetitiveness. I relied on NearInfinity instead and found interesting approaches I would not have tried out through trial and error. I could discuss them at length but since I'm the only one doing this challenge right now, it's probably not as fun to read and share
Anyway it's done now, I guess I can soon move on from Baldur's Gate and not touch it until 2023 or so! Or maybe BG3 will happen in between?
Rules used, hidden to reduce visual clutter. Character was a Kensai-mage 13/28, with base saving throws of 5/5/6/5/6.
- Start the fight with no buff at all, not even long lasting ones like Stone skin. Don't over-rely on summons besides a simulacrum, so that all enemies are really focused on us. In particular, nothing should be summoned before combat starts, not even a simulacrum.
- Avoid cheesy item such as the always-dispelling Staff of Magi or Carsomyr, the Cloak of Mirroring or Reflection, equipment sending stuff back to the emitter, basically anything fancy except the Robe of Vecna and the Flail of Ages +5, which are admittedly pretty fancy in their own right. No consumable either, not even Wish scrolls. No exploit or cheesy tactics.
- The strategy should be reliable and a sure win, which means resilience to a reasonable amount of mistakes, bad timing, bad luck or detrimental bugs.
- We try to stick to BG2:EE rules, so that the strategy works on both editions. That means no stacking two of the same spell, including elemental resistances, and no relying on oddities that might have been fixed. Reproducibility on the SCS mod is out of scope.
- Clone rules: One first-gen Simulacrum is allowed to fight or support, but can't use consumables either. One first-gen Projected Image with its second-gen Simulacrum can be created, but only for the purpose of casting Wish, and from the spellbook alone. Only exception: They can use Potions of perception if the character doesn't have 18 Wisdom, it's a hindrance anyway as they lose 6 seconds.
Note: In original edition at least, a 1st-gen simulacrum does not benefit from the caster's saving throw bonuses, whether obtained from items or hell trials. That's a significant weakness that has to be covered for because large saving throw penalties are legion in this battle. On the upside, this Kensai-mage's simulacrum is 13/18, which means it has one level 9 spell and good melee capabilities.
For dual class, the formula that defines a simulacrum's mage level is Round[MageLevel - (OldClassLevel+MageLevel)/4]
My party consisted of
1. Bork-My Barbarian Dwarf who dual wielded war hammers
2. Edwin
3. Safana
4. M'Khinn
5. Voghiln
6. Corwin
We had managed to dispatch all of Belhefit's minions with relative ease, leaving only Hephernaan and the devil himself.
Very quickly, Safana was chunked into oblivion and the rest of my party members began dropping like flies until the only two left were me and Voghiln (plus Caelar). Voghiln was pretty beat up but with one last mighty swing he managed to fell Hephernaan before being incinerated by Behelfit leaving only Bork and Caelar.
Bork and Caelar fought tooth and nail, Bork occasionally retreating to drink a potion or three before casting another Barbarian Rage before going into battle.
By the end, I had used all my rage and Caelar was swinging her sword mightily and Belhefit was Badly Injuried and I thought the fight to be won.
But alas! Belhefit began gating in the devils!
Though we fought bravely (Caelar even managed to kill one and get a 2nd one to Near Death), Belhefit summoned a 3rd foe and tore Caelar into chunks as well before he descended on me.
With naught but half health, I charged forward with Bork in hopes of a phyrric victory but my three foes were too much for the exhausted dwarf and his mighty hammers.
Though Belhefit felt the sting of Sundermal and reached the edge of death, Bork rolled one last hit before he too fell to the darkness.
Tis a heroic last stand fit for a bards song, but in the end it was evil that won that day.
Thank the gods for Power Word: Reload
In a similar vein I completly forgot that Sunray did so much damage.
It almost seems unfair, but so in this encounter so I guess it's fair game.
Ad rem:
1. I remember defeating solo Coldhearth with my rebalanced Wizard Slayer without using that dwarven thingy. Well, it wasn't solo run, but I had my party hidden in one of the other rooms, and my Charname did all the work. He was one of my favourites - I changed his appearence to rogue silhoutte because I wanted more specialist look on my slayer instead of typical warrior. I found out that using heavy armour reverses your look to warrior anyway, so I played with self-imposed limiation to chainmail. Anyway, it was fierce battle, since lich didn't hesitate to lower my MR, forcing Charname to fall back, use potions, kite, trigger lich's defenses, and so on. Finally lich was out of spells and I shot him down with my trusted crossbow.
2. My last battle with Shadow Dragon was pretty epic - mostly because I was decided to come back later in the game. I was relatively low level, had only access to 5 level spells, and took prior to doing quest took Anomen and Mazzy to party just for interaction and dialogue, so they had no gear. Also - I used SCS to give them much more HP, and Shadow Dragon had almost 600 HP. But I thought "eh, let's give it a try", fully expecting to be decimated, so my only buffs were Resist Fear and Haste. Fight started with dragon casting PfMW, but Adrian (mod-NPC mage/priest) managed to Breach it - and it was last thing he did before getting drained. Same thing happenned with Anomen (despite his boasting), so I lost both arcane and divine support. As usual, warriors had to complete the job. Thankfully, my barbarian had elephant figurine (it's mod item, I believe). Elephant figurine boosts your damage resistance by 65%, by halves your movement speed. Charname already had innate 15% resistance, so it was raised in total to glorious 80%. Luckily dragon focused on barbarian, and they went toe-to-toe in melee. It took some time, but finally I killed the beast.
Boy have I got a story for you guys!
Ok so I was in Candlekeep Catacombs during my ongoing no-reload run, breezing through everything (I'm Level 7 so everyone in here is a piece of cake) when I suddenly spring a web trap. I managed to kill the Spiders but lost Neera in the process.
This is when I immediately realize that I have no Potions of Mirrored Eyes and without Neera I can't cast Protection from Petrification
Quickly I gathered my thoughts and came up with a solution that would hopefully fix my problem. I fitted Ajantis with the Cloak of Protection +2, Adoy's Belt and a Potion of Storm Giant Strength (He also already had on Boots of Speed). I then cast Defensive Harmony, Chant and Bless just to be safe and finally had Ajantis chug a Potion of Invulnerability just to be safe.
I started the battle by having Ajantis throw a Potion of Explosion. He took the brunt of the damage by managed to hit the Basilisks, I then had Ajantis charge in and give the Basilisks everything he had and he managed to tank them in just over three rounds very nearly being turned to stone on several occasions.
When everything was said and done my heart was racing faster than it had in a very long time and I was quite proud of myself as well as Ajantis.
A toast to Ajantis!
I'm still proud of myself for coming up with that on the fly. It turns out taking a detour earlier to complete Neera's sidequest ended up saving my no-reload run.
Stunning Sarevok with the Wand of Paralyzation first try in my no reload run. Felt pretty good to just wail on him.
Hopefully my luck in SOD will continue.