SCS - Post-install, is there a way to remove HLAs from enemy spellcasters?

Temariel

Hi,

According to the SCS readme, a certain amount of fine tuning is possible post-install. However, it does not say specifically whether or not I can change options relating HLAs and I have found no way to do it so far. Does anybody know if there is a way to do this?

I have no complaints about SCS. I installed SCS through BWS and must have accidently opted into the option to give enemy spellcasters HLAs. Now I have the lich and Irenicus in spellhold summoning dark planetars. I'm playing on insane difficulty. I managed to beat the lich, but half way through the fight with Irenicus he just decides to sunfire > dragon breath > summon dark planetar > comet. Not a lot I can do against a dark planetar apparently, at least not at my current level. Here, feel my pain:

BallpointMan

While I cannot provide an answer (I dont know if you can remove the HLA aspect easily, I'm guessing you cannot) - I can commiserate. I think this might be the single most challenging fight in the entire game.

I recall the first time I "won", I ended up getting my entire party wiped out by the dark planetar, save the Charname. I think I lived by making him invisible (doesnt fool the Planetar, just everyone else), chugging a potion of speed and using the boots of speed to "kite" it around in circles until it despawned (Which takes forever, it feels like).

If you're already prepared to deactivate mods, have you considered using the console? A quick ctrl y on the Planetar should make things more manageable... although his other HLA's are still going to be an issue.

xzar_monty

I've had this exact same fight, too. I survived the dark planetar by having it chase one my characters around. Ultimately it disappears, as summoned creatures do. Very annoying, but it worked.

At these levels, you are unlikely to beat it fairly.

InKal

If you have "no difficulty damage increased" checked, there is no difference between insane and core rules.
Personally, I always play on "core", with all hardest components of SCS installed. With this setup the minimum party level for this fight to be reasonably smooth is 13 but you need to have some high level scrolls (I would recommend lvl 15, mage/sorc with 7lvl spells really helps). I found his comet equally annoying as Planetar or even more (almost always insta-chunk, even Korgan is not safe).

Imo you need to have some serious hacking skillz if you want to edit HLAs, especially without messing up the scripts. I'm guessing that you must edit all Irenicus AI scripts and somewhat replace HLAs with "normal" spells. If you just only remove the HLAs from .cre file (or .2da most likely, or something) your game will simply crash probably.
My modding "knowledge", sorry....

I would recommend lowering difficulty. In my opinion "HLAs for spellcasters" is essential tactical component, without it installed the game is too easy.