Ascension and SCS, ToB bosses components

Satrhan · October 2020

I just finished bg1 with all the scs fixin's, and had a lot of fun with the bosses not being total pushovers anymore. The final battle was very satisfying, had to try three times before I was able to get all the lieutenants down without losing one of my team. Threw a greater mallison on Sarevok, loaded up the single arrow of slaying (I think Item revisions makes it kill anything that fails its save, not just ogres) on my main, and boom, end movie.

Moving on to SoA and ToB, I'm going to be using both SCS and Ascension. Both have components that make the ToB bosses more challenging, and I'm wondering which (if any) to install. The documentation in both is a bit vague on how they will interact. I played through ToB once when it was originally released I think, so I don't have much memory to base the decision on.

I'm going to be playing with all the regular SCS components, on hardcore. I'm looking for some challenge, don't want to go through any of the major bosses thinking they didn't really live up to the hype. But I'm not looking for too punishing, where every boss takes me twenty reloads and requires memorising round for round what is going to happen and what actions are required not to get wiped.

So the options are:
1) Core components of Ascension and SCS, but no improved ToB bosses.
2) Full Ascension and core SCS. Mostly worried about the final fight, where all bosses show up with the improvements.
3) Core Ascension and full SCS. No clue what that does.
4) Full Ascension and full SCS. Seems overkill.
5) Some mixing and matching of components.

Any thoughts from the veterans?

ThacoBell · October 2020

If you've never done it before, be aware that BG2 SCS is MUCH more difficult than BG1 SCS. I went from a full BG1 SCS run to a half component run in BG2. I had to abandon that run.

Ascension should be installed well before SCS, and SCS recognizes it. So if you install Ascension tougher bosses, SCS won't alter the fights themselves (Ascension gives them some twists) but it will apply SCS AI to those fights if you choose that component. Note that Ascension AI is improved from vanilla, so its not strictly mandatory.

Maurvir · October 2020

I will concur on that one - SCS in BG2 is WAY, WAY harder than SCS in BG1. I had all the options turned on in BG1 and barely noticed. In BG2... let's just say it isn't unusual to have fully party wipes if you aren't expecting it.

jmerry · October 2020

Option 6: SCS, in BG2 especially, is very sensitive to the difficulty slider. Turn it down if you're having trouble. Fine-tune specific parts if they're the source. In the current versions, this can all be done in-game. And save regularly, because if you're going to change something's difficulty, you should do it before the fight starts.

As far as compatibility goes, they're by the same modder. Fully compatible, still being regularly updated.

The Ascension boss fights kick the difficulty up a notch, and the last fight is especially challenging. I had one SCS/Ascension run that cleared everything at Insane difficulty, but then had to turn it down to Tactical (Core Rules equivalent) for the final fight. If you skip those components, the Bhaalspawn bosses won't stand out nearly as much.

Satrhan · October 2020

Thanks all, I'm going to try with Ascension's changes and skip SCS's changes to these bits for now. Can always try those on a later run.
@jmerry Good point, I'm planning on playing it on hardcore, but I'm not above lowering the difficulty if it becomes more frustrating than fun.

Ascension and SCS, ToB bosses components

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