Now, let us keep on topic.
Here are a few additional ideas for the revision of the Five. These aren't really technical changes like most of the ideas listed above, they are meant to make these battles at least a bit more interesting. Note that some of them might have been listed above, I just cannot remember everything..!
1.: Illasera & the Black Reavers
- as discussed before (and mentioned in the quotes above), Illasera's unique bow will be changed, and will become equipable after you defeat her. You can read the description and stats of the bow itself above.
- you will meet with two of the Black Reavers in the Forests of Tethyr in the
SoA part of the game, in the area where you can access Suldanesselar from. This meeting will happen at the point where you try to return to the elvel city with the Rhynn Lanthorn. They will recognize you (since they are already looking for you in that area) and have comments and maybe a few hints on the things to come, but nothing more than that - they'll teleport away without any combat.
- I plan to modify the non-improved version of the Illasera battle, where you fight her as a moronic mid-level mage. While this highly nerfed alteration was still necessary to make this encounter beatable by solo characters (starting in
ToB), it was far too easy - and had nothing to do with the "Fallen-Ranger" concept. I think her nerfed solo-version should be changed to the Archer version as well, and should receive some of the abilities of the improved version (like Ethereal and her Black Bow). The most significant change from the improved counterpart of this encounter is that only 1 or two Black Reavers would appear (likely the dual-wielding warrior and the mage), the Orog and the half-eleven cleric would be dropped. Also, the stats and AI of these opponents (including Illasera) would be slightly reduced as well, to make this battle beatable. All the other changes we listed in the posts above would be included into thsi version as well though.
2.: Yaga-Shura
- instead of the greatly increases spawning rate of enemy troops, we should add a Fire Giant cleric to Yaga-Shura's party when he returns to join the combat. This opponent should mainly concentrate on summoning Fire Elementals, using the spells like the high-level Elemental Summoning (this modified version would always summon 2 Greater Fire Elementals) and all the lesser forms of it. This doesn't mean that the original spawning rate of his army won't be slightly increased, but not that much as it was intended first.
3.: Abazigal
- if we can somehow use the required resources, we could change the 4 lesser Wyrms in that battle to Half-Dragons. This naturally means that we should use the Bestial Animations mod as a prerequisite.
4.: Balthazar
- there would be a third option when you meet him in his sanctuary at the end. Instead of attacking him with your party or persuading him to join you at the Throne of Blood, you could have the option to fight him one-on-one with your main character (PC). He is an honorable fighter, and has nothing against your companions - it would offer most interesting tactical and roleplaying options to fight him in a duel. If the PC would choose this option, the other party members would be turned to non-controllable (like in the dream sequance for example) and couldn't affect the battle in any ways. Of course, the same would apply to Balthazar's personal apprentices as well. All these characters would be removed from the area until the battle's duration. Balthazar would initiate a banter when first beaten to Near Death (before he would use his Second Wind HLA), and the PC would have a last opportunity to persuade him into joining forces against Amelissan. Of course, evil players wouldn't be able to accomplish this. After this conversation, the battle would either end (as if he would have agreed to help you from the start), or he would activate his Second Wind, and this time the battle would only end when one of you dies.
Comments?
