Improved Anvil 6.5 Enhanced Edition

Foreword

This document will give you information about the fixes, tweaks and general enhancements applied to the game by Improved Anvil.

WARNING: All potential bugs and gotchas of the vanilla game that aren't fixed in IA are listed here as well. All information given in the section is relevant for the 2.5 version of the game.

Improved Anvil 6.5

Allow Yamato +4 to be used by druids and fighter/druids. (thanks to bulian)
Allow Githzerai Blade +5 to be used by mage/thieves. (thanks to bulian)
Adjust stack amount for certain items (darts, bolts, etc.) (thanks to bulian)
Adjust Aerie's HP. (thanks to bulian)
New item upgrades are added: Reforged Sword of Chaos, Might of the Avariel +4, Sword of the Rashemi +5, Pendant of Recovered Light, Harbringer of the Abyss +5, Noble Staff of Earth +4, Gauntlets of Blessed Might, Treefolk’s Fist +4, Treefolk's Fury +5. (implemented by bulian)
Adjust Sarevok's stats and starting XP. (thanks to bulian)
Add Amber Golems to increase the difficulty of the Limak encounter slightly. (implemented by bulian)
Dracolich can be fought after Chapter 5 but with significantly reduced rewards. (implemented by bulian)
Add Elemental Golem as the final challenge to the Spellhold book encounter. (implemented by bulian)
A new component, Simplified economy, is added to the IA Tweaks mod. (feat. bulian)
The Four component is rebalanced, adjusted with more appropriate rewards and merged into the main mod. (feat. bulian)
Optimize initialization of the item randomiser in the starting dungeon.
Revert a previously introduced patch that makes halberds deal slashing/piercing damage.
Tazok now always drops Cloak of Balduran. (implemented by bulian)
Adjust Edwin's HP.
Allow importing protagonists from BG1. (thanks to bulian)
The Supreme Golem in Watcher's Keep can now be fought after the party returns from the Green Wyrm's lair. (implemented by bulian)
The encounter with Limak now happens only after Underdark. (implemented by bulian)
A new component, custom kits for joinable NPCs, is added to the IA Tweaks mod. (feat. bulian)
Tweak Hexxat to be more attractive as a party member: assign a Swasbuckler kit to her, adjust starting proficiencies and HP.
Add new upgradable items for Hexxat. (feat. bulian)
Move all optional components to a separate IA Tweaks mod.
Make Spellhold difficulty check dependant only on the protagonist's XP. (feat. bulian)
Vanilla stronghold quests can be continued in Chapter 7. (thanks to bulian)
The Justice Day item and encounters are now available for all good-aligned protagonists. (feat. bulian)

Improved Anvil 6.4

Various typos are fixed. (thanks to namelessone47)
An exploit that has allowed to to gain infinite gold and XP from cowled wizards is removed. (thanks to HTRT)
An incorrect string that had appeared when the Alicorn Lance spell was cast is now fixed. (thanks to nicoper)
The description and mismatched effects for Mace of Disruption +1 / +2 are now fixed. (thanks to namelessone47)
An incorrect icon for Armor of Faith spell is fixed.
Historically, the vanilla game has never allowed to have +X vs. monster type enchantments functioning properly on weapons. With the new opcode from EE this has now been fixed and all weapons with this effect are functioning as intended.
Class restrictions for Bala's Axe are removed.
Peridian is now a +3 sword.
A super-large random spawn in Spellhold level 3 has been fixed.
The final EDE fight was tweaked to become less tedious (the amount of AI castings was decreased whereas the amount of Rakshasa waves is improved).
The Web trap in Planar Prison that was buggy and therefore a source of frustration for players has been converted into a challenge for more experienced parties.
Random monster spawns in Planar Prison has been converted into proper spawn points.
The Squirreled Away quest has been made available to all protagonists.
The Four, a separate mod made some time ago by Sikret, has been integrated as an optional component.
Jaheira's starting level and amount of spells were fixed.
Jan's number of spells has been adjusted. (thanks to namelessone47)
A potential exploit that would allow stacking of Champion Strength effects using Dispel Magic is now fixed. (thanks to namelessone47)
All class/character restrictions for crafted items are all reworked with the help of 319 opcode (this has allowed to remove a lot of clutter from the global baldur.bcs script).
Players now can level up Neera & Imoen manually and select whatever spells they desire. (thanks to nicoper)
Enemies can now make saving throws against Blackguard's Aura of Despair. (thanks to bulian)
The cost of Defender of Arvoreen +4 was decreased. (thanks to bulian)
A possibilty to encounter Suna Seni in the wilderness random areas was removed. (thanks to nicoper)
Nalia's spell choices have been adjusted. (thanks to nicoper, SparrowJacek, Raven)
Tunic of Blindeye has been moved out of its default location. (thanks HTRT, SparrowJacek)
Brain Golem and Hardwood Golem now sport brand new distinctive colours. (thanks to SparrowJacek)
A script for automatic & precise XP adjustment of joinable NPCs is implemented. (thanks to level1npc authors for inspiration)
Allow neutrally-aligned protagonists to encounter lady Vanya.
Orcus is now more aggresive with his Silence; his minions were improved for the druid protagonist as well. (thanks to nicoper)
Restrictions for appearance of Green Leaves Armor in the game were removed.
Potion of Freedom's icon now disappears correctly when the potion's effect is removed. (thanks to bulian)
Various issues with Delon's script are fixed to ensure smooth progression of the vanilla ranger stronghold (thanks nicoper)
Batches of scrolls inside the Mage Stronghold are patched to add up continously. (thanks to nicoper)
Gem of Seeing now has a limited amount of charges.
Race targeting was fixed for Racial Combat: Protect from Vampires; apparently it hasn't been functioning properly for years now.
Vampires and Vampiric Mists won't be able to dispel and level drain in the same hit now. (thanks to bulian)
The Enveloped attack for Vampiric Mists has been reworked.
Sentinel +4 is now consumed correctly when Mazzy's shield is forged. (thanks to nicoper)
Some old typos inside the dialogue lines when forging Helm of Clarity are fixed. (thanks to nicoper)
Kiel's morningstar is now dropped properly as loot. (thanks to nicoper)
Cosmetic fix inside the readme: The Four's helm guardian is located in the south (or south-east) tunnels. (thanks to nicoper)
Projectile for Alicorn Lance is fixed to function as a single-target spell. (thanks to Azoth)
An incorrect amount of gold taken when forging Mazzy's improved shield is now fixed.
WeiDU compiler is updated to version 246.
Mazzy's Lay on Hands Heal effect is fixed to pass properly through friendly target's Magic Resistance (thanks to Badgerlad)

Improved Anvil 6.3

A new drudic spell, Alicorn Lance, is ported to the game from IWD:EE.
The mod is updated to be fully compatible with BG2:EE v2.3. It no longer supports older versions of BG2:EE and vanilla BG2:ToB.
A set of patches to prevent doubling of characters' kit bonuses on re-joining has become obsolete and therefore removed from the mod altogether.
A bug previously introduced in a cutscene to Dorn's personal quest was discovered and fixed.
A bug could've prevented players from forging Githzerai Blade +5. It is now fixed.
A bug could have caused "stuttering" when the game tries to initiate a specific banter between Mazzy and Valygar. It is now fixed.
A fix to Kangaxx's transformation script is updated to be compatible with BG2:EE 2.3.
The amount of experience gained by Imoen when she re-joins the party in Spellhold is now tuned to be more in accordance with the party's current amount of XP.
Zone of Sweet Air spell now properly removes visual effects of the Iron Golem's Gas Cloud spell.
A workaround is introduced to prevent Elite Nishruu from being healed by Riskbreaker's special abilities.
XP per level progression for bards, mages and sorcerers is now tweaked to progress at a slightly faster pace when the character reaches higher levels and begins gaining high level abilities.
Riskbreaker's RVE ability would give more physical resistance than advertised in the kit's description. This is now fixed.
Golems summoned by Mlar and Hr'a'cknir now drop loot when destroyed.
A bug existed that'd allowed players to heal a character simply by re-eqiupping Pale Green Ioun stone. This is now fixed. (thanks to antizyclon)
Circlet of Golden Flowers and Paws of the Furious Cat are now usable by neutral good half-orc shamans. (thanks to bulian)
Girdle of Lordly Might and Talisman of Greater Protection will not show up as possible upgrade anymore if already forged. (thanks to bulian)
The chance to cast Miscast Magic on hit was too high on Bala's Axe. It is now toned down.
Rabbits summoned by the Limited Wish spell will no be affected by the summoning limit of BG2:EE anymore. (credit for the fix goes to Tresset)
The projectile of the Comet spell would target friends as well as foes. This is now fixed, the spell will only target enemy creaturies.
Scroll of Helm would not disappear correctly when Demogorgon is defeated. This is nof fixed. (thanks to bulian)
Some of the newer item upgrades did not allow to return to the main dialogue tree properly when talking to Cespenar. This is fixed now. (thanks to bulian)
Improved Cloak of Protection +2 (from Cespenar) can now be worn with magical armor. (thanks to bulian)
Holy Avenger may not be used by Blackguard paladins anymore. (thanks to bulian)
The Poisoned portrait icon will not be shown erroneously when Green Wyrm Plate is equipped. (thanks to bulian)
The creatures summoned during the Ravager battle may not be exploited as a source of inifite experience anymore. (thanks to bulian)
The Avenger's Perform Ritual ability will not prevent Haste from being applied to character anymore. (thanks to bulian and nicoper)
Prevent "Undead Destroyed" string from being displayed on Vampiric Mists even though they are immune to the effect. (thanks to bulian)
Helm of Charm Protection has appeared erroneously during the adventures introduced by EE. It is now fixed. (thanks to bulian)
Minsc had extra weapon proficiencies assigned to him earlier during his revamp in the previous releases. This is now fixed. (thanks to bulian)
Beamdog's EE scripts would have their own routines to adjust joinable NPCs' level and amount of experience. This would result in extra experience granted to the characters. The issue is fixed. (thanks to bulian)
A bug existed that've allowed players to leave the Demogorgon's chamber through the portal when the fight had already begun. This is now fixed. (thanks to nicoper)
The issue with resonating shields has come up again in various newly added spells and abilities. It is now, hopefully, fixed for good.
Various small typos had existed in the dialogue with Cespenar. They are now fixed. (thanks to bulian)
Erroneous names of “Scribe Scrolls (X)” and “Alchemy (X)” abilities are now fixed. (thanks to Raven)
The stone bat animation from the SoD expansion has been introduced as the animation for vargoille creatures that appear during the Demogorgon fight. (thanks to SparrowJacek)
Skeletons summoned by the Animate Dead spell had wrong stats, script references and weapon enchantments assigned in EE which would lower their combat effectiveness significantly. The issue is now fixed. (thanks to Raven)
Dragons and powerful demons are now immune to Polymorph: Other spell. (thanks to HTRT)
Neera had a wrong amount of XP previously assigned to her by the mod. This is now fixed. (thanks to Raven)
Various beneficial effects granted by the Limited Wish spell would cause party members to lose their spellcasting. This is now amended. (thanks to nicoper)
The Haste ability granted by the Champion of Arvoreen kit no longer causes fatigue. (thanks to bulian)
Clan Hunters summoned by the Avenger no longer posess immunity to Charm and Domination. (thanks to Raven)
The EE has introduced new names to some of the previously existing scripting states. Those are now fixed. (thanks to bulian)
Champion of Arvoreen kit is now granted an ability to reach mastery (three stars) in single-handed weapons.
An optional component to identify all items is introduced to the mod.
All druid protagonists will now gain a non-generic treasure in Spellhold.
Reduction of racial bonuses to saving throws for small folk has been adjusted. Instead of a simple nerf, bonuses start out small, but increase with character's level. While they are still not as powerful as they used to be, players now should have more incentive to take small folk characters into their parties.

Improved Anvil 6.2

A druid-specific item upgrade, Helm of Clarity, can now be worn by any druid in the party.
The Elven Ancient Expertise potion now could be forged for any F/M or M/C present in the party, as well.
Single-class druids granted an ability to use Golem Slayer +5 and Royal Elemental Staff +5 (and its components).
A couple more item upgrades are added to the game.
A couple more items (The Sleeper +2, Fortress Shield +3, Water's Edge +3, Yamato +4) were introduced to the item randomization program. Certain items (Staff Spear +2, Armor of Deep Night) have been moved to the new locations.
Avenger kit of the druid class is rebalanced and assigned to Jaheira. She gets a personal item upgrade as well.
Butt-kicking for goodness is back. Stats and class of Minsc are tweaked and he is now a viable choice for a party member.
In BG2EE, Emotion, Command and Greater Command spells gained a default behaviour of waking the target when it is hit. This is fixed to a preferred vanilla way of doing things.
In BG2EE, party members' paperdolls could disappear after the Chapter 3 cuscene, requiring player to use a Ctrl+R hotkey combo in order to bring them back. This is now fixed.
There were two separate types of scrolls of Chain Lightning, one of them not being a viable option for respective item upgrades. This is now fixed, a redundant scroll is replaced by its proper version.
Helm of Clarity can now be forged even when the protagonist is not a druid.
Positions of existing scimitars were tweaked to make them a viable weapon choice. A +3 weapon can now be obtained at a sensible time in chapter 3. In chapter 6, players have an option of finding and forging two +4 scimitars.
All golem creatures are granted an immunity to petrification.
Portrait and character sheet icons for Spell Shield and Protection from Magic Energy were bugged in ToB. Earlier fix made it so that both spells display PfME icon. However, the issue was fixed by the Beamdog for BG2EE which led to inconsistent results. In the end, we've devised a solution that fixes the problem completely in the vanilla game, restoring both the proper icons and the descriptions for each spell.
A completely new spell, Acid Shield, with its own set of animations is added to all druid classes.
Shield of Harmony +2 and Arbane Sword +2 are tweaked to grant protection against Greater Crawler's paralyzation attacks.
Earlier versions of IA had multipled instances of certain scrolls that couldn't be stacked with each other and, on occasion, not even be admissable as an ingredient for crafting an item. Many such issues are fixed, the majority of scrolls should be standardized now.
There was a bug in EE that made Vocalize effectively a useless spell, since it didn't have a brand-new special "cast when silenced" flag set. The issue is fixed and the spell could now be used properly, by player and his foes alike.
In EE, the Invisibility (20) opcode already has an embedded +4 bonus to saving-throws. A patch is implemented that removes the extra bonuses when the mod is installed on Enchanced Edition.
The Equalizer sword is tweaked to perform as a +4 weapon.
A brand new item designed specifically for the druid characters is added to the game along with a new set of graphics. To track down the ingredients, you will have to defeat a new foe inside the lair of a known villain.
Staff of the Woodlands +4 is fixed and now provide all AC bonuses that are stated in the item's description.
The Kondar +1 is tweaked and now has +2 enchantment.
Pale Green Ioun Stone is tweaked to provide a fixed HP bonus instead of granting a percentage of character's hit-points.
The final encounter inside the Watcher's Keep was improved significantly. The Prince of Demons now truly is a dangerous foe. Be sure to come prepared, with a party that is powerful enough to attempt one of the most difficult encounters in the game.
Aerie's stats and spell choices are slightly improved. Edwin, Jan and Korgan are tweaked and optimized for Improved Anvil.
Mazzy's class and personal abilities are revised and improved to make her a strong choice for party membership. Upgraded version of her personal sword is revised and improved as well.
Efforts has been made to make katanas a more accessible and useful weapon. A brand-new item upgrade was added as well.
The K'logarath +4's extra damage is toned down. The item is relocated, however, to a more accessible location and made an ingredient for a new powerful axe that could be crafted by Cromwell.
The hammer, Dwarven Thrower +3's extra damage against giants and ogres was implemented incorrectly. The issue is now fixed.
All throwing axes and hammers can now be used as melee weapons, i.e. dual-wielded. Due to the engine limitations this is implemented via a magical ability that gives the character a melee-only version of the weapon and vice-versa, accessible through the backpack icon on the main game screen. Thanks to the authors of the Item Revisions mod for the idea.
The majority of various golem creatures in the game now have distinctive colours, which adds some variety and visual clues in combat encounters. Thanks to the authors of aTweaks for the idea on how to implement this.
Korgan will give you 4 more days before starting to complain about your delay to go and find the book.
A brand new fighter kit, Champion of Arvoreen, is added to the game and assigned to Mazzy Fentan.
Mazzy now has a new personal item, Shield of Arvoreen +2, which can be upgraded further during the game.
The upgrade recipe for Mazzy's personal sword does not require Maze Sigil any longer.
The 'True Grandmastery' component of Ease-of-Use mod is now obsolete. Improved Anvil offers its own version with correct bonuses to attacks, consistent between ToB and BG2:EE.
The unimproved version of Jan's armor is toned down and grants less physical resistance. The improved version has retained its original bonus.

Previous versions of IA

Contingencies will not be triggered on dead mages' corpses anymore.
Many typos in several scripts (of the original game) are fixed.
Several creatures had inconsistent attributes in the original game (such as incorrect THAC0s, incorrect saves, etc). Many of such mistakes are detected and fixed.
Some creatures' undroppable items, weapons (or claws) were bugged and have been fixed.
Some creatures had broken/buggy immunities or abilities in the original game. They are fixed.
Some creatures had equipped their items in the wrong slots (e.g., armor in the cloak slot). The items are moved to the right slots.
High level creatures in the SOA portion of the game simply lack any HLAs in the original game. This is because HLA is a TOB concept and didn't exist when the original BG2 game was designed. However, now that we have the concept, it doesn't make any sense to confine it to TOB. This is fixed and some HLAs are added to high level characters in BG2.
Cases have been observed (in the original game) in which enemy mages or other spellcasting creatures successfully fire their spell triggers (or even spells) on PCs who were under the effect of improved invisibility and were only partially visible. This is not legal and interestingly the game doesn't allow PCs to perform such an illegal action against enemies. This error is fixed and enemy spellcasters will not break the rules either. (Note: Spell triggers are divided into two general types: Those which include only area-spells and those which include spells which normally target a creature rather than an area. Only the second type of spell triggers are forbidden to be cast on invisible and partially visible targets by this mod.)
Cases have been observed (in the original game) in which enemy mages keep attacking physically even though they still have spells to cast. This is also fixed.
Cases (though few and rare) have been observed (in the original game) in which you read on the screen that a mage has cast a particular spell, though the mage has not actually cast it. This is also fixed. The false spell casting reports will not appear anymore.
Anomen's wisdom is fixed (increased) to make him a "legal" dual-class Fighter-Cleric. His wisdom bonus after passing his test is decreased. Hence, he starts with 17 wisdom and will gain 1 more (to a total of 18) when he joins the Order. Also, the number of his weapon proficiency stars was incorrect which is fixed. The types of proficiencies are tweaked and optimized for Improved Anvil (not only for Anomen but also for Valygar and Keldorn; their attributes are also slightly modified to be optimized for IA). Anomen was also joining the party with a bit too much xp at the beginning of the game; this is fixed as well.
Carsomyr has bugs in the original game. Its dispel magic and dispel effects do not work. Its +5 damage bonus is also broken. Its +50% magic resistance bonus is broken too. The two latter abilities are fixed, others are removed. However, you can use Carsomyr as a template to forge the Holy Avenger:
- Holy Avenger (Improved Carsomyr) will have 5% chance per successful hit to remove all of the target's protections with a single shot provided that it successfully hits the target, which means that it won't remove "Protection from magical weapons" and "Absolute immunity" (because they prevent a successful hit) but in absence of these two, if it hits the target, it has 5% chance to remove all protections on a single shot.
Some items' descriptions had minor errors (mostly regarding their usability) which are fixed.
Rod of Smiting had inappropriate usability attributes in the original game. Despite its description, it was surprisingly usable by monks, fighter/thieves and fighter/druids (though not by single class druids). It is fixed so that it will be usable by druids but not by monks or fighter/thieves. The rod also wouldn't inflict the alleged extra damage to golems. This is fixed as well. (No upgrade needed for this fix to be applied, though the rod is also upgradeable as a matter of fact.)
Cloak of Mirroring, cloak of Reflection, Cloak of Non-Detection, Shield of Balduran, Reflection Shield, arrows of dispelling, Rod of Resurrection, and Gargoyle Boots are removed from the game.
The usability of all mage robes is fixed and they won't be usable by Kensai-Mages anymore.
Amulet of the Master Harper is fixed not to be usable by WizardSlayer-thieves. The amulet's immunity to Silence is replaced with lore bonus as well.
A wooden Stake is added to the library in Spellhold to put Dace at rest.
The unbalanced scrolls of Protection from Undead are replaced with an improved sort of scrolls of Protection from Level Drain. Their effects last for 30 rounds and won't be dispellable during that period of time. Cheesy scrolls of Protection from Magic are also removed from the game. Only one single scroll with that name still exists in the game, but it can only be used as an item-upgrade ingredient.
The clerical Spell "Greater Command" is changed and will not affect the caster's allies and party members anymore.
Air Elementals' whirlwind innate ability would kill any party member who was close enough to the elemental with no saving throw. This is changed so that the target is entitled to roll a save vs. Breath weapon to avoid death.
Assassins and Skalds' missing "to hit" bonuses retrieved and fixed.
Potions of Genius, Mind Focusing and Insight have been omitted from the game; new potions of "Acid Resistance", new potions of "Oil of Resurgence" and new potions of "Vitality" are added. (Omission of potions of Insight and the idea of Potions of Vitality are suggested by thetruth.)
Finger of Death spell requires the target to roll save vs. death.
All of the game's arrows and bolts (and quivers) are fixed in respect to their THAC0 and damage bonuses and their descriptions. +1 Arrows are also fixed not to be blocked by Protection From Normal Missiles spell.
Larloch's Minor Drain spell and innate ability were such that even if the target would not take damage due to magic resistance, the extra hp would be added to the caster. This inconsistency is fixed by making the spell bypass target's magic resistance. Furthermore, the innate ability had incorrect damage amount which is fixed as well. The same problem as well as incorrect damage amount is fixed for Vampiric Touch spell (the damage amount is also increased for high level casters). Another problem with Vampiric Touch spell (in the original game) was that when a mage cast this spell he/she would become immune to Vampiric touch spells cast on him/her by enemies. The spell is tweaked and it won't grant such an immunity anymore. As a result the mage can also gain the extra hp bonus of casting multiple Vampiric touch spells, though the amount of gained hp is also decreased.
There were three critical errors in the original game which have been discovered and fixed. The bugs could affect the spellcasting procedure of those enemy mages and clerics who rely on global variables ("LOCALS","GLOBAL", etc.) to track their spells. If you knew how to exploit the bugs you could deceive them to keep attacking you physically without casting most of their spells. The first bug was that when such a spellcaster was seeing a partially visible character (a character under the effect of Improved Invisibility), his/her global variables would all be set to the wrong numbers as if he/she had already cast his/her spells. The second bug would occur when a silenced spellcaster was seeing an enemy and the third bug would happen when the spellcaster was seeing an enemy during timestop (cast by PCs). Again, in these situations, his/her global variables would be set to wrong numbers. Improved Anvil is the only mod (so far) which fixes all these bugs for the original game AND doesn't have them in its own custom scripts (However, I've noticed that other mods' authors "silently" copy Improved Anvil's fixes into their own mods without giving the due credit to Improved Anvil as the origin and the source of those fixes).
A missing dialogue in demons' plane of the planar sphere retrieved and fixed.
Some of the Skeletons and Skeleton Warriors had incorrect resistance values in the original game. This error is also fixed.
Almost all of the game's spell casters would cast their pre-buffing spells at incorrect levels of experience in the original game. For example, an 18th level mage would cast his pre-buffing "Spell Turning" Spell as if he was a 9th level mage (in respect to the spell's duration). All such errors are detected and fixed.
The fourth level clerical spell, "Free Action" is fixed to grant immunity to stun and not to grant immunity to Charm.
Celestial Fury is tweaked and its chance to stun is decreased.
Melf's Meteors' damage type and amount fixed. Magic level is also reduced to 3.
Barbarian Rage now grants immunity to Imprisonment. Its missing +2 bonus to save vs. Magic is also fixed.
Magical (Mordenkainen's) Sword is tweaked. First of all, the damage it inflicts is fixed to match the spell's description. Furthermore, it has better THAC0, better saving throws and 75% resistance to magic damage, immunity to magic missiles and chromatic orbs; on the other hand, it now has a worse AC and its 100% resistance to physical damage is reduced a little bit. It still takes very little damage from physical attacks, but it takes some.
Silver Sword is a +3 Vorpal weapon and should have 20% chance to severe the target's head. The probability is wrongly set to 25% in the original game. It is fixed. The sword, however, is upgradeable and can be upgraded to a +4 vorpal weapon which will have 25% chance to instantly slay the target, provided that the target is not immune to this effect, of course. The finger of Death animation is also omitted, because it would display even on target's who were immune and unaffected by the vorpal hit. The "Vorpal Hit" message is added, instead.
The fifth level Wizard spell, "Spell Immunity" is fixed and tweaked. Immunity to one single school of magic can be active on a single creature at a given time. Multiple spell immunities will not work together. Moreover:
- Immunity to Abjuration is fixed to grant protection against all abjuration magic-attack spells. It will now grant complete immunity to Spell Thrust, Secret Word, Breach, Lower Resistance, Pierce Magic, Khelben's Warding Whip, Pierce shield and Spell Strike (i.e. all magic-attacks except Ruby Ray of Reversal which is not an abjuration spell).
- Immunity to divination will grant much better protection against various methods of dispel illusion. (It really wouldn't make sense to me that a pathetic low level thief could dispel the illusion of a high level arch mage who was also under the effect of immunity to divination. The thief skill can still dispel illusions provided that the mage is not protected by immunity to divination.) A successful 'Remove/Dispel magic' will still work and will dispel the illusion even if the invisible mage is protected by immunity to divination (Remove Magic is not a divination spell or a specific means to dispel illusions).
Black Blade of Disaster's magic level, damage amount and disintegration effect are fixed.
Energy Blades' damage and spell descriptions are fixed. The blades inflict slashing damage despite the spell description in the original game. Both Clerical and Wizard versions of the spell had incorrect descriptions which are now fixed.
The echantment level of Carsomyr +6, Ravager +6, Staff of the Ram +6, Ixil's Spike +6 are all reduced to 5 (while THAC0 and damage bonus's are still set to 6). Ixil's Spike's free action effects are also removed.
Staff of the Ram's piercing damage was not implemented in the original game. It's fixed. (thanks to thetruth)
The fifth level wizard spell, "Spell Shield" had some important bugs in the original game:
- If it was cast *before* the other fifth level spell "Spell Immunity", three (rather than two) protection removal spells (such as Ruby Ray of Reversal) would be needed to remove them. The first two were consumed by spell shield and a 3rd one was needed to remove the spell immunity (the same would happen if spell shield was cast before Minor Spell Turning). Similarly, if spell shield was cast together with (no matter before or after) Minor Globe of Invulnerability or Minor spell Deflection, one additional Ruby Ray spell would be required to remove them. This critical bug is completely and seamlessly fixed (thanks to Raven for his reports and for the consequent tests during applications of this important fix).
- The second bug of Spell Shield spell in the vanilla game was that *sometimes* it was impossible to bring down the shield by protection removal spells (such as Ruby Ray of Reversal) no matter how many Ruby Rays were cast on the target. The only solution inside and during the game was to reload to a previous saved game and hope that it wouldn't happen again. This bug is not fully fixable but it's to some considerable extent fixed and (according to IA testers) it now happens much less frequently than in the vanilla game. The bug is fully fixed against the 9th level spell, Spellstrike; but it still sometimes happens against Ruby Ray of Reversal.
- Moreover, the spell's duration in the vanilla game didn't match its description. I could change/fix the spell and make its duration match with the spell's description in the vanilla game, but I didn't find it to be the best solution as the spell's duration would turn to be too long and considering the unremovable bug which re-appears every now and then, I decided to shorten the spell's duration to 2 turns and to change the description as well.
- In order to block a possible exploit, the spell is also nerfed in a way that it can't be cast more frequently than once every two turns (unless it is removed by spellstrike).
The following items' prices have been increased (and none of them will be stealable):
- Armor of Deep Night
- Bracers of AC 4 and AC 3
- Cloak of Displacement
- Dak'Kon's Zerth Blade
- Nymph Cloak
- Harmonium Halberd
- Heavy Crossbow +3: Giant Hair
- Heavy Crossbow of Searing (Its fire damage is also fixed to bypass target's Magic Res.)
- Golden Ioun Stone
- Helm of Brilliance
- Club +3: Blackblood
- Mauler's Arm
- Harp of Pandemonium
- Potion of Magic Protection
- Potion of Magic Shielding
- Scrolls of Limited Wish and Freedom
- Firetooth +4
- Fortress Shield +3
- Sling of Seeking
- Rod of Smiting
- Warblade
- Ras +2
- T'rahcie's Plate +5
- Axe of Hrothgar +3
- Sentinel +4
- Spear of Withering +4
- Wands of the Heavens, Cloudkill, Fire, Frost, Magic Missiles, Monster Summoning
Robe of Vecna is tweaked to grant less casting time bonus (2 instead of 4) but better AC (2 instead of 5).
Stores are tweaked not to allow earning easy items by stealing them as well as cheesy methods of earning easy money by selling stolen items back.
Soul Reaver is tweaked to have less chance to drain THAC0 from the targeted creature (i.e. 20% chance per hit) and for a shorter duration (10 rounds).
Death Ward spell's casting time was much shorter than the casting time mentioned in the spell's description; this is fixed. The spell's duration is also shortened. On the other hand, it's tweaked to grant immunity to Imprisonment as well.
Randomization Program: Some powerful items which were too easily available in stores are removed from the shops. Their locations in the game are randomized, which means that each time you start a new game they may be with different (randomly determined) tough enemies or in different (randomly determined and hard to access) chests or containers.
An exploit to gain easy experience points by summoning creatures and killing them is blocked. (Thanks to (Ø=M)^42 for drawing my attention to this issue. And thanks to thetruth for reminding me of a similar issue regarding vampires summoned by the Dao of the limited wish spell.)
Immunity to Haste effects is added to Ring of Free Action and Potion of Freedom.
Various versions of Flail of Ages have been tweaked:
- Flail of Ages +3:
  - Target will be entitled to roll a save vs wands with -3 penalty to avoid the slow effect.
  - Duration of slow is set to 3 rounds.
  - The message displayed for the slowed target is fixed (changed from "slow" to "slowed").
  - The elemental damage will have only 5% chance per hit to apply, though the actual ammount of damage is increased.
- Flails of Ages +4:
  - Target will be entitled to roll a save vs wands with -4 penalty to avoid the slow effect.
  - Duration of slow is set to 4 rounds.
  - The message displayed for the slowed target is fixed (changed from "slow" to "slowed").
  - The elemental damage will have only 5% chance per hit to apply, though the actual ammount of damage is increased.
- Flail of Ages +5:
  - Target will be entitled to roll a save vs wands with -5 penalty to avoid the slow effect.
  - Duration of slow is set to 5 rounds
  - The message displayed for the slowed target is fixed (changed from "slow" to "slowed").
  - Free Action effects removed.
  - The elemental damage will have only 5% chance per hit to apply, though the actual ammount of damage is increased.
All versions of "Remove/Dispel Magic" and "True sight/Seeing" spells are tweaked to destroy illusionary creatures without checking the targets' magic resistance and without requiring the target to roll a saving throw. True sight spells are also tweaked not to be dispellable.
Chan's globe of blades is fixed not to damage allies. Clerical globe of blades is also tweaked in the same way.
Nishruu's and Hakeashar's cre files had flaws, which have been detected and fixed.
Djinnis are tweaked to have 100% resistance to electricity (Efreets were already immune to fire, so it makes sense that djinnis have resistance to lightning). Moreover, summoned djinnis will cast better spells. On the other hand, two of efreets memorized spells have been changed.
While spiders are immune to web spell, the "held" message would still be shown for them if they failed to make their save. This error is fixed.
Ribald's Ring of Regeneration, Tolgerias' Ring of the Ram, Guardian of Telwyn's Helm of Glory, Conster's key and the light gem with deep gnomes in the underdark will not be stealable.
Arbane's sword is fixed to grant immunity to "hold person" spell, but not to "hold monster", "stun" and other similar spells and effects.
A missing dialogue in Sendai's enclave retrieved and fixed.
Djinnis of wish (and limited wish) are granted immunities not to die during battles before they do their job and not to turn hostile if they take damage. They will not waste time before initiating dialogue either. Limited Wish spell's Dao is also fixed not to be talkable by any other character except the spellcaster who has cast the limited wish spell. Enemies will not detect these two creatures as valid targets to attack them either.
Scarlet Ninja-To is fixed so that its effects bypass the target's Magic Resistance.
The Ras and spectral swords are tweaked (several spell immunities and better THAC0 and weapon proficiency are added to make them closer to Mordenkainen's sword; on the other hand their resistances to physical damage and AC are worsened a bit).
The Chaos short sword has been nerfed: Target is entitled to roll a saving throw vs. wands to avoid losing dexterity. The duration of the effect is also decreased to three rounds. (suggested by thetruth)
Staff of Command is tweaked: It won't be usable by good aligned characters (to match the reference to nefarious people in its description), its domination duration is decreased and the target is entitled to roll a saving throw vs. wands with a -2 penalty to avoid the effect (thanks to thetruth for drawing my attention to this overpowered item). The Blackrazor sword is also tweaked not to be usable by good aligned characters; the sword is also considerably nerfed.
Kangaxx's ring in his lich form won't be stealable. It was reported that sometimes his morale would break in the original game preventing him from changing to his demilich form. Sometimes even without a broken morale he would not change to demilich or would change with much delay. All of these problems are fixed as well.
Cloak of Balduran in nerfed (i.e. no magic resistance bonus). However, it is still a valuable item because it can be used as an ingredient to upgrade Cernd's cloak.
The following overpowered low level spells are nerfed: Miscast Magic, summon Insects and Insect Plague. (Creeping Doom has not been touched; it's a seventh level spell after all.)
Glitter Dust and blindness spells are both nerfed and fixed: Shorter duration and a +3 bonus to target's saving throw. The to hit penalty is also fixed in their descriptions and the missing Armor class penalty is added. Also, a bug in Blindness spell which would allow the message "blinded" to appear even if the target was not actually blinded is fixed. The remove invisibility efffect is also completely omitted (it wasn't working as advertised in the spell's description anyway).
Nature's Beauty spell is changed entirely: It now stuns the target for 5 rounds unless he/she successfully saves vs. spells. (If I see something very beautiful, I may be stunned watching its beauty for a while, but I don't think that I will be blinded. And yes, I know that even in PnP AD&D the spell blinds the target; nonetheless, it doesn't make sense to me.)
Wizard Slayers are no longer allowed to dual-class to mage and thief classes.
The description of the second level clerical spell "Draw Upon holy Might" is fixed. The spell's casting time was wrong in its description.
Wand of Spell Striking is fixed to cast the Pierce Magic spell instead of mimicking the effects. As a result, the spells will now be blocked by Immunity to Abjuration as well as other immunities which may block the spells (thetruth). The wand won't cast Breach at all.
Some plate armors would allow thieving skills in the original game. They are fixed.
Harm spell is nerfed. It will allow a save vs. spells to avoid the damage (thanks to Mordokai for drawing my attention to this spell).
The open hand attack charged with Shocking grasp, Cause Serious wounds, Cause Critical wounds and Harm spells had +6 enchantments in the original game, which means they could have been blocked by "Protection from Magical weapons" but not by "Absolute Immunity". Their enchantments are reduced to 5.
In the original game, Clay and Stone golems would cast their Haste and Slow spells even during time stop. The same bug existed for Vortex Spiders casting their Vortex Web spells. The bug is fixed.
Sunfire spell (if cast by high level wizards) could damage the caster in the original game. This is fixed now. Moreover, despite what the game's developers intended, the spell bypasses magic resistance most of the times in the vanilla game. This particular bug is not fixable in a way to ensure that the spell will never bypass MR; so I did a different tweak: The spell is tweaked to make sure that it will always bypass MR (rather than most of the times), but it's also tweaked to inflict less damage (as a compensation).
Teleport Field spell is fixed to allow the target to roll a save vs. spells (which was mentioned in the spell's description) to avoid the effect and also tweaked not to bypass target's magic resistance.
Iron Skins spell and Dragons' Stone Skin are fixed to be removable by "Breach". Negative plane Protection is also tweaked to be removable by breach.
The second level druidic spell, "Good berries" is tweaked:
- At levels below 12, five berries will be created. Each berry cures 1 point of damage.
- At levels above 11 and below 16, four berries will be created. Each berry cures 2 points of damage.
- At levels above 15 and below 20, three berries will be created. Each berry cures 3 points of damage.
- At levels above 19, two berries will be created. Each berry cures 5 points of damage. (The points leading to this change was that berries would cure too little in the original game to make the spell useful at higher levels. But on the other hand, the berries should not improve too much to become better than healing potions. I have changed the spell reasonably to make the berries a bit more useful, though not too much or to an unreasonable extent.)
Wand of Wonder is fixed/tweaked: One of its effects would petrify target with no saving throw and without checking the target's MR. It is tweaked to allow the target to roll a save vs. wands and to be blocked by the target's magic resistance (thanks to thetruth for drawing my attention to this issue).
Staff of the Magi is tweaked:
- (1) Its speed factor and weight are fixed to match the item's description.
- (2) Dispel magic per hit and immunity to charm removed.
- (3) Thaco and damage bonus are increased to 5.
- (4) Fireball-Lightning combo will be cast instantly (no casting required)
- (5) The Spell trap effect is omitted.
- (6) The staff is now usable only by evil human mages and permanently disables Stealth and Thieving skills buttons if equipped by a thief with "Use Any Item" ability.
(Fallen) Devas and (Fallen) Planetars scripts and number of spells fixed.
Assassins' Poison weapon ability is fixed. It will now require the target to save vs. poison and will inflict 12 points of damage total if the target makes his save (as mentioned in its description) and 24 points of damage if he fails. The ability is also tweaked to inflict all of its damage within 12 seconds. The weapon will remain poisoned for 3 rounds (rather than 5 rounds).
Azuredge Axe's ranged attack is fixed to require the same saving conditions the hand-to-hand attack mode requires and not to be blocked by Protection From Normal Weapons spell. The axe's description is also fixed.
Roranach's Horn's resistance to crushing damage bonus is replaced with a +3 bonus to AC vs. blunt weapons.
Vampyre creature in the old crypt (Korgan's book plot) would stand at his place doing nothing if the party were not in his line of sight (he would not move to approach the party). The script is revised and the creature is also completely replaced with a brand new and more powerful type of vampire.
Summoned Nymph's attributes and combat scripts fixed/tweaked. Now they have their 50% magic resistance which was missed in the original game; but on the other hand, their THAC0 is worsened to match their PnP descriptions. They will only cast druidic spells plus their dimension door.
Non Detection spell's description is fixed.
Paralytic bolts are fixed to require the target to roll a save vs. paralyzation.
Boots of Speed are fixed. In the original game, the boots had bugs which were fixed by Baldurdash fixpack, but a new bug was created and the movement rate bonus of the boots could stack with the movement rate bonuses of "haste" and "improved haste" spells resulting in quadruple speed. Not only haste spells, but also other spells and abilities such as (Greater) Whirlwind could add their movement rate bonuses to the already doubled movement rate. This bug can be the source of cheesy "hit and run" tactics in the game. The bug is fixed. The boots also won't be usable by monks. The same fix is applied to Grandmaster's Armor +6 as well.
Contagion spell's range is fixed to match its description.
Rod of Reversal's usability flags are fixed. It was wrongly unusable by Cleric/Rangers. The item is also tweaked not to be rechargeable/sellable.
If a character is blinded, blinding him again should not apply further penalties. The bug is fixed and Blindness effects will not stack together anymore. Also the -4 penalty to AC was never implemented to blinded characters which has been fixed.
Nahal's Reckless Dweomer, Contingency and Chain contingency spell's descriptions fixed.
The description of the Axe of Unyielding +5 is fixed. The finger of Death animation is also omitted, because it would display even on targets who were immune and unaffected by the vorpal hit. The saving throw penalty is also reduced to -2 to match with other vorpal weapons in the game. Also, to prevent the well-known cheat of equipping and un-equipping the axe to heal the wielder, the constitution bonus is replaced with hp bonus.
Jarlaxle in the Underdark says that he gives you some gold for your trouble bringing him the gems, but you get nothing in the original game. This is fixed. (Thanks to thetruth for drawing my attention to this issue.)
Tenser's Transformation Spell could be cast multiple times from scrolls and its effects would stack in the original game. The bug is fixed. (thetruth)
Vhailor's Helm is tweaked. Simulacrum is replaced with Death Spell (probably more useful and certainly less cheesy than Simulacrum; it also fits better with the helm's appearance). It's now a better version of the other helmet, "Skull of Death", which good parties don't usually have access to in the game.
The stalkers' version of "Haste" and "Protection From Normal Missiles" spells could be blocked by characters' magic resistance in the original game. The bug is fixed. (thetruth)
Improved Haste and Remove Curse spells could be blocked by Minor Globe of Invulnerability in the original game. The bugs are fixed. Improved Haste is also fixed not to be overridden by Stalker's haste spell.
The first level wizard spell "Spook" is fixed not to display false "Panic" messages on targets who are not actually affected by the spell.
Magic Missile, Blindness, Horror, Slow, Confusion, Emotion, Power Word Silence, Fire Storm, Power Word Stun, Prismatic Spray, Pierce Shield, Imprisonment, Meteor Swarm and Power Word Kill are all fixed to be hostile spells.
Sling of Everard is fixed: It's damage amount is fixed and it won't be blocked by Protection From Normal Missiles spell anymore.
Otiluke's Resilient Sphere spell is removed and replaced with a new 4th level spell: Ray of Fragmentation.
The Hardiness cast through Wish spell is fixed. It will not stack with itself and with the Warrior Hardiness anymore. (Thanks to leonidas for drawing my attention to this issue.)
Imoen's class is changed to sorcerer. Moreover, her xp will be modified to match yours (albeit to a certain extent); She will be either level 13 or 14 (not close to 15) or 14 (close to 15) depending on your protagonist's xp.
Berserker Rage is fixed not to display confusion animation while the berserker is actually immune and not affected by the effect.
Halberd +4 Blackmist is fixed and tweaked. Its blindness effect is fixed so that the required (but missing) AC penalty takes effect and it will not stack with other blinding spells anymore. On the other hand, the blindness effect's duration is reduced to 5 rounds and it will not be usable more than once per day.
To minimize the use of cheesy methods, "Project Image" and "Simulacrum" spells are replaced with two new spells.
Unconscious/confused/panicked Umberhulks and myconids would still hurl their confusion (in the original game). The bug is fixed. Their script is also slightly revised to let them behave a bit more intelligently. The confusion effect is also enhanced to require the target to roll a save vs. spells with a -4 penalty and not to be blocked by the 6th level spell, Globe of Invulnerability (just like the chaos spell).
SpellStrike and Lower Resistance spells' descriptions fixed. They are abjuration spells, but in their descriptions in the original game, it was wrongly mentioned that they are alteration spells too, which wouldn't make sense at all.
Zone of Sweet Air is tweaked to be a "General" clerical spell and thus available to druids as well. Jaheira and Cernd already had access to this spell in the original game and the spell's effect actually looks very suitable for druids.
Mental Domination and Champion's Strength spells are erased from Cernd and Jaheira's list of known spells. The spells are not available to druids normally.
Improved Invisibility and Mass Invisibility spells are fixed. They will not stack with each other and with themselves anymore. Wrong power numbers were also assigned to some of their effects in the original game, which have been fixed too (thanks to thetruth). Also, the extra and incorrect +4 bonus to AC in the 4th level spell is omitted. Being improved invisible automatically applies a -4 penalty to the attacker's "to hit" roll, there was no need to have it as an extra effect in the spell's file. This bug is fixed as well (thanks to Ymarsakar for drawing my attention to this latter issue and thanks to Clown for performing the relevant tests for me).
The mage spells Skull Trap, Minor Spell Deflection, Minor Spell Turning, Spell Deflection, Mislead, Cacofiend, Delayed Blast Fireball, Summon Fiend, Power word Blind, Spell Trap and Gate are replaced with new spells. The clerical spells, Glyph of Warding, Gate and Holy Word are replaced with new spells as well.
Rings of Elemental Control are fixed. Their bugged charm abilities are omitted and their abilities (which were mostly using wrong effects) are also fixed to cast the relevant spells rather than mimicking the effects. The Ring of Fire Control's bonus to fire damage is also reduced to 25%.
Nymph Cloak is tweaked to cast Charm Person instead of mimicking the effect. The cloak's description is also fixed (not usable by Wizard Slayers and Invokers).
Hold Monster Spell could still affect many types of undead creatures despite what is mentioned in the spell's description. The immunity has been added to those undead creatures.
Some enemy spellcasters would fire their spell triggers while confused/unconscious/panicked in the original game. The bug is fixed.
Beholders anti-magic ray could be blocked by Spell Shield without consuming the shield. The bug is fixed. The ray can't be blocked by spell Shield anymore.
There was a bug in the original game regarding conditions under which Samia calls her allies or initiates dialogue. Under certain conditions it was even possible to have two identical sets of her friends during the battle. All these bugs are fixed.
Some of the game's stores had unreasonable sell/buy prices, which are fixed now. (Thanks to luan for drawing my attention to this issue.)
Fire Seeds spell is removed from Anomen and Viconia's collection of known spells. It's a druidic spell and should not be known by clerics. (thetruth)
Kundane +2 is tweaked. Its hidden bonus to APR is omitted. +1 bonus to Dexterity is added.
Defender of Easthaven is fixed and tweaked. It's name and description are both fixed and the resistances it grants are decreased to 10%.
Shield of Harmony is fixed to match its description and not to grant immunity to all sorts of hold effects (but just to Hold Person). The shield (and the Lilarcor sword) are also fixed to prevent "Confusion" string and icons properly.
Summoned elementals' attributes (Strength, THAC0, Morale, etc) are fixed. (thetruth)
Hangard's Axe, Klogarath Axe, Rifthome Axe, Azuredge, Throwing Axe +2 and Dwarven Thrower are all fixed so that their ranged attack mode will not be blocked by Protection From Normal Missiles any more. (thetruth)
Firecam Full-Plate Armor is changed. First of all, its hidden immunity to slow is removed. The immunity to hold effects is also replaced with partial resistance to Magic damage (which fits better with his kit and is probably even more useful in Improved Anvil's battles).
Older and higher level Dragons should have more powerful breath weapons than the younger ones. This change is applied to the great wyrm and Wyrm (the two new dragons added to the game by this mod).
Crom Faeyr had a critical bug (in the original game) which could break enemies' scripts. The bug is fixed. The hammer's description is fixed too. The hammer's electrical damage is also tweaked to apply only with 10% chance per hit, though the actual amount of damage is increased.
Ring of Human Influence and Nymph Cloak are tweaked to require a minimum charisma of 9 to be worn.
The Alhoon in the Illithid Hideout and the Slayer Irenicus had bad sound sets assigned to them in the original game. Both are fixed.
Cloak of Bravery is tweaked not to be usable by paladins and rangers.
Remove/resist Fear spell's duration is decreased to 1 turn (10 rounds) to match their pnp descriptions.
Apprenti's chance of success to forge the Robe of the Apprenti is modified. In the original game their chance of success was 20% regardless of any other conditions and reloading for several times could eventually make them forge it for you. Now:
- If the protagonist is a Pure mage the apprenti have more chance than when the protagonist is a dual/multi-class mage or a sorcerer.
- If the protagonist is a human dual-class, the apprenti have more chance than when the protagonist is a multi-class or a sorcerer.
- Sorcerer and mage-cleric protagonists stand third.
- Other multi-class protagonists have the least chance to instruct successful apprenti.
- Protagonist's high wisdom has its own positive effect.
- If the apprenti fail the first time (which is still random considering the abovementioned modifiers) reloading the game will not change the result (starting a new game will).
Devil Shades and Shadow Fiends' resistance to electricity is fixed (set to zero). Thanks to Raven for drawing my attention to this issue.
Two of the druids in the druid grove area would cast bad and unnecessary spells. Their scripts are fixed and slightly improved.
The Demon Wraith in the 3rd level of Watcher's Keep had a broken script. After the first couple of rounds, he would start to infinitely cast Symbol of Fear and nothing else. He is not only fixed but also seriously improved.
Gnasher Club is tweaked to be usable only by druids and rangers (though not ranger/clerics).
Potion of Clarity is fixed and tweaked. It's fixed not to show confusion animation and charm and confusion text messages when the character is immune and is tweaked not to grant immunity to fear. The potion is not usable by wizard slayers which was missed in its description.
Flame Tongue sword's "to hit" and "damage" bonuses are fixed and its magic level is reduced to 1. Also, the magic level of the War Hammer +1, +4 vs. Giantkin is fixed (reduced to 1). The Root of the Problem's magic level is reduced to 1 and the Bone Club's is reduced to 2.
The 3rd level clerical spell "Protection from Fire" is fixed to set resistance to fire to 100% rather than adding 100% to the current resistances.
invisibility 10' Radius spell's description is fixed. The spell's duration was wrong in its description.
The Stalker's Minor Spell Deflection spell's icons fixed. (leonidas)
Belt of Inertial barrier is tweaked to grant 25% resistance to magic damage.
Ring of Gaxx is fixed and tweaked. It's broken resistance to poison is fixed. It's wrong protection from magic icon is also replaced with magic resistance icon. And it's tweaked not to grant immunity to disease.
Both versions of Mace of Disruption are fixed. Their undead destroying effects are fixed not to require the undead to roll saving throw "twice". Their enchantments are fixed to match their descriptions and the improved mace's icon is changed. Moreover, the improved mace's permanent immunity to level drain is omitted. The weapon is too easily available in the game to have such powerful abilities.
Armor of Faith Spell is tweaked. First of all, its duration is fixed at 15 rounds; the resistance it grants is also fixed at 10% and it will only give resistance to physical and magic damage as its description suggests (i.e. the hidden resistances to magical fire and magical cold are removed).
Nalia's thieving skills are re-distributed to make her a better trap finder/disarmer. Her missing weapon proficiency in the vanilla game is fixed as well.
Chaotic Commands spell's hidden immunity to hold and stun are removed. The spell's duration is also decreased.
Rangers' useless "Tracking" HLA is replaced with a new one: Contact with Nature. It can be chosen only once from the list of HLAs and once used will grant 18hp/round regeneration for 1 turn. While in contact with nature, the ranger is also immune to petrification and imprisonment.
A bug in the 2nd level spell "Resist Fire/Cold" fixed.
Rift Device is tweaked not to harm anyone but The Unseeing Eye.
Wand of Lightning is tweaked not to discharge more than one lightning bolt per round and to actually discharging the spell rather than mimicking the effect. It's also no longer usable by enchanters.
Cernd had some additional and incorrect weapon proficiencies in one of his files. The bug is fixed. (Thanks to Raven)
Bigby's Crushing Hand spell had some minor bugs in the vanilla game which are fixed (Raven). The spell and Bigby's Clenched Fist are also both tweaked so that their damage won't be blocked by the target's MR. Both spells' "hold" effects are also removed.

Inquisitor's dispel magic is nerfed. It's still much more powerful than the dispel magic of other spellcasters but not as wild as it was in the vanilla game. The inquisitor casts the spell at a higher level than his actual level (but not at double level). The difference between inquisitor's actual level and the level at which he casts Dispel Magic is according to the following table:

                  Inquisitor's actual level              The difference between levels
                  =========================              =============================
                       1 - 3                                           1
                       4 - 5                                           2
                       6 - 8                                           3
                       9 - 12                                          4
                      13 - 17                                          5
                      18 - 23                                          6
                      24 - 30                                          7
                      31 +                                             8

For example, a 13th level inquisitor casts dispel magic as if he is 5 level higher (level 18).

Albruin sword is tweaked to cast "detect invisibility" rather than mimicking the effects. It is also tweaked to cast "Neutralize Poison" rather than granting permanent immunity.
Power Word Kill spell's description fixed (thanks to Dago for reporting the issue).
Faldorn's duel with the protagonist is fixed. The duel is supposed to be a fair one-on-one combat. Now, you won't be able to pass any items (weapons, potions,...) from your NPCs to your protagonist during the battle. NPCs can't actually interfere in any way. Moreover, all of your buffs will be dispelled before starting the duel (Faldorn also starts the duel with no buffs).
An exploit to gain infinite XP by killing giants in Saradush fixed (thetruth).
If you defeat Slavers in Slums before going for the Guarded Compound, you will find a letter with Captain Haegan which will indicate that Sion and his companions are slavers. In this way, good aligned parties will be well justified to attack the compound and will also have an additional dialogue option while talking to Sion.
Level progression tables are revised. Level up requires more xp in all classes in general. Multi-class characters will require to reach certain high levels to start to gain HLAs:
- Single (and dual) class characters start gaining HLAs (approximately) at 3,400,000 xp.
- Double-class characters start gaining HLAs (approximately) at 5,100,000 xp.
- Triple-Class characters start gaining HLAs (approximately) at 6,800,000 xp.
The levels of joinable NPCs upon joining the party now depends on the protagonist's xp rather than the leader's level of experience. Hence, the exploit of having high level NPCs by using a thief as the leader or the protagonist is blocked. Some of the NPCs will always join with the lowest possible level, some others will gain xp if the protagonist has more xp than a certain amount.
A possible cheesy exploit based on booting multi-player NPCs and having them again in the party is detected and fixed. The exploit was that if you had a kitted multi-player custom NPC with some innate abilities of its kit, you could have him cast his innate spells and then pretend that you want to dismiss him from the party, but when he asked whether he should leave you could reply "No join again." and he would not leave at all. He would rejoin the party with all of his innate abilities refreshed. This is now fixed. (Thanks to Dago for reporting this possible exploit to me)
Otyughs' xp value and morale fixed to match their pnp attributes. They are also supposed to be immune to surprise; I interpreted this as immunity to backstab in BG2.
Deck of Many Things' fixes and tweaks:
- Demon Knights and Death shade gated by the Deck had incorrect attributes which are fixed. They are improved as well.
- The deck will now grant Ring of Protection +2 (rather than +3)
- The "emperor" effects' duration is shortened, but it's also fixed not to be blocked by the recipient's MR.
- Buffing your character before using the deck will not protect you against its possible ill effects.
- "Star" card would fail to grant the permanent dexterity bonus to thieves and bards in the vanilla game (thanks to Raven for reporting this issue). The bug is fixed.
The known "Force Talk Cheat" is blocked for some important enemies. (Note: I have not bothered to block this cheat for all possible enemies, because I don't believe that any serious player will ever use it. So, be your own policeman.)
Foebane +5 is tweaked; its Larloch's Minor Drain on the target ability will bypass target's MR for the same reason explained for the spell above. (Raven)
Trolls who fight with shadow druids in the wilderness near the druid grove would not spawn properly in the vanilla game if the entire party were invisible. It's fixed.
The tips the game displays each time you load a saved game are revised. Some less important tips are removed, some new and more helpful ones are added.
Donation to temples is made more expensive (Thanks to Ryel ril Ers for the suggestion) and it won't raise your reputation above 16.
Most dragons' breaths in the vanilla game would respond to the spell shield spell and you could see the message "spell ineffective" on the screen. In most cases the damage was not actually blocked, though in some cases it could even be blocked. All dragons' breaths are fixed. Blue Dragon's breath would not respond to spell shield even in vanilla game but it had another problem and could be blocked by Spell Immunity: Invocation. This is fixed too.
The lich in Deril's state didn't have the regular immunities of all liches in the original game. It's fixed.
The 6th level mage spell "Protection from Magical Weapons" had incorrect secondary type in the vanilla game which is now fixed.
Nalia will give you 4 more days before starting to complain about your delay to go to save The keep.
The 6th level clerical spell 'Physical Mirror' is fixed not to block Melf's Acid Arrow (nor the phantom arrows of Tansheron's Short Bow). It's also tweaked to merely block the ranged weapons rather than bouncing them. The spell's name and description are changed as well.
The Demi lich's imprisonment is tweaked not to be bounced by spell turning and not to be blocked by any protective spell other than Spell Immunity: Abjuration and Death Ward. On the other hand, demi liches are fixed not to cast more than 8 Imprisonment spells.
Most of psionic attacks are tweaked not to be blockable by Spell Shield.
Darts of Stunning and wounding are tweaked (fixed) to be +1 weapons with the appropriate THAC0 and damage bonuses. Darts of stunning had also a wrong duration for the stunning effect in the vanilla game, which is fixed to match the description.
The 9th level spell, spellstrike is tweaked not to be blocked by spell shield while still being capable of removing it. Notably, even the spell shield's unfixable bug which sometimes appears (see entry no. 42 above) can't prevent its removal by spellstrike. (With the tweaks applied to Spell Immunity spell, Ruby Ray of Reversal had gained a major advantage over other protection removal spells. This latest tweak will hopefully (at least partially) compensate it in favor of SpellStrike (as a 9th level spell)).
Shillelagh spell is fixed to match the spell's description.
Bone Golems are fixed: Now they have their pnp ability of issuing Hideous Laugh; they are also fearless as per their pnp description. Their number of attacks per round was also incorrect in the vanilla game which is now fixed.
Minotaurs are fixed and improved further. Now they have all of their pnp abilities and more. (They now have their pnp abilities of grappling and charging targets. The missed immunity to maze is also implemented and enhanced with immunity to charm and confusion. Moreover, they have better THAC0s and equip better weapons; they are fearless and their pnp bonus vs. surprise is interpreted as immunity to backstab.)
Silence 15' Radius is nerfed to have shorter duration.
Enemy clerics' "Turn Paladin" ability is tweaked to dispel all dispellable effects on the targeted paladin as well as making the paladin immune to remove fear effects for its duration.
Invisible Stalkers had several bugs in the vanilla game which have been fixed: Their weapon which was supposed to have +2 enchantment was actually non-magical; they didn't have their 30% magic resistance; they had incorrect THAC0 as well. Their 'class' is also changed/fixed from mage(!) to Elemental of Air.
Amulet of Power is tweaked not to cure silence nor to grant immunity to silence.
Namarra +2 is tweaked: Its Silence 15' radius is replaced with Cure Serious Wounds (once per day)
Ilbratha is fixed to actually cast Mirror Image rather than mimicking the effect.
Spirit animals' weapons fixed and tweaked. The spirit animals summoned by totemic druids had unenchanted weapons in the vanilla game. The enchantment numbers were set on 5 or 6, but the "magical" flags were not set properly. Now, they are fixed so that they are indeed magical but also fixed to have +3 enchantments rather than 5. The level drain effect of the wolf's attack and the horror effect of the bear's are omitted and the bear's claw is fixed to do crushing damage rather than slashing (to be in harmony with other bears).
The Ogre Jelly form of Polymorph Self spell had wrong attributes (such as 100% MR instead of 10% which is the correct MR of an ogre Jelly). This and all other similar bugs related to Polymorph self are fixed.
Book of infinite spells had bugs in the vanilla game. The bugs are fixed and its spells are also replaced with more useful ones.
Sir William Reirrac and Garren Windpear's dialogue files are fixed so that Regain paladinhood only applies when the protagonist is indeed a fallen paladin.
Two possible exploits with Cloak of Sewers are blocked.
Dragon's Breath Halberd's missing +4 damage bonus is added and fixed. The item is also tweaked to have 5% chance per hit to inflict its additional elemental damage (though the amount of damage is also tweaked so that its average is only halved in long terms).
Bards' spell progression and level progression tables are revised.
There was a bug in Cleric/Rangers' HLA table in the vanilla game. It's fixed.
The version of Haer'Dalis creature summoned by the Fate Spirit in Pocket Plane was bugged in the vanilla game. It's fixed.
Harper Pin item is nerfed.
Nadinal's Ring of Wizardry is replaced with Ring of Protection +1. As per the item's description, the only way to acquire the Ring of Wizardry should be through forging it in Planar Sphere.
The Answerer is tweaked: It's MR decreasing effect is omitted, its AC lowering effect will be applied but with 10% chance per hit; however, it's also changed to bypass the target's magic resistance.
Vocalize spell will only cure silence (not greater or grave silence though); the spell doesn't grant immunity to silence for any duration.
The fifth level clerical spell, Magic Resistance, is tweaked. It adds (rather than set) +5% per three levels MR to the cleric up to 30% at 18th level. But it cannot be cast on any other character or creature than the caster. Multiple uses of the spell won't cumulatively work together either.
Chaos Shield and Improved Chaos Shield spells are both nerfed: Shorter durations and less Wild surge Bonuses. The improved one had actually a wrong (too long) duration even compared with its vanilla description.
Enhanced Bard Song is improved to grant more magic resistance bonuses, but also tweaked not to grant immunity to Fear, Confusion and Stun (the same for Skald's song).
Cerebus, the creature summoned by the Moon Dog Figurine is tweaked: His spell-like abilities and innate immunities are omitted, but on the other hand, his +1 claw is improved to have +3 enchantment and his number of attacks are increased (from 1) to 3. He has much better morale during the combat as well.
Wizard Slayers' miscast magic percentage is fixed.
Joolon, the lion summoned by the Golden Lion Figurine is improved: His +1 claw is changed to +3 and he fights more intelligently.
Comet spell is fixed and tweaked. It's fixed not to be bounced by Spell Turning; it will no longer show the false "Stun" icon either and it's also fixed not to be blocked by Spell Immunity: Invocation. Its throwing effect is also tweaked not to allow saving throw. Its unconsciousness effect's duration is shortened considerably but is also tweaked not to allow saving throw.
One of the dialogue options with the djinni of "Wish" spell didn't match with the spell the djinni actually granted in the vanilla game. The bug is fixed. Also, the "Breach on enemies" option would make ally summons hostile. This is fixed too. The related dialogue option is also changed to "Breach on everyone in the area except party members" to indicate the fact that the breach will affect allies and neutral creatures in the area as well (though as mentioned above, this particular version of breach won't be considered as a hostile action by allies and neutral creatures and won't make them turn hostile).
The second level mage spell "Strength" is fixed and tweaked: It's casting range is fixed to match the spell's description and the spell's duration is shortened.
Staff of The Earth and staff of Air are both fixed to function similar to Staff of Fire in regard to the number of elementals they summon. The elementals summoned by all three staves are slightly improved to behave more intelligently during battles. Moreover, the lesser elementals summoned by the Air and the Fire staves were using the wrong animation/avatar in the original game, which are fixed too.
Helm of the Rock is tweaked. Resistance to poison is replaced with Ac bonus vs. blunt weapons. The improved helm will cast Horror once per day (rather than mimicking the effects three times per day).
Drizzt's level and THAC0 were not matching together in the vanilla game. A compromise has been decided. His level is increased to 18 (from 16) and his base THAC0 is changed to 3 (from zero). As an 18th level ranger, he will also have one use of HLA per day which he will use in Bodhi's lair if you invite him to help you in that battle.
Some of the Stoneskin scrolls in the game were not usable by dual-class mages. This is fixed.
Whirlwind and Greater whirlwind are both fixed not be overridden by "Haste" spell. The same problem existed with energy blades (Haste spell would reduce your number of attacks) which is fixed as well.
The Spirit Armor spell could stack with itself in the vanilla game resulting in more and more saving throw bonuses. The bug is fixed. The spell is also tweaked to have shorter duration, and the damage it inflicts to the recipient will be applied with no save (thanks to Ymarsakar for drawing my attention to this issue).
The "Mist, Horror" creature, its natural weapon, and the version of "Chaos" spell it casts had some bugs and inconsistencies in the vanilla game, which are all fixed.
The "Cavalier" kit was one of the kits of the vanilla game which had too many advantages with almost no significant disadvantage. The kit is tweaked and rebalanced by omitting the permanent immunity to fear effects from the list of advantages (immunity to fear effects would unjustifiably make the cavalier immune to evil clerics' turning ability, which was a big edge over other paladins; with this change in IA v6, enemy clerics will attempt to turn cavaliers as well; in the previous versions of the mod, enemy evil clerics would only try to turn a paladin if he was not a cavalier).
A cheesy exploit while talking with the Black Dragon fixed.
An xp exploit in the tanner's hideout and a similar xp exploit in spellhold are both blocked and fixed (thanks to Clown).
Ice Storm spell's description is fixed and its damage is set according to pnp AD&D. Fire Storm and Meteor Swarm, on the other hand, are fixed to match their BG2 descriptions.
Harp of Discord is tweaked to actually cast 'Confusion' rather than mimicking the effects.
Demiliches' and Bone Golems' immunity to 9th level spells are fixed to include immunity to 'Dragon's Breath' spell.
Potion of Magic Protection is fixed to match its description and to set MR at 50% (rather than adding 50% to MR).
In the Vanilla game, Maheer would take all of your diamonds or Beljuril gems to upgrade horns of Valhalla if those gems were stacked in one inventory slot. The bug is fixed (thanks to Dago for drawing my attention to this issue).
The two first level mage spells, 'Armor' and 'shield', are both tweaked to work much similar to each other except for one point: Armor will add additional AC bonus to 'piercing' and 'slashing' weapon types, whereas 'Shield' will grant additional bonus to 'missile' and 'blunt' weapons. 'Shield' will no longer grant immunity to 'Magic Missile' spell.
Thieves' Hood is tweaked not to grant immunity to backstab.
Transmuters couldn't learn "Larloch's Minor Drain" and "Vampiric Touch" spells in the vanilla game. The bug is fixed.
The undead destroying effects of both versions of Runehammer are fixed (in the vanilla game, the undead could roll a saving throw vs. Death "twice" rather than once).
Wand of the Heavens had wrong power numbers assigned to its effects and the amount of damage it would inflict was wrong as well. The bugs are fixed (Raven).
In the vanilla game, you could return to the drow city even after exiting underdark (in chapter 6). The bug is fixed. You can return to underdark, but not to the drow city.
Some of the options of wish spells had wrong power numbers in the vanilla game which are all fixed (Raven).
Warriors summoned by Horns of Valhalla (except the improved one from IA) had bugged weapons which are fixed. Their number of attacks are also fixed and now they use Berserker Rage ability and fight a lot more intelligently (raven).
All bugs related to blades' Offensive Spin ability in the vanilla game are completely fixed.
A cheesy exploit in the vanilla game which would allow the player to gain access to Imoen during the dream in spellhold without losing one point of one of his or her attributes is blocked and fixed.
The 4th level spell, "Enchanted Weapon" can't be cast more than once a day (24 hours).
When a creature is partially visible (improved invisible), you are not able to target him with spells which normally target a creature rather than an area. However, due to a bug of the vanilla game you were still able to "cheesily" cast the same spells on the target using scrolls. This bug is fixed in IA v6. If you are a cheesy player and want to try it, you will still cast the spells from the scroll, but they won't take effect anyway and such spells won't work on partially visible targets.
More Sensible Wish spell (Wish spell is rebalanced to work in a more sensible and balanced way):
- "Time Stop + Improved Alacrity" combo will be offered only to those who practice pure arcane magic (= single class mages). To be honest, It was never making sense to cast time stop and then attack the enemy with a sword rather than casting spells. Now, Multi-class mages can't have this option of the wish spell.
- "Magical Rest" option is also rebalanced to be offered only to single-class mages and work more sensibly as follows: When you wish "Make it as if the entire party has just rested a full night", your wish will now have a chance to indeed make it as if you have rested, which means there will be a chance for your enchantments and protections to expire (due to resting) and also a chance for new hostile creatures to appear (during the night). The first time you use this option of the wish spell, the chance of negative effects will be zero, but if you repeat choosing this option during the same day, the risk of the side effects will increase seriously.
Time Trap is replaced with a more sensible HLA. The new HLA fits much better with the thief class (it was never making sense that a thief could stop the flow of time mimicking the effect of a most powerful arcane spell).
Improved Anvil has now its own xpcap-reviser and will not work with any xpcap-remover. This new feature of the mod does not remove the xpcap, but changes it to 12.2 million xp (it was 8 million in the vanilla game). Notes regarding the new xpcap:
- This amount of xp (= 12.2 M) is more or less equal with the total xp each party member can gain in the entire game with a party of 6 members. So, players who play the mod with a party of 6 won't even notice that a cap exists (regardless of whether they play single-class or multi-class characters). In other words, such players won't notice any change in their characters' level progressions. Even those who play with a party of 5 members will notice the cap late in game. Playing with a party of 6 is recommended.
- The new xpcap is still enough for single class characters of all classes (even rangers and paladins) to reach level 40 regardless of the number of party members. The only single-class characters who can't reach level 40 are the mage and the bard who will stop level progression at level 36; but even such characters won't notice the cap if the game is played with a party of 6 members, because even without the xpcap, there is not more xp to gain in the game.
- While the new xpcap won't affect single class characters in any remarkable way, it will adequately and sensibly block absurd level progression of multi-class characters in a game with no xpcap and in a party of few members. Actually, The only character type whose level progression will be practically and noticeably affected is a multi-class character who is NOT a member of a full party.
There was a bug in the vanilla game which would allow fighter/thieves to pick more than one Assassination HLA. Another bug would also prevent the fighter/thief from picking 'Avoid Death' if he had already picked Assassination. Both bugs are fixed.
Multi-class thieves and Swashbucklers' HLA tables are revised.
All traps are removed from bards' HLA table (thanks to shadan). Fighter/Clerics won't gain the warrior Resist Magic HLA.
'Scribe Scrolls' and 'Alchemy' HLAs are all fixed not to turn to a source of infinite gold. The scrolls and potions created by these spells won't have any market value and can't be sold.
Chain Contingency spell can't be cast more than once per day (thanks to LZJ for suggesting this tweak/fix).
Multi-class mages won't have access to Improved Alacrity (Raven).
The constitution bonus in Obsidian Ioun Stone and Malla's Soul Stone are replaced with hp bonus (thanks to Kerkes and SpellStorm).
Revised THAC0 tables: While the nerfed THAC0 tables of the vanilla game are not ideal, the totally unnerfed THAC0 tables of Ease-of-Use are not satisfactory either. Improved Anvil has now its own custom THAC0 tables (something between the nerfed tables of the vanilla game and the unnerfed tables of Ease-of-Use).
Characters will be able to wear minor and mid-power protection rings and cloaks with each other and together with armors, but the powerful (+3 and better) ones can't be worn simultaneously or with armors. The related component of Ease-of-Use which allows unlimited use of such rings and cloaks together and with armors no longer works with IA.
Some bugs in hell trials fixed. For example, SI:divination could block the penalties of one of the trials in the vanilla game.
The scripts the player could assign to party members (to be used when the party AI option is 'on') had some bugs which are all fixed. The scripts are also slightly improved (however, despite the improvements and bugfixes, I still do not recommend turning on the party AI; a true tactician should be able to play much more effectively than one can expect to gain from any such scripts).
Monsters who spawn to interrupt the party's rest no longer carry any treasure nor do they have any xp value. The same tweak is applied to all other monsters who can respawn infinitely during the game.
One of the effects in the first level spell, Doom, had a wrong power number. It's fixed.
Some items in the vanilla game grant small and negligible resistances to elemental damage AND add the icons to the characters portrait as well. During battles the protection icons added by these items can play a negative role, because they prevent the player from noticing that the main protective spells on the character are expired or dispelled. Such misleading icons are mostly removed from those items.
Staff of Curing's cure disease effect fixed to remove the disease icon as well (thanks to geh4th).
The third level mage spell, Slow, is tweaked not to incur any AC or THAc0 penalties. It just now slows the target.
Summoned skeletons and some other undead creatures were not immune to charm in the vanilla game. the bug is fixed (LZJ).
Wakizashis were usable by druids despite the items' descriptions. The bug is fixed (Raven).
The first level mage spell, Magic Missile, used to inflict a wrong amount of damage per missile in the vanilla game. It is fixed to match the spell's description (Raven)
Evasion and Greater Evasion could stack with each other in the vanilla game. The bug is fixed (Raven).
Hold Monster spell is tweaked to affect one single target.
The Spectral Brand +5 is tweaked not to grant immunity to level drain.
The names of some scrolls had typos in the vanilla game. They are fixed (Raven).
The skullcrusher mace had a bug in the vanilla game. Its bonus damage would be applied even to the second weapon the character might wield. The bug is fixed (Raven).
Dwarves, Halflings and Gnomes won't gain more than +1 racial bonus to their saving throws.
Specialist mages can't dual class.
Learning spells from scrolls won't grant any xp. The xp of disarming traps and picking locks is also modified (lowered).
The Fireshield (Blue) spell had a bug in the vanilla game which would allow it to affect even rakshasas, liches and demi-liches. The bug is fixed (Raven).
Short Swords of Mask (+4 and +5) are fixed and tweaked. Wrong power numbers in their effects are fixed. The +4 sword's chance per hit to entangle the target is reduced to 10%. The +5 sword's ability to level drain is omitted, but its chance to entangle is 15% per hit.
Shield Amulet is fixed to actually cast the spell rather than mimicking the effects. The item is also now usable only by mages.
Berserker's enrage ability protects against level drain, but the message "x levels drained" would still appear on the screen. Barbarian Rage also protects against some effects without preventing either the portrait icons or related messages. These bugs are fixed.
A hidden bug in the vanilla game sometimes causes the exit of the sphere to lead to the Slums rather than the demons' plane. The bug is fixed (Raven).
Boots of the North displays a wrong icon on the wearers portrait in the vanilla game. The bug is fixed (geh4th).
Due to a bug of the original game, sometimes Melissan would appear prematurely during the battle with Gromnir and his guards before the battle was completely over. The bug is fixed (Raven).
Two new druidic HLAs are added.
The Negative Plane Protection spell is now working almost similar to its pnp version. In pnp, the spell protects the character only for one single shot. Now, vampires have a chance to dispel the NPP spell with each successful hit. If we wanted to make the spell work exactly similar to pnp, we should have set the dispelling probability at 100%, but we thought that 100% might be overkill and didn't go that far. Vampires used to be a joke in the vanilla game, with this change they are (hopefully) going to be as fearsome as the legends tell us.
The spell, Melf's Acid Arrow is tweaked to inflict its entire damage instantaneously in one shot. The total amount of damage will be 2d4 + 2/three levels of the caster (capped at 18th level).
The Stonefire and Frostreaver axes are tweaked to have a chance per hit to inflict their elemental damage (rather than 100% chance per hit which they had in the vanilla game). The amount of damage is increased instead.
The cheesy method of hiding the silver blade somewhere in order to go to Cromwell's shop before confronting Kruin is blocked. Cromwell's shop won't be accessible as long as you haven't dealt with Kruin.
Rangers' Charm Animal ability is improved by implementing a -6 penalty to the allowed save.
The infinite gold exploits are removed from strongholds.
The spell "Shield of the Archons" had a critical and unfixable bug in the vanilla game; the spell is completely reworked and replaced.
Some weapons in the vanilla game would incorrectly consume enemies' Spell Turning on hit. The bugs are fixed.
The 6th level clerical spell "False Dawn" is tweaked not to cause confusion effect. Not to mention that the confusion had a wrongly assigned duration to it in the vanilla game, but we decided to omit the effect rather than fixing its duration.
There was a bug in the vanilla game which would cause the game to miscount the number of summoned creatures on occasions. The bug is now fixed (Thanks to Nicoper for reporting the problem).
The behavior of Elemental Princes (druidic summons) during the battle is improved.
Several more potential vanilla exploits (Bridge Guardian in the Lower Reaches, sellable note from one of the Asylum's innmates) are found and removed from the game.
The Swashbuckler kit's abilities are revised further. A brand new item, designed specifically for rogues, is added to the game.
The Elven Ancient Expertise potion now could be forged for any F/M/C present in the party, not necessarily the protagonist.
A druid-specific item upgrade, Helm of Clarity, is improved further.
The fight against Drowned Soul (part of the third ranger-only quest added by Improved Anvil) is toned down due to many requests from players.
Farsight spell is removed and replaced with a new 4th level spell: Minor Disruption (a lesser version of the 7th level spell Disrupt Undead).
Clerical spell Champion's Strength was allowed to stack with itself, thus granting an extremely overpowered set of melee advantages. The issue is fixed, and spell now allows only one casting on the character.
Clerical spell Entangle should grant a +3 bonus to saving throws against its effect, according to the spell description. In reality, no such bonus existed. The issue is fixed.
A bug where a player could create a resonating effect between his own character's Fire Shield and that of an enemy creature is fixed. Along with Fire Shields, the fix is also applied to a few similar clerical spells and miscellaneous effects (such as Swanmay's special ability and Sendai's armor).
Spear of Withering is tweaked to deal its elemental damage with a certain probability instead of on each hit. To compensate for that, the actual amount of damage is increased.
Skullcrusher mace is tweaked to always deal its extra damage againt humanoid creatures.
A possibility for cheesy behavior existed in the Old Ones quest, allowing a player to cast a spell prior to being teleported into the combat area. It is now amended.
The Monk class and its kits are revised and improved further. Monk's fist development progression is tweaked to be more effective in IA. The THAC0 and level progression are now that of a fighter class.
BG2EE's joinable NPCs, Neera and Rasaad, are tweaked and improved. Each character now has a personal item upgrade.

Existing bugs and gotchas in the original game

The ability of Ranger->Cleric dual classes to get druidic spells into their spell books was in fact a bug that existed in ToB and was consequently fixed by the Beamdog in EE. In all fairness, this is a proper behavior for that particular dual-class. If, however, you would like to bring back the good-old overpowered R->C combo, modify the Baldur.ini, adding a 'Cleric Ranger Spells' option with the value of '0' into the 'Game Options' section.
It was a well-known bug/feature of the vanilla game that Mirror Image granted protection from ADHW, something that logically shouldn't happen. Apparently, Beamdog has fixed the issue in EE and the tactic no longer works. Be aware of it and plan your actions accordingly.
There were a couple of reports about Remove Magic not being able to dispel an enemy's Mirror Image spell like in vanilla game, where it's a guaranteed success. We did some tests and it appears to be that this is one of those bugs/features of MI that were considered normal in vanilla but were fixed on the engine level by the Beamdog. A similar case was MI protecting from ADHW (see issue number 3 above). In EE, Mirror Image obeys the same mechanics as the rest of the spells. If your caster's level is higher than that of an enemy, MI will be dispelled.
If you want to create similar characters for your party composition (for example, two Berserker->Mages), make sure that they are not very identical. I.e., they should have different alignment and gender, otherwise you have a good chance of running into an engine-level bug that causes the game to erroneously attribute spells cast by both characters to the first one created. This will definitely mess up the AI and, therefore, your game experience. The issue exists both in ToB and BG2:EE.
The EE engine has introduced an issue with the effect opcode that is related to summoning creatures. Unfortunately, even "special" creatures that are used to facilitate spells with dialogue-driven mechanics (Wish & Limited Wish, Racial Combat, Recast Vital Energy, etc.) are now subject to the global summoning limit of five creatures. You may use these spells freely until you have reached said limit. Afterwards, the casting of the spell would fail. The rabbit horde option of Limited Wish remains functional, however, as long as you stay under the limit in order to conjure up the djinni in the first place.
Enhanced Edition has introduced two new difficulty levels: Legacy of Bhaal and Story Mode. The former artifically increases the difficulty by introducing monsters and giving them staying power while the latter does the opposite and makes the combat part of the game easy. Neither are compatible with Improved Anvil nor were tested in any meaningful way. Play at your own risk.
A batch of new AI scripts for player's party members was introduced in Enhanced Edition. They are not written with Improved Anvil in mind and therefore will not give you any meaningful advantage. In any case, IA is the mod where the most benefit comes from the player manually controlling each of his or hers party members' actions. We recommend that you disable these scripts or the AI altogether when you start the game.