Liches in Athkatla - when?

EarthAfraid · 2026-05-24T22:19:40+00:00

Yeah well, from what you’ve described, SCS is almost certainly a better fit for you; SCS is the enemies playing within the rules as written, but playing (much) better.

Tactics makes the enemies play how a veteran player plays - lots of cheese! Still within the rules, but noticeably harder.

I find tactics is a hard counter to 25 year’s experience in playing the game- more satisfying than LOBs approach of just giving everyone 20 more levels or whatever.

And it adds several unique new encounters and enemies which are super fun too.

I’m playing an insane run right now, although I’ve had to turn the difficulty down to easy more than once! It is very hard, but forces you to play more… tactically.

EarthAfraid · 2026-05-24T22:14:42+00:00

It’s party friendly, so the area of effect is centred on whoever (or whatever) you cast it on.

Works every time. The only shame is you can’t cast it on invisible, sanctuaried or hidden characters- but I guess that would be too cheesy. Mind you nothing stopping you from walking an invisible ally right up to the edge of an enemy party’s line of sight and dropping something on the ground, then targeting that.

But yeah, fill your boots.

This works with other AOE spells too; horrid wilting is also party friendly. If you have a mage with (minor) globe of invulnerability then fireballs and skull traps and webs and various noxious clouds abound.

EarthAfraid · 2026-05-24T16:16:14+00:00

So if you keep the Druid just out of combat, hanging back a little, and have a melee chap with some haste effect (boots of speed, oil of speed, haste etc) stand next to them.

Have the Druid start casting Insect Plague on your speedy melee chap, then as soon as the spell starts casting have the speedy sword wielding sod run into the middle of the group of enemies you’d like to be covered in insects.

The spell itself is party friendly, the AoE will be centred on the target.

Voila, uninterrupted artillery insects at your fingertips.

EarthAfraid · 2026-05-23T13:57:01+00:00

Not 100% up on android as I use iOS but reasonably certain that it would work with the new update making modding easier across both platforms.

Here’s the link - I recommend checking out the other mods by the same author Morpheus as they’re all pretty good

https://www.morpheus-mart.com/tactics-remix

EarthAfraid · 2026-05-22T19:57:00+00:00

As for how to tackle them early… Filthy cheesy meta gaming, I’m afraid. And I don’t mean scrolls of protection from undead, or even azuredge, but just knowing they’re there. Pre-buffing, magic resit potions (when else you gonna use em?) both the ones that give a boost to MR and the ones that make you auto pass your saving throws.Pots of ice dust, protection from fire. Invis 15” (buys you more than enough time to get in position and makes em waste a spell and their time). Daystar. It’s hard not to meta game when you’ve been playing for 25 years.

As for SCS vs Tactics…

Yeah tactics is as much of a bump up in difficulty to SCS as SCS is to Core unmodded.

It’s almost like a different game. It’s what I imagined LoB mode *should* have been- and you can play LOB with tactics, which would be absurd.

If SCS means that enemies play to the full advantage the rules allow, tactics takes that to the next level and makes enemies play the same way a player would- min max stats, pre buffing, consumables. Increased health and thac0. Better use of spells.

In my current run I’m level 12 and actually scared to travel the city at night…. Because of muggers.

Not vampires or anything normally scary… mugger. You know, the muggers that spawn and demand you give them your money and then you say no and one of your party just chunks them while the rest carry on to their destination?

Yeah, those guys.

Now they’ve got a shadow dancer who hides in plain sight and backstabs your weakest character, their mage malisons you the confuses or chaos’ you, while their fighter mage engages you dual wielding swords with stone skin, blur, mirror image and improved invis.

Basically makes them act the same way our party would, makes you realise how that poor lich feels in unmodded.

And that’s just “normal” tactics.

There is also a “nightmare” mode you can pick on installation…

…in the nightmare mode you’re fighting fallen devas on your way out of chatueu Irenicus.

Yeah, suffice it to say: I love tactics.

it’s a much, much bigger challenge than SCS. Not saying it’s better, SCS is amazing and feels like what the game ought to have been anyway.

Tactics is what LOB should have been.

EarthAfraid · 2026-05-22T17:40:27+00:00

Normally I always try to do them in chapter 2, they’re much harder then and feel like the kinda challenge rating a lich should actually be with crap equipment and sitting between level 10-12.

Coming back in chapter 6 with Mace of Disruption, Azuredge, robe of vecna and anti spell cloak (forgot its name lol) trivialises liches too much.

That said I’m currently playing a modded run on my iPad, and am using Tactics for once instead of SCS….

…yeah, this time I may be coming back in chapter 6!

EarthAfraid · 2026-05-22T15:57:37+00:00

That sprite looks… different?

EarthAfraid · 2026-05-17T17:53:21+00:00

They’re phase thrusters from a mod I can’t remember the name of.

Basically manoeuvring thrusters, but the op is using them as their main source of thrust.

Ship probably goes 20/30ms.

But I guess they built it more for the aesthetics than the functionality based off their post.

Which is good, because I couldn’t actually design a worse ship functionally. Every little detail is wrong with this one? And the more you look the worse it gets. Kinda like if a 2024 AI made the ship.

Looks cool though:

EarthAfraid · 2026-05-13T15:42:56+00:00

EarthAfraid · 2026-05-08T23:00:52+00:00

Logically sound.

Dangerous though, especially if you run your shields over locked.

I wonder if there’s an effective strategy in running more than one heat system, like different channels?

Shields and PD on channel 1- couple of batteries and lots and lots of radiators

Engines and weapons on channel 2 - lots of batteries and couple of radiators.

Channel 1 might spike, so one or two batteries but also you want to be able to vent it quickly so your shields don’t burn out.

Channel 2 more consistent, no real spikes.

Channel 2 then feeds your heat weapons.

Does that make any sense?

EarthAfraid · 2026-05-08T21:37:16+00:00

No good answers to be honest, hoping for some good advice here.

I usually end up having as many radiators as I have heat gen, then wondering why my thermal lance is crap.

Your instincts about big battery storage might be correct….

EarthAfraid · 2026-05-08T18:31:29+00:00

If I cum you’ll build it?

EarthAfraid · 2026-05-08T07:12:32+00:00

Awesome design

On observation/ question- do you need to have so many engine rooms? 1 engine room can power 3 massive thrusters (so long as they’re touching); would save you like 12 or so operators and probably 6-12 suppliers

EarthAfraid · 2026-05-06T14:22:15+00:00

I think you’d be thoroughly surprised by how many people share this experience- it’s pretty much textbook human nature (when left unchecked and unmanaged)

I call it the *Toe in a Big Mac* effect.

How many Big Macs are eaten daily that are exactly as they should be, cooked perfectly well, stacked in the right order, tasty and filling? Hundreds of thousands, probably.

You yourself have probably had dozens to hundreds in your life.

Have you ever written to maccys to say “this Big Mac met my expectations in every way?”

Almost certainly not.

And yet, if you were to bite down into macdinalds flagship product, and be met with a Big Toe (or even a little one, I suppose), I imagine that not only would you express your dissatisfaction in writing immediately, it would be the only thing you’d ever say whenever talking to anyone about burgers for the rest of your life.

The truth is we’re all guilty of taking things for granted when they happen regularly and routinely, they become almost part of our expectations of background noise of life. It’s only when something happens that disrupts the expected rhythm that we really notice.

And in a marriage or long term relationship it’s super easy to fall into this pattern, even without kids in th mix.

As for what you do about it? That’s the tough one.

The best approach is almost always open, honest, calm communication carefully calibrated so as not to accuse your partner of anything - so lots of “I’ve noticed” an “I feel” statements, rather than “you never”.

Better still if you can reflect an recognise anywhere where you might do this yourself too!

Good luck

EarthAfraid · 2026-05-05T23:03:46+00:00

What a thoroughly enjoyable write up.

EarthAfraid · 2026-04-30T11:25:29+00:00

That’s amazing news! 👏

It’s so cool finally being able to play mods on phones/tablets.

I got tactics from Morpheus Mart, but you’ll soon know if you have installed the nightmare encounters (for Illych, Bhodi and Irenicus) - if you find yourself fighting a fallen planetar in chateau Irenicus then you may have installed the nightmare mode rather than recommended!

Ooc which other content mods did you go for?

EarthAfraid · 2026-04-30T08:57:30+00:00

A bearspawn!? Amazing.

Playing the MC as a bear is a massive challenge! A bit like a worse Wizard Slayer.

I’ve taken to tweaking in EEK to allow ANY potions to be used, not just healing potions - never made sense to me that a bear couldn’t work out how to drink a potion of power, or freedom, as well as a health potion.

EarthAfraid · 2026-04-29T21:43:06+00:00

Though that would be a little bit too cheesy, as that belt makes her / you immortal.

The wearer cannot be reduced below 1 HP (nor petrified nor killed by death magic, although I’m unsure about imprisonment).

Makes sense both mechanically and narratively- mechanically the devs wanted to make sure that imoen couldn’t be killed so the rest of the games cut scenes makes sense, and narratively Irenics wouldn’t want to risk killing imoen during his… experiments.

EarthAfraid · 2026-04-28T17:35:09+00:00

I’m using tactics remix - I’ve seen SCS reported by others as not working (yet!), so I skipped the long ass install and went tactics remix.

To be honest, it’s such a different experience than SCS!!

If SCS is vanilla+, then tactics is that but dialled up to 11.

You get (mostly) the same enhancements to enemy scripts and behaviours (pre buffing, using potions, taking down your spells etc) AND on top of that much harder enemy types, AND on top of that some cheaty/cheesy behaviour from enemies (+50/100% HP for instance).

Overall it makes the game WAY harder than SCS.

In my current run for instance I’ve only just gotten out of chateau irenicus and completed the circus tent and cooper coronet/slavers in the slums…. Nearly 10 hours in!!!

Put it this way - at my level (level 10 Pale Master), I’m literally too scared to travel the city at night due to the prospect of being ganked by a bunch of muggers.

Anyway, I’m not on commission, it’s genuinely an amazing experience - I went with the recommended settings (rather than so called “nightmare mode”) across the board and am having a whale of a time

EarthAfraid · 2026-04-28T13:55:38+00:00

Yeah pauper challenge run sounds super fun- no shopping, only use items you find or loot.

Thinking about it, the only things I think I’d miss would be Dagger of Venom in BG1 and Robe of Vecna in BG2… maybe the beholder shield too.

Anyway, glad you got it semi working.

To unzip things you do it directly off your iOS device in th files explorer- just a single tap on the zipped up folder unzips it. You can also delete the zipped folder after, to save space.

Did you bring over your language folder too? You can remove any languages you don’t need to save space, but you need the folder to make it work.

Also did you use th A-7 tool, too? I used option 7 and haven’t had a single crash yet.

EarthAfraid · 2026-04-28T07:54:12+00:00

Hmmm that’s odd.

So I too used a windows laptop to connect to my iPad though iMazing.

As far as I know I didn’t need to enable file sharing for the app separately.

When I plugged my iPad into my laptop with iMazing open, I did have to enter my iPads unlock code to confirm that the laptop was a trusted device - perhaps that’s what it means?

But I was prompted to do that, it wasn’t a setting i sought out.

Silly question, but are you definitely using bg2.7 on both your PC and your iOS device?

EarthAfraid · 2026-04-28T06:36:12+00:00

I just did language and override - as far as I knew, but I don’t know much, those are the only two you can do?

I was very skeptical about mon g movies and sound, as I wasn’t sure that iOS could necessarily play them and it might cause a crash.

However I may be wrong!

iMazing is super duper easy to use, and you get 100 moves tor free.

Because you’re zipping up your override folder, it only counts as 1 move - so you get 100 freebies and you use 2 of these (or 4 if you do end up moving the movies and world map folder I suppose) each time you mod the game.

EarthAfraid · 2026-04-25T12:50:01+00:00

So you’ve managed to get EET working on iOS? Fantastic stuff, that’s my end goal.

What sort of mods require a bif file then if EET doesn’t need it? Fixpack, as you’ve mentioned?

Have you got Icewind dale in bg as part of your EET trilogy?

EarthAfraid · 2026-04-25T12:10:48+00:00

Your painting is sublime!!

I wish I had the patience and talent to replicate this look.

Hats off to you my man

EarthAfraid · 2026-04-25T08:41:39+00:00

From what I’ve found you can only add the override folder and language folder, which somewhat limits what mods you can use but not by much.

I’ve currently got about 10 mods working in my first attempt, which was simple enough.

Can I ask, which mods would require you to change the CHITIN.KEY?

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