(I saw a similar comment by Weimer somewhere about "3 times that-and-that and all standart enemies are dead"...)
Thanks for your comments. If you saw that message you were reading past the spoiler space before starting the mod, and thus you should not be too surprised if things are too easy. :-)
I also noticed, when I startet ToB directly (I was curious to see Soula one first time), that he starts with incredibly high XP, to the extend that he is lvl 18 on both dualled classes, whereas all other have only lvl 18 in SINGLE class! :blink:
Hey, thats not fair compared to the rest of the troupe!!?? 
Yes, and the fault is with Bioware. Other NPCs come with 3M XP no matter how powerful you are in ToB. Solaufein matches the PC. If you want to play half of ToB and then swap out Jan for Minsc, you can't really do it because Minsc will be too weak when he arrives. If you want to swap out Jan for Sola, it works fine.
Further, I read about various abilities Soula is able to get over time: 2 extra spells in each spell-level, immunity to undead.... :blink:
Those are not guaranteed.
andIdontknowwhatelse.... if that´s not POWERGAMING, then I do not know what!? :huh:
You are not the first person to think so. I will readily admit that Solaufein is more powerful than most other joinable NPCs. Here are some things to consider:
(1) If you are too bored to buff Sola before fights (and for a long time the auto-buff script was not available), Sola is *much weaker*. And most "average users" play like that (yes, really) because they don't have the time or don't want to be bothered or whatnot. I've had people tell me that Anomen is a stronger fighter than Solaufein. This was clearly a scenario in which mirror image, blur, spirit armor, stoneskin, pro-fire, pro-cold, pro-magic-weapons and improved haste were left by the wayside.
(2) Despite all of Sola's nifty tricks, Kelsey at the XP cap would destroy Sola at the XP cap. The AD&D rules are already sufficiently unbalanced (as implemented in BG2) that Sola doesn't really tip the scales.
(3) Throughout his history, Sola has always had two major types of fans: people who love roleplaying with poet-philosophers, and people who think the fights in the game are really boring. Sometimes these groups overlap. To some degree, Sola caters to both. Now, however, the most of the fighting bit has been split off into the Tactics mod.
(4) The entire BG2 mod community has matured over time. When Sola first came out he was just as powerful (e.g., magic resistance, dimension door, moonblade) ... and I got complaints that he died all the time. Actually, I got *quite a few* complaints about the Revenge Spiders. Revenge Spiders are now considered to be minor speed bumps by most users ... but at the time (and back then the game itself was newer) people didn't know all the tricks.
(5) Finally, I would remind you that this is a game in which the main character can become a god and in which Demogorgon can be defeated. This is not some level 1 tabletop adventure. :-) The standard for power is already quite high.
So my quesion is: Is there a Soulafein out there who actually fits to the playing-style of a non-powergamish player such as meself? :ph34r:
Yes, Virginia, there is a Solaufein.
i.e.: perhaps only extra-spells for spell-lvl 4,5,6 (similar to
You are not guaranteed to get extra spell levels. He does not have them at the start: they come much later.
Here's the magic of user choice: if you don't want to use them, don't! Don't fill them up with spells. That sort of intentional challenge game could be fun.
I would like to concentrate on the role-playing aspects without the standard BG2-challenges becoming too boring and without Soulafein beeing the one and only "superman" in my party (I try to keep my pc modest, too).
Solaufein comes with 4 challenges: Revenge Spiders, Archryssa, Undead Solaufein, the Eclipse. The Eclipse is optional, I'll just assume that you'll skip it. The Revenge Spiders and Archryssa all have story elements associated with them, and they are not difficult fights in the game scheme of things. Undead Solaufein also has a nice story (that has spurned some debate here: some people think he should stop talking about his darker, lust for power side ... others want me to write more prose about that in particular) can be defeated with a Pro-Undead scroll (or you can skip it by dropping him from your party before talking to Bodhi, then having him rejoin).
I think you may be confusing Solaufein and the Tactics Mod. If you want tougher fights, get the Tactics mod. Solaufein himself doesn't come with that much in the way of fights.
If you think that Solaufein is going to steal the thunder from your PC, don't buff Solaufein up. Trust me, he'll die like the rest of them.
If you really want to roleplay with Sola (and you have some spare time) -- try an SoA game where you race to the underdark and pick him up as soon as possible. Solaufein has a number of interjections in SoA (e.g., he talks to Firkraag, the Shade Lord, random people in markets, that kind of thing). The Romance is the same in SoA and ToB, but I haven't had as much time to make him chatty in ToB.
Finally, I think that Solaufein does offer a number of roleplaying opportunities. However, I'm clearly a biased source. Have you tried reading the user comments on the webpage?
Perhaps Lisa Jonte or Kiki (our Chief Standard of Happines in Training) could chime in here with their take on whether Solaufein is more than just battles?
Topic: Another tune-down? (Read 5910 times)
