Six's random blatherings.

[DarkWon]

I disagree with everything six said apart from that the Amulet of Cheetah Speed should be a little more powerful, as in Grandmaster armour maybe? Having said that I still use it for my main char already....

 

Also I love Demi's suggestion about the Amulet of Power giving + Caster lvl. Extra spells are always good, but they are so bland. They don't actually increase your Power per se, just allow you to last longer! (no jokes please...)

[Ardanis]

Girdle of [X] Giant Strength

I'd ask more players for their thoughts on the relative merits of the three systems ("Set STR to 19 while equipped" vs. "+2 bonus to STR while equipped" vs. "User's STR increases by 20% while equipped"), except that by this point, it seems to be just you & me reading this thread, Demi.

That's because not everyone can read walls of text

As for the method, well, in vanilla we had 1st, in IR - 2nd, so maybe try 3rd and see if it proves better?

 

Yeah, a small amount of Resistance (around 15%) seems good for the Frost & Fire Giant belts, and Stone could cast Stoneskin (1 skin) 3x/day, but what could Hill possibly have?

If anything, I'd give phys res to Stone one, it both sounds more fitting and Stoneskin is already granted by Gargoyle boots and Ring of Earth Control.

Following said rings, +20% res for Frost/Fire and +5% for Stone seem fine with me.

Physical resistances, of course, but then you run smack into the Barbarian Problem. Say, what about denying Hardiness to Barbarians, or only giving them a weakened version? Still, that makes IR rather dependent on KR, which might not be installed.

That's my suggestion as well, to nerf Barbarian's HLA. Say, the ability allows a warrior to imitate Barbarian's great resilience, so naturally barbs themselves shouldn't get much greater bonus.

Anyway, the STR belts. They could also impart a small bonus to Save vs. Death, reflecting giant-like fortitude as well as strength. Just a possibility.

*Nod*

 

 

Bard's spellcasting in light armor

I was thinking, shouldn't this rule be implemented? There's no use for Garrick otherwise.

[kthxbye]

Attribute Enhancing Items

Personally I'd prefer sticking with the current IR method, as it's simpler and makes attribute enhancing items always useful and never overpowered. The proposed % system makes more sense conceptually, but is a bit less immediate and advantages juggernaut characters since their stats are higher than characters with average rolls. It may be worth a try anyway to see how it works. Maybe since the current method is already implemented, make the current and the proposed methods two subcomponents so that the user can choose which one to use? Or is it too much work?

 

Bard's spellcasting in light armor

I fear this could be a bit unbalancing. While in BG2 this wouldn't affect gameplay, since high level bards can achieve the same (if not better) result by just casting a single spell, in BG1 this would mean that bards will be a bit more powerful than some mage multi-class characters since they will advance faster with spells, will be able to attack effectively with ranged or melee weapons and will also be able to wear armors thus lowering their AC.

I know not everyone uses BG1NPC mod, but it has a piece of nice armor for Garrick (or bards in general) that allow spellcasting, but requires a somewhat though battle (ok maybe not so tough) to have.

Conceptually I'd like the change but I fear for game's balance.

[sturmvogel]

Just so y'all don't think y'all are discussing this in a vacuum I've decided to chime in a bit, although it's been a couple of years since I played and I'm still getting used to all the changes introduced by SCS II and SR. "Oh, hey look, that vampyre just threw an Insect Plague, this is gonna get annoying. Thank Helm there's only the one!" So I don't really know enough to comment about many of the proposed changes because the balance of things is a lot different with those mods than what I remember. Although it's already quite apparent that anything that will help to dispel illusions/invisibility would be very nice to help defend against those potion-sucking assassins/thieves.

 

I'm not that fond of the movement penalties for heavy armor, although it bugs me less than the first time that I experimented with it with Ashes of Embers, but I really do hate when my tanks get tangled up in the party and my mage ends up leading the group. This can be gotten around by moving in short bursts, but it's a bit of a PITA and slows down the game in real time. I have one set of Boots of Speed on Keldorn and it's a lot easier now because he's fast enough to take the lead almost everytime and I can dispense with the short movement tactic.

 

I'm with Six on this, especially since you haven't gotten much into upgrades yet: "I'm fine with instances of "Item X is everything you liked about Item Y and even more" as long as there's a healthy span of time between X and Y, and as long as such instances are rare. So you're set on "never," but I'm okay with "seldom." Since they're separated by pretty much the entire length of SoA, what's wrong with Karajah's Armor being something like a lesser version of the Grandmaster's? And even those items completely outgunned by another (such as the Periapt of Life Protection vs. my suggestions for the Amulet of the Seldarine) can still be farmed out to other party members, as long as their original properties keep them useful."

[Demivrgvs]

I disagree with everything six said apart from that the Amulet of Cheetah Speed should be a little more powerful, as in Grandmaster armour maybe? Having said that I still use it for my main char already....

Well...it seems I disagree with most suggestions too, but 'everything' is a little harsh. Anyway, I'm very thankful for his help, because even when I disagree I may extrapolate useful hints. And solutions that I may not like for a particular item may instead be applied to another one. As long as Six doesn't expect me to implement the huge amount of changes he's proposing I'd say he's doing a great job!

 

 

Amulet/Ring of Protection

A single AC deflection bonus works along with magical armors, but multiple bonuses don't. In terms of balance is quite fine imo because Ring of Protections are surely not more enchanted than many other rings.

Hm, so the only items that conflict with each other are Protection items. Interesting, and another mark of differentiation for the Wizard Slayer, as he'll be the only character left who has any love for unenchanted Full Plate.

Correct, and I don't see any reason to try making unenchanted Full Plate more appealing than it still is. Actually it was quite weird imo that a non magical Full Plate was a lot more appealing than a Full Plate +1 due to vanilla's behaviour of Amulets/Rings of Protection.

 

 

Shadow Armor +3

You do realize, don't you, that this whole debate could be solved to pretty much everyone's satisfaction simply by not using the name "Shadow Armor?" If Mae'Var were wearing "Casting Leathers+3" or something like that I would have no complaints at all . . . although I would still like to see the BG1 version reverted back, players like kthxbye who like spellcasting in the armor can use an Archmagi Robe just as easily.

Your problem is the armor's name? Anyway, I really don't understand where's the issue with IR's Shadow Armor even in BG1.

 

The only issue seems to be that the armor is available really too soon considering its the best light armor in the whole game. Such issue is not caused by IR, and as some players suggested it I'll try to move it in a more appropriate place.

 

Other than that, just by comparing this armor to Archmage's robes you can see it's not overpowered at all, its new feature is very appropriate for its background, and is quite interesting in terms of gameplay (it offers a sort of combat-stealth oriented version of the above mentioned robes).

 

 

Radiant Plate+3

Hmmm . . . its BG1 description has the item made by Dwarves of no particular religion, and it ends up sealed in the depths of Durlag's Tower. Would you object to changing the last line to "Beldan sold the armor to a rather nomadic Dwarf, who is believed to have died fighting a great evil in lands to the north."?

Could you provide me the original description? Does it ties the armor to Durlag's Tower in any way?

 

 

Kiel's Buckler +2

Mmm...but, wasn't Kiel a Berserker? If such having his shield allow spellcasting doesn't make much sense imo, though you do have a point.

Yeah . . . just the normal Spellcasting Failure of Shields is simply a side effect of their encumbering the hand, this particular Buckler's lack of Spell Failure is simply a side effect of its actually INcreasing agility. Kiel wouldn't care either way, of course.

Well, let's say that if we want a shield which doesn't affect spellcasting this is probably the one more suited for such role.

 

 

Saving Grace +3

Let's just say that having played at least one version of IR would make your work easier, you're understimating how much work has been done on the lore system.

More lore is excellent. I don't think I like receiving just a plain Medium Shield+3, though, considering that the entire quest gives notoriously poor loot for its difficulty.

Well, this is the most higly enchanted medium shield until chapter 6, and is quite great against undead and especially against liches.

 

 

Shield of the Order +4

Such giant is not equipping the shield (it's in the inventory), and even a large shield would probably make little sense for a giant (would it a laset work as a buckler?). Anyway, I'm surely not going to switch the two shield's backgrounds. The former shield has a rather short but fine description, while the latter now have an incredibly extensive description!

Oh, I wsn't suggesting switching their backgrounds or locations, just their sizes. As for Yaga-Shura not having his Shield equipped, I knew he wasn't the wisest member of the Five, but I wasn't expecting him to be a flippin' idiot. Then again, the Fire Giant animation might crash if it tries to display a Shield, even if it's in a no-animation slot like a Ring . . . but we could always make an undroppable Shield of the Order with no animation, and have Yaga use that while still dropping the other.

Actually if you ask me not even a large shield would be the right siza for a giant, it would cover him less than a buckler. This reminds me that I actually wouldn't mind to work on a tweak to make sure giants' equipment isn't dropped, because for me is quite immersion breaking.

 

 

Fortress Shield +3

Defender of Easthaven grants 10% instead of 20% within IR, and I'm going to reduce Ring of Earth control's bonus from 10% to 5%. Then if necessary I always liked that in 3rd edition large shields are restricted to fighters, and at at least preventing the Barbarian kit from using them makes quite sense imo.

A slippery slope, that. Well, we do what we can . . . I do think Paladins (or at least Cavaliers) should be allowed to use Large Shields, though.

Yeah, actually I'd probably prevent only barbarians and kitted rangers from using them.

 

 

Amulet of Magic Shielding

By obsolete I mean that another item of the same type does everything the former did and even more. A must have for me is for these things to never happen.

Hmmm . . . I agree with your reasoning but not your conclusion. I'm fine with instances of "Item X is everything you liked about Item Y and even more" as long as there's a healthy span of time between X and Y, and as long as such instances are rare. So you're set on "never," but I'm okay with "seldom." Since they're separated by pretty much the entire length of SoA, what's wrong with Karajah's Armor being something like a lesser version of the Grandmaster's? And even those items completely outgunned by another (such as the Periapt of Life Protection vs. my suggestions for the Amulet of the Seldarine) can still be farmed out to other party members, as long as their original properties keep them useful.

I can live with the "seldom" but as long as it's possible I'd still prefer to work for "never" have two items of the same type being a lesser/great version of each other.

 

 

Amulet of Cheetah Speed

. . . speed factor has a small issue with monk and kensai (multiple speed factor bonuses don't stack).

So have it grant a -10 bonus to SF, so anyone who wears it will have a SF of 0 with any weapon. A bit extreme, sure, but at least people might actually give the Amulet a moment's thought.

Mmm, I'm not sure it would work, because it may be possible that only the first bonus is taken into account. If it works, setting speed factor to 0 for this amulet would indeed be a quite unique feature.

 

 

Amulet of the Master (Harper)

I don't like the idea of making the amulet Thief-only; Bards get almost no love, especially since the game practically strongarms you into playing a Thief yourself.

Melodic Chain, magical instruments, and Wondrous Gloves are clear examples that I do try to have bards get some love.

 

Boots of Speed

My problem with the original Boots was not that they made you too fast, but that there were so many of them...

 

 

Spider's Boots of Stealth

The Web immunity isn't overpowered in BG2, but it certainly is in BG1--almost an entire area of the Cloakwood would be pretty much nullified by either of two pairs of Boots easily obtainable in Chapter 1 by a Level 1 party. Granted, both pairs deserve more worthy guardians, but I don't really know if IR is going to be altering item placement in BG1.

Mmm...should I remove one of the two pair?

 

 

Boots of Etherealness

Exploit: Use it against a Lich to make him waste 5 of his best spells on you. Then again, SCS Liches probably detect Magic Resistance pretty quickly. Is the Etheral effect Dispellable? Can you turn it off if you want, or are you stuck for the full 5 rounds?

How many times do we have to give up on good ideas because of exploits? Anyway, effects are non-dispellable (should they?), and you're stuck with 5 rounds mainly because since a month ago we didn't even knew how to make it work in any another way.

 

 

Gargoyle Boots

Equipped Abilities:

Immunity to Petrification and Knockback effects

Special Abilities:

Stone Form, 2x/day. Grants Sanctuary, a -4 bonus to AC, 5 Stoneskins, a -3 Dexterity penalty, and immunity to Backstab. All effects last a maximum of 11 rounds, although the wearer is Held for the first of those.

Sanctuary?! Anyway, I do thought about Stone Form, but I discarded it because the one I had in mind was much more similar to the original one used by gargoyles (held, high resistances or stoneskin, plus high regeneration) and I didn't know how to implement it.

 

 

About the extra boots: Flametoe Boots.

...

Equipped Abilities:

+15% Fire Resistance

Lava Walk (does not protect from flames that touch the rest of the body)

Special:

25% chance of adding 1D4 Fire damage to each successful melee hit (Monks only)"

Monks use their jump-kick animation roughly 1/4th of the time, right? The boots grant immunity to the spells spwi022 and spin561--the spells used by the pools of lava in the Temple Ruins & Marching Mountains.

I'm not sure about it but it surely is a quite unique concept.

 

 

 

Girdle of [X] Giant Strength

I'd ask more players for their thoughts on the relative merits of the three systems ("Set STR to 19 while equipped" vs. "+2 bonus to STR while equipped" vs. "User's STR increases by 20% while equipped"), except that by this point, it seems to be just you & me reading this thread, Demi.

That's because not everyone can read walls of text

I was going to say the same thing, entering in such a huge discussion is difficult.

 

As for the method, well, in vanilla we had 1st, in IR - 2nd, so maybe try 3rd and see if it proves better?

Well, the real "advantage" of % system for me is that multiple effects don't stack, but I'm not sure I can guarantee it because of mod added items. Than there's the issue mentioned by Ardanis about dexterity penalty in heavy armor (which means I cannot do this for dexterity), and I have to test how set to a % value would work with effects which reduces the value.

 

Yeah, a small amount of Resistance (around 15%) seems good for the Frost & Fire Giant belts, and Stone could cast Stoneskin (1 skin) 3x/day, but what could Hill possibly have?

If anything, I'd give phys res to Stone one, it both sounds more fitting and Stoneskin is already granted by Gargoyle boots and Ring of Earth Control.

Following said rings, +20% res for Frost/Fire and +5% for Stone seem fine with me.

Well, if you ask me we may even replace the stone of hill giant with something else, because it's the only girdle still without a decent background, I don't like having tons of almost identical items, and the "new" belt may even keep a small strength bonus if necessary.

 

Physical resistances, of course, but then you run smack into the Barbarian Problem. Say, what about denying Hardiness to Barbarians, or only giving them a weakened version? Still, that makes IR rather dependent on KR, which might not be installed.

That's my suggestion as well, to nerf Barbarian's HLA. Say, the ability allows a warrior to imitate Barbarian's great resilience, so naturally barbs themselves shouldn't get much greater bonus.

We'll discuss this for KR, but IR must work fine even without KR.

 

 

Bard's spellcasting in light armor

I was thinking, shouldn't this rule be implemented? There's no use for Garrick otherwise.

Stop reading my mind! Anyway I was going to discuss this for KR, not IR, and I have some doubts for balancing issues just like kthxbye.

[kthxbye]

Spider's boots of stealth

Just bear in mind that one of the two pair of boots is tied to a quest, and you have to hand them over to finish it. I know hardcore players will just skip the quest (or pickpocket/kill Zhurlglong after that, if it works) to keep the boots, but roleplaying people will either miss a quest or miss a good piece of equipment if you remove one of the two pair of boots. I think we can just leave hardcore players keep two pair of boots.

That said, I think that even a single pair of boots of that type is extremely powerful for BG1.. I'd revert them back to their vanilla state (and modify the description if needed) and leave both pairs where they are, or move the Ulcaster pair elsewhere. Anyway I'd like to point out again that I don't know that much BG2, and IR's modifications to the boots may be necessary for BG2. If that's the case I could offer another solution: since I'm working on a "roleplaying fix" component for one of my mods, you could alter/remove the boots as you like, then either modify Zhurglong's dialog and make a brand new pair of boots for him (giving me the item code, as I'd need it for my component), or leave me doing this.

Demi, if you like this kind of solution you can contact me by PM obviously.

[SixOfSpades]

"Walls of text," Ardanis? I have no idea what you're talking about.

 

Bard's spellcasting in light armor

I was thinking, shouldn't this rule be implemented? There's no use for Garrick otherwise.

Well, you could make Bards permanently immune to anything that locks out Wizard spellcasting--including spells like Tenser's Transformation and Polymorph Self. Which of course is an open invitation to have an Improved Hasted, Tensered Ogre running around, still casting spells. On the plus side, this method also locks out the "Your wizard spells have been disabled" string that displays when heavy armor is put on, which is nice.

Alternatively, you could give Bards a permanent positive modifier to his chance of Spellcasting Failure, so that even after equipping heavy Chain applies a penalty to it, his chance of success is still 100%. (Whether he should have 100% even after employing UAI to wear Full Plate is debatable.) But this won't work, either, as it effectively makes all Bards permanently immune to Insect Plague, Miscast Magic, Wizard Slayer hits, etc.

Besides, allowing Bards to cast spells while armored would instantly make Elven Chains obsolete to everyone except Multiclassed Mages. Granted, there are a lot more Multiclassed Mages than Bards, what's the poor Melodic Chain going to do? *sniffle*

 

 

Attribute Enhancing Items

Maybe since the current method is already implemented, make the current and the proposed methods two subcomponents so that the user can choose which one to use?

I second this. Making subcomponents is actually pretty easy.

[Mike1072]

Attribute Enhancing Items

Maybe since the current method is already implemented, make the current and the proposed methods two subcomponents so that the user can choose which one to use?

I second this. Making subcomponents is actually pretty easy.

Subcomponents? Yes. Patches? Eh... it's only really worth the bother if both options are something desirable. I think this might be a case where it's better to just stick with one and not complicate the issue.

 

I think I'd prefer to keep the current +X system so long as the stupid attribute tables can be adjusted somewhere else (vanilla progressions are wack).

[SixOfSpades]

Radiant Plate+3

Could you provide me the original description? Does it ties the armor to Durlag's Tower in any way?

'The Practical Defense'

The travelling adventurer could ask for no better a suit of armor in all the land. Specially commissioned by Bolhur "Thunderaxe" at GREAT expense, this suit was his most prized, even if not his most ornate. Eminently practical, Bolhur demanded armor that would offer superior protection while hampering him in the least. By "hampering" he did not just mean in movement or weight: his ideal suit should be able to withstand the rigors of his wanderings with little maintenance. This is not to say that Bolhur "Thunderaxe" neglected his armors -to say as such would get your ears boxed- but the regime of spit and polish required for a "gentleman's" suit was beyond his caring. Save the tassels and gilding of Full Plate for kings and heads of state; a working dwarf cares more of utility than looks.

 

Not that there were any enchantments to back up the "low-maintenance" part, and you gotta love the irony of the "I shun fancy gilding" bit on the only gilded suit of armor in the whole game.

 

 

Flametoe Boots

I'm going to examine Monks and their Fist weapons (I assume they must use some), to see if it's possible to tie the Fire damage precisely to the kicking animation. I'll reduce the damage to 1D2 if it happens too frequently.

[Ardanis]

Belts of Inertial Barrier

Either way, I'd prefer an AC bonus vs. Missiles to Resistance to them, both to avoid possible 100+% Resistance issues and because it's easier to imagine the wall of air deflecting arrows from their path than outright slowing them down.

how about replacing it with immunity to cloud-based spells like Acid Fog, as in the wearer has a permanent, personal Zone of Sweet Air?

Inertial Barrier

Power Score: Con -3

Initial Cost: 7

Maintenance Cost: 5/round

Range: 0

Preparation Time: 0

Area of Effect: 3-yard diam.

Prerequisites: telekinesis

The inertial barrier is a defense. The psionicist creates a barrier of "elastic" air around himself and anyone else within 3 yards. Like an unpoppable, semipermeable bubble, this barrier helps soften missile blows and can shield those inside from many forms of damage. Specifically, the barrier helps protect against the following, by absorbing some (or with luck all) of the potential damage:

Any nonmagical missile weapon.

Any physical missile which was created with magic.

Any missile with magical pluses.

Flames.

Some breath weapon attacks, depending on the nature of the breath.

Acid. The barrier stops or slows the attack. This doesn't matter much if the acid comes from above, because it just drips on the characters.

Gas. The barrier turns it aside, at least partially (depending on the defenders die roll), but after a turn it will eventually work its way inside and take full effect.

Falling. A psionicist with an inertial barrier in place suffers only one-half damage from a fall; the barrier absorbs a lot of the impact, but the character still gets banged around inside.

 

The inertial barrier has no effect against the following:

Missiles conjured from pure magic.

Raw heat or cold.

Pure energy or light.

Gaze weapons.

 

Furthermore, the barrier cannot keep enemies out, but it does slows them a bit. Anyone trying to cross the barrier must stop moving when he hits it. He can then cross inside (or outside) in the next round. Handling Missile Attacks: The inertial barrier saps energy from missile weapons by tightening around them as they pass through. If a missile strikes its target inside the barrier, the attacker rolls damage normally. The defender then rolls the same type of die (as the attacker just did) to see how much damage the barrier absorbed. The defender does not include any magical pluses the weapon may have. The defender then subtracts the result of his die roll from the attackers damage. If anything is left over, the defender loses that many hit points. If the defender's roll equals or exceeds the total damage, the weapon falls harmlessly to the ground. If the missile is explosive, the barrier does prevent damage, but not the explosion. The barrier does not differentiate the direction of travel. If a weapon is fired from the inside, the penalties above still apply.

 

Power Score: The barrier blocks an additional point per die.

 

20: The psionicist creates a bizarre wind-pocket that knocks him to the ground.

 

Why am I thinking about sectypes in regards of clouds?

 

Boots of Speed

My problem with the original Boots was not that they made you too fast, but that there were so many of them...

Heh, and my problem is that I prefer all party members to move at the same speed. Which often leads me to just keeping 3 pairs in inventory instead of wearing them.

 

 

Stop reading my mind!

You know I won't

"Walls of text," Ardanis? I have no idea what you're talking about.

Okay, walls of quotes, quoted quotes and replies

[Demivrgvs]

Sorry I messed up my reply regarding the Belt of Inertial Barrier...

 

As Ardanis pointed out SR's version of this item is highly inspired by the PnP psionic power he just posted. I do thought about making it work against cloud spells, but I feared it would be too powerful (immunity to Stinking Cloud, Cloudkill, Acid Fog and Incendiary Cloud is far from trivial). Ardanis, I'm curios, how would you use secondary type here? Delayed remove Inertial Barrier?

 

Regarding the possibility to have two different options for Attribute Enhancing Items I think my opinion is very similar to Mike's one.

[Salk]

Spider's boots of stealth

 

I would keep things as they are now. As kthxbye pointed out, roleplaying wise, one of the two pairs is not going to end up in the party's property.

 

And about the other, I believe it's perfectly okay that at that time one character might have an easier life through the (rather questionable) Spider Wood area.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Bard's spellcasting in light armor

Alternatively, you could give Bards a permanent positive modifier to his chance of Spellcasting Failure, so that even after equipping heavy Chain applies a penalty to it, his chance of success is still 100%. (Whether he should have 100% even after employing UAI to wear Full Plate is debatable.) But this won't work, either, as it effectively makes all Bards permanently immune to Insect Plague, Miscast Magic, Wizard Slayer hits, etc.

HLA?

[Demivrgvs]

Bard's spellcasting in light armor

Well, you could make Bards permanently immune to anything that locks out Wizard spellcasting--including spells like Tenser's Transformation and Polymorph Self. Which of course is an open invitation to have an Improved Hasted, Tensered Ogre running around, still casting spells. On the plus side, this method also locks out the "Your wizard spells have been disabled" string that displays when heavy armor is put on, which is nice.

Oh my, absolutely no. A tensered iron golem casting spells?

 

Alternatively, you could give Bards a permanent positive modifier to his chance of Spellcasting Failure, so that even after equipping heavy Chain applies a penalty to it, his chance of success is still 100%. (Whether he should have 100% even after employing UAI to wear Full Plate is debatable.) But this won't work, either, as it effectively makes all Bards permanently immune to Insect Plague, Miscast Magic, Wizard Slayer hits, etc.

It doesn't seem a great solution.

 

Actually, to implement this I think it's necessary a lot of work, like applying disable spellcasting/spell failure/casting speed penalty via EFF files on light armors for non bards. Anyway, I still have serious doubts about balancing issues within BG1.

 

Besides, allowing Bards to cast spells while armored would instantly make Elven Chains obsolete to everyone except Multiclassed Mages. Granted, there are a lot more Multiclassed Mages than Bards, what's the poor Melodic Chain going to do? *sniffle*

And granted that Elven Chain is medium armor with a better base AC (and higher physical resistance in V3).

 

 

Spider's boots of stealth

I would keep things as they are now. As kthxbye pointed out, roleplaying wise, one of the two pairs is not going to end up in the party's property.

 

And about the other, I believe it's perfectly okay that at that time one character might have an easier life through the (rather questionable) Spider Wood area.

I'd like to understand which is the supposed "problem":

1) within AR3000 there are a lot of spiders and having one pair of boots would make such optional area too easy?

2) within AR3000 there are a lot of spiders and having two pairs of boots would make such optional area too easy?

3) even a single pair of boots is too powerful for BG1

 

Regarding the effectiveness of a single pair of boots, I'm actually surprised they suddenly become so good. Spiders should still be a rather good encounter if within a party one character is immune to web, especially because it doesn't mean he's immune to their attacks, nor to their poison.

 

P.S Not to mention that BG's web is quite more powerful than it should. PnP Web is a sort of improved Entangle, not an "unfriendly" mass Hold Monster.

[SixOfSpades]

Flametoe Boots

The D100 chance of an attack using a particular animation is not the same D100 roll that determines whether or not an effect will fire--so the Fire damage from these boots almost certainly cannot be directly tied to either of the Monk's two kick animations. Pity. The Boots can be abused by a Monk attacking with a weapon, in that the chance of additional Fire damage is applied to the weapon instead of the Monk's barehanded attack . . . but this is hardly a big exploit, and how often do Monks use weapons anyway?

 

Boots of Stealth in BG1

For Demi's benefit, some specifics of what we're discussing.

 

Boots of Stealth 1: If your Level 1 party is systematically clearing all the enemies from each map area they visit (a strategy much more common in BG1 than it is in BG2), then a nameless, low-level Hobgoblin just south of Beregost drops Boots of Stealth. Inside the least popular tavern in Beregost is a Halfling Thief named Zhurlong, who pickpockets you practically every time you talk to him. He mentions that his favorite boots were stolen by a Hobgoblin. Talk to him again with the Boots in your inventory and he will trade them for about 250 EXP and 50 gold (he stole at least 25 from you originally).

 

Boots of Stealth 2: A few nameless low-level Hobgoblins wander around the ruins of the Ulcaster School. One of them drops Boots of Stealth.

 

Boots of Stealth 3: Baldur's Gate SE holds a warehouse whose door is very difficult to find. Inside is a Dwarf named Nadarin, who is upset about the loose Basilisk scaring everyone out of his other warehouse. Talk to Nadarin again after killing the Basilisk, and if your Reaction is high enough, he will give you Boots of Stealth. If not, he gives you a few hundred gold. Nadarin cannot be killed/pickpocketed for the Boots.

 

Cloakwood 2: A large map filled with many small engagements with Ettercaps and Spiders of many types, including Sword and Phase. The key to the difficulty of the area is that, as you explore the map, there is a Web trap exactly 1 sight-range prior to each group of enemies, meaning they have very good odds of attacking just when the party is most vulnerable. A character with immunity to Web and enhanced Stealth could easily run through the whole map, deliberately springing every trap and then returning to the party. Without their Traps, the Ettercaps and Spiders stand almost no chance.

 

THOUGHTS: I feel that it's important that at least one pair of Boots be available to the party very early in the game. Good Stealth is vital, and never more so than at Level 1: Essentially, if anything bad happens, you die, so reliable scouting is essential to the party's survival. But Detect Traps and (to a lesser extent) Open Locks are also skills that a party simply cannot do without, and covering all 3 bases at very low levels is pretty much impossible without magical aid.

The Hobgoblins are obviously pathetic guardians for magical items of this power . . . but they'd be more than a match for Zhurlong, so the real question is how the hell Zhurlong got them. I suspect both Hobgoblins use the same .cre file, so removing the Ulcaster pair but not the Beregost pair may require editing maps, not creatures. I do like the Nadarin boots, though, especially since it's not assured that you'll get them.

Adding a Web immunity to the boots is definitely overpowered for BG1, and theoretically balanced but rather questionable in BG2. The change smacks more of your mania for "Must never have any item wholly superior to another" than anything else.