Tomes and NPCs

kamuizin

Will the NPCs that i give a tome keep the status buff when i meet them in Baldur's Gate II? The New NPCs at least will keep the boost on the status on BG II?

Another thing, the old NPCs joinable in BG II (Jaheira, Viconia, Edwin, Minsc), they all get status bonus in BG II, if i give a tome to one of the old Characters, will they ignore and just replace the +1 specific status with the bonus of BG II?

For the moment i'm keeping all my tomes in my inventory.

Xiviriel

None of changes you make to npcs in BG1 will apply to bg2, only those made to the pc will.
Also if you leave them in your inventory to try and send them into bg2 they will just disapear.
If you really wanted you could always shadow keeper the bg2 npcs, but thats up to you.

kamuizin

@Xiviriel that could be the truth if we have to import characters from BG to BG II, but if BG EE follow the BGT line and link both games, this can be changed, for this reason i'm curious about stats changes.

The right question maybe is, will the BGT system be applied on BG EE?

I'm still very doubtfull about this, but i will risk spread the points of the tomes between me and Dorn.

Ps: in the old BG II, if you import a character, just before anything appear on the screen and the cutscene with irenicus start, you could pause the game (it's a really small time for that) and put everything on the imported character on the ground. That's a way to keep things also.

Adul

It would certainly introduce a new layer of strategy if tomes given to NPCs applied their changes to their BG2 counterparts. Right now I'm only ever giving any tome I find to the protagonist, that way I'd have a lot more options to consider.

[Deleted User]

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moody_mage

How is this a bug?

CutlassJack

All the old team that can actually join get better stats between games. So I see issues with that change. First, that they wouldn't get the better stats, and keep the imported values. That means if you didn't use tomes on them, or were starting a new BG2 game you'd be penalized.

And personally I think it would remove a bit of strategy in BG1 as most players would feel more forced than ever to stick with 'carryover' NPCs. As it currently is, you can play with the team you want and know you wont be penalized for it next game. Plus there is a whole slew of other factors they'd have to consider, such as if you didn't level them properly or how/if you dual classed Imoen.

Aasimar069

You'd better use the tomes on the NPC that you wish to see boosted during this game.
If you really wish to boost your PC for a BG2 game, you can CLUA the missing books in before exporting him to BG2.

This question, I guess is only asked by the people who played BG2 before BG1, since, when you played BG1 first, there was no BG2 to think about. You were to use your books in your party to optimize your favorite characters.

Why ? Because it will allow you to enjoy more the game.

For example, if I'm not dex based, I will give my book either to Coran and Khalid, so that they can improve their TAC0 with bows or armor class (Khalid only).

If I'm a tank like, I'll keep the CON book for me because if I die, the game stops.

INT book will be given to either Imoen or Dynaheir, so they can scribe more spells and have a smaller scribe failure rate (Yes in Vanilla BG1 there is no difficulty slider).

WIS books are best given to your Cleric. Unless you are a cleric yourself, obviously.
This can make Yeslick the best NPC in game since he'll have 16 + 3 Wisdom and will gain additional level 4 spells. (note : viconia has only 15 WIS, so even with one more level and the books, she'll have less level 4 spells).

CHA book is given to my PC since I initiate all the dialogues.

Also i'll keep the strength book for myself if I am a warrior type.

Oxford_Guy

Shandyr said:

@kamuizin

you could post this as a feature request

I agree with @Adul

I only spend my tomes on the mainchar for the reason that the points only export on him.

I mostly agree, though sometimes use one or two of the three Wisdom times to buff a cleric (would also enable Xzar to dual to a cleric) and the Charisma tome to buff an NPC with high Charisma, if mine is, say, 8 and not going to improve much from one tome

Rhyme

Man... If you didn't dual class Imoen, it would make it surprisingly difficult for her to get arrested for using magic. Talk about game-breaking.

Pantalion

Rhyme said:

Man... If you didn't dual class Imoen, it would make it surprisingly difficult for her to get arrested for using magic. Talk about game-breaking.

She pulls a wand of magic missiles out of her pocket and zaps him, gets arrested by mistake.

kamuizin

I like @Shandyr idea of ask this as a feature request, but to fulfill this feature, i would have to know if the devs are going to follow BGT structure or not.

I believe @Tanthalas in the past (or that was @Aosaw 's speech? don't remember) said that wouldn't be difficult to add some specific strings on the character register to identify tomes used on NPCs in BG that appear as joinable in BG II.

There are some few possibilities, but until now the devs didn't seems to show any interest in follow this line of work, so... it's a doubt.

The best question in fact, and the easiest solution, is:

Can we Mod the character register, so when we import it on BG II, it will recognize tomes used on recurring NPCs? Is that hard to do?

Messi

It is easy enough to use SK to modify the BG2 stats to reflect who you gave the tomes to. Though obviously it would be nice if BG2EE made it so you didn't have to.

Tanthalas

@kamuizin

That wasn't me for sure. I don't know anything about programming.

Debaser

Romulan Paladin (another member of this board) recently created a mod that deals with this issue at my behest. I am testing it out on a play through now. If it works (and so far so good) I will make sure it gets uploaded on a good site, and that it's well publicized on this board after it becomes available for use.