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Why are there 3 Tomes of Wisdom?

LuigirulesLuigirules Member Posts: 419
in Archive (General Discussion)
Considering all the other attributes only have one each, it seems kind of silly that they stuck in three for Wisdom. I mean, it's hardly a universally useful stat.

Why do you think there are so many?
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Comments

  • CalmarCalmar Member Posts: 688
    In a coffin in the catacombs beneath Candlekeep; The Lady's House in West BG (need for subquest); 3rd Floor of Durlag's Tower.

    (The information are from Mike's RPG Center)
  • EudaemoniumEudaemonium Member Posts: 3,199
    He was asking why there are three, not where they are. :)

    No idea, though.
  • ajwzajwz Member Posts: 4,122
    The real question is why aren't there 3 tomes of bodily health
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 3,675
    The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 0
    Perhaps they expected players to use them on cleric/druid NPCs in the party as a way to squeeze out more healing or buffs.
  • shawneshawne Member Posts: 3,239
    I can tell you what I do with them - bump Viconia's WIS stat up to 18 (which is where it's supposed to be by BG2 anyway)...
  • Kitteh_On_A_CloudKitteh_On_A_Cloud Member Posts: 1,629
    Isn't a high Wisdom score required to make succesful use of the Wish spell? Think it's a BG 2 spell, though...
  • MathmickMathmick Member Posts: 326
    The question is, "Why NOT put 3 Tomes of wisdom in the game?"

    It's something only the original devs could answer, really.
  • deltagodeltago Member Posts: 7,811
    The one in the catacombs is for you.
    The one from the temple is for a quest. You really aren't suppose to get that one back but everyone does ;)
    The third was added in the expansion. Why Wisdom was added is any ones guess. Perhaps because it was found on an altar and made the most sense. Maybe they rolled a d6 and that is what came up. Who knows.
  • AnduinAnduin Member Posts: 5,745
    I think all the races apart from humans could pump one stat up past 18. Half-Orcs 19 strength, Elves 19 Dex, Gnomes 19 Int, Dwarves 19 con (what do hobbits get again?) Anyway, the point is wisdom and charisma would be stuck at lvl 18 whatever at the start of the game. You could get every other stat up to 20 with a book. It was decided that two books of wisdom and two books of charisma should be available, to get these stats up to 20 as well.

    They cocked it up and put three books of wisdom in the game. One of those wisdom books should have been a charisma book. If I can find the damn web page I read that on I would add a link.

    As I can't back it up, you will have to accept it as gossip.
  • EudaemoniumEudaemonium Member Posts: 3,199
    Also, Half Orcs were unavailable in BG1, so the whole 19 STR thing is untrue.
  • CorvinoCorvino Member Posts: 2,269
    Wisdom is arguably the weakest stat, along with Charisma as @Bhaaldog says. Even Clerics & Druids only get a couple of bonus spells at levels they already have access to. Having 3 wisdom tomes leaves game balance intact while a character with 21 strength might not.
  • sarevok57sarevok57 Member Posts: 6,002
    i think there are 3 tomes of wisdom for the very purpose of extra spell casting as @Kaigen said, 20 wis gives bonus all the way up to level 4 spells, and when the expansion came out mages could use level 5 spells so maybe they wanted to give druids some more edge and get another level 5 spell, another reason could be to is that the clerics in bg1 all have pretty crappy wisdom ( 16 is the highest for npcs) so maybe they did that so you could get some more spells out of your cleric npcs, i remember one time, i got 4 tomes of wisdom in bg1 in one play through, and had 22 wisdom, and i have no idea how i pulled that off, i got the first 3 the convential way, and in chapter 7 i believe i just started massacuring the whole town ( my whole team was evil alignment) and out of the blue, the one dude where i stole the book from previously for some weird ass reason had ANOTHER one, and i was like damn, i have no idea what caused that bug, but if i knew i would do it over and over again, 22 wisdom in bg1 is AMAZING for any divine spell caster
  • StrayedMonkeyStrayedMonkey Member Posts: 146
    hmmm maybe they added 3 WIS tomes because 1 if for a quest and then later in BG2 you have to give up 1 ability score point which having an additional WIS tome makes it easier to choose to give up WIS opposed to other skills that are more valuable. By that token then you can still get 1 stat bonus to every stat. maybe? who knows
  • DarkcloudDarkcloud Member Posts: 302
    Corvino said:

    Wisdom is arguably the weakest stat, along with Charisma as @Bhaaldog says. Even Clerics & Druids only get a couple of bonus spells at levels they already have access to. Having 3 wisdom tomes leaves game balance intact while a character with 21 strength might not.

    Int is even more useless if you are not one of the few people who either turn down difficulty or reload until a spell is learned successfully. The only thing that is left then is spells per level and the limit is way to high to really matter and you can increase it with potions.
  • sarevok57sarevok57 Member Posts: 6,002
    intelligence............... bg2................. illithid................ :)
  • ElendarElendar Member Posts: 831
    To make you ask why
  • AnduinAnduin Member Posts: 5,745
    Eudaemonium said:

    Also, Half Orcs were unavailable in BG1, so the whole 19 STR thing is untrue.

    Not saying what I said was true. I really wanted to find the web page for ME, to back it up.

    A lot of gossip and wild rumor surround BG. If you have ever heard the story of a random squirrel carrying a ring of luck near Nashkel you will understand...

    However, back to you point, it is valid, unless the Half-Orcs were an idea for BG1 but not implemented. Hell perhaps one of the other book should have been a tome of strength...

    :)

  • Aasimar069Aasimar069 Member Posts: 803
    shawne said:

    I can tell you what I do with them - bump Viconia's WIS stat up to 18 (which is where it's supposed to be by BG2 anyway)...

    No.

    Yeslick to 19, and he's much better than Viconia (One more level 4 spell with 19 WIS).

  • DebaserDebaser Member Posts: 669
    Because Wisdom is only for the Learn-ed.

    I always bump Vicky to 18 and then to reflect that bump her to 21 in BG2...and give her the machine of lum for Wis to get her to 22.
  • PibaroPibaro Member, Translator (NDA) Posts: 2,989
    Because priests get spell bonus with Wisdom (mages don't with Int) so it's just a different way to improve your priest.
    And because only priests get real benefits from wisdom, so it's not a too powerful item. Every carachter gets benefit from Strenght, Dexterity, Constitution and Charisma, and, as said above, no one gets real bonus for Int. So 2 or 3 Wisdom tomes is a good choice.
  • mjsmjs Member Posts: 742
    because the priests of oghma wrote all the tomes?

    "wisdom is only possessed by the learned"
  • KamehouseKamehouse Member Posts: 66
    Increasing wisdom by reading a book seems the only realistic skill boost. It does not change as much as increasing strength, dexterity or constitution and reflects the development of your character over time. Maybe there was the idea to support none clerics in getting better wishes, but I think it war just because it is wisdom coming from books.
  • WilburWilbur Member Posts: 1,173
    edited January 2013
    ReadingRambo said:

    Self help books are a lot easier to write than books that make u grow muscles I would imagine

    I don't know man. Weight lifting is not exactly rocket science.

    Post edited by Wilbur on
  • novotny999novotny999 Member Posts: 10
    Maybe devs thought our characters are dumb so this is just minor help from them, but real question should be why there are no Tomes of tantric techniques or something? Real answer is its just that, maybe they thought wis is not as usable stat as others so they made a room to improve other "needed" stats on rolling while finishing the game with demi-god like charname.
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