Does the Luck spell improve the chance to successfully scribe a scroll?

Oxford_Guy

I was wondering if the Luck spell improve the chance to successfully scribe a scroll, if so, I can definitely see myself using this! If you had 19 Int and 95% chance of scribing, would this give 100% chance? I think there may be a 1% "critical failure" chance, though...

I routinely used Luck to help with difficult pick pockets/store thefts, but was wondering if it also affects scroll scribing

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Oxford_Guy

Does anyone else know? Thanks!

Mykra

Unless BG:EE changed it, the Luck bonus is only applied to THAC0 and damage rolls (given/taken).

Wonderboy2402

I don't believe it helps with learning a spell. I suggest using the purple potions of Genius that raise your intelligence and then mass reading all the scrolls you want to read.

Ignatius

Mykra said:

Unless BG:EE changed it, the Luck bonus is only applied to THAC0 and damage rolls (given/taken).

Yeah it is important to bear in mind that Luck adds 1 to your damage roll, it does not add 1 to your damage itself; same thing for to hit, it adds 1 your to-hit-roll but does not reduce your thaco0 by 1.

I do not know about OP's question. And there are plenty other effects which I am unsure of with that spell, such as, does a to-hit-roll of 19, increased by Luck to 20, is being considered as a critical hit?... the manual description is extremely vague.

TJ_Hooker

Ignatius said:

Mykra said:

Unless BG:EE changed it, the Luck bonus is only applied to THAC0 and damage rolls (given/taken).

Yeah it is important to bear in mind that Luck adds 1 to your damage roll, it does not add 1 to your damage itself; same thing for to hit, it adds 1 your to-hit-roll but does not reduce your thaco0 by 1.

I do not know about OP's question. And there are plenty other effects which I am unsure of with that spell, such as, does a to-hit-roll of 19, increased by Luck to 20, is being considered as a critical hit?... the manual description is extremely vague.

I've wondered the same thing. Also, would having a luck bonus remove any chance of a critical failure, as any 1 that was rolled would become a 2? But I don't think either of these was implemented in BG.

Here's an interesting page to look at:
http://forums.gibberlings3.net/index.php?showtopic=14723
(this was regarding vanilla, I think luck's effects were tweaked for EE)

leeho730

AFAIK, luck spell does not seem to affect success rate of scribing scroll.
From coding perspective, any non-combat luck bonuses (such as bonuses to pick pocket) are dealt separately from main 'luck' effect. The 'luck' effect is fairly limited that even AC and saving throw bonuses use separate effects. Thus one of the previous posts' observation is likely correct; that 'luck' effect itself affect to-hit and damage rolls. However, luck effect causing reduced spell damage; an interesting idea, unsure about this.

As far as luck increasing threat range; doesn't look like it. Because if it's true then critical failure shouldnt happen, but it does. In BGEE, I experimented with modified Luck spell, giving it 24-hour duration. Hasn't noticed increase in crits and NPCs definitely seem to crit miss like they used to. Luck spell seems to merely add +2 to-hit and damage bonuses.

Oxford_Guy

Mykra said:

Unless BG:EE changed it, the Luck bonus is only applied to THAC0 and damage rolls (given/taken).

The in-game description says it affects thievery, does it not then?

Mykra

Oxford_Guy said:

Mykra said:

Unless BG:EE changed it, the Luck bonus is only applied to THAC0 and damage rolls (given/taken).

The in-game description says it affects thievery, does it not then?

I can't say with 100% certainty with BG:EE as I just don't know all the changes they made, but if it's the old Luck spell then the description is a liar.

leeho730

Changes thievery skills, giving them 5% bonuses in BGEE. Or was it 10%? Don't remember correctly.

reposter

Hi guys, I just read this thread and was wondering how do you scribe spells in BGEE, cause I am using the wild mage and I have not seen any option to scribe scrolls? (Edit: Ok do you mean writing spells into the spell book? Cause I was thinking of making scrolls from spells your wizard has learnt.)

Thanks for any help in advance.

Oxford_Guy

reposter said:

Hi guys, I just read this thread and was wondering how do you scribe spells in BGEE, cause I am using the wild mage and I have not seen any option to scribe scrolls? (Edit: Ok do you mean writing spells into the spell book? Cause I was thinking of making scrolls from spells your wizard has learnt.)

We meant writing spells into your spell book, though Bard and Thieves can "create" scrolls in BG2 when they take the "Scribe Scrolls" High Level Ability (they have to take Use Any Item first), though you don't start getting HLAs until 3 million XP...

See: http://www.planetbaldursgate.com/bg2/character/highlevel/abilities/ability.asp?file_name=scribescrolls.htm&title=Scribe+Scrolls

Oxford_Guy

leeho730 said:

Changes thievery skills, giving them 5% bonuses in BGEE. Or was it 10%? Don't remember correctly.

I've just tested this and can confirm it *does* add 5% to thieving skills - the chest in Beregost that requires 90 in Open Locks can be opened by a charcter with 85 Open Locks and the Luck spell cast on him/her. The 5% bonus does not show in the character sheet, though.

I'm not sure whether it affects chances to learn a spell, though, this is difficult to test - I guess I could test on a character with 19 Int (95% chance) and see if him/her ever fails to scribe a scroll.

EDIT: I just cast Luck on a Bard with 19 Int and failed to scribe 4 scrolls (out of 7!), so can confirm it does *not* seem to improve the chances to scribe a scroll. Still could be useful for Thieving.

Does anyone know if it improves the chance of a critical hit to 19-20 (or even 18-20 with Single weapon style)?

Oxford_Guy

Oxford_Guy said:

leeho730 said:

Changes thievery skills, giving them 5% bonuses in BGEE. Or was it 10%? Don't remember correctly.

I've just tested this and can confirm it *does& add 5% to thieving skills - the chest in Beregost that requires 90 in Open Locks can be opened by a charcter with 85 Open Locks and the Luck spell cast on him/her. The 5% bonus does not show in the character sheet, though.

Actually, the thieving bonus *does* show up on the character sheet...

[Deleted User]

Interesting, well, this gives us another way to skimp on skill points for thief builds, although the extremely short duration makes leveraging it tricky. For open locks and find traps you have potions with much bigger effects and longer durations, and if you're going to backstab someone you can just keep trying until you successfully hide anyway. I suppose throwing a Luck spell on a thief about to set some traps could be helpful if their set traps skill isn't quite up to snuff.

Oxford_Guy

Kaigen said:

Interesting, well, this gives us another way to skimp on skill points for thief builds, although the extremely short duration makes leveraging it tricky. For open locks and find traps you have potions with much bigger effects and longer durations, and if you're going to backstab someone you can just keep trying until you successfully hide anyway. I suppose throwing a Luck spell on a thief about to set some traps could be helpful if their set traps skill isn't quite up to snuff.

Also useful for a choice pickpocket target...

Oxford_Guy

Oxford_Guy said:

Kaigen said:

Interesting, well, this gives us another way to skimp on skill points for thief builds, although the extremely short duration makes leveraging it tricky. For open locks and find traps you have potions with much bigger effects and longer durations, and if you're going to backstab someone you can just keep trying until you successfully hide anyway. I suppose throwing a Luck spell on a thief about to set some traps could be helpful if their set traps skill isn't quite up to snuff.

Also useful for a choice pickpocket target...

...and store theft attempt

RedWizard

You'd better use potions of genius, and until you get 100% chance. 95-99% will still get you a lot of failures, no really, that's how crappy it is.

Oxford_Guy

RedWizard said:

You'd better use potions of genius, and until you get 100% chance. 95-99% will still get you a lot of failures, no really, that's how crappy it is.

Oh I do indeed use Potions of Genius (or sometimes Mind Focusing), even in characters with 18 Int, if trying to learn a rare scroll (or rather I learn then in batches, when using a potion).

BTW I usually save the Red Potion you can get in Nashkel Carnival (which gives 25 Int / 150% spell learn!) for scribin the top notch stuff like Stoneskin and Greater Malison