what robe do you prefer for your mage?
pipinho
Member Posts: 55
i thought the adventur's robe with its bonus against missle attacks would be the best but im hearing that the knave's robe is better. What do you guys think?
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That is, until I get a Robe of Archmagi.
But ultimately once I can get he appropriate Robe of Archmagi, that one stays on most of the time, apart from certain situations.
I also use the Shield Amulet a lot before I can get the Archmagi robes, to save a spell slot or two.
Robe of Vecna in BG2 unmodified by patches (remove the item file from Override), because it looks cool on Fighter/Mage multiclass.
AC 5 (better than the AC6 Armour spell, but worse than the Shield spell/amulet, which gives AC 4, AC 2 vs. ranged and immunity to magic missile)
+1 bonus to all saving throws (this is a good thing!)
5% Magic Resistance
Of course, aesthetically, that's a different matter...
My current Jester will miss out on the elven chain, as I'm just doing a Duo run with Safana, so will miss out the NPC that is required to obtain it, but I'll make do with the Shield Amulet (which is actually better than the elven chain, but more expensive to maintain) and spells.
Knave's robe-+1 AC vs slash is pitiful. If you are in melee with a sword-user (Sarevok or Drizzt!) you are dead meat anyway. +1 save vs death can be useful against a ghoul's attack or spider bites, and the dreaded Death gaze, still mages suck at save vs poison/death anyway and +1 bonus does little. It is better to avoid those situations all together or use potions.
Adventurer's robe-+1 AC vs blunt-again, if you are toe to toe with ogres wielding morning stars, you are doing something wrong as a mage! +1 save vs petrify-only useful against basilisks, BUT you either have protection from petrification spell/potion/scroll or you avoid battling basilisks. No one dons this and goes basilisk hunting.
Traveler's robe-+1 AC vs missile is nice. You can have girdle of piercing and boots of avoidance to further gain AC bonus vs missiles, to surprisingly decent AC. Missiles are hard to avoid, as a mage you can stay clear of anything that tries to hurt you in melee, but missile protection is sure handy. + save vs breath is very very useless. Only useful against potion of fire breath and other blasting potion in BG1. (sadly there are no dragons that use breath weapons in BG1) Still I think this is better then others.
Robe of cold resistance is too situational to be useful, only when you are fighting Winter wolves and such, but then again you have Gorion's belt for them.
Robes of Archmagi are sure best and the most powerful, but I find them overrated. AC 5 is nice, but you can get AC 6 with bracers, and 4 with shield amulet charge. Or directly to full plate AC via spirit armour spell. +1 all saves is nice, but you can get a ring of protection +2, and cast Blur (+1 to saves) İmproved İnvisibility/Shadow Door (+4 to all saves) Spirit Armour (+3 save vs spells) and gulp potions of magic protection (automatic success) when you really need to make a saving throw. +%5 magic resistance, has little value unless you have other + magic resistance items. Coupled with Cloak of Balduran, it is nice I guess.
Knave, adventurer, etc. robes are pretty useless. They're better than being naked, but not by much.
Keep resistance robes around, just in case. They're light, so they'll hardly encumber you. Having a fire resistance robe and a friendly buff or fire-resist ring means you can fireball yourself if you need.