Are the boots of speed overpowered?

vorpal_chicken

Well met and all that.

The boots of speed are a nice pair of shoes, possibly the best item in the game, but they're a little too shiny if you ask me. They overshadow and deminish the monk and barbarian increased movement class abilities.
I think a ballance could be achieved by giving the item a once a day charge and limited duration, similar to how the cloak of algernon was adjusted.

Delvarian

I actually don't like them. I like for all my team to move at the same speed.

TJ_Hooker

Yeah, I find having one character always way out in front of my party because he's wearing the boots is actually more of a liability than anything (ditto for anything else that increases the movement speed of just one character). The increased mobility can come in handy once you're in combat, but then you're stuck swapping them in and out if you want to avoid what I mentioned in my first sentence. My number 1 use for the boots is to slap them on a stealthed thief to explore maps quickly, which is more a matter of convenience than anything.

Unless you're talking about getting bonus attacks per round from wearing the boots (they are still doing that, right?), in which case I think that's been confirmed as a bug, and will probably get fixed eventually.

Edit: I forgot, there is one particular use that makes them arguably overpowered. If you're a thief they pretty much allow you unlimited backstabs if you use the boots to backstab, run away, re-stealth and repeat, as long as you're in an area with sufficient space. But I think that if this bothers someone, they should restrain themselves from abusing it so.

EnterHaerDalis

I say yes.

Especially if you are using backstab. Pretty sure it still increases APR so that's a definite yes from me.

JTM

Well, I like them just the way they are thank you very much. Hope they don't get changed at all. When you've played through the game for the nth time, it's nice to move quickly through all those very familiar areas. Especially nice for solo runs.

Just take the boots off when you feel you've overplayed with them and pretend they have charges

Nifft

Yeah, for solo runs they are invaluable.

I do wish it were easier to purchase four pairs of them, so my whole little party could keep up with CHARNAME.

RnRClown

For solo, they are cool. For a party, they are a hindrance.

I keep them in Charname's backpack to equip in towns, to speed up going between stores and temples. I don't always lead the entire party around the town and through every doorway (when I am sure of what is inside). When it is time to adventure once more, they are placed in the backpack again.

Wowo

Handy for a tank to make sure he's always first into the fight and can establish aggro before the rest of the party arrives.

Last playthroughs I gave first pair to Kagain and second pair to fighter/ill charname and it worked well.

Wowo

Btw, I have a feeling apr on boots was fixed in 2013 (though broken elsewhere - probably connected).

Zanian

I'd say implement some nice new boots instead. Throughout the entire saga, there really aren't any boots that come close to the power of the boots of speed.
Rasaad's personal pair was a nice addition though. More of that please.

Fenghoang

I agree with the others, that having em on is a liability in a party unless everyone is wearing a pair. They're great for solo, scouting/finding traps, kiting, and backstabbing however.

Sometimes I cheat in 6 pairs just cuz I'm too OCD to not explore anything, but too impatient to put up with the slow walk speeds... XD

KidCarnival

Wowo said:

Handy for a tank to make sure he's always first into the fight and can establish aggro before the rest of the party arrives.

Last playthroughs I gave first pair to Kagain and second pair to fighter/ill charname and it worked well.

This. I'm dragging around Rasaad this time, and around level 6, he's not too squishy anymore. Boots of speed on the tank, and they arrive in battle in the order I want them to. Other than that, I find it a bit annoying that the party doesn't move at the same speed. But with 2 pairs, or Rasaad and 1 pair, they can help organize the "battle formation" beyond party formation button.

bbear

I enjoy kiting with my tank with the boot of speed. Especially in area where AI have hard time in path finding. The enemies usually just stand in place confused while my archers mop them up.

Pecca

About "adjusting" the cloak of Algernon... unlimited uses were original bug, which they have now fixed.
Requests of nerfing, not fixing, things should not make it to official release (IMHO), but you can usually mod them fairly easily to what you want (and in this case very easily).

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

O_Bruce

Those boots are increasing only walking speed, so I don't see how exactly this item is overpowered. Oil of speed is more useful item than those boots, since it grants haste (+1 attack) for few turns.

Djimmy

Yeah, BoS don't give APR anymore and they don't overshadow the movement rate of monks and barbarians because they stack. I mean monk/barbarian with boots of speed will be faster than a fighter or thief or wtv with boots of speed.

RedWizard

Very useful, and not really overpowered since it only affects movement speed. As soon as I get Haste I find myself casting it every time when revisiting areas just for the faster walking speed, it's quite the blessing.

Oxford_Guy

Also useful for Dorn to be able to keep up with my Blade under Offensive Spin! :-)

Kirkor

They've already been nerfed (they don't give you attack speed anymore).
If you don't like them - don't use them.

ajwz

For solo runs they rock, for group runs they are annoying as hell to manage.

PawnSlayer

They only affect movement rate, which is balanced by the fact that until TOB you can't have every character with one, which can cause as many problems as it solves. So no need to change it.

Gilgalahad

Why oh why do people express a dislike for something and want it changed? Yours isn't the only opinion on it as many others(myself and those who've spoken up in this thread) who like them. Sorry if i'm being grumpy but the solution is and always will be the same.....don't like em? sell em or donate them to charity, just don't use them. Simple elegant solution as kirkor said. Man my 1st post in a long while due to illness and i'm already growling at people lol. sowwy.

Oxford_Guy

They *were* OP when giving an extra attack, but I think are okay now

Anduin

These boots are very useful when you need to catch the ice cream van...

In answer to your question @vorpal_chicken No.

You can cast haste on your team many times as a wizard when you find them anyway, you will also probably have lots of potions of speed that are much better than the boots.. I believe they just double movement speed now... Even though I believe if you gave them to a monk THEY should give extra attacks as you can obviously kick ass twice as fast...

Rhyme

vorpal_chicken said:

Well met and all that.

The boots of speed are a nice pair of shoes, possibly the best item in the game, but they're a little too shiny if you ask me. They overshadow and deminish the monk and barbarian increased movement class abilities.
I think a ballance could be achieved by giving the item a once a day charge and limited duration, similar to how the cloak of algernon was adjusted.

Ugh. Stop it. No.

Leave my boots alone. If you think they're overpowered, don't use them. If you'd like to use them once a day for a limited duration, use them once a day for a limited duration. You don't need them to change the game for the rest of us just so that you can play the game the way you want to play it.

bigdogchris

I keep them on characters but only wear them when I need to move somewhere quickly.

The APR bug makes them overpowered.

reedmilfam

I use them all the time on a tank, but move the party in spurts. They prevent a squishy character from arriving first and getting hit by hobgoblins and the like. So, I use smaller movements as a group and wait. It's a little more work, but it ensures that the armored ones are first to be seen by the enemies.

dieterderblau

Um, leave the items the heck alone. Stop changing things because people "want them changed". Welcome to the GAME we all signed on to play. You don't like D&D 2.5, don't play it. Go find something based on 4.5th ed or some crap. This is 2.5, where we veteran players of that and the earlier versions it mostly mirrors expect things to work a certain way.
Unless you're changing something to mirror the actual way it IS in the REAL paper and dice game. I'm SICK of SLEEP spell haivng a saving throw attached. It certainly didn't in the real game.

vorpal_chicken

I brought it up as a bit of idle conversation, no evil intent.

I liked the original BG and enjoy this EE version even more on an iPad. It's amazing a twenty year old computer game can continue to delight new players.

My point is that rate of movement is a huge tactical advantage in any game.
In BG an archer, or any ranged character, wearing the boots of speed, can plunk away, retreat, and never risk a melee attack. Nice, but as Spike says "It's gotta be the shoes".
In EE Monks and Barbarians have been added which is great. Enhanced movement is key to their balance at low levels. The boots give this advantage, with no tactical downside, to the other classes. If you're going to add to the game you have to make sure it all balances out. Hard task but they're doing a great job with it.
I like how most of the new items have built in negative aspects to help preserve the balance in this classic.

agradine

I always get frustrated when I'm exploring regions, trying to fill in maps, having to wait for the rest of my party to catch up. I have to force myself to remember that they were always this slow. They're kind of handy but without the extra attacks not really all that broken at all.

I used to put them on Imoen, for scouting purposes. But this run I'm doing things a little differently and I have them on Yeslick, for high-speed healbot purposes. "Dwarves are natural sprinters!"