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Wand of Fire nerfed?

lunarlunar Member Posts: 3,460
in Archive (General Discussion)
In my old BG2 and BGT games, I remember wand of fire having two abilities:fireball and scorcher, and each had two seperate charges. You could have a wand of fire with 1 charge of fireball and 20 charges of scorcher, for instance.

I rushed to Ankheg lair, entered invisible thanks to Jaheira's potion of invisibility, looted the wand, smeared on an oil of speed to dash for the exit, and Ankhegs were none the wiser. I had a powerful wand of fire at lvl 1! I had planned to use it to good effect, and it had 12 charges of fireball and scorcher, but I found out that, when I use one ability of the wand, it substracted from both of the charges, much like a sorcerer's casting ability. This nerfs the wand and reduces its full potential by half, IMHO. If it is intentional ora glitch, I don't know. How it is supposed to work in PnP? Seperate charges or charges to fuel the both powers?

Still it is a very powerful weapon for a lvl 1 mageling. I killed off Bassilus, Zargal, Silke (who, with SCS, is a very dangerous opponent!) and blasted off the vampiric wolf horde in Temple area. This netted me a lot of levels, and gold, and items in no time. ^^ A lvl 1 mageling with a meager 4 hit points and spell selection killing off powerful enemies with ease, heh.

Comments

  • PeccaPecca Member Posts: 2,215
    This will be fixed in the next update.
  • FlashheartFlashheart Member Posts: 125
    ?

    What will be fixed?

    This is the expected behavior for a wand with multiple abilities. One charge is used regardless of the ability used.

    Example:
    - Wand has 10 charges: 10 Fireball / 10 Scorcher.
    - A Fireball charge is used.
    - Wand now has 9 charges: 9 Fireball / 9 Scorcher


  • PeccaPecca Member Posts: 2,215
    @Flashheart: Well, in the next update, wands will resume their vanilla behavior.
  • lunarlunar Member Posts: 3,460
    Flashheart said:

    ?

    What will be fixed?

    This is the expected behavior for a wand with multiple abilities. One charge is used regardless of the ability used.

    Example:
    - Wand has 10 charges: 10 Fireball / 10 Scorcher.
    - A Fireball charge is used.
    - Wand now has 9 charges: 9 Fireball / 9 Scorcher


    @Flashheart

    In vanilla game example:

    -Wand has different charges: 12 fireball/8 scorcher
    -A fireball charge is used.
    -Wand has now: 11 fireball/8 scorcher

    If any ability is reduced to zero, the wand was destroyed, IIRC.
  • FlashheartFlashheart Member Posts: 125
    To clarify then:

    BG2 Vanilla Behavior is:

    Wand has 10 charges. 5 are allocated to Fireball and 5 are allocated to Scorcher.
    Using a Fireball charge, reduces Fireballs to 4 and Scorcher remains on 5.

    Is this the behavior it will be using in the next update?
  • lunarlunar Member Posts: 3,460
    @Flashheart

    Yeah that's the vanilla behaviour I've known. I was surprised that it was changed, maybe by design, but it seems it is considered a bug. Now fire wand works like a sorcerer, and casts the two spells as same level spells from a single pool. Which halves its number of charges and effectiveness.
  • Aasimar069Aasimar069 Member Posts: 803
    Flashheart said:

    To clarify then:

    BG2 Vanilla Behavior is:

    Wand has 10 charges. 5 are allocated to Fireball and 5 are allocated to Scorcher.
    Using a Fireball charge, reduces Fireballs to 4 and Scorcher remains on 5.

    Is this the behavior it will be using in the next update?

    What's Vanilla BG1 behaviour ?

    this game is supposed to be an enhanced edition of Baldur's gate 1, not Baldur's Gate 2.
  • lunarlunar Member Posts: 3,460
    Aasimar069 said:

    Flashheart said:

    To clarify then:

    BG2 Vanilla Behavior is:

    Wand has 10 charges. 5 are allocated to Fireball and 5 are allocated to Scorcher.
    Using a Fireball charge, reduces Fireballs to 4 and Scorcher remains on 5.

    Is this the behavior it will be using in the next update?

    What's Vanilla BG1 behaviour ?

    this game is supposed to be an enhanced edition of Baldur's gate 1, not Baldur's Gate 2.
    @Aasimar069 IIRC, in vanilla BG1, wands do not show the number of charges. So I really am not sure.
  • PeccaPecca Member Posts: 2,215
    Behaviour of both BG1 and BG2 wands were same in this matter and will be restored.
  • QbertQbert Member Posts: 195
    probably something easy that i am overlooking but how do you use the separate charges for the wand? it always casts fireball for me.
  • FlashheartFlashheart Member Posts: 125
    edited June 2013
    @Pecca

    You're either lying or you didn't bother to check BG1.

    The Wand of Fire in BG1 (yes I have just installed BG1 and tested it) has a certain number of charges, and the charge decreases by 1 regardless of which ability the wand uses. For example, if the wand had 10 charges, you could fire 10 Fireballs, or 7 Fireballs and 3 Scorchers, or 9 scorchers and 1 Fireball.

    I'm nothing if not thorough!

    Behaviour in BG1 'differs' to BG2. If BG:EE is based around BG1, then the wand doesn't need a fix.
  • NeonfiskNeonfisk Member Posts: 75
    edited June 2013
    @Qbert you have to right-click it and select "abilities" in inventory.
    You can also right-click it from the quick-slot.
  • PeccaPecca Member Posts: 2,215
    edited June 2013
    @Flashheart: I also have BG1 installed and tested this before I wrote that reply. In my test, the wand of fire had 8 charges of fireball and 10 schorchers. It was able to release 9 schorchers and then 8 fireballs. Wands have had this behaviour in both BG1 and BG2 as long as I remember and will have the same behaviour in the next patch. Nothing else needs to be said from my part, other than that you're being unnecessary hostile.
  • FlashheartFlashheart Member Posts: 125
    edited June 2013
    The wand I tested in BG1 showed opposite behaviour. Seeing as BG1 doesn't allow you to see the number of charges - may I ask what procedure you used to determine how many fireball charges and scorcher charges the wand had?

    I'm not intentionally being hostile - but I anger quickly when things aren't tested thoroughly. Apologies.
  • PeccaPecca Member Posts: 2,215
    The test I conducted was to deplete fireball charges to see how many there is, then reload and do the same with schorches. Reload and mix the two. The fact your behaviour is different is strange. It is possibly due to different patches or mods installed. I have the latest patch and several mods, non of which, I believe, would change this behaviour. I also remeber it always be this way.

    Anyway, no matter what, wands will resume this behaviour in the next patch. Well actually not "no matter what" since these things may always change, so I say "with reasonable certainty".
  • FlashheartFlashheart Member Posts: 125
    edited June 2013
    OK - fair enough.

    I guess the more pertinent question is: How should it work?

    One thing we do know from the 2nd ed rulebook is that we shouldn't know how many charges a wand has.

    Wands, staves, and rods are not limitless in their power. Each use drains them slightly,
    using up a charge. There is no power gauge or meter showing what is left. A character
    discovers his wand is drained only when it no longer functions or suddenly crumbles into
    useless dust.
  • FlashheartFlashheart Member Posts: 125
    Flashheart said:

    @Pecca

    You're either lying or you didn't bother to check BG1.

    The Wand of Fire in BG1 (yes I have just installed BG1 and tested it) has a certain number of charges, and the charge decreases by 1 regardless of which ability the wand uses. For example, if the wand had 10 charges, you could fire 10 Fireballs, or 7 Fireballs and 3 Scorchers, or 9 scorchers and 1 Fireball.

    I'm nothing if not thorough!

    Behaviour in BG1 'differs' to BG2. If BG:EE is based around BG1, then the wand doesn't need a fix.

    *Ahem* I've had another look (using different methods of testing) and the Wand's behaviour is identical in both BG1 and BG2...exactly as Pecca pointed out earlier in the thread.

    I'd like to publicly apologise to Pecca for:

    a) accusing him of lying or not testing BG1
    b) my attitude - wrong or right, it wasn't acceptable (and I was wrong in this case)
    b) my erroneous testing of the wands behaviour in BG1...damn gatekeeper ;)

    @Pecca - I humbly apologise, and hope you can forgive me.

    /me is embarrassed and red-faced.
  • PeccaPecca Member Posts: 2,215
    edited June 2013
    @Flashheart: It happens, think nothing of it. :)
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