use same character files

ChildofBhaal599

this way we could use our old characters. i have a character rolled for 18 str, 17 dex, 17 end, 10 int, 14 wis, and 17 char. that is without tomes and a legit roll! i would probably reroll just do to my fascination with it my first time playing it, but someday i might want to reuse that ranger character (:

Aranneas

is there a thing about rangers getting unusually high rolls? I had one stalker that started out 18 18 18 18 18 17. >.>

Tanthalas

@Aranneas

Rangers can get high stat rolls easier because they have multiple forced minimum stats, aka 13 STR, 13 DEX, 14 CON and 14 WIS.

I believe Paladins are also in the same boat.

Aranneas

No, that prevents them from getting low stat rolls. It doesn't give any greater chance of rolling an 18.

Cheesebelly

In addition to that, elven rangers will also get a reasonably high Charisma and Intelligence stats, making them the candidates for the best stat rolls.

Tanthalas

@Aranneas

Are you sure about that? Because if the only options are 13-18 instead of 1-18 it would seem that they have a higher probability of rolling 18. Unless the virtual dice used by the game considers all rolls beneath 13 to be a 13.

Aranneas

My understanding of the forced minimum roll system in BG is that any roll below your minimum just gets bumped to the minimum. I believe it was confirmed by modders at one point (sorry I don't have a cite for this )

Tanthalas

@Aranneas

I just did a limited testing with a Paladin, and by looking at Charisma (which has a forced minimum of 17), while it is true that 17 appeared more times, I got an 18 a lot more times than I should if it were truly rolling an 18-sided die.

mlnevese

I remember reading somewhere that the game "rolls" 3d6 (three six sided dice) for stats.

But I also noticed the excess of 17s and 18s on paladins and rangers... maybe someone with access to the code could take a look on what the game is doing behind the scenes?

Flashburn

Taken from playithardcore.com about Baldur's Gate 1 and 2:

"Baldur's Gate determines each stat by rolling 3 dice that are all 6-sided, and summing these. It then applies race and class modifiers, and rerolls if the value falls outside the minimum or maximum for the race or class. After determining each of the six stats in this way, it checks to see if all six scores add up to at least 75. If not, it scraps the scores it has found, and begins over again.

Unfortunately, it's a pipe dream to think you're going to get all 18s. The exact odds of getting all 18s vary depending on race and class adjustments, but for human with a core class (Fighter, Cleric, Thief, Mage), the odds of getting all 18s are 1 in 5,431,084,533,885 (5 trillion, 431 billion, 084 million, 533 thousand 885). This is much worse than the odds of winning the jackpot in many government-run lotteries.

The odds are considerably better for race/class combinations with high minimums and maximums. (The best odds are with an Elven Ranger, followed closely by human Paladins, with their 17 Charisma requirement.)"

Dazzu

Sadly, the high base stat rollers also lack dump stats. CHR, Wis and Int are the common dump stats.

Tanthalas

That's really only a problem for Paladins.

With their highish STR, DEX and CON requirements, you can easily max out the important melee stats on a Ranger with just INT and CHR dumps. You most likely can even max out CHR relatively easily.

EDIT: And I just tried and with only INT as a dump stat I maxed out STR, DEX, CON and CHR in under 5 minutes.

Dazzu

Rangers too, especially Elves. You can't dump wis, and Int and CHr minimize at 8. If you want 18/76+ Str, 19 Dex and 17 Con, you're going to be rolling a fair bit too.

Bards too have this issue. You'd think you can dump wis, but you'll need 8-10 to keep your Lore score respectable at early levels.

Tanthalas

@Dazzu

I had forgot about the racial minimums of elves. Humans and Half-elves don't have that problem though.

pacek

Aranneas said:

No, that prevents them from getting low stat rolls. It doesn't give any greater chance of rolling an 18.

Actually the engine does give a greater chance of 18s, since rolls which are below minimum are rerolled, not simply adjusted up to the minimum. I did read somewhere an exhaustive test on how the engine handles things, the most telling situation is how often a Paladin will hit 18 CHA (It's well above expected levels).

ChildofBhaal599

was gone playing a faerun scenario in civilization 5 as baldurs gate, getting a little pumped for EE. after reading all this, i hope they lower or remove the 75 limit so that these really good rolls are more difficult. i dont care how long i spend clicking the reroll i am oddly entertained waiting for the big roll (: