The proliferation of exotic items in BG:EE
blackchimes
Member Posts: 323
I can understand one or two magic katanas making their way to the Sword Coast, but seeing katanas, wakizashis, etc. for sale in every shop is just silly.
BG2 tweak pack had a component that added exotic items(that is, BG2-specific items) to Baldur's Gate. Here's the list:
http://forums.pocketplane.net/index.php?topic=27711.0
Yes, that is *all* you got in the entire game. You started with proficiency with only katanas and nothing else? Too bad, you will suck until Firewine Bridge.
Now I understand that Overhaul Games wanted to avoid that very issue(that is "punishing" players for picking "wrong" proficiency). But is jamming every shop full of items that are only manufactured on the other side of the world really the answer? Even in Baldur's Gate 2 the original description of the katana warned of its rarity.
Also, let's face it: katanas are pretty overpowered as it is. They're single-handed weapons that match some of two-handed weapons in damage and have one of the best speed factors in the game. If you also make them available in every store, why would anyone ever pick another weapon to specialize in? Katanas need to be rare to balance their power. It's the same reason why you don't see every store selling +3 weapons. Well at least not until ToB, but then you're tripping over them anyway so it's a non-issue.
Instead, Ogre Mages could all be given normal katanas. That would make them rare but still obtainable. Feldepost's Inn could sell a few wakizashis and ninja-to's, since it's supposed to store "trophy" items. Finally, as a side note, all these should be unbreakable(since they're not smithed on Sword Coast, so the iron crisis doesn't apply to them).
BG2 tweak pack had a component that added exotic items(that is, BG2-specific items) to Baldur's Gate. Here's the list:
http://forums.pocketplane.net/index.php?topic=27711.0
Yes, that is *all* you got in the entire game. You started with proficiency with only katanas and nothing else? Too bad, you will suck until Firewine Bridge.
Now I understand that Overhaul Games wanted to avoid that very issue(that is "punishing" players for picking "wrong" proficiency). But is jamming every shop full of items that are only manufactured on the other side of the world really the answer? Even in Baldur's Gate 2 the original description of the katana warned of its rarity.
Also, let's face it: katanas are pretty overpowered as it is. They're single-handed weapons that match some of two-handed weapons in damage and have one of the best speed factors in the game. If you also make them available in every store, why would anyone ever pick another weapon to specialize in? Katanas need to be rare to balance their power. It's the same reason why you don't see every store selling +3 weapons. Well at least not until ToB, but then you're tripping over them anyway so it's a non-issue.
Instead, Ogre Mages could all be given normal katanas. That would make them rare but still obtainable. Feldepost's Inn could sell a few wakizashis and ninja-to's, since it's supposed to store "trophy" items. Finally, as a side note, all these should be unbreakable(since they're not smithed on Sword Coast, so the iron crisis doesn't apply to them).
3
Comments
So no, seeing Katanas, foreign weapons etc should not be unusual.
All non magical weapon being breakable makes sense...all weapons break.
Even Damascus steel weapons break.
I thought I was the first response...but ninjaed.
Do you have a Gem of Foresight or something ?
If we equate Aber-Toril with Middle Ages Earth, then the abundance of katana and ninja-to in BG EE and BG 2 is ridiculous. Most of the major cities of Mediterranean coast were trading cities, but I doubt you could've found a single common smithy in Rome, Venice or Constantinople selling genuine Japanese-crafted katana in the 1400s. It is also entirely arbitrary (for the sake of mostly Western audiences familiar with samurai and ninjas) that most of the 'exotic' weapons that show up in BG EE and BG 2 are actually Japanese inspired weapons that would have originated from Kozakura and Wa, and not the China-inspired Shou-Lung Empire or T'u Ling, which is much larger, with (presumably) a much larger manufacturing capacity and trade presence, and comparatively closer to Faerun.
However, Aber-Toril is a world of magic, where teleportation, flight and even plane-travel is reasonably common place, where gods, demons and angels walk amongst mortals, and an entire underworld stretches miles beneath the surface. Hence even though I think I read that Abeir-Toril is supposed to be about the same size as Earth, it is clearly much better 'connected' compared to Earth in the 1400s. In fact the abundance of magic shrinks distances in Abeir-Toril much like modern industrial and digital technology does so in the modern world, where people can communicate across vast distances at an instant, and travel across the world in 24 hours, and the manufactures of China can be found pretty much everywhere in the world.
GROK SWING MIGHTY KARA-TUR SWORD
Any gripe I have with kuh-tannas stems from The Immortal. Not Highlander, but The Immortal. ...Valygar's is cool, though. And Yoshimo's. MacLeod's is, too, but Cain's...Cain's makes Grok sad. And SCARY_WIZARD.
A few specific nations or religions aside, either gender can be anything, and while females tend to being physically weaker then males, exceptions do exist.
@Heindrich1988
Grossly overstating. While Forgotten Realms does tend to have higher level characters on average then other settings, it's still VERY rare to see a character above 8 or 9. And even then, those that are, are part god, favored of a god, REALLY old, or been extending their lives much longer then they by all rights should've lived etc. By level 9, the average adventurer has earned enough gold and reputation to get a cushy day job, or even have land holdings in their own right to manage. And once so retired, they almost never level-up beyond that simply due to a lack of xp sources (Only thieves, bards, and mages have enough significant extra xp sources that they can realistically progress while in "retirement", fighters and priests just don't get enough opportunities from day to day to gain significant xp). Paladin are about the only class that generally never retires unless they have no other choice, because due to age or injury they can no longer effectively serve their god in the field and are better spent training a new generation with their accumulated wisdom.
An adventuring party is the exception, rather then the rule.
And keep in mind, Kara-tur, from which oriental style weapons and such hail is a low magic setting (+3 items are as rare as +5 items are SUPPOSED to be in FR), even though it's nominally part of the Forgotten Realms (Lvl 10 is their lvl 20, and lvl 15 is their lvl 30, as far as how rare it is for people to reach it). Their residents generally practice Ki disciplines (a feature unique to those who have been initiated into their ways and can be learned by pretty much any class to achieve super-human feats a limited number of times per day), and look on anything besides divine magic with suspicion or outright hostility (they have a love/hate relationship with the various spirit beings of their lands, most of which have some measure of arcane power (Ogre magi being one of the most hated)). And much like the cultural time period they're based on, are EXTREMELY hostile to outsiders. It can take generations of buttering up to get into enough of a family's good graces to even suggest a trade agreement (also, even in Kara-tur, Katana don't fall off trees, and are extremely rare in general due to the skill required to make them (from the setting, not RL), god-forbid actually finding a magical one).
Disclaimer: This is more at the prospect of seeing the whole fair/unfair women can/can't do this/that or should/shouldn't get scores that... blah. Thread derailment at its best...
In fact the BG games have impressed me with their cultural diversity. Sure the setting is mostly Middle Ages Europe, but there's a whole cast of NPCs representing other cultures. Minsc, Dynaheir, Yoshimo, Rassad and probably more that escape me just now. If anything the games also addresses racism and imperialism with the background info about Amnish crimes in Maztica, which very much resemble Portugese/Spanish conquest of the Americas, not to mention the portrayal of racism and intolerance between the different races of Faerun.
Oh and encase the comment was directed at my comment in any way... dude, my portrait is an 'Asian' guy, and I am roleplaying an Asian guy in my BG 2 Let's Play. lol
I can kill Skoal the Nerid and her ogre/mage body guard 15 minutes into the game to earn one. Very dangerous fight.
You can legally start with a katana from Candlekeep if your starting gold is 140 or more, you complete all of the quests, sell everything not bolted to the ground (including guard house chest contents), and murder Fuller (with weapons you find) for his 90 gold, plate, and +1 dagger (which must be ID for it to be sold. If you do all of that you can buy that Katana for 950 gold (lowered rep) and have enough left for a helmet and buckler shield but nothing else. So it's plenty tough, costly, and risky starting with on right out of the gate, unless of course you can pick that lock with the diamond inside.
So I am going to go out on a limb here and disagree. They ARE rare. Nobody else sells them in stores.
I find it strange that katanas NON magical sell for 750 and the +1 version resales for only 500. 250 less than a +1 long sword resales for. ;?
@Tresset
@ZanathKariashi
@reedmilfam
I was commenting on how threads like this one that boil down to the OP saying "get this weaboo crap outta my white-centric pseudo-medieval fantasy" are born out of latent racism or at least a snide resentment of the potent cultural impact (pop or otherwise) of Asian martial arts and weaponry. I was likening those negative sentiments to the numerous trolls and/or neanderthals we had in the numerous gender discussions on this forum like six months ago who blustered about insisting that women could not fight on equal footing or be as physically strong as their male counterparts.
Evidently, the exact opposite is how my post was interpreted.
And yes, despite my best efforts, there are katanas/wakizashis/ninja-tos galore in BGEE.
The racist attitudes against Dwarves and other vertically challenged races of Faerun must come to an end. This is the 1300s! Not 300s!
Mazzy... please reply to me pigeon posts...