Minus dexterity stat
BasicHunter
Member Posts: 17
Hello. I am new to this game, and I bought it only today. Ive red some basc guides and made a thief character. Well, the problem is, 15 mins ago I have completed the first dungeon and entered the city. Ive decided to check my characters inventory and stats, and I have noticed, that in the top right square box ALL of my charactershave -dexterity( the box which also has my Armor class number). For example, my main character(thief) has -2 dexterity stat, minsc has -2 as well, jaheira has -3, and Yoshimo has -4. Is it supposed to be like that? I dont have any earlier saves left so I cant check, but when I tried to create a new game with a thief as well, my new char didnt have this thing. I tried taking out all items yet it's still the same.
1
Comments
the lower your armor class in this game the harder it is to hit you. High dexterity makes your harder to hit by lowering your armor class. So for Yoshimo, who has 18 dex, his armor class is dropped by 4, whereas Jaheira has hers dropped by two due to her high dexterity, but not as high as yoshimo.
I'm guessing the thief you made has a dexterity similar to minsc (16?)
So complicated!!!
Yes, the -2 Dexterity you see means that your dexterity give you -2 to your AC (Armor Class) making you harder to hit. You should see that in your items screen. On you character page, you will see your abilities and next to dexterity it will say 16.
To be honest, if you are a thief I would actually get a higher dexterity (18 unless you are an elf, then 19). Also, wisdom and intelligence are not very important for thieves (10 should be fine in both) and charisma is not as important since you will very early find a ring in Baldur's Gate II that sets your charisma to 18!!!
Also, I am very jealous of you being able to play this game for the first time. You will have a great time!
P.S If you would also tell me how to set a trap or detect an illusion that would be wonderfull, since I cant seem to figure it out. This game is quite hard compared to the modern ones( and thats is good , the game is very well done and looks fantastic so far)
The code is book05 and you can get two of them and just place them into your "quick item slots" (three boxes below your weapons) then use them when you are in the world screen. Your character will make a "poof" sound and then when you look back at his character screen you will see your dexterity raised by one.
I think detect illusions is a passive ability (happens automatically) but I am not sure. I have never bothered with it, since other characters have spells that make it useless.
I actually don't use thieves often, and I rarely set traps except with a certain NPC you get early in the game. It is a special ability, so you should see a star on the far right of the bottom of your screen. If you click on that it will show you multiple traps that you can use. click on the button then click on the world screen where you want to set it. then wait for some unsuspecting bad guy to walk into it then BOOM you got him!
@booinyoureyes The passive you're thinking of is the ability to detect secret doors. All characters are using that passively all the time, with varying chance of success based on their class.
Regarding whether Detect Illusion is useful...there are some encounters with high-level casters where your thief may not really have much to do because the mage is immune to their weapons (from various protection spells). When that happens, I usually have my thief Find Traps (and thereby checking for illusions) so I don't have to waste time with one of my casters using True Sight (also True Sight only has a 10-round duration, while Find Traps can work as long as you want). Detect Illusions will get rid of Blur, Mirror Image, and all types of invisibility, so it can be handy.
PS - Another minor point in favor of Detect Illusion is that it can't be dispelled; enemies can knock out True Sight with Remove Magic.
Just go to the store and ask Ribald to see what items he has for sale. At the bottom-left (or bottom-right, it depends) of the screen you'll see a few buttons, one of which should be a question mark similar to the icon of the identification spell. Note that not all stores can identify items, and not all stores that can identify items can identify *all* items.
Detect illusions is often used as a dump skill, but it can be really helpful in combat when you're going up against mages who have invisibility and can't be targeted with spells. It's faster and will free up some spell slots for your mages
and for the traps, you can get things like spike and time traps when you reach SOA level cap. it is recommended any thief get use any item first though, as then your thief can cast from scrolls, wear plate armors, and wield many swords no other in your party might be able to.
I'd advise a plain Fighter (if you want to take a kit, go Berserker: Wizard Slayer is bad, and Kensai can be too squishy if you aren't used to how the game plays), or Paladin (any kit, but Cavalier is probably the best/easiest for a new player) or Ranger (Plain Ranger is great, but you could also be a Stalker if you want to backstab for less damage but more reliably than a plain thief. Unless you want to be an archer, then Archer kit is fantastic.)
So basically, my advice for a fairly simple introduction to the game would be:
Fighter (either ordinary, or Berserker)
Cavalier
Ranger
You can use other characters that join your party to experiment with other classes/builds and have a more rounded knowledge for your next play through
Sorry for all this typing, can you pls help me for the last time? I dont want to fck up and play the game with an underpowered character. If my knowing is right, i should take a human(more romance options)/half-ogre(better stats). My main focus on stats should be constitution and strength, decent intelligengce anbd low wisdom and char. And for the weapon abilities I should max out the two-weapon type? What are berserkers better with? Shield? or just a huge sword to cut everyone into pieces?
You want your highest stats to be Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution. Int at around 11, and Wisdom and Charisma as low as you want. Wisdom doesn't really affect anything for you, so that can be your lowest score.
For weapons, either go two-handed weapons (2H sword is pretty great through the whole game) or two weapons. Keep in mind that Two Weapon has some heavy penalties until you get 2 points in the style. Both are very powerful. Two Weapon is, I think, ultimately the most powerful, but 2-handed keeps up really well, so really go with whichever you prefer. If you want to use a giant sword to hit things, do that, if you want to wield two weapons at once you can do that too.
If you do go the two-weapon route, then some good weapons to focus on are longsword or flail, I've found axe to be pretty good overall as well.
Having a shield can be useful (but you can't use one with a 2-handed weapon), but don't put points into the 'Sword and Shield' style, because it isn't very good.