Cursed Items

Permidion_Stark

When I originally played BG it was possible to equip items without having to identify them first, which meant that the Ring of Folly, Gauntlets of Fumbling or Cursed Two-Handed Sword actually posed some kind of threat. Even after I had played a couple of times I managed to get the Girdle of Masculinity/Femininity and the Girdle of Piercing mixed up and succeeded in turning Khalid into a girl (so no change there then).

However, I think later versions require you to identify items before you can use them, which means cursed items are meaningless because no one can ever get caught out by them.

So, people, my question is, how can we make cursed items fun again?

Synergetic

Well hate to say it but when you've done a play through or 2, you tend to already know the item is cursed anyway so it's kind of a one time prank. Highly doubt any sort of implication will make it into the final game. Good idea for a mod though I say.

azurit

so let's make cursing random on any items (except some unique) and disable revealing curse upon identification!

ajwz

I really like cursed items that aren't strictly bad though - stuff like the sword of berserking or claw of kazagoth are really good ideas. I think that is the way forward with cursed items.
Also, some of the cursed but strictly good items from PS:T are a really good idea as well

Quartz

ajwz said:

I really like cursed items that aren't strictly bad though - stuff like the sword of berserking or claw of kazagoth are really good ideas. I think that is the way forward with cursed items.

Ahh yes, pretty awesome, along with Kiel's Morningstar. Those are definitely the most interesting.

Majoca

I think cursed items are a good point of the game which should be looked into, The spell remove curse is useless and as @Azurit said, I think some random drops should be cursed but without you knowing, so a ring looking like it is a ring of protection actually curses you with slow or something, and I agree with @Ajwz there could be some new cursed items which are good.

Syntia13

Permidion_Stark said:

However, I think later versions require you to identify items before you can use them, which means cursed items are meaningless because no one can ever get caught out by them.

What do you mean? I just started a BG2 again to kill the time before September 18, and I had no problem equipping unidentified rings and helmets, and I remember doing it in BG1 as well. Was there some restriction added to BG1 by patches?

Permidion_Stark

Syntia13 said:

Permidion_Stark said:

However, I think later versions require you to identify items before you can use them, which means cursed items are meaningless because no one can ever get caught out by them.

What do you mean? I just started a BG2 again to kill the time before September 18, and I had no problem equipping unidentified rings and helmets, and I remember doing it in BG1 as well. Was there some restriction added to BG1 by patches?

I might have got it wrong. I'm not sure whether it was a patch or a fixpack that stopped you using unidentified items. I loaded it onto my computer so long ago that I have lost track.

raywind

I have the game installed and i can use unidentified equipment but not wands/scrolls/potions.

Bjjorick

best way to deal with cursed items and make them fun again? get rid of identify spell/scroll, and only shops/lore can identify. Give each shopkeeper a lore value, and if their lore isn't high enough, they can't help you.

and okay, maybe not get rid of identify spell, but make it very rare, like in bg1 (with level cap) make it a lvl 4 spell, in bg2, make it lvl 8/9. It doesn't follow the ruleset of 2e, but it would deffinately make things much more interesting. And i agree about giving cursed items the appearance of other items.

One other thought, a quest you have to take on where you must wear at least 2 or 3 cursed items. Like ring of folly, bracers of fumbling, and can't think of a good third one. But make it so that you mus wear 3 specific cursed items, but give a nice reward at the end.

and please, make it a long quest, not just put this on, go here, have a reward. Make you fight a boss like that :P

Schneidend

Cursed items are fine. You can still equip unidentified items. I never bothered wasting an identify spell on the Cursed Sword of Berserking last time I played TuTu, for instance. I just immediately started using it.