Belt of Antipode should have been cursed and other shennanigans
Ygramul
Member Posts: 1,059
It is really silly that they made an item that annuls an entire enemy (Winter Wolf). It should at least have been cursed (since Remove Curse is an expansive luxury in early BG) and its handicap is a highly risky endeavor (just have many time have you encountered a Winter Wolf along with a Fire Elemental or a Fireball slinging mage.)
This is about as bad as the Shield of Cheese (which I remove by the SCS option from the game).
It really shouldn't be too difficult to balance some of these items with clever handicaps:
- Shield of Cheese : every time it block a ray you take a random -2 STAT damage for one day
- Staff of Magi : remove invisibility (already in SCS) OR use up random memorized spell for every use
And for cursed items:
- Brage's +3 Cursed Sword : make berserk a 10% per hit chance AND/OR random +1 STAT increase for one day for every killed enemy
etc.
This is about as bad as the Shield of Cheese (which I remove by the SCS option from the game).
It really shouldn't be too difficult to balance some of these items with clever handicaps:
- Shield of Cheese : every time it block a ray you take a random -2 STAT damage for one day
- Staff of Magi : remove invisibility (already in SCS) OR use up random memorized spell for every use
And for cursed items:
- Brage's +3 Cursed Sword : make berserk a 10% per hit chance AND/OR random +1 STAT increase for one day for every killed enemy
etc.
1
Comments
As it is the first cursed item you're likely to come across is the belt of gender change, wich has no mechanical drawbacks and is frikkin' hilarious.
Personally I normally sell it.
b) double fire damage is pretty much a curse in itself in my eyes! Sure, it protects from winter wolves, but these are pretty much the only enemy that use cold based attacks, and tons of enemies use fire based, if you're wearing it then that's pretty much a curse itself as far as i'm concerned!
It's exactly like the Shield of Balduran against Beholders: it annuls the entire threat of one enemy. Then you remove it and you're golden until the next Winter Wolf.
Potions & scrolls are expensive. You cannot afford paying several hundred gold for each Winter Wolf you come across.
Also it only annuls the threat for one of your characters. If you want to take advantage of the 100% cold resistance then go right ahead but its not like it protects all your party members from their attacks.
Besides, it being cursed wouldn't do anything because you can just hunt all the winter wolves you want (while cursed) and then get the curse removed in Nashkel. Its not like you'll encounter much in the way of fire attacks until the Nashkel mines.
In any given battle with Beholders, Shield of Cheese will absorb, oh let's say 8-12 rays. This is VERY conservative in my experience, but let's let it roll for the moment. At 12 rays, or a grand total of -24 STAT points, you potentially just wiped out a character. An unlucky set of rolls has reduced STR such that the character can't move. A different roll has killed the character due to CON being reduced to ZERO, or INT with the same effect (ala mind flayer). Even spread out, you potentially destroy armor class and ability to effectively do damage in combat, for the ENTIRE DAY. Heck, even just one or two lucky rolls eliminates Dorn or Minsc's "Main" form of attack.
And that's just ONE battle. There are places where you'd have to face potentially dozens of the monsters. In other words, it becomes COMPLETELY useless instead of "On par" with similar magic items.
NO one would ever use the shield because every single hit could potentially disable a character in ways that the rays themselves wouldn't be as deadly. And every battle would be guaranteed to neuter a minimum of one character. I'd rather take my chances with saving throws.
Same with Staff of Magi.
Mage: I use Staff of Magi to become invisible.
DM(Game): Ok, you randomly lose...... Time Stop.
Mage: Say What?!?
And if you limit it to 1-3 level spells, a player is almost always going to merely pick invisibility instead.
either scenario doesn't level the playing ground, they make the cost far more costly than the value of the magic.
I get that you don't like these items. But let's be reasonable about the ways to "Limit" rather than "eliminate" their usefulness.
Staff of Magi really isn't that OP. Just change it so that it gives you Improved Invisibility once a day instead of the permanent thing.
If someone wanted to nerf them such that they weren't as OP, simply allow the shield to give the player a second saving throw. By that time, your saves should be solid enough such that if you miss the first throw, you are extremely likely to make the second, but not guaranteed. Hence, it is still useful, but not a totally beholder proof. Alternately, it could only work on your current target and not all beholders, you know, like a SHIELD would do?
Staff of Magi? Turning the invisibility into charges or limited uses per day would make it still useful without totally borking it.
Simple. But again, as they are, if you don't like them, don't use them.
I used to think the way the OP did until I read a post from someone, somewhere, who said (paraphrasing), "single player games are fun because they can be broken." I would add, "...with exploration, cleverness, experience, and knowledge."
BG2 (and many other fine games) are very, very difficult for most brand new players. Only after many hours of playing, several play-throughs, much forum and FAQ reading, and file diving, is the game "too easy." Let new players experience and play and have fun with the same game that we all love just as we did. Challenges and mods are always waiting to give us something new.