Hypothetical: faster casting or cleansed aura?

Lathlaer

I have a hypothetical question for you all: imagine that there is a robe that has the exact properties of Robe of Vecna but instead of reducing casting time, it cleanses your aura (as if you had permanent Improved Alacrity HLA on). You obviously can't have both but you can choose which one to wear - what would it be?

JuliusBorisov

We'd call it Robe of Impala.

So that we could burn-burn-burn non-stop.

Mathsorcerer

Given the seriously overpowered nature of many of the powerful foes in SoA and ToB--really? the dragons get to start off with a contingency of stoneskin and protection from magic weapons? give me a break--I would recommend having the always-on aura cleansing. As it is, I always make sure to edit the Robe of Vecna to make its wearer immune to wild magic or wild magic surges.

meagloth

Hmmm... I would at the impala robe:) because there's already a few other items that improve casting Time. And I wouldn't have to take Imp. Alacrity for a level 9 slot.

SionIV

Mathsorcerer said:

Given the seriously overpowered nature of many of the powerful foes in SoA and ToB--really? the dragons get to start off with a contingency of stoneskin and protection from magic weapons? give me a break--I would recommend having the always-on aura cleansing. As it is, I always make sure to edit the Robe of Vecna to make its wearer immune to wild magic or wild magic surges.

None of the foes are more powerful than your character can be. The whole contingency is something you can do yourself, you can make your F/M just as powerful as a dragon if not more so.

Even without the robe of Vecna you'll do fine and be able to compete with the best in the game and win.

Mathsorcerer

Well, I can already finish the game with relative ease--at least, I could if I were actually playing BG2EE at this time--but logically it makes no sense that all those foes would have that particular ability. Yes, the game designers probably *had* to script them that way just to compete with the wildly-overpowered Bhaalspawn and his/her party of ilk but no dragon, not even Tiamat or Bahamut, had those abilities in pencil/paper. *shrug* That, I suppose, merely points out another difference between pencil/paper versus computer-based.

In short, it is annoying rather than difficult.

iuventas

Cleansed Aura, definitely.

@bengoshi‌, thanks for the mental image of a gangster Vlad the Impaler with the "Impala Robe" name...

SionIV

Mathsorcerer said:

Well, I can already finish the game with relative ease--at least, I could if I were actually playing BG2EE at this time--but logically it makes no sense that all those foes would have that particular ability. Yes, the game designers probably *had* to script them that way just to compete with the wildly-overpowered Bhaalspawn and his/her party of ilk but no dragon, not even Tiamat or Bahamut, had those abilities in pencil/paper. *shrug* That, I suppose, merely points out another difference between pencil/paper versus computer-based.

In short, it is annoying rather than difficult.

You do know that all those contingencies and spells can be cast by you as well?

Mathsorcerer

The first four responses I had were all too sarcastic, upon reflection, so thankfully I didn't post them. Yes, I know that...but no, I cannot cast them if I do not play a mage or multiclass mage.