Skip to content

Using Potions of Insight

dreamriderdreamrider Member Posts: 417
in General Discussion (Spoiler Warning!)
Does anyone know of any smart ways to use Potions of Insight?

I know that you can use them at times with a high WIS / INT character to pump the Lore value and identify collected stuff.

As far as I can see, there is no point to giving them to Clerics/Druids to expand their slots, because the potion does not last as long as the 8-hour rest period required to prepare the spells for use.

Comments

  • GallowglassGallowglass Member Posts: 3,356
    Yep, the Limited Wish and (full) Wish spells in BG2 are pretty much the only regular use for Potions of Insight.

    There are also a couple of dialogue encounters in which high WIS gains you extra response options which have more beneficial results. Off the top of my head, I can think of one specific instance, but that's also in BG2. Maybe there's a similar case in BG1, I can't remember.

    So for BG1, Potions of Insight are pretty useless. Even in BG2, you won't necessarily find that your Mage wants to use Wish spells much (this depends upon your own playing style), so Potions of Insight might not be much use there either.
  • JuliusBorisovJuliusBorisov Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,758
    dreamrider said:

    Does anyone know of any smart ways to use Potions of Insight?

    Yes, getting gp by seling them is very useful:)
  • DJKajuruDJKajuru Member Posts: 3,300
    It also boots up your lore, possibly saving hundreds of gold in item identification.
  • dreamriderdreamrider Member Posts: 417
    Thanks, guys. Didn't know about the Wish impact. Otherwise about what I thought.

    @DJKajuru‌
    Yeah, knew about that. That's actually why I wanted to know of other uses, before I started glugging them off as Lore boosters when I have a perfectly cooperative Wild Mage who never seems to flub an Identify spell. (I wonder if that is a hidden bennie, that Neera never surges on Identify. I've probably had her cast that spell as much or more than any other, and never seen a Wild Surge on it.)
  • GallowglassGallowglass Member Posts: 3,356
    I'm not 100% sure, @dreamrider, but I think you're right: Wild Mages don't seem to surge on Identify. Maybe it's protected because the mechanism for using it is different, i.e. by picking the Spell option from the Identify button in the item description instead of picking the spell from the spell-bar.
  • dreamriderdreamrider Member Posts: 417
    In any case, it makes taking/using a WM in BG a much more palatable, even preferable, proposition. I love Neera in most parties (scripted romances aside ;-) ).
  • dreamriderdreamrider Member Posts: 417
    edited September 2014
    FWIIW, in a hundred or so casts of Armor, I've only seen her surge maybe once, maybe never.

    Realizing of course that a WS is only a quite low probability unless you are using NRD...which any WM should probably avoid until they are at least L6 AND Chaos Shielded, IMHO. You probably don't have the great higher level spells that really benefit from it until then, anyway.
  • the_spyderthe_spyder Member Posts: 5,018
    dreamrider said:

    unless you are using NRD...which any WM should probably avoid until they are at least L6 AND Chaos Shielded, IMHO. You probably don't have the great higher level spells that really benefit from it until then, anyway.

    So THAT'S what I am doing wrong. I keep on trying to use it to cast Web at 2nd level. Doh....

  • meaglothmeagloth Member Posts: 3,806
    dreamrider said:

    In any case, it makes taking/using a WM in BG a much more palatable, even preferable, proposition. I love Neera in most parties (scripted romances aside ;-) ).

    Does wisdom affect wild surges? I've never heard that.
  • dreamriderdreamrider Member Posts: 417
    edited September 2014
    No that was a tangential discussion that evolved. We were discussing that bumping WIS would bump Lore and obviate need for some Identify. I mentioned that I used Neera/WM a lot for Identify and she didn't seem to Wild Surge on Identify. Gallowglass agreed with me. Further discussion followed.

    It would actually be kinda cool if WIS DID affect the performance of Wild Mages, when you think about it.
    (The lower your WIS the more powerful your wild magic, greater likelihood of a + to your spell level. The higher your WIS the more control, less likelihood of a Wild Surge. Or something like that.)
    Post edited by dreamrider on
  • dreamriderdreamrider Member Posts: 417
    I can tell.
  • dreamriderdreamrider Member Posts: 417
    edited September 2014
    Has anyone ever had the thought that the "potion" of Insight should be represented by the icon of a smoking cigarette? ;-)
  • the_spyderthe_spyder Member Posts: 5,018
    I'd have gone a Hooka Pipe myself.
  • dreamriderdreamrider Member Posts: 417
    Not portable. At least, not a real hooka.
Sign In or Register to comment.

2025 Overhaul Games, a division of Beamdog. © 2025 Hasbro, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Baldur's Gate, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten Realms, Baldur's Gate, Wizards of the Coast and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the U.S.A. and other countries, and are used with permission. Hasbro and its logo are trademarks of Hasbro, Inc. and are used with permission. © 1998 BioWare Corp. All Rights Reserved. BioWare, the BioWare Infinity Engine and the BioWare logo are trademarks of Bioware Corp. Black Isle Studios and the Black Isle Studios logo are trademarks of Interplay Entertainment Corp. Atari and the Atari logo are trademarks owned by Atari Interactive, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.