[Windows]Wizards fail to copy spells 75% of the time even with 22 INT

Ancalagon44

Sorry for the long title, but that is basically what is happening.

My mage is a Shadow Dancer 10 -> Mage 11. I had him drink a potion of Focus (the one that gives +3 to INT and +3 to Dex). His basic intelligence was 18, meaning that he had 21 intelligence. I verified this in the character record screen.

I had saved up scrolls while the character was a thief, so I had at least 20 scrolls to transcribe. He was a level 1 wizard at this stage, and the scrolls were of spells from levels 1 to 5. I saved before beginning. Despite his 21 intelligence, about 1 out of every 4 scrolls were not copied. So about a 75% success rate. Later, when he was a level 11 mage, I had him transcribe another batch of scrolls, again over 20, from levels 4 to 9. This time, I had him take a potion of genius first, so he had 22 intelligence. He still had a 75% success rate. Note that he is not a specialist wizard. I am playing on Core difficulty.

Current behaviour: While transcribing scrolls, a dual classed mage with 21 intelligence has a 75% success rate.
Expected behaviour: While transcribing scrolls, a dual classed mage with 21 intelligence should have a 95% success rate.

Gate70

@Ancalagon44‌ on the record screen did you see what "Chance to learn spell" said?
Thanks

TJ_Hooker

I think I remember reading that there's a penalty to scribe scroll % for each level the scroll is above the highest spell level you can currently cast. This could help explain what you're seeing, although I'm not sure if this is actually implemented. Other than that, your sample size could just be too small. There was a big thread on this a while back. Many people found that scribing relatively small batches of scrolls could result in bogus success rates, but when someone wrote a script to scribe thousands of scrolls the actual success rate was very similar to the expected success.

http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/12514/chance-to-learn-spell-is-bs/p2

Illydth

@Gate70, @TJ_Hooker‌

Wizard with 18 Int has a chance to learn spell of 85% (from the character record screen).
Drinking a potion of Mind Focusing (+3 Int, +3 Dex) takes the character to a 21 Int and on the character record shows Chance to learn spell 97%

A 3 in 100 chance of spell learning failure is statistically significantly different from a 1/4 chance to fail to learn a spell. You should not need a large sample size to detect a problem with this.

TJ_Hooker

Illydth said:

A 3 in 100 chance of spell learning failure is statistically significantly different from a 1/4 chance to fail to learn a spell. You should not need a large sample size to detect a problem with this.

Yes, the probability of failing 5 or more spells out of 20 with 21 INT is quite low (0.026%, 1 out of 3846). However, given the number of people out there playing the game and scribing scrolls, it's not all that surprising that at least one of them would have this happen to them. Kinda like winning the lottery.

But yeah, in this case I'm leaning more towards it having something to do with scribing scrolls of a higher level than you can cast.

Although I'm kind of curious how the OP managed to conclude a specific success rate when he/she doesn't even know exactly how many scrolls they tried to scribe in the first place. I think it would have been a bit more helpful if the OP had recorded exactly how many spells they tried to scribe, and exactly how many were failures. As it stands now it comes across as being kinda anecdotal.

agris

There is a 10% penalty per level for scribing scrolls above the highest level you can cast, fyi.

From the BG:EE manual, pg 138

Intelligence
% to Learn Spell
The percentage chance that a wizard can learn a spell and add it to his
spellbook. This number also represents the wizard’s chance to successfully
cast a spell from a scroll. For every spell level higher than the wizard can
comprehend, the wizard receives a –10% penalty. For example, a wizard who
can cast 3 rd -level spells trying to use a 5 th -level spell scroll has a –20%
penalty.

Ancalagon44

When I get a chance, I'll see if I can setup a test case and record a video. Even when the character is higher level, I find myself saving and reloading constantly. About 1 in every 3-4 scrolls scribed fails, and this is with characters of varying levels. In other words, not a level 1 wizard scribing a level 9 scroll.

Abel

I've myself completely given up the idea of playing this part of the game fairly as I've always feel cheated when doing so.

BelgarathMTH

Are you testing with a specialist wizard? Specialists get a -15% penalty to scribe any scroll outside their specialty, a little known fact. I didn't know it myself until recently. There's also a penalty for trying to scribe any scroll of a spell level higher than the highest spell level you can cast.

That would be enough to bring a 100% chance down to a 75% chance, which would account for failing to scribe 1 out of 4 times, except for in-specialty spell schools.