When should I use special items (Wands, elemental arrows, Status ailment arrows, buff potions, etc)

superluccix

One of the problems I always have whenever I play a game that involves a bunch of gadget items, is that I inevitably horde them because I assume there will be a time in the future where it will perfect to use them, but I never find the time and eventually complete the game.

I havent used a single 1 of these so far, except for 1 charge of the Blood Goblet to restore my hp to full during the Demon Knight encounter, so I just stored everything else into some barrel, but I just dont know when I should attempt to use them. Even something as simple +1 +2 arrows. I always horde them.

When do YOU use them?

At this point I wonder if I should just sell them all.

Heindrich

There is no point selling stuff like special arrows or potions because you should not be short of gold either. And if you are thinking about saving resources towards the second game... don't bother. For spoilery reasons, there is no point saving gold or items for BG2.

So the answer is that yes, you should just use the "gadgets" you pick up. I play with limited rest rules, so managing scrolls and wands and using them when my characters are tired and out of spells is crucial for my progress through the game. Even if you rest more, you might as well use potions, wands and scrolls throughout the game, for any encounter that looks tricky. Just save some for the final battle...

Jarrakul

Honestly, use most of them early and often. You can be very liberal with things like healing potions and wands of fire and still have enough of them to last you the entire game. The more important thing to do is to figure out when an item might make some type of encounter *much* easier. Potions of magic protection are a great example of this. If you're up against a powerful, magic-using enemies, one of these will give you a substantial edge. Save it for a fight like that, and then use it without hesitation. If you decide you wish you'd saved it, you can pretty much always buy more.

kcwise

Wands are a good way to break yourself of the hoarding habit. Use them until there is 1 charge left, and then if you haven't found a replacement wand of that type sell them to a store and buy them back to get a recharge. Most of the time, if you search everywhere, you'll find more than enough copies of most wands to never have to buy one back.

As for the potions, as previous posters have mentioned, you may as well use them. Saving them will only result in barrels full of potions at the end of the game.

Another way to break the habit, I'm told, is to install the SCS mod. To survive you'll be using every potion and wand you can get your hands on!

Hudzy

SCS definitely cured my item hoarding. Wands become useful if only to interrupt casters.

Elysium

For wands, I typically have Wands of Fire, Fear, and Missiles coming out of my ying yang, so I never have a mage in BG1 memorize Fireball, Horror, or Magic Missile, instead relying entirely on wands (sometimes using a Bard as the sole arcane caster for that reason alone) for those spells.

For potions, I save them the whole game and then have everyone get drunk on them for the final boss. Their entire portraits are covered with effect icons.

For special ammo, I normally end up selling it and when I get 100,000 gp, I go to the mage shop in Baldur's Gate and then buy all the special ammo I need for the last few fights. Using Arrows +1 unless you absolutely need to isn't really the advantage a difficult boss fight needs (+1 THAC0, +1 dmg), so I end up hoarding and selling them. Arrows of Fire/Ice/Detonation are fun, though, and I use on irritating enemies.

hispls

Arrows of Dispelling are worth saving for a special occasion in BG2. Cloudkill wands are handy for cheesing a couple very large monsters at low level in BG2 as well.

For BG1 the last few big battles are pretty tough so IMO saving some better arrows and a variety of potions is helpful. I've never really used many wands in 1 since I generally run a couple arcane casters.

Belanos

superluccix said:

Even something as simple +1 +2 arrows. I always horde them.

You don't really want to sell those off. Some enemies have an immunity to regular arrows, only the special ones will do any damage to them. If you keep your eye on the dialogue box at the bottom of the screen, you might see notices of "Weapon Effective" being displayed. That's the time you use those special arrows.

CaeDares

Honestly? The only useful wand I've ever used was Wand of Monster Summoning. Throw that down in front of whatever you're fighting and then beat them to a pulp while they fight your summons. It's as easy as it gets. When it comes to other items in BG1, I start using them after I get to Baldurs Gate, Durlags tower, or any other new challenging area / quests because after those there's no point in them.

Elysium

Belanos said:

superluccix said:

Even something as simple +1 +2 arrows. I always horde them.

You don't really want to sell those off. Some enemies have an immunity to regular arrows, only the special ones will do any damage to them.

In BG1, there are very few enemies that require magical weapons to hit them. I don't even think Dopplegangers do. But, even then, if you're soloing, you should have a magical melee weapon or you can just send Minsc ahead with the Spider's Bane +2 (or Shar-Teel dual-wielding Varscona +2 and the Dagger of Venom).

In BG2, I would never play an archer without Weidu's Item Upgrade, which allows you to have a Quiver of Plenty +3, which is more than sufficient for 4/5 of the saga.