Tomes of Ability Increase

Skarose

I am curious how other players utilize the various tomes they discover during the course of game. Do you just use the ability increase on your MainChar/Bhaalspawn or do you ensure that they are made available to the NPC that can use them to the most advantage.

Whenever I play Baldur's Gate, I always have Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal in the back of my mind, so I generally only use them for my Mainchar/Bhaalspawn, but with the impending release of SoD, I am starting to think maybe Viconia could use a little extra Wisdom, maybe Minsc could tote a 19 Strength without a belt.

I must admit, I am hoping they do something with next patch/game release that allows for BG2EE NPCs to retain any permanent Stat adjustment they received in BGEE.

dockaboomski

@Skarose Unless I'm playing the Trilogy mod, which I don't usually, I just use them on my character. Of course, if I'm playing an 18/18/18/10/10/10 fighter I might actually give the Int, Wis, or Cha tome to somebody more deserving, like to give Quayle 18 Int.

Skarose

In the days before EE, I was a TuTu player. I tried to implement trilogy once but ran into install difficulties and just gave up on it. I think I have always regretted that. When I first played Baldur's Gate (Before SoA) I used to hand the Tomes out willy-nilly to whatever NPC was around, but once Shadow of Amn was released and I played it, I was all about hording those books. Must have been the Bhaal taint inside growing stronger making me play the MainChar greedier and greedier...

BillyYank

I just gave the Cha tome to Garrick. What's my half-orc brute going to do with it?

I usually dole them out in the way that benefits the party the most. If I ever play an evil character, that might change.

JuliusBorisov

It depends on the charname's class and kit.

If I play a backstabbing thief (and this is probably my favourite concept), I take tomes of STR and DEX for charname. As for the tome of CON, it depends on charname's race and a rolled score in CON, as well as my intent of using the Claw of Kazgaroth on charname. All other tomes can go to someone else.

If I play a caster, it doesn't make much sense to use tomes of STR and CON with this character.

Also, sometimes I decide to dualclass NPCs:

Dynaheir, with her 17 INT and 15 WIS can become and Invoker > Cleric with 2 WIS tomes.

Imoen, with her 18 DEX and 17 INT can become a Thief > Mage.

Branwen, with her 16 WIS and 16 DEX can become a Cleric > Thief with the DEX tome.

Safana, with her 17 DEX and 16 INT can become a Thief > Mage with the INT tome.

Shar-Teel, with her 18/58 STR and 17 DEX can become a Fighter > Thief.

Xzar, with his 16 DEX, 17 INT and 16 WIS can become a Necromancer > Cleric with the WIS tome, or a Necromancer > Thief with the DEX tome.

Skatan

I mostly give them to CHARNAME, but occasionally I hand them out to whatever NPC I have with me, depending on CHARNAME's and NPC's classes and stats. I have actually never thought of dualclassing Dyna or Xzar before, thanks for that inspiration @bengoshi! Now I got eager to do a new BG1 run with a small party and dualclassing Xzar so I can do charname + monty + xzar only and still have tank, cleric, mage and thief. I think a F/M, F/D (or shapeshifter) or maybe blackguard CHARNAME would make a good fit for that 3 man party.

Skarose

@Skatan The Blackguard + Montaron + Xzar sounds like an interesting game run. The Zhent elite strike force!

Grum

All to Charname! Because I do trilogy runs and nobody needs them in BG1. Now if they rolled over with NPCs...

In BG2 I am much more fair when it comes to Lum the mad. Those increases go by need. 18 int Imoen is more important than 12 int Charname.

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AHF

After playing BGT for many years, I have no hesitation to use the tomes on NPC companions going into SOA and then use the EEKeeper to adjust that NPC's stats to account for the tome when I pick them up. In doing so, I don't allow stacking of BG2 stat adjustments with the tomes, though.

sparrow13x

I always use them for my own character. I've actually started console spawning the books for any new characters I make in BG2 because I'm not the biggest fan of BG1 and would rather not need to run through every time it before getting to the really fun stuff.

sluckers

I use them for my character. Not being a big reroller, I'll often only max class primary stats, with everything else that matters in the 13-15 range. While tomes certainly won't make my character exceptional, that extra couple of hit points or that +1 to damage/hit certainly makes a difference, and between 13-15 is when stat benefits start to kick in.

Otherwise I've been known to hand them out, seeing as there is no benefit to any stat (i think) for going from 10 to 11, or even 11-12. Other than that only charisma or wisdom, I think, start to kick in with pluses at 13. Everything else is 14 or 15 unless I'm mistaken.

In any case, my character will often start off without stat benefits, and only gain some or most of them with the tomes. They 'improve' over the course of the game.

sarevok57

Grum said:

All to Charname! Because I do trilogy runs and nobody needs them in BG1. Now if they rolled over with NPCs...

In BG2 I am much more fair when it comes to Lum the mad. Those increases go by need. 18 int Imoen is more important than 12 int Charname.

I pretty much do the exact same, in bg1, they all go to charname, unless I am a sorcerer, because realistically you can have 3's in all your stats and just be as powerful as a sorcerer with 25 in all stats, and in ToB I will give them to the team mates that need them most, because it benefits them way more in ToB to have useful stats increased than giving them to charname if they don't need them, for example, if I have nalia on my team, she gets the wisdom and intelligence increase, because having that +13 lore bonus from that boost is just so handy

magisensei

I use some for my charname if they are useful for the class if not then they go to the NPCs that join me on this adventure. For example Jaheria could get all the tomes of wisdom - what the heck would I do with a raised wis when I only start with 10; the same with CHA - another tome not needed.

Halfwise

I use them always to counterbalance the loss of stats from hell created by not wanting to instantly become chaotic evil for some stupid reason.

Chaotic Neutrals should remain so if they don't do the seriously nuts stuff..

SmilingSword

I give the tomes to NPCs I know I will use in BG2 and then just EEkeeper up the stat when I get them. I do obviously give CHARNAME the tomes he needs for whatever class I'm playing.

kellcl

Just bought SoD but starting again from Candlekeep with a human (thought about the half-orc but decided against it for RP reason) barbarian. Rolled 18/00 for STR and a total of 89 so I ended up with 18/00 STR, 18 DEX, 18 CON, 10 INT, 10 WIS and 15 CHA. Couldn't be happier lol. Applied +1 CHA tome so far raising charname to 16 CHA. I probably would end up giving all the tomes to charname save the STR tome for some other NPC. I just love looking at that 18/00 STR on the record sheet.

lroumen

I play crappy stat characters so I am not about to use any tome on charname. They all go party members.

JumboWheat01

I just eat up the tomes myself. My characters are the only one who keep their stats throughout the whole series.

Plus, being raised in Candlekeep, he's a bit protective and hoarder of books.

Jarrakul

I always use the tomes on charname, because otherwise they're useless by the time I reach BG2. On the other hand, the stat bonuses from the Machine of Lum the Mad go to whoever can make the best use of them.

deltago

This is probably one of the first times I used metagame knowledge and carried two Wisdom tomes over to SoD to give to Dynaheir as I needed a cleric that would fit the party I was playing.

I usually eat them myself and if my character has no use for them, I just leave them where they are. For example I didn't bother picking up the INT tome on my current play through. I ignored the CHR one on my storied play through.

Zilber

I use them as I see fit, and shadowkeep the stats to the bg2 NPC's. This could also mean a stat reduction for some characters.

Grum

kellcl said:

Just bought SoD but starting again from Candlekeep with a human (thought about the half-orc but decided against it for RP reason) barbarian. Rolled 18/00 for STR and a total of 89 so I ended up with 18/00 STR, 18 DEX, 18 CON, 10 INT, 10 WIS and 15 CHA. Couldn't be happier lol. Applied +1 CHA tome so far raising charname to 16 CHA. I probably would end up giving all the tomes to charname save the STR tome for some other NPC. I just love looking at that 18/00 STR on the record sheet.

Give charname the int tome. Mind flayers eat 5int per hit. That time is the difference in dying in 2 hits compared to 3.

MacHurto

Everything to charname, even the ones in ToB. If the NPCs want a tome they can run their own adventuring band

Onestep

Pretty much every buff goes to CHARNAME. He's the only guy who can make consistent use of most of them across the whole trilogy.

Andraste

I use them on Charname unless there's no way she can benefit from them. In my most recent run, the PC was a Swashbuckler who got the Strength, Constitution, Dexterity and Charisma boosts, but she gave the Wisdom tomes to Jaheira and the Intelligence one to Neera. Thieves get nothing from either of those stats except some Lore points they don't need, might as well have some party members improved until the end of BG1. (And it actually makes sense with the Wisdom boost Jaheira gets in BG2!)

amyae

Everything goes to Charname, even if they don't really need it. I usually shift my party around a lot, and I don't want to give a stat increase to someone I might end up dumping a few hours later.