Wands overpowered in BG:EE?

MWO

Just a curiosity... I find Wands to be of great power in Baldur's Gate. Almost too good... Anyone disagree with me? Basicly takes out the challenge of the game as a mage.

abacus

Yeah, they're pretty strong.

That said, I think they'd be fine if it weren't for the fact you can recharge them... Then they'd be more of a last resort, rather than a central part of any battle-plan.

joluv

Sorcerous Sundries sells 10 of each kind, so eliminating recharging wouldn't make much of a difference late in the game.

abacus

joluv said:

Sorcerous Sundries sells 10 of each kind, so eliminating recharging wouldn't make much of a difference late in the game.

This is true... I suppose you'd also have to make them "find only" items... Or limit the maximum charge.

I suppose cutting the maximum number of charges might help... 5 or 10 maybe. You could still allow recharging then, as it would at least require greater planning.

recklessheart

I love how useful wands are in BG1 I don't mind that they are so powerful, either, as I tend to play straight through to ToB, so their usefulness remains temporary in the grand scheme of things. Not to mention that although they make Mages as powerful (and more powerful) than Fighters for 1 or 2 rounds, and can really change the battle, most of the time Mages still aren't a critical component, even when they reach level 7-8, so they even the odds when the going gets tough.

Mathsorcerer

My only problem with wands is that I miss the good old days when the opcode "drain item charges" could accept negative numbers, allowing you to recharge items by casting an edited spell.

SmilingSword

Wand of Paralyzation is the only one I ever use and yes it is hella OP.

Skatan

I like wands but don't make them a core part of strategy. I refrain from recharging them via sell/buy, but there are still so many it doesn't really matter unless you play solo or with no arcane casters.

I like to use wands with bards since I think it fits their class well and usually my party's bard gets to hold all of the wands I find/buy, but rarely use them.

JuliusBorisov

If your game has difficulty-enhancing mod components, then even wands don't look so OP.

If you know how to use an item to its best and when to use it, nearly everything can become powerful. But if the game throws on you everything in return, then the situation changes.

lolien

Wands... I just love them!

BillyYank

I've sold wands to recharge them, but I've yet to be able to afford to buy them back. In my current BG run, I'm making a concerted effort to use wands (and scrolls and potions.) It's not unusual for me to finish the game with the wand of frost from the Nashkel mines sitting unused in someone's inventory.

GemHound

I find that my favorite wands in BG1:EE are fire and paralysis. Since you can paralyze everyone and then pelt them with fireballs as you laugh maniacally. *nods*

The only wands I never use are wands of sleep as by the time you get one for free, the enemies have decent saving throws. The Wands of Magic Missile are a little bit useless as well since they release a level 1 wizard's Magic Missile. I can admit though that I have never sold a wand with the purpose of recharging it.

Regardless though, wands are OP in BG1 due to low levels which means low saves and HP. In BG2 they face high saves and HP so they are for the most part useless.

This goes without saying, a wand is still nowhere near as powerful as a ranger equipped with arrows of detonation.*nods*

lunar

I modded my wands to be unsellable, and removed wands from shops. This way you can only find a wand while adventuring and once its charges are gone they can not be recharged. I enjoy it this way. In regular bg1 wands are very powerful, indeed. And the fact that you can sell them and buy back (or steal) for maximum charges is ridiculous.

Calmar

Wands of Fireball, necklaces of Fireball, spells and scrolls of Fireball... get the job done.

Yamcha

abacus said:

I suppose cutting the maximum number of charges might help... 5 or 10 maybe. You could still allow recharging then, as it would at least require greater planning.

Yeah.. staff of fire. Only 1 fireball charge left ? switch to Agannazar's Scorcher

@Calmar throw in some explosive potions too !

BanArd

Calmar said:

Wands of Fireball, necklaces of Fireball, spells and scrolls of Fireball... get the job done.

There's also Arrows of Explosion and Potions of Explosion for additional boom madness.

Calmar

BanArd said:

There's also Arrows of Explosion and Potions of Explosion for additional boom madness.

Sometimes... It’s the only way to be sure.

Dragonspear

BanArd said:

Calmar said:

Wands of Fireball, necklaces of Fireball, spells and scrolls of Fireball... get the job done.

There's also Arrows of Explosion and Potions of Explosion for additional boom madness.

There's a reason my personal Mage or Sorcerer (if I play one as a PC) uses the nickname Walkingzippo

sarevok57

one thing that I find great about wands, is that some mages cant learn wand spells, like xan for example, usually when I play a single player run, I only have a team of 3 characters ( charname, imoen and xan) and since xan cannot learn any of the cool evocation spells, wands come in quite handy, and also when you play a team of only 3 guys, wands become very useful, although I notice that when I have a team of 6 guys, the only wand I use is wand of fireballs, and when I hit bg2, I just sell them right away because in bg2 they lose most of their edge

abacus

sarevok57 said:

one thing that I find great about wands, is that some mages cant learn wand spells, like xan for example, usually when I play a single player run, I only have a team of 3 characters ( charname, imoen and xan) and since xan cannot learn any of the cool evocation spells, wands come in quite handy, and also when you play a team of only 3 guys, wands become very useful, although I notice that when I have a team of 6 guys, the only wand I use is wand of fireballs, and when I hit bg2, I just sell them right away because in bg2 they lose most of their edge

Keep hold of that Wand of Frost though...

Lezard_Valeth

I had no idea you could recharge wands in BGEE. This changes everything.

BillyYank

I have yet to buy back a wand in BGEE. Both my wand users have three wands in their inventory, plus there's a few in the bag of holding. I sell when it's down to 1 charge, but then I just replace it with something else.

Stevevdl

@GemHound I don't find wand of Magic Missile useless, especially when it guarantees a mage can't cast

GemHound

@Stevevdl Oh sure, right at the start straight out of Candlekeep it is useful, but say you are fighting for example Kahrk or a winter wolf.

[Deleted User]

@GemHound Well, the nice thing about the Wand of Missiles is that non-spellcasters can use it to take advantage of the separate timers for attacks and abilities. My thief can fire off a missile in-between stabbings to add extra damage.

UnderstandMouseMagic

I think the most game breaking thing is the amount of charges you get when you buy and sell them.

From Thalyntyr, 50 on wand of fire, 100 on monster summoning.

Edwin spent a lot of time filing his nails and complaining about boredom the last run through. All his spells, all his great knowledge which he doesn't hesitate to let you know about, reduced to standing back watching a rugby scrum.

Sharguild

Just as an aside, in vanilla BG1, if you sold a wand at the FAI then buy it back, it would boost charges to 100, cost of course was commensurate. Haven't been able to afford (yet) if same scenario in BGEE.
I like the wands in BG1 and glad they nerfed the wand of Monster Summoning as that was hysterical. In BG2, wands become ridiculous once again IMHO. There seems to be a bloody wand for everything.
Whether you use them or not, is of course up to your own play-style.

Gallowglass

Which Wands are useful varies with where you are in the series. It's true that some BG1 wands are rubbish in BG2, but others (e.g. Wand of Fire) continue to do useful damage to many BG2 opponents. And in BG2 you get some new wand types which are very powerful, such as the Wand of Cloudkill WinSOA and the Wand of Spell Striking WinTOB.

I like Wands, and I occasionally use them with any Wand-capable class, but I use them most when I've got a Bard in the party. Bards with Wands are a powerful class, able to substitute fairly effectively for a full Mage in BG1 and BG2:SoA (although not BG2:ToB), by reserving the Bard's limited spell-slots to memorise his buffs (etc.) and using Wands instead of memorising attack-spells.

I do recharge Wands, but for completionist reasons rather than in a way which facilitates much abuse. I stash spare and/or used-up Wands, and don't sell-and-buy-back until I'm nearing the final battle of each game, then go into the final battle with fully-charged equipment (both Wands and other chargeable items), even though I don't always use those items in the final battles.

BillyYank

One of the reasons wands are so overpowering in BG1 is that there are so damn many of them. I hadn't realized it until I started playing IWD at the same time as BG1. In IWD, my characters are 6-7th level and I've found exactly 3 wands, only one of which was an attack spell. In BG1 at about the same level, I've found over a dozen of them, most of them attack wands.

CaptRory

Equipment is very powerful. It is the second half of a character's power. Compare a Baldur's Gate character fighting something really nasty with an Infantryman fighting a tank. Having the right wand is like the infantryman having an anti-tank rocket making a really really hard fight into something even or even swinging into the favor of the soldier.