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Are my abilities good ?

bbgun21bbgun21 Member Posts: 16
in Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition
Hello everyone.

First I have to say that I have been here for quite a while although as a guest and so far I've seen that community is great.

I wanted to ask you folk if you could help me see about my character since I just recently started to play after not playing for a long time.

What I wanted to ask you guys is the same question as the title, are the abilities on my Paladin good ?

Now since I decided to roll a paladin and it should be of no surprise to get 90+ roll on them, I randomly rolled a 99 and these are the statistics:

STR: 18/55
DEX: 18
CON: 18
INT: 14
WIS: 13
CHA: 18

Now what worries me is the Strenght score, since I did not want to waste another 15-20 min. rerolling to get atleast 95 or more due to this lucky 99 roll, I was wondering is the Strength score good ?

I know that there is a tome later which will boost my Strength to 19 but that tome is not so early (atleast not for me, who plays the game slow), so I was wondering will my character be able to hit properly with this score ?

I'm going the usual Paladin/Cavalier build with Two Handed Weapon Style and Two Handed Longsword for the Carsomyr in BG2.

Thanks in forward and sorry for the long post.

Comments

  • elminsterelminster Member, Developer Posts: 16,317
    Strength score is fine. Ideally you might want to have put 1 less point in charisma and one more point into intelligence (when combined with the book you can find that boosts intelligence this would have given you more protection against a certain enemy found in BG2). However, that is an exceptionally good roll and there are a number of ways to temporarily boost your intelligence. So I wouldn't worry about it.
  • bbgun21bbgun21 Member Posts: 16
    Thanks for the reply Elm.

    I've heard that 11 intelligence is good enough versus mind flayers in BG2 so that is why I left it at 14 and as for charisma, well since 17 was minimum I thought of adding 1 more point just to get a non-grumpy response from Hull and a Magic Dagger from Fuller after completing their quests.
  • deltagodeltago Member Posts: 7,811
    Str in fine.

    Remember there are tomes that permanently increase your stats by one. Attempting to get 18/+70 is a waste of time IMO.
  • MirageMirage Member Posts: 81
    This is an outstanding roll @bbgun21!

    Worry about nothing at all!
    Your paladin is going to be like a train passing through
  • PhilhelmPhilhelm Member Posts: 473
    bbgun21 said:

    Now since I decided to roll a paladin and it should be of no surprise to get 90+ roll on them, I randomly rolled a 99 and these are the statistics:

    STR: 18/55
    DEX: 18
    CON: 18
    INT: 14
    WIS: 13
    CHA: 18

    Now what worries me is the Strenght score, since I did not want to waste another 15-20 min. rerolling to get atleast 95 or more due to this lucky 99 roll, I was wondering is the Strength score good ?

    At risk of coming across as a jerk, is this a serious question? Your Paladin has maximum physical stats aside from the Strength percentage modifier, which is still above average. I forget the exact bonuses for each tier of 18/XX Strength, but regardless, you'll be hitting pretty hard. Once you reach 19 Strength with the tome, the percentage modifier will be nothing more than a memory.

    I was playing a 16/18/9/12/13/18 Undead Hunter awhile back and was doing just fine (I focused on crossbows rather than melee). Your Paladin is more than able to handle Baldur's Gate with 18/55 Strength. However, since you are following the good path, you will eventually get Draw Upon Holy Might as an innate ability, so will be able to temporarily boost your Strength a few points, before you get the Strength Tome.

    tl;dr: I certainly wouldn't reroll those stats to aim for 18/00, especially with the Tome of Strength in your future.
  • bbgun21bbgun21 Member Posts: 16
    Philhelm said:

    bbgun21 said:

    Now since I decided to roll a paladin and it should be of no surprise to get 90+ roll on them, I randomly rolled a 99 and these are the statistics:

    STR: 18/55
    DEX: 18
    CON: 18
    INT: 14
    WIS: 13
    CHA: 18

    Now what worries me is the Strenght score, since I did not want to waste another 15-20 min. rerolling to get atleast 95 or more due to this lucky 99 roll, I was wondering is the Strength score good ?

    At risk of coming across as a jerk, is this a serious question? Your Paladin has maximum physical stats aside from the Strength percentage modifier, which is still above average. I forget the exact bonuses for each tier of 18/XX Strength, but regardless, you'll be hitting pretty hard. Once you reach 19 Strength with the tome, the percentage modifier will be nothing more than a memory.

    I was playing a 16/18/9/12/13/18 Undead Hunter awhile back and was doing just fine (I focused on crossbows rather than melee). Your Paladin is more than able to handle Baldur's Gate with 18/55 Strength. However, since you are following the good path, you will eventually get Draw Upon Holy Might as an innate ability, so will be able to temporarily boost your Strength a few points, before you get the Strength Tome.

    tl;dr: I certainly wouldn't reroll those stats to aim for 18/00, especially with the Tome of Strength in your future.
    No offense taken friend , and no you weren't a jerk, I was just wondering and actually wanted to name my thread is 18/55 strength good, I thought it would be too short so I wanted to add a little more info.

    Anyway throughout reading the guides from other people most are saying when rerolling go with Strength 18/75 min and such, so that is why I was worried and asked this question.

    I do agree though the question might be a little unnecessary just to keep my worries in check, nonetheless thanks for the reply.
  • PhilhelmPhilhelm Member Posts: 473
    I never play Strength 18 characters anyway, unless I'm going to create Conan or a half-orc, so any 18 is good in my book, especially with an eventual Strength tome. Assuming you pick up all stat increases throughout BG/BG2 (good path), your stats should end up as:

    STR: 21
    DEX: 19
    CON: 20
    INT: 16
    WIS: 18
    CHA: 21

    There will also be a -1 to a stat of your choice, although I think it's limited to Str, Dex, Con, or Wis. It may as well be Dex, since the 19 Dex only gives +1 ranged THAC0 and no AC bonus.
  • TheArtisan TheArtisan Member Posts: 3,277
    Philhelm said:


    There will also be a -1 to a stat of your choice, although I think it's limited to Str, Dex, Con, or Wis. It may as well be Dex, since the 19 Dex only gives +1 ranged THAC0 and no AC bonus.

    Dex, Con, Int and Wis. Intelligence is useless so you might as well give that up.
  • cloudkillbeatsallcloudkillbeatsall Member Posts: 98
    Are you going to put 2 points in two handed swords and two handed weapon style immediately? You might want to put 2 points in longswords first as there is Varscona you can get in BG1. There's also Peridan in BG2 which would go well with your character since it does double damage against dragons. I'm not sure how the latter sword actually works, whether it doubles the your strength bonuses and Cavalier bonuses or just the sword's base damage, but it's still pretty nice.
  • PhilhelmPhilhelm Member Posts: 473
    Artemius_I said:

    Philhelm said:


    There will also be a -1 to a stat of your choice, although I think it's limited to Str, Dex, Con, or Wis. It may as well be Dex, since the 19 Dex only gives +1 ranged THAC0 and no AC bonus.

    Dex, Con, Int and Wis. Intelligence is useless so you might as well give that up.
    I checked the possible stats to sacrifice, and you're right. Also, I think I ignored Wis since I'm playing a Cleric; I don't think that Paladins get bonus spells for high Wis.

  • mashedtatersmashedtaters Member Posts: 2,266
    That is an awesome roll! I have rolled until my eyes bleed, and still only got as high as a 96.

    18/xx doesn't matter because you will be getting the strength tome. Actually, 18/01 is still great!

    Sounds like you were reading some metagaming guides. A lot of those guides are written for people who are playing with scs and tactics and every other difficulty increasing mod. Don't put too much store in those. You can still easily beat the game with a paladin who has minimum strength.
  • wubblewubble Member Posts: 3,156
    mashedtaters said:

    That is an awesome roll! I have rolled until my eyes bleed, and still only got as high as a 96.

    18/xx doesn't matter because you will be getting the strength tome. Actually, 18/01 is still great!

    Sounds like you were reading some metagaming guides. A lot of those guides are written for people who are playing with scs and tactics and every other difficulty increasing mod. Don't put too much store in those. You can still easily beat the game with a paladin who has minimum strength.

    As many people on this forum have proved, you can beat the game with just about any stats, tactics matter far more.
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