Are vendors important in SoD?

Neo

As I just completed BG1 again with an evil Monk (Shadow Moon Monk), I soloed most of the game until I was close to the catacombs part (I didn't want to miss out on the str tome). I ended up deciding to pick up a full Evil party for fun as I had never done it before (unfortunately, I had already called off Edwin after completing his quest so he wasn't available anymore while Montaron and Xzar were probably lvl 1-2 from when I had encountered them early game).

My Monk was xp capped at 161k. I ended up recruiting Dorn, Kagain, Shar-Teel, Tiax and Viconia (Safana left me due to her quest being bugged as I had already looted the cave before recruiting her and she's not truly Evil anyways).

I was missing a mage (especially annoying when I needed to identify items) and was heavy on melee. My previous runs were normally either solo runs or groups that often were heavy on casters (1-2 melee, 1 thief, 1 ''healer'' and rest sorcerers/mages). Turns out I was actually having more fun overall with the heavy melee group with the 2 clerics casting Command and Hold Person spells + summons/heals/buffs than I normally did with mages/sorcerers overall.

Unfortunately, adding all of these party members to my group when I had already dropped my reputation to average ended up spawning Flaming Fists that were attacking me. I ended up just pushing my way through and killing all of those who opposed my Evil party at the cost of having my reputation drop to 1...

I had decent enough gear and level to still complete the game despite being unable to buy back some valuable items I had sold (as I had soloed most of the game) or anything new really. I thought I would just finish the game this way and that my reputation would reset with SoD/BG2.

Turns out it doesn't... and the prices are still ridiculously high to buy anything. So now I either have the option to:

1- Continue with my original party but with horrible reputation (so I basically can't really use the merchants for anything else than identifying items and an occasional overpriced potion). This allows me to keep the few good items I went to get for my Monk (Cloak of Balduran, gloves that give +1 THAC0 and +2 dmg, ring of princes +2, claw of Kazgaroth, dagger of venom) and keep my party composition that I preferred.

2- Import my Monk back (so I still have all the tomes, str to 19 which was the most important), gear isn't as big of a deal for a Monk as he relies more on level but still sucks. The starting Evil Party also is higher lvl than my party members I had (except for my Bhaalspawn) and their gear is a bit better. I get Edwin AND Baeloth (which I find to be pretty cool). My reputation resets to average so items are affordable again. I can identify everything with Baeloth which is really nice and make use of that new cloak. So I have 2 super powerful spellcasters... but the rest of my party kind of sucks. Dorn isn't the best tank nor is my lvl 8 Monk. I'm back to a very squishy spell caster party.


So I'm a bit torn between those choices. I wish I could keep my Monk's gear and that the rep would have reset. I do find it really cool to have Baeloth in my party and Edwin is clearly the strongest mage out there but the whole party feels not so great unless I want to annihilate a pack of enemies from far with 2 fireballs at once. I'm wondering if the merchants are important in SoD. I'm not necessarily looking for spoilers for specific items but overall, are there really good items that I'll need to have good reputation to afford (stuff like Robe of Vecna from BG2 comes to mind obviously but anything special or potions/scrolls that help a lot) or do you get almost everything off the ground/chests/mobs? Also, will I often have easy access to someone to identify my items (or identifying glasses like in BG2) if I do not have a mage that can do it in my party?

(Oh and I forgot to add, does the reputation reset or not going from SoD to BG2? I believe it does but I just want to make sure)

joluv

This doesn't answer your question, but FYI it's possible get the strength tome with a solo Monk by drinking a Potion of Storm Giant Strength.

Neo

Hm.. after testing both bit by bit, it seems like the group with Baeloth and Edwin blows the other one out of the water by very far (double fireballs when they're about max dmg are very strong to clear rooms). It's just that mages/sorcerers felt so weak for most of BG1 usually and then mid/late game in BG2 become absolutely OP. I wasn't sure where SoD would fit into that but it seems like with those strong stats and gear, lvl 9-10 mages/sorcerers really start outclassing melee around this level. I just wish I had a sturdier tank. I made my Monk to solo originally but he doesn't fit very well in this type of party at lvl 8, he feels nearly useless. Although I have double Turn Undead, facing all of these also sure makes it harder than facing living creatures that I can immobilize with Hold Person and Tiax's Ghast summon.

Neo

Ah, thanks for the info about the Storm Giant potion. I had read about it and people seemed to say that it wasn't possible so I didn't want to risk it at that point.

Fardragon

I would go for option 1. There are a couple of nice monk items for sale near the beginning of SoD, which you will likely miss out on (I don't know if you can steal them). However, later on in the game you should be able to acquire a goodly amount of wealth, even with a low rep. Your real problem is likely to be thief shortage, but I'm pretty sure you can get through without one.

Of course, if Dorn, Viconia, Baeloth and *'**** aren't in your party when you do your shopping, your rep will be higher.

Reputation is reset at the beginning of BG2.

moody_mage

Can you not use simply EEKeeper to reset your Reputation?

I found the equipment that carried over from BG1 wasn't really eclipsed by many of the store bought items. There were a few nice bits which were nice to have but nothing gamebreaking.