Robe of Vecna vs. Robe of the (X) Archmage

Attalus

Which of the two is better in you guys' opinion? The game values the Archmage more in gold and that extra armor helps, as well as the Magic Resistance: but the extra casting speed of the Robe of Vecna is a powerful inducement.

Kamigoroshi

The robe of Vecna smells like cobwebs, old bones and all kinds of vermin. Robes of the Archmagi on the other hand are mass produced and mainly fresh off the rack. The choice is obvious:

Vecna's hand-me-down, it is!

Nuin

Generally I'd say the Robe of Vecna, but since there's only one copy the robe should ideally go to whoever spends most of their time casting spells (Aerie, Edwin, Neera).

The Robe of the X Archmagi is a good alternative for anyone who spends a lot of time doing something else besides casting spells.

Mathsorcerer

The increase to the caster's spellcasting speed makes the Robe of Vecna strictly better than any Robe of the Archmagi.

Borek

IMO the cast speed reduction is far and away the best aspect of the Robe of Vecna, placing it as my firm favorite for my main caster. Robes of the Archmagi are still very nice though, just a shame they can be problematic to get for some alignments early on.

You haven't lived until Robe of Vecna + Amulet of Power combine during an Improved Alacrity and you single-handedly annihilate entire boss fights

Of course Wild Mages can do it without either, or even using Improved Alacrity, but it's highly probable things will not go exactly as planned...and yes that is an understatement

OlvynChuru

There's no contest.

Even if the Robe of Vecna didn't have the casting time reduction, it would still be on par with the archmage robes.

Archmage robes:

Base AC: Set to 5
Magic Resistance: +5%
Saving Throws: +1

Vecna robe:

Base AC: Set to 4
Magic Resistance: +10%

fateless

OlvynChuru said:

There's no contest.

Even if the Robe of Vecna didn't have the casting time reduction, it would still be on par with the archmage robes.

Archmage robes:

Base AC: Set to 5
Magic Resistance: +5%
Saving Throws: +1

Vecna robe:

Base AC: Set to 4
Magic Resistance: +10%

I honestly don't remember the Robe of Vecna these days. But if these numbers are correct then the Vecna robe is better. The saving Throw bonus becomes less useful at higher levels.

The only caveat is if you cannot still wear rings of protection with the Robe of Vecna because you can wearing them with the Archmage robes. Because you technically between a combination of two items get better results than the single robe.

sarevok57

im pretty sure the robe of vecna sets your AC to 5 not 4 ( perhaps its a mod that sets it to 4? ) and yes, you can wear items of protection with a robe of vecna, making the robe of vecna still, better in basically every way

fateless

In enough ways to count at least.

Quickblade

sarevok57 said:

im pretty sure the robe of vecna sets your AC to 5 not 4 ( perhaps its a mod that sets it to 4? ) and yes, you can wear items of protection with a robe of vecna, making the robe of vecna still, better in basically every way

Robe of Vecna in my currently unmodded (and unplayed) BG2EE game says:
Equipped abilities:
– Armor Class: 5
– Magic Resistance: +10%
– Improves casting speed by 4

(And doublechecked item code just incase the text is wrong and it's still 5 AC)

lunar

Casting speed bonus is the single most precious and important ability in any given item for a caster. Thus, Vecna's is the best robe in the game. Wish there was a drawback to it, like -max hp or con as it drains the caster somewhat, it may have been balanced then. In its current state it is op.

StefanO

Maybe the robe is OP in ToB. During SoA the casting speed bonus isn't needed at all and you can stick to the archmage robe without loss.

Zaghoul

Lets see now, I'll let my druid test them both. Ok , I'll need a bag of Kingsford briquets, some pitch, and a torch (maybe a 10' pole type torch, never can tell with that nassy ol arcane filth).

OK.

Well, given @Kamigoroshi comment I think that the better one would be... probably the old Vecna one, as it might burn in the bonfire better, cause them new fangled right off the rack archmage robes might have that flame retardant warning label inside, like jammies.

Ohhhh, you mean to WEAR them, probably the Vecna, especially earlier on, before all that Improved Alacrity (IA) mess. Well, TBH, I never took much to playin mages, but it worked pretty well on bards.


Speaking of IA, I reckon them thar preacher types like clerics and druids should have something similar. I mean, you ever hear one of those dudes get on a roll up on the pulpit or the radio?

Borek

Zaghoul said:

Lets see now, I'll let my druid test them both. Ok , I'll need a bag of Kingsford briquets, some pitch, and a torch (maybe a 10' pole type torch, never can tell with that nassy ol arcane filth).

OK.

Well, given @Kamigoroshi comment I think that the better one would be... probably the old Vecna one, as it might burn in the bonfire better, cause them new fangled right off the rack archmage robes might have that flame retardant warning label inside, like jammies.

Ohhhh, you mean to WEAR them, probably the Vecna, especially earlier on, before all that Improved Alacrity (IA) mess. Well, TBH, I never took much to playin mages, but it worked pretty well on bards.


Speaking of IA, I reckon them thar preacher types like clerics and druids should have something similar. I mean, you ever hear one of those dudes get on a roll up on the pulpit or the radio?

Yeah i did a Cleric/Mage multi class run with the Robe of Vecna and Amulet of Power, highly effective is another understatement haha. Many Dragons were Harmed in the making

fateless

It's not really all that overpowered. does it give a slight advantage in a few situations? If your quick on your buttons or use the pause feature a lot. Yes.

Is it in any way game breaking? No not really. Unless your using specific instances the rate that you can actually cast doesn't change. It however does make predicting what you will hit a little easier because that one spell a turn fires off a bit more instantaneously instead of having a windup time.

I like to dual run mages as a kind of artillery team. They were never that far out of sinc. One might get another spell or two in in an IA moment however.

that difference in magic resistance however? I've seen 5% make a survivability difference however. Doing 2 mages may be why I don't remember it much. I may have seen it mostly as an equivelant second robe to the Archmage robe that put my two mages on par with each other for the most part.

UnderstandMouseMagic

I'm playing through a game where the ROV has been removed (SCS damn you, didn't notice that option, no SofE either.)

And am I missing it?
Hell yeah.

Vithar

Vecna is the ''only'' Robe in BG2.
Reduced cast by 4 is insane ... makes a lot of spells ''instant''.
In the typical ''casual'' fun run on Core Rules or bellow it maybe not noticeable but the item is insane!

fateless

Instant when it finally goes off. But still limited for the most part to how often that goes off. Which like I said. Makes targeting a little bit easier. Particularly if your not as good at judgeing where Enemies will be compared to where they are to when your spell goes off. If you can mostly predict their movements. It's a couple seconds different between when the boom goes off. But the effects are often the same. IA's you get a little more bang for your buck. But it's a very short window to get it in.

islandking

There isn't much of a comparison really, Vecna is a op item while Archmage robe isn't.
Anything like saving throw etc. can be mended by a potion, but casting time -4 is uniquely gameshaking, specially considering how earlier you can get it, which is the reason SCS has an option to put it off until ToB.

abacus

If the Robe of Vecna *only* had the casting time reduction and no other features, I'd still happily take it ahead of anything else.

It's all down to interruptions. An interrupted casting can devastate a battle strategy... RoV reduces your chances of being stung, and improves your chances of interrupting your enemies.

Improved Alacrity shenanigans are just the icing on the cake.

fateless

maybe it's our playstyles. But I don't usually have to worry about too many spell interruptions. Then again because of MR and such and the fact that I tend to like two mages in the party. I usually have backups ready and maybe that's part of why I don't notice it as much as well.

Attalus

Many thanks to all commenters. Very helpful

Cvijeta

There's steam achievement "Ancient power" which you complete by buying Robe of Vecna. Enough said.

JoenSo

The robes of the archmagi do have an advantage if you're a fighter/mage with two-handed swords and EEkeeper your appearence to a normal mage. You'll look like a jedi. A jedi.

fateless

Boo Jedi. Dark side rules... Honestly. I stop looking at the paper dolls looks after a while except as an indication of which character I'm using to do stuff.

Attalus

But, otoh, the sprite that Nalia, at least gets, with the RotGAM is pretty cool

SomeSort

Considering casting speed as a mechanism exists solely to help balance spells, anything that increases casting speed is OP. I mean, if Magic Missile had a casting time of 6, would anyone use it still?