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Efficient Use Of Tomes

XanatosXanatos Member Posts: 47
in Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition
So my charname is an elven archer with 18/96str, 20 dexterity, 17 constitution (i actually think i forgot to grab the Con tome lol), 14 intelligence , 19 wisdom, 8 charisma.

My casters are Garrick and Xan, Garrick basically memorized all of the spells Xan's class restrictions won't allow.
For what it's worth I have npc project active as well.

So my question, I've used all the tomes so far on my protagonist. But I just got the INT tome, and I'm debating since an Archer has no real use for it, should I still put it on my protagonist (does an Archer actually gain anything from INT?) or should I donate it to one of my casters? (this question kind of applies to other tomes for non-essential stats too i guess)

Thanks guys!

Comments

  • DJKajuruDJKajuru Member Posts: 3,300
    Well, mechanically speaking :
    Protagonist will benefit from a higher intelligence when fighting mind flayers. I know he's a ranged character but that's basically the only reason you'd increase his intelligence.

    Xan would benefit from it by writing more spells in his spellbook and higher percentage of learning spells. The thing is ,considering that he has no access to invocation spells he'll probably have everything needs already copied to his spellbook. It would also benefit his lore, which is something that I personally value but since you already got garrick...

    Garrick, well,his intelligence won't get anything better by reading one tome. It's better to have him drink potions of genius before memorizing spells.

    Based on these facts I'd choose yourself of Xan to take the tome.
  • jsavingjsaving Member Posts: 1,083
    INT makes you slightly more likely to survive melee combat with mind flayers, which isn't really an issue for archers. On the other hand, your character is much stronger than average already so a part of me says, why not make him even stronger by giving him the INT tome?
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    If you are going to transfer your character to BG2, put them all on charname. No stat boosts for npcs will carry over.
  • ChroniclerChronicler Member Posts: 1,391
    Mind Flayers drain 5 int per hit. Right now your archer can survive 2 hits, and they'd need to make it to 16 Int to survive 3 hits.

    Strictly speaking you can do that with stat boosts in BG2, but you may decide those stat boosts would be better spent on a mage or bard.

    Lots of people like to gather the BG1 tomes on their player character, just to pad out the total. Even if the extra point of intelligence doesn't change much it can feel nice to play a character with a 97 stat total instead of a 96.
  • dunbardunbar Member Posts: 1,603
    My way of dealing with the stat boosts to npcs not carrying over is to console in the relevant tome(s) when an npc that I gave a tome to in BG joins my party in SoA.
    (Sorry about the lousy syntax but it's way past my bedtime here)
  • LammasLammas Member Posts: 228
    If you use the INT tome yourself and pick up the INT upgrade from WK in BG2 you get to 16 which allows you to get hit by mindflayers 3 times. Depending on your difficulty setting giving it to your caster NPC might have very little impact on them anyway and the most notable thing is jumping from 18 to 19 because that means unlimited spellbook space for scribing spells. I'd use it on your own character even if it's not going to affect you much.

    You could give CHA tome to whoever in your party has highest charisma for discounts. It's not really changing anything for your character with 8 cha. I don't think rangers benefit anything from WIS. If he doesn't then those tomes could go to your divine casters for extra spell slots.

    Having said all that I still usually pump it all on my own character even if it's superfluous just because I like those extra stats making the jump from BG1 to BG2.

    p.s. I dunno what NPC project is so I have no idea how that affects things.
  • XanatosXanatos Member Posts: 47
    These replies have all been fantastic. Not having prior knowledge of mindflayers, that advice helps a lot. Truthfully I was leaning towards just pumping stats into my charname to rack up the stat totals (i rolled this one myself and was very happy with it) and I've seen enough to reinforce that idea that I believe it to be the direction I will go. Thanks everyone!
  • thiefthief Member Posts: 45
    Sometimes it's good to let your NPC use a tome just to unlock dual-classing. It takes much planning to get good results - most grimoires are only available after you get to Baldur's Gate - so it's better you rush there and grab your NPCs asap.

    Xzar or Dynaheir dualed to cleric can be fun, as well as Branwen dualed to thief. Xzar could be done earlier if you rush to Durlag's Tower level 3 (he needs WIS 16 -> 17 improvement so one book will do).

    Oh, and you could dual Safana to get thief->mage, but Imoen is just better at most stuff and has sufficient INT from the start.


  • QuickbladeQuickblade Member Posts: 957
    Lammas said:

    I don't think rangers benefit anything from WIS. If he doesn't then those tomes could go to your divine casters for extra spell slots.

    They do. They ARE divine casters too, after all. But only for the slots that are levels 1-3.
  • SirBatinceSirBatince Member Posts: 882
    you should only ever use tomes on a 18 and above.
  • sarevok57sarevok57 Member Posts: 6,006
    they only time i have EVER given tomes to bg1 characters was when my charname was a sorcerer, because for sorcerers you spell sling from the back row and don't need stats period realistically, so it was nice having a 19 STR/18 DEX kivan, man that guy would clean house in melee, good times :)

    although even with this said, i've only done this once, if i make sorcerer charnames i still give the tomes to my char, just for the lulz, plus having 19 STR is nice, especially when using a throwing dagger in SoA and i don't have to waste a belt on my sorc
  • QuickbladeQuickblade Member Posts: 957
    edited January 2019
    Danacm said:

    Quickblade said:

    Lammas said:

    I don't think rangers benefit anything from WIS. If he doesn't then those tomes could go to your divine casters for extra spell slots.

    They do. They ARE divine casters too, after all. But only for the slots that are levels 1-3.
    Yes they divine, but unfortunately paladins and rangers not get this benefit from higher wisdom. Thats all.
    Yeah, you're right. I forgot that it was a Ranger/Cleric I saw my +2 spell slots on.

    Tested with a freshly rolled pure ranger leveled to 500k (9th), got only 2 L1 slots, which is what a 9th gets, and not 4 like with +2 for 18 Wis.
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