Tomes and Manuals (Strength)

valky

Just some odd thingie that came into mind; what final stat in strength am I supposed to get, if I take the Manual of Gainful Exercise (+1str) and already have lets say 18/95? Is the next logical step 18/00 or do I get 19? (and in case these manuals still exist *g*)

Only the 18/xx matters in that case, guess the other +1 stuff is self-explanatory.

Badmass

Any strength of 18 will step up to 19 whether it is 18/XX or just 18.

CaptRory

That's one of the big benefits of playing a Half-Orc. You can ignore trying to get a good 18/xx result by jumping 18 and going to 19 with the racial bonus.

valky

Awesome! (+ty) that saves me quite some trouble with the character creation, thus it makes the book quite powerful if you can skip several strength sub-boni of 18/xx to just 19.

edit: 1 char of mine will have at least 18/xx strength as I plan to import him (possible fighter->dual Cleric) in BG2 for the awesomeness of getting the Pantaloon-set :P Never did this, as my old backup saves went *pooof* with the crash of my very very old HDD. And for pure BG:EE enjoyment maybe even a half-orc...

ZanathKariashi

Yeah, even in PnP the book will always jump you from 18 or 18/?? to 19. The wish spell on the other hand can only increase the /?? portion by 10 per wish up to 99, which requires another wish for 00 and then 20 wishes to get to 19 (yeah...2nd edition is REALLY weird..any stat above 14 requires exponentially more wishes to increase a point). (Note to newbies...the BG2 Wish spell DOES NOT work like the PnP version, and while still quite powerful, it can't do anything resembling the above)

Half-orcs are pretty nice...max starting 19 str, and they also have a max of 19 con, so they and dwarves are the only player characters in BG1 that can have regeneration (Kagain the NPC ALSO has 20 con so he has it as well) if you get the con manual ASAP...very do-able and easy. And due to the low hit point totals, any transition or rest attempt results in a full heal...awesomeness.