Healing

JDow

I've been playing BG for some time now but I've only just realised in my last run-through how super and amazing those little blue healing potions are! They are gold dust.

What I mean is that you can use them IN COMBAT. If you take a hit, you can drink a potion there and then and then immediately go back into making attacks. And there's no gap. You can drink the potion and still get your attack in all in the same round. You don't have to wait for the following round because those potions pretty much work instantly.

So, from now on I'm treating those little blue potions with the respect they deserve, because they kind of make you indestructible - until you run out of them.

BelgarathMTH

They're certainly great, but don't neglect your AC or other defenses. Potions won't save a character who's in too much trouble, because you can only drink one per round.

Each round, a character can make one sequence of melee attacks and drink one potion, OR cast one spell (excluding the Robe of Vecna or Improved Alacrity). The beginning of a round is sometimes called "having a clean aura." If you already drank a potion, "your aura isn't clean", and you can't drink another one until the beginning of the next round.

So, it's possible to be left standing there frantically clicking to drink a potion while watching your character get hacked to death by multiple attackers.

masteraleph

Robe of Vecna doesn't let you cast more spells per round. It can make your spell earlier in the round by cutting the casting time, but it doesn't clear aura. The only things that players have access to that do so are Improved Alacrity and Nahal's Reckless Dweomer.