BG2 - Delaying possession of (what I think are) overpowered items

elminster

I was also thinking maybe that delaying possession of some items that you can get early in the game might be an idea (like the ring of charisma and the glasses of identification), or at least delaying being able to get possession of them until much later than you'd normally be able to get them. These items don't effect combat, just other aspects of the game that some classes instinctually are made for (I'm looking at you - Mr/Mrs. Bard). As we all know, at least for BG2, the ring of charisma makes putting anything to charisma pretty pointless for the characters who don't already have to. Not only is the bards role diminished by that item, but by the fact that you can pick up the glasses of identification early on from the Adventurer's Mart makes having high lore much less useful.

Space_hamster

What I did on later play throughs of BG 2 was to sell those items for quick cash. I usually played a bard so I didn't need the ring. The funny thing about BG2 is that there are simply so many powerful items that one often runs out of slots to place them. Might as well just sell them! The only really great uber items are so rare and often found guarded by golems (or other nasty creatures), so those are keepers. Of course, a simple mod could take these items completely out of the game.

Razor

snip
I always liked this ring... don't ask me why. (and No I dont have minimum charisma in my character!)

O_Bruce

As we all know, at least for BG2, the ring of charisma makes putting anything to charisma pretty pointless for the characters who don't already have to. Not only is the bards role diminished by that item, but by the fact that you can pick up the glasses of identification early on from the Adventurer's Mart makes having high lore much less useful.

About ring of charisma, maybe, for example, +2 to +4 bonus to charisma instead of raising it to 18 would do the job. that way advantages from having base high CHA would still exist.

I don't really have an idea for glasses of identifity. It's a troublesome.

But I must admit that I'm more concerned for such items that Deidre and Joluv are selling. Some of them are definitely overpowered, and are avalible early in the game.

caruga

I think the whole id system needs reworking, and I do think the glasses are cheap, but rebalancing resting might fix this.

AzL0n

I actually find the glasses to be a blessing in a game where there's so many magical items. If I didn't have the glasses I would need to be sleeping pretty much all the time to identify everything and that's not something that would make the game more fun and challenging to me it would just make it more tedious. If they were to get rid of the glasses or move them to later in the game at least I would want lore to be a bit more effective because right now I don't bother with bards anyway I just memorize identification with my mage(s).

Tanthalas

@AzLon
Well, you could identify items with a merchant or at a temple too. Though you could argue that that's not fun either.

AzL0n

@Tanthalas

Yeah true. But you know it could be fun if items were so hard to identify without a bard that newbs would resort to using items without identifying and would sometimes end up putting on cursed items by accident. Not that I would want identify spell to be removed but doing so and getting rid of the glasses would certainly make bards more useful. Because as it is even if there wasn't any glasses of identification it wouldn't make me want to pick up a bard in my team.

Dee

I like the idea proposed above, about changing the ring to a flat +X bonus to Charisma. Charisma doesn't do very much for anyone except bards anyway, and it would be nice/neat to let a proper bard be truly charismatic with this ring.

As for the Glasses of Identification...

Proposal:
Instead of letting the user cast Identify 1/day, turn the glasses into a helm-slot item usable by anyone, which adds a flat bonus to the wearer's Lore. Again, it allows a bard to gain a tangible benefit from wearing the item, and it gives anyone else a usable bonus without precluding the need for a high-lore character.

And as a side note, Jan's spectroscopes should probably also grant a Lore bonus.

AzL0n

@Aosaw

I like these suggestions.