Stolen goods dealers

scheele

I searched for a topic like this, but unfortunately I couldn't find one. So I thought I'd try my luck and create a new one.

So here's the problem: stolen goods buyers = ∞ gold in BG2EE. I would be very grateful for any assistance in resolving this issue.

I would like to share an observation I made regarding this legal cheat yesterday. Infinite profit formula is as follows: If you steal, you sell the stolen item to the same merchant you stole it from. For example, if it is Gorch (Mae'Var's guild) and, let's say, the Rogue Stone (very valuable and rare gems), it comes out to a profit of 1500 gold per second. It's not a problem to swing pocket steal (with potion) to 280 for this.

I great lengths to get as much of the precious loot from Irenicus' Dungeon as possible, and for what?)) I'm sure it's just an oversight, but I'm afraid it does detract from the enjoyment of the game.

jmerry

You don't need 280. 100 plus the merchant's difficulty suffices for safe shoplifting, and only Bernard in the entire game has a difficulty of over 100 (he's at 128). Gorch is at difficulty 70, so you need 170 to shoplift from him without any risk of being caught.

Really, about all you can do is apply a personal restriction. My rule: I can steal anything once, but then once I sell it to a fence it's gone. No looping any given item.

Incidentally, this exploit only applies in the SoA campaign. There are no fences in ToB, and the fences in the BG1 and SoD campaign can't be stolen from.

FredN

.....While it is true that there are no fences in ToB, you can sell almost any items in a number of places. How you get them is irrelevant. Now let's suppose you are in a lawful or good party and murder isn't your thing. Bards and Thieves get certain HLAs that create items. Right now my crew has 2 members who can brew potions and scribe scrolls; they can do each action 3x every 24 hours. (I.E. omce after every sleep break). And my cleric has the Erienne sling, which can create five +4 sling stones, also 3x per day. These itens can be sold to merchants with no guilt feelings attached. Produce and store them up during a mission run, then sell them en-masse when you get back to a town.
.....Hardly an unlimited monetary supply, but not to be sneered at either. The Pocket Plane is especially convenient for this, being in another dimension. You can hit the sleep button 30 times if you wish, and you won't be interrupted by wandering uglies. And apparently time doesn't pass for the outside world; all those quests will still be waiting for you. Might get a bit boring, but whatever.

jmerry

Oh, you want to generate money with spells and abilities? Yeah, about that. Rogue HLAs and the Erinne sling are small potatoes. Swindling djinni is where it's at.
- Get a mage/sorcerer with Project Image, Wish, and at least 18 Wisdom. Potions of insight in a belt slot are an acceptable substitute for the base wisdom. Make sure you have as many copies of both spells memorized as possible.
- Cast Project Image. The clone comes with cloned (non-droppable) copies of the caster's items.
- If the mage/sorcerer has less than 18 WIS, have the clone drink a potion of insight. No permanent cost there, since it's a cloned item.
- Have the clone cast Wish. The exact options you get are random (five of twenty-five possibilities), but four are of particular note:
- - "Make it as if the entire party has just rested". Restore all of your memorized spells, so you can just loop it all.
- - "Create a random wand in the caster's inventory". That's the clone's inventory, so you can't use it immediately.
- - "Create a random potion in the caster's inventory". That's the clone's inventory, so you can't use it immediately.
- - "Party loses 10000 gold". When a clone casts this wish, you lose nothing and 10000 gold is created on the clone.
- Repeat until the clone is out of wishes. Plus any other spells you want the clone to cast, like buffs for the party.
- Have your party attack and kill the clone. It will drop any wish-created items and gold.

If you're doing this with a sorcerer (6 slots per spell level) and actively going for the gold when it comes up, that's upwards of 10000 average gold per clone. And you can keep looping basically forever with the wish-rests. And a clone casting wishes and buff spells is already likely the most powerful engine in the game; you can mix this into your usual routine and just incidentally earn free gold for playing well.
I stumbled onto the bug with "Party loses 10000 gold" by accident at the end of a run, after the point of no return when gold was completely useless. I haven't used it since. I'm pretty sure I'll never need it, because gold is so easy to get in the late game anyway.

scheele

Thank you so much for your advice, jmerry.

Arcane Coast gave me a solution to that problem.

It only requires one tweak from the tweaks-and-tricks mod.

Install Component [Close shop steal exploit]?
[N]o, [Q]uit or choose one:
1] Can't steal from fences
2] Can't steal from any stores
2

The tweak installed beautifully. I installed it directly on a current save and everything works :good:. The only bad thing is that those of the fence-sitters with whom the MC had previously been in contact - he can still steal from them. But I only have Gorch from such contacts, so everything is fine) Anyway, he will become hostile, during the 'cleanup' of the Mae'Var's guild.

jmerry wrote: »

You don't need 280. 100 plus the merchant's difficulty suffices for safe shoplifting, and only Bernard in the entire game has a difficulty of over 100 (he's at 128). Gorch is at difficulty 70, so you need 170 to shoplift from him without any risk of being caught.

Goddamn, I spent two extra potions on that! No big deal, though, considering I stole 600k gold from Mae'Var's guild)

FredN

I have to ask what version of the game you are playing, jmerry. In mine there is exactly 1 scroll of wish available, and that is in Amekthran at the Arcana shop. There are NO scrolls of project image available for sale anywhere. Ever. Maybe you could find a scroll on a drop from a defeated enemy, but that would be very low odds, I think. I suspect some designer realized what was going on and altered things. Additionally, when I finally did cast a Wish spell, there were only 5 options and none of them were what you listed. Also, of the 5 options, only 2 are even slightly beneficial (heal everyone in the area, including any enemies, and greater Deathblow for the caster for one attack).

jmerry

That's Greater Deathblow to the entire party, for the two rounds that ability normally lasts. Pretty nice, if you're casting wishes during combat.
And, of course, you don't stop at one wish. One wish is never enough.

There are four scrolls of Wish in the ToB campaign. One in Lazarus' shop (which is the same shop in both Saradush and Amkethran - persistent stock). One in the game with Aesgareth in Watcher's Keep. One as a drop from Nalmissra at the Watcher's Keep final seal. One in the Book Merchant shop at the Thayan arena in Neera's quest.
And nothing else; it's not possible as a random drop, and it does not appear outside Watcher's Keep in SoA.

Project Image scrolls appear in the shops of Lazarus (two copies), the Book Merchant (two copies), and the Underdark duergar merchant Carlig's shop when you don't look like a drow (one copy). You can also find one in the container next to the giant head in the first area of the Spellhold dungeon. And the scrolls appear as random drops on the strongest "random scroll" list; if you're lucky, you can find one as early as the mephit portal room of SoA's initial dungeon. (One instance of the top-level random treasure token, which becomes a scroll about 10% of the time, and that scroll is PI 5% of the time)

FredN

As I have said, I suspect that we are running different versions of the game. I have checked Lazarus's shop both in Saradush, early in ToB, as well as in Amkethran afer Saradush falls, and there is NO project image scroll in either case. I can't speak for the Umderdark as I cannot access it at this time. As for Wish scrolls, I have done the final seal, and Nalrissa did NOT drop any such thing, nor did Aesgareth have one. I was lucky to get the one that Lazarus had. And I only get one wish per cast of the spell. Greater Deathblow for everybody does sound moderately decent, though; thanks for that information.

jmerry

Aesgareth doesn't "have" a scroll of Wish. It's one of the things you can play for in his Deck of Many Things game, and if you win that the scroll is essentially created out of nowhere.

If Nalmissra doesn't drop that scroll in your "version" of the game, then your version is fundamentally broken somehow. She has it in the latest version (patch 2.6), she had it in the initial release of ToB, and she's had it in every version inbetween.

Also, only one instance of the spell memorized? You're clearly not committed to the bit.

FredN

My game has, indeed, several oddities. I cannot, for example, summon a Celertial being of either type to the Final Seal room in Watcher's Keep, regardless of whether or not any enemies are present. The exit to the Cave of the Dead disppears when I enter and try rotating all those tables. I think it was you who told me that this couldn't happen, but I assure you it does. I have verifed files several times to see if this was corrected; it wasn't. I even reinstaled the game; no help.