Viconia armor problem
FredN
Member Posts: 640
I am having a severe problem with Viconia. When wielding Crom Feyr she can, of course wear any armor. When holding any other weapon, she cannot wear anything at all! Now, she has an unmodified strength of 10. Ankheg Plate Mail supposedly only needs a strength of 8, but wearing this makes her too encumbered to even move. The same is true for splint mail, chain mail ... even studded leather, which only needs a strength of 6, totally immobilizes her. What the heck is going on here?
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Is she carrying a lot of potions? I regularly give too many to Imoen and find she can't move at all (unless she puts them in a potion case which mysteriously makes them weightless).
You would think so, but apparently this is not the case. I am going to try various things. Verify file integrity, log on and off, sleep a few times ... the usual desperation measures. If all else fails, there is a Girdle of Stone Giant strength available in Suldanessellar, although we won't be there for a while.
I'll have to go back a ways and see what saves I have lying around. I may not have anything that far back. I suppose I could start the game from Chapter 1 again and see what Imoen and Jaheira look like at the start of SoA.
Heh, been doing that. The container actually got filled up. As did my ammunition holder. Oh, and BTW, when Hexxat is in the party, her coffin functions as a second Bag of Hollding. Very convenient for storage.
But yeah, that’s part of why I think Dorn is a total cheat. No low level character should ever have a 19 strength. They broke the system when they added half-orcs.
But really, once you have a bag of holding, carry weight is trivial. You just put all the heavy stuff in the bag, and pull it out when needed. Remember, the game is always paused when you're in the inventory screen.
Now, BG1? Carry weight matters in that campaign. You can't get a bag of holding, so bringing heavy stuff back to town to sell it is a challenge.
When she engages the enemy, she's going to raise her Strength to 25 anyway, so unless you want her to swing Crom Feyr, she should only wear the weakest strength enhancing item you have. Something like the Gauntlets of Ogre Power, the Girdle of Hill Giant Strength or ideally: Mauler's Arm. (just switch it out for her real equipment while she's preparing her buffs before jumping into action).
Bags of Holding are the obvious solution to your general problem, of course.
But the next unfortunately necessary lesson is already awaiting you:
Somehow keep order within your overloaded bags and figure out a way to find the things you need, when you need them.
Actually, a lot of the NPCs break the mold. I tried rolling up a half--orc only to discover I could not be a Paladin or Blackguard; for player characters these professions have to be human.
1) Dorn's personal quest path gets him unique gear, namely the Visage and the Abyssal Blade.
2) Viconia is a Drow; she is physically weak but has the usual Drow magic resistance. Drow is not an available race for a player character.
3) Mazzy is a halfling warrior, but has some Paladin-like powers, such as laying on hands.
4) Jaheira has some abilities beyond the usual Druidic ones, like using Harper's Call to raise the dead. She is also a half-elf Fighter/Druid, a combination that is not possible for a Player character.
5) Hexxat is a Vampire; no further comment needed.
6) Jan Jannsen has his weird cyber-punk techno gear.
7) Aerie is an ... Avriel (whatever the heck that is) cleric/mage, who has had her wings cut off? That's just freaky.
The Designers had no problem bending the rules to create unique NPCs.
But half-orcs become a cheat in a CRPG specifically because they *can* have a 19 Strength right out of the gate, almost every player *will* give them a 19 Strength right out of the gate. And Dorn makes everything worse by actually having the 19 Strength.
There are several such things in these games, that I as a DM would simply never allow. Sorcerers are a cheat, they break the spell economy (the ability of the DM to ration certain spells). And I think Dorn is a massive, cheesy cheat for the reasons mentioned. Extra bad since he was added late (I just mod him out of my game, even though he’s easy enough to ignore). But he’s more irksome since he’s an EE addition, not in the original game. Ditto for Hexxat.
I think Mazzy, Jaheira and Aerie have exactly the sort of quirks most PnP DMs would in fact allow in their worlds. Their quirks do not bother me at all. Jan and Victoria would depend more on the setting. Some DMs are fine with their sorts of weird, some would not allow. Again, I’m fine with that.
Sorry, but always come at these things as a PnP guy. Those things that look unbalancing to me, especially when they are late additions, always look like a red flag.
@atcDave Dorn’s Strength is huge in BG1, but in BG2 it’s more a convenience than a big deal. You can bump it to 20 (21 with save-scumming) or just throw on a belt. Better to use the permanent boosts to push your PC to 23–24. And with his cleric buffs, Dorn’s swinging at 25 Strength anyway. (Unless you banish his patrons for that sword and dump him. Always cracks me up that, for a guy scarred by betrayal, he doesn’t lose it when you stab him in the back like that.)
.....Regular Plate mail weighs less that Full Plate. Wearing this rather than Full, Jaheria is unencumbered. While her AC drops from -9 to -7, this is still pretty good, and will easily work just fine for most combats. Edwin needs no armor, and really, neither does Imoen. I was just trying to gild the lily there by giving her leather armor. She can use her bow just fine without any such thing; her spells and cloak give her a decent enough AC, and she won't be in the front line anyway.
.....This leaves Viconia as the only team member who could really benefit from a strength enhancement item, so I can have her be the one to wear the Girdle of Hill Giant strength. This will permit her to use the +2 Mace of Disruption rather than Crom Feyr when we go up against Bodhi. This is crucial, since the Mace protects against Bodhi's rather nasty level drain, which Crom Feyr, nice weapon though it is, does not. This means that we can have 3 people pounding away at her with no risk of being drained: Dorn, Viconia and myself while berserk. Give all three oil of speed, and she is toast.
DUHM, as a combat spell, also has an acceptable duration. It has a short recasting time, and Viconia isn't going to be using Fighter HLAs, so she should be able to reapply it quickly. (also, I'm sure you just didn't mention them, but just in case they really slipped your mind, she also wants to cast Holy Power and Righteous Magic)
Also, I am surprised that you despite the late game, don't have Improved Haste yet.
So my point is mostly for BG1, a 1st level character with a 19 strength is a cheat!
She can actually be a better candidate for a permanent strength boosting item than even your fighters in the party, since they can boost strength via potions. One last option for Viconia are the red strength boosting potions, which gets you to 18, generally enough for whatever you need, and last four hours of game time.
Interesting discussion. I've never considered Dorn to be much of a cheat in BG1, even though I've grown to use him alot in any evil campaign. That has more to do with the quality of the 2H sword than Dorn himself. I dunno, his pips are not perfectly spent, the extra point in 2H style doesn't grant much of a bonus, and you could really use that pip for a ranged or blunt weapon, so as to have three true options by the endgame.
Funny note, but Dorn, along with all the EE companions, don't seem to have coded in the one-shot rule that keeps you from dying from one hit when at full health. Makes a big difference for frontline characters in early BG1. He also never really gets great defenses in BG1 relative to other fighters. He can never become the kind of tanky, speed footed butcher at the frontline like Kagain, Shar-Teel or even some of the good characters like Yeslick, Ajantis or even Khalid. I realize there are ways to commit alot of resources to him -- dex and con potions, to achieve this, but that's just it. He requires a big investment.
Like I said, I use him alot in any evil run, but he doesn't feel essential to the party like Kagain does, never felt OP to me.