Stocking up in Candlekeep as a Mage always seems ridiculous to me.
Chronicler
Member Posts: 1,391
These guys have nothing for a mage.
This quiet secluded community of scholars has every weapon known to man or mole for sale in their shops, but nary a single spell scroll, absolutely naught for robes. I can point to somebody looking for spell scrolls without even leaving WInthrop's Inn. Who the heck is buying all these claymores and morningstars and rare imported katanas? I've looked the whole library over and seen nobody using them.
This quiet secluded community of scholars has every weapon known to man or mole for sale in their shops, but nary a single spell scroll, absolutely naught for robes. I can point to somebody looking for spell scrolls without even leaving WInthrop's Inn. Who the heck is buying all these claymores and morningstars and rare imported katanas? I've looked the whole library over and seen nobody using them.
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Comments
And that's without even touching robes.
Mages are given less money in their inventory at the start of the game because they need less money to stock up.
Fighters are given more because they need more.
It's not like there's any story reason why your fighter is rolling in dough to buy a full set of armor, helmet, shield, ranged and melee weapons, and your mage has enough to comfortably stock up on sling stones or darts. The devs just gave them funds tailored to their specific stocking up experiences.
Indeed - here's the table from the Player's Handbook.
I wonder if that could be modded in? Maybe using the fatigue system, such that you have to eat to remove fatigue.
There was a thread about this a few years ago and iirc the general consensus was that although it would add 'realism' the downside would be even more micromanagement with inventory and varying constitution stats.
That's ultimately the problem. Reagents run into the same issue. There's a certain subset of things that can be great for a story in all sorts of ways, but in gameplay terms they just add a bunch of errands to the experience. Nobody's looking for Immersive Grocery Shopping in their cooldown time.
"We asked a bunch of players what their favorite part of the game was, and they said it was stocking up on ammo, so we created an elaborate game routine around stocking up on basic necessessities at periodic intervals."
That can be fun. It was fun for me in games like "Realms of Arkania"/Das Schwarze Auge where you have to have boots and winterclothing or your party will die from the cold in the mountain passes in winter. It was fun in the Ultima Series (e.g. Ultima VI with reagents for spells) or Ultima Underworld where you had to take care of torches and food.