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Heart of the Damned

DhariusDharius Member Posts: 654
in Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition
I have a theoretical question for you - if you had a TOB protagonist who had equal amount of stars in short sword and two handed sword...would you use the Heart of the Damned to upgrade Gram the Sword of Grief or the Short Sword of Mask?

I am aware that both can be upgraded to +5 and gain a level drain ability, and one when upgraded has 100% of affecting (with +5 penalty save) and the other 15% (without save).

Also one is available earlier than the other but costs a lot of money to obtain.

Given the above and each weapon's existing special ability, which do you think is best for such a character? Or does it matter?

Comments

  • AerakarAerakar Member Posts: 1,024
    Short Sword of mask if you want to dual wield, Gram if you want to go THS. But SSoM is available waaay earlier than Gram, and their are other two-handed swords on par with Gram. For what its worth, I have never played with Gram, so perhaps I'm a bit biased towards SSoM.
  • KhyronKhyron Member Posts: 627
    Gram suffers from the fact that there are other greatswords that are so overwhelmingly better and easily available, that it kinda fades away

    Mask you can go buy after clearing out slavers in the slums and you've suddenly got a +4 weapon very early on with no difficulty obtain at all.

    Mask i have used now and then.. Gram just feels meaningless by the time you get it.
  • jmerryjmerry Member Posts: 3,829
    And the fundamental problem with both of them is that level drain just isn't very good in your hands. Enemies don't have to worry about the next encounter, after all. And the mechanical penalties of being drained are considerably smaller for a creature without a PC class.

    If you want a level-draining weapon for ToB, use Blackrazor. You have it for the whole campaign, it drains more levels than either the upgraded Gram or the upgraded Short Sword of Mask on average, and the haste and strength bonuses it gives you even when the enemy is immune to level drain are fantastic.
  • DhariusDharius Member Posts: 654
    edited May 2023
    Ah but having Blackrazor makes you very eeeeeeeevil. Point taken though.

    And yes the upgraded Short Sword of Mask is the only +5 weapon of its type in the game....so I'm now inclined to go with this option on my next run through.
  • jmerryjmerry Member Posts: 3,829
    Dharius wrote: »
    Ah but having Blackrazor makes you very eeeeeeeevil.

    There's a "have your cake and eat it too" option on that. The genie takes a few seconds to teleport away, so you can give away Blackrazor for the "good" option and then kill the genie anyway to recover the sword. For best chances, give a neutral response at the first dialogue, get your forces in position for an immediate attack, and then talk to it again to hand over the sword.

    Still just as evil morally, but it doesn't show up on your character sheet so it doesn't count.
  • Balrog99Balrog99 Member Posts: 7,367
    jmerry wrote: »
    Dharius wrote: »
    Ah but having Blackrazor makes you very eeeeeeeevil.

    There's a "have your cake and eat it too" option on that. The genie takes a few seconds to teleport away, so you can give away Blackrazor for the "good" option and then kill the genie anyway to recover the sword. For best chances, give a neutral response at the first dialogue, get your forces in position for an immediate attack, and then talk to it again to hand over the sword.

    Still just as evil morally, but it doesn't show up on your character sheet so it doesn't count.

    Can it be pickpocketed? I thought I read somewhere that it could be. If you could pull off the heist in time, there's at least a neutral option!
  • jmerryjmerry Member Posts: 3,829
    No. Handing an item over via dialogue (the "GiveItem" script action) sets the "can't be stolen" flag on it. You can never pickpocket back an item you've given away like that.

    You could, in theory, pick the pockets of "Greed" to get the sword in the first place ... except that the demon sees through invisibility, has the area entrance in visual range, and initiates dialogue the moment it sees a PC. Plus it's completely pointless, as the demon will just give you the sword with its dialogue. That's give, not create a duplicate; if you've already taken the sword, that dialogue action will just do nothing.
  • MarySwopeMarySwope Member Posts: 1
    edited May 2023
    Thank you for the answer. But I think TOB protagonist with equal proficiency in both short sword and two-handed sword, it would be more beneficial to use the Heart of the Damned to upgrade Gram, the Sword of Grief. By the way, If you're a college student in need of Great Assignment Help Review to the Rescue visit https://letsgradeit.com/review/greatassignmenthelp/ this link. This website contains a comprehensive list of writing websites as well as assessments to help you choose the best writing essay for your needs. Additionally, I think you should go for a Gram which is the better choice for this character.
    Post edited by MarySwope on
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