Containers (for gems, scrolls, etc.) in BG:EE
Syntia13
Member Posts: 514
I'm new to the forum, so I apologize if this particular subject has been discussed before.
In a different thread, regarding inventory, @kamuizin said "Make the special containers quest items so the moment you get them can be controlled. "
I like this idea.
I have found the letter I mentioned in that thread - it is found after defeating Davaeorn in Cloakwood mines. It's from Rieltar, and it reads:
"[...] I have sent Tranzig to work with the mercenaries in transporting the iron to your base in Cloakwood. He has brought several bags of holding so that he, alone, will make trips into Cloakwood, thereby lessening the chance that Flaming Fist trackers might find your stronghold."
When I first played, this letter prompted me to go back to the deceased Tranzig's room and search it from top to bottom. Alas, no bag of holding!
But BG:EE could expand on that, and add a quest that would start upon reading the letter. The player would have to find a route that Tranzig used to take from Cloakwood; along the route, we'd find an old camp of Tranzig's. In the camp - an abandoned broken/torn/otherwise unusable bag of holding. Then we'd take it to the High Hedge mage to have it fixed - for a suitable price of course.
It would take time, effort and money to get the functional bag of holding, and it would come quite late in the game - similarly as it was in BG2 (except the effort and money part, of course
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As for gem bag, scroll case and potion case, I think one of each should be available almost from the start. I know, I know, but hear me out.
Gem bag is effectively a purse. Gorion gave his ward some gold at the very beginning of the game. Why shouldn't he give him a purse with a jewel or a ring in it? It could add a feeling of emergency, that he has to sell some items in order to equip his 'child'.
Scroll case and potion case - Gorion wanted to run away from Candlekeep, knowing that we'd be hunted. He might not pack a ton of books or a change of robes, but I'm quite sure he'd take every single potion and offensive/defensive scroll he had. And he is an old, experienced man. I don't believe he didn't acquire any containers for such things during his long life. So what I think should happen is, the morning after the ambush when Bahlspawn and Imoen go back to find Gorion's body, they should find a scroll case containing the famous letter from 'E' and a few magic scrolls - charred by a firearrow and unreadable; also a potion bag, containing... a lot of broken glass and half-dry liquid - unidentifiable and likely harmful mix of the potions the case once held.
This way you get the containers without unbalancing the early game with too many resources, while adding a bit of realism to the escape, showing that Gorion prepared himself for it beyond just 'handing you what gold he could spare'.
The ammo belt could be sold by the smith in Beregost, and Nashkel carnival seems like a perfect place to buy yourself a brand new purse... I mean, gem bag; and a vendor selling scrolls should have a scroll case available as well.
That would give us two gem bags, two scroll cases, one potion case, one ammo belt, and one bag of holding available late in the game. I think that would make the life easier for the Bahlspawn w/o running risk of unbalancing the game. (I of course assume that all container have capacity limited to 20 items, 30 at most).
That's my three cents. What do you guys think?
In a different thread, regarding inventory, @kamuizin said "Make the special containers quest items so the moment you get them can be controlled. "
I like this idea.
I have found the letter I mentioned in that thread - it is found after defeating Davaeorn in Cloakwood mines. It's from Rieltar, and it reads:
"[...] I have sent Tranzig to work with the mercenaries in transporting the iron to your base in Cloakwood. He has brought several bags of holding so that he, alone, will make trips into Cloakwood, thereby lessening the chance that Flaming Fist trackers might find your stronghold."
When I first played, this letter prompted me to go back to the deceased Tranzig's room and search it from top to bottom. Alas, no bag of holding!
But BG:EE could expand on that, and add a quest that would start upon reading the letter. The player would have to find a route that Tranzig used to take from Cloakwood; along the route, we'd find an old camp of Tranzig's. In the camp - an abandoned broken/torn/otherwise unusable bag of holding. Then we'd take it to the High Hedge mage to have it fixed - for a suitable price of course.
It would take time, effort and money to get the functional bag of holding, and it would come quite late in the game - similarly as it was in BG2 (except the effort and money part, of course
.As for gem bag, scroll case and potion case, I think one of each should be available almost from the start. I know, I know, but hear me out.
Gem bag is effectively a purse. Gorion gave his ward some gold at the very beginning of the game. Why shouldn't he give him a purse with a jewel or a ring in it? It could add a feeling of emergency, that he has to sell some items in order to equip his 'child'.
Scroll case and potion case - Gorion wanted to run away from Candlekeep, knowing that we'd be hunted. He might not pack a ton of books or a change of robes, but I'm quite sure he'd take every single potion and offensive/defensive scroll he had. And he is an old, experienced man. I don't believe he didn't acquire any containers for such things during his long life. So what I think should happen is, the morning after the ambush when Bahlspawn and Imoen go back to find Gorion's body, they should find a scroll case containing the famous letter from 'E' and a few magic scrolls - charred by a firearrow and unreadable; also a potion bag, containing... a lot of broken glass and half-dry liquid - unidentifiable and likely harmful mix of the potions the case once held.
This way you get the containers without unbalancing the early game with too many resources, while adding a bit of realism to the escape, showing that Gorion prepared himself for it beyond just 'handing you what gold he could spare'.
The ammo belt could be sold by the smith in Beregost, and Nashkel carnival seems like a perfect place to buy yourself a brand new purse... I mean, gem bag; and a vendor selling scrolls should have a scroll case available as well.
That would give us two gem bags, two scroll cases, one potion case, one ammo belt, and one bag of holding available late in the game. I think that would make the life easier for the Bahlspawn w/o running risk of unbalancing the game. (I of course assume that all container have capacity limited to 20 items, 30 at most).
That's my three cents. What do you guys think?
4
Comments
All the container's except the bag of holding should be available from any merchant. Those sorts of things would be more widespread than weapons.
About the Bag of Holding: In fact the main reason ppl want a bag of holding is: we finsh the game with a bunch of no used medium and good items (this is more true in BG2 but happen here too).
In the place of a bag of holding i would prefer that some quests and options become viable to some of the lot we get, instead of just sell them.
It's a iron shortage no? can't some garrison in the game make quests like: find 3 short swords +1, 3 long swords +1, and 20 short/long/two handed normal swords in exange for +2 reputation (and we shoud STOP with the power reputation of temples too)? or a quest like "find me a chain mail +1 and i give you this level 5 mage spell that you probally would not find in game (or only find one time)". Or a thief that ask for a dagger+2 in exchange of thief training in +% of a specific thief skill (courtesy of Planescape this idea).
Just give us options of what to do with the bunch of nice items we find but don't use cos there better on the game, and don't say sell them cos in the end of BG gold become USELESS, there simple no suffice shops worth in the game (i finsh the game normally with 200.000 gold on the pocket if i remember well).
I was very surprised there was no scroll case at Sorcerous Sundries and no ammo belt at Taerom's smithy. They're listed in the game's inventory in Shadowkeeper, but I'm on Chapter 5 and still haven't found either of them.
stack of arrows - ninth item here: http://mikesrpgcenter.com/bgate/ranged.html
quiver - second to last item here: http://mikesrpgcenter.com/bgate2/items/magic.html
ammo belt - third item from the top here: http://mikesrpgcenter.com/bgate2/items/other.html
The reason why I find the ammo belt useful is that while the arrows and other missiles of the same type stack, there are 11 types of arrows, six types of crossbow bolts, three types of sling bullets and four types of darts. Add to that the fact that unidentified magic missiles (items, not the spell) don't stack with identified missiles of the same kind.
Now imagine a situation where you have 80 normal arrows, 20 flame arrows, 5 darts of stunning, 1 arrow of detonation, 3 arrows of dispelling, 4 lightning bolts, 2 unidentified lightning bolts, 20 bullets+1 and 5 bullets+2, 10 +1 bolts, and 10 darts+1.
So now you have one inventory slot filled with 80 missiles...
and ten slots filled with other 80 missiles.
This is where the ammo belt comes in handy, as you can stuff all those excess ammo in it, and store it all in a single inventory slot. Makes your life much easier if you are a packrat like me.