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What's a good way to assign Ability Scores?

LaceLace Member Posts: 74
in New Players (NO SPOILERS!)
Hi, I'm looking for opinions on good ways to assign ability scores for my character. She's a human sorcerer, and I rolled an 88 total.

My first instinct is:
18 intelligence
18 dexterity
13 everything else (strength, constitution, wisdom, and charisma)

The intelligence gives me the max spells bonus, and the dexterity gives me the best AC modifier and missile attack adjustment. Though, should I redistribute points in some of the other attributes instead of going for an even distribution to optimize other adjustments? Where would you assign the other points?

Comments

  • atcDaveatcDave Member Posts: 2,150
    Sorcerer actually doesn't get bonus spells from Intelligence. I would say up your constitution to 16, you'd actually be fine taking it all from Intelligence. Wisdom is also a dump score for Sorcerer, if you just really like the idea of keeping them super smart.
  • LaceLace Member Posts: 74
    atcDave said:

    Sorcerer actually doesn't get bonus spells from Intelligence. I would say up your constitution to 16, you'd actually be fine taking it all from Intelligence. Wisdom is also a dump score for Sorcerer, if you just really like the idea of keeping them super smart.

    Thanks for the advice.

    How low can I go with wisdom? Is there any detriment to completely emptying it?
  • harvman11harvman11 Member Posts: 33
    Wisdom can be useful if you plan to take this character to BG2, but even then only if you want to use the spell wish. Otherwise... I like to make my sorcerers with high Charisma and physical stats so they can be the leader of my party. I try to go with 18/18/16/10/18/18 ideally. For an 88, I suppose I would go with 18/18/16/10/8/18 if you don't want to use wish, if you do I suppose I would go 18/18/16/10/15/11.

    Remember though, wish is a 9th level spell, so it will be a very very long time (until late in BG2) before you get a chance to use it.
  • TJ_HookerTJ_Hooker Member Posts: 2,438
    edited March 2013
    Here's a really handy site for seeing what the different stats do:
    www.playithardcore.com/pihwiki/index.php?title=Baldur's_Gate:_Races_and_Stats
    In BG stats tend to have gaps from around 9 to 14 where you don't get any bonuses or penalties, so overall having your stats spread out evenly won't get you many advantages, compared to the same number of stat points allocated in a max/min fashion.

    Edit: for some reason that address is just refusing to show up as a clickable link...
  • LaceLace Member Posts: 74
    edited March 2013
    harvman11 said:

    Wisdom can be useful if you plan to take this character to BG2, but even then only if you want to use the spell wish. Otherwise... I like to make my sorcerers with high Charisma and physical stats so they can be the leader of my party. I try to go with 18/18/16/10/18/18 ideally. For an 88, I suppose I would go with 18/18/16/10/8/18 if you don't want to use wish, if you do I suppose I would go 18/18/16/10/15/11.

    Remember though, wish is a 9th level spell, so it will be a very very long time (until late in BG2) before you get a chance to use it.

    Wow, how long do you have to roll before you get a 98 total like that!?!
    TJ_Hooker said:

    Here's a really handy site for seeing what the different stats do:
    www.playithardcore.com/pihwiki/index.php?title=Baldur's_Gate:_Races_and_Stats
    In BG stats tend to have gaps from around 9 to 14 where you don't get any bonuses or penalties, so overall having your stats spread out evenly won't get you many advantages, compared to the same number of stat points allocated in a max/min fashion.

    Edit: for some reason that address is just refusing to show up as a clickable link...

    Thanks for the link. No worries about the URL not being clickable: that's what copy/paste is for. :)

    Edit: just got back from reading the wiki: very useful! Thanks a lot!
    Post edited by Lace on
  • harvman11harvman11 Member Posts: 33
    I've gotten rolls in that range maybe 2-3 times in all my BG days, so it doesn't happen often... Usually I'll roll for 15 - 20 minutes and just take whatever the best is from there, once in a while you get lucky. I can remember this happening on a sorcerer (which honestly was a bit of a waste) and an undead hunter (which was much easier to get a good roll for).
  • LaceLace Member Posts: 74
    harvman11 said:

    I've gotten rolls in that range maybe 2-3 times in all my BG days, so it doesn't happen often... Usually I'll roll for 15 - 20 minutes and just take whatever the best is from there, once in a while you get lucky. I can remember this happening on a sorcerer (which honestly was a bit of a waste) and an undead hunter (which was much easier to get a good roll for).

    I rerolled my character, and got 92. I decided to quit while I was ahead with that one. :)
  • TyranusTyranus Member Posts: 268
    Strength - Should be 12 or higher to avoid carry capacity issues, especially if she is your primary indentifier
    Dexterity - 18 or 19. Vital stat for a class with low hp
    Constitution - 15 minimum, 17 if you plan on using a certain cursed item that's awesome and you should use
    Intelligence - 9 minimum, all a sorcerer needs for wands and scrolls
    Wisdom - 15 minimum, with 3 +1wis books in the game to get to 18. This is necessary for Wish, and you WILL use Wish come BG2:EE
    Charisma - Dump stat, does not matter at all except for reaction adjustments.
  • LaceLace Member Posts: 74
    edited December 2013
    Thanks everybody!
    This was very helpful to me! I really had fun doing a sorc run, and I've ported my character up to BG2:EE. I'm looking forward to continuing my playthrough! :)
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