ah int potions, that would be a good idea, i would think it would drain from the bonus, because shadows drain str when they hit you, and i have fought them when i had girdles of giant str and they had to go through that first
The Charisma used to determine morale is the charisma of the leading character in the party. So if you've got Imoen in the top slot, you'll have a better party morale over all than if you've got Khalid there.
Morale is also affected by other things as well, such as the strength of the enemies you're fighting, the time of day, the location of the battle, etc. It's entirely possible that you wouldn't ever see Khalid or Garrick run away simply because the odds were in the party's favor (which they frequently would be if you're playing the game carefully).
Morale *definitely* has to do AT LEAST with the strength of the enemies you're fighting. I can't confirm anything else, just have vague suspicions. However:
I had 3 party members, me and Imoen at level 1 and Viconia and Kivan at level 2. I ventured to the Spider Wood (far east) to get some experience. I had never seen Kivan morale failure in my life, but several times trying to kill a Sword Spider at our ridiculously low levels he went morale failure.
Morale may also depend on how injured a character is, as I witnessed in Watcher's Keep on Hard difficulty.
I decided to go to Watcher's Keep in SoA because our party of 6 was already mid-teens in levels. I made it to the fight with the Chromatic Demon with myself, a Kensai/Thief (never did try it before); Viconia, Korgan, Haer'Dalis, Jan, and Edwin.
The demon popped out of its cage in such a position that Korgan had to tank it instead of Haer'Dalis like I wanted. Korgan is plenty beefy, but the demon hits hard. I had Viconia spamming Heal on him, and even with Korgan chugging Superior Healing potions, the demon's DPS was too high for him. He reached Badly Wounded status and managed to take about 3 or 4 more hits while in that red zone. After that his morale failed and he basically said "screw this, Im getting out of here" and started to run away, but the demon scored another hit on him before he could really run anywhere, killing him.
I have one comment about Potions of Genius and scroll-scribing on Core Rules.
There is no such thing as 100 percent to scribe scrolls, no matter how much intelligence you have. You will be amazed at how many scrolls you fail to scribe even with 21 intelligence. Ninety-six percent, ninety-eight percent chance to be successful, it doesn't matter. Over the course of the game, you *will* fail many times.
If it's a really important scroll that you're trying to scribe, as with an eighth or ninth level spell, (or lower level rare scrolls at certain points in the game, like Lower Resistance), you had really better just lower the difficulty slider until you get it scribed. (Normal and easy difficulty turn off the chance to fail, and more or less make intelligence irrelevant even for mages).
If you fail to scribe Lower Resistance, and a few other spells, with no other scrolls available anywhere in the game, then you are *screwed*, and I mean, *SCREWED* in late Shadows of Amn and in Throne of Bhaal. There are only three or so copies of such rare, critical spells in the whole game. So you *must* not risk failing to learn them.
This is why players often complain about the implementation of the intelligence stat for mages in BG. Just bypass the whole problem by turning down the difficulty slider, at least temporarily. Many people also do the same thing to get max hit points per level when a character levels up.
@belgarathmth You can hit 100% scribe chance at 24 INT. If you ABSOLUTELY cannot live without the spell and you ABSOLUTELY refuse to lower the slider for anything, a potion of mind-focusing and a potion of genius stack. 18+7=25. You CANNOT fail scribing when you quaff both of them and rolled max INT.
@sandmanCCL, ah, LOL. I didn't know about drinking both a potion of mind-focusing AND a potion of genius for scribing rare, critical, can't-afford-to-lose scrolls.
The trouble with that for new players would be knowing what the critical, rare spells are. Bravo on your knowledge, though.
Hint to new players: dragons. You have to plan your eventual end-game around them in BG2. In BG1, the issue I've raised doesn't matter as much. Although, ahem, fireball, web, haste, and cloudkill, ahem. BG1 sure is easier with them than without them.
The only scroll I'd argue is totally invaluable in BG1 is Cloudkill because you only get the one. Every other scroll to the best of my knowledge you can purchase at some point from some vendors.
I do like Fireball more than Skull Trap for BG1. It's both offensive and defensive at the same time, provided you have the right gear/buffs to make fire heal you.
there is actually 3 scrolls of cloudkill in bg1 one hidden in the ground in a southern area, a wizard holds another one, and one in durlags tower ( keeping the spoilers down to a dull )
@Vintrastorm: No. Only player-made characters that meet the stat requirements can use it. Else she would fit, and that would be pretty funny to make her use a different person's armor.
With regards to charisma, might want to add that in order to dual-class a fighter to a druid, you'd need to have both a charisma as well as a wisdom score of 17. And of course be of neutral alignment, though that should be obvious.
You should mention, even for newbies, that if the player wants the option to dual class a human to ANY other class, even in BG2, they will eventually need a 17 in the key stat.
This is in consideration of the fact that many guides for this game recommend a multi- or dual-class avatar.
Comments
I decided to go to Watcher's Keep in SoA because our party of 6 was already mid-teens in levels. I made it to the fight with the Chromatic Demon with myself, a Kensai/Thief (never did try it before); Viconia, Korgan, Haer'Dalis, Jan, and Edwin.
The demon popped out of its cage in such a position that Korgan had to tank it instead of Haer'Dalis like I wanted. Korgan is plenty beefy, but the demon hits hard. I had Viconia spamming Heal on him, and even with Korgan chugging Superior Healing potions, the demon's DPS was too high for him. He reached Badly Wounded status and managed to take about 3 or 4 more hits while in that red zone. After that his morale failed and he basically said "screw this, Im getting out of here" and started to run away, but the demon scored another hit on him before he could really run anywhere, killing him.
There is no such thing as 100 percent to scribe scrolls, no matter how much intelligence you have. You will be amazed at how many scrolls you fail to scribe even with 21 intelligence. Ninety-six percent, ninety-eight percent chance to be successful, it doesn't matter. Over the course of the game, you *will* fail many times.
If it's a really important scroll that you're trying to scribe, as with an eighth or ninth level spell, (or lower level rare scrolls at certain points in the game, like Lower Resistance), you had really better just lower the difficulty slider until you get it scribed. (Normal and easy difficulty turn off the chance to fail, and more or less make intelligence irrelevant even for mages).
If you fail to scribe Lower Resistance, and a few other spells, with no other scrolls available anywhere in the game, then you are *screwed*, and I mean, *SCREWED* in late Shadows of Amn and in Throne of Bhaal. There are only three or so copies of such rare, critical spells in the whole game. So you *must* not risk failing to learn them.
This is why players often complain about the implementation of the intelligence stat for mages in BG. Just bypass the whole problem by turning down the difficulty slider, at least temporarily. Many people also do the same thing to get max hit points per level when a character levels up.
You can hit 100% scribe chance at 24 INT. If you ABSOLUTELY cannot live without the spell and you ABSOLUTELY refuse to lower the slider for anything, a potion of mind-focusing and a potion of genius stack. 18+7=25. You CANNOT fail scribing when you quaff both of them and rolled max INT.
The trouble with that for new players would be knowing what the critical, rare spells are. Bravo on your knowledge, though.
Hint to new players: dragons. You have to plan your eventual end-game around them in BG2. In BG1, the issue I've raised doesn't matter as much. Although, ahem, fireball, web, haste, and cloudkill, ahem. BG1 sure is easier with them than without them.
I do like Fireball more than Skull Trap for BG1. It's both offensive and defensive at the same time, provided you have the right gear/buffs to make fire heal you.
This is in consideration of the fact that many guides for this game recommend a multi- or dual-class avatar.