On Firebead Elvenhair, exactly 30 times is the key. 29 or 32 times and it does not happen. After you click on him the 30th time, there is a 4-5 second pause before the 300gp appears in your gold stash. It is easy to mess this up.
You can repeat this the next time you speak with him in Beregost for an additional 300 gold, for 600gp in total. The same procedure applies.
I have done this in every pre-EE and EE BG game I have ever played. It works every time if you get the counts right.
I am not sure if this has already been mentioned, but you can pickpocket the gnome Dushai in Ulgoth's Beard for a Ring of Free-Action. This is an excellent tool for dealing with spiders and also mages casting web pre-boots of speed. It also opens up wonderful tactical options, e.g. mage casts web and tank heads into the web yelling "time for some carnage.
Actually the Firebeard trick still works in ee. Talk to him and get the quest. Then talk to him exactly 29 more times and wait. You will get 300 gold.
I don't know what version you have but I just tested it on BGEE v1.3 and talked to him 40 times - without any effect
Note the word "exactly" in my sentence. You have to talk to him a total of 30 times, including his original quest dialog. You must wait about 5 seconds after the 30th time and you will see the notice in my screenshot.
In my BG-TotSCVan. You can actually pull this off twice. Both in Candlekeep and in Beregost. I generally use it to buy Reputation pts.
Yeah. I always get to Rep.13 [which in my game is the first rank costing more than 100gp] as early as possible so the various Rep+1 rewards stack up quickly. I usually more than recoup the investment when buying various moderately expensive items in Chap 1-2 Beregost locations.
I do the Firebead trick every time I start a new game but had no idea that you could also do that in Beregost.
On buying reputation: I think I have never bought rep points from temples. Not even once. BG1 throws reputation points at you like they were vegetables and you were Fozzy the bear.
I use the BGTweaks option to reduce rep point awards by over 75% in my set-up. I still find myself usually in the high teens by the end regardless. I also remove the reputation effect on store prices.
Girdle of piercing from the Ogre south of friendly arm inn is good. Greywolf's sword is amazing considering how early you can get it. Bastard sword +1 in the beregost smithy.
For a half-orc or dwarf starting with 19 Con, it is well worth buying the +1 Con buckler from the Friendly Arm Inn. 20 Con gets you regen, which at low level, means entering every map at full health for that PC, or similarly free heal when resting over night. Let's you focus your party healing on the other 5 members, and maybe make divine casters useful for more than heals that much earlier.
One of the cheesy moves is to switch in the buckler just before resting/traveling, if you want the healing, and using a more protective shield (or dual weapon) the rest of the time. Mostly, that is too much micromanagement for me though
I believe feature, but seems like a quasi-oversight to provide a +1 magical weapon so cheaply. When I use Kagain, this is my go-to weapon until I can afford the +1 battle axe at Feldpost's. But I cannot count how many times I have accidentally switched from melee to thrown, even a few times when this was my last axe after using the rest of his stack as ranged weapons.
In BG1 I have recently used bucklers and shields and throwing daggers. Could the shield prohibition be from something else, e.g. low strength, class restrictions?
The half ogre with the belt fetish that one character in the Friendly Arm Inn wants you to kill drops a very good belt and he isn't too hard to kill if you have ranged weapons. In fact I never complete that quest now cus it's much better to just keep the belt and pass on a few measly EXP. points I'll gain back later in the game. The belt is called Elves Bane I believe and gives +3 AC to piercing and missile attacks, which is a great AC boost early in the game against ranged foes.
In BG1 I have recently used bucklers and shields and throwing daggers. Could the shield prohibition be from something else, e.g. low strength, class restrictions?
Fighter/Thief, Half-Orc, 19 STR. For sure it's nos a class or strength restriction.
Weapon Slot 1: Short Sword +2
Weapon Slot 2: Throwing Daggers
Can't equip shield.
Weapon Slot 1: Short Sword +2
Weapon Slot 1: Heart of the Golem (dagger +2)
Can equip shield.
Edit: That's odd. Reloaded my save to print a screenshot and this time I was able to equip the shield.
Comments
You can repeat this the next time you speak with him in Beregost for an additional 300 gold, for 600gp in total. The same procedure applies.
I have done this in every pre-EE and EE BG game I have ever played. It works every time if you get the counts right.
On buying reputation: I think I have never bought rep points from temples. Not even once. BG1 throws reputation points at you like they were vegetables and you were Fozzy the bear.
I just use it when I screw things up in an evil run.
One of the cheesy moves is to switch in the buckler just before resting/traveling, if you want the healing, and using a more protective shield (or dual weapon) the rest of the time. Mostly, that is too much micromanagement for me though
Why are there no +1 throwing daggers???
Anybody knows if it is supposed to work this way?
Weapon Slot 1: Short Sword +2
Weapon Slot 2: Throwing Daggers
Can't equip shield.
Weapon Slot 1: Short Sword +2
Weapon Slot 1: Heart of the Golem (dagger +2)
Can equip shield.
Edit: That's odd. Reloaded my save to print a screenshot and this time I was able to equip the shield.