It's actually possible to get a natural strength of 24:

19 STR starting (half-orc or BG1 import)
+3 STR from the nine hells (+1 when you give in to the taint when battling wraith Sarevok - assuming warrior, +2 STR from the tear of bhaal for this challenge)
+1 STR from TMoLTM
+1 STR from the Deck of Many Things (assuming warrior)

Not to contradict anyone, but right now I'm playing a character who started BG1 with 16 STR (when he could have had 18), and now has a natural STR of 23. Meaning, of course, that if I'd given him those other 2 points at Character Creation, he'd have a natural *25* STR right now.

Note: I did cheat, exactly this much: He started BG1 as a Human Fighter, and I used Gatekeeper to change him into a Half-Orc Barbarian. I applied the following changes:
+1 to STR
+1 to CON
-1 to INT
-2 to CHA
+2 hitpoints at every Level Up (in BG1)
and I never let him wear any type of Plate or put more than 2 points into a weapon. So, yes, it's technically cheating, but perfectly fair cheating.

Six? Did you use the stat bosting books in BGI? In particular, did you raise the strength of your character?

If so, then you still can not get 25 strength w/out cheating, becasue its not posible to get both the book and the half-orc stat boost at the same time w/out tinkering with the game files.

[ 12-01-2002, 06:41 PM: Message edited by: Seraph ]

A Brief History of Grint:

* Rolled in BG1 as a Human Fighter. Got a natural roll with 16 STR, 17 DEX, and 18 CON. Kept it. Strength: 16 (could have been 18).
* Used Gatekeeper to (fairly) turn him into a Half-Orc Barbarian. Strength: 17 (could have been 19).
* Gave him the Manual of Gainful Exercise. Strength: 18 (could have been 20).
* Imported to BG2.
* Paid a friendly visit to the Machine of Lum the Mad. Strength: 19 (could have been 21).
* Lucked out with the Deck of Many Things. Strength: 20 (could have been 22).
* Got a +3 STR bonus in Hell, when I was only expecting +2. Strength: 23 (could have been 25).

And there ye have it. (He also has a natural 23 CON, hee hee!)

Well, you've managed to prove that if you edit save game files that you can get higher then normal strength, good for you.

There is no way without cheating to get both of those bonuses at the same time, meaning it is not something that should be brought up in a discussion debateing the usefulness of weapons.

[ 12-01-2002, 11:52 PM: Message edited by: Seraph ]

<font color="lightblue">He applied the exact same bonuses AND penalties as a HalfOrc would get in BG2.
He applied the penalties of the Babarian class.

Therefore, although it is cheating, it is *justified* cheating; and therefore perfectly legitimate. </font>

But he hasn't [img]smile.gif[/img]

In BG2, Half Orcs recieve -2 INT and no penalty to charisma, but get +1 STR and +1 CON. He has applied -1 INT, -2 CHA. Little difference I know, but they're not exact!

What's that got to do with the price of bananas in London on Tuesday morning? The only thing we're worried about here is STR. INT and CHA have absolutely no place in this discussion. Having said that however...

Collier's Dictionary, 1986 Ed. Cheat mean to gain an advantage or profit by culpably dishonest means... [snip] the rest goes on about other meanings of the word, and similar words.

While I don't agree completely that this definition is entirely appropriate in this case, it is still true. Cheating, while possibly justified, in this instance, is still cheating.

[ 12-02-2002, 07:59 AM: Message edited by: White Lancer ]

What's that got to do with the price of bananas in London on Tuesday morning? The only thing we're worried about here is STR. INT and CHA have absolutely no place in this discussion. Having said that however...
</font>[/QUOTE]It does have a place in this discussion because we're talking creating a half orc character in BG1 and then importing to BG2. In order to do this, the stats for the BG1 character need modifying to those that correspond to a half-orc from BG2. These stats mods needed some minor corrections and that's where the INT and CHA came in. How do you like them bananas? ;)

I think your bananas have gone bad. ;p The discussion was about how to get the highest base STR score legitimately. You can do this by simply having your character go through BG1 7 times (7 tommes then [img]graemlins/evillaughter1.gif[/img] ).