Hello people can someone please help me? I've played Baldur Gate 1 and 2 before but it has been a long time since. But I always had these nagging questions that I would like to have answered and I would really appreciate it if someone can answer them. One: The ring of protection +1 vs The Amulet of protection which is better? The description for the ring say it gives a +1 bonus to your saving throw and THACO (I think) but the amulet says it gives you a 1. What does this mean? Two: when you're leveling up it says it is reducing your death saving throw (among others types of throw) by a certain amount....is this a good thing? If you can give me answers to these thing I will be a much happier person.

IIRC the ring is better as the necklace to my knowledge does not have a saving throw bonus.
Anything that happens during a level up is usually a good thing. Saving throws like AC are better when they are lower. I had a paladin with negative values in his saving throws before. Almost nothing could touch him. Almost.
Anyway the idea behind saving throws is to roll a 20 sided die or 1d20 and acheive a higher # than your saving throw value. That is at least for 2nd edition ADD rules. Not sure what the rules for 3rd edition are.

This holds true for 2nd edition rules. BG1/TotSC, BG2/ToB, and IWD/HoW/TotLM all work off 2nd edition rules. IWD2 works off 3rd.

The lower your saving throws, the fewer things affect your character. So push those saving throws as low as they can go--same with your Armor Class!

While you're at it, you might want to check out this site. It's not a walkthrough--the author has finally beaten that into our heads. ;) Instead, it's more like a Beginner's Guide to the Baldur's Gate Series and D&D Rules System. (But Volothamp's Comeuppance sounds much better, ne? :D ) If you have a question on how anything in BG2 works, rule-wise, that's a good place to start.

Also check out Dundee's FAQ sticky thread at the top of the BG2 forum page. A lot of newbie questions can be answered with a little bit of research. ;)

BTW, WELCOME TO IRONWORKS! [img]graemlins/thewave.gif[/img]

Ring, Amulet and Cloak of Protection +X are all the same thing. They decrease your AC and all your saving throws by X. Some rules on how to handle them:
+ you cannot equip two of them at the same time (e.g. RoP +1 and CoP +1) so you want to go for the most powerful and equip that one.
+ you cannot equip them when/if wearing magical armor (this applies to anything which fits into the armor slot and was "blue" before identifying as well as items you have magically forged during the game)
+ you can wear them along with other items who give you the same or similar bonuses so if you want to keep your saving throws low you should equip your strongest item "of Protection" along with a nice helmet, shield, belt or whatever does the trick.

Thank you all for your answers they have helped me to understand a little more about the world of Baldur's Gate. But most especially thank you Perengle for the website link you provided. It has given a wealth of answers to question I have always wanted to ask but didn't know how. But also it has given me links to other websites...Like BaldurDash which I had heard mentioned but didn't know how to find. Once again thank you all for your quick response and thank you Perengle.

[ 09-24-2003, 11:20 AM: Message edited by: Azslade ]

what the heck does IIRC mean???

If I recall right. [img]smile.gif[/img]
Check the Forum FAQ

If I recall right. [img]smile.gif[/img]
Check the Forum FAQ </font>[/QUOTE]<font color="cc0099">I think its: 'If I Recall Correctly', Xen ;) .</font>

If I recall right. [img]smile.gif[/img]
Check the Forum FAQ </font>[/QUOTE]<font color="cc0099">I think its: 'If I Recall Correctly', Xen ;) .</font> </font>[/QUOTE]Well if you want to be picky it is also:
"If I remeber right" [img]tongue.gif[/img]

<font color="cc0099">That would be: IIRR [img]tongue.gif[/img] !</font>

is it the ease of use mod that removes that annoying rule that makes you wear only one protection device...well i think it is a little unrealistic not being able to wear several...but its for balancing the game, i guess.

It's extremely overbalancing. It allows you to load your tank with an ungodly number of AC and save boosting items, turning them into a juggernaut. Even in PnP rules, it allows you to wear protection items with magic armor, but you will only get the save bonus, not the AC bonus (the armor overrides it). Let's consider this example:

</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">Human Fighter:

Normal With the &quot;cheat&quot;
Wearing:
Full Plate +1 0 0
Ring of Protection +2 0 -2
Cloak of Protection +2 0 -4
Amulet of Protection +1 0 -5
Stats:
Dexterity 18 -4 -9</pre>[/QUOTE]That is not including the +5 to all saving throws!

Nerull, don't forget that with the cheat, you can wear TWO magic rings, add in the Ring of Gaxx for another +2, and regen

If -9 ac is getting overpowered, it might make you cry to see what a swashbuckler can easily reach in ToB!

-9 AC is in no way overpowered but there are other items (e.g. Ring of Gaxx or Helm of Balduran) which also provide AC boni and are not as easy to come by as a RoP+1. What woudl be overpowered is the saving throw bonus (which also can be reached with other items)

Oh, I wasn't implying that -9 is overpowered. I was just comparing some minimum equipment, just making the point that you can get your tank to ridiculous levels real quick with that mod. Imagine throwing on a great shield, better armor that full plate +1, ring of gaxx, helm of balduran, and wielding Defender of Easthaven. I tried it for a short time, then removed it, because it was just too ridiculous.

Tell this to a Swash in the Final Battle and Ascension on Insane. He <u>will</u> get hit.

Well, that ease of use mod is in no way overpowered. You can get your AC to -14 mayb e, but still get the snot kicked out of your nose by balors and high-level enemies.

The point is that you can get your AC to low levels easily and very early in the game when you don't have to face hard enemies yet. The point of RPG games is to earn your special items that get you down to -25AC in fights against hard opponents not buy them. Also it's more about the saving throws than the armor class which will not do you any good against harder enemies. But if you manage to get incredible saving throw boni early in the game enemies lick a Lich won't be as dreadful anymore and you lose good game fun.

Let me just do a quick calculation for a high level Swashi with this part of the mod: A level 40 Elven Swashbuckler with 21(22?) dex(legit)

Dex AC bonus +5
Class bonus +8
Grandmasters Armor with AC 1
Ring of Gaxx +2
Ring of Protection +3
Cloak of Prot. +2
Helm of Balduran +1(via use any item)
Amulet of the Master Harper +3
The Sentinel +5(UAI)
Twinkle +2 AC

lets see, that'll make it AC 1-5-8-2-3-2-1-3-5-2 which is an AC of -30. then of course you could use a (full)plate with an AC of -2, dropping the ac to -33. temporarily you could achive an AC of -43 with Greater Evasion and Improved Bard's Song. There may be yet some spell that would further increase(or decrease, if you prefer) the AC, or something that i might have missed, but a -43 is pretty good, if you ask me...

I think it should just follow the rules -- 2d ed. PnP style. If there are two many +2 rings to trip over in Faerun, well that's a designer's problem (hang it on bioware or WotC) -- bending the rules and changing them to fit into the land of "Oh, yet another vorpal weapon -- *yawn* " is going about things arse backwards if you ask me.

For some reason rather then just removing armor from the list in itemexcl.2da (I believe thats the file), which would still have prevented wearing more than one ring/amulet/cloak of protection but allowed wearing magical armor plus one ring/amulet/cloak of protection, Weimer decided for some reason that I can't understand to removed everything and allow any combination to be worn.

Nerull: Your forgetting that you can have two rings of protection on at the same time.

If I recall right.
Check the Forum FAQ </font>[/QUOTE]I think its: 'If I Recall Correctly'</font>[/QUOTE]"If I remeber right"</font>[/QUOTE]That would be the spelling of alternate "right" that starts with a 'c' cright?

Except IIRC is an acronym... [img]tongue.gif[/img] Anyways, isn't there a cap limit of AC? I think it's -24 or something...

Good Lord. Seraph your beginning the vicious mass quotation cycle all over again?

is there really? ive never gone that low, so it would be theoretically possible to get that low...