Now I have the Mage stronghold and a team of apprentices, they have offered to make magical items for me. Is the ring of Protection a bog standard +1 as I have several spare, or something more interesting. Which items do you recommend I pick, as 5 days is a long time to wait and have to re-load back to if I screw up!

Heh. The ever-interesting Mage stronghold. I'm going to well and truly spoil you with this post, so if you don't want to know what can be made, don't read on. Yes, it's a +1 ring, and if you tell them to make it, something will go awry and Larz will get blown up. There's also a chance that they'll fail to make the item, no matter which one you pick. It really doesn't matter. I don't know which item is best out of the first three, you might as well go for the wand. Out of the second set of items (the three scrolls), if you tell them to transcribe Meteor Swarm, another apprentice will be killed. I'd take Horrid Wilting here, since (if I remember correctly, you're a multiclass mage/thief) you'll never get a ninth level spell slot. And for the third lot of items, well, the Staff of Power is definitely the best of the three, but you can't make it unless you kept all your apprentices alive, and if you do make it, they'll all die. I'd take the Ring of Wizardry, even though you can get one somewhere else, as the Robe of Vecna simply dwarfs the Robe of the Apprenti, and the chances of you getting a Staff of Power out of this are very slim. The Staff of the Magi is better, anyway.

Cheers Armisael,
You seemed to have played BG2 all the way through at least once! You must either:
1. Never Sleep
2. Never go out
3. Have no job(or lost it due to never being in on time)
4. Probably all of the above

Whatever thanks for all your tips and my condolences to your partner, as mine is threatening divorce and is more jealous than Jaheira.
I hope with Neverwinter Nights (or BG3?) they allow you to play multiplayer with one PC so my wife will not leave me! Maybe a home network is the answer...

It already is possible just go to multiplayer choose serial (in connect menu) then start a game with all assigned to you (or 2/3 like i now have)

Incidentally, it's possible to finish a game without:
1. Not sleeping
2. Not going out
3. Getting fired
4. All of the above
If it wasn't, I wouldn't play games at all. In fact, I wouldn't have the money to play games. Or eat, for that matter. Think about it.

YEah, im 13, still in school(duh) and my mum is perpetually screaming at me to do my homework it seems that she's casting the Wail of the Banshee herself.

Hey Armisael relaaaaax...
I wasn't having a go at you it was meant as a joke. Obviously irony doesn't travel across the Atlantic too well. No offence intended and thanks for your tips. If I knew how to include tounge in cheek smileys I would have