[SixOfSpades]

Originally posted by Pirengle the BNM: There is nothing to purchase in Ust Natha. ... Oh, sure, that dagger +3 looks nice. Might help if a character of mine had proficiency points in daggers. And that +4 halberd would be a sweet items, except Minsc just loves dual-wielding Daystar and a +3 drow longsword.

Trust me, there is quite an impressive load of stuff to buy (or steal) for you in Ust Natha: The best shield in the game, the 2nd-best Spear, a great Mage Robe for Edwin or Jan, a kickass Amulet....etc. Perhaps you only spoke to one of the Drow Merchants, instead of all 3. Oh well, too late now.

I took the advice of an earlier posting and waited until chapter 6 to install the improved items mod. I was expecting more weapons I couldn't use. I checked out the Adventurer's Mart first. My tongue was lolling out of my mouth and onto the floor all over Ribald's boots.

Just FYI, the Item Upgrade MOD is completely independent of Ribald's "special" items--Ribald grants you access to his secret stash in Chapter 6, whether you've got any MODs installed or not.

"If you give me some stuff the mind flayers dropped in the Underdark, I can make gear that will protect you from mind flayers." Whoop-de-doo, Cromwell.

I agree--if you don't have ToB, all the Illithid-related equipment is almost literally useless--you can give the Shield of Harmony a +1 boost to its AC bonus, whoopie. :|

Skullcrusher would be lovely, but the only enemies in my foreseeable future are vampires and Chancellor Gorkon. I doubt the +6 damage to humanoids applies to soul-stealing elves or Klingon leaders.

Actually, it does. Humanoid doesn't necessarily mean Human--Pretty much all laterally bifurcated, bipedal four-limbed creatures within the size range of any of the playable races--Half-Orc through Halfling--counts as humanoid. If Hold Person works on it, Skullcrusher does too.

This enhanced archmagi robe seems nice, but I still have a set of Drow elven chain +3 among the adamantite dust. Might invest in that if the armor crumbles as well.

Any Drow item that did not disintegrate when you left the Underdark is a bug, and it will *all* disintegrate eventually, or at least it will if you have ToB. Sure, the Elven Chain grants a better AC, but the Enhanced Robe has better Saves, spell memorization, and Magic Resistance.

Holy buckler of Amaunator? By Helm, that's powerful! ...... I'm a cleric/ranger, and somehow using the symbol of a god involved with my town protection duties seems wrong.

How does helping a Good-aligned God out of two big messes, and then taking his Holy Symbol and affixing it to the boss of your shield seem wrong? It's not like you're destroying it or anything, it's still even named after the guy.

I was just expecting some things, and got others, and I'm a little disappointed. I was hoping for brand-new items on a par with the easter egg Crom Faeyr. More of a treasure hunt sort of thing. Like incorporating mithril tokens, Dace's hand, Qilue's brain, fake silver dragon eggs, low-end rare gems like tchazar and moonstone gems to make strange new items. What I found here was "take Good Item, add Easy to Find Gem(s), add Easy to Earn Money, and together they make Better Item That Just So Happens to Protect Against an Extremely Troublesome Effect. A variation on this formula can create "Better Item That Is +4 or +5 So You Can Hit Late-Game Enemies With It."

Well, about the "Incorporating Quest Items that become useless after the Quest is completed:" Didn't we just cover the Holy Symbol of Amaunator? And then there are items like the Mind Flayer Birthing Brine, the Demon Hearts, etc. Sure, there are still some items left over, such as the paintings from Spellhold, but Weimer can't find uses for everything, you know. About the incorporating low-end gems: Why do you think I wrote in the 5 Sunstone gems for the Holy Buckler? And yes, the upgrade does "Protect Against an Extremely Troublesome Effect," because without this Buckler, Thieves have no protection whatsoever against Level Drain. And since PC Thieves can't work for Bodhi, that means they have to resort to the cheese of Protection From Undead. That (and the reason that enchanted Bucklers were--and still are--SORELY lacking in the game) is why I designed the Buckler in the first place. And what's wrong with raising the level of enchantment? If a player has fallen in love with a weapon, s/he hates to feel obliged to lay it aside simply because they can get better THAC0 bonuses with something else.

Carrying items such as Azuredge +4 or Water's Talon +4 decreases that risk and, IMO, decreases the fun. Take the immunities off these items, or put these things on the item as once-per-day rechargable stats, and they'd be great.

The Illithium/NPP immunity makes perfect sense to me, although you do have a point, I don't think Rashad's Talon, Adjatha the Drinker, or the Water's Edge had anything to do with Charm, Confusion, or Horrid Wilting. Weimer was trying to FINALLY give Druids a really good melee weapon (with which he succeeded in his Clubs), and he wanted to give it some additional enchantments--I just don't understand the motivation behind the ones he chose.