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Lemernis · 11-01-2001, 09:20 PM

This is a game, after all. It's meant for our enjoyment. I say go ahead and tinker around. Do whatever you like and see whether the results make the game play better, or make it more interesting in some way. The real question here isn't whether it is 'okay' to alter some things here and there, but rather whether any such modifications significantly affect the difficulty of play. Obviously if you make the game too easy then it isn't going to be as fun.

I guess if you wished, you could always compensate for the game being made easier by certain adjustments via game editors if you slide up the difficulty bar.

I'm not sure how faithful BG is to 2nd edition rules with respect to implementing some of the finer details. For example, I'm not sure whether some of the racial features like a half-elf's 30% resistance to charm and sleep spells ever actually made it into the game. But in any case perhaps the developers must have felt that the Con bonus was a big enough advantage (ability to acquire high HP, and at a certain point the ability to rapidly regenerate HP) that to also give them a bonus with a weapon would make them too powerful? But intuitively, you would think that dwarves ought to receive bonuses for both the hammer and the axe. They are the favored weapons of that race. I mean going by any of R.A. Salvatore's books set in the Forgotten Realms, for example, you would think that dwarves should be capable of grandmastery in those particular weapons.

In practice it probably won't make all that much difference if you add the extra prof, and it might be fun to watch the little guy plow through gangs of hobgoblins, etc. Giving a dwarf an extra prof in axes wouldn't really make the character overpowered, nor make the game a total cakewalk, etc. And the game's AI does adjust to the party how tough the party is, although I'm not sure just how detailed the parameters are (i.e., whether it would include something like the number of profs for each character).

The other side of the coin is that with 18 strength and gauntlets of dex or weapons expertise, two weapons profs will still chunk many opponents. Three profs may really not be necessary.

11-01-2001, 09:20 PM	#10
Lemernis Drizzt Do'Urden Join Date: July 8, 2001 Location: New Jersey Posts: 611	This is a game, after all. It's meant for our enjoyment. I say go ahead and tinker around. Do whatever you like and see whether the results make the game play better, or make it more interesting in some way. The real question here isn't whether it is 'okay' to alter some things here and there, but rather whether any such modifications significantly affect the difficulty of play. Obviously if you make the game too easy then it isn't going to be as fun. I guess if you wished, you could always compensate for the game being made easier by certain adjustments via game editors if you slide up the difficulty bar. I'm not sure how faithful BG is to 2nd edition rules with respect to implementing some of the finer details. For example, I'm not sure whether some of the racial features like a half-elf's 30% resistance to charm and sleep spells ever actually made it into the game. But in any case perhaps the developers must have felt that the Con bonus was a big enough advantage (ability to acquire high HP, and at a certain point the ability to rapidly regenerate HP) that to also give them a bonus with a weapon would make them too powerful? But intuitively, you would think that dwarves ought to receive bonuses for both the hammer and the axe. They are the favored weapons of that race. I mean going by any of R.A. Salvatore's books set in the Forgotten Realms, for example, you would think that dwarves should be capable of grandmastery in those particular weapons. In practice it probably won't make all that much difference if you add the extra prof, and it might be fun to watch the little guy plow through gangs of hobgoblins, etc. Giving a dwarf an extra prof in axes wouldn't really make the character overpowered, nor make the game a total cakewalk, etc. And the game's AI does adjust to the party how tough the party is, although I'm not sure just how detailed the parameters are (i.e., whether it would include something like the number of profs for each character). The other side of the coin is that with 18 strength and gauntlets of dex or weapons expertise, two weapons profs will still chunk many opponents. Three profs may really not be necessary.