another newbie question

[fish-hedd]

Do attributes such as strength increase ? My fighter has levelled up a couple of times, yet his strength stays at 16. I am finding some nice items but they require strength = 18. Not sure if I should start over and try re-rolling more appropriate stats. BTW, thanks everyone for answering my prev questions. The suggestions were helpful.

[pritchke]

No, you set those upon character creation.

You can find items to wear that will increase attributes however.

[Irongrinder]

Also, there are some potions that give you permanent raises (3 out of six times I got a potion of permanent +1 strength adidition at the east of Kuldahar in the Vale)

[Cadaukor]

fish-hedd, you will find some nice strength raising items

Irongrider, those potions are random treasure and they are sadly removed in Heart of winter.

[Peytin of Rothmire]

This is your call Fish-hedd. If you are not to far along in the game, you may want to start over. You can always have two games going at once, just be careful when saving to distinguish between the two. The auto-save will overwrite if you use that.
There is something to be said about having a fighter with 16 Str as, let's face it, not ever fighter would be a superman (or woman). It's true there are items that will raise strength, but instead of raising your fighter from 16 to 17, imagine raising from 18 to 19, with all the applicable damage bonuses and weight allowances.
Here's a quick lowdown for maxing various stats by class:

Str 18 for fighters, paladins, and any frontline. I always tried to max Str for all characters as it helps with weight allowances.

Dex 18 for thieves, fighters, pals, mages, clerics, etc. Everybody benefits due to AC bonuses. I would always try to max this stat regardless of class.

Con 18 for the frontline. HP bonuses. Max out Int for mages and Wis for clerics before worrying about this stat for them.

Int 18 is absolutely necessary for mages if you ever hope to cast the highest level spells. Useless for fighter classes. They can be taken down to 3 if needed to max out other stats.

Wis 18 for clerics, pals, druids,. Anybody who will cast priest spells. Again, pretty useless for frontline fighters.

Cha 18 for your lead character, esp if is a pal or bard. Also for druid.

Bear in mind, some races have natural bonuses. For instance, a gnome can go to 19 Int and halflings can have 19 Dex, great for mages or thieves respectively. You will still have to roll these stats or adjust them up to that number. I think dwarves might get Str bonus also but I don't remember, it's been awhile. As you roll stats, play with numbers to see how high a race can go with each one. Don't be afraid to take your character backwards to get these bonuses, ie. if you start with the idea of creating a gnome fighter and realize you can max Int at 19, make the gnome a mage instead.

[ 02-15-2003, 07:50 AM: Message edited by: Peytin of Rothmire ]

[Irongrinder]

Originally posted by Cadaukor: Irongrider, those potions are random treasure and they are sadly removed in Heart of winter.

Yes, I know they are random, but could it be that there is a bigger chance on it in the Vale? Ofcourse I also got it in another part (don't remember if that one was for strength though). I didn't know about the HoW part though

[Malavon's Rage]

there's also something called an editor.... [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Irongrinder]

Originally posted by Malavon's Rage: there's also something called an editor.... [img]smile.gif[/img]

But that's called cheating, what many people try not to do

[Peytin of Rothmire]

Dalekeeper can be a nice program to have, even if you just play around with it. You can also do things like make evil paladins [img]smile.gif[/img]

If you want a fighter with 18 Str, 18 Dex, and 18 Con you can either spend an hour (potentially) rolling stats or just edit them. Either way, same results. I've only ever used Dalekeeper for stats. I would hesitate to use it to equip armor or weapons as the game balance would be thrown off.

[Dar'tanian]

But dont worry about that if u ever buy IWD2 u can raise you atributes when ever u want!