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Old 06-16-2001, 10:44 PM   #1
Sir Jaren Tor
Dungeon Master
 

Join Date: June 13, 2001
Location: Elizabethtown, PA USA
Posts: 78
The cloak of mirroring seems to be under fire as the kind of "ultimate defense" against beholders. Well as far as I'm concerned having the cloak is fine. My DM has given out rings that have an identical function (Ring of Spell Turning). The real problem is that Beholders are supposed to have a Conical Anti-Magic shell projecting from their main eye. This means that ANY magical item is rendered normal while you're in front of it. So really, the only way to beat the beholder is from behind (because it requires a magical weapon to actually hit it) or from the side, which is obviously not the case in BG2.

Also, much to my chagrin, two weapon fighting is supposed to be available only to fighters and rogues. Some people are convinced that only rangers are allowed to fight with two weapons, but according the the rule book next to me (2nd edition, pg 127 players handbook) that theres a -2/-4 penalty that can be offset with high dex. Which is supposed to be the only requirement. It's rather frustrating I think.

Anyone else with similar gripes?

------------------
Awww geez, not another chaotic neutral? Where do these people come from anyway?
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Old 06-16-2001, 11:20 PM   #2
sunder
Zhentarim Guard
 

Join Date: May 29, 2001
Location: harwood, md.
Posts: 381
Well, as to the beholder thing, Beholders in BG2 aren't quite as powerful as beholders in the D&D world. This isn't an exact copy game, they made beholders a bit weaker, plus no computer AI would compare to what a beholder would actually do in the same circumstances.

A beholder in the D&D world has a anti-magic eye, so anything in the front of it that was close enough would be affected by its anti-magic ray, which cancel's protective spells, any spells thrown at the beholder from the front, etc.
A cloak of mirroring is suppose to only reflect damaging magical spells, such as magic missiles, cause wound rays, but it actually reflects many other things which it really isn't suppose to. Thus many people call it a cloak of cheating.
A real beholder has a dozen eyestalks which cast different spells, about 6 of which can face any direction. Thus if you were attacking a beholder, you would be attacked by about 6 different attacks plus the antimagic ray from the front. Death ray, petrify ray, disintegrate ray, telekinesis ray, many others. If you were attacking it with a cloak of mirrors, it might disintegrate the floor from under you, or levitate rocks at you. And it sure wouldn't attack the person wearking the cloak once if knew you had the cloak on. It would attack someone else.
But here, if you are in front and have the cloak, it will cast and keep casting at you until it dies from its own attacks, which is silly, but hey, its a game. If you are in combat with a mage and cast magic missile at him, and he has a spell reflection which throw them back at you, are you going to turn around and keep casting them? No, because its gonna hurt! You cast something else.

What would be cool for the beholders in the game to do would be to cast dispel magic each round as part of their normal ability, to simulate the anti-magic eye. And to have a code that makes them NOT cast their powers at someone with a cloak of mirrors, a shield of balduran, or something similiar on. A beholder is suppose to be smart.
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Old 06-16-2001, 11:28 PM   #3
sunder
Zhentarim Guard
 

Join Date: May 29, 2001
Location: harwood, md.
Posts: 381
Oops, now to 2 weapon fighting.

They made it so that pretty much anyone can learn 2 weapon fighting, but only certain classes will be good at it enough to actually use it. A mage won't be good at it, a cleric? not so hot either. A thief? maybe a little.

They have it so that the warriors in the game will prosper with it, and that includes dual class or multi class ones. You won't get a good dual weapon monk either LOL.
A warrior of all the classes would be able to learn it if anyone could. That is what fighters do, they do weapons. Rangers have a nack for 2 weapon fighting, even though some other classes might become superior at it.

You can train anyone to fight with 2 weapons, but your regular mage will suck very much at it. With only 1 point in 2 weapons and 1 point proficiencies, will be very very bad at it. A regular cleric also, with 2 points they will be better than a mage, but still not max proficient with the abilitiy.
Now, a ranger with 3 points to dual weapons and 3 points to a weapon will be very good. A fighter with 3 points to dual weapons and a Grandmaster weapon will be even better, but the ranger gets 2 points already, so can jump up a little quicker.

SO in most peoples eyes, even thinking of putting a regular cleric, druid, mage, monk, maybe theif into 2 weapon style is a waste of proficiency points. You have to dual class or multi-class those classes in order to have the fighter part to be able to use them good. If you can't put 3 points into dual weapons, I consider it a waste of time putting only 1 or 2 points into it.
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