+2 protection items, magical armour

Rav · Post by **Rav** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 10:10 am

I was wondering about what you people did with the +2 protection items when you enter the late stages of the game and start finding powerful magic armour.

No matter how powerful, I always find it better to have the saving throw bonus and a non magical suit of armour. What do you do?

Rav

Galuf the Dwarf · Post by **Galuf the Dwarf** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 11:28 am

That's often the route I take, unless I have other powerful rings and magical armor to equip (particularly in the BG2 expansion).

The one class that I often don't bother going through with a Ring of Protection (unless I have reason to feel otherwise) is the Paladin. Those guys have really good saving throws for a class anyways.

Raumoheru · Post by **Raumoheru** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 11:32 am

hehe i just use weimer's ease of use mod

krunchyfrogg · Post by **krunchyfrogg** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 4:01 pm

My parties usually have two mages, so they take the items of protection.

While a bonus to a saving throw is good, so is armor that grants resistances. And having a really low AC keeps you alive for a while as well.

Erenor · Post by **Erenor** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 4:08 pm

I never did understand this concept. Why can't you wear both magical jewelry and magical armor at the same time? It doesn't make sense! I usually just mix and match to see which ends up giving me the lowest AC. Normally, I kind of forget about those saving throws. Oops.

Cuchulain82 · Post by **Cuchulain82** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 4:23 pm

I never did understand this concept. Why can't you wear both magical jewelry and magical armor at the same time? It doesn't make sense!

I agree. I played alot of pen & paper 2nd ed, and I don't think there was a rule about mixing rings of prot. with magical armor. If there was it came later, not in a core sourcebook. I remember reading a dragon magazine ariticle about limiting the number of magical items a character could use, but nothing about mixing armor and rings/cloaks/amulets of protection.

I understand why, from a gaming perspective, a house rule might be to not allow protection items with magical armor. But from a "logical" point of view I don't get it. Not being able to have more than one protective item (ie- amulets and rings) I could understand, but that isn't the case in SOA- you can mix Rings +2 with Rings +1 (this is correct, right?). That makes even less sense to me.

Rav · Post by **Rav** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 4:47 pm

[QUOTE=Cuchulain82]I agree. I played alot of pen & paper 2nd ed, and I don't think there was a rule about mixing rings of prot. with magical armor.[/QUOTE]In pnP 2e, you could wear both magical armour and use a protection item, but you would only gain the armor class bonus from either one, not both. Perhaps this was too hard to code.

Rav

lompo · Post by **lompo** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 3:09 am

[QUOTE=Cuchulain82] Not being able to have more than one protective item (ie- amulets and rings) I could understand, but that isn't the case in SOA- you can mix Rings +2 with Rings +1 (this is correct, right?).

[/QUOTE]

No! unfortunatly you can't wear two rings of protection or a ring/amulet combo.
I agree that seems illogical but probably the rule was meant for balancing reason (using ease of use mod you can reach very high ac easly, thus becoming almost unhittable for the moster of your level).

But anyway there are quite a few exceptions, some protective items don't count, so you can stack them:

Red drago scale (yes!, in SoA you can wear it with other protective items, not in ToB though)

Unique cloaks: Balduran, Sewers, High Forest have bonus to AC
All the bracers
All Robes: Vecna, Archimagi and Apprentice improve AC
All the Helms: Balduran, Glory, Vahilor and some ioun stones have bonus to AC
Unique rings/amulets: Gaax, Earth control have bonus to AC
Any weapon that adds bonus to AC
Any shield (obvious

)
Various items that give bonus to AC for specific damage (slashing etc.)

Considering the many other good jewels/cloaks available, and the fact that in ToB AC will count much less, it isn't a great loss not being able to stack items of protection, and IMO is better to use the best armour available (also for the other bonuses apart the AC).

krunchyfrogg · Post by **krunchyfrogg** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 5:25 pm

RE Lompo:

Can you get the Cloak of Balduran in BGII, or only in BGI? I've never been able to find the thing in BGII.

BTW, just a little nitpick: The mage robes don't improve AC, they set it (to 5). If you're wearing better bracers (such as AC 3, for example), those take precedence.

Raumoheru · Post by **Raumoheru** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 5:55 pm

cloak of balduran is in BG2's files, but is not accessible in the game.

just a perk for going through BG1 and continuing on to BG2 i guess.

btw, if you download weimer's tactics mod then you can get one after killing a lich in the docks district.

krunchyfrogg · Post by **krunchyfrogg** » Fri Mar 25, 2005 1:03 am

Wow, that's really cool!

I remember doing the "pause and drop all your stuff" trick when I was importing my old character once, but I left the cloak in Johnny's Dungeon because it just felt too cheesey!