Should everybody wear a helmet?

krunchyfrogg · Post by **krunchyfrogg** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 6:08 pm

There is no helmet skill in this game, and as far as I can tell, there is no arcane spellcasting failure chance either.

Is there any reason everybody shouldn't be wearing a helmet?

mr_sir · Post by **mr_sir** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 7:32 pm

been ages since i played but as far as i can remember there is no reason not to give everyone a helmet.

Sparrow · Post by **Sparrow** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 10:12 pm

As far as I can tell, the helmets do nothing in this game, so putting one on a character just depends on whether you like the way they look.

There is one very good helmet in the game, but talking about it would be a spoiler, so I won"t.

Drat, I just thought of another one- it isn"t much, but it"s better than the basic helm. You'll find it.

silverdragon72 · Post by **silverdragon72** » Fri Nov 11, 2005 1:20 am

.

helmets, caps or whatever your PC can wear on his head, doesn't have any negative effects besides they are cursed!

...but there are not that many good ones you will find!

.

dj_venom · Post by **dj_venom** » Fri Nov 11, 2005 5:38 am

In BG2, they helped against critical hits, I can't remember if it is the same here.

bariumdose · Post by **bariumdose** » Fri Nov 11, 2005 4:16 pm

In the helmet stats, at least for un-magic ones, it says they protect against critical hits.

silverdragon72 · Post by **silverdragon72** » Sat Nov 12, 2005 6:18 am

[QUOTE=bariumdose]In the helmet stats, at least for un-magic ones, it says they protect against critical hits.[/QUOTE]

only some of the basic helmets have this description - and I'm not 100% sure if they really avoid double damage!

ammama · Post by **ammama** » Sat Nov 12, 2005 7:17 am

I'm pretty sure they do protect from criticals

Endugu · Post by **Endugu** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 2:56 pm

They dont - at least according to this post that one of the designers made on the old Black Isle boards. (Im pretty sure that unmagical helms dont have any mechanical benefit/penalty, too)
Though maybe a patch changed this?

Originally posted by J.E. Sawyer on the topic of "No armor class or prevent crit hits bonus of IWD2 helmets"

It is for the sake of the high fantasy ideal that I don't think there should be benefits to wearing helmets (and probably one of the reasons why WotC did as well).
Helmets frequently make CRPG characters look stupid, plain and simple. It doesn't matter how cool the helmet might look on its own. When it's combined with random suits of armor, it winds up looking dumb, dumb, dumb. If you provide a large (or even small) benefit for wearing a helmet, the people who can't (or don't) are being penalized for it. In IWD2, helmets provide a purely cosmetic benefit (or penalty, depending on how you look at it). Considering how much the people on this board complain about their characters' appearance, I would have expected a more positive reaction to removing the unfair advantage helment-wearers enjoyed in previous IE games.

Most fantasy heroes as portrayed in films do not wear helms precisely because they do tend to make the wearer look silly. Take Mad Martigan in Willow, for instance. Without a helmet, he looks like a cool swashbuckling adventurer. With a helmet, he looks like a dork. Lancelot in Excalibur. Looks fairly cool with a helmet, much cooler without a helmet.
Disagree?
Well, there's certainly nothing preventing you from wearing a helmet in IWD2, but there's nothing preventing other users from leaving them in the trash bin.

edit: should have been 'that', not 'they'

krunchyfrogg · Post by **krunchyfrogg** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 4:42 pm

a) thats rediculous
b) how can i access the old black isle boards?

Endugu · Post by **Endugu** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 8:24 am

a) Thats open for debate.

b) You cant, as they have been taken offline long time ago. At least I dont know how to (but arent there sites/programms that save and let you revisit some old sites?).
Its just that I saved that quote on my harddrive, because I thought it to be an interesting insight into the developers' minds.

edited to clarify

krunchyfrogg · Post by **krunchyfrogg** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 4:26 pm

[QUOTE=Endugu]
Its just that I saved that quote on my harddrive, because I thought it to be an interesting insight into the developers' minds.

[/QUOTE]...and it is! BTW, I just finished watching 'The Two Towers' again, and I still think helmets look killer.

myrophine · Post by **myrophine** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 7:52 pm

I think the thief and the bard look pretty cool with the hoods though (better than the helms). The female warriors look ridiculous in the feminine armor - are they tanning their legs?

myrophine

Sparrow · Post by **Sparrow** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 8:32 pm

Helmets look really good on dwarves. It should be some sort of rule- dwarves are required to wear helmets. With horns. Yes, definitely with horns.

Thieves look good with hoods. I edited the Shadow Dragon Armor in Baldurs Gate 2 so that Imoen could wear it. It made her one of the best looking game characters I've ever played. She looks exactly the way she should- like in the intro cinematic.