High Intelligence - any use?

[Philos]

Ring of Human Influence

Ah, good point, forgot about that.
In fact that ring is one of items I was speaking of, that my PC has. But since he is a Paladin with a 17 Cha anyway it only gives him +1. I was forgetting that the ring boosts the Charisma to 18 from whatever and not just add +1. Taking that into consideration, I guess you might as well default to intelligence.

[SP101]

I agree... there's ALOT(perhaps too much) Charisma enhancing items in Baldur's Gate 2.

Ring of Human Influence (Cha is set a 18)
Blade of Roses (+2 Cha)
Helm of Glory (+1 Cha)
Nymph Cloak (+2 Cha)
Plate of Balduran (+1 Cha)
Sensate Amulet (+2 Cha)
...
Boots of the West (+1 Cha) (Note : These were removed from the game I believe... and added back by Unfinished Business)

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I'm probably missing at least one... but the fact is there : almost any classes (if not any) can raise their Charisma from a low score to 20+ quite easily.

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Class (Maximum Cha attainable in unmodded game) : Items needed.
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Mages (25) : Ring of Human Influence (=18), Nymph Cloak (+2), Friend (+6).

Clerics (24) : Ring of Human Influence (=18), Balduran Plate (+1), Helm of Glory (+1), Sensate Amulet (+2 Cha), Nymph Cloak (+2 Cha)

Fighter (24) : Ring of Human Influence (=18), Balduran Plate (+1), Helm of Glory (+1), Nymph Cloak (+2 Cha), Blade of Roses (+2 Cha)

Thieves (22) : Ring of Human Influence (=18), Nymph Cloak (+2 Cha), Blade of Roses (+2 Cha)

Etc...

Off course, you do NOT want to permanently wear all those Charisma enhencers... so you could just choose the easy way : sell the Ring of Human Influence, and give your Character a natural 18 Charisma upon creation.

[Deadalready]

What I do is keep the Ring of Human Influence in a gem bag and wait till I need to buy something expensive, then I take out the ring and cast Friends before buying.

[TinyMage]

[QUOTE=Philos]TinyMage,

You said "Its just a tossup between int and charisma for me, and I go for int."
Not disagreeing with you, just some food for thought, but Charisma has its uses too.[/QUOTE]

I am well aware of charisma's uses. If I want better store prices I have a NPC mage with the ring of human influence + nymph cloak cast friends on themselves and put them in the #1 spot when I go to buy stuff.

Its not like my pc's have 3 charisma, they usually have 10 or more. I don't like to put any stat down to 3, even if it does nothing.

[Philos]

Tiny Mage
No offense intended. From your post yesterday about setting ability scores I would never have though you would run something down to 3.

Nice chart SP
It sure does seem as though the game has nullifed the main use that Charisma has with that ring of human influence. I imagine a fighter/mage could really nuke it out by casting friends, and then putting on the armor and weapons that enhance Charisma.

[sdwillie]

High intelligence is GREAT! It gives you a feeling of natural superiority that you just don't get from idiots.

As far as the game goes it makes scribing marginally easier, which is pointless since dropping the difficulty all the way eliminates the chance to fail, so no benefit there(unless you forget to raise the difficulty back when you're done and leave the game at 'cakewalk'). It can also make your mage more of a pain if you aren't in the habit of removing spells you don't use from your spellbook. You also gain a bonus to lore for every point above 14. Otherwise the only real benefit is the change you'll get by selling all the potions of genius and mind focusing you'd otherwise need for illithid. Characters with a low intelligence can cost a fair amount in getting and keeping INT high enough to take care of all the illithid in the game while someone with a high INT can take a few out and wait for the INT drain to wear off, saving a little gold.

I guess the answer you're looking for is this: No, there's no real advantage to having an INT above 18.

[krunchyfrogg]

If you can get a 19 INT, that's the way to go. It'll allow a mage to memorize every spell of any level. Other than that, the higher your INT, the better your Lore will be.

INT doesn't affect Sorcerers at all, even though the text lists it as a prime requisite. Since Sorcerers don't have a good Lore anyway, there's really no point to pumping INT. This isn't 3rd edition either, so they don't need CHA to cast. A Sorcerer can rock this game with very low stats (I still suggest a high CON (HP are low), DEX (AC and missile attacks), and WIS (helps with Wish-related spells).