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Im currently trying to make a PC mage (conjurer) with as high wisdom as possible to abuse the wish spell.. After SoA final battle and Watcher's keep it would have following stats (thanks to tomes in BG1):

Strenght 12
Dex 19
Constitution 16
Intelligence 20
Wisdom 23
Charisma 19

And then I took Edwin into my group for a moment and he has insane amounts of spells! In BG1 Edwins amulet was ok since it was balanced better (amulet of metaspell influence was almost as good), but in BG2 there's nothing comparable, and 2 spells per level is really cheesy. This makes a PC mage completely worthless and that sucks! They could have at least added some better amulets than metaspell influence, or they could have made a small quest to steal edwins amulet or toned it down a bit.

Ha! I remember that from when I took a mage through the entire series. Still, there are a lot of nifty mage items in the game to boost your abilities. The ones that improve your spellcasting speed, for instance, make a big difference.
And a conjurer with your stats, worthless? I don't think so at all. Just wait until you get to the powerful summons.

Edwin's amulet is because he is a Red Wizard. In 2nd ed they were essentially double-specialists and got two extra spells/level. However, they also had 3-4 restricted schools generally, and this countered well. In the game, I think they just took a short cut to give him the extra spells, and in the process made him really powerful.

On the bright side, he's great if you are a tank and only want one spellcaster!

I wonder if some of the people who like Edwin so much would keep him in their parties if he didn't have his amulet.

I don't use many custom items (I feel like they unbalance the game), but I once tried to create an amulet that would double the caster's number of memorized spells. I accidentally inverted a couple of variables and ended up with an amulet that would let a Sorcerer cast about 30,000 spells per day. In case you're thinking that was cool, it made the game slow to a crawl, so it wasn't practical. I did manage to correct the problem, thus producing an amulet that would double the caster's number of memorized spells; but I went on to give it so many cheesy effects (permanent Improved Alacrity, Immunity to Timestop, etc., etc.) that I'd rather not release it into the wild, so to speak.

[QUOTE=VonDondu]I wonder if some of the people who like Edwin so much would keep him in their parties if he didn't have his amulet.
[/QUOTE]

I would. Edwin has his own quest and a distinctive personality (ie, party-written interactions). I agree that the amulet is too much, but others who haven't played multiple times might differ.

Edwin's amulet is because he is a Red Wizard. In 2nd ed they were essentially double-specialists and got two extra spells/level.

Btw, if that is the case, shouldn't he then have 1 spell more per level than normal specialist mages and not 2?




Still, it kinda sucks that a NPC is so much better in everything except abusing wish than a PC mage can ever be.. but I guess that ill just forget Edwin and continue playing the game..

[QUOTE=Joku]Btw, if that is the case, shouldn't he then have 1 spell more per level than normal specialist mages and not 2?[/quote]
Well, I'm not actually sure how many spells/day specialist mages get in BGII. I don't care for playing mages at all, and when I do I dual class to them, so I've never played through a spec mage. The short answer is that Red Wizards would get 1 more spell than a spec mage, and two more than a normal mage. The long answer is thus:

Under 2nd ed rules, spec mages got one more spell/day/level from their school. So, if you got 3 first level spell slots as a normal mage, an illusionist (or invoker, etc) would get 3+1, as long as the extra 1 was an illusion spell.

Red Wizards, following some later 2nd ed rules, were double-specialists. The benefit of that was one extra spell/day/level/specialized school. So, if your red wizard specialized in illusion and abjuration, he would get 3+2 spells/day/level, with those two spells coming from the illusion and abjuration schools. Does this make sense?

The main drawback was that they had twice as many barred schools, anywhere from 2 to 4. Red Wizards are, in essence, uber-specialists.

[QUOTE=Joku]Still, it kinda sucks that a NPC is so much better in everything except abusing wish than a PC mage can ever be.. but I guess that ill just forget Edwin and continue playing the game.. [/QUOTE]
I acutally don't think it is that bad. Edwin is the only straight mage in the game, and as such is a great mage. However, all the other mages come with theif skills (to varying degrees) which includes much broader weapons access, skill sets, and (in the case of Jan) HLAs. Granted, you'll probably never have a single-classes (spec) mage PC that will be as powerful as Edwin, but that is hardly the point- you can dual class, multi-class, or become a sorcerer. My advice- don't miss the forest for the trees