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Throne of Bhaal is filled with loot and while most of it is very impressive, some supposedly good items are rather weak in practice.



Aslyferund Elven Chain +5
While in exile from Myth Drannor, Aslyferund learned the secret of fashioning powerful Elven armor by gilding and heavily enchanting normal Elven Chain. Alas, his refusal to divulge the secret lead to his murder by a rival smith.
STATISTICS:
While worn, user is completely immune to all normal weapons.
Armor Class: 0
Weight: 15
Requires: 5 Strength
Not Usable By:
Druid
Mage
This sounds really good, and my Bard was happy to have it, except Everyone and their pet dog had magic weapons! Watch out! That squirrel has a +2 Acorn of Smiting!

What does the rest of the community think about this topic? What other seemingly good equipment is considerably less effectivein practice?

I went to alot of trouble to get this weapon made, only to find that it pretty much sucked in comparison to some of the other longswords out there (especially those in ToB).


The Equalizer
Always considered +3 when determining what it can hit.
THACO& Damage
vs True Neutral: +0 to hit, +0 to damage
vs Chaotic Neutral and Lawful Neutral +1 to hit, +1 to damage
vs Neutral Good, Neutral Evil +2 to hit, +4 to damage
vs other alignments +3 to hit +6 to damage

Damage Type: slashing
Equipped abilities: Immune to charm and confusion
weight 3
speedfactor 3


Though it always seemed cool to get and used, I found it much less effective than one would think, especailly considering the sweetness of other forgable weapons... The only time I found it horribly useful was against certain bosses that you knew had to be evil to the core and so took good damage from it, but it mostly sucks IMO.


@CaptRory I ran into that squirrel you were talking about and he whooped my rear the first time I played him... I had to whip out an imoen simulacrum, and use a scroll of time stop in order to beat him... It took me four tries .

Oh yes, how could I forget The Equalizer. All that wasted effort.

You gotta watch out for those squirrels. They're tricky =)

The AC of 0 is the best armor a Bard can wear and still cast spells isn't it? Maybe I'm thinking of a different set, it's been a while. But the Equalizer, wow! Although the immunities are a good feature.

The point was that you're Immune to Normal Weapons but every common thug has a +3 sword.

Aslyferund: Actually, the guards that attacks the merchant and then you doesn't wear magical weapons. And, since it's good for a multiclassed mage, you can cast prot. from magical weapons and be invulnerable. Heh? Besides, you don't wear it for the immunity, you wear it 'cause it's the best elven chain in the game.

Equalizer: You get it in SoA fairly early, it's an awesome psionic shield and the bonus damage from it actually counts in your main weapon if you're dual-wielding. Best off-hand weapon in SoA? Might be!

None of them are underpowered, I'd guess you've just been looking on them the wrong way.

Yeah, that's what I was trying to say about the Elven chain, I guess I just didn't make my point very well. Thrifalas is right. Maybe I'm being a little too hard on the Equalizer, I guess after acquiring those pieces and everything I just thought it would be unbelievable.

To acuire it you just have to make two small sidetrails during your adventure to underdark as you start with the pomell, it's nowhere like Crom where you have to fight dragons, demons and a whole lotta mind flayers for it. And there's no weapon that's unbelievable in BG (though Carso and SotM comes pretty close ^^)

If you wield equalizer offhand it can help a fighter/thief connect on backstabs vs chaotic evil and lawful evil opponents (+3 Thaco).

If you wield equalizer offhand it can help fighter/mage or bard chuck melfs minute meteors. Extra damage per meteor! I think works for energy blades too?

myrophine

Well I guess when you don't get the last piece until 2/3 of the way through the entire game I thought it would be a lot better than it was. Personally, I would say Crom, Carso, SoTM and the Ravager are pretty unbelievable weapons. The full Flail of the Ages ain't too shabby either.