GameBanshee Forums

I've played BG2, and I know you can use gems to craft items, but do they have any use in BG1, or should I just sell them? I've been hoarding them, because I didn't know if they had a use, and so one of my characters' inventories is completely full of them. I searched everywhere and couldn't find any definitive answers about gems in BG1.

Along the same lines, and for the same reasons, any potions I really need to hold on to, or that are especially useful in parts of the game? Because I haven't needed to use any so far (I'm toward the beginning, though).

Thanks,
~Kienan.

iirc, gems got no use in BG1, except for being sold for gold.

Gems have no use in BG1. In BG2: TOB, some gems can be used in item creation and to reach a certain area in BG2: SOA you need a Rogue Stone.

The gems needed for item creation in TOB:

King's Tear (x2)

Star Sapphire (x5)

Rogue Stone

And, for a Bard-only item (can be used by Thieves with the Use Any Item ability):

Diamond
Emerald
Rogue Stone
Ruby
Sapphire

Every other "normal" gem in the game can be sold without thought.

CFM wrote:iirc, gems got no use in BG1, except for being sold for gold.

That's good enough for me, thanks! That's sort of what I suspected, but I wanted to make sure. Lots of gold and, more importantly, inventory space, here I come!

Heh, look like I had 1,421GP in gems. Thanks again.

EDIT: And, Anarchistica, thank you for responding as well. You find all of those gems in SoA/ToB, though, right? I've never imported a BG1 character to SoA; what items carry over? Because I know that very few carry over. Basically, do I need to save any gems in BG1? Thanks.

All the items you need in BG2 are found in BG2, with the exception of the golden pantaloons that you find in BG1 - but you can edit those into BG2 using shadowkeeper.

Along the same lines, and for the same reasons, any potions I really need to hold on to, or that are especially useful in parts of the game?

Well, up to the end of Chapter 5 (where I'm currently at), I've used 2 potions of mirrored eyes, some potions of clarity and a potions of absorbtion (all these to fight specific enemies). Note that you'll need healing potions a lot, and (probably) antidotes and oils of speed. As for the others - read their description carefully and decide which might prove useful for yourself. Potions such as potion of infravision are pretty useless and should be sold at sight. Oh, and be careful about cursed potions - you can "identify" them by the following line in their description: "the color seems strange somehow".

You can find all required gems in BG2, they do not carry over anyway (dudleyville has a list of items that carry over). If you save the items i mentioned during SOA you can start creating and upgrading items in TOB almost right away.

Potions, Wands, Scrolls, etc are all extras as far as i'm concerned. I usually end up using a handful of healing potions and not using anything else. :/