Do wands in Baldur's Gate have limited charges?

Question

I did not see any description in-game about the number of charges left in a magic wand, neither did I find anything in the manual or online. I tried out a few wands (wand of missiles, lightning, etc.), but after a few dozen uses I got bored.

Do magic wands and wand-like magic items (necklance that shoots fireballs, etc.) have really unlimited charges? I'm talking about BG1, but I'm interested for an answer for BG2 as well.

Asked by vsz

Answer

Yes, as in official DnD rules, unless it states otherwise in the wand's description, wands have a limited number of charges. According to the answer here,

Yes, wands have limited charges. One charge is used every time you use the wand (unless the item description says that it uses more charges). The number of charges can vary anywhere from 10-50.

BG1 does not show the number of charges left, so it is just guesswork to determine how many charges you have left. BG2...shows the number of charges if you have the wand in a quick-slot.

Sorcerous Sundries, an arcane shop in the city of Baldur's Gate, sells an unlimited quantity of all the wands in the game. So you don't need to be stingy with wand usage, since you can just buy more when they run out.

and

You can easily recharge wands by selling them and then immediately buying them back, or stealing them...

Obviously a shop that has infinite supply and sell/buy to recharge are both in violation of Official DnD rules, but they do exist in these games.

Also, while there is no direct way of checking the charges left in a wand in the first Baldur's Gate, you can infer how many charges are left in a wand by the amount that a wand will sell for.

Answered by skovacs1

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Baldur's Gate: Why is the mage book grayed out on Jaheira?

Question

She has a heal spell that is single use unless it is memorized. Her mage book screen is grey so I can't manipulate it. Is she just worthless or am I doing something wrong?

Answer

It's been a long time, but I believe in Baldur's Gate there's a distinction between "Mage Spells" (which are in the mage book) and "Priest Spells" which are in the Priest scroll.

Have you checked her Priest scroll?

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Where can I find maps for Baldur's Gate?

Question

Years and years ago I put about 200 hours into Baldur's Gate and was getting near the end. Then that computer died and my new one was not able to run it due to problems with XP. I'm considering going back to the game now that patches are easily available, but the maps site I was using to find all the cool hidden areas has gone down. It was http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/m.james/ and it had great lablled maps, but it is long offline, and Wayback didn't archive the maps. I've looked around, but never run into anything as nice since: Does anyone have suggestions for maps that show the location of secrete/hard to find areas?

Answer

I think this is the best map for the job.

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Once I replace a party member in Baldur's Gate, can I ever get him back?

Question

Playing Baldur's Gate 1 in BGT

When I meet a new NPC and he asks me or I ask him to join the party, if my party is full, I can remove one of the previous members. But while some stay wherever I left them, others just leave out of the screen (Khalid for example), is there a way to get them back later on, if I want to, or is the NPC gone forever ?

It is kind of strange, since you can't event see the new guy's stats before making your decision.

Answer

This is coming entirely from my memory, so please forgive me for any mistakes:

Most party members will stay where you put them (or if you say 'No' to them when they want to join). There are a number of exceptions though:

• If you remove Kivan, he stays gone for good.
• If you remove Shar-Teel, she stays gone for good.
• If you say 'No' to Jaheira and Khalid the first time, you can never get them again.
• Furthermore, if you kick out one of them, the other goes as well.
• If you say 'No' to Edwin with Dynaheir in your party, you can never get him again.
• If you say 'No' to Viconia the first time, you can never get her again.
• The same goes for Branwen and Yeslick
• If you make Xan leave by being rude, he's also gone forever.

Basically, whenever a party member leaves beacuse of arguments or disagreements they are gone for good.

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Baldur's Gate: what shield size should I use?

Question

I'm not familiar with the mechanics of AD&D at all and haven't played many games like this before (I played Dragon Age: Origins). I tried looking on the web but there was very little information.

I'm a Chevalier (Paladin/Fighter) with proficiency in long sword and 1 sword / 1 shield style. Playing Baldur's Gate 1 in BGT.

There are 3 size of shields, and I don't know what the advantages and disadvantages of each are?

Answer

IIRC, Baldur's Gate used fairly accurate 2nd Edition AD&D Rules.

In 2nd Edition AD&D, the size of the shield translated into the number of attacks per round that the shield provided an armor bonus against.

E.g. a small shield would provide a +1 bonus (+/- any magical modifiers) to only the first attack in that round. A medium shield could be used to block against more attacks per round than a small, and a large more than a medium.

The downsides of larger shields are weight restrictions (the bigger they are, the heavier), and class restrictions (some classes are restricted to small shields.

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Baldur's Gate: Understanding weapon damage

Question

I have a very limited understanding of D&D concepts. How does weapon damage work in Baldur's gate?

Answer

Baldur's gate I & II use a modified AD&D 2nd edition, if I'm not mistaken.

The damage itself is expressed in dice, so e.g. 1D6 means you throw one six-sided die and count the sum of it. 2D8 means you throw two eight-sided dice and count the sum of the two dice. The damage gets subtracted from the hitpoints of your enemy.

Armor class (AC) defines the probability of getting hit. The attacker throws a D20 and if the value is lower than your AC you are hit, else the attacker misses. Certain bonuses apply to attacker and defender. You have to pay attention to your THAC0, which tells you what you have to throw to hit an enemy with an AC of 0.

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Which Baldur's Gate NPCs can you keep for the longest time while playing through the trilogy?

Question

I'm planning to play the Big World Project version of the Baldur's Gate games. I'd like to have a standard party with one fighter, one thief, one priest, and one mage.

Which of the NPCs should I take if my goal is to keep them as long as possible? What should be the class of the main character?

Answer

The only rejoinable recurring characters between BG1 and 2 are:

• Imoen: Thief (Thief/Mage in BG2)
• Minsc: Ranger (and a decent fighter)
• Viconia: Priest
• Jaheira: Fighter/Druid
• Edwin: Mage

So they would last you the longest. They're also a lethal combination. The only thing is, I'm not sure but I think you may have trouble keeping this party together if you have low charisma and low or high reputation.

EDIT:

Choosing the player's class:

• You already have 3 decent fighters: Minsc, Jaheira, and Viconia (with a strength boost)
• 2.5 healers: Viconia, Jaheira, and Minsc once again
• And the most powerful mage in the game: Edwin
• I don't remember how good Imoen is but I'm sure she's not terrible.

Point being you can choose any class for the PC. I usually go with one of the thief variants or a sorcerer in DnD games.

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Can gemstones, rings and the like be charmed in Baldur's Gate?

Question

I have collected a big pile of gemstones, various rings and amulets hoping I could get them imbued with spells or soemthing. I am already into chapter 5 though and they are clogging up my inventory appear to only have pecuniary value.

Is there any other uses I should consider saving them for, or should I just sell my hoard?

Answer

You can't do anything with gems except sell them, so definitely get your money out of them. Rings and amulets may be magical, but if they are not (use identify) then they should just be sold. There is no ability in the game to enchant non-magical rings or amulets.

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Can you play Baldur's Gate without a mouse?

Question

I am currently forced to game on a laptop, and was on verge of viewing life as empty of all meaning, until I remembered Baldur's Gate (and Good old Games). My question is as above: can you play Baldurs Gate without a mouse, and what impact does mouse-less gaming have on your game (if any)?

Answer

From memory, there was a legion of keyboard shortcuts, but the only way to interact with objects was by mousing over and clicking them; I am 90% sure there was no way to "tab" between interactive items, and, for better or worse, Baldur's Gate was way before the current age of context sensitive controls.

Even if there was, you'd have to have a way to move your party/characters and control orientation of the formations of your party... I know it's Baldur's Gate, but it's probably more trouble than it's worth :P

You could buy a mini mouse, or go even further back to NetHack, or try out Dwarf Fortress.

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Why won't Minsc join my party in Baldur's Gate?

Question

Whenever I first met Minsc in the town that he stands around in, all he said was that he didn't like the look of me. Every attempt to reengage him in conversation fails, and I never get the option to have him join my party.

It's been a while since I've played this game originally, but I remember being able to team up with Minsc to save Dynaheir from the Gnoll Fortress.

Thinking it would help, I went ahead and left for the fortress without Minsc, rescued Dynaheir, she joined my party, and I went back to try talking to Minsc again. He still ignores me even though Dynaheir is in my party!

I don't have any evil characters in my party. The other members are Jaheira, Kaleid, and Imoen.

How do I get him to join up with me?

Answer

From what I've been able to find your character's charisma is to blame. Baldur's Gate uses reaction rolls which are based on charisma, if you rolled terrible + bad charisma then he won't have anything to do with you.

A couple of people got him to join by increasing their character's charisma (with a character editor) and then removing Dynaheir from the party. After asking Dynaheir to re-join Minsc apparently came along for the ride.

If it isn't the charisma, then it could have something to do with having sub 10 reputation.

Sources:Bioware Forums & Gamefaqs

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