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#572387 28/10/15 07:59 AM
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'Luck.

I have gotten as far as a finished character creation yesterday, having spent a few hours just planning out the skills I want to use.

I've got some questions about wands, if anyone can answer them. I can't test myself right now, but am curious.


1. Attacks from wands can't miss. Is that correct?

2. Wands have charges of spells in addition to their standard attack type. Can they be recharged?

3. What happens when wands are "depeleted"? I'm asking because I played Wizardry 6 recently and in that game using up all charges meant the item was destroyed ...

4. In one of the early EE gameplay videos, it was said that there were penalties to AP cost if you use a weapon with no points in the relevant skill. Or maybe I misheard. Is there any other advantage to putting a point in the Wands skill besides the one listed (10% more damage with wands per point)?

5. Can wands be used to attack surfaces or is that a perogative of the staff skill both characters start out with (which obviously requires a staff; forgot the exact name)?

6. You can dual wield a sword and a wand, but only the main hand gets used in combat. Is that intended or an oversight?

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1. Correct.
2. No. We had this idea too (e.g. sacrifice scrolls to charge them) but it's probably something for DOS2 cause the balancing was off on that idea.
3. The wand is not destroyed but you can't use the skill anymore.
4. There is a penalty for using weapons that are higher level than you are.
5. Yes.
6. I have to ask around about this one :|


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Excellent. And thanks, my character planning just got a little harder. :p

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4. There is a penalty for using weapons that are higher level than you are.

Right, I forgot about that.

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About dual wielding wands and swords, the way I understand it:

if you have a sword as main hand and melee a guy, the wand does not fire cause you're too close;
if you have a wand as main hand and use its ranged projectile on a guy, the sword cannot hit the enemy cause you're too far.

The reasoning behind #1 might be off, I'll give you that.


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Those aren't the only use cases though. As I understood it, the issue is with the offhand weapon not doing anything, even if the range requirements are met:

1. Wand main hand, sword offhand, ranged: only wand shoots. Makes sense.
2. Sword main hand, wand offhand, ranged: can't shoot. Doesn't make sense.
3. Sword main hand, wand offhand, melee: attacks only with sword. Makes half sense.
4. Wand main hand, sword offhand, melee: attacks with wand, but not with sword. Doesn't make sense.

I haven't actually tested this myself yet, but sort of forwarded the problem from the Steam forum:
Wand+Sword/Single One-Handed Disappointments.

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When equipping a wand and a sword, the player will only attack with the right hand item, range regardless, whilist still incuring the dual wield penalty.


As an aside, the author also laments that there's no advantage at all to using only a single one-handed weapon (as opposed to dual wielding, sword+shield or using a two-handed weapon).

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I was dissapointed by the limited charge system for wands. The idea of a magic weapon that comes with a single skill to be used is super cool, but a weapon with a consumable taped on feels different... The main issue I have is that weapons are things you often want to hold on to for awhile, they should feel like part of your 'build,' - but having a weapon partially "run out" forever seems kinda backwards. I don't want to feel like I should be 'rotating' my main weapon, except to upgrade.

But then, maybe rotating weapons is a cool new play-style that's just not for me

Oh well, loving the game all in all, still best combat

Last edited by Kindulas; 30/10/15 08:23 PM.
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Idea of wands is essentially a mix of a Staff and Arrows.

Arrows provide great power but are limited.

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Originally Posted by xxswatelitexx
Idea of wands is essentially a mix of a Staff and Arrows.

Arrows provide great power but are limited.


But at least arrows can be restocked, not so much a bow than it is throwing stars..
BTW, what about dual wielding wands?

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Originally Posted by TZODun2K15
BTW, what about dual wielding wands?

Dual wielding wands is awesome!

Ihave a char with that who is my main damage dealer. Put 5 points in dual wielding and you can use wands for 3 AP which is the same as for one wand normally. You get twice the DMG for same AP!
Round that up with galss cannon and a high speed stat and you have yourself a killing machine rpg007 rpg005 . No need to invest in a main attribute for DMG or ACC either like with other weapons so go for speed and constitution (just because you need higher max AP than AP per round for obvious reason).

My lvl 19 wand-dual-wielder has 10 wands by now - 2 for each element and tenebrium - so he can do DMG to any enemy.

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Strange Ganja, my lvl 16 wand-dual-weilder does mediocre dmg when she doesn't crits, and only okish dmg when she does, spells are way more powerful so I ended up dual weilding air wands to use with rain so I get a cool chance at 3ap Aoe Stun (not bad as she is the team crowd controler anyways and my meele has stun imunity, but really lacks dmg)

How/Where did you got your tenebrium wands? the tenebrium goblin became hostile on my tactician run (no idea why)...

Last edited by Velvet Vendetta; 27/07/16 01:51 PM.
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Originally Posted by Velvet Vendetta
Strange Ganja, my lvl 16 wand-dual-weilder does mediocre dmg when she doesn't crits, and only okish dmg when she does, spells are way more powerful so I ended up dual weilding air wands to use with rain so I get a cool chance at 3ap Aoe Stun (not bad as she is the team crowd controler anyways and my meele has stun imunity, but really lacks dmg)

How/Where did you got your tenebrium wands? the tenebrium goblin became hostile on my tactician run (no idea why)...

The tenebrium stuff seller in Hunter's Edge might have tenebrium wand(s) every time he restocks, which is every hour or when you visit him after leveling up.
Of course, if you report him to Grutilda or when the war in Hunter's Edge starts, there is no longer a tenebrium stuff seller in Hunter's Edge though ;-)

In Endgame you get the Death Knight Killing wand, which is also a tenebrium wand, but the wand damage itself is ridiculous of course, somewhere around a level 1 wand's damage, but it's tenebrium at least.
You only wear this wand for the skill though.

There is a chance that the trader you unlock in the homestead (Brian?) might sell tenebrium stuff too, but I'm not sure about that. (Would have to look that up ...)

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It is my personal opinion the wands not working at close range is broken. We can fire bows and crossbows even when standing next to the target but can't fire a wand in the offhand because we are too close? Needs to be fixed in a patch or in Dos II.

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It isn't simple being 'too close'. Allowing a mix of ranged and melee attacks when dual wielding would have required multiple sets of animations, and expanding the logic for handling attacks beyond what the game was originally designed for. I don't know if it wasn't done for design, technical or practical reasons, but it would have been a lot of extra work for configurations most people wouldn't try anyway (or at least the lack of it hasn't come up very much).


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