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I want to propose a thesis: Crafting of armours (and belts and rings) is basically useless.

Why? Crafted armours are "better" in two aspects than found ones: First, they give a bit higher armour than usually found ones and they have a slightly better movement bonus.

But here comes the problem: They have one magical property at maximum, and even if it was two properties we'd have the same problem.
A crafted armour that has 2 or even 10 points better armour than a found one and like 0.2 or 0.1 better movement bonus has a very hard time to compete with two or three +1 or even +2 to for a character useful stats.

I'd never trade the slight advantage for armour for the list of
+1 Constitution
+1 Perception
+1 Dexterity
on the found one for the Rogue.

And therefore: Crafted armours simply (and sadly) are useless. Or do you run around in armours that make up for the lack of bonus to the stats?

Or can you enhance crafted armours somehow with another stat bonus (e.g. from magical starfishes or whatnot)?

The same goes for belts and rings, I fear. Why would I ever wear a belt that has one bonus, while found items usually come with at least two?
Crafting comes down for me to Weapons, here the additional damage makes up for the lack of boni to stats and improving found armours. Which I find a tad sad.

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I suppose it depends on one's level. Crafted leather armour kept my archer going for quite a long time through the game, though now I'm at a higher level there are better armours available to find or for sale. Likewise with arms, until tenebrium was available and I wanted two additional characteristics. But apart from that, it's provided me with a handy source of income to fund my expensive shopping sprees! laugh


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So what you are basically saying is that is extremely handy early on but its usefulness fades as you progress?

kinda harsh to describe it as utterly useless then

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I didn't find it useful either. At the point where you crafting ability becomes good enough you already find something better.

I general I find most crafting useless. In particular all the food related items.

The good things to craft are (IMHO): Arrows, Weapon and Armor Enchantments, Skill books, and Potions. Most of the rest seems pointless.


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I do not even think it is useful in the beginning. You always find heaps of EQ and there always is something with more additional properties than the things you crafted. What I described above is valid from level 1 onwards, it just gets even more distinct as you progress in the levels.

While I think it is pretty cool to be able to craft boots I think I never have worn them.

As I said, improving EQ with resistances, nails, whetstone and anvil is pretty useful, but the stock-items you craft are basically worthless.

This is true for (in this order from least useful to "might get used") boots, robes, and body armour.

I also find most potions beyond healing not that useful. It may be different on Hard, but in the normal playthrough I always had enough other potions. As money is thrown at you in true heaps, crafting Skillbooks is also not *that* useful as you can just buy them sooner or later. Nice for the first five or six levels, but then you do not need it anymore, at all (and that is only true if you have crafting early from level 1 to maxish 8 or 10).

What is lacking is the ability to outfit items after they got crafted with more magical abililites, like you could stitch magic starfishes, teeth and what-you-have to robes, boots, helmets... that'd be something.

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Non-slip boots are really useful, especially in Hiberheim.


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Originally Posted by Vometia
Non-slip boots are really useful, especially in Hiberheim.


Yeah but don't you find Snow Boots? Each of my characters had a set.

Playing a Cleric I did make a 'club with nails' a few times as it was the best bashing weapon I could find, but eventually I just gave him a blade since it was doing more damage anyway even with the cleric 'blunt weapon' trait.

I started the game with one character just carrying every ingredient she could find and spent WAY too much time trying to craft things with the stuff, and of course 95% of everything crafted was useless.

Honestly I wish what you could craft was cut down to about 25% of what we have now ... AND it be actually useful. IMO would be a much better system overall.

Last edited by LeBurns; 12/08/14 01:39 PM.
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"Making boots non-slippery" counts for me as "enhancing existing armours".

As for crafting: Who wants +1 on "Lucky Charm" to find even more useless EQ when they can have two or three things on the boots that actually give something to the char?

What I also find odd that you cannot craft entire tiers of certain items, as helmets (yes, I know about the cooking pot and the pumkin), or bracers. Or did we just not find the proper recepie for that?

I think the amount of things you can craft is perfectly fine, I just have a few additions. You should be able to make "cloth stripes" from "Folded Shirt" + "Knife", but the issue is that what you craft as armours simply cannot compete even with mediocre magical items you find, simply due to the special features those other items come with.

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I'd like to hear an argument/defense of why crafted armors and items should be better than found gear.

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Originally Posted by Armakoir
I'd like to hear an argument/defense of why crafted armors and items should be better than found gear.


Because if they are not it makes crafting completely pointless. Why craft some plate armor when I can find some in a box or vendor that's better. It's not like money is ever an issue in the game.

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Originally Posted by Armakoir
I'd like to hear an argument/defense of why crafted armors and items should be better than found gear.


Very simple: I invest character points into it. If you do not get any return from that, as you do from investing that character points into social, defense, weapon abilities, skills, (etc) - then they are wasted.

If you "pay" for an ability that is not used because stuff you get for free is better, than the buying that ability is pointless. In this case it'd be a feature in the game that should not have been done, as the time put into a worthless (not used) feature should have gotten invested at a better end. Which I find sad.

So: If you pay for it, it must be worth it. To be worth it, the crafted EQ must either be (slightly) better than what you find and/or you can determine exactly what the items are (in contrast to random loot).
Right now you do not even find enough dye in the game to NOT run around with a pink or bright green robe you crafted yourself! So the items do not even have cosmetic customisation - on top of being useless, as what you find anyway is better.

Again, we're only talking about making armour, boots and robes here. Crafting weapons or improving items (including armour) is perfectly fine.

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Nag, you still need high crafting to enhance high level armors. That is where you get your point worth.

Come again. Why should crafted items be better?

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That's the part I don't like. I need 5 points in Crafting/Blacksmithing to do decent upgrades ... but that's basically all I get for those points spent, since actually making stuff is pointless. To me that's a whole lot of points for just a little more damage or protection on weapons and armors I find.

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While I will try not to stick my nose into the hornets nest about the usefulness of crafting, I will try and add something constructive.

You do not need to invest 30 ability points into crafting/bs, if for example you take Jahan as crafter you only need to put 20 ability points into crafting/bs and with bracers/belt that will drop down to 6 ability points. (2 ranks crafting/2 ranks bs = 6 ability points.)

Alternatively you can hire a henchmen and give it crafting 5 and just throw him/her in when you need stuff crafted that is actually of importance, this way none of your characters truely lose any ability points, however grabbing that extra npc every now and then is rather bothersome imo.

what I did was grab a crafting mod which made sense, would fix the missing recipes and would also have extra benefits for having high crafting. I am not familiar if I am allowed to link to a website which is not affiliated with Larian, so I will take the safe route and not link it. If it is allowed I can post a link to the source.

While it might not have been very helpful, it is kinda "hard" to reply on just a statement.

With kind regards,

Rashar.

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You only need 2 in craft and 3 in BS to have 5 in both. That is 1+2+1+2+3 = 9 points. Pretty cheap if you ask me

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I think there's a place for both, but it probably depends on where you're at in the game. Once you can find some of the better armor it's probably not worth crafting it anymore.

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Originally Posted by Armakoir
I'd like to hear an argument/defense of why crafted armors and items should be better than found gear.


Because gambling is fun?

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I think Larian could make it useful without too much work. Add some more rare ingredients to the game, perhaps even rarer than elemental essences, that add a secondary stat.

The kicker on these would be is they could only be used on hand crafted gear, and would not do anything to magical, rare, legendary, unique items.

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Don't look at crafting from just Armor perspective thanks.

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Using void essences on armor adds attributes to it, for one.

Last edited by dopefisher; 13/08/14 04:00 PM.

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