Spellward Amulet...

[Torm51]

I cant seem to take this thing off and put something else in its slot.  As a frontliner with my Paladin that's another +10 to Fort, Will and Reflex against spells....I mean its literally like having 3 extra talents with bears fort, bulls will and snakes reflex against spells.  Is a dragons breathe considered a spell I cant remember.

[Teioh_White]

I also wondered how good this amulet really is. Neck is likely the one equipment slot with the most log jam in the entire game, so it would be nice to know exactly what this is contributing. Is it just +10 against spells from NPC vancian casters? Does it effect...well, I guess in spell-like abilities? If it works on many attacks in the game, it'd certainly be one of the better necks in the game, even with the stiff competition. Or, at least a great neck for any class like Monk or Paladin which already is decent at making saves.

 

Otherwise, the neck competition is fierce. There's already must have class specifics for Chanter and Cipher there, so those two are out. Maybe Ranger as well, if Stalker's Torque was ever fixed. Beyond that there are nice DR giving cloaks if taking that mitigation approach for a tank, +3 to your DPS stat of choice, or even freeing up a ring or hand slot for protection/deflection. Not to mention WM added 3 new great cloaks to compete for that one slot.

[hilfazer]

According to wiki, spell is rather broad category:

http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Spell

 

It's one of those early game items with end game potential. Oh and it also gives +10 deflection vs spells as some of them target it.

[Oralaina]

Considering, I'd really like to see either another slot added (neck AND cloak), or some trimming done of the items - or maybe just not have so many of them show up so early in game.  Of course, the rings issue is just about identical - sure, you get two of them on everyone, but even if you just upgrade the minors of prot and deflect, there are still some overlaps and some pretty good things that don't get used because the "logical" wearer has something else as good, or would lose something to suppress....  Of course, in this playthrough I haven't found the spellward amulet so far, so I don't have that dichotomy yet.

[Boeroer]

I would rather see some mundane effects on headgear. I can accept that hats do nothing if they are not enchanted - but helmets? They should provide some protection (crit2hit conversion or +DR) while lowering some stats (-per or -res or +recovery time) because they are actually a kind of armor. In BG they gave immunity to crits if I recall correctly.

[sapientNode]

All slots should be enchantable.

And all properties should be available when enchanting.

Or at least allow us to rip an enchantment off an item so we can keep certain ones that are really great and evolve new pieces.

 

In my mind I usually say I am going to use this piece for that battle and this piece for that one but in the end that kind of micro managing is tedious and not necessary.

 

I just got some really cool sandals for unarmed damage but I have shods of faith on and they are definitely superior to a little bit of unarmed damage.

I want both since I found both.

 

Some may say that system would make it OP.

For that statement I say it is already OP with items dropping like candy all over the place but they end up being more of a nuisance because you often have something superior or something that is really beneficial in combat but the new item has some kind of added flair or a incremental bonus.

[Oralaina]

You know, it's been decades since I played BG1.  But I don't remember having all this "good to excellent" loot at such low levels....

[Ymarsakar]

You know, it's been decades since I played BG1.  But I don't remember having all this "good to excellent" loot at such low levels....

 

The flail of ages took forever to build but was one of the only things that could damage the demilich other than magic missiles.

 

But it's why in BG1 when you got out, people tended to get killed by a dire wolf. Especially if they chose a magic caster as their main.

Edited October 5, 2015 by Ymarsakar

[Oralaina]

 

You know, it's been decades since I played BG1.  But I don't remember having all this "good to excellent" loot at such low levels....

 

The flail of ages took forever to build but was one of the only things that could damage the demilich other than magic missiles.

 

But it's why in BG1 when you got out, people tended to get killed by a dire wolf. Especially if they chose a magic caster as their main.

 

 

Well, also true!  I've never done mages as mains - in BG 1 my main was whatever passed for half-elf ranger (I *think*.... been a LONG time) and I made my own party, dropping Imoen (annoyed by stuff like that....) for a "self-made" rogue, and adding also self-made cleric, pally, mage, fighter (classic mix....)  I'm pretty sure if it had only been me n Immy, we'd have been dead the second we stepped off the property....

[Ymarsakar]

 

 

You know, it's been decades since I played BG1.  But I don't remember having all this "good to excellent" loot at such low levels....

 

The flail of ages took forever to build but was one of the only things that could damage the demilich other than magic missiles.

 

But it's why in BG1 when you got out, people tended to get killed by a dire wolf. Especially if they chose a magic caster as their main.

 

 

Well, also true!  I've never done mages as mains - in BG 1 my main was whatever passed for half-elf ranger (I *think*.... been a LONG time) and I made my own party, dropping Imoen (annoyed by stuff like that....) for a "self-made" rogue, and adding also self-made cleric, pally, mage, fighter (classic mix....)  I'm pretty sure if it had only been me n Immy, we'd have been dead the second we stepped off the property....

 

 

I didn't use multiplayer save games, so I went in as wizard + Immy. I was able to kill the direwolf, but only by learning kiting and mongol horse archer tactics.

 

I actually think Obsidian's enchanting system in PoE is the best one they have come up with. Sure, Fallout Las Vegas and the crafting system there was more funny with the mini nukes and what not, but Obsidian always tends to go for "too much" with their crafting system. So something easily picked up like the enchantment 12/12 slots and making food, is actually pretty tame for them compared to Mask of the Betrayer.

Edited October 6, 2015 by Ymarsakar

[Teioh_White]

Haha, yeah, BG was pretty brutal, especially if you're a newbie to IE games. And considering it was one of the first, I imagine that was a lot of us. First time I played it, spent a lot of time reading the manual, thinking about my character, talking to everyone in Candlekeep trying to figure out these weird controls. I was promptly eaten by wolves after taking my first step outside. Quit game and didn't even try again for 4 years, after playing Kotor and deciding to give those old BW games another shot. Really glad I did.

 

I agree on this crafting system being not all that bad in Pillars. It's more about adding some minor modifications to gear we find in the wild, rather than just making gear that massively outweighs any natural gear. NWN 2 weapons and armor were basically pointless to find or buy as early as Act 2 of the main game, which dulls the mood when dungeon crawling.

[Ymarsakar]

"I was promptly eaten by wolves after taking my first step outside."

 

The 1.0 PoE build by Josh Sawyer had that as well, a little bit of nostalgia until too many complaints came in and they tweaked it a bit.

 

The wolves were soloing my cipher. 2v1 my cipher would die.

 

Of course better armor would have helped and if I had hit the level button to 2 or 3. But one wolf was the limit of my cipher back when it was 1/6 party.

[gkathellar]

You know, it's been decades since I played BG1.  But I don't remember having all this "good to excellent" loot at such low levels....

 

... no, I dispute that. There's a powerful ring of wizardry and a suit of ankheg plate in hidden caches in early game areas. A player could easily hit the gnoll fortress while still at level 1, which yielded Gauntlets of Dexterity and the Charisma manual. It'd also be pretty routine to fight Greywolf or Bassilus at level 2 or so, and both drop +2 weapons with an elemental damage bonus. The examples go on; while BG1's magic items were sometimes easy to miss, there were a lot of them, and they were available from extremely low levels onward.

[Oralaina]

 

You know, it's been decades since I played BG1.  But I don't remember having all this "good to excellent" loot at such low levels....

 

... no, I dispute that. There's a powerful ring of wizardry and a suit of ankheg plate in hidden caches in early game areas. A player could easily hit the gnoll fortress while still at level 1, which yielded Gauntlets of Dexterity and the Charisma manual. It'd also be pretty routine to fight Greywolf or Bassilus at level 2 or so, and both drop +2 weapons with an elemental damage bonus. The examples go on; while BG1's magic items were sometimes easy to miss, there were a lot of them, and they were available from extremely low levels onward.

 

 

Hmm.  It's entirely possible that I simply don't remember correctly.  It's also entirely possible that I missed a bunch of that stuff, due to not having played games of that nature for a while by the time it came out.

[hilfazer]

You can get Ring of Protection +1 in Beregost.

In PoE it would give +5 deflection, +5 fort, +5 will, +5 reflex. +5 deflection is about as valuable as +5 to other stats. So it's PoE equivalent would give +10 to refl/will/fort. And that's pretty close to Spellward Amulet 

[aweigh0101]

The Spellsward Amulet's +10 "spell-defense" stacks with items like the rings/capes that give you +5/+9 in your defenses.

For example, if you equip ring of +9 to ref/fort/wis and the spell amulet, and have aloth cast something like fetid caress which targets will (it paralyzes) then you the combat log will show that your saving throw was the +9 from your ring and also +10 from the amulet.

however it doesn't affect the most deadly/annoying status attacks from enemies like the fungus or the fish monsters from WM because those aren't spells but are considered special monster abilities, as such the amulet's +10 won't register against those.

it is absolutely awesome when dealing with enemy wizards tho, or fampyrs and such. you get +19 right there against their charmed/etc spell shenanigans

[sapientNode]

 

You know, it's been decades since I played BG1.  But I don't remember having all this "good to excellent" loot at such low levels....

 

... no, I dispute that. There's a powerful ring of wizardry and a suit of ankheg plate in hidden caches in early game areas. A player could easily hit the gnoll fortress while still at level 1, which yielded Gauntlets of Dexterity and the Charisma manual. It'd also be pretty routine to fight Greywolf or Bassilus at level 2 or so, and both drop +2 weapons with an elemental damage bonus. The examples go on; while BG1's magic items were sometimes easy to miss, there were a lot of them, and they were available from extremely low levels onward.

 

 

I loved the fact that those old school games had access to these items but it was well hidden.  There was no blatant design to lead people to items. 

Upon finding these things you could definitely alter the difficulty of progression through the game.

I think my best find was potentially BG1 where there was that single ring of protection randomly in the grass on the outskirts of a town.  No tab to highlight stuff back then either.

Edited October 7, 2015 by sapientNode

[Oralaina]

So - WHERE is the spellward amulet then?  I'm at level 6 current playthrough, haven't seen it.  Also haven't found the Stalker's Torc this time through....

[Teioh_White]

It's normally one of the 'random' loots, but I think there is a 100% one in Heritage Hill, and another item with the same stats can be bought in the Salty Mast.

[Torm51]

It's random I think. But I've had it in every play through. I am sure one vendor has it

[Torm51]

It's normally one of the 'random' loots, but I think there is a 100% one in Heritage Hill, and another item with the same stats can be bought in the Salty Mast.

Correct the guy on the second floor with the exclusive gear. It's the same item called Bradfords something

[Oralaina]

Hmm.  Well, maybe since I'm doing things a bit different order this time is why I haven't found them yet.  Thanks guys!