Is total roll more important than secondary strength?

[Aki]

I just hit a 99 total but my strength is 18/39

Should I keep this one? Or just get something with more secondary strength?

Playing as a Cavalier btw.

[Vambran]

First STR tome you get will bring it up to 19.

[Aki]

Originally posted by Vambran:

First STR tome you get will bring it up to 19.

So it doesn't matter how much the second roll is? It will go all the way up to 19?

[Vambran]

19 if your any 18. and if you can't wait for the STR tome ( i think ones in candle keep dungeon. ) you can get belts up to 21.

[Godsarm]

Highest I ever rolled was a 97 with an Undead Hunter, I'd take the 99 and wait out the Tome that raises it. There's a pair of Gauntlets of Ogre Power that you can pick up in Baldur's Gate or the Cursed Girdle of Hill Giant Strength in Rasaad's Quest (also have to wait till you get into Baldur's Gate to initiate). I think this belt was intended for Minsc, who cares if his 8 INT goes down to 6.

[Giraffasaur]

With a 99, holy cow man, I'd be okay with an 18/01 haha. Echoing here a little, but if my main is a STR-focused char, I don't worry too much since the tome converts it to a solid 19. This is especially true for chars I intend to pull over to BG2.

[wendigo211]

Originally posted by Giraffasaur:

With a 99, holy cow man, I'd be okay with an 18/01 haha. Echoing here a little, but if my main is a STR-focused char, I don't worry too much since the tome converts it to a solid 19. This is especially true for chars I intend to pull over to BG2.

Well 18/01 to 18/50 are the same bonus.

If you're planning to play through SoD and/or BG2 then keep the roll. If you're just playing through BG, I'd re-roll and get a higher strength bonus. You don't get the other +strength items until you can enter Baldur's Gate and the Strength tome is near the end of the game.

[red255]

I mean.... you can use mage level 2 spells to increase your strength to 18/50 or 18/00.

Raashad's quest gets you a belt that sets your strength to 19, and the main questline gets you a strength +1 tome.

and you eventually get a paladin spell that is draw upon holy might. you get two uses as a bhaalpower, and well some as a paladin power. per rest. at 19 strength your 18/xx modifier is pointless.

also potions exist.

[Wicket W. Warrick]

It depends on the other roll. I would take the roll just for the pleasure to have 18-18-18-13-14-18 or something similar, but considering only power 18/00 would be better.

There is one Gauntlet of ogre power, I would use it on someone that has <18 strength. You get the tome almost at the end.
If you start to consider potion, with a 95 you can put 18 on every stat and put 5 on intelligence, than buy a great amount of potion o genius and have a character with permanente 18 on every stat (not that you will need it...). He will be stronger and you will pay less.

If you plan to play all the saga you can reconsider, because in most part of BG 1 you don't need high strength, maybe leaving Durlang and werewolf island for the end.

[red255]

....Not sure what you mean by almost at the end. game is relatively free form. you can do whatever whenever.

to get to the strength tome its on the main quest line and you need to wander thru the nashkel mines, the bandit forest, and the other forest. before being allowed into baldur's gate.

yes its high in the CHAPTERS. but it doesn't take that long. solo for a bit, drink some potions of clarity, kill some sirens, or potions of mirror eyes kill some basilisks. get 32,000 XP. get a party. game shouldnt take too long.

[Giraffasaur]

Originally posted by red255:

....Not sure what you mean by almost at the end. game is relatively free form. you can do whatever whenever.

to get to the strength tome its on the main quest line and you need to wander thru the nashkel mines, the bandit forest, and the other forest. before being allowed into baldur's gate.

yes its high in the CHAPTERS. but it doesn't take that long. solo for a bit, drink some potions of clarity, kill some sirens, or potions of mirror eyes kill some basilisks. get 32,000 XP. get a party. game shouldnt take too long.

This guy gets it.

Also, for any uncomfortable situations, there are plenty of strength-altering potions and spells.

In almost every case, I don't see an issue having a low 18/ amount with such a high overall roll of 99.

[Wicket W. Warrick]

As I said I would take 99, but I would not run fast to chapter 6, I would just play with 18/39, with some buff from time to time. This because I like a little of role playing, I like to have a special character. But for the same reason I like to follow the story with a little of sense, rotate characters etc.. And there aren't a lot of situations where 18/00 (or 19) makes the difference.

But, if you look only at stats value, what's all this for? In the end 99 vs every number above 90 it's just a matter of INT e WIS. What's the difference between having 8 or 13 INT for a cavalier? You can look for str>18/95, playing more free and leaving INT and WIS a little lower (or buffering with cheaper potion if you need).

[red255]

the thing Is I like to wear full plate mail which weighs 70

and 18 strength goes from 200-400 carry weight. which really restricts how many ankleg shells you can haul to beregost.

[wendigo211]

Originally posted by stef.corsi:

As I said I would take 99, but I would not run fast to chapter 6, I would just play with 18/39, with some buff from time to time. This because I like a little of role playing, I like to have a special character. But for the same reason I like to follow the story with a little of sense, rotate characters etc.. And there aren't a lot of situations where 18/00 (or 19) makes the difference.

It is a fairly big difference for a melee attacker. An 18/50 gives you a +1 to hit and +3 to damage, while an 18/00 gives you a +3 to hit and +6 to damage. Let's say you're a level 3 Cavalier (18 THAC0) attacking an AC 6 opponent with a longsword (specialized).

• If you have an 18/50 strength, that's a target number of 10 and damage of 1d8+5. You would average 8.55 points of damage per round (including critical hits and 1.5 APR).
• If you had an 18/00 strength, that's a target number of 8 and damage of 1d8+8. You would average 13.125 points of damage per round (again, with critical hits and 1.5 APR).

The 18/00 has improved DPR over the 18/50 by 54%. Obviously the target number is somewhat arbitrary, with a lower AC the relative DPR favors the 18/00 more. Also when you start adding in enhancement bonuses the strength bonus becomes less of a relative portion of the damage per hit. However, the 18/00 does offer a noticeable improvement (particularly for the few levels of play). If it's your first run through the game, and your not taking shortcuts, you're going to notice the difference. While a 99 is nice, once you've maxed strength, dex and con, you're not really going to care about the other attributes as a paladin.

[Godsarm]

Originally posted by wendigo211:

Originally posted by stef.corsi:

As I said I would take 99, but I would not run fast to chapter 6, I would just play with 18/39, with some buff from time to time. This because I like a little of role playing, I like to have a special character. But for the same reason I like to follow the story with a little of sense, rotate characters etc.. And there aren't a lot of situations where 18/00 (or 19) makes the difference.

It is a fairly big difference for a melee attacker. An 18/50 gives you a +1 to hit and +3 to damage, while an 18/00 gives you a +3 to hit and +6 to damage. Let's say you're a level 3 Cavalier (18 THAC0) attacking an AC 6 opponent with a longsword (specialized).

• If you have an 18/50 strength, that's a target number of 10 and damage of 1d8+5. You would average 8.55 points of damage per round (including critical hits and 1.5 APR).
• If you had an 18/00 strength, that's a target number of 8 and damage of 1d8+8. You would average 13.125 points of damage per round (again, with critical hits and 1.5 APR).

The 18/00 has improved DPR over the 18/50 by 54%. Obviously the target number is somewhat arbitrary, with a lower AC the relative DPR favors the 18/00 more. Also when you start adding in enhancement bonuses the strength bonus becomes less of a relative portion of the damage per hit. However, the 18/00 does offer a noticeable improvement (particularly for the few levels of play). If it's your first run through the game, and your not taking shortcuts, you're going to notice the difference. While a 99 is nice, once you've maxed strength, dex and con, you're not really going to care about the other attributes as a paladin.

Which would be absolutely correct if you were only playing BG1 and not progressing to SoD, SoA and ToB in which case you will be raising STR up to 21 like my Paladin did using the Tome in BG1, the Machine of Lum the Mad and the Deck of Many things in SoA. The sweet spot for a Paladin is a total of 95+. I suppose he could keep rolling and see if he can get 95+ with a higher exceptional STR but it may take minutes or it may take hours.

[Godsarm]

I'd max CON, DEX and CHR at 18 and put the min in WIS and the remainder in INT. You don't get bonus spells based on WIS, but there is a reason to have as high of an INT as you can due to a type of attack that targets your INT in SoA and I won't say another word about unless you want a spoiler.