Is there an item in the game that disarms traps? I cannot begin to tell you how annoying it is not having a thief in your party (and I don't want to bring one along, just for the sake of having to disarm traps).

Now I can find traps with clerics.

I can unlock locked doors and chests with a mage.

But how in the world do I disarm a trap without a thief?!

Syl...

I don't think it's possible, at least if BG I & II are in line with AD&D rules.

However not all traps are 'repeat' traps. Some are triggered once and no more! So if one of your characters can 'take' the damage or a Wizard can trigger it while mirror imaged or duplicated then perhaps this may work for you. Tedious but it'll work. But of course I don't need to explain how I feel about the Thieving class anymore -i'd just bore everyone.

Believe me Syl, I had/have the same problem and share the same stress. Even in my second game being a monk, you have the ability to spot traps, but not disarm. How messed up is that? I found that the best way is to either cast mirror image, or use some sort of barkskin spell and run into them. (druids get ironskin I think.)

There is in fact, a ring that gives any class a 30% chance of disarming a trap. Its located somewhere in the Underdark I think.

Hmm...a lot of good that does me ;)

Syl... "Still in Chapter 2!"

actually this ring, the Ring of Danger Sense, only helps detect the traps (or so it says, +25%)

What's wrong with thieves? They're awesome.

Nothing wrong with them, if you enjoy using them. For myself, in a CRPG I can never get the full feel of a thief because you aren't a full thief to begin with. It's a great class in Pen and Paper, but very limited in a CRPG.

Personally, they're just there to disarm traps and no doubt one of the very reasons we don't see any spells or items that do this because then the thief wouldn't be needed at all. Period.

Backstabs you say? Never. It's too much of a pain to hide in the shadows, fail, then have to try to hide again, then get into position behind the enemy. By that time, my four fighters have already caused more damage to the entire group of foul beasts than my thief could deal to one creature alone.

Bows you say? I stay away from them because I for one hate keeping and holding arrows all the time. It's nice when you need to spoil a mage, but I have Valygar for that.

Syl...

How about a thief/mage (like jan/nalia/imoen) or a thief/whateveryoufancy. I have to admit that a thief is usefull until a certain level after they go up doing nothing. That's why I dual class mine.
Unlike you my thief is a specialist bowman (crossbow or bow) and I only use them while dungeon crawling

I really recommend Jan for his Magic/Missile/Thievery/Humor combo.

I do agree about the backstab ability though.

Kyrn

I think some of you are missing out. The thief has gotten a bad rap in previous games so no one gives them a shot. I use my thief A LOT. First of all, I have found ungodly amounts of magic items from pick pocketing ppl. I have seen many a magic item that i wanted and had him steal it from the shops for me. There are traps all over the place so thats definitly a plus. And with boots of speed he makes an awesome hidden scout. I usually have him stand just to where i can see the baddys then toss in some fireballs or other goodys with my mage outside of thier vision. All in all i wouldn't want to play without a thief.


my 02 :)

Sheesh...almost forgot! Special traps are awesome! Yet another thief goody :)

Hey Syl, why not try using a fighter/thief. I'm not sure if there are any as NPCs, but they are damn useful. An Elven fighter/thief can use the armor of the night and get a pretty good AC. Not only this they can use compsoite long bows and shield better than bucklers. In my opinion, Koran was the best NPC in BG by far (excluding Xan cos he just rules)

Mage/Thief is useful for myself as I use the mage abilities much more and I really liked Nalia, have yet to pick up Jan Jansen and Imoen is a ways away yet. Thing is, right now my party is full since I've gotten Jaheira back in my party and I will have to remove someone and am at a point where I may not want to!

Korgan is the one who will most likely get the boot, Valygar, his portrait can't even be seen he has so much protection and I don't want to lose that in a fighter.

A party of 7 would have made me very happy :)

Syl...

I think that figher/thieves are the best, because then you can use them as a fighter most of the time, then when needed, you can disarm traps and unlock stuff.

Don't forget that every time your thief disarms a trap you get 2750 XP and 950 XP for every picked lock. That is a TON of extra experience. Hide in shadows is huge fun for assassinations. 40+ damage in one hit. Theives will always have a slot in my party.

The F/M/T was the only way I could get through BG1 with only one character and not cheating. Hide in shadows was the only way to travel.

I agree with Sylvus, A party with 7 or 8 might make the scheme of your party a hell of a light easier. Interplay could just make the game harder so that u can enlarge your party.....just a thought.

I know what you mean, I want to get someone else in my party but I don't want to kick anyone out, and it sucks!

How about using any summoned creature to step on the trap and get blown up for you? I mean, there's not much use for skels and such but if they could serve you this way why not?
Now I'm not sure if that'd work since I always have one thief in my party and I never tried to to disarm them any other way, but if it works it's an easy solution to your problems. There's always enough summoned cannon fodder around. ;)

Pshaw! This guy Sorcerer trying to act all know it all when he isn't even playing BG2! :) :) :)

Syl...

since you brought up that about the lockpicking giving you 950 exp and disarming giving you 2750 exp, i thought i should let everybody know that memorizing spells gets exp too! ALOT OF IT!!! last night my Blade memorized a couple of high level spells for use later on, and when i went back to the main screen i saw "You have gained 6000 experiance", "You have gained 7000 experience"!!! i was so excited i went to the spell store and bought like 13 lower level spells i would never use anyways. when i was done memorizing them i had gathered about 50,000 experiance!!!

Oh well thanks for reading this, and one more thing- My blade can identify ANYTHING! he has 110 LORE! and thats only HALF of the normal bards LORE!!!
c ya!

My second game I am playing as Blade character, although, more or less for the pick pocket so I can find out what's on NPCs ;) Otherwise, it is a pretty good class, well rounded (although weaker than I expected) but easily given a good -5 AC if you have the right equipment and live long enough to both use and find it.

Syl...

I just 'gotta' love it! Here in BG2 (as in BG1) they have forced everyone to see the 'need' for some kind of Thief. Dual or Multi classed. The benefits were already listed above but again:

*Special Snares/Traps (unbelievable damage to ALL types of monsters, like those that need +4 weapons).

*Disarming Traps -life saving as well as XP gaining.

*Pick Pockets - find out who 'just so happens to have an artifact' on them. As well as 'see item in shop? -steal item in shop!
*BackStabs -occasional fun for a assasination. Best when used with the Cloak of Non Detection vs the 'Fiesty Mage'.
*Stealth/Scouting -Best with boots of speed and cloak of non detection.

Please remember EVERY CLASS has pros and cons. Until you play your main character as a class then you'll never truly know what they are about.

my opinions once again...


[This message has been edited by Draco Vlasavius (edited October 16, 2000).]

Hehe, "this Sorcerer guy" played BG2 two months before you or anyone else here got it. Hehe, I turned the beta inside out.
It's true however that I haven't started playing the done game yet. One of the reasons being the fact that it STILL isn't available here. A small part of Europe with lousy distributors. Bleh.
At least it gave me the time to finish IWD before I start playing BG II. (Again).

So, did the "summoned monster=trap cannon fodder" trick work? ;)

No idea. I'm too busy doing some solution for some site :D

Syl...

Gee, I wonder which site that could be? :D

And i thought I got the first copy, I'm never first at anything! (especially high school gym) this brings back so many bad memories *sob, *sob*

I tried using a summoned creature (Ariel Servant and Invis Stalker) to set off (the?) only trap I found in the Underdark/S-E dungeon. Unsuccessful. I do not think anything has the ability to set off traps other than our own 'clutzy' characters.

I also recall walking some skeletons 'ahead' of me in the IWD's Dragon's Eye Dungeon to try to 'set off' the numerous land mine's in there. Unsuccessful. If there is a way to use a specific summoned creature to do this, it's certainly none of the creature's that I've tried.



[This message has been edited by Draco Vlasavius (edited October 17, 2000).]

That's pretty stupid. A pressure trap is a pressure trap regardless of who steps on it and would be nice to be able to do for those of us who still don't have a thief in are party, or simply don't want one.

Unless of course, these traps are so sophisticated that they know an adventurer's boot over that of a foul beast.

That's gotta be it!

Syl...

Ok, how about this...
Make a thief and set his stats up to be whatever you wanted your original character to be. Once you start the game, dual-class him and have the other members of your party do all the fighting until he is strong enough do it himself. It shouldn't take long given the amount of experience you gain compared to BG1 and the 80 odd k you get at the start isn't going to cost you much as far as your final level is concerned, for most characters anyway