Whenever a character levels up, it tells me what their Lore is. But I have absolutely no idea what is means, what it is used for or what it effects in the game. Can anyone enlighten me?

It allows you to identify things without having to use a spell or pay a merchant.

Manual BG2:SoA
page 53:
---
Lore
Each character has a lore rating. Every item has a lore value. If a character's lore is equivalent or higher than an item's lore value, then he may identify that item. As characters gain levels, they are able to to identify items based on their experience. This is listed in the table below:

Bard: 10 lore rating per level.
Thief: 3 lore rating per level.
Mage: 3 lore rating per level.
All other classes: 1 lore rating per level.

The player receives bonuses and penalties to their lore based on their Intelligence and Wisdom. The modifier is not cumulative with each level, but each ability bonus is applied separately. It is a one time bonus at character creation. See the table in back of manual for ability bonuses and modifiers. (E.g. A character with 18 Wisdom (+10) and 15 Intelligence (+5) would have +15 to Lore.)
----
So sais the Manual. :D ;)

It is true as manual says for user created characters, but it is also bugged if we talk about ingame NPCs.

For example, Edwin has Lore 28 whenever you get him in the party no matter his actual level (always initial 18 + bonus 10). And depending on level of your hero Edwin will join as Conjurer level 7, 9, 11, 12 or 13.

Black Isle cheats on Lore!!!

Geese, Extremist, you realy know a lot.
Maybe you could become the 'Best'player of the game SoA 2002! ;)

Edwin's lore also goes up after the nether scroll quest too, non?

IMO, Everyone needs it, Bards have it, with a little exception, noone likes bards. ANd the circle goes round.:rolling:

Only one character needs high lore, just let him/her check each item before you use the spell of glasses of ID.

I like how thieves get high lore...

Thanks everyone! Now I know why Haer'dalis always knows what things are! (I would have read my manual, but it is lost somewhere in all the piles around our lounge - well, I hope it is still somewhere in our lounge!)

Try your harddisk as well. There should be a file 'Baldurs gate 2 manual.pdf' somewhere with your game, IIRC. ;) Maybe I downloaded it right here from SP, im not sure...

[No, it gets put in the game's install dir. It's not on SP.] -Tal

[This message has been edited by Taluntain (edited January 13, 2002).]

this is a bit off topic but it is still about lore.

how come minsc have zero lore and it doesn't go up either? he is already lvl 12 in my party. is his having a "loose screw" up there have anything to do with his lore?

something to ponder on.

Come on, that's an easy one...

Do you remember Minsc's INT and WIS? According to Lore Bonus table in the manual, just because of those two, Minsc has -30 PENALTY to Lore.

Now, wouldn't it be stupid to display a negative Lore in stats?