Notes on PnP protection items

A collection of tweaks, cheats and common sense changes.
Post Reply
User avatar
Magus
Site Admin
Posts: 474
Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2016 9:13 am
Contact:

Notes on PnP protection items

Post by Magus »

Protection item exclusion/conflict is a quite annoying feature in BG games. It takes its roots in D&D rules, however it's implemented badly.

Tweaks Anthology provides a component to wear multiple protection items with PnP restrictions: saving throws bonuses stack, armor class bonuses don't.
However, that is not really PnP. Actual PnP rules are more complicated. See this discussion and this.
Also, source for 2E: ring, cloak.

To summarize:
1. Protections from a cloak and a ring stack.
2. (Protection) Cloaks do not work if worn with any enchanted armor, nor normal armor heavier than leather.
3. If worn with magical armor, a ring only provides saving throw bonuses, not AC.
4. Protections from multiple rings do not stack. Better one takes effect.
5. There are no amulets of protection! It's a BG invention. (There are scarabs or protection, which can be worn as amulets, but they work differently and only provide +1 to save vs spell).

This is pretty much impossible to implement in IE.

As for 3E, it seems to have taken a simpler approach: all such items provide a "deflection" bonus, and do not stack, better one takes effect.
But BG is predominantly 2E, and combat mechanics are made with 2E in mind.

Since S/T bonuses are allowed to stack, primary reason for the non-stacking rule seems to be a concern about warriors getting too good AC.
Cloaks are basically reserved for mages and rogues.
Generally, a mid-level warrior could be wearing a full plate +1 and a ring of protection +2, totaling +1 AC and +2 S/T. And a mid-level mage could wear a cloak of protection +2 with a RoP+2, getting +4 to both AC and S/T.

One more thing to note is that although there are no amulets of protection in PnP, cloaks go all the way to +5! So an epic level mage could get +8 total by wearing the best cloak (+5) and the best ring (+3). Mages and rogues are getting really screwed by vanilla implementation and BG itemization.


So how can we find sanity in all this madness?

TnT (next version) offers 2E and 3E like options.
- 2E like: AC bonuses don't stack - best one applies (including enchanted armor), S/T ones do. Except for multiple rings of protection, which do not stack at all.
- 3E like: no stacking. Best bonus takes effect. If you wear an armor +5 and a ring +2, your total bonus will be +5 to AC and +2 to S/T.

Both options also extend to mod-added items, specifically those crafted from "of protection" items. For example, Weimer's "Ring of Preservation +2" is considered to be an RoP+2 for the purposes for stacking, and won't stack with other RoPs.

The effect on the gameplay:
1. Of course, the most important feature is that you can equip whatever you want without inventory tetris.
2. Both options allow for better-than-vanilla saving throws, 2E one moreso, but still not as good as PnP potentially allows.
3. Warrior types get a slightly better deal with 2E option, as they now can stack S/T and mages still can't stack AC like in PnP.
Please do not PM or email me about my mods and projects. Use forums. Also, see our talk channels.
Post Reply