Which tear of greed?

Remove all ads!

I have a half-orc CE (will use EEKeeper to change it back to CG) blade and I'm trying to decide if I want +15 HP or the +2 to all saving throws?
He is:
level 14
HP: 62

saves:
P/P/DM 10
R/S/W 8
P/P 9
BW 13
SPELLS 9

Does the +2 to saves really matter that much?

the other tears I took are:
wrath = evil = +2 strength
selfishness = good = +10% MR
pride = good = +20% fire, cold & electric resistance
fear = good = immune to +1 weapons or less

*sorry. he's a half-orc not a gnome*

 

Get the saving throw bonus, it'll do a lot more for you then the +15 HP.
The way saving throws work is that the game has you roll a d20 to resist the saving throw score for the effect being resisted.
Say you are hit with a Death effect, like disintegration. Your Save vs death score is naturally 15 - meaning you need to roll 16 or higher to resist the effect and not die instantly.
This means that you only have a 25% chance to resist the effect - But with a +2 to your saves (which actually lowers the number on your save scores) you can increase this chance by 5% for every 1 bonus point.
For example, +2 to saving throws will make your save vs death score a 13, instead of a 15 - giving you a 35% chance to resist death effects.

Saving throw bonuses being a big thing is the whole reason why the shorty races are so good to have - dwarves, gnomes and halflings can get anywhere from a +2 to +5 bonus to their saving throw scores for wand, spell and death saving throws, depending on their constitution score. (though gnomes only get the bonus to wand and spell saves.)
That hp is only ever going to help you take 1 more hit in the middle of combat, and will need constant replenishing in the form of healing spells or potions, whereas saving throws will save you from all kinds of nasty effects, and will do their thing in the background without you having to worry about a thing.

 

I'd go for hp on a high hp character, like a barb or straight fighter, just to make the numbers even higher. Saving throw seems more useful against mages, as xosmi explains, though dmc is also correct that by ToB your saving throws are likely already pretty low, so it might only help with spells that save at -x.

I'm not sure that the racial saving throw bonuses are correctly implemented in BG2, though I never did check. I know that a higher WIS should also give bonuses to certain saving throws, but this was never implemented. Unless they fixed that in the EEs, that is.

 

Does anyone know if it has been fixed or not?

 

No idea - you can always give your character some +1 tomes and see if your saves change if you use them to raise your wisdom.

 

Went from a 15 Wisdom up to a 20 with NO bonuses to ANY saves. Oh well can't eat ALL the cake I guess.

 

Yeah, seems like that part of the 2e rules was never implemented in the baldur's gate games, which is probably because they pushed the game out pretty quickly and were too rushed to add it in, since they did add in the part where the short races get bonuses to spell/death/wands based on their constitution score.

At least all classes get better saving throws as they level up, usually capping somewhere at lvl 17-18, and depending on the class certain saving throws might be higher then for other classes (mages will get a better natural save vs. spells score then a warrior for example.)
Coupled with the bonuses from Spells/Items/Shorty saves/Hell tear, your saves should be totaly adequate for the Throne of Bhaal expansion.