Basic question about Strength

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I have finally got Baldur's Gate after playing Icewind Dale II and hearing you guys rave about this Baldur's Gate thing.

My ultra-basic question is this:

What do the second set of figures in the Strength ability score mean? For example: 18/00. What does the OO mean and how do you get it?

I'm sure I will feel really dumb when you tell me the answer.

 

If the character is a warrior class (fighter, paladin or ranger) and has 18 str he gets an exeptional strength modifier, which ranges from 1 (01) to 100 (00). It make the bonusses from 18 str even better. At strength 18/00 (the best you can roll at the start) you get +3 to hit and +6 to damage as opposed to +1 to hit and +2 to damage for plain 18. There are intermediate bonusses but I'm too leazy to type them up.

 

It essentially works like a percentage until STR 19. To give fighters more variation, STR 18 was further differentiated into like five more catergories. My numbers may be wrong, but it is like 18/01-18/25, 18/26-18/50, 18/51-18/75, 18/76-18/99, and then 18/00 is tops. Each higher category gives larger and larger bonuses.

 

The bonuses:
18/01-50 +1 to hit, +3 to dmg
18/51-75 +2 to hit, +3 to dmg
18/76-90 +2 to hit, +4 to dmg
18/91-99 +2 to hit, +5 to dmg
18/00 +3 to hit, +6 to dmg

 

The 00 is a sub score for strength, based on a 1-100 scale. It's only used for characters with 18 strength as a method of differentiating characters from one another. You do get THAC0 and damage bonuses as applicable:

18 (via spell/item) - +1 THACO, +2 damage, 200 lb weight allowance
18/01 to 18/50 - +1 THAC0, +3 damage, 220 weight allowance
18/51 to 18/75 - +2 THAC0, +3 damage, 250 weigfht allowance
18/76 to 18/90 - +2 THAC0, +4 damage, 280 weight allowance
18/91 to 18/99 - +2 THAC0, +5 damage, 320 weight allowance
18/00 - +3 THAC0, +6 damage, 400 weight allowance

edit: three responses while I was typing. Nice.

[ February 12, 2004, 19:08: Message edited by: CamDawg ]

 

I never understood what the difference was between 18/100 and 19. I know that 18/100 is +3 to hit and +6 to damage, while 19 is +3 to hit and +7 to damage, but it just seemed like that if you're 18/100, you're well, 19!

 

It's the same as the difference between 18 and 18/01, I suppose.

 

Well since the question was answered I'll just relate my first experience way back with Eye of the Beholder.

That was my first AD&D type game.
With my very first Party I was rolling for my Paladin and got 18/00 right away but thought that was bad and rerolled.

How was I supposed to know that double zero was the best score!?

 

Doesn´t the /XX score also increase carry weight and the open doors score?
Or is it just lack of sleep that makes me think this is so?

 

@Eltan

Weight allowance is in my post above. The open doors/bend bars % is as follows (using the same progression as above): 20%, 25% 30%, 35%, 40%, and 45%.

 

I missed that post. Seems my sleepy brain still functions to a certain point then.

So, Harbourboy, you want a 18/00 score. Just keep rolling, rolling, rolling *starts singing* and you´ll get it

 

Once while generating character (I usually do that in more than 45 minutes, except when I want an interesting character so I limit the character generation time) I rolled 18/00 after about 20-25 minutes (of course I wanted the total stats to be good so this value of Strength wasn't my purpose: it came accidently)
Chances of the time needed to get 18/00 could be determined to get a precise average value which can be expected by all players, but I won't do that now.

My suggestion: if you want 18/00, and it just doesn't want to come, keep rolling, you'll get it sooner or later . Just like in quantum mechanics

 

Enable cheats and use CTRL+8, it's faster that way and you can max all stats you want. Don't bother the bad feeling you'll have while doing it - you save yourself a lot of time.

 

IMHO this is a matter which every individual should decide on his/her own. I personally consider it as a cheat, and I do not regret spending more time in order to get better stats.

 

Then I consider re-rolling for 90+ stats an exploit. It's really everyone's personal choice though.

 

18/00 is not uncommon, try reallocating.
It's harder to have 18/00 AND other good stats.
A warrior needs 3 good stats, that's all:
Str, Dex, Con

 

If my comment sounds hair-splitting, pardon me, but let me remind to the fact that Rangers and Paladins are also warriors, and they (especially Paladins) need higher value in other abilities too. I suppose you meant Fighter with the word warrior.

 

Plus, it's still a long shot to get 18/00 no matter how you allocate your points. I'd say that the odds of it happening are (unless some factor I'm not aware of is at work) 1 in 100. That means that you have to re-roll 100 times on average to get 18/00, and then be lucky enought to get that on a roll where your other stats are reasonably high enough. An 18/00 strength doesn't do me much good if all my other stats are around 10.

 

It's really irrelevant in BG1 anyway.

The strength tome makes any 18, 18/01-00 strength score 19.



Now I just found out in IWD that a item that gives +1 strength (permanent tome/potion or a temporary item; like the ring +1 strength) only moves you up to the next level.

example:

18/03 goes to 18/51 goes to 18/76 etc...

 

Maybe I was very lucky each time, but when I wanted 18/00 and some other good stats, it wasn't too long to come, only some minutes, like:
Str 18/00
Dex 18
Con 16

For paladins and rangers, aren't the stats you need lifted if necessary, so that you have same odds?