Memorizing new wizard spells (odds)

Remove all ads!

Maybe I'm missing something here, but ever since I've been playing BG2 the chance of transcribing a new mage spell from a scroll (the % chance listed on the character screen) doesn't seem to correspond with the actual odds. I just went through a period of (attempted) scroll transcription with my level 11 mage (INT=18, odds=85%) where I was able to memorize, oh, maybe half of the scrolls I had just bought. The scrolls ranged from 1st level to 8th level. Even after increasing his INT to 19 the odds stayed about the same for the next batch of attempted memorization.

Perhaps it's incrementally more difficult to memorize/transcribe higher-level spells? If so, I've never read that anywhere. Seems I have just as much trouble transcribing lower-level scrolls. It's just a damn shame to waste thousands of GP for nothing.

 

You too, huh? I just chalk it up to horrible luck. But memorising spells is mostly a save/reload affair for me, anyway... no way I'm going to waste one of the two existing scrolls in the game.

 

I got sick of that same thing on my very first time playing BG2 oh so long ago. Two things you can do, adjust the difficulty slider down when you scribe spells to automatically learn them or get a mod that enables autolearn scrolls (Ease of use? I can't remember atm).

It really, really hurts when you fail a scribing of that danged timestop scroll you FINALLY got and then realize your last save was an hour ago. And yes, that was what prompted me to get the mod in the end.

 

I'm not sure of the actual adjustment to odds, but I can tell you that the percentage listed is for learning spell scrolls for your currently highest spell slot. Meaning that if you can cast lv 5 spells, and your % to memorize is 85, then you have an 85% chance to memorize level 5 spells (sorry about the over-simplication). For each level of spells above your current maximum, the % gets incrementally lower. Hence if you could cast 1st lv spells only and tried to memorize a 9th lv spell, you'd really have a hard time of it.

 

This may only apply to some of you, and even then, I don't know if Bioware implemented it. From the PHB, p.46:

 

I would think that not only does the percentage of learning (due to Int) apply, but isn't it supposed to be more difficult to scribe spells for levels you can't cast from yet? Ex: mage can cast level 7 spells and has a few 9th levels he wants to copy into his spellbook.

Also, use quicksave. I don't know how you people can play with just the autosaves or only saving every 6 hours.

 

I play on core rules, and I don't load a save if I fail to memorize. Hence, I am very fond of potions of genius (where were those things when I was in school?).

 

Some of you guys are hsrd core, I reload all the time for everything. I hate it when I try to learn a spell and says I failed. Is there an inteligence level that will always learn spells?

 

Even if you got INT 25 there is 1% chance to failure learning the spell.

 

And trust ne I have even failed with next to impossible odds. I think a quick save or temporally lowering the difficulty is a MUST, especially when dealing with very rare and valuable spell scrolls.

 

I must admit with scrolls I use quicksave/reload i don't waste the potion of genius since it seems to be the rarer the scroll the more chance you won't scribe it, so I just reload til I do it's the major cheat I use in these games. I don't like to change the difficulty as knowing me I'd forget to put it back.

 

I don't think that is hard-core. I just think that is role-playing. I personally would feel like I was cheating if I failed to scribe a scroll and then reloaded. What's the point of having scribe failure if you don't let it impact you? I fail to scribe scrolls all the time. It's just tough luck and I have to live with it.

 

I'm not entirely a role player when it comes to my spell scribing. Sometimes I get really lucky and scribe most everything. sometimes I don't. But certain spells I just don't like to fail and I will reload and try again. Others I will let fail if they fail. The certain spells I rely on with real limited number of scrolls though. Particularly when i tend towards Arcane heavy parties. I tend to need just about every one of the few I know where to get them.

 

All right, this is getting ridiculous. My (non-specialist) mage is now level 12, has an INT of 19 (+1 INT thanks to Robe of Vecna; "95%" chance memorize), yet still has an incredible difficulty transcribing even level 1 and level 2 spells.

I went through all the vendors in Athkatla who sell spells (down by the seashore) and bought several level 1, 2, and 3 spells. For instance, I had five scrolls of knock (level 2 spell) and failed *five* consecutive times in transcribing those. Out of the eight level one spells I was able to transcribe only five; of the six level three spells only three got transcribed. I don't care so much about having some of these useless spells, I just want the XP for transcribing them.

I don't think I'll ever be going back to Vegas after this.

 

Zamiel - what you're experiencing is likely a result of twitchiness in BG2's random number generator. RNG's are notorious for this sort of thing, as they don't always "seed" correctly, leading to observed results that aren't anything like what they should be. In theory, the longer your play session lasts for, the closer the observed results should get to a random distribution, but there will always be kinks. Friends I know who did Computer Science courses at Uni always had trouble getting RNGs to work correctly. Typically, RNGs can often become locked into giving extremal results, which can result in strings of minimal-probability events occuring. In BG2's case, this means sequences of both Critical Hits and Misses, and memorisation failure for high-INT wizards, are much more likely to occur than in real life roleplaying (if there is such a thing ). Which is where your problem most likely comes from.

Also, note that (at least according to the manual) you should also get a +10% bonus to scribe a scroll for each spell level above the level of the scroll that you can cast from memory (if that makes sense... it's 2am here - sleep beckons and lucidity suffers), and a corresponding -10% penalty to memorisation of spells for each level above that which you can currently cast. Although, the 1% chance of "critical" failure always applies.

Hope that helps.

 

I never heard of a bonus to low level spells, but I definitely know there's a penalty of 10% for each level a spell is above what you can currently cast. So if you can only cast level 6, and you're attempting to scribe a level 8, you get a -20% penalty.

It seems to me that the 10% bonus is not factored in at any rate. There are many times that I've had Jan or Aerie in my group (both have INT=16) and it seems like they succeed at about their listed rate, even on low level spells. I mean, by the time you pick them up, they are already capable of casting level 4 spells, which means they should be getting a bonus of 30% on level 1 spells. I don't know what the percentage chance of success is for a 16 INT, but once you add 30% onto it, it has to be getting close to the maximum of 99%, but they still fail on them with a frequency far exceeding 1%.

However, it does seem like the penalty is implemented. I don't have hard stats to back this up, but it appears that I fail more on high level spells of a level I cannot yet cast. So say we have a level 12 mage with an intelligence of 18. That's (I think) a 75% chance of success. From my experience, I'm successful about 75% of the time for all spells level 1-5. I don't see any advantage with levels 1-2 which should be virtually an automatic success. However, I DO see disadvantages with levels 6-9.

 

^It is very frustrating to fail a level 7+ scroll scribing. Reloading countless times make me feel like a cheesy powergamer. (as if I am not, sheeesh! )

 

^Just set your intelligence to 24 via blue potions delivered with one mod =:]. It's nice to get 1/3 experience by overlearning spells - but I do this because of other mod that causes significant reduction of XP given for kill.

 

Silverstar. Look down.


See those people below you.

Yes those small ones there that look like ants. Those are power gamers.

They look up to people like you and hope to achieve your level some day.

~pats Silverstar on the shoulder.~

 

Jan and Aerie seem to fail their spell scribes about 20% of the time for me. That is a very rough estimate but it happens enough for me to be a bit nervous about spending 1500gp in a shop for a certain scroll when I know they might stuff it up and then the gold is wasted.