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On Lack of Lore and Peace of mind

Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2021 12:00 am
by torugor
I made a character with 0 Lore. Suggest you try it. Its impossible to go around and loot stuff. Everything comes unindentified. And if you identify the next item you know is the same as the first is unidentified as well.

So i placed 1....helped a bit. But i shouldnt need to have 1 lore to know a ring is a ring and a neckless is a neckless. Even non-magical itens needs lore to know what it is and sell for more than one gold coin.

And if you collect a lot of itens...ok...i accept paying for identifying it all...but couldnt there be a way to identify them all at once? It takes me like 10 minutes to identify all itens and sell them.

So i basically need to have more than 1 lore not because my character wants to know stuff...because he cant do any trade properly without lore.

Its a feedback of my character never thought it would be so hard to have 1 lore. Worse thing is the process of identify all. A npc to identify all itens for a price that increases with the number of itens would be really helpful.

Re: On Lack of Lore and Peace of mind

Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2021 12:36 am
by mjones3
I did the same and yes it hurts a ton, but get a single ring that gives you +5 lore and all of the pain goes away. If you ask just about anyone in game they can tell you where to get one, whether its from a player shop or npc.

Re: On Lack of Lore and Peace of mind

Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2021 1:57 am
by Flower Power
mjones3 wrote: Tue Jan 26, 2021 12:36 am I did the same and yes it hurts a ton, but get a single ring that gives you +5 lore and all of the pain goes away. If you ask just about anyone in game they can tell you where to get one, whether its from a player shop or npc.
Not necessarily.

The items you actually want to loot mostly require 10 or 15 Lore to ID.

Making a character w/o Lore is a terrible idea, anyways, unless you're playing a Cleric/FS; Lore for scroll usage is basically a must have.

Re: On Lack of Lore and Peace of mind

Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2021 5:58 am
by Diegovog
That's an exaggeration, you can play without lore in viable pvp builds. The annoyance lies in having your backpack full and YES THAT BLUE GEM IS ALEXANDRITE LIKE THE 4983257438957948 BEFORE THAT ONE. *put rings on, right click, examine, right click examine, right click, examine...*

Having these minor items with lore req below 10 being more easily identified through higher levels would go a great way for quality of life. Yes, I'm an epic character who can cross the planes, but what is that little blue gem again?

Re: On Lack of Lore and Peace of mind

Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2021 11:33 am
by Aren
You can alleviate your problems by acquiring two rings with +5 lore on each. These can be purchased from Wesley in the arcane tower, provided you are a mage (if not, then have someone buy them for you). The same rings can be acquired from the arcanist in the Boreal Keep. They are relatively cheap, and can easily be enchanted with a stat or two.

Re: On Lack of Lore and Peace of mind

Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2021 2:40 pm
by Itikar
There are also other items, more expensive, but then again you are sparing skill points, to push lore further up. I saw a helmet that increases lore of 5 points as well. Even with 10 intelligence, with two rings and that helmet you should be all right.

Re: On Lack of Lore and Peace of mind

Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2021 5:17 pm
by -XXX-
I've had a character with 8 STR - couldn't carry much.
I've had a character with 8 CON - died a lot.
I've had a non-human with 8 INT - wasn't very skilled.
I've had a character with low AB - couldn't hit a barn.
I've had a character with low AC - spent a fortune on healing kits.
I've had a spellcaster with low CL - got dispelled all the time.
...
...
...

Yes, min/maxing often has a downside. Sometimes it even translates into the more QoL related mechanical aspects of the character.
That being said, potions of identify are pretty common and merchant NPCs can be also used as a last resort.

Re: On Lack of Lore and Peace of mind

Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2021 5:48 pm
by Skarain
This is just an "uneducated guess", but when in the distant future Skills see a total revamp, we might see an ability to 'learn' skills by doing, so maybe after years and years of planewalking... we can finally, through experience, not skill point investment, tell an Alexandrite from an Amethyst. :lol:

Re: On Lack of Lore and Peace of mind

Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2021 7:34 pm
by Gouge Away
Isn't the lore skill required to ID based on the value of the item? If that's the case I expect it to be much more trouble than it is worth to make simple items easier to ID for those characters who opted not to take any lore.

It's one of those NWN things you have to deal with. It's an annoying game in a lot of ways and some things aren't likely or possible to change. Just get a couple of rings like everyone says for running through inventory IDing things, or invest a few points. I think getting to 10-15 lore one way or another is worth it on every character just to be able to use Knock, GMW and few other low level scrolls.

Re: On Lack of Lore and Peace of mind

Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2021 7:35 pm
by Curve
Just take a few points of lore. It is really not that big of a deal.

Re: On Lack of Lore and Peace of mind

Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2021 8:01 pm
by Aelryn Bloodmoon
I can't solve the dilemma for you of the IC conundrum of not being able to tell that piece of alexandrite is identical to the 50 others you have in a stack.

However, if for whatever reason you absolutely cannot/will not find and wear the +5 lore rings to handle your loot id'ing, there is a less convenient but viable in-dungeon option.

Put a stack of lore potions about ten deep in one of your last, frequently unused inventory pages. Put all the unidentified items that are unlikely to sell for more than the identification cost at a merchant into that tab of your inventory (which you'll have some idea of from prior experience even without lore).

In PnP, identify works on one item at a time. In NWN, when you drink your lore potion, you have a full six seconds to right click, examine, and hit escape, on as many items as you can. Drink one lore potion, then be prepared to right-click-examine-escape-REPEAT until your lore potion wears off.

This reduces your identification costs from Vendor Price per item to about 80ish per 10 or more items, if you're quick enough.

This also solves your issues with inventory space/stacking in a dungeon- you don't have to change your rings while you're in the dungeon, you can drink the potion, identify the items, and stuff them into their proper stacks, freeing up your space without changing your combat kit rings, which might include spell slots or essential stats you don't want to remove in the middle of a run (maybe you're wearing disguise rings while disguised and there's a spotter in your party you're worried about?)