I say we post a collection of things we took a long time to realize, so that we can learn from each others oversights! I'll start, some of these you guys may have noticed much quicker than me, but cut me slack and I'll do the same.

1. Ranger/clerics can cast cleric AND druid spells.

2. A bard may be limited to level 6 or lower spells, but since they level at the same rate as thieves, will consistently cast them at a higher rate.

3. Many spells have caps, such as Melf's Minature Meteors, which don't go higher than 20.

4. Kensai rule, even without armor spells they do fine. A lack of armor also allows them to use the higher Protection items.

5. Boots of Speed round up number of attacks if they are a fraction like 5/2, but have no effect on number of attacks if a whole number.

6. I also used to split spells I needed pretty evenly between Imoen and Aerie, I realized more recently that Aerie's short comings as a mage would matter less if I had her memorize mostly spells that didn't level with character level.

7. Cernd's cloak is basically a Cloak of Protection +1 that can be worn with magical armor, but only by Cernd. Even a rogue with UAI would need stats matching or higher than Cernd's to wear it. Luckily you can buff your thief to have the stats and even after the buffs wear out, they're still wearing the cloak.

Nice initiative, though your point 5 is not correct:

A rate of attack with halves is treated with alternation, for example 5/2: is 3 attacks in one round and 2 in the other. Or so I'm told.

edit: or am I wrong and is your point that the usual rule is disregarded by boots of speed? I saw you formulate it well in this discussion with Coelacanth. That's mighty interesting.

Nice one very helpful but I did not get point 6. Boots of Speed does the same but rate of execution is faster, for example, 2-3 seconds for a round rather 6 per round. I may be incorrect but the fundamentals will never change for a round as far as the AD&D manual shows.

Pertaining to #5

I am basing this purely on the information on the "Record" page. I noticed that fractions were rounded to the next whole number when the character was wearing the Boots of Speed.

Just checked it, #5 is not true in Tutu, but it is in BG2. But enough about #5, contribute! Don't be ashamed! What have you guys overlooked that may beneficial to the rest of us to know?

Many spells grow stronger the higher the character's level, which is gimped by multiclassing since it slows level progression. In my case I have Aerie, a multiclass caster, and Imoen, who (for our purposes) is a full mage. By choosing largely spells that don't level for Aerie, you can make her a more effective mage. For instance in the past I may have had both of them memorize one Breach and one Lower Resistance, but Breach doesn't change with character level where as LR gets +1% per level of the caster. So now I'd have Aerie memorize two Breach and Imoen two LR instead of spreading it out. Is that clearer?

Point 5 is due to the weird way that the Boots of Speed are implemented. They actually can cause you to LOSE attacks because they mess with initiative, and you can also periodically drop out of invisibility before you attack, so you miss your backstab. There are a bunch of mods to fix that, but my favorite just changes the boots to be a movement rate bonus.

On topic, though, the thing that took me the longest to realize was that (almost) all of the cool Jaheira-related stuff can be done even if you aren't romancing her. The entire Harper questline is completely open as long as she's in the party, you only miss out on some of her dialogs.

Yes. This is of course a good idea but eventually this is the case which one follows. I thought this was related with leveling between 2 but turn out to be regarding spells. :)

Thanks for a realization that comes just now because of your post. Now I know why Amber often suddenly pops out of invisibility when going in for the kill. Could you tell which mods contain fixes for it, so I can pick one?

I know at least one of the fixpacks from the sticky has it, but if you just want the boots fixed you can get it from the TOB fixes section of Baldurdash. If you just want the single fix, make sure to also get the Grandmaster Armor fix, because it suffers from the same issues as the Boots of Speed.

Koveras is Sarevok spelled backwards!!!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7g9WjcGdxuM


this reminds me:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ut2PPbnb0ZA

I didn't figure that out in the game until the reveal. I felt REALLY stupid. :D

Another one! Anyone with an INT of 8 or lower can't read scrolls. Not a major deal perhaps, but unless you want to RP an illiterate... it's nice to know.

You can stack thieves' potions and trivialize stealing from merchants.

Yup, not like in BG1!