Follow TV Tropes

Following

History Main / Minmaxing

Go To

OR

Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None


** Imoen seems to be a direct invocation of this trope as her useful stats are all quite high - 18 Dex, 16 Con (the max any non-Fighter class still benefits from) and 16 Charisma, which easily lets her get more favorable NPC interactions if the player built a low-Charisma protagonist. (She's unavailable for a good chunk of Baldur's Gate II, but you get access to a ring that grants 18 Charisma immediately after she leaves, so it's a rather moot point.). She also has 17 Intelligence, which is enough to Dual-class to a Mage. Indeed, even if the player never does so in the first game, it still happens canonically - she's an apprentice in Siege of Dragonspear and by the time the second game occurs she's a full-fledged Thief/Mage (a bit meta as a pure Thief class is much less useful in Baldur's Gate II, and her thief skills are conveniently just high enough to spot and disarm any traps or locks you run across). Her Strength and Wisdom are both quite low, but Strength isn't particularly important for her chosen build and Wisdom has little utility for non-Clerics anyhow. As a result she remains consistently useful throughout the entire trilogy, serving as the third-best thief and the second-best mage among all the prefab characters.

to:

** Imoen seems to be a direct invocation of this trope as her useful stats are all quite high - 18 Dex, 16 Con (the max any non-Fighter class still benefits from) and 16 Charisma, which easily lets her get more favorable NPC interactions if the player built a low-Charisma protagonist. (She's unavailable for a good chunk of Baldur's Gate II, but you get access to two other thieves to fill in the moment she leaves [[spoiler: one of whom betrays you the moment she comes back]] as well as a ring that grants 18 Charisma immediately after she leaves, Charisma, so it's a rather moot point.). She also has 17 Intelligence, which is enough to Dual-class to a Mage. Indeed, even if the player never does so in the first game, it still happens canonically - she's an apprentice in Siege of Dragonspear and by the time the second game occurs she's a full-fledged Thief/Mage (a bit meta as a pure Thief class is much less useful in Baldur's Gate II, and her thief skills are conveniently just high enough to spot and disarm any traps or locks you run across). Her Strength and Wisdom are both quite low, but Strength isn't particularly important for her chosen build and Wisdom has little utility for non-Clerics anyhow. As a result she remains consistently useful throughout the entire trilogy, serving as the third-best thief and the second-best mage among all the prefab characters.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None


** Imoen seems to be a direct invocation of this trope as her useful stats are all quite high - 18 Dex, 16 Con (the max any non-Fighter class still benefits from) and 16 Charisma, which easily lets her get more favorable NPC interactions if the player built a low-Charisma protagonist. (She's unavailable for a good chunk of Baldur's Gate II, but you get access to a ring that grants 18 Charisma immediately after she leaves, so it's a rather moot point.). She also has 17 Intelligence, which is enough to Dual-class to a Mage. Indeed, even if the player never does so in the first game, it still happens canonically - she's an apprentice in Siege of Dragonspear and by the time the second game occurs she's a full-fledged Thief/Mage (a bit meta as a pure Thief class is much less useful in Baldur's Gate II, and her stats are conveniently just high enough to spot and disarm any traps or locks you run across). Her Strength and Wisdom are both quite low, but Strength isn't particularly important for her chosen build and Wisdom has little utility for non-Clerics anyhow. As a result she remains consistently useful throughout the entire trilogy, serving as the third-best thief and the second-best mage among all the prefab characters.

to:

** Imoen seems to be a direct invocation of this trope as her useful stats are all quite high - 18 Dex, 16 Con (the max any non-Fighter class still benefits from) and 16 Charisma, which easily lets her get more favorable NPC interactions if the player built a low-Charisma protagonist. (She's unavailable for a good chunk of Baldur's Gate II, but you get access to a ring that grants 18 Charisma immediately after she leaves, so it's a rather moot point.). She also has 17 Intelligence, which is enough to Dual-class to a Mage. Indeed, even if the player never does so in the first game, it still happens canonically - she's an apprentice in Siege of Dragonspear and by the time the second game occurs she's a full-fledged Thief/Mage (a bit meta as a pure Thief class is much less useful in Baldur's Gate II, and her stats thief skills are conveniently just high enough to spot and disarm any traps or locks you run across). Her Strength and Wisdom are both quite low, but Strength isn't particularly important for her chosen build and Wisdom has little utility for non-Clerics anyhow. As a result she remains consistently useful throughout the entire trilogy, serving as the third-best thief and the second-best mage among all the prefab characters.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None


** Imoen seems to be a direct invocation of this trope as her useful stats are all quite high - 18 Dex, 16 Con (the max any non-Fighter class still benefits from) and 16 Charisma, which easily lets her get more favorable NPC interactions if the player built a low-Charisma protagonist. (She's unavailable for a good chunk of Baldur's Gate II, but you get access to a ring that grants 18 Charisma immediately after she leaves, so it's a rather moot point.). She also has 17 Intelligence, which is enough to Dual-class to a Mage. Indeed, even if the player never does so in the first game, it still happens canonically - she's an apprentice in Siege of Dragonspear and by the time the second game occurs she's a full-fledged Thief/Mage (a bit meta, as a pure Thief class is much less useful in Baldur's Gate II). Her Strength and Wisdom are both quite low, but Strength isn't particularly important for her chosen build and Wisdom has little utility for non-Clerics anyhow. As a result she remains consistently useful throughout the entire trilogy, serving as the third-best thief and the second-best mage among all the prefab characters.

to:

** Imoen seems to be a direct invocation of this trope as her useful stats are all quite high - 18 Dex, 16 Con (the max any non-Fighter class still benefits from) and 16 Charisma, which easily lets her get more favorable NPC interactions if the player built a low-Charisma protagonist. (She's unavailable for a good chunk of Baldur's Gate II, but you get access to a ring that grants 18 Charisma immediately after she leaves, so it's a rather moot point.). She also has 17 Intelligence, which is enough to Dual-class to a Mage. Indeed, even if the player never does so in the first game, it still happens canonically - she's an apprentice in Siege of Dragonspear and by the time the second game occurs she's a full-fledged Thief/Mage (a bit meta, meta as a pure Thief class is much less useful in Baldur's Gate II).II, and her stats are conveniently just high enough to spot and disarm any traps or locks you run across). Her Strength and Wisdom are both quite low, but Strength isn't particularly important for her chosen build and Wisdom has little utility for non-Clerics anyhow. As a result she remains consistently useful throughout the entire trilogy, serving as the third-best thief and the second-best mage among all the prefab characters.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None


** Imoen seems to be a direct invocation of this trope as her useful stats are all quite high - 18 Dex, 16 Con (the max any non-Fighter class still benefits from) and 16 Charisma, which easily lets her get more favorable NPC interactions if the player built a low-Charisma protagonist. (She's unavailable for a good chunk of Baldur's Gate II, but you get access to a ring that grants 18 Charisma immediately after she leaves, so it's a rather moot point.). She also has 17 Intelligence, which is enough to Dual-class to a Mage. Indeed, even if the player never does so in the first game, it still happens canonically - she's an apprentice in Siege of Dragonspear and by the time the second game occurs she's a full-fledged Thief/Mage (a bit meta, as a pure Thief isn't of much use anymore in Baldur's Gate II). Her Strength and Wisdom are both quite low, but Strength isn't particularly important for her chosen build and Wisdom has little utility for non-Clerics anyhow.
** [[spoiler: Sarvevok]] in Throne of Bhaal likewise has very optimized stats for a human fighter - 18/00 Strength, 17 Dex, 18 Con, 10 Wis, and 17 Int/15 Cha to reflect his cunning nature, giving him a whopping 95/00 overall. And yes, you can dual him to a Thief or Mage as well if you're so inclined.

to:

** Imoen seems to be a direct invocation of this trope as her useful stats are all quite high - 18 Dex, 16 Con (the max any non-Fighter class still benefits from) and 16 Charisma, which easily lets her get more favorable NPC interactions if the player built a low-Charisma protagonist. (She's unavailable for a good chunk of Baldur's Gate II, but you get access to a ring that grants 18 Charisma immediately after she leaves, so it's a rather moot point.). She also has 17 Intelligence, which is enough to Dual-class to a Mage. Indeed, even if the player never does so in the first game, it still happens canonically - she's an apprentice in Siege of Dragonspear and by the time the second game occurs she's a full-fledged Thief/Mage (a bit meta, as a pure Thief isn't of class is much use anymore less useful in Baldur's Gate II). Her Strength and Wisdom are both quite low, but Strength isn't particularly important for her chosen build and Wisdom has little utility for non-Clerics anyhow.
anyhow. As a result she remains consistently useful throughout the entire trilogy, serving as the third-best thief and the second-best mage among all the prefab characters.
** [[spoiler: Sarvevok]] in Throne of Bhaal likewise has very optimized stats for a human fighter - 18/00 Strength, 17 Dex, 18 Con, 10 Wis, and 17 Int/15 Cha to reflect his cunning nature, giving him a whopping 95/00 stat spread overall. And yes, you can dual him to a Thief or Mage as well if you're so inclined.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None


* A common strategy in ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'' and ''VideoGame/BaldursGateII'', since classes are geared towards specific skills, there wasn't much room in dialogue choices and plot twists based on your stats, and party composition could cover any deficiency. There simply wasn't reason to have 11 strength and 18 intelligence as a fighter rather than the opposite (or 18 strenght and 11 intelligence as a wizard). The only limit was that if you re-rolled your stats you risked to get a worse result, and trying to get a better one would soak up [[BoringButPractical a lot of time]]. The Enhanced Editions made it even worse by giving the option to store your dice rolls when creating a character, so that it wasn't a problem if you never got higher rolls again as you could recall your previous throw.

to:

* A common strategy in ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'' and ''VideoGame/BaldursGateII'', since classes are geared towards specific skills, there wasn't much room in dialogue choices and plot twists based on your stats, and party composition could cover any deficiency. There simply wasn't reason to have 11 strength and 18 intelligence as a fighter rather than the opposite (or 18 strenght strength and 11 intelligence as a wizard). The only limit was that if you re-rolled your stats you risked to get a worse result, and trying to get a better one would soak up [[BoringButPractical a lot of time]]. The Enhanced Editions made it even worse by giving the option to store your dice rolls when creating a character, so that it wasn't a problem if you never got higher rolls again as you could recall your previous throw.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None


** Imoen seems to be a direct invocation of this trope as her useful stats are all quite high - 18 Dex, 16 Con (the max any non-Fighter class still benefits from) and 16 Charisma, which easily lets her get more favorable NPC interactions if the player built a low-Charisma protagonist. She also has 17 Intelligence, which is enough to Dual-class to a Mage. Indeed, even if the player never does so in the first game, it still happens canonically - she's an apprentice in Siege of Dragonspear and by the time the second game occurs she's a full-fledged Thief/Mage (a bit meta as a pure Thief isn't of much use anymore in Baldur's Gate II). Her Strength and Wisdom are both quite low, but Strength isn't particularly important for her chosen build and Wisdom has little utility for non-Clerics anyhow.

to:

** Imoen seems to be a direct invocation of this trope as her useful stats are all quite high - 18 Dex, 16 Con (the max any non-Fighter class still benefits from) and 16 Charisma, which easily lets her get more favorable NPC interactions if the player built a low-Charisma protagonist. (She's unavailable for a good chunk of Baldur's Gate II, but you get access to a ring that grants 18 Charisma immediately after she leaves, so it's a rather moot point.). She also has 17 Intelligence, which is enough to Dual-class to a Mage. Indeed, even if the player never does so in the first game, it still happens canonically - she's an apprentice in Siege of Dragonspear and by the time the second game occurs she's a full-fledged Thief/Mage (a bit meta meta, as a pure Thief isn't of much use anymore in Baldur's Gate II). Her Strength and Wisdom are both quite low, but Strength isn't particularly important for her chosen build and Wisdom has little utility for non-Clerics anyhow.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None


** Imoen seems to be a direct invocation of this trope as her useful stats are all quite high - 18 Dex, 16 Con (the max any non-Fighter class still benefits from) and 16 Charisma, which easily lets her get more favorable NPC interactions if the player built a low-Charisma protagonist. She also has 17 Intelligence, which is enough to Dual-class to a Mage. Indeed, even if the player never does so in the first gsme, it still happens canonically - she's an apprentice in Siege of Dragonspear and by the time the second game occurs she's a full-fledged Thief/Mage (a bit of meta foreshadowing, as a pure Thief isn't of much use anymore in Baldur's Gate II). Her Strength and Wisdom are both quite low, but Strength isn't particularly important for her chosen build and Wisdom has little utility for non-Clerics anyhow.

to:

** Imoen seems to be a direct invocation of this trope as her useful stats are all quite high - 18 Dex, 16 Con (the max any non-Fighter class still benefits from) and 16 Charisma, which easily lets her get more favorable NPC interactions if the player built a low-Charisma protagonist. She also has 17 Intelligence, which is enough to Dual-class to a Mage. Indeed, even if the player never does so in the first gsme, game, it still happens canonically - she's an apprentice in Siege of Dragonspear and by the time the second game occurs she's a full-fledged Thief/Mage (a bit of meta foreshadowing, as a pure Thief isn't of much use anymore in Baldur's Gate II). Her Strength and Wisdom are both quite low, but Strength isn't particularly important for her chosen build and Wisdom has little utility for non-Clerics anyhow.

Top