Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition - Finished like 4 or 5 days later, knowing tons about this game makes it go by quicker. Done pretty much everything in it this run. All of Tales of the Sword Coast. Durlag's Tower is worse than I remembered, but so it goes. Removing Flesh Golem spawns lowers my level curve a bit, hadn't realised how high a bit of time spent in that cave does it, but still clearing all the content is more exp than cap, so you can easily skip the dumber shit like Aec'letec and Durlag's Tower. Werewolf isle and ice caverns are relatively harmless albeit pretty boring. Ranting below I did remember one thing I forgot to do, which was get the Gauntlets of Ogre Strength on the Low Lantern, I never went in there. That was stupid. Khalid could have been even better than he was.
Halfing Kensai with daggers got by just fine. A few times throwing on a sword with no proficiency or the +2 throwing axe once I got it to handle Jellies, but otherwise, just stabbing stuff in the face with Dagger of Poison +2. Getting Book of +1 Str turning Halfing 17 Str into 18 Str with no exceptional Strength was incredibly underwhelming and really hit home shitty stat scaling is in 2nd Edition. Like most stats the scaling is pretty low and doesn't have much impact. Dex is kind of blech in that 18 Dex is amazing, less than 18 dex is kind of painful especially early on, but 19 and 20 Dex are pretty fucking meaningless. So Dex has a peak of balance issues.
Strength on the other hand is kind of shitty all the way up to 18. 17 Str is +1 damage per swing and 5% chance to hit effectively. 18 is +2 damage and 5% chance to hit. Then it scales up with Fighter specific sections from +3 damage and 5% chance to hit 50% of the time, +3 damage and 10% chance to hit 25% of the time, +4 damage and 10% chance of hit 15% chance of the time, +5 damage and 10% chance to hit 9% of the time and +6 damage and +15% chance to hit 1% of the time. Determined at character creation. 19 Str is +7 damage and 15% chance to hit.
So in BG you generally don't care about Str other than carry weight on other toons, Fighters that come with 16 Strength are terrible unless they are taking drugs (You should be mainlining potions in real combat situations). It is a good thing there is a whole line of potions to throw down their throats in a steady stream. Going into a tough fight? Potion of Storm Giant Strength for 24 Strength and start hitting 30% more often for +12 damage. That is flat out more boosted damage than that 2 handed sword you might be using gives. You easily double your damage ouput per round at -least- with these drugs before the extra chance to hit.
BG2 it really gets out of hand with Belt of Hill Giant Strength setting you up with 19 Str fighter right out the gate. It isn't a huge jump if you spent hours getting that 18/00 Strength roll, but in most cases? You are looking at +3 damage if not more and a free +1 to hit. That is with more swings just piling up for Fighters. It is just a crazy stat that keeps scaling so much and is so prevalent for buffs. If you don't run a fighter heavy party and go lots of ranged attackers and magic users I am actually pretty confident you can pretty easily keep your a Fighter buffed on drugs for every single fight after the opening dungeon if you focus on bankrolling their habit and make sure not to rest highly frequently (probably only really matters on your third fighter in a party. That said with careful planning you could make it your -fourth- fighter that needs it with an imported Bhaalspawn fighter).
It isn't like terrible or anything and Fighters do need it to compete with Mages, but it is clunky and weird and shits over anyone who didn't roll an 18 (or can't like Halflings in my case). Its a weird way to balance a game. Fighters need buffs. Okay lets make them potentially really strong in edge cases and for them to be truly outrageous we need them to be on the most extreme situation. Hope your GM is liberal with magic items that will scale your damage to crazy new heights! Oh and don't mind all the monsters that get massive Strength bonuses...
