(Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition)

I've been collecting a lot of gems and storing them in a gem bag but have yet to find any use for them.

The description text on many of them suggests that they do serve some function.

Could someone please explain to me how I make use of these gems?

So they're just shiny pieces of treasure to be sold. XD

Thanks for the tip about the shop prices, Rock on! ^_^

I have slightly off-topic question and it concerns Classic (non-EE) version of Icewind Dale (and 2nd one too). Are all containers in the game safe for item storage? Or do they occasionally "refresh"? I didn't play this game for awhile but I might possible replay it, are there "one-shot" areas, which can't be revisited unless you are on specific quest? I think IWD1's starting areas weren't revisitable.

All Infinity Engine containers (chests, barrels, bags, etc.) are safe, and all of them are static. If a vendor wants to change wares, the game has to open another, hidden 'store'. So no, they do not 'refresh' or 'empty'. If you can put an item into a container, it will stay there *provided* the container itself is permanent (bodies are containers, but not always permanent).

The big thing to worry about is when an entire area is changed/becomes inaccessible. In this case the items themselves are not lost, BUT they become inaccessible, so short of using the cheat console to teleport into the applicable area, you're not getting them back.

This happens pretty much in two cases: when story progression is sawtooth (i.e., point-of-no-return), and when quest/story progression changes an area to a sufficient degree that the developers decide to replace this area with a similar looking one but with a different area tag (the containers in this area *are not* the same as the ones that were in the previous iteration of the zone, so you can no longer access the "previous" contents).

Without giving spoilers for the story itself these cases are as follows in Icewind Dale (I'm pretty sure these are all of them).

* Once you leave Easthaven on the caravan, you can no longer return to Easthaven or to the adjacent wilderness area. You do return to Easthaven eventually as part of the game but it is not the same area ID and therefore anything left behind in the prologue Easthaven is no longer accessible.

* Once you complete Heart of Winter and subsequently return to Kuldahar, you may not return to Lonelywood, and therefore may not return to any Heart of Winter or Trials of the Luremaster areas.

* You may not return to any Trials of the Luremaster areas after you complete that side trek and leave.

* Once you ascend the stairs in Dorn's Deep that require completing a 6 part lock to access, you can not return to any previous areas at all.

Thanks, I always hesitated to use containers for storage. What is the limit for items per containers? Thanks for that list, do you have similar list for IWD2? That one game I never finished, so I will most likely replay it first.

It depends on the container. As far as I'm aware, generic containers like chests, barrels etc. have the absolute upper limit of 65535, but stores like bags are limited by their capacity flags, generally in the tens or more rarely hundreds. These are varied, but can be overwritten by mods if needed.

Great, I am looking toward replaying this game. 65535 seems like a fine number for a pack rat like me.

This reminds me of something that happens in Wizardry 8.

First of all, in that game there are 3 artifacts that you need to find. It is mandatory to acquire them to complete the game, and the game will not let you drop them on the ground. (Note that, unlike in the EE games, items dropped on the ground never disappear in Wizardry 8.) However, the game will, for whatever reason, allow you to put them in a container.

It just so happens that there is one area, the Wilderness Clearing, that changes once you get 2 of the artifacts. That area has some containers that only exist after the area changes. So, what you could do is put 2 artifacts into one of the containers in the area. Then, the next time the game loads the area, it will be back to its original state, making the container (with the 2 artifacts in it) inaccessible. Since there are only 3 artifacts in the game, this makes it impossible to complete the game.

I suspect being able to put such items in a container wasn't intended, but it is possible, allowing for the game to become unwinnable.

Incidentally, in Baldur's Gate 2 (non-EE), there actually is a way to actually use gems, though it involves a glitch.

While in the inventory, drink a potion, and without leaving the inventory, swap that potion with a gem. This triggers what's known as the item swap glitch, which allows the character to use items that she wouldn't normally be able to use. (This can be used to have non-casters cast spells from scrolls, or non-fighter-types drink giant strength potions, for example.)

For whatever reason, gems have an on-use effect. Using the gem won't actually have an obvious effect, but it will reduce the gem's quantity by 1.

If the quantity is reduced to 0, the gem will still be there, but the quantity will disappear. This gem behaves, for most purposes, like one with a quantity of 1. If you save and reload, the quantity becomes 1.

If you use the gem when its quantity is already 0, the game will subtract 1 from the quantity anyway, causing it to underflow and giving you a quantity of 65535, which you can then sell for major amounts of money. This trick is known as "gem underflow", and allows you to basically skip Chapter 2. (It's not the only skip in BG2; Chapter 4 can be skipped with another trick (polymorph teleporting), and Chapter 5 can be basically skipped by attacking the dragon who's supposed to help you (this was put in by the designers o prevent the player from becoming permanently stuck.)

It's not an 'on use' effect. What happens is gems are marked as magical (oversight, I guess), and magical items have a flag that tells the engine what to do if they are drained. Gems 'disappear' when (ab)used. Because they have a value, and are marked as 'droppable', they can be manipulated in the way you describe. Just throw the game away. Much easier.

I wouldn't pooh-pooh things this dismissively, although it's mostly not all that useful except for speed run challenges (where you more or less MUST use glitches before long to be relevant, as you can not generally beat record times without using at least the same level of engine exploit as the existing holder did. Makes me quite sad in Doom in particular as there are many levels that I will never again get to see a "normal" frantic speedrun because some little mapping oversight allows an exploit to skip much of the map that a normal or 100%-run player wouldn't use but a speedrun player must to be competitive).

Going one by one -

* Bypassing Chapter 2 doesn't really gain you anything except saving the time to gather up the gold (only relevant in a speed run); Chapter 2 and 3 are essentially identical in what is accessible apart from needing to trigger Chapter 3 and its associated main quests in order to proceed to Chapter 4. (Indeed, especially depending on which side you pick, Chapter 3 just makes sidequesting harder without really benefiting you in any useful way compared to staying in Chapter 2)

* Bypassing Chapter 4 is only useful in a speed run. Otherwise it actually impairs you as you miss out on a lot of useful stuff (as you can not return to the Chapter 4 areas once having left them).

* Killing the dragon in Chapter 5 is actually useful to Evil parties, however; her blood is a component for the Human Flesh Armour which is actually a very nice one for evil characters. (It can also be useful to Good parties who are in a pickle due to being inadequately leveled/prepared for the Underdark, because then you have only one challenging opponent to blast through, compared to the multiple difficult zones of doing the main quest "normally") IWD2 also has comparatively few points of no return that I can recall:

* Once you leave Targos on the Airship you cannot return.

* Once you leave Z'hinda Citadel (I'll just say it's a big round single-level maze, you'll recognise it immediately by that description) via the North-East exit, you can no longer return to previous areas. (The door locks behind you and cannot be opened by spells or a Rogue, so you must proceed to Chapter 5 which officially sawtooths you off from earlier areas). There is one exception, but when you do return to that area, it's going to be a different area ID than when you previously visited, so you won't be able to retrieve anything that you left there then.

I've pretty much only just gotten to Chapter 5, and haven't finished the game, so I'm fuzzy but I'm pretty sure these are all the remaining ones:

* Once you kill the boss enemy in Chult Jungle you must run for it to leave the area (or game over), and you won't be able to return.

* Once you finish the quest in Dragon's Eye level 4 I'm *pretty* sure you won't be able to return there (I may be wrong)

* Once you activate the final encounter in Severed Hand, you are automatically forced there when you leave the area that you activate it in, and therefore this prevents you from returning to any other previous area at all.

Actually, to skip Chapter 5, you don't need to actually kill the dragon; all you need to do is turn her hostile and flee the cave. In a speedrun, this is done, I believe, by shooting a Wand of Lightning at the dragon because you can hit the dragon from a longer range than if you got close enough to use a spell. In other words, if your party is not prepared for the Underdark, you don't even need to fight the dragon; just turn her hostile and run.

On the other hand, if you skip Chapter 4:
* You get to keep your Bhaalspawn abilities
* You avoid the forced stat loss in the dream sequence (I wonder if you could use a Shapechange effect (Limited Wish?) to eat the demon's brains and avoid the stat loss without skipping the whole chapter)
* You get to keep the character who normally leaves your party for the rest of the game