Lemme add some context. So I just got into Act 2, and now I go into Blacklake and I get reminded with the fact that when I go up to Cain, the game doesn't register that I have a lute, even though I've got sufficient points in the Use Magic Device skill. Not even when I have it equipped. No, I can only tell Cain that I don't have a lute and I'm forced to have him loan me one. Before then, I had simply given up in my previous playthroughs and just went with the flow, but now I decided "Enough is enough. I'm gonna find a way to fix this". So I kept looking around for a solution, and I eventually discovered that the only solution would be the worst solution, the one that I feared: I needed to have a level as a Bard. Otherwise, the game doesn't register me as possessing a lute and therefore must be loaned one.










MY NIBBA, IF YOU DON'T- CENSORED

Nah, but seriously, how dumb is this bug? And I remember one time before installing the game from GOG, while playing with the disc version I had, I didn't encounter the bug and the game registered me as possessing a lute, even though I couldn't equip it. And I equipped it regardless.

Can somebody bribe Obsidian to remake this game, just like NWN1?!

There are lots of oversights with the scripting in NWN2. The one that really rankles me is all the cases where enemies are scripted to attack you as soon as you're within sight, but they don't check whether you're using stealth so the enemy still runs up to you and attacks (and that's before the annoying cutscenes that put your fragile mage within melee reach of a guy with a greataxe just before a battle... and maybe if you're unluckly the developers will also decide to strip away your buffs too).

Honestly probably still better than in pen and paper. At least you can play this out as a puzzle mechanic in the game, but in pen and paper if you aren't specifically trained in string instruments you're screwed.

You know, I did try going stealthy to sneak up on a couple of enemies, specifically in Leldon's house, but they always somehow managed to detect me and Neeshka, despite our stealth skills being pretty high up. Or at least, I'd like to think they were high up, I dunno. They were 15 or so, I don't remember. Regardless, I never really bothered with Stealth Mode anyway, since we always charge headfirst into the fray instead of being given the choice to strategize properly, which is even more unneeded when almost all of the encounters are too easy for you to even bother strategizing for them.

And yeah, the game's clearly made for you to be a melee fighter, since every time a conversation is initiated, you're always at the front, and you're still at the front when the battle starts afterwards. If you're a pure spellcaster, ya ded. It's pretty boring to play a pure spellcaster, anyway; all you do then is throw spells around, and you've got so many spells to throw, most of which probably aren't needed anyway.

But anyway, the only way that would make sense is if the Perform skill would be needed in that encounter, which does make sense, but leads us to a different issue: why the frick can't we use the Perform skill unless we're a bard?! What, a Rogue can't play instruments? Can't be well-versed in theatricality? How dumb is that?!

No I'm not a Rogue, I'm mainly a Ranger, but still, you get the idea!

Edit: Actually wait, that still doesn't make sense, because the only thing we get out of being a Bard in this encounter is being able to recall the tune Cain played. Other than that, it's all the same, with any class being able to do it, since The Loaner is still a lute, so you'd still need to know how to play lutes to use it, so in other words, I shouldn't have to go through any of this if I already have a lute in the first place.

Hm, I guess they're just messing with cause and effect to make the skill more definitive. It's not that you have to be a bard to train in perform; maybe, it's that training in Perform necessarily makes you a bard.

And training in UMD necessarily makes you a rogue, though that's a bit harder for me to picture.

Wrong. UMD is more prominent for Warlocks than for Rogues. It fits more for them, anyhow. Heck, even Wizards make more sense. Now Disable Device, Open Lock and Sleight Of Hand, those are more for Rogues than anybody else. And you actually do have to be a Bard to get any points into Perform.