Gameplay (community)[]
Usage notes[]
Improved Alacrity has a reputation as being one of (if not THE) most broken spell in the Baldur's Gate saga, mentioned alongside its common partner in crime Project Image. However, this is probably exaggeration. To understand why is to understand how combat rounds are sequenced in Infinity Engine games.
Each round is 6 seconds long, and those 6 seconds are divided into 10 ticks (approximately 0.6 seconds long). The lower the tick, the earlier an event happens in a round. Once all allowed actions have been completed, a creature must wait until the start of the next round to initiate more actions.
Magic Missile begins casting at tick 0 and is fired at tick 1, after 0.6 real world seconds have passed.
Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting begins casting at tick 0 and is fired at tick 8, after 4.8 real world seconds have passed.
Improved Alacrity bypasses the restriction on spellcasters to begin casting at tick 0, the start of a new round. This means that spells which take a whole round to complete will still take close to a round before casting, while spells with shorter invocations can be emptied quite rapidly. Since weaker spells tend to have shorter casting times, Improved Alacrity lends itself well to spells with a casting time of 0 or 1. Even with the Robe of Vecna and Amulet of Power, which reduces casting time by 5, a spellcaster will only be able to cast 6 Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting in a 2 round period. While that sounds impressive, it still pales in comparison to the raw power of Chain Contingency, which is capable of launching three such spells instantaneously (at tick 0). Heparin
This brings up the second flaw of Improved Alacrity: competition. As a Level 10 spell that must be memorized in a Level 9 slot, it is competing against other equally viable spells such as Time Stop, Chain Contingency, and Wish. Unlike those spells, it is very inflexible in use. A spellcaster under the effects of Improved Alacrity is pressured to cast as many spells as possible while it is active, and this pressure will influence spell selection toward more situational choices to best make use of the increased speed. -- Added by Heparin (talk • contribs)
- Lich Diet (talk), did you add this removed bit from the article here for the rest of us to opine on whether it was a good call or not? If that's the case, yeah, I'm okay with the removal.
- As I've said in the past: I'm for articles being as objective as possible (though every rule has exceptions, ofc, and something useful like "this strategy is highly noteworthy for being good against this specific monster that gives a lot of people trouble" is an example of something that's ok, like, say, a note mentioning that blinding a Beholder is a good idea) and I think that kind of more subjective stuff should generally be left to the comment section (and this one is a HOT take lol).
- --TheWildestMage (talk) 16:27, 29 August 2024 (UTC)
- Yes, it is better served off the main page and into the Talk: Improved Alacrity page, where folks can title their thoughts and strategies in a labelled format and have a go at expounding on a particular angle dealing with the mother page's subject.