I just wonder which artifacts you couldn't do without, and which you'd never buy.

Just to make sure:

SPOILER?
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For example: Drizzt swords are outstanding, but the horn/claws of Kazgaroth doesn't seem worth it.

There is absolutely nothing more useless than potions/spells/helms of infravision. The only good they do is that you can sell them for gold.

The Infravision spell seems pretty useless, but I use the ring and helmet all the time. As an old PnP'er, I just imagine that you receive the -4 penalty to hit rolls/saving throws/armour class that darkness brings if you don't have infravision. I suspect that it doesn't though.

The Vampiric Sword seems pretty useless to me (unless you do that tactic I described in another thread).
Potions of Mind Focusing, plus others I can't recall at the moment.
I'm going to think some more on this topic, because I'm drawing a blank right now.

A lot of the "useless" items are actually quite handy, in the right circumstances. Take the Claw of Kazgaroth: Let's say you're building a Fighter->Cleric, and you roll the guy to have 18 CON. Get the Fighter level you want, Dual to Cleric, and then put on the Claw. Clerics don't need any more than 16 CON, so the Claw's -2 to CON is negated, and Clerics also have very good Saves vs. Death, erasing the Claw's other drawback. So, you have a better AC and better Saving Throws, at the cost of your character looking all blurry.

Potions of Mind Focusing: Get your INT up to 25, and your chance to scribe a spell scroll is 150%. Yowza. Kinda justifies building a Mage with only 9 INT. Also, no matter what class you are, a +3 bonus to DEX pretty much guarantees a +1 (at least) AC bonus.

Useless stuff:
There's a spell that's even worse than Infravision: Magic Stone. Spend a round casting a spell, and be rewarded with--a sling bullet. Oh, wow, hot damn.

I've never even tried the Horn of Kazgaroth.

The Longtooth dagger--at that point in the game, who the hell cares? And how's it supposed to be better than the Dagger of Venom? Maybe if you had 2 Druids in your party.....

Clubs--Let's hear it for the ONLY WEAPON IN THE GAME that does NOT come in an enchanted version, not even +1.

Bards

Boots of the North--actually, they're not THAT useless....they come in quite handy when all those Mages cast Cone of Cold and Ice Storm on you.....wait a minute....

Wand of Polymorphing--boy, this thing really works like a charm, doesn't it?

You can understand the desire to experiment, but I can't help but feel a trifle let down that the BG series doesn't seem to like bards as much as IWD. With HoW installed they become useful and versatile. Bet you never thought you'd see someone saying that about Bards on a BG forum!

Spears.

WTH is going on there? Ask a Roman Legionnaire if he wouldn't mind dropping his shield because the new regulations state that he must hold his spear with two hands. Nonsense.

As for clubs, the only game I've seen so far that doesn't mind you having enchanted bits of wood is IWD. They've really tried to cover the basics so that other classes besides fighters might be able to own a magic weapon that is capable of inflicting damage on more things than itinerant civilians that get in the way.

I actually found a use for the girdle of femininity/masculinity on one occasion.

In one party of mine, the only male was the protagonist. There's a certain encounter where this is a big problem (of course, you could just skip this encounter). So, the girdle came in handy. Though, I could have just as easily gone out and recruited a male party member.

2 handed spears are more of a balance thing.
Spears give you the ability to attack with someone in the way. The loss is you cant carry a shield. Its not that bad of a trade.

Do you guys use potions of power, ive been through the game 4 or 5 times and I have only ever found 2 or 3 at the most. Theyre great because they lower the thaco of your non fighters and make them decent archers for a period of time. I had Imoen and Dynaheir doing decent damage to the Final Battle Boss, I even poisoned him with Arrows of Biting.

I finally get to the big city, walk into SS, they sell everything! And look at this, Arrows of Slaying, all my problems are solved! Ah....., wait a minute, Arrows of Slaying Ogre Magi. Now THAT was a fregin' jip. Why don't they sell Spitballs of Slaying Kobalds!