Item mechanics

Items are things you pick up from rotting corpses to cover your body with. They are usually considered a better alternative to running around naked, and come with several characteristics that may be of use to the morally dubious profession of adventurer.

Magical

Main article: Magical item

Whether an item is magical or not is relevant to weapons and ammunition, i.e. things you throw at people so they can become rotting corpses.

Enchantment level

Main article: Enchanted item

Enchantment level is another characteristic only relevant to weapons and ammunition.

Usability

Main article: Item usability

Not everybody can use every stinking pile of trash found of the ground. Whether you can make use of something usually depends on character class or ability scores, and sometimes on alignment.

Power level

Main article: Power level

Most things in the world change through effects, and not through causes as you would expect. All effects have a power level, so this notion applies to items, but also spells and much more.

Caster level

Items often have effects attached to them. Some of these effects are active at all times when the item is equipped – they are often called passive or equipped effects. Any other effect must be applied explicitly, through the use of the item ability they belong to. An item ability is a cohesive list of several effects, and this list possesses certain characteristics like a school of magic. So an item ability is very similar to a spell, and like a spell it can make use of the caster level.

Note: Quick items like potions, scrolls, wands and whatnot also rely on item abilities to work.

When it comes to item abilities, caster level is most often used to determine the odds that Dispel Magic will be able to remove the ability's dispellable effects. Sometimes it may also affect duration or potency, just like with spells. Unlike spells however, in most cases an item ability will not rely on the level of the character using it, but on a fixed value: level 6 in Baldur's Gate and level 10 in Baldur's Gate II. So a level 12 character trying to dispel effects from potions can expect a 60% chance of success in BGII even when the potion user is level 20.

Some effects within item abilities are casting effects themselves. They will attempt to "sub-cast" something, and are sometimes set up to use a different caster level in that task. In that case, the "sub" caster level tends to either be the real level of the user — it could well be the mage or priest level that is actually picked up, like with the Cloak of Atonement — or a custom but fixed level, for example 20 for the Cloak of the Dark Moon's Protection From Magic Energy.

Note:

When the real level of the caster is used for a "sub-cast" of a mage or priest spell, caster level will be counted as level 1 when the user doesn't have the right class. Whether they do can be checked in-game with the Mage Spells and Priest Scroll interface screens: if they are greyed out, the character is counted as being a level 1 caster. For characters with multiple "priest classes", the cleric level wins, even if it's lower than the ranger level, for example.

Note:	Besides "priest" or "mage", the sub-cast spell could be classified as "innate". In that case, the real level of the caster will be the average of his levels, rounded up. A Fighter / Mage / Thief would be considered level CEIL[(F+M+T)/3] for innate spells.

Dropping items

Items that get dropped on the ground disappear after 24 in-game hours, except for plot-critical objects. Items that are put into storage (chests, barrels etc.) remain there permanently.

Mod content

This section is about unofficial content that is only available via fan-made mods.

Caster level

Installation of The Tweaks Anthology mod and selection of a certain component enables the game mechanics to "Cast Spells from Scrolls (and Other Items) at Character Level". This option was originally part of the EET Tweaks mod and is incorporated as part of the Anthology. Obviously, for some PCs this can be a boon, and for non-casting PCs, a reduction in casting level.