Baldur's Gate: Claw of Kazgaroth

Description

The Claw of Kazgaroth is a cursed item found in BG1 (and if in the protagonist's inventory at end-BG1, either worn or carried loose in the backpack, and provided that the Helm of Balduran is *not* also worn or carried by the protagonist, then the Claw is also found in BG2). There's some controversy about usefulness of the Claw, and the goal of this article is to clarify it.

First, about the item itself: it provides bonuses to all saving throws except death, and AC bonus. But it also penalizes save vs death and constitution:

Armor Class: +1 bonus
Missile Armor Class bonus: +4 bonus
Save vs Death: -3 penalty
Save vs Wands: +3 bonus
Save vs Polymorph: +3 bonus
Save vs Breath: +3 bonus
Save vs Spells: +3 bonus
Constitution modifier: -2 penalty

All these effects, with one exception, affect all NPC equally. The exception is constitution penalty. Our purpose is to get all bonuses, while minimizing the impact of this penalty. (There may be situations when it's worth using the Claw regardless, the info is provided for you to make an informed decision).

Explanation

There are 3 ways in which constitution affects characters:

HP (differently for warrior types and others)
Saves (only for shorties)
Regeneration

HP

Non-warrior classes get 1 HP bonus at Con 15 and 2 HP bonus at Con 16, that's all. Warriors get bonuses up to 25. Constitution penalties kick in on numbers lower than 7. Thus, Con penalty (to HP) means nothing to any character with Con of 9 to 14. And any non-warrior with Con 18. So, allowed stats are:

Non-warrior: 9-14, 18

Warrior: 9-14

Saves

Halflings, Dwarves and Gnomes receive additional bonuses to saves based on their constitution. They start at Con 4 and go up to 18, with a step of 3-4. So, if a character is a shorty, it places additional limits:

Shorty non-warrior: 9, 10, 13.

Shorty warrior: same.

Constitution

When Con is 20 or more, the character regenerates. There aren't many NPC with Con of 20, they're all warriors, so this point is moot. Just never get the Claw on Kagain or yourself being the tank.

NPC stats

Now that we have the stats, let's see which NPCs fit them:

Coran (12)
Faldorn (11)
Garrick (9)
Kivan (14)
Safana (12)
Shar-Teel (9)
Xzar (11)
Three new characters added by the Enhanced Edition: Dorn (14), Neera (14), Rasaad (14) - obviously applicable only if using BGEE
One new character added by Siege of Dragonspear: Corwin (14) - obviously applicable only if using BGEE+SoD

That's actually a lot of NPCs (especially for those who play the Enhanced Edition). However, not every one will benefit from the Claw equally.

Item usefulness

Thinking of the item itself, the missile AC bonus is best suited to protect caster types from, well, missiles, which interrupt their spell casting. Failing that, it could also be useful to archers. As for melee, no, you don't want your tank failing save vs death. For backstabbers the item is largely irrelevant.

Conclusion

Best NPCs to wear the Claw

(as casters/archers)

Faldorn
Garrick
Xzar
Neera (EE only)

Second Best NPCs to wear the Claw

(if used primarily with ranged weapons)

Coran
Kivan
Rasaad (EE only)
Corwin (EE+SoD only)

If any of these regularly go into melee, then they are disqualified. This is why Shar-Teel and Dorn are omitted (their default role being in melee), although they'd qualify if used in a run in which others were manning the front row; likewise Faldorn is included since she's not typically used in the front row (although indeed it's actually feasible to use her as a melee tank with the right equipment).

TL;DR

Best used on ranged characters.

Character type	Constitution score
	1-8	9-10	11-12	13	14	15-17	18-19	20+
Warrior	-	+	+	+	+	-	-	-
Non-warrior	-	+	+	+	+	-	+	-
Shorty (warrior or not)	-	+	-	+	-	-	-	-

Back to Baldur's Gate