That's the whole point about role playing vs. 'just playing': your character is *not* aware of the +1 tomes, or wands, or anything, only you, as the player, are. That is the whole crux of meta gaming, you are playing from your perspective instead of the characters. No, it's not foolish at all. It does advance *your* purpose, but makes a complete mockery of your character's purpose. So no, your PC would know absolutely nothing. And as vv221 said, I take those kind of items with pleasure... IF my character comes across them, not by bee-lining right to them via prior knowledge.

No offence taken, I just wanted to point out some people might really get this sentence wrongly ;)

That's definitely the part I love the most in the whole BG saga. The initial phase, when you're a young weak adult suddenly cast out of your "home" and must deal with a large and most hostile world (even if you can find a few friends and allies).

And I also agree about D&D being more fun at low/medium level, at least the computer/IE version of it. Higher level takes way too much of micromanaging (like, recasting the same sequence of boost spells before each fight/after each night of rest) and the "RTWP" system isn't the best when you've so many options of special abilities and spells to use. Perhaps a turn-based system would work better at high level.