Baldur's Gate The Baldur's Gate Series Thread

[ga♥]

There are too many enemies that requires +4 or more enhancements. I wouldn't do an archer in BG2.

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

Crossbows inflict much more damage and hit more easily than Tuigan shortbow (with or without ammo). Even with 2 less attacks per round, I find it a better choice overall.
The one good thing about that Tuigan bow is that ghost arrows can hit stuff that they probably shouldn't hit, like adamantine golems. But this may have been fixed in EE.

 

[Lilura]

Gesen and Firetooth auto-ammo hits most things. Wouldn't be overly concerned. +2 ApR is huge perk in early-mid SoA, with IH doubling attacks to 10 (and allowing those to be CS by mid-end). Firetooth outstrips with GWW but by then it doesn't matter too much.

 

[razvedchiki]

Yes,I was thinking about firetooth when I was writing about crossbows,its +4 so I can hit prety much anything in SOA.
I usually go for longbows when playing an archer but the absence of +3 arrows really irks me to no end,yes gesen etc etc but shortbows are for rogues!

 

[ga♥]

You get Gesen after you come back from the underdark and it's just +4, so can't hit demiliches, or demon lords or bypass absolute immunityo/improved mantle and everything else I am forgetting to mention. You could rush to get it bypassing chapter 2 quests... but I feel you miss a lot of experience by doing that because how the scaling works in BG2. If you go when you are higher level, you get stronger monsters and more experience... it also feels a bit artificial and powergaming.
Also there are a bunch of monsters that need +3 or more in the underdark hmmm?

Firetooth is TOB (and not exactly cheap IIRC?).

If you play with a party it's not a real issue I guess, but for most of the game the best you can get is +3.

The only +5 ranged weapon available early on is the Icewind Dale sling which I can't recall the name.

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

Sorry I thought Tuigan bow shot ghost arrows when it's actually Tansheron's bow that does. Anyway, you shouldn't care too much about metagaming and go with whatever ranged weapon you like. As long as you're Ok with using grossly OP spells like "haste", you'll be good to go and stuff like one or two more attacks per round won't matter much. I'm currenly using that sling that adds strength bonus to damage, for instance, and it's devastating.

 

[razvedchiki]

You can get firetooth as soon as you gather 15k in SOA,a priest of helm has it for sale in front of watchers keep.

 

[Lilura]

Best Weapons - Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate 2.

VentilatorOfDoom octavius Lhynn @other IE veterans

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

I pretty much agree with your choice. On my last run I indeed relied on blunt (warhammer) weapons for BG and flail + warhammer for BG2. I also used FoA for most of the run, then dual wielded FoA and Crom Faeyr after returning from the underdark. You don't even need to put points in "two weapons" fighting style since 25 ST gives insane bonuses. I eventually ended dual wielding Crom Fayer and Axe of the Unyielding. Combined with the 22 CON it gave me (19 CON starting dwarf character + stat raising stuff like Lum's machine) and Gaxx ring, it gave extreme regeneration rate. Felt like playing PST.
Keldorn also killed Kangaxx the demilich on his first hit with mace of disruption +2. That's a terrific weapon, temple statues be damned.

So all in all; I agree that FoA is one of the best, if not the best (it being available early as opposed to the axe), weapon in the game. It's just sad that Cromwell can't get it to +4, since you can get the poison head in Watcher's keep.

 

[Lilura]

For "regen" you should try out Blackrazor and Foebane. But yeah, Unyielding stacks with Gaxx.

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

Couldn't use Blackrazor, my character was fighter/cleric. I used a component of SCS that lets dwarven priests use axes. It's meant for Yeslick but works for charname also.

 

[Lilura]

Mmm... I didn't see that component option during my last SCS install, but it sounds good.

 

[ga♥]

Axe of the unyelding is a turd. Would be great if it had no save regarding the vorpal effect (like ravager). It's pretty meh, rly.

Best combo is dual wielding blackrazor+foebane, or blackrazor+the answerer. Blackrazor is the most underrated weapon in bg2.

The level drain works even when the +3 enchantment doesn't make you hit. So you can just level drain enemies to death (draconis).

 

[Lilura]

Blackrazor is in my Bests in that post. And I mentioned BRZ+FB just above.

 

[ga♥]

You just mention Blackrazor in that blogpost without even telling how awesome it is.
Very sad!

 

[Lilura]

ur gay. It's written in bold and with an enlarged font in the Prime wields...

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Best Weapons - Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate 2.

VentilatorOfDoom octavius Lhynn @other IE veterans

What weapons are "best" probably depends on what you're after.
In 3e rules there's no way dual-wielding hammers, flails or other low damage dice weapons would produce more than damage than two-handers. BG differs in so far as iirc you don't get that 1.5x damage bonus of using a weapon two handed. Furthermore all damage resistances are percentages instead of flat DR values, which further diminishes two-handed damage vs one-handed.

In BG1 Ashideena will produce 6.5 dmg on average (ignoring STR bonuses because they're identical anyways for all melee weapons) vs Spiderbane 7.5. Not that far apart, although Spiderbane has the good kind of Freedom, the one that doesn't disturb haste, a property that's good to have.
The venom dagger is great for alpha-strikes vs pesky mages, just sneak up, backstab, and when the hit connects not only will the mage be severely injured but most likely poisoned as well and the poison ticks will interrupt his spell-casting too.
So, other than Drizzts stuff and some bows for Coran, these were the 3 most notable weapons in BG1 as far as I remember.

As far as dual-wielding is concerned in principle: whether it is worth it depends. On low levels when THAC0 is still relevant dual-wielding might actually result in you dealing less damage. Later on at higher levels when making your hits connect is no longer a concern, extra attacks certainly won't hurt, although the off-hand usually contributes little in terms of damage, the most notable contribution is usually some secondary effect, like STR 25 or another attack with the main hand like in the case of Belm. So if you're after that secondary effect, dual-wielding is a good way to get it.

However, experience while playing the game, dual-wielding, single-hand wielding with and without shield and using a two-handed weapon I came to conclude that using two-handed weapons is the best - for me - because
1) they're readily available, right from the beginning of BG1
2) vorpal effects from the githyanki sword, poison damage from Gram, the water-draining from the Wave all that can add up real quick especially with a lot of ApR and contributes to killing mobs quickly, quicker than dual-wielding any weapons in my experience.

Finally, I never liked the flail of ages because the freedom of movement prevents haste. At least that was how it always was on my installments, Spiderbane, Keldorns armor didn't prevent haste, FoA did. So, for me that means it's right out of the window.
I'd rather make them save vs death 10 times a round with the silver blade. Debuff them with malison, see them die left and right. The wave and the ravager halberds are also extremely good, it's just that good halberds aren't as readily and consistently available as swords.
Likewise, I won't start using bastard swords just because in ToB suddenly a good one appears. Anyway, especially in BG2 there are lots of strong weapons and one probably can make a case for most of them.

 

[ga♥]

Dual wielding gets you more ApR so can't see how that is slower in killing mobs.

 

[Lilura]

VentilatorOfDoom I was wondering what you thought of my Staff of the Magi section, since didn't you recently say it was the best weapon, or was that the Silver Sword?

My argument for Ashideena rested on crushing/bludgeoning overcoming armor mods and enemy resistances more readily than slashing and piercing equivalents.

And my other assertion was that DoV is the most dmging wield in BG due to stacking on-hit poison (nerfed in BG2 engine).

Not sure if that can really be argued.

As for FoA, Freedom of Movement should not cancel H/IH because those spells don't impede movement; quite the opposite. Easily bypassed by equipping FoA after the H/IH buff, though.

Dual-wielding is generally superior mainly because Belm/Kundane grant +APR (though there are other twin setups that don't include either). There are other +APR items, too, such as GoES. So you're looking at 10 ApR for a long time with IH and those can be Critical Strikes.

I agree there's enough good weapons itemized to burn through the campaign regardless of the groupings chosen, but I was trying to find "a best overall wield", anyway. No one has really argued against FoA as yet (other than the FoM issue).

EDIT: Re. dual-wielding at low levels... quite a few people have expressed concerns about that ever since Tutu came out but I did manage to solo SCS Tutu with a dual-wielding Berserker/Mage dual, IIRC? Or was it a plain Barb? Must have been 10 years ago, but THAC0 wasn't a problem that I remember.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

VentilatorOfDoom I was wondering what you thought of my Staff of the Magi section, since didn't you recently say it was the best weapon, or was that the Silver Sword?

The Staff of the Magi is the biggest piece of cheese in the game due to its properties, that's what I meant, it's nowhere near the best damage-wise.
I prefer the Spider Bane in BG1 and the silver sword in BG2 until I get Gram.

My argument for Ashideena rested on crushing/bludgeoning overcoming armor mods and enemy resistances more readily than slashing and piercing equivalents.

And Ashideena is a very good weapon, not far behind Spider Bane damage-wise. And it has advantages against mobs with slashing damage resistance, although I can't remember any skeletons or whatnot that were hard to kill with that two-hander.

And my other assertion was that DoV is the most dmging wield in BG due to stacking on-hit poison (nerfed in BG2 engine).

Most likely the most damaging weapon at low levels in BG1. I'm still not putting my points into daggers because at one point mobs will start to make their saves consistently to the point of you never seeing anyone getting poisoned ever again.
Celestial Fury has the same problem, godly in SoA, kinda crap in ToB.

As for FoA, Freedom of Movement should not cancel H/IH because those spells don't impede movement; quite the opposite. Easily bypassed by equipping FoA after the H/IH buff, though.

I never got it to work and judging by threads like this it's a problem in the EE too, which I haven't played yet. That's the main reason I never used that flail (on a main char).

 

[ga♥]

Does the slow of the flail of the ages work on everyone? bosses included?

 

[Lilura]

Specialization is enough for Celestial Fury. Warriors get 17 weapon proficiencies to assign over their 40 lvls, or whatever it is (8 mil XP).

I don't mind focusing on Small Swords for DoV in BG because I don't play mega-mods and you get to reassign proficiencies during import process to BG2.

 

[ga♥]

You specialize in katanas (2 points) for celestial fury, then 5 points for flails, 5 points for belm,3 points in dual wielding, and you end up with 2 points remaining.
This assuming a solo char able to reach the 40th level.


P.S I fail to see how flail of the ages can be considered best general wield tbh, is it for the elemental damage? Crushing dmg type is a nice bonus but Clay Golems can easily be slaughtered with points in staff, which I would prefer (or no points at all, they are not so strong anyway).

 

[Wayward Son]

What are some good weapons for Druids throughout the saga? I'm doing a solo Druid run on insane (with IWDification and CDTweaks) and need all the help I can get (even though it's not going too terribly right now, I expect that to change).

 

[ga♥]

Seems a bit masochistic to do a solo Druid run tbqhfam. Did you install Ascension too for a maximum pain experience?