Favourite weapon style

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Way to try and sound intelligent. Nice attempt to get your facts straight.
Mislead images can also sing, btw.

Funny, that. Because anything anyone can do better, the Bard can outdo by buffing someone else and having him/her do it for him. With the one exception being the the Wild Mage, of course.

Someone needs to learn how to read someone else's posts more carefully.

And where did your Mislead and Spell Immunity to Divination memorizations suddenly go, I wonder? Besides, you implied it yourself - the process takes too much time.
And I don't find it healthy for an SoA-level Mage-thief to use MMM on a lich.

Even their own, no doubt. Especially when they lose all of it when they get AoE stunned by Mindflayers, for example, while other thieves are just content hacking away using with Arbane's Sword.

I don't like repeating myself. Reread posts and figure it out on your own. I am done here.

 

Let's see, Spike Trap gives you 20D6 of unavoidable damage. That's an average of 70 Damage per Trap. Bard Cheese gives you... +4? +8? +12? Damage on attacks that still might miss and you'll still have to watch your fighters swinging their weapons. With Spike Traps the enemy spawns then explodes, or the enemy walks to it then explodes. Talk about efficiency!

Why waste turns creating backup singers, when what you could do is set Traps, lure/spawn Boss, viola. How many levels does a Bard get again after 3M XP? Multiply that by 70 damage.

Bardic Territory indeed, full of giggles.

It's hilarious that the real effective cheese the Bard can do in this game comes from the Rogue HLA's. Even a Bard attempting to Mage Cheese with Helm of V. and Project Image Scrolls produces far better results than some bard concert.

Really you'll be using the Sword of Arbane? The 1 APR Sword of Arbane. When Bows and their 2 ApR put the Thief out of range. Really now, "best" proficiency to pick, so far you've been giving unoptimal strategies that involve Thieves using weapons compatible with Single Weapon Style Proficiency. The only "optimal" (but still ridiculously bad in the way you used it) strategy you've listed doesn't even make use of the proficiency but simply the fact that Thieves can wield Long Swords.

"Best" proficiency. Giggle.

 

You forgot bare fists! Get to ToB & Monks kick some serious arse.

In general, I build parties with a lot of dual-wielders; there are just too many powerful, shiny weapons lying around not to use them. That said, switching between ranged & dual-wield can be a pain and single is better for backstabs, because of the increased critical range. A Kensai/Thief with x5 backstabs critical hitting... ouch!

 

I still prefer single handed weapon, single handed style.

 

I can't believe I wasted time arguing with the guy. Oh well.
Even normal fists are quite powerful as long your target is not immune to normal weapons (because of the knockout effect). Switching to fists against overpowered NPC's spamming Protection from Magic Weapons from mods like Tactics is very effective.

 

Isn't it telling how few people (1, upon going to press) favour ranged weapons, considering that, in BG1, sniper bowmen were the McDaddy. It just goes to show how badly longbows, in particular, got hit by the nerf stick in BG2.

 

I don't think it's because of that. I think it's simply because melee weapons greatly outnumber ranged weapons.

 

Not just that the weapons outnumbered, but the availability of sufficient ammo was poor. It does you absolutely no good the have the quiver of plenty (even upgraded) and need +3 or better to hit -- if you needed +4 or better there weren't very many choices at all (and Gesen did terrible damage). The most damage a bow would give you was +6 ... +3 from the bow (for strong arm), and +3 for the arrow -- biting and piercing arrows did decent damage but the target got a save -- with no strength bonuses (except for one sling, two if you ignored the bugfix).

The melee weapons were so powerful, and the availability of strength enhancing equipment made the bows less desirable. As the character got multiple attacks per round the extra attack with a bow became less of an advantage compared to the extra damage of the strength bonus.

Missile weapons are fantastic for low and medium level characters to take out other low and medium level characters -- once you get to higher levels all the advantages go away. I personally think the concept of "mighty" should have been introduced a long time ago (I used it in my campaigns -- non magical bows could be purchased with a higher draw weight while magic bows automatically adjusted to their plus value).

Had there been a choice of a missile weapon style I probably would have tried it.

 

Eventhough the bows lack both STR bonus and enchantment bonus (bow +4 is just +4 to hit, no bonus to damage etc.), generic damage bonuses such as Weapon Specialization, Gauntlets of Weapon Specialization and spells like Aid and Chant favor the bows' greater number of attacks. Even the most iconic damage dealer of them all, Minsc, is actually better served by plucking away with a Composite Bow +1 and plain arrows than swinging away with Spider's Bane Two-handed Sword +2 during the vanilla BG, as soon as he can be equipped with such Gauntlets.

Things do even out quite a bit when warriors get another half attack at level 13 and while the melee weapons keep getting better and better, the bows are left in the dust. Only Archers (the Ranger kit) can keep up with melee dps, but they're still fighting an uphill battle with the ever increasing amount of mobs that need highly enchanted weapons to touch them.

 

There's that too. Many modders have gone overboard with weapon immunities.

 

Like Marceror, I'd choose All of the above if it were an option. All of the styles have their advantages, even single-weapon, and all have nice weapons/combos to choose from. I usually give my mages singe-weapon with one of the returning throwing knives. My clerics (usually Aerie as a cleric/mage) get's sword&board, with a nice hammer and a nicer shield (Fortress, Shield of Reflection, etc). I always have a dedicated archer, usually a thief or fighter/thief, sometimes a fighter. My tanks are generally split between sword&board and two-handers (becoming half-tanks, half-striker), and I always have some sort of dedicated striker, either fighter or fighter/thief. The thieves always go dual-wield, while the fighters may go dual-wield or two-hander, depending on what I have.

One of the things that I love about BG and IWD that I hate about most other RPGs is the fixed weapons, which means the Devs can (and did) intentionally make the single two-handers more powerful, with more and better bonuses, than the single-handed weapons. This is important because, of course, you can use two one-handers, or one and a shield, which means you get two sets of enchantments.

Because of all that, while the two-handers are the single most powerful weapons in the game, often by a large margin, dual-wielding and sword&shield can easily hold their own in combination. My favorite character of all time was a F/M/C dual-wielding whatever high-powered 1-hander I wanted in the main hand and Crom Feyr in the off-hand (for that insane 25 STR). He tore through everything!

Single-weapon style is kind of relegated to casters and backstabbers, but there it's easily the best option by a long shot. Which of course means the Devs did something rarely done: they put real thought into how casters would be fighting, and what would be useful.

 

I often like dual wielding for Jaheira and Viconia. Now I'm learning to enjoy dual wielding with Imoen as well. Obviously I need to Shadowkeeper her in BG2 to match her Tutu stats but she looks good with Celestial Fury and the Zerth blade.

 

Pretty much depends on the character. High dexterity PCs often gets dual wield, strong fighters get two-handed weapons or sword and shield style. I often play Minsc with a two-handed sword, usually with Lilarcor until I can afford a better weapon.


This might be a bit off-topic but am just wondering...

If I use slings or darts and a shield, does putting points in Sword and Shield improves it?
If I use bows and arrows, does putting points in Two-Handed Weapon improves it?
What about a throwing axe in main hand and a throwing dagger in the off-hand, would Dual-Wielding improve them?

 

Melee weapons only and you cannot put a thrown weapon in your off-hand.

 

Usually Dual Wielding. My Bard (Blade) dual wields short swords, switching to Celestial Fury when he can get it.

My Barbarian Dual Wields Axes. I will say that if the Infinity Engine gave me the chance, my Barbarian would wield a Great Ax, two handed.

 

Thanks T2, that pretty much clears it for me.

@Sparky, I've been wondering why a two-handed axe was absent in BG and IWD series. It would have been interesting to have a barbarian or (if not pushing it) a fighter dwarf using such weapon.

 

There are 2-handed Axes in the IWD series, just not in the BG series.

 

Hmmm, I guess it's been a while since I played IWD.

 

I think my barbarian would prefer to dual wield Viconia and Jaheira.

Nothing to do with this poll, just a comment.