What weapon to give Neera?

guston

She is about to hit lv 6 and get a new weapon proficiency point. I was planing to give her the magic crossbow from the thunder hammer smithy but it's not usable by wild mages. What do I give her instead? Darts? Sling?

CaptRory

I usually give mages slings. Darts have a fairly short range. In one game I gave Imoen darts, and she was way too close to the fighting, standing in front of everyone with normal ranged weapons.

Vissious

Sling is the all-purpose weapon for people who shouldn't be using weapons; equip one, saddle the npc with three full slots of bullets and forget about it entirely for the rest of the game. They won't do *much*, but they will do *a bit*, which is a lot better than *nothing*.

Darts, on the other hand, are potentially quite dangerous; two attacks a round with a solid chance to actually hit, and they come in different flavours too. Poison darts, for example, are quite brutal on low hit-point targets (read: enemy mages). The downside to all of this is that you will be micro-managing your ammunition almost constantly, as you can only throw as many darts as you can hold in your weapon slots, and a mage only gets two of those., and at two attacks a round they'll burn through ammo fast.

Personally, I'd opt for darts for BG1 for the simple reason that at such low levels your average mage is going to have only a handful of spells to cast each day and once they're gone, she's not contributing anything meaningful to the party anymore. With darts in hand, however, she makes for a perfectly acceptable anti-caster, able to interrupt the spell-casting of any mages and the like and provide additonal ranged damage to other targets that you will actually notice.

guston

Have any magical returning throwing daggers been adden to this game?

Vissious

I haven't *seen* any, but if you go back a few pages on these forums there was a definitive list of all new items, weapons and armours added to this edition posted by a member here.

Vissious

http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/8110/major-spoilers-a-guide-to-new-magic-items/p1

Shazam.

guston

Looks like there are no new throwing daggers. I guess its darts for Neera.

Vissious

And knowing Neera, she'll wild-surge and turn them into chickens and popcorn. Have fun with that! :P

Stargazer5781

Dunno why you'd want to go with darts or slings, she's so good in melee

For real though, go with sling. Darts take up more inventory space 'cause they don't count as ammo, and they don't go above +1.

JoeWalker

Sling!

CaptRory

Darts are also limited in quantity. I've actually bought merchants out of their stock of normal darts.

Oxford_Guy

I prefer darts for mages, more attacks per round = more chances of a critical hit, which for mages with their lousy THAC0 is often the only way you're going to damage some enemies.

valky

Last time I checked the range is or should be identical to slings + 3 attacks/round instead of 1. (is that even implemented in BG/BG2?)
She is currently carrying around ~2000 Darts +1 (larger stacks + Stores Sell Larger Stacks of Items mod).. I think I won't deplete all of them ..

WIsh there would be some returning dart and/or throwing dagger!

Oxford_Guy

Sight range is only 30' in BG, so the range of weapons does not make a huge amount of difference, as the furthest range you can fire from is 30'

guston

Oxford_Guy said:

Sight range is only 30' in BG, so the range of weapons does not make a huge amount of difference, as the furthest range you can fire from is 30'

Opps! Once I read that the range is shorter for darts I used the proficiancy point on slings. Gave the the Sling of Unnering Accuracy. With +2 bullets and Xarrnous second Sword Arm gauntlets she has a Thac0 of 10. Thats pretty good right?

I've got an unrelated question. Is there anything in the game that needs a +2 weapon to damage it?

raywind

I personally prefer darts over slings any day. 3attacks in a round and you have 3times the ability to disrupt enemy spellcasting.

Oxford_Guy

guston said:

Oxford_Guy said:

Sight range is only 30' in BG, so the range of weapons does not make a huge amount of difference, as the furthest range you can fire from is 30'

Opps! Once I read that the range is shorter for darts I used the proficiancy point on slings. Gave the the Sling of Unnering Accuracy. With +2 bullets and Xarrnous second Sword Arm gauntlets she has a Thac0 of 10. Thats pretty good right?

Yes, but I'd rather give the best slings to my cleric (currently Viconia) or Montaron, as their THAC0 base will be higher