Katanas

HellRaiser

Cant find anything better than a katana +1, anyone get more luck than me?

iKrivetko

There aren't any, I believe.

ajwz

Nothing better than Katana +1 in game at the moment.

HellRaiser

that sucks

Zarely

Celestial Fury is great but that's BG2.

reedmilfam

Which is probably why there's a warning for this proficiency. One thing that I don't like about BG is that you have to metagame proficiencies - this often happens in RPG's. There is no balance between weapon types, so you pick based on what you'll find in-game, rather than what you want your character to wield.

Corvino

@reedmilfam BG:EE goes a decent way to fix this. Clubs now have a +1 and +2 versions, making them viable. Flails now have a +2 for sale, there's a few new enchanted scimitars apart from Drizzt's, a new enchanted sling.

In Vanilla BG with highly specific proficiencies you would most definitely need to metagame, but I think Overhaul have done a solid job of shoring up the under-represented categories. And while BG2 does reward you for choosing some of the more overpowered weapons you can most definitely make do with just about any sane weapon choices.

As for katanas, well, there is a warning in the proficiency desciption. Just take solace in the fact that your +1 katana still hits about as hard as a +2 longsword on average and wait until you can pick up Celestial Fury in BG2.

Tome

I think that it would be fine if they just added another +1 katana somewhere. +1 katanas are as good as +2 of other weapons anyway. The real issue comes in ToB, where katanas are useless.

Kamigoroshi

Katanas...? Pfe! *Real* warriors use clubs!

Gallowglass

Katanas useless in ToB??? You can get +4 and +5 katanas in ToB, they're quite powerful kit. And Celestial Fury +3 is still useful in ToB for numerous types of enemy.

DinsdalePiranha

reedmilfam said:

Which is probably why there's a warning for this proficiency. One thing that I don't like about BG is that you have to metagame proficiencies - this often happens in RPG's. There is no balance between weapon types, so you pick based on what you'll find in-game, rather than what you want your character to wield.

...and this is why you should use the tweakpack's BG1 weapon prof component - it's not perfect, but I'll take variety over the unbalanced, weirdly specific weapon system BG2 and BGEE has any day.

reedmilfam

@Corvino - I'm inclined to agree for the most part. Werewolf Island, however, does push you toward metagameyness I think.

Tresset

@Gallowglass uhhhhh, Katanas don't get up to +5 in ToB. The max is hindo's Doom (Can you say it? Hindo's DOOOOOOOOOM) at +4 and the only other really good one is Celestial Fury.

deltago

I honestly think this was a balancing issue. You have a one handed sword that does exactly the same amount of dmg as a a two-handed. If there were more scattered throughout the game no warrior would use any other slashing weapon.

Tresset

Lol. I just used Mr. CLUAConsole to make a katana+2. I guess data for it exists in BG:EE...

JuliusBorisov

I expect we'll have many new weapons in BG2:EE that can drastically change our usual planning of proficiencies. Just to imagine new epic weapons in ToB.... Arghh... We don't even know what special abilities these weapons will have...

CoM_Solaufein

We'll have to see about that.

ajwz said:

Nothing better than Katana +1 in game at the moment.

Quartz

bengoshi said:

I expect we'll have many new weapons in BG2:EE that can drastically change our usual planning of proficiencies. Just to imagine new epic weapons in ToB.... Arghh... We don't even know what special abilities these weapons will have...

Good job, you just inspired this:

TJ_Hooker

Personally I think the BG1 method of having broad proficiency categories fit better for the low level (and therefore relatively few proficiency points) nature of BG1. But it really doesn't bother me enough to complain about.

HellRaiser

1 katana with some ability would be nice, or even just a +2.

Mikkel

The +2 version only exists in The Black Pits as far as I know, but that's why data for it is there.

CoM_Solaufein

Well I did release an armor pack mod, the next one is an item pack and katanas will certainly be on the list.

gokke

Com you are my hero for modding:-) breathing life into an old game:-)

Sarevok24

Tresset said:

@Gallowglass uhhhhh, Katanas don't get up to +5 in ToB. The max is hindo's Doom (Can you say it? Hindo's DOOOOOOOOOM) at +4 and the only other really good one is Celestial Fury.

i believe that you find hindo's hand somewhere (watchers keep?) and get cromwell/cespenar to upgrade it to a +5 weapon

CaptRory

It'd be nice, and I've mentioned this sort of thing before, if you had opportunities to commission weapons to be made. It'd keep the overall magic level down while simultenously increasing the options available.

Wilbur

In BG2 I had my dual wielding kensai wear celestial fury in his off hand and Crom Fayer in his main hand. That was almost a game breaking combo even on insane. He shred through most enemies in seconds.

Xanthul

Wilbur said:

In BG2 I had my dual wielding kensai wear celestial fury in his off hand and Crom Fayer in his main hand. That was almost a game breaking combo even on insane. He shred through most enemies in seconds.

The opposite would have been more effective IMO - permabuff weapons are better for off hand and weapons with on-hit effects (CF's hold and lightning effects) are better in the main hand since you get more attacks with it to trigger them.

Of course, some people choose to off-hand CF in an attempt to tone it down, maybe that's what you were doing.

Gallowglass

Sarevok24 said:

i believe that you find hindo's hand somewhere (watchers keep?) and get cromwell/cespenar to upgrade it to a +5 weapon

Erm ... now that I think further, I believe @Tresset is right about this, my bad, it's +4 after the upgrade by Cespenar. So no +5 katanas. Even so, I stick to my previous assertion that it's absurd to say katanas are useless in ToB. Celestial Fury + 3 and Hindo's Doom +4 are useful almost everywhere, even though there are a handful of enemies for which you want +5 weapons. However, what is probably fair would be to say that you wouldn't want more than one party-member relying on katanas.

Feature request for BG2:EE - Cespenar ought to have a recipe for upgrading Celestial Fury to +5.

Wilbur said:

In BG2 I had my dual wielding kensai wear celestial fury in his off hand and Crom Fayer in his main hand. That was almost a game breaking combo even on insane. He shred through most enemies in seconds.

Against most enemies, it'd probably have been an even more powerful combo if you'd swapped hands: Crom Faeyr offhand, Celestial Fury with the multiple APR in the main hand.

Wilbur

Xanthul said:

Wilbur said:

In BG2 I had my dual wielding kensai wear celestial fury in his off hand and Crom Fayer in his main hand. That was almost a game breaking combo even on insane. He shred through most enemies in seconds.

The opposite would have been more effective IMO - permabuff weapons are better for off hand and weapons with on-hit effects (CF's hold and lightning effects) are better in the main hand since you get more attacks with it to trigger them.

Of course, some people choose to off-hand CF in an attempt to tone it down, maybe that's what you were doing.

Yes, it might have been a bit more effective the other way around, but as I said it was almost game breaking as it was. Even some of the boss fights in ToB where over in like 5secs

Tome

Perhaps calling katanas useless was an exaggeration, but they're certainly no longer the godly weapons they were in BG2. The only 'special' katanas of note are Celestial Fury (despite it's epicness, quite a few enemies are immune to +3 weapons) and Hindo's Doom, which IMO is not as good as the +5 weapons available) In my original statement, I was perhaps mixing up 'ToB' with 'Ascension with Improved Boss Battles'.


That said, Dak'kon's Zerth Blade for life. :P