NPCs starting weapon proficiencies

lockmund

should Khalid have shield dots? Long or bastard swords? How should Jaheira's skills be with clubs, staffs and slings? (I always had her throwing darts in the beginning). Should Minsc start with skills in mace and/or longbow as in bg2?

This is a big area ofc, but I'd like to hear people think.

Corvino

This is a big area indeed. Playing through BG with an easytutu install recently I was a bit nonplussed with Khalid & Jaheira's proficiencies. Khalid had pips in bastard swords and dual wield, while Jaheira specialised in clubs. Given that there are no magical clubs (none at all) in BG1 and relatively few decent bastard swords this made the pair of them a bit rubbish and I felt the need to shadowkeeper them to something useful. I appreciate that these proficiencies were added as part of the mod, not canon, but still...

It would be nice to have a bit of continuity with BG2, but practicality would be good as well. I'm trusting that the devs will be pragmatic about it, the BG1 NPCs have pretty gimped stats already without random weird weapon proficiencies.

Daedalus87m

They could just introduce more Magical Clubs and Bastard swords (They said they are gonna add more of the underrepresented items) and the problem is solved.

lockmund

Not really a problem in my book, just a challenge. Still, what weapon skills do you FEEL is appropriate? Not just for those three either.

Dazzu

Khalid's class should be Fighter/Mage before anything else be considered since the game gives none of those to play around with.

Corvino

I think the original vanilla BG1 proficiencies should be a guide, as should any existing dialogue/artwork and vanilla starting inventory.

Given that Minsc talks about swords a lot, 2-handed swords are a no-brainer from a lore perspective. Khalid has a shield in his portrait (I think) and in vanilla had proficiency in large swords so it makes sense for him to use longswords or bastard swords and a shield. The difficulty comes with chars with less dialogue, or who aren't mentioned in BG2, where there's less information to go on.

With regard to under-represented weapons though, unless they add an enchanted club or 2 it's a pointless skill (pun intended) which renders Jahiera far less effective.

Also, avoiding duplication of weapon skills would be beneficial. Minsc & Ajantis might well end up in a party together, so both specialising in 2-handed swords from the start would cause a bit of competition for good gear. Spreading the skills around gives variety and makes it a bit more interesting.

Tanthalas

The BG1 NPCs that appear in BG2 also gives you some guidelines as to what proficiencies they should have in BGEE.