Is Crom Fayer worth it ?
ShadowHunter
Member Posts: 143
So I'm just wondering is this mighty and legendary hammer actually worth forging it?
I'm replaying BG 2 again now with a party of : me as a monk, imoen, valygar, anomen, minsc and mazzy.
And actually the three pieces apart are very good though. Valygar and Mazzy are way much stronger with some more STR and the war hammer isn't that bad at all, so it goes good with Anomen.
So my question is now is Crom Fayer worth the sacrifice of these 3 excellent pieces of equipment ?
I'm replaying BG 2 again now with a party of : me as a monk, imoen, valygar, anomen, minsc and mazzy.
And actually the three pieces apart are very good though. Valygar and Mazzy are way much stronger with some more STR and the war hammer isn't that bad at all, so it goes good with Anomen.
So my question is now is Crom Fayer worth the sacrifice of these 3 excellent pieces of equipment ?
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Comments
I usually make Minsc Dual wield flails, FoA+3 in the main hand, Defender of Easthaven in the other, with some supplementary weapons in the main hand (Mace of Disruption usually, for ultimate vampire hunting)
I can't see Crom being that useful in the main hand, so I'd rather have it in the offhand - except for areas like Suldanesselar where I want to clear out the golems as fast as possible - it's quite useful at that.
Considering it's a +5 weapon with decent damage, having it in the main hand for certain foes can help too. So I tend to mix it up if you will.
But usually, unless my character is a cleric (which can achieve 25 strength easily with Holy Power, Righteous Magic and Draw Upon Holy Might easily) I'll tend to use Belm(Scarlet Ninja-to if Rogue)-Kundane with some higher enchantment weapons as an alternative.
So is Crom useful? Depends entirely on the given situation. Against golem? Yes. Against people immune to +4 weapons? Yes. Against average bobbies? Nope.
Why? Because of clerics. Normally, you would want any dual-wielder to use one of the 1h weapons with +1 APR bonuses (Kundane, Belm, and Scarlet Ninja-to) in the off-hand, because they add the most damage of all available choices by far. Clerics cannot use any of these weapons, as they are not blunt. That means that CF is often relegated to use by clerics - clerics, however, also have access to the spell Draw upon Holy Might, which at higher level pretty much gives them a constant 25 STR already. That means the biggest draw of CF, its STR bonus, is largely (if not completely) wasted on a cleric.
Of course, you can give CF to a non-cleric instead; but that would mean using it over a non-blunt alternative, of which there usually are several with better damage than CF, even accounting for the STR bonus. And keep in mind that by not assembling CF, you do retain some STR bonuses through use of its components!
I'm not saying there aren't scenarios in which you'll gladly use CF, but in general and on average, you'd rather have the parts and use some other weapon instead.
I could see maybe a blade dual wielding crom with off hand belm or something maybe. Can blades dual wield 3 pips in vanilla? I don't remember, I use rogue rebalancing..
Maybe a Ranger?
Yes, blades can put up to 3 pips, but you either only get 1 weapon type and 3 pips or 2 weapons and 2 pips during BG1 (and can't dual-wield meaningfully till lvl 4). RRB simply gives then 3 pips for free at creation (as per PnP).
Also, blades should be using Scarlet Ninja-to (Kuudane prior to UAI) and Belm exclusively, except vs 4+ and higher creatures. Their massive lack of natural attacks and crappy bard thac0 holds them back, making them far more suited for the bonus attacks granted by dual-wielding speed weapons (at 10 attacks, even a plain bard with only * two weapon will mow through enemies like a hasted fighter). Under IH they easily reach 10 attacks the moment you have access to IH and 2 speed weapons. Unlike the swashy, the blade never gets any abilities to increase their attack rate meaningfully, and lets face it, warriors already can achieve 8+ attacks under IH, and do so with any weapons they want to wield, with the thac0 necessary to effectively guarantee they'll all hit, so speed weapons are generally wasted on them.
Anomen can hit a natural 25 str under DUHM as long as he has 19+ str (requires lvl 18, but you'll likely hit that before you get far enough to make Crom). Give him a 19 str belt or you could even sacrifice the lum str boost on him for a raw 19.
2 slings add a str bonus, as does the Firetooth (dagger), giving incentive for your ranged to have high strength (no bow or crossbow gets a str bonus in BG2). Melee of course benefits nicely, and most of the fighters are lacking in the str department, so even the weaker str items are of benefit.
So yeah. That's the problem in BG2 proper. In TOB, things change slightly. There's another Belt of Giant Strength, and a sword that functions as one, so losing out on the Gauntlets is less important. However, there are now quite a lot of weapons that are better than Crom Faeyr overall. For example, it's hard justify using Crom Faeyr instead of, say, Foebane. THAC0 is all but irrelevant at that point in the game, and Foebane does more raw damage even considering the Strength difference, plus it heals you. The Storm Star and Angurvadal similarly outdamage Crom Faeyr, and the Flail of Ages performs better in its +4 form, much less the +5 one. As for off-hands, the Crimson Ninja-To will add more damage than Crom Faeyr will unless you're in Whirlwind Attack mode, which is far from permanent (and everyone else has covered why clerics don't really care about Crom Faeyr either).
That said, certain builds may like it. Particularly builds that don't need the Strength across multiple characters. If you don't have a front-liner (or Sling of Seeking user) to use the Gauntlets on, Crom Faeyr starts to look like a pretty good option.
Oh and, because it can't be said often enough: Whirlwind is worse than Improved Haste. Learn to love Improved Haste. It's quite likely the single most powerful spell in the entire game.
Also, many people don't realize (because even after the GTU from the G3 BG2 Fixpack, the error remains), CF does (2d4+3, +5 Elec) damage! This is huge! It ties for the 4th best damage mainhand weapon!
Flail of Ages: 19.5 (1d6+6+2+2+2+2+2)
Club of Detonation 13.5+ (1d6+5+5+30% chance for 15+)
Foebane: 14 (2d4+5+4)
CF: 13 (2d4+3+5)