Halfling Throwing Weapons Bonus?

shylaman

They get bonus to slings and darts. What about throwing daggers and throwing axes? I have a halfling fighter/thief I plan to play through the whole series. Originally I was going to do darts and daggers and then katana and duel wield, but realized getting proficiences at only every three fighter levels that I won't get enough points. Then I thought, what if they get bonus to throwing daggers like they do darts?

DJKajuru

I don't know if they do have a bonus with daggers, but if you plan on playing through the whole series I believe that a +1 thac0 won't make that much of a difference after level 7 or so .

shylaman

I just tested it and it seems that you do. Actually +2 somehow. I have a level 1 halfling fighter/thief with *darts, **daggers, and *single weapon. He has a buckler in his offhand. With a dagger his THACO is 18 with +1 to hit and +1 to damage, 3/2 apr. With a dart THACO 16 with +1 to hit and damage, 3 apr. With a throwing dagger THACO 16 with +1 to hit and damage, 5/2 apr.

So, with the shortage of proficiency points over a BGT run where I amy eventually want to dual wield, I think I am going to ditch the darts, keep **daggers and add *1 short sword. With rogue rebalancing the short sward of backstabbing adds a +1 to backstab multiplier and kundane has the extra attack in BG2.

Range of damage per round with dagger 2.5x1d4=2.5 - 10. With darts: 3x1d3=3-9. Seems like a wash. Sweet.

zur312

get a bow
arrows are better than darts unless there are darts of stunning but still there are more potent arrows than darts
plus
bow **
1hand weapon style* = 10% critical hit = more critical hit backstabs!

TJ_Hooker

shylaman said:

I just tested it and it seems that you do. Actually +2 somehow. I have a level 1 halfling fighter/thief with *darts, **daggers, and *single weapon. He has a buckler in his offhand. With a dagger his THACO is 18 with +1 to hit and +1 to damage, 3/2 apr. With a dart THACO 16 with +1 to hit and damage, 3 apr. With a throwing dagger THACO 16 with +1 to hit and damage, 5/2 apr.

So, with the shortage of proficiency points over a BGT run where I amy eventually want to dual wield, I think I am going to ditch the darts, keep **daggers and add *1 short sword. With rogue rebalancing the short sward of backstabbing adds a +1 to backstab multiplier and kundane has the extra attack in BG2.

Range of damage per round with dagger 2.5x1d4=2.5 - 10. With darts: 3x1d3=3-9. Seems like a wash. Sweet.

I'm assuming you have 17 strength and 19 dexterity? In that case, the +2 to hit you're getting isn't related to being a halfling. 19 DEX gives you +3 to hit with ranged weapons, 17 STR gives you +1 to hit with melee weapons, the +2 you're seeing is the difference. So for darts you're getting +3 to hit from DEX, +1 to hit from being a halfing, while for throwing daggers you're getting +3 to hit from DEX, +1 from weapon specialization.

Also, your damage calculations are a little off. It would make more sense to compare the 2 based on their base rate of fire (2 and 3 APR for throwing daggers and darts respectively), or based on the RoF if you had weapon specialization (2 proficiency pips) in both (2.5 and 3.5 APR for throwing daggers and darts respectively).

Morte50

They don't get the Halfling bonus, no. Halfling F/T with 19 DEX, 2 pips in daggers and darts, starts with a THAC0 of 15 for darts and 16 for throwing daggers. Darts also get one more attack per round (3.5 vs 2.5), but daggers get the STR bonus to damage (though for a Halfling that's only 1 point at most, unless you boost his STR somehow).

Thus, at two pips in proficiency and 17 STR, we have the following pro/con list
- darts will average slightly more damage than the throwing daggers
- darts will connect (and potentially disrupt spellcasting) more often
- darts will benefit more from damage bonuses
- in BG1 there are (I think) no magic throwing daggers, but various quite useful magic darts
- darts stack 80 in your inventory, against 40 for daggers
- darts weigh nothing; daggers weigh 1 pound each, so you are fairly limited in the amount you can carry
- daggers benefit from STR bonuses, darts don't
- daggers have a better range
- dagger proficiency also gives you proficiency in a melee weapon, dart proficiency doesn't

I think that's all the relevant properties. I'd say unless you also want to use daggers in melee, the darts are preferable.

IchigoRXC

Nice summary Morte I can't think of anything you have missed there (not saying I am the almighty on this front, just saying that is pretty darn comprehensive from my point of view)

Dragonspear

But then the question becomes:

If you are already starting with daggers because you intend to start the game with the Dagger +1 from candlekeep, do you then go 1 pip into single weapon style and another in like shortsword or longsword (very easy to acquire +2 weapons of each and dagger of venom is great) or go for the darts.

Morte50

Seems a bit of a waste to spend a pip on daggers just because there is an early +1 dagger, if it is not going to be your main melee and/or ranged weapon for the bulk of the game. With F/T (multi) I usually aim for 2 pips in melee weapon, 1 pip in weapon style (single-handed, or two-handed if using quarterstaff), and 2 pips in ranged weapons. Which of those five I take later on depends a bit on whether the focus is more on ranged or melee/backstabbing.

Dragonspear

Well its A. the early +1 dagger, and B. I'm going for the dagger of venom later simply because I prefer backstabbing. Not to mention longswords (such as varsconia) can easily go on someone else. Its more a flavor thing, intending on using daggers anyway).

Of course all this is largely moot for me since my own halfling is a NE assassin.