My one problem with BG:EE; weapon categories
I thought the weapon categories in BG1 were good enough. Sure, I liked bastard swords for one reason or another, but I could use the magic longsword or scimitar that I found just fine (no one told me there weren't any good magic bastard swords initially). I never liked the broken out categories in BG2, and I was very sad to see them imported into BG:EE.
Is anyone else frustrated by this? It seems like so many of the items in the game are passed up because no one is proficient in them. Has anyone created a mod for this? I like playing vanilla, but I'd love a mod that grouped the weapons sensically.
Is anyone else frustrated by this? It seems like so many of the items in the game are passed up because no one is proficient in them. Has anyone created a mod for this? I like playing vanilla, but I'd love a mod that grouped the weapons sensically.
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The BG2 Tweaks mod by @CamDawg and Ibodek has a component (Alter Weapon Proficiency System) that allows you to use the BG1 proficiency system. I'm not sure it works with BGEE (it was designed to allow the BG1 proficiency system in BGTuTu). You could try that.
http://www.gibberlings3.net/bg2tweaks/
In BGII characters had more proficiency points to go around, and there was a wider range of weapon options so it made sense, however it does impact BGI. You have to know a bit more to make sure you make the most if things.
At the same time, what weapons you have isn't as significant as in BGII in terms of impact on gameplay, so you can get by in spite of everything.
I might have to go play with the NWN2 BG mod.
As for BG2 Tweaks working with BGEE ... ooh, I'm excited.
Do we know if the new UI in BGEE2 is going to allow weapon/shield pair switching, like IWD2? That was really helpful.
The final battle (spoilers aside) often involves upward of a dozen slow-moving summons. I often had to go and make a cup of tea during enemy turns just to kill time & stay sane.
In CRPG adaptation of DnD the best weapons are always unique artifact weapons you can't possibly know to expect ahead of time. It is a "guide dang it" moment, you need to know when you start the game what are the best weapons actually available, so that you know how to spec your characters.
If you intend to import your char into BG2 this gets worse as you need to be planning ahead for SoA and ToB when playing BG1. That or you need to edit your character later on.
BG1 style proficiencies made this much less of a problem, although it still was a problem. I definitely play with that tweak enabled. And I looked up the weapons (flail of ages is a spiked weapon with that tweak, so put all points into spiked weapon and dual wield proficiency)
my only suggestion to make the game more user-friendly for newbies is to have the damage die on the character creation screen when picking weapon proficiencies. I think it would help people avoid (relative) duds like spears
Or, even CRAZIER, the designers of the game could do a decent job and make every weapon proficiency viable, a mistake which BG:EE more or less corrected.
Some choices are still "better" than others, but all can be made to work. Katanas, which arguably have fewest enchanted examples do have a caveat in their proficiency description.
Albruin is a Bastard Sword and it's an excellent weapon: +1 THAC0, +3 Damage, 1/day Detect Invisibility, and Immunity to Poison whilst equipped. It's the highest-damage 1-handed weapon in the game, well worth being able to use.
Additionally, killing Karoug on the Isle of Balduran is significantly easier with Bastard Sword proficiency: 3 out of the 5 weapons which can harm him (and 2 out of the 3 which you're actually likely to have by that point) are Bastard Swords.
so long as you don't choose spears and clubs as your twoo, you're going to have a good time
You could pay 2 pips for a weapon group proficiency and be considered proficient with all the weapons in that group, but if you wanted to specialize in a weapon you'd have buy that specific weapon separately for 2 pips.
(You have Large Sword **...you're proficient with all large swords...but if you want to say specialize in Longswords, you'll have to buy longsword proficiency and specialization seperately).
Basically it just lets you trade weapon flexibility vs raw power with a specific weapon type.
(i'd also recommend splitting Scimitar and ninja-to/wakasashi into their own proficiencies.)
And just disable groups for classes/groups who don't get enough weapon variety to make the proficiency worth it, like mages for everything, thieves for blunt, spike weapon group, Bow group. (Must get AT LEAST 3 weapons to be allowed for that class).
[Group Examples]
Large sword: [Longsword, bastard-sword, katana, scimitar, 2hd sword], Small sword: [Dagger, short-sword, Ninja-to, Wakasashi], Blunt: [QS, Club, Hammer, mace], Hafted: [Axe, Halberd, Spear], Missile: [Sling, darts, X-bow].
Just treat the group proficiencies as Style proficiencies (to side-step specialization bonuses) with 2 levels, the first 1 doing nothing and the 2nd giving the appropriate group proficiency and modify the way item proficiency is read so that if that it'll use which ever proficiency is better for that item.
Like if they have blunt proficiency and use a QS they'll be proficient, but if they also have ** clubs, when using clubs they'll get their specialization bonus.