Fighter Mage- Dual Katanas or Staff?

RagingOrc

Hey people,

I'm interested in how people usually play their fighter/mage or kensai -> mage regarding weapon proficiencies.

The main styles i've seen have been:

Katana+ dual: Dak'kon's Zerth Blade and Celestial Fury
Staff: Staff of the Magi or Staff of the Ram?

Which weapon set is considered the 'most effective?' in terms of dps, usefulness and commanding the battlefield in your opinion?

If anyone knows of a different setup that is more powerful than the ones listed please feel free to share.

I can see the benefits of both to be honest but I'd like to see the communities opinion for feedback

Cool, thanks

Lord_Tansheron

In terms of DPS, the most effective setup will always be an offhand with +1 APR, i.e. Belm or Kundane. The reason is that the extra attack will always be applied to the main hand; no other offhand bonus comes close in power, as APR scale incredibly well. The only other offhand consideration would be the 25 STR from Crom Faeyr, but since that also deals decent damage on its own (and offhand attacks are capped at 1 APR, making them fairly unimportant overall), you may be better off putting it in someone's main hand.

Your main hand can be anything, really. The only issue is availability; to choose a weapon type that has both viable early/mid game options as well as late game.

My recommendation is Flail of the Ages. Even the +3 version has great damage, plus the slow and elemental damage (which goes through Stoneskin and physical damage resistances). You can upgrade it twice, and the last version is perhaps the single most powerful weapon in the game.

Another contender is Crom Faeyr, which is right up there with FoA in terms of power. Keep in mind that it's especially good with low base STR (<=19), but loses a little of its effective gains the higher your STR. The downside is that there are few good hammers early in the game; the upside is that you can get Crom Faeyr before ToB, and it will remain one of the best weapons until the very end.

Celestial Fury is a great weapon, but only because of the stun. Its damage is not impressive. The stun does however help tremendously at times, and make some fights very easy (like the Chromatic Demon in WK). Note that bosses and "massive" enemies like dragons are usually immune to stun. The big upside of CF is that it is available fairly early in the game.

Another weapon I've grown to like is Daystar. If you don't mind a smash-and-grab, it's available pretty much right at the start of the game, and it has quite decent damage. The majority of enemies you face are evil, essentially making it a weapon+4 - and there are also a number of undead in your path, where Daystar becomes a truly impressive tool of righteous destruction. It's also a Long Sword, arguably the weapon category with the widest selection of choices throughout the game. One of them is Angurvadal, which in its final version is in the Top 5 of the most damaging weapons in the game.
[NOTE: Can anyone confirm how Daystar works, exactly? It says 1d8+2, +4 vs. evil - does that mean it's 1d8+4 vs. evil, or is it 1d8+6?]

Hope I could help, and feel free to ask more questions!

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Corvino

It's often good to have ++ in either scimitars or shortswords to best use Belm or Kundane in your offhand for the additional free attack. With a multiclass F/M and the gauntlets of extraordinary specialisation this allows you to have 5 APR unhasted and reach 10 APR with Imp. Haste.

The mainhand options as given above are all good. The F/Illusionist I ran through BG:EE with a few months back has ++ in 2 weapon style, scimitars and flails at present at level 7/7.

elminster

Staff of the magi is always good. If you get it before chapter 4 (which is quite possible) its invisibility on equip as well as dispel on hit makes it out to be a pretty capable weapon. In Throne of Bhaal it loses some of its usefullness.

Lord_Tansheron

thespace said:

So duel wielding flails & katanas is a good way to go for a fighter/mage?

When dual-wielding, always try to have a +1 APR weapon in the off-hand. That is Belm (scimitar) or Kundane (short sword). There is no inherent benefit to specific weapon types, all that matters is what weapons are available specifically.

Also note that your offhand attacks are not very important, as they are capped at 1 per round (2 under Improved Haste), i.e. only 20% of your attacks. That means you don't need a lot of pips in the offhand's proficiency, 1 (= no penalty) is often enough already. Try to get 2 pips in Two Weapon Fighting before you go for the offhand's weapon type.

setsunaluvr

I usually go with Katanas and Longswords. I usually use the Celestial Fury main hand due to its +3 enhancement, and in the off hand I'll usually have one of those special effect longswords like Namarra or something. I don't usually bother with Belm or the Flail of ages because they don't really fit my idea of the character. Same with the Crom Faeyr.