Honestly, dual wielding is definitely better than 2h, the penalty is really small, only -2 thaco for the off-hand, which you attack only once with (2 thaco is 10% more chance to miss i believe), and 2handers do not really have much of an edge over 1handers.
Plus, you can run a offhand with a pretty powerful enchant on it instead of having only one weapon.. using belm as an off-hand to get 4 attacks per round comes to mind.
If you install the unfinished buisness mod for bg2 artemis entreri's jeweled dagger is nice +4 and causes level drain, a bit like a dagger equivalent of blackrazor, pfff to twinkle
Honestly, dual wielding is definitely better than 2h, the penalty is really small, only -2 thaco for the off-hand, which you attack only once with (2 thaco is 10% more chance to miss i believe), and 2handers do not really have much of an edge over 1handers.
Plus, you can run a offhand with a pretty powerful enchant on it instead of having only one weapon.. using belm as an off-hand to get 4 attacks per round comes to mind.
It's definitely not "better," but certainly different and has its own pros and cons. Mechanics aside I find it looks a little silly aesthetically on certain characters or with certain weapons. Like, Belm with the Flail of Ages just looks silly to me, whereas Gromnir wielding a flail and a morningstar looks cool as hell.
I don't understand the hate for daggers. My new full saga playthrough is Half Orc F/T with 2 pips daggers and 2 pips dual wield. Use throwing daggers. If anyone survives the first few seconds of ranged daggers at massive STR mod to damage (normally 2-3 hit chances at 10-13 damage) then close for dual wield with dagger of venom and other +2 daggers (e.g. from tomb area after the Nashkel Mines). You can also steal the guy's +1 Dagger in candlekeep, killing him and taking his plate armour when he catches you, to get a magic weapon from the get go.
I don't understand the hate for daggers. My new full saga playthrough is Half Orc F/T with 2 pips daggers and 2 pips dual wield. Use throwing daggers. If anyone survives the first few seconds of ranged daggers at massive STR mod to damage (normally 2-3 hit chances at 10-13 damage) then close for dual wield with dagger of venom and other +2 daggers (e.g. from tomb area after the Nashkel Mines). You can also steal the guy's +1 Dagger in candlekeep, killing him and taking his plate armour when he catches you, to get a magic weapon from the get go.
Probably because people seem to value dps to a tunnel vision extent. Daggers are amazing because of how many of them have secondary debilitating effects, combined with a great speed factor and dual wielding would mean that your enemies are always too crippled to attack effectively. Its the same reason that so many players hate Xan as npc (and Enchanters in general).
counterpoint : I hate Xan because i know that if i were to change stat bonuses to their 3.5 values he'd get -2 hp per level
Also of importance to rate items : their availability. The best shortbow in bg1 may just have one less thac0 than the best longbow but it is also found several chapters later, making longbows a much more appealing option there (also there are 2 deadshots plus a +1 comp. longbow which is almost as good, all of which can be found by chapter 3)
@shaldon as noted above, now that the throwing daggers have both strength bonuses at range and the magic ones have 2 attacks in both melee and ranged they are much stronger than back in 2013 when this thread was created. DoV is of course available early in BG and then+2 Boomerang is available early in SoA followed later with the +3 Fire Tooth upgrade.
And as @ThacoBell pointed out the secondary effects are wide-ranging from the SoA daggers: poison, hold, sleep, etc. If you play with mods, the Rogue Rebalancing mod even adds a bunch of additional but not overpowered +2 and +3 daggers into the mix in SoA that can add acid damage or cause disease.
Fire Tooth or Boomerang can be dual-wielded by a non-fighter (in the main hand only) with a speed weapon in the off-hand to reach 4 APR. For someone like a swashbuckler or any dual-wielding thief or F/T it is an excellent weapon choice in my opinion, especially when paired with something like scimitar or short sword.
Then there are also the poisoned throwing daggers, which first appear in Siege in basically unlimited numbers, but in limited numbers in BG2. You don't have the 3 APR of the Darts of Wounding, but you still have 2 APR plus you add the strength bonus to damage with each thrown dagger, so if you have high strength they consistently pump out solid damage even without the poison if the victim makes the save.
Adding the strength damage bonus to thrown daggers totally changed things regarding dagger usefulness.
I can't help myself with my rogues( thieves and bards both), esp with 3 pips in 2WS RR mod, plus one that protects vs fear and charm both, they just gotta have a good dagger. It just fits, RP wise if nothing else. Now, if we can just fix the save bonus on the +3 Pixie Prick, all would be good, heh.
@shaldon no worries I hope there wasn't TMI above in that case.
I agree fully with your original post by the way. Throwing daggers on high strength thieves and F/Ts are excellent ranged weapons and probably the best ranged choice for proficiency point starved thieves, all things considered. In melee they are also strong in BG and decent in BG2 with the 2 APR daggers available.
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( @Eudaemonium hit the nail on the head. I was never able to use Twinkle
Admittedly 'Icingdeath' sounds like you're murdering someone with a very tastily-frosted cake, so Drizzt just has terribly-named weapons all-round.
Plus, you can run a offhand with a pretty powerful enchant on it instead of having only one weapon.. using belm as an off-hand to get 4 attacks per round comes to mind.
This rule change made both darts and daggers more beneficial to strength based characters.
Also of importance to rate items : their availability. The best shortbow in bg1 may just have one less thac0 than the best longbow but it is also found several chapters later, making longbows a much more appealing option there (also there are 2 deadshots plus a +1 comp. longbow which is almost as good, all of which can be found by chapter 3)
And as @ThacoBell pointed out the secondary effects are wide-ranging from the SoA daggers: poison, hold, sleep, etc. If you play with mods, the Rogue Rebalancing mod even adds a bunch of additional but not overpowered +2 and +3 daggers into the mix in SoA that can add acid damage or cause disease.
Fire Tooth or Boomerang can be dual-wielded by a non-fighter (in the main hand only) with a speed weapon in the off-hand to reach 4 APR. For someone like a swashbuckler or any dual-wielding thief or F/T it is an excellent weapon choice in my opinion, especially when paired with something like scimitar or short sword.
Then there are also the poisoned throwing daggers, which first appear in Siege in basically unlimited numbers, but in limited numbers in BG2. You don't have the 3 APR of the Darts of Wounding, but you still have 2 APR plus you add the strength bonus to damage with each thrown dagger, so if you have high strength they consistently pump out solid damage even without the poison if the victim makes the save.
Adding the strength damage bonus to thrown daggers totally changed things regarding dagger usefulness.
Now, if we can just fix the save bonus on the +3 Pixie Prick, all would be good, heh.
I agree fully with your original post by the way. Throwing daggers on high strength thieves and F/Ts are excellent ranged weapons and probably the best ranged choice for proficiency point starved thieves, all things considered. In melee they are also strong in BG and decent in BG2 with the 2 APR daggers available.