Great idea, I was actually thinking of starting a play-through with a Swashbuckler dual wielding clubs myself.
As already said, Blackblood and Gnasher are really good clubs that are available early. The only problem with clubs is that the only way to get the Club of Detonation (which is the best club) is by having to go all the way to the final seal (level before you know who) which could be quite hard.
Because if you don't get the Club of Detonation early and upgrade it, TOB will be a pain with only 3+ clubs.
I think the merchant in the North Forest (If I remember correctly) sells a 4+ club so that could be a temporary club solution. Also the Club of Detonation can be upgraded quite easily, needing just Batalista's Passport (from Windspear Hills) and a little bit of gold.
ToB is not filled with enemies that need +4 weapons to be hit, only few bosses need it and for a not soloer there are many other targets to focus on.
I find that to use +3 weapons, as let's say Celestial Fury, is still viable and strong for most of ToB, but talking of clubs the one of detonation is one of the most damaging weapons of the game, its main problem is that you risk to damage your other mlee fighters even if the welder is 100% protected against fire damage, this means to have to spend more spells on protection against fire on a regular basis or to have to play very tactically having the other mlee fighters enough far from the CoD welder.
The fight against many of the ones that need at least +4 weapons can be delayed until the party has plenty of power to deal with the final seal guardians, i would say that demiliches excluded there is not a single enemy that needs +4 weapons until at least mid ToB, and i usually complete WK in SoA chap 2, so at mid ToB it should not be an issue for most of the players as at that point you have high level spells, fighters with maxed thac0 and HLAs.
No +4 club from the merchant, sorry. All +4 or better weapons in the BG saga are unique and named, and the upgraded Club of Detonation is the only one of them in the Club category. Karthis sells a range of +1 to +3 weaponry, but the only unique piece he's got is the Obsidian Ioun Stone.
A complete list of purchasable +4 or better weapons in the game:
Staff of Rhynn +4 (Ribald, Adventurer Mart)
Sling of Everard +5 (Joluv, Copper Coronet)
Firetooth +4 light crossbow (Sister Garlena, Watcher's Keep)
Short Sword of Mask +4 (Sister Garlena, Watcher's Keep)
Spear of Withering +4 (Drow, Ust Natha)
Warblade +4 two-handed sword (Ribald special stock, Adventurer Mart)
Yamato +4 wakizashi (Bartender, Saradush)
K'logarath +4 throwing axe (Carras, Amkethran)
Using the club of detonation and its fireball chance - I wouldn't worry too much. A high-level party can take a 10d6 fireball to the face pretty easily, even if you haven't cranked up the resistances. It's not even a terribly high chance, at 7% per hit for the basic version and 5% after upgrade. Just add a little more healing after the battle when it comes up.
It is still worthwhile to push for a fully fire-immune party at least on occasion - being able to throw around Incendiary Clouds and keep fighting in them is a wonderful perk.
Using the club of detonation and its fireball chance - I wouldn't worry too much. A high-level party can take a 10d6 fireball to the face pretty easily, even if you haven't cranked up the resistances. It's not even a terribly high chance, at 7% per hit for the basic version and 5% after upgrade. Just add a little more healing after the battle when it comes up.
It is still worthwhile to push for a fully fire-immune party at least on occasion - being able to throw around Incendiary Clouds and keep fighting in them is a wonderful perk.
i really think that if you choose to have maxed hp gain on leveling up or not matters a lot here, i chose always not so my HP pool even at higher levels is lower, and I also like to play multi and other more toons with versatility and rarely have many dedicated fighters with a lot of hp.
my mlee line can be often a buffed aerie, a charname fmt, haer dalis and they all can really feel 60 damage from the fireball if i am not lucky as i also try to not overbuff and to not buff at all before the battle unless i have spotted the enemy in some way, but i agree that with a mlee line filled of high hp warriors with maxed hp leveling up the occasional fireball will chip out a lot less of their total hp pool.
as often happens in this game the setup we use and the style we use can affect a lot the impact of some items and the not friendly fireball of that club is one of the perfect examples, with some parties and setups it can need a constant caring and protecting the mlee toons against fire every single battle, with other parties and setups is almost not a problem.
my jaheira use it only on some selected battles other way she switches to less damaging weapons that can not damage the party, but with a different setup and party composition it would probably become her standard late game main weapon.
Comments
As already said, Blackblood and Gnasher are really good clubs that are available early. The only problem with clubs is that the only way to get the Club of Detonation (which is the best club) is by having to go all the way to the final seal (level before you know who) which could be quite hard.
Because if you don't get the Club of Detonation early and upgrade it, TOB will be a pain with only 3+ clubs.
I think the merchant in the North Forest (If I remember correctly) sells a 4+ club so that could be a temporary club solution. Also the Club of Detonation can be upgraded quite easily, needing just Batalista's Passport (from Windspear Hills) and a little bit of gold.
I find that to use +3 weapons, as let's say Celestial Fury, is still viable and strong for most of ToB, but talking of clubs the one of detonation is one of the most damaging weapons of the game, its main problem is that you risk to damage your other mlee fighters even if the welder is 100% protected against fire damage, this means to have to spend more spells on protection against fire on a regular basis or to have to play very tactically having the other mlee fighters enough far from the CoD welder.
The fight against many of the ones that need at least +4 weapons can be delayed until the party has plenty of power to deal with the final seal guardians, i would say that demiliches excluded there is not a single enemy that needs +4 weapons until at least mid ToB, and i usually complete WK in SoA chap 2, so at mid ToB it should not be an issue for most of the players as at that point you have high level spells, fighters with maxed thac0 and HLAs.
A complete list of purchasable +4 or better weapons in the game:
Staff of Rhynn +4 (Ribald, Adventurer Mart)
Sling of Everard +5 (Joluv, Copper Coronet)
Firetooth +4 light crossbow (Sister Garlena, Watcher's Keep)
Short Sword of Mask +4 (Sister Garlena, Watcher's Keep)
Spear of Withering +4 (Drow, Ust Natha)
Warblade +4 two-handed sword (Ribald special stock, Adventurer Mart)
Yamato +4 wakizashi (Bartender, Saradush)
K'logarath +4 throwing axe (Carras, Amkethran)
Using the club of detonation and its fireball chance - I wouldn't worry too much. A high-level party can take a 10d6 fireball to the face pretty easily, even if you haven't cranked up the resistances. It's not even a terribly high chance, at 7% per hit for the basic version and 5% after upgrade. Just add a little more healing after the battle when it comes up.
It is still worthwhile to push for a fully fire-immune party at least on occasion - being able to throw around Incendiary Clouds and keep fighting in them is a wonderful perk.
my mlee line can be often a buffed aerie, a charname fmt, haer dalis and they all can really feel 60 damage from the fireball if i am not lucky as i also try to not overbuff and to not buff at all before the battle unless i have spotted the enemy in some way, but i agree that with a mlee line filled of high hp warriors with maxed hp leveling up the occasional fireball will chip out a lot less of their total hp pool.
as often happens in this game the setup we use and the style we use can affect a lot the impact of some items and the not friendly fireball of that club is one of the perfect examples, with some parties and setups it can need a constant caring and protecting the mlee toons against fire every single battle, with other parties and setups is almost not a problem.
my jaheira use it only on some selected battles other way she switches to less damaging weapons that can not damage the party, but with a different setup and party composition it would probably become her standard late game main weapon.