Advice on weapons

Melinoth

Need a thief for a good aligned group and I'm planning on making a half orc swashbuckler. My initial thought was to go with longswords, but I had seen scimtars and others mentioned as best. Are they that much better?

pixie359

Not really - long swords have more variety, but scimitars have the +Apr weapon which is great for your off hand. You fairly quickly have enough points to go for both and choose depending on what you find.

JuliusBorisov

Hello, @Melinoth‌ and welcome to the forum!

I wish you to go with the weapon you like the most. They will all do, even daggers and clubs! Try to play the game as you want in the first place.

The longswords are a good choice, there're lots of these swords in the game. As you level up and find new weapons, you can always put points into new weapon choices.

People mentioning the scimitars generally talk about one scimitar you'll find that grants additional APR for the main-hand weapon. You can follow this advice and combine your longsword and a scimitar.

From the power perspective, it's always good to combine a crushing weapon (for e.g., a flail) in the main hand and a weapon granting additional APR in the second hand.

Shikao

If you plan to do full saga run, then longswords would be really great in BG1.
In BG2 you have so many choices, most of weapon types have at least one great specimen. It's just there is abundance of longswords and scimitars/wakizashi/ninja-to category is king of bonus APR.

Personally I always made my Swash proficient with Katanas, so he could wield Celestial Fury.

GamingFreak

while half-orcs aren't the best of pure-thieves, they will benefit with the 19 strength. Scimitars and Short swords are golden for a swashbuckler in Baldur's Gate for the entire saga, scimitars especially (because of how many there are available). This is mostly due to the rather awesome APR increasing weapons that a Swashie desperately needs to actually be worth his weight (otherwise he's just a meatier thief with no backstab).

Clubs wouldn't be bad either if you're playing on core or a higher (or even custom) difficulty for the sake of anti-undead options. Though magical clubs are more rare.

Katanas are the deadliest 1-handed weapon type in the game, but they're also rare, so make of that what you will.

Sceptenar

Others have given good advice, but as far as katanas go I do not recommend starting with katana proficiency in BG1. You won't have enough money to buy a katana in Candlekeep, and they are very hard to find otherwise. You'll be playing through a significant part of the plot before you find a magical one. This is of course not a problem if you start right into BG2.

lunar

Shortswords are okay. Arbane's shortsword+2 is a great early game favourite which protects from paralysis, invaluable really. +3 shortsword available from thief quest. There is even one speed shortsword that gives +1 attack!

mumumomo

Here is how i see it in the scimitar VS longsword debates:

BG1: scimitar wins (2 very good scimitars + 2 great scimitars (best weapons in the game) if you are willing to cheesepocket some specific guy -> best choice for dual wielding, other weapon type have just 1 good weapon (+2)))
Early BG2: scimitar wins (speed weapon)
End of BG2: scimitar wins (speed weapon x2).

For a swashbuckler speed weapons are stronger than anything else, since the effect on their APR is huge:
- 1 speed weapon = damage output + 50% (from 2 to 3 APR)
- 2 speed weapon = double damage output (from 2 to 4 APR)

Anyway, longsword is also very good and bring a lot of different special effects so you can choose it if you prefer.

elminster

Edit: Nevermind. I guess you still can

CaptRory

If you max out pick pockets at the start you may be able to Steal a Katana from the innkeeper in BG1.

Wowo

Shortsword+Scimitar for bg2, no contest.

So:
Scimitar**
Twf'ing**
Shortsword**

JLee

FYI, in BG1 with lockpicking ~65 you can get the star sapphire upstairs and buy the katana and still have plenty left over.

Depending on party setup, it may be a better idea to spread the +APR weapons amongst your fighters ime. I ran a swashie and determined it was better for overall damage if he kept only the scarlet ninjato and sacrificed his APR and left the other two to the Crom Faeyr and FoA wielders.

elminster

JLee said:

FYI, in BG1 with lockpicking ~65 you can get the star sapphire upstairs and buy the katana and still have plenty left over.

You can get it with 60 it'll just take a few tries

dunbar

I'm sure someone's written a formula somewhere that combines all the variables of any given class/kit/weapon/proficiency combination that tells you exactly what to do in order to end up with a character that does the greatest amount of damage in the least amount of time at any given level - but all that maths makes my head hurt (and demands a level of pre-planning that removes some spontaneity from the game).

Apart from my illogical addiction to bastard swords due to my background in low-level PnP playing I generally just make it up as I go along. If I pick up a weapon that improves my damage/thaco/AC/APR etc. I keep it until a better one comes along. The same applies to window shopping, I always save before going into a shop so that I can buy a weapon, equip it and return it (reload) if it doesn't improve my defence or attack in some way or another. In other words I just look at the inventory screen and if some numbers go up or others go down I keep the weapon.