Weapon Proficencies F/M/T for the entire saga

Gamergilbert

I'm currently planning on making a F/M/T to play through the entire saga with.
I will be a chaotic/neutral (Maybe chaotic/good, undecided) Elf.
I am not turning off the experience cap.
I am very patient with stat rolls so if that's a factor for anything, don't worry.
I will be doing a mix of soloing and playing in a small 2-4 person party for BG1. But for the rest of the saga I'll just run with 6.
I will be playing on insane difficulty.

By the end of the Saga the F/M/T should have 10 proficiency points I believe.
So I'm wondering how I should spend my initial points and my future points.

So does anyone have suggestions for weapon proficiencies ?

JuliusBorisov

I would definitely take two-weapon style right from the start.

Longswords are very good for BG1 and there're plenty of them in BG2 as well. So you can put the starting ** into them.

You'll need a speed weapon (that grants +1 APR) in BG2, so at the 3rd or the 6th level put one * into scimitars. Also, if you don't mind killing Drizzt in BG1, you can very much take scimitars instead of longswords in BG1.

Then I would put ** into a crushing weapon and the Flail of Ages is one of the best weapons in the game. So, ** into Flails.

If you like Celestial Fury, you can put your proficiencies into katanas, although there're no solid katanas in ToB.

FinneousPJ

You will get 8-10 pips in total depending on level of game completion. So maybe something like this.

6 pips in BGEE,

Level 1
* Two-Handed Style
* Quarterstaff (backstabbing fun)
** Longsword
Level 3
* Scimitar
Level 6
* 2 W Style

Up to 4 more in BG2EE
Level 9
** Two Weap Style
Level 12
** Scimitar
Level 15, 18
** Flail/Warhammer/whatever late-game weapon you like.

Gotural

I would start with ** in Longbows. Ranged weapons are king in BG1 and an Elf F/M/T makes a very good Archer. You can't go wrong with longbows, especially since F/M/T are kind of squishy at low level, even more so if you're playing on Insane difficulty.

My usual choice when playing a F/M/T :

**Scimitars
** Longbows OR Daggers (Throwing daggers have 2 APR like Bows, and they do use the Str bonus to damages, making them extremely potent ranged weapons right from the start, it will also enable you to use the Silver Dagger against Werewolves)

Then ** in Two-Weapon Style at level 3 and 6.

So at the end of BG1, you can dual wield Drizzt's scimitars, which are the best weapons of the game. If not (For RP reasons or anything) you can still dualwield 2 Scimitars +2. You are also extremely effective from range for the whole game.

In BG2 I would go for ** in Flails to be able to use a blunt weapon, and a good one with the FoA.

Finally I would go for ** in Greatsword to be able to use Carsomyr (with UAI) effectively, but if you have a Paladin in your party, you can place your points somewhere else.

Wowo

I went with the staff and greatsword route for backstabbing fun and carsomyr, can't go wrong really.

FinneousPJ

I wouldn't go with pips in longbows because it'll be very poor compared to melee come BG2, and in BG1 an elf FMT will be good enough even nonproficient.

Jarrakul

I'd probably go something like this:

Level 1: Longbow **
Longsword **
Level 3: Two-Weapon Fighting *
Level 6: Two-Weapon Fighting **
Level 9: Club *
Level 12: Club **
Level 15: Scimitar *
Level 18: Scimitar **

Reasons are as follows: Longbows are fantastic in BG1, and you'll definitely want a ranged option. Consider shortbows instead for greater BG2 utility, but honestly you shouldn't have much need for ranged weapons in BG2.
Longswords are generally solid throughout the saga, and you can backstab with them. Scimitars are a tempting alternative, but it takes a long time to find a +3 version in BG2, which is a potentially substantial downside. Plus they don't have an option that can hurt Karoug in BG1.
Two-weapon fighting is just good.
Clubs are the only one-handed crushing weapon that you can backstab with, and there are a couple good options available in BG2. Flails are better if you don't want to backstab, but why wouldn't you want to backstab?
With Belm and eventually the Scarlet Ninja-To as your obvious off-hand weapons in BG2, you'll get some mileage out of scimitar proficiency. Neither of these really require proficiency to be good, though, which is why I'd save it for last.

Gotural

If you don't put any points in Longbow, you will start the game with 17 THAC0, 3-8 damage, 2 APR. Average damages of 11 if every arrows hit.
If you do put ** in Longbow, you will start the game with 5-10 damage, 2.5 APR for an average of 18.75 damages. And you start with 14 THAC0 so the difference is even bigger than that. I'm pretty sure you will on average double your damage output with ** in Longbow right from the start.

Plus if he is playing on Insane difficulty, he will need to use ranged weapons at the start of the game, many foes will be able to one shot him for quite some time in melee, if he doesn't want to reload every fights he will need to stay at range.

But if you really dislike Longbows, give a try to Daggers and you'll be surprised ! With 18/91+ Str you start with 8-11 damage per hit, 14 THAC0 and 2.5 APR which is even better than Longbow on every aspect. Later on, you will be able to use some pretty underrated weapons in melee, and you will be able to slay Karoug with ease thanks to the silver dagger. You can also use the Dagger of Venom in BG1 which is really really powerful.

FinneousPJ

@Gotural Sure, but come BG2 (even late BG1) those two pips are wasted. What I'm saying is the FMT is *good enough* in early-game archery without wasting pips.

Jarrakul

See, I'd make the counter-argument that the FMT doesn't really need those points in BG2. With two points in a melee weapon of choice and two in TWF, anything else is just icing on the cake.

FinneousPJ

That's fine. I prefer the other way

mumumomo

2* in TWF seems the obvious powergamer choice.

i would take 2* is scimitars:
- very good weapon in BG1 (2 +2 available, better weapon choice if you kill drizzt)
- best weapon choice in SOA: Belm (+ APR is king) and the +4 wakisachi (best backtabbing weapon in SOA).

You need 2* in a crushing weapon. A backstabbing crushing weapon seems quite useless to me (just use anotehr weapon for your backstab). So i would not take clubs. I would rather take flail or warhammer.
Flail of the age is good from the beginning to the end tso i would take that.

The remaining 4 PIPS do not really matter IMO.