Either Spear or Bastard Sword, I think. The former doesn't have enough good weapons, IMO, at least until pretty late, and the latter is just beaten out by more and better longswords, plus the fact that longswords can be used by thieves.
Clubs kinda suck since the only high end one has a habit of exploding your party and turning summons hostile. Scimitars outside of Belm mostly suck, and Belm works fine with just one * as an off hand weapon. Longbows mostly suck in BG2 as well.
Axes. I never use them. I think I usually take one weapon proficiency point in axes on rangers for flavor but I have never made a dwarvern character and I think they are really that race that would feel cool with an ax.
Spears by a mile, at least in the BG series. Longbows do suck in BG2, but they're so, so good in BG1.
I disagree about scimitars, @sparrow13x, at least if you're including ninja-tos. Usuno's Blade is a +4 weapon you can get super early, and the Scarlet Ninja-To is great for a rogue with UAI. Even if you only include proper scimitars, there are two +3 and two +2 scimitars in BGEE.
If you think a human wouldn't feel cool with an axe, @Vallmyr, then go hold an axe for a while and report back about how it makes you feel. My guess: cool.
Spears - never use them, except maybe in IWD. Clubs come in on second place as the least used items. I seldom use short/bastard swords either for some reason, but there are some good choices there.
Scimitars and other curved swords. Not because they're weak, or any other gameplay reasons. Purely a matter of taste, I don't like that style of weapons as much as others.
Longbows and short bows, not because of their stats or usefulness but simply because I have arrow management issues. You keep finding different types of arrows all over the place which all have to be identified and put somewhere, filling your inventory to the point of bursting. If I'm lucky enough to have a quiver I can of course put them in there and promptly forget about them (literally) - in much the same way that a Bag of Holding resembles my sock drawer - I never know what I've got in there half the time.
Spears. Why is it only 1d6? Make it 1d8 and it will become viable in a second. At least, there will be a good difference if compared to staffs. Because right now the staffs (or even clubs that are one-handed) win it with their crushing damage.
Also, the lack of a good enchantment makes spears uninteresting in BG1.
BG2.
There're wonderful late-SoA and ToB spears in BG2.
This is why for BG2 I would vote longbows. How does it happen that shortbows are simply better? From the very start of BG2 (a shortbow with 3 APR) to the Gezen bow.
In BG1 and BG2 my least favourite weapon would be morningstars. Thankfully they share the same proficiency as flails. Can't complain about them in Icewind Dale though
I disagree about scimitars, @sparrow13x, at least if you're including ninja-tos. Usuno's Blade is a +4 weapon you can get super early, and the Scarlet Ninja-To is great for a rogue with UAI. Even if you only include proper scimitars, there are two +3 and two +2 scimitars in BGEE.
I actually forgot that Usono's Blade was a Scimitar, for some reason I thought it was a Katana but I may have been thinking of Yamato instead. And Scarlet Ninia-to is definitely nice if you have UAI (I used it on my Berserker/Thief) but it has the same problem as Belm where you only need 1* to make it work as an off-hand.
IMO their options outside of APR-increasing off-hands aren't great in BG2. Spectral Brand doesn't stand out among the other great ToB weapons. Usono's has a 10% chance of doing 2d10 electrical damage with a save for half, versus a comparable weapon like CF which only has a 5% chance to do 20 electrical but with no save, plus a chance to stun with every hit AND activated direct damage/blindness abilities. As far as I'm concerned there's little reason to pick Scimitars for a MH weapon unless you're a Druid.
That's not to say they're the worst though since Longbows and Spears are still pretty crappy.
*Longbows are awful in BG2EE but too darn useful in BGEE to make the lists.
*Maces were also pretty terrible, sorry Mace of disruption, but Stupifier ended up redeeming them!
* Bastard Swords are so on the cusp in BGEE with Albruin and Bastard Sword +1 +3 vs Shappeshifters, but BG2EE doesn't let you get a cool Bastard Sword until nearly the end of ToB, which always makes me regret having taken the proficiency.
@BillyYank@Svar When I was in the Army they made us watch a video of an actual Korean Shaolin monk hurling chopsticks through a plywood board. He was also embedding them in a solid wooden door. They made us watch this film to try and keep us focused and alert because, apparently North Korean infiltrators can be very skilled and deadly martial artists. (In the 70s there were several incidents of North Korean infiltrators killing troops with axes, Bo Staff and Jo Sticks.) Chopsticks, it's what's for killing!
And I REALLY want to do spears on my archer (like old school pre-longbow archers who dropped their bows and fought enemies off with spears at close range), but I gave up before I started. Never heard a good word about them in BG.
Whats with all the spear hate? BG2 has so very many great spears, Impaler, Spear of Withering and Ixil's Spike. Well 2 good spears and 1 stupidly strong spear. Ixil's Spike is ridiculously over powered, besides the free action which is extremely annoying. They do all show up pretty late game, as in after Spellhold, but there are some ok early spears to pick up. Spear of the Unicorn is not complete trash and can be picked up as soon as you leave chateau Irenicus.
I personally find spears to be a great weapon choice for a late game Jaheira, she will have the pips to spare so there is no lose in specing into spears.
Clubs and Longbows and are trash tier in my book, was what I was going to say. Then I looked at the weapons list and it's Bastard Swords. Bastard Swords are pure trash. They go from pure trash to Jhor the Bleeder "which is also trash.", to Bastard sword +3 to Foebane. Foebane isn't even a good weapon.
It starts off as a +3 weapon (good enough) which gets another +6 damage against shapeshifters, undead and devils/demons (of whom you meet quite alot)
It can then be upgraded to be +5 (more than enough) with the aforementioned +6. It also gives +1 to all saving throws (nice) and casts minor drain per hit (drains 1d4 hit points and heals that amount)
Against the right enemies, it does 3d4+11 damage with 1d4 heal per hit.
That's pretty awesome. Give it to your paladin and have purifier in your offhand (for the passive magic resistance, mass cure and dispel magic). It's also +5 and gives bonuses against evil characters.
I had a paladin who wielded both and it was amazing. Lots of damage with plenty of healing and high magic resistance (30% from purifier, 10% from seldarine, 10% from hell, 10% from gax, 5% from Lum, for 65% magic resistance).
She was proof that late game bastard swords can be quite formidable.
@Skarose
A near quote from one of my drill sergeants when given pugil sticks, which apparently had something to do with bayonet use.
"You are never going to use any of this. Because we are giving you riles. Learn how to use them. Shoot them. Because if you ever have to use combatives then it means you f*cked up and deserve to get stabbed."
They treated combatives much the same way. Something that they had to 'teach' us, but they would have much rather have had given us more trigger time.
Personally, I really wish that our enemies used chopsticks and the like instead of rifles. It'd make life much easier.
Foebane has the 3rd highest one-hander DPS in the game. You can't call that very bad. Jhor the Bleeder (very much like Gnasher) and Blade of Searing (almost identical to Stonefire) aren't bad either, you just get them a bit too late IMO. And the +5 version of Purifier is pretty awesome as well. Carsomyr doesn't even really benefit from the +6 upgrade, so I usually upgrade Purifier instead.
I think bastard swords are one of the best weapons in the game, but their availability could be better. How things currently work is you have to get Foebane early and that kinda makes the other swords redundant.
@Yannir, @Grum, Foebane is a 2d4 +3 (+6 situational damage) that upgrades to a 2d4 +5 (+6situational damage) with a +1 to saving throws and Larloch's Minor Drain on hit. This is a OK weapon across the board, as it's upgraded version can only be obtained in ToB. Up against other ToB weapons, it doesn't really stand out as something amazing. It's base version is a meh +3 weapon that does some extra damage sometimes.
It's OK, it's not great and it's not bad. I just don't really get the hype.
@SmilingSword Which ToB weapons are you referring to? FoA and Crom do indeed eclipse Foebane damage-wise but that's it, the others don't. Two-handed weapons are not easily comparable.
Defensively thinking I can't really think of anything better than a weapon that returns 6 (4 apr -1 from off-hand, IH, all LMD rolls are 1's) to 40 (single weapon style/sword and board style, GWW, all LMD rolls are 4's) hp per round. Some variation comes from missing your attack and/or enemies that are immune to magic, but it still averages to about 19-23 hp returned per ROUND.
I disagree about scimitars, @sparrow13x, at least if you're including ninja-tos. Usuno's Blade is a +4 weapon you can get super early, and the Scarlet Ninja-To is great for a rogue with UAI. Even if you only include proper scimitars, there are two +3 and two +2 scimitars in BGEE.
I actually forgot that Usono's Blade was a Scimitar, for some reason I thought it was a Katana but I may have been thinking of Yamato instead. And Scarlet Ninia-to is definitely nice if you have UAI (I used it on my Berserker/Thief) but it has the same problem as Belm where you only need 1* to make it work as an off-hand.
IMO their options outside of APR-increasing off-hands aren't great in BG2. Spectral Brand doesn't stand out among the other great ToB weapons. Usono's has a 10% chance of doing 2d10 electrical damage with a save for half, versus a comparable weapon like CF which only has a 5% chance to do 20 electrical but with no save, plus a chance to stun with every hit AND activated direct damage/blindness abilities. As far as I'm concerned there's little reason to pick Scimitars for a MH weapon unless you're a Druid.
That's not to say they're the worst though since Longbows and Spears are still pretty crappy.
really? I am running a kensai dual thief, singled handed // sword and shield scimetar grand mastery, it is heaven, get belm +2 imediately, as soon as you unlock kensai you get the +4 in 1 level of watcher's keep, then eat kangaxx once you have use any items, the scarlet ninja to is just... and all this before you get to spellhold I think fighter dual druid or thief, scimetar is the best choice for a solo party.
Comments
I need to look up weapon types.
. . .
Axes.
I never use them. I think I usually take one weapon proficiency point in axes on rangers for flavor but I have never made a dwarvern character and I think they are really that race that would feel cool with an ax.
I disagree about scimitars, @sparrow13x, at least if you're including ninja-tos. Usuno's Blade is a +4 weapon you can get super early, and the Scarlet Ninja-To is great for a rogue with UAI. Even if you only include proper scimitars, there are two +3 and two +2 scimitars in BGEE.
If you think a human wouldn't feel cool with an axe, @Vallmyr, then go hold an axe for a while and report back about how it makes you feel. My guess: cool.
Spears. Why is it only 1d6? Make it 1d8 and it will become viable in a second. At least, there will be a good difference if compared to staffs. Because right now the staffs (or even clubs that are one-handed) win it with their crushing damage.
Also, the lack of a good enchantment makes spears uninteresting in BG1.
BG2.
There're wonderful late-SoA and ToB spears in BG2.
This is why for BG2 I would vote longbows. How does it happen that shortbows are simply better? From the very start of BG2 (a shortbow with 3 APR) to the Gezen bow.
IMO their options outside of APR-increasing off-hands aren't great in BG2. Spectral Brand doesn't stand out among the other great ToB weapons. Usono's has a 10% chance of doing 2d10 electrical damage with a save for half, versus a comparable weapon like CF which only has a 5% chance to do 20 electrical but with no save, plus a chance to stun with every hit AND activated direct damage/blindness abilities. As far as I'm concerned there's little reason to pick Scimitars for a MH weapon unless you're a Druid.
That's not to say they're the worst though since Longbows and Spears are still pretty crappy.
http://www.bladebunny.com/comic/page-15-in-high-res/
(It's a 3 page bit.)
*Longbows are awful in BG2EE but too darn useful in BGEE to make the lists.
*Maces were also pretty terrible, sorry Mace of disruption, but Stupifier ended up redeeming them!
* Bastard Swords are so on the cusp in BGEE with Albruin and Bastard Sword +1 +3 vs Shappeshifters, but BG2EE doesn't let you get a cool Bastard Sword until nearly the end of ToB, which always makes me regret having taken the proficiency.
@BillyYank @Svar When I was in the Army they made us watch a video of an actual Korean Shaolin monk hurling chopsticks through a plywood board. He was also embedding them in a solid wooden door. They made us watch this film to try and keep us focused and alert because, apparently North Korean infiltrators can be very skilled and deadly martial artists. (In the 70s there were several incidents of North Korean infiltrators killing troops with axes, Bo Staff and Jo Sticks.) Chopsticks, it's what's for killing!
And I REALLY want to do spears on my archer (like old school pre-longbow archers who dropped their bows and fought enemies off with spears at close range), but I gave up before I started. Never heard a good word about them in BG.
BG2 has so very many great spears, Impaler, Spear of Withering and Ixil's Spike. Well 2 good spears and 1 stupidly strong spear. Ixil's Spike is ridiculously over powered, besides the free action which is extremely annoying. They do all show up pretty late game, as in after Spellhold, but there are some ok early spears to pick up. Spear of the Unicorn is not complete trash and can be picked up as soon as you leave chateau Irenicus.
I personally find spears to be a great weapon choice for a late game Jaheira, she will have the pips to spare so there is no lose in specing into spears.
Clubs and Longbows and are trash tier in my book, was what I was going to say. Then I looked at the weapons list and it's Bastard Swords. Bastard Swords are pure trash. They go from pure trash to Jhor the Bleeder "which is also trash.", to Bastard sword +3 to Foebane. Foebane isn't even a good weapon.
Foebane is a great weapon!
It starts off as a +3 weapon (good enough) which gets another +6 damage against shapeshifters, undead and devils/demons (of whom you meet quite alot)
It can then be upgraded to be +5 (more than enough) with the aforementioned +6. It also gives +1 to all saving throws (nice) and casts minor drain per hit (drains 1d4 hit points and heals that amount)
Against the right enemies, it does 3d4+11 damage with 1d4 heal per hit.
That's pretty awesome. Give it to your paladin and have purifier in your offhand (for the passive magic resistance, mass cure and dispel magic). It's also +5 and gives bonuses against evil characters.
I had a paladin who wielded both and it was amazing. Lots of damage with plenty of healing and high magic resistance (30% from purifier, 10% from seldarine, 10% from hell, 10% from gax, 5% from Lum, for 65% magic resistance).
She was proof that late game bastard swords can be quite formidable.
"You are never going to use any of this. Because we are giving you riles. Learn how to use them. Shoot them. Because if you ever have to use combatives then it means you f*cked up and deserve to get stabbed."
They treated combatives much the same way. Something that they had to 'teach' us, but they would have much rather have had given us more trigger time.
Personally, I really wish that our enemies used chopsticks and the like instead of rifles. It'd make life much easier.
I think bastard swords are one of the best weapons in the game, but their availability could be better. How things currently work is you have to get Foebane early and that kinda makes the other swords redundant.
It's OK, it's not great and it's not bad. I just don't really get the hype.
Defensively thinking I can't really think of anything better than a weapon that returns 6 (4 apr -1 from off-hand, IH, all LMD rolls are 1's) to 40 (single weapon style/sword and board style, GWW, all LMD rolls are 4's) hp per round. Some variation comes from missing your attack and/or enemies that are immune to magic, but it still averages to about 19-23 hp returned per ROUND.