Any Halberd Love?
Reddbane
Member Posts: 222
I've had a love of Polearms (and later especially Halberds) probably since I first played Final Fantasy IV and I encountered my first Dragoon. Ever since then every medieval setting I've played I've tried to equip myself with Halberd or at least some kind of polearm. I can't fully explain the appeal, although it probably has something to do with the overabundance of swords of all kinds in pop culture and the fact that so few notable characters wield Halberds (name a famous fantasy or mythical character; chances are they use a sword, and if not they either use a axe or a hammer) so that using a Halberd makes me feel unique, or I'm just sick of Swordsmen and Axedwarves. In D&D over the years I've sort of developed an archetype for most of my characters, a Halberdier Wizard, a Wizard who has some combat abilities and replaces the typical Staff with a Halberd. This has been no different for the BG series, as with all but the first playthrough I've played Fighter Dualed to a Wizard at 9 or 13, with Grandmastery in Halberds and at least one proficiency in Two-handed Weapons. Over the past five years I've probably come back to the series at least once a year for a complete play-through, and after all that time I have to say I feel a little jealous of other Weapon groups. There's so little to choose from compared to, say, longswords or greatswords, and the special Halberds feel so boring until you get very late in the game. Sure Wave is cool, and Ravager might be the best weapon in the series, but you have to wait until after the Underdark for the first, and After Yaga-Shura's lair and Watcher's Keep for the second (you barely get to use Ravager before the game ends.) Before that it feels like you can only one named Halberd at a time per enchantment rating, and most of them are pretty boring; first you get the Duskblade (+2 cold, whoopee,) until your strong enough to fight beholders then you get Dragon's Bane (+6 damage to dragons, though by this time I've usually killed both Dragons to be strong enough to deal with Beholders,) until you get to the Underdark and you finally get your first reasonably cool Halberd, Dragon's Breath (+1 damage from all elements,) and then Blackmist, oh Blackmist--what a disappointment. You betray a White Dragon and risk stranding yourself in the Underdark to make a deal with a demon, and what do you get? A +4 Halberd that can cast blindness 3 times a day, that's right cast blindness, it does not inflict blindness on hit, it only lets you cast the spell at the enemies 3 times a day, how utterly underwhelming, not to mention you literally picked up a better Halberd (Dragon's Breath) off the ground only a few hours before. Meanwhile the game is throwing tons of great swords at you, swords that dispel magic, swords that make undead explode, swords that talk, swords that have a one in four chance of instant killing, swords that heal you, swords damage enemy thac0, swords that explode, swords that protect you from mindflayers, etc. So my question is: are there any mods that add some new and cool Halberds to the game?
1
Comments