Katana+1 or Drizzt's scimitars?

Loon

I play as a warrior/thief specialized in katanas (because of the BG2 weapon sets). What is better for me now (in BG1 and BG SoD) - using Katana +1 which is just fine or rather both Drizzt's scimitars?

Btw, funny thing is I just killed him at level 6 in 20 seconds just using the wand of paralyzation. Was it always that easy or I just got really lucky?

randomhero890

Drizzt scimitars are overpowered for bg1 content but are also much better than katana+1

I've heard u can be ambushed by drizzt and friends in bg2 if you carry over a char that killed him or took his gear in bg1, haven't played bg2 to confirm it though

You can find a +2 scimitar in the cloakwood forest if you want to avoid using drizzt's gear for some reason

If you could find a better katana (which doesn't exist in bg1 but would in bg2) it would be a slightly better backstabbing weapon than scimitar due to having a higher damage range to be amplified by the backstab modifier

Edit: I would say you got lucky to land that spell on drizzt because his magic resist is pretty high, he has a really good chance of resisting spells and he is fast and can kill a lv 6 char in seconds

OrlonKronsteen

@Loon I'd say scimitars are better in BG1. There are two +2 scimitars in BG1 (one is mentioned by @randomhero890) and I'd rather have an additional +1 to hit versus the additional +1 damage potential offered by the katana. And if you have Drizzt's scimitars there's no comparison. They're way better weapons. In SOD there's a good katana

+2 katana with a crit bonus

so by then katanas will be looking a little sweeter. BG2 has a better katana still, but it's only a +3 weapon. I say 'only' because, even though +3 will hit most enemies in the game, there are some bosses that require +4 to hit, and that can be a turn off if taking out the big baddies with your primary weapon is important to you. Of course, you can use both - start with scimitars and add katanas later, if you want. Personally, that's what I'd do. By SOD and BG2 you can put together some nice scimitar/katana combos, and there are +4 scimitars you can use against major bosses.

joluv

Yeah, Drizzt has 98% MR and a save vs. wand of 3. Wand of Paralyzation has a -4 save penalty, so the chance of success should be 2% * 6/20 = 0.6%.

Loon

Yeah, I fought with him a lot, this is like 15th time I'm finishing BG1 (but my last time was about 2009, now I'm going to try SoD). I've never tried that wand of paralyzation method so after a succesful try I assumed he is not as much resistant to wands, as he is to magic (he wouldn't be the only one, afair Sarevok and Shandalar are similar). Or it really was the lucky shot.

joluv said:

Yeah, Drizzt has 98% MR and a save vs. wand of 3. Wand of Paralyzation has a -4 save penalty, so the chance of success should be 2% * 6/20 = 0.6%.

Lol, apparently it REALLY WAS.

Because I haven't played Baldur's Gate recently I simply forgot all that "stats" stuff. I can assume that scimitars are better than katana +1 by reading descriptions, however I don't exactly remember how does it calculate with my "2 star" katana specializations.

randomhero890 said:

I've heard u can be ambushed by drizzt and friends in bg2 if you carry over a char that killed him or took his gear in bg1, haven't played bg2 to confirm it though

I think you can meet him in BG2 no matter what you have done in BG1, however AFAIR there was a dialogue option "Haven't I killed you recently" or something like that. BTW, how is that possible that you are an active part of this community and you haven't played BG2 yet?!

Thanks for your opinion!

Loon

OrlonKronsteen said:

Personally, that's what I'd do. By SOD and BG2 you can put together some nice scimitar/katana combos, and there are +4 scimitars you can use against major bosses.

Well, I planned to use the Celestial Fury + Hindo's doom. As I said I got my skill point invested in katanas, but it when I read your comments completly focused on items, it looks like it's not that important and better weapon is much more important than specialization (?).

You prefer scimitars, but what weapon/specialization would you recommend @OrlonKronsteen for a warrior/thief to great backstabbing experience? Perhaps there are even better - I don't know - swords?

randomhero890

Loon said:

randomhero890 said:

I've heard u can be ambushed by drizzt and friends in bg2 if you carry over a char that killed him or took his gear in bg1, haven't played bg2 to confirm it though

I think you can meet him in BG2 no matter what you have done in BG1, however AFAIR there was a dialogue option "Haven't I killed you recently" or something like that. BTW, how is that possible that you are an active part of this community and you haven't played BG2 yet?!

Thanks for your opinion!

I know right? I played the original bg1 when I was a teen many, many times and missed bg2. I'm about 1/3 the way through SoD now (which is really fun) and then I'm gonna do bg2 a few playthroughs and maybe then IW:D even

As a former avid reader of RA Salvatore (up through "Passage to Dawn") it doesn't make sense from a lore standpoint that Drizzt would have 98% magic resistance. He never acquires any items to give him that kind of protection. In the books he gets hit with spells quite a bit, and doesn't have anything beyond the natural semi-magic resistance all drow have. I guess it wouldn't work though in the game, it would make him too easy to kill

I much enjoyed playing F/T, and I named mine Khazid, a tribute to Khazid'hea, a sentient sword that Drizzt finds known as "cutter" that can cut through stone like butter. It wanted drizzt as a master but settled for Catti-brie instead since drizzt favors the scimitar Anyway I've gotten off topic a bit heh

OrlonKronsteen

Loon said:

OrlonKronsteen said:

Personally, that's what I'd do. By SOD and BG2 you can put together some nice scimitar/katana combos, and there are +4 scimitars you can use against major bosses.

Well, I planned to use the Celestial Fury + Hindo's doom. As I said I got my skill point invested in katanas, but it when I read your comments completly focused on items, it looks like it's not that important and better weapon is much more important than specialization (?).

You prefer scimitars, but what weapon/specialization would you recommend @OrlonKronsteen for a warrior/thief to great backstabbing experience? Perhaps there are even better - I don't know - swords?

If you already have points in katanas you can just go with that, or you can just add scimitar points later if you want. Both scimitars and katanas are great in melee and for backstabbing. You can make the argument that the stun effect makes Celestial Fury too great. Personally I think it's over-powered, but I still use it sometimes when I'm in the mood to go ginsu on some enemies (and, again, its sole negative is that it is +3). The advantage of scimitars is that you can get better ones in BG1, and you can get a +4 weapon fairly early in BG2 if you so desire. There's also Belm in BG2 which gives you an extra attack per round. When used in the off hand while dual wielding it gives your main hand the extra swing, making it very, very powerful. I consider this an exploit and, depending on my mood, I will sometimes not use it. But then again, sometimes you just want to go on a rampage and it's fun to pair up with another weapon, like CF. Forgive me if you already know about Belm and the extra attack, btw.

As for proficiency allocation, in general you can put points in different weapons, depending on what you feel like using. My backstabbers are either f/t multis or stalkers. Since neither of those can put more than 2 pts in a weapon, it's therefore feasible to use both scimitars and katanas. On the other hand, if your f/t is dual and you want to get 5 points in a weapon, you'll have to do more planning. You can always aim for 5 pts in katana while dropping a point or two in another weapon just so you have the option to use something else without the -3 penalty. The very point at which you dual is a great time to pick a new weapon.

Btw you can also backstab with daggers, short swords, long swords, clubs and quarterstaves. Many great weapons to try. Personally, scimitars are my favourite but you might find weapons you like better. Keep in mind that daggers and short swords do piercing damage which some enemies are immune to.

Thels

Easiest way to kill Drizzt as a level 1 character: Walk up close enough to spot some of the gnolls. They'll go attack Drizzt, who won't fight back. You could even move around a bit and activate more gnolls, to speed things up a little.

Just make sure you don't actually spot Drizzt, as he will then activate and easily slaughter the gnolls.

As for Katanas vs Scimitars, Drizzt's Scimitars are clearly the best in the game, and even without those Scimitars, the presence of 2 Rashad's Talons still makes Scimitars a decent choice.

However, are we to assume you have 2 pips in Katanas and 0 pips in Scimitars? In that case, you're better off with the Katana +1.

Loon

Thels said:

Easiest way to kill Drizzt as a level 1 character: Walk up close enough to spot some of the gnolls. They'll go attack Drizzt, who won't fight back. You could even move around a bit and activate more gnolls, to speed things up a little.

Yeah, well I think there are many ways to kill Drizzt, but personally I don't find that kind of cheating satisfying. It may be good and acceptable when you're going to kill Drizzt for the very first time

Thels said:

However, are we to assume you have 2 pips in Katanas and 0 pips in Scimitars? In that case, you're better off with the Katana +1.

Thanks

Thels

I heard about it, and tried. Was quite surprised it worked. I then reloaded to before the encounter, and helped him kill some Gnolls, and did the Dynaheir quest.

Drizzt's items aren't intended as player drops, so I'm not planning to use them.

Loon

Thels said:

I heard about it, and tried. Was quite surprised it worked. I then reloaded to before the encounter, and helped him kill some Gnolls, and did the Dynaheir quest.

Drizzt's items aren't intended as player drops, so I'm not planning to use them.

Oh come on. If you can drop it, they were intended. It's your reward.

Kurona

Thels said:

Drizzt's items aren't intended as player drops, so I'm not planning to use them.

Actually, they are. In the original game, dual-wielding wasn't implemented yet, so Drizzt never used his weapons at all. He had a special, undroppable "Skull" as a weapon (like some monsters) which was much more powerful than his actual weapons. The sole point of his scimitars' existence were as loot.

Though in original BG1 Drizzt was significantly easier to defeat legitimately, and a properly built Fighter/Thief could drop him in a single round (backstab, invis potion, backstab).

Thels

+3 weapons with all kinds of extra buffs intended as regular loot? I doubt it... Especially considering one of the items is only usable by good characters, but to kill it, you got to kill Drizzt. That's far too meta.

Kurona

Look, it's simple.

- The weapons are not used whatsoever (original game only). If Drizzt were immortal, they would have no reason to exist at all.
- Several characters are completely invincible and/or trigger instant death if attacked (Tethoril, Scar, Duke Eltan...).
- Drizzt is not immortal.
- Other "not immortal" characters like Shandalar and Elminster auto-escape the area as soon as possible and it's impossible to kill them fast enough without serious cheese or outright cheating.
- Drizzt doesn't escape.
- Drizzt can be killed without cheese or cheating.
- Furthermore, the game tracks if you killed him or not to adjust the encounter in the sequel, if you import your save.

At this point, saying he wasn't intended to be beatable is a tad ridiculous don't you think? Obviously not every party or character can beat him but it's pretty obvious the devs knew it was possible.

Loon

@Kurona I think that you can also add a separate reputation drop (5) included

Francois

Celestial fury has a chance of doing some extra electric damage and can do some insane damage on a backstab. It's your best bet to insta-kill anyone on a backstab. I would also put at least one star in single-weapon style at some point, because it doubles your odds of critical hits.

Scimitars has more variety of weapons and the proficiency includes wakizashi and ninja-to. It allows you to also vary the type of damage (slashing vs piercing) depending on the enemies armor or damage immunities.