Sword and Shield/Legacy of Bhaal

gmazca

Hello all,

I am coming back to Baldur's Gate after a long hiatus and was surprised to find the new difficulty mode, Legacy of Bhaal. I want to try out a Cavalier with proficiency in Bastard Swords (wanted a break from a Holy Avenger paladin). I was wondering if it would be wise to put points into Sword and Shield style.

Back in the day, Sword and Shield style was considered a waste, but with the increased difficulty and sheer devastation missiles will inevitably unleash on my party, is it a wise move now? Is it worth giving up dual-wielding for improved AC (shield) + AC vs. missiles (sword and shield style)?

alceryes

I've heard that ToB mode increases enemy THAC0 too ridiculously to make the +2/+4 matter much. Also, most creatures want to reach out and 'touch' you. Once they're in melee it doesn't help at all.

Personally, I think the +2/+4 AC against missile weapons only is a waste, but if you have a party where you're splitting the tank and DPS role (so many, myself included, combine those into one PC), than a large-shield wielding, sword and shield style PC makes perfect sense. Unfortunately, BG AI tells the baddies to 'attack the one dealing the damage'. So even if your tank gets the initial aggro the baddies will switch to attacking your dual-wielding zerk (or whatever) once he starts wailing on them.
That's the main reason why I think S&S style needs a boost. How about we keep the second tier's +4 AC vs. missile but also add a +1 to all damage dealt with single-handed melee weapons (perfection in shield use has enabled the PC to put more weight behind his swings or perform a shield bash) or a -1 (minimum of 1) to all physical damage taken (due to the characters skillful ability to put his shield between him and incoming attack). I don't think the +1/-1 is too OP and it would make S&S style an attractive option in my opinion.

gmazca

Good points. I suppose the THAC0 increase is so drastic that it makes s&s style pointless...again lol. I guess I will put a few pips into two-weapon fighting to dual wield Foebane and Purifier at the end of the saga. Until I get out of BG1 though, I will probably rock the shield, but without the accompanying style.

Thanks for the advice!

alceryes

NP.
If you can get 2 pips in two-weapon fighting then you may as well dual-wield as soon as possible. Your off-hand will hit every once in a while, even if just on natural 20's, and there'd be no negative to your primary hand.

karnor00

I've found that having good armour still makes a difference for a lot of stuff. My main tank has about AC -10 with a further -3 to -4 to each of the weapon types meaning an effective -14 AC.

A lot of stuff only hits me on a 20. The harder stuff hits on about 18, so a small debuff on them or buff on me really helps. The very hardest stuff will wreck me tho.

As for the AI, actually most things tend to hit the closest enemy. So mostly it's a matter of planning round that. For a while I had a dual wielding fighter/thief but the tiny range of short swords meant she was getting aggro a lot. I've switched her to quarterstaffs and she now hardly ever gets aggro.

alceryes

karnor00 said:

As for the AI, actually most things tend to hit the closest enemy. So mostly it's a matter of planning round that. For a while I had a dual wielding fighter/thief but the tiny range of short swords meant she was getting aggro a lot. I've switched her to quarterstaffs and she now hardly ever gets aggro.

Weird. Here's what I regularly see when I have a tank and ranged DPS. Sometimes the synergy between the tank's attacks and the archer's attacks are so perfectly timed that the enemy is dead before it gets to attack -
Archer gets first hit. Enemy aggro's on archer.
Tank meets up with enemy and hits. Aggro changes to tank.
Archer immediately follows this and hits the enemy, changing aggro again. Enemy tries to go around tank to get to archer.
Tank gets free hit as enemy tries to reach archer. Archer gets another hit and drops enemy just outside of melee range.

I'm pretty sure that a full two rounds goes by here, and the enemy hasn't even attacked. This doesn't happen often but it does happen regularly and is a beautiful sight to behold when it does. Also, this is with enemies that take a few hits to kill. Obviously, the one-shot kills get taken out by the archer or other missile users at a distance before they even get close. I'm using UB and NPC Project mods but I don't think they change enemy behavior. I'm not using SCS.

gmazca

Getting further into Legacy of Bhaal. It seems like Xan, as an Enchanter, is useless. The main appeal of Enchanters is CC spells and nearly all enemies have saving throws increased to the point of making those spells useless. Sleep has not worked on a single enemy thus far. How is an Enchanter supposed to be viable? I don't know if this will get any better with increased level...

I tested an Enchanter in Candlekeep and sleep did not work on either assassin no matter how many times I reloaded. I mean, as an Enchanter the enemy gets -2 penalty to saves vs my sleep spell and it still doesn't work...man...

JuliusBorisov

Sleep doesn't work on enemies in the LoB mode at all, as they have higher levels.

An enchanter, though, will be very effective later, with Slow and Confusion/Chaos excellent for this mode. If anything, crowd control spells are more (not less) important in the LoB mode.

gmazca

@JuliusBorisov After that early annoyance I did more research on LoB mode and the sleep spell. I should have realized that due to all the HP increases, the sleep spell would not work on creatures with anything more than 5 hit dice. Oops.

It's good to hear that later on Xan and my Enchanter in my other play-through will be more viable. Just have to utilize Blind and other such spells until then.