New Party - Weapon Proficiencies.

Thels

Hi there. It's been ages since I last even tried IWD, let alone IWD:EE, but I'm thinking about heading in. However, as I'm building my party, I'm stumped over the options for weapon proficiencies. I have the following party in mind:

Lawful Good Human Paladin-Cavalier
Neutral Good Elven Thief-Swashbuckler
Neutral Good Half-Elven Bard-Blade
Neutral Good Elven Ranger-Archer
Neutral Good Elven Cleric of Lathander
True Neutral Elven Totemic Druid

I want to support Dual Wielding on the Cavalier, Swashbuckler, Blade and Archer. Naturally, it's not going to be the Archer's primary focus, but it's easy to pick up, as he starts with 4 pips, can only place 2 pips in a ranged weapon, 1 pip in a melee weapon, and only needs 1 more pip to max out Dual Wielding. The Cleric and Druid obviously aren't going to be Dual Wielding.

Are there any good recommendations for weapon proficiencies that allow my characters to pick up some magic items relatively early in the game, and still have relevant items in the late game?

The Cavalier, Cleric and Druid get enough pips to max out additional weapons as they level up, so it's okay if they start with weapon type A, and then switch over to weapon type B midgame.

However, the Swashbuckler and Blade are going to take quite a while to max out their starting setup, and then probably want to expand into at least 1 Ranged weapon just in case. Likewise, the Archer is going to focus on maxing out that Longbow.

I'm thinking something along the following:

Cavalier:
- 1st level: 2x Long Swords, 2x Two Weapon Style
- 3rd level: 3rd Two Weapon Style
- 6th/9th level: 2x additional Melee weapon
- 12th/15th level: 2x additional Melee weapon

Swashbuckler:
- 1st level: 1x Short Swords, 1x Two Weapon Style
- 4th level: 2nd Two Weapon Style
- 8th level: 2nd Short Swords
- 12th level: 3rd Two Weapon Style
- 16th level: 1x Shortbows (or maybe earlier, depending)

Blade:
- 1st level: 1x Axes, 1x Two Weapon Style
- 4th/8th level: 2nd/3rd Two Weapon Style
- 12th level: 1x Crossbows (or maybe earlier, depending)
- 16th level: 1x additional Melee weapon

Archer:
- 1st level: 1x Long Swords, 2x Longbows, 3x Two Weapon Style
- 3rd/6th/9th level: 3rd/4th/5th Longbows
- 12th/15th level: 1x additional Melee weapons

Priest of Lathander:
- 1st level: 1x War Hammers, 1x Slings
- 4th/8th level: 1x additional weapons
- 12th level: Sword And Shield Style
- 16th level: 1x additional weapon

Totemic Druid:
- 1st level: 1x Scimitars, 1x Slings
- 4th/8th level: 1x additional weapons
- 12th level: Sword And Shield Style
- 16th level: 1x additional weapon

It's ok if the Archer doesn't have great melee options early on as the Cavalier takes the best Long Swords, but I'd like to have decent options for all the other characters, and also have decent options in the late game. Would the above setup work for that, or should I look into alternate weapon proficiencies? Are there even any reliable Katanas in the game?

Armanz92

The ee probably added 1 or 2 katanas, but I'd just ignore them.
Overall your choices are solid.
Long Swords are plenty and Paladin will need Long Sword proficiency for

The Pale Justice and then the long sword when you get back to easthaven

. both of the weapons in the spoilers are lategame items but until then you'll have enough good long swords to wield.

Focus on Short Swords on the Swash is solid, too. I'd add Daggers once you get the chance as well.

Axes for Blade are best choice imho since there's a good deal of solid Axes in the game, although they tend to be on the good but not awesome side.

Long swords good on the archer because he's an elf and because theres a lot of em but in the end it wont matter anyways since you will max out Bows and just kill everything in your path.

Hammers are solid but you might want to start with Flails since they're stronger (until lategame, when you get possibly access to an op hammer) and more plentiful.

Scimitars are best for sword and shield style but you will rely on the +2 scimitar from conlan for most of the basegame. Once you got a point in slings I'd give him a point in quarterstaff and/or spear and twohanded weapon style since there's a decent quarterstaff in the game and some nice spears later on.

Thels

@Armanz92 thanks for your input!

I'll be sure to pick up Flails on my Cleric, then. I guess it doesn't matter much, as I already planned on picking those up at level 4. I'll just pick up War Hammers at level 4 instead.

Twohanded Weapon Style for the Druid? Sure, sounds reasonable. Could even have him start with Quarterstaves and pick up Twohanded Weapon Styles from there, or is the Scimitar start better?

Would it make sense to go for some Twohanded Weapon Style for the Cleric?

And do you have any suggestions for the extra weapon proficiencies that the characters will gain over time?

Armanz92

yeah the flails + hammers combo is best since vale of shadows gets you either a hammer or a flail if i recall correctly.

scimitar start is better imho. you won't get a good quarterstaff early on but you can get lucky and get a scimitar in vale of shadows and even if you don't you can buy the lucky scimitar from conlan.

for cleric i'd go sword and shield or two weapons, overall i prefer two weapons to twohanded style in iwd but that might be personal preference. overall i feel that there's better 1 handed weapons (there's a couple of really strong twohanded ones but most of them depend on luck)

regarding extra proficiencies:

paladin: two handed sword, halberd, two handed weapon style are all solid choices. bastard swords are okay, too but i think bastard swords dont drop early on.
swashbuckler: i covered that, I'd go daggers
Blade: you can go flails (the ee version put flails and morning stars into one proficiency and now it's the best covered weapon along with long swords)
Archer: covered
Priest: after you got flails and hammers covered you can either go sword and shield style if you prefer him tankier. after that you could go clubs if you don't clubs on your druid. there's not a lot of them but after getting hammers and flails you don't have much more to pick on cleric since maces are garbage
Druid: if you at any point find a solid club, get him a club proficiency otherwise stay with the stuff i mentioned

Thels

@Armanz92 Thanks again!

I do prefer Dual Wielding over Two Handering myself as well, but only if I can place some pips into it. With only a single pip, it's -2 on the mainhand and -6 on the offhand, whereas a single pip in 2handers actually gives a decent boon. So with the Cleric and Druid I'll go either 1hander + shield or 2hander.

Overall you've given me lots of food for thought. Thanks a lot!

jsaving

A large proportion of enemies in IWD are slash-resistant undead, so I'd keep that in mind when choosing weapon proficiencies. Flails especially are a solid choice due to the large number of decent magical flails in the game.

Thels

Yeah, I'll be sure to pick up a bludgeoning proficiency on my Cavalier and Archer (once Longbows are maxed out), though my Thief and Bard will have to make do with their short swords and axes until way later into the game. They're not receiving enough pips to quickly max out two weapon style.