Jaheira weapon ambivalence
Kneller
Member Posts: 438
I keep flipping on the direction I want to go with Jah's weapons in BG2. It's always either weapon and shield or 2H weapon (I'm not interested in DW with her). I decided to keep her with my C/T, which creates some competition for weapons as they both want the same thing. Right now, my C/T has staves, slings, 2HF, and maces and jah has clubs**, dagger**, and scimitar** (SK'd). If I really want to, I can start building her towards 2h weapons (spears or staves, then 2h style) though the best weapon in this line (staff of the ram) is definitely going to my C/T. Still the Impaler is great when you get it, and Ixil's spike isn't terrible. Plus there are still a lot of great staves that my C/T wouldn't use (Woodlands, Thunder and Lightning, etc.)
Thematically, I really like her for staves/spears, but functionally, she's my main tank and the more AC the better (for combat casting). Any input to push me to one side of the fence or the other? Thanks!
Thematically, I really like her for staves/spears, but functionally, she's my main tank and the more AC the better (for combat casting). Any input to push me to one side of the fence or the other? Thanks!
1
Comments
FoA +5 - 22
SoR +6 - 22
Impaler - 19, 14 points at least.
Not bad for a weapon that you get before the underdark.
BBoD does 24 potentially.
she is a multi so can put only 2 pips in each weapon.
and sword and shield style is a joke, use the shield of reflection or the fortress one instead, in soa the ranged enemies are not a problem. so she really needs pips in 2h weapon style to double the chance to get crits. a lot of pips left.
she can use a shield and firetooth, that having the damage roll of a bastard sword, elemental damage, +3 enchantment and +1 apr is superior to both blackblood and belm. before she gets it your charname can steal for her the other returning dagger right at the beginning, and afaik it does not break the limited wish quest.
and as you have 2 pips dagger and at least 1 in 2h sword style you can begin to invest in spear pips so she has 2 when you find the impaler.
make her flexible, she can tank better with firetooth and shield or she can do more damage with impaler according to the situation, and she can do also a awesome ranged work when needed.
having as main weapon a weapon that can be used mlee or ranged is a great plus as at the beginning the pips arrive really slow as she is a multi. minsk can be the dps dealer of the party, nothing wrong, but as he is strong jaheira benefits more than each other of a str enhancing item, the belt you can buy from ribald or the ogre gloves.
minsk is set with his str until you find more str enhancing items, charname should have good natural str i guess and can boost it with spells. my jaheira has in EVERY run i take her with me at least 19 STR. this make her more effective than choosing a weapon type instead of an other (unless she dw a returning dagger and belm, thing that gives her 5 apr very early, but it is a route you don't want to follow...).
yep, blackblood suits jaheira well, still as main hand weapon the returning daggers are usually better as they deal same damage but give +1 apr.
blackblood 1D6 +3, +3 acid damage= 6.5+ 3 acid on average
firetooth dagger 2d4 +3, 1d2 fire damage= 8 + 1.5 fire on average, the one you can get in chap 2 misses the fire damage, but there is no way jaheira can max her apr at that stage of the game without using 2 apr weapons so in the end the dagger is the most effective way to go, if some other party member does not need it.
blackblood is a very good weapon, the best club in the game if you don't like to have random fireballs, is my usual choice for jaheira in the original game where firetooth does not get str bonus and can not be DW, and spectral brand is really useful for the few enemies immune to +3 weapons.
ranged she has high apr with dart, but little damage/shot, with a returning dagger or a sling (enchanted bullets) she hits for high damage even if with less apr, with the sling she can have also a super thac0 if enchanted sling and bullets are sued as their thac0 bonuses stack.
mlee she can be a second line with staves or impaler, she can also be first liner with shield if ac is needed, dw if high apr and output is needed, and she has ironskins to tank. with few other npcs is easy to get 5 apr mlee quite early like it is with her, but this does not cause any problem any time you want to use her in a different way.
and her casting is quite useful, the insect spells, the summons and some good utility spells.
imo her role in the party is not to be set in stone, can change for each battle and change as the single battle evolves. ie she can start far from the enemy at the beginning to use her insect spells to neutralize the mages and summon, then she can go dw protected by the skin to deal the maximum damage and then she can equip a shield to tank better cause at that point if there are still enemies alive your tanks will be quite low health and in need of someone that relieves them from the task. this is only one of the many possible examples of how her flexibility can be used to make her one of the most useful npcs.
It used to but I think it has been fixed.
The best weapons early on for Jaheira in Athkatla are probably daggers and staves. I would say spears too (there are a couple of decent ones hidden away) but she usually doesn’t have points in these at lower levels.
When you reach a point in the game where APR start to become crucial, you will also reach the point where you get HLA's and with GWW anyone have the same APR not matter the weapon, so 1-handed, 2-handed or dualwield doesn't matter so much in the long term. I used to be obsessed with maximizing APR on all chars, but nowadays it doesn't bother me as much anymore.