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Weapons in BG2

SacerdorSacerdor Member Posts: 16
edited November 2019 in Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition
So i tried to compare the weapon types you can get in the game and at which point you can get what kind of weapon and i'd like to ask you guys a couple of questions regarding your weapon preferences.

Axes
- Ok Damage
- Stonefire and Frostreaver are early avaliable +3 Weapons which can kill trolls and add extra elemental damage
- You are capped at +3 until ToB, problem with Kangaxx
- Axe of the Unyielding +3 has an additional AC Bonus and can be upgraded in ToB to +5

Bastard Swords
- Good Damage
- Lack of Variety
- Only takes off once you are able to clear Watchers Keep Level 1
- Foebane should work against Kangaxx, although it's only +3

Clubs
- Bad Base-Damage
- Not that hard to get Blackblood +3
- I remember Gnasher +2 once hat some issues that made it very strong like that poison dagger in original BG1
- Stuck with +3 Weapons, so no Kangaxx option
- Club of Detonation from Watchers Keep level 5 has nice additional Firedamage, can be upgraded to +5, but can cast fireballs at random on hit

Daggers
- Very Bad Base-Damage
- You can get a +4 weapon in the underdark or Watchers Keep Level 4
- Probably Daggerspec is mostly used for throwing daggers

Flails/Morningstars
- OK/Good Base Damage
- Flail of the Ages +3 is early accessible and a great weapon that kills trolls and has really high damage
- Lacks +4 Options until Lategame or ToB
- Flail of the Ages +5 makes you immune to haste, so you need to switch weapons before, or use GWW instead
- Defender of Easthaven is buyable pretty early and works as a great defensive offhand weapon

Halberds
- Good Base Damage
- Dragons Bane +3 is avaliable in act 2
- Wave +4 is craftable once you got out of the underdark, so just in time
- Ravager +4 can be improved to +6 and has high additional poison damage (saveroll) and 10% chance to kill (no saveroll)

Katanas
- Good Base Damage
- Celestial Fury is a great weapon with a great effect that you can get in act 2, but is heavily guarded
- But it's stuck at +3
- In ToB you can get upgrade Hindo's Doom to +4 for those fights where you need more than +3

Longswords
- Ok Base Damage
- There are so many of them avaliable in the game
- You can get Namarra +2 very early in the game which is a really good weapon for a long time
- You can buy Blade of Roses +3 quite early for enemies that require +3
- You can get Angurvadal +4 in Watcher's Keep Level 4 which can be upgraded to +5 in ToB
- Daystar +2 acts as +4 against evil creatures and doubles damage against undead

Maces
- OK Base-Damage
- Mace of Disruption +1 against Undeads, can be upgraded if you give keep the illithium ore from the sir sarles quest to +2, acts as +3/+5 damage weapon, so upgraded MoD should be able to damage Kangaxx
- Mauler's Arm +2 is early buyable and can help low-strength party members like Viconia
- Lacks Mid-Game improvements until you reach Watchers Keep Level 4
- Storm Star can be upgraded to +5 and looks quite good.

Quarterstaff
- Bad Base-Damage
- Big variety of Options avaliable, even early in the game
- Staffmaces have better Base-Damage
- Staff of Rynn +4 is buyable early on
- Staff of Striking for Backstabs or for difficult fights (charges)
- Staff of the Magi for your casters
- Staff of the Ram has crazy high damage (+4 in Watchers Keep Level 4, upgradeable to +6 in ToB)

Scimitars/...
- Ok Base-Damage
- 3 different weapon types, only 1 is suitable for druids
- offers a speed (offhand-)weapon with Belm +2 that you can get early on
- Spectral Brand +4 in Watchers Keep Level 3, upgradeable to +5 in ToB
- Scarlet Ninja-To can be used by Monks as a speed-offhand or by rogue-classes that have "use any item"

Short Swords
- Bad Base-Damage
- Offers Kundane +2, a speed (offhand-)weapon you can get in act 2
- You can buy Sword of the Mask +4 early on at Watchers Keep (upgradeable to +5 in ToB)

Spears
- Bad Base-Damage
- You can get a +2 version quite early and a +3 version in spellhold
- Impaler +3 has a great amount of additional damage
- You can buy Spear of Withering +4 in the Underdark or get Ixil's Nail +4 in Watchers Keep Level 5, which is upgradeable to +6 in ToB, which lets it get a great effect

Two Handed Swords
- Good Base-Damage
- You get Sword of Chaos +2 in the Start Dungeon
- You can get Lilarcor +3 really early in the game
- You can cheese Firkraag (takes some reloads) to get Carsomyr +5 about midway through the game
- Carsomyr is one of the best weapons with high damage and utility
- There is also a variant for evil Paladins in Watchers Keep
- Non-Paladins can buy Warblade +4 after they are back from the Underdark
- Silver Sword, Soul Reaver and Gram the Sword of Grief all have interesting effects

Warhammers
- Bad Base-Damage (but at least does crushing damage)
- Dwarven Thrower as ranged option
- Crom Faeyr is a strong weapon and always an option as offhand weapon, but it loses value on clerics and paladins and reduces the amount of strength boosting equipment you have

So my questions are:
What kind of weapons do you typically use ?
What weapon type to you take with Jaheira ?
Do you stick with axes for Korgan or do you EE-Keeper him to another weapon type ?
I never really played with Quarterstaffs but would like to use them in a playthrough. What would you recommend ? Use them with a Fighter/Thief Multiclass maincharacter, or maybe let Jaheira use Quarterstaffs ?

EDIT:

What's your opinion on 2 Handed Weapons vs. 2 Weapon Fighting ? 2 Weapons probably wins out when you use an extra attack offhand weapon. The more amount of attacks you can get without this, the better for a 2 Handed Weapon user. And the bigger Range is always a plus in close quarter combat.
Post edited by Sacerdor on

Comments

  • DaevelonDaevelon Member Posts: 610
    For longswords you forgot about Daystar, a great undead slayer easy to obtain in early game.
    About my kind of weapon, if paladin type i like 2 handed swords and bastard swords, otherwise longswords.
    2 weapon fighting is better, in my opinion, than 2 handed weapon style till you achieve to get gww hla. After that i think that 2 handed weapon style is better due to more damage, more critical and longer distance needed to attack.
  • velehalvelehal Member Posts: 299
    One type of weapon is missing: warhammers.
    Crom Fayer is decent weapon.
  • ilduderinoilduderino Member Posts: 773
    edited November 2019
    Halberds gives the ravager, possibly the best weapon of all

    I have only realised recently that quarterstaves are pretty good. A +3 is available very early in BG and BG2 and they upgrade well across BG2 until the staff of the ram (magi is good for mages). You won’t be fighting any npcs for the best ones either, as I can’t think of any fighter types that are set up to use them
  • SacerdorSacerdor Member Posts: 16
    Thank you for your feedback guys. I've edited most of it into the original post. Somehow i didn't include Warhammers and totally forgot about Defender of Easthaven, Scarlet Ninja-To and Ravager although i'm using the first two in my current playthrough.

    Stalker/Cleric sounds really interesting. I didn't know Ranger Kits were able to dualclass and i only played the archer kit so far and never really used Valygar. Well i used his body to get into the sphere on evil playthroughs and only invited him to get inside on my good playthroughs.

    I think i should also try to utilized halberds a little more. I always prefered dual wield weapons or Two Handed Swords and went over Halberds and Quarterstaffs a little too fast.
  • TheodreadTheodread Member Posts: 10
    I have made this top 10 for weapons in BG2:
    https://www.gamersdecide.com/articles/baldurs-gate-2-best-weapons

    I suggest that you first choose a weapon of you liking from this list, and then specialize in the corresponding weapon type. It's a pity to miss out on these.
  • wukewuke Member Posts: 113
    edited July 2021
    At least in EE, Daystar is even better than it looks because the "double" damage against undead is actually 2 additional 1d8+2 and 2 magical energy damage. Although it doesn't benefit from strength, proficiency etc, it bypasses physical resistances of Greater Mummies and Demiliches. As Greater Mummies have very good save vs death which means Mace of Disruption and Azuredge are not very effective, in the meantime Daystar provides very consistent damage against them.

    What kind of weapons do you typically use ?
    The gap between really good types and average ones are quite large. Every time as long as I started powergaming I found myself using the same stuff.
    If there's no paladin in the team I'd totally give up 2 handed weapons except for Ravager for Sarevok. If not for Carsomyr+5's 50% MR, dual wielding just outperforms 2 handed so much because of various bonus effects from one additional weapon. So Celestial Fury, Firetooth+3, Flail of Ages, Azuredge, Daystar, Crom Fayer, Defender of Easthaven, Belm and Kundane. Also K'logarath is an interesting one because it applies unconscious (actually sleep) and knock back at range. Not many enemies are immune to the latter. I remember it worked really well in battles like Watcher's Keep Final Seal.
    Wave+4 says it "Slays Efreet, Salamander, Fire Elemental". But just like Crom Fayer kills anything with the model of a smaller golem rather than just "stone golems, clay golems", Wave also kills anything looks exact the same in one hit. For example, that fire elemental prince in Yaga-Shura's Keep, and those blue salamanders in Abazigal's lair.
    Archer and Kensai are interesting cases. Archer can invest 1 point in daggers and axes, and 2 in slings. Kensai can use throwing daggers and throwing axes. So unless you want to drain strength with Called Shot, Firetooth+3 beats shortbows for an archer as long as they have high strength, and a Kensai is better off throwing stuff in the back rather than slicing enemies with katanas like their name suggests.

    What weapon type to you take with Jaheira ?
    Firetooth+3 is one of the best main-hand weapons in SOA. It has very high damage output and can be used by anyone but clerics. I usually give it to Jaheira and in 99% cases it outperforms slings. Blackblood is used only before I can buy the dagger and when an enemy have high piercing resistance.
    If you are like me and hate resting, Staff of Arundel for Jaheira is also a choice. Make sure you equip it and select the spells, after the rest, as soon as you use 1 lv5 and lv6 spell, deselect the spells from spellbook and switch to other weapons. It's only useful if you REALLY hate resting otherwise it's just not worth the money and effort.

    Quarterstaves:
    General quarterstaves are pretty bad so I don't think giving one to Jaheira is a good idea. However in a long time Staff of Striking is the best weapon for backstabbing and it's not expensive if you get the reputation and charisma discounts. I remember soloing F/T with them and they made half of SOA trivial. You can get 2 or 3 of them early and easily recharge them at shops.
    It's also worth investing if you want to dispel with Staff of the Magi.
  • DunskiDunski Member Posts: 17
    edited July 2021
    The best melee weapons for SoA are:

    Crom Faeyr
    Flail of Ages
    Celestial Fury
    Belm
    Kundane
    Carsomyr

    That takes accessibility into account. There are some very good weapons that you don't really get until the game is practically over, which is a big mark against them in my book.

    Warhammers are underrated. Aside from Crom Faeyr, which is probably the best weapon in the game, the Hammer of Thunderbolts is available as soon as you can get the key to the mind flayer hideout, which can be done almost as soon as the game begins. It's a 2d4 +3 warhammer that will hold you over just fine until you upgrade it to Crom. That's a great progression curve. While ordinary warhammers have a weak damdice, the fact that you can get a 2d4+3 one early in chapter 2 means it doesn't matter.

    Throwing daggers are lowkey overpowered as well. They get two attacks per round, even when used as melee weapons, and have a 2d4 base damage. You can get a +2 as soon as you're out of the starting dungeon (and have someone who can pick pockets), and later you get a +3 with some extra fire damage. On characters that can't reach 5 attacks per round unbuffed, this is actually the best "DPS" in the game due to the 2d4 and 2 inherent ApR. Very good for fighter/thieves in parties where Belm and Kundane are already spoken for. The ability to seamlessly switch to ranged attacks is very useful, too. If you can use Belm or Kundane, you can get even a swashbuckler to 4 ApR with this setup, which makes them seriously viable front-liners.

    Two-handed weapons need something special in order to compete with one-handers, simply because Belm/Kundane are so broken. There's a few good ones, but aside from Carsomyr, none are available early enough unless you do something ultra-cheesy to get the Staff of the Magi unrealistically early. And even that one has low damage and is mainly used for invis cheese, dispel on hit, and the fact that it strikes as +5 (but only actually has +1).
  • jmerryjmerry Member Posts: 3,882
    Dunski wrote: »
    Throwing daggers are lowkey overpowered as well. They get two attacks per round, even when used as melee weapons, and have a 2d4 base damage.
    Only the two magical (returning) throwing daggers have 2d4 base damage. Nonmagical throwing daggers, and the poisoned variety, only deal 1d4 damage and can't be used in melee.
  • BracchusBracchus Member Posts: 41
    edited July 2021
    Sacerdor wrote: »

    Daggers
    - Very Bad Base-Damage
    - You can get a +4 weapon in the underdark or Watchers Keep Level 4
    - Probably Daggerspec is mostly used for throwing daggers

    Flails/Morningstars
    - Flail of the Ages +5 makes you immune to haste, so you need to switch weapons before, or use GWW instead


    Just a couple notes on these 2: There is a way to have a little fun with daggers because you can get 5 APR on a single class thief by using Firetooth +3 (which does 2d4 instead of 1d4 damage) in melee mode and Belm in offhand. Assassin kit would probably benefit the most from this. With Assassination and IH up, both weapons will strike as backstabs at 10 APR. Automatically hitting as well if you use a time stop trap. I'd still pull out the staff for regular backstabs though. Pull out an alternate higher enchantment dagger or whatever else for those few occasions when +4 weapons are needed

    For the +5 FOA I highly recommend one of numerous mods out there that get rid of that pesky haste immunity if you're on PC.
  • DinoDinDinoDin Member Posts: 1,597
    Good analysis. One key point that it's missing is that damage type really does matter. And it's something players should strongly consider if they're playing a class where weapon pip investment is scarce. And the ranking for that is Crushing > Slashing > Piercing > Missile. Especially in BG2 and ToB this matters more than even their base die damage. Melee characters don't have to use crushing weapons as their first choice, but it really ought to be one of their top two weapons.

    Following on this point, quarterstaves are immensely good weapons. They're the best backstabbing weapons in the game. They tend to be the first weapons available of the next enchantment level throughout the series. And any character centered on backstabs should consider using them, whether the main, or Hexxat, or Valygar or Jan. They're also pretty solid backup melee weapons for characters that rely on two-handed swords. I often add quarterstaff proficiency to Dorn or Keldorn when I use them.
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