(Non top tier) favorite weapons
Lammas
Member Posts: 228
So, we all know about the power of off-hand Belm and how FoA or Foebane is really good or Staff of the Magi gamebreaking etc.
But what are the unsung weapons that you prefer? Any favorites or preferences? Any gear that tends to fly under the radar even though it's really good?
I'm putting one from BG1EE and BG2 for now.
BG1 I like the Stupefier and I think people are giving it way too much crap for being what it is now instead of being the completely broken mess it originally was. Fun fact, when I first installed EE I immediately made a guy with mace proficiency since knew about the weapon but I didn't know it was nerfed and I wanted to absolutely break the game with it. That didn't happen but it's still very, very good for BG1.
BG2 got to hand it to Short sword of the Mask. While it's technically a TOB weapon the non-upgraded version can be got very early BG2 and fact that it's an early pick +4 weapon with an additional effect. Entangle isn't very strong but it does indirectly cause damage whenever a roll that would miss ends up hitting because of its effect. If it's a melee only enemy it also means no one is getting harassed by them for 4 rounds if you move yourself a bit further. I'm surprised how rarely I see anyone mention this beautiful little thing.
I've yet to test the buffed Pixie Prick but I'd imagine it's going to be one of my BG2 favorites now as well. Trying that out soon.
8
Comments
I also like Hallowed Redeemer - great weapon for veteran paladin with unique thorn-type effect.
I like the idea that my Paladin tries to Redeem Sarevok's blade. Actually, I'd like to think that if BG2 were released at this point in time; there'd be a quest for paladins to cleanse Sarevok's blade for paladins.
I'm also partial to the Dragonslayer Longsword from BG2. I've played with a cavalier for the longest time, and I just love dragons. So, ya, makes sense.
What is cooler than wielding a katana?
- Wielding a dark red katana...
It can be especially useful for Mazzy with her pips in short sword, as you obtain the sword in the Umar Hills just before you go to rescue her, so she can make use of it alongside her innate buff spells to become a melee god if desired.
bolts of polymorphing - especially if you can find these gems before chapter 5, the loltastic battles you can have making seemingly hard enemies turn into squirrels, absolutely priceless
arrows of biting - back in the days before i did gold piece runs i used to use these arrows quite a bit actually, the amount of damage these things can do to an enemy when you have someone with 3 APR ( or 4 with haste ) wowzers is it good, now i don't know if this arrow has been called "top tier" but it used to be one of my favs
for BG2:
the sword of chaos - being as cliché and simple as it may, i still love this item, it reminds me of the earlier days of first playing bg2 and finding such an amazing weapon in the first dungeon. This weapon ( wow is that the first EVER i have ever used a period in this forum? madness..... ) just goes to show that SoA isn't messing around and if something this great ( at least compared to bg1 standards are concerned ) in the first dungeon, just imagine what you will find out in the SoA world
blade of the north - or at least i believe this is what it is called ( the +2 two handed sword in the asylum dungeon ) again i remember back in the day when i made my first barbarian that actually hit over 1 million XP ( hit that threshold in the sahuagin city ) i was using the sword of chaos all through the asylum dungeon ( because at the time that was the best two hander i could find ) and low and behold this weapon pops up, and i was so excited for how cool it was; +10% MR and deals extra damage to eviiiiil....? i would even go as far as to say sexellent ( ah the days when i was young, good times ) now adays unfortunately that sword never sees the light of day and as soon as i pick it up it goes into a bag of holding and sits there, waiting to be sold back to dedrie or whatever her named is spelled, its too bad really, if it was +3 i would give it way more lovin', but even though lilarcor or whatever that sword is called, that thing is hard to pass up
here are some top tier weapons i used to love but never use anymore:
warblade +4
ah, such a beautiful weapon, if there ever was a weapon in bg2 that could describe me, this would be the one, dealing an outlandish damage of 1d12+4 ( instead of 1d10 ) this thing really stings when it connects, but there is a problem with this weapon, it has to compete with 2 other weapons; carsomyr or the silver sword, so naturally if im a fighter/thief or pally, there is no contest;carsomyr it is, but for everyone else, the silver sword is just SOOOOOOOO good, that 25% chance to make an enemy save vs death ( at a penalty which means ANY baddie can fail ) is actually quite monstrous, because a dead enemy is a ...... well, dead enemy, even though warblade deals more damage on average, dealing damage dont mean squat if a silver sword can just end it in one blow
halberd: wave
ah, had many a play through using this weapon ( usually just to keep things fresh or strictly for spite ) but over the years i keep reminding myself why i NEVER use this item, its both a blessing and a curse and that is; 15% chance to deal an extra 15 cold damage, now this sounds great, but what is not great is that many a time i chunk enemies into frozen pebbles and all their sweet gear goes with it ( this even happened to me when i fought firkraag with it and froze him to dead just to not get the holy avenger, ah irony at its finest ) now rumor has it that if you turn "gore" off it will fix this problem, but i like my bacon bits on me perogies ( and plus if i recall somewhat recently this still didn't fix the issue anyway ) so still a cool weapon, but its an easy pass for me, if i want halberds im going to wait for the ravager, absolute beast of a weapon
Are the Bala's Axe and the Wizard Slayer's spell failure penalty cumulative?
I also like Usuno's blade +4. Can be acquired very early (too early really), has a great enchantment level, a cool added affect but is essentially the less cool Celestial Fury. It's rare I see people talk about this wakisashi, and even rarer I hear ppl say they use it (other than perhaps as a transition weapon before getting something better), but I like it alot. Not rarely I use it on melee Blade's/swashies since it's in a weapon category that offers such excellent choices of weapons but that many other characters also (can) use and starting up BG2 it's an easy find. Coupled with an APR-weapon in the offhand, it's a really good choice. CF is ofc better with it's stun effect, but sometimes it's just cooler to pick a weapon you like and stick with it! Like an old swordmaster who becomes one with their sword.
In BG2 there's plenty of really cool bows which I rarely end up using, but like from a thematically POV
* Ripper: Cool name, found early, decent damage
* Strong arm: Cool name, found early, good damage
* Heartseeker: Cool name and with a pretty cool ability as well
* Mana bow: not as cool as the above, since no damage, but looks epic and have an added buff.
Agreed. I always gave it to Valygar, since magic is icky.
then make sure valagar is wearing his default armor and give him the belt of interior barrier and watch those magic missiles/skull traps and horrid wiltings do 1 damage to him, snice
if EE does not change it his domination spell has no saves and really few enemies are immune to it, often overlooked can be a game changer in some of the toughest battles up to the last tob one.
they do the same damage of bastard swords and get the str bonus, and they are also good +1apr ranged weapons that need no ammo so the other party members can use freely the enchanted ammo without too much fear of depleting them. as ranged weapons they can be used with a shield in the oh hand so the 2 welders of them can easily suck all the damage of the ranged enemies if one uses the shiled that raflects bullets and the other stacks fortress shield and other items bonuses to reach a super low ac against ranged. proper placement of the party can easily make the ranged enemies focus on them.
a hasted party, with spells and/or boots, can deal a ton of ranged damage to fighters that try to reach them being far too slow to do it, they can win just like this or at a certain point, when the enemy is properly softened, the party can switch to mlee and end the work with their improved apr.
as only 2 party members will use the throwing daggers the other ones can still use the most powerful weapons we all know, this works better if crom is not created so all the party can benefit of str enhancing weapons. the returning daggers in combination with oh +1 weapons give 4 apr, level and specialization before any level and specialization bonus, so for every toon with some fighter in is very easy to reach the cap of 5 apr quite early in soa, and as IH is learned by mages they will hit at a gww rate for a long time compared to the 1 round duration of the hla.
imho in the original game the returning ranged weapons was better balanced as adzuredge and firetooth did not get str bonus while the boomerang dagger, that had 1 less level of enchantment, and the other axe did. and it was not possible to use in mlee returning weapons while dw.
in EE no returning axe gets str bonus and the daggers are just too powerful, not only in themselves but considering the whole party power.
The Spear of the unicorn in the troll mound. +2 weapon with immunity to charm and hold with a plus three save against death. Not bad especially for a weapon class that gets so little love in this game until the end.
Stonefire in the copper coronet after freeing Hendak. A great little axe that works fantastic for murdering trolls right off the bat. Very cheap with a +3 to hit and damage with the +2 fire damage.
Ilbratha is great as well. I simply put it in a spare slot. The ability to cast mirror image on your main tank is awesome for utility.
but @sarevok57 the crazy damage you got from it was due to your toon being a dwarf kensai, probably with really high str, with the returning daggers he would have been as much effective.
other weapons that are overlooked by some are the slings, we have one that gets the str bonus using normal bullets, useful to hit minor foe, one with its own enchanted ones that hits as +5, useful to hit enemies that need high enchanted weapons like some golems and liches-demiliches, one that allow you to create some +4 bullets/day and few good others like the arvoreen one. every sling gets the str bonus if an enchanted bullet is used, they stack the bullet and launcher thac0 and damage bonus. their minus is the 1 base apr, but a fighter type can boost it and as he reaches hla a gww with sling + str enhancer is devastating. for toons that are not fighters the huge thac0 bonus got stacking sling and bullet enchantment and the str bonus can make them really worth as well. a nalia with her bow often misses against the foe that matters, so her 3 apr with tugian is pretty much theoretical, give her a good sling and enchanted bullets, let her cast on herself the cheap and long lasting spell that set her str to 18.50 and suddenly she hits much more often and when she does she does for some real damage. and if she drinks a haste potion or uses the haste spell on herself (and the summoned helpers) her apr is doubled, thing that is not true with less damaging weapons with better apr, she needs a much more costly improved haste to double her damage output with bow. aerie, that can easily bring her str at 25 and haste herself shines with a good sling and good bullets, at high level she can hit 2 times with 29 dmg/hit and -14 thac0 if upgraded erinne sling and +4 bullets are used, not the output of an archer or kensai, but those near to 60 dmg/round hitting often foe like demogorgon, done really fast so she has plenty of time to also cast her spell/round from a safe position, can be a plus in many tough high level battles.
After giving Mazzy slings once and letting her go to town on enemies with GWW, I've since, at times, edited her in Keeper for slings instead of shortbows for starting proficiences. Man, she's a rock-slinging tornado of death with slings! Even without the latter cheating, keeping her on ranged with a sling as alternate from bows is still a very valid route to down with her pips if you keep her for the long term.
@Raduziel They are cumulative, yes. The spell itself is cumulative as well. As far as I can tell ALL effects that apply a percent chance of spell failure are cumulative with both themselves and each other because they all use the same opcode, which just so happens to work cumulatively.
There is a caveat though: Sometimes various spells and effects can have the effect of removing specific other effects. It is possible that some specific spells will remove the effects of previous applications of spell failure effects. I did not look into this possibility, but I know it exists. I think it somewhat improbable that this applies to anything in the base games though.
I never knew this! Not exactly the kind of information gems I was originally intending for but gems of information nontheless.
Throwing axes, throwing daggers, and slings do receive strength damage bonus. They do not receive the strength to hit bonus, and receive a dexterity-based missile adjustment which is the same as all missile weapons.
Back before Poison Weapon was nerfed (back when it dealt 12 extra damage over 1 round per hit with no save and could be applied multiple times per round), I did a BG2 playthrough using an Assassin/Mage. Poisoned Throwing Daggers (and other poison missiles) were great because their poison damage stacked with the poison damage from Poison Weapon.