Weapons in BG2

Comments

• Daevelon Member Posts: 605

  November 2019

  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.

  4
• Humanoid_Taifun Member Posts: 1,055

  November 2019

  >Axes
  Besides the points that you make, I think it should be pointed out that Azuredge and the Axe of Unyielding are both great.
  
  >Clubs
  No endgame weapon? What about the Club of Detonation?
  By the way, I have often used the CD Tweaks option of making spells from scrolls and other items be cast at caster level, and I only relatively recently learned that "other items" includes this Club. A fighter/mage using it will produce fireballs that are fare more fearsome than a fighter will.
  
  >Flails/Morningstars
  Defender of Easthaven is one of the best defensive items in the game. Dualwielding FoA and DoE is quite popular. While you can get around the Free Action with weapon swapping, you can also just use Greater Whirlwind instead. This makes the weapon class great for paladins, rangers, ranger/clerics and fighter/clerics, who can not only use Armor of Faith, but also GWW.
  
  >Halberds
  I am actually always struggling to choose between Dragon's Breath and the Wave. But what do you mean, "Lacks further improvements"? What of the Ravager?
  
  >Katanas
  I find katana to lack a proper end game weapon. Hindo's Doom is +4 and does significantly less damage than for example the Club of Detonations. It is also inferior as a protective item than the Axe of Unyielding. It is a situational protective item that I almost never have use for because I do not really play solo.
  
  >Maces
  You know that you can upgrade the Mace of Disruption? It does not do a lot of damage (except against undead), but it is quite handy.
  
  >Quarterstaff
  Not like the Staff of the Magi's usefulness is limited to mages. But in the past years I have been refraining from abusing it.
  
  >Scimitars/...
  Offers another speed (offhand-) weapon for your rogues once they pass 3M XP.
  
  >What kind of weapons do you typically use ?
  It depends.
  Melee combinations I typically go for are:
  1. Axes + Hammers
  2. Flails
  3. Scimitars
  4. Halberds
  5. Two handed swords
  6. One handed straight swords (may be divided into long swords and bastard swords, depending on party, with one of the characters getting access to Kundane)
  
  >What weapon type to you take with Jaheira ?
  I usually have her learn dualwield and scimitars, but that is a long road, so she uses clubs first.
  >Do you stick with axes for Korgan or do you EE-Keeper him to another weapon type?
  Axes and hammers.
  >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 ?
  Stalker dualclassed to cleric.
  Backstab the living. Turn the undead. Preach to the undecided.
  
  >What's your opinion on 2 Handed Weapons vs. 2 Weapon Fighting ?
  It depends. Both styles are power-options. Sword and shield is mostly useless and one-handed is nice for support-type characters.
  Since a good secondary weapon improves the efficiency of the main weapon (or your defense), it generally does more than just increase the number of your attacks. So I think in a straight-forward set-up it will come out ahead.
  But reach can give you tactical options that keep your characters healthy and able to fight for longer, while Greater Whirlwind with a big scary weapon can make your 2 weapons shenanigans look like the petty tricks of a roadside acrobat performing for pennies.

  6
• velehal Member Posts: 299

  November 2019

  One type of weapon is missing: warhammers.
  Crom Fayer is decent weapon.

  0
• ilduderino Member Posts: 773

  November 2019 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

  3
• Sacerdor Member Posts: 16

  November 2019

  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.

  0
• Theodread Member Posts: 10

  June 2021

  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.

  1
• wuke Member Posts: 113

  July 2021 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.

  1
• Dunski Member Posts: 17

  July 2021 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).

  1
• jmerry Member Posts: 3,829

  July 2021

  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.

  0
• Bracchus Member Posts: 41

  July 2021 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.

  0
• DinoDin Member Posts: 1,570

  July 2021

  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.

  1