Elf Fighter/Thief - Duel wield or Single weapon?
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- Elf Fighter/Thief - Duel wield or Single weapon?66 votes
- Duel wield (two swords are better than one!)51.52%
- Single weapon style (crit bonus for backstabs + extra AC)48.48%
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EDIT: As I said though, it's fine for BGEE but begins to lag behind a lot in BG2.
I'd second @FinneousPJ that dual-wield is quite a bit better once BG2:EE rolls around. Getting access to Kundane or Belm does tip the balance.
At level 1, pick your favourite weapon (e.g. longsword). Spend two pips on that weapon, and then a further two pips in DW. Later, at level 3, you could spend 1 pip on SWS. You now have both styles and an awesome weapon type! At levels 6 and 9, spend your pips on a new weapon for use in BG2 (e.g. katana). Thus, by level 9 - very early in BG2 - you would be specialized in two weapons and have both weapon styles.
If you use this approach, I wouldn't recommend putting more than 2 pips in DW or 1 pip in SWS, due to diminishing returns.
Second pip into SW style would be a waste though.
Dual wield reigns supreme in SoA, although in ToB once you have enough GWWs to last through a couple of fights, the advantages are diminished, and certain 2h weapons become superior.
My point is, you can eventually have both if want.
And you shouldn't be dual wielding in BG1 even if you put both L3 and L6 points into it anyway. You really need all 3 pips to be effective, especially early on - when your thac0 is bad to begin with, you can't afford to have penalty on your main hand. So that would mostly be investment into the future - for earlier dual-wielding in BG2.
For anyone who might say that putting points into multiple weapon styles is a waste, I say that since as MC fighter you can only specialize in specific weapons, you'll have plenty of proficiency points to go around if you continue into BG2.
12 total to be exact, which is enough for 3 pips into dual wield, 8 to specialize in 4 different weapons, and 1 more into whatever. Which might as well be SWS, unless you're into that whole "backstabbing with a staff" or "using paladin uber-weapons as a thief" thing, in which case it'd obviously better be two-handed weapon style.
I typically choose GWW for 2-hander specialists, but Critical Strike can be more effective for dual-wielders. If you use a speed weapon in your offhand it's possible to have 9-10 APR on your CHARNAME or several NPCs with Improved Haste active. At this point ensuring that every hit is a natural 20 outweighs additional attacks.
The first two pips reduce your penalties to -0/-4. So even with two pips, your primary attack is unaffected and you get a free offhand attack at -4. The third pip only reduces the offhand penalty -2, which in my mind is not a huge benefit. You only get 1 attack with the off-hand. That said, DW is great even at level 1. It's basically a free attack in place of a shield.
I don't think your THAC0 will be horrible at early levels. If you're a fighter with high exceptional strength and level 3+, the offhand penalty is pretty much negligible. To further improve THAC0, there's also other spells (Draw Upon Holy Might) and equipment accessories (Gauntlets of Weapon Skill/Specialization).
A Fighter/Thief could be using Foebane+5 mainhand and Scarlet Ninja-To offhand by the end of ToB.
* 2hd style for double crit chance for when you open with a SoS/SotR BS
*** two weapon for everything else.
(you're going to have to go into the inventory either way, so might as well go for the big guns).
Single weapon really has no purpose, since the best BS weapons in both games are staffs (and you can buy a Staff +3 at the beginning of the game if you really want to).
Yeah, you're right about DW penalties of course, the main hand only has penalty with 1 pip and so off-hand attack is essentially free after 2 pips. That was a brain fart on my part.
I still think -4 penalty is no small thing though, so even if it's "free" it's not really doing much. From my experience, even Kensai routinely misses main hand attacks early in BG2 (and that's with a +3 kit bonus on top of grandmastery bonus, none of which F/T gets), let alone off-hand with a penalty... in BG1.
But hey, at least the animation looks awesome, even if the actual accomplishments behind it aren't that impressive
That and considering how good ranged is at low levels and the added nuisance of manually switching between ranged weapon and two weapons (which is my biggest disappointment with these so called "enhanced" editions, that they couldn't even be bothered to add a more reasonable weapon swap like in IWD2, although that's off-topic) makes me not so fond of early dual wielding.
With that said, there's definitely nothing wrong with investing in it early if you plan to use it a lot in BG2.
Mind you, that above analysis assumes you only have one main hand attack (and aptly demonstrates why DW is so good for non-fighters who can get it). Extra attacks does help SWS a bit, but a Fighter's rapidly improving THAC0 helps DW even more. A 7th level Fighter with specialization ekes a ~10% chance for an extra "hit" out of SWS, but by that point likely has a much better chance of hitting with the offhand while dual-wielding.
That all says nothing for convenience, though. On my last run through BGEE, I played a Blade and spent most of the game using a long bow, because I could get much better results out of firing Acid Arrows with the Long Bow of Marksmanship than any melee style, and when I had to switch to melee I didn't always take the time to put something in the off-hand. On the other hand, once I got the Tome of Strength and Stoneskin, I started using melee more as a primary tactic and put dual-wielding to use.
As others have pointed out, there's nothing stopping you from having SWS and DW for backstabbing and general combat, respectively, but an extra 5% critical chance may not be worth the inconvenience of having to go into your inventory before and after every backstab.