Heh, you got me there. Mind you... I wonder how many players these days still play the standard BG2 without installing mods that make life easier?

Make life eaiser Moonblade style or Ease-of-Use style?

Don't know about you, but I install mods to make things harder ;)

That's the spirit. Of course... not toooo hard. ;)

In reply to Alson, "Throwing Impaler" easier. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

And if it's Ease-of-Use style, is that "Stormlord's Heels" easy or "Improved Kitthix" easy?

I, personally, have no real problem with the Golden Girdle, as its component enchantments are so extremely complementary. (Unlike, say, the Gloves of the Master Thief conferring AC and Save bonuses.) I just make a point of pretending that it conflicts with magical armor.

there is a point in the game where most enemies can hit you regardless of your AC (especially in ToB) the extra damage from dual wielding is deadly there, as you can dish out more than you take, also if you plan on using missile weapons other than slings you can't use a shield (unless you drop it before using the bow/x-bow/dart/throwing dagger/throwing axe/etc) although you have the same problem from dual wielding, there are some nice weapons to use in the off hand, such as Crom Faer, and Belm (the extra attack is transferred to the primary weapon)

Yes, most of the ToB bosses have THAC0s so ridiculously low that AC is practically irrelevant (unless you whack 'em a few times with Soul Reaver, of course). But that's in ToB, and ShadowChild is still in SoA, and very early SoA at that. And that's only the Boss enemies--your run-of-the-mill bad guy will still be stopped cold by your Full Plate, except for the occasional Kensai or Archer (and the few folks who use Critical Strike on you).

Slings aren't the only ranged weapons that can be used with Shields--Darts and Throwing Axes/Daggers/Hammers are also all one-handed.

Hmmm...I always have two tanks, be they Minsc and my PC or Minsc and Keldorn or Mazzy and...you get the drift ;) I always have one character dual-wielding and the other using (in the case of Minsc and Keldorn) a two-handed sword or sword and shield (only Mazzy [img]tongue.gif[/img] ).
I usually play a ranger so she always dual-wields. I suggest katanas and scimitars if you're not adding any mods because hindo's doom and specral brand are very nice together ;)

must only apply to magical variants, as the ones with stacks have always flagged my game as misile weapons, regardless of how i set them (melee or missile), as an additional note in most of my games the only characters that actually use shields are priests

[ 04-06-2003, 11:55 AM: Message edited by: Morgeruat ]

i think you're getting confused with dual-wielding.
the only restriction to using a shield is having a hand free. so any missile weapons that only use 1 hand are fine to use with a shield.

dual wielding however, requires that NO missile weapons of ANY sort are equipped.

all the best missile weapons are 1-handed anyway, cause they all add strength bonuses to damage.