i'm thinking...well i am going to solo a barbarian, i have a few questions. 1) i want to have both 2-handed and sword/shield fighting styles down, wondering what weapons to be proficient in, also, some quests incur a necessity to open locked doors, how would i get around this...also, monsters that are immune to magical/normal weapons...what do i do (before the cloak of the stars, where i can get some +5 darts...i.e. mel'fs meteors)

so what items would be most beneficial, because i've been doing the arcane caster and monk thing for long enough that i'm not even item-dependant anymore. (i think i'm going to hear celestial fury)

for a pretty relayable weapon profiency, the game has plenty of long swords. thats a good one to place a slot into. you can get a +3 2handed sword early in the game(Lilarcor), as well as, you got it, celestial fury. you can get a +3 spear before underdark too, so choose by the way youre gonna play. i once with a party of my own simulated wulfgar. named him Gargath though, since wulfgar exists in the game. i gave him two * in war hammer and the same in single weapon fighting.

you can obtain a +2 halberd in the adventurer's mart...dont know where the more powerful ones are

also axes seem nice, because you can slash and throw them (there's a nice one in nalia's keep)...but i've only seen +2's lying around, so i'd need directions to the more powerful axes as well

celestial fury is pretty obtainable, if you're willing to spend about an hour fighting the same battle and hoping you save enough times to live...but i dont think it's as nice as the crom fayr...though to get that you have to slay the shadow dragon IMHO a pain in the ass, this would make some sort of a vorpal hit necessary..though the actual vorpal blade is obtainable only in the fish-people mephit quiz place thing. A +2 and +lightning hammer is available at the adventurer's mart.

The most powerful 2-handed sword is not open to this class, since it is not a paladin subkit. long swords are prominent, though once again anything over a +3 is rare

shortsword would be nice for the free action on arbane's, but there is a ring of free action...

what other items would give me useful resists, like making my saving throws better, giving me immunity to mind spells, etc. ?

Well if you make the Crom Faeyr you get 25str which allows you to open doors a majority ot the time. Save that get belts and gauntlets that increase str. I'm not sure what the rules on mage scrolls are. With a high enough intelligence you may be able to use them, once, giving you acess to knock. although usually if you MUST open a door theres and item that will open it.

If soloing a melee class, allow me to offer some help.

Don't play human unless you plan to dual class. As a Barbarian, you can't. So no worries. A Half Orc looks promising, but, there are two races you should look at.

Halflings. Magic resistant, awesome saving throws, good dexterity. Hardy little buggers. At mid levels, it seems as though almost all forms of spells stops effecting them.

Dwarves. 19 Con, great saving throws, tougher then a two dollar steak. Can also get higher strength then Halflings, but, this is not a big deal. With Crom, your strength will hit 25 anyways. Also highly recommended would be a Dwarven Fighter/Cleric. The Dwarven Thrower looks fun [img]smile.gif[/img]

As for weapons, there are two really good +3 axes. Stonefire and Frostreaver. Flail of Ages teamed with any of the axes makes for excellent mage killing. (And dragons for that matter... Stoneskin my butt) Improved Mace of Disruption will make short work of vampires and offer level drain protection. (Good for fighting the Shadow Dragon)

Daggers. Don't laugh, there are some good easily gained daggers. Pixie Prick, Stilleto of DeMarchess, Boneblade, and don't forget Firetooth.

Longswords. Well, out of all of them, the one I like the most is Daystar. Amazingly powerful, it's like carrying a portable nuke to take care of undead. And it is really easy to get. Get a Protection from Undead scroll. Smash Lich. Grab sword. Also, Daystar is good for fighting another Lich, you can vaporize him if you have good timing skills.

<font color="gold">*Preparing for many questions*
Here we go. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

After what you want, I suggest getting proficiencies somewhat like this:
** Two-Handed Sword
** Axe
* Two-Handed Weapon Style
* Sword and Shield Style
Two-Handed Sword... Early Lilarcor, many other good (especially if you have ToB)
Axe... Many good Axes out there, and can be used as both melee and ranged

Bashing. ;) Simply equip your weapon, click it once on the quickbar, and attack the item ou want open. ;)

Well, there are many powerful weapons which can be used. The Ring of the Ram is also useful.

Ok... Using the profs I mentioned, this could be some of your ultimate equipment:
Gram the Sword of Grief (if ToB)
Silver Sword
K'logarath
Azuredge
Crimson Chain
Sentinel +4
Boots of Speed
Cloak of Mirroring
Ring of Gaxx
Ring of the Ram

Got any specific you want to know?
Powerful (early) Halberds are: Duskblade +2 (Nalia's Keep), Harmonium Halberd (Deidre the Bonus Merchant), Dragon's Bane (Firkraag's Lair)
Powerful (early) Axes are: Frostreaver +3 (Nalia's Keep), Stonefire +3 (Bernard), Rifthome +3 (loot from Arkanis), Azuredge (Bernard)

You could use Ring of Free Action, Belt of Inertial Barrier, Lilarcor, Helm of Charm Protection.... In other words, there are many powerful items in BG2. ;) </font>

Flails and Warhammers. Not feeling well now, so can't think/read/type properly. I'll leave it to Alson and/or Jim to explain why these weapon types.

LOL! :D
So i'm your apprentice now, huh? I'm so proud! [img]graemlins/blush.gif[/img] [img]tongue.gif[/img]
Quick recovery. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Oh well... So i'll do the dirty work...

I'm hoping that the oh-so-vigilant-one, Mr. Slaytern ( [img]tongue.gif[/img] ) will forgive me, and grant me his remission for this despicable crime i'm about to commit, but i'm going to skip Warhammers. Flails would be today's topic. [img]smile.gif[/img]

As usual, we're aiming for dual wielding - which leads to the most powerful combos.

The Flail of Ages
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Since there will be no one to take the hits for you, you want something that can lower the opponent attack rate so you'll get hit less often.
Since you'll have (almost) no means of dealing with Mages, you'll want something with elemental damage so you can hit Stoneskinned mages and disrupt thier spell casting.
All in all - you'll want the Flail of Ages. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Really, Ages is amazingly powerful. The slowing effect *does not* allow a save, *ignores* Magic Resistanc, and is *cumulative*. Since dangerous enemies tend to have outrageous saves and high Magic Resistance, this is incredibly important. Almost cheesy, IMO.
This is so powerful because of the Infinity Engine's weird interpretation of slowing - it halves most of the target's stats - regeneration, ApR rate, movment rate, and gives a +4 penalty to AC and THAC0. :eek:
And it goes on! If you slow someone, his "personal initiative round" resets - which, in general, means that if you slow him enough times in a round, he is literally paralyzed! Thus, Age's slowing is a bit similar to Fury's stunning... But Ages deals elemental damage, too!

Rant, rant... [img]smile.gif[/img]

The Defender of Easthaven
------------------------
Since your Barbarian is going to be the one taking the punch, you'll need to find a way to deal with melee opponents. Ages' slow will help, but it won't save your skin. You can't wear Full Plate Armors - which happens to be the best armors. ;) However, your natural physical resistance is just as good, if not better.

The Defender of Easthaven is the only weapon which grants physical resistance - and its +20% will supplement your natural resistance quite nicely, eventually adding up to a whooping 40% physical resistance!

Now, add a specific ToB HLA to that... ;)

If that's not enough to plug The Defender - it also grant you +1 bonus to AC - to insure that the resistance isn't your only boon. Convinced? [img]tongue.gif[/img]

To conclude - FoA + DoE. You won't be disappointed. ;)

[ 01-20-2003, 01:34 PM: Message edited by: Alson ]

I currently have a dwarven barbarian in my party and he does very well. When you invoke the rage ability, you get +4 str and +4 con and several immunities. The str bonus can be helpful for opening locked doors and chests. The reason I'd take the dwarf over the half-orc is for the Dwarven Thrower. It's a +3 hammer for either melee or throwing (it does have a bit of a bug, it's supposed to do blunt damage, but without a fixpack, it does piercing--so you can't hit clay golems).

At the beginning of the game, I would recommend using a shield for the AC bonus, and the special abilities available. My favorite for the early game is the shield of reflection from the adventurer's mart. It reflects all missile weapons back at the shooter/thrower. In some instances, you can just stand there and let the enemies kill themselves for you! Oddly, the worse shot the enemy is, the less that works (if they miss, there is no reflection). So if you have a good AC, some enemies will run out of ammo without hitting themselves enough.

Also, don't forget about useful weapons like Ilbratha (shortsword that casts mirror image) or the Staffs or Fire, Air, Earth, Namarra, Ras, etc. You don't have to be proficient with them to use their special abilities. The barbarian has four weapon slots available; if you use one for your main melee weapon, one for a thrown weapon, there are two left for weapons that give abilities. After you use their daily charge, you can swap them out for something else if necessary.

yes, the flail of ages seems to be a needed item, per the disruption...and the axes are all and well too...hmm..the question is, is a 2-handed weapon entirely necessary? i think if i do 2-handed i should stick with 2-handed items, and i can get the giant-hair crossbow for some range

nevertheless, i think i'll go

halberd ++
flail **
2HWS *
S&SS*

further levels go into the missing, then longsword, then dart.

by the way...i went ahead and started up a demo one...lvl 10 he had almost 160 HP

thx all!

Just readin' this I wanna try a Barbarian, sheesh.

Maybe not SOLO...maybe just dual w/ Jaheria. :D

You can get a +2 2H sword really early, from the trapped Djinni in Jon's House O' Horrors.

Wait, Barbarians can't wear full plate...right?

[ 01-20-2003, 06:11 PM: Message edited by: Cheapy ]

Nope, but the Shadow Dragon Scale Armour, which is available quite early, is just as good as any normal Full Plate. If you got ToB, you can get White dragon scales with -2 AC quite early on in ToB, it's as good as it gets [img]smile.gif[/img]

Forget using a Shield, except against bosses. Just take the hits and suck down some Potions, you've got the HP. Your only Weapon Style points should go into Dual-Wielding.

On-hand weapons:
- Flail of Ages (see how I listed this one first?)
- Celestial Fury
- Adjatha the Drinker

Off-hand weapons:
- Defender of Easthaven
- Sword of Arvoreen (if you're a Halfling)

"switch-to" weapons: (Don't use 'em, just keep them in your Quick Weapons for when you'll need 'em)
- Azuredge
- Ras
- Daystar
- Ilbratha
- Mace of Disruption+2
- Sword of Balduran

Later on in the game, the Crom Faeyr and the Equalizer make good offhand weapons as well.

Don't worry about putting points into your offhand weapons, or any of your "switch-to" weapons except Azuredge. So, starting out, you should look like this:

Flail: **
2-Weapon Style: ***
Long Sword or Bastard Sword: *

The point in Swords is because there are no enchanted Axes or Flails in Jon's Dungeon, and by the time you escape, you'll hit Level 9, which will give you the star you need to put into Axe.

<center><font size="4">A Random Babble About Barbarians:</font>
--------</center>

Barbarians are different in design to Fighters, but they are mostly similar. Concepts that apply to Fighters, usually apply to Barbarians as well, and vice-versa. Both of them are Warriors, and though Warriors are generally one of the easiest class to play with, it does not hurt to do some pre-planning as well.

The following is not strict roleplaying( as it takes advantage of hindsight), but I do believe it does allow for a certain degree of roleplaying, even though some purists may scream that it is actually rollplaying. I leave it to the reader to decide what it actually is.

Optimal Stats:
----

STR: 18/~~

Not much explanation needed here, as STR is one of the key statistics for a Warrior class. It improves your THACO and your damage, not to mention increasing your inventory weight capacity.

DEX: 18

Another no-brainer as 18 here will give you a -4 AC bonus. Less hits are always welcome.

CON: 18

More CON means more HP. Barbarians gain a huge advantage in the HP department as they roll 1d12s for their initial 9 levels. To ensure that you get the maximum amount of HP each time you level up, tone down the difficulty to Normal before you level up, then change it back to the original difficulty.

WIS: 10

Technically you can lower it even more, but 10 is the minimum if you do not want any Lore penalties. If you want to disregard Lore totally and assume that your Barbarian is a gullible naive twit( which sadly, the PC is doomed to be anyway...), lower it further by all means.

INT: 10

Again, 9 is technically the minimum so that you can use the Green Protection Scrolls, but 10 is where you will receive no Lore penalties.

CHA: 08

Yee be a stinking Barbarian. ;) Jesting aside, 8 is a nice round number and incurs no reaction penalties from other people. It makes you neutral in appearance to put it one way, ignoring reputation.

This makes a total roll of 82 points. Very easily gotten.

----

Barbarians are immuned to backstabs. I cannot emphasise how amusing it is to see Twisted Rune Assassins wave their short swords helplessly as their bladed weapons poke your character before getting their skulls smashed in. This ability makes some of the quests in the game amusingly easy, whereas other classes would find it daunting.

One quest in particular, seems to be tailored-made for a Barbarian. It is found in the Bridge District, and by the way, Barbarian Rage confers immunity to Hold( among other benefits), which also makes it useful in this encounter.

Speaking of which... remember those pesky Vampires? Especially those that ambush you at night? Consider them free XP now because, Ding-ding-ding! Barbarian Rage confers, you guessed it, immunity to Level-Drain! Due to this immunity, you render them as nothing more than over-sized mosquitoes worth 8000+ XP.

----

You start off with 6*. If you really want a powerhouse, Flails and Warhammers are really the way to go. Sword and Shield Style is utterly useless, rendered pointless by the presence of two shields in Ribald's store,

The Fortress Shield
The Shield of Reflection

Personally, I would put 3* in Two Weapon Style, 2* in Long Swords, and 1* in Flails at the start. The next * at level 9 maxes out the Flails.

The Flail of Ages should be retrieved ASAP, but try to buy the Girdle of Hill Giant Strength first, before setting out to the De'Arnise Keep. Note that you do not need to complete the quest to build the Flail of Ages, unless you have the Improved Torgal mod.

If you have the Bonus Merchants, get the Defender of Easthaven from Joluv in the Copper Coronet and place it in the off-hand. Keep it shiny, it is truly a lovely weapon. Other Flails to look out for include the Sleeper that Bernard sells. Not necessarily one of the most powerful weapons in the game, but it is deceptively potent.

You will want some +4 enchanted weapons though, and this is where Long Swords will come in. Do the Tradesmeet quest and if you play your cards carefully, you will get Flame Tongue. Failing that, you can always consider pumping points into Halberds and get Dragonsbane from the Cult of the Unseeing Quest, then upgrade to Dragon's Breath from the Underdark, and finally the Ravager from ToB.

Quarterstaffs are another viable option, with the Staff of Rynn +4 from Ribald, later to be switched with the Staff of the Ram in ToB. Just remember that to maximise your potential with 2-Handed Weapons, maximise your Two-Handed Weapon Style.

For Warhammers, the Giantkin Warhammer is +4 enchanted despite its' low damage, to be upgraded to Crom Faeyr in Chapter 6.

I suppose I could say more, but I am not the Barbarian expert around here. I dare say that would be Jim instead.

Dundee's comprehensive overview (good job!) left out a single, usually overlooked, but certainly not minor advantage of the Barbarian - Improved Movement Rate.

The Barbarian gets a +2 bonus to his movement rate. This may not seem all that hot at first, but it's actully a great benefit, which will allow you to give The Boots to other members of your party. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Of course, there's also the physical resistance thingie, but i already covered it in my earlier post.

Does the master approves his apprentice's work? [img]tongue.gif[/img] :D

[ 01-21-2003, 12:50 PM: Message edited by: Alson ]

I'm nobody's master. It makes me sound so... possessive. [img]tongue.gif[/img] I just pass information around so that even when I am not around, others can still answer questions posed by newcomers, especially the extremely uncommon ones. I am just one of the old guard, hoping to preserve ancient data that I would not wish to disappear needlessly.

There is a lot of trivia in the game... so much in fact that even I have trouble keeping track of all of them. Having a logbook helps, but I believe even I have forgotten some of them already... ...

Almost every player and his/her pet whatever knows who Kangaxx is, but how many will know about the evil outcome of the Dyrads' Acorns? That you get more XP not killing the ghosts around Neb? That Death Spell grants you double the XP against Trolls? Cernd's quest? [img]tongue.gif[/img] Bard Stronghold Quest? Haer'Dalis' Incomplete Quest? Etc... ...

I learnt a lot from the Veterans before me, learnt a lot on my own, and still am learning today from others and myself. I cannot say I know everything about the game( SixOfSpades will just dare me to take his Trivia Quiz, the horror [img]tongue.gif[/img] ), but I am confident enough to say that I know a lot about it, and hope that nothing gets lost.

Rambling aside, your post about Flails was informative, Alson, although item location might be nice to add. ;) Most people know about the FoA, but the DoE is relatively a known item only to those that discovered its' true statistics and appreciated its' abilities.

The DoE is +3 enchanted and deals 1d6+4 damage for those who do not know. The default item description for the enchantment and damage is wrong.

As for speed... Barbs with the Boots of Speed... drink an Oil of Speed... then cast Improved Haste on him... [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img] I had a Blade with a similar setup( Offensive Spin, not Improved Haste). Let's just say that it took seconds for him to travel across the city, less than 4-5 seconds. [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

Dudeee! I was just kidding... :D [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Jesting aside, i just want to say that i cannot agree more. Just like you, i had my "mentors" (mostly you, Xyx, SixOfSpades and Weimer), and on the same time, learnt a lot by myslef. [img]smile.gif[/img] I also notice that during this last year or so, since i began posting regularly, my level of English (as a non native speaker) in general, and my vocabulary in particular, has improved tremendously. More power to posting. [img]smile.gif[/img]

As for my post about Flails - i saw no need to spoil item locations, as the post's purpose was to plug Flails. Then again, i was probably too excited and baffled from my new promotion to think clearly. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

To conclude, a word of advice. ^J. Travelling had never been easier. ;)

I'll take the location post, if you don't mind, Alson. SPOILERS AHEAD:
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-The Flail of Ages is assembled in Nalia's keep-to initiate the quest, walk into the Copper Coronet and wait for a girl to walk up to you (walk to the center of the Coronet first).
-The Defender of Easthaven is sold by Joluv, a bonus merchant. You find him in the C.C. standing near the first table (to the east of facing the pits).

One more thing about Barbarians: Your Armor Class is going to SUCK. You'd better get used to it, because (through most of SoA at the very least) you're going to be right out there in front of the party, with a big red bullseye painted on your chest--and you will get hit. Okay, so you can't wear Plate or Full Plate armor, and that wouldn't be so bad....if there was any good Splint Mail or Chain Mail that you could wear. Unfortunately, the best Splint Mail in the game is only +2, and you can either
A) Go back to that Chainmail+2 you found in the very beginning of the game, and cling to it for dear life,
B) Sacrifice some Boots of Speed in exchange for some Chainmail+5, or
C) Wait until Chapter 6 to get some Chainmail+6.
Alternatively, you can walk around in Shadow Dragon Scales for all of SoA, but just how strong is THAT, compared to things like Armor of the Hart and the Gorgon Plate? And don't forget that Plate and Full Plate armors provide excellent additional AC modifiers.....which Chain Mail certainly does not.

That's why, for a Barbarian, physical Resistances are SO important. Get the Defender of Easthaven, and NEVER put that puppy down.