Are two handed swords worth it? A 1 handed bastard sword does 2d4 (or 2-8 damage right?) while a two handed sword does 1d10 (1-10 damage). However this means you can't equip a shield with a 2 handed sword!! Is 2 more points of damage *really* worth having a armor class that's a couple points higher?

In my not-so-educated opinion HELL NO! If a 2 handed sword did like 2d6 + 3 then *maybe* it would be worth it.

Now, 2 handed Bows on the other handed (not those stupid 1 handed missile weapons that do no damage) seem to be worth it, especially if most of your party is using them, as you can't be hit (unless your enemy is also using a bow/missile weapon) when using a bow...the game explicity forbids this (which I think is sorta stupid. I mean a 250 lb guy is running at you and you're pumping arrows as fast as humanly possible into him and then he gets 5 feet from you and you're forced to switch to a sword or something? please...).

Now, i'm nowhere NEAR a BG expert (i've only just finished the Nashkel mines quest for the first time) but I have had some experience playing another RPG game, the first Diablo, and in that game you could shoot arrows into an enemy point blank.

And why would anyone want to specialize in a weapon, excluding missle/bow weapons, other than long swords? A standard bastard sword does just as much, if not a little more than the best blunt/etc. weapon out there. 2 handed does 10 even...

On a side note, am I the only one to notice some really stupid spells like the 2nd level priest spell goodberry that gives you 5 berries that you can give to ppl, but each berry only gives like 1 or 2 HP!? Or how about that Level 2 Priest spell Spiritual hammer that rarely hits and when it does, it does like crap damage?

Did the ppl who make Baldur's gate want to be able to brag that there were 50+ spells in the game, and make 1/4 of them really useless in the process?

P. S. Feel free to add your own useless spells, comments, etc.

[ 08-30-2002, 10:14 AM: Message edited by: n00body ]

Hey nOObody, to quote former President Clinton: "I feel your pain".
I'm no BG expert but here's what worked for my Paladin.
I specialized in bows, longswords, flails and two handed swords. Now what you said about two-handed swords is correct but stay with me for a minute. In BG you cannot pause the game when accessing your inventory. Now most of my party has some specialization in ranged weapons (bows for fighters, slings for clerics and mages). When trolling around and monsters attack, I use the ranged weapons first. As they close to melee range, I click on my two-handed sword or long sword to continue the in-close melee battle. I don't have time to unequip my character of her bow and then equip shield by the time the monsters have closed with me. In my weapons slots I have the following: bow: two-handed sword: long sword: flail. In BG, which uses AD & D rules, you incur quite a penalty to hit when using a ranged weapon in a melee situation. Read that to mean you MUST switch to a melee weapon.
When I'm dungeon trolling, I usually go long sword and shield.
Slashing weapons (swords) are not effective against skeletons or oozes and jellies, so you need a proficiency with blunt weapons. (Flails, maces, clubs, etc.)
There are no useless spells, but there are many that have infrequent use. For instance you'll use magic missle much more often than say know alignment. My Paladin uses Protection from Evil much more than Detect Evil, but she does use both. Edwin went to an early grave after she cast Detect Evil on him.
I hope this helps you out some.

First thing's first.

I don't care all that much that Khalid is dead. He was a pretty average fighter (other than maybe being able to have *Four* (or was it 5 even?!) quick weapons equipped at once).

So my next trick is to get Minsc and get through the front door of the Gnoll Fortress, and then see if I can go do other things without Minsc getting ticked off after 10 days and trying to fight me. Do you know if this "trick" will satisfy the game into thinking that you've started the Dungeon and then you can go off and level up more if you want to?

>Slashing weapons (swords) are not effective against skeletons or oozes and jellies, so you need a proficiency with blunt weapons. (Flails, maces, clubs, etc.)

Hrm, this is just a technical question, but in Real Life (TM), is your standard long sword sharp enough to cut through bone? Since most of the rules in AD&D are based on things that happen in real life (how much you can lift, etc.), I would think so.

And maybe being able to equip a shield if you have a two handed weapon isn't so bad, i mean you only get 1 or 2 bonus pts for having a shield anyway.

One last thing, how do you get to the Gnoll Fortress again?! I'm in the second woods that's west of nashkel and if I exit to the west in that forest I just go to another woods that's North West of it, not the Fortress. I'm confused...

In the words of Horace Greely, "Go West, young man". To get to that Gnoll Stronghold because it is in the lower left corner of the world map as you're looking at it.

I don't think just going to the Gnoll Fortress will appease Minsc, as he wants to rescue Dynaheir. But I'm not sure.

I think the AD&D game designers felt that a sword would not be that effective againgst a skeleton as there is no flesh to cut. Sure a sharp sword could cut through bone, but how sharp is your sword after weeks of adventuring? That's why it's better to just bludgeon the skeletons.

You don't necessarily have to waste a proficiency slot on two-handed weapons for the encounter I described above. You could just switch from your bow to your long sword.

About Khalid (Possible spoiler)

There are a certain pair of gaunlets that you will get after a battle. If you give them to Khalid, his strength becomes 18/xx (I won't say what.) Then he becomes are really good fighter.

What is your party makeup and levels at the moment?

My party was:
Paladin - Female
Khalid - Fighter
Imoen - Dual classed to Mage when she was 5th level thief. Thief/Mage.
Ajantis - Paladin
Yeslick - Fighter/Cleric
Kivan - Ranger

1. Actually I had to exit the map at the NORTHERN end to get to the Gnoll Fortress. Talk about not making sense!

2. Khalid is dead, hello minsc. Even if I did get those gauntlets....it would probably be about the same strength as Minsc (unless of course Khalid goes to the supreme 18/00 level, which then he might be better.) I guess the question is...what does 18/00 do for you. I know from my friend that the second number determined things like chance for lifting a gate, etc. What does it do in Baldur's Gate?

3. My party was levels 3-4 when I went into the stronghold. Didn't use a map but I got lucky and went almost straight to the pit where Dynaheir was [img]smile.gif[/img] . It was REALLY easy...I just used my beefy Ranger who is decked out to the max! Just look at this:
He's got
18/01 Strength (ehhh....at least it's 18 strength [img]smile.gif[/img]
*19* Dexterity (I had no idea you could get one of your stats above 18 when creating your character!!!)
*And* He's got on that super light weight Ankheg armor. My Armor class is -5!

And Minsc, with that 900 gold heavy armor (think it's Platinum). His AC is -2.

Ok, ok, so I did cheat a little bit by finding that Ankheg armor in Nashkel via reading some Secret Items hints at The Gatehouse website. But it wasn't super bad cheating like making myself invulnerable.

So the Gnoll fortress was pretty much a breeze. Although it doesn't look good when you have 10+ gnolls all attacking you at once :(

All my characters are levels 4-5. How did I do this after just completing the Nashkel mines quest? Fighting those Winter Wolves on the Nashkel mines map. Man they give you so much experience it's almost like cheating heh.

Let's see, a few notes:

I, too, prefer a good defense to a strong offense, but 2-Handed weapons do have their uses: They usually have better enchantments than 1-Handed weapons, and there are many times when your AC is actually irrelevant, such as when you're fighting a Mage.

Damn right there are useless spells in the game. Spiritual Hammer's actually a decent spell in BG1.....the REAL losers are things like Infravision and Magic Stone. Goodberry would be a much better spell if you were allowed to eat all the berries in 1 gulp, instead of taking 10 rounds to eat them all. One hitpoint every 6 seconds doesn't do me a whole lot of good in combat....I'll just chug a Healing Potion, thank you.

"what does 18/00 do for you. I know from my friend that the second number determined things like chance for lifting a gate, etc. What does it do in Baldur's Gate?"

Check on page 134 of your manual, there is a table that explains everything.

Real quick: It affects how much you can carry (400lbs.), I think it affects your bash lock roll, damage done, adds to your level up hit point die... I think that's it.

[ 08-30-2002, 05:21 PM: Message edited by: Halbarad1891 ]

It does not affect your hitpoints in any way--only your CON does that. Your other responses were correct, though.

The quick answer is that 18(00) Strength is almost as good as 19 STR, and much better than 18(01) or a straight 18.

I believe at 18/00 you do +6 damage and +4(the highest possible) to hit(?) whereas at 18/01(the lowest exceptional) i'm not sure but it's but i think it's +3 +3 i'm really unsure about that though. It also has great effect on how much you can carry. I tended to put those gloves on Jahiera. gives me alot of extra leeway w/ carrying weight and greatly improves jahiera as a fighter.

Jaheira often casts goodberries in my party so that they can get passed to pick up the last few hp to max a character without wasting a cure lights.