I had my character a fighter with 4 at bastard sword and 3 at long sword do the quest for the Trademeet genies.
The one you are supposed to kill the evil Rakshasha SHAPESHIFTER.
Well I head with my party at her cottage expose her and she SHAPESHIFTS to her natural form and summons her two SHAPESHIFTER allies.
Well guess what?
I am the only one getting "weapon ineffective" message and I am using that bastard sword!!! [img]graemlins/madhell.gif[/img]
Is this common to everybody or maybe some bug hat got fixed?

[ 05-28-2002, 08:39 AM: Message edited by: Helspanth ]

+3 doenst necessarily mean that its enchantment is +3 ...
The THAC0 bonus will be +3 .. but its magical enchantment is probably just +1 .. which means the blade doesnt cut it ( literally)

<font color="gold">ROFL! Now that's funny. [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Anyway, maybe the sword is only +3 against those who are Shapeshifters of class? Doesnt sound much likely, but it can happen. If not, then I'm not sure. :(
I never use swords like that anyway. Way too few to choose among, IMO. Unless you have ToB, you can get a real kickass-bastard sword there. [img]smile.gif[/img] </font>

Hmmmm... the item description is misleading.

The name is called <font color="white">Bastard Sword +1, +3 vs. Shapeshifters</font>.

This implies that it is +3 enchanted against Shapeshifters, but apparently it actually meant +3 damage.

Fear the sucky descriptions.

Probably Dundee is correct.Imagine my surprise however when I went full of confidence to strike the Rakshashas!Beeing my partys only fighter I was quite stunned!
Damn I really like bastard swords.I guess I'll have to wait for Foebane.

the sword is supposed to count as +3 for what it can hit, but apparently it doesn't, the warhammer +1/+4 vs. giants counts as +4 for what it can hit (very useful as it can hit all the golems in the d'arnise hold.

Yes I know about that hammer.
That's why I figured that the sword would work in a simmilar manner.
Oh well...

maybe it only meant the grey, humanoid shapeshifters(damn, forgot the name.. you know, the ones who were all over candlekeep in a late chapter and in a merchant league in Baldurs gate(the city) though that would be absolutely pointless, as the only that kind of shapeshifter in BG2 is the fat guy in Irenicus` dungeon.

Doppleganger

the sword is supposed to work against anything that shapeshifts, from dopplegangers, to werewolves, druids, and mages using shapeshifting spells, all are supposed to be vulnerable, heck if you want to get anal about it the pc should be affected too (once you finish spellhold)