Another dull "what weapon" question.

[Nifft the Nimble]

I'd pick Long Swords. From Daystar (+4 to-hit and +4 damage vs. evil creatures) to standard Swords of Flame (fire damage) to Adjutha the Drinker (heals you, protection from charm) to Dragonslayer (regenerates you, protection from fear, double damage vs. dragons), they're available early and you don't have to wait until chapter 5 to get a really good one. In ToB you'll get Avugurial (or something like that) +4/+5, which will increase your strength to 22 and does fire damage.

Dagger is another good choice. Pixie Prick and Stiletto of Demarchess are both daggers which render foes helpless. There's the Boomerang Dagger early on (thrown, +2, 2 attacks/round) and Firetooth +3 in chapter 5 (thrown, +3 + fire damage, 2 attacks/round).

Don't neglect Quarterstaves, though. There's nothing like backstabbing with a Staff of Striking (limited charges, but +9 damage!) ... though I have yet to verify that such a weapon is appropriate for backstabbing, most staves are.

Scimitars: with ToB installed you can immediately go get a +4 Wakazishi or Ninja-to (same diff) from Watcher's Keep. It does electrical damage.

Sorry if this doesn't help you decide, but I guess the point is: almost every catagory has better weapons than a Katana. Pick a non-katana proficency which best reflects your style. If you're playing with a party, pick stuff which is rare: no NPC in the game has skill with Long Swords, no non-druids know Scimitars.

-- Nifft
-- Nifft

[antonius]

Long swords isn't an option as a first choice weapon - can't backstab.
I think this is why katana is such an attractive option, with daggers as alternatives. Where are all the cool short swords though?

You're right about long swords in that no one can use them truely effectively and theres the best selection of really cool weapons. If I were a fighter type that'd be the choice (Where's Khalid when you need him?). Also scimitars could be a good choice (I'm thinking Jaheira dual-wielding though)

I've settled on an initial selection of Katana, Dagger, Short Bow and 1H style (for the critical and AC bonus). Once I get settled I'll work on the dual-wielding...

[PeeWee]

You can backstab with longswords. Long swords in my opinion are great to use, but I have celestial fury and don't really need anything else(may use the newly found sword with it's immunity to domination in the prison since that is where I'm at right now)

The stun on the celestial fury allows you to hide in shadows again if you are fast enough. Then there is the blind attached to it that also gives you another chance to blind and backstab(if you wanna cast blind).

Daggers just seem weak although they appear to have more offensive standing opposed to some of the found short swords as far as effects go. I don't know what is out there besides the Arbane and Ilbrathor(sp?) shortswords. They both have a once a day use to em. Invis and mirror image. I just slap em on to use em when necessary and re-equip my CF.

I just now tried to dual wield and backstab using a longsword and shortsword. Lefthand dealt 67 dmg in a quintuple backstab while cloaked showing a +3 to thaco. Uncloaked I suffered a -3 to hit.

For some reason, my bounty hunter has 5 points for slots n weaponry... I didn't notice this before and don't know if this is right or bugged??? I also know for a fact I didn't touch his prificiencies in SK when I was lookin over the stats, but if this aint right I'ma change it. Do rogues get more points later on?

I'm sketchy if I remember him getting another point at some level...is this right? He's lvl 15 right now. Could have been at lvl 13 but I didn't recall rogues getting any more points to spend in weapon skills.

Also, with 19 strength, you don't really need to worry about being proficient in a weapon since I think you only get -1 penalty for not bein proficient. 2nd edition rules state that it's -3, but in-game, I don't see it. Only seen the -1 penalty.

I'm proficient in: short sword, longsword, katana, shortbow, and 1 weapon style. I used the pixie prick and can hit regularly with it too even when I'm not proficient with daggers.

I also agree with longswords having alot of cool add-ons to em. The dmg is also nice and beats the daggers in my opinion if we look at thaco and dmg alone. But then there is TOB and all it's goodies, which I know nothing of.

[antonius]

I thought long swords were slashing weapons (daggers, shortswords and katanas are piercing). I'm not going to argue though and I'm certainly in no position to check either way.

Thanks for the comments.

[Morgan_Corbesant]

yes, you can backstab with a longsword. hell, you can backstab with a club or quarterstaff. if its a melee weapon (handheld) and a single class thief can use it, then it can be used to backstab with. so yes to longsword, shortsword, katana, scimitar, dagger, club, quarterstaff. no to anything else, such as shortbow, sling, darts, etc. only single-class, thief allowed melee weapons.

[antonius]

I'm probably getting confused with Bg1 - but then I'm not sure I've ever seen it written anywhere. Did I imagine it?

[Nifft the Nimble]

quote:

---

Originally posted by antonius:
I'm probably getting confused with Bg1 - but then I'm not sure I've ever seen it written anywhere. Did I imagine it?

---

Probably saw it in P&P or from someone with a Player's Handbook.

If you want the best, Best, BEST backstabbing weapon possible in ToB, it's got to be a Quarterstaff. Specifically, the Staff of the Ram. Damage = 1-6 +6 to-hit & damage, +12 crushing, +1-4 piercing. Plus strength bonus, times seven ... drool, drool

-- Nifft

[antonius]

I like the sound of that... where is it? Never found it before.