What are the best proficiencies to take?

[krunchyfrogg]

I'm trying to make a powergaming group to take through the series. Here is my party so far, please recommend me some weapon proficiencies:

human paladin
dwarf ftr/clr
dwarf fighter
human druid
human bard
gnome illusionist/thf

[ister]

Most weapons are pretty good, so you just want a distribution.

And realistically ALL of your characters except the fighter will have plenty of PPs to allocate as you go along to ensure that you're using the weapons you want. (only the fighter can stack past two) So I think the fighter is the only one that you have to design well from the start.

Presumably the paladin is your primary tank, so I think you want a good missile weapon for the fighter. Bows are the best. So start with two in bows. Then you want to work out which weapon you're going to take to GM level. I would think that you'll be putting axes and long swords on the paladin (to use an excellent throwing axe with your shield, and to take advantage of the paladin only sword.) So the fighter shouldn't get either of those. I'd be inclined to go with great swords (there are lots of very good 2 handed swords, and plenty of bastard swords for when you want to use a shield). But almost anything that doesn't conflict with your other characters is fine - there are excellent halberds around for instance.

As an aside, there are also huge advantages to having a halfling or gnome who is at least part fighter or cleric. That's the only reason I don't like the T/Ill multi here.

[ 09-15-2005, 05:02 PM: Message edited by: ister ]

[ZFR]

Keep in mind that most of the weapons in game are random... still:

Paladin: long sword. Even if not super common as random weapons, there is an excellent non-random, paladin-only long sword.

Dwarf Fighter: axe. Quite a few random good axes there. there is a good random fairly common axe in the early stages of the game and if you find it you'll keep it for a long time.

Dwarf fighter/cleric: MORNING-STARS!!! I used to find a lot of random those in my games, with pretty good extra effects like AC bonus, extra cleric spells and electrical damage (or combinations of some ).

Druid: slings. If you dont plan to combine with fighter (DC or multi) then forget about going mellee. and slings are very good ranged weapons in the game.

Bard: doesn't matter. He won't be using any weapons .

[ister]

Morning Star is the same proficiency as Maces no?

Anyway that is definitely the best cleric melee proficiency. Flails are good as a secondary weapon, because you do find some good ones, but maces have them beat hands down.

[ZFR]

Originally posted by ister: Morning Star is the same proficiency as Maces no?

Yes. That is same proficiency.

[ister]

What I would do:

human paladin 2 x axes, 2 x hammers (will add long swords by lvl 6)
dwarf ftr/clr 2 x maces, 2 x missile
dwarf fighter 2 x great sword, 2 x bow (G Sword to 5 then bow to 3)
human druid 1 x long sword (for flame blade) 1 x missile
human bard 1 x crossbow, 1 x short sword
gnome illusionist/thf 1 x bow, 1 x dagger

[ZFR]

Originally posted by ister: What I would do: human paladin 2 x axes, 2 x hammers (will add long swords by lvl 6) dwarf ftr/clr 2 x maces, 2 x missile dwarf fighter 2 x great sword, 2 x bow (G Sword to 5 then bow to 3) human druid 1 x long sword (for flame blade) 1 x missile human bard 1 x crossbow, 1 x short sword gnome illusionist/thf 1 x bow, 1 x dagger

Pure Druids cant use longswords.

[ister]

Scimitar uses the longsword proficiency. And it's as good as any other druid melee weapon (spears and daggers). Better than some (clubs and staves). And you need that proficiency to use flame blade effectively (against undead). Obviously you don't want your druid doing that too often, but it's nice to be able to.

And multi- and dual- class F/D's are limited to exactly the same weapons as single class druids.

[ 09-15-2005, 05:28 PM: Message edited by: ister ]

[ZFR]

oooops youre right of course on both points... forgot scimitar and long sword are same proficiency.

And btw using the flame blade might be quite a good idea in the few battles you decide to go mellee. there are really only very few good druid mellee weapons. you wont find many good spears, staffs and scimitars. And magical clubs are as common as a glabrezu paladin. you might consider spending the next druid pp on a dagger.

[ 09-15-2005, 06:05 PM: Message edited by: ZFR ]

[Lord Brass]

There are some good scimitars and clubs but unfortunately they don't turn up till the expansion (or the expansion of the expansion). There are some good spears that do turn up and not as random drops. They offer good a range of "plus" bonsuses if nothing else.

As for flails, there are some excellent flails in this game. More than any other I've seen. In fact, one of my favourite cleric weapons is found in TotLM and is only really exceeded by that flail in BG2/ToB, in a flail-by-flail comparison, as far as I'm concerned. (In fact, it's effect is only exceeded by one particular two-handed sword whose location does escape me.)