the best weapon?

[Cleric]

Corm Faeyr !

- Mage - staff of the magi (TOO good, unbalancing)
- Paladin - guess... holy avenger (we´ll talk about this memnoch )
- Fighter - vorpal sword
- Ranger - Gesens bow
- Thief - Celestial Fury
- Cleric - Crom Faeyr
- Druid - the wooden staff (?) found in the entrance to Suldanessalar (i havent thought about this so much, maybe there is another cool weapon for druids, like blackblood)
- Monk - fists and the Ninja-To of the Purple brotherhood (?)
- Bard - i dont know, any good long sword like Daystar or Namara +2 or blackrazor

Oh i forgot Memnoch...

The holy avenger rocks for a paladin. The dispel every hit ability ROCKS, plus you can cast dispell on will. Its a cool +5 sword (savage !) AND (important) gives the user 50% magic resistance. Like i already posted over there, I made a paladin and gave him the items with shadowkeeper and i got a ROCKING paladin with 70% magic resistance, 90 % fire resistance, inmunity to attacking spells (cloak of mirroring) etc etc.

SO what are good weapons early on in the game?

In particular, what weapon proficiencies do I give my characters early on.

I've found some really good staves (Staff of Rhynn +4 from Ribald is the first +4 weapon you can get) and maces (Wyvern's Tail) and clubs (Blackblood?) and Axes (+3 Stonefire and +3 Azuredge).

Minsc has spent pretty much all of the game with the Flail of Ages in one hand and one of the cool Axes +3 in the other hand (with the other Axe +3 in his inventory - two Axes rock and the paper doll looks quite cool as well)

Interestingly enough, I've been selling every long sword I've come across. None of my party (at times consisting of my Cleric, Minsc, Jaheira, Aerie, Jan, Imoen, Yoshimo, Nalia) have a proficiency in Long Sword.

Cheers
Craig

First, you have written a party of 8 members !!!

Second, a good weapon early obtainable is the Namara +2 (thaco +2, damage +4, cast silence once everyday). Also check the mercenaries that appear in the city when you are travelling from one district to another, one of them has a cool +2 short sword with haste ability (1 per day). And if you kill the beast guardian in the Copper Coronet, he has a COOL short bow (3 attacks per round, +1 to thaco, +1 to damage), maybe the best besides Gesens bow.

Maybe some of the weapon stats are missed but they are VERY similar to those

Yeah, I was expecting someone to comment on the 8 characters. I meant that I had all those, but only 6 at a time. Pity, though - at 800 x 600 you have room on screen for the other two...

The short bow you mention is the Tuigan Bow, I think. It is awesome - Yoshimo used it through the entire game (well, up until I "replaced" him with Imoen). There's also another bow that doesn't need ammo (as well as the Gesen Bow).

WRT bows and crossbows, there are plenty good ones, some found, some for sale.

The only character I had problem equipping was Jaheira. There are stuff all magical scimitars (two from the Rackshasa quest). I eventually settled on the +4 Staff - making her the golem-whacker along with Aerie and the +5 sling. Do you know how long it takes to kill an Iron Golem with only a +5 sling?

BTW I have yet to send my back three characters into combat, so the magical short-swords and daggers and the like haven't been useful. Jan has a Xbow, Yoshimo/Imoen has a Short Bow, Aerie has a sling.

Cheers
Craig

P.S. Thieves and Bards can use Bows and Xbows, despite what some books say, but they can only use light xbows and short bows.

**This may be seen as a *spoiler***
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I have found a really good longsword, which can be found pretty early on in the game. After you have cleared out the Copper Coronet, and freed the slaves, Hendak will take over the business. Also, the merchant now has completely new stock, and has 2 very good weapons...
Long Sword - The Blade of Roses... 2d4+3...+2 Charisma,
Battle Axe - Stone something... 2d4+3... +2 fire damage, These might not be the exact stats on them, but I know that they are something like that. At an early stage in the game, these items are very useful, if you have the cash...

Ertai
Where did you find this Ninja-to of the Purple Botherhood???? Never seen it and ive played through 4 times now.

Well my characer alternates between the Sword of Roses and Daystar in one hand, and Adjatha the Drinker in the other for that grat HP draining ability. My fav though for undead has to be Azureedge +3. Used in both melee and range and has the ability to kill undead outright. This thing saved me much trouble of restorations as many vampires never make it to the party before getting blasted out of existence.

I love dual wielding Daystar and Celestial Fury - but it's definitely Daystar. You get the blade early in the game and it's one of the most effective against undead beast - one of the toughest types of monsters to kill.

Like me for example: The Lich!!