Weapon and shield, or double weapon?

[Cayle]

Dual wield trumps weapon and shield in BG2 (and PnP for that matter). Yes, you can bump your AC by up to five points and this can be the very thing that puts you over the top and makes you nearly invulnerable against lower level opponents. Bear in mind however, that up against a serious opponent (i.e. anything with a low THACO) your are only preventing one in four hits on your character that would otherwise be suffered if he or she was a dual wielder.

It has been my experience that the dual wield increases the rate that you give damage faster than the rate that you suffer damage. My dual wielding ranger always fares better at similar levels, stats, equipment, etc than my weapon and shield Paladin, even after I used IEE to turn the HA into a bastard sword. Yes, he had to break off more often and gulp a few more healing potions, but he dished out a LOT more damage.

IMHO, the weapon and shield proficiency is badly done, as the bonus is minimal and conditional on missile weapons. It should give a +1 bonus to AC for each point expended. Now imagine someone with grand mastery and a +4 shield…


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- Cayle

[Carson]

i got a kensai with hi mastery in longswords and 3 points in the dual weild thingie... im using a Dragonslayer and the Blade Of Roses or sumthing like that... hehe =)

btw... what's the best long sword in the game? besides the Equalizer?

[Ford]

Best longsword:

SPOILER
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Blackrazor (from Hell)

[Cayle]

Best longsword? Depends on what you need. Daystar is +4 against baddies and has sunray, or more properly, the “daystar undead nuke”, but no other special abilities. Dragonslayer is only +2 (OK, +4 against dragons, but they are not exactly common), but is protects against fear: Very handy when demon bashing or when Ye Olde Lich starts tossing fear symbols about. Flametounge is +4 against undead (can you say KANGAXX?), but there are other, better blades. The Equalizer is only +3, but the mind shield is a very valuable commodity. The Sword of Baulduran imparts 10% magic resistance for those of you trying to rack up the MR.

I like to dual Dragonslayer (off hand) and the Equalizer. I keep Daystar handy for those undead moments. This protects against fear, domination, charm, confusion, etc. I heard a rumor that the non combat abilities of the off hand blade. Weep!


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- Cayle

[Craig]

Originally posted by Accord: Heh....more like 4X deja vu (but it all depends on your perspective)! Personally, for a fighter I prefer dual wield, and like the above, the ideal choice is Celestial Fury and Crom Faeyr, although I would keep the Daystar in the same hand as Celestial Fury (i.e. Crom Faeyr in off hand) should undeads decides to get a bit too close to me.

Deja vu X2 Deja vu is seeing things Twice thusDeja vu X4 is 8 Deja vu X2 is 4 but it might be X4 if its of the first one, any way delete them plz

My cleric has -9 ac already and is only in Ch. 2 it would be -5 if he had no sheild

[Bristowe]

Ah yes, this debate.

Personally, Rangers are usually my PC, get two points in dual already, add one extra point, two for katanas, two for scimitars and one for maces at level 7... CF and belm anyone? Mace for Disruption for undead...very nasty.
The shield/weapon proficiency IMO is dodgy, I only ever use that for Jaheira or Viconia only cause they USE shields...And dual wielding looks better.

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Bristowe, Master Assassin

[Lifetime]

Personally I like to believe that a quick offence is the best defence. There are'nt that many places in the game where you can't get by without a shield and I find that there are'nt that many really good shields anyway (unlike IWD/HOW)

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Why?

[sunder]

I agree, I see BG2 as a dual weapon game, not a weapon/shield game. There are a ton of very powerful weapons out there, but only a couple good shields. Whats up? Where are all the good shields? Only what 1 +4 shield, and the other +3 shields are DROW shields? A couple +2 shields with abilities, but not really much.
But you have TONS of major weapons, So I would agree having 2 weapons in BG2 is alot better than having shield/sword combos. Plus alot of the shield benefits are against missiles, and there just isn't any super powerful archers trying to take down your party. Just a ton of mages and some fighters. I picked sword/shield combos just because that is what i was used to in the games, it wasn't till after playing through the game i saw just how much better i would have been using dual weapons on my fighters instead of sword/shield.

[Earthdog]

This might be a little beside the point, but monks dont use shields or weapons. So I put all his proficiency points on Single Weapon Style so he can have a higher armour class.

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IS THE PIZZA HERE YET????
WANNA PASS ME A BEER??? THANKS!!!!!!

[DonkeyWan]

since Korgan has 5 profs for the axe, would it make sense to dual-wield?