Is grand mastery worth it?

[Troll Slayer]

It seems the big jump is from being proficiant to specialized. I just do not see how spending 3 more proficiancies is worth what you get. I would rather spend them on other weapons, and be able to switch between them for any given situation. What is everyone elses thoughts?

[The fallen one]

I am the same I would sooner beable to use alot of different weapons out there. I like to use all the different ablitys for different fights.

[reedimus]

I always went to 5 slots whenever possible. primarily for the speed factor. I ended up selling a lot of good weapons because no one was good with them though. I don't mind though, and if I do it again I'll do the same thing.

[Meerlight]

Grand Mastery has its uses. If you know the party you are going to have before you start the game and you know what weapons everyone will use, you may want to give your fighter an extra boost in those weapons that seem good but nobody else uses. If I'm a fighter I like to go up to grand mastery just because thats what fighters are really good for. If you don't want to be more than specialized in a weapon, be a paladin or ranger.

[Lews Therin]

From a role playing perspective, I would look at the weapon each character prefers and put as many prof-points as I could in that weapon. I'm currently playing IWD and was giving my dwarven fighter points in axes even though I hadn't found a very good axe yet and couldn't afford to buy the one I wanted. Eventually I found a +2 axe for my fighter after he already had 4 points in axes. Until then I would only switch from my regular axe to a magic weapon when an enemy required it because I felt that was the weapon of choice for my dwarf.

[pomr]

Grandmastery is pretty well worth it, though it does rather limit your options. The bonus speed factor and 1/2 attack are nice, despite the fact that attacks per round become almost meaningless since 1) They are capped at 4, and 2) you can get Whirlwind Attack and Greater Whirlwind attack once you're really high level.

It is very handy before you get the high level abilities.

[Nightmare]

IIRC, grand mastery is different in IWD then BG2.

[Lews Therin]

Gaxx_Firkraag, I'll check in the IWD and BGII manuals when I get home. Do you think that GM is better in IWD than in BGII? I always liked Korgan because he starts with GM in axes and kicked butt right away. You can get Frostreaver from Nalia's quest and give it to Korgan with his GM and he deal out some serious damage right out of the gate.

[Nightmare]

Grand Mastery in IWD gives a base of two attacks per round. In BG2 it gives 3/2 attacks.

[will2k]

I'm going for grand mastery with my paladin because I have the holy avenger so i'm going for rand mastery in two handed swords and two handed fighting style. but with minsc im trying to give him 2 or 3 in afew things and in duel weilding.

[Nightmare]

A paladin can only get 2 stars per weapon. Two handed style has only two slots regardless of class.

[will2k]

but it says in the manual 'weapon specialisation'.

[Nightmare]

Yes.

1 star is proficient
2 is specialized
3 is mastery
4 is high mastery
5 is grand mastery

[polaris]

Gaxx,

That is incorrect. Two Weapon style has up to three dots in it. However only fighters and blades can get that third dot.

O dots: -4 on-hand, -8 off-hand
1 dot : -4 on-hand, -6 off-hand
2 dots: -2 on-hand, -4 off-hand
3 dots: no penalty on-hand, -2 off-hand

These are the numbers as best I recall. The moral of the story is, however, if you dual weild, you really NEED to have at least 2 dots in two weapon wielding.

-Polaris

[will2k]

darn tootin

[Nightmare]

Sorry, but I said Two handed style. Two handed style only has 2 slots.

[polaris]

Gaxx,

My bad. You are correct of course. You only get two dots in T-Handed weapons. Sorry about that.

-Polaris

[THE JAKER]

I think Swashbucklers can also get 3 dots in two-weapon style.

[Nightmare]

No problem. I've gotten the two confused numerous times.