Best ranged weapon type?
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Sgt.Pepper
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Best ranged weapon type?
Slings, Bows or Crossbows?
[QUOTE=Sgt.Pepper]Slings, Bows or Crossbows?[/QUOTE]
well, that depends...
i guess overall slings are the most effective:
- do blunt damage - very common resistance in IWD2
- works with Rapid Shot
- good sling available very early in the game
- an UBER version available: Sling of Pain +5: +5 attack, +9 (!) damage
- add strength bonus to damage
- can be used with a shield
- Everlasting Fire Bullet +1 available in mid-game
Bows and Crossbows have their advantages (such as special arrows, like those Holdfast Arrows - unsavable unresistable Entangle for four rounds, making even Slayer Knights into sitting ducks to shoot something else at), depending on what weapons you find/buy during the game.
One more thing: the best utilization of missile weapons in IWD2 is a dedicated "sniper" character in your party, with high DEX, 4 Ftr levels (for weapon specialization/s), Rapid Shot, Improved Critical, Dirty Fighting feats. The races/class mix other than that is not important, just don't give this char anything else to do when combat starts: no spellcating, singing, etc. Just make him shoot the right thing at the right target, swithching weapons and ammunition acordingly. Add more fighter levels to get "across-the-board" specializations - bows, crossbows, slings.
well, that depends...
i guess overall slings are the most effective:
- do blunt damage - very common resistance in IWD2
- works with Rapid Shot
- good sling available very early in the game
- an UBER version available: Sling of Pain +5: +5 attack, +9 (!) damage
- add strength bonus to damage
- can be used with a shield
- Everlasting Fire Bullet +1 available in mid-game
Bows and Crossbows have their advantages (such as special arrows, like those Holdfast Arrows - unsavable unresistable Entangle for four rounds, making even Slayer Knights into sitting ducks to shoot something else at), depending on what weapons you find/buy during the game.
One more thing: the best utilization of missile weapons in IWD2 is a dedicated "sniper" character in your party, with high DEX, 4 Ftr levels (for weapon specialization/s), Rapid Shot, Improved Critical, Dirty Fighting feats. The races/class mix other than that is not important, just don't give this char anything else to do when combat starts: no spellcating, singing, etc. Just make him shoot the right thing at the right target, swithching weapons and ammunition acordingly. Add more fighter levels to get "across-the-board" specializations - bows, crossbows, slings.
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Sgt.Pepper
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1 - do blunt damage - very common resistance in IWD2
2 - an UBER version available: Sling of Pain +5: +5 attack, +9 (!) damage
3 - add strength bonus to damage
1 do you mean 'not' very common - I can't see how a resistance to it is a good thing
2 is this only in HoF?
3 - I've looked at slings on two of my chars - one a monk with 18 st 18 Dex and the other a Bard with 8 St and 18 Dex and there is no difference in the damage potential. Is this just a glitch or something.
You said about dedicated snipers and I have considered one however I am intending to use a Bard with four fighter levels to get weapon specialisation in a missile type. Whilst I am aware (obviously) he won't be able to shoot every round - surely with Lingering song he can shoot twice every three rounds?
2 - an UBER version available: Sling of Pain +5: +5 attack, +9 (!) damage
3 - add strength bonus to damage
1 do you mean 'not' very common - I can't see how a resistance to it is a good thing
2 is this only in HoF?
3 - I've looked at slings on two of my chars - one a monk with 18 st 18 Dex and the other a Bard with 8 St and 18 Dex and there is no difference in the damage potential. Is this just a glitch or something.
You said about dedicated snipers and I have considered one however I am intending to use a Bard with four fighter levels to get weapon specialisation in a missile type. Whilst I am aware (obviously) he won't be able to shoot every round - surely with Lingering song he can shoot twice every three rounds?
snipers
i too am using a sniper in my game. I have him as a ranger, probably multiclasses later to a fighter. not sure what other levels to add. i think he is an elf (not sure cant remember) or something with a racial dexterity bonus. I find him very useful for taking out pesky mages and clerics who are hard to reach because of hordes of enemies. Range so far does not prove a problem. his attacks do some serious damage and more often than not hit. i havnt specialised him in a weapon yet since i want to wait and see what his best ranged weapon turns out to be. rapid shot, dirty fighting, improved critical, precise shot, etc. all done. if things get a bit nasty he can also jump in with twin swords and help out. problem is not so great a fighter.
i too am using a sniper in my game. I have him as a ranger, probably multiclasses later to a fighter. not sure what other levels to add. i think he is an elf (not sure cant remember) or something with a racial dexterity bonus. I find him very useful for taking out pesky mages and clerics who are hard to reach because of hordes of enemies. Range so far does not prove a problem. his attacks do some serious damage and more often than not hit. i havnt specialised him in a weapon yet since i want to wait and see what his best ranged weapon turns out to be. rapid shot, dirty fighting, improved critical, precise shot, etc. all done. if things get a bit nasty he can also jump in with twin swords and help out. problem is not so great a fighter.
[QUOTE=Sgt.Pepper]1 - do blunt damage - very common resistance in IWD2
2 - an UBER version available: Sling of Pain +5: +5 attack, +9 (!) damage
3 - add strength bonus to damage
1 do you mean 'not' very common - I can't see how a resistance to it is a good thing
2 is this only in HoF?
3 - I've looked at slings on two of my chars - one a monk with 18 st 18 Dex and the other a Bard with 8 St and 18 Dex and there is no difference in the damage potential. Is this just a glitch or something.
You said about dedicated snipers and I have considered one however I am intending to use a Bard with four fighter levels to get weapon specialisation in a missile type. Whilst I am aware (obviously) he won't be able to shoot every round - surely with Lingering song he can shoot twice every three rounds?[/QUOTE]
1. Some enemies are immune to piercing damage, like Golems, so having blunt weapons like sling stones help in these situations. But I don’t see much of a problem in IWD2.
2. I’ve played through this game about 5 times and I’ve never seen this sling or the everlasting bullet. These have to be hof items. I don’t expect you to find these in your regular game.
3. Don’t worry; strength does not stack with missile weapons like slings. Everything is normal.
My take is all three types have great weapons and great ammo. You can get a +1 sling immediately in Targos in the prologue, but Bows have the most ammo early in the game as it’s all the goblin horde likes to use, and you find a good bow in Chapter 1. A good crossbow takes longer, but it’s still a great choice.
I would just take what comes naturally to your character as I feel they are pretty balanced. An elf ranger would be a good choice for a bow, while a wizard would be a good crossbow user, and a druid a good sling user, etc…
btw, your Bard will be able to hit more than one time in a round as he levels up. This is 3rd ED, not 2Ed, he'll be attacking 3 times a round by the end of the game, and with 4 levels of fighter possibly more (would have to check the books).
2 - an UBER version available: Sling of Pain +5: +5 attack, +9 (!) damage
3 - add strength bonus to damage
1 do you mean 'not' very common - I can't see how a resistance to it is a good thing
2 is this only in HoF?
3 - I've looked at slings on two of my chars - one a monk with 18 st 18 Dex and the other a Bard with 8 St and 18 Dex and there is no difference in the damage potential. Is this just a glitch or something.
You said about dedicated snipers and I have considered one however I am intending to use a Bard with four fighter levels to get weapon specialisation in a missile type. Whilst I am aware (obviously) he won't be able to shoot every round - surely with Lingering song he can shoot twice every three rounds?[/QUOTE]
1. Some enemies are immune to piercing damage, like Golems, so having blunt weapons like sling stones help in these situations. But I don’t see much of a problem in IWD2.
2. I’ve played through this game about 5 times and I’ve never seen this sling or the everlasting bullet. These have to be hof items. I don’t expect you to find these in your regular game.
3. Don’t worry; strength does not stack with missile weapons like slings. Everything is normal.
My take is all three types have great weapons and great ammo. You can get a +1 sling immediately in Targos in the prologue, but Bows have the most ammo early in the game as it’s all the goblin horde likes to use, and you find a good bow in Chapter 1. A good crossbow takes longer, but it’s still a great choice.
I would just take what comes naturally to your character as I feel they are pretty balanced. An elf ranger would be a good choice for a bow, while a wizard would be a good crossbow user, and a druid a good sling user, etc…
btw, your Bard will be able to hit more than one time in a round as he levels up. This is 3rd ED, not 2Ed, he'll be attacking 3 times a round by the end of the game, and with 4 levels of fighter possibly more (would have to check the books).
All the three kind of ranged weapons have uber version of them, so there is not a best in absolute.
For thief/spellcasters without a great BAB progression, xbows are the best because you can get by mid game some item that grant 2 or 3 att./rnd (3/4 in HoF) which is great for a mage/sorc/thief/bard.
for all the other char. any coice have their pros: sling for the blunt dmg and the str. modifier added to dmg, bows for better range and variety of arrows etc.
So for me the best choice is to equip my char with different type of ranged weapons (I keep two cobo of melee weapon and two combo of ranged weapon each char.), so you can use what best you get or the best weapon for the situation.
Anyway if I should make a specific sniper and put 3* on a ranged weapon probably I would choose Bows for range and variety of arrows, but I would equip him also with a sling.
As for ranged weapons there are also Dartd, hammers and Axes, and I would point that axes are great choices: you can get good throwable weapon even early on, you add str. mod. to dmg., although they have a shorter range, but if you specialize in Axe you can benefit of the specialization for both melle and ranged options.
For thief/spellcasters without a great BAB progression, xbows are the best because you can get by mid game some item that grant 2 or 3 att./rnd (3/4 in HoF) which is great for a mage/sorc/thief/bard.
for all the other char. any coice have their pros: sling for the blunt dmg and the str. modifier added to dmg, bows for better range and variety of arrows etc.
So for me the best choice is to equip my char with different type of ranged weapons (I keep two cobo of melee weapon and two combo of ranged weapon each char.), so you can use what best you get or the best weapon for the situation.
Anyway if I should make a specific sniper and put 3* on a ranged weapon probably I would choose Bows for range and variety of arrows, but I would equip him also with a sling.
As for ranged weapons there are also Dartd, hammers and Axes, and I would point that axes are great choices: you can get good throwable weapon even early on, you add str. mod. to dmg., although they have a shorter range, but if you specialize in Axe you can benefit of the specialization for both melle and ranged options.
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The Chosen One
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Sgt.Pepper
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Having looked at the damage dealt out by a monk [18ST 18DEX] compared to a bard [8ST 18DEX] using identical slings (the ones availabe in the very early game) I am beginning to agree that the strength modifier is added for slings. The most I have seen the Bard do is 3 damage; despite the damage potential listed being 1 - 4. Similarly the monk has been doing 7 and 8 damage at times. Even though the strength modifier is not listed on the character screens it would appear it has the same effect as for thrown 'simple missile' weapons.
I almost always choose bows, b/c arrows are common enough to find on the corpses of your enemies and there is a great selection in the game, esp in HoF Mode! Bows are also faster than crossbows most of the time. To take out those resistant to piercing damage, I just haul out a magical staff. That works especially well in the older games where you can't weild a shield with a two-handed weapon equipped.
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Sgt.Pepper
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Here the best weapons types and the specific example you want to buy/find depend on what build you want to use:
1. High-STR tanking char: the clear winner here is Axes. That's why:
- flexebility to use 1-handed axe with shield or two-handed axes, depending on tactickal situation nad the specific items you have
- an early available +1 returning axe, that does BLUNT damage!
- exellent axes available to find/buy for every situation, and at every power level
- many of the good axes are 'sure finds' - available to buy at stores, given rewards, etc. - and not random treasure.
Greatswords come to close second place here, and at some points in the game are even supirior over the best axe available, thus inviting the player to either have two tank chars, or one that specializes in both axes and greatswords.
Actually, the best tank out of my builds (and I had a few...) was a shield dwarf Paladin 2/Fighter X, who had more than enough feats two cover all the weapon classes he needed. The main weapons he used over the course of the game where:
Wandering Sky (Greatsword) -> Unholy Blight (Greatsword) -> Widow-Through (Greataxe) -> Greataxe +4 -> Massive Greataxe of Flame +5.
In specific situations, he also utilized Haft Over Head (+1, blunt damage throwing axe), Aurulian Ice Axe (cold damge), Throwing Axe of Shocking Burst (+5 enchantment to hit creatures with XX/+4 and better immunity, plus extra Electrical damage), Black Death (two-handed, +1 throwing axe) and Battleaxe of Disruption +5 (the name speaks for itself here).
As you can see, many of these weapons are 'sure finds'. The Massive Greataxe of Flame, while being a random item, is well worth the time and energy spent reloading and re-fighting the fights to find.
2. Medium-STR melee (weapon & shield, duel-weilding): Large Swords type, with emphasis on scimitars. The reason I prefer scimitars over longswords is the way critical hits are treated in IWD2, specifically:
- Improved Critical feat improves your chance to score a critical with EVERY WEAPON
- Dirty Fighting produces exellent tactical effects, that have a reasonably high DC to save against and cannot be resisted by Spell Resistance, unlike many of the 'on-hit: spell X' weapons.
- Bonus to 'Luck' characteristic (available through spells and items) increases almost EVERY aspect of the char's dice rolls, and rather than provide a bonus to the rolls, a + to Luck just produces BETTER ROLLS of the dice! This means that a 'lucky' char will hit more often, will threat more critical hits, will follow through more threats, will do better damage (that will be multiplied on the frequent criticals), and Dirty Fighting will kick in more often.
I've had a VERY succesful scimitar duel-weilder build, who by the end of the game had a luck bonus of +6 (among other powerful enhancements) - he was doing so many criticals I had to turn 'critical hits screen shakes screen' option, just to keep track of what's going on with the battle.
2a. Bastard Swords here deserve a special note - while I never had a char with enough feats to use them through the normal game, I've found the Bastard Sword of Heroism (+5 enchantment, +3 to hit/damage, +3d6 slashing damage, keen: critical threats on 18-20). This wepon alone might be worth it for the high-luck builds to invest the feats in Exotic Wepon: Bastard Sword in HoF.
3. Every melee char should have a secondary (or primary, if I have not convinced you with items 1 & 2) blunt weapon, to overcome a very common resistance.
The best one-handed choice here is the Club of Disruption, providing a +3 to hit/damage, +5 enchantment, and super-usefull Disruption property.
High-STR tanks might as well get a good use out of a surprising category of weapons: Quarterstaves! The reason for this is that that 1.5*STR bonus for them will quickly outweight the better damage ranges of other blunt weapons.
my 2c...
1. High-STR tanking char: the clear winner here is Axes. That's why:
- flexebility to use 1-handed axe with shield or two-handed axes, depending on tactickal situation nad the specific items you have
- an early available +1 returning axe, that does BLUNT damage!
- exellent axes available to find/buy for every situation, and at every power level
- many of the good axes are 'sure finds' - available to buy at stores, given rewards, etc. - and not random treasure.
Greatswords come to close second place here, and at some points in the game are even supirior over the best axe available, thus inviting the player to either have two tank chars, or one that specializes in both axes and greatswords.
Actually, the best tank out of my builds (and I had a few...) was a shield dwarf Paladin 2/Fighter X, who had more than enough feats two cover all the weapon classes he needed. The main weapons he used over the course of the game where:
Wandering Sky (Greatsword) -> Unholy Blight (Greatsword) -> Widow-Through (Greataxe) -> Greataxe +4 -> Massive Greataxe of Flame +5.
In specific situations, he also utilized Haft Over Head (+1, blunt damage throwing axe), Aurulian Ice Axe (cold damge), Throwing Axe of Shocking Burst (+5 enchantment to hit creatures with XX/+4 and better immunity, plus extra Electrical damage), Black Death (two-handed, +1 throwing axe) and Battleaxe of Disruption +5 (the name speaks for itself here).
As you can see, many of these weapons are 'sure finds'. The Massive Greataxe of Flame, while being a random item, is well worth the time and energy spent reloading and re-fighting the fights to find.
2. Medium-STR melee (weapon & shield, duel-weilding): Large Swords type, with emphasis on scimitars. The reason I prefer scimitars over longswords is the way critical hits are treated in IWD2, specifically:
- Improved Critical feat improves your chance to score a critical with EVERY WEAPON
- Dirty Fighting produces exellent tactical effects, that have a reasonably high DC to save against and cannot be resisted by Spell Resistance, unlike many of the 'on-hit: spell X' weapons.
- Bonus to 'Luck' characteristic (available through spells and items) increases almost EVERY aspect of the char's dice rolls, and rather than provide a bonus to the rolls, a + to Luck just produces BETTER ROLLS of the dice! This means that a 'lucky' char will hit more often, will threat more critical hits, will follow through more threats, will do better damage (that will be multiplied on the frequent criticals), and Dirty Fighting will kick in more often.
I've had a VERY succesful scimitar duel-weilder build, who by the end of the game had a luck bonus of +6 (among other powerful enhancements) - he was doing so many criticals I had to turn 'critical hits screen shakes screen' option, just to keep track of what's going on with the battle.
2a. Bastard Swords here deserve a special note - while I never had a char with enough feats to use them through the normal game, I've found the Bastard Sword of Heroism (+5 enchantment, +3 to hit/damage, +3d6 slashing damage, keen: critical threats on 18-20). This wepon alone might be worth it for the high-luck builds to invest the feats in Exotic Wepon: Bastard Sword in HoF.
3. Every melee char should have a secondary (or primary, if I have not convinced you with items 1 & 2) blunt weapon, to overcome a very common resistance.
The best one-handed choice here is the Club of Disruption, providing a +3 to hit/damage, +5 enchantment, and super-usefull Disruption property.
High-STR tanks might as well get a good use out of a surprising category of weapons: Quarterstaves! The reason for this is that that 1.5*STR bonus for them will quickly outweight the better damage ranges of other blunt weapons.
my 2c...
[QUOTE=Mirk]The Massive Greataxe of Flame, while being a random item, is well worth the time and energy spent reloading and re-fighting the fights to find.
...[/QUOTE]
I've never found the Massive G.axe of flame.
It's a random drop, but evidently is a random drop of a specific fight, can you tell me of which fight and/or where did you find it?
...[/QUOTE]
I've never found the Massive G.axe of flame.
It's a random drop, but evidently is a random drop of a specific fight, can you tell me of which fight and/or where did you find it?