What weapon for Jaheira? So many choices...

Black_Paladin · Post by **Black_Paladin** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 1:56 am

I got the item upgrade mod so I ended up getting a bunch of great weapons that I can give to Jaheira. At the moment, Jaheira is pretty much loaded with weapons in her inventory like a sick commando and I can't decide which weapons to use all the time.

For one thing, she is the weakest fighter in my party in terms of AC so she is keeping all the shields in the inventory (other fighters are either using 2 handed weapons or are dual-wielding). She has the Shield of Balduran (equip, go next to a beholder, wait and watch the results

), Holy Buckler of Amaunator (immune to level drain and can cast 2 False Dawns so its a perfect item when vampire hunting) and the upgraded Shield of Harmony (immune to psionics so it's perfect item to use when Mind Flayer hunting).

For weapons, she has the Water's Talon +4, Pitchwife +5, the Club of Detonation +5, throwing Impaler +4 and Ixil's Spike +6. She also had the Staff of the Woodlands +5 but I ditched that one.

Earlier in the game, when she was a weak fighter, she was basically standing in the background and using stuff like the Staff of Thunder and Lightning and Staff of Fire (summoning a crapload of Fire Elementals left and right).

As she got better in fighter levels, I gave her the Impaler +4 (she also used the throwing Spear of the Unicorn for a while with good results) and she started dishing out some really good damage with that weapon. As a matter of fact, the Impaler +4 helped immensely when fighting some bosses. I then wondered if I should make her more melee oriented as she has a *real* good armor class, gauntlets of extraordinary specialization and great elemental resistances and saves (100% electrical resistance and +5 to saves vs spells from the Harper Pin alone).

As a result, I am now wondering if she should keep the Impaler +4, use the Ixil's Spike +6 (she doesn't seem to do good with this weapon for some reason but I wonder if she will get better when her level becomes higher), duel wield Club of Detonation and Pitchwife +5 or Water's Talon +4 or go with a sword and shield combination?

There are so many combinations that it is overwhelming. Club of Detonation +5 seems to be a good weapon for the main hand and I wonder if I should use the Pitchwife or the Water's Talon for the off-hand (mainly for the acid damage it adds every round, hopefully disrupting spellcasters).

The Water's Talon and Pitchwife both seem to do the same exact thing (acid damage spread over several rounds) but the Water's Talon increases the wielder's hitpoints with every hit as well so duel wielding the Water's Talon with Pitchwife is also an option.

What do you think?

Thrain · Post by **Thrain** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 2:50 am

belm and water's talon

or belm and pitchwife

Promil · Post by **Promil** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 3:06 am

many staves or spers are great, jaheira often use scimitars but have no dual wield.there are good staves vs. air, fire,earth elementals, use them when fighting with elementals because they can quickly kill they(slay ability). Some spears are great but only when u teach jaheira to use them. for ranged weapons there is only one choice-sling( +3 sling on umar hills).I give jaheira staff of druid<or nature, i dont remember name> and by all game she was good with it. Jaheira is not for fight in my team,only for summoning and defense, but if u want do her Fighter rather than druid- it is your choice

Galuf the Dwarf · Post by **Galuf the Dwarf** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 8:56 am

Originally posted by Promil
many staves or spers are great, jaheira often use scimitars but have no dual wield.there are good staves vs. air, fire,earth elementals, use them when fighting with elementals because they can quickly kill they(slay ability). Some spears are great but only when u teach jaheira to use them. for ranged weapons there is only one choice-sling( +3 sling on umar hills).I give jaheira staff of druid<or nature, i dont remember name> and by all game she was good with it. Jaheira is not for fight in my team,only for summoning and defense, but if u want do her Fighter rather than druid- it is your choice

Are you referring to the Staff of the Woodlands +4?

Promil · Post by **Promil** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 10:27 am

AC: +3 bonus
Equipped Abilities: Barkskin (AC 3)
Use Abilities (cost 1 charge)
Summon Shambling Mound
Enhanced Charm Animal
Duration: 5 minutes
Saving throw: save vs. spells with a -4 penalty
THAC0: +4 bonus
Damage: 1D6 +4
Damage type: crushing
Weight: 2
Speed Factor: 1
Type: 2-handed
Requires: 5 Strength
Usable By
Druids
hmmm, this is good staff, but there are better, I post that vs. elementals there are superior staves likes staff of fire and staff of earth.

Promil · Post by **Promil** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 10:34 am

Jaheira can summon fire elemental( as a druid she can cast that spell without woory the elemental turn against her) but when u use some spell (like fireballs or cloudkill) the elemental may turn against u, then the staff of fire is the best choice( elder elemental that turn against me in five hells was pretty tough even for kensai with flail of ages+belm

Maybe u want to have jaheira as a primary fighter?? then all of weapons that the others mentioned are great. but how u can kill adamantite golem with jaheira?.........eh, she is good for support, but not for fight in first line i think....give her staves or spears.....u would not regret

Mirk · Post by **Mirk** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 2:28 pm

this of course depends on the other party members, but i almast always tend to use Jaheira as a ranged support, with ** in slings (awesome damage by the mid-game), daggers (firetooth!!!) and darts (for mage killing & deathblow)

Black_Paladin · Post by **Black_Paladin** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 3:37 pm

OK, I switched her to the Impaler +4. She seems to do the best damage with this weapon (this is a thrown spear so it's a ranged weapon).

For those of you who said that Staff of Fire, Air, etc. are better, I combined all these staves to make the Staff of Elemental Mastery (from the Item Upgrade mod again) and had given it to Kelsey but now that I think about it, it's better to give it to Jaheira because she can switch to it to kill elementals and she doesn't have to be equipped with it to summon elementals (it's enough that it's in her quickslot so she can be using the Impaler and summoning stuff at the same time). Kelsey's primary weapon is the Staff of the Magi so it's a wiser choice to not make him become visible by switching to the Elemental Staff anyway.

Ekental · Post by **Ekental** » Sun Apr 18, 2004 2:21 pm

It really depends on what you want to do,
Jaheira can be good support with sling of seeking + strength belt
and spells of course

Jaheira can be good fighter with 2 scimitars: Belm and [whatever]
Also, you can give her something like a good spear or staff and she'll do pretty good with those too.

Personally I like her to dual-wield with scimitars, in ToB just give her the +5 scimitar and belm and your set, of course you do need proficiency slots in dual-wield as well

BTW many of the druid spells are great for buffing so you can get Jaheira to be a fairly good fighter either way you do it

Thrain · Post by **Thrain** » Sun Apr 18, 2004 3:28 pm

in reference to this, i find it interesting that Jaheira can get 3* in dual weild yet normal fighter/druids cannot

Ekental · Post by **Ekental** » Wed Apr 21, 2004 10:40 pm

hmm.??? I find that intersting cause I can do it fine with any fighter druid that i create

methestel · Post by **methestel** » Wed Apr 21, 2004 10:44 pm

POLL: Best All Around NPC's

Which five do you think are the best to have as main party members (I know you have to pick up others for some quests) - but who are the best staples (and why)?

I'm sure I'm missing out on some strategic minutiae here.

So?

Meth

Promil · Post by **Promil** » Wed Apr 21, 2004 11:18 pm

Methestel, it is not really good idea to ask such things on other thread, select new thread and then we might answer you. this thread is about weapons for JAheira, not the best party members.
I answer you gladlly if u create new thread, now isaid no more.

Kaitsuburi · Post by **Kaitsuburi** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 12:13 am

Probably an obvious question, but throwing spears need both hands free, don't they? Or, (which I would greatly prefer) can they be used with one hand while using a shield too?

The latter kind of makes sense, but I haven't used a throwing spear before; please enlighten me

-kaitsuburi

methestel · Post by **methestel** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 12:22 am

Spears

I haven't checked the game but as far as I know a spear should definitely be a single-handed weapon so shields should be ok - if this were not possible the romans wouldn't have lasted nearly as long as they did -

phalanx of shields + lots of spears = piles of dead 'barbarians'

Q: if you throw a spear in BG2, can you pick it up again? Actually, how do you throw a spear in BG2 in the first place?

And I've always wondered why you can't get at least a few of your missile weapons (arrows, bolts etc) back after a battle - a sling stone can't be that damaged, can it?

Meth

Kaitsuburi · Post by **Kaitsuburi** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 12:34 am

Re: Spears

Originally posted by methestel
I haven't checked the game but as far as I know a spear should definitely be a single-handed weapon so shields should be ok

Non-throwable spears, together with halberds, are 2-handed weapons in BG2. Throwable spears feel more like single-handed weapons, as you point out. Can anyone confirm about 2-handed spears?

Q: if you throw a spear in BG2, can you pick it up again? Actually, how do you throw a spear in BG2 in the first place?

The spear magically returns to your hand. Pretty nifty, eh?

And I've always wondered why you can't get at least a few of your missile weapons (arrows, bolts etc) back after a battle - a sling stone can't be that damaged, can it?

Considering the amount of ammunition that is fired during a fight, what you suggest will be a messy affair

You won't be able to see the ground (or other items). It would be nice to see arrows sticking out of your fallen enemy though. Very Tolkien-like

-kaitsuburi

methestel · Post by **methestel** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 2:18 am

Weapons for J.

You guys probably know this already but Ken Egervari, someone who seems to know what they are talking about put together a guide for his tips on the best equipment for each NPC -

For Jaheira's weapons he says (though most of these are only available later in the game):

Main hand: Club of Detonation +5 or Spectral Brand +5
Off Hand: Belm +2

Or: Main Hand: Ixil's Spike +6

Kaitsuburi · Post by **Kaitsuburi** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 2:55 am

Those are good choices of course, but unavailable until ToB. With Item Upgrade mod, Jaheira can get Pitchwife +5 mentioned above very early on and with Belm you have a killer combo

-kaitsuburi

Black_Paladin · Post by **Black_Paladin** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 11:27 am

Originally posted by Kaitsuburi
Those are good choices of course, but unavailable until ToB. With Item Upgrade mod, Jaheira can get Pitchwife +5 mentioned above very early on and with Belm you have a killer combo

-kaitsuburi

And that was my dilemma.

I did try Jaheira with Club or Detonation +5 and she seemed to do pretty good with it in practice and yet I haven't run into many spellcasters in ToB that caused me problems that she could disable with the Pitchwife (almost anything worth hitting with Pitchwife in my games seems to be either immune or highly resistant to acid)

I tried Jaheira with Ixil's Spike but found out quickly that she is far from efficient with that weapon. The speed factor means that she always gets hit before she can strike and since Jaheira is more of a back-up fighter than a frontline tank, this means that she gets killed quickly with this weapon in hand. The "pinning down" ability of this spear happened VERY rarely with any enemy when Jaheira was wielding it.

One interesting combination I am thinking is dual wielding the Club of Detonation +5 with the Fulcrum +4. The Fulcrum +4 gives Grandmastery in clubs so the Club of Detonation +5 will do more damage but more importantly, will be able to hit more often. Moreoever, it seems that the occasional fireball released from this club is very handy in disrupting enemy spellcasters all around you. The ones that don't get disrupted are casting from scrolls and they wouldn't be disrupted with Pitchwife either. In addition, both the Pitchwife and Fulcrum have the slivers/shards damage over 4 rounds ability so the Fulcrum seems to be a lot better weapon. It is not possible to get both weapons with the Item Upgrade however, so I will leave using the Fulcrum to my next game.

One question however: Are the slivers/shards do the same thing as weapons that cause bleeding damage and is this actually supposed to have any effect on disrupting spellcasting?

UserUnfriendly · Post by **UserUnfriendly** » Fri Apr 23, 2004 8:45 pm

Originally posted by Black_Paladin One question however: Are the slivers/shards do the same thing as weapons that cause bleeding damage and is this actually supposed to have any effect on disrupting spellcasting? [/b]

yes, acid damage over time, and sliver damage, as well as bleeding damage will all disrupt spell casting..

best weapons for jaheira...

spectral brand
water's edge
staff of ram
upgraded staff of woodlands
throwing impaler
ixtl's spike

i've used all of them with jaheira, and they're all great...