bastard swords ?

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are there any good bastard swords throughout the game?
(i picked them as a specialization for my fighter/ranger)

[ April 17, 2006, 20:43: Message edited by: atman ]

 

There aren't many good ones, especially considering you have to use a feat just to become proficient in them. In fact, a lot of them are either cursed or just don't have the stats to make them equal to other weapons you'll be finding at the same stage of the game.

Unless, of course, you install the "improved Bastard swords" component of Weimer's Ease of Use mod (availalble here at SP). It removes the cursed ones and changes the effects on some of the swords. The readme can give a more detailed explanation.

 

Yeah, you should definitely install the improved bastard sword mod if you want to use that weapon type. Without that mod, taking bastard sword as a specialisation is a bit of a waste.

 

I remember finding several magical bastard swords.

I like greatswords, halberds and axes more because of the extra strength bonus for two-handed weapons.
But the other 1-handed weapons are not really better than bastard swords.

 

well i need weapon specialization in two weapons in order to get maximized attacks later on. if you say there won't be any good bastard swords, i may pick large swords. i guess large sword is most popular weapon in all IWD/BG games...i may also take short sword as a second specialization because i use them in off-hand.

 

It's just that for some reason, the bastard swords in vanilla IWD2 don't justify having to take a whole exotic weapon specialty in order to be able to use them. Because the need for an additional feat, you'd hope that the bastard swords would be better than the other types. That is what the mod does - rebalances the game so that it is worth taking that exotic weapon feat.

 

I think that the Bastard Swords in the EoU mod are rather overpowered. I can appreciate the desire to add some more good BS's, but some of those in teh EoU mod are seriously overpowered.

 

It also depends on what weapons your other party members will use.
None of my party members used a longsword at the later parts of the game except the paladin-only longsword, so longswords are not that great.
The best short sword can be gained by winning battle square fights.

In IWD2 all 1-handed weapons are considered light, even bastard swords, so you can even dualwield bastard swords without an extra penalty if I'm not mistaken.(Why do you want to dualwield different weapon types anyway ?)


I don't think that bastard swords are unbalanced.

The +4 exemplar you can buy in chapter5 is usually the best you get of most weapons and the bastard sword +4 does more damage than the other 1-handed weapons.
Feats are not that useful. You get the important ones soon enough and the extra damage bastard swords do is more useful than +3 HP or +2 in a saving throw.

 

kmonster, you're wrong about all 1H weapons being "light". Only small blades are light weapons.

Regarding "unbalanced" bastard swords, I think that the EoU mod's bastard swords are overpowered and unbalanced, not the standard IWD2 versions.

 

crusis is right. Only Short Swords and Daggers are considered light in IWDII. You can certainly still dual wield Bastard Swords, but there IS a penalty for having it in your off hand.

Dual Wielding different weapons is definitely worth doing, specially if you don't care for most of the feats in the game as you can dump your feats into the two weapons you want to wield. Since you have to have a Short Sword or a Dagger in the off hand to get the least penalty possible for dual wielding, you may want to having a bigger, harder hitting weapon in the main hand.

 

Once your level start to get really high towards the end of normal mode or in HOF, the dual-wielding penalty for not having a light weapon in the off-hand becomes less significant, since the weapons have much higher AB bonuses and your own BAB is so high, that it's much less likely to matter much.

OTOH, if you're a pure warrior, you may max out your # of attacks per round and the +1 atk/rd may not matter at all.

Frankly, later in the game, the best thing you get from dual wielding is less the extra attack and more the benefit you may be getting from any special effects that the offhand weapon may be giving you.

The best off hand weapons are those that have persistant effects. That is, effects that are on all the time, not just when your weapon strikes an enemy. Golden Heart of CHARNAME is a good example of this, cuz it gives you, IIRC, a lot of persistent effects, like +4 STR, Haste, and extra HP while equipped.

OTOH, if you have a weapon with great damaging effects, you want to be using it as much as possible. You want it in your main hand.

 

I'm using the Static Bastard Sword at the moment. It is great for carving up those dratted Horde goblins.

 

Are you guys talking about HoF? I remember finding only one decent bastard sword in the whole of the normal mode game and it wasn't a stunner, anyway.

 

Chev, the ease of use mod has an option for Improved Bastard Swords. This applies in normal mode. The Static Bastard sword for example can be obtained in Chapter One and deals out 5d6 of electrical damage (hence some of the comments that the new swords are overpowered).

 

I think I'll have to join the ranks of the malcontent and agree that this is way, WAY overpowered. It wouldn't be so bad in HoF, but chapter 1 normal mode??!