Dynaheir Spells+Proficiency

[damocles23]

Playing with the canon party, going trough the trilogy. What are some good spells she must memorize knowing she can't use sleep? Also, I'm playing a cavalier. Knowing that I can put at most two pips in weapons, what are some weapons or styles to max?

[Volfogg]

Cloudkill, Stinking Cloud, Web, Magic Missile, Chromatic Orb, Dispel Magic, various protective spells.
The paladin exclusive weapons include two-handed Carsomyr and 1,5-hander from Watcher's Keep both upgradable in ToB. Since Keldorn is already into two-handed swords and style you could try dual wield style, but only in BG2 where there are good off-hand options and go style-less in BG1, because missile KP isn't that game-breaking. Long swords and 1,5 handed swords, hammers and maces also maybe flails provide good options for paladins.

[Godsarm]

I just finished BG1 and SoD with the canon party, Jaheira and Khalid, Minsc and Dynaheir and Imoen and I usually play Paladin Undead Hunters or Inquisitors that don't have the ranged weapon restrictions.

Part of it depends on the difficulty mode and the number of companions and their proficiency needs, if you are playing Core rules or lower here's what I'd do)

Dynaheir will need to spend 2nd Level spell slots on Resist/Remove Fear because Jaheira doesn't have access to it. Your Cavalier has it as a natural ability 1/day but that probably won't be enough. Dynaheir may not have access to the Sleep spell, but she can use the Wand of Sleep and Wand of Fear from High Hedge (The Wand of Sleep can be used by everyone except Minsc due to his low INT, but it may be best for D to handle the Wands). As an Invoker, she'll get bonuses on any Invocation spells like Web...enemies will be held helpless more often because of this. Also, Horror and Slow are options for crowd control.

Your Cavalier needs to think about both BG1 and BG2/ToB for proficiency. He'll need to be able to use one of the following in BG1 to contribute to the big fights, Longsword (The Burning Earth), Bastard Sword (Kondar +1/+3 vs Shapeshifters or Balduran's Sword), Quarterstaff (can't remember the name but it's +3/+3), Dagger (Werebane) in BG2 he will really want Two Handed Swords to handle Carsomyr (The Holy Avenger), even if you take Keldorn, you really want your protagonist to have the best gear. Also, if you go with Longsword for BG1 you will find him using Daystar (+2/+4 vs evil and 2x damage vs undead and Sunray 1/day) a lot. It's available early if you can kill the Lich guarding it which isn't as difficult as it sounds. You may want him to have a blunt weapon, Morningstar/Flail (Thresher +2 in BG1, Defender of Easthaven +3 and Flail of the Ages BG2 and ToB), Mace (The Stupifier +1 and Skullcrusher +2 BG1, Skullcrusher +3 BG2) or Warhammar (Ashideena +2 BG1 and BG2 and Crom Fayer (Thor's Hammer) BG2/ToB) because many foes resist Slashing/Piercing damage like skeletons and some like Clay Golems can only be harmed by magic/blunt weapons.


Starting Proficiency
Long sword ++
Morningstar/Flail ++
(You won't get a +2 MS/Flail till you reach BG so you'll be stuck with just a +1 weapon, but it's good enough for bashing Skeletons which can be a real pain because they show up in packs and use good melee/ranged tactics)

L3
Sword and Shield style +
(I'll get a lot of crap for this suggestion, but as party leader you're going to get shot at a lot and you want to draw missile fire away from the party anyway)

L6
Sword and Shield style ++

L9
2-Handed Sword

L12
2-Handed Sword

L15
2-Handed Weapon Style

L18
2-Handed Weapon Style
(You should have the +3 Vorpal Sword if not Carsomyr at this point)

At this point you could start taking Axe (For Axe of the Unyielding in ToB) or Warhammer (Crom Feyr) or Bastard Sword (Foebane in ToB) but to be honest, once you get Carsomyr, Daystar and Flail of the Ages you are set for BG2 and ToB. You could look at dual wielding Daystar and Flail of the Ages by spending the next three slots in 2 Weapon Style). Any way you look at it, once you reach 3 million exp and start taking Whirlwind/Greater Whirlwind HLA's, you will be dicing up opponents left and right.

[AlexMBrennan]

In BG1 ranged weapons rule so you absolutely should take axes early (you can get a returning one in the Candlekeep caves) or maybe daggers (you will have to make do with single-use daggers until BG2 but they are frequently dropped by skeletons around High Hedge).

Bastards swords are theoretically a good idea because they remain relevant until ToB but picking a weapon simply to deal with the Greater Wolfwere is short-sighted since he can be brought down easily enough with trickery (put 7 traps on each level and outside, place skull traps outside, lure the boss into the killzone, done). Any fight becomes trivially easy if you can prepare the area beforehand or lure the boss outside.

Mages should memorize all spells (unless a better mage needs the scroll more); you can always erase them later if you run out of slots.

You could look at dual wielding Daystar and Flail of the Ages by spending the next three slots in 2 Weapon Style).

That is a really bad idea. Two weapon fighting is used to get the bonus provided by the offhand weapons (e.g. extra attacks from belm/kundane/scarlet ninjato, resistance from the defender of easthaven, etc) to make your main hand attacks better but since you are only using the offhand weapon once per round the damage dealt by it is negligible (which is why we keep using belm/kundane even when it cannot damage the enemy).

[Godsarm]

Originally posted by AlexMBrennan:

In BG1 ranged weapons rule so you absolutely should take axes early (you can get a returning one in the Candlekeep caves) or maybe daggers (you will have to make do with single-use daggers until BG2 but they are frequently dropped by skeletons around High Hedge).

Bastards swords are theoretically a good idea because they remain relevant until ToB but picking a weapon simply to deal with the Greater Wolfwere is short-sighted since he can be brought down easily enough with trickery (put 7 traps on each level and outside, place skull traps outside, lure the boss into the killzone, done). Any fight becomes trivially easy if you can prepare the area beforehand or lure the boss outside.

Mages should memorize all spells (unless a better mage needs the scroll more); you can always erase them later if you run out of slots.

You could look at dual wielding Daystar and Flail of the Ages by spending the next three slots in 2 Weapon Style).

That is a really bad idea. Two weapon fighting is used to get the bonus provided by the offhand weapons (e.g. extra attacks from belm/kundane/scarlet ninjato, resistance from the defender of easthaven, etc) to make your main hand attacks better but since you are only using the offhand weapon once per round the damage dealt by it is negligible (which is why we keep using belm/kundane even when it cannot damage the enemy).

First, Cavalier's can't use ranged weapons, I don't know if throwing weapons count as I've never played a Cavalier but I'd assume so unless you know different.

Second, I'd still take Longsword as a Paladin anyway because I'm going to get Varascona in BG1 pretty early and Daystar early in BG2, way before Carsomyr. Plus in ToB there's Angurvadal. I've never seen any reason to have my Paladin take Bastard Swords, worse case he uses Kondar or Werebane with the penalty to kill the Greater Wolfwere. Also, not everyone has the patience to build a thief's Set Traps ability and utilize them. I know they are effective I just don't want to play that way.

Third, it's not a bad idea to dual both Daystar and the Flail of the Ages simply because the offhand doesn't provide a defensive bonus or an extra attack, you just kill stuff quicker. I think using Belm/Kundane in the offhand when it can't damage the enemy is a more suspect strategy since you're going to be using Haste/Improved Haste and Greater Whirlwind attacks in the bigger battles anyway and you may as well get the damage out of the attacks.

Fourth, once you have Carsomyr, you're not going to be using much else as a Paladin unless you need to hide behind a shield for a bit or hit something that requires blunt weapons. I actually woudn't dual-wield a Paladin, he's there to draw and resist attacks and go after enemy mages with Carsomyr. That's why a Paladin load up on Two-Handed Weapon style. After that, there isn't much more to do with proficiency points as the Paladin will have everything they need covered.

[AlexMBrennan]

First, Cavalier's can't use ranged weapons, I don't know if throwing weapons count as I've never played a Cavalier but I'd assume so unless you know different.

Neither throwing axes nor throwing daggers count as missile weapons for this purpose, which makes them the only ranged weapons that cavaliers (and kensai) can use. This is the reason I suggested picking one of them.