THE Best Weapons

[budfudder]

Does there exist a definitive decision as to which is THE best weapon given a particular Str/Agi/Con/Cha configuration? Or a definitive table of exact damages under all circumstances?

I've been working on a Str build (so starting out 8 6 8 6, increasing Str as soon as I can and going to the big weapons (D6+D3) as soon as possible. But I've seen a few posts talking of other combinations for Str - like Dual Wielding two medium (D6) weapons. Then again, I've heard great things about Dual Wielding Talons. But what about the 1.5 bonus for wielding a medium weapon in both hands? There are so many combinations and I'm at a loss to work out which one(s) I should be going with in which circumstance.

Oh, and a couple of questions. If you have a medium weapon in each hand (D6), you're not actually Dual Wielding until you get the talent, correct? If so, does it just act as if you're wielding the one weapon, one handed?

[2009dh]

Without dual wield talent you are at -2 to hit with your off-hand weapon. If the off-hand weapon is small you get 1 parry check each round with a bonus of half Dex bonus rounded up. Dual wield bonus adds full dex bonus instead of half.

I find the difference between the 3 large weapons too subtle to make any difference, so generally take the digger, so that it is easy to gather ore or dig a shortcut through maze levels.

All weapon combinations can be made to work with the appropriate talents.

My personal preference is Digger for Str build & dual Claws for Dex build (talons are less damage).

[Pear]

the short answer is usually legendary crafts (denoted [L]) or named encounters' unique drops (denoted [U], usually +d3 dmg over typical weapons) for everything with some caveats, but the differences are small (~2 damage) unless you're comparing a club with a unique hammer

you should always have 11 base stamina (the only attribute where base stat does significantly more than a +1 enchantment), then usually 10 on damage stat/7/7, but sometimes you can instead get more charisma for more gold earlier, and eventually fix everything with enchantments

so your typical STR char is aiming for 10/7/11/7, AGI 7/10/11/7, mages 7/7/11/10


STR melee: [U]2h/any [U]1h+shield to block projectiles in 2 loadouts, generally crushing is better than other modifiers and slashing is not good

AGI melee: [U] claws is much easier to get than the alternative [L]Ghoulbane which is only situationally better

STR/AGI ranged: crossbow (+slow and steady+ideally full blackthorn), [L] doomerang exists if you want to meme with deadly throw but it's not great

AGI ranged: [L]Wolfbane (more or less needs multishot gift to compete with s&s) / [U]bow or [U]repeater (your usual aimed/steady shot archer)


Spellcaster: any 2 weapons for enchantments, staves exist but are 2h and not good enough to justify losing a weapon slot