I have a question regarding points allocated for weapons skills specialisation. Correct me if I'm wrong but it seems that to avoid any penalty when using a given weapon, points must be alloted to both the weapon type AND the fighting style as well.
E.g. if I want to avoid any penalty usign a long sword I need to allocate at least one point to long swords and at least another point to single weapon style and sword and shield style.
Have I understood the rules/manual correctly? If so would it be better to spread the points across weapon types or across fighting styles?
No spoilers, please. Thank you.

[This message has been edited by Hayashi (edited 03-25-2001).]

it only matters to fighters, for everyone else, you dont really expect a mage to deal out tons of melee dmg, do you?

see, if you use a two handed sword, what you want to do is, put at least two ++ in his two handed sword profeciency. well, that is about enough for a fighter. however, if you want some extra kick, you can put two ++ in "two handed weapon" fighting style, this will give him a nice bonus. IF you have more spared points, you can further advance his weapon skill by putting more points into "two handed sword" weapon. it is not required for a fighter to have proficient in any "fighting style" EXCEPT dual wield. YOU MUST ALWAYS put at least two ++ in "two weapons style" if you want to dual wield, otherwise the penalty is SCARY!

250,
Thanks for your reply. I guess I should've said that my character is a kensai.

np, what is it so special about kensai? was your question in general or directed to just kensai?

There is no MUST to put points in fighting style, you will suffer penalty only if weilding a weapon without points in the proficiency categorie of that weapon. But still, if you want dual weilding, I say put 3 in dual weapon style to only suffer -2 with the second hand. If you are a Kensei, like one of my character, Just put ALL in one weapon To be a grand master and In 1 hand style or 2handed style if you use only 2 handed swords. But man, The kensei Is F... Strong with 5 in 2handed swords and 2 in 2handed fighting style !! I always hit with 15dmg min now. With a thaco of -2

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Maybe it's because I hate drows more than I hate Humans - Jarlaxle to Entreri

Pls excuse me as I am new to AD&D in general and to BG2 in particular. Although I have played many other RPGs to date none have been AD&D titles. It is somewhat confusing with its many rules. The purpose of my post was to seek some general advice on how to distribute skill points to a fighter-type PC without putting it into something that would not be of much use later.
To sum up: it is better to put points into weapon proficiencies rather than fighting styles. I would have thought that it would be the other way around as fighting styles work across weapon types.
http://www.tgeweb.com/ironworks/cgi-...s/confused.gif

Right from the start I would decide on 1 range weapon and 1 melee weapon that you are going to use throughout the game and split your skill points between them. Don't waste a skill point because you picked up a really cool weapon that you don't have a proficency in. There are plenty of good weapons of all types in the game. I personally will only put 2 skill points in my range weapon and then allocate everything else to the melee weapon. Then when that fills up add to a weapons style or to the range weapon. While the weapon styles work across different weapons the benefits are marginal. Personally I don't use the single handed weapon styles at all. However if you are using a 2 handed sword you will find the 2 handed weapon style a big help. If you dual wield the 2 weapon sytle is a must. Also note that some melee weapons are also range weapons like the axe and the dagger. It really all comes down to how you want to play it.