What determines the speed of a weapon? The weight?

Sorry i dont know but i have a question about it too :)
I think weapon speed is WAY more important in IWD2 than in BG series. My fighter with his twohanded sword goes to attack the keg and he swings first time nothing happens :eek: only when he swings the second time it blows it to pieces. I dont know why is that(maybe becouse of attacks as well).

I noticed something similar to that as well. :/

No reply? I am amazed.. does this finally mean that someone came up with a question even the greatest forum posters can't answer? Or are they just lazy. :p
I have to agree I do not know what sets the weapon speed, I would assume it has something to do with the weight and maybe player strenght/dex.

As far as I understand it, each weapon has a speed factor (listed on Baldurs Gate 2 in each item description, not listed on IWD2, but I assume still there since some feats claim to improve them, improved initiative for one - although I don't know how far the rules differ ... surely the engine deals with it in the same way?), and from what I remember the intrinsic speed value/factor of each weapon depends on it's type, eg 1 for daggers, 10 for two handed swords, etc. I believe this speed is used in initiative calculations? I.E the guy with the dagger (+1) has got a better chance of rolling under the guy with the forty foot lance (+20).

The animations from what I've seen ingame seem to be only loosely linked with what's going on. I have all of the attack rolls shown, and only now I've got four attacks per round do the animations actually match the dice rolls. Before, the characters were making a swing on screen with no attack roll appearing for it, having an attack roll only for the second swing.

Anyway, er, hope that rambling helps. If not, just ignore me. :D

For what it's worth, the "additional attacks" you get where your character looks like he's hitting something but there's no To Hit-roll, are there to make the characters look busy. A character with one attack hits once in a six-second round, and combat would look very odd with a bunch of people striking once, then standing around looking at each other for five seconds waiting to hit again.

What is the point of weapon speed? You never get more attacks than that dictated by BAB.

Of course, one scenario may be when two characters face each other with minimum hp left and identical weapon, the one with improved initiative hits the target first and killed his foe! :)

For me weapon speed means spell interruption or even attack interruption.Suppose there are 2 characters one with great sword, one with long one.They swing fast at the same time.Suppose both hit.The one with the long sword hits first because of weapon speed and other is in the middle of his normally succesfull swing.Then he says somethin like OOOUUCHHH or AW, OW and so on and never finishes his swind doing NO damage.Hated seeing Minsk in BG2 getting killed without having a chance to fight back.I thing concentration helps characters to hit even when hit themselvs.In 2E at higher levels Minsc was better - not interrupted every time.Background concentration?
It can be that i'm fully wrong on this it's my own opinion so somebody of the experts must confirm it or reject it :D :D :D

[ November 22, 2002, 14:54: Message edited by: AlexGK ]

The new 3E rules definitely did force me to change some of my tatics. But then does it mean that I can hack as fast with a great sword as I would with a dagger? Kinda unrealistic right? In fact sometimes I still see my Paladin hacking slower than my fighter with a large sword, and so I wonder...

I think it would be cool of they combined both BAB and weapon speed together, and actually if they did, it would be NICE if they made the statistics known explicitly!!! :/

You know, there are still some bugs with BAB. Improved initiative is one thing, the other is with my Wizard. He is currently leve 19 or 20, yet he only has one attack per round!!! It's like his attack is listed as:

*/-

* = number
The slash is there, but then the next number that was there, is blank. Hmm...

@Dreamagi
If your wizard has +6 or more as the 1st attack bonus, then he MUST have a second attack. Unless he's using a crossbow with only one attck limitation. Then you'll see the slash but no number after it.

Remember guys, that IWD2 is NOT 3E really. It's just a hack, that attempts to implement as much as possible of 3E from an engine made strictly for 2E rules. NWN is more like 3E (it's the only other 3E game I've tried anyway. Are there any others out there already?)

And I'm quite pissed like everyone that not all the data is fully explained and declared to the player. I think it's just a cheap tactic that they use to allow for:
- changing things without the user knowing
- hiding bugs (i.e. unintended incoherence between the documented behavior and the real one)
- cheating to make NPCs overpowerful (i.e. *intended* incoherence)
- underestimation of what the user is capable of understanding
- just plain laziness
- other cheezy or cheap reason (you fill in what you think)

In any case, you should complain on the BIS forums (not that I think they'll give a damn - I've tried it), because no game designers reply to messages posted here.

Quint: Oh ok, I get it now, because my wizard is using a crossbow.

You know about wizards and their starting weapon proficiencies, I really wonder why on earth would they be proficient in crossbows, and not missile weapons instead? I think it's more realistic that they use darts or slings if they wanna hit something at range.