Gonna be starting this game for the first time soon, planning on rolling a berserker to use through the saga, but I'm having a tough time figuring out what weapon to main with. Was originally planning on using halberds, but I heard they're not such a good choice, so now I'm thinking maybe doing a quarterstaff wielding 'serker or dual wielding a pair of weapons. Any advice or suggestions?

BG1: Anything except katana's should be okay. The one I'd recommend most is two-handed sword. You can get a magical one before mid-game. After you finish Durlag's Tower, you'll get a +3 two-handed sword. Note that katanas and ninja-tos are only available with mods or with EE. Same for dual-wielding. These aren't officially introduced until BG2. If you want to go with something else, that's not going to interfere with game play too much. Q-staff is definitely a good choice, especially before you do Nashkel Mines.

BG2: Same as above, except the weapons from Kara-Tur are more viable. Two handed weapons deal more damage per shot. But dual-wielding one-handers are good for weapons with effects. If you end up using Valygar, put his family blade in his off hand, and add another magical one-hander for his main hand.

Here is a good site for looking at the different weapons available in game:

BG1 - http://mikesrpgcenter.com/bgate/melee.html

BG2 - http://mikesrpgcenter.com/bgate2/weapons.html

There's really no wrong answer. You'll eventually need +1 or better enchantments on your weapon, which is something every weapon type has at least one of. In fact, weapon types (slashling, piercing, crushing) are actually more important. The best tool for zombies are slashing weapons, skeletons, golems, and oozes/jellies/slimes require crushing weapons, and bandits/slavers/thugs are weak to piercing weapons because most of them use leather armour. This list is not exhaustive, just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. Also note that two-handed weapons like polearms and halberds are good at keeping foes at a distance. I can't remember if this applies to all two handed weapons.

Thank you for the tips. Normally I'd go for two-handed swords, but I'm gonna have Minsc be my two handed sword guy, so nuts to that. I'm wondering if maybe I could rock both halberds and quarterstaves through the games, and switch as the situation necessitates. Maybe put two pips in two handed weapons skill, then a pip each in both of them?

Two-Handed Weapons is front-loaded so just put one pip if you want it. Then put two pips in one weapon type so you have a "main" weapon type right away.

If you're power-gaming, generally speaking, dual-weapon is the most powerful, especially with a dps-heavy class like Berserker, but it requires more time to be powerful, since you need to invest more pips. For cases like Blade or some dual/multi-class build, you may also need to be high level to benefit from better base THAC0. Within BG you probably won't be too powerful with dual-weapons, but if you plan to play through the whole saga with one character, then sure. Other than that, if you care about role-playing specific styles, just go with what you fancy.

I've played once with halberds. They are fun, and with the Immortal Efreet bug they can even help you immensly, especialy in a party.

Though you might want to consider Bastard Swords as begginer weapon for 3 vs. shapeshifters, and Sword of Balduran.

Pick one weapon type and put all proficiency points you can into it to get grandmastery quickly.
This leaves you with only two extra points to spend for other proficiencies for a until level 12 in BG2.

Quarterstaff is an easy weapon choice since you'll always find some and blunt weapons are not resisted. Adding halberd proficiency to it is pointless on the long run because of the growing difference in specialization.

Although superior in theory I don't think dualwielding is satisfying since in the beginning you have and bad to hit chances and barely any proficiency points and in Throne of Bhaal you can pick high level abilities which grant 10 attacks per round whether you're dualwielding or not.

Natural for berserkers is wearing a shield since they usually lead the party and extra AC bonus can help significantly.

Right, so for the dual wielding idea, I actually read one potential plan on the Beandog forums that involves putting two pips on hammer and axes, and alternating between the two with a shield through BG1 while upping one of them (axes most likely) along with the dual wielding skill, since I'm planning on taking this character through the saga. Friend of mine who has a history with the game suggested pretty much the same thing, so I got half a mind to bite the bullet and go for it tomorrow.

That's a very BAD idea.
First: you probably will hire Viconia for cleric. SHE uses the hammers. And hammers aren't good actualy. the top hammer has a single bonus of improved STR, and you can get that from anywhere. Its other uses will work w/o any pip in anything.

Axes are another very bad choice. First: Korgan uses the axes if you realy want to lay your hands on some axes. The hugh problem with axes is, they sound nice, but they're actualy horrible. Bala's axe is unreliable as heck, and underenchanted. The top axe has vorpal effect - to which every important enemy has immunity. So it's a very weak weapon class.

To make a dual-wielder, start a fighter, or ranger, max out the dual option ASAP, and put 1 point in something like Longsword, which you'll find plenty, and isn't half bad. They become a bit weaker for the endgame, but you'll have a party, so who cares, perfect beginner's choice. Heck, even daggers are awesome in BG1 (though darn weak in BG2).

I'd still recommend to stick with the Halberd-idea. You get excellent choices, very party friendly, and twohanded style makes them even better.
Sure, you won't get anything designer-choice in BG1, but there most weapon classes don't offer anything special aside +2-3 enchantment anyway.
In BG2 you get Duskblade which has elemental damage to pierce stoneskin and such, Dragon's Bane which is insane against dragons - which are though and common through the whole game), Dragon's Breath (multiple elemental damage), Wave (which is totaly awesome, its Slay Creature abilities are realy much welcomed), and there's Ravager for ToB which is just an insane weapon (very fast, especialy with twohanded style which also expands critical range, +6 enchantment which is very rare, AND has vorpal effect just to be cruel).

Trust me, halberds are underrated weapon class, which are very satisfying to use. Sure, the selection is not wide, but they are totaly worthy of your investment.

Not a bad idea at all. One of the best weapons you can get early on in BG is a warhammer +2 with electrical damage and I remember finishing the game with it.

There are excellent Axes in BG2. In BG1, you can get a +1 early in Beregost. It is actually a throwing Axe but you can use it for melee only. +2 axes are sold in Baldur's Gate and considering there are no +3 weapons in BG1 (except 2 scimitars from Dritz), it is a bold argument to claim that axes are a poor choice.

HOWEVER. Dual-wielding is not as cool as it seems late in the game since it only gives 1 extra attack with the off-hand weapon. No matter the specialization, or level or other things that affect attack per round, off-hand weapons only attack once. So in the late game, it becomes like 6 attacks per round instead of 5 APR with 2 skill points lost on dual-wield (or 3) and with lower damage output (usually). So does it worth it? That's for you to decide. Some may prefer to use those points in the 2H-weapon style, which increases the critical range to 19-20 instead of just 20. Or just invest on a 2nd weapon.

One last note. Do not think too much about the weapons' initial damages like D4 or D8. You'll get STR 19 at some point which gives +7 DMG. And even STR 18/91 gives +5 and 18/00 gives +6 so with a +2 weapon the compression will be like D4+9 or D8+9, which is basically 10-13 DMG vs 10-17 DMG. With other bonuses like Bless or Berserking, the difference will slowly lose its significance.

EDIT: Corrected 18/91 DMG bonus.

Are you playing with self imposed restrictions or mods that make axes and hammers not worth spitting at? Ashideena is a +2 warhammer that also does electricity damage. It's one of the best weapons in BG1. You can also get a +2 battle axe in the Helm and Cloak Inn. +2 enchantments on a weapon in BG1 are very powerful.

"The top hammer" is Crom Faeyr, and is one of the most broken items in the game. Plus 5 THAC0, 25 strength, and being able to one-shot stone golems, clay golems, ettins and trolls isn't good enough? What would you add to make it better? There's also Runehammer, which you get in ToB, which is also absurdly powerful.

How is Bala's axe "unreliable"? It's a good anti-caster weapon. On top of having a chance to interrupt casting when hitting a mage, it also applies miscast magic.

Edit: There's also Frost Reaver in BG2. It's a +3 axe, which means it can hit just about anything. You can also get it pretty early in the game. If you run into an adamantite golem and you don't have a +3 bludgeoning item with you, you can use Frost Reaver. Again, it's' not ideal, but you might not get +3 bludgeoning weapons until later in the game, depending on the path you choose.

Ah true. I was thinking about the base game, without the Tales of the Sword Coast expansion. You are right of course. Even tho Durlag's Tower, Ulgoth's Beard, Werewolf and Ice islands are actually part of the TotSC expansion, the GOG version (or the EE) publish them as a single game.

I usualy play solo if that counts, so the weakness of equipments very much gets highlighted.

For example Bala's axe is a JOKE. Zero enchantment-level means you won't regularly hit anything with it.
And you know what's the best Miscast Magic? KILLING THE ENEMY. You know what can kill the enemy quick? High level enchantment given THAC0 and high DMG. None which Bala has.
You know what's the 2nd best Miscast Magic type effect? Landing hits on casters. That - you know - makes the Casting Failure.
To Bala's Axe be any useful we'd need high HP casters who can be hit with unenchanted weapons - and that's simply not the case.

Now take a look at Crom Faeyr. It is a piece of garbage. Fool's Gold.
+5 THAC0? That's simply comes from being a +5 weapon. That's not anything special. Ravager (halberd) gives PLUS SIX THAC0 being +6 weapon.
25 STR? Does it REALY matter? I say no. First, if you do thing right, your protagonist can end up with 24-25 NAUTRAL STR (Half-Orcs get 25 STR, others less).
Second, have you seen the BELTS? There are 3 types of belts: the Inertial Barrier, the inferior +AC vs dmg-type, and STR-giving ones.
So, why'd I bother sacrifising my weapon-slot, when I can simply use my belt-slot and have an actualy decent weapon?
Oh, the slaying-abilities of it? Seriously, those are very stiuational, and have no condition (aside landing the hit). So when the need arise, pull out that weapon on literaly anyone in your party, and use it as a backup-piece, as any sane person would.

Btw, with ANY +3 weapon you can land a hit on practicaly anything. If you don't mind skipping the select few which can only be hit with +3 stuff, you don't even have to bother with +3 weapons at all actualy. And given a sorcerer/ess can do the whole of BG1 solo, without using any equipment, if you have a party, you should be fine in any situation.

Bala's Axe is enchanted, it just doesn't give bonuses to hit and damage, but that hardly matters against casters. What does matter is that once you can land a hit, a mage is pretty much good as dead anyway. And that Bala's effect allows a save vs spell, and mages have the highest saves vs spells. So yes, it's usefullness is limited. It works better against priests.

Axes are good because there's many of them, with different qualities. And there are throwing axes, an area in which a berserker lacks otherwise.

Hammers are good because they do blunt damage, the best kind of damage.

I usually go with a shield in BG1, then switch to dual wield in BG2.

I think a bit of meta knowledge will be of great help for you in this case. Baldur's Gate 1 is a low level adventure so the +2 hammer with lightning damage that you find will be useful through the entire game. But not all of that imports into BG2, though. Even if you play the EEs, I don't think your full Siege of Dragonspear gear will import. And a heads up, if you play Siege with the Core Rules difficulty, the final boss will only be damaged by +3 weapons. On the other hand, BG2 has a whole lot of extremely powerful weapons, but only a handful of them (if that) will be helpful throughout Shadows of Amn alone. I think the Flail of Ages is one of the best wepons you can find. And there's Carsomyr, but only Paladins can use it (there's a Paladin companion for you in bg2 if you're not one).