I have just come back to Kuldahar from Dragon's Eye and we have a little gold now. Weapons are rather expensive though. Is it really worth it to buy any of them (when able to)? I seem to recall we pick up good weapons in loot.

If you have a bard, consider the instruments. (Okay, they're not weapons, but anyway...) Items for bards aren't all that commonplace, and http://www.ironworksforum.com/forum/showpost.php?&p=207919&postcount=4 waxes lyrical about one of them.

If you have the money to spare, upgrade; it's what you accrue money for, after all, and you don't want to suddenly be faced with foes that you can't hit because of inadequate weapons -- without meta gaming, finding weapons in loot is a crap shoot.

If you do meta game, and you do know where the best weapons are to be found, you already know the answer.

Yeh, go ahead. You find potions by the hundreds, and you don't need to buy spell scrolls all that often, so there isn't a whole lot else you can spend money on.

The Love of Black Bess, The Giving Star and The Helm of the Trusted Defender are all pretty good, if you have characters that can use them. Otherwise, I would hold off and wait to see what you can find.

I always made sure I had all the magic I needed from Orrick covered before browsing Conlan's stuff.

It depends, really. I personally bought weapons and armors only in the first stages of the game, since finding good ones in the fields was not so easy; by the time of Dragon's Eye, though, I didn't need to upgrade. Plenty of good loot everywhere, and too high prices in shops. Anyway, you wouldn't do much with all your money, so investing them in equipment should be the better choice! Just remember to use a charachter with high charisma to have a little discount on goods.

I have heard bards can be really good, especially in IWD, and that post makes a strong argument indeed. I had one in a previous game, possibly my first in IWD1 or IWD2 (which didn't get far tbh), but I just found it an annoyance. Yes the songs can be good (and apparently great, bordering on OP), but they have to keep playing all the time, which means no combat. And once thing I love to do in combat is to select the whole lot and force-attack enemies, one by one.

Maybe I'll try a bard again later at some point, but I found them a bit meh. Like the description says, they're a jack of all trades, but my experience with that is that they're not very useful at anything. Am I being too harsh? Perhaps. I try not to meta-game, although I do know bits and pieces here and there from the first playthrough (like the merchant in the Severed Hand giving the best prices), although I can't recall what weapons are anywhere really (except the location of Pale Justice, as I had been looking for it forever in the previous game).

Can't afford any of the good stuff at Conlan's yet, as they tend to cost 30,000 to 40,000 gold, and we have maybe 15,000, but none of them really scream out "BUY ME!!" either. Felt some in BG were more like that, for example the special mage-cloak you could buy that increased casting speed. Most of our guys have +2 now, which should be fine against just about anything. Tbh I thought we needed +3 to hurt Yxunomei, but she went down in the end anyway (oddly enough, the only damage we took was when my druid picked the wrong spell, and threw some spikes into our backs).

I'm not at home now and don't recall exactly what Conlan has, but will take another look and see if anything might be an upgrade on what we have. More likely, though, I'll just buy some scrolls as I *do* recall there not being many around in loot, and I'd rather get what I can for our sole mage.

Do you use archers? I definitely think that at minimum, buying magical ammo is worth it.

Depends on where you are in the game. In some areas, ammo can be scarce but in others, you just want to use it all to free up space in your inventory.

@OP

If you have any characters proficient in staves or halbards, the staff (staff of eron?) and the halberd (forget the name) Conlan sells will be worth your time. In the vale of Shadows, the diseased halberd (a +1 weapon) only has a chance of showing up. One of my figthers had halberd procifiency and he wasn't able to switch his ordinary halberd until I met the dwarf in the HOW areas (diseased halberd didn't show up in my game)!!! Quarterstaves I had to wait even longer. I have a fighter/ mage/ thief using staves and he wasn't able to switch that staff he got at the start of the game until I'd gotten near the end of the TOTLM areas amd even then, it was only a crappy +1 staff in an area +4 weapons should be used (he ended up using bows the whole game cos I didn't buy that staff).

The spider crushing club is also good when you get to dragons eye. Unfortunately for clubs, that's all your going to have (barring a druid spell) until you get to HOW (which has some very spiffy clubs).

There are some really good weapons for purchase in lonelywood. The three dove mace and the equalizer warhammer. These are must get weapons for those who have the proficiencies in maces and hammers.

I'm sure there's more but I can't remember anything specific.

TL:DR version:

the staff, the halberd and (to a lesser extent) the club Conlan sells are worth considering if your characters have the proficiency to use them.

I have somebody that can use maces and hammers, but nobody are really good with quarterstaff (the fighter->mage has one pip I think), and nobody are proficient with halberds. I'll keep an eye out for those maces and hammers when I get to HoW though - if I get that far (not sure if I want to repeat it).

Can't recall getting a diseased staff, so guess I was unlucky there then. Are there many places where you get one item or the other based on chance? I recall there being one such case in the Severed Hand, where I apparently was unlucky last time, though I don't recall exactly the item (elven chainmail perhaps?)

What I'd really like is a good scimitar, as the fighter->druid has 3 pips in that, but so far I only have a basic one bought early on. I do have 2 archers. A Ranger is now sporting the Bow of Sseth, with 4 attacks per round, so that's pretty darn good, but I'm still looking for a good one for the fighter/thief (19 dex). She has a composite longbow for now.

We have a good lot of magical arrows for now (200-250 +1 arrows), but some more would probably be handy. Though tbh, I'm always using the normal arrows if they can hit, as you go through sooooooo much in this game compared with BG.

One thing that frustrates me in these games is that I often end up unable to wear magical armour, because lowering saving throws with for example a ring of protection is better than just AC. I know you can mod around that limitation, but I don't really want to go that way as the enemies will still wear the same I suppose, thus tilting the rules in my favour. The AC-reducing weapons in IWD is therefore very welcome; I can't recall those existing in BG (or at least much fewer of them). The Dwarf fighter is now sporting the +2 Defender Axe, with the throwing kind for non-close combat. I really like that combo.

There's actually a few places like that in the severed hand. Another such area is when you get to the second level, there should be an area where a bunch of skeletons and a lich will attack you. Above that area is a shield rack with sometimes has a shield of the hand but sometimes it's just a tower shield +1. I'm pretty sure the elven warrior in the prison area (4th level) also has random loot (the gloves I think) but I'm not 100% certain on that.

Getting weapons for a fighter / druid can be annoying cos there's barely anything for scimitars in the early game, for clubs you only got the spider crusher (not including spells), for staves you only have the staff of eron sold by Conlan which leaves them with slings and daggers *sigh*

If you want to know where the item drops are, check this out: [url=]www.gamefaqs.com/pc/256221-icewind-dale/faqs/55628[/url]

(not sure why but the link doesn't seem to be working right, so copy/paste the web address in your browser)

I've played the game so many times that I just use the console now if I don't get a decent weapon drop (there are a couple of decent versions of some of the more obscure weapons that are random drops). So when i get to the point where everyone is kitted out with something decent except (for example) my halberd user, I just console in an appropriate weapon for him and carry on.

I would have thought by now someone would have played through with an unarmored group with no weapons at all, just to prove it can be done.