Weapon Class

Unless you and the companions you choose all wield magic and are skilled nap-takers, you'll need to familiarize yourself with all manner of Weapons in order to survive adventuring across the Sword Coast. Fortunately, there are many to choose from, all with various advantages, disadvantages, and restrictions:

Weapon type table
Note: These are the values for the Enhanced Editions'' of each game, and will thus differ slightly when compared to the vanilla games. Two significant changes relate to damage types; 'bludgeoning' has been been redefined as 'crushing', and missile weapons with all their various damage types have been relegated into a fourth - 'missile'.''
 * * Warrior (Fighter, Ranger, Paladin), Cleric, Druid, Mage, Thief, Bard, Shaman.

Understanding the Tables

 * One or Two-Handed: Every character has two weapon slots; a primary (main-hand) and secondary (off-hand). The primary slot is for your weapon of choice, while the secondary usually provides either an opportunity to bolster one's Armor Class with a shield or can merely remain empty. Most weapons are one-handed, but the few that are two-handed will allocate the off-hand slot as well.
 * Damage: The potential damage the base weapon can deal. This is represented in game with a roll of dice, and is affected by numerous variables, including a character's proficiency, abilities, and magical enhancement. For instance, if a War Hammer +1 is equipped (1d4+2) by a warrior with two proficiency points in Warhammers (+2) and s/he has a Strength of 18/80 (+4), the weapon should cause 9-12 damage upon each successful hit.
 * Damage Type: The way each weapon damages its target is an important factor as various enemies respond differently to various types of damage, either regarding their Armor Class or having a resistance to a particular damage. For instance, a Skeleton is highly resistant to missile damage, as there isn't much a mere arrow will realistically accomplish vs animated bones, while a solid crushing weapon like a hammer or flail will be far more effective. On the other hand, a companion equipped with Chain Mail is essentially wearing Leather Armor vs crushing attacks, yet when considering slashing attacks, they have a better AC than if they'd equipped Splint Mail.
 * Speed Factor: The rate at which any weapon performs is worth consideration; a weapon that has a higher damage might actually be less effective overall due to a significantly slower speed. The higher this number is, the more time that's required for the action, though a high proficiency and magical variants will often reduce the value.
 * THAC0, Damage Scaling: Which ability scores the weapon sacles with.
 * Usable by: Each weapon has several variables that aren't covered by these tables, including a strength requirement or the weight of the item, but one will likely have to take into consideration the class of the particular character before any of this. The quarterstaff and sling are two basic weapons that practically any class can use, though this comes at a price regarding their overall effectiveness. One should try to pair each companion's class with an appropriate weapon that the character can use well and is potentially unique to them; it would be somewhat foolish to have three characters all using a sling, when one could use a bow and another could use a crossbow. By example, Warriors can use any weapon, and Bards can use any weapon a Warrior can, with the exception of a Composite Longbow, which given that weapon's Strength requirement of 18, this hardly matters. On the other hand, Clerics don't use blades or bows, limiting them to various melee crushing weapons, along with just the Sling in regards to ranged offence.
 * Rate of Fire: Particularly relevant to ranged weapons, this value represents the number of times per combat round the weapon may be used. By example, Darts can be thrown extraordinarily fast, though they have very low damage. On the other hand, Crossbows deal the most damage, and yet operate the slowest.
 * Bonus to Hit/Damage: A few ranged weapons have multiple requirements that significantly limit their use, and thus provide a small bonus to the few characters willing and able to use them. With their relatively high Strength requirements, and a very limited number of applicable classes, it would be wise to make use of such weapons in regards to the few characters that can.

In Weapon proficiency
In the original game of Baldur's Gate, all weapons are sorted into eight proficiencies. You can choose which categories your player will specialize in at the beginning of the game. Because Baldur's Gate: EE, Baldur's Gate II and Baldur's Gate II: EE have a different proficiency system and new types of weapons, this proficiency system will be used to categorise weapons, instead of the eight categories from Baldur's Gate.

The Axe proficiency remains unchanged, it includes both battle axes and throwing axes.

Blunt Weapons does not exist since Baldur's Gate. Every weapon type which was included in it is now independent: The Bow Weapon proficiency is separated into two new ones: The Large Sword proficiency ended just like the blunt weapons, the four types of swords formerly included in it now belong to new proficiencies: Every weapon type under the Missile Weapons category is a different category now. Small Swords is divided into two new categories: Spears no longer includes Halberds, which become a new category.
 * Clubs
 * Maces
 * Quarterstaffs
 * War Hammers, which includes the throwing hammers introduced in Baldur's Gate II.
 * Longbows, composite longbows are included.
 * Shortbows
 * Long Swords
 * Bastard Swords
 * Two-Handed Swords
 * Scimitars join the new Ninjato and Wakazashi weapons in the category: Scimitars, Wakazashis & Ninjatos.
 * Crossbows: light and heavy ones.
 * Slings
 * Darts
 * Short Sword
 * Dagger, which includes throwing daggers.

Spiked Weapons is renamed to Flails. This wiki will use Flails & Morningstars as the category name.

Katanas are a new type of weapon for which there is a new proficiency, Katanas.