Hi - in my cuurent party Monty is going to get level 3 fighter soon (is already level 3 thief) , and will get an extra weapon proficency, and will get another one at level 6. He currently has 2 pips in short swords and 2 in slings (which get the halfling +1 THAC0 bonus). Monty's main roles in my party is as primary backstabber and scout, and most of his thief skills are in hide shadows/move silently.
There seem to be two good choices for his next proficiency pick, daggers or quarterstaves. Daggers because of the Dagger of Venom (+2, injects poison 6 damage/round up to 15 damage - 6/6/3, I guess), Quarter Staves mostly because of the Staff of Striking (+3 THACO, does 1D6+9 damage, uses a charge for each strike), though the +2 Staff Spear is also nice. The Staff of Striking will do *much* more backstab damage, but the Dagger of Venom is great for disrupting mages and is available much, much earlier (though I'll probably keep using the shortsword for most attacks until I get 2 pips in the other weapon) - the Staff of Striking isn't available until the dungeons on Durlag's Tower, though there's +3 Staff for sale at Ulgoth's Beard
I can't decide which is best to go for - the Staff of Striking is the more powerful weapon, especially for backstabs, but I won't get it until very late in the game. The dagger of venom is probably more suitable roleplay-wise, and I quite like the idea of it, but it's non-poison (and therefore backstab multiplied) damage is less than a shortsword...
I'm not interested in giving him longswords or scimitars, as other characters are using the best ones, and I'm happy with him using slings for his ranged weapon,
There seem to be two good choices for his next proficiency pick, daggers or quarterstaves. Daggers because of the Dagger of Venom (+2, injects poison 6 damage/round up to 15 damage - 6/6/3, I guess), Quarter Staves mostly because of the Staff of Striking (+3 THACO, does 1D6+9 damage, uses a charge for each strike), though the +2 Staff Spear is also nice. The Staff of Striking will do *much* more backstab damage, but the Dagger of Venom is great for disrupting mages and is available much, much earlier (though I'll probably keep using the shortsword for most attacks until I get 2 pips in the other weapon) - the Staff of Striking isn't available until the dungeons on Durlag's Tower, though there's +3 Staff for sale at Ulgoth's Beard
I can't decide which is best to go for - the Staff of Striking is the more powerful weapon, especially for backstabs, but I won't get it until very late in the game. The dagger of venom is probably more suitable roleplay-wise, and I quite like the idea of it, but it's non-poison (and therefore backstab multiplied) damage is less than a shortsword...
I'm not interested in giving him longswords or scimitars, as other characters are using the best ones, and I'm happy with him using slings for his ranged weapon,