I decided to do a little experiment with the black pits to contrast the usefulness of some classes and weapons. The point was to see if there were noticeable differences between crossbows and long bows; the Archer kit vs a fighter specializing in bows; two-handed swords vs halberds, and who kills more, hand to hand fighters vs ranged weapons. I'll give a quick summary and then if you want the details read on.
In short crossbows suck ass and can't hold their own to bows. There doesn't appear to be a big difference between the Archer Kit and Fighters, my fighters were slightly better at lower levels and the archer kit gained strength at higher levels. There doesn't appear to be a big difference halberds and two-handed swords. Hand to hand fighters kill more than ranged weapon specialists in my experience (although they die more often as well).
The details: I created a party of 6 members as follows:
1 half orc beserker using a 2 handed sword
1 half orc beserker using a halberd
They had the same stats which were 19 str, 18 dex, 19 con
1 elf archer specializing in long bows
1 elf archer specializing in crossbows
1 elf fighter specializing in long bows
1 elf fighter specializing in crossbows
They had the same stats which which were 18/01-49 str, 19 dex, 17 con
We went through the black pits, everyone used the same equipment. I upgraded to +1 weapons/arrows when appropriate and then +2 after that. Of note is there is no +2 crossbow in the Pits although I think there is a good crossbow in the game but I seriously doubt it would offset the crappiness of crossbows in general.
I didn't buff or pimp anybody out, all fighters wore splint mail and then on round 10 I upgraded the melee fighters to full plate. No magic defenses and potions were used only if I failed in a fight the first time which happened 2 times I think. I started upgrading arrows for the archers when possible and also upgrading bolts although it is worth noting that the options aren't exactly the same for bows and crossbows in that respect.
Every 2 rounds of the Pits I keep track of the %'s of kills, here is a chart that outlines how it went
2-handed sword/Halberd/Archer Bow/Archer Xbow/Fighter Bow/Fighter XBow
Rd 2___41%________11% ______11%_______5%__________17%_________11%
Rd 4___25%________12% ______16%_______12%_________22%_________9%
Rd 6___26%________17% ______17%_______9%__________19%_________9%
Rd 8___23%________17% ______17%_______7%__________19%_________13%
Rd 10__21%________22% ______17%_______9%__________18%_________10%
Rd 12__22%________21% ______20%_______9%__________17%_________9%
Rd 14__22%________24% ______19%_______10%_________15%_________8%
I think the 2 handed sword was so skewed in the first part because that was my first player and the initial guys are so wimpy he just killed most of them right off. There was 1 round where I had to have all the bowmen use maces instead to take out the flesh golems.
As a side note this party was surprisingly effective, they handled the Pits just as well as 3 fighter, mage, mage/thief, cleric party I created and I had to use a lot more buffs to get through for that party
I think the melee fighters would have been even more dominant if I had dumped more money on them, I was spending most of the gold on arrows and such and I was more focused on the ranged attack for this go round. With some buffs the melee fighters become tough to beat.
So that was my experience, thought I would share in case anybody had similar questions as I did.
In short crossbows suck ass and can't hold their own to bows. There doesn't appear to be a big difference between the Archer Kit and Fighters, my fighters were slightly better at lower levels and the archer kit gained strength at higher levels. There doesn't appear to be a big difference halberds and two-handed swords. Hand to hand fighters kill more than ranged weapon specialists in my experience (although they die more often as well).
The details: I created a party of 6 members as follows:
1 half orc beserker using a 2 handed sword
1 half orc beserker using a halberd
They had the same stats which were 19 str, 18 dex, 19 con
1 elf archer specializing in long bows
1 elf archer specializing in crossbows
1 elf fighter specializing in long bows
1 elf fighter specializing in crossbows
They had the same stats which which were 18/01-49 str, 19 dex, 17 con
We went through the black pits, everyone used the same equipment. I upgraded to +1 weapons/arrows when appropriate and then +2 after that. Of note is there is no +2 crossbow in the Pits although I think there is a good crossbow in the game but I seriously doubt it would offset the crappiness of crossbows in general.
I didn't buff or pimp anybody out, all fighters wore splint mail and then on round 10 I upgraded the melee fighters to full plate. No magic defenses and potions were used only if I failed in a fight the first time which happened 2 times I think. I started upgrading arrows for the archers when possible and also upgrading bolts although it is worth noting that the options aren't exactly the same for bows and crossbows in that respect.
Every 2 rounds of the Pits I keep track of the %'s of kills, here is a chart that outlines how it went
2-handed sword/Halberd/Archer Bow/Archer Xbow/Fighter Bow/Fighter XBow
Rd 2___41%________11% ______11%_______5%__________17%_________11%
Rd 4___25%________12% ______16%_______12%_________22%_________9%
Rd 6___26%________17% ______17%_______9%__________19%_________9%
Rd 8___23%________17% ______17%_______7%__________19%_________13%
Rd 10__21%________22% ______17%_______9%__________18%_________10%
Rd 12__22%________21% ______20%_______9%__________17%_________9%
Rd 14__22%________24% ______19%_______10%_________15%_________8%
I think the 2 handed sword was so skewed in the first part because that was my first player and the initial guys are so wimpy he just killed most of them right off. There was 1 round where I had to have all the bowmen use maces instead to take out the flesh golems.
As a side note this party was surprisingly effective, they handled the Pits just as well as 3 fighter, mage, mage/thief, cleric party I created and I had to use a lot more buffs to get through for that party
I think the melee fighters would have been even more dominant if I had dumped more money on them, I was spending most of the gold on arrows and such and I was more focused on the ranged attack for this go round. With some buffs the melee fighters become tough to beat.
So that was my experience, thought I would share in case anybody had similar questions as I did.