Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Karlach - best weapon

Hi all,

Shoul I use Two-Handed weapon or two One-Handed? I have Knife of the Undermountain King, but not sure, if good for Karlach.
I am in act one (just moving to Underdark after Creche) and my group is - Sorc, Karlach, Shadowheart and Wyll (thinking to swap him fo Astarion).

Thank you.

Two handed

So for this group is Knife of the Undermountain King useless?

No, not so useless. But if the Fiery! Gurl [INCOHERENT SQUEELS IN FANBOI] is a Barbarian then she will be able to deal more damage with other weapons. And she'd look silly with a Toothpick of Doom.
This weapon would be IMO fabulous if given to a (Half-orc) Champion - you Crit on 18+.
In your party IMO Astarion or Wyll would put it to best use.

Wyll has no proficiency with shortswords, right?

Karlach as a Barbarian can use almost anything really.

Knife of the Undermountain King can be decent for Barbarian, but a little later in the game. As you can get some gloves that give your off-hand weapon damage scaling from your attribute (Something Barbarian lacks from their class unlike Fighter or Ranger), throw in Barbarian level 9 bonus of Savage Criticals for extra dice on crits and some other Act 2-3 gear for more crit range and Barbarian's Reckless Attack for advantage and she can be a crit machine.

Of course, Wyll and Astarion can both utilize the weapon too. Wyll with Pact of the Blade to gain proficiency with it, plus Spell Sniper feat can pump out some critical Eldritch Blasts. While Astarion can use a bunch of gear available in Act 2 that provides bonus critical range when obscured (Along with a ring that gives immunity to Blind allows him to sit inside a Fog Cloud attacking with advantage with high crit chance)

There's a lot of flexibility for the weapon. Heck, you can even run it on Sorc if your race gave you proficiency with some other later game items to back it up.

In the end, the best weapon is the one you build for. There's tons of options available.

Karlach best weapon is the Returning Pike from the vendor of the goblin camp.
With Tavern brawler as a feat and the pike she becomes deadly with this pike as she can throw it 3 times at lvl 5 with deadly accuracy and it returns to her.

And it gets even deadlier if she throws is from a higher ground

I can vouch for making Karlach a throw Barbarian with the Returning Pike and that trident which also has the return property. Equip her with throwing equipment and the Tavern feat and you've got yourself an Olympic champion that can annihilate everything in her path just by throwing a spear.

Karlach as a throw Barb is so strong, especially because physics in the game are wonky so if you aim at an enemy and then move your mouse a bit above their head, the spear will actually drop onto them and crush them via gravity. Unfortunately this also means enemies won't provide experience if they're crushed by gravity, but it's insane damage that's clearly not intended

Personally though I love making her a Wild Magic Barb with the Sussur Greatsword, +10 damage from Great Weapon Wielding and boots which reverberate the target on a condition. She silences, reverberates (reduces their attributes for each stack) and can knock them prone after 5 stacks of it. Really fun and helpful for everyone in the party.

Thanks all for feedback. I changed Wyll for Astarion and using the knife.
I dont have the Returning Pike, and murdered goblins in camp already, so I guess I cannot get it anymore??

Now I have the Helm and Armour from Grym Forge, but it is quite useless as I lost Lae'zel in second and did not know why. I was able to find out later, why. Grrr, not happy.
Does it make sense to keep the helm and Armour when I dont have anybody to wear it or should I rather to sell it?

If Wyll is bladepact then he can have proficiency with any weapon that he binds. Also, just holding the Undermountain King increases the crit range of his eldritch blast.

Karlach is better off throwing halflings and goblins.

Karlach is amazing as a throwbarian