Weapons (Deadfire)

Weapons in build on the mechanics introduced in Pillars of Eternity, introducing a number of wrinkles to the formula. As usual, weapons are your primary method of aggressively negotiating with other denizens of the Archipelago (the other being your sharp wit), but added modal abilities to each weapon type allow you to further refine your playstyle. These are granted by weapon proficiencies chosen at level-up or character creation. Note that there is no penalty for using a weapon your character is not proficient in. You only won't have access to that weapon's modal ability.

Of course, each weapon (and shield, since they're coded as off-hand weapons) also has its own, unique tactical niche: Daggers deal low damage, but attack fast, pikes are slow, but have increased reach... Picking the right tool for the job is a large part of defeating enemies you come across in your journeys. As before, there are no class or race restrictions on weapons use.

One major difference as compared to is the introduction of Penetration as a counter to armor value in combat.

Generally, Accuracy is king. After that, comes Modals that apply a direct Damage Bonus, but those work best for melee-range specialists; not for characters multiclassed as a spell caster. Lastly, Penetration provides consistent results if you build towards it, and most melee types can benefit with decently enough Accuracy. You typically want Armor reduction from some supporting source if you decide to specialize for Penetration as a damage enhancer. Rangers specializing with either any gun or the Arbalest itself should favor Penetration over Critical Damage.

Bows and crossbows
Bows and crossbows have the largest attack range among all the ranged weapons in the game. Bows are the fastest to use. Crossbows are slower to reload/fire than hunting bows or war bows but they do more damage. The more powerful Arbalests can't be cocked by hand and need to be planted and cranked, and thus are slower to reload than crossbows, but still faster than Firearms.

Firearms
Firearms are very slow to reload, taking longer to reload than any other weapons and aren't very accurate, but they make up for it by dealing high damage and their unique advantage in dealing with Wizards standard magical defense with their Veil Piercing effect.

The biggest change to firearms in Deadfire is that Pistols and Blunderbusses are now 1-handed weapons. Dual wielding pistols and blunderbusses reduces their loading time, just as with melee weapons, though firing a brace and switching to another set is still often faster. Dual wielding a ranged weapon with a melee weapon will have the character only shoot by default against targets outside of melee range, but use the melee weapon exclusively against targets in melee. This gives both weapons the recovery time reduction from dual wielding and frees the need to swap weapons, but you lose the ability to use a shield and the accuracy bonus you would have normally gained if you were wielding each weapon by itself.

Magical implements
Magical Implements are ranged magical missile weapons, that are quite fast and accurate, but not very powerful.

In Deadfire, Wands and Scepters are now 1-handed weapons, and can be dual wielded with 1-handed melee weapons. This give both weapons the Recovery Speed bonus for dual-wielding, but they lose the accuracy bonus of wielding a single one-handed weapon.

Melee
Different melee weapons will have different attack speeds, but for most weapons will be categorized by their relative handedness and speed (Fast One-Handed, Large One-Handed, and Two-Handed). Fast one-handed weapons attack more frequently than large one-handed weapons. Two-handed Weapons are almost universally hard-hitting weapons, that can deal more damage per-hit than their one-handed counterparts, but you cannot use a shield with them or use a second weapon.

Fast one-handed weapons are particularly effective against enemies with low damage reduction and two-handed weapons are particularly effective against enemies with high damage reduction.