Class/party advice for the demanding newb.

Fleshman

I pre ordered BG:EE but thus far have been unable to start a new campaign because I've found one large difficulty- My own wants and greed.

The issue I have is that I want a character capable of wearing armour, weilding swords(Or Axes), casting spells(or with a large variety of abilities) and capable of being of neutral alignment.

As you can see, that's not the simplest of things to create in BG. I have been considering Blackguard, but there are a couple of things I needed to clarify;

1) Can Blackguards fall in the same way Paladins or Rangers can, for having a high rep??
2) Will Neera join a party with an evil main(I want all the new NPC's)
3) Would a party of a charname Blackguard be very viable with Imoen, Neera, Minsc, Rasaad and Dorn??
4) Is there any way to easily modify clerics to allow them proficiency in swords or axes at all??

Myval

Hmm, being neutral does make it rather difficult. You could try duel classing, though most of the time you can't cast arcane magic with armor on (don't quote me on all of the time though) An Elven Fighter/Mage could be a way to go. Or if you want swords, you could be Druid (Multi or pure) and use the scimitar.

2) Well she did try with my LE Human Swashbuckler. I just told her to go take a hike.
3) I am not so sure, it might be a little iffy, overall. I don't think Imoen has any conflicts with other npcs, though I could see Rasaad or Minsc having issue with Dorn. I just haven't had them travel long enough together.

The other two question, I really don't know. I haven't tried much moding, and I haven't played blackgaurd.

jflieder

Fighter/Mage. You can wear armor and cast spells, just not at the same time. Perhaps a bard as well.

hzf

Simple answer: Druid. Scimitars and spells. You cannot wear metal armour, but certain animals can be made into armour that you can wear (I wont spoil which ones). If you go Fighter/Druid then you can wear armour from the get go.

sandmanCCL

http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/10262/for-new-players-everything-you-needed-to-know-about-alignment

Seriously, people's preoccupation with alignment in this game baffles me still.

@hzf is right. The only guys who can use swords AND cast spells, AND wear armor all at the same time is a druid or fighter/druid.

ZanathKariashi

Fighter/mage is still pretty nice, but you'd need robes of the arch-magi for best overall armor AC (there's a few spells that do better of course). The best bracers are 1 worse AC, and the robes gives bonus's beyond the AC of the elven chainmail (+1 all saves, 5% magic resistance) which it is equal to AC-wise (fairly pricy, but at least good or neutral can buy their robes as soon as you have the money, evil doesn't get theirs (or the best bracers) till almost the end of the game.)

While the druid can technically wear armor all the time, armor is actually pretty useless, nice for filtering out mook attacks, but you'd be safer under the successive layers of magical protections from the mage class, there's always at LEAST a 5% chance you'll be hit, regardless of AC, so mirror images, stoneskins and the like are better and 5 AC from armor is really all you need to stop most mook attacks, any enemy that's actually a threat will have a decent chance of smashing you whether you're naked or in full plate.

CaptRory

Can bards be neutral anything? I haven't rolled a bard up in awhile. Chaotic Neutral maybe?

ZanathKariashi

Yeah, they're any part neutral in 2nd ed.