My band of rogues

Nazad

Having played BG too many times to count, I've decided to play a band of thieves on Hard. The rule is that charname and all companions must be part-thief or a bard. Stealth and invisibility will be used to get a jump on enemies. Charname is an elven F/M/T. Current companions are Imoen, Montaron and Garrick. A wolf ate Xzar. There will be no cleric companion until Tiax and no wizard.

PentiumD

Going to have a hard time in dungeons without heals unless you buy lots of potions.

CaptRory

Get a Half-Orc or Dwarf thief with 20 con for regenerating hp, and whack your teammates with the vampiric sword.

Silverstar

I played through most of BGII once with only an Assassin and a Thief. Had to be really creative with some boss fights. Took out the black dragon in Suldanesselar by placing traps, sleeping, placing more traps, sleeping, etc. When I finally initiated the fight, the framerate got really choppy for a couple of seconds as all the arrows flew and when the game ran smoothly again the dragon was a smoking arrow-filled husk. Lots of ways to play through these games, but sometimes it requires quite a bit of planning, heh.

Vilelated

Why a fmt? Why not just make your char a thief? I have seen a few posts now on peeps going fmt... Your game I suppose but its just dumb to me fmt is weak.

Oxford_Guy

Vilelated said:

Why a fmt? Why not just make your char a thief? I have seen a few posts now on peeps going fmt... Your game I suppose but its just dumb to me fmt is weak.

Could be useful in BG2, especially for an evil party, as there is a dearth of decent thieves, though I usually take Jan

Philhelm

PentiumD said:

Going to have a hard time in dungeons without heals unless you buy lots of potions.

Don't you mean steal?

Metal_Hurlant

I've done this on the original game with the following thieves:

Myself - Thief
Montaron - Fighter/Thief
Coran - Fighter/Thief
Safana - Thief
Tiax - Cleric/Thief
Imoen - Mage/Thief

The only class you lack before getting to Baldurs Gate is the Cleric before picking up Tiax.

Corvino

You could also use Shar-teel as a dualled fighter/thief, with her strength she makes a good backstabber.

Also on the dual-class front, Safana can be dualled to mage with the +Int tome for more arcane spellpower.

Nazad

Hey metal-hurlant, the lineup you listed is pretty much who I've been thinking I ultimately want, except with Shar-Teel as a fighter/thief instead of Imoen or Safana. Was it fun? Thanks Corvino for mentioning Shar-Teel. I'd forgotten you can dual her with that great strength she's got. My one other consideration is actually keeping Garrick or Eldoth (better) for the ability to cast a level 10 dispel or remove magic.

So far, I roll into a town and start breaking and entering and pickpocketing, which is pretty fun.

If I have fun throughout BG1, I'll play this concept in BG2 as well, with Imoen, Nalia, Haer-Dalis, Yoshimo, and Jan. F/M/T will shine more there.

Corvino

You may stuggle with some harder combats in BG2 if you lack a divine caster, just something to consider in the long run. A Cleric/Thief is meant to be a really interesting main with good backstabbing potential using staves, cleric self-buffs and sanctuary.

Mordeus

Forget a band of rogue, go for team 3ft minion dominion with any mix of Alora, Tiax, Quayle, Montaron, Yeslick, Kagain. That would truly make you go insane.

Nazad

I agree that a cleric/thief would be an interesting main for this idea. To my understanding, cleric/thief gets more high-level abilities than any other character but especially use any item. In comparison, F/M/T will get mage buffs and multiple attacks from fighter, combined with improved haste. Perhaps I will have to try both.

Jaxsbudgie

I wouldn't recommend you play a F/M/T, especially if you're filling out an entire party, you will feel the XP burn for having three classes.

I'd recommend you play a Half-Orc Thief/Cleric or Fighter/Thief (I think they have access to both those classes)

Also think about potentially giving Branwen the tome of dexterity and dual her to Thief. Or give the tome to Xzar and dual him to Thief - this won't be possible until Baldur's Gate though, but then again they should be at the perfect level for dualling provided you stick to the main quest only.

Imoen dualled to Mage makes sense, although I prefer to dash my way to Baldur's Gate and give the intelligence tome to Safana and dual her instead. Lucky for you both the intelligence and dexterity tomes are easily accessible as soon as you arrive at Baldur's Gate.

Take Garrick but drop him once you meet Eldoth, give him the bracers of dexterity and then pick up Skie. If you don't like the idea of Eldoth and Skie, then keep Garrick and take Shar-Teel and dual her to Thief, main reason being she will eventually kill Eldoth (unless Eldoth is super lucky and somehow manages to kill her instead).

Montaron and Tiax are also good candidates, especially if you don't want Xzar and Branwen, who will be their original classes for a while before they dual.

You also have to think about weapon distribution. Montaron and Tiax should stick to slings, especially Montaron, in EE he has ** in slings and gets a bonus for being a Halfling. Eldoth or Garrick should have longbows, again I think Eldoth is better suited for this with either the bracers of dexterity or the gauntlets of weapon expertise (that's what they're called right?) which work great with his poison arrows. Shar-Teel should have shortswords (shortsword of backstabbing) and daggers (venom dagger) - Shadow Keeper her ** in longswords to shortswords instead. Skie should be on shortbows, Safana on darts and buckler and Imoen on crossbows. If you play a Cleric/Thief then use clubs and shields, or quarterstaves.

Nazad

I didn't know Shar-Teel and Eldoth will attempt to kill each other and appreciate the additional dual classing options, Jaxsbudgie. I've noticed that weapon proficiencies are an issue because many of the thieves have the same weapons. I'll give some more thought to whether cleric/thief is really the better main for this idea.

Metal_Hurlant

Nazad said:

Hey metal-hurlant, the lineup you listed is pretty much who I've been thinking I ultimately want, except with Shar-Teel as a fighter/thief instead of Imoen or Safana. Was it fun?

It was a pretty good party because you have everything covered with Fighters, Thieves, Mage and Healer. I also did a much harder party with purely Rogues being Thief and Bard with no dual/mutli classing.

Myself - Thief
Imoen - Thief
Safana - Thief
Skie - Thief
Eldoth - Bard
Garrick - Bard

This was a fun party to play with. More of a challenge because you have no Healer in the party. You need potions as well as resting and inns.

ajwz

You should name one of the thieves "Honour"

Nazad

Metal_Hurlant said:

Nazad said:

Hey metal-hurlant, the lineup you listed is pretty much who I've been thinking I ultimately want, except with Shar-Teel as a fighter/thief instead of Imoen or Safana. Was it fun?

It was a pretty good party because you have everything covered with Fighters, Thieves, Mage and Healer. I also did a much harder party with purely Rogues being Thief and Bard with no dual/mutli classing.

Myself - Thief
Imoen - Thief
Safana - Thief
Skie - Thief
Eldoth - Bard
Garrick - Bard

This was a fun party to play with. More of a challenge because you have no Healer in the party. You need potions as well as resting and inns.

This party looks like fun too. I think I'm going to swap my f/m/t for a half-orc thief/cleric. I'm undecided about dualing, as I too often play mages and rely on them.