Kits and Multiclassing

Pantalion

Anyone else enjoy playing kitted multiclass characters? What multiclass? And which kit?

marfig

After the "An Annotated Solo Hardcore Tier List" thread I gained a renewed interest in multiclassing. I rarely delved into either multiclass or dualclass. Especially the later, which I always detested for its limitations, even back on the Pen & Paper days.

I have started, but have put on hold for now, a chaotic good Gnome Illusionist/Thief. Simon Barterhand (but later to be known as Simon Maven, as his customary among gnomes that, following adulthood, shall be named after their achievements).

He's essentially a good natured prankster, but oblivious to the consequences of his actions. Very intelligent but lacks sound judgement and wisdom, fleet-footed but otherwise unhealthy.

Note I'm experimenting with him. Not really interested in looking at the illusionist/Thief MC as a valid or invalid setup. More as something that can give me some fun. His party will reflect his judgment; a chaotic mixture of evil and good characters that will be constantly replaced, since this is the roleplay aspect I'll be concentrating more about.

So, won't have really nothing much to say about how good this build is. It's just that I don't care

Nic_Mercy

With a little help from Shadowkeeper... A multi-classed elven fighter/mage/thief with the swashbuckler kit, and a human dual-classed fighter7/swashbuckler 8

I've also done things like make Imoen's thief side a swashbuckler... or make Imoen a multi-classed thief/mage instead of dual-classed

Silverstar

Is it actually possible to make multi-class characters with kits unless you use 3rd party tools? I know you can dual-class from one, but thought that was the only way.

marfig

Nope. It was requested once on these forums while the game was still being developed. Sometime back in August, if memory serves me right. It was never implemented though.

Kitted MC can only be achieved with the help of tools like shadowkeeper. There's one notable exception though; Illusionists can multiclass.

Chow

I like to do this sort of things, typically as fighter/thief and the variety of kits given for both, or kensai/mage. It'd be nice if it was available properly, but this is good too.

AHF

I have done it with the thief kits in the past in particular since I never play a single class thief. It is fun but not something I will feel compelled to run in EE until I have exhausted all the new content many times over.

tyl998

If I use Shadowkeeper to change Imoen's class from pure Thief to Swashbuckler, will she retroactively gain the correct abilities? She is level 6 at the moment.

The_Cheeseman

I routinely play stock characters that have their origins in old D&D campaigns, and many of them have to be somewhat shoehorned into other games. One such character is a dark elf Cleric/Necromancer, whom I used to solo through the Black Pits on Insane. I actually was happy to be restricted from Illusions spells, because having soloed the entire saga as a Sorcerer, I found that access to Project Image just makes everything effortless. The vast variety, yet slower progression of spells is a welcome change of pace.

There is a multikit mod for Baldur's Gate Trilogy, and using that I was able to solo the saga as a Kensai/Assassin. Yes, it was just as fun as you probably imagine. Was a bit slow to get started, and level-drain was a serious problem for a while, but once I got access to Use Any Item, all challenge instantly vanished. The character was a master ninja, and I loved the hit-and-fade tactics, with some trapping mixed-in once I got enough skill points under my belt. But once I could wear plate armor and all the best accessories, every fight just boiled down to, "Slaughter everything, loot bodies, open door, repeat". Any hint of unique playstyle evaporated, as did my desire to play the character.

I am starting a Ranger/Priest of Lathander solo run right now, and I expect it to be lots of fun. I have done the Ranger->Cleric dual class before, but I dualed at level 12, which meant I basically played a pure-class ranger with sub-optimal weapon choices for all of BG1, which wasn't all that enjoyable. Plus, the character relied pretty heavily on melee combat in the end game, and without Warrior HLA's, some of the ToB battles just seemed to take forever. I think a more balanced approach will be more entertaining over the course of the game.

I also once started a run as a Kensai/Assassin/Enchanter, themed as a vampire. I quickly discovered that triple-class characters advance too slowly in BG1 for me to enjoy them. Oh, and I don't think I would have gotten up to 100% Move Silently/Hide in Shadows until epic levels. ;-)

The_Cheeseman

@tyl998 If you just add the kit to her, she will not gain abilities retroactively. You may be able to set her level to 0, and keep her exp total the same, thereby allowing you to re-gain all her levels, but I've never tried that, and I don't know if it works.

tyl998

If I set her exp to 0, would she first *lose* all of her current abilities I wonder?

The_Cheeseman

Well, most of a character's attributes get recalculated at level-up, but I haven't messed around with the tools enough to give you an exact list of what would need to be changed. You could just CLUA-spawn her level 1 version, replace her in the party, add the kit, and then set her exp to the previous incarnation's total.

AHF

With BGT, if you change Imoen's class you need to strip out her weapon proficiencies and thief points and then when you level her up you can do it normally. You then need to go back into shadowkeeper to strip out the bonus hit points (you can't reduce HP to zero when you make her a level 0 swashbuckler and she will layer HP onto wherever she is when she levels up).

I haven't used shadowkeeper with BG:EE so take that for what it is worth.

Pantalion

@Tyl998

Her proficiencies would need removing, and her thief abilities would need to be set to 0 points (I think, if not, then 40), and you'd need to remove all her Set Snares and set her max HP to 1 (you'll end up with an extra 1 HP, but you can remove that by running SK again). THAC0 and Saves will take care of themselves.

Back before EE, one of my favourite characters was a Stalker/Cleric; it was actually a bit more challenging than a straight Ranger/Cleric with no Full Plate, but definitely entertaining though, although I don't think I ever actually used the backstab.

Currently I'm starting up a Fighter/Wild Mage/Thief, combining my love of doing pretty much everything ever with being a Wild Mage and doing even more; insanely irresponsibly. I'm thinking of it being a hardcore run, so it'll be interesting to see what terrible, terrible things happen to me.

DarkDogg

Pantalion said:

Anyone else enjoy playing kitted multiclass characters? What multiclass? And which kit?

I like the Avariel (winged Elf) Fighter\Mage :-)))

Jarleale

How did you get that sprite?

karnor00

I think that in the standard game the only kit allowed in a multiclass is gnome illusionists.

DarkDogg

Jarleale said:

How did you get that sprite?

Ii's a InGame feature. Not a sprite or mod.
I have a clean installation.

p.s.:
Hidden class by Trent Oster

Pantalion

@DarkDogg

Colour me fascinated, is there a particular trick to access it?

DarkDogg

Try ShadowKeeper...

Pantalion

DarkDogg said:

Try ShadowKeeper...

Ah, when you said "InGame" I rather assumed 'twas an actual, accessible, hidden feature in there.

Jarleale

Looks more like this, though...
http://www.shsforums.net/index.php?autocom=downloads&showfile=682#