Multi or Dual Fighter/Priest

GaNoN

Well i started a new game and i want a party of 3-4 members max, all PC.

What would be better a Dual class Fighter priest

or Dualing a Fighter at lvl 6 to priest to get 5 pips in a weapon?

(Also Dual F/P can only have 2 pips max right?)

Bigfish

I would argue dualing a Fighter at 6 for the 5 point max in pips. Multiclass fighter/clerics are limited to 2 pips.

Nifft

Dual F->P can have 5 pips, and is in fact the quickest way to having 5 pips in the game.

Start at Fighter 1 (with 2 pips, Specialization).
Fighter 3 gets you your 3rd pip, Mastery.
Dual to Priest.
Priest 4 comes just in time to give you your 4th pip, High Mastery, and you'll get Grand Mastery faster than a Fighter would have done.

If you'd been playing BG2, you might have wanted to go Fighter 13->Cleric, but that's obviously not relevant to BGEE where you can't get to Fighter 13 in the first place.

[Deleted User]

Pros of dual-classing:
5 pips in a weapon (+2 Hit +3 Dam relative to multi, APR is a wash)
Berserker kit benefits
Reaches level 8 Cleric (gets an extra 3rd and 4th level spell)

Pros of Multiclassing:
Can be a Half-Orc (19 Str and Con) or Dwarf (19 Con and shorty saves)
Is a Cleric from day one (could be important if no one else is filling that capability in the party)

Nifft

One other consideration that I've run into recently: rolling up power-gamer stats to dual F->C can be difficult. You ideally want 4 x 18 (Str, Dex, Con, Wis), and you want a decent Cha for shopping and NPC reaction.

It's MUCH easier to roll up a Ranger->Cleric purely from a stats perspective, since Rangers have such high stat minimums (ie you can't be a Ranger unless you have a 14 Wisdom). It took less than 30 seconds of rolling to get me a 90+ point Ranger->Cleric when I made one for the Black Pits.

GaNoN

Nifft said:

Dual F->P can have 5 pips, and is in fact the quickest way to having 5 pips in the game.

Start at Fighter 1 (with 2 pips, Specialization).
Fighter 3 gets you your 3rd pip, Mastery.
Dual to Priest.
Priest 4 comes just in time to give you your 4th pip, High Mastery, and you'll get Grand Mastery faster than a Fighter would have done.

If you'd been playing BG2, you might have wanted to go Fighter 13->Cleric, but that's obviously not relevant to BGEE where you can't get to Fighter 13 in the first place.

So wait i can DUal Fighter at lvl 3? or would it be better to dual him at lvl 6?

Nifft

Depends what you want. I want the benefits of my dual-class early enough to make a difference throughout most of the game, so I tend to dual-class around level 3. You can dual-class as soon as you hit level 2, but level 3 gets you some perks, so it might be worth waiting.

Remember that you lose your first class benefits until your 2nd class level exceeds your 1st class level, so if you dual at level 6, you won't see your old abilities until your new class hits level 7 -- which might be the end of the game, in which case you've made the game much harder for yourself just to have a kick-ass PC for the last fight.

mjs

what @nifft said in regards to dualling

and for multying, i think a Priest of Lothander is just as a good as fighter/cleric

VittordeVitto

I rolled a F/Cleric Orc, with 2 pips in maces.

It was the strongest CHARNAME i ever had.

Corvino

Multiclasses miss out on grandmastery but can make up for it due to continued fighter THAC0 progression and extra 1/2 attacks at 7 & 13.

Not being as reliant on grandmastery means they can get a lot of variety, too. You could easily have ++ in slings, maces and warhammers by level 6 as a multi, giving a lot of options. Alternatively you could go ++ in dual wield instead of slings and DW Ashideena and the Stupefier to kill all known enemies dead.