Blade vs. Kenthief - which is more fun for a full saga playthrough?
Purudaya
Member Posts: 816
Was going to post this in Help for New Players, but I guess that doesn't really fit - I originally played BG when it first came out but was a bit too young to really process the rules and tactics needed to get the most out of it (I was 12 and used to much easier games). But I loved the story and just CLUA consoled my way through the hard parts.
Looking to do a proper, legit playthrough this time (almost finished with a Kensai run in BG:EE). I understand that the Kensai/Thief is one of the more powerful builds, but Blade looks really fun. How do they hold up/compare from beginning to endgame?
I'm leaning toward the Kenthief, but I plan on a full-party run and don't want to spend half of SoA nerfed. Any tips?
Looking to do a proper, legit playthrough this time (almost finished with a Kensai run in BG:EE). I understand that the Kensai/Thief is one of the more powerful builds, but Blade looks really fun. How do they hold up/compare from beginning to endgame?
I'm leaning toward the Kenthief, but I plan on a full-party run and don't want to spend half of SoA nerfed. Any tips?
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Comments
Blades aren't even really a comparison as they have completely different play styles. A blade is an inferior fighter/mage that can pickpocket...when you get to Epic levels they can get a few extra abilities to somewhat compensate for lack of higher level spells...but since they're spell progression is significantly less then it should be (supposed to get casting up to 8th level, as in Icewind Dale), they're pretty much inferior to any combination, unless you just REALLY hate downtime (and they level pretty quick, so Animate Dead becomes awesome quite a bit faster)...that's the only advantage really (Might work for you since they require pretty much no thought when making, aside of decent starting stats, though they're pretty crappy during BG1, compared to other classes...that lack of natural attacks hurts (especially with their horrible thac0)..but once you can toss them a pair of melee speed weapons in SoA, they can be quite fun).
Blades also get to use all the fun Bard-specific magic items, there is only one in BGEE, but lots more in BG2. They also get the Enhanced Bard Song and Magic Flute HLAs, which are interesting.
If you want to dc in a way that isnt at a ridiculously high level, i suggest just going berserker. Get your extra half an aprat level 7 i think, then dc out. The cult of the dc kensai started in soa, ie before tob... imho, hla for a fighter pay out more than kensai boosts do. Heck, do you really think +4 to hit and damage is gonna offset an enemy with hardiness? But that said, the comp plays stupidish in core, so imp haste is not likely to get dispelled, unless your overzealous inquisitor does it for you accidently. Imo, gww is STILL better, but imp haste on a kensai dc can work.
Pure kensai gets kinda crazy in tob... gww when youve got that damage bonus is kinda bowel-loosening.
Blades are great in parties, and potentially stronger/more useful than a kensai/thief in that regard.
Actually, i need to work out my prof total, see how many id need to manage my idea... profs stack now in dc, but thats 1 point, so youd need 7 to have 4 staff, 2 twf, 1 thf. Heck, thats not too terrible! What level to dual at though, for the bonuses; imo lvl 15, in soa! You can get 2 staff maces in bg2, and use staff of striking in bg1, and staff of ram last. Level 15 gives 9 pips, or 2 spares. Maybe dual clubs in bg?
Staying on topic, I'd say "fun" depends on too many variables to be easily decided. Certainly K->T is very powerful, but Blade does have quite some versatility and can do things few others can (such as becoming highly resistant tanks).
With vanilla soa, sure, cleric is better than ranger, hardcore better. Tob? Nah, hla are too awesome for warriors for clerics to compete. Actually, as much as i loved clerics in soa, tob made them healbots and buffdispensers.
1: CHARNAME plays a central role in combat, generally as the main damage dealer (melee or spell) which rules out straight thief, bard (except for blade) and cleric.
2: It sounds great to be able to sneak into a room and use backstabs/fade to decimate mages etc, but I don't want to be shoehorned into that being my only tactic if I want the PC to be effective. CHARNAME should be equally able to use specialized tactics like this while also holding his own in a major brawl... if it can only be one or the other, I'll choose the latter.
3: The class shouldn't be overly simple to play (ie sc fighter). I'm not looking for high levels of complexity, but enough to require a somewhat more nuanced experience. I don't mind micro-managing if there's a good yield.
4: If it's a dual-class, I would like to be able to have my first class reactivated by SoA chapter 3 without having to go solo - playing the majority of the game nerfed just to be very powerful for the endgame kind of conflicts with (1).
While I do plan on trying out some of the supporting roles later on, I guess for this playthrough I'd just like CHARNAME to be the big damn hero and feel like it from chapter 1 of SoA to the end of ToB.
Dualing from Fighter means you can get GM in any weapon style, which is an extra APR and a nice damage and THAC0 bonus, as well as a nice chunk of HP and a good THAC0 boost from the fighter levels. Pick your second class based on what role you want. Mage is good, since it means you can capitalise on the low-level Fighter bonuses and the High-level Mage spells. Cleric and Druid both allow for excellent buffing for close combat (though a Druid dual is *very* hard to roll for, since you need WIS and CHA at 17 to dual).
He goes for the eyes, so watch out!
From what I have gleaned around these boards, I believe that the BG1 +3/2 APR was based on a misinterpretation of the rules, which added 1 APR at GM. The original game makers interpreted this as 1 APR *on top of* the 1/2 APR at Specialisation, when it was meant to be instead of.