Don't forget the ranger automatically gets dual wield. He also uses a bow halberd and long sword. He is very versatile! Low hp tho
Remember Khalid can have the same advantages with more HP. Just give hive the gauntlet/belt of strength and he's good to go.
A well managed party and proper healing will never put Khalid in morale failure. Protection from fear or cleric spell is also very handy for him if you are really afraid of him fleeing.
If you have a Cavalier, just cast remove fear on him, it also protects him.
That is absolutely true. Khalid can potentially be even better than kivan due to mastery. But if put both in if I were conjurer. Two tanks, jjaheria isn't to bad either with the dex gaunts. Branawen for another healer and imoen for locks and traps. Perfect!
I was doing pretty well with my F/M, but I couldn't resist buying BG1:EE on offer, and having experienced some of the improvements (particularly stuff like larger arrow stacks, and improved quest journal), I didn't want to go back to my old game...
So after creating MANY new characters , I restarted as an elven Archer. I decided to go for a mage-free party, primarily using Branwen for CC.
Currently I have Archer, Imoen, Khalid, Jaheira, Branwen and Kiven, and I'm tearing through encounters. I love the Archer damage and THAC0; so much better than anyone else in the party. I finished the mines, and am part way with dealing with the bandits.
I definitely love this game, and can see many playthroughs ahead. It has made me think back to when I used to do table top role playing around 25 years ago! I've been searching the web for any live online RPG groups, particularly any using voice coms. I'm sure there must be some out there somewhere...
for easy gameplay you need mage + thief + tank that means you will rest and use potions a lot if you don't want to use potions you need healer
so 4 characters to work with but they are not really strong but medium thief is no tank or meele dps and not the most powerfull archer either healer is a little better with good setup and buffs can be close to tank but still you need to buff with spells before every battle
so characters like thief/fighter multi or cleric/fighter multi should be better right?
but they are leveling slower and cleric/fighter is many experience point behind in cleric spell levels
the only way i think is good to make dual classes like fighter2/cleric that only need 2k exp for class gain extra hp specialization more apr
so
tank fighter/thief - don't really need fast leveling thief no spell levels etc. fighter2/mage fighter2/cleric +2 random character for your fantasy team
@Mordeus, re: Jaheira is also a multi-class, so if you were to add Coran you would have experience split 7 ways in a party of 5. That would be a drain on leveling, not to mention Coran isn't avaliable til halfway in the game.
As far as I am aware, having a dual-classed character does not mean they get double the experience of a single-classed character. What happens is that they get the same as the rest of the party, then split it in half. So, lets say every character gets 10,000 exp each- they only get the 10,000 exp, but get 5000 exp for each class. i.e. it takes longer for them to level up because they have to split the experience between their classes.
Let's say your CHARNAME is a Cleric/Fighter/MagicUser. The party experience doesn't get split eight ways in a full party (if everyone else is single-class), it gets split six ways. But what you get is split equally between your three classes. So, if everyone got 10,000 exp, you'd get 3333 in each class, not 10,000 for each class.
@Mordeus, re: Jaheira is also a multi-class, so if you were to add Coran you would have experience split 7 ways in a party of 5. That would be a drain on leveling, not to mention Coran isn't avaliable til halfway in the game.
As far as I am aware, having a dual-classed character does not mean they get double the experience of a single-classed character. What happens is that they get the same as the rest of the party, then split it in half. So, lets say every character gets 10,000 exp each- they only get the 10,000 exp, but get 5000 exp for each class. i.e. it takes longer for them to level up because they have to split the experience between their classes.
Let's say your CHARNAME is a Cleric/Fighter/MagicUser. The party experience doesn't get split eight ways in a full party (if everyone else is single-class), it gets split six ways. But what you get is split equally between your three classes. So, if everyone got 10,000 exp, you'd get 3333 in each class, not 10,000 for each class.
this is true but fighter/thief is better class than thief so there are options to consider
i will explain a bit better
party of fighter cleric thief mage
party of fighter/cleric thief/mage
which is better? probably party of 4 because of raw dps but when you arrange 6 man party of dual-multi classes they would kick asses of every single classes 6 man party
Even though you're splitting XP, multiclassed characters rock.
Look at the XP charts, a multiclassed Spellchucker will be about 1 level behind a single classed Spellchucker most of the time.
When you consider the benefits of multiclassing, its well worth the trade off of more hit points, weapon specialization, and/or thieving skills (without needing a dedicated thief).
Dual classing is a nice option as well, and I like zur's idea of dual classing at level 2, as I am an impatient guy. I especially don't like going without a thief for an extended length of time. But most power builds involve dual classing much later.
If you look ahead into ToB, Fighter HLA's are where it's at. You can't get those with a fighter > dual. I know each class gets nice HLA's, so multiclassing let's you choose from all the pools.
I'm also a big fan of 4 person parties, minimizing any supposed xp slowdown.
The half elf gets access to Druid and clerical spells, and is your main tank.
The gnome uses arcane spells that help the fighter aspect (stone skin, mirror image, ect.). He can tank too.
The elf is your traditional wizard. The thief skills are just there when you need them, and the 19 DEX combined with the elf +1 to hit with bows ensures a good archer when you're not casting a spell. Alternately, a thief (swashbuckler)> Mage works here as well, but you won't get UAI. You could also just use Imoen.
Edit: if you want to use the NPCs in the game, IMHO, the best party is (BG1):
Gnome F/I Imoen (dual at level 4 or 5) Jaheira Yeslick
Comments
So after creating MANY new characters
Currently I have Archer, Imoen, Khalid, Jaheira, Branwen and Kiven, and I'm tearing through encounters. I love the Archer damage and THAC0; so much better than anyone else in the party. I finished the mines, and am part way with dealing with the bandits.
I definitely love this game, and can see many playthroughs ahead. It has made me think back to when I used to do table top role playing around 25 years ago! I've been searching the web for any live online RPG groups, particularly any using voice coms. I'm sure there must be some out there somewhere...
for easy gameplay you need mage + thief + tank
that means you will rest and use potions a lot
if you don't want to use potions you need healer
so 4 characters to work with
but they are not really strong but medium
thief is no tank or meele dps and not the most powerfull archer either
healer is a little better with good setup and buffs can be close to tank but still you need to buff with spells before every battle
so characters like thief/fighter multi or cleric/fighter multi should be better right?
but they are leveling slower and cleric/fighter is many experience point behind in cleric spell levels
the only way i think is good to make dual classes like fighter2/cleric that only need 2k exp for class
gain extra hp
specialization
more apr
so
tank
fighter/thief - don't really need fast leveling thief no spell levels etc.
fighter2/mage
fighter2/cleric
+2 random character for your fantasy team
npc team bg1
kagain
fighter2/mage
yesclick
coran or montaron
As far as I am aware, having a dual-classed character does not mean they get double the experience of a single-classed character. What happens is that they get the same as the rest of the party, then split it in half. So, lets say every character gets 10,000 exp each- they only get the 10,000 exp, but get 5000 exp for each class. i.e. it takes longer for them to level up because they have to split the experience between their classes.
Let's say your CHARNAME is a Cleric/Fighter/MagicUser. The party experience doesn't get split eight ways in a full party (if everyone else is single-class), it gets split six ways. But what you get is split equally between your three classes. So, if everyone got 10,000 exp, you'd get 3333 in each class, not 10,000 for each class.
i will explain a bit better
party of
fighter
cleric
thief
mage
party of
fighter/cleric
thief/mage
which is better? probably party of 4 because of raw dps
but when you arrange 6 man party of dual-multi classes they would kick asses of every single classes 6 man party
Look at the XP charts, a multiclassed Spellchucker will be about 1 level behind a single classed Spellchucker most of the time.
When you consider the benefits of multiclassing, its well worth the trade off of more hit points, weapon specialization, and/or thieving skills (without needing a dedicated thief).
Dual classing is a nice option as well, and I like zur's idea of dual classing at level 2, as I am an impatient guy. I especially don't like going without a thief for an extended length of time. But most power builds involve dual classing much later.
If you look ahead into ToB, Fighter HLA's are where it's at. You can't get those with a fighter > dual. I know each class gets nice HLA's, so multiclassing let's you choose from all the pools.
I'm also a big fan of 4 person parties, minimizing any supposed xp slowdown.
This is a 3 person party with every base covered:
Half elf cleric/ranger
Gnome fighter/illusionist
Elf thief/Mage
The half elf gets access to Druid and clerical spells, and is your main tank.
The gnome uses arcane spells that help the fighter aspect (stone skin, mirror image, ect.). He can tank too.
The elf is your traditional wizard. The thief skills are just there when you need them, and the 19 DEX combined with the elf +1 to hit with bows ensures a good archer when you're not casting a spell. Alternately, a thief (swashbuckler)> Mage works here as well, but you won't get UAI. You could also just use Imoen.
Edit: if you want to use the NPCs in the game, IMHO, the best party is (BG1):
Gnome F/I
Imoen (dual at level 4 or 5)
Jaheira
Yeslick
BG2:
Gnome F/I
Imoen
Anomen
Jaheira