Dual class & XP excess

Niggey

Hey guys!

I would like to know what happens to the XP excess if I dual class e.g. my fighter to a mage at level 9. Are the XP transfered to the mage XP pool, means that I should wait till I reach nearly level 10 with my fighter class to start with a higher mage level and can stay longer with my stronger level 9 fighter class or do I loose the XP, which means that I should dual instantly after I reached level 9?

Thanks!

moody_mage

I believe excess XP are lost. So dual class ASAP.

ZanathKariashi

Yeah, any extra xp is lost.

Niggey

Ahh, good to know. Thanks Guys!

SionIV

Also you have to be able to get higher level in the new class to regain the old one. Ex If you have a level 6 mage once you reach level 7 fighter you regain your ability to use the mage class again. You have to remember this when you look at the experience cap for BG1, as you can't regain your first class if you dual class too high in level.

horatio_

argh, i decided to dual-class Imoen too late. now im sitting on 53K of experience

horatio_

ZanathKariashi said:

Yeah, any extra xp is lost.

thanks for the info, at least i won't waste my time reloading a prior save and losing 10 hours of gameplay in Urlags Tower

Pueblo

Can you come back and fort when you're dual classing?

CaptRory

I don't understand the question @Pueblo . If you are asking whether or not you can switch back and forth between your classes when dual classing, the answer is no.

Let's say you level Imoen up to a level 7 thief. Then you dual class her to a mage. She is now, for all intent and purpose, a level 1 mage until she hits level 8 mage, at that point and only that point does she regain her thief abilities. And she can no longer level up her thief class. She only gains experience as a mage at that point.

Pueblo

thx Capt, you perfectly answered my question. An other one tho, I read about wasting XP. Lets say I am a lvl 7 thief with 42k xp on my way to lvl 8, if I switch to mage, I lose those 42k xp?

And if I understand correctly, if you get to lvl 7 as a thief, I cant get higher than lvl 33 as a mage? Anyway thx a ton for answering.

elminster

Pueblo said:

thx Capt, you perfectly answered my question. An other one tho, I read about wasting XP. Lets say I am a lvl 7 thief with 42k xp on my way to lvl 8, if I switch to mage, I lose those 42k xp?

And if I understand correctly, if you get to lvl 7 as a thief, I cant get higher than lvl 33 as a mage? Anyway thx a ton for answering.

Your character screen would say that you have 40,000 experience under your thief. You could then gain 121,000 in BGEE as a mage. When your mage level surpasses your thief level (so when you are level 8 specifically as a mage) you will gain back access to all your thieving skills. Prior to this level you don't have access to any of your thieves skills*

Mages only go up to level 31.

*By thieving skills I mean pick pocket, open locks, stealth, find traps, detect illusion, set trap; along with any weapon proficiencies you put towards as a thief and whatever Thac0 improvements you've gotten. The only thing you keep is the health you've acquired in those 7 levels. At least until level 8 as a mage when you get all this back.

ambrennan

In BG the maximum level is determined by experience alone (unlike, say, NVN where you can take twenty levels at most); since XP requirements roughly double for each new level, dual classing tends to cost you one level at most and in the long run (thief7/MageX in ToB) it doesn't matter at all.

Pueblo

so I understand correctly, dualing is to min-max your character. Let's say I want a "battle-mage" starting as a kensai is good to get better thaco and health, than you switch to sorcerer or something cool like that.

Can you dual any class? Like Druid/Skald? Also when I read about a "class kit", it means like fighter and the other one being subclass?

atcDave

Kits are specialties; almost like sub-sub-classes. In PNP, they mostly were role playing aids and said a lot about your character's background ("Peasant Hero", "Amazon Priestess" etc). In BG2 they've come to be more about the special powers and bonuses. But like PNP, kits are ONLY available to starting single class characters. So if you start a single class thief, you can choose any thief kit. But if you later dual to fighter you cannot choose a fighter kit.

There are quite a few limitations on class combinations. Like Paladins can never dual class (nor can they multi class, since only humans can be Paladins). Sorcerers cannot ever dual or multi either; although other mages freely can.
The limitations often have story or mythic explanations in PNP; but BG makes no effort to explain them. Illegal combinations will simply be greyed out.

Pueblo

thx a lot for all the explanation, I trully appreciate

Pueblo

is there a list somewhere of all the possible dual-class? I see many sites speaking about it, but no definitive list. Thx again

TJ_Hooker

Look at the available multiclass combinations (create a non-human player, proceed until you get class selection, and then click on Multiclass). Every possible dual class combination is also a multiclass combination. So for example, one multiclass is a fighter/thief. This means that a fighter->thief or a thief->fighter are both valid dual class combinations (you can also use any kit of those classes, but only in your first class). But there is no druid/mage multiclass, so you couldn't dual from a mage to a druid or vice versa. Also, you'll notice that some classes do not appear in Multiclass at all (bard, sorcerer, paladin, etc.); this means that you cannot dual class at all with these classes.

Pueblo

damn, you guys really impress me with how fast, accurate and polite you all are.

Thx once again TJ for helping me out on this, even tho you kinda break my druid of having a musician that can shapeshift and dance on his own songs

elminster

Pueblo said:

damn, you guys really impress me with how fast, accurate and polite you all are.

Thx once again TJ for helping me out on this, even tho you kinda break my druid of having a musician that can shapeshift and dance on his own songs

Just play a skald then. You won't be able to do this in BGEE (not without removing the level cap anyways) but you can eventually cast the level 4 spell "polymorph self" which allows you to shapeshift into all of the druid bear/wolf forms along with a fiend, spider and mustard jelly. In all of these you can use your song (but when you are using your song the character singing can't be attacking at the same time). In BGEE there is a cloak you can get that will let you shapechange into a wolf (if you really want to roleplay a character who can run around singing as an animal).

atcDave

Ooooo, singing animals! See now that's something most games just don't offer...

Pueblo

lol, really? I just had this image in mind; of a gypsie playing his music with a bear dancing around him

Pueblo

An other question though, I get contradictory info on the net. An archer is a kit for a ranger, but does he gets cleric spells at lvl 9 (or is it 8). Thx once again

elminster

Ranger's get druid spells (not the same thing as cleric spells though they are both divine spells) first at level 8.

This is their progression chart.

Character Level	 	1st level	 2nd level		 3rd level
1-7	                    --	             --	       		        --
8	                    1	             --				--
9			    2		     --				--
10			    2		     1				--
11			    2	   	     2				--
12			    2		     2				1
13			    3		     2				1
14			    3		     2				2
15			    3		     3				2
16+			    3		     3				3

Pueblo

and of course, archer is included in the "ranger" class, so they get some divine spells. Interesting!