What to do with my Charname? (spoilers?)

Wiggles

I rolled a power-gamer swashbuckler as a run through and a guide for this: forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/20472/baldur-s-gate-pnp She will be used for notes and gather people's names and their dialogues. Basically to gather things you cannot do with just Dudleyville or any other walkthrough.

Since I've never dual-classed a character before, what should I dual my swashy too? I intend to do that once I get Open Lock and Disarm Trap both to 100 so that way I have a competent good thief through the rest of the series. That could be around level 5 or 6 since I won't put points in anything else. I was thinking on dualing to mage, but then I'm basically Imoen. Fighter wouldn't be a bad option for dual wielding, but having to remove that armor every time I want to open a lock... ugh... If I put a 2nd point in Longswords now as a swashy does that 2nd point gain its extra 1/2 attack the instant I become a fighter?

No actual spoilers here, just a pic of my character sheet. I just noticed that with my 18Str, shouldn't my THAC0 be lower? O.o

Zanian

Your thaco is lower. There's just a wee bug that makes the bonus thaco from strength not show up in the character sheet.

Also, are you sure you even want to dual-class? Swashbucklers are, imo, best left single-classed. They become progressively better rather quickly. And since you mentioned dual-wielding, swashbucklers can get 3 pips in that as it is.
Otherwise, maybe lvl 6 to get the x3 backstab (lvl 5) modifier, and +1 to AC, dmg and thaco.

Wiggles

Zanian said:

Your thaco is lower. There's just a wee bug that makes the bonus thaco from strength not show up in the character sheet.

Also, are you sure you even want to dual-class? Swashbucklers are, imo, best left single-classed. They become progressively better rather quickly. And since you mentioned dual-wielding, swashbucklers can get 3 pips in that as it is.
Otherwise, maybe lvl 6 to get the x3 backstab (lvl 5) modifier, and +1 to AC, dmg and thaco.

I don't get backstab as a swashbuckler. What I meant in pips was in Longswords (not dual-wielding). If I have 2 pips in Longswords as a Swashbuckler, will those two pips make me then have the extra 1/2 APR when I become a fighter?

lamaros

I'm playing two Swashbucklers in a group, one being dualed to Mage and one to Fighter. Both at level 10 (or is it 11?) for the bonuses.

I don't know about the extra half attack either, so I'm leaving that to when I'm a fighter.

I don't think having to take armor off to open locks will be that annoying. You can bash the easy ones, and then take the time with the more difficult few. More annoying would be taking the armor off to find traps.

Wiggles

I'll summon someone to help with the pip issue. @Cerevant or @CamDawg ?

CamDawg

Only warrior classes (fighters, rangers, barbs, paladins) get the APR bump from weapon specialization.

Wiggles

I understand that @CamDawg, the question is: if a swashbuckler has 2 pips in a weapon and they dualclass to a fighter, will that extra 1/2 APR be 'activated' immediately once they dual to fighter? Or will it require to be higher level than the swashbuckling?

Thanks.

CamDawg

Wiggles said:

I understand that @CamDawg, the question is: if a swashbuckler has 2 pips in a weapon and they dualclass to a fighter, will that extra 1/2 APR be 'activated' immediately once they dual to fighter? Or will it require to be higher level than the swashbuckling?

Thanks.

Your old weapon proficiencies do not become active until the old class becomes active, so I would assume no.

lamaros

Hmm, I'm just not going to put the second points in there at all until I dual.

jethro

Best thing to do is flush out dual wielding first and not put ANY pips in long sword till you dual, then put ALL of the new pips into long sword. .. Or whatever weapon you want most...that way you can get grand mastery in it...some call that a cheat, I call it AWESOME! :-)

Any pips that are replicated by the new class will be lost to the ether. As example: you put 2 pips in long sword as a swashy, then after dualing you put 4 pips into long sword as a fighter - after regaining your old class those original 2 pips are lost. You would still have only 4 pips.

I made this dual and (if I remember correctly) put the pips as a swashy into two-weapon style and then the pip I gained at level 4 I put into 2 weapon style also (to max it out). Then when you dual (level 6 to max find traps and open locks), put all 4 points into long sword. At level 3 add one more to GM it. Then level 6 you get one more for whatever you want (longbow? Dagger? scimitar? Axe?) and level 7 you get your thief skills back (including your pips in two weapon style) and become a dual wielding badass!

The drawback to this is the first 20,000 xp you aren't a very effective fighter. You make an excellent thief though. After dualing you are quite decent at attacking, but your HP is low so you have to be very careful. By the end though you'll be doing great damage and have pretty darn solid AC (especially if you defeat Drizzt). You will have to decide between awesome AC and thieving though since (outside drizzt) thief armor really doesn't compare to other armor and its a pain (as well as potentially deadly) switching between various armor. Plus that defeats the real bonus of the swashy dual: a great thief that can stand toe-to-toe in close combat....