Fighter - Mage Dual question

chickenhed

Just a quick question to you all. If I dual from Fighter to Mage, will I be allowed all fighter weapons (like in the case of a multiclass) or will I be restricted to only Mage weapons?

atcDave

Once you Mage levels exceeds your old fighter level, you will regain all your fighter abilities, including weapons use and proficiencies. You will be limited to Mage weapons at first, just remember it doesn't last.

chickenhed

Great, thanks for the quick response.

Corvino

The normal suggested levels for dualling from fighter are 7 (For an extra 1/2 attack/round), 9 (for max HP and grandmastery) or 13 (For a further 1/2 attack/round). Berserker (for immunities while berserk) or Kensai (For +Hit and +AC bonuses, and Kai) are the common fighter kits for a mage dual.

If you're planning on a fighter->mage dual in BG:EE it might be worth thinking about a fighter/mage multiclass instead. If you dual at level 7 you won't get your fighter levels back under the BG:EE XP cap.

Xanar

Actually, if you dual at fighter level 7 (64,000xp) you will get your fighter skills back when you hit mage level 8 (90,000xp). Another option that's not as often used as kensai or berserker is vanilla fighter with grandmastery in bows if you want to avoid front-lining with your mage. One tip is to use a small party until you have unlocked fighter again. There's more than enough experience in the game (1.5 millionish iirc) so you can do full parties, but it's fun to have access to both quickly. As Corvino mentioned, the optimal dual class is at 13. From personal experience, for a kensai it's a long and painful road early to mid-game (and we don't yet know how BG2EE has changed). They sure were insane in end-game though.

Corvino

@Xanar is correct, you will get your fighter levels back if dualling at 7. I misread the table.

Be sure you know what you're in for if you do dual though. You get a powerful endgame character, but spend the mid-game swearing in frustration to pay for it.

FinneousPJ

You don't need to wait until 7 to dual. I often dual from lvl 3 nad the benefit is still substantial.

chickenhed

@FinneousPJ , that is what I intended on doing. I wanted the SOLE purpose of dualing from fighter to mage to be access to more weaponry. Everything else, hit points, specialization, etc, is just a bonus. Therefore I planned on dualing right off the bat at level 2.

Now if anyone is curious....

I have to admit that the more weaknesses my character has, the more fun he is to play. Now, don't read that as "the weaker he is", but more that he needs to HAVE weaknesses. Dual classing, and multiclassing to an extent, eliminate way too many weaknesses. To me the game is much more fun and rewarding when I play a character who SPECIALIZES in one thing, but is pretty bad at everything else.

A pure fighter is destroyed by a caster, but can dominate most everything else. With caster friends, he is even better. A pure thief is a multitasking hero, but leave him alone 1 on 1 and hes gone. You get the idea. It's one of the reasons I like bards so much. They can do so many things, but yet still have so many weaknesses.

So I ended up just making a pure conjurer and am enjoying it immensely. I love having to rely on friends in the beginning parts of this series. It fits the theme of the character for me.

The end.

IkMarc

chickenhed said:

@FinneousPJ , that is what I intended on doing. I wanted the SOLE purpose of dualing from fighter to mage to be access to more weaponry. Everything else, hit points, specialization, etc, is just a bonus. Therefore I planned on dualing right off the bat at level 2.

Now if anyone is curious....

I have to admit that the more weaknesses my character has, the more fun he is to play. Now, don't read that as "the weaker he is", but more that he needs to HAVE weaknesses. Dual classing, and multiclassing to an extent, eliminate way too many weaknesses. To me the game is much more fun and rewarding when I play a character who SPECIALIZES in one thing, but is pretty bad at everything else.

A pure fighter is destroyed by a caster, but can dominate most everything else. With caster friends, he is even better. A pure thief is a multitasking hero, but leave him alone 1 on 1 and hes gone. You get the idea. It's one of the reasons I like bards so much. They can do so many things, but yet still have so many weaknesses.

So I ended up just making a pure conjurer and am enjoying it immensely. I love having to rely on friends in the beginning parts of this series. It fits the theme of the character for me.

The end.

So if it is just about the weaponry and you actually don't want to eliminate weaknesses... just use eeKeeper to put the weapon in your characters weapon slot and give him a proficiency point in it. I wouldn't really see this as cheating since it doesn't give you advantages and is more about the fun factor.

chickenhed

@lkMarc fair enough, but I'm a bit of a stickler for rules. So I prefer to play by 2nd ed rules as much as possible.