Veteran at D&D - New to BGEE - Seeks Build Help
Dren_Everblack
Member Posts: 4
Hello all - I am new to the forums. I am very familiar with the 2nd edition AD&D rules, but it has been a long time since I have used them. I have not played any Baldur's Bate games prior to the Enhanced Edition.
I am seeking help in finding optimized character builds. I imagine there are many opinions, and I am hoping you can point me to some of the best.
I will be playing single player, with the NPCs, for multiple playthroughs until BG2EE. My playstyles and alignments will vary with each playthrough. In particular I will be looking for opinions on:
Most powerful build in general
Best fighting and spellcasting combos
Best fighting and stealth combos
Best stealth and spellcasting combos
Best single class options
I am seeking help in finding optimized character builds. I imagine there are many opinions, and I am hoping you can point me to some of the best.
I will be playing single player, with the NPCs, for multiple playthroughs until BG2EE. My playstyles and alignments will vary with each playthrough. In particular I will be looking for opinions on:
Most powerful build in general
Best fighting and spellcasting combos
Best fighting and stealth combos
Best stealth and spellcasting combos
Best single class options
0
Comments
but in my opinion based on the last 5 questions I will try and give my best answers:
Most powerful build in general: Oi that's a doosy, this is completely based on preference and play style, but if I had to choose it would be this: human beserker with 18/xx str, 18 dex, 18 con, 11 int, 18 wis, xx cha ( these can also be assisted by tomes if need be but having both 19 str and con in bgee would be all the better) then once I would hit level 13 in SoA dual him over to a cleric, and once that cleric hit level 14, daaaaaaaaaaaaaamn is he ever going to destroy baddies, but if you are a little impatient on the dual class leveling thing, even dual classing at level 7 into a cleric can also be just as great, but dualling at level 13 is prime if you want that little extra horse power, vroom vroom,
or if you don't mind the micro managing part of play, blades can be quite devastating because in SoA they can learn up to level 6 spells, so they can get, improved haste, tensers transformation and protection from magical weapons, and when they dual wield with speed weapons, then can have some outrageous attacks per round, just make sure you have their str and dex as high as you possibly can make it, plus they only need 16 con, so don't give them more than that because they cant benefit from more than that
Best fighting and spellcasting combos: 2 options I would say are either the blade which I just described or the human fighter dual class at level 7 into mage, even in bg1 that mage will hit level 8, and depending on weapon selection you will have an awesome fighter than can still grow to the maximum in ToB, so now you will have a mage with crap tons more HP, way better to hit/damage, ATTACKS PER ROUND, and be able to cast spells, this also applies for clerics as well, which I also described earlier, and it works the same way, better to hit/damage/hp/attacks per round if they have 7 levels of fighter in them
Best fighting and stealth combos: I would say human level 7 fighter dualled over to a thief, because doing that same case scenario of better to hit/damage/hp/attacks per round jargon, plus their backstabs will be amplified with proficiencies in weapons pass 1 point, and in bgee you can get all the way to 5 with a fighter 7/ thief 8, which you can hit in bgee, now some people like to use kensai then dual over to thief, and they usually wait till level 13 ( because the kensai gets +1 to hit/damage every 3 levels, and at level 13 you get that extra half attack per round, but be for warned, that if you use that kensai combo, no armor you will be wearing, just tighty whities until you get use any item high level ability) so based on that, preference on how you use your stealthier, want great backstabs? kensai dualed at xx level into thief, or if you want someone that can hold their on in any situation a fighter/beserker dual into a thief at level xx, depending on preference and patience
Best stealth and spellcasting combos: blade is probably best for this, with use of invisibility and combat ability and spell casting, of maybe the human fighter 7 dualled over to mage, because they get invisibility for spells have great combat ability and can get up to level 9 spells, so really depending on what you need for stealth and then what you need for spell casting
Best single class options: dwarf beserker: AMAZING saves, great HP, great damage dealer, immune to lots of frustrating effects
Blade: great all around, but requires some micro managing and is a little weak at the beginning, but once you get those level 6 spells, they become much, much better
Sorcerer: this requires some pre play experience knowing which spells you will need, but the fact that you don't need to memorize spells is very nice, some battles you can use your party control spells, some battles you need your high offensive damaging spells, some battles you need your protection spells, all in all, you will never catch a sorcerer with its pants down because it can always be ready for any situation, unlike a mage, you have to prepare a head of time all the time, plus they get one extra spell per level and hit 6 across the board at level 20, so they can get a lot of spell casting much faster than a mage or even specialist mage, and especially if you use wish to unloads spell books worth of spells on enemies
so that's my opinion, people will have theirs, its all based on preference and how you like to play, so that is why this question can be tricky at times, but for ease of use, 3 gnome beserkers, fighter7/cleric xx, fighter 7/ thief xx, fighter 7/ mage xx is a great place to start and very easy to use if you want to power game
@Dren_Everblack
It definately differs between BG1 and BG2.
BG1:
Most powerful build in general - Hard to say but I like the gnome fighter / illusionist (see below).
Best fighting and spellcasting combos - gnome fighter / illusionist: You lose necromancy but this doesn't amount to much in BG1, for this reason I don't think there's any reason not to go with gnomes when choosing mage multiclasses in BG1. You get an extra casting per level, level 4 spells and fighter level 7 for that extra 1/2 attack. You get enough proficiencies to specialise in a melee weapon, ranged weapon, and to dual-wield.
Best fighting and stealth combos - fighter / thief: Halfling for extra thieving, half-orc for extra whacking, gnome for a middle-ground.
Best stealth and spellcasting combos - gnome illusionist / thief.
Best single class options - Hard to say. I personally like Sorcerers since they can cast lots of spells and don't have to worry about scrolls, they don't get level 5 spells under the exp cap however. Conjurers and Illusionists would be other good options since their opposition schools are meh. The Archer is good since missile weapons are awesome in BG1, elf would be the best race. For a melee character Barbarians and Berserkers are both good (dwarf for good saves or half-orc for more whacking). Some classes have really powerful abilities such as the Jester's song and Bounty Hunter's traps but are one trick ponies.
BG2:
Most powerful build in general - I'm not a fan of dual-classing but I have to say kensai / mage. Excellent fighting and spellcasting ability. Gnome fighter / illusionist is an alternative in which you don't have the hassle of the dual class and get fighter HLAs (only one worth having for this class is Critical Strike however) but have slightly fewer spell slots and miss out on the big damage spells of Skull Trap and Abi Dalzim's Horrid Wilting. Sorcerer and Wild Mage are also contenders.
Best fighting and spellcasting combos - See above for kensai / mage and fighter / illusionist. F/M/C deserves a mention for combining offensive cleric melee buffs with mage defensive melee buffs and a fighter's natural fighting ability. This suffers from a lack of attacks per round compared to other options however.
Best fighting and stealth combos - Same as for BG1, but less emphasis on the halfling since skill points will eventually be in surplus in BG2. F/M/T also an option.
Best stealth and spellcasting combos - Ill/T or M/T. Ill gets extra spell slots and saving throws, M gets necromancy. F/M/T again an option.
Best single class options - Sorcerer and Wild Mage easily. For a melee class all the paladins, barbarian and stalker have something to offer. Blade is like a F/M in a single class.
Baldur's Gate 1 (/EE) is nowhere near the level of NPC interactions and backgrounds as Baldur's Gate 2, but it is still one of my favorite aspects of the series. It's what defines the games.
So yeah, you will be missing an integral part of the game if you go "multiplayer". I definitely wouldn't recommend it for a first playthrough.
As for powerful builds, anything arcane related will do the job. Ridiculously more so in BG2 though. For BG1, archers shouldn't be scoffed at either. Ranged is really powerful is the first game. The ranger/druid is also a, albeit "broken", powerful class, thanks to the availability of both cleric and druid spells. It goes against the rules, but hey.
Best fighting and stealth combos= elf fighter/thief (extra thaco with long bow and extra thieving skills points or half orc fighter/thief (19 str and con grants high thaco and hp bonus);
Best fighting and spellcasting combos= blades but elf (or halfelf) fighter/mage is more powerful of that bard kit casue higher hp (in bg2) more pip points and weapon specialise, higher thaco, less equipment restrictions (like helm of balduran and some armor), and 7-8-9 spells level (bg2-tob); another options in human berserk dualed at level 9 to mage;
Best stealth and spellcasting combos= elf mage/thief or human swashbuckler dualed to mage at level 10 (bonus +3 CA, bonus +3 thaco and damage, specializzation with thief weapons and 3 pip points for dualwield... swash/mage is a bg2 build XD
sorry for my bad english
So I'm unsure I can add much to your question, @Dren_Everblack. But as a BG fan, I'd say you should not worry about optimizing your character for playing.
Make whatever you want to, and stick to it. I did it in my first BG2 run and I do not regret by doing it.
BG is a moddable game, means you will have plenty of reasons to play it again. If you think too much before your first run, you will not only spoil a lot of your fun (both story and rules/gears/combo), but you will be likely stuck in the start with so many options to choose.
In my own experience, my first BG run wasn't my first, really. I created a character, played for 15 minutes, decided to change and started again like 5 times. When I finally decided - wait, i need to PLAY it sometime. Then I built a true neutral, non-kitted, standard Fighter and played BG2. Never a game provided me so much fun since then.
Except playing it (and its series) again, changing class, alignment, mods installed etc etc. (and I'm still here)
Anyways, have fun and pick one of the options, don't look for the best one, soon you will see that are so many breaking points along the way that you will realize no one character is enough to let you explore all BGseries has to offer solely - you will want to play it again
Pretty much all Fighter/Anything multiclasses will be rock solid. Fighter/Mage or Fighter/Illusionist starts as a low HP Fighter and rapidly becomes a ridiculous tank with Mirror Image and Stoneskin. Blades perform similarly. Fighter/Clerics are also solid tanks, but also provide a ton of party buffs. If in doubt, throwing in a few fighter levels is never wrong.
It's worth mentioning that the Baldur's Gate implementation of the rules has Dual-wielding as probably the strongest option for damage dealing. Once you've got 2 proficiency points in 2-weapon style your foes will crumble like styrofoam packaging. As a single notable exception Paladins may want to use 2-handed swords for metagame reasons when reaching BG2.
* Minsc: shouldn't even be a Ranger with his attributes, but it works for him. He is a strong tank as it is, but then he goes berserk and enemies push daisies. Annoying enemies that use charm spells or poison can get soloed by Minsc. He may die afterward, but that is the price for smiting your enemies, and you can always raise dead on him.
* Edwin: Perfect Wizard, Perfect A-hole. Give him the ring that doubles first level spells and let the cheese begin.
* Imoen: Try rolling a character with a better total roll. I'll wait right here. Have a wizard cast a strength spell on her and give her some potions of invisibility and watch her backstab everyone to death. Don't get me started on dueling her to mage.
Many other of the NPCs are similar super characters, although there are also many who are rubbish. For your own PC (or CHARNAME as we like to call him/her).
*Cavalier is a great character throughout the series. Spiders in BG1? Owned. Demons in BG2? PWNED. Dragons? History. When the monsters in the BG universe look under their bed at night, they are looking for your Cavalier. Str: 18 percentile Dex:18 Con:18 Int: Dump Wis: Dump Chr: 17
*Wild Mage: Get ready for the ride of your life. Ever want to cast a fireball at first level? Done. In fact, with the cheesy ring of first level spell doubling and Nahals Reckless Dwemor you can cast FOUR of them. Of course you have to find the stroll of Fireball and you might gate in a pit fiend or squish your party with a cow, but that is the fun part. Str: XX (enough to carry stuff) Dex: 18 Con: 16 Int: 18 Wis: Dump Chr: Dump
*Jester: Huh? This guy should suck, so how the hell did I solo BG1 with him? The joke is on the monsters, evidently. Str: 16 Dex: 18 Con: 16 Int: 15 Wis: Dump Chr:15 (hard to roll!)