Unofficial Class/Kit Rundown: Fighter edition
GamingFreak
Member Posts: 639
For those of you new to the series or wanting to try out new classes/kits some of you may be wondering "how do I play this class? What's the better weapon choices? Is this class/kit the right one for me?". Well here I am to help with my unofficial rundown of each class and kit. Unofficial because, let's face it, a lot of it is going to be from personal perspective, and while I definitely know how to play the game and tested the various classes and kits, I'm no professional/hardcore player, so take from this guide what you will, but note that I will state mostly facts with just a tiny bit of personal input. So hey, let's get started!
Each class will have a short summary of it followed by the description of the kits and what the kits are all about. Also I'm going super full detail here, so this might be split into various threads to avoid the massive walls; if mods want to merge threads, that's perfectly fine by me. (please note I'm excluding multi-classes, though I can make notes about them for those interested)
I'll start with a class that's pretty bread-'n-butter, but completely unforgettable
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Fighter
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Description: The fighter is a champion, swordsman, solider and brawler. He lives or
dies by his knowledge of weapons and tactics. Fighters can be found at the
front of any battle, contesting toe-to-toe with monsters and villains. A
good fighter needs to be strong and healthy if he hopes to survive.
Advantages:
- Can use any weapon or armor
- Can become a Grand Master at any weapon
Disadvantages:
- none
Ideal stats
---------
Strength: First priority, you need to hit and damage crap, so if you're making a fighter, 18 or bust, baby (the higher the fraction for the 18 stat, the better, btw)
Dexterity: High priority (AC is good, you want good AC; no less than 16, and you can't go wrong with 18)
Constitution: High Priority (Health is nice, you want health for your big meaty fighter, so 16-18 Con is good)
Intelligence: Fairly Low Priority (You aren't paid to be smart! You're paid to hit things! Though 10-12 should keep those pesky mind-flayers off your ass, and 17-18 is good for dual-classing to a mage)
Wisdom: Very Low (Can you say "Dump stat"? Sounds nice, doesn't it? Only keep this up to 17-18 if you want to dual-class to a cleric or druid, otherwise trash it)
Charisma: Extremely low (So many work arounds for having low charisma it isn't even funny. Dump it, unless you like to RP or want to dual-class to a druid, which requires fairly high CHA, iirc)
Summary: Ah, the fighter. The go-to physical damage dealer, plain and simple. The fighter is basically a weapon master of sorts. Any weapon type that any other class can use, the Fighter can use as well, and run circles around them. Most classes can only so much as put a single pip (proficiency point) in any weapon, and they only get so many. Not only does the fighter get way more points to spend on weapon proficiencies and fighting styles, they can also put *ADDITIONAL* points into them. What does that do, you ask? It allows you to increase your chances to hit an enemy with that weapon type, and increase the amount of damage the weapon does. And on top of that, at higher mastery of a weapon, you can do additional attacks per round, which means even MORE damage. Here's an exact table for the proficiency bonuses:
Proficiency bonuses
points spent to hit bonus damage bonus attacks
1 (Proficient) 0 0 1
2 (Specialized) +1 +2 3/2
3 (Master) +3 +3 3/2
4 (High Master) +3 +4 3/2
5 (Grand Master) +3 +5 2
So for those who are curious, at Grandmastery, Fighters will get a +3 bonus to their Thac0, a +5 bonus to damage (Which is reaaaally good), and 2 extra attacks, which means you do more attacks per round, which means more damage per round. Fighters get insane THAC0 growth on top of this, leveling up THAC0 every level until you reach epic levels. So with all of these bonuses from proficiencies, and with how many weapons there all, you have to figure out how to spend your points properly; either stick to one weapon, maybe two, to Grand Mastery, or play with multiple ones and specialize in various ones, so you can get +1 to hit and +2 to damage with various weapons. Your call.
Fighters can also put more than one point in any weapon style, so they can reap the most benefits of single-weapon fighting, Two-Handed weapon fighting (great for guys who like the big weapons like Two-Handed swords or Halberds) or two-weapon fighting (which requires 3 points to almost fully offset the negatives). Then there's Sword and Shield... now shields are definitely not bad (hell, some are pretty damn good"), but sword and shield style... well it's up to you whether you want to put points in it or not, basically it gives you an AC boost against missle weapons, which is nice, but missle weapons are less common amongst the foes later on in the game (most will either try to bash your face in or blast you with magic later on).
So how do you play a fighter? Pick a weapon, stick with it, and stick it to the enemy. Can't get much more simple than that, right? But seriously, as nice as a Fighter is, pick a kit. Seriously. Unless you're trying to role-play or go a class with no virtual weaknesses, in which case, the fighter... really does have no weaknesses, other than not having spellcasting (that's what spellcasters are for, heh)
It should also be noted that Fighters gain an extra full attack through leveling by level 13 (an extra 1/2 attack by level 7, and another 1/2 attack by level 13); this alongside grandmastery in a weapon can bring the base attacks to around 4-5 attacks per round, depending on equipment and abilities used it can be increased even higher.
Recommended Races:
Any, really, but Humans, Half-Orcs, Elves, and Dwarves are the most ideal, but for pure fighters, I'd say avoid humans unless you're trying to role-play, but in that case, hey more power to you. Keep in mind that Half-Orcs make a whole lot of difference with that 19 strength and 19 Con (Dwarves get the 19 Con as well, hence the recommendation), and Elves get 19 dex, which is nice as well.
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Fighter Kits
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Berserker:
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Advantages:
- May use Enrage ability once per day per 4 levels. While enraged: +2 to
hit, +2 damage, -2 AC. The berserker at this time is immune to charm,
hold, fear, maze, imprisonment, stun and sleep. He also gains 15 hit
points while enraged. These hit points are temporary, and are taken
away at the end of his berserk spree, possibly killing the berserker.
Enrage also makes him immune to level drain.
Disadvantages:
- Becomes winded after berserking. While he's winded, he receives -2 to
hit, -2 to damage and a +2 penalty to AC.
- Cannot specialize in ranged weapons.
Recommended Races: Humans for dual-class, Half-Orcs for 19 Str/Con (for devastating rages), Dwarves for the simple yet good 19 Con. Anything else is meh.
Summary: Berserkers can't specialize in ranged weapons, only becoming proficient in it (IE, no penalties for using the weapon)... pffft, so what? LOOK AT ALL THOSE ADVANTAGES FROM RAGE! So many freaking immunities at the cost of a temporary HP boost that may go wrong if your HP is low (let's face it, if you're at 15 or less HP and Rage was about to run out, you were pretty screwed anyway, that final blow from Rage running out was just the final cherry on top of the "I'm boned' sundae. The only negative about the Berserker's Rage ability is the winded effect, which is immediately countered by a successful Rest. Big freakin whoop. And that winded state? Barely scratches the surface of the Fighter's innate bonuses. Only time that's even going to remotely hurt you is early on in the game, where thac0, damage, and AC is *EVERYTHING*; and I'm talking BG1 here. In BG2? Psssh... minor stuff. A great class to play and dual-class.
Kensai
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Advantages:
- +1 to hit and +1 damage for every three levels.
- -2 bonus to AC.
- -1 bonus to speed factor for every 4 levels.
- May use Kai ability one time per day for every 4 levels (starts at 1st
level with one use). This ability lasts 10 seconds and makes all the
attacks do maximum damage.
Disadvantages:
- May not use missile weapons.
- May not wear armor.
- May not wear gauntlets or bracers.
Recommended Races: Human for dual-classing naturally, but for pure kensai, go Half-Orc, Dwarf or Elf, though Half-Orc and Elf are the most appealing, because those stat bonuses help a crap-load for this kit
Summary: My favorite fighter class kit, and with damn good reason. But first, let's get to the negatives: They can't wear armor... which means they have horrible AC. Which means they're probably going to get hit... A LOT. They can't wear Gauntlets or Bracers... whelp, no sacred AC bonus there... and no glorious Gauntlets of Extraordinary specialization for those tantalizing bonuses. They can't use missle weapons... no bows, slings, crossbows, not even freaking darts... they can use Throwing Daggers, Throwing Axes, and that one Throwing Warhammer, though. Oh man, this class just sounds like the worst from what I'm saying here, doesn't it!?
Pfft, please. For starters, Kensai get the biggest damage/hit bonuses in the game. That's right, in the ENTIRE freaking game. No one can out-damage a pure kensai in physical combat. NO ONE. that +1 to hit/damage every 3 levels stacks up sooner than you'd think, that's like free grand-mastery for weapons you aren't even friggin' proficient in! And then there's Kai; Kai is extremely hilarious in how powerful it is. Maximized damage? That means your attacks will do the fullest damage roll possible. For example say you had a possible damage window of 11-24. With Kai, your attacks will always hit for 24 damage, and that's not even counting the multiple attacks per round fighters can get. These bonuses are what make Kensai eligible candidates for dual-classing to mages or thieves, mainly because the negatives can be off-set in exchange for crazy positives.
Kensai are kind of unique with their weapon selection here, in the sense that this is the fighter kit I'd recommend you always go two-weapon fighting with. With the lack of bracers or armor, they need that extra weapon to help dish out the pain. For off-hand weapons, I'd recommend Belm (scimitar), Kundane (short sword), Defender of Easthaven (Flail), or Crom Faeyr (warhammer). The first 2 is because it adds an extra attack to your main-hand weapon (the off-hand weapon only has 1 attack in any situation, no exceptions). Defender of Easthaven mitigates the crap AC Kensais have a bit, and actually decreases the damage recieved from physical attacks by a bit (which is good!) As for Crom Faeyr... well this is just personal input because it sets your strength to 25, which means even crazier damage/hit rolls... but you probably don't even need it, I'm just mentioning it for the laughs.
In short, Kensai are amazing, if not a bit worrisome. Their poor AC can be offset by cloaks, rings, and amulets, and also spells like Barksin and Spirit armor, that casters in the group can cast for you.
Wizard Slayer
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Advantages:
- For each successful hit on an opponent, 10% cumulative spell failure
penalty is applied.
- 2% magic resistance per level.
- At 20th level, gets 5% magic res. every 2 levels
Disadvantages:
- May not use any magic items except for weapons and armor.
Recommended Races: Pfft, any, really. You're either not going to play this kit, or you're at least not going to dual-class it if you value your sanity.
Summary: Oh Wizard Slayer... Wizard Slayer, Wizard Slayer, Wizard Slayer.... the black sheep of the fighter kits, but while having a seriously MASSIVE MASSIVE MASSIVE disadvantage, is still a kit that has a good side to it. For starters, magic resistance is always nice, and Wizard Slayers always get more of it. And hey, that cumulative spell failure is pretty good too, because it stacks with each hit made on the caster. You know what also causes cumulative spell failure on a caster? A serious case of *DEATH*, something a fighter is naturally good at dishing out. So why do we have this, this guy who can dish out spell failure chances? In exchange for what, the loss of Boots, cloaks, rings and bracers!?
Well I'll tell you what: There's many instances where you can hit a caster, and deal no damage, thus not interrupting a spellcaster, such as stoneskin, which is one of the fighter's worst nightmares in mage fights, and here we have a kit that can work around it in a non-time consuming fashion (he doesn't need to pull out his fancy dispells and breach to quickly remove the protections), and actually *PUNISH* a caster despite those protections existing. And that punishment means that the caster can potentially FIZZLE his spell because of the Wizard Slayer's hard earned hit.
Okay, I'm playing it up a bit here, but Wizard Slayer needs it, because he gets SOOOOO much hate. SOOOOOOO much hate and disgust for losing out on all those equipment slots for fairly meager bonuses. I'll be honest with you: this kit is fairly low tier, and by far the worst option of the fighter kits, ESPECIALLY for dual classing. Sure thieves can eventually work around it with Use Any Item, but that requires 3,080,000 XP worth of investment to make that dual-class option suck less. You can still win the game with this kit, and hell you can definitely still use the best armor, helmets, shields, and weapons with this kit, but you miss out on *SO MUCH*.
Dwarven Defender
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Advantages:
-May use Defensive Stance once per day, gaining an additional use every 4 levels. (Defensive stance: For one turn, Defender gains +50% resistance to all forms of physical damage, +2 saving throws, and suffers 50% movement rate penalty.) Gains 5% resistance to crushing, slashing, piercing and missile damage every 5 levels to a maximum of 20%. Rolls d12 for Hit Points.
Disadvantages:
-Race restricted to dwarf.
-Limited to high mastery (4 slots) in axes and warhammers, can only specialize (two slots) in all other weapon types.
Recommended Race: Dwarf (DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUH!)
Summary: Nice ability, real nice in fact. This effectively makes you the tankiest of tanks with the only negative to the ability being a small movement rate penalty (pretty sure haste or boots of speed offset it). And the negatives?
I'm sorry, were there negatives to this kit? Let me check real quick: Oh hey you're limited to high mastery in axes and warhammers only? Are you saying I can't enjoy the fullest in these two weapon types when those bonuses I miss out on are pretty minor?! HOW DARE THEY! Can only specialize in any other weapon (specialization is SO BAD AFTER ALL), leaving me only being able to enjoy the higher perks in Warhammers and Axes, both of which have freaking amazing weapons for both!? YOU BASTARDS!
Sarcasm aside, those negatives are a joke. A big silly joke. Here's the real disadvantages to this kit:
-Limited to being a dwarf (pffft, dwarves)
-cannot romance Aerie, Jaheira, Viconia, or Anomen (is the last one a disadvantage, though?)
Okay, that second one was another joke but come on, you play as a Dwarven Defender and basically lose out on NOTHING. It's a good kit, period.
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Barbarian
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Advantages:
- They move at 2 points faster than the usual character.
- Barbarians are immune to backstab.
- Can Rage once per day for every 4 levels (starts at 1st level with one
use). Rage gives them +4 to constitution and strength for 5 rounds.
Gives a -2 armor class penalty and +2 to saves vs. magic (for 5
rounds). Rage also gives immunity to all charm, hold, fear, maze,
confusion and level-drain spells.
- At 11th level, the barbarian gains 10% resistance to slashing,
piercing, crushing and missile damage. He gains +5% to this every 4
levels thereafter.
- The barbarian rolls d12 for hit points instead of a fighter's d10.
Disadvantages:
- A barbarian cannot wear full plate or plate mail.
- A barbarian cannot specialize past normal specialization.
Recommended Races: Half-Orc for the 19 STR/CON, or Dwarf for the 19 CON. You can't dual-class a barbarian, so you might as go full-ham for the nice stat boosts to anything that's str and con.
Description: So... much... freaking... HP... higher than any other class's HP growth at a crazy d12. Good lord look at all those positives, talk about the jack-pot. Immunity to backstab means that improved scripting for thieves to use invisibility potions a lot in BG2EE means jack-shit. You are limited to only Specializing in weapons though which is a kind of double-edged sword since it means that despite that limitation you essentially have the fighter level progression, so you can stretch out your weapon expertise more.
These guys are massive tanks, and basically a more newbie-friendly version of the regular fighter kit: Berserker, though with a slightly weaker Rage, the plus side being the Barbarian's Rage has no winded state, so you can go back to consecutive raging with little downside. The biggest problem they'll face is that they're limited to splint mail as their highest form of available armor, and enchanted splint mail isn't eactly common. You can still utilize leather armors if you find any that are more useful than the splint mail you find laying around, and Potions of Defense/Invulnerability, or even Barkskin and Spirit armor can be cast on you to lower your AC.
While I try to go against recommending specific weapons for any class/kit, I highly recommend dual-wielding for this class, and taking longswords and flails for BGEE and then get the Defender of Easthaven +3 as your off-hand weapon of choice in BG2EE. You can get it from Joluv in the Copper Coronet by the time you reach Shadows of Amn in BG2EE, and it increases your actual resistances to physical attacks while lowering your AC in the process, which is really good. Another option is Warhammers for the sake of an awesome +2 warhammer in BGEE and the Crom Faeyr in BG2EE.
*Edit: Put the post in a spoiler tag because the thread seemed to distort in a rather odd fashion
And with that, the Fighter Class/Kit rundown is over! I may alter the thread (or make others) to make for more Class/Kit rundowns in the near future, but let's just call this a... test of the waters. If people want me to continue, I'll do my best, but for now, rest and awaiting judging eyes >_>
Each class will have a short summary of it followed by the description of the kits and what the kits are all about. Also I'm going super full detail here, so this might be split into various threads to avoid the massive walls; if mods want to merge threads, that's perfectly fine by me. (please note I'm excluding multi-classes, though I can make notes about them for those interested)
I'll start with a class that's pretty bread-'n-butter, but completely unforgettable
-------
Fighter
-------
Description: The fighter is a champion, swordsman, solider and brawler. He lives or
dies by his knowledge of weapons and tactics. Fighters can be found at the
front of any battle, contesting toe-to-toe with monsters and villains. A
good fighter needs to be strong and healthy if he hopes to survive.
Advantages:
- Can use any weapon or armor
- Can become a Grand Master at any weapon
Disadvantages:
- none
Ideal stats
---------
Strength: First priority, you need to hit and damage crap, so if you're making a fighter, 18 or bust, baby (the higher the fraction for the 18 stat, the better, btw)
Dexterity: High priority (AC is good, you want good AC; no less than 16, and you can't go wrong with 18)
Constitution: High Priority (Health is nice, you want health for your big meaty fighter, so 16-18 Con is good)
Intelligence: Fairly Low Priority (You aren't paid to be smart! You're paid to hit things! Though 10-12 should keep those pesky mind-flayers off your ass, and 17-18 is good for dual-classing to a mage)
Wisdom: Very Low (Can you say "Dump stat"? Sounds nice, doesn't it? Only keep this up to 17-18 if you want to dual-class to a cleric or druid, otherwise trash it)
Charisma: Extremely low (So many work arounds for having low charisma it isn't even funny. Dump it, unless you like to RP or want to dual-class to a druid, which requires fairly high CHA, iirc)
Summary: Ah, the fighter. The go-to physical damage dealer, plain and simple. The fighter is basically a weapon master of sorts. Any weapon type that any other class can use, the Fighter can use as well, and run circles around them. Most classes can only so much as put a single pip (proficiency point) in any weapon, and they only get so many. Not only does the fighter get way more points to spend on weapon proficiencies and fighting styles, they can also put *ADDITIONAL* points into them. What does that do, you ask? It allows you to increase your chances to hit an enemy with that weapon type, and increase the amount of damage the weapon does. And on top of that, at higher mastery of a weapon, you can do additional attacks per round, which means even MORE damage. Here's an exact table for the proficiency bonuses:
Proficiency bonuses
points spent to hit bonus damage bonus attacks
1 (Proficient) 0 0 1
2 (Specialized) +1 +2 3/2
3 (Master) +3 +3 3/2
4 (High Master) +3 +4 3/2
5 (Grand Master) +3 +5 2
So for those who are curious, at Grandmastery, Fighters will get a +3 bonus to their Thac0, a +5 bonus to damage (Which is reaaaally good), and 2 extra attacks, which means you do more attacks per round, which means more damage per round. Fighters get insane THAC0 growth on top of this, leveling up THAC0 every level until you reach epic levels. So with all of these bonuses from proficiencies, and with how many weapons there all, you have to figure out how to spend your points properly; either stick to one weapon, maybe two, to Grand Mastery, or play with multiple ones and specialize in various ones, so you can get +1 to hit and +2 to damage with various weapons. Your call.
Fighters can also put more than one point in any weapon style, so they can reap the most benefits of single-weapon fighting, Two-Handed weapon fighting (great for guys who like the big weapons like Two-Handed swords or Halberds) or two-weapon fighting (which requires 3 points to almost fully offset the negatives). Then there's Sword and Shield... now shields are definitely not bad (hell, some are pretty damn good"), but sword and shield style... well it's up to you whether you want to put points in it or not, basically it gives you an AC boost against missle weapons, which is nice, but missle weapons are less common amongst the foes later on in the game (most will either try to bash your face in or blast you with magic later on).
So how do you play a fighter? Pick a weapon, stick with it, and stick it to the enemy. Can't get much more simple than that, right? But seriously, as nice as a Fighter is, pick a kit. Seriously. Unless you're trying to role-play or go a class with no virtual weaknesses, in which case, the fighter... really does have no weaknesses, other than not having spellcasting (that's what spellcasters are for, heh)
It should also be noted that Fighters gain an extra full attack through leveling by level 13 (an extra 1/2 attack by level 7, and another 1/2 attack by level 13); this alongside grandmastery in a weapon can bring the base attacks to around 4-5 attacks per round, depending on equipment and abilities used it can be increased even higher.
Recommended Races:
Any, really, but Humans, Half-Orcs, Elves, and Dwarves are the most ideal, but for pure fighters, I'd say avoid humans unless you're trying to role-play, but in that case, hey more power to you. Keep in mind that Half-Orcs make a whole lot of difference with that 19 strength and 19 Con (Dwarves get the 19 Con as well, hence the recommendation), and Elves get 19 dex, which is nice as well.
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Fighter Kits
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Berserker:
---------
Advantages:
- May use Enrage ability once per day per 4 levels. While enraged: +2 to
hit, +2 damage, -2 AC. The berserker at this time is immune to charm,
hold, fear, maze, imprisonment, stun and sleep. He also gains 15 hit
points while enraged. These hit points are temporary, and are taken
away at the end of his berserk spree, possibly killing the berserker.
Enrage also makes him immune to level drain.
Disadvantages:
- Becomes winded after berserking. While he's winded, he receives -2 to
hit, -2 to damage and a +2 penalty to AC.
- Cannot specialize in ranged weapons.
Recommended Races: Humans for dual-class, Half-Orcs for 19 Str/Con (for devastating rages), Dwarves for the simple yet good 19 Con. Anything else is meh.
Summary: Berserkers can't specialize in ranged weapons, only becoming proficient in it (IE, no penalties for using the weapon)... pffft, so what? LOOK AT ALL THOSE ADVANTAGES FROM RAGE! So many freaking immunities at the cost of a temporary HP boost that may go wrong if your HP is low (let's face it, if you're at 15 or less HP and Rage was about to run out, you were pretty screwed anyway, that final blow from Rage running out was just the final cherry on top of the "I'm boned' sundae. The only negative about the Berserker's Rage ability is the winded effect, which is immediately countered by a successful Rest. Big freakin whoop. And that winded state? Barely scratches the surface of the Fighter's innate bonuses. Only time that's even going to remotely hurt you is early on in the game, where thac0, damage, and AC is *EVERYTHING*; and I'm talking BG1 here. In BG2? Psssh... minor stuff. A great class to play and dual-class.
Kensai
------
Advantages:
- +1 to hit and +1 damage for every three levels.
- -2 bonus to AC.
- -1 bonus to speed factor for every 4 levels.
- May use Kai ability one time per day for every 4 levels (starts at 1st
level with one use). This ability lasts 10 seconds and makes all the
attacks do maximum damage.
Disadvantages:
- May not use missile weapons.
- May not wear armor.
- May not wear gauntlets or bracers.
Recommended Races: Human for dual-classing naturally, but for pure kensai, go Half-Orc, Dwarf or Elf, though Half-Orc and Elf are the most appealing, because those stat bonuses help a crap-load for this kit
Summary: My favorite fighter class kit, and with damn good reason. But first, let's get to the negatives: They can't wear armor... which means they have horrible AC. Which means they're probably going to get hit... A LOT. They can't wear Gauntlets or Bracers... whelp, no sacred AC bonus there... and no glorious Gauntlets of Extraordinary specialization for those tantalizing bonuses. They can't use missle weapons... no bows, slings, crossbows, not even freaking darts... they can use Throwing Daggers, Throwing Axes, and that one Throwing Warhammer, though. Oh man, this class just sounds like the worst from what I'm saying here, doesn't it!?
Pfft, please. For starters, Kensai get the biggest damage/hit bonuses in the game. That's right, in the ENTIRE freaking game. No one can out-damage a pure kensai in physical combat. NO ONE. that +1 to hit/damage every 3 levels stacks up sooner than you'd think, that's like free grand-mastery for weapons you aren't even friggin' proficient in! And then there's Kai; Kai is extremely hilarious in how powerful it is. Maximized damage? That means your attacks will do the fullest damage roll possible. For example say you had a possible damage window of 11-24. With Kai, your attacks will always hit for 24 damage, and that's not even counting the multiple attacks per round fighters can get. These bonuses are what make Kensai eligible candidates for dual-classing to mages or thieves, mainly because the negatives can be off-set in exchange for crazy positives.
Kensai are kind of unique with their weapon selection here, in the sense that this is the fighter kit I'd recommend you always go two-weapon fighting with. With the lack of bracers or armor, they need that extra weapon to help dish out the pain. For off-hand weapons, I'd recommend Belm (scimitar), Kundane (short sword), Defender of Easthaven (Flail), or Crom Faeyr (warhammer). The first 2 is because it adds an extra attack to your main-hand weapon (the off-hand weapon only has 1 attack in any situation, no exceptions). Defender of Easthaven mitigates the crap AC Kensais have a bit, and actually decreases the damage recieved from physical attacks by a bit (which is good!) As for Crom Faeyr... well this is just personal input because it sets your strength to 25, which means even crazier damage/hit rolls... but you probably don't even need it, I'm just mentioning it for the laughs.
In short, Kensai are amazing, if not a bit worrisome. Their poor AC can be offset by cloaks, rings, and amulets, and also spells like Barksin and Spirit armor, that casters in the group can cast for you.
Wizard Slayer
-----------
Advantages:
- For each successful hit on an opponent, 10% cumulative spell failure
penalty is applied.
- 2% magic resistance per level.
- At 20th level, gets 5% magic res. every 2 levels
Disadvantages:
- May not use any magic items except for weapons and armor.
Recommended Races: Pfft, any, really. You're either not going to play this kit, or you're at least not going to dual-class it if you value your sanity.
Summary: Oh Wizard Slayer... Wizard Slayer, Wizard Slayer, Wizard Slayer.... the black sheep of the fighter kits, but while having a seriously MASSIVE MASSIVE MASSIVE disadvantage, is still a kit that has a good side to it. For starters, magic resistance is always nice, and Wizard Slayers always get more of it. And hey, that cumulative spell failure is pretty good too, because it stacks with each hit made on the caster. You know what also causes cumulative spell failure on a caster? A serious case of *DEATH*, something a fighter is naturally good at dishing out. So why do we have this, this guy who can dish out spell failure chances? In exchange for what, the loss of Boots, cloaks, rings and bracers!?
Well I'll tell you what: There's many instances where you can hit a caster, and deal no damage, thus not interrupting a spellcaster, such as stoneskin, which is one of the fighter's worst nightmares in mage fights, and here we have a kit that can work around it in a non-time consuming fashion (he doesn't need to pull out his fancy dispells and breach to quickly remove the protections), and actually *PUNISH* a caster despite those protections existing. And that punishment means that the caster can potentially FIZZLE his spell because of the Wizard Slayer's hard earned hit.
Okay, I'm playing it up a bit here, but Wizard Slayer needs it, because he gets SOOOOO much hate. SOOOOOOO much hate and disgust for losing out on all those equipment slots for fairly meager bonuses. I'll be honest with you: this kit is fairly low tier, and by far the worst option of the fighter kits, ESPECIALLY for dual classing. Sure thieves can eventually work around it with Use Any Item, but that requires 3,080,000 XP worth of investment to make that dual-class option suck less. You can still win the game with this kit, and hell you can definitely still use the best armor, helmets, shields, and weapons with this kit, but you miss out on *SO MUCH*.
Dwarven Defender
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Advantages:
-May use Defensive Stance once per day, gaining an additional use every 4 levels. (Defensive stance: For one turn, Defender gains +50% resistance to all forms of physical damage, +2 saving throws, and suffers 50% movement rate penalty.) Gains 5% resistance to crushing, slashing, piercing and missile damage every 5 levels to a maximum of 20%. Rolls d12 for Hit Points.
Disadvantages:
-Race restricted to dwarf.
-Limited to high mastery (4 slots) in axes and warhammers, can only specialize (two slots) in all other weapon types.
Recommended Race: Dwarf (DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUH!)
Summary: Nice ability, real nice in fact. This effectively makes you the tankiest of tanks with the only negative to the ability being a small movement rate penalty (pretty sure haste or boots of speed offset it). And the negatives?
I'm sorry, were there negatives to this kit? Let me check real quick: Oh hey you're limited to high mastery in axes and warhammers only? Are you saying I can't enjoy the fullest in these two weapon types when those bonuses I miss out on are pretty minor?! HOW DARE THEY! Can only specialize in any other weapon (specialization is SO BAD AFTER ALL), leaving me only being able to enjoy the higher perks in Warhammers and Axes, both of which have freaking amazing weapons for both!? YOU BASTARDS!
Sarcasm aside, those negatives are a joke. A big silly joke. Here's the real disadvantages to this kit:
-Limited to being a dwarf (pffft, dwarves)
-cannot romance Aerie, Jaheira, Viconia, or Anomen (is the last one a disadvantage, though?)
Okay, that second one was another joke but come on, you play as a Dwarven Defender and basically lose out on NOTHING. It's a good kit, period.
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Barbarian
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Advantages:
- They move at 2 points faster than the usual character.
- Barbarians are immune to backstab.
- Can Rage once per day for every 4 levels (starts at 1st level with one
use). Rage gives them +4 to constitution and strength for 5 rounds.
Gives a -2 armor class penalty and +2 to saves vs. magic (for 5
rounds). Rage also gives immunity to all charm, hold, fear, maze,
confusion and level-drain spells.
- At 11th level, the barbarian gains 10% resistance to slashing,
piercing, crushing and missile damage. He gains +5% to this every 4
levels thereafter.
- The barbarian rolls d12 for hit points instead of a fighter's d10.
Disadvantages:
- A barbarian cannot wear full plate or plate mail.
- A barbarian cannot specialize past normal specialization.
Recommended Races: Half-Orc for the 19 STR/CON, or Dwarf for the 19 CON. You can't dual-class a barbarian, so you might as go full-ham for the nice stat boosts to anything that's str and con.
Description: So... much... freaking... HP... higher than any other class's HP growth at a crazy d12. Good lord look at all those positives, talk about the jack-pot. Immunity to backstab means that improved scripting for thieves to use invisibility potions a lot in BG2EE means jack-shit. You are limited to only Specializing in weapons though which is a kind of double-edged sword since it means that despite that limitation you essentially have the fighter level progression, so you can stretch out your weapon expertise more.
These guys are massive tanks, and basically a more newbie-friendly version of the regular fighter kit: Berserker, though with a slightly weaker Rage, the plus side being the Barbarian's Rage has no winded state, so you can go back to consecutive raging with little downside. The biggest problem they'll face is that they're limited to splint mail as their highest form of available armor, and enchanted splint mail isn't eactly common. You can still utilize leather armors if you find any that are more useful than the splint mail you find laying around, and Potions of Defense/Invulnerability, or even Barkskin and Spirit armor can be cast on you to lower your AC.
While I try to go against recommending specific weapons for any class/kit, I highly recommend dual-wielding for this class, and taking longswords and flails for BGEE and then get the Defender of Easthaven +3 as your off-hand weapon of choice in BG2EE. You can get it from Joluv in the Copper Coronet by the time you reach Shadows of Amn in BG2EE, and it increases your actual resistances to physical attacks while lowering your AC in the process, which is really good. Another option is Warhammers for the sake of an awesome +2 warhammer in BGEE and the Crom Faeyr in BG2EE.
*Edit: Put the post in a spoiler tag because the thread seemed to distort in a rather odd fashion
And with that, the Fighter Class/Kit rundown is over! I may alter the thread (or make others) to make for more Class/Kit rundowns in the near future, but let's just call this a... test of the waters. If people want me to continue, I'll do my best, but for now, rest and awaiting judging eyes >_>
Post edited by GamingFreak on
10
Comments
edit: Also, you might point out in your very astute wizard slayer section that the *actual* wizard slayer in BG is the inquisitor.
You also recommend dwarves for 19 con... you should probably also mention the shorty saves they get, as it's a huge upside to playing dwarf over half orc (the other race that gets +1 con). Half orcs are still great fighters, of course (especially in BG1 where 19 strength isn't easy to come by), but shorty saves are always worth mentioning.
In terms of optimal conditions late game, the dwarf comes out ahead of the half orc as they both hit 25 str raging but the dwarf gets save bonuses. Of course, the half orc has str advantage most of the game (all of it when not raging).
How does the game handle temporary bonuses and resting? If you rage before sleeping do you get the benefit of hp regen for the rest?
Also the defender of easthaven is +2. I still think it's sad that this is so much of a better defensive option than the game's shields.
It regens you like a cheese, using the Bhaalspawn ability "Draw Upon Holy Might" and then going to sleep with a CON over 20 is a complete, fair, legal but cheesy thing.
Also, there are shields giving +5 to AC. And it serves better if you Dual-wield FoA and DoE, it is free cheese that goes fine with RP.
Also, DoE is +2? Could have sworn it said +3 last time I looked at it, though the name can just have said "Defender of Easthaven +3" without actually being a +3 weapon. Either way the point of off-handing that is for the extra resistance to phys damage moreso than the AC bonus (on top of a barbarian's natural resistances) and for an extra weapon to just hit with per round (offhand weapons only get 1 attack anyway). You could also go Belm (scimitar) and Kundane (short sword) but I didn't mention those because of the higher need for damage resistance than more attacks per round.