Class Kits of Ill Repute and their viability
jjstraka34
Member Posts: 9,850
There are typically 3 kits that I see over and over mentioned as far away the worst in the game: Shapeshifter, Beastmaster, and Wizard Slayer. Having never played any of them, my question isn't about them being underpowered, or even that they need to be fixed. My interest is if in fact these kits are just simply viable for a regular core run through of both games. What are peoples thought/experiences with these classes??
Post edited by jjstraka34 on
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I can't say anything about the Shapeshifter as I've never played one.
The Beastmaster is definitely viable in my experience. I've taken one through a modded game with SCS installed without serious issues. The only "bad" thing about Beastmasters compared to the other Ranger kits is their lack weapon choices, but honestly I don't consider it to be that bad. You can use bows, staves and clubs of which there are fine weapons available throughout the trilogy. You also can't use heavy armor, unlike plain Rangers. This can be seen as a drawback in BG1 where there's no great light armor (Shadow Armor AC4 is thieves only), but in BG2 it's not really an issue anymore, and even in BG1 it can be remedied with items (Shield amulet) and potions.
The Wizard Slayer kit does deserve its reputation as being weak compared to other kits. The main issue is that Wizard Slayers can't protect themselves against most of the status effects that mages can cause through their spellcasting. This is due to the fact that both potions and rings/amulets/belts/bracers/cloaks are off limits. Thus protection against effects such as Panic, Confusion, Hold/Stun etc can only be obtained through protections that enchanted weapons, armor, helmets, and shields give (and technically boots as well, though in practice there aren't any such protective boots iirc). The WS' magic resistance increases to o slowly to be relied upon in the absence of potions and items. It's an interesting challenge though, finding the perfect combination of usable items (such as Shield of Harmony and Dragonslayer long sword in BG2) to properly protect the WS against mages, so that he/she can actually do what they're supposed to do: slaying wizards.
Anyways, I liked the summons, but they eventually were just meatshields for my solo. It was too boring/tedius to play, so I abandoned it.
I think it seemed like a reasonable class, but was not nearly as versatile as a stalker, and worse than a pure ranger. You could totally do a run with one. I probably wont run one again though. The summons had some HP though, so they arent trash, but dont expect much damage dealing.
Wizard slayers seem playable, moreso in bg1, but unrewarding imo. You can do it, but they really suck vs poeerful casters. :&
As a result, I only tried a shapeshifter once in SoA. It struggled enough in Irenicus' Dungeon that I dropped it. Druid spells are an embarassment until lvl 5, and the form wasnt really as good as just using a Berserker or Bsrbarian.
However, apparently the greater form is worthehile, especially as the party meatshield. High level druid spells and abilities are cool enough to make the kit plsyable, but those lesser ww forms are useless later, and not spectacular in most of SoA. Like casting Tenser's Transformation with a pure mage.
A Shapeshifter protagonist would presumably be at least as tough as Cernd, if not more so. So yes, I've no doubt at all that Shapeshifter is a perfectly viable kit. What is different from some other classes/kits, however, is that the effective way to use a Shapeshifter changes as the game progresses, so it calls for some tactical understanding.
But on a more serious note probably as a wizard slayer -> thief dual class.
Wizard Slayer, the amount of magic resistance gained is rather low and wont really make much of an difference until towards the end of ToB... Where mages are rarer in favor of dragons and what not. The only fight it might help in is Sendai.
The lack of the ability to wear most protective magical items makes them unable to gain protections against certain things.
Their main upside, the power to give casters spell failure chance... Only works with melee hits, which interrupt casting anyways (though it might work through effects like stoneskin, not sure about that).
So overall it's a fighter with less protection against some effects.
Then there's Beastmaster...
The lack of metallic weapons limits you to ranged weapons, quarterstaff and clubs pretty much, and with Studded Leather for armor, you're rather limited in combat compared to that of a normal Ranger.
In return for these limitations, you gain the ability to cast Find Familiar, and Animal Summoning 1 through 3 spells... With Animal Summoning 3, you get some 12 HD animals to help you, I suppose they will remain useful until the end of Baldur's Gate 1, but come shadows of Amn they will start falling off into being useless...
Then there's the ever unpopular Shapeshifter... Oh the Shapeshifter...
You give up the ability to wear armor and other shapeshift abilities, to get a heavily nerfed werewolf form.
Things like less damage than a normal werewolf and your resistances being locked to how much bonuses to them you're supposed to gain.
They are also hardly alone in that they are treated differently than werewolves you encounter in the game. That is likely the case with most shapeshifting forms frankly. Besides, both forms get advantages the non-player werewolf/greater werewolves don't get.
As for what they are "supposed" to gain.
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/comment/502052/#Comment_502052
I made Minsc a Beastmaster once in EasyTutu because of Boo, and he still kicked ass with a quarterstaff and could wear Ankheg Plate (being it isn't metal), so it wasn't that bad.
Never have done Shapeshifter, although I like Cernd, I never usually shape-shifted him.
Also, while locking down an opponent isnt always ideal, playing MOO2 with mods can result in large fleets of Psilons with a lockdown weapon. its the only times I ever had much trouble, as isolating portions of my fleet really could turn things ugly. Of course, you cant just dismisd the Maze effect. :@ probably more frustrsting than useful. STASIS FIELD! Heck of a trick.