Beast Master Help.

TheGreatGodLoki

So I rolled a 92 on one, just to see what happened. Here is where he stands
STR: 18/00
DEX: 19
CON: 17
INT: 12
WIS: 14
CHA: 12

With
Crossbow ++
Dual Wield ++
Clubs ++

My question is how do you play one? If I use the famlier, once it does I lose almost all my health so I try not to summon one, the charm beast spell only works in the area I'm in, so I don't use it. From what I've read around, you'd want to duel-class later on to something else, and he is a "gimped" version of the ranger and its kits. Or is it possible to solo play as a BM?

elminster

If you summon the familiar you want to talk to it and have it go into your pack. You'll keep the gained life that way and you don't risk it dying in battle.

Its absolutely possible to solo as one. Clubs will be your friend in BG2 as there are a few good ones you can get early on. Quarterstaffs can be used for those relatively few enemies that are immune to greater than +3 weapons.

You can also use a bow, so for instance Arrows of Dispelling can come in handy for removing things like an enemies stoneskin (you can buy 80 from the fletcher in Waukeen's Promenade and you can also buy them in BG1 from the Sorcerous Sundries). But the magic clubs you can get in BG2 should already be pretty good for disrupting mages.

In BG2 you can also wear some of the dragon armors (shadow dragon scale, white dragon scale), so the armor limitation will be reduced in terms of its severity.

TheGreatGodLoki

Okay, I didn't know you could talk to the familiar. So what are you suppose to with the familiar if you're not suppose to attack with it? So you suggest go melee rather than range with the BM?

Blackraven

In BG1 I would go ranged with the BM. Ranged is good for any type of character in BG1, but since the BM can't get the best Armors in BG1, relying on ranged attacks and stealth is recommendable. In BG2, you'll have access to some very nice armors, so in that game melee is more viable.
As to the Familiar, in BG1 the Familiar isn't of much use beyond its granting you a few more hitpoints. I'd safely keep my Dragon in my backpack if I were you. In SoA and ToB the familiars become a bit more powerful, still not good enough to fight with, but if you're Chaotic Good (and thus have a Fairy Dragon rather than a Pseudo Dragon) your familiar will get a once/day cast of Invisibility 10' Radius, which I find a very useful spell, for example giving you the initiative in ambushes when traveling.

TheGreatGodLoki

That is what my Familiar has now. So I should adopt the tactic of stealth, run up to a guy, shoot them?

elminster

Wait so are you playing just BG2 or doing BG1 first? Familiars in BGEE shouldn't have invisibility 10' radius so I'm assuming you are playing BG2EE.

TheGreatGodLoki

Wait, never mind. I confused it with Blur. My bad.

elminster

Fairy dragon in BGEE has Mirror Images. Pseudo Dragon (lawful and neutral good familiar) has blur.

Honestly since you already have stealth as a ranger (and get a bonus to it as a Beast Master) i wouldn't worry too much about your alignment choice/familiar type.

But in terms of tactics, I would say that a wand of sleep and a good bow will get you through a surprising number of encounters in BGEE. Especially once you can start to buy all the sweet ammo from Sorcerous Sundries.

By the end of BGEE you could have ** clubs ** quarterstaff ** Bow (crossbow, longbow, shortbow, whichever) ** Two-Weapon Style, which sets you up well for BG2EE.

TheGreatGodLoki

Why quarterstaff? Just wondering, I mean, won't the clubs be enough?

elminster

In like 99.9% of encounters yes. For a few enemies in BG2 its handy to have a +4 or +5 weapon because otherwise they will be immune to your attacks. Either because they cast Improved Mantle (some Liches like Shade Lich will cast this) or because they have some innate protection against certain levels of weapon enchantment (Demiliches).

You can get a +4 quarterstaff pretty easily in SoA and there is also the Staff of the Ram (which is very powerful). You can get the club of detonation in BG2 but until its upgraded its only a +3 weapon (and long before that point you could already get a pretty good +3 club).

You can always put towards crossbows as well, since there is a crossbow that fires +4 bolts (and when upgraded +5 bolts) that is pretty easy to acquire. Though you'll have a bunch of proficiency points to spend in BG2, and only limited places to use them, so what you choose in BGEE will probably end up being fine either way.

Strictly speaking though you can beat BG2 with a +3 weapon. Its basically just optional areas or optional aspects to quests (sometimes that have very good rewards) that involve you fighting anything immune to more than that.