Solo Cleric/Mage or Fighter/Cleric/Mage

kstevens67

Hi all,

I am getting ready to start a solo character all the way from BG through Throne of Bhaal. I want a cleric this time, but I also love mages and want to be a front line tank as well. Quite a bit to ask. I am torn between a F/M/C and just a C/M. The C/M will obviously gain levels faster and end at a higher level, but can a C/M go toe to toe with anything without the Fighter class or would I only be casting spells? Which would be the stronger class over-all. I will admit the only battles I typically have problems are in ToB (Mellissan, Abizigal, Sendai) so I want a character that could easily take these foes on even on insane difficulty.

DreadKhan

The cleric can usually handle mooks even in ToB with his buffs, but the limitation of 1 apr is going to make bosses unfightable even in SoA. However, prot from mw m3ans you're an uber tank, so you can still cast.

CM is better than CFM, unless you really want to DW flails. As a solo, XP will be a breeze frankly, so if you really wanna thwack AND cast, CFM is your class.

JuliusBorisov

I'd second CFM.

Fighter HLAs will give you an ability to efficiently harm enemies in ToB while being a Cleric/Mage will lead to you relying on magic (both divine and arcane) rather than melee power.

Magical buffs are enough to be a tank i.e. the person to effectively diminish enemy attacks but in order to hit heavily you need your fighter part (attacks per round, bonuses to hit, HLAs).

When you solo, having 3 classes is not a downside because XP is coming quickly.

To me, the only downside of being a F/M/C rather than a C/M is the inability to cast 9th level arcane spells and to get Mage HLAs. But since you're soloing, you'll get enough scrolls to cast these spells.

FinneousPJ

Have you considered Ranger/Cleric?

elminster

Go C/M unless you really want to fight in melee. Its going to be more powerful and you can always use animate dead or later Mordenkainen's sword if you want defenders.

It is possible to fight in melee with a good amount of apr as a cleric mage as well. Using polymorph self and triggers. F/C/M will just be less work if you want to melee with it.

PUFPAF

F/M/C is very good and the game is cheese with him/her. I've played one through SoA and it got boring at one point as I was only buffing and fighting. My mages were casting way more efficiently.

So I would advise to try the C/M only with robe of vecna - it should be more interesting, as generally you will have Aerie with proper stats, voice, equipment and a familiar

DreadKhan

Y U NO LOVE AERIE?

But seriously, Aerie has a pleasant voice.

Gotural

The F/M/C is definitely going to be more consistent and more powerful at every level of experience than the M/C.

Soloing without being a Fighter is a pain, having no specialisation, no APR is really hurting. Every fights will be very long, very spell exhausting while a F/M/C will be able to hack and slash his way to victory with only a few buffs.

DreadKhan

Frankly, to me, a FMC is like one of those silly WW1 tanks with maybe 1 big turret (usually a casemate), and a big heap of little guns stuck whever they could fit another gun. Cramped, uncomfortable, and utterly inefficient.

The mage is the 'big gun'. This can engage anything big or small, but is admittedly overkill usually for antipersonnel, unless you have antipersonnel shells (ie low level spells!).

The cleric is one of the smaller 'dual purpose' guns... technically, too weak to engage another tank, and being casemated, it cant be brought to bare effectively, because the tank will be relying on the more efficient big gun.

The fighter is a casemated machine gun. If unprotected enemies come right at you in your field of fire, you can efficiently engage personnel. But your useless vs even a light barrier.

M > MC > FMC though once the CM gets HLAs and 9th level spells he can compete. FMC is too spread out for BG2... the F or C can be dropped and leave you a better mage, and thus a stronger character.

However, it can be fun anyways, so try a FCM if you're curious!

kstevens67

Thanks for all the great comments. I think I'll give the F/M/C a try. The only question now is which weapon to specialize in. As far I know this comes down to two choices, let me know if there is anything better. I could dual wield flails (FoA) or specialize in staves (SotM or SotR depending on circumstances).

Blackraven

I would dualwield. FoA and DoE are both great weapons, and I think in terms of effectiveness (damage output and equipped abilities) they'll outclass all staves. Besides, it looks pretty brutal as well. Surely you'll look more intimidating to your foes tan with a staff...

JuliusBorisov

Dualwield. With all your buffs you'll be untouchable for the period of their action so you need to kill enemies as fast as you can. A staff would better suit a character who can backstab.

And choosing from the pool of weapons available for a F/M/C, flails are indeed the best variant. It's just a shame there's no +APR weapon for clerics!

[Deleted User]

I'll agree with dual wielding flails as the endgame, but I would actually suggest maces as your starting specialization. The Stupefier is a fantastic weapon available early in BG, and you'll have the utility option of switching to the Mace of Disruption in BG2.

DreadKhan

You should have more than a few pips, maces and flails are good choices in bg1 and 2 respectively.

Considering you'll have Sanctuary, Invisibility and Imp Invisibility, so who needs the SotM really?

In BG1, make sure you use your Cleric abilities aggressively. Other than Sleep (and Armour/Shield if you skip armour) low level mage spells stink for awhile. Your spells per day will be low for awhile too, so I'd consider playing your FCM as FC; Command is brutal from lvl 1, especially if you are DWing and have 18/xx strength. Hold Person and Silence are great too, and at 3rd you get the hilariously good Animate Dead. This will remain great well into BG2. I'd stick to wearing armour until you Mage levels can do more than buff your defences

What stat distribution are you thinking about? Early on high wis will heavy lift for you, and it'll be nice to have wis for Limited Wish. Also, lack of 9th level spells will mean you'll want the extra higher level cleric spells come ToB.

kstevens67

Great -looks like I'll start with Maces and then choose Flails. For a F/M/C solo, is skipping the Werewolf Island wise? I wonder what other people do with a solo character like this.

**Spoiler Alert**
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If I remember, the only weapons that can even hurt the greater wolf-were on that Island are ones I can not use. Is this one area to definitely skip when playing a F/M/C solo or is there a way to kill that guy?

DreadKhan

Spells work... I suspect just wand him to death. Clerics without mage are pretty royally fuxx0rt, but mage Wands should make it very doable.

Gotural

I think F/M/C are totally better than M/C for soloing. As a M/C you'll need to rely on spells, but you will only be able to cast one spell per round, you will actually feel like a crippled Mage with half the xp. Plus you will have no APR, specialisation and low HP.

While a F/M/C is some sort of melee god. Think how good is the F/M/T for soloing ? Walk into traps with buffs instead of disarming them, open locks with spells instead of picking them and easily get 25 str/dex/con instead of backstabbing and tada you have a F/M/C instead of a F/M/T.

elminster

kstevens67 said:

If I remember, the only weapons that can even hurt the greater wolf-were on that Island are ones I can not use. Is this one area to definitely skip when playing a F/M/C solo or is there a way to kill that guy?

Might be able to get him and his friends to follow you downstairs, where you lead at least some of them a group of previously placed Skull traps and glyph of wardings. You basically will want to do a lot of damage suddenly to him and he has fire resistance so you probably want to do as much magic damage as possible to him quickly.

DreadKhan

He's not immune to paralysis, right? And polymorph? The Wand of Frost deals good damage if needed. Sequenced acid arrow can slow his regenerating a bit if you want.

moody_mage

Something I'll always been curious about for those soloing without a thief. How do you deal with traps? Especially in BG2 where they are often lethal.

stygga

mirror image and stoneskin work for most. spell immunity, good saves, and magic resistance work for the rest.

Gallowglass

Successful soloing is quite difficult, it requires pretty thorough knowledge of the game to get through, without which you'll very likely just get slaughtered. I mean no offence, @kstevens67‌, but the rather basic questions you're asking make me wonder if you know the game well enough to get very far solo.

Nevertheless, provided that you're prepared for the likelihood of getting killed regularly, then I guess you could still be having a lot of fun trying, so fair enough and good luck to you.

Gotural

For Karoug, lay some dozen of Skull Traps in the lower area and lure him to them.

kstevens67

Gallowglass said:

Successful soloing is quite difficult, it requires pretty thorough knowledge of the game to get through, without which you'll very likely just get slaughtered. I mean no offence, @kstevens67‌, but the rather basic questions you're asking make me wonder if you know the game well enough to get very far solo.

Nevertheless, provided that you're prepared for the likelihood of getting killed regularly, then I guess you could still be having a lot of fun trying, so fair enough and good luck to you.

Well - currently at Baldur's gate without reloading so I think I'm doing pretty good so far This is not my first solo character though. I just have never played a cleric before. Your comment above really is not very helpful. A great deal of fun for me is playing a new character I have never tried. The werewolf Island I have usually skipped in my run through as solo. The reason being is that I already have as much XP as the game will allow by that point so I just want to get on with SoA instead. This time I actually plan on doing those optional quests even with the XP cap. The first solo character I took through was a Blade and I did not have a thorough knowledge of the game. In my opinion you do not need a thorough knowledge to have a successful solo character.

Thank you all for you comments. I am having a blast playing the F/M/C - he definitely rocks so far.