Really Bad or Weird Builds

DreadKhan

I was thinking the othrr day, a human DC low level (2nd ideally) Wizard Slayer to Cleric would be pretty crummy. You can't even use your special ring/symbol, no amulet of power, and high level cleric spells arent too great. Obviously you can rely on allies to do stuff, and your Skeletons can do well in BG1, but this would not be a great build I think. Pure cleric would be much stronger, especially with a kit.

Oh, make sure you take 2 pips in Longswords and 2 in Bows. Hey, you can't ignore a divine calling, right?

Anyone else have some bad combos? And do they all open up cool RP ideas?

elminster

Unkitted Cleric (2) / ranger dual class. You end up being a ranger without access to speed weapons (in the BG series anyways) and can't be any of the ranger kits.

Lemernis

I'm currently having a blast enjoying custom parties from a pool of challenging builds (see here). The basic concept can be expanded to what you're describing here. I'd love to see what the community could produce for really challenging builds.

In my current game (here) my rendition of Carbos has Katana + and Single Weapon Style + as profs--but since the starting party can't afford a katana when starting at Candlekeep, I decided to have him use Darts, even though he has no prof. He'll get his katana at the close of chapter 4. But for a good portion of the game, all he could do was set snares and throw darts (badly). He'll soon come into his own by adding backstabs with a katana +1, however.

I also have a Skald in the party (Bendalis), and I have to say I find this class disconcerting! He's best put to use just standing there singing. But how boring!

JuliusBorisov

Nothing beats a wizard slayer with the Vampiric sword

DreadKhan

Well no wonder Carbos was such a joke, using a dagger when proficient inexplicably in katanas. I guess he was looking ahead?

Cleric 2 to Thief would stink; I call it the Televangelist!

DreadKhan

bengoshi said:

Nothing beats a wizard slayer with the Vampiric sword

Does he still cause Casting Failure?

the_spyder

Is this thread about unusual combinations? Or borked builds like an 8 INT Wizard. I mean any character can lead to fun, just look at Rincewind. He only knows one spell and if he ever casts it, the world ends.

Southpaw

Sorcerer with only divination spells, called "The Oracle".

Abi_Dalzim

Southpaw said:

Sorcerer with only divination spells, called "The Oracle".

But The Oracle's an Expert, not a Sorcerer.

DreadKhan

Technically, the Oracle was a drug addled mutterer... but thats all Greek to me!

@the_spyder‌ I see this as a thread about decidedly suboptimal builds that don't really have a saving grace. Mage to Fighter ends up stronger than any normal Fighter by use of scrolls, most multiclasses no matter how weird (ie Cleric/Thief) end up pretty solid whole game, or are great later (ie Fighter/Druid, which has lots of bad periods, no Jaheira joke intended!).

Generally these outrightly 'meh' builds have huge RP potential, like a Cleric of Waukern or Tymora that duals to thief after realizing money is better than divine providence, or that joined the faith purely after reading that Hubbard quote about Religion being a great way to make money. The Televangelist! XD

Lemernis

Hmm, no saving grace at all... That's actually tougher than it seems at a glance because almost any class just by virtue of the level-up increases usually becomes surprisingly playable.

I have to admit, though, that a Sorcerer that casts nothing but Divination school spells would be pretty dreadful!

CrevsDaak

I once played a Wizard Slayer->Cleric, and was pretty good actually (Grandmastery on hammers and 1,5 base APR is pretty cool). Of course, it was in vanilla BGEE.

The worst weird build I can think of would be a Gnome Thief with proficiencies on crossbows and daggers and not enough STR to use Crossbows and 9 DEX, so he's really f******* when it comes to combat.

TheArtisan

A Beastmaster/Cleric is pretty poor. You can't wear heavy armor and have, like, three usable weapon types and all you get are summons... which clerics/druids have great options for already.

DreadKhan

Beastmaster to cleric isn't that bad (Staffmaces! There are 3 in BG2, but you can DW the one in BG1 with a magic club. In ToB just rock the Staff of the Ram), but agreed both the multiclass or either kit would be better. Sling archer ftw?

Hmmm... we're going on a different branch than I expected, but I have an idea!

An archer that only uses Axes. he can throw AND dual wield. Well, and specialize in both sws and s&ss.

@CrevsDaak‌ what level did you dual? I was thinking lvl 2, so you'd be better off going Cleric of Lathander, or any other kit frankly. I guess you could enjoy the wildly overpowered synergy of Energy Blades and Casting Failure... but I'd rather use the Holy Symbol, Amulet of Power and probably the Ring of Gax. And some bracers? You get the picture; you can win with it, but its mechanically worse than a kitted cleric.

CrevsDaak

@‌DreadKhan I dualed at level 8 by mistake (I wanted to dual-class at level 9), but I didn't care much and continued playing, didn't had the XP cap so I reached level 9 as a Cleric and then went to kill Sarevok.

DreadKhan

Ah, that would be more worthwhile. In present setup, I guess slings might be a good choice to go for, casting failure and strength damage are nice for clerics (aka giant steroid abusing brutes). Heck, specialization in mace or hammer would be huge boosts too.

Siona

Some day I'm going to try a kensai>cleric dual. Specialist in staves. I call it the friar tuck build. No armor obviously.

DreadKhan

You'd have the option of dual wielding too, even Staffmaces. Or go hardcore and use SWS with the FotA. Badass!