When to dual class?

HugoRune

First let me say that I've never really played IWD before so there's a bunch of things that I'm not certain about. I've recently started a game and made a party with one character in it that I plan to dual from Fighter to Cleric. I know that you can theoretically get a pretty insane amount of xp but I'm expecting to get nowhere near that, for now only planning to play through the camaign once on hard or insane (right now playing on hard, may up to insane but for now the difficulty seems ok). The character in question is my main tank, actually the only one that can tank without micro managing as the other frontliner is a multi fighter/mage.

My question is, when would be the best breaking point for dual classing this character. I'm considering level 7 or level 9. I don't want to have too long of a downtime and want to make sure that the character gets his fighter levels back well before the end of the campaign so that I actually get to play with a fighter->cleric for a while and not just first a fighter then a cleric. Also, is it still possible (like in BG) to add specialization points after the dual classing process is complete to get grand mastery that way?

So for those of you who have experience with this game, when can I expect to get my fighter levels back if I dual at 7 or 9 respectively? Half way through? Last third? During the final battle?

Sorry if that has been answered before (almost sure it has) but I didn't find an answer doing a casual search here in the forum and I'm a bit lazy now

FinneousPJ

Go for level 7.

Belanos

HugoRune said:

Also, is it still possible (like in BG) to add specialization points after the dual classing process is complete to get grand mastery that way?

As long as you put your Fighter points into a weapon a Cleric can use then yes. You can even achieve Grandmastery if you dual at level 3 if you do that. Put all your early points into something like Flail or Mace, and you can achieve Grandmastery when you character reaches Cleric level 8. Just don't add any Cleric points into those weapons until have you get your Fighters levels back. You will lose those points as the game will give you the highest point level of the two classes. Don't wait until level 9 to dual, that's too long. Either go with level 7 or level 3.

Pecker

Definitely go for 7. Since you can still get grand mastery dualing at 7, you get very little out of waiting till level 9, just a few more hit points and an extra use of berzerker rage (assuming you went berzerker). If you dual at 7 you'll get your skills back very fast, at around the halfway point (assuming 6 man party).

13 is a terrible idea. Even on insane you wouldn't complete the dual until well into the expansion, and you get very little out of it. Pretty much just an extra half an attack and a couple more berzerks. The thac0 doesn't even matter since cleric thac0 will eventually pass it.

HugoRune

Ok, thanks, 7 it is then.

Belanos said:

As long as you put your Fighter points into a weapon a Cleric can use then yes.

Thanks, I know that. It's the specifics of the game, such as the amount of xp I can expect to get, that I'm unfamiliar with not the rule system. He's got his points in Flail/Morningstar.

Pecker said:

13 is a terrible idea.

13 was never on the table anyway. I don't even dual at 13 in BG2 because it just takes too long for me to get my abilities back.

keltarking

My personal preference for dual-classing is right after I roll my last hit dice. It varies a little depending on class, but for Fighters it's level 9.