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Wild Mage dualed into a Thief?

ArcanisArcanis Member Posts: 377
in Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition
Hello to you all!
Since I wanted to start another run (and prepare for Adventure Y) I wanted to try something unusual..
I thought of creating a Wild Mage who becomes a Thief (under the "bad" influence of Imoen & Alora).

The plan was to use illusion spells to augment the char and use the reckelss Dweomer for the ocasional
insanity (i.e. timestop =P).
Has anyone tried this before? Is it feasible for the entire trilogy (BG1, BGY & BG2)?

Also, is it better to dual at lvl 3 (3/2) or at lvl 5 (5/3/2)?

On another note, I was thinking of using group alignment and I'm unsure which one I should use ^^
(Working with a group of 5 + 1 for quests and such, the extra can have a different alignment =P)

Thank you for your time and have a nice day ^_^

P.S I wonder if Neera has special dialogue if charname is a WM himself.

Comments

  • JuliusBorisovJuliusBorisov Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,760
    Arcanis said:

    P.S I wonder if Neera has special dialogue if charname is a WM himself.

    It would be a wonderful feature. But unfortunately now she doesn't. Also, I don't remember any recruitable NPC commenting on the class/kit of your character. I think this whole thing should be something to look upon for Beamdog for a patch 1.30;)

    As for your character, the idea is interesting because it's not a powergamey choice and yet quite inordinary. Although I fear more often than not you will try the Dweomer you'll get some creepy results because your mage levels will be low. I'd dual at the level 5 because as a thief you'll get your levels back quickly and additional spells never hurt.

    I'd take the Chaotic neutral alignment.
  • simplessimples Member Posts: 540
    do the thief levels affect the dweomer or not?

    i once soloed a shadow keepered thief/wild mage. TONS of fun
  • lroumenlroumen Member Posts: 2,538
    I often dual specialist mage to thief. Roleplay-wise it is also logical to dual when you arrive in baldurs gate and get the chance to be recruited by the shadow thieves.

    I always thought that the mage levels mattered for casting levels. Mostly my mage-> thief would memorise spells with long duration (rather than level dependent).

    The idea of nahal to cast high level spellsahas crossed my mind before but I never executed it.
  • ArcanisArcanis Member Posts: 377
    Well started my run and I have fun so far, but the beginning was difficulty x_x
    Tarnesh killed me every time.
    I planned to take darts as starter weapon (and forgot how scarce they ae in the beginning)
    and then will take daggers once I dual to thief.
    The question is, should I concentrate on traps & pick pocket?
    I will have Alora with me (who "teaches" my char the thieving skills), so traps & locks should be covered
    and in BG2 I should have more than enough skillpoints to spare to max those. Any thoughts?

    about the dweomer, as far as I understand it, only the Mage levels count here, so I will have
    +20 on the roll for Wild surge (5 for lvls and 15 through chaos shield), which makes it usuable for
    emergencies =P (Still need to get spells that make using it worthwhile though..)
  • lroumenlroumen Member Posts: 2,538
    You can dweomer improved chaos shield which casts always successfully and then dweomer the spell you want. It stacks with regular chaos shield so the rolls will not be awful anymore.

    As for thieving skills. For backstabbing I always use invisibility spells and potions so I think your thoughts are okay.
  • ArcanisArcanis Member Posts: 377
    Ok.. Now I need help...
    I finally reached lvl 5 and.. I can't dual oO

    I used Shadowkeeper to set the attributes tooo max, but that changes nothing,
    changed the Alignment around (no effect) and I'm kinda out of ideas =/
    I tried to use that tool to force-dual my char, but that didn't work (BG decided that I have
    no additional class whatsoever).

    The only idea I have is that it has to do with my mods, but I would have thought the ones I
    have are harmless - I use NPC Banter, Neera additional Banter and coloring mod whose name I
    forgot (MSFM.exe).
  • lroumenlroumen Member Posts: 2,538
    You realize that wild mages cannot dual class in the vanilla game. You need to install a mod for it (or change certain files in the override). I forgot which ones are needed but there were not many.

    Or it could be that you are not human, do not have the proper stats, or proper alignment...
  • JalilyJalily Member Posts: 4,681
    bengoshi said:

    Arcanis said:

    P.S I wonder if Neera has special dialogue if charname is a WM himself.

    It would be a wonderful feature. But unfortunately now she doesn't. Also, I don't remember any recruitable NPC commenting on the class/kit of your character. I think this whole thing should be something to look upon for Beamdog for a patch 1.30;)
    She does in BGII:EE. Rasaad also has a banter for Sun Soul Monk PCs.
  • ArcanisArcanis Member Posts: 377
    Soooo, after regaining my mage skills and playing around with it, I will give a feedback for those that are
    interested. =)

    First of, backstabbing is nice on paper, buuut I have a hard time hitting stuff tbh..
    Anyways, the ability to cast invisibility is awesome and saves my main mages trouble..
    Naharls currently has 1 major use: abusing sequenzer...
    And thats how I do it:
    PfE for my party and then getting my fire resistance as high as possible (without
    wasting potions), Chaos Shield and then wasting as many Naharls as neccessary.
    I currently have inv and mirror image in it, so I can backstab, use the sequenzer if necc.
    backstab again and still have a nice protection. Great fun, if a bit unfair..


    The other idea I have for him is a more theoretical:
    Use a Cleric to cast PfE and then try to get the Gate per wild surge..
    I *may* use these strategy against Sarevok, just for fun :D


    So, bottom line, the dual-class is quite fun, if you like playing a thief with some basic
    -but highly effectiv-magic tricks.
    Naharl is a bit too unpredictable to use it in combat, but it is awesome for prepairing
    backup spells since most bad surges can be warded against, if a bit cheesy.
    Also, Bhaal powers can Wild surge. Seriously. Either that or the Lord of Murder was angry of me
    healing peopleand thus did send a demon my way... T-T
  • lroumenlroumen Member Posts: 2,538
    For thac0 use the weapon that gives the most bonuses to that rather than damage. Strength spell may help. Invisibility helps. Ac reducing spells help as well. And of course the potions of power.
  • ArcanisArcanis Member Posts: 377
    lroumen said:

    For thac0 use the weapon that gives the most bonuses to that rather than damage. Strength spell may help. Invisibility helps. Ac reducing spells help as well. And of course the potions of power.

    I currently use Dagger of Venom, Hands of the Masters and DUHM. (+ inv for backstab ofc)

  • lroumenlroumen Member Posts: 2,538
    That seems alright . I also prefer to backstab the enemies that have chain or worse armour (leather, robes).
  • DreadKhanDreadKhan Member Posts: 3,857
    Well, if you BS with a staff or club, those have a higher likelihood of hitting, though you might not notice this as much in BG2, it can help quite a bit in making sure every swing connects. Or, just BS enemies in Leather or Robes preferentially. But vs Fullplate, you hit way more often with bludgeoning.
  • BugratBugrat Member Posts: 118
    How did you resolve the issue of not being able to dual class?

    Sounds like a fun character.
  • ArcanisArcanis Member Posts: 377
    @Bugrat
    I still have no idea why it isn't working properly... Well, I just used EEKeeper to deactivate the
    kit (which he didn't recognize btw, I had to use the "Set Value" function (borrowing the neutral value
    from Imoen) and after I Dual-classed I used EEKeper again to reactivate the kit (using Neeras Value ^^)

    No Idea if that is a bug or one of my mods being weird *shrug*

  • BugratBugrat Member Posts: 118
    @Arcanis
    Oh, I see what the problem is. Apparently in the original game you couldn't dual class Wild Mages to anything.

    BG2 Tweaks has a mod for it. "Expanded Dual-Class Options"
    http://www.gibberlings3.net/readmes/readme-bg2tweaks.html
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