Quests for dual class characters

Qwazi

Hi all.
For my first playthrough of SCS I'm using quite a min/max'd powergaming team. I'm currently fairly early in BG2ee with a 4 person team, all generated by me.

There's:

Kensai->Mage (either long swords or katanas)
Beserker->Cleric (flails)
Fighter->Thief (Staff and maybe short bow)
Archer (crossbow to start with)

I was planning on dualing the three fighter characters each at level 13. I know that's not a ridiculous downtime period -- some dual after getting HLAs on their first character. But I'd still like to roughly decide which quests to do pre-dual and which I can do as low level mage/cleric/thiefs post dual. I'm not too sure how hard SCS is going to be. So, not too sure how my party will handle certain encounters early on with no spell power.

What are your thoughts? Which quests would you hit early?

Lord_Tansheron

First of all, I'd STRONGLY recommend not dualing at 13 in anything but solo games (and even there it's questionable). The cost is WAY to steep for what you get and almost never worth it.

But, if you insist, then I'd suggest all the quests that give INDIVIDUAL XP for the down period; i.e. not quests that simply award a flat amount, but give XP to EVERY character individually. Usually those are at the ends of major side quest lines - you can do everything up to that point as usual, and then just don't turn it in until your duals are ready to soak up the good stuff.

Still, even with maximum quest XP banking and saving of scrolls to scribe, you will have MAJOR downtime with three lvl 13 duals. You will have to go through LARGE parts of the game before you get your classes back, and with SCS, that can be difficult sometimes. It is not insurmountably challenging, but be prepared to underperform at some critical junctures.

I don't know where you get the HLA idea from. IIRC you get HLAs starting at the first level after passing 3m XP, and that would be L20 for Fighters, L24 for Rogues, L18 for Mages, and L22 for Clerics - all way past the 13 you intend to dual at. Unless my modding has screwed up my knowledge of things again?

Qwazi

No. You're right on HLAs. I was acknowledging that with three level 13 duals the downtime would be rough. But people on here talk about 24 assassin ->fighter duals or something, which is obviously crazy.

Some quests are easier than others. I just don't know whether they should be done when I'm a team of fighters trying to get to 13 or kept for post dual and I should've tackling harder areas with my currently level 9 fighters and archer.

Lord_Tansheron

If you don't already have extensive meta-knowledge of XP rewards, that's all the more reason not to go for 13 dual

As for the suggestions you see on here, those are often either experiments, or done by people in the knowledge that it will be a very odd (albeit unique) combination. I've done high-level duals before, in the 3-3.5m XP range; it's not something I would recommend outside of wanting to be novel or wanting a special challenge. Certainly I do not believe those combinations to be objectively more powerful (overall) than alternatives. YMMV of course, depending on game setup.

mrb101

Are you planning on only using those 4 chars or picking up some companions as well? any high level mage fights are going to be tough (depending on how you set SCS up) so i would leave any quests with them until later when you have high level mage spells.

karnor00

The problem you will have with SCS is that you simply won't be able to hit any of the mages. They pretty much all have protection from magical weapons and immunity: abjuration.

Without a high level mage to bring down these defences your only option is to stand around and wait for them to time out - not a great solution while the mage is also pelting your party with spells.

Fighter 9 is good enough for most stuff - you will still maximise hitpoints and can get grandmastery. All you miss out on is 0.5 attacks/round. A level 20 thief or cleric will have the same THACO as a level 13 fighter so nothing lost there long term. Only the kensai/mage will lose a few points of THACO by dualling at 9 and its really not crucial.