Priest of Lathander/Mage advice on stats

Joya

Hi, i'm new to this forum, but not to the BG:EE series. I'm going to start a new SoA/ToB run with a Priest of Lathander (11) dualed Mage. I think it could be a really fun combo and definitely want to try it.
I need some advice about stat points distribution, considering i will add points like I used Tomes in BG.

STR 18
DEX 18
CON 15
INT 18
WIS 18
CHA 8

Rolling these stats will be quite impossible (95). I could lower INT by 1, DEX by 1 and STR by 2-3. What do you think?

semiticgoddess

Set STR to 10 or so. That makes it a relatively easy sub-90 roll. It'll let you carry some extra stuff when you don't have Holy Power active and before you get the Girdle of Hill Giant Strength or Gauntlets of Ogre Power.

Take a point away from CHA and add a point to CON. That way, you'll have the full 16 CON from the start, and the extra point from the tome, to 17, will let you sacrifice one point in Spellhold (you have to eventually lose 1 point of any stat besides CHA) without losing any HP.

BG1 (just for example):

STR 11
DEX 18
CON 16
INT 18
WIS 18
CHA 8

Total: 89

BG2, beginning:

STR 12
DEX 19
CON 17 (later dropped to 16)
INT 19
WIS 21
CHA 9

Total: 97

Wowo

Why not dump stat Cha to 3 and then rely on ring of human influence in bg2?

With Friends spell and tome even a base 3 Cha can become a respectable 9.

18 base strength is really quite handy.

semiticgoddess

3 CHA feels weird to me.

Yannir

I personally can't drop any ability score below 8 (9 in the case of int and str, 12 in con), otherwise it would feel like there's something wrong with the character.
Low int is retarded.
Low str is feeble.
Low cha is anti-social.
Low dex is clumsy.
Low con is sickly.
Low wis is demented.

Blucher

95 is possible, but I hate to think how long you would have to roll. I usually take the first roll above 80 and it works well enough. Low stats are never to blame when I die.

Wowo

Yannir said:

I personally can't drop any ability score below 8 (9 in the case of int and str, 12 in con), otherwise it would feel like there's something wrong with the character.
Low int is retarded.
Low str is feeble.
Low cha is anti-social.
Low dex is clumsy.
Low con is sickly.
Low wis is demented.

What's wrong with being antisocial?

Honestly, the rationalisation of having multiple stats at 18 is much harder to justify than having one stat at 3.

Seriously, the only justification to not having 3 Cha is role play concerns but if RP is a concern then how do you manage to justify having 4 maxed out stats?

Remember that statistically every 18 stat that someone has will be mirrored by someone else with a 3 (discounting mortality rates).

Jarrakul

Yeah, see, that would be true if we were playing some random shmuck off the streets, but Gorion's Ward is the literal child of a god. 18s are to be expected, given the character. 3s are weird and stink far too much of dump-stattage for my taste.

It's worth noting that the average statline in the world is 63 points. We are literally not allowed to have stats that low. Being above average is a Bhaalspawn thing.

Arunsun

Much like @Yannir I hardly use a dump stat when roleplaying, except Charisma when I play a chaotic or neutral evil character because these are alignment that could do without relationships or wisdom when I play some massive warrior, and even then I hardly drop them below 8

CrevsDaak

Joya said:

Hi, i'm new to this forum, but not to the BG:EE series. I'm going to start a new SoA/ToB run with a Priest of Lathander (11) dualed Mage. I think it could be a really fun combo and definitely want to try it.
I need some advice about stat points distribution, considering i will add points like I used Tomes in BG.

STR 18
DEX 18
CON 15
INT 18
WIS 18
CHA 8

Rolling these stats will be quite impossible (95). I could lower INT by 1, DEX by 1 and STR by 2-3. What do you think?

I've gone with a Priest of Lathander->Mage some time ago (I think I dualed at level 11 or 12, I don't quite remember, but I know I had waited to get at least 1 level 6 Cleric Spellslot). If I were you I'd rather max CON at 16 and leave just 13 in DEX, 17 WIS and a bit more CHA (I had gotten 16/12/16/18/18/12 for her stats). Also some useful tips:
— Use Relair's Mistake (the Cloak of Wolf Shapeshifting). It's VERY useful actually. As a Cleric you'll suffer from bad THAC0 and low ApR at early game, besides it sets your DEX to 17.
— Get The Stupifier+1. It's the best mace in the game, literally. It has 25% chance of stunning for 1d4 rounds with no save. Use this with Boon of Lathander, shape-shift to Wolf and there you can take down almost every foe in the game.

Edit: Also, you get extremely powerful and very fast as soon as you get to BG2 (since you have both Wizard and Priest spells, and progress as a Single Class Mage), and when you get Improved Haste and Tenser's you also turn into a killing machine (for a bunch of rounds...).