Dual-classing into a specialist mage

EnchanterTim

Hello everybody,

i read in a very old thread that you could dual-class into a mage specialisation in the original Baldur's Gate and i am wondering if ican do that in the Enhanced Edition as well. I couldn't find a definitive, up to date answer to this, so if any of you could help me it would be much appreciated.

Tomarctus

In the normal game you cannot. However if you do wish it, it is possible to use eekeeper to modify a mage into a specialist mage after the dualclass. This will require the primary class to be a pure class (so no kits).

EnchanterTim

Thanks for the quick answer. So if i dual-class my unkitted fighter to a mage switch to EEkeeper and give him a specialisation, do i get the extra spellslot for 1st lvl spells right away or at the next lvl up?

woowoovoodoo

It's possible even in unmodded game, if your CHARNAME is a gnome. All gnomes are 'illusionists' when dual/multi-classed.

EnchanterTim

1 I hate gnomes.
2 I want a Fighter/Necromancer.

Thanks anyway.

blackchimes

Wouldn't it be better to make a F/M multiclass and then add the Necromancer with Keeper?

EnchanterTim

blackchimes said:

Wouldn't it be better to make a F/M multiclass and then add the Necromancer with Keeper?

I would really like to dual class.

So i tried out eekeeper and it seems that if i dual class a fighter into a normal mage and add necromancer i do not get bonus spells. Is there any extra variable i have to set or something?

FinneousPJ

Try adding the kit before you click dual class.

EnchanterTim

Nope, doesn't work either, but if i roll up a necromancer and then use eekeeper to make it a Fighter/Necromancer multi or dual class i get the bonus spells. There seems to be no difference in eekeeper, which means that the bonus spells are given by a setting you cannot modify via eekeeper.

blackchimes

EnchanterTim said:

So i tried out eekeeper and it seems that if i dual class a fighter into a normal mage and add necromancer i do not get bonus spells. Is there any extra variable i have to set or something?

You might have to gain a level before it applies.

EnchanterTim

blackchimes said:

You might have to gain a level before it applies.

That was my first thought as well but even with a level up you get nothing.

FinneousPJ

It seems the kit displays properly but you don't get the extra spells. I believe this is a problem that must be fixed manually through EEKeepering one extra spell per level, or by changing the game source files.

EnchanterTim

The problem with that is that spells per day seem to be recalculated every level, so added spellslots are lost at every level up and i have no idea how to edit game files directly.

I think this feature of the original Baldur's Gate should have been implemented in the Enhanced Edition, but with Siege of Dragonspear coming up it's possible that, if enough people ask beamdog to reimplement it, we will get it back.

I thank everyone for their answers.
See you all in Baldur's Gate.

FinneousPJ

@EnchanterTim You would NearInfinity or a similar program which can edit the 2da files that govern things like level progression. You can probably find tutorials online, or perhaps @CrevsDaak can help.

CrevsDaak

Did you try dual-classing, setting your Mage level to 0 and your Kit to Necromancer, and then levelling up inside the game? You could also try applying permanent effects using Opcode 42 to your character via EEKeeper (you'll need an effect per spell level for it to work properly). Levelling up doesn't affect this.

EnchanterTim

Setting the mage level to 0, the kit to specialist mage and levelling up still only follows the basic mage progression. My guess is that dual-classed fighter/mages are limited to a basic mage progression by the quellcode. When you dual-class a character the game gives the character file a secondary class specific address for the file containing the class progression table and every specialization has it's own specific address and table. This is different from class kits since they follow the base classes progression table.
A kits unique features are probably just flags and variables that equal thief skill points granted per level, special abillities, alignment restrictions etc. Therefore eekeeper cannot effectively grant mage specialization to a character that dual classed into a mage.

Interestingly multi-classing with a specialization is easy to accomplish by rolling up a character as a mage of the desired specialization and adding the second class via eekeeper. This works because the correct address for the specialization progression is added on character creation.

The reason i am writing all this down is that this should actually allow me to create a fighter/specialist mage without any complicated file editing by rolling up a specialist mage, dual classing him into a fighter until he has reached the desired fighter level, opening up eekeeper and finally changing the non-progressing class from specialist mage to fighter. I will test this idea as soon as i have some time on my hands, but should someone already know if this works or not please write it into this thread.

EnchanterTim

Guess i was wrong. No bonus spells, even with this method and since i have never been much of a modder i don't even know why it doesn't work. I will go look up nearinfinity and all that good stuff to make my fighter/necromancer work and who knows maybe beamdog will reimplement dual classing into mage specializations. Why they didn't do so in the first place i do not understand, but hey maybe it is more complicated than i think. Thanks again for all the answers and good luck to all of you.

Tomarctus

I've been having problems with the spell levels as well. If you go to the effects tab for your character in eekeeper you can add an effect (this is using the latest eekeeper, could be slight differences in other versions). Make sure you alter the following:

Type: Spell: Wizard spell slots modifier [42]
Target: Self
Flags: Instant, permanent
dispel/resistance: nonmagical
slot amount modifier: 1
Spell level: 511

Leave the rest as is or blanc. This should give you 1 extra spell slot per level as you should get for being a specialist mage.

Check out the great suggestions I got here https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/26814/thief-dual-to-specialist-mage#latest if you can't get it to work.

EnchanterTim

Tomarctus said:

I've been having problems with the spell levels as well. If you go to the effects tab for your character in eekeeper you can add an effect (this is using the latest eekeeper, could be slight differences in other versions). Make sure you alter the following:

Type: Spell: Wizard spell slots modifier [42]
Target: Self
Flags: Instant, permanent
dispel/resistance: nonmagical
slot amount modifier: 1
Spell level: 511

Leave the rest as is or blanc. This should give you 1 extra spell slot per level as you should get for being a specialist mage.

Check out the great suggestions I got here https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/26814/thief-dual-to-specialist-mage#latest if you can't get it to work.

Jergal be praised, it works. Thank you very much. This is exactly what i was looking for.

With this i am ready for yet another playthrough of the saga. Although if i wait for Siege of Dragonspear, i would have enough time to look up WeiDu, NearInfinity and all that.

Prepare yourself Boo, we embark on another adventure!