Solo multiclass?

Fiach

I never tried this solo so I have no experience in what to do.

I'm leaning towards Fighter Mage Thief but would Fighter Thief be better as it's more focused less micro management for gear ?


Thanks for any help/insight

Wowo

I'd probably go for a Cleric/Mage.

The fighter part isn't needed, nor is the thief part. Polymorph, shapechange and fast flails will sort out your attacks per round and otherwise being a better caster is more important.

If you really want to destroy the game then a Priest of Lathander -> Mage would be even stronger, just hop over to HoW to dual class with some massive quest rewards. Deciding what level to dual would be tricky, 11, 14 or 21 comes to mind depending on available Xp.

ineth

If you go through the whole game including HoW and TotL expansions, you'll get more than enough XP to justify going triple-class.

Personally, I do prefer to include the Thief class simply because some parts of the game are annoying without one.
In particular:

• some parts of the Veil of Shadows main crypt
• the lowest level of Dragon's Eye
• the TotL expansion

E.g. at the end of Dragon's Eye, many of the containers which contain the good random loot items are trapped. And the traps are quite nasty. Sure, you can soak up the damage, reload each time it kills you, and rest until fully healed after each container. But that's really tedious and cheesy. And let's not even get into how annoying it is to have to maneuver around the countless floor traps...

EDIT: From a pure combat perspective, Fighter/Mage/Cleric is probably the most powerful triple-class though. You'll be able to self-buff yourself into a near-invincible juggernaut of destruction. Won't even need to get out the damage-dealing spells to beat encounters... (though of course you can if you feel like it).
With a Cleric/Mage or Fighter/Mage/Thief you'll have to rely more on in-combat spellcasting.

elminster

You could also go cleric/thief. That has lots of utility and the cleric portion let's you use a lot of good weapons and armour.

Fiach

OK guys, thanks so much for the replies!

I hadn't thought of Cleric Thief, that sounds very interesting from an RP perspective, now I'm very tempted to do a run with all MC characters because I cant make up my mind...thanks... I think .

Seriously though, thanks very much for the advice guy, now I have to choose

Wowo

Okay you seriously have to try a dual priest of Lathander 21 -> Mage. Just, trust me.

Fiach

Wowo said:

Okay you seriously have to try a dual priest of Lathander 21 -> Mage. Just, trust me.

It's kind of a long term payoff, can't cheat it as I only have the android version. I probably could export an existing one but that would be too OP for the initial game section.

I will try it at some stage because I love Clerics and think they are the best class in IWD

Thanks Wowo

OK, so basically what I have built is a Lath Cleric , mace flail DW, Will give it a shot tonight

Wowo

Fiach said:

Wowo said:

Okay you seriously have to try a dual priest of Lathander 21 -> Mage. Just, trust me.

It's kind of a long term payoff, can't cheat it as I only have the android version. I probably could export an existing one but that would be too OP for the initial game section.

I will try it at some stage because I love Clerics and think they are the best class in IWD

Thanks Wowo

OK, so basically what I have built is a Lath Cleric , mace flail DW, Will give it a shot tonight

No it's massive short term pay off. Just go true neutral I'm pretty sure to buff your skeletons and aerial servants with righteous wrath of the faithful.

Short term: you get animate dead before a single enemy attacks you letting you roffle stomp the first parts of the game. Remember to buff your skeletons with strength of one and protection from evil 10ft.

Medium term: by the time skeletons aren't starting to cut it by themselves you'll be buffing them with righteous wrath of the faithful (as you're neutral and so are they) and shortly after you will be summoning aerial servants which have ridiculously good damage output and are immune to normal weapons. Sit back and relax.

Long term: I hit level 21 on Presio's level. Then sanctuary to skip the rest of the level and arrive at the creepy monk level, summon 6 aerial servants, dual class and let your summons wipe the entire level - I got 420,000 xp this way putting me to level 10. Then cast invis 10ft and walk back to Kuldahar where you enter HoW. Buy scrolls and do quests. Invis your way through the undead island. Invis your way through gloomfrost. Pick up some good xp on the way including 500k for getting the glacier rose.

Winning!

Wowo

So managed to complete the dual at Pol 21/Mage 22 by jumping into HoW - turns out you can get roughly 3 million xp with minimal combat.

Barbarians fall to pieces in the face of Protection from Normal Weapons, Fireshield (Red+Blue) - just maybe one cast isn't enough unless you throw some fireballs as well.

Burial Island is completely avoided via Dimension Door and Invisibility (Potion, if necessary).

By the time I get to the Gloomfrost my Cleric levels have reactivated and I can play around with shapechange+metamagic cleric buffs+boon of lathander. Bam!

Seriously though, what's the best combination of buffs for damage output? Iron Golem? Greater Wolfwere? Sword Spider? Any insight @semiticgod ?

Fiach

That was a very interesting read Wowo, I really enjoyed it

I think it should be stickied somewhere for aspiring Clerics

Do you have to be True Neutral for Righteous Wrath?

Thank you

semiticgoddess

@Wowo @Fiach: I thought the shapeshift trick no longer worked in EE. Good news if it still does.

With dual-wielding, two castings of Boon of Lathander, Righteous Wrath of the Faithful, and Improved Haste, a cleric of Lathander dual-classed to mage should be able to reach 10 APR in any form. This would make the Iron Golem the most dangerous option due to its base 4d10 damage. The simpler, cheaper, and less intensive option would be spider form. A Minor Sequencer with Shocking Grasp and DUHM will let you attack four times per round in spider form with any weapon at high STR.

Righteous Wrath of the Faithful should be usable by any cleric, but most benefits only apply to characters of the same alignment, and clerics of Lathander are restricted to good. I often used True Neutral in my pre-EE runs since it affected my fatigue-immune druid.

Fiach

semiticgod said:

@Wowo @Fiach: I thought the shapeshift trick no longer worked in EE. Good news if it still does.

With dual-wielding, two castings of Boon of Lathander, Righteous Wrath of the Faithful, and Improved Haste, a cleric of Lathander dual-classed to mage should be able to reach 10 APR in any form. This would make the Iron Golem the most dangerous option due to its base 4d10 damage. The simpler, cheaper, and less intensive option would be spider form. A Minor Sequencer with Shocking Grasp and DUHM will let you attack four times per round in spider form with any weapon at high STR.

Righteous Wrath of the Faithful should be usable by any cleric, but most benefits only apply to characters of the same alignment, and clerics of Lathander are restricted to good. I often used True Neutral in my pre-EE runs since it affected my fatigue-immune druid.

Thanks for that excellent input Semiticgod, I re-rolled to true neutral. just in case.

Thanks again

Wowo

@semiticgod @Fiach PoL can be True Neutral letting them give their skeletons, aerial servants and other summons +1 APR. Also, a neutral cleric has a wider spell selection (though does miss out on Greater Shield of Lathander).

So far the only benefit to being good that I've benefited from is the Shimmering Sash (which is easily replaced by the spell). Otherwise the only thing that I can think of is the Disruption Mace. Is there anything that I missed?

Elendar

Aren't traps and not having a way to disable them a bit of a PITA?

Fiach

Wowo said:

@semiticgod @Fiach PoL can be True Neutral letting them give their skeletons, aerial servants and other summons +1 APR. Also, a neutral cleric has a wider spell selection (though does miss out on Greater Shield of Lathander).

So far the only benefit to being good that I've benefited from is the Shimmering Sash (which is easily replaced by the spell). Otherwise the only thing that I can think of is the Disruption Mace. Is there anything that I missed?

Thanks for that information Wowo, I invariably play a "good" character, I didn't realise what I had been missing out on with a neutral character, thanks!

@Elendar, Hi, I tend to know where they are, so I can buff/heal up as required, being solo I can avoid the more erratically placed ones (like in Dragons Eye where the Ss bow is) as I don't have any companions to stagger drunkenly into them.

Identify can be somewhat problematic if I want to use an item (which I recognise) immediately, but its no big deal really.

My biggest PITA is the Clerics leisurely approach to casting, TU can give me some breathing space, but that is limited to specific areas naturally, my AU companions don't transition into new areas, so some ambushes can be annoying at these junctures, Sanctuary is quite a boon.

Another annoyance is AI, if in a normal party, in combat, the party members will move from enemy to enemy as close threats present themselves, not so with solo play, you have to click on each enemy separately in an encounter as you fight, but funnily enough, when I have the AU team with me, my character will automatically progress to the next enemy as a fight progresses.

All in all, I think its a great solo character, very well thought out indeed Wowo

Wowo

Elendar said:

Aren't traps and not having a way to disable them a bit of a PITA?

In anything but a solo game I would agree but between healing potions and cleric spells I really never noticed it.

Detect Traps let's you avoid avoidable traps. A variety of protection spells are available to reduce or negate trap damage if desired (shield of Lathander, protection from fire/cold, armour of faith etc).

Once you have wizard levels you'll be fine.

Knock and Draw Upon Holy Might takes care of locks.

Wowo

Is anyone able to confirm that skeletons, aerial servants and other true neutral summons will in fact receive the full benefits of Righteous Wrath of the Faithful when cast by a neutral priest?