The problem with Assassin is that it's not really a viable class to dual. There's just no point since the extra backstab modifiers come at such high levels, and they get so little thief skills to distribute. If you don't mind playing a single class throughout the entire saga, then I supposed it could be a good choice. A thief's THAC0 isn't particularly good, so it could make landing consistent backstabs a challenge. I personally find having a thief higher than level 10 to be kind of useless other than their HLAs.
I've seriously considered playing an Assassin at some point, but I'm afraid I'd get bored playing a single class thief through the entire game.
Knights of the Round and Omnislash were still put into FF7 even though as @SandmanCCL rightly pointed out they negated a lot of fights, but they were still fun to use.
Personally I'll never play a dual-class as I never liked the restrictions on the character itself. I will however multiclass.
Squaresoft kind of implemented a disincentive to cheese Knights of the Round though, the animation takes too damn long.
And for dual/multi class, I'm the complete opposite. I oftentimes don't see the point of having a high level of one of the multi-class options, so I prefer dual-class so I can just get the bulk of the useful abilities at the relatively low levels and still have enough XP to advance the second class to within 1 level of max level. And since the XP required at higher levels compared to low levels increases something like logarithmically, I find it very limiting to play multi-class characters, whereas this plays right into benefiting dual-classing. Dual-classing does suck when you're trying to regain the abilities of the first class, but if you're not too ambitious with your first class it shouldn't take that long. Multiclass characters are awesome in the beginning, but kind of suck at the middle and end. Also, call me racist, but I prefer playing a human.
Also FFT is my favorite game of the FF franchise. Also I only cast summons when I think the NPC would be likely to conjure them. For my evil party I will use Summons because I think Edwin, Xzar (only animate dead) and Viconia all are likely to summon things.
I tend to get drawn toward the most challenging thing (to a fault probably), so my choice her would be the Wizard Slayer, which I have never tried. I'd be looking for how to get the best out of that class. Second choice would be Assassin. Third would be cleric-ranger.
An Assassin is a great choice, but I suggest also having a backup thief - that way you can invest in hide in shadows and trap making while the other picks locks and disarms traps.
I do think having your party be able to destroy everything in your path at the high levels is fun for a while... that's part of the reward for going through the rest of the saga. But you don't want to overdo it, having a bunch of easy fights at the end gets boring and repetitive.
When they're working on BG2EE I definitely hope Overhaul spends most of their time working on ToB since most people agree that's the part that needs the most work. SoA is already amazing and has so many quests I don't think it really needs much added. Trent's hints about a quest involving Larloch sound promising since he sounds more like ToB material (based on the description and not the game stats, which would have to be modified).
Epic level content is definitely the hardest to balance, because there's a wider variance in the power level of the player's party. At epic level the difference between a well-built party run by someone who knows the rules well is going to be WAY more powerful than the party a casual player throws together on his first playthrough. However, for optional sidequests they're free to gear things toward the more hardcore players, so hopefully the Larloch thing will be a real challenge to a ToB party.
I'd argue the continued success is due to the story, the characters, and the setting. Not because of combat mechanics from 1998.
Actually, I disagree. I think the fact that it's based on AD&D was a major factor in its success, just because it's a system many people were already familiar with. I've played plenty of games where I couldn't be bothered to learn the ins and outs of the game system and I just played it through once for the story. BG1&2 have a cool story, but if not for the game system I loved in my childhood I don't know if I'd bother playing it more than once.
Comments
I've seriously considered playing an Assassin at some point, but I'm afraid I'd get bored playing a single class thief through the entire game.
Squaresoft kind of implemented a disincentive to cheese Knights of the Round though, the animation takes too damn long.
And for dual/multi class, I'm the complete opposite. I oftentimes don't see the point of having a high level of one of the multi-class options, so I prefer dual-class so I can just get the bulk of the useful abilities at the relatively low levels and still have enough XP to advance the second class to within 1 level of max level. And since the XP required at higher levels compared to low levels increases something like logarithmically, I find it very limiting to play multi-class characters, whereas this plays right into benefiting dual-classing. Dual-classing does suck when you're trying to regain the abilities of the first class, but if you're not too ambitious with your first class it shouldn't take that long. Multiclass characters are awesome in the beginning, but kind of suck at the middle and end. Also, call me racist, but I prefer playing a human.
Sorry joke was required.
Also FFT is my favorite game of the FF franchise. Also I only cast summons when I think the NPC would be likely to conjure them. For my evil party I will use Summons because I think Edwin, Xzar (only animate dead) and Viconia all are likely to summon things.
When they're working on BG2EE I definitely hope Overhaul spends most of their time working on ToB since most people agree that's the part that needs the most work. SoA is already amazing and has so many quests I don't think it really needs much added. Trent's hints about a quest involving Larloch sound promising since he sounds more like ToB material (based on the description and not the game stats, which would have to be modified).
Epic level content is definitely the hardest to balance, because there's a wider variance in the power level of the player's party. At epic level the difference between a well-built party run by someone who knows the rules well is going to be WAY more powerful than the party a casual player throws together on his first playthrough. However, for optional sidequests they're free to gear things toward the more hardcore players, so hopefully the Larloch thing will be a real challenge to a ToB party.