Guide to Fighter/Mage or Kensai/Mage?

haharobot

Hi y'all,

I know this has been discussed back and forth, but I haven't been able to find a clear answer and step-by-step guide, so I figured I'd start a post.

First, a little about me: I'm one of those people who used to play games all of the time back when I was younger (RPG, FPS, RTS, MMORPG, even MUDs). I'm also one of those people who is a bit of a completist. I like to get the most out of the game I'm playing. I love Guides because I would often pair Guides with my experience in the Game.

Now that I'm older, I don't have the time to play as much for leisure and I'm looking to create the most efficient/best class I can so I can 1) beat the Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition SERIES (all games) with one continuous character, 2. Have the most powerful character possible by the end of the series.

I'm wondering about three questions:
1. What is better, Fighter/Mage or Kensai/Mage?
2. Is there a step-by-step guide that I could follow so I level-up optimally? E.g. What Roll should I look for? How should I assign Skill Points as I Level Up? 3. When should I switch classes?

I sincerely appreciate all the help. I'm sure there are a ton of you who are a lot like me. Appreciate you sharing your knowledge here!


Best,
haharobot

joluv

1. The real question is Fighter/Illusionist or Berserker/Mage.

mf2112

Instead of dual classing I would suggest multiclassing actually for a more powerful overall character. You get to draw from the fighter and mage HLA pools. Skill points really depend on which weapons you want to use, but by endgame you should have enough points to have a variety of weapons. For the best endgame weapons to keep in mind, you might want to look at some guides such as Montresor's guide on Sorceror's place here although I don't know how much EE stuff is in there, or Haeravon has some text guides which do include EE material.
BG:EE guide and BG2:EE guide

semiticgoddess

The primary reason to pick multi-class is the lack of dual-class downtime, which tends to be very tedious. Also, a multi-class will benefit far more from a solo character's high XP.

If you have to dual-class, then the standard dualing times are at fighter level 3, 7, 9, and 13. Levels 3 and 9 grant extra proficiency points, while levels 7 and 13 grant an extra half attack per round each. It's generally best to dual at level 9 in BG2, or perhaps 3 or 7 in BG1. The problem with dualing at level 13 is that it takes almost 3 million XP just to recover your fighter levels, much less get HLAs.

Both BG1 and BG2 have plenty of good weapons of all types, so proficiencies won't matter too much, but the most popular options would be daggers (Dagger of Venom), longswords (Varscona), longbows, and hammers (Ashideena/Borok's Fist) in BG1, and katanas (Celestial Fury) and flails (Flail of Ages) in BG2. Lots of people also dual-wield with Belm in BG2.

joluv

Keep in mind that Fighter level 9 will come early in SoD, assuming you're playing that. Because it's such a linear campaign, it seems possible that a low-level solo Mage could get stuck. I haven't played SoD enough to have a feel for when you'd hit 500,000 XP and get your Fighter levels back.

I'd probably go for a Fighter/Illusionist multiclass. You get more HLAs (both in variety and number) an extra spell per level, better saving throws, and excellent THAC0. You sacrifice Berserker rage, but that's most important in no-reload runs. If you just want a powerhouse and don't mind some reloading, F/I is a great way to go.

FinneousPJ

There is also the FMT to consider

Endarire

I went Human Kensai13/MageX. The dual was to Mage at the start of Shadows of Amn due to the Black Pits giving EXP past the level limit. (I used EEKeeper to ensure this trick worked since it worked in 1.0 or 1.1 but not in later versions.)

Starting at level 1 Mage in SoA was pretty good considering I had over 100 HP and found plenty of low-level scrolls.