Best Gnome Character (besides fighter/illusionist)?
shylaman
Member Posts: 173
I was looking at illusionist/thief and cleric/illusionist, trying to decide which might kick more butt. However, both seem more like support characters. How do you play them effectively? THACO seems no Bueno on both. Can an illusionist/thief be effective in combat? Can they backstab effectively with low THACO? Or are they just disarming traps, opening locks, and casting support spells?
What about C/I? Probably not too effective in combat, but how much does splitting their XP limit the effectiveness of damage spells?
What about C/I? Probably not too effective in combat, but how much does splitting their XP limit the effectiveness of damage spells?
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Comments
Splitting their XP does very little to weaken their damage spells (it's only about a level's difference), but Cleric/Mages aren't there to deal damage anyway. They are all-around tanks and support characters, with the number and variety of spells to deal with nearly any situation. By combining mage buffs with cleric buffs, they can make themselves immune to weapons and magic attacks as well as all disablers and damage spells.
Illusionist/Thieves will be good backstabbers, though not quite as reliable or deadly as Fighter/Thieves. Like Cleric/Illusionists, their strength is not dealing fast damage; it's being able to do basically anything else.
Purge a mages buff (through spells or detect illusion) go invisible, line up a backstabbing, rice repeat.
No negatives to STR, CON, or DEX, shorty saves, extra cast per spell level, excellent thief ability bonuses. Yes, you do lose necro spells. But the positives greatly outweigh the negatives.
especially in BG1EE detect illusion becomes quite the killer ability ( it kind of drowns out in SoA with true seeing being very easy to get and not having to make it so your thief stands around for a round or 2) but for whatever reason, detect illusion rocks in BG1,
plus having pick pockets is nice, there is quite a few items you can pick pocket in the game that really make it useful to have, especially at early levels if you want to pick the pockets of characters without killing them
and then after detect illusion and pick pockets is maxed out? trap setting, a tanky fighter thief has great options for this, before a big fight, you set a couple of traps down, lure in the baddie, they spring 'em, take some damage and then go in for the kill, fighter/thieves can be great in combat, and that little tactic just gives them a little bit more of an edge
and then how would you equip this guy? in good ol' strapping full plate mail of coarse, gnome fighter/thieves don't need subterfuge, especially if they are wielding a godly two handed sword, making mince meat out of their enemies, or maybe a sword and board combo? if you are into killin' drizzt, his scimitar works wonders with a shield, especially if backstab is your thing, which, with that higher STR value really helps out if you're into that,
but I like the 2 handed sword idea because of what can happen in the SoA:
the things that really make a fighter/thief shine is use any item, which is probably by far uncontested the best ability a fighter thief can have, because then you can use things like...... carsomyr for example, you can be a chaotic evil fighter/thief and wield carsomyr for the absolute LULZ, I find it ironically humorous and quite satisfying, plus you actually get to be skilled with it as well, match that up with your godly saves and items like wonderous gloves/amulet of the master harper and you don't even miss out on the AC bonus for having no shield, you can still hit -15 AC while using the holy avenger while being skilled with it at the same time
gnomes definitely make any class they are in, quite amazing, especially when you do things in whacky unconventional ways
Though I did have a pure Wizard Slayer one time that was a Gnome. Between magic resistance and those bonus saving throws to Spell and Wands, generally the biggest two things to worry about coming out of a mage enemy, he was quite the potent character, especially, as others have noted, Gnomes don't have either a Strength or Dexterity penalty like their fellow shorties.
Without illusion magic, go dwarf.
http://xkcd.com/1704/
Though why halflings never got cleric/thief in 2e remains a mystery to me. Their starting thief skills would make them awesome cleric/thieves.
I think spell saves always matter. With the various plus strength options available to clerics I see no upside after level 3 to being a half Orc.
Halflings always got screwed on class options. I'd like a Halfling cleric/thief too, there are better portraits for Halflings than Gnomes but I'm still deeply enjoying the class. I like the freedom and versatility