Fighter->Mage vs Fighter/Mage for full party?

Baldurspawn

Okay, now that I played a Sorcerer for a few hours and not liking it as much as I thought, I will give in to my Rerolleritis and consider again a 'Battlemage' ^^

In vanilla or low-setting-SCS-environment (which i played before) multi was super-powerful (even without timestip), but due to (nigh-)full SCS+Ascension, I am worried that a multiclassed F/M falls short in a full party due to only really really late getting any Timestops and such...

Also, I am undecided between Kensai, Berserker and Illusionist (keepered) if dual
Illusionist only because of "Mirrored Clones" from Refinements-HLAs (2 semi-simulacrums at once)

My party is/will be:

Imoen (Thief->Illusionist or ->Invoker)
Nalia (Skald)
Mazzy (Fighter/Cleric)
Jaheira (Fighter->Avenger)
Sarevok (either Berserker or Inquisitor)

(When will I finally be happy with my char?) T.T xD

Lord_Tansheron

Without SR installed, dual is probably the way to go. 5 natural APR + Improved Haste is a winning formula that tears through everything from the very early to the very late game. I prefer Kensai to reinforce that with some nice damage bonuses (defense hardly matters as a mage), but Berserker is a completely fine choice also. F->I is also okay, depending on your preferred strategy (you seem to like it, so go for it).

I don't see multi bringing a lot to the table. Shorty saves are probably the most relevant, but since you're already super protected with all your mage spells (and it's not LoB), I'd favor offense over everything. Kill first, don't ask questions later.

Baldurspawn

Thought of Flail of Ages as my main weapon, so ImpHaste would be off the table ^_^'

I am still not used to dual anything but Thief to Mage/Cleric and especially not mainchars.
Considering SCS (and my plan to head for spellhold as soon as I am strong enough and then doing everything there and in the underdark because I want to have Imoen back), would be level 9, 12(if Kensai) or 13 the best point to dual?

Thanks for putting up with my inability to decide, Tansheron

Lord_Tansheron

Don't you have a Fighter/Cleric? Seems like a perfect fit for FoA, it's blunt and you can use GWW for the 10 APR. There isn't really a comparable blunt weapon for that cleric (Crom Faeyr is redundant with DuHM).

I strongly advise dualing at 9 for any fighter, not because 13 doesn't have nice bonuses (it does) but because those bonuses come at a cost that is imo not worth paying.

Baldurspawn

I enabled F/Cs and F/Ds to use any weapon-type via cdtweaks.
For Mazzy, blades fit far better ^^ Longsword and Bastardsword ftw ^^

Baldurspawn

Started Kensai now...
Holy cow, I should have tried that earlier! XD
Never breezed through SCS-Chateau Irenicus like that with a warrior since my Inquisitor ^^

Still not 100% sure whether I want 9, 12 or 13 levels of Kensai...
Pros and Cons for each would be interesting for me ^^

Lord_Tansheron

Only 3 choices for dualing a fighter in BG2:

Lvl 7: this level gives fighters +1/2 base APR (note: requires EEKeeper as a single class fighter will be lvl 8 in a new game of BG2 due to the 89,000xp starting value)

Lvl 9: this levels gives an extra proficiency pip, meaning a fighter can have Grand Mastery. It also gives +1 daily use of the kit ability for Berserker and Kensai, and the last fighter hit die (dice-based HP stops at lvl 9).

Lvl 13: this level gives another +1/2 base APR to fighters (as well as more prof pips and daily uses)

The cons are obviously the XP penalty. Getting to 9 is trivial as you start at 8; getting to 13 requires a MASSIVE amount of xp. To compare, a fighter needs the same total amount of xp to get from lvl 1 to lvl 9 that they need just to get from lvl 9 to lvl 10 - and every single level thereafter. That means you need to level a LOT before you get to 13, and then even MORE to get your new class to 14 and regain the base class. While +1/2 APR (and some extra prof pips/daily uses) are nice to have, getting there takes so much work that I find it not worth the sacrifice - PARTICULARLY since endgame tends to be easier than early/mid game anyway as you have tons of tools at your disposal.

Baldurspawn

Half an APR alone is not worth it, so yeah, 9 it is ^^

Thank you once more, Tansheron!

Arunsun

Baldurspawn said:

Started Kensai now...
Holy cow, I should have tried that earlier! XD
Never breezed through SCS-Chateau Irenicus like that with a warrior since my Inquisitor ^^

Still not 100% sure whether I want 9, 12 or 13 levels of Kensai...
Pros and Cons for each would be interesting for me ^^

Assuming a full party for my comments on the amount of exp:
9: Takes only 250k (total 500k) to get your abilities back, making the downtime really short and the access to HLAs is hardly delayed at all.

12: Takes 1,125k (total 2,125k) to get your abilities back, for only +1 damage, -4Thac0 (levels+kensai bonus) and a pip, not worth it if you ask me since your Thac0 will be good enough most of the time, and the other bonus are somewhat irrelevant. 2M exp is what you should get, with a fair amount of quests, when you begin Underdark. Oh and compared to dualing at 9, it'll take 4,125k (reached during ToB unless you really are a completionist) exp to get level 9 spells, as opposed to 3,250k exp which you can reach by the end of SoA. Definitely the worst option in my opinion.

13: Another -1 to Thac0, and an extra half attack. Now, an attack is, let's say, about 30 damage, which is where it should average by the end of the game. Half an attack a round is, thus, 15 damage a round. You'll lose no spellcast in the end, and your character will be straight-off more powerful than both previous options in the end, but what you should look at is the downtime. It'll be very very long.

My opinion is that you should go for the level 9 dual. The other options are slightly more powerful for ~20% of the game (ToB, basically), but vastly inferior before that. SoA is the most interesting part of the game IMHO, and duals at level 12/13 will only make you feel like having no PC during fights due to how underwhelming (s)he will be compared to the rest of your party.