First Timer looking for some help
Miahkai
Member Posts: 32
So looking forward to having a chance to play Baldur's Gate having heard such wonderful things about it, and I've decided to run with a party of myself as an Elven Fighter/Thief, Imoen, Minsc, Dynaheir, Khalid and Jaheira, and I had a few questions to ask.
1) What's a good choice of weapons for my main character? I'm thinking of playing him more of the sneaky melee type to help Minsc and Khalid out
2) What level should I dual Imoen into mage? I'd like her to help cover the spells Dynaheir is missing out on.
3) Will this party be conducive to a first time player?
1) What's a good choice of weapons for my main character? I'm thinking of playing him more of the sneaky melee type to help Minsc and Khalid out
2) What level should I dual Imoen into mage? I'd like her to help cover the spells Dynaheir is missing out on.
3) Will this party be conducive to a first time player?
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2) If you're playing a rogue, you can dual her as early as level two. That would let her get a 75 in Find Traps, which will cover pretty much everything except Durlag's Tower. At that point you should prolly have Pick Locks and Find Traps at 100 with your main guy. Alternately dual her a little later and just let her handle all the traps while you work on other things. Either way since you're a thief she doesn't need to wait til level 7 to get dualed to mage.
3) You're a little light on Divine Magic, but you have two mages so you should probably be okay. Magic is good in the first game but becomes extremely potent in the second so you might need more magical muscle then.
2) Yeah. If you want Imoen's stats to carry from the first to second game now, you need to edit her with something like Shadowkeeper. It's not hard, just annoying. I hope EE fixes that so your guys port over as you left them.
3) Yeah. If you want the NPCs that appear in the second game to reflect the first you'll need to edit them. Like, I dual'd Imoen at 2 in my game so I had to add a bunch of mage stuff and lower her rogue levels etc. Viconia got her weapon proficiencies adjusted and her total XP raised. Stuff like that. Again, hopefully EE will carry over NPCs as is. It's not hard just annoying. I had two copies of shadowkeeper, BG Tutu and BG 2 running all at the same time to get it all worked out hehehe.
There are fewer total NPCs in 2, but they're all fleshed out a lot more. They get more personality and depth. So you should be able to find a group you like.
proficiencies would be best focused on short sword, long sword, katana, short bow, staff. now they depend on your playstyle (will your thief use ranged weapons? then shortbows. crossbows are viable in bg2 if you "cheat" a bit and buy firetooth from watchers keep early in game).
if you will use two-handed style, use staff. if not, then long sword and katanas. (short sword have lower dice, but also lower speed factor (better). katanas also have low speed factor and great dice, but are useless until bg2).
intentionally or not, your party composition is considered cannon, and you should be fine with it, although as stated, you are a little light on healers. perhaps you can exchange khalid and jaheira for cleric and multiclass cleric/paladin/fighter. or kill off one of them.
regardless, fighter-thieves are strong combo and you should be fine.
I also like single weapon style over dual-wielding for my combat rogues. Attacks per round don't matter much when you're trying to position your guy out of LoS so you can attempt to hide to get another backstab off, so the extra chance to crit is nice.
2) I usually dual her around level 5. To completely min/max, you'd need to go to level 7 thief, but you won't regain any of her thieving abilities til you're near the level cap. Considering you're a thief too, regaining those skills are not a big deal so you can view the more thief classes you gain as more HP.
3) Considering it's the canon party, sure. Just bring lots of healing potions because Jaheira as a multi-classed character tends to be a little overworked in the healing department.
2) If you're putting all your points into detect traps and pick locks, I'd dual class Imoen sooner than later (as early as lvl 2.) Your party will probably derive more value with a second mage than a second thief.
3) It's a good party. You'll have a good time.
Going scimitars instead of longswords initially in BG1 means no magic weapon for much of the game, unless munchkin tactics are used Currently elves get +1 THAC0 with *all* swords (including two-handed swords, scimitars, katanas), though this could be considered a bug (see: http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/6486/elves-get-1-to-hit-with-2-handed-swords ), strictly speaking elves should only get the +1 THAC0 for longswords and shortswords
Some of the longswords in BG2 don't look too shabby, e.g. Daystar. The Equalizer, Blackrazor, Angurvadal
Unless you know exactly where drops are, stick with long swords for BG1.
1) As a Fighter/Thief, how many proficiency points do I get, how often do I get more and what's my maximum amount I can place in a group?
2) What are the main differences between Single weapon and Dual Wielding for melee?
3) Most of the discussion seems to be between Scimitars and Longswords, are Daggers and Shortswords not worth looking at?
The maximum points a multi-class can assign to a single weapon is 2 points, although you can assign three points to the two-handed fighting. The same is true for Rangers and Paladins.
Single class or dual-classed fighters who've regained their levels can place up to 5 points in a single weapon, most other non-fighter type classes and kits just one (with a few exceptions for some of the kits e.g. Swashbuckler can put 2 points into melee weapons). BTW weapon styles only affect melee weapons (e.g. you can't get the benefits if SWF with darts)
If you're talking about the weapon styles, single weapon fighting gives you -1 AC and doubles the critical hit chance to 19-20 for the first point, on the second point you get another -2 AC. You only get these bonuses when not using a shield or another weapon in the off-hand (including a 2-handed weapon). I usually only take this style for thieves, as they can only use bucklers anyway, and it doubles the chance of a critical on a backstab.
Dual-wielding gives you one extra attack (only - this doesn't ever improve) I.e. one attack with the offend weapon. 2 points in this is required to not give a penalty to the main hand, -4 THAC0 still in the off-hand, 3 points in this reduces the off-hand penalty to -2.
The main advantage to dual-wielding is not necessarily the off-hand attack, but the fact that you can get the special bonuses from 2 magic weapons at once in BG2 e.g. improved immunities, AC, extra attack. Note that if your off-hand melee weapon gives you an extra attack (I can think of at least 2 weapons in BG2 that do this, but none in BG1), it's actually your primary weapon that gets the extra attack!
Thieves need to be careful not to have a faster weapon in the off-hand when back-stabbing, as this will the one used for the stab (at -2 THAC0, usually)!
Multi-classed fighters seem to dual-wield more often than single classes, as there are more proficiencies "spare" as you can only place 2 points into each weapon proficiency. Scimitars and long swords do more damage than daggers and shortswords and are slashing weapons, rather than piercing - there are more enemies immune to piercing than slashing. Daggers and shortswords are faster, though, which can help with setting up backstabs, and for fighter/thieves some of them give helpful magic effects (e.g. poison target or chance of the wielder turning invisible) in BG2.