Can only play a bard

Cvijeta

Could you suggest a class that has high lore and can cast a arcane spells? EDIT: Nevermind, I found that only bards get high lore. Doesn't need to have thief skills, but some that can use axe, fails, katana, longswords... I might consider fighter/mage class, but I'm fan not fan of dual class.

I want to play either human, half-elf or elf.

Party - jan, aerie, jaheira, anomen, keldorn... I might drop jaheira and replace it with someone else, but I don't know who I might choose instead... Maybe party suggestions and Charname class suggestion would be nice?

SomeSort

Only Bards get that insane 10 lore per level, (5 per level for Blades), but mages and thieves get a 3-per-level Lore boost that adds up, too, especially if you assign points to Wisdom and INT on character creation.

An 18 INT / 18 WIS mage or thief will have 50 lore by level 10 and 80 lore by level 20. They'll be able to handle the majority of day-to-day identification needs-- magic ammo, generic +1/+2 enchanted weapons and armor, etc. For the rest; the merchant on the second floor of the building with Gaelan Bayle sells a pair of Glasses of Identification that will identify three items per day. They're usually my first purchase in the game.

Of course, if you want that entire combo package-- high lore, arcane spells, access to fighter weapons-- then yeah, you're locked into a bard. That's kind of the entire pros list for the class in a nutshell.

If you don't need the lore and just want the weapons / arcane spells combo, then it's Bard, F/M, or a F>M dual. I know you said you don't like dual-classes, but if your complaint is just that they're fiddly and annoying, you can roll a Berserker, dual-class him the moment you first gain control, and your dual-class will be unlocked probably by the time you clear Chateau Irenicus and the Circus Tent.

With two multiclass mages, I'd say your arcane spell progression is going to be kind of painfully slow, (neither Jan nor Aerie unlock level 9 spells and mage HLAs until the end stages of ToB). Adding a multiclassed F/M to that mix is just going to give more of the same. When paired with two multiclass casters like that, the faster leveling speed of an early dual can really stand out. You'll have at least one character capable of casting Time Stop by the end of SoA.

ThacoBell

Depending on how well you know the game, Bards are one of the most powerful classes in the game. I love me some Bards.

Borek

There's quite a lot of Identify scrolls available throughout the game, even if you don't want to waste spell slots memorizing the spell you can just use the scrolls. There's also goggles of Identify available from upstairs merchant in Gaelan Bayle's House which have 3 charges and refresh on resting.

Fighter (kitted probably best) dualled to a Mage early on would be nice, means you basically get grandmastery of all weapon types plus maybe a few Berzerker rages or some passive Kensai bonus', on top of being a Mage with much faster progression than Aerie and Jan due to just 1 class getting the XP.If you do the Dual class just out of Irenicus' Dungeon then it shouldn't take long to unlock Fighter especially if you save up all the scrolls you find in there and scribe them once you switch.

Vithar

@OP - Bard , but at some point you will be pissed how pure classes do their job better or how multiclass mage / fighter or mage /thief will would perform better.

ThacoBell said:

Depending on how well you know the game, Bards are one of the most powerful classes in the game. I love me some Bards.

Except a BiS Blade in mid to late BG2 Stage , why is the Bard one of the most powerful classes in the game?
As i mentioned ''BiS'' items like Celestial + Belm can make any character looking shiny , but that doesn't mean that the certain character is powerful.

Quickblade

BiS?

ElysianEchoes

Quickblade said:

BiS?

"Best in slot", is my guess.

ThacoBell

@Vithar Bards emphasize synergy more than any other class. Excepting the Blades amazing burst DPS/Tanking and the Jesters confuse abilities, Bards are all about improving the performance of the rest of the party. Use them for singing, level scaling spells like dispels, wand usage, etc. and you will find your party performing at a lot higher efficiency than without one.

fateless

I'm not sure if your talking about starting in BG2 or not. Because that changes things a bit. Characters that have been through BG1 have a bit of an advantage. Specially the MainChar. Mages can have a real strong lore score if they started BG1 with 18 int and 18 wis because by the end of it they are at like 19 Int and 21 wis. This gives you a Lore score of 32 purely from stats alone and without SoB can start BG2 at level 9 which gives you a total Lore Score of like 59 to start the game. you'd gain another 33 or so Lore by level 20 and even higher if you go into ToB. You'd be well into the range of identifying many of the items for a decent part of the game and possibly doing all by the end of the game. I don't remember any items needing lore higher than the 90's to identify but it has been a while so there might be something.

If your simply starting in BG2 the numbers will be a little bit lower.

It might be easier to ask what your hoping or expecting from Lore if this isn't an acceptable amount. If it is. Then at the very least this opens up pure class Wizards(including specialist mages) to fit your criteria. Priests would be Divine casters unfortunately so that would exclude them even though they meet these stats well also.

Skatan

Bards are fun, though I prefer the more battle-oriented Blade myself even though they have lower lore. Like someone said above though, one advice would be to use one arcane user that levels as singleclass so drop either Aerie or Jan and replace with Nalia or Neera.