Two unrelated questions. Archers and Zoom Levels
cbarker15
Member Posts: 38
How good is an archer for a trilogy playthrough... Tips? Can they dual class? .. Also unrelated but do most people lock zoom level or play zoomed far out? Just looking for most peoples preference I guess.
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The thing to bear in mind for remaining viable in ToB is that Longbows don't have good enough ammo to tackle some of the major ToB enemies, so you should build proficiency in Shortbows or Crossbows (or indeed Slings), even though you're probably better off with Longbows in the earlier stages of the saga. (Fortunately, there are enough proficiency points available during a full run to start with Longbows in BG1 and build that to Grandmastery by early-SoA, and then start building up an alternative ranged weapon during SoA to be competent in time for ToB.) In earlier versions, no, but the EEs have now removed that restriction, so yes. However, bear in mind that the only dual-class option available to any Ranger (or Ranger kit) is to Cleric - not Mage or Thief. I don't know. At a guess, I'd suspect that most people go along with default settings. I find the default zoom level fine for most purposes, but YMMV ... it probably depends what equipment you're playing on.
Zoom >> I played more than a decade in the old BG game, with no zoom available. It took me a bit of re-adjusting my style but today I use it frequently to scale my view to the situation I'm in. In older times I often switched between area map view and game view, now I just quickly zoom in or out.
In the same league - the option to see inventory dropped on the ground, players who spend game hours looting old style will know how GOOD this really is (Remember searching 20 dead hobgoblins to find the one carrying a useful scroll?). Same for the shading of party members when you pick up inventory items and it tells you who can use it or not. Don't say oldtimers can't change, they can really value those nice little improvements.
Perhaps you could manually add arcane spells to a pure Archer with EEkeeper, but the levelling would continue as a pure Archer (i.e. much too fast for a multi-class) and you'd continually have to add arcane abilities anew as you levelled ... and what you'd end up with would be all the advantages of a pure Archer with major additional (illegal) abilities on top. So no, that's just silly cheating.
Also, Archer->Cleric isn't necessarily an unworkable dual, but of course it'll be subject to the Cleric weapon restrictions, so no Bows etc. Therefore it only makes sense if you start the Archer with only Slings/Blunt weapons, else your proficiencies would be wasted after dualling. Thus, one way to make sensible use of the dual-classing option is to dual fairly early and play mostly as if you're a straight Cleric, except with a second point in your Sling and full-power dual-wielding (neither of which an ordinary Cleric would have).
If you've already started your Archer with Bows etc. (as one usually would), then you've pretty much locked yourself into a pure-Archer run ... but as I said, that's fine, it's a good kit.
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/52606/kit-arcane-archer-redone-fighter-kit-v1-3
So far as the second Q goes, I play with zoom unlocked to allow for zooming whenever.
Gus