Pure cleric kit in BGEE1
Souplesse
Member Posts: 131
Hello folks,
These days, i read some posts about C/M multi (of course) but also dual, a possibility i haven't think about.
I like the gnome multi, even there is a big lag for high arcane spells in SOA/TOB.
Dual seems to be the solution even i'm not so fan of the mechanics.
Before dualling, i have to play the whole bg1
in a puric cleric style...
I think i get it for the divine spells: Command, Hold, Holy smite, SILENCE, ans SILENCE again, DUHM.
But for the kit? "Don of Lathandre" vs "Seeking sword"?
You play your Cleric as a front liner? What weapon do you use as well? I don't want to play a useless caracter till SOA
I want to use the classic team by the way
Thanks
These days, i read some posts about C/M multi (of course) but also dual, a possibility i haven't think about.
I like the gnome multi, even there is a big lag for high arcane spells in SOA/TOB.
Dual seems to be the solution even i'm not so fan of the mechanics.
Before dualling, i have to play the whole bg1
in a puric cleric style...
I think i get it for the divine spells: Command, Hold, Holy smite, SILENCE, ans SILENCE again, DUHM.
But for the kit? "Don of Lathandre" vs "Seeking sword"?
You play your Cleric as a front liner? What weapon do you use as well? I don't want to play a useless caracter till SOA
I want to use the classic team by the way
Thanks
Post edited by Souplesse on
0
Comments
The most powergaming kit to choose is priest of Lathander, even moreso if you plan to dual into a mage : Seeking Sword renders you unable to cast any magic for its duration. This combo is a late bloomer (it all depends on how long you're willing to wait), but it will be impressive. Dual-wielding war hammers and buffed up by cleric and mage spells, you then add more attack per round from the priest kit and you got yourself an unstoppable killing machine.
By doing this, you'll be leveling up as a single class mage and still have the most useful cleric spells if you dual somewhere after level 9. It's very good, but you'll have to deal with the down time of dual classing. You can still be a real juggernaut with a c/m multi character, but he will be slightly less strong than the dual class option, because nothing beats high level arcane magic. It all depends if you're willing to wait of not. Dualling at level 9 or 11, is actually not too bad : you'll recover your cleric level soon enough in SoA.
However, to be honest, even though the dual class option is stronger, both are fine, so you can't go wrong with either of these. Multi will be more versatile throughout the whole game, dual will be slightly stronger but have to deal with off time. Your pick !!
However, by adding a mage class, you are losing part of a cleric's tankiness and the character becomes much more artillery than infantry. Now, you *can* use spells to buff yourself into a tank, but that is a temporary change and it seems a waste of spell slots to me. (Again, your playing style may vary.)
Can you explain why you think of priest of Tyr?
The only case I can think of where Silence might be better is where there are multiple casters who are too spread out in their position to hit all of them with a Hold Person.
- works on neutral stacks as well as hostile.
- has a big area of effect and can be cast out of visual range of target.
- -5 adjustment means it is highly likely to be effective (hold person has no modifier).
- there are numerous targets whose script only triggers when they talk (and if they can't talk they won't even defend themselves in melee).
If you want to play 'fair' then the area of effect and modifier still normally make it a better option against casters, although hold person is obviously more use against non-casters.
Aha I try to avoid this cheese.
I don't silence/web encounters before they became hostile!
Silence also works on Ogre Mages, (who are otherwise immune to Hold Person). As has been mentioned, it can be cast on neutral targets and does not count as a hostile action, which is particularly devastating against enemies who want to hail you before engaging, (Nimbul and Tarnesh in BG1, Tarnor and Mencar in BG2, etc.)
And while it's not technically party-friendly, if I'm scouting ahead with a thief and silencing from out of LoS, I'm not losing sleep if my thief gets silenced, too. If I'm engaging the enemy in melee with my tank, I'm not worried about him or her getting caught up in the spell. If I'm front-lining with a Cleric obviously I have to be a bit more careful where I aim, but I'd say Silence is "party-friendly" for half to two-thirds of my party, depending.
But really, it's mostly just about the massive save penalty and the large radius. Silence is an amazing spell.
I do play my Cleric as a front-liner to take advantage of that big HP pool and heavy armor / helmet / shield. Weapon-wise, maces give you Stupifier and hammers give you Ashideena pretty early on. Flails gets you ready for Flail of Ages in BG2. Slings are your only ranged option. Quarterstaffs gives you access to the Staff Mace, which is actually the highest-damage one-handed weapon in BG1, but you're better off waiting until after you dual to put a point there.
For kit, Priest of Lathander is the most powerful in the long run, but Priest of Helm is more powerful early on. Seeking Sword is eventually useless because it locks you out of spellcasting for its duration, which is terrible for a C>M, but early on when you don't have many spells (or good weapons) in the first place the fact that it gives you 3 APR is tremendous.
Priest of Talos is probably the most thematic of the three base kits, but that requires you playing Evil which wouldn't mesh well with the canon party.
Ok, front liner is better for my "moral" in BG1!
But in BG2 I don't think I'll take FOA for my self! I have a lot of choice for my fighters and I don't have to bring along Anomen or Aerie anymore ! Yeah !
Jaheira with Clubs/Cim, Keldorn with Caso or dual Bastard swords and Minsc (long time not playing Minsc in bg2) or Mazzy! So Foa seems fit better with Minsc or Mazzy?! I think I'll stick with Qstaff and sling in bg2 but I maybe wrong in terms of fun/power gaming...
Flails are a great pick there, with FoA in the main hand and Defender of Easthaven in the off-hand.
The best part of the C/M combo is the metamagic, the ability to stuff Cleric spells into sequencers and contingencies. The C/M multi gets access to Spell Trigger more than a million and a half XP later than a C(11)>M dual, (my preferred dual-class point), and gets Chain Contingency nearly 2.5m experience later. Which is quite a bit of downtime.
As for better... the most powerful force in BG2 is a high-level arcane caster, and the C>M dual is a higher-level arcane caster than the C/M multi. Therefore, the C>M dual is more powerful and, at least from a powergaming standpoint, "better".
I went much more into detail about the differences between the C/M multi and C>M dual here: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/863763/#Comment_863763
Attempting to get back on topic, I think a straight cleric is underrated. I don't think there is ever a time where you are weak, but never a time when you are the strongest, either. Many of the best weapons in SoA and ToB are available and some of the spells are sneaky-good. And if you want fun RPing, choose a dwarf or halfling. The former get our beloved shorty saves, the latter get those and a +1 bonus with a sling.