Am still trying to decide whether to focus on two-handed swords, two handed fighting, staves etc. for my fighter/mage build or to go for dual-wielding long swords/scimitars or even long swords/katanas for my BG1 proficiency picks.
One factor is that a multi class can't put more than 2 pips into a single weapon, so you need to make the most of those "extra" points not put into Mastery somehow.
By the end of BGEE I should be level 7/7 which would give me 6 points to place in weapons (e.g. Longswords**, two-weapon fighting***, Scimitars*/katanas* or Two-handed Swords**, Two-handed Fighting**, Staves**). Either would leave me pretty well setup for BG2EE.
Two-handed swords are probably better for BG1 (think Web plus Spider's Bane), but for BG2 the off-hand bonuses of scimitars and katanas really come into play, so may be a better long-term pick.
Either way am thinking now of not putting *any* points into bows in BG1, though still using them early on, as Dex/Race/Bow bonus to hit should still give me a respectable THAC0 with bows. This will allow me to dump points into two-handed or two-weapon fighting in BG1 and/or perhaps to go for (throwing) axes.
I might even put points into dual-wield in BGEE but not actually dual wield until BG2EE, or at least not until I get some decent spell buffs, as a shield might be more useful early on.
This line of thinking has me considering that a dual-classed Mage-Archer might be worth the trouble, much as I hate dual-classing.
Disclaimer lol: Doing this from memory and my memory isn't that good.
Even when I'd dual class a mage/fighter, I'd equip a ranged weapon like a sling or a bow. I want to say it also would allow you to equip some of the other lighter armor types without too many casting penalties. I concentrated on maximizing magical damage and then falling back on my fighter skills. Of course you could also reverse that as said earlier in the thread and go fighter/mage concentrating on fighter skills and abilities and having the magic as just icing on the cake.
In the long run, I'm sure I'll play multiple games with multiple characters, sometimes with a party mostly of my own made characters, and I'll probably mod it too later on once mod tools are confirmed to be compatible with BG:EE.
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One factor is that a multi class can't put more than 2 pips into a single weapon, so you need to make the most of those "extra" points not put into Mastery somehow.
By the end of BGEE I should be level 7/7 which would give me 6 points to place in weapons (e.g. Longswords**, two-weapon fighting***, Scimitars*/katanas* or Two-handed Swords**, Two-handed Fighting**, Staves**). Either would leave me pretty well setup for BG2EE.
Two-handed swords are probably better for BG1 (think Web plus Spider's Bane), but for BG2 the off-hand bonuses of scimitars and katanas really come into play, so may be a better long-term pick.
Either way am thinking now of not putting *any* points into bows in BG1, though still using them early on, as Dex/Race/Bow bonus to hit should still give me a respectable THAC0 with bows. This will allow me to dump points into two-handed or two-weapon fighting in BG1 and/or perhaps to go for (throwing) axes.
I might even put points into dual-wield in BGEE but not actually dual wield until BG2EE, or at least not until I get some decent spell buffs, as a shield might be more useful early on.
Even when I'd dual class a mage/fighter, I'd equip a ranged weapon like a sling or a bow. I want to say it also would allow you to equip some of the other lighter armor types without too many casting penalties. I concentrated on maximizing magical damage and then falling back on my fighter skills. Of course you could also reverse that as said earlier in the thread and go fighter/mage concentrating on fighter skills and abilities and having the magic as just icing on the cake.
In the long run, I'm sure I'll play multiple games with multiple characters, sometimes with a party mostly of my own made characters, and I'll probably mod it too later on once mod tools are confirmed to be compatible with BG:EE.