"Easiest" classes to play...

malachi151

People are always asking about what's the "best" class, etc. for a beginner. So here is how I see it (for group play):

1 ) Cavalier - Not as powerful as a Berserker, but also a little less complicated. Mostly passive abilities and can self-heal.
2 ) Berserker - Just so powerful and immune to all the bad stuff if you know when you use his abilities.
3 ) Archer - Stand back - point, click, kill.
4 ) Barbarian - See Berserker.
5 ) Undead Slayer - See Cavalier.
6 ) Fighter/Thief (Multiclass) - Can pretty much do it all and can be either a ranged or melee fighter.
7 ) Swashbuckler - Sort of an easy Rogue class to play. Not quite as strong as a Fighter/Thief, but easy to manage.
8 ) Priest of the Helm - Cleric that can act like a Fighter once a day (or so).
9 ) Priest of Lathander - See Priest of the Helm.
10) Dwarven Defender - Still easy as most fighters, but Defensive Stance takes a little getting used to.

batoor

Blackguard before the poison nerf, used to be one of the easiest. Still fairly powerful though.

ThacoBell

Vanilla fighter. Click on the enemy and one of you falls. No micro needed. Easiest class to play.

Redrake

Cleric/Ranger. You get a very good +2 warhammer early on. And with TuTu dual-wield it is an awesome display of tanking.

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DevardKrown

thespace said:

Elf archer, max DEX, 18 STR, compound longbows= easiest for BG1, although I stick to shortbows instead, as there are better ones in BG2.

second the elf archer as easy cheesy .. though shortbows all the way for that extra APR.
Mmm... Pincushion.

dunbar

ThacoBell said:

Vanilla fighter. Click on the enemy and one of you falls. No micro needed. Easiest class to play.

Couldn't agree more. For a beginner, when you're just trying to get your head around AC and THAC0, the last thing you need are situational skills that require micromanagement.

OlvynChuru

A vanilla fighter is only easy to play if you know how to minmax them. If you play as a fighter with, say, 17 Strength, you'll have a much harder time.

UnderstandMouseMagic

For a beginner I'd say the easiest charname to play is the one who gets a lot of bonus AC.

It's not doing damage that matters so much, it's avoiding damage happening to charname.
Also getting XP easily.
So not so much in BG but BG2 those opening locks, disarming traps XP add up.

So Swashbuckler fits the bill well. Plus you get traps to lay which means you can probably take on far more dangerous foes than you should really with hardly any risk.

malachi151

OlvynChuru said:

A vanilla fighter is only easy to play if you know how to minmax them. If you play as a fighter with, say, 17 Strength, you'll have a much harder time.

Fighter aren't easy to play however because they have no protections against status effects, so while there no additional skills to use, you'll keep dying from Fear, Hold, etc. That why I say Cavaliers are the easiest to start with, because they have passive protections against common status effects. And how hard is it to use Lay on Hands? I mean come on...

Volatile

It's a matter of personal taste, but I REALLY disliked playing a paladin as a first time player. For RP reasons, mostly - as it is hard to make sense of some choices forced on PC -, but also because Khalid had a much better THAC0 in a short time, while my paladin was stuck throughout BG1ee as a gimped fighter with no cleric spells to speak of.