Chaername to start this game?

MonoCanalla

I'm playing Baldur's Gate I with two controlled characters (besides companions): an elf Archer and a multiclass half orc Fighter/Swashbuckler who throws daggers (applies str to damage) and dual wields two daggers in melee. Both are fun to use, and tight now the Spawn of Bhaal is the archer, but i wonder who should pass and make it to be my only controlled PC in Shadows of Amn.

Which one will be more fun in the long run? D'Arnise castle or the ranger's cabin?

Yulaw9460

Deleted.

Borek

i haven't played w/o the unlimited strongholds mod in quite some time now, but if i was forced to pick i think i'd go with the Ranger Cabin. Cash rapidly becomes irrelevant and even though the figurine is not great there are times when you can make good use of it. Plus you can complete the rangers cabin WWwwaaaayyyyyyyyyyy quicker than the Keep, which takes many many game weeks to get to the end of the quest chain.

Michelle

I don’t know about ee I stopped doing strongholds long ago except ranger, but the fighter stronghold used to be universal so you could do the thief then the fighter. Don’t know if it is the same now. I love the ranger figurines and even though it is probably not the same xp and surely not the same gold I would do that anyway.

ThacoBell

@_Nightfall_ The strongholds have always been mutually exclusive. Picking one locks you out of choosing any other. Though there used to be a glitch (don't know if it is still in the EE or not) where you could do some dialogue timing shenanigans to get any stronghold + the fighter one.

Michelle

Lol, wrong again huh? For that one I may have to hook up my old xp computer to find out. I don't mind being wrong but I am pretty sure that as long as you did the other first you could still do the fighter. Meh, probably still wrong, not worth the effort.

Michelle

Okay, on the discs, unmodded you could do multiple strongholds when dual classing. BUT the only two that you could take as a second stronghold were thieves and fighters AND you had to the other first. So the two easiest basically had to be done last. I am not going through that again so from now on I keep my opinions to myself and just read the forums.

MonoCanalla

I didn't want to make a choice based just on stronghold, just general fun. The choose any stronghold mod would be so sweet; I love the Theater but I'm tired of bards, and i wanna try some strongholds I know I will not access any time soon (druid, paladin...).

Finally I decided to make a goodie play trough for the goodie companions that I haven't ever tried yet in BG2: Neera, Rashaad, and....Keldorn. I'll leave the fighter thief combination (assasin/fighter, kensai/thief, swashbuckler/fighter...) for the baddie one, some day. So I'll go with the Ranger. Let's see that cabin in the woods.

PS: Having an Archer and a half orc swashbuckler/fighter throwing str infused daggers, both in my party, in BG1, makes it such a killing machine. Too bad Imoen keeps dying for nothing.

Skatan

Choosing a BG2 character based on stronghold is like choosing what pizza to order based on the font on the pizza place's sign. It's 0.01% of the content in BG2 and has very little impact on anything, though it may be important for your RP reasons (and those can always trump everything else ofc). Personally I would never let the stronghold have any sway on my choice of character unless I had experienced the BG2 total content 10 times already and wanted my next run to have access to a stronghold I had yet to play, but YMMV.

Anyways, my opinion is that the F/sw Halforc will offer the most "fun" in the longrun, so if you wanna choose only one of your two chars, I'd choose the F/sw. Archers are great and not as weak in BG2 as some ppl might let you believe. There's better arrow selection nowadays and you will get enough points to GM both bows and xbows if you want, or dip into slings or other weapon categories. With speed weapons and warrior THAC0 you can still reach a very respectable melee prowess as well, but that's more niche and probably not something I recommend for your average Archer playthrough.

There's a couple of good throwing daggers in BG2, the first one is easily acquired directly after the prologue if you know where it is and want it. There's a couple of other good daggers as well you can use in melee, though since you can't progress past specialization with a multiclassed F/T, you might as well add a few more weapon categories and switch in other weapons as well (like blunt weapons vs certain enemies, or scimitar/shortsword for a +APR weapons). As you probably already know, using a throwing dagger in mainhand and switching to melee keeps the +APR so you get 2 APR base in melee as well. This in combo with a certain shortsword or scimitar in the offhand gives +2 APR added to your fighter APR and weapon specialization. So at the start of BG2 with two easy +APR weapons you get 5 APR directly with both weapons being +2 enchantment (1 base + 0,5 level 7 + 0,5 specialization + 1 dagger mainhand + 1 offhand speed weapon + 1 offhand). Thieves get really interesting HLAs later in the game as well that will complement your fighter prowess very well and keep your character fresh and interesting. Archer isn't bad at all but it's a little more what can be called a "one trick pony", you will mostly just stand there and pew-pew at the enemies from a far. I personally love archers, but as said, if only choosing one I believe the F7sw will offer you most versatility, most flexibility, can wear a much more wide range of armors, weapons and other items, can with UAI HLA cast spells from scrolls, use wands etc etc.

I never care about romances myself, and someone more experienced have to verify, but perhaps the archer (due to race) will offer more romance options than your halforc. I think some NPC only romance humans/elfs and not halforcs, if that matter to you. But take it with a grain of salt since I never bother with romances and don't want my mansplaining to sound like I know what I am talking about.

MonoCanalla

Thanks, that's the kind answer I needed.

Ranger is not one trick pony because, as a difference respect for example dagger throwing kensai, Ranger can hide in shadows, which is not only fun, but also critial for my favorite strategies. i can decide from which angle I want my ranger to be positioned in a fight, and I have all the information I need before it starts.

Yeah, I forgot that fighter multiclass can not GM. I can not live without grand mastery, thats's a must roleplaying wise and power gaming wise. I woulnd't EEKeeper it because i am sure the devs know what they are doing, so I think I would just dual. I loose the half orc's Con and Str, but damn, I am always a Grand Master (My name is Íñigo Montoya...). So in this spirit I just wonder in which order and what combination to dual.... I guess is a decision between more TAC0 or the thief HLAs.