Conjurer Dualed to Fighter
10Bazza11
Member Posts: 169
I wanted to make a versatile character that has very good fighting abilities. I opted for a Conjurer 3 dualed to Fighter as this allowed me to use wands and scrolls plus have some useful spells like knock and find familiar to give me a few thief skills, my familiar is a ferret so it can pickpockets and find traps. I will go for all the good Bhaalspawn abilities to give me access to a few Cleric spells.
I will solo most of BG1, but do Dorn’s quest to get the elven chain mail. Does any one have any suggestions for other items that might help in my goal to become a complete all round character but very competent Fighter. I will be taking the character through SODS and BG2. I did agonize over being a mage first so I had access to identify.
All thoughts would be most welcome.
I will solo most of BG1, but do Dorn’s quest to get the elven chain mail. Does any one have any suggestions for other items that might help in my goal to become a complete all round character but very competent Fighter. I will be taking the character through SODS and BG2. I did agonize over being a mage first so I had access to identify.
All thoughts would be most welcome.
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Comments
Level 5 you have access to Haste, Slow, Melf's Minute Meteor, Dispel Magic, Protection From Normal Missile (a life-saver in BGEE) and Monster Summoning I (aka cannon fodder for hostile spells)
Level 7 gets everything from level 5 plus Stoneskin, Improved Invisibility, Enchanted Weapon (can save you more times than you can think) and Fireshield.
Also will my spell level progression stop at 3 or continue with my fighter levels?
Most people find that the inverse dual-class is more powerful (i.e., fighter->mage), since the power level for mages ramps up dramatically at higher levels - the old linear-warriors vs quadratic-wizards issue. Popular levels to dual from fighter->mage are 7 (for the APR bump), 9 (for max hp and extra weapon proficiency) and 13 (for the APR bump).
If you want to play a spell-slinging fighter, you could consider a fighter/mage multi-class or even a blade (bard kit).
I did test out a Blade and a Swashbuckler as I thought one of these classes word serve my purpose fine. However on my Icewind Dale test both died relatively early in the run through, the Mage dualed to Fighter fared a lot better.
The aim was to role play as a fighter that picked up a few mage skills in their stay Candlekeep. With the mage skills i would have a limited access to certain Thief skills and by receiving all the good Bhaalspawn abilities I would also have access to a few Cleric spells.
Basically the character would be as good a fighter as if I started out as Fighter but possible with a few less hit points, but with a smattering of Mage, Thief and Cleric abilities.
You mentioned identify though, Conjurers cannot use divination unfortunately. Have you considered enchantment specialisation instead? The saving throw bonuses/penalties for that school could be very useful, sleep will be great early on, you can get identify. Losing out on evocation scrolls will be a nuisance but the wands of fire, cloudkill etc will still be usable.
Another option is to go illusionist and let your rep fluctuate around the mid point to get some necromantic spells mixed in with your bhaalspawn abilities.
Next thing to consider is the specialist bonus to saving throws vs your school, and penalty to enemy saving throws against. Think about which offensive spells you plan to cast and what kind of spells would most often be cast on you.
Weighing up these factors with your playstyle should bring you to the right choice. For me that led to enchanter as the most intriguing pick but others might like something different. Nothing wrong with an invoker/fighter running circles around a web with aganazzars scorcher and boots of speed. The saving throw bonus would be handy vs fireballs and enemies more likely to take full damage etc.
Only spells that matter for this build are non-caster level related. Major ones early I can think of are Identify, Shield, Protection from Petrification, Blind, Color Spray or Sleep, Find Familiar, Friends, and at level 2, Invisibility, Knock, Web, Horror, Stinking Cloud. Mirror Image CAN be used, but it’s very limited in duration unless you commit hard to mage levels. I personally only used Invisibility and Knock. 3rd level: Invisibility 10’ radius, Dire Charm, and Spell Thrust. Level 4 gives you Improved Invisibility (for a very short period of time), enchanted weapon, stoneskins, and a couple other... dubiously useful things.
So my preferred build was Enchanter 3 -> Fighter, for reasons stated above. I lost Shield, but the Shield Amulet can fix that problem if Magic Missiles were really a problem. Delaying until 5 is... OK, but it means on average 12 less HP and you’re really only getting Invisibility 10’ radius in the bargain. You can’t even reliably get a scroll of that in BG1! If you wait til 7, you might as well multiclass at that point.
I played BG1 as a normal armored Fighter who had the ability to use wands and use scrolls as necessary. I travelled invisibly, and at the end of the day or during breaks identified all the loot I got earlier. In SoD, I knew I could safely take Dynaheir as my main mage since I could cast Enchanted Weapon from scroll, and purchased a scroll of stoneskin for the final battle. No idea how well it works in BG2, but I can’t imagine it’d be worse off than a standard Fighter.
Or you could just rely mainly on your fighting abilities, with the odd spell (like blindness) thrown in. If you're playing unmodded then a single scroll of undead protection is all you need to get the Ring of Gaxx to deal with both your healing needs and give your saving throws a big boost.