Yeah, I can respect that. I'm not looking down at tactics players or your preferences either. I was just trying to explain why I said what I did. What I meant about holding the FMT back is that once he uses the helmet once the charge is gone and any clones he makes will have a helmet with no charge left to use. So he has to create multiple simulacrums without using the headband on himself. Not to be combative but I don't think the FMT needs the headband to outperform all other classes concerning damage output overall throughout the game. Like I said, I never used it before and it wasn't in the game until the EE came out. Either way if we both prefer the FMT then great but I really don't get what we are arguing about then. I know the FMC is a powerful class, so is the FM dual class. They are all great when utilized correctly. The FM combo is the most OP class in the game and adding cleric or thief to it is even more extreme.
I agree that a FMC shouldn't use CF in his off hand because it would be more beneficial to give it to someone else. You mentioned using it to try and compare FMC damage to a FMT which it can't compete even with the BBOD and CF in the off hand. Grand mastery is great but the FMC ends up with 9APR under improved haste while the FMT has 10. If the FMC gives up CF in his off hand then BBOD does even less damage without further buffs and even with those buffs it won't surpass the FMT strength with CF. That was my point. If the FMT is utilizing the most beneficial item configuration he gets better APR that hits and the same strength as any other combo without having to worry about spells that can be destroyed by enemy magic users and he does it without grand mastery. The FMC relying on strength buffs and BBOD 9th level spells can temporarily outperform a FMT with no buffs by 35 points of damage a round and that is only the case if the enemy is immune to backstab and critical strike. The FMC will have better to hit ratio and it will make a difference in SOA. In TOB the FMT will have good enough thaco with both hands to hit everything reliably.
Giving CF to someone else will raise their strength 3 points higher so you will see some benefits there but unlike the FMC, it wouldn't be as beneficial as letting your FMT utilize it if you have one as your main PC. Using a FMC in a party with another party member using CF is still nowhere near as damaging overall as using a FMT with CF in a party. Also if the party member you give CF to cannot cast simulacrum then you are going to be losing damage potential in the end. Using simulacrum on a high level FMT with CF/scarlet combo is stupid levels of OP.
I want to ask which combination (fighter-mage multi or kensai-mage dual) do you think is stronger in the "revised" game - with Item Revisions, Spell Revisions and Refinements and full SCS. With Spell Revisions dual kensai-mage looses means to gain 9+ attacks (Improved Haste gives now only + 2 attacks), but has access to Refinements´ better mage´s HLA (bonus spells...). Multi fighter mage-has weaker HLA of both classes, but no Greater Whirlwind, only basic Whirlwind and less spells.
If I really had to choose, then fighter 4 dualed to Mage,so I can benefit from some extra hps and specialization, but still rely on my spells. I played kensai mage once but it was way to overpowering for me ,I think it works better on hard playthroughs+ SCS
hit level 9 with kensai dual over to mage, stay at level 5 until it hits the 250 000 XP mark, so then i don't have to waste the level 6 proficiency point, and at 500 000 XP i have a wizerd with 5 proficiency points in dagger ready to do some serious damage with boomerang/firetooth after annihilating enemies with spells
good times
This is exactly what I used to do in the original. I pretty much always picked fighter in BG1, made him into Kensai in BG2 and dualled to mage at 9 and saved that proficiency pip until enough EXP gain
Berserker might be better and all but I like the flavor and idea of a armorless weapon master deciding to pursue magic to futher improve their combat provess.
Although I haven't actually played any fighter-mage in in EE yet. Kensai-Mage was always my go to in the original but I decided to switch things up a bit since I didn't really feel like picking Kensai in BG1EE (those plates are one of the reason I like fighters so much in BG1).
Comments
I agree that a FMC shouldn't use CF in his off hand because it would be more beneficial to give it to someone else. You mentioned using it to try and compare FMC damage to a FMT which it can't compete even with the BBOD and CF in the off hand. Grand mastery is great but the FMC ends up with 9APR under improved haste while the FMT has 10. If the FMC gives up CF in his off hand then BBOD does even less damage without further buffs and even with those buffs it won't surpass the FMT strength with CF. That was my point. If the FMT is utilizing the most beneficial item configuration he gets better APR that hits and the same strength as any other combo without having to worry about spells that can be destroyed by enemy magic users and he does it without grand mastery. The FMC relying on strength buffs and BBOD 9th level spells can temporarily outperform a FMT with no buffs by 35 points of damage a round and that is only the case if the enemy is immune to backstab and critical strike. The FMC will have better to hit ratio and it will make a difference in SOA. In TOB the FMT will have good enough thaco with both hands to hit everything reliably.
Giving CF to someone else will raise their strength 3 points higher so you will see some benefits there but unlike the FMC, it wouldn't be as beneficial as letting your FMT utilize it if you have one as your main PC. Using a FMC in a party with another party member using CF is still nowhere near as damaging overall as using a FMT with CF in a party. Also if the party member you give CF to cannot cast simulacrum then you are going to be losing damage potential in the end. Using simulacrum on a high level FMT with CF/scarlet combo is stupid levels of OP.
With Spell Revisions dual kensai-mage looses means to gain 9+ attacks (Improved Haste gives now only + 2 attacks), but has access to Refinements´ better mage´s HLA (bonus spells...).
Multi fighter mage-has weaker HLA of both classes, but no Greater Whirlwind, only basic Whirlwind and less spells.
Berserker might be better and all but I like the flavor and idea of a armorless weapon master deciding to pursue magic to futher improve their combat provess.
Although I haven't actually played any fighter-mage in in EE yet. Kensai-Mage was always my go to in the original but I decided to switch things up a bit since I didn't really feel like picking Kensai in BG1EE (those plates are one of the reason I like fighters so much in BG1).