Single class characters vs. multi-class characters...
NeveroddoreveN
Member Posts: 193
I have played Neverwinter Nights a few times, and have always used single classed characters. I don't know the benefits or how to use multi-classed characters but am curious on how to use them. For those who play NWN:EE, what discretion do you use when playing multi-classed characters? I have always had the reasoning that multi-classed characters weren't playable because they will not achieve the maximum ability and effectiveness of a single-classed character at high experience levels. But I want to explore characters with more than one class. Can someone give me a crash course in playing multi-classed characters...?
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so when it comes to that you need to know what "favored class" is
favored class is the class that races have, that when they multi class they will not get an XP penalty regardless of what level their favourite class is
so for example, lets say you are a dwarf and want to make a "fighter/mage/thief" per se
since fighter is your favored class, your fighter level can be any level, but your mage and thief levels at most can only be 1 apart, if they spread higher you will get an XP penalty of 20% per level ( yikes )
so for example:
if you have:
fighter 1
mage 1
thief 1
all is good in the hood mage and thief are within 1 of each other
if you have:
fighter 3
mage 1
thief 1
this is still good, because for a dwarf the favored class is fighter, and again the fighter class wont make an XP penalties
if you have:
fighter 3
mage 2
thief 3
you are still in the clear, because your mage and thief levels are still within 1 of each other, so no penalty
if you have:
fighter 3
mage 2
thief 4
this is where things start getting bad, since now your mage and thief classes are 2 levels apart you start getting that ugly XP penalty ( and especially in a game like NWN you need as much XP as you can get )
if you get to this point, the only way to "fix" this is to level up your mage to level 3 and now you will be back to only a 1 level gap between mage and thief, and your penalty will go away
so that is the big thing to note right away, is that you have to see what your race's favored class is, because as i said before, favored class won't experience an XP penalty regardless of what level it is
with humans, whatever your highest level class is will be considered your "favored class" so when it comes to multiclassing, humans do it much better than others
also note that prestige classes do not incur the XP penalty, so for example if you were a dwarf paladin 7 and became a champion of torm at level 8 and you were a:
paladin 7
champion 1
you would still be okay because as i said prestige classes give no XP penalties
also note that in NWN you can only have make of 3 classes ( while in NWN 2 you can make out to 4)
and ANOTHER note is alignment, if you start off as a fighter for example and your are chaotic you can grab a level of barbarian, but you will see that you cant grab any monk levels, and also remember some classes are very alignment restrictive so if your alignment strays the wrong way you can lose abilities
some of my favourite melee builds include:
human:
monk ( 1 or 2 )
fighter 4+
weapon master 7
half-orc:
rogue 3
fighter 4
barbarian 1+
half-orc:
bard 1
barbarian 4+
dragon disciple 10
or
human
bard 1
fighter 4+
dragon disciple 10
one OP thing about 3E rules of DND is that it really promotes the idea of level dipping ( as in grab a level or 2 of certain classes to get good abilities ) that is probably why in NWN you can only have a max of 3 classes to calm down the OP madness, but even with 3 classes you can still do alright
so with that said, experiment, perhaps even use the cheat console and see what fits your needs, and once you find a combo that you like, restart the game, and then legitimately run your character
So, you really only want to mix a spell-casting class with other classes for very specialized reasons. As a cleric, I often sacrifice one spell-casting level for a level of fighter, because I get access to the martial weapons feat for free and +1 to Base Attack Bonus (BAB). Doing that is less helpful for a wizard or sorcerer, because he or she will not be able to use armor or shields without causing a spell failure penalty, and the arcane caster lives and dies by his or her spells.
Any class might want to take a level or two of rogue so they can handle traps and locks, but again, beware the spell-casting penalties of doing that.
Any melee or rogue build might want to take a single level of wizard in order to open up wand and arcane scroll use. Or they might want to take a single level of cleric to get the free domain feats that come with level one of the class.
Some builds use "splash" levels (one or two levels only of a class) to open up prestige classes. Read magical prestige classes carefully to be sure that a level in the class grants a spell level in the class that opened up the prestige class. Some of them don't - they are meant for the character to switch from casting spells to being melee combatants, such as the druid Shifter prestige class.
A level 10 wizard/level 10 fighter is a bad wizard and a bad fighter, so you wouldn't want to do that. NWN multiclassing works very, very differently from BG multiclassing. I actually prefer the BG system, but the NWN system can be fun in a different way.
Another consideration is whether a class offers feats you need but can't otherwise get, either because you don't meet their prerequisites or because a higher quantity of feats would be helpful to your build. For example, leveling up once as a ranger gives you the ambidexterity and two-weapon fighting feats even if your DEX is far below the 15 normally required for ambidexterity, while leveling up once as a monk gives you the cleave feat even if you fall below its strength requirement or haven't first taken the power attack feat. Four levels of fighter are fairly popular as well with some builds because you can then take the weapon specialization feat, though even one fighter level can be helpful for the weapon and armor proficiencies it grants.
Finally, if some of these possibilities sound interesting but you don't have a great grasp of NWN's ruleset, it's a good rule of thumb to be a human or a half-elf. Good luck!
It's a zip file with a copy of a forum of the same name that used to exist on the Bioware forums. Dozens and dozens of character builds detailed up to level 40 with all sorts of class combinations plus supporting comments and discussion.
The character building is one of the most in depth things you can get into with NWN. Is fun trying them out and helps you learn lots of stuff about the game.
Example: You want to be a fighter/mage, so you start leveling both figghter and mage every odd level (or some more mage than fighter). I don't remember the specs, but when you reach the requirements for Eldritch knight you can use that prestige class to level your mage skills since you still gain spells and higher DC as if you leveled as a mage BUT you ALSO get the higher BAB as if you leveled as a fighter! So this prestige class makes you a mage with a fighter BAB, as well as, some added feats from the prestige class itself.
Not all prestige classes work this way, but some do. Read up on them before you start to level so you put the points (skills and feats) where they are needed to open up the prestige class as pickable. My favorite prestige class of them all isn't in the original NVN, but it's a mix of Druid and Monk, so you gain the monk's increased damage using fists but still level your druid spells and spell slots/levels (the sacred fist).
Regarding dipping, just as an example, throwing in a level of paladin if you go with a CHA based caster class (the sorcerer) gives your CHA bonus to your save rolls. That's AMAZING for only one level. With Monk you gain APR from only 3 BAB instead of per 5 BAB as for the rest of the classes. That''s also AMAZING for any martial class (like the one @sarevok57 wrote above, his Monk->Fighter->WM.
As a last note I just wanted to say that if any moderator reads this, @sarevok57 should get a helpful badge. His post was AMAZING, hehe
I have a cleric thief fighter as well as a wizard rogue wp that rock da kasba.
Mostly because they can utilize all items and can deal with traps.
2 other points about multiclassing. One is about your Base Attack Bonus. Fighter has a better BAB than, say, bard in that fighter receives +1 BAB every level, but a bard receives no increase in BAB at levels 1, 5, 9, 13 (every 4 lvls) etc. (this only matters until lvl20). So a multiclass bard gains nothing in terms of BAB by taking 1 fighter lvl, he has to take 4 to gain +1 BAB. This may not sound like a good deal (you will get those extra ftr feats ofc and access to weapon specialisation which is well worth it), but that extra 1 BAB will give you BAB16 @ lvl20 which means 4 attacks per round as opposed to the 3 a pure bard would have. Ftr4/rogue16 is a great build to start with.
The second is about tumble. if, this time, we make a ftr16/rogue4, we want to take the rogue levels at lvl2, 7, 12 and 17 because at those levels we can gain +1 ac for 5 points in tumble. so dont spend your skill points in your fighter lvls (apart from discipline ofc), save them up for when you take a rogue level and skill dump.
This excel spreadsheet is invaluable help in planning out a build down to the last skillpoint. https://neverwintervault.org/project/nwn1/other/tool/characterbuildcalculator-cbc
Have fun