Help me pick out a character for my first full evil playthrough (non-SCS)!

Petycon

UPDATE: I got mods working on my phone! This means that the poll is moot, since the circumstances have changed dramatically. For the record, I got Rogue Rebalancing and chose a lawful evil female halfling assassin named Amber. Half the size, twice the fun!

TL;DR: What evil charname would you suggest for a complete evil playthrough of the saga, given that my good playthrough was a paladin? It's not just about power - tell me what you think fits best thematically or is just plain ol' fun!

Hey there, folks! Long-time lurker, first-time poster here.

I've got a bit of a problem - despite loving the game to death (and probably clocking well over a 1000 hours on BG1+2 across multiple editions and devices), I've never actually finished a full run of the saga. The furthest I got was mid-TOB, finishing Watcher's Keep and getting to that desert village.

Nevertheless, the game keeps sucking me back in every couple of months, especially now that I have it (together with all of the DLC) for all my android devices. Since it's much easier to avoid burnout on a phone, I've decided that enough is enough - it's time to complete the BG saga once and for all, start to finish.

A few months ago I've rolled up a bad-ass human inquisitor for my good playthrough, completing the original BG (including finally finishing all of Durlag's stuff) + SOD on insane. While my paladin continues her adventures to SOA and beyond, I wanted to dip my toes into depravity and have fun with being evil in BG1.

I'll be playing without mods, since I can't get them to work on my phone. With that in mind, here are a few concepts I've come up with - I'd love to hear your thoughts!

1) Blackguard. Thematically appropriate, given that her counterpart is a paladin, and decently powerful, too. Despite their simple point'n'click nature, I find that melee beaters have their own charm. And they allow the rest of the party to shine, since you rely on wizards to dispel magic, thieves for skulduggery, priests for buffs, etc.

Main concern: I fear that even with spells, this character will be too similar to my inquisitor, lack of IWIN button notwithstanding.

2) Fighter/Mage/Thief. Even with a full party, I think FMT has enough going for it to stand out. The powergamer in me salivates at the prospect of Mislead+Improved Haste backstabby goodness, UAI, spells beyond the 6th level, etc. And FMT has one amazing thing going for it - it has no empty levels throughout the saga. At some point, levels just mean +1 HLA, but the FMT feels like it always has room to grow - the 8,000,000th point of experience is just as exciting as the 1st.

Main concern: Nothing particular, although I'm worried the slow pace of levelling will eventually irritate me.

3) Fighter/Illusionist. While probably not the very top of the BG world (debatably, the multiclass is teency weency bit weaker than a smart dualclass due to earlier/greater spell access and unique kit abilities), this is as close as I'd get to actually playing god. Whereas the FMT always requires some finesse, past a certain threshold this gnome will probably just politely ask the party to stand aside, 'roid up and proceed to humiliate whatever the game throws his way.

Main concern: I've done Fighter/Mages a LOT. As a kid, that's ALL I used to play. Also, while they're insanely fun (particularly because "limitations" is more a concept than an actual thing in their world), I'm wondering whether I'll overshadow the rest of the party so much that I'll essentially be playing solo.

4) Halfling barbarian. There's nothing quite like a raging midget that can punch you in the groin and make your nuts fly out of your mouth. Great team-player, too.

Main concern: Same as with the blackguard, it might be too similar to my paladin playthrough.

5) Other. A bard whose voice inspires others to a frothing frenzy? A fighter/cleric that will eventually turn the might of the gods against them? A dashing pirate swashbuckling across the sword coast? Give me your ideas, people!

Balrog99

Dragon Disciple. Go with lawful evil to get a nice imp familiar with lots of hidden uses. As evil it would be fun to breathe fire without much regard for collateral damage. Lawful evil dragons are of the red or green variety so maybe focus on lightning/air spells or poison/acid type spells. Too bad the breath is always fire. If that bothers you go for chaotic evil and choose fire type spells!

hockmah2

A cleric thief, you can turn the undeads to allies, set traps call your army of skellies and many more evil things.

Danacm

Half elf blade. Smart, simple evil. Guide a team, and have a masterplan

Artona

I had loads of fun playing evil assassin dualed to warrior.

Kamigoroshi

Neutral Evil Half-Orc Cleric/Thief of Shargaas (roleplay opportunity). Should be a nice change, as it's pretty much the furthest away combo from generic Lawful Evil Human Paladin.

Dharius

Er...there are already two pre-generated evil characters in the game from Beamdog - Jade the bard and Halen the thief - why not try one of those? The developers obviously thought they were worth playing.

I've played both before and they're just fine.

Good luck with whatever you decide on.

Very_BigSword

Balrog99 said:

Dragon Disciple. Go with lawful evil to get a nice imp familiar with lots of hidden uses. As evil it would be fun to breathe fire without much regard for collateral damage. Lawful evil dragons are of the red or green variety so maybe focus on lightning/air spells or poison/acid type spells. Too bad the breath is always fire. If that bothers you go for chaotic evil and choose fire type spells!

I really have to second this. I have just finished SOD with an evil DD and evil party. Great synergy with Edwin and he provides a handy item to boost your pyromancy. I am having a "blast" with the breath weapon and fire spells while Edwin has all the complementary and utility spells covered.

Admittedly I also like the idea of the depraved rage midget! Give Neb a run for his money

Skatan

F/I is a very good class and will be fun to play from start to finish. There are many options and hard to choose one (I always fail myself and have never finished a single ToB run), but perhaps the less "point and click" of playing a F/I will make you feel incited to actually play the same char all the way through.

GrimjackMV

Stormlord all the way! Priest of Talos Kit!

KvotheRM8

Blade. The RPing is rich, you were raised in CK so being a bard is a natural fit. Plus, access to rare tomes allowed you to learn how to become super good at fighting and awesome at defending and other stuff too.

NPC relations are good because a high CHR means you can keep strong willed evil npcs in line. Human and half elves can romance Viccy.

Game wise you can rely on Shar teel or safana and then That bounty hunter guy in bg2 until the main theif is found.

Bards spell casting is a great compliment to Edwin because the one school he cant cast you thrive at. Later on you can use any item and have prof with two handed swords which means that paladin weopon can be weilded and with tensers transformation and offensive spin...ur paly is gonna look like a wimp

butteredsoul

I would enjoy trying this one, since it's closest to my latest evil play through (and a very fun one at that) with a halfling F/Th. Being the thief keeps you very involved with your character, scouting, micromanaging backstabs, setting traps, and outing hidden creatures with detect illusion. Add the spells in there and you're bound to have fun.

Regarding your barbarian idea, that's a great one too. 18 years ago I did a halfling wizard slayer with grand mastery in halberds. It was hilarious and fun.

Whatever you do, enjoy and please let us know how it goes!

Dragonspear

I would like to throw my hat in the ring for bard as well.

Granted for my own blade, I've also considered it where the aspiration for more power/knowledge/etc causes her to fall when getting Blackrazor (the main reason I want her to be evil).

Like you, I play a Paladin on my good playthroughs (Cavalier or Inquisitor. I love the inquisitor more flavor wise, but I hate the loss of priest spells)

Stupid_Puns

Just my two cents here.
Although a FMT doesn't get that usable until maybe the VERY end of BG1, your evil thief choices are EXTREMELY limited in BG2 and Throne of Bhaal. So limited in fact, Beamdog added an evil thief NPC who, in my opinion, is a wasted party slot.
As such, anytime I want to play BG2 with an evil party, I'm a FMT.
To quote a BG2EE walkthrough:
"Go in with Two Weapon Style, attempt to
score backstabs, and use defensive spells to compensate for your lack of
armor. A Fighter/Mage/Thief will not get 9th level Mage spells. Also,
a Fighter/Mage/Thief will not gain any of the Mage feats. No Comet,
no extra 6th, 7th, and 8th level spells slots. For the evil party,
making your protagonist a Fighter/Mage/Thief is the best solution to the
distinct lack of recruitable Thieves in the game. You'll be able to pull
off many of the Fighter/Mage tricks (uber spell-buffing in order to
become nearly invulnerable to enemy spell casters) and handle all the
thieving requirements your party will need. "

Syndaree

I would second a bard (blade or jester would fit well in my opinion) but since you used to play lots of fighter/mages, it might not be enjoyable anymore. Therefore, knowing the evil NPC's and some of the options in both games, I would suggest either a pure kensai, pure assassin or regular monk. As for the evil alignment, I think they all work well, as long as you play a sensible and well developed character.

thief

At first I wanted to recommend Evil Jester, but you've already played F/M types a lot so I wouldn't bother for now (especially that you won't get Rogue Rebalancing on your phone).

F/M/T and F/I is just more of the same, try something else. Your concerns about spellswords overshadowing the rest of the party are viable - many times I just sent Solaufein, Angelo or Haer'Dalis to do the job while regular joe's watched.

From options listed, Halfling Barbarian sounds the most fun. Interesting concept can go A LONG WAY when you're playing the game for N-th time. But I voted for Other and I suggest trying Cleric/Thief multiclass OR Fighter->Cleric dual. Especially the former fits thematically with an evil character.

Petycon

Thanks for the replies, everyone - it really gave me something to think about!

However, due in no small part to the efforts of @Gusinda, I've managed to successfully mod my game on Android, which means that the circumstances have changed radically. I now have both SCS and Rogue Rebalancing!

I've just finished a complete run of BG1EE with a good Skald on SCS insane. What a rush! It was like a whole new game. Potions were no longer just free money, wands became essential, and I had to pull every dirty trick in the book just to get past some encounters. Getting kicked in the teeth by Bassilus was eye-opening, but it was the siege of the bandit camp (which took me a whole evening of trying various strategies) that really made me realize I'll never be able to go back to the same shambling dullards you fight against in the vanilla game.

I never thought I'd be so happy to see a scroll of Spell Thrust, but there you go.

For my BG1EE SCS Insane evil run, I've decided to go with a halfling assassin. I've never run with a pure thief, and Rogue Rebalancing gives them some nifty new toys to play with. I realize that long-term a fighter/thief would be better, but assassin just drips flavor (poison), and I'm sure there will be some cool shit I'll be able to pull with UAI and traps even against backstab-immune enemies in TOB.

Plus, as with the Skald, it gives the party a chance to shine, rather than being glorified cheerleaders for your one-man wrecking crew.