Dualing from mage?

parrker

I was trying to come up with an unconventional build and thought that I have never seen someone discussing an option of dualing from mage. Definitely, the overall power might be lower than dualing the other direction, but it might be more fun to RP this different kind of character.

Something that immediately popped into my mind is ability to dual from a specialist mage into a fighter after getting some nice protective spells to increase tankiness, or learning Haste.

Or even forget about levelling too much at all. I can easily imagine a Charname growing up in Candlekeep and studying to be a mage to reluctantly follow in Gorion's footsteps. But as soon as Gorion dies, the Charname realises that even powerful spells are no match against a nice two-handed sword with cleric support, so they would start learning how to be a better warrior instead.

Casting a simple spell like Blindness or Sleep from time to time would definitely help in the beginning, and having access to scrolls and wands would definitely never hurt.

Have anyone else had some fun experience with this kind of character?

DJKajuru

I havent, but it is definitely doable. If you dual at very low levels, say level 3 or 4 , here's how I imagine it:
BG1: All spells are somehow useful , from sleep to mirro image, and you can wear a shield for extra protection or become a decent ranged attacker. Im not a fan of getting in and out of armor so Id rather wear bracers or cast the spell armor until you find some elven chainmail. TBH your greatest asset will be the ability to use wands , the most powerful damage dealing items in the game.

SoD/BG2 - Focus on spells that dont rely on your level to be effective and can still affect mid to high level enemies. Blindness, invisibility, identify , detect invisibility and glitterdust will always be useful , even in chapters 2-3 of BG2 .In BG2 there arent many wands but since your focus isto use fighter abilities you can buy and store scrolls that might be useful from time to time, such as stoneskin, pfmw , haste...

ToB- you wont be using lower level stuff much and most of your high level abilities will be better than scrolls, but you can still make great use of pfmw , breach and even wish scrolls.

Danacm

Also dual from specialized mage to get the +2 bonus saving throw penalty to your spell school spells if you cast them, and +2 bonus saving throw for you against your school spells like illusionist's blind, spook or invoker's web etc.

Grond0

If you dual to a fighter at level 2 you would lose a maximum of 12 HPs - 9 at each level, but you could get 6 back by summoning a familiar. In addition you would lose the ability to take a race other than human and only progress to level 39 rather than 40. Arguably those losses are small compared to the gains. Wand use in BG1 and using the right scrolls in the tougher BG2 fights can make the game a lot easier for a fighter.

dunbar

I tried this recently in BG2 and got all the spell levels I was looking for to get a fighter that could self-buff but felt that this was offset by the low HP progression.
On the up side however I got one more party member who could use a wand of spell striking - I think there are six such wands in the game and they are devastating, especially when two party members are using them at the same time.

Edit: Sorry, just realised this is in the BG1 section (but I'll leave it in anyway).

Skatan

I've tried it, both insta-dual and later dual. Dualing almost immediately gives access to wands, scrolls and find familiar with practically no downtime and no negative effects other than the loss of kit on the Fighter. My second try was leveling up to level 4 spell slots before the dual, but with the intention of continue the char into BG2. I never finished that run, as always, but it was essentially just a fighter with stoneskin and some other buffs who used wands in between fighting. I found that using ranged weaponry worked better since it meant I could focus less on AC, but I also switched to fullplate sometimes and went melee with stoneskin. Overall, it was a cool character and a bit unusual but if I would do it again, I would probably just insta-dual as said above, for convenience.

vonhizzle

What about wildmage level 2 dual to fighter? Could cast all spells with nahals right?

Dharius

I played a generalist mage dualled to thief at Level 13 once (this happened during BG2). It was OK - didn’t really experience any problems in a party of six, and once I reached Level 14 I had some nice spells to rely on.

Danacm

vonhizzle wrote: »

What about wildmage level 2 dual to fighter? Could cast all spells with nahals right?

Yes, if you can dual from wild mage and learn spells you can cast them via nahals and get a lots of bad surges.

At lvl 2 you will have 3 first levels slots, at 4 you will have 4, and at 5 you will have 5. If you can use the ring of wizardry you will have 6-8-10 slots for nahals so in case of lvl 9 spells it means 6-8-10 time stops or whatever but the cost of surges really bad ones.

TheLungo

Specialist mage to Cleric is nice. You can do it at level 2 just to get the bonus to saving throws or go up to level 7 to have the basic defenses (stoneskin, etc).

Balrog99

TheLungo wrote: »

Specialist mage to Cleric is nice. You can do it at level 2 just to get the bonus to saving throws or go up to level 7 to have the basic defenses (stoneskin, etc).

Dual from Necromancer or Enchanter to get a bonus to those spells with your cleric. An extra -2 to enemy saving throws is great for Poison, Finger of Death or Hold Person...

Skatan

vonhizzle wrote: »

What about wildmage level 2 dual to fighter? Could cast all spells with nahals right?

This is only good in theory, IMHO. In practice, you'll reload so much it spoils the fun (at least to me it does). I'm no expert on WM's though, I love them from a thematic point of view (though Sorc would be a better fit) but I have never played one for more than a few hours before getting frustrated and going back to Generalist/Conjurer/Enchanter.

jsaving

For a BG1-only character, it isn't uncommon to see people dual from mage to fighter so they can use wands, or from mage to thief so they can cast invisibility on themselves. Those characters would be underpowered in BG2 though.

Danacm

jsaving wrote: »

For a BG1-only character, it isn't uncommon to see people dual from mage to fighter so they can use wands, or from mage to thief so they can cast invisibility on themselves. Those characters would be underpowered in BG2 though.

As underpowered as a vanilla fighter. Use the familiars and your hp almost the same as you loose in the process if you dual very early at lvl 2-4. You will earn the use of wands, and this is a huge boon for a fighter.

StummvonBordwehr

Danacm wrote: »

jsaving wrote: »

For a BG1-only character, it isn't uncommon to see people dual from mage to fighter so they can use wands, or from mage to thief so they can cast invisibility on themselves. Those characters would be underpowered in BG2 though.

As underpowered as a vanilla fighter. Use the familiars and your hp almost the same as you loose in the process if you dual very early at lvl 2-4. You will earn the use of wands, and this is a huge boon for a fighter.

Agree. And scroll buffing not to mention.
A vanilla fighter with mantle, improved mantle or pfmw is no kitten - and that’s just a few.

Throw in a GWW with a weapon of choice on top of your buffs and you are doing ok

jsaving

A vanilla fighter/mage multiclass is probably the strongest character in the game because of the synergies between fighter APR and mage buffs. Mage/fighter duals are way behind power-wise, though you are absolutely right that they can still do OK if you take the time to stock up on scrolls and wands.