Priest of Lathander > Fighter (or F/C)
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It's not so hard to be better than a pure fighter, specially since the fighter kits' perks start losing edge once your casters come up with better counters to disabling spells (I'm looking at you, berserker!).
The only real contender here is the fighter/cleric multi, and honestly the PoL can buff himself to be WAY more effective than the F/C. Sure, it's on a timer, but for its duration (long enough in mid levels to handle most tough fights, and goes on for minutes in higher levels) you're a God. 5 APR (boon+haste) , a better thac0 than F/C (Holy Power+faster leveling), better saves sooner (assuming dwarf both cases), more spells (buffs, debuffs, cc, dmg), better turn undead, better everything.
Convince me otherwise.
The one thing going for F/C is greater whirlwind, and it's a one-trick pony. Also, subjectively better stronghold (castle > temple). Totally unrelated but: I think Priest of Tempus should get the castle instead (pls, Beamdog).
The only real contender here is the fighter/cleric multi, and honestly the PoL can buff himself to be WAY more effective than the F/C. Sure, it's on a timer, but for its duration (long enough in mid levels to handle most tough fights, and goes on for minutes in higher levels) you're a God. 5 APR (boon+haste) , a better thac0 than F/C (Holy Power+faster leveling), better saves sooner (assuming dwarf both cases), more spells (buffs, debuffs, cc, dmg), better turn undead, better everything.
Convince me otherwise.
The one thing going for F/C is greater whirlwind, and it's a one-trick pony. Also, subjectively better stronghold (castle > temple). Totally unrelated but: I think Priest of Tempus should get the castle instead (pls, Beamdog).
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To offset that loss, you'd need a lot more meat on the Cleric side, which probably means dualing into Cleric rather than from it, or going multiclass.
With only one dot in each proficiency (and one dot in two weapons style), cast boon 2x, holy power (fighter thac0 and 18/50 str), righteous magic (+str, max damage) and DUHM (25 str). Have your mage cast haste. Your PoL should have 5 apr doing MAX damage per hit guaranteed and with a better Thac0 than F/C could ever dream of.
At mid to higher levels, the burst can last from a little over a minute to more than three whole minutes. Do you know any fight take takes more than three minutes?
Fighters can have 10 apr once a day via HLA, but it's a one trick poney. By the time the fighter has the ability to do it, PoL is able to buff himself to Godhood several times over.
So yeah... If we're talking raw power: arcane casters (sorcerer, conjurer, mage) > PoL > the rest. And I'm not 100% sure sorcerers are better. If we had a one-on-one fight, considering all the buff, debuffs, protections etc each class has, I think PoL has a good chance of eating the sorcerer alive (if PoL manages to pull off his buffs and prots before the fight. Arcane casters have time stop and alacrity which is the reason they're so OP).
Obviously someone that can buff themselves with Holy Power/Righteous Magic/DUHM can buff up to godlike power (as long as they have spell slots to spare), but Fighters do have an edge in overall sustained fighting effectiveness. Aside from Fighter/Mage types (which in this game wipe the floor with F/C's face), pure warrior types can get buffs from party members (not everyone runs solo).
One more thing: if you play with SCS (only way an experienced BG veteran can expect to be challenged), unless you play with IWD Spells component, cleric buffs tend to evaporate in tougher fights. At that point, the fighter guy is still a fighter with great THAC0, grandmastery and GWW, while the cleric impersonating a warrior turns out to be a guy in armor swinging a blunt object with mediocre skill.
I agree with the point made above though that, in harder fights, clerical buffs are just going to get removed (and the time taken to re-cast them means there's not much chance of getting them back).
Another point that's not yet been made is that hardiness can be pretty helpful for a fighter (and can't be dispelled).
The biggest problem is that the Boon of Lathander, while great, is also a little unreliable for a dual. While Clerics are generally weak to dispels, the fact that you don't have the maximum array of divine spells to make up for a lost Boon like you do in F/C or BerCler puts a bit of a damper on things. Though of course it becomes less of a problem the shorter your fights are, so if you're good at metagaming your encounters and aren't in LoB mode, it works better.
in bg2 all spells are capped at level 20 so boon of lathander would last 2 minutes at most, but since you have to cast multiple spells for this godly combo, you are going to lose some time on that ( DuHM will no doubt be the last spell cast, and that spell only lasts a minute period )
I don't think anyone would embarrass themselves that badly; where do you see someone making such a claim?
The OP seems to be about PoL-F vs. pure F (kitted) which seems like a weird comparison because who'd run a pure Fighter when dualing is clearly on the table.
The dualing level breakpoints of interest would probably be 3, 6, 7, and 9. Either one of those gives a single use of Boon.
3 gives you a +1 stat DuHM and some useful utility. You get most hit dice from Fighter.
6 gives you a +2 stat DuHM, but the rank 3 divine spells aren't all that good. You get most hit dice from Cleric.
7 gives you a +2 stat DuHM, but adds rank 4 spells which have some interesting picks. Only two Fighter hit dice.
9 gives you a +3 stat DuHM and rank 5 spells that include powerful melee tools like RM. No Fighter hit dice.
Personally, I'd probably go with either 6 or 9. They seem to be the best balance between cost and benefit. Clerics get a lot of extra spell slots from WIS so you can still cast a decent amount even at low levels, but of course you'll primarily be a fighter and not a caster.
I'd basically never dual above lvl 9 on anything except Druid and Thief. It's just not worth the steep XP increase.
i suspect you have misinterpreted the thread's title
"Priest of Lathander > Fighter (or F/C)" that if i get it right means PoL is better/more powerful then pure fighter or FC multi
reading it as
"Priest of Lathander -> Fighter (or F/C)" so dual from PoL into fighter.
the difference is all in that > instead of -> that is used often in the forums as a sign for first class dualed into second class.
the OP is about PoL vs fighter or vs the multi FC.
the fact that the OP tells about stacking boons make clear that the PoL has to reach a high level, he needs at least 11 levels to stack 2 of them and he talks also about the duration of the boost (1 round level) in a way that leave no doubt, he intend the PoL going very high on levels, even if as @sarevok57 correctly told the duration is capped at lev 20, so lasting at best about 2 minutes.
so he is surely not talking of a dual from it into something other.
anyway having to dual from PoL, thing that is not the topic of the thread, i would go at least at lev 11, and dual into mage, not into fighter.
to have an aerie like toon that has 2 stackable boons, enough cleric spells, a semi decent thac0 when buffed for combat and that will reach end game much higher mage levels.
There's very little reason imo to run a pure Fighter over a dualed one. Berserker->Cleric should be almost unequivocally superior to a pure Berserker in BGII. Now, of course this varies with your mod setup. I haven't tested the new IWD spell option in SCS (I prefer the Spell Revisions mod), but it seems to me that would only widen the gap in favor of a dual.
I think I like it; SCS in particular exposes just how superior well utilized BG2 arcane casters are to their divine brethren. This might help bridge the gap some and lend more weight to the OP's argument.
for the boss battles stacking 3 boons, full buff, DW and receiving an improved haste the >lev 21 PoL goes in battle with fighter like thac0, 25 str, something like 55 more hp, some damage reduction stacking the flail and AoF, in some battles also some other items, and 10 apr, that will last a long time.
having a single class cleric makes also all the undead battles very easy, some parts of the unseeing eye and firkraag dungeons, the temple ruins, the 2 battles in the bodhi's dungeon, liches and even demiliches and a bunch of other situations become so easy with a high enough cleric. he just walk in and everything explodes.
maybe it is not the best choice for those that play with scs, but there is a lot of people that does not, and in vanilla is not difficult to avoid to have the buffs dispelled.
imo CM > F7Cdual > FCmulti > PoL, if you want to go for the real power, as the CM end game can pull off way more then the puny GWW rounds the FC can, ie having a simulacrum with BBoD and FoA OH, calling a deva and 4 elementals or if he is lucky a deva and an elemental prince and buffing himself in no time, it is not a problem to get all this in a couple of rounds (contingency and CC ignore the 1 spell/round limit).
while he is protected by his arcane magic, untouchable and not dispellable.
and this is only 1/2 of what he can do as he can also use his spells to fight, to do actual damage or take down the enemy in other ways, instead of buffing and summoning...
but for players that don't mind if they win a couple of rounds later, don't mind if they have to buff for the boss battles, don't mind if they have to sleep some times more PoL is a fantastic class to play, RP wise, but with its own power.
it is somehow similar to a blade, not mechanically, but because you have to put some effort in make it shine, then can be very rewarding, while players not used to it can find it a very weak choice.
ranged he can focus on every enemy in no time, does not have to actually reach it, has way less risk to be dispelled and can easily compete with the best fighters as damage dealer.
stacking only 2 boons still gets 6 apr (I.hasted) for probably around 180 dmg round, but he can do it twice a rest, while stacking all the boons can do it only once, for about 300 dmg/round.
it is the perfect setting to take down a certain fallen solar in ascension as he can also equip the shield that reflects his ranged attacks, the solar should fall in no time (i did not actually test it).
You'll need to get into late SoA/ToB for CM to really shine, but eventually, yes. I might give F/C multi the edge over dual in ToB because Fighter HLA/melee power starts to become prominent again, while half of the spellbook starts to become useless.
To summarize/assess the OP's points: PoL is good, but probably not quite as good as OP seems to feel, especially compared to a F/C or F>>C at higher levels.
Being better than a pure fighter is not something to write home about; people have known for decades that casters, whether single class or some variety of multi or dualclass, leave pure warriors behind in the dust eventually.
just one of the examples is when he uses the troll form from the cloak of the sewers, with a good oh weapon equipped, using some sequencer to buff himself.
good thac0, good apr and an impressive regeneration if improved hasted, and good enough if not for the enemies you find before your main mage reaches the needed level to cast IH.
but yes, in the early game his power is more in how he can cast, having 2 pools he has a lot of spells/day to cast and can use the RoV to cast divine spells fast, so his heal spells or other spells that can save a companion in peril actually reach him before is dead.
or he has some combos like holy power, duhm and MMM, fighter like thac0 and a boost in dex make him a very competent ranged attacker, while a mage often misses against well armored enemies.
it is true that he lacks of the extreme power and versatility he has late game, when he has access to tools like improved alacrity or CC, but if we consider his overall power, and not only what he can do when he is in mlee, i rate the CM among the most useful and powerful classes as soon as he start to gain some levels.
maybe my opinion is biased as i usually run small parties, 3 or 4 people, so my characters are overleveled compared to a party of 6. but not so much if someone import from SOD, starting at 500k xp, as i start in bg2 with less then 100k.
It's not, by all means, powerbuild but can be pretty powerful and fun to role-play. In my case, I'm trying to say that this dual is an alternative to Paladin. Is it better than Paladin? I think so, but it's up to you to decide. I think it's also better then pure PoL mentioned in this topic.
Summarizing Paladin of Lathander build:
Pros:
- Can cast 7 level I, 7 level II, 5 level III, 7 level IV and 6 level V cleric spells*.
- May cast Boon of Lathander once per day. BoL is an innate spell and is therefore actually cast at the average of your two class levels. This means that every 2 fighters levels you have more than cleric levels, Boon of Lathander will last another round
- Fighter Thac0, ApR, Greater Specialization and HLA
- 10 round Righteous Magic - Say hello to fully equipped Kensai
- Fast class regain in SoA
Cons:
- Clerics hit Points
- May use only Cleric weapons (not much of a con but still)
- Weaker then Paladins Turn-Unded
- You must defeat SoD final boss as 6 level fighter
*If we read all Tomes of Understanding in BG I, take the good path in hell, Deck of Many Things, Machine of Lum the Mad.
I did try one long time ago, and did not even notice that my Boon of Lathander was gaining duration as my fighter levels elevated
The difficult part is deciding at what level to dual. Ideally, if I had the patience, I'd go for lvl11 for moar spells but mainly for another cast of Boon of Lathander.
Sadly, I don't have the patience, and my past character dualed at lvl9. Still fun and nice though.
OK, you also lose exceptional strength and are restricted to being a human.
and (as we are in the bg2 section) there are 2 cheap spells that give exceptional str and plenty of items, some of them are quite easy to get in chap 2, like the gauntlets and the belt that ribald sells.
an other viable dual from a caster class to an other is cleric (PoL) into thief, best at 11, but also possible at 9.
the 1 or 2 boons boost the apr and righteous magic grants a high damaging stab.
a thief that can boost his stats, get maxed dmg roll, boost his apr, use sanctuary as backup when he fails to hide in shadows and has some other very useful cleric spells has some interesting advantages.
using joshimo as thief before charname has enough thieving skills the dual is not a problem for the party, specially if in the party there is also jaheira or an other cleric as in the down time charname can not provide divine protections for the party.
but as soon as you complete the dual you have a very good back stabber, better then a single class even if he still has only a x4 multiplier, as he rolls for maximum damage and stabbing the minimum damage is more important then the maximum one, and a decent divine caster that can go mlee with +1 or +2 apr depending on how much boons he have.
is not a power game build but is more then viable.
compared with the dual from thief to cleric gives the PoL boon bonus, x5 stab multiplier, even if a little late in the game, thief hla and the thief progression is the fastest, to reach lev 12 needs only 660k xp, by comparison to dual at 11 into fighter needs 1M xp to complete, into ranger even more.
only to dual into mage is faster because you can learn scrolls.
and holy power give you a thac0 that a single class thief reaches only at lev 21 if you dual at 11, thac0 that is boosted by the other cleric spells, buffed the C->T get it more then 1M xp earlier.
the multi, both CT and FMT are better boosted thieves, no down time and overall more powerful, but wanting to dual from a caster class, as the power is not everything in this game, it is one of the few possibilities that have some sense.
cleric->ranger is a weaker version of cleric->fighter, as you have longer down time, loose gm and get few advantages as compensation, but imo has a RP value that can make it an interesting choice.
Don't see how it would be better than a Fighter/Cleric. Sure you level faster, but getting a F/C to a high level isn't hard. I usually run solo or solo plus romance (2 people parties) so levelling is never an issue.
If I recall correctly, the PoL just gives that skill with +1 saves, +1 to hit, and 1 attack. But your base APR is always 1 throughout. So with improved haste, boon, and gauntlets you'll get 5 apr.
Now a fighter/cleric gets the APR bonus's from fighter at 7 and 13. So with haste and gauntlets you get the same apr. However, you also get access to use all the good potions - Potion of heroism will give you that +1 to hit plus hp bonus, potion of invulnerability gives you +5 saves, and you can use potion of storm giant strength (but that's probably redundant as I'm assuming you'll be dual wielding Crom Faeyr and either Runehammer or Flail of Ages). Plus as other mentioned above, you can more HLA options
I have used, I think, every variation of PoL and there are only two that stretch the boundaries of what a straight PoL can do and that is a PoL>Mage and a PoL>thief. Vanilla on core rules a PoL can solo the game. PoL>thief dualed at level 15 is perhaps more optimal, okay definitely more optimal. PoL>Mage is ridiculously overpowered. Level 15 is again the time to dual. I have done a PoL level 21 dualed to Mage but don’t bother, it is so powerful as to make the end game a joke and so underpowered before gaining back the cleric abilities that no one should bother. Not sure why I did but wow! When she was full strength, good googly moogly!
PoL>Fighter doesn’t stack up to a F/C. I wish it did, clerics are my favorite class and any possibility to make them better would be awesome. Berserker>Cleric is also a powerful build. Ranger/Cleric has lost its edge, unfortunately.
PoL is a solid class in it’s own right, F/C is better. Without the benefits of Improved Alacrity or Sequencers/Contingencies the buff time, or duration of buffs in ToB make the straight PoL lag behind the F/C.