First weapon profs for bg1 Berserker then bg2 cleric dual build

edgarina

New player. Have been reading a LOT and have done chapter 2 for a lot of hours in BG11EE but very sub optimal so thinking of restarting from the beginning. I wasn't initially intending on playing BG1 but am enjoying BG and like lower level play in most games, often get bored with often op higher level stuff. Also the thought of having a better build (stat tomes) to go into BG11 with is attractive.

After much consideration I think id like to go Berserker in BG1 then go cleric in BG2 after hitting Bez level 9. So an important question becomes what to specialise in as only blunt when I dual. I may not bother with ToB after SoA in BG2 but who knows so planning to use that apparently really cool but later game hammer isn't necessarily a big part of the equation. Flail of Ages is an obvious choice one way or another and i'll probably dual wield.

So......I don't want to put pips into a specialisation at creation/early game BG1 when there are no cool weapons available. Am I right in thinking decent flails are rare in BG1 at least until later. If I wanted to end up with maces and flails eventually, if this is a decent choice, is it better to put points into maces initially.

I gather archers can be more of a pain in BG1 than 2. Is a starting pip in shields to give me options an idea even though eventually i'll dual wield or is the one pip just not worth it and use a shield when needed anyway?

If so what would be good starting pips be;

could go straight to 2 in dual and 1 each in maces and flails

or is it better to hit maces, or flails if there are some good ones early game, with 2-3 straight off and then develop the rest of the skills

thanks in advance.

Thunderburp

The best blunt weapons in BG1 should be hammers, with Ashideena +2 and The Kneecapper. Maces suck, don't let yourself be lured by The Stupefier, that weapon would only shine when nearing 10 attacks per round.

You could put 2 points in hammers and then pump flails all the way to 5 points. In Siege of Dragonspear and BG2, flails are good and very good. I'd put points in two-weapon style, the shield proficiency bonus is not worth it IMO. Just use shields when extra AC is needed.

Notes:

• Dual-classed Fighter-Cleric 9/X won't be able to reactivate their Fighter skills in SoD, gonna have to wait till BG2.
• If you don't put points in Flail in BG1 (say because you favour two-weapon style), make sure you can reach grand mastery in Flail soon enough for your tastes. The 5th proficiency point can only be allocated at level 9+ and only if your fighter class is reactivated. A level 9 Berserker in SoD will get a total of 7 proficiency points. That could be 2 in Hammers and 5 in Flails, skipping dual-wielding.
• Once dual-classed, the character will be unable to add proficiency points beyond 1 as a Cleric with dormant fighter levels. Only at 700K XP will that be allowed again, but as a Fighter-Cleric, the next proficiency point will not come until 1,150K XP. (These XP marks sum both classes)
• If you purposefully stay level 7 Cleric until you have 700K XP to level directly to 10, you'll be able to allocate the level 8 cleric proficiency point into Flails to reach grand mastery. But holding back on levelling up might not be very fun.
• Check Cleric progression table and the Fighter equivalent to secure that kind of issues.

jmerry

I saw this Friday, but had a family event over the weekend. Back now ...

For weapon choice, +1 weapons in every category are pretty easy to come by in BG1. Weapons better than that are rare; generally about two per category. For a berserker/cleric dual, it's blunt melee weapons you should be looking at. Here are all of the "better than +1" blunt melee weapons in BGEE:

Club: Night Club +1 (additional +1 to hit at night). Found in a container near the Silvershield home in BG city.
Club: Mighty Oak +2 (generic). Found on the shadow archdruid Amarande in the Cloakwood.
Flail/Morningstar: Thresher +2 (flail, nothing special). Found in the Sorcerous Sundries shop in BG city.
Flail/Morningstar: Kiel's Morningstar +3 (morning star, cursed with berserking). Found deep in Durlag's Tower. Can be imported to BG2.
Hammer: Ashideena +2 (with added electric damage). Found on the mad priest Bassilus, southwest of Beregost in the wilderness. Can be imported to BG2.
Hammer: The Kneecapper +1 (bonuses against giant humanoids, which are mostly just ogrekin in BG1). Quest reward from Hurgan Stoneblade, for dealing with Aec'Letec.
Mace: Stupefier +1 (with added stun chance). Found in a chest in one of Beregost's inns.
Mace: Krotan's Skullcrusher +2 (nothing special). Found deep in Durlag's Tower. Can be imported to BG2.
Staff: Staff Mace +2 (one-handed, high base damage). Found in Dradeel's cabin on the isle of Balduran. Can be imported to BG2.
Staff: Staff Spear +2 (high base damage, piercing). Found on Kirinhale upstairs in Durlag's Tower. Can be imported to BG2.
Staff: Staff +2 (generic). Found on the shadow druid Laskal in the Cloakwood.
Staff: Aule's Staff +3 (generic). Found in the shop in Ulgoth's Beard.

No comment on SoD, as I don't have it. And if you don't, then dual-classing at level 9 works very well. If you do, then SoD's 500K XP cap leads you toward a later dual - level 10 if you just want minimal downtime, even farther (up to level 13) if you want the most out of your fighter abilities.

In BG2, of course, flails are strongly recommended. The Flail of Ages is just so easy to get early, so good, and outside any standard companion's proficiencies.

DinoDin

The third point in dual-weapon style isn't critical. You want it at some point, but there's no rush to get it.

You'll have 7 points to spend as a fighter and then 4 points to spend as a cleric before the unlock, so some careful planning can help. But you'll only be able to put one point into proficiencies as a cleric.

What that means is you probably want to hit the 5 in your weapon of choice and two in dual-wielding before you start the dual. So you probably don't want to waste points on sword-and-shield here. All you're really going to be able to get from the cleric pips is a start on a second weapon of choice (maybe mace for the undead killing mace).

As a cleric before the dual, that's when you may invest a point in sword-and-shield, just to be extra safe during your weak time. You'll probably just be a healbot/buffer/AC sink for awhile anyways. I'd strongly recommend against dualing at 12, the extra proficiency point will essentially be wasted because you'll have to burn another as cleric before the unlock.

As such, it's probably best to go flails, even with the weak outlook for BG1. FoA is overpowered, and no NPC is really setup to take advantage of it. Combined with the Defender of Easthaven, and you basically have the OP character you're shooting for, available quite early in Chapter Two.

The thing is, even the best weapons in BG1 aren't actually giving you a huge advantage. They simply don't provide the large set of mods that BG2 weapons deliver. It's mostly just Thac0 and damage bonuses. Really only Spider's Bane, and a few other, available late weapons do more.

Going this route, you can get a second weapon to +5 by early ToB, level 24 as a cleric. Maybe even late SoA if you completionist it. That's if you skip the third pip in dual-weapon, otherwise it's level 28.

An alternate route to consider is just rushing to +3 in two different weapons. The fourth pip isn't very strong, although the fifth is. That's something that might be better for a pure fighter or a dual into a thief or mage though. The thing is, with a cleric, the advantage of diversifying is mitigated by the fact that you're stuck with blunt weapons no matter. Aside from using something like the undead-killing mace, there's just not much practicality to swapping weapons with your build. And if you're already using the game's best weapon...