Questions about Trilogy run on legacy of bhaal difficulty
Dyxxlol
Member Posts: 5
Hello community,
actually I'm planning on doing a trilogy run (including SoD) on legacy of bhaal difficulty.
No mods or tweaks cause I'm on PS4.
I've already beaten BG1 on lob and 1/3 of SoD, but I'm by far no experienced player on this difficulty.
I've red a lot the last few days (especially in this forum) about lob and have some open questions.
First at all, its absolutely amazing how some of you guys here pull out a full solo lob run !
Some rules for my run:
-Only story companions
-no cheese (like trapresting and so on...)
-clear all content (quests, trash mobs, optional bosses etc.)
-party of six is allowed, no alignment restrictions
I want my main character to be melee and somewhat usefull.
By this I mean I want to hit often, bring some utility or stuff like that.
So this is where the trouble begins...
Fighter dualclass and thac0:
I'm interested in Fighter (9) dualed to Mage, but I'm concerned about low thac0 later on, even es Kensai
So ist fighter level 9 enought to hit at SoA and ToB reliably ? I mean -11 AC for all enemys is a lot !
I dont want to play till mid SoA and reallise my main character is/gets useless.
Fighter multiclass:
After the fear of bad thac0 and useless ness I thought how can I get sure to hit reliable and get mage spells?
So I thought about F/M multiclass right from the start.
I did some math and found out, that F/M thac0 surpasses F9/M thac0 around lvl 13 (?),
but this a hell of a lot xp till then ! And I'm gonna miss some spellslots later on and in general will get my mage progression crippled by a lot.
Is this really need to hit reliable or is it maybe a overkill, and I cripple my self even more cause of slow mage progression ?
Fight/Thief:
Next thing that came into my mind why no F/T multi ?
I could bring the utility of thieving skills all by my self, bring traps (yes no chees here!)
and I would open up a party slot cause I wouldn't need a thief !
By now this sounds good, but I'm concerned about survivability here.
Survivability especially in SoA and ToB. In BG1 survivability is no problem as a fighter.
Blade:
So one more class pls ! I toyed around with playing a Blade.
A quick leveling machine with enhanced bardsong and Simulacrum later an,
very good defence with high scaling defensive spells, offensive/defensive spin.
Sounds really like what I'm looking for, but again Thiefs thac0 caps at 10.
This sounds not enough for me and even buffed I can't see how to hit -20 AC enemy's !
How could I make this possible if its even possible ?
The utility and diversity is what catches me.
Thief:
I even thought about a single class Thief, but same as Blade thac0 cap is 10.
Backstabbing immunity scares me if and truesight from bosses.
I dont want to be useless at those big fights and shine only at trash mobs.
Otherwise Swashbuckler seems interesting but can't backstab at all.
Head Hunter sounds interesting, but useless with my no trap chees rule.
Assasin, again backstab immunity and how the hell shall I backstab multiple times without being able to restealth and do I even hit things ?
Shadowdancer sounds really cool ! If I'm true it's all I ever wished for Thieves since BG1/2 came out.
But again, true sight bosses and immunity to backstab make this kit useless.
Cause I have not that much experience like some player here with various playthroughs, is immunity to backstab common among hard enemys/boss ? The same with true sight, I mean the impossibility of getting into stealth cause enemy's see me directly.
How does it behave with thac0 and hitting stuff ?
Hope I havent forgotten anything.
If someone has a good hint for a melee main character which stays usefull the entire trilogy I'm very excited to hear it ! Oh I dont like pallys that much.
Thanks for reading !
actually I'm planning on doing a trilogy run (including SoD) on legacy of bhaal difficulty.
No mods or tweaks cause I'm on PS4.
I've already beaten BG1 on lob and 1/3 of SoD, but I'm by far no experienced player on this difficulty.
I've red a lot the last few days (especially in this forum) about lob and have some open questions.
First at all, its absolutely amazing how some of you guys here pull out a full solo lob run !
Some rules for my run:
-Only story companions
-no cheese (like trapresting and so on...)
-clear all content (quests, trash mobs, optional bosses etc.)
-party of six is allowed, no alignment restrictions
I want my main character to be melee and somewhat usefull.
By this I mean I want to hit often, bring some utility or stuff like that.
So this is where the trouble begins...
Fighter dualclass and thac0:
I'm interested in Fighter (9) dualed to Mage, but I'm concerned about low thac0 later on, even es Kensai
So ist fighter level 9 enought to hit at SoA and ToB reliably ? I mean -11 AC for all enemys is a lot !
I dont want to play till mid SoA and reallise my main character is/gets useless.
Fighter multiclass:
After the fear of bad thac0 and useless ness I thought how can I get sure to hit reliable and get mage spells?
So I thought about F/M multiclass right from the start.
I did some math and found out, that F/M thac0 surpasses F9/M thac0 around lvl 13 (?),
but this a hell of a lot xp till then ! And I'm gonna miss some spellslots later on and in general will get my mage progression crippled by a lot.
Is this really need to hit reliable or is it maybe a overkill, and I cripple my self even more cause of slow mage progression ?
Fight/Thief:
Next thing that came into my mind why no F/T multi ?
I could bring the utility of thieving skills all by my self, bring traps (yes no chees here!)
and I would open up a party slot cause I wouldn't need a thief !
By now this sounds good, but I'm concerned about survivability here.
Survivability especially in SoA and ToB. In BG1 survivability is no problem as a fighter.
Blade:
So one more class pls ! I toyed around with playing a Blade.
A quick leveling machine with enhanced bardsong and Simulacrum later an,
very good defence with high scaling defensive spells, offensive/defensive spin.
Sounds really like what I'm looking for, but again Thiefs thac0 caps at 10.
This sounds not enough for me and even buffed I can't see how to hit -20 AC enemy's !
How could I make this possible if its even possible ?
The utility and diversity is what catches me.
Thief:
I even thought about a single class Thief, but same as Blade thac0 cap is 10.
Backstabbing immunity scares me if and truesight from bosses.
I dont want to be useless at those big fights and shine only at trash mobs.
Otherwise Swashbuckler seems interesting but can't backstab at all.
Head Hunter sounds interesting, but useless with my no trap chees rule.
Assasin, again backstab immunity and how the hell shall I backstab multiple times without being able to restealth and do I even hit things ?
Shadowdancer sounds really cool ! If I'm true it's all I ever wished for Thieves since BG1/2 came out.
But again, true sight bosses and immunity to backstab make this kit useless.
Cause I have not that much experience like some player here with various playthroughs, is immunity to backstab common among hard enemys/boss ? The same with true sight, I mean the impossibility of getting into stealth cause enemy's see me directly.
How does it behave with thac0 and hitting stuff ?
Hope I havent forgotten anything.
If someone has a good hint for a melee main character which stays usefull the entire trilogy I'm very excited to hear it ! Oh I dont like pallys that much.
Thanks for reading !
0
Comments
Thac0 is indeed a problem in LoB, in fact so much so that you'll need to take Critical Strike HLAs with a pure fighter to be effective in late-SoA and ToB.
With 9 levels of fighter (I'd suggest Berserker here), you'll get good hit points and a built-in ability that can neutralize the effect of every enemy spell aside from direct damage.
Standing alone, this class would barely achieve anything with melee in SoA due to bad Thac0, but this can be mitigated by relying on critical strikes instead. In particular, one sword that you can import from SoD to BG2 is interesting: https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Dragon_Blade
- As a Berserker9>Mage, and while enraged (Berserker 's Enrage ability), you'll be brought up to a 20% critical hit chance with the Dragon Blade; the weapon-style proficiency and the "while-enraged bonus" add up (17,18,19,20 roll a critical). The no-save Slow from that sword is also very powerful and relevant till the end of ToB (incl. against Demogorgon).
Apart from that, I see no other way to build a potent F>M Dual for the LoB difficulty that stays relevant in its melee contribution through-out the saga. With a party of six, however, you could afford to add in a cleric companion that spams this buff on your main (it stacks): https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Champion's_Strength; it could even make traditional melee dual-wielder builds involving a +APR off-hand relevant. But the question is---do you want to be relying on a buff routine for every encounter?
Your main advantage over a dual class is access to fighter HLAs. Thac0 scales further: At face value, this opens up build choices that do not rely on critical hits to score damage. But F/M's Thac0 is too abysmal until at least the Underdark, and by then, you'll be relying on Critical Strike HLAs to land hits anyway.
I can't see anything but disadvantages and a few less significant pros.
Berserker9>M (commented above) is strong. If you don't mind shorties, then a Dwarven Defender is another powerful choice for the full quartet.
Goodluck Bhaalspawn!
It was really helpful.
I've abandoned everything without a fighter, eventhough I found some nasty informations about solo Cleric, but relying on summons is somehow cheesy to me.
I've decided to go Fighter/Illusionist.
Thac0 is a bit lower than single class Berserker, but its fairly even and cause I'm playing with companions I can pretty much buff my thac0 by a lot.
Considering Cleric buffs, Bardsong and AC debuffs I should be fine.
Cheers