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Wizard Slaying

More than half of my BG playthroughs from the last 2 decades involve an arcane caster charname. I'm almost finished with my current game and I'd like to try kits I haven't played before. Since Beast Master seems just too useless, I'm going for Wizard Slayer.

I realize the inquisitor is probably the best anti-magic class, but since you can get Keldorn very early in the game, I'd like to give the Wizard Slayer a chance. Miscast Magic on hit seems pretty cool, as does the increasing MR. Does anyone here have experience with it? Dualling to thief seems obvious, but I wonder if it's really necessary.

Comments

  • NeverusedNeverused Member Posts: 803
    Something people found is that any weapon effects trigger the spellcast failure. And fire seeds, the 6th level druid spell, is an area weapon effect that doesn’t require an attack roll. If you have Cernd or Jaheira, you can inflict guaranteed area spellcasting failure multiple times per day, as long as the druid has spells.

    Outside of that, archery focus is probably your best bet: range is slightly better at getting hits off than melee.
    gorgonzolaDJKajuruGatekeep3rThacoBell
  • ArtonaArtona Member Posts: 1,077
    I would strongly recommend downloading Wizard Slayer Rebalancing mod. It allows Wizard Slayer to use more items and makes this kit overall better.
    Regardless, as a weapon of choice I would recommend either bow (because of range and explosive arrows) or dart (stun or poison are basically death sentence of wizard, and they have great APR). I see no point in using crossbows or slings. As for rest of the equipment - the higher MR, the better. Vanilla Wizard Slayers have slow gain of MR, so it's always good to bump it up.
    gorgonzolaGatekeep3rMantis37
  • gorgonzolagorgonzola Member Posts: 3,864
    edited April 2019
    Gatekeep3r wrote: »
    Dualling to thief seems obvious, but I wonder if it's really necessary.
    the main purpose of dualing is to get the UAI HLA to overcome the huge limitations on items the wizard slayer has.
    at the cost of having only a small increase in MR, it really begin to crank up after lev 20.

    imho if the dual route is followed it has to be done at lev 13, not only for the half attack, but mainly to have a decent thac0, a 13fighter has 8 thac0, a rogue never get better then 10 and reach that only at lev 21.

    bows seem to me better then darts, short bows seems better then long ones, tugian + GM + lev 13 give 5 apr, the ones that can work without ammo add elemental damage on top of the elemental damage you can get from the ammo to increase the chance to disrupt.

    the dual at 13 is really strong as thief, antimage and fighter, but need 1.25M + 0.88M xp to be complete, so 2,13M xp, then other 2.12M are needed to get UAI, not all players want to wait until 4,25M xp to have charname fully operational.
    a lev 13 dual after uai and using carsomir has 63% MR, that drop to 13% as he equip an other weapon.

    the single class has no down time and get 0 thac0 at lev 21, at cap level has 84% MR, is useful trough all the game and is a very good flank attacker and mage killer.

    an early dual, let's say after lev 7, bring an interesting thief with GM, +1/2 apr for the fighter level and the silencing on hit chance of the kit, but has to be played as thief and mage killer, is not a fighter as the single class and the late dual.
    until he reaches uai he can not equip or use really useful items and potions that make a thief better, but as is basically a pure class thief with 64k xp less then a single class has enough thieving skill points to invest to overcome most of the limitations.


    ElysianEchoesGatekeep3rDreadKhan
  • Gatekeep3rGatekeep3r Member Posts: 123
    Thanks for the pointers! I'll dual at 13 then.
  • RaduzielRaduziel Member Posts: 4,714
    Artona wrote: »
    I would strongly recommend downloading Wizard Slayer Rebalancing mod. It allows Wizard Slayer to use more items and makes this kit overall better.
    Regardless, as a weapon of choice I would recommend either bow (because of range and explosive arrows) or dart (stun or poison are basically death sentence of wizard, and they have great APR). I see no point in using crossbows or slings. As for rest of the equipment - the higher MR, the better. Vanilla Wizard Slayers have slow gain of MR, so it's always good to bump it up.

    You may also use my mod, Relieve Wizard Slayer, with or without the Wizard Slayer Rebalancing.

    https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/68377/kit-revision-relieve-wizard-slayer-v1-5-iwdee-eet-bgee-bg2ee
    Artona
  • DreadKhanDreadKhan Member Posts: 3,857
    If you play BG1, a low level dual out of wizard slayer is an interesting choice, especially if you specialize in a ranged weapon. The bonus of spell failure will not be anywhere near game breaking, but could be a nifty perk. Use of Arrows of Detonation in BG1 can deliver spell failure iirc, handy for a few fights.
  • RaduzielRaduziel Member Posts: 4,714
    To be honest, the strongest mage-killer I ever built was a Dual-Class Thief -> Wizard Slayer (I've used EEKeeper at the time, but now we have Kjeron's awesome mod to properly do it in-game).

    While as a Thief all my proficiency points went to Detect Illusions. The moment I've reached 100% I moved on to Wizard Slayer.

    Backstab + At Will True Sight + Good Thac0 + At Will Miscast Magic was a nice combination.

    Don't forget to carry a normal weapon to use when the wizard casts Protection from Magical Weapons and horde all the Arrows of Dispelling you can.
    Grond0gorgonzola
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