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Dual Class or not? Please help!

Have a Fighter and a Mage at level 14 (IWD)
Is Dual Class an option? Recommended? Or too late?
Still Heart of Winter and Luremaster to go …
Skatan

Comments

  • AerichAerich Member Posts: 159
    There is lots of quest XP in HoW, so it is a possibility to do with fairly limited down time. What really matters is whether you have the stats for a dc, and to what. If you had the stats and build to dc the fighter to cleric (17 Wis, blunt proficiencies), druid (17 Wis, 17 Cha) or mage (17 Int) it would be worth considering. A dc to thief wouldn't be worth it. If the Mage could dc to Cleric it might be worth it, but you'd lose out on maximizing mage spells in favour of cleric spells, so there is a significant limitation.

    A cleric in particular is very useful, but if you've made it this far with the team...
    Skatan
  • RaoulRaoul Member Posts: 18
    edited July 2019
    Thank you for helping me out. Have a cleric, a dwarfen tank and a fighter/thief too. Think i should be fine with my team then.
    Skatan
  • SkatanSkatan Member, Moderator Posts: 5,352
    Personally I don't like late dualclassing, but I've not played IWD as much as BG, so not sure how long it will take to complete the dual from 14 to 15 in the second class. If anything, a fighter to Druid would be cool, but druids take forever to level up to 15 and they have insane stat requirements so I suppose that's not an option. So with this said, but take it with a grain of salt, I'd wager it's better to keep the singleclasses.

    As a general tip though, dual-classing is usually better of planned ahead rather than organically added without prior planning. This means already planning for a dual beforehand already at character creation, which level and to which class. Well, at least of you're anything like me (control freak/power gamer).

    Cheers!
    Balrog99
  • DaevelonDaevelon Member Posts: 605
    The fighter can be worthy to dual class, not the mage; you are just in the right levels to make it shine, don't stop its progression forever.
    A fighter after level 13 doesn't have anymore something great to offer, so i totally advice to dual that one. The problem, as already exposed, is about the stats. My two cents opinion is to dual class to mage, because if you have proficiencies in slashing weapons they will be lost if you dc to cleric.
  • WarChiefZekeWarChiefZeke Member Posts: 2,651
    I personally wouldn't do it so late, but it is possible to get your levels back, so do what will make this play-through more fun.
    SkatanQuartz
  • RaoulRaoul Member Posts: 18
    What you mean by „i maybe get my levels back“?
    Skatan
  • SkatanSkatan Member, Moderator Posts: 5,352
    Raoul wrote: »
    What you mean by „i maybe get my levels back“?

    Until your new class, the one you dual into, surpass the previous one in levels (ie reaching level 15 in your case) your abilities from the first class won't be available.
  • RaoulRaoul Member Posts: 18
    Ahhh. Okay! Thats som science. Really. Now that i‘m a bit more enlighted, i‘ll stay with my single classes in my current playthrough. Would be interesting, when you gain levels more quickly in your new class, cause you get so much experience late in the game and you don‘t need much for the first - let‘s say - seven levels of your new class.
    So for the.next done quest you should probably gain four levels in your new class...
  • jsavingjsaving Member Posts: 1,083
    edited July 2019
    If you don't have a solid understanding of dual-classing, it is much, much better to multiclass instead. Fighter/thief, fighter/mage, fighter/illusionist, ranger/cleric, fighter/mage/thief, and fighter/mage/cleric are all very strong and entertaining characters to include in your party.
    Post edited by jsaving on
    sarevok57
  • RaoulRaoul Member Posts: 18
    Whow! Thank you all so much. Deep studies. That helpes me out.
    sarevok57
  • Silver_ArrowSilver_Arrow Member Posts: 23
    @sarevok57, Swashbuckler / fighter is one of my favourite duals. I've played s11/f in iwd and bg, and even solo 24s/f in bg1-tob that just shows how much i love it =)

    Setting traps - not perhaps, but definately! The level of traps keeps growing when your character level increases, even when you're no longer getting new thief levels.
    OK, it may not be used much when playing with a full party, but its crazy helpful in plenty of situations with a smaller party or solo =)
    sarevok57Quartz
  • RaoulRaoul Member Posts: 18
    Thank you. Will remember this. Always wanted to solo BG or IWD.
    sarevok57Silver_Arrow
  • RaoulRaoul Member Posts: 18
    What means s11/f or 24s/f. And when did you dual to what class?
  • sarevok57sarevok57 Member Posts: 5,975
    Raoul wrote: »
    What means s11/f or 24s/f. And when did you dual to what class?

    11s/f i believe means;

    swashbuckler 11 then dual over to fighter

    so 24s/f would be;

    swashbuckler 24 then dual over to fighter

    note;

    if you are super hardcore you can actually reach level 25 in swashbuckler and then dual over to fighter and still hit level 26 in the ToB XP cap, now that is a truly scary character ( although it will be at the very end of ToB at best when you hit level 26 in that fighter class )
  • RaoulRaoul Member Posts: 18
    What difficulty you played your solo?
  • Silver_ArrowSilver_Arrow Member Posts: 23
    Core. I dont like doing legacy of bhaal, i dont enjoy that type of masochism when it takes you half an hour to kill a single goblin.

    Of course, harder settings force you to learn more things about the game, to use scrolls, wands, potions, many different approaches etc.

    I would recommend core / normal difficulty for your first solo, and there is nothing shameful to continue doing so with your next solo playthroughs.

    Enjoy the whole content, learn your chosen kit/class more intimately. For each class you will still learn plenty of things in order to succeed and will not lose your interest.

    When you're unprepared and its insanely hard - you just risk abandoning the whole solo thing and killing the enjoyment before it actually gets so good that you might not even want to do parties anymore =)
    DJKajuruQuartz
  • RaoulRaoul Member Posts: 18
    Thank you. Will do so. At the moment my enjoyment in IWD is down to zero cause I tried the final battle again (hard). Resulting in smashing my Ipad and headphones against the wall. Two times.
    Silver_ArrowSkatan
  • RaoulRaoul Member Posts: 18
    Startet a solo swashbuckler in BG II. 18/18/18/14/3/18.
    Profs.: Long Sword, Scimitar/Wakizashi/Ninjato.
    Two-Weapon Style. On Core Rules.
    Hope this works. Feels good alone. But I can‘t imagine,
    to get to the first dragon.
  • Silver_ArrowSilver_Arrow Member Posts: 23
    edited August 2019
    Which one? The shadow dragon will die from 7 traps (+ poison) before it runs up to you... Oops. But thats a bit cheesy =)
    So when doing it proper without resting, you should kinda know that 3 traps will bring him down to nearly half hp on core already. The rest is for you to figure out. Some challenge is always fun, as long as its not crazy tought. You may start attack with a bow or some throwing weapon. Set traps, initiate fight by shooting from distance, move further away, shoot again when he starts coming to you, by that time he will eat the traps and poison dmg will kick in, there wont be much life left in him. The rest is up to you, may finish him off with melee.

    Little unfortunate you couldnt get 16 int for mind flayers.. So you could survive 3 attacks instead of 2. But its ok i guess.

    Are you planning to dual to fighter later on or stay as swashbuckler? Because if you are going to dual to fighter then there is no point now to put pips in 2 different slashing melee weapons, since you will again override it when leveling a fighter.

    So you could focus on for example long swords now and for example quarterstaff , and then fully max scimitars, or visa versa.
    You will need to use a crushing weapon occasionally, quarterstaffs +3/+4 will be very handy against golems, other quarterstaffs with elemental summoning will also be very useful. Traps + summons and you are free to cut them baddies and slash them from side to side. It will be really bad if you are going to be totally unproficient with quarterstaffs.
    Post edited by Silver_Arrow on
  • RaoulRaoul Member Posts: 18
    Will respect your awsome hints and start a new squashbutler :)
    Btw. What you mean with „doing it proper without resting“.
    And I want to dual at lv. 24 or so. And then max scimitars or whatever.
    Quarterstaffs I didn‘t had on my mind. But I should.
  • Silver_ArrowSilver_Arrow Member Posts: 23
    edited August 2019
    Well, some consider it as improper, cheap tactics =) I was talking about the abuse of resting+ traps when your thief has only 3 or 4 traps available , so you set the traps, then rest, then set another 3, making it 7 in total. Then lure the victim.

    24s/f is quite the distance, i hope you wont get bored. But this way you will actually obtain good experience in soloing with 2 different classes.
    Downside to that is constant desire to start playing at full potential, knowing that there is still a long long road ahead.

    The good thing about it is getting 1 thief HLA before dual. It will be up to you what to pick, but I would go with use any item hla. It will remain when you dual. I wasn't sure, so I just checked: any hla will remain when you dual to fighter, thats nice.
    So maybe get some scroll cases and store all scrolls you get in the game, you might want to use them after unlocking use any item hla.

    Another thing to think about:
    When you reach 24 you dont have to dual if you are not really feeling like it, if you are not looking forward to starting from scratch as a fighter, if you are happy with what you've got then stay a pure swashy till the end =)
    He will get even more damage and insane ac, thief hlas, new awesome OP traps etc. So, you dont really have to worry about it.

    Save the game at 24 so you can reload it from there, if you stop enjoying grinding fighter levels =)

    But the transition to a fighter is very good. Its not like you are suddenly a level 1 mage, no.
    By that time in the game you will have good gear for a fighter and as soon as you dual, gear up, invest in pips and you are ready to keep going strong.(plus use any item)

    You will be able to max ANY 2 new weapons plus max old weapon of choice. Might end up dual wielding hammers/flails and bow on swap haha, who knows)
    Post edited by Silver_Arrow on
  • RaoulRaoul Member Posts: 18
    What you mean with HLA?
  • ZaxaresZaxares Member Posts: 1,325
    HLA = High Level Ability, special powers that are granted to characters once they hi the 3,000,000 XP mark.
  • RaoulRaoul Member Posts: 18
    Thank you. With such a special knowledge i think there are many people here with a minimum of 20 runs.
  • RaoulRaoul Member Posts: 18
    Is there any sense in maximizing „setting traps“ in other thieving abilities over 120?
  • ZaxaresZaxares Member Posts: 1,325
    There's no point in raising your Set Traps and Detect Illusion skills above 100, and as a general rule, you'll never need Detect Traps or Open Locks above 100 either. Pick Pockets, Hide in Shadows and Move Silently are the only thief skills that benefit from going above 100, and of the three, HiS and Move Silently are the ones that have the highest chance of failure depending on external factors like if your thief is trying to hide in a brightly lit room etc.
    Balrog99SkatanIamdorf
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