Fighter/thief Multi or dual?
Jullos
Member Posts: 24
So I'm starting over BG1 EE and I want to go as a fighter/thief, I did pretty much all the other classes but never this one because I trusted Imoen! So my question is should I multi-class from the start ou start as a thief (or a fighter) and then dual later in the game? I really don't know... Anyone has thoughts on that?
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I should also mention that, with proper planning and access to skill-enhancing potions and items, a fighter/thief can operate as your party's designated lockpicker, pocketpicker, trapfinder, AND stealth backstabber all at once within the BG1 level limit. This means that you don't need to compensate for the character's inferior leveling speed with a second thief if you build the character perfectly.
When you dual to a Fighter, you can put all 4 starting pips into one weapon, and be a GM in that weapong by 3rd level.
Multi-classing is far easier to play. And the power difference is really not that big.
Since I changed my XP cap up by 31k, I usually dual at T7, however, without changing the XP Cap, you can still get T6/F8 which will still give you a 100% in 2 skills or quite high in several if you split your points.
For me I'd rather have both classes active all game and settle for 2 pips per weapon - which also allows me to choose more weapons to be proficient or specialized in to have options for specific situations rather than channel all my points into one or two.
I mean really a half-orc with 19 str (before the tome) that can backstab all game long is going to kill things just as quickly if not quicker than a human T7/F8 with 18 str (before the tome) who goes half the game without the backstab ability.
The 3rd level reference was for F3, and by F3 you make GM in a weapon. Personally, I really only use two weapons, so being specialized in a Theif melee weapon (2 Thief weapons if I don't put points in SWS) and GM in a bow suits me just fine. Here's another difference in our playing styles.
I don't backstab... ever.
And I usually play an F/M/T to boot.
I'm sorry I thought we were talking about the general options of playing a F/T for someone who has never played one so I just assumed they would be interested in things like thief abilities - you know backstabs, open locks , find traps, - all those things a FT can do.
But he was also considering dualing an F/T, which I was giving the beneifits of starting with a Theif and dualing to a Fighter.
Since I've played around with the bug, I'd say dualing a Swash 5-6 to a Figher is probably the best option when wanting to dual an F/T.
But in the end, it boils down to what I said, it depends on what you want your Thief skills for and ultimately what you want out of your character.
Dual class characters only get the HLA from their active class. A thief dualed to fighter doesn't get thief HLA (think about Imoen not getting thief HLA or Anomen not getting fighter HLA).
For BG1 only, I can see the point but think the power difference is sufficiently negligible not to be worth the down time but that is just a matter of preference so reasonable minds can differ.
A multi F/T would get 18 HLA - twice the number.
I would not ever recommend worrying about trying to get both sets of HLAs! Its truly not worth it.
Gnomes, Elves, Halflings, Dwarves and even Half-elves have things to recommend them too. As people have said though they're a decent but rarely overpowered class that remains consistent and useful throughout the sga.