Skip to content

Is there enough equipment to build a party of mages or dual class fighter mages?

I've not played the EE yet as I've been holding out for Mac support. I'm just wondering with this version and the new equipment, if there is enough gear I could equip a party of all fighters or mages, etc if I chose to? I got the impression your better off diversifying your party.

Comments

  • ItstucktwiceItstucktwice Member Posts: 182
    You can do whatever you want, but obviously some of the unique and broken items in the game are only going to go to one of your mages or fighters, so their power levels are going to vary. For example in BG2 there is a huge amount of magical weapons and armor that could outfit an entire party as long as you worked your proficiency points right.

    But at the end of the only one of those fighters is going to get to use Axe of the Unyielding or Crom Fayer, and only one of those mages is going to get to use the staff or robe of cheese.

    If you built an entire party of mages I would also be concerned about scroll distribution. Several of the games most powerful spells only have 1 or 2 copies.
  • atcDaveatcDave Member Posts: 2,146
    You can make anything work with a little thought and planning. But it is best to diversify as much as you can, so I wouldn't give an all mage party all slings; you might find magic bullets in short supply! But you can eventually get everyone having some sort of protection device(s) and magic weapons.
    Scrolls might be the biggest problem. There's probably enough of the important 1st level spells to go around, but second and up you need to plan out who gets what.

    That actually sounds like an interesting challenge. Keep us posted!
  • WanderonWanderon Member Posts: 1,418
    Playing an all mage party would be more challenging especially in early levels but If you spread the weapon styles around and look up the number of archmage robes for each alignment and plan accordingly it could be fun -

    I played a game in Vanilla with 3 PCs - a conjurer, and elf mage/thief and a gnome cleric/mage and used Edwin, Xzar and Xan and had some fun with it altho as I recall I abandoned the game shortly after the group entered BG City. The gnome and elf very much carried the rest of the party early on but we eventually worked out some interesting tactics (Xzar going melee with the wolf cloak) and I think we probably abused Algernons cloak a bit early on too.
    Wowo
  • NifftNifft Member Posts: 1,065
    Considering there are people who solo the game with a Sorcerer (which is technically an all-mage party), you might be able to get by with fewer characters, thereby getting them more XP and loot each.

    For late-game SoA / all of ToB, a mage-heavy party is a good party.
  • MadhaxMadhax Member Posts: 1,416
    You're definitely better off diversifying your party. But let's assume you want to build a party of six same- or similar-class characters, for the sake of discussion.

    Six mages won't work at all, simply because you won't have enough scrolls to go around. However, something like two mages, two sorcerers, and two Dragon Disciples might be a cool compromise, since four of the party wouldn't need scrolls. I think if you split the alignments evenly, you'd have enough Archmage robes by the end of the game to equip everybody, provided you have some meta knowledge of their locations.

    Six fighters, or six warriors, would be messy. There isn't enough good armor for everyone to get an equal taste. You could supplement your party's strategy and diversity with Stalkers, but that's sort of cheating. If we're talking six fighter-class characters, I suppose two of them could be kensai to alleviate the armor requirement... you can probably get ankheg/full plate for the remaining four.

    Six thieves could be interesting. There certainly isn't enough good leather armor for six characters, but you wouldn't be heavily reliant on AC anyway. Coordination of backstabs, traps, poisonings, and arrow volleys would make for sufficiently quick kills to make gear a minor concern. You'd just need to plan out proficiencies to keep them diverse.

    But all of that info is really for BG1 as much as it is for BGEE. There aren't so many new items in BGEE as to drastically change whether or not this would work, except for a few new weapons in lesser-used weapon types.
  • DebaserDebaser Member Posts: 669
    edited March 2013
    @FalkonSwiftblade

    If I was making a multi-player campaign where I generated the whole party...or the Black Pitts...I would do maybe do this:

    01. Fighter / Mage / Thief (Elf) - Robe of the Good Arch-Magi (Good Alignment)
    ++Single Weapon Style
    ++Long Sword
    ++Long Bow
    Max Find Traps to 100
    Put the rest of your thief points in move Silently.

    02. Blade (Half-Elf) - Elven Chain-mail (Alignment can be anything)
    +Dagger
    +Bastard Sword
    +++ Dual Wielding
    Max Pick Pocket to 100

    03. Fighter / Mage / Cleric (Half-Elf) Robe of the Neutral Arch-Magi (Neutral Alignment)
    ++ Mace
    ++ Hammer
    ++ Dual Wielding

    04. Dragon Disciple (Elf) Robe of the Evil Arch-Magi (Evil Alignment)
    +Single Weapon Style
    +Dagger
    +Darts

    05. Sorcerer (Elf) Robe of the Evil Arch-Magi (Evil Alignment) (Kill Baeloth for his to get a second one)
    *Single Weapon Style
    *Dagger
    *Sling

    06. Cleric / Mage (Half-Elf) - Sheild Amulet (Alignment can be anything)
    +Staff
    +Sling


    This way you can wear armor with some of your classes at early levels when you have to...you get all your basic thief skills covered...make everyone memorize Knock once and you'll never have to pick locks...most weapon styles are covered...the Dragon Disciple has more con and a breath attack so you give him/her darts....the Sorcerer stays a little longer range away so you stick with a sling...anyone that's a fighter multi-class can pick up the slack...and the Blade can be a party buffer with bard songs...back up caster...use his/her lore to identify everything...AND pick pockets / use wands.
    FalkonSwiftblade
  • DebaserDebaser Member Posts: 669
    edited March 2013
    @FalkonSwiftblade

    If you're using normal NPC's...I'd go with this:

    Imoen (Dualed to Mage at level 6)
    Garrick (Bard) - (Later to be replaced by Baeloth!)
    Edwin
    Xzar (Dualed to Cleric at level 6)
    Safana (Dualed to Mage at level 6)

    But this would be kind of an evil party...ish.
  • WowoWowo Member Posts: 2,064
    For my all Mage party I was thinking good or neutral characters only.

    Fighter/illusionist charname (tank)
    Imoen
    Safana
    Dynaheir (dualed to cleric like xzar)
    Xan
    Quayle

    With an evil or neutral charname I think it's actually possible to put AC 5 armour as there are 4 neutral archmagi robes (high hedge, ulcaster, shandalar, werewolf island).

    The main argument for an evil party is not needing scrolls for Baeloth which is compelling of course but has to be balanced against rep.
    FalkonSwiftblade
  • NifftNifft Member Posts: 1,065
    @Debaser - one of my favorite Black Pits builds was a human Fighter 3 > Mage.

    Mastery in Longbow at level 3, then dual over. It's not long to hit Mage 4, and then you'll have a very versatile ranged character -- he can throw down a Horror, then pick off the grunts as they run.
    Debaserhummer010
  • DjimmyDjimmy Member Posts: 749
    Go to


    Sorcerous Sundries


    and buy as many Darts of Stunning as possible.

    Give your mages and fighter/mages 18 dex(19 if elves) and specialization in darts and you will destroy anything that stands in your way(except Sarevok and party maybe).
    FalkonSwiftblade
  • hummer010hummer010 Member Posts: 95
    Nifft said:

    @Debaser - one of my favorite Black Pits builds was a human Fighter 3 > Mage.

    Mastery in Longbow at level 3, then dual over. It's not long to hit Mage 4, and then you'll have a very versatile ranged character -- he can throw down a Horror, then pick off the grunts as they run.

    Now thats an interesting idea. Get's you through the first couple of rounds as a fighter, and then when you have a party in front of you, become an arrow slinging mage!

    Me likey!
  • FalkonSwiftbladeFalkonSwiftblade Member Posts: 51
    awesome tips guys, thanks very much!
  • FrostyFrosty Member Posts: 190
    6 fighters should be possabel has long has all use difrent wepons. you can get has many Ahnkeg armor has you want,
  • Oxford_GuyOxford_Guy Member Posts: 3,729
    BTW is there more than one Robe of Neutral Archmagi in BG2? It's just that I'm thinking of using both Neera and Jan in that...
  • JuliusBorisovJuliusBorisov Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,714
    edited March 2013

    BTW is there more than one Robe of Neutral Archmagi in BG2? It's just that I'm thinking of using both Neera and Jan in that...

    Don't forget the Robe of Vecna - it's even better!

    In BG2 there's only one Robe of the Neutral Archmagi located in Saradush (Lazarus Librarus).

    But the devs can add another one if they wish.
  • Oxford_GuyOxford_Guy Member Posts: 3,729
    bengoshi said:

    BTW is there more than one Robe of Neutral Archmagi in BG2? It's just that I'm thinking of using both Neera and Jan in that...

    Don't forget the Robe of Vecna - it's even better!

    In BG2 there's only one Robe of the Neutral Archmagi located in Saradush (Lazarus Librarus).

    But the devs can add another one if they wish.
    Okay, although I guess Jan can wear elven chain? He'll have to compete with my blade for it, though...
  • CorvinoCorvino Member Posts: 2,269
    Jan can indeed wear elven chain. There are several examples of it in BG2 already, including a Bard-specific one.
    Oxford_GuyEudaemonium
  • MathmickMathmick Member Posts: 326
    The only mage in BG2 who can't wear Elven Chain is Edwin. There's enough Elven Chain to go around anyway.
    Simple Robes generally suffice until you get to Ch6 and can get a heap of Elven Chain +1 for those characters you don't have Archmage robes for.

    For BG1, I have been playing an all-mage party and it is awesome. There ARE enough Archmage Robes to go around, with a small amount of flexibility (1 Good, 4 Neutral, 2 Evil). Don't cheat and dual characters, play it properly! Mage-blasty fun!
  • Oxford_GuyOxford_Guy Member Posts: 3,729
    edited March 2013
    Mathmick said:

    The only mage in BG2 who can't wear Elven Chain is Edwin. There's enough Elven Chain to go around anyway.
    Simple Robes generally suffice until you get to Ch6 and can get a heap of Elven Chain +1 for those characters you don't have Archmage robes for.

    For BG1, I have been playing an all-mage party and it is awesome. There ARE enough Archmage Robes to go around, with a small amount of flexibility (1 Good, 4 Neutral, 2 Evil). Don't cheat and dual characters, play it properly! Mage-blasty fun!

    There are 4 neutral robes of archmagi in BG1? Wow!
  • EdwinEdwin Member Posts: 480
    Yes.
  • EudaemoniumEudaemonium Member Posts: 3,199
    Where are they? I only know of 2 (High Hedge and Shandalar)
  • Oxford_GuyOxford_Guy Member Posts: 3,729
    Edwin said:

    Yes.

    But not in BG2, right? I'm thinking of taking both Neera and Jan in that, but was thinking that Jan will get given elven chain instead (though my Blade will also be competing for that - but there is more than one suot and also Bard-specific armour).
  • bill_zagoudisbill_zagoudis Member Posts: 207
    what equipment? as if it matters if your staff is +1 or +2
    the only problem is that you'll have no healing
  • RadhamanthysRadhamanthys Member Posts: 106
    @Eudaemonium the other 2 neutral robes of archmagi are on Ghost of Ulcaster and on Dradeel in Werewolf Island.
    EudaemoniumFenghoang
  • Oxford_GuyOxford_Guy Member Posts: 3,729

    @Eudaemonium the other 2 neutral robes of archmagi are on Ghost of Ulcaster and on Dradeel in Werewolf Island.

    How on earth would you obtain the former?
  • Oxford_GuyOxford_Guy Member Posts: 3,729
    edited March 2013

    what equipment? as if it matters if your staff is +1 or +2
    the only problem is that you'll have no healing

    Robes, more importantly, scrolls
  • RadhamanthysRadhamanthys Member Posts: 106
    You have to kill Ghost of Ulcaster; this can be done by using poison attacks, like the dagger of venom. This will take some time since you can only hit with critical strikes for 7-8 poison damage and the ghost has 100HP. You will also get a severe reputation lost for killing this ghost (!!!).
  • NifftNifft Member Posts: 1,065

    You have to kill Ghost of Ulcaster; this can be done by using poison attacks, like the dagger of venom.

    That sounds rather like a bug to me.
Sign In or Register to comment.