Okay... I need some advice my friends. I started a new game with a loveable gnome Fighter/Illusionist. I want to do the Aerie romance and the Kelsey NPC mod (Sorcerer) so he can romance Imoen. Thats is four magic users right there! I also want to take Minsc because Aerie will be his witch and he has the best item in the game I really want to take Jan Jansen until TOB when I will replace him with Sarevok. I like to think of him as my gnome uncle, who will be the new mentor for awhile after Gorion passed on (the rest of my characters are all ridiculously young, since PC is about in his early-mid 20s, same with Imoen, Kelsey and Minsc. Aerie is also probably pretty young for an elf) but I have a problem...
Am I too light on melee for Shadows of Amn? Between my PC and Minsc thats only 1.5 fighter classes...
I'm wondering if I'm gonna get slaughtered by more magic resistant baddies. Kinda wanna get Mazzy instead of Jan but then I have no thief forever!
So do you guys think just Minsc and a Fighter/Illusionist with a bunch of magic users will be enough muscle to get me through SoA with no problems? I play on the hardest difficulty.
I just like Fighter/Mage multi because you don't have to wait to be a fighter mage. You are what you are from the start and there may be pros and cons for going either way but playing what you want from the get-go is the biggest one to me.
Plus ... you know ... elves are best. You can be a kensage but as a fighter/mage I'll kill you by waiting a hundred years and checking back later :P
Why not Blade? If you basically want to buff and tank/melee, I think a Blade does it better than a Fighter/Mage. Sure you don't get high level spells but it would take you forever to get those with a Fighter/Mage (Throne of Bhaal at least? might be wrong). And you have pure mage NPCs to cover the high level spells.
Also when you get Use Any Item, you can go really crazy with some items. Offensive Spin with Carsomyr while you're Hasted, Stoneskinned, Mirror Imaged etc. If you don't get Keldorn, you'll be the only one that can use it, anyway. And maybe Hexxat also with UAI?
Kensai>Mage is just too tedious, cheesy and really annoying to play in BG1 or early BG2 since you'll get hit so often and then you need a ton of mage levels to reactivate it.
Blades are nice kits, but they aren't necessarily better than Fighter/Mages. Fighter/Mages for example, get more attacks per round with all the buffs put out. Also Fighter/Mages get level 9 spells, among other perks that Blades don't get. Blades of course get perks that Fighter/Mages don't get but it's a two-way street when comparing the two.
I think of a fighter/illusionist as 1 melee rather than .5, @booinyoureyes. They're definitely formidable and are every bit as capable of tanking as NPCs people consider obligate frontliners, like Jaheira or Anomen. I doubt you'll have too much trouble running a little bit melee-light, and 2 frontliners can definitely be enough supplemented with a couple of summons.
Arguable on harder difficulties fighter/illusionists are a better choice than pure melee, as their stoneskins and mirror images are better at avoiding damage than AC alone.
@booinyoureyes I'm sure you'll be fine with plenty of summons. Tord (Lilly Black LP) managed to do Watcher's Keep blind with Wild Mage, Imoen, Jaheira, Viconia and (very unde-levelled) Jan and Mazzy. He just summoned stuff for every remotely dangerous battle.
The only place you'll have a lot of trouble is if you try to do the null magic rooms without fighter HLAs on higher difficulties. I had absolutely no way of taking them without Hardiness + GWW on my fighter/illusionist and Jaheira on this playthrough... Without buffs, my frontliners were pretty squishy and my mages/clerics etc just went pop...
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I started a new game with a loveable gnome Fighter/Illusionist. I want to do the Aerie romance and the Kelsey NPC mod (Sorcerer) so he can romance Imoen.
Thats is four magic users right there!
I also want to take Minsc because Aerie will be his witch and he has the best item in the game
I really want to take Jan Jansen until TOB when I will replace him with Sarevok. I like to think of him as my gnome uncle, who will be the new mentor for awhile after Gorion passed on (the rest of my characters are all ridiculously young, since PC is about in his early-mid 20s, same with Imoen, Kelsey and Minsc. Aerie is also probably pretty young for an elf) but I have a problem...
Am I too light on melee for Shadows of Amn? Between my PC and Minsc thats only 1.5 fighter classes...
I'm wondering if I'm gonna get slaughtered by more magic resistant baddies. Kinda wanna get Mazzy instead of Jan but then I have no thief forever!
So do you guys think just Minsc and a Fighter/Illusionist with a bunch of magic users will be enough muscle to get me through SoA with no problems? I play on the hardest difficulty.
Thanks for any advice/pointers!
... and that's rough.
Arguable on harder difficulties fighter/illusionists are a better choice than pure melee, as their stoneskins and mirror images are better at avoiding damage than AC alone.
I'm sure you'll be fine with plenty of summons. Tord (Lilly Black LP) managed to do Watcher's Keep blind with Wild Mage, Imoen, Jaheira, Viconia and (very unde-levelled) Jan and Mazzy. He just summoned stuff for every remotely dangerous battle.