Probably one of my favorite characters was a half-elf fighter/mage. I know, I know, how very original. That's what I thought as well, so instead of just being a fighter/mage, Khelara was a fighter/*wild* mage. Magic was never her first choice, though she'd use it to give herself a decent chance sometimes. Since it was wild magic, however, it would quite often backfire, which led to some lovely decisions in-game. Like, oh, the time she meant to cast stoneskin and ended up fireballing her already half-dead party instead. Good times. That was a bit of a hectic run, especially as I tried not to raise characters unless I had someone in the party who could cast a resurrection spell at the time. It certainly gave me a new respect for wild magic!
@Elrandir haha it's funny how a portrait can be quite inspiring isn't it? even though in this case you obviously already had your character fleshed out. Anyway, am really glad you dig her, as do I. And I hope to read of her exploits some day!
Honestly, my favorite is Jack-Jack Romani, a CN Human Jester who is currently hanging back with a crossbow but will move to dual-wielding daggers (rogue rebalancing lets him get more than one pip in TWS and level 8 spells). He grew up under the iron fist of his jerk foster father who constantly squashed his innate wanderlust. Finally free of the old man, (thanks mysterious armored figure, you seem cool), he has met up with a motley crew of Dorn, Viconia, Kagain, Safana & Xzar. Having recently infiltrated and slaughtered a group of bandits, he is currently heading up an expedition to the Cloakwood, despite hearing tell of ogres and madmen. He enjoys Bitter Black Ale, (to the point where he is almost always intoxicated), Illusion spells, mocking people in verse, and long walks on The Sword Coast. Edit: Selfie - He's now level 5 so his THAC0, HP, and Lore have improved, and has used a CON tome, (because he's selfish), but otherwise he's as he appears. [Spoiler][/Spoiler]
@Tasraya, cool build! I've never played a Wild Mage and I wonder if I ever will. I've edited Khalid into a Fighter/Wild Mage a couple of times (being a Wild Mage would explain his nervousness haha). He never lasted long in my parties though. And I've played with Neera but never had any crazy things happening with her..
@jackjack, great character! Am sure you're having a great time with him!
Role playing wise, Xanthus has a lust for power and wishes to be a master of everything (Probably would have been a F/M/C/T if it was possible). Starting off as neutral, Xanthus became influenced by those around him, to the point that by the end of BG1, he was a bit of a jerk.
The party was as shown in the screenshots, however early in the game I had Neera rather than Baeloth, up until about Cloakwood. Xanthus had more than enough clerical abilities, such that I didn't need a dedicated cleric or druid.
Xanthus was an extremely effective fighter when buffed, however for most of the game it was Kagain and Dorn that did the killing up the front of the party. From a roll of 88, after using all the tomes it went up to 96. His main weakness is relatively low HP due to just 12 con.
Moving on to BG2... I'd heard that triple classes were rather maligned for party play and the more popular choice was F/M/T. I'd have to say that F/M/C is actually very powerful, even in a party setting. See below screenshots from just before the final battle with Irenicus
As you can see, Xanthus had a whopping 41% of the total party kills. Once he got PFMW he was basically unstoppable. Highlights were both mind flayer lairs, which Xanthus basically soloed, while the rest of the party hid behind. Fireshield + Blade barrier + chaotic commands + imp haste + stoneskin + PFMW when needed, even large packs of illithid and ulitharid had no chance, getting chunked by the blades and taking damage when hitting. Xanthus 19 intelligence meant he could easily take 3 hits of intelligence drain without fear.
Moving on from BG1, again Xanthus started out as a bit of a prick. However, the romance with Viconia softened him a little. He feels very protective of his childhood friend Imoen, after rescuing her from Irenicus' clutches. Unfortunately, some bad choices in hell (Killing the dragon and genie, mostly), have turned him evil. He's not chaotic evil in the Sarevok sense, but craves power above all else. Dorn will be ditched in ToB for Sarevok, but otherwise the party will remain together.
Xanthus + Edwin + Imoen + Jan makes for a LOT of arcane power.
What I've really enjoyed about this character is just seeing what a F/M/C can do. Yes, the levelling can be a little slow, but the clerical buffs really mix in well with the mage ones to make an awesome fighter. When I need to do some melee damage critical strike + improved haste is pretty damn amazing, doing around 44-50 damage per hit. Even the 600hp SCS dragons can't resist long against that.
Saving throws are probably Xanthus weak point at the moment, but buffs + potions of invulnerability make that a non-issue most of the time.
This playthrough was also the first time I have completed a romance line (Any of them), which made it quite interesting too. I'm anxious to see what happens with Viconia in ToB.
@vangoat, good idea! I mean the screenshots. Very cool and imposing charname and great seeing how his character has evolved!
I'll start off with my fave, Teyl the halfling Strifeleader/Thief. Some of you may have already met him, through his journal that I kept in another thread on this forum. I've just started anew with him after his "pseudo-death" through dire charm in a solo no-reload game.
Biography:
Teyl, unlike his megalomanic and reckless gnomish counterpart Tiax and unlike most followers of the Mad God, is a cunning, conniving and calculating figure. He isn't overtly evil or violent nor does he enjoy cruelty or the suffering of others just for the sake of it. He takes good care of his appearance and image, is generally polite to strangers and even willing to do "good" if he sees personal benefits that make his benevolence worthwhile. He has no reservations about making promises or accepting commitments he won't likely live up to, if such behaviour serves his interests. When "committing" himself Teyl tends to avoid outright lies though, preferring to rely on ambiguity or omission of information in order to manipulate reality in his favor without having to fear that any blame is going to be pinned on him for failing to deliver. His subtlety and seemingly mild manners may not make him a prototypical Cyricist, but his ways might well be the more effective, or so at least he believes. The presence of such guiding figures of unquestionable moral calibre as Tethoril, Imoen, the priests of Oghma and above all Gorion have given Teyl a sense of morality he might otherwise not have had, but unlike the people that surrounded him in Candlekeep Teyl believes that everyone ought to look after their own interests. Teyl isn't a physically imposing figure, even for a halfling. He makes up for this however with his wit, his knowledge of poisons, an affinity with trap setting, and the powers bestowed upon him by Cyric. He appreciates nature, female beauty, and art.
Strifeleader of Cyric kit: This is one of the kits made available by the Divine Remix mod for BGT/Tutu. A similar mod, one that has me really interested, is in development for BG:EE, Faiths of Faerun.
Abilities: - Spiritual Weapon: Long Sword - 'Razor's Edge' once per day Razor's Edge is the spiritual weapon of Strifeleaders of Cyric, and is wielded as if the caster had grand mastery in the weapon. The Razor's Edge is a regular weapon at levels 1-5, +1 at levels 6-10, +2 at 11-15, +3 at 16-20, +4 at 21-25, and +5 at levels 26 and above. The spiritual weapon lasts for one round per level of the caster, up to 20 rounds. - May coat his weapon in poison once per day per 6 levels. Attacks made in the next round with that weapon will inject the poison into the target, dealing out 1 damage per second for 24 seconds (3 damage for the first 6 seconds). A saving throw vs. poison limits damage to 12 total. - From level 7 can cast Dread Blast once per day Fires a ray of negative energy that deals 4d8 damage +1/level (max +20) and confuses target for 1 round (save vs. spell at -2 to negate confusion) - From level 9 can cast Chaos once per day, as fifth level mage spell of the same name - From level 11 can cast Death Fog once per day, as sixth level mage spell of the same name - From level 14 can cast Sphere of Chaos once per day, as seventh level mage spell of the same name
Sphere Access: - Major access to the spheres of all, astral, charm, combat, guardian, healing, necromantic, summoning, sun, time, war, weather - Minor access to the spheres of divination, elemental, numbers, protection - No access to the spheres of animal, creation, chaos, law, plant, thought, travel, wards
Selfie: (This is his status in my current game.)
Thanks to the Item Randomization mod, Teyl now sports the Gauntlets of Ogre Power. And he also has a ring of human influence, that was given to him by Lord Foreshadow. This makes his stats look a bit inflated. His original STR was 14, his CHA 13, i.e. I had a good 94 starting roll.
Equipment: (Again at the moment of writing. Boots of Speed, Returning Frost Dart, Greenstone Amulet, and to a lesser extent Cloak and Helm of Balduran are eagerly anticipated.)
My favorite character is a transfer from an old favorite PnP character.
Asgoth, Deathstalker of Bhaal(Cleric in case you are wondering).(I really did make this guy before BG came out...I promise)
Original stats
Human Lawful Evil
STR:10 DEX:12 CON:16 INT:16 WIS:17 CHA:16
Weapon profs in Flail + sword/shield combat style and darts(poisoned of course).
Background was essentially that his village was raided as a child and he was enslaved along with several other children. Trying to "do the good thing" always ended up badly for him...so he became a loner(failed escape attempt with other people ended up with only him being caught and severely punished because someone else screwed up, sharing food ended up with him getting sick from lack of food, etc.). At some point, after trying to work with others and constantly getting shit on, he snapped, and killed somebody...which led to him getting more "respect" from the other slaves. He found that 1) He got more positive results this way and 2) He enjoyed the powerful feeling. He killed his captors and escaped, eventually becoming a Deathstalker acolyte and working his way through the ranks(in one playthrough he literally became the Avatar of Bhaal...while on trial for murdering the King of Cormyr...brought to justice by his former companion a Paladin of Tyr). He enjoys baiting anyone and everyone around him, and has been known to hide his true allegiance to incite others to murder in his Lords name(This was almost necessary as the first PnP game I made him in had a Paladin, Ranger, Priest of Helm, swashbuckler and a very fun chaotic neutral mage...I had an item that hid my true alignment and then I convinced them that I was a Cleric of Waukeen and so took advantage of his high charisma and mental stats). Generally when I play him I get a very diverse party that will start fights and goad my companions into fighting each other. Raise dead/Resurrection does not exist when playing this character. TL:DR, the guy is a lot of fun.
LOL, you're right about the helmet... I hope maybe Vhailor's Helm will look cooler, later on.
As to playing a Cleric/Thief, my playstyle will evolve over time I'm sure. Initially the character is vulnerable (as are most builds I think). Sanctuary is the spell I use most during the first levels, followed by Command. As a thief your thieving skills are insufficiently developed to be of much use. In my case this concerns first and foremost HiS/MS and secondly Set Traps. (I don't initially invest in Lockpicks and Detect Traps, but choose to cover them with potions, until the former skills are sufficiently developed). Combat is mostly ranged. When you gain access to level 2 cleric spells, things start to get better: Silence 15' Radius and Hold Person (optionally preceded by Doom) are devastating AoE spells. Especially if you can sneak first and determine your target, and then cast those spells from the right distance and at the right moment. Level 5 is great both as a Cleric and as a Thief. As a Cleric you get level 3 divine spells, amongst which Animate Dead, which is an amazing spell. The skeletons are quite hardy, magic resistant and they remain by your side during 8 hours (unless they get killed of course). With enough skeletons, a party becomes practically redundant. As a thief your backstab multiplier increases to x3 at levell 5. If you've made sure that your HiS/MS is around 70-80%, backstabbing becomes a viable way to deal with any kind of enemies in a few hits. This strategy (using undead to deal and absorb damage AND to distract enemies, while your character hides and backstabs) remain effective throughout BG1. The Strifeleader kit has the extra advantage of getting a poison weapon ability once every six levels. Initially I use it relatively sparingly, i.e. only in the tougher encounters with spellcasters, partly because you can only poison your weapon once a day until level 7. But a poison backstab is very satisfying and deadly to boot. In SCS various mages have Stoneskin and/or Mirror Image, but the skellies can help you strip those protecions, preparing the moment for your character to strike with his poisoned blade. The next level-ups as a Thief I further develop my Set and Find Traps skills. Trap setting becomes interesting once you have a few traps you can use per day. Finding traps allows you to go dungeon crawling (which I normally avoid till I've reached higer levels).
I haven't reached SOA yet with my character, but I think his skeletons may be less effective during a number of levels (maybe between 10-15, until you get the skeleton warrior summon at level 15). But by then spells like Armour of Faith, DUHMM, Holy Power, Righteous Magic will turn you into a pseudo-warrior, I hope. Plus traps, glyphs of warding, new summons (Mountain Bears, who can be buffed by the Cleric as well), should help out. Well I shouldn't say anymore, because haven't yet played a Cleric/Thief in SOA...
@illusion, "He enjoys baiting anyone and everyone around him, and has been known to hide his true allegiance to incite others to murder in his Lords name." This sounds like great fun to roleplay! Well developed character!
@booinyoureys: Why? You only use them to heal/support?
Maybe someone who's knowledgeable of the divine spells should start a Top/Mid/Bottom Tier thread for priest spells like @bbear did for arcane spells. I really don't consider myself to be sufficiently knowledgeable to pull this off, but maybe someone is.
I think bbear said he'd be doing the divine (druid and cleric) after the arcane. Could be wrong, though.
I find that divine magic has more good spells than arcane overall. Arcane has amazing spells, but there are a lot more throwaway ones as well. I have a solo cleric\ranger I'm doing a relaxed play through with, (no roleplay or lore reasons for why I do things) and he has 7 different 1st level spells memorized, 5 different 2nd level, and if I had more spell slots\weren't playing solo I'd be using a variety of 3rd level spells too. (right now I'm just using a lot of animate dead.) I only have one healing spell memorized, and it's just a cure light wounds. So yeah, divine magic (especially when you have both druid and cleric spells) is much more versatile, at least in my opinion.
@Elrandir: I'd missed that (bbear's plan) Yes a Cleric/Ranger has a very wide selection of useful spells to pick from. For a Cleric only (or Druid only) it's bit less. And with the Divine Remix mod that I'm playing even less since that mod categorizes the divine spells in spheres, and gives the differe cleric kits access to different spheres... Generally I think arcane magic is considered to be more powerful, but it may be true that it has less useful spells per level. Never really thought about it.
Well those are some great tricks, but I wouldn't necessarily call it powergaming. Powergaming to me is using only the strongest race-class combo (elven thief/mage is potentially powerful, but probably less so than gnome illusionist/thief), with the highest possible stats, abusing bugs/exploits (well maybe you did that with the Belth of Fire Giant STR), and in the game picking the options that make no sense roleplay-wise but yield the best results for your character.
Elven Mage/Thief is my favorite combination, a very good combination with a better High-level spell-offense than the Illusionist/Thief (at low levels, M/T can only defend with Magic, unless you don't dump CON & STR like me), I know it gets OP, and I like OPism
You mean Skull Trap and Abi Dalzim's? Powerful but by no means indispensable for an Illusionist/Thief. Especially since after getting ADHW you won't have to wait long before you get Comet.
Mariëla the Elven sorceress - the sweet little lass who rose in power and failed in morality.
I don't remember her exact stats but at the start of BG they were something like:
Str: 9 Con: 15 Dex: 14 Int: 18 Wis: 8 Cha: 17
Mariëla started as a Lawful Good wide-eyed idealist in Candlekeep but with a dark side. She started doing small nasty acts, like repeatedly asking The Great Gazib to summon and destroy and ogre for her amusement. Later she sided with a priestess of Umberlee against some fishermen, despite the fact that neither side really deserved her help, and she also readily aided the Shadow Thieves in Baldur's Gate to obtain their support.
In Shadows of Amn she adviced her friend (and later lover) Anomen to seek revenge for the killing of his sister. In Ust Natha she aided Solaufein in killing a Deep Gnome patrol and refused to help a group of human slaves escape, rather than risk blowing her cover. She allowed Minsc to die in the Trial of Selfishness in Hell, arguing that Anomen could easily Raise Minsc after the test, and she also gave in to her wrath when confronted with Sarevok's ghost.
I'd rather not get into her many misdeeds in ToB but the Solar was very unhappy when she decided to become the new Lady of Murder. On the other hand Sarevok, who had followed her under a geas after his resurrection, was overjoyed.
@Montresor_SP, great character. I can imagine you had some good fun. She sounds a bit like my current NE charname (though he never started out as good-aligned). Corrupting people like Anomen, taking advantage of others, seizing benefits without worrying about the consequences for others... My charname would do those things. He could never set himself to murdering the deep gnomes though if he makes to the Underdark.
First is Aramil Nialo, Elven Stalker in Katana's. In the old alehouses on gamefaqs, this was the persona I brought to the table. I felt it fit how drizzt played in my head, and I still wanna revisit the concept, but more in depth with a new Elven Stalker using longswords.
The second one is my cavalier Lady Arveene, Cavalier in the joint service of Helm and Mystra. She grew up in Candlekeep and loved all the stories regarding the Purple Dragon Knights of Cormyr. Throughout her entire "quest" one of her guiding lights was hoping to make such a name for herself that she may acquire an honorary appointment to them should she ever make it to Cormyr. This character is pretty much my main character in every RPG nowadays, often with a mix of wizard thrown in, as one of her nicknames (taken from my main name for my wizards) is Lady Arveene the Walkingzippo. She has an affinity for purging things with flame when she needs to.
in BG itself, its rather hard, although she does love daystar as a weapon. I also do it by giving her the full red dragon set for awhile just for looks. My WoW paladin is named Dragonspear, (kinda like on here) so really its Lady Arveene Dragonspear the Walkingzippo. Honestly the fire magic comes in more 3e and other games. It's her understanding that there are limitations to martial combat, and sometimes 1 well placed spell is as effective as the thrust of a sword. She's very much a Cavalier/Invoker (specialist mage) in that regard. Inquisitor would also sort of fit her, but it lacks the priest spells which makes paladin fun to play for me.
Normally she specializes in 1h weapons and shields, although she does enjoy using (surprise) spears and greatswords as well. I have to run her with a higher than normal int, because I see her as very much a tactician in combat.
Edit: Also while she romanced Anomen..............she took a great amount of pleasure in regularly telling him off.
wow, she's become something like your d&d alter ego. Where most people play many different (types of) characters, you just become Lady Arveene Cool! I'm no pnp player, only a few CRPGs (Planescape, Dragon Age, Icewind Dale, Skyrim), but I just keep returning to Baldur's Gate - there's nothing like it IMO. Anyway my point is that I do have a prototype in all these types of games, namely the stealthy rogue, preferably with divine or arcane magic added in. I do however play different characters (algnments, personalities, class/kit combos).
Exactly @Blackraven, sometimes the easiest thing to roleplay is just yourself And great due to this I want to actually run her through BGEE, and actually attempt a no-reload full RP playthrough.........Ohhhhhhhh dear. Where will i find the time between LoL, D3 (Hey I'm getting my crusader in a week and a half!!), SC2 and work ><
Also I find her stats are a lot easier to represent in 3e than in AD&D. There is no way I have 17 Cha
Damnit just realized. She breaks out a 1h and shield when she needs to but she's very much the more offensive vein of paladin. While sword or hammer and board work for her, she's most comfortable in combat with a great sword or pole arm.
@Dragonspear Oooohhh dear... that sounded very Quayle I can imagine it's easier in 3e to incorporate the magic in to your character. What you could do is give her a spell like Fireball or Flamestrike at higher levels if your not against Keepering. (You could nerf her in some other aspect if you want to compensate.
Anyway I hope Lady Arveene will make it through the trilogy without a single reload..
This actually took quite some time to think about. The problem is I have only two modern charnames and a bunch from the past that I am honestly slightly embarrassed about due to the amateurish nature of their writing.
I suppose that makes Yotoma, my paladin, my current favorite, if only because I kept filling in little bits of his story as I went along and loved it.
That being said of my old charnames I have Theirs (A terrible shadowkeeper mishap that resulted in 30 thac0 and 30 armor and 999hp), Ghost and Shadow (A duo with an overly specific past not at all related to the story), Laylander Dralor (A elf sorcerer raised on the surface who was desperate for love to the point of shamefulness. Also, tended to start fires by accident. Usually on himself.).
@Necomancer, Laylander sounds more like a Wild Mage than a sorcerer, maybe a Wild Sorcerer Yotoma sounds promising as well, what with his well-developed backstory.
Comments
Anyway, am really glad you dig her, as do I. And I hope to read of her exploits some day!
He grew up under the iron fist of his jerk foster father who constantly squashed his innate wanderlust. Finally free of the old man, (thanks mysterious armored figure, you seem cool), he has met up with a motley crew of Dorn, Viconia, Kagain, Safana & Xzar.
Having recently infiltrated and slaughtered a group of bandits, he is currently heading up an expedition to the Cloakwood, despite hearing tell of ogres and madmen.
He enjoys Bitter Black Ale, (to the point where he is almost always intoxicated), Illusion spells, mocking people in verse, and long walks on The Sword Coast.
Edit: Selfie - He's now level 5 so his THAC0, HP, and Lore have improved, and has used a CON tome, (because he's selfish), but otherwise he's as he appears.
[Spoiler]
@jackjack, great character! Am sure you're having a great time with him!
Meet Xanthus, a half-elf F/M/C. Screenshots are from just before the final battle with Sarevok
http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/615045619983882041/4BB0AAC27FB9F2D654BAD39B456D0F138782F996/
http://cloud-3.steampowered.com/ugc/615045619983884444/9F0C5BCD7B152105E26129B2D2276E7F274D338D/
Role playing wise, Xanthus has a lust for power and wishes to be a master of everything (Probably would have been a F/M/C/T if it was possible). Starting off as neutral, Xanthus became influenced by those around him, to the point that by the end of BG1, he was a bit of a jerk.
The party was as shown in the screenshots, however early in the game I had Neera rather than Baeloth, up until about Cloakwood. Xanthus had more than enough clerical abilities, such that I didn't need a dedicated cleric or druid.
Xanthus was an extremely effective fighter when buffed, however for most of the game it was Kagain and Dorn that did the killing up the front of the party. From a roll of 88, after using all the tomes it went up to 96. His main weakness is relatively low HP due to just 12 con.
Moving on to BG2... I'd heard that triple classes were rather maligned for party play and the more popular choice was F/M/T. I'd have to say that F/M/C is actually very powerful, even in a party setting. See below screenshots from just before the final battle with Irenicus
http://cloud-3.steampowered.com/ugc/615045619983893485/F6516FFD8610127174BD1F9B279320F32B2951DA/
http://cloud-3.steampowered.com/ugc/615045619983891298/88CCC9E18AA4BEC0B7E3C11C5DFF5428FD9C77A0/
As you can see, Xanthus had a whopping 41% of the total party kills. Once he got PFMW he was basically unstoppable. Highlights were both mind flayer lairs, which Xanthus basically soloed, while the rest of the party hid behind. Fireshield + Blade barrier + chaotic commands + imp haste + stoneskin + PFMW when needed, even large packs of illithid and ulitharid had no chance, getting chunked by the blades and taking damage when hitting. Xanthus 19 intelligence meant he could easily take 3 hits of intelligence drain without fear.
Moving on from BG1, again Xanthus started out as a bit of a prick. However, the romance with Viconia softened him a little. He feels very protective of his childhood friend Imoen, after rescuing her from Irenicus' clutches. Unfortunately, some bad choices in hell (Killing the dragon and genie, mostly), have turned him evil. He's not chaotic evil in the Sarevok sense, but craves power above all else. Dorn will be ditched in ToB for Sarevok, but otherwise the party will remain together.
Xanthus + Edwin + Imoen + Jan makes for a LOT of arcane power.
What I've really enjoyed about this character is just seeing what a F/M/C can do. Yes, the levelling can be a little slow, but the clerical buffs really mix in well with the mage ones to make an awesome fighter. When I need to do some melee damage critical strike + improved haste is pretty damn amazing, doing around 44-50 damage per hit. Even the 600hp SCS dragons can't resist long against that.
Saving throws are probably Xanthus weak point at the moment, but buffs + potions of invulnerability make that a non-issue most of the time.
This playthrough was also the first time I have completed a romance line (Any of them), which made it quite interesting too. I'm anxious to see what happens with Viconia in ToB.
I'll start off with my fave, Teyl the halfling Strifeleader/Thief. Some of you may have already met him, through his journal that I kept in another thread on this forum.
I've just started anew with him after his "pseudo-death" through dire charm in a solo no-reload game.
Biography:
Teyl, unlike his megalomanic and reckless gnomish counterpart Tiax and unlike most followers of the Mad God, is a cunning, conniving and calculating figure. He isn't overtly evil or violent nor does he enjoy cruelty or the suffering of others just for the sake of it. He takes good care of his appearance and image, is generally polite to strangers and even willing to do "good" if he sees personal benefits that make his benevolence worthwhile.
He has no reservations about making promises or accepting commitments he won't likely live up to, if such behaviour serves his interests. When "committing" himself Teyl tends to avoid outright lies though, preferring to rely on ambiguity or omission of information in order to manipulate reality in his favor without having to fear that any blame is going to be pinned on him for failing to deliver. His subtlety and seemingly mild manners may not make him a prototypical Cyricist, but his ways might well be the more effective, or so at least he believes.
The presence of such guiding figures of unquestionable moral calibre as Tethoril, Imoen, the priests of Oghma and above all Gorion have given Teyl a sense of morality he might otherwise not have had, but unlike the people that surrounded him in Candlekeep Teyl believes that everyone ought to look after their own interests.
Teyl isn't a physically imposing figure, even for a halfling. He makes up for this however with his wit, his knowledge of poisons, an affinity with trap setting, and the powers bestowed upon him by Cyric. He appreciates nature, female beauty, and art.
Strifeleader of Cyric kit:
This is one of the kits made available by the Divine Remix mod for BGT/Tutu. A similar mod, one that has me really interested, is in development for BG:EE, Faiths of Faerun.
Abilities:
- Spiritual Weapon: Long Sword - 'Razor's Edge' once per day
Razor's Edge is the spiritual weapon of Strifeleaders of Cyric, and is wielded as if the caster had grand mastery in the weapon. The Razor's Edge is a regular weapon at levels 1-5, +1 at levels 6-10, +2 at 11-15, +3 at 16-20, +4 at 21-25, and +5 at levels 26 and above. The spiritual weapon lasts for one round per level of the caster, up to 20 rounds.
- May coat his weapon in poison once per day per 6 levels. Attacks made in the next round with that weapon will inject the poison into the target, dealing out 1 damage per second for 24 seconds (3 damage for the first 6 seconds). A saving throw vs. poison limits damage to 12 total.
- From level 7 can cast Dread Blast once per day
Fires a ray of negative energy that deals 4d8 damage +1/level (max +20) and confuses target for 1 round (save vs. spell at -2 to negate confusion)
- From level 9 can cast Chaos once per day, as fifth level mage spell of the same name
- From level 11 can cast Death Fog once per day, as sixth level mage spell of the same name
- From level 14 can cast Sphere of Chaos once per day, as seventh level mage spell of the same name
Sphere Access:
- Major access to the spheres of all, astral, charm, combat, guardian, healing, necromantic, summoning, sun, time, war, weather
- Minor access to the spheres of divination, elemental, numbers, protection
- No access to the spheres of animal, creation, chaos, law, plant, thought, travel, wards
Selfie:
(This is his status in my current game.)
Thanks to the Item Randomization mod, Teyl now sports the Gauntlets of Ogre Power. And he also has a ring of human influence, that was given to him by Lord Foreshadow. This makes his stats look a bit inflated. His original STR was 14, his CHA 13, i.e. I had a good 94 starting roll.
Equipment:
(Again at the moment of writing. Boots of Speed, Returning Frost Dart, Greenstone Amulet, and to a lesser extent Cloak and Helm of Balduran are eagerly anticipated.)
Nice character though! How do you play a cleric/thief? I'd be so lost if I had to do it (I can't even play pure clerics or thieves properly)
Asgoth, Deathstalker of Bhaal(Cleric in case you are wondering).(I really did make this guy before BG came out...I promise)
Original stats
Human
Lawful Evil
STR:10
DEX:12
CON:16
INT:16
WIS:17
CHA:16
Weapon profs in Flail + sword/shield combat style and darts(poisoned of course).
Background was essentially that his village was raided as a child and he was enslaved along with several other children. Trying to "do the good thing" always ended up badly for him...so he became a loner(failed escape attempt with other people ended up with only him being caught and severely punished because someone else screwed up, sharing food ended up with him getting sick from lack of food, etc.). At some point, after trying to work with others and constantly getting shit on, he snapped, and killed somebody...which led to him getting more "respect" from the other slaves. He found that 1) He got more positive results this way and 2) He enjoyed the powerful feeling. He killed his captors and escaped, eventually becoming a Deathstalker acolyte and working his way through the ranks(in one playthrough he literally became the Avatar of Bhaal...while on trial for murdering the King of Cormyr...brought to justice by his former companion a Paladin of Tyr). He enjoys baiting anyone and everyone around him, and has been known to hide his true allegiance to incite others to murder in his Lords name(This was almost necessary as the first PnP game I made him in had a Paladin, Ranger, Priest of Helm, swashbuckler and a very fun chaotic neutral mage...I had an item that hid my true alignment and then I convinced them that I was a Cleric of Waukeen and so took advantage of his high charisma and mental stats). Generally when I play him I get a very diverse party that will start fights and goad my companions into fighting each other. Raise dead/Resurrection does not exist when playing this character. TL:DR, the guy is a lot of fun.
As to playing a Cleric/Thief, my playstyle will evolve over time I'm sure.
Initially the character is vulnerable (as are most builds I think). Sanctuary is the spell I use most during the first levels, followed by Command. As a thief your thieving skills are insufficiently developed to be of much use. In my case this concerns first and foremost HiS/MS and secondly Set Traps. (I don't initially invest in Lockpicks and Detect Traps, but choose to cover them with potions, until the former skills are sufficiently developed). Combat is mostly ranged.
When you gain access to level 2 cleric spells, things start to get better: Silence 15' Radius and Hold Person (optionally preceded by Doom) are devastating AoE spells. Especially if you can sneak first and determine your target, and then cast those spells from the right distance and at the right moment.
Level 5 is great both as a Cleric and as a Thief. As a Cleric you get level 3 divine spells, amongst which Animate Dead, which is an amazing spell. The skeletons are quite hardy, magic resistant and they remain by your side during 8 hours (unless they get killed of course). With enough skeletons, a party becomes practically redundant. As a thief your backstab multiplier increases to x3 at levell 5. If you've made sure that your HiS/MS is around 70-80%, backstabbing becomes a viable way to deal with any kind of enemies in a few hits.
This strategy (using undead to deal and absorb damage AND to distract enemies, while your character hides and backstabs) remain effective throughout BG1. The Strifeleader kit has the extra advantage of getting a poison weapon ability once every six levels. Initially I use it relatively sparingly, i.e. only in the tougher encounters with spellcasters, partly because you can only poison your weapon once a day until level 7. But a poison backstab is very satisfying and deadly to boot. In SCS various mages have Stoneskin and/or Mirror Image, but the skellies can help you strip those protecions, preparing the moment for your character to strike with his poisoned blade.
The next level-ups as a Thief I further develop my Set and Find Traps skills. Trap setting becomes interesting once you have a few traps you can use per day. Finding traps allows you to go dungeon crawling (which I normally avoid till I've reached higer levels).
I haven't reached SOA yet with my character, but I think his skeletons may be less effective during a number of levels (maybe between 10-15, until you get the skeleton warrior summon at level 15). But by then spells like Armour of Faith, DUHMM, Holy Power, Righteous Magic will turn you into a pseudo-warrior, I hope. Plus traps, glyphs of warding, new summons (Mountain Bears, who can be buffed by the Cleric as well), should help out. Well I shouldn't say anymore, because haven't yet played a Cleric/Thief in SOA...
Maybe someone who's knowledgeable of the divine spells should start a Top/Mid/Bottom Tier thread for priest spells like @bbear did for arcane spells.
I really don't consider myself to be sufficiently knowledgeable to pull this off, but maybe someone is.
I find that divine magic has more good spells than arcane overall. Arcane has amazing spells, but there are a lot more throwaway ones as well.
I have a solo cleric\ranger I'm doing a relaxed play through with, (no roleplay or lore reasons for why I do things) and he has 7 different 1st level spells memorized, 5 different 2nd level, and if I had more spell slots\weren't playing solo I'd be using a variety of 3rd level spells too. (right now I'm just using a lot of animate dead.) I only have one healing spell memorized, and it's just a cure light wounds. So yeah, divine magic (especially when you have both druid and cleric spells) is much more versatile, at least in my opinion.
Yes a Cleric/Ranger has a very wide selection of useful spells to pick from. For a Cleric only (or Druid only) it's bit less. And with the Divine Remix mod that I'm playing even less since that mod categorizes the divine spells in spheres, and gives the differe cleric kits access to different spheres...
Generally I think arcane magic is considered to be more powerful, but it may be true that it has less useful spells per level. Never really thought about it.
I don't remember her exact stats but at the start of BG they were something like:
Str: 9
Con: 15
Dex: 14
Int: 18
Wis: 8
Cha: 17
Mariëla started as a Lawful Good wide-eyed idealist in Candlekeep but with a dark side. She started doing small nasty acts, like repeatedly asking The Great Gazib to summon and destroy and ogre for her amusement. Later she sided with a priestess of Umberlee against some fishermen, despite the fact that neither side really deserved her help, and she also readily aided the Shadow Thieves in Baldur's Gate to obtain their support.
In Shadows of Amn she adviced her friend (and later lover) Anomen to seek revenge for the killing of his sister. In Ust Natha she aided Solaufein in killing a Deep Gnome patrol and refused to help a group of human slaves escape, rather than risk blowing her cover. She allowed Minsc to die in the Trial of Selfishness in Hell, arguing that Anomen could easily Raise Minsc after the test, and she also gave in to her wrath when confronted with Sarevok's ghost.
I'd rather not get into her many misdeeds in ToB but the Solar was very unhappy when she decided to become the new Lady of Murder. On the other hand Sarevok, who had followed her under a geas after his resurrection, was overjoyed.
She was fun to roleplay... :-)
First is Aramil Nialo, Elven Stalker in Katana's. In the old alehouses on gamefaqs, this was the persona I brought to the table. I felt it fit how drizzt played in my head, and I still wanna revisit the concept, but more in depth with a new Elven Stalker using longswords.
The second one is my cavalier Lady Arveene, Cavalier in the joint service of Helm and Mystra. She grew up in Candlekeep and loved all the stories regarding the Purple Dragon Knights of Cormyr. Throughout her entire "quest" one of her guiding lights was hoping to make such a name for herself that she may acquire an honorary appointment to them should she ever make it to Cormyr. This character is pretty much my main character in every RPG nowadays, often with a mix of wizard thrown in, as one of her nicknames (taken from my main name for my wizards) is Lady Arveene the Walkingzippo. She has an affinity for purging things with flame when she needs to.
Normally she specializes in 1h weapons and shields, although she does enjoy using (surprise) spears and greatswords as well. I have to run her with a higher than normal int, because I see her as very much a tactician in combat.
Edit: Also while she romanced Anomen..............she took a great amount of pleasure in regularly telling him off.
I'm no pnp player, only a few CRPGs (Planescape, Dragon Age, Icewind Dale, Skyrim), but I just keep returning to Baldur's Gate - there's nothing like it IMO. Anyway my point is that I do have a prototype in all these types of games, namely the stealthy rogue, preferably with divine or arcane magic added in. I do however play different characters (algnments, personalities, class/kit combos).
Also I find her stats are a lot easier to represent in 3e than in AD&D. There is no way I have 17 Cha
I can imagine it's easier in 3e to incorporate the magic in to your character. What you could do is give her a spell like Fireball or Flamestrike at higher levels if your not against Keepering. (You could nerf her in some other aspect if you want to compensate.
Anyway I hope Lady Arveene will make it through the trilogy without a single reload..
I suppose that makes Yotoma, my paladin, my current favorite, if only because I kept filling in little bits of his story as I went along and loved it.
That being said of my old charnames I have Theirs (A terrible shadowkeeper mishap that resulted in 30 thac0 and 30 armor and 999hp), Ghost and Shadow (A duo with an overly specific past not at all related to the story), Laylander Dralor (A elf sorcerer raised on the surface who was desperate for love to the point of shamefulness. Also, tended to start fires by accident. Usually on himself.).
...I suppose I gotta go with Laylander.
If only because he has the coolest name.
Yotoma sounds promising as well, what with his well-developed backstory.