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Cav vs. Cleric/Wild Mage

KnellerKneller Member Posts: 438
I've been playing two runs concurrently. One with a Cleric/Illusionist (that I will switch to a Cleric/Wild Mage in BG2 using SK) and the other with a Cav. I don't want to keep switching between games, but I'm still having trouble deciding which run to finish.

The Cav (with Jah, Minsc, Yoshi/Imoen, and Aerie): Great front liner. He's really a one man wrecking crew. In a way, this is a bad thing, as I want to play a more team-oriented game. One of his pros are that he'll be able to use Lilarcor in BG2 (my favorite weapon in the game) until get gets the holy avenger. In general, I like the fighter bling over the mage bling, so I'm more interested in gearing him up than my cleric/illusionist. I'd have him on Two-handers, Minsc dual wielding, and Jah on scimitar/club and shield until the better staffs become available. He's not a good team player, though. He's a better tank than Jah and only a slightly worse striker than Minsc. The way this plays out is that Jah ends up hanging out and I end up tearing up everything, occasionally with Minsc's help. On some maps, I just send the paly around to take out everything if I'm not feeling patient. Also, if I keep him, I have to take Aerie for BG2, as this party doesn't have a controller and she's the best (aside from a properly built charname). Taking Aerie, in my book, is a con, as she's so annoying. Still, the paly is much more uber than the C/WM, and he gets a lot more play (see below).

Cleric/Wild Mage (with Jah, Minsc, and Yoshi/Imoen): Definitely more of a team player. For BG2, the core party is just going to be Jah (tank), Minsc (striker), and him (controller). I'll also have Yoshi as a trap monkey until I get Imoen back. With these three, I have the team synergy trifecta. However, most encounters are just Jah drawing aggro and Minsc dancing around the melee chopping things up (max DW), while my guy is just hanging out. Or, if it's an easy map, Minsc just runs around all choppy-choppy. All it took was a single prot. from pet. spell and he cleaned out the basilisk map all by himself (minus the Kirian party encounter). The C/WM only needs to get play for the more challenging encounters, so it's kinda boring most of the time. The harder the fight, the more fun the C/WM is. With a hard fight, the C/WM is more fun than the paly, but those are pretty much just the occasional boss battles.

So, how about voting to help me make a decision on this? :D And, if you care to explain your choice, I'd like to hear it.
  1. Cav vs. Cleric/Wild Mage23 votes
    1. Cavalier
      43.48%
    2. Cleric/Wild Mage
      56.52%

Comments

  • CoryNewbCoryNewb Member Posts: 1,330
    Wild mages is a blast...save often :)
    jackjackJuliusBorisov
  • jackjackjackjack Member Posts: 3,251
    Paladins are jerks.
    KamigoroshiKnellerJuliusBorisov
  • Rylorn23Rylorn23 Member Posts: 77
    Cavalier is one of best paladin kits. Right behind the Blackguard and Inquisitor.

    When I played BG2 as a Cavalier with Carsomyr, I have in my party Minsc ( later in ToB replaced by Sarevok ), Valygar ( In my option, Valygar is better ranger than Minsc. With two katanas or longswords, he became an unstoppable stalker, who can stab his enemy behind their back. ), Jaheira ( Tank and Healer in one person ), Aerie ( secondary healer and mage with romance ) and of course my half sister Imoen ( main wizard and thief, who can take care all traps and locked doors and chests ).
  • BelgarathMTHBelgarathMTH Member Posts: 5,653
    Does it really have to be an either/or? Why not finish your run with both, since you seem to already be pretty deep into SoA with both?

    The strong fighter on your team is always going to be able to handle the easiest maps and encounters solo if he/she wants to.

    But your team is always going to need what you're calling a "controller mage" for the more difficult encounters. That person will be critical in those encounters, but may as well twiddle his/her thumbs and smell flowers during the many easy encounters that happen regularly.

    It comes down to what you enjoy roleplaying as your own character. Do you want to roleplay the Superman or Thor type who can smash through almost any straightforward, physical encounter, or do you want to roleplay the magical, mysterious Doctor Who/Doctor Strange/Doctor Fate type who handles the "weird" stuff when it comes up?

    Only you can decide that for your game. For myself, I usually want to play the magical types with the cosmic powers, but sometimes I get in the mood to just smash stuff like the Hulk, Thor, or Superman.

    Interestingly, I just don't identify at all with or ever want to play the Batman, Spider Man, Han Solo, Black Widow roguish, investigative types, although I appreciate the importance of their skills and always have their equivalent types on my team - Coran, Montaron, Imoen, Yoshimo for BG.

    So, my advice would be to not stress about it, and play either one of your runs according to your mood.
    [Deleted User]JuliusBorisov
  • KnellerKneller Member Posts: 438

    Does it really have to be an either/or? Why not finish your run with both, since you seem to already be pretty deep into SoA with both?

    lol...I'm still in BG1. I'm about halfway through the Cloakwood Mines right now. I don't have the endurance to keep on with both. I mean, I like video games, but a double run of the BG series is overkill.

    I would prefer the C/WM if he didn't spend so much time sitting around. Plus, he's a gnome, which is way better than some silly human. However, at this point, I have Jah and Minsc so tooled up that they can even take on some of the "hard" battles by themselves.

    I just did that fight in the cloakwood mines with the mage and dozen guards on the (I think) second floor (the one with Yeslick, I believe). I accidentally triggered that fight when I wasn't prepared for it, but Jah and Minsc were able to hold the line. Khalid did some archery support, but the situation become such a mess so soon that most of my CC options were not viable. My C/M just hung back, threw out a couple of hold persons, a couple of COs, and then the fight was done. Minsc, played right, is a death machine. He has more than half of my chapter/game kills while the runner up (Jah) has only 20%. He has OHK'd more times than I can count.

    I've never played Jah and Minsc this way before, but it works amazingly well. You know that fight above ground in cloakwood with the last batch of bounty hunters outside the mine? Previously, that fight would give me a run for my money. This time, I think I set a personal record. It was done in less than seven rounds, possibly five. Jah went in with prot. fire. Khalid stayed on the mage with archery. A fireball each from Imoen and myself, then Minsc went in to help with clean up.

    I'm trying to be patient with my C/WM with the hope/expectation that fights are going to get a lot more complicated in BG2, so a little more finesse will be required. He can actually do some pretty cool stuff already. It's just that fights aren't lasting long enough to fire off too many spells. I've already lost count of the times that he's cast a spell and the target is dead before whatever glowing orb thing reaches it.
    BelgarathMTH
  • KnellerKneller Member Posts: 438
    lmao...that is awesome. I've never seen it before.
    JLeeBelgarathMTH
  • JuliusBorisovJuliusBorisov Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,714
    I like micromanaging my character. And with a mage/cleric you can't go without it. I like to intervene into my character's actions as often as possible, choose spells that are good for a particular area or a monster.

    And a Cav is much easier to manage. You just click and he attacks, click and he attacks. Even with some added magic in BG2 he's more ... simple.

    Plus I like to play with different alignments and with a Car you have no choice but to play as a goodie.
    Arduljackjacklolien
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