i say THE Class to play is Dual X/Mage. every possible combination will Enhance a Pure Mage, who in it self is allready a good class in the beginning and a godly one in the end. and the stacked up "Benefits" you get from the First Class will flat out compensate the 1 Spell slot you lose to a Specialized mage (which i don't like in the slightest)
My Favorites sofar are Cleric 7/Mage X (playing it right now) More HP / More Weaponchoice / Shields/Helmets and a lot of Good not Caster Level Dependent Spells
Second is Swashbuckler 6/Mage X Slightly more HP than a Pure Mage , Free AC Bonus , frees up a party slot for a dedicated thief since you get the full Lockpicking and Trapfinding for the whole saga(and pickpocketing can be done under potion abuse) slightly better HIT/DMG values and you can slap a Buckler in your hand if you like slings or darts (hell even throwing daggers), which is better than Holding a Beer(or thin air) , at least during combat.
Both Versions have the Massive benefit of being completable in BG1
My Least favorite Combo so far is the Kensai/Mage even if you just go to 9 you will be for the whole BG 1 a Hardhitting Monster that's sadly just as Durable like a Wet Noodle, sure all those problems are gone in early SoA once the mage kicks in. but BG is still 20-XX Hours deepening on how much you know and do of it. ofc there are ways to work around it like a certain amulet , and a magespell (which bugs the savegame funtion)
THE class for me is the Assassin. I just enjoy the idea of a melee glass cannon that can output horrific amounts of damage but isn't an actual fighter.
With Rogue Rebalancing, assassins get x7 backstab multiplier at level 17 rather than 21, which is rough but still feasible for a dual-class into mage. Then the real fun starts. There's the obvious cheese like infinite backstabs with Mislead (which I don't use) but there are so many spells that can be used creatively. I think that's my favorite thing about a thief/mage over fighter/mage - your spell usage feels much more tactical since you can't brute force your way through the game, but an assassin/mage has even more potential than a fighter/mage when used wisely. By the time the full potential of the assassin/mage is unlocked, you will feel like the true God of Murder.
My Least favorite Combo so far is the Kensai/Mage even if you just go to 9 you will be for the whole BG 1 a Hardhitting Monster that's sadly just as Durable like a Wet Noodle
Well at least it's more durable than a Dry Noodle.
If (and only if) the rogue rebalancing mod is installed my vote goes to the blade. Mage spells up to level 8, offensive and defensive spin, make the class a fun alternative to the vanilla F/M.
My Least favorite Combo so far is the Kensai/Mage even if you just go to 9 you will be for the whole BG 1 a Hardhitting Monster that's sadly just as Durable like a Wet Noodle
Well at least it's more durable than a Dry Noodle.
There is a rechargeable/affordable item that you can get very early on that sets base AC to 4 (2 vs. missles) for 10 rounds/charge. A kensai with two ranks in single weapon style could easily abtain an AC of -6 and with potions of invulnerability and defense and the right items it's a -11 for the tough fights. And there is always Ghost Armor. Being susceptible to crits is the bigger problem, better have clerics with plenty of healing spells available.
Thief was the class for me back in the day. All the way from BG 1 to the throne of bhaal. But now I'm trying the Mage for the first time. Frustrating at lower levels. But I'm finding to be be incredibly powerful and versatile from level 5 up.
Its just such a versatile build. It may be certainly more effective to play a dual class, but I personally prefer that I can progress with both classes at the same time. I can do almost anything and take almost any role in the party. And now that Beamdog has actually found a solution to the notorious weapon change problem, the class becomes even more rewarding to play. I can't wait to able to change from longswords to a long bow in a fly!
2. Cavalier
He is closest to the classic knight architype. The cavalier (like any paladin) is a natural fit to the party leader position. Its fun to be liked and be the great leader. You can throw that silly charisma ring to somone who actually needs it. Plus the paladin gains access to some of the best weapons in the entire game (if not the best).
As for his abilities... Remove fear is always nice to have at hand and because you're immune to fear and morale failure, you're always able to cast it in the emergency situations. Besides from the roleplaying point of view its satisfying to play a character who can't be frightened. Immunity to poison is just an other great quality of life thing. It basicly trivializes almost every spider encounter in the game. 20% resistance to fire and acid can't be overlooked either, consedering how often you're hit with such spell. Plus +3 bonus to hit and +3 bonus damage against all demonic and draconic creatures, well thank you! And who needs traditional ranged weapons when you can throw an axe!
3. Sorcerer
It just makes sense for the main chracter to have this kind of innate ability to cast magic without any spellbook. And from the gameplay point of view its relaxing for not to worry about the spell book. As a sorcerer I'm always prepared. The early levels are quite tedious, but the progression is so rewarding.
Its just such a versatile build. It may be certainly more effective to play a dual class, but I personally prefer that I can progress with both classes at the same time. I can do almost anything and take almost any role in the party. And now that Beamdog has actually found a solution to the notorious weapon change problem, the class becomes even more rewarding to play. I can't wait to able to change from longswords to a long bow in a fly!
2. Cavalier
He is closest to the classic knight architype. The cavalier (like any paladin) is a natural fit to the party leader position. Its fun to be liked and be the great leader. You can throw that silly charisma ring to somone who actually needs it. Plus the paladin gains access to some of the best weapons in the entire game (if not the best).
As for his abilities... Remove fear is always nice to have at hand and because you're immune to fear and morale failure, you're always able to cast it in the emergency situations. Besides from the roleplaying point of view its satisfying to play a character who can't be frightened. Immunity to poison is just an other great quality of life thing. It basicly trivializes almost every spider encounter in the game. 20% resistance to fire and acid can't be overlooked either, consedering how often you're hit with such spell. Plus +3 bonus to hit and +3 bonus damage against all demonic and draconic creatures, well thank you! And who needs traditional ranged weapons when you can throw an axe!
3. Sorcerer
It just makes sense for the main chracter to have this kind of innate ability to cast magic without any spellbook. And from the gameplay point of view its relaxing for not to worry about the spell book. As a sorcerer I'm always prepared. The early levels are quite tedious, but the progression is so rewarding.
Cavaliers IMO are one of the best and most fun classes to play. Arguably my go to class for any good aligned party, the passive abilities are great and unlike the Inquisitor & Undead Hunter kits you keep Lay On Hands as a nice skill. Your +3 bonus doesn't really do you any good until the 2nd game from what I understand, but poison immunity is awesome for a lot of the BG1 encounters and means a mage can use poison crowd control spells without worrying about your party leader being effected by it.
A Cavalier plus an item that gives you movement freedom means that they're even better than a Ranger for taking out those giant spiders throughout, Spiders Bane is the perfect weapon for a Cavalier and is made really awesome if they end up getting the Boots of Speed (cus they aren't using ranged weapons anyway, they're the perfect candidate for equipment like that).
Overall just an awesome class and great for a beginner to the games that's still different from a plain Fighter. Passive bonuses plus infinite remove fear means the party won't ever worry about as much pre-fight, and saves the spellcasters precious spell slots from not needing spells to deal with fear and poison.
Being able to roleplay as one is just the icing on the cake,
as I feel a Cavalier and Ajantis would be best pals (or a romantic interest if a female Paladin). Two Paladins on the front lines would just be awesome, and the Enhanced Edition added a new bastard sword through Dorn's quest that's perfect for Ajantis to use (I believe it also offers poison immunity). So imagine two Paladins on the front lines who are immune to poison and can heal each other with Lay On Hands in a pinch. With that setup, you could probably skip on having a Cleric in the party if you didn't want one. Not to mention infinite protection from evil abilities and never having to worry about morale failure from pesky Mage spells.
Speaking of one of the other classes you brought up, to me being a Sorcerer would be absolutely great for multiplayer games even if there isn't close to a max party set up for the game. The versatility of that spellcasting and not having to worry about Intelligence for your spellcasting makes it another versatile class for beginners, and offers most of the spellcasting even a large party would need cus you can cast whatever you want, whenever you want while skipping out on the less useful or pointless spells. Less overall spells they can cast to say a specialist Mage, but a specialist mage can't be part of dual classing or multiclassing unless you go for a Gnome multiclass or start off as a Mage first then dual class (dual classing from a Mage is something no one ever really does). Having any spell ready whenever you need it, or having a few extra low level slots available for identifying items or opening up doors/containers makes their spell slots more effective and won't go to waste as much. This is especially so if you're a newer player and don't have the metagame knowledge or experience of what encounters you'll deal with, making the Sorcerer valuable in that sense as well.
Would be interesting to see how a Sorcerer and Cavalier would go together in a party, the Sorcerer not having to worry about removing poison or fear and not having to worry about their crowd control effecting the Cavalier. With enough fire resistance added to the 20% a Cavalier already has, you could hurl fireballs and stuff into the fray and the Cavalier wouldn't be much effected while your enemies burn to a crisp.
@thelovebat Two paladins would never ever do Dorn's quest, though.
From a roleplaying standpoint yeah, it doesn't make much sense.
But you can drop Ajantis from your party temporarily just long enough to finish Dorn's quest so you can get the equipment you want. Ajantis is the only party member in the game that starts with any points in Bastard Swords if I'm remembering correctly, and comes equipped with one when you meet him. And sadly options for other bastard swords are limited, whereas other weapons get some nice options. If there were another way to get a good bastard sword like spending a ton of money at a shop in Baldur's Gate, I'd probably do that as an alternative. Dorn's quest oddly enough benefits Ajantis the most cus it gives him an ideal weapon to use that is easily the best of its type, outside one area in the game where having one of the few other magical bastard swords is a huge help. So unless you plan on using bastard swords for your character Ajantis is a big reason to get that sword, every other NPC benefits better from other weapon types or can't get past 3 points in the skill as a fighter from the level cap.
I've been on a Cleric/Paladin kick for my D&D games for the last few years, but Baldur's Gate is the game that made me fall in love with Thieves. Pure Thief, Fighter/Thief, Thief/Mage...it's all good. The cool hood, backstabbing, and being able to better act with environment make him fun to play.
My favorite class overall is the bard (any variety), just for sheer variety of options in a single-class package. I just like the challenge of playing a class that excels at nothing but has a wide variety of options available. -- of all the classes I've played (and I've played most of them), my bards have always ultimately not only done as well or better than the others, but been more fun as well. With that said, Cavalier and (gnome) Illusionist/Thief are close seconds.
@thelovebat Two paladins would never ever do Dorn's quest, though.
From a roleplaying standpoint yeah, it doesn't make much sense.
But you can drop Ajantis from your party temporarily just long enough to finish Dorn's quest so you can get the equipment you want. Ajantis is the only party member in the game that starts with any points in Bastard Swords if I'm remembering correctly, and comes equipped with one when you meet him. And sadly options for other bastard swords are limited, whereas other weapons get some nice options. If there were another way to get a good bastard sword like spending a ton of money at a shop in Baldur's Gate, I'd probably do that as an alternative. Dorn's quest oddly enough benefits Ajantis the most cus it gives him an ideal weapon to use that is easily the best of its type, outside one area in the game where having one of the few other magical bastard swords is a huge help. So unless you plan on using bastard swords for your character Ajantis is a big reason to get that sword, every other NPC benefits better from other weapon types or can't get past 3 points in the skill as a fighter from the level cap.
I disagree, I played a Cavalier and decided to tolerate his presence to get to the root of the evil, and find out and destroy his patron demon. A ruse such as this would never be attempted by a tried and true AD&D, their code of chivalry forbids it. But the kit is different, it's liken to the undead hunter except they hunt demons and dragons. It's clearly cowardly to attack a kid, but to ferret out the ugly truth and reveal the demon and thereby killing it is the greater good. Dorn is a puppet I used to set a lot of wrongs right. So what did I do with him after his quest line? Alone, at the Friendly Arm Inn, with a cursed helmet on his head.
I usually (nowadays) play the game with Shadowdancer 5 or 9 (depending if BG 1 or 2) and then dual class to mage My favorite animation is actually the Shadow Thief one so I always change my character animation to that And since animation changes to rabbit with dual class for some reason, I get to be a Bhaalspawn rabbit for a while! Sadly I am not as deadly as the one in Monty Python
Clearly, a berserker wins hands down for a one profession character going all the way. Ridiculous across the board immunities.
If you are going to talk about dualing a character, I have right now a "clerserker", went to level 7 berserker then dualed over to cleric. Currently level 12 cleric. Level 7 gave me two berserks a day, and I picked up Grand mastery in flails as well. Currently using the Flail of Ages [of course!] with 2.5 APR.
Thief => mage, Berserker => mage, and cleric => mage all give various advantages to the "mage" part after both professions become active. Depends on your goals. Cleric => mage can give you nasty sequencers, depending on when you dual over your cleric.
Comments
every possible combination will Enhance a Pure Mage, who in it self is allready a good class in the beginning and a godly one in the end.
and the stacked up "Benefits" you get from the First Class will flat out compensate the 1 Spell slot you lose to a Specialized mage (which i don't like in the slightest)
My Favorites sofar are Cleric 7/Mage X (playing it right now)
More HP / More Weaponchoice / Shields/Helmets and a lot of Good not Caster Level Dependent Spells
Second is Swashbuckler 6/Mage X
Slightly more HP than a Pure Mage , Free AC Bonus ,
frees up a party slot for a dedicated thief since you get the full Lockpicking and Trapfinding for the whole saga(and pickpocketing can be done under potion abuse)
slightly better HIT/DMG values
and you can slap a Buckler in your hand if you like slings or darts (hell even throwing daggers), which is better than Holding a Beer(or thin air) , at least during combat.
Both Versions have the Massive benefit of being completable in BG1
My Least favorite Combo so far is the Kensai/Mage even if you just go to 9 you will be for the whole BG 1 a Hardhitting Monster that's sadly just as Durable like a Wet Noodle, sure all those problems are gone in early SoA once the mage kicks in. but BG is still 20-XX Hours deepening on how much you know and do of it. ofc there are ways to work around it like a certain amulet , and a magespell (which bugs the savegame funtion)
With Rogue Rebalancing, assassins get x7 backstab multiplier at level 17 rather than 21, which is rough but still feasible for a dual-class into mage. Then the real fun starts. There's the obvious cheese like infinite backstabs with Mislead (which I don't use) but there are so many spells that can be used creatively. I think that's my favorite thing about a thief/mage over fighter/mage - your spell usage feels much more tactical since you can't brute force your way through the game, but an assassin/mage has even more potential than a fighter/mage when used wisely. By the time the full potential of the assassin/mage is unlocked, you will feel like the true God of Murder.
Its just such a versatile build. It may be certainly more effective to play a dual class, but I personally prefer that I can progress with both classes at the same time. I can do almost anything and take almost any role in the party. And now that Beamdog has actually found a solution to the notorious weapon change problem, the class becomes even more rewarding to play. I can't wait to able to change from longswords to a long bow in a fly!
2. Cavalier
He is closest to the classic knight architype. The cavalier (like any paladin) is a natural fit to the party leader position. Its fun to be liked and be the great leader. You can throw that silly charisma ring to somone who actually needs it. Plus the paladin gains access to some of the best weapons in the entire game (if not the best).
As for his abilities... Remove fear is always nice to have at hand and because you're immune to fear and morale failure, you're always able to cast it in the emergency situations. Besides from the roleplaying point of view its satisfying to play a character who can't be frightened. Immunity to poison is just an other great quality of life thing. It basicly trivializes almost every spider encounter in the game. 20% resistance to fire and acid can't be overlooked either, consedering how often you're hit with such spell. Plus +3 bonus to hit and +3 bonus damage against all demonic and draconic creatures, well thank you! And who needs traditional ranged weapons when you can throw an axe!
3. Sorcerer
It just makes sense for the main chracter to have this kind of innate ability to cast magic without any spellbook. And from the gameplay point of view its relaxing for not to worry about the spell book. As a sorcerer I'm always prepared. The early levels are quite tedious, but the progression is so rewarding.
Being able to roleplay as one is just the icing on the cake,
Speaking of one of the other classes you brought up, to me being a Sorcerer would be absolutely great for multiplayer games even if there isn't close to a max party set up for the game. The versatility of that spellcasting and not having to worry about Intelligence for your spellcasting makes it another versatile class for beginners, and offers most of the spellcasting even a large party would need cus you can cast whatever you want, whenever you want while skipping out on the less useful or pointless spells. Less overall spells they can cast to say a specialist Mage, but a specialist mage can't be part of dual classing or multiclassing unless you go for a Gnome multiclass or start off as a Mage first then dual class (dual classing from a Mage is something no one ever really does). Having any spell ready whenever you need it, or having a few extra low level slots available for identifying items or opening up doors/containers makes their spell slots more effective and won't go to waste as much. This is especially so if you're a newer player and don't have the metagame knowledge or experience of what encounters you'll deal with, making the Sorcerer valuable in that sense as well.
Would be interesting to see how a Sorcerer and Cavalier would go together in a party, the Sorcerer not having to worry about removing poison or fear and not having to worry about their crowd control effecting the Cavalier. With enough fire resistance added to the 20% a Cavalier already has, you could hurl fireballs and stuff into the fray and the Cavalier wouldn't be much effected while your enemies burn to a crisp.
If you are going to talk about dualing a character, I have right now a "clerserker", went to level 7 berserker then dualed over to cleric. Currently level 12 cleric. Level 7 gave me two berserks a day, and I picked up Grand mastery in flails as well. Currently using the Flail of Ages [of course!] with 2.5 APR.
Thief => mage, Berserker => mage, and cleric => mage all give various advantages to the "mage" part after both professions become active. Depends on your goals. Cleric => mage can give you nasty sequencers, depending on when you dual over your cleric.
1) It sucks walking around without my fighter abilities.
2) I miss the fighter HLA's
I'll take a multi class over a dual class just about every time.
I love a lot of classes, and I love solo games.
Sorcerer, Blade, FMT, Fighter/Illusionist, FMC, Fighter/Thief, Cleric/Ranger.
I've come to the conclusion I almost always want to be part warrior.