I find the Cleric/Illusionist great throughout the entire game. I like to roll high, so I can max out int/wis and use as a ghetto bard to identify things for me. The low level wizard and cleric spells turn my Cleric/Illusionist into a crowd control juggernaut. And at higher levels, with contingencies/triggers, a walking apocalypse.
I have been playing with a priest lathander, the difficulty with playing with a cleric earlier on specially when he does not have very high ability scores and due to his starting hit points.
Also keep in mind, I only recruit characters who are Good or Neutral, since I am roleplaying as a Neutral Good Priest of Lathander, my character also has very strong ethics and he refuses to work with Evil, specially necromancers.
My main strategy is to at least get Ajantis as soon as possible with a Platemail so he can at least he can do the tanking semi properly, then in combination with the Gauntlets of dexterity, he should be able to do it with no issues at all.(Also the Gauntlets might be better for Mincs, it kinda depends, the fact that Ajantis is using a shield can kinda balance the fact that he has a low dexterity)
Kivan is extremely helpful earlier on dealing with ogres, for the most part he can single-handedly kill them with 1-2 arrows, give him a composite bow and he wrecks them, that in combination with your bless spell and it's golden, the main issue is that getting him earlier on makes it harder for you to finish his quest.
I generally do not recruit Jaheira and Khalid because Khalid does not have good ability scores for a fighter, his Constitution and Dexterity are good, but his strength makes him unreliable earlier on, the reason I prefer Ajantis is that he has 17 Strength which gives him a +1 Hit Adjustment and +2 Damage Adj(+1 Damage Adj from 16 Strength, +1Hit Adj and +1 Damage Adj from 17 Strength) On the other plus side Ajantis starts off at level 2, so he has -Thac0, sure he he starts with less -4 hit points, 4 hit points in the long run does not matter.
Now as soon as you get to Beregost, consider getting Neera, or you can just get to Nashkel as quickly as possible to get Mincs and do his quest to save Dynaheir, once you do that, you have a party of 5 including yourself, which should be sufficient.
Now after doing the Mines Quest with this group, from this point I generally try and do as many sidequests as I can get so I can earn a fair bit of experience, once that's done, I recruit Kivan and try to deal with the bandit camp problem, so I can have him as party member without any issues.
So for me, I would have Ajantis,Mincs,Kivan,Me,Imoen,Dynaheir, keep in mind that at one point and as soon as you get Holy Might which would be at level 7, that's when you can finally become a somewhat reliably frontliner, although I would only use the Priest of Lathander as a frontliner as a last resort or at least when I know that the enemy I am fighting does not have some nasty attacks.
Overall I think a Pure Cleric can be fairly reliable, you will struggle a bit on the start till you start getting party members but once they start getting experience and decent gear, they start rolling, since you are a Cleric by default you make your party much more powerful anyways and you are a reliable frontliner when you are needed.
I started a BG:EE run as a gnome cleric/illusionist, but I got kind of tired of being pretty useless while the rest of the team did all the work. I know this will improve over time, but for my first BG -> SoD -> BG2 playthrough I want to have a bit more of a direct impact on the fights (and I like to not suck during trash fights). I switched to a fighter/illusionist and am enjoying it so far. I do miss turn undead and having loads of cleric spells (I only have Jaheira in my party as a priest), but I snipe everything with my composite longbow now so that is nice .
Gnomes are just so OP as mages that I can't put myself to make a non-gnome mage now. Which is kinda sad, since I mostly prefer to RP a human or a (half-)elf in Baldur's Gate. The forced illusionist specialization alone is enough to make them stronger than other multi-class mage races, but add the shorty saves to that and it is a done deal.
That is also why I am thinking about making a dual classes char (forced human) or a multi-class without mage (with a cleric in it). I really liked the old cleric/ranger (with all druid spells), but I don't want to cheat and turn the druid spells back on. I should probably continue playing my character though and not reroll another char , even though a cleric is pretty tempting.
I'm currently deeply enthralled with a EEkeepered Dwarven Cleric/Swashbuckler multiclass playthrough. It's the closest thing to a fighter/cleric/thief in the game, and a blast to play thus far
I took some liberties and allowed ** in warhammer. I just can't do dwarf without hammer.
I've had a lot of fun with a cleric dualed to a ranger using minor buffs to complement his fighting skills but it is just not as good as the other way around.
I would use the Ranger/Cleric for Frontline, or the Spelldrone aka Cleric Illusionist (gnome) for the back. Both are pretty powefull in their ways. By the way, the Finalfantasy Whitemage isnt weak, but yust boring. (healing in FF is op)
I'm a cleric person. Maybe because I'm not a powergamer. I used to love the Priest of Lathander, but now that Helm's clerics can be good, I'm playing one of those. That seeking sword is wicked at low level. It kind of feels like cheating.
I really enjoyed C/M in my first ever play through, many years ago, yet my favorite is a Berserker 9/ Cleric, with maxed out War Hammers, maxed 2W style, maxed S&S style, and then some points in anything you like (Mace, Flail, Sling for whatever reasons)
It's really nice having negative thac0, plenty of HP, rage and full arsenal of divine cleric powers . I soloed with B9/C throughout SoA, ToB and Black Pits II, and it felt like I was a juggernaut of destruction
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Also keep in mind, I only recruit characters who are Good or Neutral, since I am roleplaying as a Neutral Good Priest of Lathander, my character also has very strong ethics and he refuses to work with Evil, specially necromancers.
My main strategy is to at least get Ajantis as soon as possible with a Platemail so he can at least he can do the tanking semi properly, then in combination with the Gauntlets of dexterity, he should be able to do it with no issues at all.(Also the Gauntlets might be better for Mincs, it kinda depends, the fact that Ajantis is using a shield can kinda balance the fact that he has a low dexterity)
Kivan is extremely helpful earlier on dealing with ogres, for the most part he can single-handedly kill them with 1-2 arrows, give him a composite bow and he wrecks them, that in combination with your bless spell and it's golden, the main issue is that getting him earlier on makes it harder for you to finish his quest.
I generally do not recruit Jaheira and Khalid because Khalid does not have good ability scores for a fighter, his Constitution and Dexterity are good, but his strength makes him unreliable earlier on, the reason I prefer Ajantis is that he has 17 Strength which gives him a +1 Hit Adjustment and +2 Damage Adj(+1 Damage Adj from 16 Strength, +1Hit Adj and +1 Damage Adj from 17 Strength)
On the other plus side Ajantis starts off at level 2, so he has -Thac0, sure he he starts with less -4 hit points, 4 hit points in the long run does not matter.
Now as soon as you get to Beregost, consider getting Neera, or you can just get to Nashkel as quickly as possible to get Mincs and do his quest to save Dynaheir, once you do that, you have a party of 5 including yourself, which should be sufficient.
Now after doing the Mines Quest with this group, from this point I generally try and do as many sidequests as I can get so I can earn a fair bit of experience, once that's done, I recruit Kivan and try to deal with the bandit camp problem, so I can have him as party member without any issues.
So for me, I would have Ajantis,Mincs,Kivan,Me,Imoen,Dynaheir, keep in mind that at one point and as soon as you get Holy Might which would be at level 7, that's when you can finally become a somewhat reliably frontliner, although I would only use the Priest of Lathander as a frontliner as a last resort or at least when I know that the enemy I am fighting does not have some nasty attacks.
Overall I think a Pure Cleric can be fairly reliable, you will struggle a bit on the start till you start getting party members but once they start getting experience and decent gear, they start rolling, since you are a Cleric by default you make your party much more powerful anyways and you are a reliable frontliner when you are needed.
I switched to a fighter/illusionist and am enjoying it so far. I do miss turn undead and having loads of cleric spells (I only have Jaheira in my party as a priest), but I snipe everything with my composite longbow now so that is nice
Gnomes are just so OP as mages that I can't put myself to make a non-gnome mage now. Which is kinda sad, since I mostly prefer to RP a human or a (half-)elf in Baldur's Gate. The forced illusionist specialization alone is enough to make them stronger than other multi-class mage races, but add the shorty saves to that and it is a done deal.
That is also why I am thinking about making a dual classes char (forced human) or a multi-class without mage (with a cleric in it). I really liked the old cleric/ranger (with all druid spells), but I don't want to cheat and turn the druid spells back on. I should probably continue playing my character though and not reroll another char
I took some liberties and allowed ** in warhammer. I just can't do dwarf without hammer.
Both are pretty powefull in their ways.
By the way, the Finalfantasy Whitemage isnt weak, but yust boring. (healing in FF is op)
It's really nice having negative thac0, plenty of HP, rage and full arsenal of divine cleric powers
I soloed with B9/C throughout SoA, ToB and Black Pits II, and it felt like I was a juggernaut of destruction