F/M/T solo on Insane and looking for some tips on it(it may contant some Spoilers).
Vithar
Member Posts: 70
I've recently started again our favorite games and did the BGEE + SoD same as IWDEE and now i want to do the whole BG Saga with a Multiclass of F/M/T.
Even if i consider myself a knowledgeable veteran , i still have some ''black spots.
Basically i want you to explain me how do you build your Character and for what equipment do you aim.
I've never played Multiclass as main character but i know i will need 18/18/18/18/*/as much as i can(and no i don't wanna human influence ring and i don't wanna walk with 10 str waiting for Str buff).
I know that i can get Vecna Robe or the Elven Chain but i have no idea what types of weapons to aim for and how to use them(as SnS , single weap or Dual ?).
I wanna complete the game on Insane as i always do and i don't use (and wont use) any addons / mode / fan patches or console cheats.
There is ton of info on the internet about this and ofc Videos ... but from what i see and read , people use the stuff i mentioned above or just go on core rules.
So if you wish to help or hint - go ahead and share it , but please follow the rules (if you can call them that) above.
Thanks!
Even if i consider myself a knowledgeable veteran , i still have some ''black spots.
Basically i want you to explain me how do you build your Character and for what equipment do you aim.
I've never played Multiclass as main character but i know i will need 18/18/18/18/*/as much as i can(and no i don't wanna human influence ring and i don't wanna walk with 10 str waiting for Str buff).
I know that i can get Vecna Robe or the Elven Chain but i have no idea what types of weapons to aim for and how to use them(as SnS , single weap or Dual ?).
I wanna complete the game on Insane as i always do and i don't use (and wont use) any addons / mode / fan patches or console cheats.
There is ton of info on the internet about this and ofc Videos ... but from what i see and read , people use the stuff i mentioned above or just go on core rules.
So if you wish to help or hint - go ahead and share it , but please follow the rules (if you can call them that) above.
Thanks!
1
Comments
I know my stats should be Max Str/ Dex / Con / Int (lowest Wisdom and if i want Limited Wish i can use pot for 18 Wis) and rest in Cha as much as possible.
The biggest dilemma is Single Weapon , Dual Wield or SnS.
Weapons are a Matter of your Playstyle choice.
-As for Dualwield,
if you take raw Numbers you do best with Scimitars , Drizzt has the best in BG-EE/Sod with wooping +3 enchants and 50% fire resits(only for good characters) and 2AC (for all alignments)
Scimitars also carry nicely over into BG2 .. with BELM+2 as Offhand item being somewhat of a Must have , leaving the mainhand to your weapon of Choice, remember that with 3 million xp you have "use any item" allowing you normally unusable weapons like the paladin bastard sword etc.
-Single Weapon,
its an option if you want to work with sneak attacks since only the Mainhand will do them and 19-20 crit can be interesting. note here that only weapons usable by a SINGE CLASS ROGUE can backstab, outside from that specific scenario it will be sub-par to all other options.
-2Hand Weapon,
Staffs... They are Crushing, you get a quick and Cheap +3 in Ulgoths Beard. for like 5k gold. you can sneak attack with most of them.
once in BG2 you get Staff of Magi , who cant be backstabbed with , but it makes you invisible allowing you to re-hide on the spot and swap back to your Staff of the RAM which is the single most devastating backstab weapon in game, enemy's will explode left and right.
Another very Cheesy 2hand weapon is the 2 Handed Sword...for the more hands on fighter who has no use for silly Sneaking.
your Main tactic for BG1 will be to rush for Cloakwood. get Spiderbane+2 then just cast a web ontop of you and laugh at helpless enemy's while you chop of tender Bits without resistance.
once hitting BG2 3 million xp you can just get Carsomyr+5/6 and make your F/M/T a magic immune bastard.
Amulet of the seldarine-10% mr
Ring of Gaxx-10%mr
Robe of Vecna-10%mr
Bhaal Tear(good)-10%mr
Machine of lum the mad-5%mr
Cloak of Balduran-25%mr
a Very IMPORTANT note on your Stats.
STR/DEX/CON to the Max,
Half-elf if you want Cheap rest/overmap Travel health Regeneration. (Buckly's Buckler+Book)
Elf if you plan on working with Short/Long Swords and/or Bows. they also reach 21 dex for one additional AC
as for INT , you can get away with 15 Starting INT, later on you will get +1 from the Book +1 From deck of many Things and +1 from machine of Lum for a total of 18 INT. since you will only be able to cast LvL8 Spells this is all you need, should your Spellbook hit max spells you can guzzle down a Potion of Mind Focusing to hit Temporary 19+ and write more spells.
as for WIS , again a Starting Value of 15 if you plan on making extended use of Lesser Wish and Wish Spell. with the 3 Books of Baldurs GateEE you hit 18 which is the maximum calculated for Wish.
Note that since you can NOT cast LvL 9 Spells but LvL 8 all you can do is let Simulacrums cast Wish from a scroll., they also could use a Potion of Wisdom so having 15 Wisdom is Optional but allows your Simulacrum to Hold one More item, like a wand of Fireballs or what ever strikes your Fancy.
With Charisma at 3 this Build allows to be Played with a Roll of 87 Points , anything above can be packed into more Charisma.
Thanks for your time and your response guys , i'm decided to go for Dual Weapon Flail + Scim and will start BG1 with Scim and later in SoA and ToB the Flail of Ages +3 /+5 and Spectral Brand in the Off hand as Scim.
Will use the stats that are left for Char than Wisdom , will just use Pot for Wisdom if i want the Wish.
Just remember to put Axe or Halberd pips, for Unyielding(and ranged options) or Ravager, their vorpal will prove handy at later stage
I've been using Archmage robe the entire BG1, and Shield Armlet at the beginning.
robe of the Archmage also has 5 Armor, +1 saving throws and 5%? magic resist , so its the more desirable option, and somewhat faster to get.
Purely from efficiency you will wear Platemail anyhow until (mage lvl5) lvl 3 spells and ghost armor spell (RK2) or (mage lvl7) lvl5 spells Spirit Armor (RK1)
so load your spell book with out of combat support spells like identify and let the magic be done by the cheaty NPC's Edwin and Baeloth they can cast all day long with Evermemory Ring.
As for Edwin , i'm going solo :P
As for why, consider: you mention Flail of Ages and Spectral Brand as your two end-game weapons. Which of those two is better? Judging from the fact that you have Flail of Ages in the main hand, I'd wager you think that's the better weapon.
So, FoA + Spectral Brand will get you 3 hits from FoA and 1 hit from Spectral Brand. But FoA + Belm will get you 4 hits from FoA, and since we established that FoA is better per hit than Spectral Brand, 4 FoA must be better than 3 FoA and 1 Spectral Brand.
And then above and beyond that, you get your one hit from Belm for free. If an enemy is not immune, that's free damage. But even if the enemy *is* immune to your Belm attack, you're still dealing more damage overall by equipping Belm in your off-hand.
(Plus, with thief levels you get access to the Scarlet Ninja-To for your offhand weapon, which is even better still.)
Obviously this is all a long time off either way.
I take the blunt damage in main hand because the majority of enemies in this game are not resistant or take more from Blunt than Slash.
As an off-hand that grants major bonus - i was using Hindo's Doom with my Blade years ago to prevent instant deaths.
Imagine you have two weapons. The first deals 100 damage per attack, the second deals 99 damage per attack. You could dual-wield them, giving you three attacks with your 100-damage weapon plus one attack with your 99-damage weapon for a total of 399 damage.
Now, imagine you could replace that 99-damage weapon in your offhand with Belm, but every enemy in the game is immune to +2-enchanted weapons and Belm will actually deal zero damage. Still, now you get four attacks per round with your 100-damage weapon for a total of 400 damage. Despite the fact that Belm is dealing literally zero damage, equipping it in your offhand actually boosts your damage more than equipping a super-amazing end-game one-hander.
(And even though more and more enemies become resistant to +2 weapons as the game goes on, Belm will never reach a point where it's consistently dealing zero damage for long stretches, so the comparison is more favorable to the speed weapons in practice.)
Spectral Brand is a great weapon, but unless you really, really, really need that negative plane protection, (and really, as a solo character you should have Amulet of Power equipped pretty much all the time), there's no reason to ever use it in your off-hand. Either it's the most damaging one-hander you have, in which case you should put it in your mainhand with Belm or SNT in the off-hand, or else it's *not* the most damaging one-hander you have, in which case you should put that other one-hander in your mainhand with Belm or SNT in the off-hand.
(This is strictly from a powergame standpoint; if there's a roleplaying reason you want it in your offhand, or if you just really like it for flavor purposes, obviously it's not like it's going to be a *bad* choice by any stretch. Just not optimal.)
Something like Hindo's Doom in the off-hand can make a lot of sense, though. Arbane's Sword, Sword of Arvoreen, Adjatha the Drinker, Blackrazor, etc. can also give some useful immunities. Those are more defensive choices; from an offensive standpoint, no weapon can top Belm / Scarlet Ninja-To, other than Crom Faeyr in certain circumstances.
I understand your calculation but what happens when you reach max attacks per round?
With stuff like Improved Haste , WW and GWW.Wouldn't then be best to hit with your off-hand?
Improved Haste doesn't change the math since it's just a straight doubling of your standard attacks. In other words, the relative worth of two weapon setups remains unchanged, it's just that the size of the gap between them just doubles. The better setup without IH is the better setup with IH, just twice as much so.
Hitting the 5 APR cap can change the math; with 13 fighter levels, Grandmastery, Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise, and dual-wielding, you're getting 4.5 attacks per round and equipping a speed weapon in the off-hand only gets you an extra half attack instead of a full attack. In that case, without specifically crunching the numbers, I'd assume Crom Faeyr will almost always be the best choice for off-hand weapon, (offensively, at least).
But you need to be a pureclass / dual-class fighter to get to 4.5 APR without a speed weapon. For multiclasses like a F/M/T you're limited to Specialization, which means only 4 APR and a speed weapon to take you to 5 is almost always the best offensive choice.
The math is different for Whirlwind and Greater Whirlwind; if you want to optimize that damage, you're actually better off unequipping your off-hand weapon entirely and going with single weapon style, (or else equipping a great 2-hander and using 2-handed weapon style). But yes, FoA/Spectral Brand will deal more damage than FoA/Scarlet Ninja-To while under the effects of Greater Whirlwind, (but FoA alone is better than either).