Though I'm a bit of a powergamer I'd recommend sorcerer. Although spells may run out from time to time a majority of sorc offense comes from wand discharges. Wand of fire particularly. As long as you manage your funds and let your mage heavy character like Dynaheir and Aerie cast most of the offensice spells Sorc is very valuable as an ancillary spellcastor that incidentally can use Wands or even cast offensive spells directly from reading scrolls. Aside from Baeloth an overpowered easter egg character there is no other Sorceror in a game. Allowing this class to have it's own distinctive niche trilogy long.
Blades level fast and are the jack of all trades but with Haer'dalis being in SoA it's fairly redundant. Even if you don't necesarily plan on using him as an NPC just knowing that the fringe option is available diminishes the blade's value in my opinion.
Paladin is really only useful for SoA end-game and certain boss battles. It has a very limited utility and just comes off as a sword wielding Cleirc with less good spells in the long run. Fairly boring in my opinion. Plus with Keldorn being the best Pally since sliced bread just why? Unless you want a heavily resistant elemental tank of a Cavalier but even then with potions being so widely available unless you really want to RP hard come end-game it's of very little value.
Stalker from a role-playing perspective is nice but in terms of functionality the on Ranger based class that has long term utility in my opinion is Cleric/Ranger as it has both the benefits of Cleric and Ranger with only the downside of not being able to use bows. Big whoop. Come SoA ranged attacks become severely ineffective compared to BGEE where there are generally more options in ammunition to choose from. Archer in this context which would otherwise be a great kit is nerfed massively because of this. Back on the topic of Stalker though it's basically a Thief/Cleric/Mage that fills none of these roles adequately enough to justify using come ToB with none of the major benefits. Fighter/Thief can do everything Stalker can but better with one expception I won't mention due to spoilers.
Given the selection above I'd go Sorcerer as a run. Dragon Disciple if you're interested in RPing because of the following points:
-Sorcerers on leveling have access to spells your standard NPC mages might not gain until much later in the game if at all. Especially compared to Bards that cap on spell levels at level 6 as opposed to the Sorcerer's 9th level spells. (Ex, Cast invisibility at a 10ft radius, Melf's Minute Meteors, etc.)
-Sorcerers can counterbalance your NPC spellcasters by being more stat buffing/Defensively oriented. (Example: They can use spells like Haste, Slow, Glitterdust, and Web while your NPCs cast offensive damage spells like fireball to complement your sorc spells as you move your party out of harm's way.)
-Sorcerer can cast spells from scrolls. Meaning even if you do manage to exhaust it's spells as long as you plan accordingly and buy spell scrolls often it'll always have a measure of utility.
-Sorcerers can use wands as per Bard or Mage meaning a majority of it's spells slots can be used for more effective slots like skull trap or haste instead of fireball or lightning while they can still contribute meaningfully from an offensive standpoint. Blades can do the last two points as well but in my opinion they're a bit of a wash offensively when fighting in melee and their only notable thieving ability before reaching HLA's is pickpocket. They just pale in comparison to solid classes like Sorcerer that are well defined and are fairly rare as a class when it comes to NPCs.
Thanks for all the advice everyone. I ended up doing the berserker/cleric dual and just finished SOA. I enjoyed it but didn't feel that much different to a pure cleric that I'd played before as far as gameplay went (just playing on core rules). I stopped before ToB so I might do a sorcerer run next and then have a couple of options for ToB.
If you"ve played a mage oriented class before, have the CLUAConsole active, and want to spice up your run (at least for BGEE) the code CLUA:CreateItem("PSTAFMOE") might entertain you.
Ideally PSTAFM0E- Chapter 1 PSTAFMpD- Chapter 2-3 PSTAFM0C- Chapter 3-4 PSTAFM0B- Chaper 5-6 (Or at the final floor of Durlag's tower)
There are other versions of this staff with "P___"M0 and "P___"M1 but for BG:EE they're fairly overpowered and none of these staves are available via CLUA Console for BG2EE. To get them in you'd have to modify your saved game file which may or may not be worth the hassle. Enjoy!
Comments
Blades level fast and are the jack of all trades but with Haer'dalis being in SoA it's fairly redundant. Even if you don't necesarily plan on using him as an NPC just knowing that the fringe option is available diminishes the blade's value in my opinion.
Paladin is really only useful for SoA end-game and certain boss battles. It has a very limited utility and just comes off as a sword wielding Cleirc with less good spells in the long run. Fairly boring in my opinion. Plus with Keldorn being the best Pally since sliced bread just why? Unless you want a heavily resistant elemental tank of a Cavalier but even then with potions being so widely available unless you really want to RP hard come end-game it's of very little value.
Stalker from a role-playing perspective is nice but in terms of functionality the on Ranger based class that has long term utility in my opinion is Cleric/Ranger as it has both the benefits of Cleric and Ranger with only the downside of not being able to use bows. Big whoop. Come SoA ranged attacks become severely ineffective compared to BGEE where there are generally more options in ammunition to choose from. Archer in this context which would otherwise be a great kit is nerfed massively because of this. Back on the topic of Stalker though it's basically a Thief/Cleric/Mage that fills none of these roles adequately enough to justify using come ToB with none of the major benefits. Fighter/Thief can do everything Stalker can but better with one expception I won't mention due to spoilers.
Given the selection above I'd go Sorcerer as a run. Dragon Disciple if you're interested in RPing because of the following points:
-Sorcerers on leveling have access to spells your standard NPC mages might not gain until much later in the game if at all. Especially compared to Bards that cap on spell levels at level 6 as opposed to the Sorcerer's 9th level spells. (Ex, Cast invisibility at a 10ft radius, Melf's Minute Meteors, etc.)
-Sorcerers can counterbalance your NPC spellcasters by being more stat buffing/Defensively oriented. (Example: They can use spells like Haste, Slow, Glitterdust, and Web while your NPCs cast offensive damage spells like fireball to complement your sorc spells as you move your party out of harm's way.)
-Sorcerer can cast spells from scrolls. Meaning even if you do manage to exhaust it's spells as long as you plan accordingly and buy spell scrolls often it'll always have a measure of utility.
-Sorcerers can use wands as per Bard or Mage meaning a majority of it's spells slots can be used for more effective slots like skull trap or haste instead of fireball or lightning while they can still contribute meaningfully from an offensive standpoint. Blades can do the last two points as well but in my opinion they're a bit of a wash offensively when fighting in melee and their only notable thieving ability before reaching HLA's is pickpocket. They just pale in comparison to solid classes like Sorcerer that are well defined and are fairly rare as a class when it comes to NPCs.
If you"ve played a mage oriented class before, have the CLUAConsole active, and want to spice up your run (at least for BGEE) the code CLUA:CreateItem("PSTAFMOE") might entertain you.
Ideally
PSTAFM0E- Chapter 1
PSTAFMpD- Chapter 2-3
PSTAFM0C- Chapter 3-4
PSTAFM0B- Chaper 5-6 (Or at the final floor of Durlag's tower)
There are other versions of this staff with "P___"M0 and "P___"M1 but for BG:EE they're fairly overpowered and none of these staves are available via CLUA Console for BG2EE. To get them in you'd have to modify your saved game file which may or may not be worth the hassle. Enjoy!