memoirs of a solo cleric/mage (spoilers galore)

[Pregethwr]

warning long post.



I have finally finished soloing my cleric/mage and I thought I would record my impressions.

First of all this is a great fun multi to play however it is not so good in a 6 man party since you take so long to level up.

I chose cleric/mage rather than a gnomish cleric/illusionist because I thought I'd miss some of the necromancy spells. I didn't. The -1 to wisdom is a problem but is more than compensated by the extra mage spells. Clerics get all the best necromancy spells except horrid wilting and that has too long a cast time to be very useful. cleric/illusionist is the way forward.

I got a good roll and my starting stats were st 10 dex 18 con 18 int 18 wis 18 cha 6. You need a bit of strength so you can carry stuff out of Irenicus' dungeon, but apart from that it along with charisma is irrelevant due to items.

For alignment I chose true neutral, but I think lawful good or lawful evil would be better so your familiar can fight a bit in the early stages. After that they sit in your backpack.

Irenicus' dungeon was tricky but not that bad. My skeletons could kill most things along with my draw on holy might and righteous magic. Sanctuary became a standby - it gives you an amazing ability to scout. Detect traps and knock allow you to do most of the thief stuff. But you have to take (or avoid) trap damage. Due to cleric buffing you can avoid the worst effects.

It was after coming out of the dungeon that things were hard. For a while everything can kill you. You just have to keep your head down, do easy quests, slowly get stronger. The copper coronet is a good starting place after you have done a few fetch and carry quests.

After a while you will get strong enough to do the D'Arniss keep. Then you are away.

Unfortunately I had ToB installed so sometime after the underdark I got too powerful for SoA. On reflection I should have done it with the SoA exp cap for more of a challenge.

The toughest fight I faced was in the planar sphere (which I went to early) when I needed to kill a demon for its heart. This was hard due to its ability to regenerate - a bummer for spellcasters who have to wait until the next round to cast another spell, and are too weak to melee. I killed it. Just. With my final bolt of glory.

I face the shadow dragon quite early and he was a big challenge (much running around, cast lower resistence, run some more etc). I never faced Gaxx but the demi-lich in Tob was easy due to spell immunity. Firkraag was easy since I discovered the combination that was to make my game possible....

Robe of Vecna and improved alacrity. It may be possible for me to have finished without this but it would have been much harder.

So many spell have casting time of 1 with robe of vecna that you can cast improved alacrity and empty your spell book. Even better you can cast project image first and then you have only cast 1 spell and everybody is dead.

For a long time the cleric part of the character was more powerful. Sanctuary, raise dead, summon deva, energy blades, implosion, heal, globe of blades, heal, holy smite. All kick-ass spells you get much earlier than their mage equivelent. Plus clerics can wield Flail of Ages and Crom Fayer plus have a decent thaco towards the end. The only problem was lack of attacks. ths could only be sorted by improved haste, and then to a maximum of 4.

I was suprised, especially with mage buffs like stoneskin and mirror image, how deadly I was in melee. When I got spell trigger and the tensers, improved haste, proptection for magical weapons (or globe of blades) combo I was a monster.

However in Throne of Bhaal the mage part started to assert itself. Implosion was still the offensive spell of choice, but in ToB dealing cruel and brutal damage is the key and mage spells do this best (skull trap anyone?).

Throughout the game I had problems with certain types of enemy a) those that regenerated very quickly b)those in a group c) those immune (note NOT resistant - they were easy) to magic.

Of the major battles in ToB Balthazar and Sendai were challenging but not impossible. Draconis and Abizigal were difficult due to their two states but I did both with project image.
Melissan was hard but with the project image/wish trick not that hard (she is resistant not immune to magic so she was toast). The hardest two battles were the ravager and demigorgan since I had to go mano a mano with them in melee due to their insane magic resistance. I think demigorgan was hardest. I defeated him with a simmy casting breach while attacking him with tensor's/improved haste and protection for magical weapons (very useful spelln when you have tear of bhaal immunity from normal weapons). It was touch and gi but I took him.

As far as equipment is concerned I went for cleric/mage improvements rather than general improvements. So robe of vecna, holy symbol, ring of wizardry (from planar sphere) circlet of neth-thingy, boots of speed, girdle of XXXX strength.

I highly recomment this class for play but not in a 6 man party, in solo or 4 man party it would be great - the ultimate spellcaster. I will be playing one in NWN.

I think I have now played the hell out of BG2 - here's waiting for IWD2.

- Pregethwr (the Preacher)

[Dark Rook]

If yer willing to take the time, a cleric of lathander/mage can be far more powerful (can achieve 10 hits per round)

[Xyx]

Originally posted by Pregethwr
For alignment I chose true neutral, but I think lawful good or lawful evil would be better so your familiar can fight a bit in the early stages. After that they sit in your backpack.

The Fairy Dragon (Chaotic Good) can cast Invisibility 10' Radius, which will always have at least some use. I wouldn't recommend using any familiar in combat. Ever.

Originally posted by Pregethwr
The toughest fight I faced was in the planar sphere (which I went to early) when I needed to kill a demon for its heart. This was hard due to its ability to regenerate - a bummer for spellcasters who have to wait until the next round to cast another spell, and are too weak to melee.

Did you try throwing Melf's Minute Meteors in between spells? You can get in 3-5 of those if you wear The Robe.

Originally posted by Pregethwr
The hardest two battles were the ravager and demigorgan since I had to go mano a mano with them in melee due to their insane magic resistance.

Did you cast Lower Resistance?

Originally posted by Pregethwr
I highly recomment this class for play but not in a 6 man party, in solo or 4 man party it would be great - the ultimate spellcaster. I will be playing one in NWN.

You'd be disappointed... Under 3rd Edition rules, every level you take in one class is one less level in another class. You could be a level 10/10 Cleric/Wizard (or 5/15 or whatever), or simply a level 20 Cleric or Wizard. Spellcasters don't gain much when multiclassing, especially not Clerics (since they can already fight).

Originally posted by Dark Rook
If yer willing to take the time, a cleric of lathander/mage can be far more powerful (can achieve 10 hits per round)

This would mean dual classing instead of multiclassing... You'd not gain any of the Mage's quest spells, unless you dual so late that you'd be either a straight Mage or a straight Cleric for most of the game.

[Pregethwr]

thx for the replies

from my experience if you are careful familiars are fine for combat in Irenuicus' dungeon especially the lawful good, lawful evil (with polymorph self) and the chaotic evil (regenerates very fast). I know about the chaotic good but I had the cleric spell sanctuary - why would I need invisibility?

Good idea about the cleric of lathandar but as Xyx says I was multi classing, since I was soloing I could have dual-classed but it would have meant an eternity waiting to get the cleric spells back and frankly I couldn't be bothered.

Melf's between spell casting was indeed one of my strategies (and later discs) however at the level I was I just wasn't packing the punch I needed - the demon's regeneration ability came from some ability to suck away my hit points over distance (a vampiric touch variant) so I was also busy drinking potions, perhaps a spell immunity necromancy would have helped me.

As far as I could see the ravager and the demogorgan are immune to every spell up to (and possibly including) level 8 so I could not lower resistence them. They are also immune to time stop and imprisonment. The demogorgan was harmed by my deva and by magical swords, the ravager only by swords - perhaps both could be killed by project image/summon many times.

Sorry to hear about 3e rules - which I don't know, perhaps there is some way around , or perhaps I can find a different class to fall for.

Cheers