Favourite Class

Luis Antonio · Post by **Luis Antonio** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 4:27 am

Clerics are hard to finish the game too... I remember trying to finish with one three times before actually doing it.

Moonbiter · Post by **Moonbiter** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 11:23 am

I've played the game about 5 times, and tried most of the combos, but I end up with a Half-Elf Fighter/Thief or Fighter/Mage. The whole package of Fighter/Mage/Thief is also good. I like a hight Dex to cancel out the need for heavy armour, so being a bit of a thief is very useful. Besides, Imoen is pretty useless until the second game. Finding a decent mage takes time, so it's also nice to be able to do the Fireball-thingy early on. Oh, and if you install the expansion pack ToTSC, the game will actually give you better hits in darkness and under ground if you play a race with Night Vision.

Squee · Post by **Squee** » Sat Feb 14, 2004 3:13 am

Conjurer/mage ??? That sounds pretty munchkin to me!! Can yuo really combine two mages in BG1?!

Curry · Post by **Curry** » Sat Feb 14, 2004 5:18 am

Originally posted by Squee
Conjurer/mage ??? That sounds pretty munchkin to me!! Can yuo really combine two mages in BG1?!

Nah he means the conjurer is the mage

Rhûn · Post by **Rhûn** » Tue Feb 17, 2004 8:43 am

I keep replaying Baldur's Gate before I get anywhere far. This time I've got the furthest, to chapter 4 in the cloakwood mines, character levels 4/5, 2 with anheg armour, one with full plate mail and a huge amount of money. However, although my main character is very strong, hes like a replica of Kivan - Elven ranger, even looks the same, I cant tell the difference usually.
Already I'm thinking about restarting (please someone stop me), I'd like to try a mage but I always seem to get stuck very early on.

Armycardinal · Post by **Armycardinal** » Tue Feb 17, 2004 11:27 am

I tried a straight (no specialization) Mage and had a lot of fun with her. If you start over with a mage, have Imoen put her thieving skills to detect trap and pick lock (until you can get "Knock"

) Put your weapon specializations into "Sling" and "Quatrer staff". (As there are quite a few magical slings and staves)

Advantages of a "vanilla" Mage: (and I'm sure there are more)

1) You get to memorize all of the spells.
2) You keep (and memorize) all of the scrolls.
3) YOU get the cool rings (Like Rings of Wizardry)
4) You keep all of the wands.

Disadvantages:

1) Low HP (can make for a lot of restarts)
2) As you have seen, it's only you and Imoen at the start, until you get to Xzar and Monty (and Jahiera and Khalid).
3) Probably can't carry a lot of stuff - but that's what Minsc is for.
4) Did I mention LOW HP. To help with this, memorize "Shield" right off. (In addition to Identify and Magic Missile)

If you are patient enough, you could have some really "alterable" ability scores too:

Str: 12ish
Dex: 17 (to start off)
Int: 18
Wis: 15
Con: 16 (if you aren't a fighter type the HP bonus is the same)
Cha: 10-12 ish (Have someone else talk and buy stuff)

So take some off your Str, Wis, and Cha and add them to Int. There are a number of older threads that deal with what your ability score numbers should add up to (over 85) IMHO.

Small Spoiler:

There are enough "special" items in the game that you can raise your ability scores one point each in Str, Dex, Con, Cha, and Int and a whopping THREE in Wis (if you have ToSC installed).

SPOILER'S OVER...Read On

Wisdom isn't all that important until you get to SoA and earn the ability to use the "Wish" spell.

Anyway, I had a blast playing my mage - right now she is trucking around ToB, a veritable "Juggernaut of Destruction."

Anyway, hope this helps...

AC

Armycardinal · Post by **Armycardinal** » Tue Feb 17, 2004 11:32 am

I almost forgot...

Lots of "Hit and Run" tactics...as Khalid says, 'Better part of valor. Better part of valor.' By now, you should have already found/used the Monster Summoning Wand.

THIS is what you need if your party is getting run over by kobolds, gibberlings, etc. "Web" spell (carefully placed) is also a good hit and run spell.

AC

Antharias2k · Post by **Antharias2k** » Sat Feb 28, 2004 5:20 pm

The Necromancer and the Thief.

I just seem to love this thing about dealing with the dead and dealing with magic that deals with death.

I also like this whole thing about taking things which are not yours and never returning them. It is like death. You take life and you never return it at ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Antharias2k

CrownHead · Post by **CrownHead** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 6:42 pm

Thief is my favorite. I've played other classes all the way through but I like the thief much better. Nowadays any class I play with will either be a thief or was a thief or something involving a thief.

In my opinion, I think thieves were funner to wander around with in BG than in BG2, lot's of houses to loot and countless treasures and the like. In SoA they just got uber powerful (if you use them right

) and in ToB was ridiculous with Use Any Item and the Traps and Assassination and that type of stuff.

ElesarTheStrong · Post by **ElesarTheStrong** » Tue Mar 02, 2004 12:00 pm

I like Fighter/Mage best. He is good in combat and at higher levels in SoA, he had a chain contiency which had Tome Stop and Wail of the Banshee in it.

JackOfClubs · Post by **JackOfClubs** » Tue Mar 02, 2004 6:43 pm

Originally posted by ElesarTheStrong
I like Fighter/Mage best. He is good in combat and at higher levels in SoA, he had a chain contiency which had Tome Stop and Wail of the Banshee in it.

Uh, how'd you manage that? Chain contingency is limited to 8th level spells and below. Time Stop and Wail are both 9th level spells.

ElesarTheStrong · Post by **ElesarTheStrong** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 11:06 am

No. In the spell description it clearly states: Spells of any level can be used in the Chain Contingency .

JackOfClubs · Post by **JackOfClubs** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 3:30 pm

Yes, but you can't always trust the spell description. In actual practice level 9 spells are not available for selection. See Xyx's spell guide for confirmation.

I think the spell description was probably written under the assumption that the level cap would not allow 9th level spells to be cast except by scroll in SoA.

Peter White88 · Post by **Peter White88** » Sun Mar 07, 2004 10:37 am

Being a Conjurer rules.

Without a doubt it is one of the best.

Though I do feel that the specialist class kits in SOA and TOB are a bit too many for me.

I'm very picky,it takes me ages to define a strategy for whoever i'm going to play.

Any of you guys ever do that?

Take about 1 hour to decide which class and kit your going to be?

It takes me ages on all BG games.

And when BG3 comes out i hope they come up with a hell of alot more of them.

It's kinda fun getting lost in choice.

Anyway...

My Conjurer is flying through BG1 and ToTSC because i kind of know exactly how to use the guy and i have used the Tomes to enhance his wisdom and intelligence.

Example:I don't need to use Identify scrolls anymore...

And conjuurers can automatically discern good from evil so you can uncover a trap or plot quite quickly.

So conjurer is the best class of mage for BG.

chimpmaster · Post by **chimpmaster** » Sun Mar 07, 2004 5:56 pm

Hi Peter

Yeah I know what you mean about getting lost in the decision making process.

Its fun looking at all of the classes and weighing up the pros and cons before making that all important decision - especially if you intend to play from BG1 right through the series.

I am currently playing through as a skald and enjoying it very much. People knock bards but I swear this guy kicks butt!

He is currently Level 14, and has 94 HP, AC -4, and uses halberds (dragonbane halberd +3) and longbows (elven court bow +3).

Str 18, Dex 18 (gauntlets of dex), con 16, cha 16, int 15. His thaco (adjusted) is 9 with the halberd and 6 with the bow. ( used all the tomes in bg1 to get here).

I have also just got him the melodic chain (+3 chain, bards only, allows spellcasting).

He is tough enough to support my fighters in the front line, but I can move him to the back and switch roles between archer, bard and caster as required.

I went for the skald over the blade for a couple of reasons. Firstly I wanted an effective bard song the whole way through. People say the HLA enhanced bard song makes this obsolete, but you wont get this until around level 25 and have a useless song up until then as a skald.

Secondly more lore is awesome already - at about 140 i think, i can already indentify any item without magic. Finally I wanted to go for a two handed weapon/bow combo for equipped items, and you cant do this with a dual wielding blade.

So all in all an excellent choice. I highly recommend the skald, though you do need good stats to make it work. I was fortunate in that every time I levelled up I rolled between a 4 and a 6 (+2 for con making it 6-8 HP per level) - this is essential for a bard in my opinion. I will have 100 HP at level 17 which is around where you need to be.

So right now the bard is my favourite. My second favourite would probably be a druid or cleric (specialized). I like rangers and fighters too (specializations).

I have not tried to play a paladin as yet, but I think a cavalier or undead hunter would be a fun - keldorn as an NPC certianly kicks ass.

Anyway enough rambling from me - in short Skald is my fav right now.

Coot · Post by **Coot** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 2:46 am

Re: Hi Peter

Originally posted by chimpmaster
Firstly I wanted an effective bard song the whole way through. People say the HLA enhanced bard song makes this obsolete, but you wont get this until around level 25 and have a useless song up until then as a skald.

I don't remember exactly, but I think I read a couple of times that the HLA enhanced bard song actually isn't as good als the Skald's. Doesn't the skald's song keep getting better?
Also, when you choose this HLA, the skald's song is no longer available to you. It gets replaced by the HLA song.

Coot · Post by **Coot** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 2:46 am

Re: Hi Peter

Originally posted by chimpmaster
Firstly I wanted an effective bard song the whole way through. People say the HLA enhanced bard song makes this obsolete, but you wont get this until around level 25 and have a useless song up until then as a skald.

I don't remember exactly, but I think I read a couple of times that the HLA enhanced bard song actually isn't as good als the Skald's. Doesn't the skald's song keep getting better?
Also, when you choose this HLA, the skald's song is no longer available to you. It gets replaced by the HLA song.

chimpmaster · Post by **chimpmaster** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 4:05 am

correction

Just reading my post guys, sorry thats a typo. What I meant to say was that the blade song is useless up until the HLA enhanced bard song becomes available.

As for the enhanced bard song vs the skald song, they are very similar, but the HLA gives you magic resistance (10% to yourself and 5% to party members) + immunity to normal weapons in addition to the other bonuses provided by the skald song.

However, the skald song affects all friendly creatures within a radius (60' i think) such as summons. This can be pretty awesome. The HLA song does not affect summons. Once you are summoning planetars and elemental princes, this is a pretty awesome bonus.

Anyway all classes have their strengths and weaknesses, and kits are the most fun to play in my opinion!

CrownHead · Post by **CrownHead** » Tue Mar 09, 2004 12:00 pm

PErsonally, I think my most interesting play through the BG series was with a Jester. It was tough in the first game but in the second game it got easier, let me put it this way:

Invisibilty+Jester's song=Everyone kills each other

You have to be really patient most of the time though.

Luis Antonio · Post by **Luis Antonio** » Tue Mar 09, 2004 12:09 pm

I like bards so very much, specially after soloing one.

But the blade and skald are much more my style.