Re: Thiefy Goodness
my new bg2 will be installed possibly tomorrow.
or the day after...
let me quote one:
"but man i tell you a thief fighter is waaaay better then a fighter thief."
can you explain this?
should i choose a thief kit or just a plain thief to dual to fighter then? at whaat level?
The following are arguments that have been made before, but since I was asked, I thought I should spell out the benefits of Firghter-Thief dual classing.
Theif kits are good, but I think that the transition from Fighter to Thief makes much more sense, because most of the benefits of being a fighter can be gained by 9th level. Think about it- more HP, weapon spec/mastry, lower THACo, more attacks, etc.- these are things you need earlier in the game. As the game progresses it is less important to have a beefy character than it is to have solid tactics and a party that works well together.
Mages and Sorcerers start off limited at lower levels and become more powerful as they gain XP- this isn't a terrible problem in BGII because everyone starts off at 7th lvl, but anyone who played BGI or pnp knows that the mages are very weak in the early levels (say, lvls 1-5). Fighters, however, are exactly the opposite- they are relativly strongest early, with big weapons, big armor, and lots of hp. As time passes, their abilities continue to improve, but not at nearly as strong a rate as other classes- after 9th level you stop using hit dice, and after 22 THACo stops too. AC and saves at that point are not as necessary, and all enemies are uber-enemies.
If you are thinking about Fighter-Theif dualclassing, first consider XP- Thieves advance faster than any class. So, not only will you be able to gain more lvls by going fighter-theif than theif-fighter, you will also get them back much sooner. If you dual at lvl 9, you can probably have your fighter abilities back by chapter 3.
Next consider the high level abilites. Fighters have cool abilities, no doubt, and if you just have to have greater whirlwind, then by all means go fighter. But Thieves get access to what is weidely considered the best ability in the game: use any item. Also, the theif has access to some of the other cheesiest abilities- the various traps. By the time my Kensai-Thief got UAI, he was so powerful it was disgusting. He was in full armor and equipment, weilding the Staff of Magi and backstabbing anything and everything. He was essentially an invisible, trap detecting/setting, backstabbing, armed-to-the-teeth killing machine. He was the ultimate scout, trapper, mage-killer, dungeon crawler, and toe-to-toe fighter. He was so powerful that using the Staff was the only cheese tactic I employed- unless the battle was really tough, I didn't even bother to mess with traps because they took too much time.
If you don't like super strong characters then don't play a fighter thief, but I liked this character for three basic reasons:
-Very adaptable- I like my characters to be able to do everything
-Great potential- no matter where I was in the game, leveling was always fun because there was always something new to try out.
-Roleplaying- The character was super strong, but still seemed organic. I could see my character becoming a very stong fighter but then having an identity crisis or sorts and wondering if he should be more adaptable... so he left his kensai ways behind, started studying other tactics, trying different things... you get the idea. For any kit this can be true- Wiz Slayers, Berzerkers, vanilla, whatever- the progression feels very natural.
For me the bottom line of Fighter-Thief or Thief-Fighter is something like this: If you want a fighter with a few thiefy tricks, go Thief-Fighter. If you want a character is among the most powerful in the game, that does all the stuff listed above and can use all equipment in the game (just think about scroll use- I didn't even talk about that) then go Fighter-Theif.
Regarding which kit you should choose as a fighter, it really depends upon what you feel like. Think about if you want to dual weild or use two handed weapons. Check out
this post I made a while back- I wrote a few lines about different kit possibilities.
Any more questions, reply or PM-
