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my take is a beserker dualed to mage at lvl9
5 stars in katana, 1 star in staff. 2 stars in warhammer and 2 stars in sword and shield

he have the shield of harmony, awesome bonuses!
Celestial fury, bladesinger chain, amulet of power..cloak of mirroring and crom faeyr for when figthing golems
Forgot the ring of gaxx and the ring of free action
And with an amazing ac of -9!
Being an imported char from bg1 i was able to collect all spells..he having an int of 19

and with his berserker ability you can get imune to sleep, stun, fear, maze and imprison

a kensai mages ability does not improve much if you dual at 9....this guy has way more longevity

im only peeved over that you dont get the extra 1/2 attack bonus from the boots of speed once you dual to mage

[This message has been edited by Lucian (edited 12-22-2000).]

Hey Lucian, though you're a real prophet for this one I doubt they'll listen to reason. IMO the fighter->mage or the berzerk->mage surpasses the kensai->mage but you already knew, that most are infected by this kensai->mage stuff. For me it's like combining some class' disadvantages with even more. O.k. the offensive power is awesome (kensai) but the berzerk comes close to it and with the immunities it's way better. The defensive lacks of the kensai are numerous and significant. My friend played kensai and was really pissed, restarted with a swashbuckler to dual to a mage. For myself I stick to my fighter-mage (for he's an elf so berzerk wouldn't suit him well) joined by my berzerk-thief in a bonecrushing tag-team.
btw. in CRPG you're combi is quite impressive but try convincing your GM in P&P that your fierce, scull-crushing, bone-gnawing battle-rager now sticks to the wonderous, mystical path of deep knowledge, touching the very weave of arcane power itself and is to stick his nose in tomes and lorebooks for the rest of his life... that task itself is already heroic...

Hehe...but the same could be said about Wizard Slayers...becoming the very thing they hate and loathe....and for kensai's..after what ive heard...they dislike magic so much that they are figthing with normal weapons in pnp, and would get a half xp punishment if figthing with a magical weapon

my berserker have shifted his focus to mage because of the nummberous combat spells..and im rp'ing that he was envious of all the wizzes he fougth..and since the day where he found an elven chain he got intrigued..and bougth his first spells...serving as an apprentice <the transition period before you get your old class back> He nearly drove his teacher mad with his want for combat spells..and he gladly gave him what he had to get him out of his hair...being scared of this big brute that looked like he could cleave himin half. And from then he have been bolstering his combat skills with spells and slicing and dicing enemies with ease. The limited wish spell is awesome..you can get the genie to cast lvl 9spells youre not able to cast because of the **** XP cap!
the option i wish to be prepared for everything is a must, the genie casts chain contingency on you!



[This message has been edited by Lucian (edited 12-23-2000).]

still can't imagine this brute to cast spells, even to focus on anything else than it's axe or katana or whatsoever...

Wizard Slayer's do in fact make sense. They do exactly what the title says. They kill other wizards. Wizards have too many spell protections for them to go through, so they tap into the mystical realm to help them. I see them not so much as idiot fighters, but more as elite mercenaries. With their innate magic resist (the pitiful 20%), and fighting capabilities, and magic disruptance, they can just go in remove protections, disable spell-casting abilities, and capture the mage.

Sure monks are vastly superior every which way, but let's just ignore that for the moment.

Berserkers don't have to be big dumb brutes. They can just be like Korgan. A member of AA, Angry A-holes. Think Eminem with a can of insta-death. Remember in the kit description, that it can be either a conscious or unconscious decision to go berserk.

Kensai's I think make the least sense. They're not elite soldiers, they're the elite fighters. To me, they don't care about causes, or wars, they care about duels. That's their life, just dueling each other just for the sake of being the best. They also seem to put a great store in fairness, so the mage part totally defies this. They would be so rediculously overpowered, that the only problems they could possibly encounter is well.... gee, maybe walking through a CITY full of demi-dracoliches.

And I disagree with the original statement, because the B/M has more survivability, the K/m has no serious weakness. His A/c is hardly important, because given ioun stones, dex bonuses, and robe of vecna, his ac is already in the negatives. Toss in girdles, cloaks and rings, he can easily go into -6.

Anyways, B/m would be superior if it weren't for one item. Robe of Vecna. Set base to 5, 5% magic resist, and decrease spell casting time by 4. So Timestops are only 5, and most spells have no time at all. If you were a berserker, you would have to decide between the ac of bladesinger (which is gotten about 15 minutes before the end of the game), or the robe of vecna (which is attainable or stealable, as early as chapter 2). If you go the path of the bladesinger chain, then you give up your ac advantage, and the Kensai still has weapon speed/+1 +1 on you. And usually, it's either CF/Crom Faeyr. or Belm/Crom Faeyr. So that's alot of power and with the small advantages over the b/m, these items severely widen the gap.

The only real bonuses you get as B/m are his immunities. However, by the time you have to worry about them, your saving throws/magic resists make all but imprisonments a problem. Imprisonment? Spell Immunity: Abjuration. No winded time.

Both of them already have so many advantages that it'd be a tough fight. Much tougher than most. Stoneskin, then a trigger with mass invis, mirror image, and then tenser's x-form, is nigh-on invincible.

the robe of vecna is not needed as long you are prepared with spell sequencers and spell triggers.

i changed my beserker mage to drop the shield, getting blackrazor instead.
used shadowkeeper to move the proficiences from sword and shield, 1 from katana, 2 from warhammer to 2 in longsword and 3 in two weapon style...as a test..now with 3 attacks he dices through enemies..and with fireshield, imp invis, imp haste, tensers transformation, mirror image and stoneskin to be released instantly from those..and with another stone skin in contingency for when he reaches 50% life..you dont need other spells..blackrazor heals you and hastes you again and drains your enemies..and the celestial fury in his main hand stuns your enemies.

ive imported this guy into a new game....so far im in spellhold without having died once..soloing.

im looking forwards to the expansion or BG3..so i can use chain contingency..to drop abi dlazims horrid wilting as the figth start on the nearest enemy..and 2 power kills/or only finger of death depending on how much its raised..like tosc where it only was a level for most classes

a thought could be to put greater malison in chain contigency, abi dalzims horrid wilting x2

that would seriously put enemies at a disadvantage!

(I love this! People trying to confince themselfs that their extreme rulebending super pc, i mean how silly it may seem it shows that they actually care about making a believable cahracter and thats lovely! But you guys try the opposite -i played BG1 with a paladin and NEVER stole anything or lied (except when the plot recuiered so). Think about all the subquests and items he missed! It's fun making a supercharacter, but accepting disadvantages in favour of good roleplaying is just gorgeous!)

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"Det faller på Ronny Hadarzon."

I agree with zimith, people often play as a "good" party to get all the benefits of low prices and good reaction but they are quite happy to have the evil characters in their party because they have great stats.
How many people here with a "good" main character have edwin in their party just because he is the best wizard and viconia because she is the best cleric.

I think there should be stricter alignment rules in the game that prevent this blurring of alignment.

I am playing through as an evil character and I am loving it because i am taking the bad with the good, i have to pay higher prices due to low reputation but i have korgan, edwin and viconia in my part who i killed/refused before because they were evil and i was good.

I have never used evil characters in both my 'good' parties for extended time. Only for short times, to do their quests (like Korgan with his book and such). The only exception to this is on my second try, as I really wanted to the Viconia romance. To be honest, all those evil characters have a severe attitude problem, that sooner or later HAS to get them killed ...

I agree, according to alignment I shoudn't even THINK about getting such characters in my party, but well...

If they really wanted to give you the option of making an evil party, or whatever, they should have given MORE recruitable NPC's, some for every alignment possible. But that might have been too much work, I don't know.

With you as an evil main plus korgan,Edwin and Viconia, you hardly need more (evil) characters! Just recruit the chaotic neutral Haer'Dalice to top it off (and to let him repay you for all the trouble you went through in saving him).