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This is a pretty narrow question.

I have decided to self-create a three person party that is entirely multi-classed. I am more of a roleplayer than a powergamer. I will be playing through TOB.

The party:

1. Fighter/Thief
2. Fighter/Mage
3. Ranger/Cleric

My question:

Which character (between 1 and 2) should be the ranged weapon expert and which should be the melee expert.

If the mage is melee then I can use buff spells and whatnot...if thief is then I can use backstab.

Opinions?

i'd have the fighter/thief melee with the backstab etc. and the fighter/mage ranged as you will be limited as far as armour goes and you will be able to buff up your party and do ranged spell attacks as well as use ranged weapon attacks.

Bear in mind that I'm not a powergamer at all, so the effectiveness of my opinion might be lacking.

That said, I'd make the fighter/thief your ranged weapon character, simply because a mage already has ranged offensive capabilities open to him.

I realise that I'm going against one of your criteria but why not the ranger/cleric?

You will want to have the Fighter/Theif available for backstabs, your only magic user should be blasting away with spells, and (so long as stoneskin lasts) facing the foe, leaving the Ranger Cleric to do what exactly?

Just my 2gps - Curdis !

I was going to have my ranger cleric do the whole "shield and hammer/mace/flail" thing...plus be a draw for enemy fire.

I played all the way through the Baldur's Gate series with a Cleric/Ranger and Imoen (Thief dualled to a Mage). My Cleric/Ranger was strictly a melee warrior. Imoen attacked with ranged weapons and spells most of the time, but her backstabbing turned the tide in the most difficult battles in BG1 (the Demon Knight, Aec'Letec the Nabassu, and the final battle). Imoen didn't do much backstabbing in Shadows of Amn. I picked up a new Fighter at the beginning of Throne of Bhaal, and I played Imoen primarily as a spellcaster. Ranged weapons weren't very useful by the end of the game. So I essentially had two melee warriors and a spellcaster in Throne of Bhaal. It was a great team, and I highly recommend that you play a similar party.

All three of your characters are best suited for melee (Fighter/Thief, Fighter/Mage, and Cleric/Ranger), so I'm not sure why you're interested in playing such characters if you want one of them to be an archer. They all say "buffing, powergaming, and lots of tricks" to me. I think you should consider playing your Cleric/Ranger and your Fighter/Thief as melee characters and change your Fighter/Mage to some of sort of spellcaster (like a Cleric/Mage). Or as an alternative, you could make your Fighter/Thief a Mage/Thief and play him primarily as a spellcaster (with some traps thrown in for good measure).

If you insist on playing a multi-class character who primarily uses ranged weapons, I suppose your Fighter/Thief would do well in that role. But you'd be wasting his potential if you didn't let him do a lot of backstabbing. I just can't see playing a Cleric/Ranger with a sling or making a Fighter/Mage a ranged weapon expert--you'd be ignoring all of their other fantastic skills.

That's my opinion.

They would all make good archers (or slingers). Why not have everybody use each, so that way they're adaptable, and not pigeonholed into one role? You can have them use ranged attacks (weapons/spells) and if bad guys get too close, just switch to melee.