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What's your favorite main char in single player? Just want to know what ppl find the best..

The Undead Hunter is wicked slick.

I'm playing an evil berseker weilding Dragon's Breath +4 (yup, an halbred) and I love it!
I have much more fun than with the preist of Helm I played before.

Paladin - inquisitor kit... Best dispel magic in the game and those true sights come in handy quite often... and let us not forget carsomyr, imo the best sword in the game (including black razor).



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"Beyond the grave they will find nothing but death. But we shall keep the secret, and for their happiness we shall allure them with the reward of heaven and eternity." -- Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

Paladin (Cavalier kit) Duel welding Celestial Fury and Blade of Roses.

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(I would betray the world before i let the world betray me.) Cao Cao 192 a.d.

I refrained from replying to this post before as I thought everybody would be sick of hearing it, but since no one else has said it: Fighter/Mage (Not necessarily Kensai, I played pure). Any half decent Fighter/Mage would kick any other class. The only one I can think of that would stand a chance is an Inquisator, but the chance would be very small.
I am, of course, talking most powerful, not necessarily most fun. In my opinion they are one and the same at least on the first time through, but maybe after that other experiments could be more interesting.

Currently Fighter/Thief ... all the boni from the Fighter class, while being a Thief. Makes for *very* hard backstabs (damage in the 100's) with a very low Thac0.

Most powerful character: Kensai(dual class) then mage

Most enjoyable character: skald(Sing your battle song!!)

Kensai? C'm on!
Are you kidding?
Of course he's great, but...
the monk kicks giga-ass!
A monk is so good, the game gets boring coz you almost can't lose any fight.

Kensai: no armour, no bracers/gauntlets
Monk: no armour
Kensai: sword saint
Monk: fist ànd sword saint
Kensai: combat bonuses
Monk: bonuses EVERYWHERE!!!
and so on...

Another sweet thing is that the monk is something new, while the kensai is just another dull fighter, which, IMO, is thè class for beginners. If you really want a warrior type, the ranger is so much cooler (especially if it's an elf, and if you give hime a dark skin and white hair ).

The only thing I don't understand is why the monk is a priest. He can't cast any spell! A shame! Then again, if he could, he would be 'Da Bomb'!

Next subject: why aren't there any of the new guys in the game? I'm talking about Barbarians/Monks/Sorcerers/Half-Orcs. It's like the developers decided to add it the last moment. Odd... I hope the new classes can multiclass next game and have kits of their own, that would be awesome!

Well, so much for my daily rant.


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-Amen

Well, monks DO have a habit of being religious and pray for their divine powers, therefor, priest spells/powers would be the natural choice for BG's programmers to give the monk

I am a big fan of rangers. My character and Minsc are dual wielding BMFs. I have a longsword in 1 hand and a war hammer in the other. The priest spells come in handy (entangle, doom, resist fire/cold) and the special abilities (slow poison, charm mammal) are also pretty sweet. I have always been into rangers since playing AD&D waaaaaay back in the day (the 80s) with the 1st edition rules. Although, if I had realized that the best NPC (Minsc-imo) was a ranger too, I might have tried something else.

Next time through I have to try the Kensai/mage thing, or maybe a Cavalier.

I found out that everyone likes to duel fighter to mage but I find that not-so-useful to an extent. I mean once you're a mage, what's the chance of your mage going up front fighting anyone in melee? The only good thing in this duel class is probably the hit points and what's the chance of your mage being hit a lot. I beleive by that time, your party is probably near its doom since the enemy breach you fighter defence line. I personally think dueling swashbuckler (level-11) to mage is much useful. You gain tons of goody with this.

1. Your mage can still gets to level 17, the highest level you can with a mage.
2. +3 to AC/hit/damage, and with some good items and spells (stonskin), no one can touch your mage.
3. Got tons of thieving points to use, so you don't need any NPC thieve. Hence you free up one spot for a good fighting NPC. I spent the thieving points on pickpocket(140)/openlocks(90)/find traps(90). Or you can spend them on stealth, your choice.

Swashbuckler can't backstab, but hey, what mage needs backstab when he/she is so powerful in spells.

Kensai/Mage, Swashbuckler/Mage and Monks are power-gaming classes. Monks to a lesser extent since they're peak comes later, but the other two, are so good at both melee and ranged, that no other class stands a chance.

My first char, was a kensai mage dualing quite a bit later than others going for 12/14 I think. Not too sure about the 14, but I'm sure I dualed at 12. No other class can touch it in melee ! You drop a stoneskin, improved invisiblity, tensers x-form, in one trigger, and let loose, and suddenly you have ~300 hps, -8 ac or better, and a insane THAC0 and damagee. Of course I had the usual crom faeyr, c fury combo. In Irenicus dungeon, I just used a katana and something else and I usually hit around low 30's. Great if you consider the area ! Going by the numbers, Kensai Mages can't be beat.

/rant
kensai smensai mage (and theif too for that matter) Am I the only one that think dualing a kensai is wrong. A person so dedicated to blade that he won't even use armor, and then one day('round level 9) he has a change of heart... Now it is ok to have stoneskin/mirror image/shield/etc - seems weird to me. The thief thing is even worse. Kensais are supposed to be honorable persons (even the evil ones have their honor) - and all of a sudden they steal and backstab (talk about dishonorable!).

And are these people not supposed to be sword saints? Yet, almost all of them seems to be dwarf wannabees - wield a sword or two dammit! and give that hammer back to the short stout fellow...
/ rant off

Sorry if I stepped on somebody's toes


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"Beyond the grave they will find nothing but death. But we shall keep the secret, and for their happiness we shall allure them with the reward of heaven and eternity." -- Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

[This message has been edited by rumagent (edited 12-11-2000).]

I agree with the monk's assesment: he's uber-badass once he gets Quivering Palm at level 13; there's just something inherently cool about bitch-slapping Firkraag and dropping him in one hit. Another great character is the barbarian: by the endgame I had him dual-wielding some really high-end gear and he could pretty much walk through anything, not to mention he's invulnerable to backstab which makes taking out Maevar's guild hall a snap with him.

To Getsleepy: Duel classed mage fighters remain harsh right to the end. Tensors Transformation alone makes up for any lack of THAC0 and hitpoints. Even without enhancements I found my character powerful enough to hold his own. For important battles nothing else comes close.

As for Kensai\Mage: I played a pure fighter. I think the best choice would have been Beserker. With gauntlets of specialisation and Bladesinger chain I reckon a non-Kensai is about the same in hand to hand. The beserker ability is very helpful with all the immunites it provides, so I think that would be enough to push beserker's over the edge and make them a little better than a Kensai.

To: Jurosementalistile
The combo stoneskin and tenser transformation sure would make a mage powerful, but it'll lose the fun of using your party to defeat evil. Imagine before tough battle, you tell Minsc or other fighters in your party to give you the weapons? They probably be pissed. I guess I'm going too far into RPG sense since this is a discussion for best main char. My point is just using the mage as a fighter just lose the fun of playing a RPG party in RPG.

One on one for a single fight, fighter/mages are awesome--as long as no one dispells their enhancements.

In duels I expect we would see a complex Rock-Paper-Scissors (RPS) thing:

My guesses, assuming all special abilities used, excellent equipment, and characters at exp cap, area about the size of the fighting pit at the drow tavern:

Fighter/Mage beats: Kensai, Fighter/Thief, Barbarian
Inquisitor beats: Fighter/Mage, Fighter/Thief
Kensai beats: Inquisitor, Monk
Monk beats: ? (as much as I like monks, I don't see them as having a strong edge in any of these match-ups. They don't hit any harder and are short on hp. They have great specials, but I expect the saves would be made.)
Fighter/Thief beats: Kensai, Monk
Barbarian beats: Fighter/Thief, Inquisitor, Monk

Without the Cloak of Mirroring the Fighter/Mage becomes much stronger as he could do heavy damage with sequencers to anyone except the Inquisitor and Monk. Of course without that cloak a pure mage would be a strong contender.

Due to the levels of the characters and the equipment, most saves would be made automatically.

Since a barbarian with Boots of Speed can outrun almost anything (almost as fast as an arrow), if the area was larger he would do better.

If people are interested I'll try testing some of these out over the next couple weeks and put up the comparisons and results somewhere in the strategy section. As a veteran MUD pkiller though, I know that the player can make more of a difference in a duel than the character does.

Nighthawk, I agree that one-on-one duels would be kind of like rock paper scissors. It's not what the game is designed to handle. I don't think that an Inquisator would win over a Fighter/Mage, however. There are many spells that can't be removed by dispel magic. If the level restrictions were taken off, it would be even less close. A chain contingency with a time stop and a simulacrum would put the fighter\mage in an awsesome starting position. You could use the third slot of the chain contingency or some of the time gained by the timestop to cast some powerful Demon summons and before he knew what was happening the Inquisator would be facing three or more powerful opponents, and you can't just dispel them all.
I think in a duel you would also have to ban one use items. It's not really testing the characters if they all have 24 strength and 100% magic resistance due to storm giant potions and magic protection scrolls.

As for getsleepy's comment, what do you mean about asking Minsc for his weapons? We are talking about a duel class fighter/mage, he ALWAYS carries weapons of his own. My fighter/mage was my main warrior even when he wasn't casting spells. I try to maintain the spirit of RPG's too, but I don't see anything wrong with making a fighter/mage your most powerful warrior. That's what they do, it's what they train for.

Half Orc barbarians are cool. Give em the sword of Balduran and Dakkon-Zerth blade- if you got the money, you will rip into shadows, and anything else- and at level 9 with 159 HP and 19 constitution- you really tear into it