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After having not played this game in years (never finished) I picked it up again. As the title says I am going swashbuckler/mage cause I feel it will be fun without being to powerful. Anyway I plan to play through SOA and TOB and was wondering when would be the best time to dual class to the mage. Also, I want a party but not a large one, could you recommend small amount of NPC that could be used to still balance the party as a hole.

Any other recommendations would be greatly apperciated.

Thanks.

have you considered multiclassing rather than dual classing?

as for npcs: minsc, jaheira, anomen works quite well if your main character is a mage as all 3 can do melee and have some decent divine spells too.

I thought dual class would be better wouldn't it?

dunno, i've never really dual classed - i usually multiclass. no particular reason, its just a personal preference. of course if you dual classed and started as a swashbuckler you would get to a higher mage level

if you do dual class, remember that there is an xp cap so i think the usual suggestions i read say that you should dual before level 14 or something like that. others will prob know better than me though.

Dual-class allows you both kits and lets you distribute the XP the way you want it instead of 50/50. Dual-class is therefore way more powerful, but it comes with the great drawback that you cannot use your first class untill your second is one level higher.

A Swashbuckler is usually dualled at level 10, but he won't be able to fight a lot in the later stage. In case of the thief/mage I myself find the multi-class to be way more usefull if you're interested in dealing damage as a thief. The Dual-Classed is more for just removing traps and locks, like Nalia.

As for a small party I can easily see one go with Jaheira and Minsc along with a thief/mage. Both are well-made NPCs while Jaheira is romancable and pretty strong during ToB. Minsc is mostly for fun (if you're into good stuff) but he's a decent fighter and makes one feel welcome to the game.

It really helps if you tell us what alignment you're planning on playing. Are you playing a goody-two-shoes or will ju succumb to the darkness in your soul?

As a general rule, I think that dual-classed characters are better than multi-class characters if you don't install Throne of Bhaal, but if you do install Throne of Bhaal, the High Level Abilities make multi-classed characters very appealing. If you want to play a character with a kit, such as a Swashbuckler, then multi-classing isn't an option unless you cheat.

If you play a dual-classed Swashbuckler in a small party, you can dual-class at 10th level, 13th level, or 15th level. 10th level gives you a nice set of combat bonuses, but 15th level is even better. 13th level gives you all of the thieving points you need (put points into Detect Illusions instead of Hide in Shadows and Move Silently since you can't backstab) and some nice saving throws.

If you choose the right quests, you could solo the game before you dual-classed and then recruit the rest of your party members to help your main character until he regained his Swashbuckler abilities, and then he'd be kicking butt once again.

I'm not sure how you intend to play your Swashbuckler/Mage, but he'll be a great melee warrior when he's buffed up with magic spells. I suggest that you add another warrior to your party who doesn't need any spells to to be great in combat (Korgan, Minsc, and Keldorn come to mind) and at least one arcane spellcaster (Edwin, Nalia, and Imoen will advance the fastest, but don't rule out Aerie) and one divine spellcaster (Jaheira, Aerie, or Viconia). The "standard companions work well together--your own character, Imoen, Minsc, and Jaheir--or you can pick any of the NPCs you like. But those are my suggestions.

Any mage will become cheesy powerful especially dualclassed ones.
If you dualclass at level10 you need 375,000 XP as mage to get your thieving skills back, for each level later you need extra 375,000.
Level 10 is the best for having fun, get 100 in set traps and find traps.
Detect illusions is useless, you'll have more important things to do in combat.
Other good levels for dualing are 12 and 15, but if you wait until level15 you''ll have to play more than half the game without thieving skills.

About NPCs: Get a cleric, either Aerie or Anomen, Viconia is evil and you probably won't like to do idiotic reputation decreasing acts in order to keep her.

NPCs with SwashB/Mage

If your PC's a chick: Anomen & Keldorn

If your PC's a dude: Aerie & Haer'Dalis

If your PC's a punk: Viconia, Korgan, & Edwin

If your PC's a wierdo: Minsc & Jan

Add Jahiera to any of the above for druid-only spells to cast everything.

And temporaily take Mazzy, Valygar, and Cernd for a game day or two and complete their quests.

not sure

although I agree with the braod sentiment - I'm not sure about Haerdalis - he usually seems to get himself killed, so I dump him after his quest.

Aerie has poor HP, but otherwise is very strong as a spellcaster - in fact with the mace that gives her 18 str, AC3 bracers and a few other bits and pieces, she can handles herself in a fight - especially if she buffs up with spells.

Nalia is handy as a lock-picker as well as for combat spells. she advances quicker than Aerie, but Aerie has more potential for game play with the two categories of spell - she has just acquired Gate yesterday in my present game. that kind of stuff is pretty destructive.

using the wands can be a real spell-saver and monster summoning (recharged from time to time) is VERY handy. Aerie can also flame-strike via a wand. the recharged wands make MUs seem much more powerful than their levels.

I think I messed up my timing on dualling - I decided to use swashbuckler to add thief skills to a fighter and put the points mainly into pick-pocket and open locks. I dualled immediately on launching the game. seems I should have waited a bit and got more skills before swapping. having the pick-pocket at 100% right off and nipping along to get the gloves early on has helped with the finances (750k at present) and it helped with getting my rings of regeneration, then Gaxx, but the rest of the skills are of little benefit.

perhaps fighter/mage is the best situation - get lots of HP and wide choice of weapons and the capacity to solo when need be.