GameBanshee Forums

I am going for a Fighter/Mage in SOA. I don`t want to go through BG1 again, so what extra stats would my character have if I had gone through BG1?
I`d be grateful for advice on when to duel and how to divide my stats at the beginning, please.

Reply to Stats

Depends on who you ask, many dual early on such as becoming a level 9 fighter then the rest is mage spells to utilize the high level spells, but I tend to dual as late as possible in order to recieve a high enough hp and combat abilities to last against a tough opponent but still be able to utilize enough spells and not have an 'inactive class'.

'The experience cap in Baldur's Gate II is set to 2,950,000 for all characters, which means a Fighter that reaches level 9 will have 135000 experience points, leaving 2,815,000 experience points for the Mage part. Now, a mage requires 2,700,000 experience points to get to level 17 (in which he gets level 8 spells) and 3,000,000 experience points to get to level 18; since you can't get 3 million experience points in Baldur's Gate II, a Fighter/Mage will allow you to max your Mage part, as if you were a pure mage.'

(Above quoted from gamebanshee strategy guide by El-Ad Amir)

I`m using the XP Cap remover, so hopefully, this will improve things. Everyone seems to quote level 9 or 13 for duelling. Why is this important? Is there something about these particular levels that`s important?

Well, for a kensai it is. Kensai have certain bonusses and on level 9 and level 13 all these bonusses have just been 'raised a bit' There is little difference between lvl 9 and 10, but a mayor difference between 8 and 9. So thats why people choose these levels.
But if you dont intend on going kensai i would advice you to go multi class since you can only have a limited amount of mage HLA's and unlimited fighter HLA. You'll learn plenty of usefull combo's (Stoneskin, time stop). Its one of my most powerfull solo characters ever!
But i dont know about how he will do in a team, i love soloing.

If you went through BGI you would have 0ne extra point for each attribute and two extra points of wizdom(three if totsc) But wizdom would be the least important attribute for your character, no divine casting and the wisdom related magical defense adjustment was never implamented.

Reply

If you do intend to multi-class choose elf, plus bonuses in long sword and longbow as well as the 90% resistance to charm and sleep will do you good. Although you miss out on having 18 constitution for maximum hp, this will probably amount to an extra 1hp per level, the bonuses make up for it.

[QUOTE=Amran_X_Kaiser]If you do intend to multi-class choose elf, plus bonuses in long sword and longbow as well as the 90% resistance to charm and sleep will do you good.[/QUOTE]
Only downside to being an elf: I don't think Viconia will hit on you, if you care about such things.

Those elf bonuses... were they implemented in BG2?

Disappointing if not: it doesn't seem like it'd be hard to implement, based on all the other stuff the game engine seems able to handle. Regarding other non-implemented 2nd Edition D&D rules: I recall hobbits using slings having bonuses too. And magical defense bonuses for high Wisdom: it would have been a nice (easy-to-program?) way to make Wisdom mean more to non-Priests.

Reply

A good point, the +1 bonuses to hit and thaco when using either longbow and longsword where never verified. Plus I have uninstalled the game to focus on other things so I won't be able to find out. I do know that the 90% elven charm and sleep resistance, whilst half-elfs were 30% was not implement along with the half-orc infravision that both races were suppose to recieve, but a mod called aPack from Avengers Realm can restore these its up to you whether or not to install them.

If you're going to multiclass, be a man and choose Gnome.

You'll gain an extra spell per level (Illusionist bonus), have a higher INT stat(gnome bonus), a higher CON stat (Elf negative), and be much better at your saving throws(another gnome bonus).

Reply

Those pesky gnomes !

You get a die roll for your hit points on the first 9 levels, and you get an extra half attack (or maybe whole attack) at level 13. If you aren't worried about xp caps, dual at 13. Too soon and your thac0 will suck, too late and you find yourself playing an uncomfortable percentage of the game with a single classed character.

[QUOTE=davfrahen]I`m using the XP Cap remover, so hopefully, this will improve things. Everyone seems to quote level 9 or 13 for duelling. Why is this important? Is there something about these particular levels that`s important?[/QUOTE]

As a Kensai, you get +1 to hit/damage each three levels. As the Kensai is a warrior, you'll get an extra half attack at level 7 and 13. (And I think at another, higher level, but I can't be sure. I always end up with more attacks than I'm supposed to have at 20+ or something...) You also get the kensai (fighters) hit die (1d8) and the constitution bonus of having a con higher than 16 if untill level 9.

That says that level 9 obviously is a good level as you get +3 to hit/damage, full warrior HP and 1/2 atk/rnd. Now, if that's not enough we can see that 13 is a great level considering you get another +1 hit/damage as well as another 1/2 atk/rnd. If that's not enough for you, then you can obviously see that each 3 levels will be the "magical" level of a kensai.