<font color = mediumspringgreen>O.K., No more relying on my faded memory. I've run the experiment, the data is in, and the verdict is: You CAN dual class to a specialist mage in IWD. (Is it possible that IWD doesn't normally allow this, but does with HoW installed?)

I went in last night and dualed Conjuii (Level 9 fighter) to a specialist --> Conjuror; and Krevok (Level 9 fighter) to a specialist --> Evoker (a.k.a. Invoker).

Then I very, VERY carefully reloaded without saving....

Oh, Dundee Slaytern and Lord Brass, I would agree for the most part, with your, "mages stay in back," tactics and, "mages are only in trouble when the rest of the party has died," assertion. However, I mention two points:

1.) This game has a pesky way of sucking you into situations where you are surrounded; and

2.) I am running an experiment with Conjuii: a mage tank. She will dual over from fighter after she is master/grand master in a melee weapon AND bows (AND has more hp than you can shake a stick at AND has 3 attacks per round). I think level 13 should do it. Eventually (yes, I realize I will have to wait a while), she will regain those skills. By that time she will have well over 200 hp and have mirror and blur at her disposal. My intent is, when conditions dictate, to have her cast blur and mirror onto herself, throw on the armor, then kick the paladin out of the way and wade into melee. Wee-e-e-e-e!!! I'll try to remember to let you know how it turns out.

Party On!
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[ 10-07-2002, 11:48 AM: Message edited by: NobleNick ]

I am confused. What is the point of having pure Specialist Mages if you can dual a Fighter over to them?

<font color = mediumspringgreen>Dundee,

I don't think specialist refers to multi or dual classing: It refers to how you build the mage portion of your character. I have multi-classed and (for a moment) had dual-classed specialist mages.

Once you decide you want a mage (dual-class, multi-class or just plain "vanilla" [yuck!] strait class) then you need to decide how to structure that mage portion (or whole) of your character.

The trade-off (drawback) of taking specialist mage path is that you lose the ability to use spells from an opposing school, whereas a non-specialist can use any spell she wants. This might be a significant drawback for a one-mage party (but, even then, the advantage of the extra spell slot per level would induce me to go specialist). With more than one mage in the party, you can have them specialize in different schools and, between them, cover EVERY school; so the drawback of specializing is virtually totally eliminated.

So, to directly answer your question: As far as I can tell, for those who have patience, there is NO reason to have a pure mage of any flavor! (O.K., the expo spent on the first class puts the second class that far behind; but this is a trivial price to pay for lower level dual-overs.) Even a 9 year old should own enough patience (though maybe not the foresight and math skills) to reroll long enough to get the requisite character attributes, keep a fighter until level 3, and be able to dual over to mage with an extra 42 hitpoints and three-point mastery of one weapon and two-point proficiency in another (and if you don't have AT LEAST all of this when your fighter hits level 3, you are IMHO doing something wrong). (All for the cost of an extra 15 minutes of re-rolling and the re-allocation of expo equivalent to several good fights in the Vale of Shadows!) The benefits of multi-classing and (especially) dual-classing are overwhelming!

Party On!
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edited for spelling, punctuation and flavor

[ 10-07-2002, 02:21 PM: Message edited by: NobleNick ]