I've got a hankering to be eeeeevil, and as such, I was considering being a theif, and having a limited party (Myself, Edwin, Korgan, Viconia) and just destroying the world. But I also was thinking about dualing to a mage at some point. How much experience do you think I should allow my theif to gain before dualing him? I want to have good theiving abilities (hide in shadows, backstab, set traps, open locks, find traps) but I also want to be able to cast high level mage spells, without having to wait forever. I dualed a CG theif once, but did it waaayy too late, and it would have taken forever to get my theiving abilites back...any suggestions?

Usually the standard is 9 with SoA,13 with ToB. But i prefer M/T Multi-Class anyhow. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

If you dual right at the start you can regain your level shortly after or even before exiting chateau irenicus. You'll have standard theif abilities and be able to use thief weaponry+backstab. No hotshot as a thief though ;)

Since you're taking suggestions, I suggest you kill 3 birds with one stone, and play quasi-Multiplayer: Start your own Multiplayer game, and roll your PC, and also one other character--an exact copy of Montaron from BG1 (Neutral Evil Male Halfling Fighter/Thief, 16/17/15/12/13/9. Put his Thieving skills in the Backstabbing areas, and his weapon proficiencies in Short Sword and Crossbow, possibly also Sling). Then start the game, save the game, and move the Save file from the "mpsave" folder to the "save" folder. Once this is done, you can play normally, just as if Montaron was a perfectly natural NPC to find in Chateau Irenicus. This means:</font>

• You have corrected the game's lack of Evil NPCs</font>
• You have corrected the game's lack of Thieves</font>
• And you have freed up your PC to be any sort of character you want, even one that can cast high-level Wizard spells.</font>

Actually, it wouldn't hurt to have a mod that actually allowed you to get him (the lack of an evil thief really annoys me, as much as the lack of a neutral fighter/barbarian does, if not more so).

I thought that was for fighters.

if playing a non-assassin dual at lvl 13, an assassin maxes out their backstab at level 21 (IIRC)

do the standard dual class tricks of leaving quests incomplete (not talking to the person to finish the quest and get the quest exp, collect scrolls and level up from the xp they give.

At level 13 you won't have a ton of skill points, so decide where you want to specialize, and put all your points into those skills, some good ones are detect illusions (save on detection spells), and of course f/r traps, open locks, etc.

cant Montaron be CLUAed in? ive cluaed Coran a few times in the past, but it maybe do to BGT...

In my evil party I use the following-

Me - fighter/cleric multi
Korgan
Viconia
Edwin
Jan
Haer'Dalis

The last two fit in quite well, and the party is nicely well-rounded, seeing as my PC and Haer'Dalis are both pretty decent fighters. I use the 2x3 formation, with me and Korgan at the front, then Jan and Haer'Dalis, and Edwin and Viconia at the back.

Unless you want to play an "all-evil" party. I tend to like "all-good" parties, and am doing the same thing with "all-evil". It's just the way I play the game, I guess. I would play "all-neutral" if there was at least one neutral warrior out there.

The pc? :D I've played three neutral warriors, it comes down to demanding rewards because you are a mercenary.
My evil party:
At ze moment(BGtutu):
Zeldan (Fighter(3)-> assassin)
Kagain (fighter)
Montaron (f/t)
Xzar (Necro)
Branwen (cleric)
Shar-Teel (berserker)

Will become(SoA):
Zeldan (f(3)->assassin)
Korgan
Viconia
Edwin
ToB NPC(maybe drop Korgan for this lad)

You can't dual a fighter to an Assassin.

Sorry Zeldan ;)

I suppose you could dual to a thief and *pretend* you are an Assassin, but we all know better :D lol