Ive got a fighter i want to dual to mage.
at the moment Im in BG1, but I will be bringing the character right through to ToB. what low level should i dual from fighter to mage at ? Im thinking around 3-5 ... what fighter levels are worth waiting for around that level ?

i might take him all the way through bg as a fighter and then dual him at level 13 in soa

If I recall, the extra half attack comes at 7th, so you certainly wouldn't want to change before then. If you really had to change in the 3-5 range, I guess you could do worse than 4, when you get a new weapon.

But 13th is better...

well I want her to get to be a mage during BG1, so level 13 is out. so is level 7 because the game is over by then (nearly). level 4 you say ? ok

I just remembered SixOfSpades' site has tables of advancement on it, so I checked the progressions for fighters. It turns out that the extra weapon * is at level 3 & 6, and saving throw bonuses are on odd levels. the weird thing is that mages have much better saves than fighters... so can anyone please tell me what happens to saves when you dual class ? i guess it just keeps the better ones right ? a lvl 6 mage has better saves than a lvl 5 fighter in everything except saves vs death.... so if I dualed at lvl 5 instead of lvl 3, the only bonus once I got both classes back would be 2 level-ups with fighter HP and +2 bonus to saves Vs death, and wasting 12,000 exp and lots of time

can someone tell me if Ive got all this right ? it seems like I would be better off dualing to mage at lvl 3.

Oh. Based on the writeup, I thought it followed the AD&D proficiency chart - 1,4,7,10,13, etc. I never actually checked to see it did. Silly me.

But yes, you are right. If weapons come at 3 and 6, with the exception of the HP, one save, and two points of THAC0, you won't have much to show for the difference between changing at 3 and at 5.

Wizards start with better Saving Throws than Warriors, but Warriors' Saves improve much faster. Warriors have the best Saves, bar none.

Karlosovic: For roleplaying, Dual whenever the heck you want. If you want to be a Mage in BG1, go ahead it's your call. But if powergaming is going to be a consideration (and I think it is, or you wouldn't have posted this thread in the first place), NEVER Dual before Level 9. (Unless you're Dualing from a Thief, and you just want to max out 1 or 2 of your Skills before you Dual.)

Let's compare two characters, each with exactly 500,000 EXP:
The Fighter->Mage (Dualed at Level 4) will be Levels 4/11. He will have 4D10 + 5D4 + 2 hitpoints, for an average of 38.5 hitpoints. He will have 5 weapon stars from his Fighter half and 2 from his Mage half, for a total of 7.
The Fighter->Mage (Dualed at Level 9) will be Levels 9/10. He will have 9D10 + 1 hitpoints, for an average of 50.5 hitpoints. He will have 7 weapon stars from his Fighter half and 2 from his Mage half, for a total of 9.

The difference between a Level 10 Mage and a Level 11 Mage? One extra spell slots of Levels 3, 4, and 5.