I have struggled almost all day on my party for Icewind Dale (I can never decide) which I'm finally getting too - hey, I had school and other games http://www.tgeweb.com/cgi-bin/ubb/no...iles/smile.gif

This is my plan:
1) Start with 3 fighters, all human
2) At level 3 or 6, by then I will have raised one or two skills to proficiency of 3, dual class them to a thief, cleric, and mage
3) Add a new pure fighter to the mix
4) Start leveling...

This way I get +2 to hit bonus from Str (easy to roll 18/xx req.) and +3 from proficiency pts for a total of +5 bonus --> nice little combat boost.

The only trouble will be having 4 level 1 characters till they surpass the inactive class. I think this is doable by the end of Chapter 1, based on my XP before I started over. This way I can have my desired party of 4: fighter, thief, cleric, and mage without having 3 wimps in melee combat.

What do you think?

Dual classing is a huge advantage, you get all the fighter perks for a relitvely little experience, only 64,000 xp will get you to level 7, with all those hp, thac0, str, profs, ect. Then you dual to your new class and still move up as a fully functionable character in that class, plus you keep all those fighter perks. I say dual at level 7, it's not that far and level 7 is where the fighter gets an extra attack, wait for level 9 for GM if you want. I use mostly dualed and it's almost broken, you get all those fighter perks and can still kick in your new class , plus you keep all the fighter bonuses.

I have never dual classed my characters, yet I like your idea. I may try something similar to it soon. Thanks for the advise!

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With my current party I tried something very similar, but dualled them at a very low level (lvl 2) just to get the initial higher HP, THACO and weapons proficiency. My party consists of:

Paladin
Fighter/Thief (DC lvl 2)
Bard
Ranger
Fighter/Cleric (DC lvl 2)
Fighter/Mage (DC lvl 2)

The characters are great, I was just a bit disappointed that I couldn't add to any weapon proficiencies after dualling like you can in BGII - I could only put a point in new weapons. But still, a mage with 2 points in each of bows and long swords is not to be argued with...

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