[andrewas]

Welcome to IW.

Dual classing basicaly allows your character to change class. You start out as a level one mage (or whatever) which sounds crap till you realise that at level one almost any kill willl be enough to level you up. When you exceeed your original level by one you get all your old abilities back. You can *never* revert back to the original class so dual right after leveling so you dont waste XP.

Many people use this to build characters with abilities normaly impossible - get a level 12 or 15 fighter and dual to mage. When you level your mage to 13 or 16 youll have a mage that can kick ass in combat when neccesary. Althogh level 9 would be more appropriate to Icewind now I come to think of it. (Fighters gain proficiencies every 3 levels so you dont want to quit the level before)

Personaly I prefer a multi-class character (A character who proggresses in two classes at once).