Questions on BG series

[Yoink]

K I'm a bit of a powerplayer at heart, so I strive to make a good character but will not cheat... anyone want to help me in this task?

Trying to make one lawful good and one chaotic evil character.

Mr goody two shoes I'd like to be a fighter/mage, either mult or dual classed. I'm going for the Gandalf approach, trying to get high hps from the fighter class and lots of specialization into large swords.

Mr evil one I'm going to have as a fighter/thief, again, multi or dualed, and going to try for dual wielded large weapons in later BG games.

Should I multi class or dual class? If I multi I won't get the full benefit of fighter hp scores or weapon skills, yet they will forever both be on the rise in level... and if I dual I will only be having the character raising in skill as either a mage or a thief.

If I should dual class, what level should I do that? Shower me with opinion please =)

Also... if you play as EVIL in this game, is it built to be supported at all? By that, I mean can you for instance, join with the evil forces somewhere in a grand battle against good? Is there any point in the game at all to be evil other than grouping with the evil aligned npcs and getting kicked out of towns eventually when your reputation reaches 1? Beyond the little joys of killing villagers, robbing chests and running or killing guards, listening to the mad ramblings of the insane groupmates, etc.

Lastly, does the game change entirely at Baldurs Gate 2? This is related to the first question of character design somewhat. When the rules change to third edition it would seem that some things wouldn't mesh... like a multi or dual class would have certain advantages or disadvantages when changing over... are you able to pick new classes or redistribute points?

And yet another question I have... by removing the experience cap (in case I want to level to 10-12 as fighter before changing over) I have read that in BG2 the game enforced the cap anyways... is there a program or way around that? That would kind of bother me =)

Whoopteedee look at me... another question I cannot guarantee is the last! Can the thieves in your group only backstab if you are stealthed, meaning none by just walking up behind the enemy? Can you *backstab* by jumping out of shadows to the sides or in front of enemy? And of course, if I'm a multi or dualed fighter/thief, can I backstab while wearing heavier than leathers armor?
[ 11-16-2001: Message edited by: Yoink ]

[ 11-16-2001: Message edited by: Yoink ]

[ 11-16-2001: Message edited by: Yoink ]

[Seraph]

BG has a scant few chances to take an "evil" approach to a quest.

BG:II has more opportunities to play an evil character. I dont want to spoil anyone by giving examples however.

[Kaz]

Personally I prefer multi-class. It allows you to level up in BOTH classes, so a multi-classed fighter/thief could both get the advantadges from a *later on* high-level fighter as well as improve his thief skills.
Quite correct, the game does not allow many options for an evil path. When your rep is one, you're going to have serious problems, among others the prices in stores being ridiculously high.
I believe you can only backstab when stealthed, which answers your question about the armor. A multi/dual classed thief can only stealth when using studded leather armor or lighter..
I haven't imported a character into BG2 yet, so I don't know about that. I believe there is an xp cap remover in BG2 too, don't know though.

[Zbyszek]

2.950.000 exp in SoA and 8.000.000 in ToB. And there are removers [img]smile.gif[/img] , but I think they are not necessary unless you play solo.
In SoA multiclassed characters are behind pure classes because of experience/level progression tables. But in ToB multiclassed character get special bonuses like single class and for boh classes and exp/level progression is not really important after 3.000.000 - 3.500.000 exp.

Zbyszek