Two characters for the price of one

[maidavale]

Want a mage? Think again.

Make a party with a human thief. When they get to level 3 they can have lock pick 95% (put ALL your points here) and immediately dual class them to a specialist mage. With the heaps-o-XP in the game, you'll quickly get your thief abilities back (mages firing bows!). Also, unlike multi-classes, you don't 'waste' many XP by splitting your character in half - only 2500 XP or so. This works incredibly well - you're getting a mage with a 'free' bow proficiency (or whatever) and pick lock. Furthermore, you get some handy HP too, because thieves get 1D6 instead of 1D4, and because you level twice for only 2500XP (this might work well for others too - exploiting the quick levelling early on to get extra HP). There is no real conflict between mage and thief skills either, and AFAICT, a highlevel thief is no better than a lowlevel one, so having level 18 thieves seems a terrible waste.

(Your second mage should be a thief dualclassed at level 4 with all pts into find traps - an essential skill.)

[This message has been edited by maidavale (edited 05-15-2001).]

[Xanthul]

I think the best mage is a fighter dualed to mage (i cant remember the level at which (s)he should dual, just be sure that the mage wont lose any levels for dualing too late. This mage will be able to melee, and wield a sword or any other cool weapon, as well as a shield and a helm, which will give him a decent AC. Also he will be able to wear some items that otherwise he wouldnt (wont spoil them here).

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Love rules the world. At least, it rules mine.

[maidavale]

Is there any reason not to have the entire party dual-classed?

[Xanthul]

Hm...

- Only humans can dual class... so if you want a gnome illusionist or a elven ranger, those wont be dualed.
- You´ll need higher attributes if you are dualclassing, so maybe some stats that you would raise more in a simple class character will be lower in the dual.
- When you dual, you basically become a level 1 something, so if you dual them all, your party will be very weak for a long time (even if you dont dual them all at the time).

Dunno, maybe there are more, this is all i can think for now...

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Love rules the world. At least, it rules mine.

[Father Bronze]

Originally posted by maidavale: Is there any reason not to have the entire party dual-classed?

The other problem with Dual-Classing is that you lose that character's effectiveness for a short while. It's not as noticeable at lower levels, but at upper levels it is pretty stressful carrying along a first level character.

In terms of game play, it doesn't make much sense to run a single-class Mage. There is no realy penalty since the dual classed Mage will catch up rather quickly. I think this is just one of those quirks of the game that is easy to take advantage of.

Dual classing is even easier in BG2 where your characters get experience points for memorizing scrolls and disarming traps.



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Most Subtle Official Straightman of the Laughing Hyenas -- Grammarian Brigade.

[Leafy]

>[QUOTE]Originally posted by maidavale:
>[B]Want a mage? Think again.

>Make a party with a human thief. When they get to level 3 they can have lock >pick 95% (put ALL your points here) and immediately dual class them to a >specialist mage.

Why would a mage do a thing like that? If a thief were to dual to a mage at any level; wouldn't it make sense to put all the skills into something like "find/remove traps" or "pick pockets"? Considering that a Mage can just as easily "knock" open a lock or turn himself "invisible" to hide.

As for Dual-classing. I played thru once with one character in my 4 player party who dual-classed. She was a human Thief who rose to 8th level when i entered the first level of Dragon's eye. By the time we got to the bottom, she was already a 7th level fighter!(my cleric was finding the traps by that time) it wasn't until i built the astrolabe thaty she finally attained 9th as a fighter and resumed her former class. it worked pretty well actually. Being she was a thief, the offered arror support to begin, and as a fighter, she was an extra melee hand. Had it been the other way around, i can see how i might have felt i was "carrying" her in the later stage of her development. Though she may have gotten fatter hitpoints were she a fighter at first; i felt that the immediate thief skills were a must- you simply must find/remove traps. Furthermore, since thiefs don't get very cool as they level up (though the "evasion" in HoW is pretty cool), a low-level thief who becomes a fighter is pretty fun to play. (i wish i could say the same about my very first thief-mage dual class.. zzzzzzzzzzzz what? he's dead again?)

[This message has been edited by Leafy (edited 05-15-2001).]

[Axterix]

Originally posted by maidavale: Is there any reason not to have the entire party dual-classed?

Certain classes can't dual. Bards, for instance. And dual class characters can never advance in their original class. A cleric/mage, if played enough, will hit 30/30. A cleric dualed to a mage at 9 won't. Even the fighter's dualed to whatever at 9 suffer. Their thac0 doesn't reach what higher level fighters get. They cease to get the +3 hp per level after level 9. They don't continue to get more attacks as they level. And they get many less proficiencies. Thieves that are dualed into something else might not develop all thieving skills very well, might not get evade (which is a great ability), and the like. And if you are playing on normal mode, well, you're xp spent on another class will cost you a level or two. Which can hurt a caster. In HoF mode, you'll hit 30 regardless though.

Now, there are definate advantages to it... a dual class will still level decently at the higher levels, a multi-class falls behind, having to split xp between two classes. A dual class can take full advantage of one classes higher hp totals, a multi-class must always take the average.

In most cases, dualing just gives you some more hp and a tad bit better thac0 in a single class character.

Personally, I don't need dual class characters, so why bother? Oh, sometime I might screw around with it just because, but it'll be just that, messing around for the fun of it