Dualclassing a Fighter into a Mage: level 9 or 13?

[Klorox]

Berserkers and Kensai are very popular classes to dual into Mages. I just don't know when to dual class this character. My choices are between levels 9 and 13. There are pros and cons for each.

If I dual at level 9 I'll have:
3 Rages/Kais per day (I think this is enough)
I'll become a "complete character" (Berserker abilities back after dualclassing) at 500,000 XP

If I dual at level 13, I'll have:
4 Rages/Kais per day
1/2 extra Attack per Round
I'll become a "complete character" at 2,750,000 XP

I know dual classing at level 13 will end up with a more powerful character in the end, but is it worth the 1,250,000 XP?

Let me know what your experiences tell you.

TIA

[ZFR]

question: how many people in your party?

[Mahokenshi]

You know, I had a similar question on here a while ago.

Well, I've been playing through again lately, and I decided to try a Breserker - Mage myself.

I used easyTutu and soloed through BG1. When I imported my character to BG2, he had nearly 1.4 million xp. The game had apparently kept track of all the xp I had collected even after hitting the level cap. I was able to dual class to a mage right away, and was already level 8 by the time I got out of the dungeon.

I am still in chapter three, and I just got back my breserker ablities. I still have Nalia's keep, Umar Hills, and the Planar Sphere to go. And all of Watcher's Keep is still untouched. This is with a party of four.

I find that dualing at level 13 in a full party just takes too long. And remember - a fighter's base THAC0 at level 13 is 8 (4 for a kensai). It will never improve after that. This is the same number a thief will cap at. Dualing at level 9 will still earn you a spellcaster who can slug it out well enough for the first half of SoA; and then later on when you need magic the most; you'll have a killer mage with tons of hp. Dualing at level 13, well especially for a non-kensai your THAC0 will lag quite a bit.
Even patched, grandmastery only offers +2 to strike above specialization. I'm expecting that my current character will find his fighting abilities lagging a bit by the endgame anyway. If you want combat power augmented by spells, then a multiclassed character will net you a more fearsome end game warrior; (at the expense of mage power.)

Getting to level 13/14 as a dual class fighter mage is not really worth the effort if you want to play the majority of the game as with the character concept you want.

[SixOfSpades]

Originally Posted by Mahokenshi And remember - a fighter's base THAC0 at level 13 is 8 (4 for a kensai). It will never improve after that.

Incorrect. Warriors' THACO improves at the rate of 1 point per level, all the way to Level 21.
[ADD]Unless, of course, you're talking about a Fighter->X Dual at Level 13, but then that's true of just about any Warrior->X Dual.[/ADD]