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Old 10-21-2004, 01:09 PM   #1
Feagil of the shadow
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Join Date: October 16, 2004
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Hi i used to post on here ages ago as a different sign in name... but anyway I decided to start BG2:SoA.

I wondered about the perfect party combo for a thief/ mage
I am going to dual my thief as soon as I get out of Irenicus's Dungeon. But I recently started again as a dual fighter/thief, which was stupid because Theives are just rubbish at level 14, they have no extra use. I had a party of Keldorn, Valygar, Viconia, Aerie and Edwin. But I was only ibn Chapter 3 so starting again isnt too bad.

But anyway, what level shall I dual my thief? iw as thinking about level 10, or a little bit higher so that his thieving skills (or the ones that are crucial) are all about 90.

And what Party should I consider? I thought Valygar was an amazing fighter, and definately worth keeping when using Celestial Fury and Corthola Blade.

Keldorn was also very good with Red Dragon Scale and Casomyr sword. Though he did argue with Viconia alot.

Viconia I can't decide about... She was very good when equipped with Gauntlets of Ogre Power and Girdle of Fortitude, but I dunno, she kept running up to people to cast her priest spells... anyone got any tips?

Aerie I've always used... but should I consider someone else?

Edwin was fantastic... I honestly love the guy. Him and my mage would work wonders magic wise...


I realise that if I just switched player characters, my party would become magic heavy. This I don't really want... I want an optimum balance... Such as Anomen for Viconia? But I like the Viconia romance sequence.... so I am kinda stuck... any hints anyone?
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Old 10-21-2004, 04:30 PM   #2
Riftmaker
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Well, there are a few questions you should answer first...

1) What thieving skills do you consider crucial? Find Traps / Open Locks? Some people consider other skills to be crucial.

2) It's generally not a good idea to make a mixed alignment party. Do you REALLY want Edwin and Viconia? If so, you might have to give up Keldorn / Valygar / Aerie for the Dwarf and Edwin. Viconia you can deal with reputation wise, but I think Edwin leaves your party if your rep gets to like 17. Also, do you want to run a full party?

3) If you're using a cleric support script for Viconia, she will cast healing spells on everyone, which you may not want. You could always just stick her with the standard attack script, or not give her one at all.

4) In regards to Aerie...it really depends on what you're using her for. If you're using her for a mage, I'd get Nalia instead. If you're using her for a cleric, then just give her all support / healing spells. Let your other cleric handle the attacking spells.

5) Edwin will have problems with your good aligned characters (Keldorn and Valygar) so I dunno if it's possible to keep him without some form of repuation control. The only way I know of to control your reputation is to kick / re-recruit Viconia from time to time. But if you're trying to get her romance, then that isn't exactly possible.

So yeah, read my post and let me know what you think.
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Old 10-21-2004, 05:21 PM   #3
Feagil of the shadow
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My thief skills currently stand as this: open locks and find traps: 90. pick pockets and move silently: 50 and hide in shadows: 30. I'm not bothered about the others, but I'd quite like to get all of those stats over 80, so I guess I'm looking at level 10-12, assuming I get 25 points to allot each time?

In my last party, it was actually Viconia and Keldorn who hated each other. At one point Keldorn just turned round and said "Your time is over Drow..." or something to that affect, and then they hacked the hell outta one another. Edwin kept talking to himself which Aerie found odd but other than that there were no probs....

I think by dropping my fighter/thief, I would need another solid fighter, cos Viconia could be a little pathetic at times. I was thinking something like:

Keldorn
Valygar
*another tank type*
Viconia
Mage/Thief
Edwin

For the tank types, there are several that would fit the bill:

Anomen- cleric abilities to replace loss of Aerie, and quite a solid fighter, especially after wisdom upgrade.

Jaheira- Druidic abilities, but becuase she is multi-class, levels up slow...

Mazzy- Never used her, but shes just a fighter, and I've got Valygar and Keldorn. Not sure my party would last long with just one cleric.

Cernd- Again never used him, but he's a pure druid. I suppose he can shapeshift, but can he be used as one of the back up tanks?

Haer'Dalis- Blades are bards aren't they? I don't actually know because I never play as bards... And he doesn't have healing spells I suppose...


I really think I should go for Anomen or Jaheira, but what would your honest opinions be?

As well, how would I keep my reputation low in the early parts of the game, without dropping Viconia (stopping the romance), especially as you can't become the slayer yet?
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Old 10-21-2004, 05:55 PM   #4
SixOfSpades
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Welcome...back...to Ironworks? Yeah.
[img]graemlins/thewave.gif[/img]

Viconia's moving into melee range to cast spells is a bug, where she gets affected with some form of Blindness (no one is really sure what causes it) that lasts forever. It can be fixed by casting Cure Disease or Restoration on her, and prevent by fully patching your game--which you should do anyway. Really really.

I'm having trouble deciphering whether you want advice on a party with a Fighter/Thief protagonist, or a Theif->Mage protagonist. I'll give both, to be on the safe side.

Fighter/Thief: I would choose a Dwarf or Halfling.
Edwin
Viconia
Mazzy
Jaheira
Haer'Dalis
This is not the "best" setup by any means, but is rather neutral in terms of alignment, and has a decent balance of Warriors / Priests / Thieves / Wizards.

Thief->Mage
Nalia (somebody's gotta handle the Thieving while you're waiting to come out of the Dual)
Aerie
Keldorn
Valygar
Jaheira
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Old 10-21-2004, 08:11 PM   #5
Riftmaker
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Here's some advice on thieving skills:

FT/OL: You want these over 100, 125 perferably to handle all traps efficiently.

HiS/MS: Don't get these if you don't plan to use them. 80 isn't high enough for effective 24/7 use. If you want to get them higher, you'll be paying for it with levels.

PP/DI: Don't get PP if you're only gonna keep it at 80. You want to be able to succeed at PPing 100% of the time. As for DI, the higher the better, but it can still be useful at around 80ish.

Set Traps you won't find very useful if you're not a BH, so just leave it be.


(edit)
If you're simply going to dual to a mage, I'd even take those first 8 levels as a swashbuckler rather than a simple thief. You get the same amount of points, but no backstabbing (which you wouldn't be using at level 8 anyway). If you are actually going to use backstabbing, an Assassin->Mage dual could be quite deadly. I may do that with my game now that I've thought of it.
(/edit)

When you start out in BG2, you will be level 8 as a thief, giving you this many points:

60 + (20*7) = 200.

Now, if you only want to use FT/OL, dump 100 points into each, and you're good to go. Simply dual to a mage right there and then.

If you want to spread out a bit more, you're going to have to wait somewhere between 2 and 5 levels to get all the points you want. This can get annoying, especially in large parties.

So I'd suggest making your thief, dumping 100 into FT and OL, and dualling to a mage straight-away after starting BG2.

As for a party, if you're sure nobody will kill Ewdin, and you want to keep Viconia for romance purposes, you're going to have trouble controlling reputation.

You
Edwin
Viconia
Anomen
Valygar
Nalia -> for handling thieving until you come out of dual.

Viconia is a great tank if you get her strength up to where she can wear full plate. Simply resolve / prevent the bug, and she'll be amazing.

Anomen / Valygar can handle the bashing. Anomen also makes a great backup cleric.

Nobody ever complained about having 3 mages, and you only really need 2 tanks, and Viconia can help out in that department.

If you don't care about the Viconia romance, but you still want a romance, either make your character female, or kick Nalia and take Jaheira/Aerie. You can simply do non-thieving quests until you get your XP high enough to get your thieving skills back.

[ 10-21-2004, 08:14 PM: Message edited by: Riftmaker ]
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Old 10-22-2004, 06:00 AM   #6
Armen
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i agree with the swashbuckler thing but i'd wait 'til level 10 (i think) to get the next THACO and AC bonus

i don't think you need to plan for another thief - none of the character's you or others are takign about keeping are irenicus dungeon characters so you're going to hit the surface on your own - a couple of potions of thievery and a scroll stealing spree later and you're well on the way to getting your thief levels back (you may object to this of course)

alternatively get your troops together and head out into the countryside - no traps in trademeet or the umar hills (nothing serious anyway) - in fact there's plenty of trap free XP to be had
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Old 10-22-2004, 08:00 AM   #7
Dirty Meg
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Quote:
Originally posted by Feagil of the shadow:
I wondered about the perfect party combo for a thief/ mage
I am going to dual my thief as soon as I get out of Irenicus's Dungeon. But I recently started again as a dual fighter/thief, which was stupid because Theives are just rubbish at level 14, they have no extra use.
Once you get your thief to high levels, you can start putting thief points into detect illusion and set snare which are both quite useful. If you have ToB installed, a fighter/thief becomes a much better char than a pure fighter once you reach 3*10^6 exp.
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Old 10-22-2004, 10:39 AM   #8
Albromor
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If I am not mistaken, Keldorn and Viconia are like oil and water with Keldorn eventually taking on Viconia and winning.
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Old 10-22-2004, 11:02 AM   #9
Feagil of the shadow
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I think I am going to replace Aerie with Anomen, simple swap.

Do you think I should tackle Irenicus's Dungeon as a solo character? Just release Jaheira and Minsc for exp? And can you actually boot Imoen at that stage?

I'm thinking of actually burning through Baldurs Gate One with a thief and importing instead to make my character more powerful.

I'm gioing to keep Keldorn, and just save often and hope he doesn't ahck Viconia to pieces for the fun of it.

Anyway. thanks for the tips everyone, time to head on over to Baldurs Gate 1 forums later...
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Old 10-22-2004, 12:53 PM   #10
Armen
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if you want to play BG1 it's all good but shadowkeeper will easily bump you up to 160,000 XP and add the tome increases if you want

soloing un-modded irenicus dungeon is easy enough if you're patient - you can boot imoen straight away too if you want
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