Great Classes

[Nifft the Nimble]

Archers are very good. You get an interesting character -- non-magic, non-melee. I recommend Elf for race.

-- Nifft

[Gothmog, Lord of Balrogs]

cavaliers, monks, sorcerers, and f/m/t's are all good. not that cavaliers cannot USE ranged weapons. Berserkers cannot specialize, but kensai and cavaliers cannot USE ranged weapons. Note that monks are good, but archers have the ability to be MUCH, MUCH better. even with a normal longbow and normal arrows, an elven 19-dex archer has a thac0 of about 0 at the START of the game. sorcerers are very good, but your spell selection is very limited, so you have to choose well and rely on scrolls when necessary. f/m/t's are the most versatile characters in the game, but don't reach very high levels. However, that isn't really a problem, since you are a good fighter, can cast many spells, and can even backstab and Use Any Item (carsomyr, staff of woodlands, anyone?)

[Mahlennacht]

Welcome to the world of *Replaying BG2 All Over Again* - no you're not crazy (I'm on my fifth time)

For my second time thru, I read about, then tried a dual-class Kensai(7)/Thief. Chose proficiency in katanas. Kai + 5x backstab with Celestial Fury is strangely satisfying [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]
Also the stronghold for thieves - I found it very interesting not to mention somewhat profitable $$$-wise.

Doing an Undead Huntress right now, as I do NOT like being level-drained.
I'll always be attached to my first PC, a straight Bard - could do a little of everything and after a while he got so high in Lore that he never had to use Identify spells
I plan to do an elven Archer when I do the Ranger stronghold...

You know that practically any class will have something interesting to offer, which is what is so great about this game.

[StarVid]

Here are some classes I enjoyed in the past.

Wild Mage: You need ToB of course. I had a lot of fun with this one. With chaos shield and reckless dwoemer (pick it on character creation, I don't think it comes in a scroll). I was casting some crazy spells before I was even the level to do it. Besides, wild surges are fun!!!

Cleric/Mage: This is a dual classed character and one of my favs. It's an old one so I don't remember what cleric kit I picked for BG2. I think I dualed it at level 9 so I could get access to a 5th level spell. What made this work was that it was actually a maxed BG1 character I imported. I had used tomes (only once for each stat though as that's the official rule) so I had some a lot of sweet extra cleric spells with a 19 wis. Also, with a 19 int, I never had to worry about having too many spells per level (that really annoyed me and I didn't want to bother with potions of genius).

Fav cleric spells (other than cure spells) to keep on hand:
L1-Bless, Doom, Remove Fear (opens of a l2 wiz spell slot), sanctuary (just in case)
L2-Chant, Hold Person (gets useless quick though), Resist Fire/Cold
L3-Animate Dead (until I'm a 15th level mage), Miscast Magic, Protection from Fire, Remove Paralysis, Zone of Sweet Air (just in case)
L4-Free Action, Lesser Restore, *Negative Plane Protection*, Protection from Evil 10'
L5-I pretty much just used True Sight though there's a lot of other nice ones.

I haven't played a lot of spellcasters, but I did enjoy the Undead Hunter (2H swords) for the time that I played it. Level drain was what annoyed me the most so an UH and other tank with the amulet of power did really well.