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VisAbsoluta posted:What stats and proficiency points should I aim for with a Cleric/Ranger multi? Also, I take it that Dragons or Demons are the best racial enemies? This is in BGII:EE. Str/dex/wis as high as you can get them, 16 or 18 con*, 11+ int. 2 or 3 points in two-weapon style, points in flail and warhammer. Demon, vampire, and beholder are all enemy types that are difficult enough to merit the bonus without being super few in number like dragons. *I don't remember if rangers benefit from having 18 con like fighters do, but they might.
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Dec 29, 2013 03:40
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Skwirl posted:Spear can be fun, Club if you concentrate on boosting your fire resistance then use the club of detonation. The big xp gap for druids is between level 14 and 15, so you should be fine dualing at 9. A kensai/druid sounds like a good excuse to use the impaler, my favorite weapon that I've never actually used.
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Jan 11, 2015 16:19
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Stumiester posted:Whats the best way to use Valygar? Is it worth it? Valygar's kind of a specialist. He's not great as a front-liner compared to meat grinders like Korgan, but he can put out some okay backstabs and can eventually cast haste, which is very useful. Valygar casting haste means more fireballs from Nalia, and who doesn't like throwing around fireballs? Plus, anyone that's half-decent at using Celestial Fury is worth considering. bunnielab posted:I am restarting BGEE, running three concurrent games, a good, netural, and evil party, with an eye towards taking each CHARNAME through to BG2EE. To spice things up I installed SCS, Rogue rebalancing, and the BG2Tweakpack. Needless to say, even on Core rules I am getting my rear end whupped at every mage fight. Loving every minute of it though. I'm reasonably sure that Bub Snikt isn't from a mod. BG1 has a lot of wacky poo poo in it.
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Jan 17, 2015 00:52
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fong posted:Valygar is totally a front liner. He gets two free pips in dual wield, he's already proficient with katanas, not to mention CF is one of the most broken weapons in the game. Korgan's extra APR and rage is better for sure, but I'd not describe Valygar as a "specialist" I was mostly thinking that because he can't wear metal armor. Long-term that's not really a big deal, since AC tends to not matter for poo poo in ToB, but for a lot of SoA he'll need someone tanking for him. ...Also I just realized that I'm looking at things with the BGTweaks mod in mind. Specifically the part that allows dual- and multi-classed fighters to get five pips in weapons instead of just two. Unmodded, he compares much more favorably with folks like Anomen and Jaheira. Whoops!
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Jan 17, 2015 03:04
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re: underpowered party chat I think, in this special party that is absolutely under no circumstances allowed to have a wizard, Valygar's eventual ability to cast haste makes him too powerful. Anomen/Mazzy/Minsc/Viconia/Cernd (with Yoshimo taking up Mazzy or Minsc's spot until after Spellhold) is the way to go. And that's still a completely viable party, even though the lack of arcane spellcasting will make things a pain in the rear end. I agree that a no-kit minimum stats thief has got to be the least powerful PC you can make, though.
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Aug 1, 2015 10:03
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The only really hard part of the Umar Hills is the optional boss, as well, and you get the ranger stronghold there. Good place to go for your first trip outside the city.
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Jun 18, 2017 10:48
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Deltasquid posted:Well, I'm a ranger/cleric so I'm not sure if that qualifies me for a cleric stronghold or a ranger one. Or both? Unless you install a mod, you can have either the cleric or the ranger stronghold but not both. Getting one will lock you out of getting the other one. (IMO the ranger stronghold is more interesting than the cleric one, for what it's worth) Talk to Lehtinan, the sleazy guy behind the bar. Ask him about "other" kinds of entertainment until he lets you into the back rooms.
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Jun 18, 2017 10:58
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I've been soloing BG2EE as a F/M/T and only just discovered, when I hit the XP cap, that triple-class mages never get to cast 9th-level spells  Shoulda been a cleric/mage in a small party instead.
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Jun 24, 2017 21:25
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Dillbag posted:I believe 2d4 is actually better than 1d8 because you add the dice together so it's impossible to roll for less than 2. 2d4 will average higher than 1d8, with both extremes (2 and 8) being considerably less likely.
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Jun 27, 2017 19:21
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Wildtortilla posted:No dont say this about Warhammers! I'm having fun with a dwarf F/C that's smashing things with some electric Warhammer I found. ChrisBTY posted:Yes.  Also if your strength is high enough (by which I mean 18+) the damage bonus from that will make the damage dice on your weapon matter a lot less. (assuming you're playing one of the 2E games)
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Jun 27, 2017 20:18
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Yeah with that strength score you can use whatever weapon you want and you'll hit hard enough. And being a hammer-lover will pay off big time in BG2.
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Jun 27, 2017 21:24
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Morningstars get a pass because they share the proficiency slot with flails, IIRC. And maces at least have one really useful specialty weapon Clubs are eternally the chump weapon, though, except for that one acid club you can buy in SoA. Sucks for you if you took five pips in clubs and want to play ToB, though.
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Jun 27, 2017 22:31
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Yeah, see how much you like your party full of sword-swingers when clay golems show up! 
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Jun 27, 2017 23:24
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Entropy238 posted:The design philosophy behind many of the balance choices throughout development seems to have been made with a view to increasing the choices available to the player, rather than the challenge of the game. IMO this is an extremely good design philosophy and it's a big part of why I like F:NV and PoE so much.
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Jun 28, 2017 18:21
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The trite (but completely true) answer is that every class is viable. A mage/thief, either dual-classed or multi, is going to be a very strong character though. Personally I'd recommend dual classing for more mage power in the long run, but if you want to make use of the entire thief toolkit rather than just being the unlock/disarm monkey then multiclassing is for you.
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Jul 7, 2017 03:05
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Skwirl posted:You can hit level 9 in BG1? Not without removing or increasing the XP cap, no. With the expansion installed or in the EE, BG1's XP cap is 161,000 which only gets you to fighter level 8. edit: Samuel Clemens posted:Assassin -> Mage doesn't strike me as particularly good. You're basically giving up 10 skillpoints per level for +1 to hit and damage and a mediocre poison ability. Yeah, the increased backstab multiplier from Assassin doesn't kick in until way too late for it to be dual-class viable. Mr. Baps fucked around with this message at 00:37 on Jul 9, 2017 |
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Jul 9, 2017 00:25
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Depends on whether or not you care about backstabbing. If you do, pick either katana or longsword. If you don't, your options are wide open. Common choices for "best" would be flail, greatsword, or halberd. If you pick a one-handed weapon, make sure to get 2 points in dual-wielding (or 3, but the third point isn't as useful as the first two) and 1 in scimitar, war hammer, or both.
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Jul 22, 2017 17:12
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Olive Branch posted:Do weapon mastery bonuses apply to off-handed weapons? I think that extra attacks per round don't apply for off-hand weapons, unless you are using a weapon that adds an extra attack, but I'm not sure if the extra damage and THAC0 bonuses apply. Damage and THAC0 apply, but the off-hand weapon only ever attacks once per round. Even Belm (+1 APR) in the off-hand gives the extra attack to the main hand weapon. Smashing Link posted:I was leaning more toward just having high THACO and APR and dual-wielding. Would 5 pips in scimitars and 3 in two weapon fighting be overkill? 3 in two-weapon fighting is only worth 2 THAC0 for the one off-hand attack per round, so unless you have nowhere else useful to put the point it's better spent elsewhere. Focusing on scimitars is fine, but you'll be hurting for a powerful main-hand weapon for a while. I think the best you can get in SoA without going into Watcher's Keep is a generic +3 scimitar with Belm in the off-hand. Which isn't bad, but it's got nothing on ridiculous weapons like the Flail of Ages or Celestial Fury.
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Jul 22, 2017 23:18
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Smashing Link posted:I would like to hear some recs other than Flail of Ages / Crom Faeyr. Makes me almost too bored to start a new game when the weapon recs are the same every time. Shortswords don't get enough love IMO. Arbane's sword (+2, immunity to hold person) is an amazing early/mid-game weapon, finish Renal Bloodscalp's quests for one of the quickest and easiest to get +3 weapons in the game, and then you get a +4 shortsword in chapter 6 and can buy the Sword of Mask from the priests at Watcher's Keep. One of my favorite characters was a kensai/thief that used shortswords. If you prefer your swords long, there's a huge pile of worthy longswords to pick up all over SoA. And once you come back to Athkatla in chapter 6, you can finally put together the Equalizer for a nice upgrade. Or what about spears? Sadly there's really only one stand-out example in SoA, but it's one hell of an example. The Impaler, found in the Sahuagin city, does a flat 10 bonus damage on every hit. That'll easily carry you well into ToB when you can get Ixil's Spike or whatever it's called. I honestly don't even know if it's better than the Impaler, aside from being able to hit things that the Impaler can't. ProfessorCirno posted:Darts and daggers are basically never good. From a pure DPS perspective, sure. But darts of stunning or wounding can be very useful, and Firetooth (the +3 throwing dagger you can buy in the Underdark) is great for shutting down spellcasters through stoneskin. Also it's worth pointing out that once you're wearing a belt of _____ Giant strength, your strength bonus will ensure you're doing good damage no matter what type of weapon you're swinging around. Be a double dagger wielding berserker if you want, you're not exactly gimping yourself.
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Jul 31, 2017 03:06
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HOOLY BOOLY posted:Yes,pure thief. I was in a thiefy kinda mode when we first started playing and didn't know enough about AD&D to want to mess with a multiclass of any kind. Kinda regretting that now If you're a human and not too high level already, strongly consider dual-classing to mage or fighter. Otherwise, learn to love setting traps because it's about the only fun thing a single-class thief can do. The Phlegmatist posted:Your ability to go into stealth is based on not having any enemies in your thief's vision. You can duck around corners to restealth and backstab. You can also just have a friendly mage blind you but that's kinda exploity. Since you're playing your own character in multi just grab some boots of speed and dart around corners so you can shove backstabs into people every chance you get. They're REALLY strong. This is good advice. Start the fight with a backstab, retreat, hide, repeat.
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Mar 1, 2018 12:42
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BG2 mechanics question: I loaded up an old save and was just messing around for a few minutes. Anomen had an AC of -10, and my PC had a THAC0 of 8. Unless I've been wrong about THAC0 all these years, that should mean I'd hit him on an attack roll of 18 or better. But the combat log was showing my rolls, and I was still missing on rolls of 19-21. Then I took off some of his gear, which put his listed AC at -6. After that, an 18 missed but a 19 hit. According to how I understand THAC0, I should've been hitting on a 14 or higher. What gives? It's entirely possible that my ancient mod-heavy install of BG2 is bugged, but if I've badly misunderstood how the rules work all this time I'd like to know.
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May 11, 2019 16:29
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Suspicious posted:His gear likely provides a bonus to AC vs your damage type (piercing, missile, blunt or slashing). Such a bonus isn't reflected in the overall AC score on the character sheet. bike tory posted:Further to this, the stated AC for a piece of armour is always its AC vs blunt weapons (because I guess they had to standardise on something?). It's always worth checking though, some pieces of armour with the same stated AC are actually much better or worse than others. That'd explain a lot. Thanks 
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May 12, 2019 01:03
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chaosapiant posted:I think I know the answer to this, but can a sorcerer be used in dual classing? Or just mage? Just mage.
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Jun 11, 2019 20:51
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chaosapiant posted:That's what I thought. Thinking of potential next-runs when my current evil playthrough is done, and a Kensai/Sorcerer seems like it would amazing. Kensai/Thief is pretty much the ultimate form of the Fighter/Thief. King of backstabbing, and once you get Use Any Item you become even more ultimate.
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Jun 11, 2019 20:59
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Even if you don't get to repick, there are few enough level 1 spells that are consistently useful in BG2 that you can easily afford to take Sleep for BG1. You're just gonna be casting Armor once and then unloading Magic Missiles or Chromatic Orbs anyway, the other slots barely matter.
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Jun 13, 2019 21:17
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Mzbundifund posted:I'll admit there's comedy value in vaporizing a dragon with a level 1 spell, This is actually the only reason that I like Chromatic Orb, if I'm being honest. I unexpectedly insta-killed one of BG2's many dragons with it once and it stuck with me.
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Jun 13, 2019 21:49
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KKKLIP ART posted:So if I’m running a 2 handed weapon berserker, what should I be chunking fools with during BG2? I’m about to go say what’s up give me that soul back from Bhodi and I never really sell anything so I have a gang of stuff. Fun weapons for cool people: Vorpal Silver Sword: hope you didn't give it back to the Gith like some kind of sucker The Impaler: the only good spear in SoA Staff of the Ram if you've already been to Watcher's Keep Mr. Baps fucked around with this message at 16:43 on Jun 14, 2019 |
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Jun 14, 2019 15:22
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Cythereal posted:It's not a very good weapon, honestly. Sure it might be the best two-handed sword in SoA, but why are you using swords when you could be using halberds instead for the Wave? I only use two-handed swords on the PC if I'm playing a paladin, personally. But Minsc loves swords and even though I always tell myself I'll make him dual wield blunt weapons, I never do. And for the Silver Sword in particular, I'm a huge sucker for insta-kill effects. I always liked Finger of Death and Disintegrate even though there are much better spells available at those levels. Also, sweet geek swag posted:Swords are cool. 
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Jun 14, 2019 23:33
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The ideal time to dual-class a Thief is whenever their skills are where you want them to be. If she's level 14 by now, you probably hit that mark a long time ago. 14 is really late to be dual-classing, so much so that it's probably not worth doing anymore. e: but if you really want to go through with it, just dual right away so that you spend as little time as possible before getting her Thief abilities back. e2: looking at the XP tables to check my memory, Thief 14 isn't that excessive. It's sub-optimal for sure, but that's not really terribly important, and even though I really like Thief HLAs (Spike Trap and Use Any Item are a lot of fun IMO), a Thief 14/Mage X Imoen is gonna be a lot more powerful in the long run than a pure Thief no matter what. It's just a question of whether you're willing to invest the time in a lovely low-level mage to get her there. Mr. Baps fucked around with this message at 13:56 on Jun 17, 2019 |
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Jun 17, 2019 13:43
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Samuel Clemens posted:I assume KKKLIP ART is playing with a mod that allows you to carry over characters from BG1. I thought you had to pass your old class in XP, not level. Am I remembering wrong? e: quick wiki check says I am. That changes everything, don't dual-class a level 14 Thief
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Jun 17, 2019 14:53
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Lucas Archer posted:Especially since I've never done either the Ranger or Cleric stronghold quests. Any suggestions on which one is more interesting when I get to it? Download the good ol' tweak pack and let yourself have both IMO
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Jun 29, 2021 02:21
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You can get a scroll of Horrid Wilting in the Underdark easily enough anyway, which ought to be before you can cast 8th-level spells unless you're running with a small party or being very completionist in chapters 2 and 3.
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Jan 29, 2023 05:15
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Charname never asked for those apprentices, and they're just gonna grow up to be Cowled Wizards anyway. That ring is worth more than they are. 
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Jan 29, 2023 05:26
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Suspicious posted:Doesn't work for me. He turns hostile when I start casting buffs and other things that don't target him. The black dragon doesn't because of the ward stone. Are you using any mods (SCS for example)? I've never had him behave like that. e: even if you can't lay traps, you can still pre-buff upstairs
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Jul 31, 2023 04:51
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Vargatron posted:Sometimes, I play things like unkitted bard or paladin just because I like the RP element of it. Every time I see a post about a class being objectively bad, it seems like it's always from the perspective of somebody trying to minmax. Any game's community will do this. Searching for and exploiting the most powerful / broken combos is fun, but given enough time it always seems to turn into "X and Y and Z are the best, don't waste your time with anything else." The reality is that literally any class can solo the game, so the number one advice should always be "play what you think sounds fun." If the most powerful builds are what you think sounds fun, cool! Go nuts. But playing a kitless thief or a jester bard is just as good if that's what someone wants to do.
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Aug 28, 2023 00:13
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Yeah, kitless thief is really bad and probably nobody should actually play as it, despite what I just said. At least go bounty hunter so that your traps are cooler, or assassin if you love to murder.
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Aug 28, 2023 00:25
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Hollismason posted:I want a chill experience what class is real chill. Inquisitor paladin or multiclass fighter/thief would be my go-to for something relaxed. Not as "I do exactly one thing" as a straight fighter but simple and very strong. Or, for the ultimate one-trick pony, archer ranger. You indeed do exactly one thing and that one thing deletes most enemies very quickly.
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Mar 16, 2024 00:32
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H13 posted:So I'm replaying BG2 as a Thief\Mage. Arivia posted:It's very valid. The spells you're looking for are Improved Invisibility but especially Mislead. Yup, Mislead is the GOAT if you want to backstab. Cast it so that your illusion is off-screen and just go hog wild. There's also a cloak of non-detection in Athkatla somewhere - either the sewers or the assholes in the Promenade inn, I think - that will be nice to have.
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Mar 18, 2024 04:42
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