Seeking some spoiler-free tips for a noob

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If I want to shape-shift, I go epic druid all the way. If you pump that WIS high enough you can get the Shape-shift Dragon form, which is amazingly powerful, as well as the epic spell Dragon Summoning, and let's not forget the animal companion you will also have with you (which is actually useful unlike in NWN2). Having a druid in HOTU is like having your own personal army.

 

I think picking FMT and FMC is really more about having having more options as a character instead of just being the best at one thing. It's not like any other class can pull off Assassination+Greater Whirlwind+Timestop, for example, and at low levels being a Fighter/Mage with thieving abilities helps so you don't actually need to hire a thief (or bring along Yoshimo, assuming it's not your first run). That way you could choose to bring along a powerful NPC like Edwin, instead. And once you get Imoen back you won't need to rely on her (poor) thieving skills for late game.

Also, unlike future incarnations of jack-of-all-trades type classes FMTs and FMCs were also -at least- baseline good fighters and good mages. This was because your mage levels mostly only determined what spells you got and the strength of their effects, and because to be a good warrior you didn't have to take a boatload of extra feats. In future D&D games (NWN+) to be a good fighter -and- a good mage you needed lots of fighter/mage feats and you needed to keep your mage level as high as possible to overcome complications like SR/low DCs and the fact that character level had become = total class level (unlike the infinity engine games, for example, where a level 5 fighter could be roughly equivalent to a level 2/3/2 something-or-other). All the while, you needed to keep your BAB high by resorting to using obscure feats, class mechanics and PrCs. With some munchkinism pulling off a two class combo (plus a PrC or two, of course) is at least doable, but pulling off a good three class combo in NWN+ is more or less impossible.

TLDR; the older games do a much better job of implementing jack-of-all-trades type classes.


Off-topic
@SlickRCBD
On the surface yeah, but in NWN the bard and the shifter are very different when you actually play them. The thing is, a bard is jack-of-all-trades but at least you can find some way to have multiple effects going on at the same time (Buff songs, Curse songs, buffs, debuffs, a summon, nukes, etc). You can set up your bard to become a powerful melee-type class or (lots of people prefer this) a dangerous archer that benefits from several +hit/damage effects you won't find anywhere else.
The shifter, however, can only shift from one role/form to another and normally most of the benefits you gain from one form are lost when you shift to a different one. It tries to make up for this with quantity over quality (the Basilisk form in Henkie's post can spam its Stone Gaze attack, iirc) and some of the epic forms are pretty powerful at what they do (Raksasha and Risen Lord). Shifter levels even improve the dragon form better than druid levels. What I found annoying about the PrC though was that shifting had a casting time and unlike other games like DA:O where at least shapeshifting was more about gaining a situational advantage, in NWN shifting counts as your main (usually, only) mechanic. I personally hated the resulting lack of fluidity when shifting to different forms, but iirc the Shifter is still regarded as a solid PrC, especially on low-magic PWs.

@damedog
The animal companion in NWN2 gets a lot better than the once you reach higher druid levels, as long as you have a fully patched game (the various patches introduce buffs like Greater Magic Fang and the very powerful level 9 spell Nature's Avatar, as well as various companion-specific feats).

 

Actually, on reflection, the bard is quite useful and powerful in the Infinity Engine games. I've actually enjoyed beating ToB as a Bard, and definitely liked it in BG1 and IWD1.

Triple classed characters were also powerful if you removed the XP cap and soloed. It was only because they were behind your NPCs that they were an issue.

Playing IWD1, with a lot of triple classed characters was actually quite doable. I found them to be quite powerful in HoF with the xp cap adjusted to allow triple class characters to advance to comparable to single class characters. Heck, I was able to pull off starting the game in HoF mode with an all-multiclass party except for a bard at level one. Although beating those beetles when I could only hit on a natural 20 was a bore.

 

IMO they are balanced because of the cap. They get to pick an HLA for each class level gained after hitting around 3M XP total so they had more HLAs than any other class. They also have full access to the fighter, cleric and rogue HLAs, though they can't get the arcane spell HLAs (FMTs and FMCs do not gain level 9 spell slots, though technically they can still "cast" level 9 spells using Project Image and scrolls).

 

Like I said, the dragon form suffers a bit from the claws only hitting as non-magical weapons. Despite the huge strength you have as a dragon, a mediocre fighter with a +lots weapon will overall do more damage.

A straight druid also doesn't get nearly as many options for shapeshifting as an actual shifter. Of course they get lots of great spells in return for that. At certain levels the shifter gets infinite uses of their normal forms, too.

The basilisk form (and later on the medusa form) can spam the petrification gaze, though if memory serves it only really seems to work something like 6 or 8 times. After that you can still try to cast it, but the game will say it failed for an undisclosed reason. Baffled me a bit when I first tried it.

The harpy form is generally pretty good on fighter-types, though, regardless of level. They usually have pretty poor will-saves and it's fairly easy to charm half of a group or more.

You also get some use of the low level long term buffs that druids get, like stoneskin and bull's strength which do carry over to the shifted forms.

 

I've had Haer'Dalis in the party the whole time since doing his quest.

Love the spins and confuse harp. His casting is great considering his capable ac and thac0. I use him for pickpocketing. And he identifies almost everything.

I'm probably not even using him to his full potential.

 

He also makes the romance with Aerie very interesting (if you play a male character)....

 

In all of my many, many playthroughs through BG2 I have yet to see the Haer'dalis/Aerie thing....I really must remind myself to do that. And take Edwin for once.

 

Make sure you have Minsc with Edwin after the scroll. ROTF funny -- but then just about everyone has awesome comments. But I thought Minsc had the best because he was so clueless about the entire thing.

You've got to get HD very quickly after Aerie -- if you've progressed in the romance much (or killed the romance) it doesn't happen.

 

Another random group of NPCs that are fun to have is Korgan and Mazzy. You wouldn't think so but they have some fun banter.

I like the F/M/T but not the F/M/C. The first is fully functional thief. Even if it levels slowly you can keep up with open locks and trap disarming which are the two things that you actually need a thief to do. With a few items and a high dex you can get enough stealth to try to back stab. As for pick pockets that is what potions of master thievery are for. Eventually you can get enough levels to get everything where you want it to be. The second is rather lacking as a cleric. They are useful but I find that unlike the thief combo I do feel like I need another cleric to help out the F/M/C which I don't feel is true with the F/M/T with the the thief. Both are decent fighters (though a little bit squishy when they are not buffed). As for their mage side it is helpful and powerful (particularly to buff yourself) but you really can't rely on it as your only mage in a party (solo you can do alright since you will have so many levels that you can keep up).

Bards even in BG2 are great but they really are not jack of all trades. They are not great fighters (bad thac0, hp, AC, attacks per round, etc for a melee type), they are not clerics in any way, and they cannot be your thief (they can only pick pocket which IMO is the least required skill in the game). That said I love bards as they are competent spell casters, can identify things very well, and level 1 to the end of the game are the best class for using items. That is the true wealth of the class which is their ability to identify and then use items. In BG1 you have access to wands and bows which make you an automatic powerhouse. In BG2 you eventually can use any item in the game which is very versatile (and potentially powerful). BG2 bards changed the way I allow bards to use items in my PnP games. I now allow my PnP bards to use items like the bards in BG can (wands and the like along with mage scrolls though I still use the percentage chance with non-mage scrolls). Due to item (ab)use bards can be great warriors even if the class itself is otherwise not so great.

 

Just rolled a skald hehe. Sacrificed the pickpockets for immunities later. The thac0 bonus in his song is already helping a lot. I think he'd go well with mazzy + korgan when i get there.

Felt like rolling a male after all this talk about the romances <3. I still haven't beaten SoA though. Hoping I'll be installing bg2ee soon. Atm BG1 is a lil more enjoyable since i have the ee for it.

 

I like Skalds, they seem to have the most useful song and pickpocketing is never really that necessary (and if I want to use it, I'll boost it with a few potions and/or reload on a failure).

Unfortunately, one of the HLAs for any bard is a different song - which is actually quite a natural progression for a Skald. The unfortunate bit is that it makes every bard kit have the same good song as a Skald by the time they get HLAs, without the disadvantages of a Skald (mind you, lower pickpocketing is not really that much of a disadvantage in my book).

It makes Jesters completely different characters, as their song is quite different from that of the rest (debuffing enemies instead of buffing friendlies), and with this HLA their song is suddenly the same as all the rest.

For bards the vanilla bard is actually a good choice because of this. Blade as well, but HD is one already.

 

For BG2, a *19 Str Skald who Dual-wields SS or Scimitars is a rather excellent fighter type for most of the game, except for the a few fights like Firkraag. The +1/+1 at createion, 19 Str (+3/+7) and Belm(or Kundane) with any other Scimitar(or SS) really beef up his combat abilities. Add in Stoneskin/Mirror Image/Blur and he is an ass-kicker for most battles. Not quite on par with a warrior-type per se, but still easily holds his own against most opponents.

(* - easily gained with the book from BG1)

 

The biggest problem with a bard as a melee warrior is the fact that without any special measures, they're stuck at 1 attack per round. Dual wielding gets you another, with the right weapon you may gain another attack, but still they're not even close to an actual warrior.

Spells can make a bard more survivable than a plain fighter, except that it's limited use unless you want to rest every other fight or so.

 

The only useful bard is a blade IMO. In BG they are fantastic, they scale down to average in BG2, and by TOB they are sub-par.

UAI and the enhanced Bard Song are really the only reasons to take one at that point.

 

You can only use a Blade with TuTu, Trilogy, or EE. There are no kits in BG1, only specialist mages.

 

Sorry, meant bards in general for the first game. Use of bows, is good enough to be the only spellcaster in the party, plus the use of wands makes them great characters imo.

 

The Blade is up there with the F/M, Kensai/Mage, R/C, etc. They simply lack the restrictions of the Skald and Jester kits. For more attacks per round dual-wield Belm/Kundane/Scarlet. Against boss-level creatures Melf's Minute Meteors + Offensive Spin = 6 attacks per round at maximum damage per attack. Summon an image or two, use EBS and your damage output now rivals pretty much anything else's that's not in your party.

The Jester's Song does improve with levels. At level 20 it gains two additional effects (confuse and knock unconscious) and the save penalty gets reduced to +2. I don't think it was ever meant to take EBS. Their normal song is incredibly effective against humanoids (and even a few other creatures like giants) even in ToB. Without HLAs and specific mage spells like MMM though the Jester, out of all the bard kits, has the least number of options available to him against boss-level creatures.

The Skald is always useful. Even with just the +4 to hit and damage from his normal song (which he gets very early) that's already a potential +40 damage per round if you have 10 people (5 partymates, 5 summons) landing at least one attack each per round. Realistically because of Haste, the presence of warrior classes, HLAs and summons like Planetars/Elemental Princes everyone should be landing a lot more than just 10 attacks per round.
You're going to love this guy in BGEE.

I think HLAs like EBS were never meant to be available to all bard kits, but the original devs were going for maximum player enjoyment/amusement over trying to balance relative class strength for a mostly single player game (the "Tracking" Ranger HLA pretty much confirms this imo). EBS certainly doesn't fit - it makes the Blade OP in ToB, it negates the Jester's Song and it only has minor improvements over the Skald's own song. Pretty much the only "kit" that seems to deserve it is the plain Bard.

 

I must be reading the Skald's description wrong, a lot of people sing their praises (pun unintended) but last time I read what the class does it seemed useless...