Best Tank Class Combination - no mods

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Hi,

I have never used mods, so I am unable to dual/multi specialty classes.
However, I have gone over BG2 several times in the past.
I was just wondering what was your prefered class and why, without the use of Mods.

From experience, mine is Ranger/Cleric multi/dual or fighter/druid multi/dual for the following reasons:
- you get high hit points
- you can wear the best armours
- you can cast powerful spells (especially the Cleric/Ranger with access to both priest and druid spells)
- you can use druid stoneskins, which last for a long time, and which, combined with good armour, make the best of tanks.

I think with a MOD, the ultimate tank class would be a Berserker / Druid, for the immunities of the rage and the stomeskins.

your thoughts?

 

I agree that the ranger/cleric makes the best tank. My power party uses a dwarven ranger/cleric as the tank. Espcially when you have him wielding the hammer that gives 25 strength.

I complement the tank with a dual wielding kensai. No one can hurt the tank and the kensai shreds them to pieces while they try. Its just beautiful

Throw in a high level sorcerer dropping timestops all over teh place and you have the perfect 3 man team.

 

Why do you need to have a mod for a berserker/druid to rock?

 

You don't need a Mod to get a Berserker/Druid dual class. What you have to do is to start as a True Neutral Berserker with at least 15 STR, 17 WIS and 17 CHA and dual later on (level 9 or 13 preferably). And make sure you put points in weapon proficiencies a Druid can use.

EDIT: Perfect timing!!! Nice!
@Ion: 1st time I ever read about a dwarven Ranger/cleric...

 

Cleric/Rangers rock!

 

The best tank is the one that doesn't take any damage and can dish out plenty. As such, a F/M, F/M/C, or F/M/T are the perfect tank classes, alongside the R/C and F/D that you mentioned. Stoneskin and absolute protection spells go a long way. A Berserker->Mage would be pretty damn good at tanking, between rage immunities and protective spells. With the upgraded elven chain, AC won't even be that different. But a Berserker->Druid would be nearly as good.

 

The berserker part isn't even all that necessary, though. All of the immunities the Berserker/Mage gains can be aquired using other means and, while raging, the Berserker/Mage can't cast spells. Give me a Kensai/Mage or, better yet, a straight multiclass, any day of the week.

 

SK much?

My 2 best tanks were a halfelf R/C and an elf F/M.

 

blade

 

lol, I always play dwarven clerics

 

Thanks guys for your replies!

Never thought of a dual-class Berserker/Druid... Interesting... Dual wield cimitars and clubs, while wearing the best armours and helmets, and using Berserker rage... Ouch.

I like Blades, as well. Tested one recently, they can be quite effective, especially with their spells. But in the end, still inferior to R/Cs in pure melee combat I fell, for the same reason F/M are not as good tanks.

I agree with those that say Fighter/mages are powerful: they are but:

- You will never get as good AC as with Ranger/Cleric or Berserker/Druid or FIgther /Druid, while keeping the ability to cast spells.
- Sure mage spells are powerful buffs, but you need to cast them ahead of time, before each battle, for them to be really effective. Plus, you can only cast so many before you need to memorize them again.

=> I would have to say in conclusion that for me the true Tank is the one that can go through entire dungeons using with no rest, and I think R/C, B/D, and F/D make the best of them.

I have a question though for those dual-class experts out there: I always have trouble figuring out what you lose or retain from the class you have just dualed from?

 

You lose everything from your old class, until you new class exceeds the level of your old class, at which point you get your old abilities back.

So for a B/D, (assuming you dual-classed at level 13) you would lose all of your berserker abilities until you hit level 14 as a druid. So you wouldn't be able to use rage, or wear helms, or use anything beyond leather armors while regaining your berserker levels. Once you hit level 14 as a druid, all of the armor restrictions go away, and you regain your berserk abilities. However, even after regaining your berserker abilities, you will still only be permitted to use weapons available to a druid. So it is essential that when you are picking proficiencies for your berserker that you only place them in weapon classes available for a druid, otherwise they will be wasted. So you are limited to:

Scimitars
Daggers
Clubs
Quarterstaves
Slings (only one point as a berserker)
Darts (again, only one as a berserker)
And all the weapon styles (single, dual, or two handed, or w/shield (although I highly recommend against w/shield))

 

OK, thanks Aldeth!

So how about the TACO, and # of attacks per round, and weapon proficiency scores: would you regain the berserker ones?
I mean, if your berserker had 5 points in Clubs, would a dual-classed get 5 points as well?

 

2 points. Armor is the only place where it's different, and there you've got AC -2 from the best armor in the game and AC 0 from the Aslyferund Elven Chain. Unless you're going with the BMU.

No, that's the clerical/druidic buffs you're thinking of (Armor of Faith and such). Stoneskin lasts 12 hours, and the other protection spells have such short durations that casting them before a battle would be a waste.

Yep, the mages fit in there too. With almost as good AC and more Stoneskins than druids would have Ironskins, mages don't have to rest much.

 

Ok Felenoid, you are right about the stoneskins.

Regarding the armour, alhtough you are correct to point the differences between the best armours in the games, it still occurs to me that you get this elven mail after playing for a while.
So although F/M has nearlys as good armour near the end as R/C, until that point, on average, R/C AC should be quite better (Full Plate mail + ring/capes of protection, etc...). The F/C would need good bracers if he is to be able to cast spells.
But you have peaked my curiosity and I will definetely try out a F/M again.

 

Best tank with lots of micromanagement and preparation, Blade.
Best tank with less micromanagement and preparation, FMT.
Best tank on the fly, R/C.
Best tank on the fly(with less preparation), F/D.
Best tank (with which the number of micromanagement and planning required depends on particular encounter/battle to be fought), F/M.
Best tank without resorting to spells, Barbarian.

The list just goes on and on and on...

Unfortunately, every other "tank" I mentioned can do that as well. One simply has to master how it is done.

Of course, we can judge a tank according to the ease with which its full potential and abilities can be used; and so we gain another "Best Tank" category. Anyway, if we were to rank each "tank" according to their ability to get through the most dungeons without sleeping, the list would actually look like this (from best to worst):
Blade or F/M/T
F/M
R/C
Any of the classes from the first two ranks can even finish the game without pressing the rest button.
Of course, you'll need plenty of planning and micromanagement to do that.

Note that in any "best tank" ranking that involves lessening micromanagement the ones at the bottom of the list would probably be the F/M's, F/M/T's and Blades.

[ July 27, 2006, 17:37: Message edited by: Scythesong Immortal ]

 

Um, whoever said that berserker/mages couldn't cast spells, I'm pretty sure I have before. Can't be certain though and I won't be able to check until I get off of work in about six hours.

 

Can't cast spells while wearing armor, most likely. Must be a typo.

 

And you can get special armours allowing for arcane spellcasting...

A Ranger/Cleric or a Fighter/Druid can cast divine spells and wear any armour.

That's not correct.
Only Mages, Bards, Thieves, Monks and Kensais can't use helmets. Druids can use them, they can even use the Helm of Balduran.
Druids can wear Hide armours (of course Shapeshifters can't) or studded leather armours (Shapeshifters and Avengers can't use them) which are slightly better than leather armours.

 

My bad - yeah, they can wear helms.

When I said leather armors, I meant studded and regular leather, as studded leather is still a "leather" armor. I forgot about hide armor though. Good call.

Once you regain your berserker levels, you get whichever is better for everything. So that's going to be the berserker abilities for THACO, # of attacks.

Weapon proficiencies are a bit different, as if you do it right, you can get all of them from both berserker and druid levels. For a B/D, I would recommend spending your proficiencies as follows:

You'll get 9 points by level 13 (as a berserker):

club - 5
scimitar - 1
two weapon style - 3

Then, when you become a druid, spend one in all the other weapon classes (quarterstaff, sling, dart). Unfortunately, if you place additional points in scimitar, club, or two weapon style, you will lose those points when you regain your berserker abilities. The game doesn't add them together, it just takes whichever is higher. Since druids can only spend 1 point in each proficiency, your berserker proficiencies will always be equal to or greater than the druid proficiencies. So you may as well pick up some extra fighting styles as well (single weapon, two handed weapon, and sword and shield), because you would have already spent points in everything else, and you won't benefit in the long run from spending more (although it would allow you to use clubs and scimitars without penalty while you are regaining your levels.

The other thing is you get the best saving throws from your classes, and you can mix and match, for example taking two from the berserker and three from the druid. Eventually, the druids saving throws will exceed all of the berserker saving throws, so after a while iti won't matter what your berserker saving throws are.