Ah the power...

Remove all ads!

What is the most powerful type of character in your opinion? Ranger/cleric, fighter/druid, fighter/mage, fighter/thief, cleric/mage? Or maybe some single class character? If I were to say, I would go for fighter/mage if personal power potential were considered, and fighter/druid if the ability to buff up his team were a factor. I have never played the ranger/cleric combo, so I don't know if he gets druid spells up to level 3 (of spells) or throughout the whole spellbook, but if the latter were true, then ranger/cleric would be the uberdivinecaster with superior thac0, surpassing a grown up fighter/mage/cleric.

So, out of your experience with the game, what character type seems to have the most potential for total ownage?

 

I'd go for ranger/cleric too if he gets all priest spells across the entire range. Otherwise, figher/mage dual-class. I've played the game with a fighter/druid dual too, and she was quite powerful by the time she started getting the higher level druid spells. Ironskin + the ability to wear armor (unlike stoneskin for mages), not to mention the offensive spells she got, made her a real killer. I also gave her 5 * in scimitars - Talon of Gloomfrost in HOW is a scimitar, and she was wicked with it.

Fighter/thief multiclass is good because it's such a waste to have a pure class thief in the game, and yet you need a thief of some kind. I didn't find him that powerful though (particularly compared to the BG2 variants you can build)

 

If you have HoW tacked on, Fighter/Mage/Thief. Followed very closely with Fighter/Cleric. Multiclassing absolutely rules in Heart of Winter.

A Paladin is a very decent support character, simply because of Pale Justice and undead abilities. 50% of the enemeies you'll face over the course of the entire game (if you have HoW and TotLM) are un-dead. A pure Thief is a waste; either dual class with a couple of levels of Thief, or multiclass. You only need to disable traps, as the spellcasters can use "find traps". Pickpocketing is useful, but not critical. There are a whole bunch of traps to blunder into, and some of them can put the hurt on right when you are least prepared to absorb it. So a bit-of-a-thief is good to have, but a pure-thief is lacking the frontline ability of a fighter. Backstab comes in very handy in a couple of places, but I can't justify the entire game around those two.

 

ejsmith, if you take a Fighter/Thief multiclass (or even a Fighter/Mage/Thief I guess) you can still backstab, if one insists on doing so on those two occasions

I'd say pickpocketing is a VERY good investment earlier in the game, for the Ring of Protection +2 and the Ring of Regeneration you can get in Kuldahar. Though if you take a bard, you don't have to worry about spending thieving points on it.

I wouldn't call it "only" needing to disable the traps, not with the huge numbers you find in almost every single dungeon map. Some can hurt quite a lot too. Open locks is also a must if you don't want to miss out on substantial loot. So, really, the bit-of-thief is a must after all.

I feel Paladins lose their usefulness the more you progress into HoW, because you cannot dual or multiclass them. About the only unique ability they have is wielding Pale Justice (arguably the best weapon in the game, true).