Effective solo? Avenger > Fighter

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I'd have to take a Druid through BG1 for the STR tome for this combo to work, but it sounds like a really interesting combo.

Just wondering, is a Avanger 12 > Fighter a good character? I'd hate to waste all that time building a character that will eventually stink anyway.

 

I'd never dual a magic-user (arcane or divine) into a fighter...I'd do it the other way around. The improvements in spells make more difference than the improvement in fighting ability, IMO. Anomen is a decent fighter, and he dualed at, what, 7th level? And a Kensai --> Mage dualled at 13 can melee with the best of 'em. Sure, it would be nice to have GWW, but your Druid HLAs should more than make up for it.

And who wants to be stuck at a 6th level spell max?

 

@Gregor:
The only problem with that is that you cannot dual to a kit (Avenger) without an editor and some minor skillz.

I will say that I don't understand this particular dual, though. I've never understood the point behind the Avenger kit either. It seems rather worthless, and going around the stat penalty by doing an import from BG1 stinks like limburger IMO.

 

Aye, a berserker-druid or kensai-druid would have been cooler!

 

I've always liked the Avenger most of the druid kits. The stat penalties aren't much of a bother (low STR is so easily compensated for in BGII, and priests have no use for greater than 16 CON anyway), and the class has more character with its extra Mage Spells than the Totemic Druid (who's boring as hell) and isn't as whacked-out as the Shapeshifter (I mean, a Werewolf? WTF? o_O).

But Dual-classing an Avenger? Nah, I don't see the point. Berserker/Druids are awesome and easier to create than Kensai/Druids owing to less stat limitations; B/Ds can use the DEX bracers, so can much more easily meet the insane stat requirements to dual-class to a Druid (15 STR, 17 WIS, 17 CHA) without the loss of either HPs from diminished CON, or the ability to cast from scrolls (INT must be 8 or better). Avengers are much better left pure, imo. Obviously, K/Ds are as you'd expect them to be (powerful, especially dual-wielding Belm + something else, maybe Blackblood, and Barkskin is a great relief to have!), but you either need the patience of 10 saints and chev to roll the stats, or a willingness to just cheat and use ShadowKeeper. Or maybe play through the entire of BG1 to get the tomes for +3 WIS and +1 to all your other stats, which may take less time than rolling good enough stats...

 

I'm assuming you've read Riverwind's Guide about BG2 classes?

While its technically do-able if you muck around with SK...I'd say either...

Stick with Kensai->Druid or Berserker->Druid if you HAVE to dualclass...

OR

(Better option in my opinion) Take a multiclass F/D...you can always use SK to kit yourself with the Avenger if you REALLY want to play one.

 

Riverwind the barbarian who loves Goldmoon wrote a Guide about BG2?

(seriously, WTF are you talking about?)

 

He's talking about Riverwind's Guide to Character Classes, 3/4ths of the way down the page.

Personally, I don't see any problem with an Avenger/Fighter dual. I heard similar arguments against my C/T dual as well. Ignore them and play as you like.

I'm wondering if it would be worth the extra effort to go to 15th level with your Avenger (for the druid specials), then dual to Fighter.

 

I think that'd take way too long. Level 12 seems to work well for me because level 7 spells aren't that good, and I'd be able to dual very early in the game. Since imported guys can start at 161,000 XP, I think I'd be dual-classing either in Irenicus' place, or shortly after escaping.

 

I played a Shapeshifter that I brought to level 18 and dual to a fighter. Once my Fighter achieved level 19 he was unstoppable. GWW form and having the fighter THAC0, unstoppable.

 

Inspired by some of the comments in this thread (not to mention "Riverwind's Guide ...."), I decided to try an Avenger>Fighter solo. In order to avoid having to play him through BG1 I ShadowKeepered his stats up and his starting experience to 161,000, to simulate the stat-raising books and X.P. available from TotSC. He went through Chateau Irenicus without a hitch, and actually hit 12th level from the X.P. award given after escaping the dungeon. Unfortunately, when I then tried to dual him to Fighter, the game locked up. My game is fully patched (official & Baldurdash). It's also heavilly modded, so the problem might be there. Has anyone actually played one of these? Despite the recommendation in "Riverwind...", he never said that he actually tried it out.

 

Did you have the right stats? At least 15 in WIS and CHA for the Druid class and 17 in STR for the Fighter part. That shouldn't be a problem with the tomes.
Since this is not a run-of-the-mill dual class it is better to check if the dual class is doable right at the start in Irenicus dungeon in case there is a problem.

 

The stats were fine.

 

I just tried an experimental game: I used CTRL-8 to give myself all 18's in every stat, and then tried dual classing right after Irenicus stopped chatting with me.

It worked just fine for me. I'm also fully patched.

 

I tested it: screenshot!
and I have a lot of mods, but no mods that modify Druids (except for the Dark Friend kit).

 

No problems here either, and I have 0 mods that effect dualling or druids. Make sure you've got the ToB patch, and then tell us what mods you have so we might be able to figure out what's going wrong.

 

Your game is heavily modded? What mods do you have? My game is proudly is the most heavily modded game AFAIK. I amy try dualling like you did, and if I have the same problem, we may say it is due to mods. Just tell me what mods you have please, so we can find the root of the trouble, I hope.

 

Here's a stupid question - was your Avenger human?

 

Yes, my avenger's human.

OK, I tried running him through Chateau Irenicus again. This time I tried dualling him to a fighter immediately and was successful, so I reloaded and ran him through the dungeon with the intention of dualling him at level 12. Immediately after exiting he hit the magic level number, so I saved and tried to dual him. Same result as before - after going through the dualling process, upon clicking the button that would make the dual irreversible the game froze up. This time I restarted my computer, went into Shadowkeeper and edited my save game to remove the Avenger kit. Now the dual class to fighter worked. I then used SK to put the Avenger kit back and so far everything is great. I haven't gotten my druid levels back yet so I'll have to take similar care when that happens (knock on wood).

The only odd thing that I've noticed is that he is not limited in his pick of weapon proficiencies like he should be, although he is still limited in the weapons he can use.

The mods that I've installed are as follows:

Auramaster, APACK, BanterPack, BG2SoA, CLK20FIX, Cloakwood Squares, Ease of Use, Improved Hell Trials, Item Upgrade, Natural Selection, Oversight, Riskbreaker, Tactics, Turnip Golem, TwistPack, Unfinished Business, Improved Horn of Valhalla, Willy Bruce, Underrepresented Items, and Bag Bonus.

 

Perhaps it's "Natural selection" (I have 3 components of this mod installed in my game) this mod includes an option to modify weapon proficiencies for druids, do you by any chance have installed it?