Mage/Thief

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Hey guys!

I was just about to go on another run through BGII and ToB, but this time I was going to combine my two favourite classes, a Mage and a Thief. I've always used 1 of these two classes somewhere, but never together, so I wanted to know how well this type of character plays throughout the game!

These are the things I would like to know:

(1) What type of character should my Mage/Thief be? (Melee, ranged, arcane support, arcane psycho damager etc)?

(2) What party should my protagonist take throughout both SoA and ToB? (Soloing is an option)

(3) Equipment and essentials

(4) Strategies on how to play with a Mage/Thief, what's the best way to use one?


(5) What spells should I be taking, right from the beginning? (Mage/Thieves wouldn't be gettin spells because of the verrrry slow level up process)

So if anyone could answer these questions it would be really nice! Have alot of people played with one all the way up to ToB? Thanks!

$¡ℓνéяşђίзℓđ

 

1)whatever you like, it's your game. It's more fun to find your own style than to copy playing styles from other players.

2)whatever you like, Anomen would probably be the biggest help for your character if your psyche is tough enough to stand him.

3)Wear mage stuff. Robe of Vecna, bracers AC3, quarterstaff, short bow, ..., choose what looks best on your character.

4) set traps, backstab, use invisibility and other mage cheese.

5) spells you want to use, you can get any spell scroll in the game. It doesn't depend on the mage level which spell scrolls you can scribe. I'd take all invisibility spells.

 

I played an elven M/T once, in my unmodded game, till the half of SoA, then my hard-drive was burned.

1)Ranged against weak foes and when un-buffed. Definitely go for melee and back-stab once significantly buffed!

2)Soloing is possible, or you can take a few tanks, 1-2 healers and one mage, and you will be set I guess.

3)A good backstab weapon, ToB stave is deadly and cool, but in SoA you will use what you can. Gesen's bow is ideal for M/Ts. Robe of Vecna, amulet of power, SoM are needed for almost any mage.

4)Once you get Improved Invisibilty+Mislead and Imp. Haste, you can do serious back-stabbing spree! Until then, use ranged weapons and spells to defeat foes!

Be an elf, 19 dex really helps for thieving skills!

For skills, focus on Hide/Move Silently early on if you want to backstab, though once you get appropraite spells they are of little use. Trap setting is a neat bonus punch, always useful, then again trap HLAs make this skill redundant. Your call.

5)1stro from evil, Magic Misile, Chromatic Orb, burning hands
2nd:Mirror Image, Invisibility, Strength, Web
3rd:Haste, Slow, something you fancy (probably skulltrap or fireball)

 

Mislead+Improved Haste+Tensor's Transformation is ALL you need! Trust me.

Oh yeah, when you're high level, get loads of time traps once you have 7 spike traps...that's like a free timestop.

 

^That is actually sound advice, a M/T is a very fun and versatile character to play indeed, thanks to HLAs, and both mage spells plus thief skills!

 

LOL you guys make it sound alot easier than what I'm going throught right now in BGI! But I guess he advances quite alot when he gets into higher levels hey. Does anyone used ranged attacks when they get into higher levels at all or just stick to backstabbing?

 

That is purely depended on the situation and enemies encountered. If you are facing tough monsters who can be back-stabbed, haste yourself, invisibilty and hack! If you face Golems though, create a few MMMeteors (or better, Energy Blades!) and start hurling!

 

LOL that's when I get to a high enough level that is! If you play solo you need ALOT of micro managing hey? Do people usually take more stats in set traps in this situation?

 

Well set traps are definitely useful if you solo. BUT since you will be the only thief in that case, you will need fairly good open locks and find/remove traps too! And do you ever want to completely dismiss Hide in Shadows/Move Silently? These can help at low levels, but very dangerous to use if you are not skilled enough!

 

At earlier levels, I spend 100 points in pick pockets and find traps...the rest of it can be dealt with in other manners (knock spell, invisibility spells etc) until you're at a respectable level...which is when you start pumping the points into set traps and hide and move silently.

Let me tell you, being able to steal all of Athkatla blind is not to be underestimated early game, especially when you want to steal those wands with 50 charges back.

 

Hehe, do you mean the old sell em when there full, then steal them back trick?!!

 

Well yes it is dirty but immensely useful. That wands really make the life of a low level character easier! Especially when you are soloing they are invaluable!

You see, wand of summoning is excellent instant-cannon fodder! Wand of fire, frost, lightning, each do substantial amounts of damage! Wand of paralysation is very hard to resist, it is so strong, save vs wands at -4 or paralysed! Deadly!

But, the fact is, you do not need to put skill points into pickpocket for this. You can always gulp a few potions of master thieveries, before making a major haul. I think points put into pickpocket are a total waste!

 

yea the stealing trick is awesome, just do as described in scythesong's guide to blades, it is a realy good walktrhough to almost every character with a bit of rouge in them

 

My two cents:

As others have pointed out, it is entirely situation dependent. Obviously, if you're soloing, you're going to have to melee. However, if you aren't soloing, for most battles I'd say ranged support and arcane spells. Naturally, you're going to want to backstab, but there are many battles against foes that can't be backstabbed, and battles were backstabbing will be impractical. I'd take a proficiency point in short bows, and start off with Tuigan, eventually upgrading to either Gesen or the Firetooth Dagger (returns to hand, nice damage).

Oh man. I would take:

Keldorn
Minsc
Aerie
Jaheira
and whoever you like best of the remaining NPCs.

Reasoning. Two very solid tanks and one pretty good tank. Access to all divine spells in the game. With two half-mages, you'll have just as many spells as having one great mage, albeit you'll not get high level spells until ToB, but generally speaking, I use mostly spells that are 6th level and lower anyway.

Like I said, I'd give strong consideration to either Gesen or Firetooth as your primary weapon. With the party I outlined above, chances are Aerie gets the Robe of Vecna, and then your character will be wearing some type of elvin chain mail (allows spell casting). You can get one as early as Trademeet if you do the tomb quest the "evil" way. I'd fill up my ring slots, boot slot and bracer slot with thief related equipment (Ring of Danger Sense, Ring of Lockpicking, Gloves of Pickpocketing, Ring of the Master Thief, Boots of Stealth) - they will really help you save a lot of skill points when it comes to your thief skills, especially early on in the game. By the time you get to ToB, you can upgrade to something else, but they will make your thief much more effective in the early going.

This really isn't a strategy, but you could try an illusionist/thief, a la Jan. You can romance Aerie, and you'll get some extra mage spells. Only real downside - can you live without ADHW?

It's not as bad as you think. It only gets painful when you're talking about the highest level spells. Until level 11, you're only going to be lagging one level behind a single classed mage. If you are playing an illusionist, your spell slots will be nearly identical to a non-specialist who is one level higher. Therefore, spells of 6th level and lower aren't really a problem. Waiting to get 8th level spells is painful, and 9th level spells won't occur until well into ToB. But it's not as bad as you think. I agree with many others suggestions on spell choices.

 

If you odn't mind doing it then you don't even have to do the Waukeen's tomb quest the evil way. just go into the lords house and kill them. It doesn't even kill your reputation. Take said elven chainmail. It's ac 5 to start with.

 

(1) Obviously you want to use the spells, so a ranged weapon as back-up may be handy. I'd use a melee weapon, but that's just me. Depends on whether you're cheating or not.

(2) Another mage, a couple of clerics and some warriors would be a luvverly mix, and I expect a solo would be quite hard with that class seeing as you're not a warrior or anything, but ultimately it's your decision. I would say take Viconia/Tunic guy (Anomen), Imoen/Aerie and then whatever warrior(s) you want.

(3) OMG, Robe of Vecna is an ESSENTIAL here!

(4) Backstab is good if you can be bothered to use it (which I never can ), as then your weak-ish character won't be chunked straight away. Use Stoneskin and other protective spells too.

(5) Magic Missile is a good spell IMHO, but my fave would have to be Flame arrow. Good for those damn trolls, too. Also, you could have Haste, Stoneskin, Fire Shields, Melf's Acid Arrow and Fireball. This is usually enough to see me through the first few chapters, then I get more powerful.

 

Level 2 Strength spell is also decent, with neat duration and handy bonus, the more STR you have, the more deadly your backstabs will be!

So have you created your character $ilvershield? Tell us about him!

PS:So you became an account holder too? Well I am kinda jealous, having been stuck with this really ugly black opal for my last 200+ posts, damn when will my gem change to something more pleasant to look at?

 

Hmm, that's alot more info than I thought was going to come my way! But thanks!

@Aldeth,
Sorry I don't like gnomes! They're just not my style! Btw, what's ADHW? Sorry, me and these terms again just don't work

@Silver,
Yeh I just started playing BG and created her there but I couldn't really wait so I just imported her to BGII! Here's how she's looking so far:

Nicolette
Half Elven Mage/Thief

Str 19 (18)
Dex 19 (18)
Con 19 (18)
Int 18 (17)
Wis 7 (5)
Char 16 (15)

Hehe, I acted like I had played through BG and gotten the stat raising tomes as you can see but she looks pretty good. Numbers in brackets are what they'd normally be. I still plan on playing through BG again because I love it and just want to see how she does in the lower levels but I played a bit through BGII to just see how it would be like and YAY, it looks good!

I started by putting points in short swords (because I love the Short Sword of Backstabbing), two points in two weapon style and one in bow. Obviously you can tell I used the G3 tweak (THANKYOU silver for suggesting that btw ). The lovely strength is just to die for because when she hits she does ALOT of damage! Backstab is just deadly when she connects but It'll be alot better when she gets her Thac0 down a little more. Spells are looking nice too, can't wait for mislead because I can just think of the things I could do with it

Well ima go back to playin some more BG now but it shouldn't be long before I'm done and I can get my plan into motion! But hey, a Mage/Thief is alot easier to play than I thought it would be. You wouldn't believe how much this character now appeals to me now that the mage avatar works with her when you put on a robe!

Btw Silver, I miss my little gems! But I still get to see em on my account page hehe don't worry, I'm sure with all the great work you do around here someone will notice and btw, I remember seeing someone on one of the mod sites that is linked to SP: something called "Silver Star". Is that you by any chance?!?

Btw, if anyone has anymore advice about Mage/Thieves please don't hesitate to write in because I still haven't really gotten a proper feel for my character yet!

$¡ℓνéяşђίзℓđ

 

ABDHW:Abi Dalzim's Horrid Wilting. Capitals. You know how devastating that spell is, right? Poor feeble gnomes can not cast it as they are dedicated to illusion tricks, hence they are banned to persue the 'vile' necromantic arts.

About your character, well she looks really strong. Wait a minute, did you mean, 'S'he? Oh so you are playing a female? Nice!

Oh, that 'Silver Star' is a NPC mod for BG2, and it is a Chaotic Evil elven asssasin chick with a very crazy and insane personality! Really, it has NOTHING to do with me, the name is purely a coincidence. And I really do not know why someone names such an insane and dangerous and vile NPC as 'Silverstar'? A joke is being played on us?

 

Oh, I see. Yeh it's a pretty nice spell but I can usually do without it because I will basically always take Edwin with me so I don't really have to worry about the higher spells because he can go crazy with em!

Hehe yeh I'm playing as a gurl this time around, probably because I just got some really nice female portraits, and I mean REALLY nice! I'm using a FF one that looks like that Yuna girl but with long hair, but I don't know her name cause I've never played FF so yeh

So do you think it's wise to be dual wielding with two short swords to begin with? She started doing ok when I started, because I cheated to see what it's like, and she seemed ok. Ranged attacks would also look nice because I'll be playing a nice melee looking party so perhaps I won't have to do much.

OMG Silver are you serious?!? That's not you?!?! Well I have to admit if someone made a psycho elven assassin after me I'd be pretty happy, if she hot of course