Perfect Human Fighter/Cleric

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If your protagonist was a human Fighter/Cleric, how would you develop her? What stats would you choose (in BG1, of course) and when would you dual her? What equipment would you give her in BG1 and BG2? Also, what are the best uses for a dualed Fighter/Cleric - frontline fighter or healer and support fighter?

 

I played a Fighter/Cleric only once. I dualed her to a cleric after the 9th fighter level. I like using that level for all my dual class characters. 10 levels is usually not that hard to get to (depending on how many characters you take in your party) to reactivate the first class. Another reason is that you stop getting the D10 rolls for hitpoints, so why not dual right there. Granted, you are losing out on thaco bonuses, but who cares, you are a cleric and they get some nice spells that really increases their fighting prowess (sp).

I used her as a support fighter. When I fought a lot of monsters at once, she went to front to help out Minsc and Keldorn (I still had Aerie for other cleric spells, so this fit rather nicely). I tried to give her the attack and buffing spells while Aerie got all the healing spells.

I forget the actual stats that she had, but I put CHR and INT down to the minimun. I max out my WIS and DEX. STR and CON I tried to get as high as possible, but didn't cry if they weren't 18's.

Hope this helps a little. Been a while since I played this character, though I thought she was pretty tough, maybe even as tough as one of my paladins.

 

I believe there's no such thing as perfect here. Depends for what reason you need what etc.

Generally, needs a good roll. 18 STR, DEX, CON, WIS, the rest as it comes.

With books, by the end of TotSC it will be 19 STR, 19 DEX, 19 CON, 20 WIS if you don't bother with roleplaying morals, or if she's non-good and/or non-lawful. 21 WIS if you're really evil.

Then go hell trials and Lum's machine.

Evil: 21 STR by the end of SoA.

Good: 18 DEX (-1 for saving a companion), 22 WIS by the end of SoA (CHA is less relevant)

Lum's machine:

Evil: 22 STR, 20 CON, 20 DEX, 20 WIS

Good: 19 DEX, 20 CON, 20 STR, 22 WIS

Lots of bonus spells, lots of fighter-relevant stats. With bonuses and the like... well, she will most certainly own it.

Levels: at least 7. 9 Makes not much sense, just some more HP at a big price. Better take 7 than 9. 13? That's over 1M XP. Sure, nice Thac0 and +1/2 attack, and more weapon profs... but still. Not like it's really a great loss with a solo character. In a team, 7. In solo, even 13 might be good. I don't know, however, how you're going to survive getting from cleric(1) to cleric(14) in solo in the middle of SoA, with fighter levels deactivated.

Equipment: No need to speak much. Armour as for fighters. Weaponry: Crom Faeyr and Runehammer for mauls. Mace of Disruption maybe for maces, not like you really need that. Then the amulet that blocks draining, a bonus edition priestly amulet maybe, and the holy symbol that comes with level 26. Rings and other stuff as needed.

 

Erm, how does getting that tome make you evil, exactly? Chaotic, maybe, but Evil? After all, if you tell the priestess you do not have the tome, it's self-defence really, isn't it?

You end up with Wis 24 by the end of SoA, provided you did Watcher's Keep before that. And I don't think sacrificing for your 1 Dex is the best option (I think other options make you lose XP and HP, respectively).

What about Flail of Ages? Seems like a perfect weapon for an F/C. And definitely 5 prof. points in flails.

Plus, don't you think it's fun to play BG2 with a 1st-level character?

 

I personally think that the bonuses you get for going all the way to 13th level with your fighter are worth it. Specially if you are playing with a lot of mods that ultimately boost the amount of XP you get throughout the game. It really won't take that long to get to a level 14 Cleric (1,350,000 XP) after you dual. And once that happens, you will have a kick ass fighting cleric. You'll have been able to throw a lot of proficiency points into the weapon(s) you want to use. Your THAC0 and # of attacks will be great. And you'll have taken FULL advantage of the fighters ability to get D10 HP and max bonuses from high Con. Dual weild the Flail of Ages and Crom Fayr in your off hand and you've got a blunt weapon weilding nightmare which will end up casting spells only SLIGHTLY behind a pure cleric (and then only if you don't have a level cap remover installed).

@Drowling: Actually, unless you want to be evil, you HAVE to sacrifice the 1 point of Dex, as well as 2 HP and some XP. If you go the other rout, your party member is killed (tho you can raise them) and you turn automatically evil, regardless of how you did the other tests. Not a good thing to a lot of people.

 

If you install the Ashes of Ember mod, your fighter/cleric can wield swords and axes as well.

I recommend multi-class over dual-class. But then again, it's just a personal preference.

 

My only problem with going the multiclass rout with a Fig-Cleric is that this way you are severely hampering your Clerics casting in the long run, because even with a fair share of mods installed, you'll never get to the REALLY high Cleric levels. And at the benefit of what? SLIGHTLY better THAC0? The only bonus that 'I' personally see here is the ability to get Fighter HLAs. While this is no small thing, buffing spells make most of the fighter HLAs a bit redundant, and not as great as they could be.

Just my opinion tho. Either way, Dual or Multi class, you'll have one of the more powerful characters out there.

 

Given the accumulated ability bonuses, I think you're getting yourself an extremely powerful character. One problem I had is trying to figure out which ability scores should be low - I know that intelligence should start off at about 9, but what other score to choose?

If you choose Str, you're an archer rather than a fighter, which might still be okay for a while, provided you use belts of ? strength and then Crom Fayer.
If you choose Dex, then your AC is lower and you're not effective at using ranged weapons. This might still be okay because neither Flail of Ages nor Crom Fayer are ranged weapons.
Choosing Con seems like a bad idea unless you're playing a survivalist, in which case Con 3 (yes, 3) is the way to go.
Choosing Cha means, among other things, that soloing (in BG1, for instance) is so much harder because you get bad prices. Plus, the bonus at the end of SoA is then for naught.

My preferred ability scores, therefore, are
18/anything, 18, 18, 9, 18, 18 (sum=99), which seems an impossible challenge to me. I usually try to roll up a more realistic 13,18, 18, 9, 18, 18 (sum=94). What do you think?

 

Drowling, keep in mind that in order to be allowed to Dual class in the first place, you needto have at least a 15 in your current class's primary stat, and 17 in your new class's stat. So a Str of 13 is no good. Since you get a tome in BG1 to bump your strength once, you'll want to start with at least a 14 there so when you're ready to dual class, you'll be at the 15 minimum required.

Now, for the other stats, I'd say you obviously want to try to max out Wisdom, but you will get THREE tomes to improve it in BG1, so losing a point or two there wouldn't kill you. Still, if you can work it out to be 18, do it. One of the benefits to using a fighter first is that you can get full benefit of the 18 Constitution, so definitely pump that all the way up. High Charisma will be important IF you intend to solo, if not it's no biggie. But even if you do, you can stand to have a CHA that isn't maxed out at 18. A 16 only drops your reaction modifier by one. Costs may be SLIGHTLY higher, but frankly, most of the best equipment is FOUND, not bought, so this realy won't hurt much. That'll save you a few points. Lastly, I'd say you can afford to not have max'd DEX too. Dropping it by a few points will drop your AC a bit, but not so much as to severely hamper your character. And again, you'll get the tome in BG1 that bumps it up. The AC bonus of Dex 18, 19, AND 20 is only -4. So starting at 18 and bumping it up really won't do much for you. Starting at 17, then using a the tome (+1), hell (-1), Machine of Lum the Mad (+1) still lets you end up with 18 (-4AC).

So, if you can get these stats:
Str 14
Dex 17
Con 18
Int 9
Wis 18
Cha 16
You have a total of 92. VERY doable. With a little patience, you can get a better roll than that and maybe bump that CHA up a bit higher.

 

@Xindell: you're right, of course.

Lately, though, I've started thinking on whether an elven ranger, with all the same bonuses applied (save for the fact that some bonuses go to Dex) would actually be more powerful to significantly higher starting abilities. It also seems like a good solo class to play.

 

You gain DEX, but you'll be -1 CON. You will start with a 17 CON, you can get it to 18, but you'll still be looking at +4 HP/level instead of +5 HP/level. Plus, you'll be multi-classed then, not dualled class.

 

You'll eventually be able to get the CON up to 19, after the BG1 tome and the Machine of Lum the Mad.
I've NEVER soloed any IE games. It just doesn't appeal to me. One fo the best parts of BG are the banters and dialogue interjections. Without those, it'll get boring for me real fast (I remember how LONG it took me to beat IWD1). So, I don't know what would be a good or bad class to solo. But, I do think that a Human Fig-Cleric will ultimately be a 'stronger' class than an elven ranger. But unless you are a powergamer, the 'strongest' class isn't necessarily what you may want.

 

Start the character off with the Berserker kit. You're not going to do much ranged combat anyway, and the kit is better than a Fighter without a kit.

STR, DEX, CON, WIS, CHA, INT, in that order.

Since to have ToB installed, 13th level. It's boring while in "transition stage," but well worth the wait (in the long run)

Best stuff available. Max out Two Weapon Fighting, and make sure you're (at least) a specialist in Maces and Flails (Hammers too if you plan on going for Crom Faeyr).

They're great in both roles.

 

I have recently installed BGtutu and created a Berserker with 18/10-18-18-10-18-9 stats to go through both of the BG games. It's great that I could put ++++ into Flails (is this contrary to 2e rules?). I'm not sure that I'll be able to tank a Kensai/Mage, but at some point I'll set up an experiment.

 

You get an awesome ring in BGI for Clerics when you whack that 1/2 Orc cleric (his scrolls start chapter 3) holding Xan prisoner. There is a trick for importing your old items into BGII.