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I was really trying not to spoil this poor guy, but I guess since everyone else has completely let the cat out of the bag already it's no big deal, haha. Yeah, this is the sort of thing I was talking about earlier. The other obvious one that comes to mind is fighting mind flayers, since a F/M can just throw on PFMW and go toe to toe with them, whereas a R/C has to hope and pray they won't get surrounded and critted a lot, the same as everyone else.

 

@kmonster - You play your way and I'll play mine. It has now degerated into a useless argument about the definition of 'powergaming'.

1. No, I did not use a walkthrough or faq for my first time playing BG2.

2. BIS/Bioware write in such a way that it is relatively easy to pick the 'good' answeres from the 'evil' ones. Yes, I did chose the 'good' path in each trial. I was extremely annoyed about Anomen being kidnapped and held by the demon.

As I said before, why would a ranger want a cloak made from the skin of live nymphs? Even not knowing about the cloak other than what the demon tells you, which, iirc is something like: Made from the skin of lovely nymphs. You will never know fear whilst wearing it. Gee, what does it do? I don't need to be hit over the head that frequently to get such an obvious hint about the room beyond.

3. I give Melhisedek credit for being an intelligent game player. S/He came here, right? But you want a had core percentage, of course. 90% for 4 and 85% for the Sarevok trial; the exact dialogue is sort of tricky if you aren't paying attention to what's being said.

Yes, I realize it seems that way to you. I'm sorry that I have and use my imagination in silly things like RPGs. We should agree to disagree.

 

It is possible to play the game through and not become fallen without a walkthrough. I did it with a paladin without a walkthrough my first time.

First of all. People are talking about killing the dragon. I mean come on! Get a clue and think about the game world! Not all Dragons are evil! get off your crappy Midevil European Church indoctrinated legends kick of thinking they are! The Silver dragon already taught you otherwise and so it's not a matter of "Ooo! A Dragon! Let's Kill it!" Specially given the responses you can give as soon as you hear about the dragon being there and the game in the question does not tell you what kind.

Killing Sarevok is another one. The game is written through with Dreams of saying "Give into the rage and what you are and mercilessly and wrathfully slaughter anything in your path!" which the answer is always no. The Seravok trial is the only one that's really not clearly written what you should do in one manner or another. And the game gives you endless clues about how to solve that one. What makes it harder is you've got to stick to your convictions with dealing with that one and it's the only one written that way.

It is more than possible to play the good alignment through any of them and without knowing what you'll get for it Sarevok is the only one that's questionable unless your out to slaughter crap. then you'll fail 3 of the 5 almost indefinitely. But that's the power gaming way. Not necessarily the Role PLaying way.


now Getting back onto the origional topic.

As for what can be good for you to play if you want something strong. Take say the wizard slayer or Berserker kit for the fighter. they are easy to pick up. Play the swashbuckler thief. They get pretty strong and can be rather straight forward and fix many of the thieving problems for you. You'll probably like that.

A Cleric could be a good starting point for spells. they can be better protected and their spells are more easily to decide what's good for you and your style. If you want to mix it with something that's good too. They are also a good step into the realm of restrictions on what can be used. Because their restrictions aren't entirely limiting yet.

Mages are very versatile but can take a bit of work to get into with their restrictions. But they can be heavily damaging if you figure out what works for you to do that but they can be more complicated to pick what really works for your style to do it.

 

Definitely wouldn't suggest a wizard slayer the first time around, the restrictions are too great and you need to be overly familiar with the various weapons and armours in the game to plan your guy effectively. For a pure class, simple stupid choice, monk is probably the best available. Huge magic resistance, all sorts of immunities, insane natural weaponry, etc etc. Very low maintenance, very easy, pretty powerful.

 

For a first time a class not dependent on alignment is a good choice. Roleplaying is not much fun (and not much roleplaying) when it's reduced to "choose the right answer". And it can be interesting to play a Bhaalspawn who becomes slowly corrupted by his taint during the game.
As for powergaming, sorcerers can be insanely powerful - with the right spell selection.

http://members.chello.nl/~j.vanthull/BG2SR/Main.htm
- a VERY long, but detailed read on spells in BGII, both arcane and divine

 

You're totally right kuemper, since he's an intelligent game player he will play a good character exactly like you do. If not, he is just not intelligent enough.

Even if your guess is correct, about 25 percent frustration potential is too much.

About the cloak: You don't know if it has other important abilities before you have taken a look at it.

The hell chapter is no IQ-test. It is a part of a rpg, even if some posts suggest otherwise.


Now back to the original topic:

Since there is no reason to doubt Drew's words about the "ranger/clerics don't fall" bug, ranger/cleric is a powerful PC choice.

Since the game ends when the PC dies you'll always have someone to raise the fallen comrades after hard battles.

A fighter/mage will be stronger in battle, but there are many mages in the game.

A fighter/thief or F/M/T is also a good choice since proper good aligned NPC thieves are lacking.

If you want to play human you can dual a fighter or berserker to thief at level9.

 

Then again I should remind that, dual classing is definitely not for newbies. They are for advanced players who want to try something really unique.

I agree about your comment about mages. There are so many mage NPCs in the game. And one even is by all means better than a mage PC, one my friends was a mage-player but once he saw the dirtbag NPC, he re-started a game with something else.

 

A fighter/illusionist or a Blade is still a lot more dangerous than said dirtbag.

 

If you want to solo easily, go elf F/M/T (just don't try to tank too much, at least early on).

You'll get all quest XP and loot for yourself like all solos, plus scroll-scribing XP, trap/lockpicking XP, and with stoneskin and mirror image, you can become untouchable in an instant (enough time to run for safety). F/M/T's can prety much do it all...it can actually get a little boring with them, honestly.

 

@Kuemper, I like your view on things. Yes definately easy to pick the "good" paths considering the setting you are in if you pay even half attention to the game's storyline. Your imagination in many of these settings and other posts I've read of yours are a refreshing change from the power-gaming trend so often seen. Two thumbs up!

@Melhisidek, If you are going to play with a party, I also agree with others that there a are a LOT of good NPC mages out there and very few good choices for thief unless you have some mods going. Jan is a good option of course. You could always play a swashbuckler or another kit w/o dual-classing it for a party.

Don't recall if it were suggested or not yet ... how about a cleric/thief multiclass for your PC? You can always "backsmack" things with staves and clubs, but you aren't quite so stand-alone powerful as other class options. However, if you do the RP thing at all, I'd think that'd be a neat way to go through depending on your party choices. Definately fills in the holes for a non-modded game (divine magic and thieving in a good align party) if Anomen gets on your nerves at all.

--------------------
OT ramblings,

I imagine that Haste/imphaste --> SIivination --> Mislead --> 10+ rounds of free backstabs would really make a LOT of encounters overly easy for FMT's.

Even without the mislead it becomes pretty crazy what you can handle with stoneskins, Mimage, an immuniy or two thrown in, etc. *giggle* SI:Abjuration --> Imp invis should make spell duels immensely easier!

Why is it that R/C's can get up to 5 pips in weapons AND ALL druid spells? That seems a bit messed up to me. You say they also can't become fallen? *sigh*

 

^R/Cs get GrandMastery in weapons? No I really don't think so. Even purest rangers can only be specialised, and MC fighters never get beyond that.

As for spell selection, they get all priest spells, it is a sphere access thing really, they get normal cleric spheres and additionally ranger spheres, which include druid only spheres, to a total of practically all divine spell spheres! I think it makes sense.

 

Would Ranger/Cleric involve dual or multiclassing? If it is hard to dual I could just go for some straight class or something? As I really have troubles playing BG and D&D games if they are not "dumbed" down like KOTOR and NWN

I could go for a mage perhaps

 

Yeah, R/Cs only get two dots in weapon proficiencies/three in 2-weapon, the same as other fighter multiclasses.

You can play an R/C multiclass, that's no problem.

 

What is it that I can screw up when dualing or multiclassing? (Haven't started yet probably will do this weekend [working double shifts])

 

Well... you can dual too early and not get the optimal benefits of your first class, or you can dual from a class that's just not very good for dualling with at all (like a caster), or you can dual too late and spend ages and ages trying to catch up with your first class' levels in order to reactivate it... etc.

You can't really screw anything up with a multiclass, though; you're basically just playing two classes at once and splitting the experience you get between them.

 

Prine my mate I really owe you a beer !

Damn I'm so hyped about playing this gem again Reading Drizzt books at the same time, only adds to me dreaming about me playing

 

With a R/C there is no doubt that you will want to multi class and not dual class this character. The major obstacle of going the dual class route is getting the ability scores necessary. You'll need a minimum of a 17 in wisdom, and it will be difficult rolling a character with a 17 in wisdom unless you want to dump a stat like intelligence or charisma all the way down to 3.

OTOH, with a R/C multi class, because there are so many minimums that you get, you'll likely have a much better character from the start.

Also - There is a grandmastery mod out there that allows all fighting classes to get up to five stars in weapon proficiencies. It works for paladins, rangers, barbarians, and any multi-classes that are part fighter. But base game rules, no a R/C is only allowed 2 proficiency points in each area (except dual wielding where they can get three).

 

Where do you learn all those rules and stuff? I baffled with amount of information, complexity and depth RPGs provide. Incredible. I just wish I knew better back in the days when I had all the time in the world to play them

 

Combination of poking around in the game files, poring over musty old Dungeons and Dragons books and just having played the game for too damn long in general.

But hey, if we can use our mighty geek knowledge to help someone then it was all worth it.

 

@Prine, Hmm ... I wonder if TDD mod is messnig something up on me or what. I made a R/C just a couple days ago and at creation it was allowing me to go 5 pips in a weapon, no idea why. Seeing as neither a ranger or cleric could more than 2 normally, I held to what was obvious and only put 2 in any of the weapon choices.

I need to recheck that, wish I knew what was causing it. Only have TDD, baldurdash, EoU, and Sola.