What's a fighter/cleric got over a vanilla cleric?

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i always heard good things about multiclass F/C, but aside from providing high level abilities from both classes i fail to see the reason why, you cant go beyond weapon specialisation (**), you're still restricted to blunt weapons, plus it takes a lot more time to level up in both classes...

so say if you were to solo the game with either, which one would you pick ?

 

Neither. Ranger/Cleric beats both hands down.

But if I had to choose one for solo, I'd go F/C, not just because of HLA's, but because a F/C is much better at melee, so you have more options. The slower levelling isn't really an issue for solo games.

 

Ranger/Cleric ? yeah that might not be bad idea.... i'll have to look it up

 

Pure class cleric thac0 is good enough, a base thac0 of 6 at level 22 is enough to hit almost everything perfectly. If you choose Lathander as deity you'll also get a second attack per round with the special ability.
The main difference are the HLAs, multiclasses get more and access to the fighter pool, 10 attacks per round do make a difference.
Ranger/cleric is of course even better because of access to druid spells.

 

I prefer a cleric/thief. You get to use all the great mage stuff that speeds spell casting. Turn undead is awesome for solo. I just walked casually through the temple ruins and Bodhi's lair watching everything explode.

 

These days I tend to start with a ranger and dual to cleric at level 9 or so. That gets you decent hitpoints and THAC0, while allowing your cleric to progress in level fast enough to have his turn undead to be of use at some stage. Plus more cleric spells etc.

 

i barely ever use turn undead, last time i did a skeleton just became friendly (temporarily)..... but when you get mace of disruption +2 you dont need this ability anymore, it kills liches (and demi-liche) in one hit

its just too bad cleric's dispell magic isn't half as potent as the inquisitor's, it's the ultimate weapon against spellcasters.... i soloed with an inquisitor recently, never had so much fun slaying mages, i even killed Draconis and Abazigal without dying once

 

Well the MoD at least allows a save. Turn Undead does not. Besides with Turn Undead you dont even need to get close to your target, and can destroy a lot of them at one go.

Like that vampire sewer in TOB? No need to even fight the vampires, just turn undead and they get instantly destroyed.

With SCS2 Turn Undead is unfortunately useless against liches because they become too high level, but for everything under a lich it makes it an easy fight.

I never play BG2 without an inquisitor, I've got too used to near instantaneous powerful dispel magic and true sight.

 

Clerics need 3,150,000 (2,475,000) XP to reach level 22 for a base thac0 of 6(8).
A fighter/cleric multiclass needs 3,500,000 (2,500,000) XP to reach fighter level 15(13) for a base thac0 of 6(8).

 

I believe dmc is referenceing "getting there" as in getting through the fights, not XP wise. Lower level clerics will have a much harder time in melee than a MC F/C.

 

At low level the pure cleric won't have a much harder time. You start at level 7, base thac0 of 16, 2 attacks per round and bonus to hit and damage with the Lathander special ability, to hit bonus with 20 str with DUHM, more cleric spells at higher casting level for buffing and summoning than the multiclass, ...

As fighter/cleric mc you start at level 6/6 with 1.5 attacks per round and a base thac0 of 15.

Maybe except from 220,000-224,999 (cleric 8 vs f7/c8) there's no point in the early game where the Lathander cleric is noteworthy inferior to the fighter/cleric.
In SoA without ToB installed the Lathander cleric might even be the superior choice.

 

or you can choose f/m/c and remove the xp cap. then you can have some real fun! you can cast all the mages and clerics protection spells (stoneskin, prot frm magic weapons ) and use the robe of vecna and improved alacrity to speed up your priest spells!