Worth it to duel at level one?

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A thought just happened upon me. If I wanted to be a mage (any class) but also use a bow and other weapons that are restricted by the mage class (without GateKeeper), is it possible to just be a level one fighter or thief and then duel class at your first level up. Therefore having the abilities to use more weapons.

And if it is possible, is it worth it?

 

It is possibile, but not worth...

For example: If ToSc is not installed, your XP cap is 89k. You can have a max 7 level mage, which is 60k XP. You can use the rest 29K to have a 5 level fighter or a 6 level thief...

I would suggest the thief, cause of it's backstabing and hiding ability. And you may even solo the game with this char. Traps, chests, no problem.

Of course you can solo with the fighter too, just you will trigger too many traps.

 

I agree, it might worth it to dual-class at low levels just to gain the abilities of the original class.

 

It's entirely possible, and worth it too. Not only do you get access to all weapons if Fighter, but you also get a significant HP boost when you need it most, at the very beginning. The XP loss from having just one level of something is so low that it probably won't affect your final level.

 

Hey, Jaguar, thank you for starting this post--oddly enough I just started playing BG again, and I was planning to solo a fighter then dual-class to mage at the first level-up.

Now, any suggestions for which class of mage to dual to?

 

Conjurer - Only loses a few divination spells.

 

I am the only one who prefers the thief class? Playing the thief is fun. With one backstab you can eliminate the hostile mage, than the rest of the groups can't be a problem. You can sneak over the whole game. If you dont want, you dont need to kill everybody. With the mage spells, you can be invisible in the middle of the fight and rest a little bit... In the Durlag's tower there are a lots of traps, how will you survive? I think i will play BG1 again as a thief and now with BGtutu... i will get extreme XPs just because findig a trap or opening a lock.

Conjurer that is fine!

 

Valer, probably not. If I try to solo, I always play a thief of some kind, but since I prefer to wander around with a party, I usually don't play a thief as Imoen always fills that spot in my party. For me it is inconceivable to not put her in my party, considering the information in BG2.

Now for best class for the Wizard, I personally prefer Illusionist, as there aren't that many necromancy spells that are unreplaceable. And early game it is very very handy to be able to identify items, as you don't have that much money yet. And I also like to use magic gear as I pick it up, not needing to go back to a shop to know what it does (although I know most of the weapons by how they look by now).

Now for early level dualing, I prefer to go to level 3 before starting the mage route if I start as fighter. You don't have to wait that much longer and you get an extra proficiency point. But on occasion I dual at level 2. Kind of depends on how fast I want access to my spells.

 

I think that in 2E rules a level 1 character cannot dualclass. You need to have alredy reached level 2 or the first class, at least.

For a mage, I would dual class at fighter level 2 to any mage class with access to Necromancy spells, having a nice HP and having these weapon selections:

As fighter
Blunt weapons **
Bows **

As mage
Dagger *

Spells like Chill Touch and Ghoul Touch are more effective if you are proficient in blunt weapons, as the "magical hand" that they provide is considered a blunt weapon, IIRC.


My preferred level for multiclassing a fighter, however, is level 3. A level 3 Fighter gets 5 proficiency points for his weapons, IIRC, 4 at character creation and an extra one at level 3. A fighter could start as a thief in the Nashkell mines, and end up with a selection of weapons similar to the following when he reaches level 4 of thief, recovering the fighter class:

Earned as fighter:
- Short swords ** (char creation)
- Long Swords ** (char creation)
- Misile weapons * (level 3)

Earned as thief
- Blunt weapons * (char creation)
- Bows * (char creation)

So he would have access to all the thief weapons he can use to backstab, and also all the ranged weapons, as Missile Weapons covers darts, slings, and crossbows in BG1, IIRC.

 

Thank you all for your inputs. The idea of starting as a thief has possibilities--maybe I'll run two games side-by-side and see how things play out (oh, yeah, like I really have time for that... ).

 

I have to agree with Colthrun on this. You must be at least level 2 in your original class in order to dual-class. Additionally, if you go with the fighter your much better off going to level 3 instead of level 2 for the extra proficiency point, and the extra HPs.