Dual Class to Specialist Mage?

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Hi.

I've just decided to start a new game of Baldurs Gate, playing through all of the games from the start with no cheats except for doubling the game speed to 60 AI updates per second make it all go faster.

I want to ultimately make a Kensai / Mage as I always like playing Fighter / Mage and the Kensai fits this role better as they cant wear any armor.

However, I noticed that in BG1 I can dual class my character to a specialist mage, but this cant be done in BG2.

Is there a mod available for BG2 which allows dual classing to a specialist mage? I already have the mod that makes Imoen a Thief / Conjurer and want my character to also be a Kensai / Conjurer in BG2.

I was trying to get a 90 point roll, but settled for an 86 with 17 / 17 / 17 / 17 / 8 / 10 for my starting stats which I intend to raise to 19's by playing BG1 twice and using all the tomes, after which I will import into BG2 and change from a fighter to a kensai (90 point roll would have given me 18 / 18 / 18 / 18 / 8 /10).

Also, if I dual class in BG1, will my levels and classes be reset after importing the character into BG2?

I would also like to find some tables with information on dual class experience caps and maximum levels achievable for both BG1 and BG2, what is the best level progression for Fighter / Mage in BG1 and Kensai / Mage in BG2?

Thanks for any help.

 

Well, for starters, if you are dual classing (and not multiclassing) only your first class can have a kit. I've tried to make a fighter -> specialist mage with shadowkeeper before, didnt work.

next thing is that you can only have one active kit, although you can have more than one active class. So you can have a multiclass Kensai/Mage or a multiclass Fighter/Conjurer, but not a multiclass Kensai/Conjurer. If you really want that, your best bet is to modify an existing kit to provide the abilities of both.

Also, I'd recommend playing BG1 in BGTutu or BGT, but its up to you.

If you have dual classed in BG1, I dont think you will lose any classes or levels, and I also dont think you will be able to choose a new kit.

One last thing - if you want perfect stats, just ShadowKeeper yourself. You achieve the same result with far less irritation. Playing through BG1 twice to get the uber stats just seems like a complete waste of time.

 

I'll second that.

Welcome to the Boards bhavv.

 

I would also recommend using SK rather than playing twice. Give yourself 18's then use the tombs to boost to 19. Although 18's are just fine for SoA -- the only issue will be the maximum spells memorized limitation (not much of a limitation). There are enough strength enhancing items to boost your damage ability -- although I would recommend starting with 18(XX) for a fighter in BG1. A 19 dex is only needed by an missile shooter (which the kensai is not) and the additional hit points are not really necessary for a mage.

Basically, the roll you have is good enough to get you through BG1 and SoA with no problems.

Experience point tables are in the manuals. There are several good points to stop fighter and shift to mage. The real question is how long you want to wait in order to get back your fighting abilities. If you dual class in BG1 your fighter levels will be set -- I would recommend finishing BG1 as a fighter.

Good points to dual:

9th level -- maxed hit points and reasonable 'to hit', kensai has +4 to hit and damage.
12th level -- an additional +1 for the kensai (total of +5 to hit and damage).
13th level -- an additional ½ attack per round.

Remember, you wil not have access to any fighter abilities until your mage levels are higher than your fighter levels. Every level of fighter after 9th is basically one level of mage you cannot have due to the xp cap. If you dual at 9th level, you will have your fighter abilities before you hit 1,000,000 xp (which is the xp's required for 12th level fighter).

 

Thanks for the pointers =D

I initially had a 90 point roll, but I made that character Chaotic Good which cant become a kensai in BG2.

So I restarted with a True Neutral but only managed 86 points this time.

I always dislike starting a new game of BG2 without a tomed BG1 character, and I dislike the graphics in BG1, but I looked up those mods and will try the BGT mod as it integrates all of the games and I should Enjoy it then.

My first character that I played with years and years ago was a pure Fighter - 18 / 18 / 18 / 6 / 5 / 18, that eventually ended up with Str, Dex, Con and Cha values between 20-22. I then used cheats to develop a whole line of custom Fighter / Mages from this template because I didnt want to play all over again, just by raising the INT value on this character, but now I want to do it from the start with no cheats.

My epic fighter from when I first played Baldurs Gate is long gone now, but now I want a Kensai. I think that I will dual at lvl 12 with 5 points in Katanas and 3 in Dual Wielding because this looks like the best level to do it at, and you can can then get 28 levels in Mage (I found a dual class guide).

Katanas are rare, but I will also get dagger profiency from my Mage levels, only one point but it should help.

I'm downloading this mod here, and am also installing Imoen Thief / Conjurer and Minsc Berserker mods:

http://www.shsforums.net/index.php?autocom=downloads&showfile=54

I seriously have no idea where those dusty old tomes are these days

Edit - The mod doesnt work on Vista? - It works, I just had to remove the BG TOTSC CD.

I didn't export my character so I have to roll again lol. Never mind, he was only lvl 2. I need 86-90 points again.

---------- Added 0 hours, 31 minutes and 42 seconds later... ----------

Oh, if I start BG1 with the BGT mod, are there any Katanas in the game if I choose dual wielding and katanas, or am I just going to be gimped throughout the first game?

I will use shadowkeeper to give me 90 point stats instead of rerolling over and over, thanks for the advice.

BG1 looks great with BGT installed.

 

28 levels of mage requires ToB. My recommendations would be slightly different if you are also using ToB. You posted in the SoA only post.

Dualling at level 12 will allow you to regain your fighter abilities in the underdark (with a party).

 

Level 12 isn't a good class for dualing. From level 12 to 13 you gain more power than for the 3 levels from 9 to 12 together, even as kensai. 13 fighter levels still allow to get 28 mage levels in ToB.

 

True kmonster. I would have recommended 13 as well, but you will not regain your fighter abilities in SoA without an xp cap cheat (or ToB added).

 

Thanks. I'll do 13 levels Kensai then.

I didnt have my EXP chars and the one I found online only showed dualing at 9, 12, 15, and 18 as examples for fighters.

I should have posted in the ToB section, I didnt know I was supposed to. I have the whole BG collection installed and modded into one single game now

What happens between lvl 12-13 for a fighter that is more significant then 9-12?

Also, when using the BGT mod, after I complete BG1, will I carry onto BG2 with my previos levels and experience unchanged? And will Imoen remain a thief if I dont dual her during BG1? I would like to have Imoen with 9 thief classes instead of 7 before dualing to Mage as this still allows maximum mage levels plus extra thieving abilities (100 in Pick locks + find traps would be more ideal).

 

As I said before, at level 13 a fighter gains an additional ½ attack per round -- making a total of 2 attacks per round for your fighter levels, plus an additional ½ attack per round for specialization, plus an off-hand attack for two weapon style. If you have Belm in your off hand you get yet another attack per round for your main hand. That's 4½ attacks per round.

Now add Improved Haste -- 9 attacks per round. With 12 levels you get one less attack per round. An extra attack per round (or every other round if not hasted) can be significant -- much more so than an extra point of damage.

If you're going on to ToB you may want to reconsider your wisdom score.

 

Thats why I need to play through BG1 first - for the two Wisdom tomes.

I had to reroll my character, and I got an 87 roll - 18 / 18 / 18 / 17 / 8 / 8. Wisdom and Charisma are always lowered for my Fighter / Mages, and I dont want to cheat on the stats.

I suppose I could always just Ctrl - 8 in character creation, but I hate doing that. I will just add 1 to INT and 2 to WIS as though I had a clean 90 roll and then rely on tomes and other ingame buffs. Putting in more then 90 points just makes it too fake and unreal.

Edit - lol - I just killed Bassilus in a few seconds using Kai =D

I dont think I'm meant to be using a Kensai in BG1, Kai seems to own bosses too easilly.

 

Ah good, someone moved this.

Two problems for ToB:

1. Poor wisdom makes for very bad wish choices.
2. Only the active class xp level is used to calculate for high level abilities.

Higher levels in fighter will mean fewer HLA's -- and quite frankly, the HLA's for mage totally blow away any and all advantages for fighter levels above 9.

 

I can just use Aerie for wish to overcome this right? Thats what I did before since I always use her as my mage and I was a plain fighter at first.

 

Besides having Aerie cast the spell you can also just cast the wish spell with a low wisdom caster and have a party member with high wisdom talk to the genie before he talks to the caster. If you solo you can use potions of insight.

The HLAs will matter for a normal player, but someone who even plays through BG1 several times just to get better stats will most likely have his exploits to reach the 8,000,000 XP cap pretty early in the game.
Mages don't get many HLAs, even a level 28 mage had some level ups without getting a HLA since he already took all of them before.

Wrong. A fighter13/mage 14 needs 2,750,000 XP which is lower than the 2,950,000 XP cap in SoA.

 

Playing the "get the high wisdom character to talk to the genie" game is annoying. An easier solution is to use potions of insight just before casting Wish -- keep all you come across. The easiest solution would be to have a high wisdom.

I stand corrected kmonster (I used the multiclass limits and was too lazy to calculate it myself). I guess that means you will be able to use your fighting skills in hell.

One other bad point about 13th level fighter is you get your first HLA 1,000,000 xp's later than if you only had 9 fighter levels.

 

Isn't there three?

So don't do it. Why bother to get perfect stats anyway? You could easily beat the game with subpar stats and only one or two 18's. Besides, there are a number of items that can set ability scores to a certain amount.

I generally always Ctrl8 my PC stats, and then decrease a number of them so my total ends up around 80 - 90.

 

The third comes with TotSC (it's the one in Durlag's tower).

 

There's only two if i remember correctly. One in the gnoll area and then somewhere else. The catacombs I think

I never keep my rolled stats anymore... When you have a Dexterity score of 21, it just makes me feel better

Edit: Oh, that makes sense, as I never purchased TotSC.

 

Nice.

http://mikesrpgcenter.com/bgate/manuals.html

You can see there for all the tomes. I dont care about playing through BG1 twice, I want a (somewhat) legit godly character, I just cheated a 90 point roll to avoid having to click on the dice for hours on end. The rest I want to accomplish ingame.

I have another question - Does the BGT mod raise the EXP cap in BG1 to 8 Million? Or is it still capped to 161k? And no one told me if it allows me to keep Imoen un dualed before moving onto BG2, but I suppose it doesnt.

Is there anyway to modify Imoen so that I can give her 9 thief classes?

 

You can use Shadowkeeper, there is nothing even remotely "legit" in going through the game twice and it doesn't make any sense story-wise.

No offense but if you want to cheat, cheat. You'll save some time.

Plus hitting the level cap too early will just make the game extremely boring. I used to solo a lot but I don't anymore, the last time I soloed was in BGtutu + SoA my Blade was level 33 before going to Spellhold and I never finished that run. It is not interesting to play that way but if you enjoy it just ignore my post.