Dual class: level 9 or 13?

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Alright, apologies in advance for those who feel I'm summoning yet another dead horse for you all to beat on..

I've just started BG2 with a level 8 Berserker that I've played through BG1 with EasyTutu. I plan on dualing him to a mage (yes, I know, cheesy boring dual class and all that ), and I'd like some opinions on when is the best level to dual class him.

I will be doing this run with a party of at least 5 members, and this will obviously affect the time taken to regain my berserker levels.

As far as I can tell, dual classing at level 13 is superior for the following reasons:

1. Base THAC0 of 7 instead of 11
2. Extra half attack at level 13
3. One more weapon proficiency point
4. One more use of berserker rage per day

However, my character would require a whopping 1,250,000 xp to reach level 14 as a mage and regain his berserker abilities, instead of a mere 250,000 to reach level 10 as a mage if I had dual classed at level 9.

I know I'd get the same number of spells per day as a mage whether I had dual classed at level 9 or 13.

So my question is: How much longer would it take to regain berserker abilities if I had dual classed at level 13 instead of level 9?

Thanks in advance!

 

With a party of 5 and your PC being a Bezerker, I don't think it's worth waiting until 13. You probably won't need another "enrage", the extra THAC0 is nice, but not necessary (especially in a party).

Level 9, I say.

 

I usually do it at level 9 out of lazyness, but that extra half attack sure is sweet.

 

I usually do it at level 13. There are plenty of levels to be gained until you reach level 14, but this is not a game where XP doesn't come cheap.

 

For a Berserker you'll have all the best goodies at level 9 anyway. The extra 1/2 attack isn't worth a lot with all the +1 ApR kit in BGII. I've done this dual at level 9 in SoA, and he kicked arse - Berserker immunities are so useful, it's a real pain waiting for them to reactivate.

 

Perhaps it was just a bug in my game, but I found dual class characters start recieving HLAs after obtaining 3,000,000 xps in the second class. The one million xp points needed going from 9th to 13th level means 2-3 LESS HLAs, and you get them later. Not worth it IMO.

 

You have to decide what your goal is, do you want your character to be powerful during the game or after the game is over ?

When a berserker13/mage finishes dualing at 2,750,000 XP about 65 percent of the game will already be over if you play the "normal" way.
And even when the dualing period is over he'll still be inferior to a berserker9/mage with the same XP for about another 20 percent of the game, 2-3 mage levels make a big difference (spells, spell effect, HLAs).

If you abuse some exploits or solo you can become powerful earlier, but you'll never get near 8,000,000 XP if you play the game the "normal" way.

It works that way. It's not a bug.

 

Thanks for the advice guys, just a few things I'd like to clarify though.

T2Bruno: This dual class character willl only be able to get mage HLAs. Assuming I dual classed at level 13, it'd take 3 million xp in the mage class (4.25 million in total) to reach level 18, where I get my first HLA. As far as I know, there are only so many mage HLAs: the few 10th level spells, and the extra 6th, 7th, and 8th level spell slots. The maximum mage level I can reach if I dual at level 13 should be 28, which means I'd get 11 HLA picks, which should be enough to get all of them?

kmonster: I know a few of those little tricks that I can use to get my mage levels up faster: completing quests but not turning in them till I dual class, kicking everyone, erasing and re-memorising spells.. I don't think I'd like to use any of these tricks, but I am one of those people that likes to complete every single quest I can find, so surely there should be enough experience for me to regain my berserker abilities before 65% of the game has passed, even with at least 5 people in my party?

As it stands right now, I'm leaning more towards dual classing at level 9 simply because of how much less experience points it would take to regain my berserker abilities.

 

I was assuming that you play a full party most of the time and try do do all quests you find with my estimations.

SoA covers about 75 percent of the game and had a cap of 2,950,000 XP.
The pregenerated characters for the last ~25 percent of the game, the ToB expansion, start with only 2,500,000 XP, less than you need for getting a b13/m14.

You are right about there not being too many mage HLAs (only 8 or so), but wrong about reaching level 28. (you won't get that many XP the normal way)

 

So there's no chance of you hitting the 8 million xp cap at all with a 5-man party, in an unmodded game?

 

I won't say "no chance" as I have never done a 5-man party. However, seeing as how you don't even get anywhere close with a 6-man party, I don't see it happening. Keep in mind that the experience points gained by having one fewer person in the party isn't 20% more than what you'd get with a 6-man party because a significant percentage of your total XP is quest XP, which is a fixed amount per character regardless of whether you have a full party of 6 or are soloing. However, a 5-man party will easily exceed the 2,950,000 cap in SoA if you do all the side quests. (Of course, if you have ToB installed, you aren't limited to 2,950,000 exp in SoA, but I still think you won't hit the 8 million XP cap.)

 

Depends on the number of people in your party.

I used to be a strong defender of waiting until level 13, but now I've eased into Level 9. It's just more fun, since you'll have the character you invisioned while rolling stats so much earlier.

 

Aldeth: Does that mean that you've never had your party of 6 characters hit the 8 million xp cap even at the end of ToB? Hmm.. I was thinking of a 5 man party, but most likely now I'll end up taking 6.

Klorox: Yes, I've actually dual classed at level 9 in the middle of Irenicus's dungeon.. just finished the Circus Tent, picked up Jan, kicked out Yoshimo, and my berserker/mage is already level 9/7. Shouldn't take much longer to regain those berserker abilities.

 

Remember when you just played SoA? You hit that cap, sometimes in the Underdark. There's more XP to be had in SoA than 3 million.

 

Cool! How'd you hit level 9 in Chateau Irenicus? Did you import from BG1?

 

Yes, I imported my character from BG1. The experience cap was 161,000, but apparently the experience you gain after that is stored in the character's file, so I actually started BG2 with close to 225,000 xp. It was a breeze to reach level 9 at 250,000 experience and then I just dual classed.

 

Yes. In fact, if you have a full 6-man party, you shouldn't even get close. Even doing all the side quests and such, it's hard to exceed 7 million. This is assuming you game isn't heavily modded. Some mods out there add a TON of side quests and experience points, so take that into account as well. The only mod I have in my game that adds experience is unfinished business, and that's not an excessive addition of XP.

This works? Ack! I never knew that! So if I'm mid way through Durlag's Tower, and I hit the cap, the game "holds" those XP for the rest of the game, and gives them to me at the start of SoA? I always assumed that the 161,000 was a hard cap.

 

If you import from unmodded BG1 your character can't have more than 161,000 XP at the start of BG2. It seems to be different with TuTu however.

 

kmonster is right. I'd think it's a little too overpowering to start SoA at more than 161k XP.