Best Classes BG1
Welcome to my cRPG blog on the best class in Baldur's Gate 1. The best class in Baldur's Gate 1 is the Mage. Other classes cannot hope to compete with their power and versatility.
Rank 1: Mage BG1
The mage strives to be a master of magical energies, shaping them and casting them as spells. To do so, he studies strange tongues and obscure facts and devotes much of his time to magical research. A mage must rely on knowledge and wit to survive. Mages are rarely seen adventuring without a retinue of fighters and men-at-arms. Because there are different types (or schools) of magic, there are different types of mages. The mage studies all types of magic and learns a wide variety of spells. His broad range makes him well suited to the demands of adventuring.
Rank 2: Fighter BG1
The fighter is a champion, swordsman, soldier, and brawler. He lives or dies by his knowledge of weapons and tactics. Fighters can be found at the front of any battle, contesting toe-to-toe with monsters and villains. A good fighter needs to be strong and healthy if he hopes to survive.
See also: Paladin BG1.
Rank 3: Thief BG1
To accomplish his goals, for good or ill, the thief is a skilled pilferer. Cunning, nimbleness, and stealth are his hallmarks. Whether he turns his talent against innocent passers-by and wealthy merchants or oppressors and monsters is a choice for the thief to make.
Thieves are about stealth, theft and backstabbing. Combat role is backstab and token ranged attacks. Utility role is extensive: Open Locks, Find/Remove Traps, Pick Pocket and conventional Stealth. The quadruple backstab enables Thieves to take out the biggest threat heading up a given mob before a combat encounter even begins. One should not underestimate such an opener to an encounter because it can notably reduce the difficulty and duration of a battle (think Mages).
Dex 19 Halflings boast of Open Locks (135), Find/Remove Traps (120), Pick Pocket (135), Stealth (140), which is amazing (not that we need such maximums). Please refer to stealth, theft and backstabbing for deeper commentary on the class we don't want to go into Durlag's Tower without.
Recommended starting stats (Gnome): Str 18, Dex 18, Con 16, Int dump, Wis dump, Cha dump. Prioritize Open Locks and Find/Remove Traps. Wield the Eagle Bow and the Dagger of Venom.
Rank 4: Cleric BG1 & Druid BG1
The cleric is a generic priest (of any mythos) who tends to the spiritual needs of a community. He is both protector and healer. He is not purely defensive, however. When evil threatens, the cleric is well suited to seek it out on its own ground and destroy it. The opposite is true of evil clerics as well.
The druid serves the cause of nature and neutrality; the wilderness is his community. He uses his special powers to protect it and to preserve balance in the world.
Combat role of Cleric and Druid is healbotting, summons, direct damage, buffing and debuffing. See: Divine Spells Baldur's Gate.
Utility is limited for Druids but Clerics get Sanctuary (stealth), Find Traps (does not disarm them) and Glyph of Warding (Set Traps).
Expert players may turn their nose up at divine spellcasters but mere mortal players will find their healing ability indispensable at the low to mid levels, since inns and temples aren't always close-by and resting triggers ambushes with a high percentage chance.
The lack of a summon cap means Animate Dead and Animal Summoning are easily abused (skellies + bears = I WIN).
Druids are, somewhat surprisingly, better healers than Clerics due to Cure Critical Wounds, but the latter have the superior buffing and debuffing repertoire. While it's occasionally tempting to have them wade into the fray both are limited in melee due to their non-progressing 1 ApR and slower THAC0 progression, though Clerics are superior to Druids (even wildshaped Druids) due to their self-buffs - such as DUHM Bhaalspawn Ability - and their ability to wield Ashideena and wear Full Plate Mail (Druid limit is Ankheg Armor). Thus, I rate Clerics above Druids.
Rank 5: Bard BG1
The bard is also a rogue, but he is very different from the thief. His strength is his pleasant and charming personality. With it and his wits he makes his way through the world. A bard is a talented musician and a walking storehouse of gossip, tall tales, and lore. He learns a little bit about everything that crosses his path; he is a jack-of-all- trades but master of none. While many bards are scoundrels, their stories and songs are welcome almost everywhere.
Combat role is limited arcane spellcasting, Bardsong and token ranged attacks. Utility roll is Pick Pocket and Identifying magical items (Lore). Bardsong is garbage but the unequaled loremastery shouldn't be snubbed because it allows us to easily I.D magical items anytime and anywhere. We don't always have a vendor handy and we won't have access to the Identify spell if we're a Conjurer, which Specialist is popular due to its underwhelming Opposition School, Divination (Edwin is the best Mage but he can't cast Identify).
Bards can't cast fifth circle spells and offer fewer spell slots per level than Mages, but they sport faster level progression and can reach one level higher than Mages, meaning that spells with level-based variables are more effective when cast by Bards. More on Bardic Lore.
Best Multi & Dual Classes in Baldur's Gate
Don't know what dual-classing is? Please refer to my dual-classing guide for newbies.
Fighter Mage Multi-class
• Fighter / Mage dual or multi:
Fighter (7: 64,000 XP) / Specialist (8: 97,000 XP) dual-classes are superior to Fighter (7) / Mage (7) multi-classes by virtue of:
- Notable increase in spell slots: 5-4-4-3 vs. 4-3-2-1
- Deeper HP pool
- +2 to-hit and +2 dmg over Specialization thanks to High Mastery
The argument against duals is of course their downtime which in this case is 90,000 XP, but this is the best and most powerful class in Baldur's Gate. We will devastate everything and barely take a scratch thanks to Mirror Image.
It's almost completely the best of both of the most powerful single-classes combined. The dual-class can optionally forego the +½ ApR, +1 dmg and two Fighter HD to gain access to two fifth circle slots loaded with the likes of Cloudkill, MSIII or Chaos. Go with the multi if we don't like the dual downtime; it's the second most powerful setup. Either way, we enjoy our -21 AC (-25 AC vs. Slashing) in BG.
Cleric Ranger multi-class
Yay, a use for the Ranger! But it relies on an oversight by BioWare albeit one that a lot of people have grown accustomed to; that is, we erroneously gain access to Druid circle spells above third in addition to the Cleric ones:
(Class: Spell range per circle)
- Cleric: 10-12-10-8-0
- Druid: 6-8-5-5-2
- Ranger/Cleric (Cleric+Druid): 10-14-12-8-0
- Dark Side of the Sword Coast: 15-17-17-12-13-9
Thus, the Ranger Cleric boasts of the broadest repertoire of divine spells available in the campaign. The inability to gain access to the nerfed fifth circle Druid repertoire is hardly worth complaining about because we don't need Animal Summoning II and Cure Critical Wounds (though they are decent). We have access to Stealth, Racial Enemy, Ashideena and Full Plate. The only problem is we can't fire from Bows due to the Cleric restriction (archery is awesome in BG1).
Fighter Cleric multi-class
This one is popular and well-known. It's ApR progression is slower than a single-classed Fighter but it hits quite a bit harder thanks to self-buffs, and obviously adds more versatility in addition to the perks of being a Dwarf (+CON, +Saves). A great setup that will enable newbies to crash through the game without too much trouble.
Fighter Thief dual-class
Fighter Thief dual-class BG1 is superior to Fighter Thief Multi-class BG1 but we will have to contend with downtime, which, however, is less severe than the Mage variant due to faster Thief XP progression and eschewing Fighter 7th lvl ½ ApR in favor of the +1 modifier for quadruple backstab. Fighter duals and multis are stronger backstabbers than single-classed Thieves by virtue of percentile STR, their ability to quaff potions of STR up to and including Storm 24, and the notable to-hit +3 and dmg +4 thanks to High Mastery.
Fighter Mage Thief BG1
Triple multi-classes suffer from slower power progression but the FMT represents the most versatile character possible in BG1. We could quite easily roll with a reduced party size, or even solo a few early and easy quests, in order to compensate for that.
Fighter Mage Cleric BG1 has even slower power progression, but it can certainly grow into a powerful character eventually.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.