Second, you can and should Dual Class her to a Mage when she becomes a Level 6 Thief. First, you acquire her at level 1, so you can shape her thief abilities as you wish. Recommendations for a Good-Aligned Party : If you want take a path to the Dark Side, then pick Lawful or Neutral Evil (9) or Chaotic Evil (8). So if you want your reputation to start at the maximum, pick Lawful Good (12). The Law-Neutrality-Chaos axis really has no importance in Baldur's Gate, only the Good-Neutral-Evil axis matters.
None of the Chapter 5 NPCs are particularly impressive. If you want to stay strictly to the main plot, the Chapter 4 NPCs can be used as replacements without too much of a management headache. You can pretty much clear out all the areas outside of Baldur's Gate (Chapter 5) before you have to go there to make progress with the plot. I tend to favor characters you can acquire early over characters who are not obtainable until Chapter 4 or 5. Keep your reputation to no less than 10 to avoid higher prices, negative reaction adjustments and Flaming Fist posses and mercenary attacks. Being cruel, dishonest and greedy will cause your reputation to not increase and evil characters will stay content. Evil party members will leave if your reputation goes above 18. Neutral party members will mutter but will not leave the party no matter how high your reputation becomes. By acting mercifully, honestly and selflessly, your reputation will increase, good party members will be happy and the shops will give you better prices. If you want to keep a harmonious party, you should pick NPCs close to your alignment. However, their Con maxes out at 17, giving them a benefit of only +3 HP per level. But they also have a +1 to hit for Swords and Bows, sweetening the pot even more. An elf has a max Dex of 19, making them superb archers. However, a dwarf has a max Dex of 17, so his AC adjustment is only -3. If you raise your Con during the game, you can acquire regeneration. A dwarf has a +1 to Con for +5HP per level at Con 19. The best long sword in the game can be found at the Entrance to the Nahskel Mines in Chapter 2.Ī dwarf or an elf make excellent fighters. Put the points you can earn by leveling up to the Sword. Also, Fighters have Weapon Specialization and the other two do not. I prefer Fighters to Rangers and Paladins because they can gain new levels faster than Rangers and Paladins can. I set two slots for Swords and one for Blunt Weapons and one for Bows. With a Fighter, you have four weapon proficiency slots to use. However, you can raise your strength a point later in the game, and exceptional strength becomes irrelevant at that point. You have to reroll to get a different exceptional strength score. If you raise and lower the strength score, you will keep the first exceptional strength roll you make. When you choose a class, you are stuck with whatever exceptional strength roll you get when you increase your strength score to 18. Judging by the Enhanced Edition, total rolling points range from 75-100, but are heavily weighted toward the low end of the scale. This requires a total roll of 84, which make take a few dozen clicks of the reroll button. (Preferably 10 for Charisma, because 9 gives a -1 reaction adjustment). I get a good roll and set my Str, Dex and Con to 18 and my Int, Wis and Cha to no less than 9.
My main PC has always been a Human Fighter.
Hopefully this will be the last part, which gives my approach to character creation for this game.
Apparently I have been somehow pushed or co-opted into writing a series about Baldur's Gate.