Baldur's Gate - Fighter/Mage?

[earthworm48]

I'm currently planning to play through Baldur's Gate again for the lord knows how many-eenth time, but was wondering about trying a class I haven't before. I've decided to give multi-classing a fighter/mage, but am kinda confused about what sort of stats sheet I should aim at rolling.

Anyone got any help on this on how to play one and what stats to aim for when rolling my character?

[Amalor]

No advise for you but I admire your masochism sir.

[anakin876]

wouldn't the fighter have to pull all his armor off before casting? Seems kind of frustrating and futile - but perhaps the restrictions are different than I remember them being.

[AspectVoid]

A little on the late side, but here's some advice. Start by making a Human Kensai. They're a fighter class that can't ware armor, thus you don't get hit with spell failure upon dual classing to Wizard. You'll probably want your highest scores to be STR and INT with good scores in DEX and CON. To dual a Kensai/Mage, you need a 15 STR and a 17 INT. You don't need to worry about WIS or CHA. Stick with it until you have 1-Handed Weapon mastery maxed out. That will give you a few extra points of defense.

Make sure that you Dual-Class to a mage early enough that you will get your fighter abilities back. This happens when your dual-class levels equal your original class's levels. If you have ToB, then you've got 40 levels to play with. I would say dual class at level 12. That will get you +4 to hit and damage, and a -3 to speed (the lower your speed, sooner you go).

[Whimbrel]

I think he is playing BG1, not BG2. The BG1 class selection is a lot more limited. I think Ranger is a pretty good class for BG, and the Stalker is a gun, jack of all trades importing into BG2. I always thought mages were kind of gimped in BG, and a fighter/mage seems like the worst of both worlds. I guess I would max out missiles and get that +2 sling from Durlag's tower. Or was it a +4. I can't remember. Then I would get the gauntlets of ogre power from the chick in the boat whorehouse in Baldur's Gate city. That will give you the best power/ dps from your fighter part. It will also mean that you don't have to put anything into strength. You don't need any charisma either. And you have already crippled your HP, so who cares about Const. That leaves Int and Dext. I'm assuming you are using an elf. That will help with your armor class. After you get to chapter 5 you will have 19 strength anyway, so don't worry about trying to roll an 18/00. If the other stats look good, you will be fine. I might have an 18/00 elf fighter/thief if you would rather do that. I could send you the chr file stripped of items and EXP. I don't think I ever tried a fighter mage.

[AspectVoid]

There's a mod out there (I can't recall the name) that ports the original Baldur's Gate over to the Baldur's Gate 2 engine. You need to own both games for it to work, but it is outstanding. I highly, highly recommend going that route if you own both games.

As for the classes, I tended to play a Fighter/Thief in the BG series. I could pretty much handle any traps or locked chests/doors/whatever and was more effective in combat then a regular thief class. I was basing my advice on what I know of the BG classes and DnD 2nd Ed rules.