I'm doing a BGtutu *enigma* game. I was intrigued by Aerie in BG2, because when you play with an NPC that's mage/cleric you get to see how powerfull they become. So I decided to play a cleric/mage multiclass from scratch for this theme game, and see for myself what the growing pains are. Has anyone done a Mage/cleric multi,,,and what did you think of it?

hmmm, good luck with that in BG1. At first, you'll be incredibly weak and will have to use a hit and run tactic (with sling shots) from basically everything. Levels will be slow, and you will probably die a lot. Later on, you can get more powerful, but I don't think you'll be able to get there early on.

are you soloing? - you'll level up pretty quickly if so and there are some fairly high level scrolls available including cloudkill (no stoneskin though :( )

i'm playing a C/M (Gnome Cleric/Illusionsist actually) in SoA at the moment and she's pretty good - acutally - what about a gnome? it's not like you'll be missing death spell or horrid wilting in BG1

Hee, hee, hee.

I haven't played a Cleric/Mage since those fondly remembered days of Fenris Melkior, star of my horrific Evil game. My oh my, he had a wicked old time. The rest of my party was Xzar, Montaron, Kagain, Viconia, and Shar-Teel, and we pretty much killed every single thing in the Sword Coast. Fenris's stats were munchkin as hell: 6/18/18/18/18/18 at the start. By the time we were through, we'd done things like going house-to-house in BG City, Quadruple Backstabbing sleeping Commoners with Drizzt's equipment. Oh yesh indeedy, that was good.

Yikes!! Are you crazy?!? I'm not good or masochistic enough to solo!! Hell, since I'm doing a multiclass with a cleric, this will be the first time in ages I'll be able to wear decent armor. I'll be playing it straight pretty much. I want to get to the final battle with..
Ajantis
Minsc
Branwen
Merlynn(PC)
Imoen
Xan
...that should take care of Sarevok.

Hi guys.
I am currently adventuring in BG1 with a Solo Multi-Class Gnome Cleric/Illusionist, so I thought I'd share my experiances with you. Only a few weeks ago Dace De'Briago suggested that Cleric/Mage would be good for soloing and I had to agree. Having played with one in IWD and BG2 I knew of the potential of C/M but soloing is a different matter! I am nearing the end of my game now and looking back here are a few observations:

Firstly the Stat Role for C/M is quite hard - there are very few minimum values to help push up the numbers, but it would be nice to have high stats in every catagory. In the end I compromised on Strength - which was a mistake when soloing. Up until Ch5 I was having trouble carrying my equipment, which left nothing spare for loot and/or quest items. I had hoped that the Mage spell Strength would help but it doesn't work as described (the duration is very short). I did get some benefit from the Wolf Cloak, which increases strength when active, but all in all it was a struggle to carry things. So with hindsight I would take a couple of points out of Intellegance and increase Strength to nearly the maximum.

Early in the game, I found that staying alive was not a big problem but fighting was rather slow and boring. As a Cleric the weapon restrictions have to be accepted, however the low number of attacks per round was a big handicap when fighting big groups of low level enemies. If the fight lasts a long time then sooner or later you get caught by a critical hit or two. Once I had Animate Dead and Mirror Image life became a lot easier.

A Cleric/Mage is the ultimate spellcaster, so I always had a spell for every occation. I used a lot of Charm and Hold spells to gain a tactical advantage and I am also very fond of Sanctuary - a very flexible spell with many uses. There is much power in the spellcasting but in most cases there is not enough time to make full use of the potential, I always end up with unused spells when it is time to rest.

Another thing that impressed me about my Gnome Cleric/Mage is the saving throws. I don't usually take much notice of Saves, you miss one now and again which is bad news for a solo adventurer - it's one of the hazards I accept. But this guy never misses a Save, with all the bonuses in place he gets a Save less than 1 in most catagories. No worries there then ! And another other good attribute is Turn Undead. Just for fun I exploded all the Zombies on the Farm Map - I never really bothered much with TU in Bg1, but it can make a nice change from fighting low level undead.

So Cleric/Mage is definitly a good choice, even if you don't solo it's still a good choice. Have fun.

Sixofspades, what in the world does a cleric/mage need an 18 con for? I woulda taken 2 of those points and put them into strength, since cleric/mages get no more bonus hp for con after 16.

I was going for sheer overkill. At the end of the game, his stats were 18(00)/20/19/19/21/21. Yeah baby. Besides, a natural CON of 20 (or higher) and you get automatic Regeneration, and that's just plain sweet.

[ 10-27-2004, 03:58 PM: Message edited by: SixOfSpades ]

Cleric-Mage is one of my favourite multiclasses. Though in BG1 it's not that powerful, in SoA and ToB you'll be able to solo easily if you wish.