Valerie

Rank: A
Role: Tank/Disruptor

Stats:
Str: 14 > 18
Dex: 13 > 14 @ lvl 4
Con: 19
Int: 9
Wis: 10
Cha: 15*
*If you really want you can take 2 from Str and add +1 to Cha(probably at 8), +1 to Con(at 20), but +1 to persuasion is not worth it. And neither is kingdom management. You’ll be fine.

Final Build: Fighter(TSS) 11/Alchemist(Vivisectionist) 3/Monk(Traditional) 1/Rogue(Thug) 4/Stalwart Defender 1

Main skills: Mobility 3, Persuasion (max)
Suggested secondary skills: Perception (max), Use Magic Device (all spare points)

Detailed leveling breakdown:
Lvl 2: Alchemist
Lvl 3: Monk - Armor Focus: Heavy // Crane Style
Lvl 4: Fighter - Shield Focus
Lvl 5: Fighter - Weapon Focus: Bastard Sword
Lvl 6: Fighter - Dazzling Display
Lvl 7: Fighter - Outflank
Lvl 8: Rogue
Lvl 9: Rogue - Accomplished Sneak Attacker // Combat Trick > Shatter Defenses
Lvl 10: Stalwart
Lvl 11: Rogue - Persuasive
Lvl 12: Rogue - Canny Observer
Lvl 13: Fighter - Skill Focus: Persuasion // Improved Critical: Bastard Sword
Lvl 14: Fighter
Lvl 15: Fighter - Greater Weapon Focus: Bastard Sword // Greater Shield Focus
Lvl 16: Fighter
Lvl 17: Alchemist - Blind Fight // Feral Mutagen
Lvl 18: Alchemist
Lvl 19: Fighter - Skill Focus: Perception* // Intimidating Prowess
Lvl 20: Fighter
*Or Weapon Specialization

Important gear: Mithral Plate, Tower Shield, Bastard Sword, Opportunist’s boots

Mostly used as an object with a lot of AC on the battlefield. Especially early on. There is just no way she’d hit anything reliably, so might as well make it so enemies can’t really hit her either. 37 AC by level5 is not so bad, eh?

Dazzling user and that’s pretty much the only thing she ever wants to do apart from poking enemies with a pointy thing, but she does become really good at it.

Alchemist is there for sneak dice and mutagen. We really don’t give a damn about his spells, but if you get your hands on a herbalist’s cape a bit of true-striking might happen.

Due to AC stacking fares quite well on unfair, as far as things fare well on unfair to begin with. Bad thing is there is only so much AC stacking you can do, so she does depends on gear quite a bit. That being said, it’s not hard to break 70AC on her.

Valerie really is a whole lot better than people tend to think of her. She has a lot of stats and all of them can be put to a good use invariably. I gradually upped the ranking for her over time and now I am at the conclusion she is one of the strongest companions in the game Her ranking is still lower than Nok-Nok, but don't let that fool you - It's only because I rank characters compared to what they could be and not what they can do compared to each-other.

Dex Scion

Role: Tank/Front-line Damage Dealer

Race: Human
Alignment: Lawful-Good
Bloodline: Draconic(Fire)

Stats:
Str: 7
Dex: 18
Con: 14
Int: 7
Wis: 8
Cha: 19 > 24

Final Build: Magus(Eldritch Scion) 19/Monk(Scaled Fist) 1

Main skills: Mobility 3, Persuasion Max
Suggested secondary skills: Use Magic Devices Spare

Detailed leveling breakdown:
Lvl 1: Magus - Weapon Finesse // Dodge
Lvl 2: Monk - Crane Style
Lvl 3: Magus - Weapon Focus: Longsword
Lvl 4: Magus - Arcane Accuracy
Lvl 5: Magus - Slashing Grace: Longsword
Lvl 6: Magus - Outflank
Lvl 7: Magus - Crane Wing // Enduring Blade
Lvl 8: Magus
Lvl 9: Magus - Dazzling Display
Lvl 10: Magus - Ghost Blade
Lvl 11: Magus - Shatter Defenses
Lvl 12: Magus - Spell Focus: Evocation
Lvl 13: Magus - Crane Riposte // Devoted Blade
Lvl 14: Magus
Lvl 15: Magus - Greater Spell Focus: Evocation
Lvl 16: Magus - Bane Blade
Lvl 17: Magus - Elemental Focus: Fire
Lvl 18: Magus - Greater Elemental Focus: Fire
Lvl 19: Magus - Greater Weapon Focus: Longsword // Prescient Attack*
Lvl 20: Magus
*Optional

Spells by level in order of importance:
Lvl 1: Shocking Grasp, Shield, Grease, True Strike, Vanish, Reduce Person
Lvl 2: Frigid Touch, Mirror Image, Web, Glitterdust, Scorching Ray
Lvl 3: Haste, Displacement, Fireball, Vampiric Touch
Lvl 4: Dragon's Breath, Dimension Door, Stoneskin, Greater Invisibility, Controlled Fireball
Lvl 5: Fire Snake, Cloudkill, Vampiric Shadow Shield, Cone of Cold
Lvl 6: Transformation, Sirocco, Hellfire Ray, Dispel Magic(Greater)

Greater Spell Access:
Sense Vitals, Heroism(Greater), Geniekind, Icy Prison, Burning Arc, Angelic Aspect

Gear: +Stat Items. Longsword, Fire Robes, Monk Robes(when you find them), +AC items, Opportunist's boots

Early-game anti-suffer advice:
Take Tartuccio’s Crossbow and make him use cantrips in the prologue. Keep a dagger on you in case you will need to burst something with Shocking Grasp. Use crossbows till you find Agile Pick under the Old Sycamore. From level 5 you switch to longsword for life. Grease and Web will help you solving early-game.

Double-dipping, AC/AB/Damage stacking:
- AC from Cha through monk, Monk feats. AC from Bloodline, Free wings @lvl16, AC from Spells
- AB through Arcane Weapon. AB from Cha through Arcane Accuracy
- Damage with Arcane Weapon additional properties. Damage from Touch Spells
- Ability to skip Crit in favor of keen weapon Arcane Weapon additional property
- Fighter Feats. Every bit counts
- Extra Attacks From Riposte
- Decent DC
-Shatter Defenses for damage ramp
-Doesn't need to stack Dex to hit stuff. Shatter and arcane accuracy will take care of things.
-Decent Dazzling.

This is what a real tank can be in this game. Most enemies will never hit you unless you are paralyzed or otherwise denied dex/dodge bonus to armor. Your damage will be more than fine as well. Strong all game long. Not a lot of skill points, but only thing you really need on MC is persuasion.

Improved Crit is skipped in favor of Shatter. Use keen enchant instead.

Scimitars are a viable alternative. I prefer endgame swords to scimitars, but they are roughly equal

Paladin is skipped. you get enough saves from items and priest can give you cha saves anyway.

Aldori Duelist

Role: Tank/Front-line Damage Dealer

Race: Human(need the feat)

Alignment: LG(for the robes)

Stats:
Str: 7
Dex: 19 > 24
Con: 14
Int: 14
Wis: 7
Cha: 16

Final Build: Monk(Scaled Fist) 1/Fighter(Aldori Defender) 9/Swordlord 2/Alchemist(Vivisectionist) 3/Duelist 5

Main skills: Mobility 3+, Knowledge: World 3, Persuasion (Max), Trickery(Max)
Suggested secondary skills: Stealth 1+, whatever else you fancy

Lvl 1: Monk - Weapon Finesse // Dodge // Crane Style
Lvl 2: Alchemist
Lvl 3: Fighter - Aldori Dueling Mastery // Weapon Focus: Dueling Sword
Lvl 4: Fighter - Dazzling Display
Lvl 5: Fighter - Outflank
Lvl 6: Swordlord
Lvl 7: Fighter - Weapon Specialization: Dueling Sword // Crane Wing
Lvl 8: Fighter - Heavy Blades
Lvl 9: Fighter - Shatter Defenses
Lvl 10: Fighter
Lvl 11: Fighter - Greater Weapon Focus: Dueling Sword
Lvl 12: Fighter - Fighter Tactics // Heavy Blades
Lvl 13: Alchemist - Combat Mobility // Combat Trick > Improved Critical: Dueling Sword
Lvl 14: Duelist
Lvl 15: Duelist - Power Attack(+6 str item)
Lvl 16: Duelist
Lvl 17: Duelist - Seize the Moment
Lvl 18: Duelist
Lvl 19: Alchemist - Dreadful Carnage(+8 str item)
Lvl 20: Swordlord

Alchemist Spell: True Strike

Gear: Dueling Sword(Bloodhound), +Stat gear, bracers, monk robes, AC items

Borrow tartuccio’s crossbow for a bit. You will need it. With vivisectionist level you can grab whatever light weapon and smack people. Hopefully sneak dice will make up for the damage. Grab agile pick under old sycamore and then agile rapier from stag lord henchmen. If you finish the prologue in 30 days - you will get enchanted dueling sword as a reward. Otherwise buy one in your capital. Considering you go unarmored you will need someone to cast mage armor on you or the 1st portion of the game. There are potions for it(and we started with monk to get you some at the start)

some sneak damage, tolerable weapon damage, 30m mutagen, decent amount of AoO’s. Pretty low-maintenance build. Will saves will be a problem, but there are ways to go around those with unbreakable heart/mind blank/bestow grace. Wis draining stuff will be spooky, though. Will have good AC throughout the game.

Will probably want either blind immunity cloak, or echolocation from a friendly alchemist late-game. Nothing can be done about that - no spare feats left. Same can be said about persuasion foci.

great job, thanks for posting this!

You are welcome. There is more to come. Making proper sylvan sorc guide atm.

Good work, I like it.

Would you consider doing more main char builds? Are pets considered good for the whole game?

Pets are OP as hell. It is essentially an extra character on the field. Smilodon and leopard are clear winners. Smilodon is better early-game, so my personal preference goes there.

There are several MC builds already done. Sylvan sorc will come in 10 minutes or so. It is actually a pet class.

Cool guide, got tons of ideas from both.
Perhaps it was in v1 discussion, but I haven't read all. Why cleric(20)?
In my first run it was a cl/magus(cha based), and it was fun(useless, but fun, yeah) and your variant cl/sorc => theurgist seems capable for me. Fun and capable.
p.s.: I don't really enjoy a dwarf cleric, you've made a theurgist in v2 and I want to make a Tristain cleric-of-a-choice.

I made Harrim a theurge as I hate wasting all that charisma Tristian has. Harrim with his 10 Cha is literally worthless as a pure cleric, so it was a logical conclusion. 20 in cleric for Tristian as there is no 1 level dip that will give him any meaningful bonuses and lvl19 is needed for max channeling dice. might as well grab some more spells per day. Tristian works ok-ish as a theurge, but as I mentioned, I changed my position on him and concluded it is not efficient to multi-class him.

And don't think pure 20 tristian is weak somehow. Channeling is the best healing ability in the game and he does get a bit of fiery spells later on. He would be amazing if ecclesitheurge was not bugged, but is strong anyway.

Sylvan Sorcerer

Role: Control/Support/Damage Dealer

Race: Halfling
Alignment: Any

Stats*:
Str: 5
Dex: 19
Con: 15
Int: 10
Wis: 7
Cha: 19 > 24
*If you have Varn DLC. 5/18/14/12/9/19 if not.

Final Build:
Sorcerer(Silvan) 18/Alchemist(Vivisectionist) 2

Animal Companion: Leopard*
*Medium size, so won't be so annoying to deal with

Main skills: Persuasion(max)
Suggested secondary skills: Stealth

Detailed leveling breakdown:
Lvl 1: Sorcerer - Spell Focus: Conjuration, Greater Spell Focus: Conjuration
Lvl 2: Sorcerer
Lvl 3: Sorcerer - Spell Focus: Evocation
Lvl 4: Sorcerer
Lvl 5: Sorcerer - Spell Specialization
Lvl 6: Sorcerer
Lvl 7: Sorcerer - Point-Blank Shot // Precise Shot
Lvl 8: Sorcerer
Lvl 9: Sorcerer - Heighten Spell
Lvl 10: Sorcerer
Lvl 11: Sorcerer - Weapon Focus: Ray
Lvl 12: Sorcerer
Lvl 13: Sorcerer - Dazzling Display // Improved Initiative
Lvl 14: Sorcerer
Lvl 15: Sorcerer - Greater Spell Focus: Evocation
Lvl 16: Sorcerer
Lvl 17: Sorcerer - Elemental Focus: Electricity
Lvl 18: Sorcerer
Lvl 19: Alchemist - Greater Elemental Focus: Electricity
Lvl 20: Alchemist - Cognatogen

Spell Specialization:
5-8 Magic Missile
9 Stinking Cloud
10-11 Acidic Spray
12-17 Chain Lightning
16+ Stormbolts

Spells by level in order of importance:
Lvl 1: Mage Armor, Grease, Magic Missile, Reduce Person, True Strike
Lvl 2: Glitterdust, Mirror Image, Sense Vitals, Scorching Ray, Pernicious Poison
Lvl 3: Stinking Cloud, Haste, Spiked Pit, Resist Energy(Communal)
Lvl 4: Animate Dead, Greater Invisibility, Dimension Door, Protection From Energy(Communal)
Lvl 5: Acidic Spray, Cloudkill, Vinetrap*, Angelic Aspect, Echolocation
Lvl 6: Chain Lighting, Heroism(Greater)**, Chains of Light***, Dispell Magic(Greater)*
Lvl 7: Legendary Proportions, Waves of Exahaustion, Firebrand, Changestaff*
Lvl 8: Stormbolts, Mindblank, Summon Nature's Ally VIII
Lvl 9: Tsunami
*You will get this as a Bloodline spell, don’t have to pick it.
**Or sirocco/hellfire ray if you don't have too many phys attackers, so your bard can cover.
***Can be skipped too. Will targeting spells are not the most important.

Alchemist Spells: True Strike

Gear: +Cha Helmet, +Stat items, Ring of Circumstances(Cha, Dex, DC, Skills), Amulet of dying wisdom, Rod Of Flaming Vengeance, Grandmaster Rod, Quicken Rod, other rods.

Your controller with some damage attached for late-game. Has a pet to carry his stuff.

Can be human to fit in Skill focus: Persuaion at the cost of effectively 2 AB.

Dazzling is taken so he doesn't just stand there after initial control spells are fired. It's useful, especially with maxed out charisma

Animate dead and bloodline spells will do fine as fodder summons.

40 Cha endgame + 2 fom bokken elixir = 42Cha, 10+9+16+2+1 = 38 Conjuration DC 10+9+16+2+(2)+1=38/40 Evocation DC before rods.

Has CC effects for every save, Attack the lowest. Pit/grease/vinetrap for reflex, Stinking Cloud for Fortitude, Chains of Light for Will.

Heighten all your CC spells. And damage spells too if you need something on the level.

Delay Poison Communal from a friendly cleric or alchemist will go a long way. Easiest CC combo in the game as it forces loads of saves.

Didn't miss it. It is just not an important spell. Same as some others. There is no contention for web as a 2nd level control spell. You can use it in a pinch same as slumber, but it is not a core spell.

Thank you for response. I'm not for a power-build, like, you know, ones from NWN2 with all dips available.

Is Tristian good as theurge on high levels(max level I got is 10 before restart), or it shouldn't be used at all?
p.s.: I'm playing for fun and trying to build team for fun, not to get maximum power from every char.
E.g. my Olivia is classic wizard/rogue, and I know it's almost useless.

theurge is better with levels. really though it is a gimmick. especially on main as you can't park that in town till it's usable at lvl10-ish. tristian as theurge should go into evocation and fire. It will be fine on challenging and below. on hard and up it might be suffer.

and about Octavia, it's not like she can't be a rogue/wizard. problem is her AI is dead set on spamming acid splash and it gets old to click on enemies so she'd use bow. wiz4/r2/AT4/EK10 with a bow would work fine if it wasn't for that fact. her AI is the main reason I abandoned hope on bow with her.

Mad Doge
(Ha! Get it? Love me some terrible puns)

Role: 2nd row Damage Dealer with a twist

Race: Human
Alignment: any Chaotic

Stats*:
Str: 19 > 24
Dex: 14
Con: 14
Int: 12
Wis: 8
Cha: 12

Final Build:
Barbarian(Mad Dog) 14/Inquisitor(Sacred Huntsmaster) 3/Fighter(Two-Handed) 3

Animal Companion: Leopard/Dog/Wolf
Deity: Cayden Cailean
Domain: Travel

Main skills: Perception, Persuasion
Suggested secondary skills: Trickery, +anything your party lacks. Can be your Athletics character.

Detailed leveling breakdown:
Lvl 1: Barbarian - Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Bastard Sword // Weapon Focus: Bastard Sword
Lvl 2: Barbarian
Lvl 3: Barbarian - Dazzling Display
Lvl 4: Barbarian - Reckless Stance
Lvl 5: Barbarian - Combat Reflexes
Lvl 6: Inquisitor
Lvl 7: Inquisitor - Outflank
Lvl 8: Inquisitor - Seize the Moment
Lvl 9: Barbarian - Shatter Defenses
Lvl 10: Barbarian
Lvl 11: Barbarian - Power Attack // Damage Reduction
Lvl 12: Barbarian
Lvl 13: Barbarian - Dreadful Carnage
Lvl 14: Barbarian
Lvl 15: Barbarian - Intimidating Prowess // Damage Reduction
Lvl 16: Barbarian
Lvl 17: Barbarian - Improved Critical: Bastard Sword
Lvl 18: Fighter - Cleave
Lvl 19: Fighter - Extra Rage Power: Damage Reduction // Cleaving Finish
Lvl 20: Fighter

Inquisitor Spells*: Remove Fear, Divine Favor, True strike
Will need +wis item to cast those. It’s not a big deal if you won’t.

Gear: Galive early on, then best 2h weapon you can get, 2h Bastard Sword when you get it. +Stat Items, Inner Demon Rings, Opportunist’s Boots

This is what Amiri always wanted to be. Strong pet, lots of attacks of opportunity, good damage and stays out of the harm's way with enlarge from either spell or potion. Will need +wis item to cast inquisitor spells.

Attack of Opportunity triggers:
You crit - your pet hits
Your pet crits - you hit
Your pet trips - you hit
Any of your allies in reach crit - you and your pet hit
Tripped enemies get up - everyone in range hits
Summons crit - you hit.

40 speed in medium armor

Good AB boost between reckless stance and barbarian rage. x1.5 str as damage bonus. Attacks of opportunity count as single attacks for Overhand Chop if you ever get to lvl 20. Your pet has Outflank for your melee team-mates.

Has some DR so won’t drop dead unless focused.

Turn off power attack for your pet. It won’t have enough AB to use it.
For you - either check AC of your enemies to decide or turn it off forever as well.

Just like every pet user ever loves himself at least an alchemist to buff AC of his doggo.

Use glaive till enlarge person spell from someone in your team is long enough to not be annoying. Or when you get some nice two-hander you want to use. When you get one amazing two-handed bastard sword from killing another barbarian in story mission - switch to that.

Alternatively, you can go for Fauchards. There are some nice ones in 2nd half of the game. I picked Bastard Swords just to spite Amiri in her uselessness(comparatively). Falcions are nice too.

Can be done as literally any race that has Str boost. Go for Falcions for those(skip exotic weapon).
Good fit for a merc as well. 19/14/14/10/11/7 and no Persuasion for those.