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What's the point of single class characters if you can multiclass most of the classes and basically combine their benefits? I know they take longer to advance but in the long rrun it's just a minor inconvenience. Are there any multiclassing drawbacks I don't know about? How for example 30 mage is better than 30 mage / 30 fighter? Why not make an unstoppable party full of fighter/mage/clerics?
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Arthandas: What's the point of single class characters if you can multiclass most of the classes and basically combine their benefits? I know they take longer to advance but in the long rrun it's just a minor inconvenience. Are there any multiclassing drawbacks I don't know about? How for example 30 mage is better than 30 mage / 30 fighter? Why not make an unstoppable party full of fighter/mage/clerics?
Well, most of the game isn't played in the 'long run'. What I mean is that yeah, multiclassed characters will level slower due to having to split XPs and much of the game is played with that handicap, so it's not all beneficial. As well, certain races are restricted in the classes they can be multiclassed in, which may not be what you want for your party.

Another drawback is that certain classes can't be part of a multiclass combo (such as Bard or Paladin), which also may not be what you want for your party.
I tried an all multi-class party once--get used to visiting the temples a lot for resurrections early on. The flexibility was nice (F/M low on HP? Move 'em back and start slinging spells instead) and it gets better mid- and late-game, but I never really thought it made too much of a difference in the overall difficulty.
Post edited July 28, 2013 by pcamagna
Depends what difficulty you are talking about as well. The main game has nowhere near enough XP to get single-classed characters to level 30 in a 6-member party on core rules, never mind multiclassed to 30/30.
In HoF, single class characters have an exp cap of 8 mln but for some stupid reason, dual and multi classers have much higher caps, like insane 22,5 mln for triple class characters. This isn't maybe a big issue if you plan on doing only a single playthrough but with each subsequent game the gap between single and multi class chars is going to get wider and wider. While single class chars will hit the cap, multi classers will keep getting stronger and stronger.

I think there should be a hard 8 mln exp cap for all characters no matter their class.
Besides the higher roleplaying value of experiencing the pure classes with their strengths and weaknesses (the game is balanced for this) you actually make your party weaker by multiclassing (exception: thief) since you loose high level casting options.
6 characters can fight and it won't make a difference if one fights a little better but if your main casters of the different schools advance more slowly your party has less options.

Even if you play normal mode with a party of 6 and continue through HoF mode afterwards your characters will only have about 12,000,000 XP at the end of HoF mode, not enough for triple class characters to max out even in one class.
Pure casts get more spells and spells cast by a level 30 mage do more damage and last longer than spells casts by a mage20 tripleclas and the gap is even bigger during the game than at the end.
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kmonster: Besides the higher roleplaying value of experiencing the pure classes with their strengths and weaknesses (the game is balanced for this) you actually make your party weaker by multiclassing (exception: thief) since you loose high level casting options.
There is no roleplaying in IWD and you don't lose high level casting options. The game is also not balanced specifically for single class characters because it faithfully follows 2nd Ad&D rules.
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kmonster: Even if you play normal mode with a party of 6 and continue through HoF mode afterwards your characters will only have about 12,000,000 XP at the end of HoF mode, not enough for triple class characters to max out even in one class.
But enough for most double multiclasses which further proves my point.
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kmonster: Pure casts get more spells and spells cast by a level 30 mage do more damage and last longer than spells casts by a mage20 tripleclas and the gap is even bigger during the game than at the end.
Yeah but 30 mage would be obliterated by 20 triple class who has only slightly weaker spells but about 50% more hp and cleric spells.

Also, stop saying that multiclassers advance slower because they don't. Their advance is slower only if you look at a single class and forget they have 1/2 more. When your single class fighter gets 10000xp, your multiclasser gets the same amount, it's just distributed differently.
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Arthandas: Also, stop saying that multiclassers advance slower because they don't. Their advance is slower only if you look at a single class and forget they have 1/2 more. When your single class fighter gets 10000xp, your multiclasser gets the same amount, it's just distributed differently.
And therefore the individual classes advance slower. So at the point where the single class character is level 6, for example, the multiclassed characters classes will be of lower level. That's what kmonster means. That may or may not have a bearing on how well a particular character can deal with an encounter. But if you're looking for spell power, the multiclasser won't have the same spells available as a pure classed character at the same point in the game.
Yes, second-edition multi-class characters are generally overpowered. They'll generally be only a level behind in progression, but with all the benefits of two classes. That doesn't make single-classed characters useless, and there's definitely a place for pure characters to shine (particularly when it comes to HP totals), but multi-class characters will steal the spotlight more often than not.

Fighter/Mage and Fighter/Thief are quite possibly the most egregious examples, since they lose practically nothing and gain substatial benefits. I addition, these classes offer a tremendous synergy to each other and the combination of the skill sets is invaluable. Getting mirror image on a fighter isn't normally possible, but it's a standard tool for a fighter/mage.
Post edited July 30, 2013 by Darvin
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Arthandas: There is no roleplaying in IWD and you don't lose high level casting options. The game is also not balanced specifically for single class characters because it faithfully follows 2nd Ad&D rules.
IWD is a rpg and there and there is of course a lot of roleplaying for you to have if you're interested. I replayed with a party consisting only of pregenerated characters (there's no pregenerated multiclass for using at the start of the game) and it felt different.
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Arthandas: But enough for most double multiclasses which further proves my point.
If your point was "multiclassing is more powerful than single class for some classes if you cheat up your XP so you always play with the amount you would have after playing your characters through both normal and HoF mode" then yes.
But I don't think this was your point.
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Arthandas: Yeah but 30 mage would be obliterated by 20 triple class who has only slightly weaker spells but about 50% more hp and cleric spells.
Maybe in a solo game but not in a party with different roles.
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Arthandas: Also, stop saying that multiclassers advance slower because they don't. Their advance is slower only if you look at a single class and forget they have 1/2 more. When your single class fighter gets 10000xp, your multiclasser gets the same amount, it's just distributed differently.
Sorry, I didn't know about this fetish of yours to press artificial misunderstandings into words where it's obvious how they are meant and get hurt.
@Darvin
Since most multiclass a fighter, the hp totals are also pretty high. Why would you roll a thief if you can have a fighter/thief who is basically a thief with fighter's thaco and 8 instead of 6 hp/lv. The same is for a mage who get a lot more hp and is no longer an easy target, especially for HoW enemies who like to go for the mages.

Basically just pick a class you want to play and multiclass it with a fighter and you'll always get a more powerful character. He won't get maxed during your first playthrough but it doesn't really matter. Normal game is just a warmup before HoF.

That's why there should be a hard exp cap for all classes. Singleclassing would be the only option to max out your class and multiclassers would become jack of all trades but masters of none, like it's intended to be. I must check if the caps are hardcoded or can be easily altered in some txt file like in Arcanum.

@kmonster
You clearly don't know what you're talking about. Learn more about the second edition before posting here, k?
Post edited July 31, 2013 by Arthandas
kmonster doesn't know what he's talking about? Yeah, that rich :D

Not everyone plays for Heart of Fury mode, I'd say relatively few do, so to base all these discussions on the premise that you have to be e.g. level 30/30 for the end of HoF is silly I think. That's not where most of the gameplay will be, especially for people who just want to experience the main game and expansions on core rules. Then you're looking at about 2.5m XP per person in a 6-member party, which is what the average user will go with. Multiclass a mage to figher/mage and he'll have worse spells than a pure mage at the same point in the game. Hence, underpowered spellwise. Obviously there are advantages in terms of more HP and fighting capabilities, but what I'm looking for in a mage is high-level spells. Then again, I mostly prefer to use pure classes for roleplaying purposes, so I can have a group of members with certain tasks. Playing with 6 bland powerhouses isn't really that much fun.

Agree they should have gone with a XP cap instead of level cap though, then we could have avoided this drive towards multiclasses as well for the people who want to play the same characters through the game 3 times or whatever.
I like that they didn't add an XPCap as artificial restriction on top of the level cap. If you play the game normally as intended it wouldn't affect you and if you want to do crazy stuff like soloing a character through HoF mode it's more fun if you don't have artificial restrictions.
Modifying the exp cap was easier than I though. All you need to do is download the file from the link and extract it. Now open it in the notepad and change all -1 values to 8000000 (or basically any value you want). Now copy it to your "override" folder in the installation directory. It won't overwrite any of the game files. It will set the exp cap of 8 mln to ALL classes (though I didn't test it with human dual classing).

The file: http://www.sorcerers.net/Games/dl.php?s=IWD&f=IWD/IWD_XPCAP.zip

The default 8 mln cap will for example let the character reach fighter 24/ mage 20 or fighter 18/mage 17/cleric 19.
Post edited August 01, 2013 by Arthandas