I'm a few hours into the game now, playing as a fighter. I read some discussion on Reddit about how playing a fighter is not recommended, and that there's really not a lot of fancy weapons and armor in the game. Mage on the other hand.. has all kinds of great spells and shiny spell effects. It was definitely recommended, and is supposed to be the most fun way to play the game.

Currently, I'm at level 4 (5 actually, awaiting response here to find out if distributing further points in intelligence is worth it), and intelligence is at 10 (boosted to 11 with tattoo, does it count?). What level of intelligence do I need to go fighter/mage multiclass? Do I gain a new character point for each level? Alternatively, is it too late? Should I just give my scrolls to Dak'Kon?

First of all, just to make this clear, you can't multiclass like Dak'kon does. You dual-class, that is, completely switch over to the mage class, losing your fighter skills in the process (including the base to-hit ability, and use of weapons other than the edged type ones).

You do get character points every level, but not for levels that you "repeat" in another class. Class levels are independent, and you start over when you switch, so you temporarely stop gaining points until your level in your current class goes above your level in your previous/other class(es). In your case, since you're a level 5 fighter, you'll have to reach level 6 as a mage to start getting character points again. But note that the first time you switch to a class, you automatically gain enough experience to immediately reach level 3 in it, just like you started as a level 3 fighter.

(In case it's not clear: class change isn't permanent. You have to train to be a mage - or a thief - to be able to be that class, but you can choose to go back to the fighter class, then switch to mage again, etc. No limits, it's just a matter of finding a trainer. If you're willing to waste experience points.)

Making the most of the mage class includes getting double-specialized in it, because it'll get you some nice bonuses later. Class specialization bonus is given at levels 7 and 12 for the class that reaches them first; double-specializing means getting both for the same class, so training to be a mage before reaching level 7 as a fighter is recommended.

Your Intelligence is unfortunately quite low - not just for a mage, but for getting a lot of dialogue options (which is more or less the entire point of being a mage, because this class relies on Intelligence and not on Strength or Dexterity, neither of which affects conversations outside of rare occasions where you, say, catch a pickpocket via dialogue). You can get more from tattoos once you switch, though, I think there's a +2 one a mage can wear. Overall, Intelligence has less effect on dialogue than Wisdom, but it is quite useful.

Also note that a mage with 19 Intelligence can learn unlimited number of spells, and the highest Intelligence check in conversations is 21. So even with specialization bonuses and tattoos you should aim for natural Intelligence of above 13, and if you ever play again, I suggest starting with 15-16 so you can get more dialogue options early on (nothing too important, but it's an interesting effect). It's not like you'll need a lot of points in your physical stats, with innate health regeneration and mage shield spells and bracelets.

Finally - Dak'kon is not a very efficient spellcaster. His build is that of a melee fighter who relies on spells for support, with 13 Intelligence he can't learn as many spells as a dedicated mage can, and his tattoo slots are better suited for boosting his Strength for more damage. His Circle of Zerthimon spells are quite enough for him (and you can learn some yourself once you're a mage, but you'll need high Intelligence and Wisdom to finish the Circle. Totally worth it, by the way.)

I highly recommend starting over with stats to play a mage. INT and WIS high and charisma with the rest of the points.

Then bee-line to mebbeth once you're out of the mortuary to get the class-switch ASAP.

It isn't very temping to start over. I have put a few hours into the playthrough already, and I'm a impatient man :/ I will certainly play through it again if I enjoy the game though. I've finished Baldur's Gate hundreds of times :) I did max out WIS when I started though, as I heard that gives the most XP. Is the mage-project a lost cause? It does seem doable to put points into intelligence each time I level up, until I reach a half-decent level of it.

Also, multiclass.. dualclass? That's slightly confusing. So I have to switch completely over to mage.. while being a crippled fighter? In the other Infinity-games, mages can only use daggers and such. Ouch.. Is this a good idea if I don't have maxed out INT?

When in doubt, level-grind.

The dual-class/multi-class thing in AD&D 2e actually has to do with race. Dual-classing is exclusive to humans (which TNO is still considered to be, despite being an immortal abomination), and lets you completely switch over to another class. So, you stop being a fighter and become a mage, trading weapon usage for spells. The class trainers in-game explain how this works quite nicely: you give up your previous profession to focus on your new one. Multi-classing would be splitting experience between two classes and possessing the skills of both.

Since you'll have to rely on spells, the best use of the weapon slots are daggers that give some manner of bonuses to stats or spell slots. Don't worry - combat in this game isn't very tricky, and if your companions are properly equipped and have supplies of healing charms, you should be able to survive long enough to boost your intelligence to a decent level.

If you decide to remain a fighter, you'll have to maintain both Intelligence (for dialogue) and physical stats (for close combat), and since you're already putting points into Wisdom, this will require a lot of levels. Plus, not being a mage means you don't get an easy charisma boost from the Friends spell.

Forget about the discussion you read, most fun is playing your own game, not about squeezing an extra 0.0001 percent out of the game in combination with walkthrough hugging. Just play the game and make the decisions as you would as the main character, don't make a beeline for spoiled stuff you don't need and might even prove inferior in the end.


If you're obsessed with following the spoilers and play a mage:


You can play a mage with 9 int without much trouble, scribing scrolls never fails and you can raise int temporarily as high as you want by using Cranium Rat Charms which can be bought at unlimited numbers. The spells you can cast with 9 int and their efficiency are the same as with 25 int.
If you play the mage way and put more than 3 bonus points (at creation or from level ups) into int you're wasting points.
More important is wisdom (for luck, dialogue, XP), if it's still below 16 don't waste points for another stat, most even raise it to 19 before putting points into other stats.
If you want to rely mainly on spellcasting make sure that the first class which reaches level 7 is mage to get the specialization bonuses.

I always play fighter for first playthroughs, but I don't think this is the first time I've seen fighter not being recommended. One of the fun things about fighters is finding new gear and always improving, but it seems this game is lacking in that aspect. From what I read, there is no armor, and not a lot of weapons. Just pick up a axe at the marketplace in the beginning and use that throughout the game. No finding a epic firesword in a dungeon or anything like that :/ That was disappointing to hear, which is mostly why I'm reconsidering the choice of fighter.

While I've never played mages as the player character (or other classes) on first playthroughs, I have enjoyed playing mage companions, and doing a fighter/mage solo playthrough of BG was a ton of fun, especially as I got access to the higher level spells. The last showdown in ToB was amazing.. entire portrait covered in buff-icons, fireballs, dark planetars.. :P Apparently the spells of Planescape are really fun,

There are some interesting weapons in the game, they're just few and far between, and even if you play a mage you can just switch back to the fighter class temporarely if you really want to see what they do. That's kind of the problem: because you aren't stuck in one class either way, there's nothing really wrong with building a jack-of-all-trades type of character, including, potentially, a fighter with high Intelligence and Charisma who talks his way out of trouble and has a supply of spells just in case he starts finding weapons boring, or a mage who regularly switches to the thief class to steal some money.

Not that you would know this without spoilers, since the game itself doesn't even make it clear you can be a class other than fighter... Of course, people are always going to recommend playing in whatever way you want (and then immediately suggest distributing points a certain way anyway so you don't "waste" them ^_^), but, honestly, when you're forced to create a character with a particular trait and then allowed to wander around for hours without realizing that trait can be changed fairly quickly, it's... not very good game design. And then there's Wisdom, which is normally only useful for a class you can't be, even if you know you don't have to remain a fighter.

Spells are fun, but they have their own problems. Namely, that even with maxed out Wisdom you're unlikely to reach a high enough level to cast the really cool ones (although those are mostly less efficient than the good ol' Magic Missile, due to their slow speed and the general lack of tough enemies worth casting them).

Your weapons will improve during the game, your tattoos will improve, you'll get more attacks and do more damage as you level up, you'll get more HP and regenerate faster when you increase your constitution ..., you'll definitely be far more powerful at the end than at the beginning as fighter.