I really liked my F/M/T in BG I and II, does it work at all in NWN? or is it not an effective class in NWN's version of 3E? I like being able to do everything with one character.

http://nwn.bioware.com/underdark/character_builds.html

I've never tried it (because I'm not a caster type at all)...but The Versatile Kensai (http://nwn.bioware.com/underdark/character_versatilekensai.html) looks promising with Wizard/Rogue/Weaponmaster build.

Depends what you want to achieve. If you have 30 levels to divide between 3 classes and take 10 levels of Fighter, 10 of Rogue and 10 of Wizard, it won't be so great. But you can always combine smaller numbers of levels in side classes with a high level main class. That could be, let's says, 4 levels in Fighter, 3-5 in Rogue and the rest in Wizard. With a wizard's INT score, you should have enough skill points for the skills you need and those four levels in the Fighter class will give you some martial grounding. I suggest the Dexterity route, which means Weapon Finesse with a rapier (don't forget Improved Criticals) and maybe some dual wielding. Perhaps archery feats if you feel like it. The problem with small levels is that they delay epic features in your chosen class and then you hit the XP cap.

If you like spellsword characters, perhaps IWD2 would be the game for you.

In nwn i wouldn't go anywhere near something like a F/M/T both fighter and espacially mage are classes that really only get strong as single classes or combined with epci classes.

A Char with lvl is in fighter and mage and rogue will have to few spells and to few higher lvl abilities to make it worth it.

Thanks, the versatile Kensai looks good.

The versatile kensai is quite fun to play - but don't bother with Self-Concealment. It's utterly pointless for a character who can cast Improved Invisibility, IMO.

A F/M/T could work well in NWN, but you'd have to plan really well. Ask yourself what you want this character to do? With the limited amount of feats and skills and abililty points, you'll have to focus on doing a few things well or risk being mediocre at everything.

So for example, you could take some select combat feats while leveling as a fighter (dual wield? improved knockdown?), take just enough wizard levels to get a few good buff spells to make you more effective in combat, and finally take an odd number or rogue levels (perhaps only 3 or 5) for sneak attacks. Those sneak attacks will work on opponents who are blinded (from your mage spells) or knocked down (by Improved Knockdown which you could take as a bonus fighter feat).

Don't forget that there are wizard spells like Knock and Find Traps (which not only finds traps but disarms them as well and it's area effect!) so why should a F/M/T bother with putting points into Open Locks and Disarm Traps?

Well, since you'll likely have decent intelligence and dexterity scores and loads of skill points from the rogue levels you might as well stick a few points into open locks, search and disable traps. With NWN's liberal application of the take 20 rule a smart, nimble character with only a few points in these skills can deal with the vast majority of locks and traps found in the early to mid game. This frees up your initially sparse spell slots for something more fun and useful than knock/find traps. Combined with lockpicks, fox's cunning/cat's grace, evasion and (as a final safeguard) elemental protection spells, harder traps and locks should be doable as well. Doesnt have to be many points, but you'll be glad you did it. Skills are as much the rogue's thing as sneak attacking, so take advantage of it.

As for levelling, I'd recommend doing as Chevalier has already recommended, making wizard the primary class, taking perhaps 4 in fighter, 5 in rogue and the rest in wizard. If you take elf you'll get a nice boost to dexterity, your search skill will be always on with no speed reduction and it'll be all reminiscent of your 2nd Ed FMT days :)

If you're dead set on the weapon master levels, I'd recommend a slightly different approach. The problem with those bioware character builds is that they're geared towards level 40 with relatively little regard to how you get there, if indeed you ever do. I'd go halfling or gnome with a dagger or short sword (kukri would be nice, but needs an extra feat which you really cant afford), take 5-7 wizard levels and the rest as rogue until you have the feats for weapon master. Your rogue/wizard will be just fine as he is for that long and the weapon master levels will provide a hefty combat boost just when it is most needed; Hordes of the Underdark and any modules you play beyond that. Human is an alternative if you want those WM levels earlier as you get a bonus feat, but I consider them to be gravy anyway, and would rather have the racial abilities of the halfling or gnome. Plus I like the short folk.

F/M mostly rock, but only at lvl40. F/M/T also rock, but even more so at lvl40 and need more management by half.

Versatile Kensai is a perfect example of F/M/T. It is optimized (except for self-concealment, wizard20 doesnt need it). Optimized for NwN rules, that is. Since maximum level allowed is 40, it's natural it's at it's full strenght then. Of course, unless you really enjoy setting yourself challenges, you'll want to make some compromises along the way. If you do enjoy challenges, then what are you doing, playing a character that will eventualy be too powerful for any reasonable challenge anyway? ;)

The most noticable drawback of compromising is BAB. If you're not careful, you might end up with 12 or so BAB, and that really hurts a sneak attacker. With wizard levels, you're aiming to create suitable circumstances for your sneak attack to kick in. Damage spells are those without saving throw, and they're not enough, at those levels. But when you have 12BAB at clvl20, you'll have a really tough time hitting anything. That's why classes with as high BAB as possible are all stuffed into pre-epic. Kensai does it as perfect at possible.

You might also want to check Magical Marauder, which is a F/M, and a very decent one at that. In Feat department, this one is quite the opposite of Kensai, having an absolute ton of feats from fighter8/CoT10 levels. Characters such as he are the elite, having combat abilities almost on par with full time warriors, and still developing strong magics. Pre-epic such characters are clerics.

FMT won't work as well in NWN as it did in the BG games because the NWN multiclassing system is much more fair. A BG FMT thief ends up with loads of levels overall because each class's low levels are worth the same amount of XP.

In NWN, it is your overall level that determines the XP required to level up so you can't easily stack your character with loads of low levels from different classes.

If you did want to make a useful FMT, I would recommend taking only 3 rogue levels at your 1st, 10th, and 20th levels. This way, you can save up skill points to each other level-up (because Fighters and Wizards don't need many skills) and put these into Rogue skills and end up with the same level of Rogue skills as a pure Rogue.

Rogue skills arent that important anymore either, OC most of all. Chests you can bludgeon through with any minor elemental damage or power attack. Though, with the ridiculous number of locked chests in all sorts of places in OC, you'll spend more time practising your swinging at them than creeps.
Traps, there's a handy summon monster spell that can be cast on the other side of it. Most of the time, simply blundering through is still the best way.

A rogue henchman or familiar can help your sanity in the OC by disarming traps and opening locks in the background so you don't have to deal with it CONTINUALLY.

Ehh, but that means Tomi. I like him n'all, but after hearing "Okey dokey ... *click* Aye, it's done." For the 5000th time I'm ready to thrust my fist through the monitor. The spangly pixie isnt much more bearable and Sharwyn can only do the easiest locks and no traps. Still, suppose it is handy to have around.

If Im not a rogue myself I usually have a character who does decent melee damage and owns an elemental weapon. One question, though; does smashing chests reduce the amount of treasure recieved?

Well, apparently, there are some chests that are set to have a different treasure on “Chest Opened” vs “Chest Destroyed” but I can’t remember which is supposed to be better and in which chests they have bothered to go to this effort. There is even a bug where you can get both (if you can time it so you open the chest and take the item just as it is being destroyed by someone else).

Because Tomi is an idiot and the Pixie is silly, that is why I usually go for the two levels of rogue in almost all my builds because that is enough to be able to handle every lock and trap that I have ever encountered in the game. It’s just a little time-consuming that there are so many.

I don’t like smashing doors because I so often need to be able to hide behind them to rest etc.

I just started this game, and am running a F/T (keeping the levels pretty even and enjoying it). I've decided to role play my guy as a sneaky trap specialist, so I recover all of the traps and use them on enemies. I literally trap every door and draw whatever is there, out into my minefield. Yes, it's slow, but I'm trying to RP this for my first time through.

Thus, the multitude of traps is quite a blessing, as they give me the ammo I need for every encounter. I just wiped out all of the creator race sorcerors with arrows and traps at the bottom of those troll caves. I also wiped out Brother whatever his name is in the graveyard with the same tactics.

Needless to say, my one ShadowDancer level aids in this immeasurably. Given that the hide in plain sight is clearly not cheese, as it is the first ability given, I make liberal use of it for everything.

Because of these abilities, I decided not to bother with the wizard levels I had originally contemplated. My relatively high starting intelligence of 14 isn't wasted though, as I need all of those skill points to boost my traps to keep in character. (Worst stat is an 8 in CHA - yeah, I'll probably powergame with min/maxing next time, but this is fun.)

Can a character with one wizard level cast higher level spells from scrolls? Are there enough scrolls to be found/purchased in the game to make that at all worth while.

On another thread I saw somebody mention a barbarian 1/rogue x. Does anyone have experience with that?

How about a barbarian 1/ ranger 1/ rogue x? Would it be good at all in NWN?

From my experience, one level of Wizard allows you to cast any spell from a scroll, and there are tons of scrolls to be found. So many in fact that I end up selling tons of them even though I have a bag or two full of them, and they stack (up to 9 IIRC).

If I go with a rogue/ranger/wizard, with most of the levels in rogue and wizard just for some buffs and ranger for a little bab, dual wield, and shield, will the rogue levels give me enough fighting power? I've seen one comment that rogues can handle things alright on their own, and others warning me about low bab with this build. How do single class rogues fare as far as bab?

rouges get about .75 points of BAB per level rounded down to the nearest whole number. At lv 1 you have bab of +0. At lv 4 you have +3. At level 20 you end up with bab of 15. If you want to max potential in your character fighting ability then you need at least a bab of 16 or more so you can get 4 attacks per round (most attacks by BAB not counting monks). one easy way to do this is to go 16 levels of rouge and 4 levels of warrior like class that gets 1 BAB point per level. Classes such as fighter, barb, ranger, paladin, plus some prestige classes have this bab. my personal fave is a good prestige class with fighter levels after level 20 if you have HotU.