I've got an elf FMT with maxed powergaming stats, taken from BG1. Can she act as a decent tank, or am I in trouble if I stick her in that role?

TIA

Yes, an FMT makes a good tank -- especially with the XP cap removed. Mirror image, stoneskin, protection from magic weapons, etc. give the FMT a great defensive edge in melee. Your hit points are a lot lower than a normal fighter's, but it doesn't really matter since your spells should keep you from taking any significant melee damage. At high levels, (greater whirlwind and assassinate are nice additions to the FMT's offensive arsenal.

But one of the best tricks for the FMT is the mislead + invisibility on mislead image + backstab until the cows come home. Coupled with greater whirlwind, you can drop nearly anything in a single round, assuming its vulnerable to backstab. Fighting a spell caster? No problem -- spell immunity to divination and abjuration will keep your mislead image hidden.

By the way -- I love your tag line! ;)

Friggin' dwarves.

Same question with FMC?

FMC does not offer much cheese like FMT. Heed Bombur's advice, you can do thousands of damage within a round via backstabbing with GWW when misled. It boggles the mind. :eek:

FMC does not have such powerful combos and can not use bladed weapons, which greatly reduces its offensive abilities.

But as tank, any mage combination will be very useful. I dare say mages are better tanks than most fighter oriented builds. With pysichal defenses such as stoneskin, mirror image, protection from various things spells and spell protections like spell shield, spell turning, spell immunity etc, add the best saving throw vs spells (which is the 75% of all saves your characters are forced to make), mages with right spells are extremely durable and tough:the low HP does not matter when you take 0 damage anyway. :)

The major advantage with a FMC is that you can effectively become completely invulrneable through assorted buffs. It takes more work, but as overpowered combos go, it is right up there with a ranger/cleric.

Has anyone tried the GWW +Mislead thing in practice? I tried it with either haste or improved haste once and I found that after hitting the enemy I became partially visible for a bit before the image turned me back to invisible. In the visible period I often got a hit in, and I don't think the backstab damage applied in this time (my memory might be a tad rusty though).

The major advantage with a FMC is that you can effectively become completely invulrneable through assorted buffs. It takes more work, but as overpowered combos go, it is right up there with a ranger/cleric. Thanks, I might consider that build for the next run

This is the build I'm playing now, and even without maxed stats it's a good one. This class is really hard to play well in BG1 without cheats, but in BG2, the backstabbity + stoneskin/mirror image is an instant win. Also you can hide rather than make yourself invisible - hiding can't be dispelled. Or you can use improved invisibility + spell immunity to divination, and just stay invisible while you backstab everything. It's a nice class if you can put up with slow development. :)

Hiding can be detected by thieves, has a chance of failure and gets dispelled as soon as you attack. Also you cannot hide in shadows whilst in view of the enemy.
With improved invisibility, you become partially visible straight after an attack and cannot backstab. The improved invisibility + spell immunity:divination is only useful to prevent mages from targeting you (you cant target only partially visible creatures) and prevent them from dispelling the improved invis (by being immune to most forms of dispelling spell). True sight and dispell magic will still cut through though.

I didn't realize that hiding could be detected by thieves (though I guess that would explain a lot. Wait a second, beholders aren't thieves! Hmm... XD) Thanks for the heads up!

[ October 11, 2007, 22:01: Message edited by: Enkida ]

Some powerful enemies can also see through both invisibility and the thieves hiding ability - some beholders fall into this category.