I've been looking at starting a new character that I've never tried. Most of the characters I use are the same that everybody seems to like. So has anybody ever used characters like Avenger, Priests of ****, Beastmaster, etc. The ones I never hear anybody *ever* mention.

Well, I've never used an Avenger, but I have heard positive things from people who have. As for Priests, thetruth soloed a Priest of Lathander through Tactics & Ascension. Beastmaster I think is just for difficulty (of course, I do plan on soloing one through the vanilla game when I'm in the mood someday).

An Undead Hunter might be a nice change of pace, though ultimately still inferior to an Inquisitor or perhaps even the Cavalier. Trying out the various mage specialists can give you a new appreciation for odd spells that you might not otherwise have tried. The Totemic Druid is also underused (though there is a mod to change Cernd into one), despite the power of its summons. And almost nobody ever bothers with the awesome Skald or the quite enjoyable Jester because the Improved Bard Song HLA is the same for everyone (BS, if you ask me). I'd also submit that people rarely play a Priest of Talos because when they aren't usually being good, they've got Viccy for an evil priest.

yeh undead hunter are quite good esp for their immune to vampire level drain

Is this for party play or solo? If its for a party game...it doesn't really matter what your PC's class is...so you could just play whatever you wanted to and it wouldn't affect your game...well, apart from your PC potentially doing all the work and your party twiddling their thumbs or vice versa... :D

IMO Undead Hunters are great they don't have the limitations the other Paladin kits have.
Inquisitors can dispel magic and cast true sight but they can't turn undead or cast spells, Cavaliers can't use missile weapons which is annoying although the resistances and bonuses to hit and damage to Demonic and Draconic creatures are nice, these two kits have some natural immunities which can be handy but with the right items it is not such a major difference.
The Undead Hunter has a hefty bonus against undead creatures (and there is quite a few of them in the game) immunity to hold (so-so) and as Elfen Lied mentioned they are immune to level drain (without the proper spells or items, level draining is the most annoying thing that can affect a character and Undead Hunters are immune to this right from the start).
I'm not saying that Undead Hunters are "better" I just state why it is my favourite Paladin kit (besides Keldorn is already an Inquisitor so why have another in the party).

The Beastmaster is not useless especially if you dual into Cleric (it is the only Ranger kit that can do so). The main advantage would be to get a familiar... and cast both clerical and druidic spells (like the famed Ranger/Cleric MC).

Priests kits are powerful, perhaps the reason why they are not played that much is because most people find it difficult to picture the PC as one. I prefer to play a generic Cleric (starting with another class and dualling later) and assume that her/his clerical power is in fact a result of the character channeling her/his divine heritage.

@rich0203: you can find a lot of mods which bring new kits into the game and some are really fun to play.

Check these old threads:
http://www.sorcerers.net/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?/topic/10/4801.html
http://www.sorcerers.net/ubb/ultimatebb.php?/topic/10/4768.html#000000

[ May 28, 2006, 11:51: Message edited by: Caradhras ]

Priest of Lathander is okay. Totemic druid is the best druid kit imo, just for the spirit snake summons. :D I prefer the Undead Hunter to the other pallys because I find more undead in the game. Beastmaster is meh, better if dualled to a cleric, iirc, he can use all the clerical weapons (sorta lifting the ban on no metal weapons). I like Jester bard than the others because his lore and pickpocket skills aren't nerfed to balance.

Thanks for all the input. I've actually messed around for about 2 levels with a created party(avenger, priest of talos, shapeshifter, beastmaster, wizard slayer, skald). The priest seemed to be a normal cleric with a lightning bolt, so nothing special. The avenger was pretty cool and I may use later. The wizard spells it got were pretty cool. I was not impressed with the wizard slayer or beastmaster at all. The skald had potential but not my kind of kit. I am going to play a group game with 3 people, so 4 characters(no NPC). I decided to try the shapeshifter.

Try duel classing a Preist of Talos to a Mage. This was a fun Character and waay back when I had ToB installed he was quite the powerhouse. Also
try Undead Hunter this kit rocks. I am in the process of making a duel class Priest of Lathander
dueled to a Ranger. Any Druid Class is fun until you hit the Exp. cap. The avenger is a spell casting, shape chaning devil, I loved playing that kit. In my opinion all of the kits are fun :cool:

Druidic Sorcerer is a very cool mod kit, (or class), it is kinda buggy but has very unique and fun powers (all new HLAs) and will be a very potent caster in time, casting all druidic spells, sorc spells, AND special HLA spells, they rock! :thumb:

An Undead Hunter might be a nice change of pace...

The Totemic Druid is also underused despite the power of its summons...

And almost nobody ever bothers with the awesome Skald or the quite enjoyable Jester because the Improved Bard Song HLA is the same for everyone.

I'd also submit that people rarely play a Priest of Talos because when they aren't usually being good, they've got Viccy for an evil priest.I agree with most of what Fel says, although like most other people, I don't consider the Undead Hunter to be all that underused. I think that the Paladin class is somewhat of a rarity in that all of the kits are significantly better than the vanilla version (in the sense that what you gain is usually far superior to what you give up). I suppose the cleric kits also qualify because while you gain very little, you don't give up anything at all.

I agree that the totemic druid is very much underused, and the summons he/she gets are quite powerful.

The skald and jester kits can also be interesting, provided you aren't going to try to tank with your bard. I remember BG1 where I frequently used Eldoth or Garrick with a bow for missile support and they also served as my party's only source of arcane magic. In BG2 the Skald and Jester can both fill this role nicely, although they naturally are going to be inferior to the blade in melee combat.

I think the priest kits are underused simply because most people do not think that a cleric fits the image of the PC overly well. Plus in the original game, all the romances involved people that used divine magic, meaning there was typically another character fulfilling the cleric role.

offensive spin works with ranged weapons I believe