I originally played BG1 using a fighter/mage, but I hated my character cause he was pretty weak. That ended up taking some enjoyment out of the game unfortunately... so I'll obviously creating a new character for BG2. I played through Icewind Dale recently, and fell in love with my Fighter/Cleric and also my Paladin.

Since BG2 is such a long game (250-300 hours??) I don't want to get stuck with a character I don't really like again. I'm considering either a Fighter/Cleric or Paladin... any suggestions either way? I'm leaning toward the Fighter/Cleric since you can be a pretty good melee fighter and still cast priest spells (gotta love Defensive Harmony, Prot from Evil, Prayer, Recit., etc :) Does one have any advantage over the other? How does a pure Cleric compare to a Fighter/Cleric? As far as I can tell, you get 2 extra proficiency points when you create your character but other than that there's no real diff (except for the exp split of course). Both the Paladin and F/C only get 2 prof. points per wep max, but the Paladin can use bows, swords, etc. I'm not too worried about the weps since I'm sure BG2 will have some kickass items for a cleric.

Anyone have any comments regarding a Cleric, F/C, or Paladin? Advantages/disadvantages?

HellSpawn

Oh, is it possible to dual class from a Cleric to a Fighter? Can you get 5 prof. points in a wep that way? Any diff from a F/C multiclass if it is possible?

HellSpawn

In BG I played as a fighter and I really liked him.
I also liked jaheira, well she accually s*cked (sorry bout that) but she was good,
that I will have to admit.
She is a fighter druid,
and she has the most hitpoints in BG after myself (I had 90, she 69, ajantis, paladin 68, minsc 61, imoen 63, edwin 36)
So I guess if you'll create a fighter/cleric,
with a high constitution and strength,
you'll get a major killer!
A Paladin is also neat,
but I think not as much as the f/c.
I'm going to play as a Barbarian, because I like to kick but with magic weapons (I'll give him dualwield prof.slots) and i'm not so keen on clerics.
Mages are cool, but druids and clerics aren't my style, but that is only my oppinion.

Kensai!!!!
What other class can be cooler?
Very Dakkon-esque
without magic

I'm actually playing through Baldur's Gate right now with a Fighter/Mage. I started over rather recently, after purchasing Tales of the Sword Coast and downloading Dark Side of the Coast from www.teambg.com (http://www.teambg.com)

I have to say that my Fighter/Mage has had his weak times, but is really starting to come into his own... as he gets better spells, and nice magical bows, he can really offer support to the team, rather than being the dead weight he was for a time.

Even still, my F/M is not much of a "leader" character.. he stays to the back ranks with Imoen and offers cover fire and magic support to the main fighters... but he's a cool character and I'll definately be importing him into BGII.

I lost my saved game, actually more or less got accidently formated I think than anything from BG1. Anyhow, time for a new era I think, although having my saved character would give me the ability to get choices I will otherwise not get from starting over again.

Sylvus

I think I wll use my Bard character in BG2 and give him the blade kit. Oh by the way will we be able to modify things like alignment in our imported characters. My reason for wanting to do this is that by the end of BG1 my character had changed outlook and i think it would be nice to reflect this in the sequel.

Good question and one I do not know. I would have to say perhaps not because then you'd have to pay the penalty for changing your alignment as per the AD&D rules.

A Blade Kit sounds interesting, but after looking at the NPCs over and over again, I've decided that I will not be a character class that I can find in my travels. I'm going to play a character that none of the NPCs cover, to give my party that "full" feeling during my adventure.

Sylvus

As someone who honestly doesn't know what the NPCs are going to be (well, I know a couple, like Imoen and that Jan Jansen person), I'm not worried about balancing my party. I'm gonna make what I like, and worry about the rest from there. :)

http://www.sorcerers.net/Games/BG2/Walkthrough/npcs.htm

Just look for yourself if you really want to :) Rating charts and everything up now for all important statistics.

Syl...

Since I do have the game, I believe I can help, be a sorcerer. You know why? Because they rock! Why else? In all seriousness, to start out you should import from baldur's gate, unless your planning on using the new classes there is no reason, as the beginning can be damn hard with a newly created character. If you want a newly created character go with a simple fighter. Why? Because they are easy to use, and there is lots of powerful equipment for them to use. If you want a slow to start but strong towards the end character go with a sorcerer, or if you don't want to try out a new class go with a mage, cleric or druid. Thus fer I'm about 1\3 of the way through the game, its a huge game world, and I've decided that I'm not going to rush through it, I have a level 5 almost 6 simple fighter, I have some awesome equipment, at least for an early level character, And killing monsters thus far is fairly simple, as nobody is all that strong, I've got a couple NPCs and I'm doing okay, I suggest you take the same pattern.