In homage to "The Worst Character Class," I thought I'd start this thread up.

The question has two parts: Best class/race combo for solo play, and best race/class for play within a party.

For pure solo power go for an elf Fgtr/mge dual wielding long swords and katana's

For a party there is no simple answer that everyone would agree on and there's variable's like how big the party is and what NPC's are in it.

All the classes can be broken up into four categories however, if that make's the choice easier.

They are Fighter which would make up most of the front line. there's the mage whuch can be very powerful and valuable, but mages are probably the least essential class after theives. then there's the cleric who walks about healing but can also fight.
and then there's the infamous thief, who can't cast spells or fight, but are important to disarm trap's and pick lock's

Best solo - I've never soloed, but from what I've heard, the best (ie easiest) is ether a sorcerer or a fighter/mage/thief. It depends on your playing style.

Best in party - impossible to answer. It depends on who else is in the party and again on your playing style. For example, if you have Keldorn, you don't need another Inquisitor. I tend to focus on melee combat; amongst my favorites - inquisitor, kensai, dual-classed ranger/cleric, mutli-classed halfling fighter/thief.

Never soloed, but will throw my two cents in nonetheless ;)

Inquisitor - unfailing dispel magic, Carsomyr
Undead Slayer - lots of undead, isn't it?
Cavalier - deadly in melee if handled properly

Note: paladins make good scouts. I won't tell you how :D

Blade - with dual-wielding, two attacks per round. Offensive stance for 3. All weapons. Also very potent dispel magic (thief level progression gives him a higher level than a mage with equal XP).

Sorcerer - lots of spells, lots.

Cleric/mage - hundreds of spells, the best of two worlds. With the books from BG1, it may have 19 INT and 20 WIS. Perhaps also fighter or thief as the third class. With BG1 books, you could make a really potent character.

Fighter/druid - MrUntouchable from druid spell level 5 on.

If you want a human cleric or thief or wizard and don't want a specific kit, consider dual-classing it from fighter. The XP lost this way is completely irrelevant. Some 64K for 7 fighter levels for a solo wizard, cleric or thief? Is that a loss? Hehe.

Thief/wizard - It's going to be very hard at the beginning. Later on, you will rule power-wise.

Best character in a party: impossible to decide (as it's already been said).

Best solo character:
Well, if you mean 'best' as in most powerful or easiest I'd say either
- mc fighter/mage/thief, a very versatile character and quite powerful,
- mc fighter/mage (perhaps a dc kensai/mage but dual classing requires some planning if you're soloing) or
- a perhaps a sorcerer?

It helps a lot to have some kind of thief combo since traps/locks won't be a problem then.

All classes can be soloed though and the easiest class isn't always the funniest.

I'm currently soloing with a Priest of Helm. I wanted to challenge myself and the way I normally use clerics: as backup/undead slayer. This way I have to explore the cleric's offensive capability and so far he's doing alright.
- Holy Power combined with the Seeking Sword really gives the PoH melee potential:
STR: 18/00, fighter THAC0, three attacks/round (four if I use a potion of speed), extra HPs - and the Seeking Sword strikes as a +4 weapon.
- Later on I'll have the Aerial Servant, one of the most powerful summons in SoA, and even later on I'll have Skeleton Warriors - combined with the cleric's powerful backup spells.
- Undead creatures aren't a problem, obviously.
- The PoH has True Seeing as a special ability which means that I'll have spell slots free for more offensive spells like Righteous Magic.
- Before going into melee battle the PoH requires some buffing (for the tough fights at least) but this can easily be done while protected by the Sanctuary spell.
- Since I'm soloing spells like Firestorm and Blade Barrier will be a lot more useful since I won't hurt any party members (and with equipment like the Red Dragon Scale and Ring of Fire Resistance etc. the flames won't hurt me either). And then there's Finger of Death...

Hmm, this became a bit longwinded. But the point is that every character is fun to play - in a party or solo.

The best solo also tends to depend on your playing style, though, arguably, the best solo class is some combination of fighter, mage, thief, and cleric.

The best in a party depends on who all is in your party, and your playing style. Some of my favorites are the following: Sorcerer, Kensai/thief, Avenger, Fighter/Illusionist, Blade, and Monk. They all make for a different game, and can be very interesting to play/role-play.

Ranger/Cleric is a good class to solo with because of his Stealth.

I'd say a fighter/cleric would probably be the best multi-class solo because you can cast Sanctuary (the BEST first level spell ever!), beef yourself to the max, then get the first hit in.

Also, you can use Harm to great effect. For those harder monsters that don't have MR, that is.

Draw Upon Holy Might is better than Righteous Magic by far. RM gives you extra STR and THACO and HP. Holy Might gives you extra STR, DEX, and CON. If you're a 15th level cleric, then you'll get +5 to all three stats, and that will give you way better STR, THACO and HP than RM. If you cast Holy Power, then Holy Might you can become a freakin' juggernaut.

Being only able to use Blunt weapons sucks though. There are some great blunt weapons in the game, but getting them is a little harder. You can get FoA pretty soon, so that's okay, but killing Trolls is hard when you have no access to fire and have to use potions (or Sunstone bullets if you've got them).

Blade Barrier is a must for a solo since you'll often be surrounded by many enemies and if you can take a chunk out of a few of them each round, then that's alway good.

@Mystra
I actually thought that casting Holy Power + Draw Upon Holy Might would only set my strength to 18/00 (since the spell description says that HP will lower the characters strength if it's higher). After reading your post I tested it with my solo Priest of Helm - and HP + DuHM works! Obviously you still have to cast them in the right order.
But from now on my melee mode for the toughest battles is: Holy Power + Draw Upon Holy Might + Seeking Sword - only a few will be able to stand against that! So thanks for the info...

top 5 best(IMO) solo

1.elf sorcerer or mage
2.elf ranger
3.dwarf berserker
4.half-orc barbarian
5.gnome illusionist/thief


top 5 best(IMO) within party

1.human paladin
2.dwarf cleric
3.half-elf mage/thief
4.half-elf fighter/mage
5.halfling thief

Solo I would have to say sorcerer or f/m/t. I really like f/m/c solo however. You can pull of some really cool spell combos, like doom-doom-fod, etc. Its really cool. He also works well in a party with triggered mass healings.

My first time through I soloed a Sorcerer for most of it, and so long as you're patient for the first bit it's not too bad. If you pick your spells right it can work, though I'll admit sometimes it got a little tricky.

For in a party I'd say Cleric or Fighter primarily because all the ones offered in the game have at least one really crapy stat. This way you can create a strong lead character in the area you want. I'm finding the game quite easy with the fighter I imported from BG1...though who wouldn't with 19 str, 18 dex, 19 con. :)

If you're going for a fighter, then I'd do a Dwarf imported from BG1, because then you can get 20 CON and have Regeneration. All you'll have to do is rest to be fully healed.

People seem to have forgotten about the monk as a solo class. Deadly in combat, can detect traps, highly magic resistant, heals self. There isn't anything you can't beat by the end of SoA.

Party-based? Whatever you damned-well please.

The best solo classes would be the F/M/T and the Blade - both can get too powerful very early.(SoA)

The only real difference between the two is that the F/M/T has more thief options, and the Blade has supremely higher levels and faster level progression - thievery abilities VS magic.
The F/M/T is also a bit better at fighting without any buffs - but when these kick in, the Blade is only second to Kensai-kin.

After these two, I'd go for Fighter/Mages, Sorcerers, Monks and Ranger/Clerics. They can also become ultimately powerful, but you'll need to be extra careful especially in earlier levels.

*Agrees with Chris on best party-based classes.

Scythe why is the F/M/T better then the F/M exactly? F/M gets more spells and can use the HLAs of a mage, and has knock to open locks.

As for disarm trap's you need a thief for that but mirror image is very good at absorbing all attacks physical magical or anything else.

EDIT: when I try to Backstab with A F/M/T it always fails even though I use one handed swords that theives normally use to backstab.

[ November 30, 2003, 11:49: Message edited by: casey ]

For ultimate destruction, you can't beat a:

Half-Orc: 19 str;18 Con;16 Dex
Kit: Kensai
Wielding: Right hand: Katana
+1 Katanas

As soon as possible, buy that +1 katana from the adventurer's mart

casey,
F/M/T can backstab, which some people really like. Also, who in their right mind wants to walk around with enough knock spells memorized to open enough locks whenever there are much better spells that could be used?

There will always be so many different opinions about this, but you basically need one of two things...

1) Thief skills to detect/disable traps
or
2) enough hit points to absorb damage from traps

Plus, magic (arcane or divine) helps so much and a class that can use wands is useful.

I found the best class to be Mage/Thief. Not very good for head on melee, but can desimate crowds easily, can summon enough help to take on any major enemies and can detect/disable traps as neccessary.

F/M/T is okay, but takes longer to level although is a bit more robust in melee fights.

Any class is soloable (hmmm... these words are getting rediculous) but I guess the goal is to try to level as fast as you can and get as many Hit Dice as you can.
A single class Bard would be really good because of his ability to summon Skeleton Warriors very early on.
A Sorcerer would be good because they can cast the same spell many, many times so you don't have to keep resting to memorize spells (although when you need a spell and it's not there because you didn't choose it when you leveled, then you're screwed.)
A Fighter/Cleric would be good IMO for the reasons I mentioned above.

And of course, I'm always in favour of a F/M/T.

@Casey
The F/M/T is better simply because you won't be having a problem with anything at any point if you know your way around. I'm not saying the F/M/T is more powerful.
The F/M's really need to watch it in lower levels, especially the dual classes.