When to dual class?

[Darius]

I am just starting a party in Icewind Dale with HoW installed. I have read multiple posts declaring that a single class mage in Icewind Dale is a waste. When should I dual class from a fighter? Or should I just multiclass a Fighter/Mage? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.


By the way Icewind Dale is now available at gog.com (good old games). I just bought it, I lost my Icewind Dale cds a long time ago.

[T2Bruno]

It's not a waste, it's just easier with dual classed. The earlier areas are more suited for a fighter group and you make up the levels quickly. I dual two classes in IWD: mage and druid. The mage I dual from a fighter at level 4 (you have *** in bows), for the druid I wait until level 7.

[Darius]

Cool, thanks. Is your mage able to acieve 9th level spells?

[kmonster]

The recomended levels for dualclassing are 3-9. The longer you wait, the more hitpoints and other fighter benefits you'll get.

Level 2 allows 18/00 strength, weapon specialisation and the using fighter equipment
Level 3 adds another proficiency point
Level 6 adds another proficiency point
Level 7 adds an extra half attack per round
Level 9 adds another proficiency point

An additional mage level after level 11 costs 375,000 XP, so a fighter3/mage who spent 4,000 XP for his fighter class will be only about 0.01 mage levels behind on the long run, even for 9 fighter levels cost only 2/3 of a mage level on the long run.

I recommend dualclassing after level 3, so you'll be able to complete it in chapter 1. You gain the next big benefit in at fighter level 7, but if you wait so long you're without mage spells until the middle of chapter 2 (if you play normal) and won't get the fighter abilities back before chapter 3. You also have to consider that there are 6 characters in your party who can fight, but only one primary mage.

You won't be able to cast level 9 mage spells if you play the game as intended. The game is balanced for reaching about 2,500,000 XP per character, the higher levels are for special challenges like soloing and playing HoF mode.

[T2Bruno]

I think you mean:

"Level 2 allows 18/00 strength, weapon specialisation and the using fighter equipment."

The additional hit points at every level (up to ninth) is a huge benefit for dualled mages. Mages get, at most, 6 hit point per level; fighters can get up to 14 hit points per level (up to ninth level). Note that you don't gain hit point in the new class until you exceed the old class. Also at level nine you can attain grand mastery in a weapon (so huge hit points and grand mastery -- both big plusses).

Sorry, I did mean to say level three for fighter to mage for IWD (although more hit points is good). For the druid though you will gain back the fighter abilities before chapter three even if you go to level seven fighter -- that's the beauty of the druid.