Baldur’s Gate 2: Dual Class and Multi-Class Modification Wishes

After the latest play through of Baldur’s Gate 2 and from writing my previous article on classes and party combinations, one thing I’ve come to realize is that you’re still somewhat limited on a few possibilities. Of course, the game introduces limits to provide a sense of balance but the balance introduced in Baldur’s Gate 2 feels a little arbitrary at times and restrictive. As a result, I wanted to discuss freeing up some of the restrictions that attempt to play within the realm of the game without completely overpowering one class or another with regards to dual class and multi-class possibilities.

Part of the problem in the way dual and multi-classing worked back in the day was the result of the legacy from previous editions. First edition at times did not adequately spell out the types of classes that could be dual classed while the future expansions such as Unearthed Arcana only provided a few extra classes. From what I remember, even 2nd edition did a poor job on this aspect and might’ve attempted to set more rules up in an obscure Dragon article or supplemental manual. At any rate, these elements more than likely were skewed through the viewpoint of certain editors that favor game mechanics over fun and increased role playing possibilities. Baldur’s Gate 2 seems to be more selective in narrowing down a few classes and kits in creating a testable engine, but the experience overall is harmed somewhat in favor of this funneling affect. The net effect is that people who scrutinize what’s available will most likely select on a few combinations with too much emphasis on dual classing and minimizing how much multi-classing they pick up.

What I will do here is talking about the other combinations that attempt to balance and provide more possibilities:

• Half-Elf Fighter/Mage/Druid – Some people might look at this combination as OP at first glance. However, you will suffer somewhat on the armor side until you obtain Blade Singer chainmail or find suitable bracers, cloaks and rings to buff up your armor. Weapon-wise, you probably will either go towards staves, scimitars and slings. However, the stigma that balances this combination out is the experience point cap. Leveling the druid side by itself already is a major pain. But splitting experience three ways with a mage will prohibit power gaming. So this class will function more as an offensive healer with some armor and the ability to use sharp weapons.
• Half-Elf Mage/Druid – Again, the idea here is similar to a cleric/mage in that your armor will suffer. However, you will have more offensive spells from your druid side. Experience will be hindered because of the druid side, but your mage side should be able to hit good high level offensive spells. Perhaps, the one few benefits would be having slightly better weapons at your disposal, most notably scimitars and the use of shields.
• Human Ranger/Mage – If you played any of the post-Pool of Radiance Gold Box set CRPGs, you will note that you could at one time dual class a ranger and mage. Pre-2nd edition rules allowed rangers to cast from both druid and mage spells. As a ranger, you would gain the ability to cast spells while wearing armor beyond elven chain. I don’t know if I would allow a half-elf to multi-class with this, but I cannot see why not.
• Human Archer/Mage – If there’s one particular class I wish I could play in Baldur’s Gate 2, it’s this class combo. Because of the patch that removed archers from dual classing, I find it hard to provide adequate reasons for playing an archer at all. An Archer/Mage would solve a lot of my problems by giving me a dedicated range class that can also cast powerful spells. Giving me this option would allow me to have one character with awesome bow skills that I mostly ignore in the game. If I could, I would also permit half-elves and elves to multi-class into this. I mean, they have nonsense like gnomes being illusion/thieves/clerics/fighters, so why not provide an option for elves and half-elves? You’ll still have limitations no matter what and it’ll provide an interesting play style beyond making fighter/mages or worse yet fighter/mage/thieves.
• Human Archer/Cleric – I still question why they removed everything beyond the beastmaster to be able to dual class into a cleric. My only guess is that they probably felt that the beastmaster class sucked so badly that they needed to make it more appealing. However, dual classing with a cleric essentially converts a beastmaster into a druid. So if you’re going that route, you’re far better off taking a half-elf ranger/cleric or half-elf fighter/druid. You’d lose out on the turn undead ability and animal summoning as a ranger, but those are useless towards the end. At least with the archer/cleric, you would be able to have an interesting ranged class, even if their only weapon will most likely be a sling. Yet they could use a shield to provide more tankiness to their build. With the right items, a human archer/cleric could offer the right amount of offensive and defensive capabilities. This combo might not be as cool as a pure archer or even the idea of an archer/mage since you would focus on slings, but it would make slings more meaningful and worthy.
• Human Stalker/Thief – Stalkers are more combat oriented thieves that allow rangers to backstab. The only things they’re missing are the other thieving skills. Armor and weapon-wise they are pretty similar. For myself, it’s not a game breaker nor the most exciting combination but it does make sense if you were going to find another class to pair up with the stalker half.
• Human Bounty Hunter/Ranger – If you allowed for the stalker/thief combination, then it shouldn’t be that wide for a stretch of the imagination if you allowed for the bounty hunter and ranger to pair up. Logically, rangers are the types in the wood attempting to catch things in the forest. The bounty hunter focuses on the trap side. Combining the two ideas together provide an RP reason to allow for such a combo. But it also gives one a decent reason for using a bounty hunter in the first place.
• Dwarf Berserker/Clerics – I simply don’t understand why they force everything beyond gnome illusionist + other class to multi-class. But the end result is that you end up losing a lot of motivation for choosing some obvious combinations. The dwarven berserker/cleric is such an obvious one that it hurts almost as much as the lack of archer/mages.  I think it sucks that the game almost discourages you from choosing anything beyond half-elves and elves for non-human races because of the limitations that make certain combinations an utter bore. Having the dwarf berserker/cleric would solve the issue of the long, painful progression of regaining one’s former fighter levels while leveling and add some color to the class. Also, it’ll give you a reason to pick up the dwarven thrower+3 hammer.
• Halfling Swashbuckler/Cleric – If you ever have a need to use some sort of fighter/cleric combination, you’ll probably either choose the half-elf ranger/cleric or berserker/cleric rather than a multi-class to add flavor to that character. Because of that logic, it’s almost a certainty that most people probably will end up avoiding a halfling altogether. So how can you make a halfling more appealing? Why provide an exotic class that only they can multi-class into of course! The downside about this class is that you’ll be gimped on the weapon side as a result of the cleric side. To sweeten the pot, I would allow that this class to use daggers and short swords from a proficiency point of view and perhaps even short bows.
• Human Paladin/Clerics – Again in post Pool of Radiance Gold Box set games, you could dual class paladins. If you really wanted to, you could create paladin clerics. And quite honestly, I don’t see what the issue is here. In many cases from an RP point of view, it makes perfect sense. If you can provide a fighter kit the ability to dual class with a cleric, why not a non-kit version of a paladin? All a fighter/cleric is at the end of the day is really just a paladin with higher end spells and less passive buffs.
• Half-Elf Paladin – I was sad when they took out the half-elf paladin. It’s an old amendment that they put into the Unearthed Arcana. I have no idea why this idea was not carried through in the 2nd edition. It feels as though some of the editors barely even registered that the Unearthed Arcana existed and just grabbed a handful of ideas like weapon specialization and stripped down the cavalier class into a subclass of the paladin (which was supposed to be the other way around). Pretty stupid overall.
• Elf/Half-Elf Cavaliers – Again, another possibility that the editors missed out on completely. I have no idea why this was ignored.
• Human/Half-Elf Druid/Thief – This class combo makes sense on a lot of levels. The armor synergizes really well and you probably would get more weapon options from the thief side. Since most thieves tend to be neutral of alignment, the RP component would work out well. The only thing that would be taken into consideration is how druids tend to shun civilized areas. But it’s never stated that a druid cannot also learn how to steal nor survive based on opening traps, etc. After all, the stalker combines both aspects with a fighter type of class.
• Human/Half-Orc Barbarian/Thief – Barbarians share some things common with thieves. Heck, Conan the Barbarian was part thief and a model for which the Unearthed Arcana derived its version of the barbarian class. The barbarian was supposed to wear light armor but just have a higher hit point amount compared to other fighters. So not allowing barbarians to dual class, especially as a thief force the barbarian class to remain dull. Heck, allowing half-orcs to multi-class would vastly improve the boring aspects of half-orcs.
• Human Kensai/Monk – I know what you’re thinking: way too OP! Monks are already OP as they stand! But of every class that should be allowed to dual class with a monk, wouldn’t a kensai make more sense than others? Perhaps, clerics could be added since monks are supposedly spiritual. Let’s just focus on similarities though. The one thing about this class is that more than likely, you won’t be able to use 90% of the equipment out there and just focus on fists as your primary weapons. This combination would resolve the kensai’s lack of armor and make him into a far deadlier fighter. For myself, it’s one of the few ways I would probably add a monk into my group.

Overall, this post was an attempt to increase the diversity of race/class combinations and make the game more interesting while staying within the general paradigm of what’s been provided.

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