Just started Baldurs Gate II

[Henry-19]

mods you should use would be ascension, and tactics mod, makes the game a true bitch to get trough! and makes it really a challenge, for example, kangaxx, one of the hardest mobs in the game get completly insane, imagine fighting a dude who spams imprison, time stop and meteor/comet/dragons breath and abidalzims horrid wiltring 5 times a second, and is immune to evrything below +4 wapons and has 95% damage reduction and 100% magic resistance, and hes not even the hardest boss then.... not by a long shot fun times.

otherwise get item fix pack and item upgrade mod, and underrepresented items mod all from weidu, ohh and get shadow keeper, because sometimes the game bugs with to many mods, and shadow keeper can help fix that easely (by adding missing quest items or forcing encounters to start and so on).

playing solo i recommend a kensai/mage dual class, by far the most powerfull combination without doubt (but insanely overpowered! without tacktics and assencion mods).

playing with a party i like the bard/druid/cleric, cause they are so damn weak, but having a party makes the game almost to easy so go for the weak guy

[GeneralCash]

nah, i don't like tactics. enemies in tactics are cheezy (sequencer with improved inviz, pf abjuraction, pf divination on every boss, give me a break) and inspire me to abuse because it's the only way of beating them. and no matter how >9000 they are, they are just as easily beaten as the unmodded game if you do things like wish spam or quadruple projected images... scs/scsii is much better than tactics imo. it improves the monsters' decission making and gives them a fair chance against the party but doesn't give them unrealistic stats and abilities. it's perfectly possible to beat it without massive abuses.

i also don't like underrepresented items for the same reason. those plague darts are just plain cheating, so is that +5 staff that has the same range as a sling. i did solo the game (+ tactics) with a monk by constantly abusing those darts. i also used the oversight mod that replaces standard warrior hla-s that monk gets with balthazar's abilities. it was fun but i grew tired of it relatively fast.

i tried kensai->mage a while ago. it's really nothing special. pure kensai or kensai->thief are much better kensai builds. a sorcerer, berserker->mage or gnome fighter/illusionist multi are better mages.


started a bounty hunter because i've never played a thief main char trough the original game and bh is so fucking overpowered (in a fun way) once he gets to tob.

[Henry-19]

i get what youre saying about tactics, the cheese is evrywhere, i just chose not to use it, but it makes alot of the mosre easy parts of the game intresting, so i dnt play without it, same with underrepresented items, the insane ones i simply dnt use, just cause something adds the possibility that you can "cheat" dnt mean you have to use it

but, about the kensai mage, if youre saying a normal kensai or kensai thief is stronger... i want what youre smoking!!! cause that just doesnt make sense, being the strongest fighter in the game and having spellcasting possibilities is THE strongest build no question! you can make yourself immune to evrything, massive aoe spells, and still beat demogorgon in a pure hand to hand combat, seriously nothings better, belive me... ive tried evry combination

[GeneralCash]

have you even tried scsii? scsii enemies kick your ass because they are smart and organized (and slightly higher level than they should be). tactics enemies beat you because they have 25 to all stats, +400% move speed and illegal sequencers/contigencies. they basically force you to cheat. by cheat i mean use that inquisitor asshole in every party and spam teleport fields with mages.


kensai-mage is definitely not the best fighter. at least not in tob or vanilla. kensai-thief has 4x backstab with simulacrum that can use mislead scrolls and the assassinate hla, not to mention use any armor and shield he wants (including jansen's armor). k-t also gives you a free party slot because he can do all the thieving while still being brutal in fights (so can imoen tho). fighter/illusionist has greater whirlwind and time stop, he's just a slower starter than a dual class. k-m has 5 attacks max and no backstab so his dps is pretty low in comparison. the only benefit from kensai is the +2/+2, it's really not such a big deal. not wearing armor or using bows is a big deal. berserker is a better choice for a fighter-mage than kensai, he can wear armor which means you don't have to babysit him trough the entire fucking vanilla game if you play trilogy and the immunity from rage is very useful so you don't get your main mage stunned, mazed or level drained. if you want +3/+3 and an extra 1/2 of an attack, you will have to do all of the chapter 2 quests with a reduced party, and then drag around a level 5 mage trough spellhold. a thief levels much faster and can make up most of the 14 levels by just unlocking every chest and removing every trap. as for a normal kensai, at some points armors stop being important because you would get hit anyway unless you are a specialized tank. on the other hand, +10/+10 or more with gww and a +5 weapon is just insane.

k-m is a build designed for soa. it's really strong there. it's unplayable in the first bg because of no armor and no bows. it's weak in tob, you might as well just play a sorcerer. imo, you don't need a build designed specifically for soa because it's the easiest part of the trilogy.

if you want a strong battle caster than shines in soa but isn't hard to level trough the original game and doesn't become a weak version of the sorcerer in tob, try the ranger/cleric multi. more melee power and better tanking in exchange for weaker high level offensive spells. still, nature's beauty and energy blades are all you need.

oh, and i completely forgot about the blade kit which is also a much stronger alternative to k-m, especially in epic levels. i never play him since you can already get a blade npc who is better than a pc could be.