Another AC-problem: if you hold an unloaded ranged weapon while you have the skill onearmed combat, you get the AC and can fight unarmed! (good trick for monks)

Trolls die from poison besides fire and acid.

Ioun stones protect from critical hits.

Wand of Wonder is not usable by monk.

Item definition error: monks can not use Vhailor's Helm :(

:hihihi:
What about a review of BG?
Even You and Master can cooperate for a nice short review.

But pls do NOT enter so much of details because there are some lazy persons (incl. your humble slave - shame of course) who will not read this future review to the end. 5-6 pages..
Just the important info:
Paladin - best weapon --bla, bla, bla
best spells - bla bla

Monk - best weapon --bla, bla, bla
best spells - bla bla

Then the Novice will say - Aha, i will chose Solo Barbarian

Or for example gamer like me will want again to play the game with ToB or so.
..capisca?

OFF
Dear twillight, i will never forget your brave attempt to play Fallout just with a STONE in the hand?
You are the Brave!!!

not this stupid BG yoga
(BG - Bulgaria, sry not Baldur gate:bleh1:)

Well, I make the format you asked here yoga for the basic classes, and some hot tips on multi/dualclass here. If you have some specific questions after that, feel free to ask.

Best equipments:

best armors: BMU (for AC - yes, monks too can wear this!), Human Hide (works antimagic), Robe of Vecna (reduces casting speed a LOT), Enkidu's plate (to prevent backstab)

best rings: Holy Symbol for cleric, ring of Gaxx (best ring in the game for any purpose), ring of fire control/ring of protection +3

best amulets: Amulet of Seldarine (magic protection), Amulet of Power (best allaround necklace, only not wear if you need that 5% more magic resistance), Harper Pin (if you romance with Jaheira this might be worthy)

best boots: Boots of Speed, Boots of Grounding (for monks)

best gauntlets: Gauntlets of Extraordinary Specialisation, Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise (if you can't use the above), Gauntlets of Crushing (for monks), Gauntlets of Archery

best helmets: Helm of Balduran, Roranach's Horn, Helmet of Defense, Pale Green Ioun Stone (for monks), Circlet of Netheril (for mages)

best belts: Girdle of Inertial Barrier (you won't need STR bonus or extra AC with a wellbuilt character)

best cloaks: Cloak of Balduran (if you bend the rules), Cloak of mirroring (for antimagic), montolio's cloak (for rangers)

best shields: Dragon Scale Shield (against elemental damage), Sentinel (for AC), Shield of Balduran (against beholders), Shield of Harmony (against instadeath conditions)

weapons: you have to cover four areas: 1) main weapon 2) blunt damage against clay golems 3) nonmagical weapon against magic gloems 4) ranged weapon for occasional use. +1) you'll need +4 weaponry in vanilla SoA against Kangaxx (and even +5 or stronger weapons to fight the demon in the drow city if you decide so).

Class-specific tips:

fighter:
- best to dual or multiclass
- required HLA: 4 Hardiness, the rest to Greater Whirlwind (maybe 1 Smite can be taken instead)
- best weapon: depends on personal taste
- kits: wizardslayer or kensai (both MUST be dualled to thief, or the kensai to mage!)

paladin:
- choose a kit. Cavalier is best solo, Inquisitor is best for a party
- required HLA: 2 Summon Deva, 4 Hardiness, the rest to Greater Whirlwind
- best weapon: Carsomyr, Flail of Ages + Defender of Easthaven

barbarian:
- required HLA: 4 Hardiness, the rest to Greater Whirlwind
- best weapon: Flail of Ages + Defender of Easthaven

monk:
- note: he is VERY weak at the beggining of the game!
- required HLA: 4 Hardiness, the rest to Greater Whirlwind
- can use 3 mage scrolls: stone to flesh, remove curse, summon nishruu
- best weapon: fist

cleric:
- best to be dualed from ranger
- best kit: Priest of Talos
- required HLA: all
- best weapon: Flail of Ages + Defender of Easthaven if dualwield

bard:
- never be without kit!
- best kit: blade for solo, skald if you want a pure supporter
- required HLA: UAI, spike traps
- best weapon: depends on personal taste

thief:
- best to dual or multi
- best kit: swashbuckler (if you want a fighter without being a fighter), but the best is to not have a kit
- required HLA: UAI, spike traps
- best weapon: Sword of Mask

ranger:
- best dualed to cleric
- best kit: archer
- required HLA: 4 Hardiness, the rest Greater Whirlwinds
- best weapon: Flail of Ages + Defender of Easthaven

druid:
- best not played at all
- best kit: avenger in vanilla SoA

mage:
- Edwin is better then ANY mage of the player even if you play a Conjurer (can summon Skull Traps + Magic Missiles = two best spells in the game), so try Sorcerer, or best: Wild Mage (on very high level it can cast ANY spells from its special lvl1 spell without risk)
- required HLA: extra lvl 6-8 spellslots, summon (dark) planetar, energy blades, improved alactricity
- best weapon: staff of the magi (if main class is mage)

Tactics:
Just in short notes, ok?
- "only you can see me" - even though enemies come in large groups only those may attack who actually see you
- "not another summoned creature" - summon ANYTHING for this. They can block the way, but more importantly: if you stand behind a corridor and send them out one by one, the enemy spellcasters on the other side will waste their best spells on these puny creatures
- "I'm ooze" - in ooze form (cast the spell "polymorph self") the character is immun to magic. Have someone else from the distance kill the mageling aiming the ooze during this. Adapt this strategy in many form.
- "I can open doors" - enemy can not open door, and will stop if you run out of its sight. Use potions, cast buffs, sleep during the gained time.

spells:
in VERY short, so leaving out most combos, and only mentioning what I found useful:
priest/druid spells:
lvl1: Armor of Faith (extra dmg res.), bless (minor buff spell), prot. from evil (against summoned demons), remove fear (it also PREVENTS fear, so useful against dragons)
lvl2: aid (minor buff spell), chant (minor buff spell with long duration), draw upon holy might (rises STR, TACHO)
lvl3: animate dead (summons), Glyph of Warding (trap spell for clerics), holy smite (weak, but it goes through magic resistance!), protection from fire (good buff ocasionaly)
lvl4: call woodland being (a somewhat useful summon), defensive harmony (ok buff spell)
lvl5: chaotic commands (superb defensive buff), flamestrike (in party you have time to cast, and its dmg is ok), insect plague (multienemy castingprevention), iron skin (cool buff), magic resistance (cast it on the enemy to lower its resistance!), rightous magic (ok buff), true seeing (if you are really bothered by invisibility)
lvl6: blade barrier (good buff), bolt of glory (it is very slow, but don't check megic resistance, so starting battle against a nonhostile moster with this is nice), harm (last resort cheesy ability)
lvl7: nature's beauty (ok spell), shield of archons (ok defensive buff)
HLA spells: elemental summoning (secondary to Deva, but can have multply cast), summon deva, energy blades, implosion
wizard spells:
lvl1: find familiar (of course have the familiar - in your backpack), identify (best spell ever, with Glasses of Identification it becomes obsolate actually), magic missile. Larchor's minor drain is ok on lowlvl.
lvl2: Horror (not as spell, but if you have it as special ability, it is ok for lowlvl), Agannazar's scorcher (not as spell, but from the BMR. The other good thing from the BMR is against hordes the Flasher while you whirlwind!), Melf's acid arrow (acceptable trollkiller and scpellcasting preventer), mirror mage (good buff)
lvl3: Melf's minute meteor (it hits EVERYTHING), remove magic (if you are singleclass mage), skull trap (it is almost as good as the thief's traps)
lvl4: fireshield blue (retribution dmg, and there are few resistances against this version), polymorph self (to become ooze), spider spawn (best summon), stoneskin (cool buff)
lvl5: breach (good nerfing), cloudkill (good area attack), sunfire (good offensive if you solo)
lvl6: chain lightning (ok attack), death spell (not as spell, but from the Death Mask for saving the drow girl), invisible stalker (good offensive summon on higher levels), improved haste (not as spell, but from the many items), wyvern call (ok defensive summon even on higher levels)
lvl7: Khelben's wardin whip (best nerfing), limited wish (for the onetime wishes), mordekainen sword (invulnerable summons!), project image (combined with simularcum you can have literaly an army), spell sequencer
lvl8: Bigby's clenched fist (physical dmg spell!), simularcum (in combo with Project Image, or from Vhailor's Helm), spell trigger
lvl9: chain contignency, freedom (onetime quest purpose), shapechange (it is told all hits while timestop is autohit, so shapechanging to mindflyer can drain anyone's inteligence to death, but it never worked for me!), time stop (for the rare occasion you have the time to cast it, and the enemy is not immun)
HLAs: energy blades, summon (dark) planetar, improved alactricity


I hope this helps.

Merci
 

Absolutely!
Well done.

Just to tease myself, I ran through the game with a monk. No BG1 naturaly, and still before Melissan, but I won't be any better, so some endnote:

- I won over the Chromatic Demon with a Wand of Lightning, as my physical force was not enough.
- against the Ravager I summoned the ToB-equivalent of the Ras to hinder the Bone Swords, then when I got wounded I just ran around until had time to heal myself with potions and such. The Ravager against my AC was useless with its ranged attacks.

Besides the above there is no encounter to mention.

Stats (with gear described below):
24/20/22/13/15/5
AC: -22
HP: 149
THACO: -15
thief skills: ca. 150 each
saves: -7 each

note: magic res.: 107%!

Gear:
BMU, Gauntlets of Crushing, Pale Gree Ioun Stone, Amulet of Poewer, Ring of Gaxx, Ring of Protection +3 (the AC and savthrows seemed more important then the +2 STR from the Deck of Many Things - oh, monks gain STR from Sharevok at the Wrath Tear), Cloak of the Sewer (the only cloak what gives AC and works with other enchanted gear) (secondary: Cloak of Mirroring), Boots of Grounding, Belt of Fire Giant Strenght. Prime weapon: fist, secondary: firetooth.


EDIT: this is most frustrating: I can't save after the second retreat of Melissan. The first round was nothing special: stomp her to death. The second round is shitty: she is more strong, starts with knocking me out for a second, and if I don't have a summon she casts timestop. So I summon the Berserker Warrior to change the results = she casts a death spell instead. Then I can stomp her to death. Important to not try to run around as she has some regular-heal ability grrr. The second guardians at the powersource are no problem, the problem is Melissan for the third round. No matter what I do I died until now. I'd need the save to try out strategies much more comfortable!!!

EDIT2: Ok, done. I just required some luck (I managed to save after waiting some ingame hours), so she summoned the right things, not attacked me physically, not runed away, I got not stucked etc. Seems the whole Melissan-encunters are about dealing damage FAST, as it seems she gets full heal periodically. Meh.
A minor note: to open the door in the sewers of Saradush requires 24? or 25 STR. 23 STR is not enough. But remember: the Slayer has 25 STR.

OK.
Noted and wrote in my game archive forever.

I had nothing better to do, and got curious because of my hesitation with the description of the mages above, and thought yoga would appreciate some actual spelluse, so I ended up at the end of BG2 (not yet ToB) with a WildMage.
Seems I won't have the Improved Chaos Shield... Not that I'd use Nahal's Reckless Dweomer intensly. Btw, the wild surges like "change sex" seem to have duration, so all is temporary. I had some funny experiences :smile2:

So here are the spells I've used. I turned lvl40 right at the beggining by finding an unlimited moneyspot, and an unlimited scroll-spot, so after 5 minutes after Irenicus' Dungeon I was lvl40. Cheesy, but I have my limit of patient too. So, the list of spells I've actually used:

lvl1:
- magic missile
lvl2:
- melf's acid arrow
- knock (by STR you can't bash the Clay Golem Page)
lvl3:
- fireball (in the first half of BG2)
- skull trap
- melf's minute meteor
lvl4:
- spider spawn
- stoneskin
- ice storm (to finish off the fire trolls in Watcher's Keep lvl2, don't know why not used a wand of frost)
- minor sequencer (at the beggining to have more melf's acidic arrow)
lvl5:
- sunfire
lvl6:
- chain lightning
- death spell
- true sight (at one ocasion)
lvl7:
- sequencer (never used up)
- prismatic spray
lvl8:
- simularcum (at the Chromatic Demon only)
- incindenary cloud
lvl9:
- summon planetar
- wish (once, to avoid rest in Ust Natha)
- improved alactricity (once, don't remember where)

No Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting? That one is a killer, usually on my "got-to-have" list. Add to it Vecna's Robe and Amulet of Power and you can get it out at decent speed. Protection From Magic Weapons can also be useful sometimes, even with Stoneskin, especially if playing without party, and facing a dragon going nuts for example.
Looking at the amount of spells, I take it you didn't have Intelligence above 18?

I personally prefer damage-over-time spells for their much higher summed damage then Abi-Dhalzim's. Incindenary Cloud is perfect with a mage, as for lvl 8 there are basically no good spells for BG2. The drawback of course is, that it deal fire damage, but at least in massive amount. Abi-Dhalzim is "cast it in the heat of battle", preferably with improved alactricity, and although not fire-based, but when that question comes into play magic resistance will also be an issue (where long duration again helps, eg. drows).

I did not found prot. from magic weapon, and it has short duration to my liking, and to be honest I wasn't whacked too much with my summon + boots of speed + stoneskin (what I regularly memorize 2-3 at once). I also not fought any dragon (no reason to).

My stats:
22/19/18/21/22/5 after all the bonuses and downs. When I've rolled were:
18/18/16/18/17/3

Note: I've in my spellbook ALL the spells avaiable in the game, except of course Summon Cow what is only a wild surge effect, and Improved Chaos Shield what I'll investigate soon if I can aquire it if started from BG2.

You can also get that spell directly, but only through a cheat or Shadow Keeper. As well as the 3, usable already at level 3, Daer'Ragh spells with the effect(s) of Improved Alactricity.