Originally Posted by twillight
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.
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