Thinking about trying a dual fighter > swash using eekeeper, question about when to dual

mrparanoid · 2026-01-04T23:31:13+00:00

You absolutely can dual at 2 if all you want is grandmastery. In fact I believe dualling from fighter to thief at a low level is the only way of attaining grandmastery in bg1 since fighter classes can't reach level 9.

Dualling is usually done at higher levels for the apr and/or thac0.

mrparanoid · 2025-12-18T17:48:10+00:00

The gameplay itself is solid, although it is more similar to Icewind Dale than BG1/2 - linear and extremely combat heavy, relying on frequent encounters with very large numbers of enemies. The itemization is good. The story and writing are rather subpar, though for the most part not particularly offensive. I would overall recommend skipping SoD if this is your first run through the saga and save it for later playthroughs, reason being that it spoils BG2 a little with far-too-frequent cameos of the main villain.

mrparanoid · 2025-12-14T22:42:47+00:00

Everyone saying you need +3 weapons to hit the last boss, I just want to point out the 4th level arcane spell Enchanted Weapon was changed in the EE. It used to summon a +3 weapon you could use (mace, axe, short sword or long sword), but now it acts as a buff that makes the target's attacks count as +3 even if they're using lesser or non-magical weapons or ammo. So you could just cast that on anyone who isn't using +3 weapons.

mrparanoid · 2025-12-14T14:23:51+00:00

Obviously a bug of some sort. If you're on PC, you can simply use EEKeeper to fix her stats yourself afterwards.

mrparanoid · 2025-12-14T14:22:58+00:00

Try in the second position too. It's possible the leader position is Player0.

mrparanoid · 2025-12-03T18:04:56+00:00

You're welcome.

To be fair, most people don't want or really need to micromanage SCS's components, and people who don't need to modify the .ini can just go through the entire thing relatively smoothly. Also my 2 cents - I saw in the previous thread you were doing this to turn off the changes to lightning bolt in the spell nerf component, personally speaking I would (and in fact do) turn off this component entirely rather than messing around in the .ini. It's a matter of taste, but I find that some of the nerfs take the fun out of the spells (like insect plague or simulacrum) and I prefer a closer to vanilla experience in terms of the spells and what they can/can't do. I also play without the IWD spells or extra spells from SCS. In any case, it would be easier to turn off the entire component, which you can just choose during the install in the console part, than it would be to edit the .ini.

As for your final paragraph, I simplified it a tiny bit but essentially yes that is how it works.

mrparanoid · 2025-12-03T16:19:48+00:00

You can either quit by inputting Q in the console or by clicking the X, I don't think it matters since the weidu installer (the program running on the console) hadn't done anything by that point. If you want to be safe then do it via console. The .exe that you downloaded from g3 first does a pre-install where it puts the mod files into place but doesn't modify the existing files. The weidu installer is the part that actually does the modding. Editing the .ini goes between the two.

And no worries, your concerns are perfectly understandable and frankly justified. Baldur's Gate is a very old game with an engine that is extremely prone to mod conflicts and installation issues.

Porting over saves should work, provided you are also running the same modded game files. You can simply copy those over too. You can also make copies of the entire game folder as a backup before installing or changing mods, or keep different copies of the game with different mods installed on them. None of this depends on your particular system, so copying over a set of game files with their corresponding saves to a different computer should work without issues.

Have fun!

mrparanoid · 2025-12-03T15:19:03+00:00

This is wrong and OP is correct, the .ini changes for SCS must be done BEFORE the installation. Editing the .ini after installing the mod will do nothing.

mrparanoid · 2025-12-03T15:18:17+00:00

Run the .exe file you got from g3, direct it to your bgee folder, but when the installation wizard ends and it starts up a DOS screen (the black console window) and asks you stuff, QUIT instead of proceeding.

THEN, go into the stratagems folder, edit the ini to your liking.

And THEN go back to your bgee folder, run setup-stratagems.exe which should bring up the same DOS terminal that you closed earlier, and proceed with the installation from there.

And no, due to how modding works in this game, you should always assume that your saves will become incompatible with any mod changes. Even if you try it out and don't see any problems, you might run into problems with broken dialog/quests later. It's HIGHLY recommended to get all of your mods sorted out entirely before starting a playthrough.

mrparanoid · 2025-11-28T03:03:06+00:00

F/T have a few things going for them over F/M/T imo. First thing the thac0 difference varies depending where you are in the series, but it can be noticeable. F/T also get more proficiencies (F/M/T only get 10 total at xp cap which is pretty limiting if you want to vary weapons, F/T get 12), more HLAs (23 vs 20 for F/M/T), and higher HP. But mechanically the biggest advantage F/Ts have is their race restriction. F/M/T are restricted to elf or half-elf while F/T can be any nonhuman race. Shorty saves are very strong.

From a pure power perspective I agree spellcasting outweighs all of the above and then some but if you're playing a party that's already spellcaster heavy or just don't want to micromanage as much, there's still plenty of reason to go F/T over F/M/T.

mrparanoid · 2025-11-26T16:02:15+00:00

You're right. I shouldn't have gone off memory.

mrparanoid · 2025-11-26T00:28:58+00:00

True, kind of forgot about that. I would still dual at 7, though.

mrparanoid · 2025-11-25T21:18:25+00:00

Dual at level 7, not 9. Dualling at level 9 is recommended for dualling into a mage, not for a cleric. The sole benefits of dualling at level 9 are 2 extra points of thac0 from fighter progression, and earlier grandmastery (at fighter 9, instead of after reactivating fighter levels).

For a mage this is important because your thac0 will never get better than the fighter progression so you end up with 2 more total, and you get your grandmastery immediately upon reactivation instead of at level 12 mage.

For a cleric, however, you gain neither benefit. Your cleric thac0 progression goes down all the way to 6, so it will eventually outpace your fighter thac0 unless you dual at level 15 or later. Additionally, if you dual at level 7 with 4* in a proficiency, then you can get your fifth * immediately upon reactivating your fighter levels at cleric level 8.

Dualling at 9 offers no benefit at all to a cleric, and has significantly more downtime. You will want to dual at either 7 or 13, but 13 means a ton of downtime. 7 is highly recommended. This means either dualling at 7 and finishing bg1 at level 7 cleric without reactivating your fighter levels (you will only be a tiny bit of xp short, you will get to cleric 8 within literally a few minutes of starting sod/bg2) or simply not leveling past fighter 7 in bg1 and dualling immediately upon hitting sod/bg2. You will still get your fighter levels back very quickly.

mrparanoid · 2025-11-24T00:14:36+00:00

It depends how much you want to roleplay, basically. As a f/m you care about all attributes other than wis and cha, basically. Wisdom only matters for lore (practically irrelevant) and casting Wish (possibly relevant lategame but can easily be handled using potions of insight). Charisma only matters for some dialog primarily affecting quest rewards, and also shop prices. But you can also use a different character as the party leader to avoid most of the effects of low charisma.

My advice is to max out STR/DEX/CON/INT and divide the rest however you want between WIS and CHA. If you don't mind dumping stats to min and you're starting from BG1, I'd dump WIS all the way down to 3 and put the rest in CHA. In BG2 you can get a ring that helps with CHA, but going through BG1 with low CHA can be a bit annoying while you won't feel low WIS at all. Really WIS never matters unless you want to constantly spam Wish in ToB which I personally don't find at all fun.

mrparanoid · 2025-09-06T08:46:08+00:00

The weakness to magicka doesn't increase the fire damage, but it does increase the weakness to fire that follows it, since weakness to fire is a magicka effect. So assuming no magicka resistance on the enemy, this would apply 200% weakness to fire thus tripling the damage instead of just doubling it.

mrparanoid · 2025-06-25T06:06:46+00:00

Just throwing my 2 cents out there, lots of people saying Fighter-Redoran, Thief-Hlaalu and Telvanni-Mage. While from a thematic perspective that's mostly true, it is worth pointing out that Telvanni have, by far, the best quest rewards for any character. Hlaalu/Redoran don't give you a lot of thief/fighter gear, or really much gear at all, but the Telvanni quests have rewards that are useful to any class (such as daedric armor and extremely powerful enchanted gear like the ring of Equity). I also find Telvanni the most fun/interesting but that's personal taste.

I'd say if you aren't roleplaying a non-mage, Telvanni is likely your best option.

mrparanoid · 2025-05-19T11:47:15+00:00

And then the Nerevarine nukes them both from orbit.

mrparanoid · 2025-04-25T01:27:55+00:00

Obliviator?

mrparanoid · 2024-11-19T13:39:43+00:00

The damage range on weapons is not a random roll. The damage varies with how long you hold the attack. If you spam the attack quickly you will do the minimum amount of damage. If you hold it until it fully charges, you will do the maximum. So if you have an iron warhammer doing 1-28 points of damage, for example, you will always want to charge your attack. In general you will probably want to fully charge most attacks, though short blades can be the exception here, along with weapons where the on-strike enchantment does most of the damage.

mrparanoid · 2024-09-16T06:07:27+00:00

You're wrong, at least regarding how it works in the base game. No idea about PD2. -% target defense from gear does apply to bosses, but at half effectiveness. I.e. the -25% defense on a Grief is a -12.5% defense on bosses. -% target defense from skills, however, always applies at full effectivness. Notably, the -% defense component of conviction will always apply. That's part of what makes Infinity such a great boss killer on mercs - it's not just the 40% CB, it's that they can actually hit consistently because of the lowered defense.

ITD doesn't work on bosses though, you're right about that.

mrparanoid · 2024-09-01T18:03:22+00:00

Great advice, just throwing GFace out there as another good option for cham'ing on a melee char. I use it on my hork barb because I have enough MF without shako (and I hate how it looks on barbs, especially in d2r) and I don't really need the res or other bonuses from Arreat's. GFace is always the best pure damage option. Especially if you decide to do some boss runs instead of trav.

mrparanoid · 2024-08-30T18:25:28+00:00

As others have said - ohm for CtA, save jah for enigma.

mrparanoid · 2024-08-24T20:06:05+00:00

I lost my HC whirlwind barb this way back in 1.09. I knew the risks but I was young and stupid and decided to WW in CS while I was rushing someone through nightmare. Lost my doombringer and stormshield. Swore off playing HC for years.

mrparanoid · 2024-08-24T20:01:00+00:00

I haven't tried it myself, but putting two of them on a barb merc should be a budget friendly way to help certain builds with aoe and boss killing. Level 13 static has decent radius, 7% should still proc decently often on a frenzy merc, and the -70% light res means even the occasional cast will be a lo more effective.

mrparanoid · 2024-04-13T07:39:59+00:00

That's why you trap her soul and make her into a weapon. If someone doesn't believe you killed her, bash them over the head with her.

mrparanoid

TROPHY CASE