Hi, Lemming,
> 2) When multi-class chars level-up, are their hit point increases limited by their most restrictive class, or does each class-level-up use their own innate hit dice?
>> I've never played tabletop AD&D, so I don't know the rules regarding this. My
guess that they use the hit dice of whatever class just leveled up. 1d10 for fighters, 1d8 Clerics, 1d6 Thieves, and 1d4 Mages. Then apply Con bonus.
I got more data, some at first very puzzling, which eventually led to a hypothesis on multi-class level-ups (I suspect some here know this, but since no one mentioned it, I thought I would bring it up). I think Lemming is right - each level-up uses the normal hit dice roll for the class that is leveling up, plus any CON adjustment. BUT, then that roll is divided by two, and rounded down! [Presumably, a 3-class char would have the roll divided by 3, but I have no data on that]
When my fighter-illusionist leveled up as a mage for the first time, I got an increase of +3, which seemed merely middle of the road (based on die 4 + a 2 CON adjustment possible), so I decided to try again. This time got a +2 - huh? I had thought +3 would be minimum.
Tried a few more times, got mostly 2's, plus one +1!
How could this be? I got curious, fought that battle probably 20 times, got mostly twos, a couple of ones, a couple of threes. I was convinced that either I didn't understand how this was supposed to work, or it wasn't working properly. It got me frustrated enough I exited the game to do something else for a while. A couple of hours later, it suddenly fell into place in my mind.
If a multi-class char got the full hit point range for every level-up, they would end up having a lot more HP's than single-class characters, since they have about twice as many level-ups. So, to compensate, I think the BG (and probably the AD&D rules do this too, but I don't know that for a fact) reduce the # of HP's possible for each level up. And I think they round down, because that's the only way to get a +1 when +3 would be the normal minimum.
Now, I think that a side effect of this is that some multi-class characters with an odd CON value would lose some potential HP's from level-ups, compared to a single-class char of the same CON value. For example, a fighter with CON of 15 would have a potential maximum level-up roll of 11. But a fighter-mage character with the same 15 CON, would always be capped at 5 for it's fighter-class level-ups, leading to a loss of a few potential HP's over the course of 8 level-ups (apparently the limit in BG/ToSC).
This isn't a big deal, but it's interesting, and could have some influence on what to do with the tome that gives a +1 CON increase. If you give it to a multi-class char that has an even-value CON, they won't benefit as much from it as if you give it to a multi-class char that has an odd CON value! Still, overall, this just doesn't seem to be a big deal. But, it might be worth knowing about for those who hadn't noticed the pattern.
"Good spears you practically never see. The same goes for good Halberds. And I am just plain not fond of crossbows."
I've never been a crossbow fan either - the increased DAM doesn't seem to compensate for the slow ROF, in most games at least.
Kivan seems to be fairly effective with the +1 Halberd, but I certainly wouldn't object to a better one...
"She has it when she walks out of Candlekeep and joins up. It looks like a little pink flower. If you don't have it try patching (or installing TotSC)."
This baffles me. I've seen a Wand of MM, so I know what it looks like, and I just don't recall Imoen having one when she joins. As far as I can tell, I have the most recent patches for both BG & ToSC. Guess I will have to take another char out of candlekeep to double-check this, but I don't see how I could have overlooked it with the characters I have started.
"If an NPC leaves your team (alive) and they did NOT hate your party, they'll stay where you left them if you need them later. Sometimes even if they do walk off, returning to the screen later will find the NPC in the spot you departied them."
Well, I found one possible exception to this (though I think with most NPC's you're right). I had been clearing sectors around Nashkell, wondering why I couldn't find the Gnoll stronghold. Finally, I realized you have to get the location from Minsc. So, I saved, removed Kivan, added Minsc, and went off to rescue Dynaheir. Declined to add Dynaheir, so her and Minsc stomped off in a huff. Went back to Nashkell, clicked on Kivan, and he said something like "Well, I've got other things to do, so farewell..." - and he took a couple of steps and disappeared! I was dumfounded; wasn't expecting that at all. Grrrr.
Well, I didn't want to replay those scenarios, but I also didn't want to lose Kivan, so I restored, deleted Imoen (this time, first checking to see if she would stick around, and then rejoin - which she did), and added Minsc. I saw the message that my map had been updated. However, I still felt that I didn't want to add Minsc/Dynaheir to this team, so I dropped Minsc, and had Imoen rejoin, and went off to take out the Gnoll Stronghold. That worked.
Now, maybe if I had just done something else with the 5-person team, and then come back to Nashkell, Kivan would be back and waiting to rejoin, but I didn't think of that (& probably wouldn't have wanted to take a chance on it not happening, anyway).
"Hm, seems you didn't have ample time to do his quest - or waited way too long. Anyway, the Gnoll Fortress is quite a deal easier with Minsc with you. His racial enemy being Gnoll, pitting him against one is like putting a carrot in a Cuisinart. So, I'd recommend jetting off to rescue Dynaheir right away - Minsc should handle those bipedal hyenas with ease."
Yeah, the Stronghold sounded too strong for my team at the time I added Minsc, so I did the Mines and cleared a couple of other sectors to level up some more, before starting towards the sector N of the N Gnoll sector. I hadn't realized Minsc had a more rigid time limit - non of the other NPC's had been that way, so how could I know Minsc was different?
"Maybe losing Minsc was for the best in the instance you mentioned, but I seriously question whether you were RPing your alignment if you butchered him like that. :p"
Well... I'm probably not very good at RPing.
But, most of the CRPG's that I've played (not that many) don't really require a rigid adherence to RPing. I'm looking forward to playing Planescape one of these days (I have it, played it for about a half-hour & was intrigued, but didn't want to get into it at the time). Some, including Armin, IIRC, say that Planescape is practically the only CPRG that is really a RPing game where your in-game actions and choices change how the game plays out. Sounds interesting.
However, this raises an issue I thought of addressing in my first set of questions, but decided not to. I have a hard time choosing among the 9 choices of alignment in BG. In general, I prefer to play a "good" role, but at the same time, I don't want to deprive myself of the benefits of petty pilfering and occasional theft. Yet, those actions don't seem to fit with any of the good or neutral alignments. They don't really even fit with the descriptions for Evil alignment. So, do most people who chose "Good" refrain from taking anything from locked chests, stealing from merchants, pick-pocketing, etc.? Or just ignore that apparent contradiction?
"Still, could Ajanatis and Minsc (with occasional help from, probably, Branwen) be enough of a front-line complement to get through the game?
I don't see why not."
Yeah, based on my experiences with my latest team, I agree. If/when I get back to that team, I think I might try that route.
"Yeslick. He's middle-to-late game, but Yeslick is a strudy little bugger. You could replace Branwen with
Yeslick at some point, giving you a sturdy fighter/cleric to help battle alongside Minsc and Ajantis."
Thanks for the tip, I hadn't paid much attention to him, since I hadn't yet run into him with a team. After another look at his stats, he looks like a decent replacement for Branwen (or maybe even Jaheira, with a different team).
Thanks again for the answers.
Regards,
Dako-ta