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Arbiter
- Joined
- Aug 2, 2014
- Messages
- 542
Never seen anyone use two knights. They get clerical spells at higher levels, though, often quite a few at really high levels, so it can be a reasonable choice.
You need a thief to finish one necessary encounter in Dark Queen (you have to make a climbing roll to get to a lever in the Tower of Flame). Otherwise, yeah, they're kind of a wimpy class in Goldbox (thus the discussion on the FRUA boards). EDIT: Apparently this is not required (though I remember trying with an 18-DEX character and failing) but you do need a thief to complete optional encounters in Death Knights of Krynn.
One of the big differences with the Krynn series is due to the laxer level limits on demihumans, multiclass characters are viable at high levels. A lot of people like to load up their parties with cleric/mages, ranger/clerics, fighter/mages, and fighter/cleric/mages. There's a pretty good argument for keeping single-class mages through Dark Queen due to the linearization of the XP curve at high levels, but your wizards will max out before that in the other games. On the other hands, more clerics is useful in Death Knights because there are a lot of undead. Tradeoffs!
Note that only some races can max out some classes: elves can max out as clerics, rangers, or mages or thieves (Qualinesti only), half-elves as clerics or thieves, dwarves as fighters, and kenders as thieves.
You have your choice of 7 gods. The best good gods are Majere (two levels higher on cleric turning) and Mishakal (stronger healing spells). The best neutral god is IMHO Shinare (charm person comes in handy occasionally), but you can try Sirrion if you really like your clerics casting Burning Hands. Kender clerics are limited to level 12, but a Majere cleric turns as two levels higher...so you can still max out turning, which peaks at level 14. Keep in mind that kender clerics will be unable to cast level 6 or 7 spells in Dark Queen due to having wisdom 16 max (but will be able to cast level 6 spells in Death Knights, because oops.) If you're sending people through Death Knights be aware clerics of good won't get 7th level spells in that game (though they will in Dark Queen), so there's an argument for having at least one cleric of neutrality if you are playing both games.
Red vs White? They each have some spells the other doesn't, so it's good to have one of each. My usual practice was if I had a single and a dual or a dual and a triple-classed mage to make the less-multiclassed mage red as they get fireball at 4th level and their dedicated spells (Mirror Image, Haste, Slow) are a little better than the dedicated white spells (Charm Person, Confusion, Charm Monster, Minor Globe, Hold monster), particularly at lower levels, but it's honestly kind of a close tradeoff and you should have both types of mages in your party.
So you can go a few different directions with this (which is why many people prefer the Krynn series).
If you want to take your boys (or girls) all the way to Dark Queen, I'd say swap out one of the knights for a ranger/cleric, dual-class your cleric to a ranger/cleric, and keep your two mages, or maybe make one a fighter/mage for survivability or a cleric/mage to turn undead in Death Knights. Make your fighter/thief a kender cleric/thief because this is your only chance to make one, and you'll need the extra clerics in Death Knights (which has tons of undead). You can also backstab with the hoopak in Death Knights of Krynn, which allows you to do a backstab with a blunt weapon against skeleton warriors (which are otherwise hard to kill)--props to Octavius for this one.
If you want a powergaming strategy for Champions, you can go knight, cleric/thief, fighter/cleric/mage x 4. Once you're able to toss fireballs around (which starts at level 4 for red mages) you will be very hard to beat. I've beaten the Kernen gate encounter without softening it up first with that party. Keep in mind these guys will slow down rapidly in the later games.
If you want to enjoy as much of the flavor of the Krynn games as possible, lots of other combos are possible. Human knight, kender cleric/thief, elf ranger/cleric, elf fighter/mage, elf fighter/cleric/mage, and elf fighter/mage allows for a bunch of different characters and is relatively versatile. If you still want a single-class mage, replace the fighter/mage with a human mage. If you want a little more combat beef and want to include a dwarf, toss in a dwarven fighter instead.
Comments from others welcome.
You need a thief to finish one necessary encounter in Dark Queen (you have to make a climbing roll to get to a lever in the Tower of Flame). Otherwise, yeah, they're kind of a wimpy class in Goldbox (thus the discussion on the FRUA boards). EDIT: Apparently this is not required (though I remember trying with an 18-DEX character and failing) but you do need a thief to complete optional encounters in Death Knights of Krynn.
One of the big differences with the Krynn series is due to the laxer level limits on demihumans, multiclass characters are viable at high levels. A lot of people like to load up their parties with cleric/mages, ranger/clerics, fighter/mages, and fighter/cleric/mages. There's a pretty good argument for keeping single-class mages through Dark Queen due to the linearization of the XP curve at high levels, but your wizards will max out before that in the other games. On the other hands, more clerics is useful in Death Knights because there are a lot of undead. Tradeoffs!
Note that only some races can max out some classes: elves can max out as clerics, rangers, or mages or thieves (Qualinesti only), half-elves as clerics or thieves, dwarves as fighters, and kenders as thieves.
You have your choice of 7 gods. The best good gods are Majere (two levels higher on cleric turning) and Mishakal (stronger healing spells). The best neutral god is IMHO Shinare (charm person comes in handy occasionally), but you can try Sirrion if you really like your clerics casting Burning Hands. Kender clerics are limited to level 12, but a Majere cleric turns as two levels higher...so you can still max out turning, which peaks at level 14. Keep in mind that kender clerics will be unable to cast level 6 or 7 spells in Dark Queen due to having wisdom 16 max (but will be able to cast level 6 spells in Death Knights, because oops.) If you're sending people through Death Knights be aware clerics of good won't get 7th level spells in that game (though they will in Dark Queen), so there's an argument for having at least one cleric of neutrality if you are playing both games.
Red vs White? They each have some spells the other doesn't, so it's good to have one of each. My usual practice was if I had a single and a dual or a dual and a triple-classed mage to make the less-multiclassed mage red as they get fireball at 4th level and their dedicated spells (Mirror Image, Haste, Slow) are a little better than the dedicated white spells (Charm Person, Confusion, Charm Monster, Minor Globe, Hold monster), particularly at lower levels, but it's honestly kind of a close tradeoff and you should have both types of mages in your party.
So you can go a few different directions with this (which is why many people prefer the Krynn series).
If you want to take your boys (or girls) all the way to Dark Queen, I'd say swap out one of the knights for a ranger/cleric, dual-class your cleric to a ranger/cleric, and keep your two mages, or maybe make one a fighter/mage for survivability or a cleric/mage to turn undead in Death Knights. Make your fighter/thief a kender cleric/thief because this is your only chance to make one, and you'll need the extra clerics in Death Knights (which has tons of undead). You can also backstab with the hoopak in Death Knights of Krynn, which allows you to do a backstab with a blunt weapon against skeleton warriors (which are otherwise hard to kill)--props to Octavius for this one.
If you want a powergaming strategy for Champions, you can go knight, cleric/thief, fighter/cleric/mage x 4. Once you're able to toss fireballs around (which starts at level 4 for red mages) you will be very hard to beat. I've beaten the Kernen gate encounter without softening it up first with that party. Keep in mind these guys will slow down rapidly in the later games.
If you want to enjoy as much of the flavor of the Krynn games as possible, lots of other combos are possible. Human knight, kender cleric/thief, elf ranger/cleric, elf fighter/mage, elf fighter/cleric/mage, and elf fighter/mage allows for a bunch of different characters and is relatively versatile. If you still want a single-class mage, replace the fighter/mage with a human mage. If you want a little more combat beef and want to include a dwarf, toss in a dwarven fighter instead.
Comments from others welcome.
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