If you're meta-gaming enough to make the best sorcerer spell selections, you'll be able to choose the best spells for every situation as a pure mage. And a Swashbuckler has the best AC in the game.Īs for the most powerful class, it would be a pure mage. Even the Swashbuckler kit gets a +4(+5?) roll bonus when attacking after hiding. In terms of straight up combat, an arena with walls and halls will allow a thief to run to hide+backstab or set traps - or both.
I get the feeling most players don't backstab very often or set traps (aside from dragons' feet), much less use a thief to full potential. A party with 2 or 3 thieves is a wonder to see: synchronised backstabbing! A well-played thief also will scout, distract, backstab, set traps, remove illusions, attack at range, and lift the occasional item if that's your alignment. Being the only class to disarm traps makes the thief powerful enough (or important enough?) alone. They really shine in poverty/item-restricted solo runs, of course, but that's extremely niche, I believe. Sorcerers are nice, sure enough, but please remember these guys are basically nerfed Mages without the all-important ability to dual-/multi-class. I think Assassin/Fighter and dual-/multi-classed Mages (e.g.: Kensai/Mage) are at the very top of the list, with Blackguard being a not-so-close second. First of all, mind the semantics-what does 'powerful' mean? A class with the highest potential? The most consistently strong class? Also, timing/level window matters a lot (a monk at level 6 is a total pushover, while a monk at level 16 is a force of nature).Įither way, I can say with a very high degree of certainty that Barbarian and Blackguard are the easiest and the fastest to beat BG1 with (I can do it with either on Insane in 90 minutes, give or take, without resorting to speedrunner's arsenal of tricks). Sorcerer is just a lazy man's pick, I guess: no pre-planning (either strategical-as in where the hell should I get that scroll? or tactical-as in what the hell should I memorize for that Fire Giant encounter?) whatsoever required, everything is built-in. It is obvious dual- and multi-classed Mages are stronger in BG2. The huge popularity of Sorcerer puzzles me, sort of. I wish it at least contributed to unique dialogues or more background info in quests. It just seems like anything they can do, some other class can do better, and the lore bonus doesn't interest me much because it doesn't offer anything that Identify or a Priest can't already do. The class I've struggled to find a use for overall is the Bard. As soon as a battle starts, I anticipate the first move by casting dispel, rush into close quarters, cast True Seeing, and then smash the crap out of them. As it is, the Inquisitor is so much better than the Wizard Slayer. I don't want a game-breaking Barbarian or Wizard Slayer, but they could've added some special bonuses or feats at levels 10 or 15 just to make them competitive. It's almost as if, in order to enhance the playability of weaker classes, some of the stronger ones were neglected. In the advanced stages, the Barbarian really takes a step back and the Wizard Slayer suffers a bit as well. At the opposite end of the spectrum would be the Mage and the Druid. In the beginning of the game, I would say Ranger / Paladin are the strongest, especially because of immunities, minimum rolls, etc. Hence this question is too broad to answer in a meaningful way. And without meaning to, I've demonstrated that circumstances, stages of the game, play style, itemisation and tactics all play a huge part in the usefulness (or otherwise) of character classes in battle. that Thief could use Dispelling Arrows followed by Biting Arrows to ruin your day. Even once that sorcerer is higher level and has Stoneskins, Mirror Image etc. well you could, but that'd become very tedious very quickly.
You can't exactly rest after every hobgoblin you come across. I'd like to see a lv1 Sorcerer (who would be many people's pick for the strongest class over the course of the saga), taking out a Thief with a bow if he were out of spells or if Sleep is saved or disrupted. If we are talking combat ability, then I think the thief is consistently last in terms of power is still unfair. Technically a Thief is the most important class, because it is nigh impossible to complete large parts of the game without one, whereas you can make do without most other classes without crippling consequences. This is a very broad question, and really quite impossible to answer properly in my opinion.