Hi!

I wonder, I haven't even finished the SoA part of IA, so it will take some time yet, but I before played a swashbuckler 10/ cleric 20 thrugh SoA (before ToB was released) and found it very versatile. Do any of you IA experts consider this build good enough for IA?

Regards

Personally I think that the Swashbuckler reaches his real power only after 25 level. So I would never dualclass a Swashie (besides they level up really fast).

Of course this doesn't mean that a Sw.-Cleric isn't a good character, but (if you don't need the thief abilities) a Berserker-Cleric (7-x) for example, with G.Mastery would be a much better fighter.

I'm in no way a BGII expert, let alone an IA expert, but if you're having trouble fitting thieving abilities into your party then it probably isn't a bad way to do it (only costs you 160k xp or 1 cleric level). Having said that you will be missing out on some of the cooler thief HLA's and a fighter/cleric is always going to be more tankable (better armour, grandmastery etc). Also be aware that you will require 675k xp to reach level 11 as a cleric - make sure that you memorise plenty on knocks during this time, and perhaps save a few scrolls to memorise for the xp.

Yes admitted the Berserker 7-x is perhaps a better choice for IA. I recall having chosen this build that many years ago as I lacked good clerics and the thieving abilities. I hate playing Anomen these days, as I find him being obnoxious and having racistic toned dialogs. But it takes a while to reach the level where I gain back the thieving skills...

Used the swash 10 cleric as a second multiplayer created party member in my first IA run and found him very useful, basically what you have is a character who covers your theiving skills gets +3 bonus to AC and Thac0 and in exchange in the long run has no disadvantages as compared to a single class cleric. In fact by wearing the new thief armour with swashie bonuses he in fact gets better armour class than a full plate clad cleric.

Over all its a very solid build for IA especially if you dont want to use a slot on a thief based character.

Thanks for the knowledge Clown, I'll consider it for the future.