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The following strategies do not reveal the plot of the game. Minimal spoilers.
Last updated: 10 March 1999

Dual Class Fighter / Wizard

The most powerful character class in the game is a human dual class figher / wizard. This class combines the unrivaled level of weapon proficiencies of the fighter with the potent offensive spells only a high level wizard can cast.

Humans may advance to any level in AD&D, unlike other races. This does not make a difference in Baldur's Gate or its upcoming expansion pack Tales of the Sword Coast, but may come into play in furture expansions / sequels.

Start as a fighter character, making sure you have an intelligence score of 18 to get the maximum spell level, % to learn spell, and max # spells/level bonuses you will need as a wizard later. Advance as a fighter to level 5, building up hit points and weapon proficiencies. Then dual class to a wizard, but make sure you have less than 29,000 XPs experience points total, as 29,000 (as a fighter) + 60,000 (level 7 wizard, max in the game) = 89,000 XPs (XP cap in the game).

Dual Class Fighter / Thief

Another interesting character class is a dual class figther / thief. Just imagine how much damage this character can do in a backstab!

Redistributing your ability scores

Wisdom - unless you are some sort of priest, lowering your wisdom has no ill effect besides a penalty on your lore rating. But you don't need a high lore rating, do you? Just use your identify spell, or have a bard in your party.

Charisma - Name Imoen (charisma 16) your party leader, let her handle all the negotiations with shopkeepers and other NPCs, and you can get away with a charisma of 3 yourself.

Now you can redistribute the ability score points to the more important abilities. Pump up your dexterity to 18. Any character can benefit from a -4 AC adjustment. And you get a +2 bonus to the to hit roll when using a ranged weapon as well. Ranged weapons are so deadly in the game that you would want to use them well.

Rangers and their racial enemies

If your character is a ranger, consider choosing spiders as your racial enemy. They are quite tough to kill especially in early game, and your whole party can be poisoned before you know it.

Just do not choose things like gibberlings, xvarts or kobalds, that are easy enough to kill to begin with.

Dual Class Wizard / Thief for Imoen

A popular strategy is to dual class our trusty thief Imoen to a Wizard when she reaches level 6 thief. Any party can use to extra firepower of mage spells. Be sure to take in another thief in the party, as Imoen will be unable to use her thieving skills for quite a while.

The Ring of Wizardy

This useful ring allows the wearer to memorise double the number of first level mage spells. Get ready for magic missile mayhem!

It is found on the Friendly Arm Inn map at the position X2552, Y3760 (press "L" on the keyboard to display the current coordinates of the mouse cursor). It is at the bottom of the map, a short walk to the east from the entrance of the Friendly Arm.

The only trouble is, to get the ring, you must start the game with an unpatched Baldur's Gate version (version 1.0.4309 for my copy). If you start the game after patch version 1.1.4315 is applied, the ring will not be there. You will need to export your character, uninstall BG, install BG, import your character, start right from the beginning, to get the ring (well, that is exactly what I did, *sign*).

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