A simple solution would be to switch to mage slightly later, at Berserker level 10 (500k exp). While most people already switch to Mage at level 9, switching at 10 actually fits in better with the experience tables for the two classes and the overall level cap of 8 million exp (at least if you play through the entire trilogy):

- If you already switch at level 9, your character will eventually be a level 9 Berserker/Level 30 Mage at the ToB level cap.

- If you switch at level 10, you will eventually reach level 10 Berserker/Level 30 Mage at the ToB level cap.

In other words, dualling at level 10 allows you to reach the same Mage level and simply gives you one additional Berserker level for free at the ToB level cap. This additional free level doesn't give you any major advantages (It's essentially only 3 additional HP.), but from a min-maxing point of view, this is better than nothing. Also, if you dual-class right before the end of SoD (so that you can still get the bonus HP from the familiar before you import the character into SoA), you can easily get through your downtime at the beginning of SoA by scribing scrolls.

LOL... Excellent!

Funny how I've never even considered these before...
Even when I think about SoA XP cap, it`s mere 1 mage lvl difference between the two options. It hardly matters between Berserker 9/Mage 17 vs Berserker 10/Mage 16, right?

The thing is... about these Scribe scrolls level up, How does it work?

I've heard a lot about it, but... Its merely saving up scrolls from an early game to read it then? Because I don't thing it import inventory from SoD in the second game... Even worse, learning spells as a mage gives around... 10 XP each. We're not talking about the same thing, right?

I have an ultra cheese tactic if you don't mind wasting EXP... you could simply stay level 9 and not level to 10, then dual class in Baldur's Gate 2, shedding whatever exp you have after level 9. I haven't played SoD but I have seen folk comment getting the full 500k is not that easy anyway.

Alternatively, you could wait to level 13 - the other major dual class point, and since you can potentially reach 10 before SoA, getting to 13 won't take much longer, but of course means longer down time.

Of course you could also just dual at 10 like Elrion said - just giving other options.

If the party leader has decent CHA Khalid will not run; in any case giving every party member a ranged weapon greatly reduce the need for a lot of tanks (in any case Jaheira is pretty good tank once start to find decent equipment, potentially better than Minsc being easier to boost str rather than con).

In BG2 you get 1000xp per scroll level every time you memorize it, so a 7th level scroll neats 7000xp and so on; since scrolls are very common you can hoard them, kick off the other party members and memorize everything (if have multiple copies can erase the spell and memorize it again).

Anyway, if take berserker levels just for the immunities even a single level will suffice; if for the HPs I still would not go up to 9, especially if have high con or opted for maxed HPs at level up (e.g. fighter4/wizardX). If want to be able to both fight and cast however I would opt for a multi.
As for being a drag in SoD, mind that there are tons of wands so can happily torch and bolt everything and everyone even as a L1 wizard if prefer to play BG1 as a fighter

Originally posted by gutogrando:

LOL... Excellent!

Funny how I've never even considered these before...
Even when I think about SoA XP cap, it`s mere 1 mage lvl difference between the two options. It hardly matters between Berserker 9/Mage 17 vs Berserker 10/Mage 16, right?

The thing is... about these Scribe scrolls level up, How does it work?

I've heard a lot about it, but... Its merely saving up scrolls from an early game to read it then? Because I don't thing it import inventory from SoD in the second game... Even worse, learning spells as a mage gives around... 10 XP each. We're not talking about the same thing, right?

in SoA you get 1000 exp per level 1 scroll, 2000 for level 2 etc. I am currently playing a Fighter/Mage multi class and deliberately saving my scrolling for the sequal - I think I know about 15 spells in total. I am even considering saving it from after I pick up my final party member...

Originally posted by gutogrando:

The thing is... about these Scribe scrolls level up, How does it work?

The key point is that, in SoA, you get a very solid number of exp (spell level x 1000) whenever you scribe a spell into your spellbook.

However, you can also remove spells which you have successfully learned from your spellbook. You can use this for levelling: You learn a spell from a scroll, then remove that spell from your spellbook, and use another scroll to learn the spell again.

For instance, consider a basic level-1 spell such as Magic Missile. If you find a Magic Missile-scroll in SoA, you can remove Magic Missile from your spellbook and then use the scroll to learn it again. This gives you 1000 exp. Given that Magic Missile scrolls are very cheap, it is easy to obtain plenty of scrolls and repeat this process for levelling. Note that this does not involve any cheat or exploit; it's a perfectly fine way of levelling a Mage.

Originally posted by Hamish:

in SoA you get 1000 exp per level 1 scroll, 2000 for level 2 etc. I am currently playing a Fighter/Mage multi class and deliberately saving my scrolling for the sequal - I think I know about 15 spells in total. I am even considering saving it from after I pick up my final party member...

It is not necessary to keep your spellbook empty through the whole of BG1 and SoD and not learn any spells from scrolls before SoA: As mentioned above, you can remove spells you have learned from your spellbook and then use a scoll to learn it again.

Originally posted by gutogrando:

Even when I think about SoA XP cap, it`s mere 1 mage lvl difference between the two options. It hardly matters between Berserker 9/Mage 17 vs Berserker 10/Mage 16, right?

If you only want to play SoA and skip ToB, this actually does make a little bit of a difference: Compared with a Mage at level 16, a level 17 mage has an additional level-7 and an additional level-8 spell slot. If you want to proceed to ToB anyway, it doesn't really matter though.

Originally posted by Hamish:

... you could simply stay level 9 and not level to 10, then dual class in Baldur's Gate 2

There's one thing to keep in mind if you remain a Berserker in SoD and only dual after you have imported your character to SoA: If you already have a familiar in SoD and import the character to SoA then, you get the permanent bonus hit points from your familiar twice (once when you summon your familiar in SoD, and again when you resummon your familiar in SoA). However, if you remain a Berserker in SoD and only dual-class in SoA, you cannot get a familiar in SoD because you are not a Mage yet. Thus, you only get the permanent bonus hit points from the familar once.

If you play insane or core difficulty, this is only a minor difference of 12 versus 6 permanent bonus hit points. If you play on Legacy of Bhaal difficulty, however, it's actually a difference of 44 versus 22 permanent bonus hit points (because Legacy of Bhaal provides a huge hit point boost to all summoned creatures, including your familiar, and this affects the number of permanent bonus hit points your character gets from the familiar).

Given all the side quests you should be able to cap at 500k well before the final chapter of SOD. So you should have your berserker abilities back for that ending.

One of my 3 current BG2 MCs is a Berserker 9> Mage dual class. I took this path, I continued in SOD until I hit 250k XP. (I have finished SOD 3 or 4 times already and have no inclination to do more frankly) I dual classed to mage (selecting a couple of 1st level spells as my starting spells that are rarer finds in BG2 such as Spook) and saved the game.

I imported my MC into SOA from that save. I also made sure I had the golden pantaloons and a couple of other items that I like and will transfer into BG2 in my backpack.

Once in Irenicus' playroom I proceeded to copy every scroll found therein. IIRC I reached 7th level mage by the time I escaped. After a couple of early BG2 quests I hit 10th mage and had my berserker abilities back.

If you go to 10th level berserker you will have to reach 11th as mage which is an additional 375k XP. Not horrible but not much to gain IMHO for the effort.

Dualing to mage in the middle of SoD isn't bad because of how the encounters are designed in that game. In general (but particularly on the higher difficulty levels), the game throws a lot of enemies at you and AoE spam becomes an efficient tactic for handling the enemies. As long as your mage can use a Wand of Fire, he'll be useful on that difficulty. You'll also reach level 8 very quickly (even with a full party) and a Mage with access to level 4 spells is useful. After your first battle in SoD as a level 1 Mage, you'll probably be level 5.

Originally posted by wendigo211:

Dualing to mage in the middle of SoD isn't bad because of how the encounters are designed in that game. In general (but particularly on the higher difficulty levels), the game throws a lot of enemies at you and AoE spam becomes an efficient tactic for handling the enemies. As long as your mage can use a Wand of Fire, he'll be useful on that difficulty. You'll also reach level 8 very quickly (even with a full party) and a Mage with access to level 4 spells is useful. After your first battle in SoD as a level 1 Mage, you'll probably be level 5.

that's actually really clever and so obvious I wish I thought of it! a level 1 mage, with lots of good gear and really high hp! you could even, for example, equip him with the two rings of fire resistance, a mage robe of fire resistance, making him immune to fire... give him the bracers of the death, lowing his AC quite a bit, maybe a necklace of protection and balderan's clock then just run in fireballing everything while standing in it laughing!