A gnome Fighter/Illusionist is killer. Stoneskin, mirror image, and other goodies make him a complete beast. The gnome is the only multiclass that can specialze the mage and he gains an extra spell or something. Plus with 19 intelligence, it is going to be awesome. My favorite class by far.

He really comes into his own in BG2 though, with spells like sunfire and the like. My favorite build

A Cleric/Mage gains the ability to put arcane and divine spells together eg. loading 3 (normally slow casting) ‘Bolt of Glory’ into a ‘Spell Trigger’ or ‘Chain Contingency’ makes a fine howdy-do to that pesky Dragon/ Demon in bg2.

To you. You obviously play a very different game than I do.

BG 1 is the same for everyone.

Unless you only play the main quest for some reason, there is more than enough xp in the game to cap everyone in a party of 6 (it was designed that way you know). And it's a fact that it takes just as much xp to get a lvl 8 fighter or a lvl 7/7 fighter/mage, just look at the xp tables or bjbrown's post if you don't believe me.

Frankly I'm not sure why you're so stubborn about this when it's obvious you're wrong.

This. Also, while I wouldn't want one as my only priest or my only mage, C/M makes for a fine secondary caster in either class.

Depends on the combo and what you're using it for. The Fighter/Mage becomes obscenely overpowered towards the higher levels (sometime in mid-SoA he should get to the point where he can carry the entire party), and once you have enough points to be competent at your core skills multi-class thieves are just plain better than single-class thieves, but aside from that it's really a matter of preference. You need to expend spell slots to do it, but when those self-buffs are active a Fighter/Mage is simply incomparably better than a pure Fighter. Like any mage character, it's about managing your resources between encounters. That will be tough throughout most of BG1, since at low levels you have precious few spell slots, but towards the end of the game he should be mature enough to rock out properly.

That's bullshit, and you know it. Well, I can't do that, can I? Neither can I add or subtract any mods and tweaks. After all, BG1 is the same for everyone, right? Of course I am. That's because you're infallible.

Ok, let me rephrase. Unmodded BG 1 is the same for everyone, and no mods that I know of so drastically change xp gain or the way levelling works that you can't reach the xp cap on a character who was part of a 6-member group.
And no mod that I know of changes the fact that it takes the same amount of xp to reach lvl 8 fighter or lvl 7/7 fighter/mage.

That's not what I meant. BG 1 is an exploration-based game, and if you only play the main quest you're basically cheating yourself out of most of the game. I'd wager most people do take their time exploring in BG, and they do reach the xp cap while doing so, considering even a fairly easy (provided you have protection from petrification) area like the basilisk one awards about 30k xp.

Of course I'm not infallible. In this case you just have to look at the fucking manual to see I'm right, however.
It's also nice to see you've basically ignored every other poster who agreed with me.

You're completely ignoring the facts, and instead trying to argue simply by being aggressive and distorting what I say.
So fine, you win, you can't reach the xp cap when playing with 6 characters (despite the fact that I, and lots of others have done just that many times in vanilla BG 1) and multiclasses will end up several levels below pure classes no matter what the xp tables in the manual say. Happy now?

The point, lest you have forgotten, is that you assert that a F/M is the best tank in the game. I dispute that (at least in the early game), but I won't convince you, and you won't convince me -- the manual means nothing in this: it's an opinion, one that you are defending aggressively, not me.

What.

One, I wasn't the one who insulted you (and yes calling me out for thinking I'm "infallible" IS an insult in my book), and your last post before this one was very obviously aggressive.

Two, whether a fighter/mage or a fighter is a better tank is indeed a matter of opinion. However, that's not all we disagreed on.

It's mighty convenient of you to forget your own words:
"you just simply don't have the experience available, unless you use mods/cheats", or (in response to me saying there would be just 1 level difference at cap between a pure fighter and a fighter/mage) "You're forgetting shared experience. The figures you are quoting may be true for a solo F/M, but not for a F/M in a group of 5 other party members. It ain't going to happen."

All of which is blatantly false. You just have to look at the xp tables to figure that out.
Basically, the reasons you stated for disagreeing that a fighter/mage was a better tank were objective statements about xp and level differences, and they're wrong.
So I'm actually waiting for the real reason why you don't like fighter/mages as tanks. If it's just a subjective matter of opinion, then say so instead of making false statements.

I have made no false statements. Figures do not make facts. End of story.

So, you don't actually have enough xp available to make a lvl 7/7 fighter/mage in BG 1 then, which is just 1 level below a lvl 8 fighter which you get with the same amount of xp?
I guess those xp tables are full of lies, every other BG player who made a guide is a filthy liar and you're the only repository of truth.
And you were calling ME infallible. Pot, kettle, remind you of anything?

I just hate people who refuse to admit when they're wrong, so this "discussion" is over.

It was never a discussion. Just your arrogant assertions and blustering.

Honestly, I don't want to get in the middle of this, but I really don't see how mystral was arrogant or blustering. He just pointed out that you can reach the XP cap with a multiclassed character and be almost as high a level as a pure class whether in a party or not, no mods needed. Which is absolutely correct. I'm actually quite bewildered why it got so heated.

Exactly.
Hickory wrote this:
It's wrong, & instead of just admitting he was wrong, he turned it into a slinging match to try and muddy the waters.