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Baldurs Gate: Dark Alliance
Dwarven Fighter FAQ
Written by Jake Sexsmith aka grand lethal 364
Copyright 2004, all rights reserved
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Table of Contents
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1.0) Introduction
2.0) Version History
3.0) Legal Junk
The FAQ
4.1) About the Dwarven Fighter
4.2) Active Feats
4.3) Passive Feats
4.4) Stats
4.5) Strategies
4.6) Kromlech in Co-Op Mode
4.7) FAQ
The Stuff That Always Comes Last
5.0) Credits
6.0) Contact Information
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1.0) Introduction
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Hello all. My name is Jake (more prominently known as grand lethal 364, and
sometimes other aliases) and this is my first FAQ posted on Gamefaqs, so bear
with me here; it's not gold. Anyhow, I noticed that there are specialized FAQs
for both the Sorceress and the Arcane Archer, but none for the Dwarven Fighter
(hereafter referred to as Kromlech). So, I decided to put this little guide
together to help those who like using Kromlech and want to learn more about his
Feats, stats, and whatnot. Enjoy!
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2.0) Version History
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Version 0.5: Put together the very first draft of my FAQ. Its rusty, and won't
be submitted just yet until I fix it up.
Version 1.0: Fixed up my draft with spell check and added a few more bits of
information I had left out. This is the first version to be posted on Gamefaqs.
Version 1.1: Added some stuff, removed some stuff. All in all, pretty standard
update. The most notable change though is the addition of the "Kromlech in Co-
Op Mode Section".
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3.0) Legal Junk
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This guide, and all pieces of original work within it, may not be reproduced
under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed
on any web site or otherwise publicly distributed without my advance written
permission. Use of this guide on any other website than www.gamefaqs.com is
strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. All unoriginal works within
this guide, such as statistics, may be freely copied and distributed, as they do
not belong to me, and are simply facts that I am displaying. If you would like
to have my guide on your website, you must first contact me and ask my per-
mission. For contact information, see the section labeled...wait for it....
"Contact Information"...wow, who woulda saw that coming.
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4.1) About the Dwarven Fighter
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If you ask anyone who has played this game, they will tell you that Kromlech is
primarily a Melee fighter, meaning that he specializes in close hand to hand
combat. Of course, he's good with a bow in a pinch, but unless you're playing
in Extreme Mode you probably won't even need it. Also, he has only three active
feats, so most of your damage will be done with your melee weapon. This may
sound restrictive, but Kromlech has a few unique passive feats that enhance his
fighting abilities far beyond those of the other two classes. Along with some
excellent starting stats, he makes an awesome all-around character. In addition,
he is probably the best character to use in Extreme mode, just so long as you
know how to use him properly.
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4.2) Active Feats
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Because Kromlechs true strength lies in his hand-to-hand combat abilities, he is
rather lacking in the Active Feats department in terms of variety but he makes
up for it by having the most passive feats of any character class. Although you
may never need to use any of his Active Feats in Easy and Medium mode, their
are two that will be particularly useful (crucial even) in Hard and Extreme
Modes. The only other downside of his Active Feats other than lack of variety
is that the two most useful ones require you to equip a certain type of weapon
in order to use them, but even so, this shouldn't pose too much of a problem.
Clengeddin's Fist
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Level : 1st --- --- --- ---
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Points Spent : 10 --- --- --- ---
Energy Cost : 10 --- --- --- ---
Damage : 1-40 --- --- --- ---
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Notes: you can only use this skill when you have a war hammer equipped. Also
note that the closer your enemies are to you, the higher the damage inflicted
up to a maximum of 40.
Description: because this skill can only be used with a war hammer, you probably
won't use it much in easy or medium modes seeing as most war hammers you get are
pretty crappy. You will, however, NEED this feat for certain places in Extreme
Mode so once you near the end of the game in the file you will be importing
from, be sure to invest in this. Anyway, when used, Kromlech will lift his war-
hammer high above his head and bring it down with tremendous force, causing all
enemies on screen to be damaged. 1-40 may not sound like much, but it is part-
icularily useful for taking care of large groups of enemies and in Extreme Mode
you will be able to cast it quite a few times before your mana runs out as it
is relatively cheap. Also, there is virtually no "recovery time" so you can
cast it in quick succession. In addition it will temporarily stun your enemies,
making it useful for getting out of dangerous binds. In a way, it’s a lot like
the Arcane Archers Repulsion feat, but much cheaper to get. Lastly, the only
downside of so this feat is that you are not invulnerable while using it so if
you are surrounded you may be interrupted while casting this.
Whirlwind Attack
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Level : 1st --- --- --- ---
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Points Spent : 9 --- --- --- ---
Energy Cost : 20 --- --- --- ---
Damage : By Weapon --- --- --- ---
Type.
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Notes: You must have either a war hammer or a two-handed axe equipped to use
this feat.
Description: Kromlech spins around with his weapon in hand, hitting all ad-
jacent foes multiple times. This is an especially useful feat for when you are
surrounded and want to get rid of many enemies at once. In addition, it is also
quite nice for doing a little extra damage to bosses and whatnot if you're up
close. Anyway, much like Clangeddin's Fist, this feat requires you to have a 2-
handed weapon equipped, but with this one you can also use axes which makes this
a much more useful skill in easier modes. Lastly, the only thing you should
watch out for with this skill is that it's terribly expensive. If you've got
a war hammer equipped instead of an axe, you may just be better off using Clang-
eddin's fist for half the price.
Bull Rush
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Level : 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th
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Points Spent : 3 6 9 12 16
Energy Cost : 4 4 4 4 4
Damage : 13-21 18-26 23-31 28-36 33-41
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Description: A powerful charge that inflicts decent damage. At first it may
look good, but believe me, it's not worth the feat points, not by a long shot.
To begin with, it's costly to attain. By the time it's maxed out you will have
spent a total of 45 feat points on something inferior to the other two Active
Feats, which are far cheaper. The only reason you might consider investing in
this is to use it as a "Dash" command of sorts. So if you have a few extra
points in Extreme Mode (the only mode you'll really ever need it in) you may
want to invest in one rank of this.
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4.3) Passive Feats
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| Feat | Points Needed Per Level
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Dodge : ( 1) ( 2) ( 3) ( 4) ( 5)
Endurance : ( 2) ( 4) ( 6) ( 8) (10)
Toughness : ( 1) ( 2) ( 3) ( 4) ( 5)
Accuracy : ( 1)
Targeting : ( 1)
Willpower : ( 1) ( 2) ( 3) ( 4) ( 5)
Meditation : ( 1) ( 2) ( 3) ( 4) ( 5)
Intestinal Fort : ( 1) ( 2) ( 3) ( 4) ( 5)
Combat Reflexes : ( 2) ( 4) ( 6) ( 8) (10)
Death Blow : ( 1) ( 2) ( 3) ( 4) ( 5)
Improved Critical: ( 1) ( 2) ( 3) ( 4) ( 5)
Sword and Fist : ( 2) ( 4) ( 6) ( 8) (10)
Improved Block : ( 5)
Shield Expert : ( 2) ( 4) ( 6) ( 8) (10)
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Dodge: +1 Armour Class per rank. This is only really useful early on, but it's
cheap, so you may as well invest if you have a few extra points to spare.
Endurance: Increases Carrying Capacity by 15 pounds per rank. This is a good
feat to invest in now and then to keep up with the increasing weight of armor
and weapons as the game progresses. Also nice to have in 2-Player mode as you
can carry more loot out of dungeons, thus making you a lot richer than your
friend and able to buy much better equipment. yay!
Toughness: +3 hit points per rank. This is a big waste of feat points, even
early on. This should be left alone until you begin having spare points left
after Level Ups near the end of the game.
Accuracy: Improves accuracy of ranged attacks. Not particularly useful seeing
as you won't really ever need to use a bow, but come on, it's one point, what
could it hurt?
Targeting: Provides a targeting line to make aiming easier. Again, it's not
really necessary, but it's cheap, so you might as well get it. If you do decide
to use a bow, this will make it a lot easier.
Willpower: +5 mana per rank. This is a complete waste of feat points as you
will hardly ever need to use mana. This should be dead last on your priority
list.
Meditation: Improves mana regeneration rate by 25% each rank beginning at 100%.
Once again, as you won't be using much mana, it's kind of pointless to invest
in this.
Intestinal Fortitude: Increases health regeneration rate by 50% each rank begg-
ining at 200%. This is only really effective early on but you should invest in
it anyway.
*Note* Kromlech starts the game with one rank in this feat.
Combat Reflexes: Increases attack rate slightly, allowing you to hit more. This
is a must, as Kromlech will often have slow weapons such as axes or hammers equ-
iped. With this maxed out you'll still be able to hit lots, even with your uber
slow-but-powerful weapons.
Death Blow: Causes critical hits to deal much more damage than they normally
would. Also a must. Because nearly all of your damage will be dealt with melee
weapons (other than Clangedddin's Fist) you should begin making those attacks
as strong as possible. With this feat, your critical hits can deal up to four
or five times your normal attack.
Improved Critical: Increases the chance of scoring a critical hit. Goes excell-
ent along side Death Blow for improving your melee attack. With this maxed out,
you should be getting a critical hit every 4-6 attacks. Yummy.
Sword and Fist: +1 hit and +1 damage per rank. Kind of like the opposite of
Dodge in that it gives you +1 hit (accuracy) per rank with an added bonus of +1
damage as well. Normally I would advise getting this early on, but it's twice
as costly as dodge, so you should probably skip it.
*Note* this feat is exclusive to Kromlech.
Improved Block: Allows you to block continuously as if with a shield with a
melee weapon. I REALLY advise getting this, as it will allow constant blocking
even with two-handed weapons (which you will have equipped most of the game).
Add to that that it's relatively cheap for such a great feat and that you only
have to invest once. This should be near the top of your priority list.
*Note* this feat is exclusive to Kromlech.
Shield Expert: +1 Armor class per rank so long as a shield is equipped. Kind of
strange that Kromlech gets both this and Improved Block, but if you prefer to
use faster, one-handed weapons and a shield then you might want to invest in
this, although it's expensive. If you prefer two handed weapons however, you
should leave this until later.
*Note* this feat is exclusive to Kromlech.
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4.4) Stats
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Base Stats
Strength: 18
Intelligence: 10
Wisdom: 11
Dexterity: 12
Constitution: 15
Charisma: 10
Investing: My Recommendations
Strength: It's not really necessary to invest in this as Kromlech already
has 18 points in this, enough to bear the heaviest armor out
there. And if you really want more carrying capacity, just get a
few ranks of Endurance, it's not that expensive.
Intelligence: NEVER invest in this; it's a complete waste of your hard earned
point as Kromlech will never need more mana than what he's prov-
ided with level ups. Need I say more?
Wisdom: If you plan on importing your dwarf into Extreme Mode you should
probably consider investing a few points in this. If you're only
planning on one play through then this may only give you enough
experience for one extra level up, so just use your common sense
on this one.
Dexterity: This is a decent place to invest but Kromlech can already equip
heavy armor so the added Armour bonus isn't really necessary and
the +1-ranged attack is pretty useless, as you won't be using bows
much.
Constitution: This is a good place to invest in as you can capitalize on your
already high HP and improve it to massive amounts. In addition,
the added regeneration rate is nice for conserving potions. I
recommend investing heavily in this.
Charisma: Because Kromlech can equip all the best (and most expensive) equ-
ipment, you may want to invest in this once or twice. I never do,
but you should invest where it best compliments your playing
style.
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4.5) Strategies
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Well, there's only a couple of strategies available for Kromlech and not a lot
of diversity available, but here's a couple of different ways you can use the
Fighter. Choose one that best fits your playing style, or better yet, devise
your own.
Tanker Strategy:This strategy relies mainly on Kromlechs brute strenth and high
HP, allowing him to take large ammounts of damage while dealing
out even more at the same time. In this strategy you will be
investing heavily in Constitution, and moderately in Strength.
Feat-wise, you'll be investing in Death Blow, Improved Critical,
and Sword and Fist to name a few. This will allow you to deal
out massive ammounts of damage. You should probably max out
Endurance as well so that you can easily Equip the heaviest
armor. This, in conjunction with your high HP will allow you
to fight for a long time without having to use potions. Make
sure to buy the all out strongest weapons too. Using this str-
attegy you will be able to crash and smash your way through the
game, wreaking destruction in your warpath. Fun, eh?
Speed Strategy: This strategy relies on speeding through the game with quick
weapons and light armor. You'll invest in Dexterity quite a lot
as you probably won't be equiping lots of heavy armor so the
added armor bonus is nice. You may also want to invest in cha-
risma seeing as you won't be making as much money while you're
booking it through the game. Another thing to note is that you
will probably be using one handed weapons and a shield for the
majority of the game so you should probably invest in Shield
Expert. Maxing out Combat Reflexes is a must as well and you
should probably look into Dodge as well; it's fairly cheap.
You may also want a single rank in Bull Rush for dashing uses.
Using this strategy i made it through the game in Medium Mode
in about five hours.
Well, thats all i can think of for now, but if you come up with anything really
innovative, let me know. I'll give you full credit.
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Kromlech in Co-Op Mode
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Kromlechs a pretty good guy to have around in co-op mode because its usually
wise to have a melee fighter as well as a long range character together and he
fits the bill of melee fighter perfectly. In this section i'll describe the ups
and downs of the four possible combinations of characters that include Kromlech.
This should give you a good idea of the best combos that fit you and your bud-
dies playing style.
Fighter-Sorceress
This is easily the most common combination and with good reason. As afore men-
tioned, it's a good idea to have both a long range and a melee fighter and these
two are the best at these jobs. With the dwarf in wailing away with say, an axe
(and possibly adding the occasional Whirlwind Attack) and the sorceress standing
back shooting all manner of fireballs, lightning bolts and whatnot, the enemy
will be hard-pressed to stay alive. Because both characters will be at lower
levels the dwarf should invest his statistical points in Constitution as he will
be up close with the enemy all the time, and the sorceress should invest in
Wisdom so that she has more points to invest in her expensive Feats. All in all
you will probably enjoy this pairing quite a bit.
Fighter-Archer
A pretty good pairing. This is basically an alternate combination to the dwarf-
sorceress pairing but with a couple of tweaks. Personally, i like this one a
bit more because of the following points. A) The archers feats cost less so you
can invest more and get them stronger B) The archer can also melee pretty well
too, especialy with Repulsion, which gives you options and C) His Hp is a lot
higher so he dies less. yay! Anyway, in this pairing, the archer should invest
in either Strength (more space for arrows) or Intelligence (for elemental arr-
ows). It all depends on what strategy you want to use: Hail of Arrows, or elem-
ental arrows. Whatever you decide you will probably enjoy this pairing a lot.
Fighter-Fighter
*Note* You will need to import a second dwarf from a seperate file to get this
pairing.
This is a decent strategy for easier modes but not reccomended for the harder
ones. Also, it's incredibly annoying if you lose track of which dwarf is yours.
But thats just a small concern. Anyway, this strategy is pretty fun if you and
your friend just want to blast through Easy Mode in a few hours. There's really
not a lot more i can say about this pairing exept that both dwarves should put
their stat points towards Constitution so that you can stay alive longer. Good
luck!
Fighter-Drizzt
This really isn't a bad strategy (probably my second favorite) and sort of re-
sembles the fighter-archer one in that both characters can melee pretty well as
well as one character having a few good long range Feats. The only difference
is that Drizzt has less Active Feats (only two actually) but melees much better.
A strategy i really like in this pairing is to have both characters melee for a
bit, then Drizzt uses repulsion, moves back, shoots off a couple of Icy Spheres
and then returns for some more melee fun. Stat-wise, Drizzt should invest in
either Wisdom or Constitution. Neither is really nescesary, but anything else
is kinda useless. Wisdom is probably the better choice though, so that you can
further invest in Drizzts many Passive Feats.
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4.7) FAQ
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Well, no one's asked me any questions yet, and the board is pretty dead, so I
don't really have much material for this section, but I plan to update this in
a couple months.
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5.0) Credits
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CJayC: For making and maintaining such an awesome site and posting my guide.
I shall forever be in your debt.
Mark from EB Games: For recommending this game to me.
Black Isle and Snowblind Studios: For creating such an awesome game.
Happinessisnotafish: For proofreading my guide and helping me improve it.
Also for sitting through hours of Co-operative play with me and inspiring me to
eventually play through again as the Sorceress.
The people of the FFVII General Board: For providing me with a home on the
Internet for over three years. Thanks guys.
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6.0) Contact Information
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Alright, if you've got unanswered questions or just want to comment/critisize
the FAQ, this is how to get a hold of me.
E-Mail Address:
[email protected]
IM: grandlethal364 (AIM)
