Bard	The standard bard is, well, pretty standard. He has everything detailed previously.
Blade	The blade is essentially a bard that can kick some serious butt. He has offensive spin and defensive stance abilities to help him get the butt-kicking done. Offensive spin endows the bard with +2 bonuses to hit and damage, along with an extra attack per round. Defensive stance awards a one-point armor class bonus for every level up to a maximum -10 bonus. The bard cannot move while using defensive stance. Both skills last 24 seconds. The downside to this kit is that the bard is only half as effective at picking pockets and identifying items as a regular bard. Also, the blade's battle song does not improve over its level 1 power.
Jester	The sole quality of the jester that deviates from the norm is that his battle song is hostile to the enemy party rather than helping your party directly. All nearby (30 feet) enemies must save versus magic at +4 each round, or they'll be confused.
Skald	A true warrior bard, the skald has a +1 bonus to hit and damage, and his song gives party members a +2 bonus to hit, damage, and armor class up to level 14. At level 15, the bonus increases to four points, and at level 20, the skald's friends also gain immunity to confusion, fear, and stun. His weakness is his relative ineptitude at picking pockets. This is my favorite bard class, as I never pick pockets, so it literally has no disadvantage in my eyes.

Mages

While these wizened adventurers are surely the weakest in the game at low levels, they become exponentially more powerful as they advance. A high-level mage can kill enemies with naught but a touch (finger of death) or cause a 40-foot wide cloud of acid to engulf his enemies (acid storm), for example. No party should go into battle without a powerful mage in back.

Wizard

The wizard is your standard, run-of-the-mill spellcaster. He can cast spells from any of the eight schools of magic, but cannot wear armor. Wizards can wield daggers, staffs, darts, and slings. All mages can obtain a familiar - a small character that will fight alongside the mage. The mage gains a bonus of half the hit points of the familiar. However, if the familiar dies, the mage loses those hit points as well as a point of constitution permanently. Mages need high intelligence ratings to be effective. Wizards can advance to level 17 in Baldur's Gate II.

Wizard Kits

Wizard	The standard wizard is detailed in the previous section.
Specialist mages	If a mage chooses to specialize in one school in particular, he becomes a specialist mage. Specialists are identical to regular mages with a few exceptions. They can cast an extra spell at each spell level, and they cannot cast spells in their opposing school. Multiclassed characters cannot become specialist mages (with the exception of the gnomish fighter/illusionist).

Sorcerer

The sorcerer is a sort of wizard, but rather than having to memorize spells, the sorcerer learns the spell once and remembers it forever. As such, he can cast more spells per day than a run-of-the-mill wizard, but his spell library is also severely limited. Once a spell is added to the sorcerer's repertoire, it's there forever. Be sure to choose your spells wisely (see this guide's spells section for advice), as you'll be kicking yourself if you waste a valuable slot on a spell you'll never use. All sorcerer spells are tied together by level. That is, while it may look as though you have six of each level 1 spell, you really have six level 1 spells altogether. (Casting a magic missile will also decrement your chromatic orb count by one, for example.) Also note that the sorcerer cannot use scrolls. Like wizards, only humans, elves, and half-elves can be sorcerers. Sorcerers can reach level 17.

Specialist Title	School	Opposing School
Abjurer	Abjuration	Alteration
Transmuter	Alteration	Abjuration and necromancy
Conjurer	Conjuration/summoning	Divination
Diviner	Divination	Conjuration/summoning
Enchanter	Enchantment/charm	Invocation
Illusionist	Illusion	Necromancy
Invoker	Invocation	Enchantment and conjuration
Necromancer	Necromancy	Illusion

 

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