I wanted a fighter to be able to dual to a fighter thief for BG2 and started off OK. Now my fighter is Level 6. He is ready to level up to Level 7, but the dual class button is greyed out. My fighter has DEX and STR both of 17 which are required to dual class for a thief and my Thief is Level 7.

I guess I am missing something but I don't know jut what! Can anyone help, please?

Thanks

Is your fighter human? Only humans can Dual Class. Any other race (including half elves and half orcs) can only multi-class, which must be selected at character creation.

I suspect Bookwyrm's explanation is correct. For completeness, I will note that dual-classing also requires alignment compatibility. If the second class cannot be a given alignment (such as Thief, which cannot be Lawful Good) and you created the character with that alignment (and a Fighter can be Lawful Good, so you could have a LG Fighter), you will be unable to dual-class into a Thief even if you are human and meet the statistic requirements.

You may find it useful to review https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Classes

20 yrs on and ppl still can't get a hold of 2e basics... With whole of the Internet at their disposal.

TBF it can get confusing.

Not in the depth needed to play BG1/2. And what's not confusing? Everything in comparison and all that. 3/3.5? Very debatable. What's difficult to understand that the lower the number against your AC, THAC0 and Saving Throw, the easier it is to roll it? And it's the most frequently expressed complaint. Even tho in each and every edition there's a ton more of various quirks and implementation-specific nuances. But what's difficult in knowing that humans dual, all others do a multi??

What's confusing is that we have 10 or 12 different versions of D&D to keep track of. Not to mention all the other similar game systems.

BG obviously uses a particular version. So I've no idea what you're talking about.

You'll need to beat it at least once to get a hold of the basics, plus wikis such as fandom.com are your friends, especially if you're not too much inclined to read the manual (and who is?)).

But the basics such as AC, THAC0 etc are really.. basic.

You make very good points. I feel like perspective also plays a role. It's easy enough for us to understand. But for the layman, the amount and type of information can get overwhelming. I sometimes feel this way when I try to take on a new RPG system.

As it happens I also played BG1/2 back in the day around when they first came out, and admittedly didn't understand shit. Granted, I was 11-13 yo at the time, was only learning English and had no Internet access. Maybe all these posters are in the same boat? ;-)

Thanks for all of your comments - apologies for the slow response. I kind of knew that I wanted my fighter to be human, which he is) thanks Bookwyrm627. And thanks Advowson, I totally overlooked that he needed to be compatible with a thief's alignment. So I was beyond the pale before I started!

So it is back to the drawing board - start again - and make sure that I get the alignments right!

Thanks again Advowson.

Good man, but may I inquire why you would want a fighter/thief? The sort of a standard is to start BG1 with a fighter/mage multi, import to BG2 where it would fulfill the potential

I was going to play multi fighter/mage half-elf and when I read that multi can specialize but not master I hit "quit". My Human is going to be a grand master in sling but maybe it's a big waste who knows.
As for the Thief I fully agree, any Thief companion should be more than enough.

it is possible to still become a thief at the end of bg2... which also allows enought time to get your Fighter levels back but that takes a long time so restarting is fine too :)

Redacted