Hey guys, anyone managed this yet, i started at level 1 with a fighter mage cleric and am now in dragons eye level 1. I found this the hardest right at the start, killin bug etc when you have a thaco of 20 is hard, the goblins south of easthaven were a headache, but all seems well now.
Not lookin forward to the final boss, the instant dispell spell at the start and the dispell traps should make things difficult, although santuary should allow me to rebless -
I chose my class without much thought, now i realise the cleric was a good choice as i have high level spells early in the game, summon skele is probably the most useful spell to have, i got it before entering the orc cave in east haven.
Main problem i found was the inability to force attack with one character, it may be classed as foul play but i had to create another character just to force the door of the hut with the wolf - then deleted him.

Anyway any advice would be great - not lookin forward to tryin to get through the trial of the luremaster on heart of fury.

l8r

rob

<font face="Verdana" size="3" color="#00FF00">Yes, I did this and I used the same class. The luremaster was actually not that bad as by the time you get there you are at a high level with a very powerful cleric. Just remember Sanctuary is your friend. Starting is the hardest and it took me forever to clear out the orc caves at the beginning and involves lots of running to town to rest. It was kill an orc or possibly two if you are lucky run back to town rest repeat, rinse wash dry lots of this throughout the game but it is most painful in the orc caves as you are still a twerp. I did not bother with the wolf as I could not get the door open. Other than that everything else is achievable. Use spell combos, summons, and whatever tools you have at your disposal and remember santuary is your friend.</font>

[ 06-27-2005, 02:33 PM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

Welcome!

You can force attack with only one character. You have to click on the quick weapon icon again (after clicking once to select).

Now, what you cant do with a single character only is the stop command.

Good luck with your game.

-ZFR

<font color = lightgreen>The worst thing about starting mages in HoF from the beginning is the lack of spells available. However, do a search for "Auril's Bane" and download that; there is another merchant who sells scrolls in Griselda's tavern. [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

It is possible to earn more than 20k xp before encountering the goblins, so at least you can earn some hp and that all-important Animate Dead spell. For the door to Aspel's store with no thief in the party, try bashing or Knock.</font>

hey!

nice to see another soloing experience posted here.
i tried to solo as a F/M/T. i had reached malavon's palace when i had to put my game on hold. i hope to take it up soon.

anyways, i consider skeletons as cheap fodder. sure they stand up better against enemies who wield slashing weapons but i loved the time i got hold of the elemental summons scrolls. then i'd just conjure 5 fire elementals who'd clear the opposition for me. they are especially effective against snow creatures eg: trolls and frost salamanders. later in lower dorn's deep too where the other elementals are vulnerable to fire damage from the fire salamanders, the fire elementals dished out crushing damage while being resistant to fire. its even better if you cast haste on them.

but all this was on insane and not on heart of fury.

all the best and keep posting...

cool - thanks i didnt know about that force attack - that wolf is essential as well as the goblins etc because santuary + 6 skele make the orc cave much easier, although finding a place to cast skeles is hard as the orcs seem to follow you when you are in sanctuary-its a case of run to one side until they follow, then run back to the start and summon them there. also why retun to the village to rest- just go outside the cave to kip.
i tried with a figher/ mage/theif and got far, but the final battle was too hard as i was relying on summons and tensers transformationto get past most difficult fights- the dispel at the begining of the battle screwed me as i didnt have enough time to cast the multitude of spells which gained me - 24 ac.

also can anyone explain why my ac was capped at -24, i would get there using blur etc then i would use the shield gained in HOW from the dwarf who fixes it - which give a bonus of +3 i think, yet my ac wont go past -24 with the f/m/t.

Also i cant seem to use any level 8 or 9 mage spells which is annoying as i wanted some good summon monsters and am stuck with shadowed lizard men, this includes the new ones on HOW- im hopin this might be different with a f/m/c

my main hope for this character is thatby begining the final battle with shield of lanthanda (or what ever its called) i should be immune to all magic, therefore the dispel at the start? well see.
also if not i can use santuary to hide and cast a few cleric spells, although not haste - but knowing the programmers those big demons that come with the iron giants will see through the santuary like bronze senturys.

Anyway ill post as i get further - on dragon eye lvl 1 still - havent played much lately.

l8r

you'll have a much more fun time once you get into the higher levels. alot more choices, tactics, and spells for the taking.

I'm back again, still in dragons eye- now level 3. spent a long time fighting all the trolls etc on lvl 2 and now am pounding into the cold wights, although these guys arent to hard on HOF mode either - my skeles cant hit them and dont last very long against any opponent anymore. Im not lookin for to fightin yxonomie- on HOF mode you get 3 mages who creep up behind you with stone skin on and cast dispel and other annoyancies, think i migt tackle them with miscast magic and my 'giving star'. there are a lot of tactics to use, but i know that fight will be hard as i cant run away to regroup or rest, and my skeles will last about 2 seconds against any monster in there.

anyone who has don this with 1 character in HOF miht wanna give any advice they have.

inabit

Rob

hope this helps you...

i've defeated yxunomei at insane wherein 3 mages appear from behind you ( itried closing the door behind me but to no avail!). i tried using summons but they were no help. before yxunomei sees you. cast web and grease at the doorway so as to prevent the mages from sneaking up on me. then i used confusion (or a spell with a similar but area of effect) to put the 3 clerics behind yxunomei temporarily out of action. if you have one more of the same spells use it on the archers north of yxunomei. my advice is not to rush her but try to disarm the traps if you can. otherwise avoid them. while enemy summons appear around you, ignore them and try to eliminate the yuan-ti clerics and archers with well-placed fireballs. by this time, the tanari'i herself will have cast all her buffung spells and will charge you. it goes without saying that you must be properly buffed before hand. kill her and then attack the mages who should be stuck in the web behind you.

all this can be accomplished within the duration of one haste spell. actually the spell should run out either just before or during the encounter with the mages. you'll need it essentially for yxunomei for which it won't let you down.

this was a really memorable fight and i had to force myself to not decrease the difficulty level.

enjoy!

how do you disarm traps with a fighter/mage/cleric? i thought you can only see them with detect traps and only disarm with a theif

You can't. You either take the pain, or avoid stepping on it.

<font face="Verdana" size="3" color="#00FF00">Magic Mirror usually lets you disable the trap and avoid the pain most of the time. All you need to do is be brave enough to set it off.</font>

[ 07-08-2005, 12:29 AM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

Mirror Image will protect you against the traps, but the ones on Dragon's Eye lvl 5 do not go away after you've set them off. It's a pain, but it might be worthwhile to track and memorize where those traps are so you can avoid them.

Too true, when I went through there with my low level party I did not have the skill to find and disarm the traps, so I had to resort to trial and error and a good memory. So good luck, you'll need it.

precisely why a thief (single or dual) is essential!

Never, ever take a single classed thief. Yes the skills are necessary in DE, but a single classed thief cannot cast spells and is terrible in combat. A multi or dual classed thief will be good enough to handle the traps in DE and everywhere else, and will have enough other abilities that it won't feel like a waste of a character slot.

Well im back, and yxnomie is dead, the battle was glorious and i am far too pleased with myself. ill give it a quick run through.
The level on a whole was ok (annoying because i had to run back and forth to sleep) but eventually i got to the queen herself.
Taking moonblades advice i cast web and grease behind to throw off the onnoying casters behind.
with my 6 skeles i was buffered and ready to go, the firt line of thought was the two mages behind yxunomei, my skeles had the honor of annoying them and stopping their irritating castings of dispel.
the next step - kill the queen - she soon summons a bunch of skeles and becomes quite annoying so i just attacked the hell out of her and she goes down pretty fast. (just before this i may have cast symbol of hopelessness and frozen a few opponents - i cant remember but that is a great spell)
anyway by this time the two mages behind you have buffed up and are through the web and grease ready to annoy, so for a taste of their own medicine i cast dispell and attack the hell out of them with what skeles i can spare and myself.
All mages gone, the hard bit begins, there are still a lot of yuan ti and my buffers are running out. after a few are down my haste has run out and i am next to useless because of the fatigue, on goes santuary, then a couple of bless spells, a haste (which removes the santuary) and im away.
At this point i had utilised almost all of my spells on the remain yuan ti - greater command is great, they just fall about you, confusion, symbol of hopelesness, and the fantastic chromatic orb to freeze the ones that move.
i cut down the remainder and one remains, my haste has run out and the yuan ti breaks from my spell and we fight it out, i eventually have to run and cast offensive magic (of which i have little) and he falls on my final attack.

VICTORY - now i just have to find a way to open all these trapped, locked crates without a thief - where did i put that knock spell?

on a further note - i have survived ok without a theif by forcing locks but i do not know what attribute makes you more likely to open them in this way ad am now having trouble. Also i dont think i can learn knock anyway - but you cant have everything and without the fighter in me, id be screwed, without the mage - no haste or stoneskin when it comes, and without the cleric no early skeles and no great spells. so no space for a theif in a solo game like this.

l8r rob

Use draw upon holy might to increase your strength. Should help you force a few more locks. But you're really going to want to have knock aren't you?

Yes, you will want Knock - iirc, the locked chests in DE are annoyingly hard to open. Str is the attribute that allows you to bash locked containers and doors.

A tip for using DUHM - it increases the current Str of your character - so take a giant strength potion before casting and your Str score will be correspondingly higher (unless you can get up to 25 Str without it).

Well i used champions strength as DUHM did seem to raise my strength above 20 - even tho im lvl 15 cleric and have a base str of 18/76 - although i would like omeone to explain what the /76 part means and why it only occur at strengths of 18.
i got all the chests in DE open now and am off to the hand, this place should not be too hard with all my mental magics and the hordes of humanoids to brainwash charm etc, although fights upon entry of a room are harder because i have no time to summon skeles and there are quite a few here.

l8r rob

Fighters (and fighter multi and dual-classes) have percentile strength rolls at 18 strength.

basically, the higher the better (18/00 actually means 18/100, so it's the best roll possible)

If you are not too worried about XP then large sections of The Hand are optional. You could just use Sancuary and walk through the quests untouched - I used that option quite often with my low-level party. Quite a lot of the items & treasure are out in the open, so it may be possible to complete the chapter by fighting just one or two people.
Good luck. MG

haha i waded through the hand and it was easy, not sure i even got hit because of my buffs. i just killed terikan and got rid of his minions and am collecting the treasure, some of the traps fire electric circular thing - cant remeber the name - but that usually crashes my program which is annoyin, i have all the patches and it has made no diff so onward and upward.

I have a great system for buffering now that means i rarely get hit. here it is in order of casting
cats grace - group protection from evil - stone skin - courage - prayer - recitation - improved invis - haste - blur - mirror image - prot from evil (which stacks) - enthropy shield - DUHM - defensive harmony -
this gives a nice -26 ac and is over in about 3 mins -
then off into battle - as soon as the haste runs out i stick on sanctuary - unfailing endurance - prayer - recitation - DUHM - enthropy shield - shield of lanthanda - haste (which breaks the santuary hence the need for shield of lanthanda) righteous wrath of the faithful and derfensive harmony (somewhre in the HEAL if neccesary)

this set me up for another haste length battle with -26 ac still. when it runs out rinse and repeat as neccesary- the third is my last shot as after this im out of buffing spells - to make the final line of defence you can add a blood rage to the mix - i havent resorted to this yet but i know it works wonders as the haste righteous wrath of the faithful and blood rage each increase attack rate, you hit bout 25% more damage - but it is a last resort because whn the blood rage runs out your screwed.

But there you go, this has been working for a while - im irritated that i cannot go past -26 AC and can anyone explain why?

catch you l8r

[ 07-16-2005, 11:07 AM: Message edited by: RoobokWebak ]

Do you really need to go past -26AC? o.O

Ok, seeing as it's HoF mode, I can see why XD, but nothing in normal mode (outside of maybe a final boss of one of the expansions) could touch you outside of a critical hit XD

My paladin was hit hard and repeatedly by spectral guards in TotL on insane with an AC of -24.

Edit: although with stoneskin, mirror image, etc, how badly do you need the AC?

[ 07-19-2005, 01:20 AM: Message edited by: Aerich ]

You need the AC to not get your spells eaten away RAPIDLY. ;)

Physical Resistance is the way to go in the later parts of the game. If you can have both, even better. If you can attain above immunity, make your AC as worst as possible.

Takes some serious itemage/spellage/potionage to get affinity (above immunity) to physical damage.

<font color = lightgreen>Dundee is right--get resistance to physical damage. With the right set of equipment, 100% slashing resistance is easily obtainable; 100% crushing is also attainable, but not simultaneously with the maximum slashing resistance. Unfortunately, after checking out all the available equipment piercing resistance has a maximum of 60%.

Needless to say, with this kind of damage resistance, AC is pointless and your tank would be able to solo all the spectral guards in TotLM effortlessly. </font>

yeah, i mean im not gettin hit anyway, i just wondered why my ac was capped, as i think with the buffs i should be at 28 or summin. NE way im nearly done on another section, havent played for awhile but am clearing out the ice salamander cave before visiting joril - also when i was in severed hand - there is a shattered soul on one of the lower levels that drops a variety of nice stuff - ive had boots a few times - anyone know what else it drops because i got a 0 AC armour like the archers in the tower of lower dorns deep - quite a nice armour for so early on.

yeah i played around with the different resistances but didnt last long, i didnt have the correct items.
Anyway i completed IWD on heart of fury mode - the final battle was easier than i thought, globe of invunerbility allowed immunity to the dispell magic that initailly got me. After that it was hack and slash, beat behefeit. Easy peasey.

Started HOW, this has been slightly harder, buriel isle was quiet hard as even with mind blank, impervious sanctity of mind and magic resistance, i still got hit by the virgins wail and hopelessness. eventually managed to kill them before they managed it.

After this it has been simple - i have reached the part before the final boss and decidied to do TotLM, this too has been pretty easy too - although i just fought a shambler which are immune to crushing damage - thats annoying, and i know there are more later in the game so anyone any suggestions because my cleric cant use slashing weapons, so i could only summon trolls and use magic and that took ages - not lookin forward to fighting several like that.

other than that i cant see there being too many problems - summon shades - the lvl 6 or 7 summon is nice - lizard men + blood rage = 30 damage per hit, add haste and righteous wrath and your onto a winner - although even like that they get wasted pretty fast by drwoned deads - also where do i get the mace 3 white doves - i forgot.

Anyway ill let you know when i have completed it all - maybe then i can stop startin the game again.

You buy the 3 White Doves from the priest of Waukeen in Lonelywood, iirc.

Shamblers are vulnerable to electricity. I had a few static charges going when I got to the shambler area on my last time through, and they all went down like they'd been hit by lightning. ;)

A Chain Lightning and some Lightning Bolts should do it for your F/M.

right, well after a little trouble with a nasty set of stairs, i am on my way through TotLM.
HOW was worth little mention, thosewailing virgins are annoying, but 3 white doves makes short work of everything.
TotLM however is a different story - the shamblers are a big problem for a cleric - on HOF mode it has so much health and all i have is spells and summons, so it takes ages to kill. Once i was into the mansion, the three genie type things upstairs after the bit with stubbletoes were quite hard, nothing a bit of tensers transformation couldnt handle tho.

Beholders - now these guys are hardcore - instant dispell as soon as you are within sight - and from what i have found, no way of blocking it - hundreds of instant death spells - and about 1/3 of these hit me. Believe me i would not like to fiht three of these at once. My current tactic is a bit cheap but - sign of hopelessness, they cant move or anything and you just hit hit hit, which takes forever as your not hasted or anything else. but there you are its one way around it.

Im just in the start of the dungeons now so, maybe not long until i finish TotLM - after this HOW will be a sinch, so then my mission ill be done - complete it all with one character in HOF mode. Mayb then i can play a new game raher than the same one a hundred times

dah dah - TOTLM and HOW completed - nothing to hard to report - final boss of both were easy. stone nuicances were not stone or a nuicance after a dispell magic, hehe. i think the hardest part was upstairs in the mansion when i had to fight two beholders at once, that took me a few goes, as did the fight with the three genie things. Other tha that, this mission wasnt so hard.
i would be interested so se if a f/m/t can do it tho as santuary was super handy, mainly for allowing me to remove fatigue and rebuff without gettin hit.
Think it might be hard without this option. I cant think of any dual class combos that could be tried, my guess would be that you can eventually complete it with any caracter solo, but with most it will be very frustrating and slow, so anyway thats it or me. Maybe i can find another game with as much replayablity.

Take it easy
l8r

well, great to hear that you finished the whole game plus the expansion (and the expansion of the expansion!) i have not touched my game from where was 2 months back. will definitely take it up again by next year. too much to study now. and no comp too. my character is a F/M/T. the sort you seem to be curious about. only problem so far is that i've not got any reliable source to TotLM. even gamespy seemed to ask for things i could not provide, though i seem to forget what they were now.

meanwhile i hope to see a few guys try to finish it with weird characters such as a bard (which i personally feel is the most useless character in the entire game and should be used only to increase the difficulty level).

will return to this topic next year for sure!

cheers!

Outstanding work RoobokWebak, and a brave decision to try it in the first place. I only ever tried solo on Insane (with and F/M/T oddly enough Serak) and that was difficult enough.

Strangely, it seems that the cleric side of the character really saved your hide on more than one occasion. I guess I've gotten into the habit of using mages in a destructive capacity too much. Perhaps I'll go over this thread again 'cause it sure made food for thought...

Lord Brass,

clerics and mages have been stereotyped as defensive and offensive magic users, thus the image associated with them. even i prescribe partly to this view since i (subconsiously, perhaps) use my mage to harm and my cleric to heal/protect/stave off attacks.

in my experience, instead of using up the slot with a cleric, i prefer to use a mage and rest more frequently to heal. this makes up for about 75% of what i use my cleric for.

The very spells each class receives reinforces that point of view I suppose.

Horses for courses I guess, but I find on-hand healing a nice treat to have (if not a life saver often enough). Also, don't you find it a little difficult to stomach the "You've rested for x days." lines that you get? It might be realistic in a sense, but I feel that I have a self-imposed time limit I must keep to - otherwise the bad guys will have run away by the time I get back!

I was really surprised when i saw this. when i stopped the game in between, i was close to 3 years into it. But since it does not affect the game in any way (negatively especially) i don't have any qualms. But in the latter part of my session i was interested in increasing the no of days. when i install TotLM and HoW too i hope to have spent more than 10 years in the dale!!!

Nice! Not so much a game as a lifestyle. [img]smile.gif[/img]