Hey guys, first letme say ive read some posts here & many are entertaining & imformative - keep up good work all.


Now to my little "strategy":

After playing through SoA a few times & recently getting ToB (not to mention being a big Diablo2 fan) - I decided to try something VERY different before working my way through ToB, as i'm only up to Watcher's Keep at this point.

My strategy came from this idea i had playing a "normal" game:
Once a mage has learned time stop & improved alacrity, almost any monster/s become fodder pretty easily, especially with the robe of vecna. If a mage was strong enough (Irenicus pefect example) surely he/she could take out entire armies without the aid of any companions....

So here's what i did:
I created a pure fighter with 18 con/str/dex/int who i immediately dualed to a pure mage once the game started. I *gifted* this char (using shadowkeeper) with 15 innate cure light wounds (for healing while resting) and 15 innate detect traps (combined with knock spells for thief duties) and then completed the first dungeon of SoA, importantantly- without any cheating of any kind.

which means this:
Since then, ive been roaming round Athkatla as usual with this char, the difference from normal being : I HAVE NO PARTY - JUST ME!
Frankly the first dungeon (core-rules difficulty as usual) was AMAZINGLY hard with just one guy who didn't even have access to his fighter skills yet, but somehow i made it through. By the time i saw daylight however, i already had about 130,000 exp in the mage class (enough to get back fighter skills) and i then proceeded to sell everything i owned to buy scrolls in the promenarde, to memorise for early exp (which i needed quite frankly).

To say that this is an easy strategy would be a lie, it isn't. Many early battles with only one char (eg. umberhulks in nalia's keep) required a large part of luck, AND great strategy & knowledge of most mage spells. This said, now that i'm about ready to tackle the underdark with this guy i can honestly say that it isn't as hard as you might think, and it is DEFINATLY worth trying for anyone who has completed the game at least once.

A few things ive noticed:
Firstly, spells such as confusion, domination & maze become your most deadly enemies- since all can/will end the game on the spot. HOWEVER, most other foes you'd normally find tough actually become quite easy in a sense. My char for example (with familiar) had around 100 hp when first entering Athkatla, so combined with stoneskin & mirror image melee isn't that difficult unless your facing a bone golem or something very melee intensive. next, playing solo you gain SIX TIMES the experience you normally would in a party (no people to share xp with) so you levelup like CRAZY. This means your saving throws will be MUCH better than the game "expects" at whatever stage your at (making spells aimed at you often little concern), and assuming you find the scrolls- you have higher level spells than the game "expects you to have" at a certain stage.

For example: in a normal party game, id normally arrive in atkatla & do the copper coronet slave quest first, then the circus quest, nalia keep quest, then the shade lord quest. By the time my party is in the shade lord dungeon, my mages (jan, nalia, etc.) will likely have flame arrow as their most powerfull offensive spell, which is lame at low levels. Solo, my mage was hurling chain lightnings in the same area, & casting monster summoning 3s at will. This said, the game seems to have some sort of random moster AI in place dependent on the level of your highest char, so i had to kill 3 bone golems (believe it or not) in the shade dungeon instead of one.

Another important thing playing solo, is that every item you find will always be used on the same char, and all your gold will be spent to improve them. For example, i purchased both the robe of vecna (essential for a solo game) and the staff of Rynn (worth 50k combined) before stepping inside the planar sphere, a few quests after the shade dungeon, so money has never been an obstacle so far.

At the moment, my dual class fighter/mage is level 17 with 2.79 million xp, 136hp -6 AC and has 2 level 8 spell slots, and is about to voyage over to brynnlaw after meeting bohdi for the first time.


Now on to some other thoughts:
Has anyone else tried this kind of game yet, or am i the only one crazy enough to try? If so, i'd be keen to hear about how others have fared. Personally I wouldn't consider soloing with anything but a mage or mage combo(summoning monsters to help is crucial for big battles), but maybe other classes are possible also. Kensai/mage perhaps. Actually I'm really looking forward to going one-on-one with irenicus at the end of SoA, ill try a timestop/multiple pit fiend summoning combo & see who's demon pals are stronger! After that however, ToB may get a bit tough with all the imprisonment & maze casters (from what ive heard) though ill have have the spell trap ability from the staff of magi i expect.

Anyway, look forward to hearing what everyone thinks of all this, & id encourage everyone to give it a go for themselves - it really does make playing the game a whole new experience.


*** insert witty remark to impress people here ***

Yeah, ive heard a few people going on about soloing thru the game, the only problem i can see is - the EXP cap. when i hit it, i have six characters ready to throw horrible death at anyone and anything, with all the abilitys you have. and then i stop leveling up. you hit that point 1/6 of the way thru. I guess if you removed that it would be OK. Oh, and maze?, you can forget it. its main use is to get someone out of the way while the bad guys get killed by, I mean kill the rest. If you solo its just a waste of time since they cant damage you. altho they can re-inforce and heal and stuff. Personally i prefer the strategies and tactis afforded by having a full party. and the side quests, altho I suppose if your soloing you could still take temporary chars along for that.

quote:
I created a pure fighter with 18 con/str/dex/int who i immediately dualed to a pure mage once the game started. I *gifted* this char (using shadowkeeper) with 15 innate cure light wounds (for healing while resting) and 15 innate detect traps (combined with knock spells for thief duties) and then completed the first dungeon of SoA, importantantly- without any cheating of any kind
:end quote


how did you do it without cheating if you hacked your character in shadowkeeper.? Try doing it without the extra innates and see how you go. It's easy to do without the cheats. Forget the fighter/mage, I've heard of people doing it with the sorceror (it's not that hard). Healing isn't a problem with potions and the 2 innates that you are supposed to have. As for traps, just summon something to walk far enough ahead of you to trigger anything that could go off.

My 2 cents

Yea what Starvid said..

I just don't get it... why do you want to solo the game? What's it with soloing? I mean don't get me wrong, but I never like being a loner...

Well, you did indeed "cheat" by using shadowkeeper, or let's say, you put some cheese into the game, it isn't like killing firkraag with lots of rods of cloudkills you know http://www.ironworksforum.com/ubb/no...miles/wink.gif

But then I never really tried soloing, but commonsense tells me that you will level up more quickly, so if i were, i would remove the experience cap and hack my way through fortune http://www.ironworksforum.com/ubb/no...es/biggrin.gif

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Chaotic Cavalier of ALSB, protector of the Innocent, slayer of the mad...

Most people who solo, remove the Xp cap, those who have ToB installed also effectively means no Xp cap.

The most popular kits to solo are Kensai dualled to Mage, Sorcerer, Assassin and recently, Kensai dualled to Thief.

I did that very same thing, but my character was a little different. An 18 level bladesinger dueled to a 19 level mage. He is unstopable. Question though, how do you do the fansty stuff, like adding cure light wonds and stuff. I'm useing shadow keeper, but I can figure out how to give him the spells he needs, and those other little extra things. I can change stats, but I'm lacking in my shadow keeping skills... Any tips?

I've just completed the game (including ToB) with a swashbuckler/mage (the swashbuckler dualled at 15th level) without the XP cap removed.

It was hard but not impossible but all I can say is mislead is the most overpowered spell in the game-there's a post on why somewhere in this forum.

Suffice to say it included a lot of monster summoning, time stopping and praying for the best. (And I fluked killing the big end baddy in ToB)

Solo career is boring. Get a mail character and try a full women party and enjoy the romance!! http://www.ironworksforum.com/ubb/no...iles/smile.gif)

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"Not for your eyes only, also for your beautiful ears.."

Yngwie J. Amadeus Zoltan "Diamond Fighter of Aerie Lovers Sacred Band"

Yo,

you could counter maze, stun, inprisonment and so on by creating a berserker instead of a normal fighter.

Good luck on your continuing solo adventures.

Kez

you used shadow keeper

whats the fun ?

the fun i the thoughest battels and so

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Platinum Wizard of ALSB
Wizard at The Court of Lady Lioness
Protector of All Whats good

Crymson...you don't need the healing spells if you defend yourself well. Even still, you'll just be carrying loads of heal pots.

There's no point to soloing if you're going to cheat.

Then again, there's no point to soloing in BG2. The game loses a lot of it's appeal without the interaction w/ NPCs

ILL GO NEVER SOLO ALWAYS WITH AERIE OR SOME ONE WERE I CAN HAVE A ROMANCE WITH

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Platinum Wizard of ALSB
Wizard at The Court of Lady Lioness
Protector of All Whats good

"I just don't get it... why do you want to solo the game? What's it with soloing? I mean don't get me wrong, but I never like being a loner..."

-----

Some people like tough challenges.

I have a friend who used to play Doom 2 while imposing strict rules on himself. How far can I get using only the pistol or only the chainsaw, not losing any health, etc.

Take a look at this URL

http://members.home.net/mrkevvy/journal.html

I don't like soloing, I like to have friends whit me.

But I realy level up fast if you only 3 characters to chapter 3, and that the other 3 http://www.ironworksforum.com/ubb/no...es/biggrin.gif

Wow. I can't say i expected as many replies (after only 1 day!) as ive seen, so thanks to all for some really useful advice so far.

As for questions etc., ill try to answer most if i can:
Firstly, i only used shadowkeeper for 2 reasons. One, without curing spells it took me about 30 days to cure my wounds while resting, and i didnt want to multi class to a cleric or something just for healing spells. Two, i realised that a mage has no trap detection, and again i didnt want to become a thief for just this reason alone. Without getting too defensive, ill point out that i havent touched shadowkeeper since creating my char, and ive played through on core difficulty up to this point.
Speaking of traps though, i have noticed two things: first, summoned monsters cant open chests or doors and thus disarm (or activate) traps themselves, second - i still have no way of disarming traps myself without the theiving skill. While most of the 'instant death' traps in the game are not compulsory for the main quest to pass, if i find myself up against one later on i will have no way to disarm it other than 'activate it & hope for the best' which is kind of scary.

On the subject of Maze, perhaps i didnt make myself clear but i simply meant that maze is VERY deadly solo, as it will instantly end the game if someone casts it on your character (already happened a few times too). hopefully ill be able to counter this later on with spell trap & improved magic resistance, the same for imprisonment (though at least with that spell they need to stand next to you to cast it).

As for the xp cap, i agree with everyone - soloing with less than 3mill max xp is pointless unless your a complete psycho or something. Thankfully i do have ToB installed however (ive even removed the xp cap on that just to be sure) so thats not a problem for me.

Crymson77 asks how i gave my char innate abilities in shadowkeeper: actually i didnt, they are simply 2 priest spells (cure light wounds & detect traps) which appear in the innate section. most innate abilities will be added to your char as spells that you can cast once per day from what ive noticed.

As for the question of 'why solo?' i guess i can say that ive created that many normal party games with all the npcs by now that it just got boring (aerie seems to whinge more each time). Soloing feels a lot more 'hardcore' to me, like your always on the edge & can die at any time. A great thing about it is that you get to make a char so powerful they can walk into a room & obliterate everything in a few seconds, but ill admit that casting all the protection spells i use (stoneskin, mirror image, etc.)before each big battle is pretty monotonous after awhile.

Oh, as a last thing tidbit for this post- ive just completed the first battle with irenicus (spellhold) solo, & it was the easiest ever. Only 1 clone appeared instead of six (was easily dispatched) then after an improved alacrity i summoned a planetar & 4 skeleton warriors in under 10 seconds(robe of vecna), along with a simulacrum buddy so i could tell myself how good i looked.
Almost felt sorry for irenicus actually... 'almost' http://www.ironworksforum.com/ubb/no...iles/smile.gif

This *should* work. It was my plan to do this, when I decided to forgo a thief in my previous party, and take Viconia instead. I believe it worked once or twice early on, but for some reason it NEVER works anymore. The creatures can just walk right through trap zones without triggering them. Its pretty damn annoying, as it is a logical tactic. This would be my biggest problem with soloing the game, as well. Its no fun to be turned to stone, or hit with a finger of death, in a solo game.

"Mommy! Mommy! I don't wanna die from Imprisonment!"

That's why son, we have this nifty spell called Spell Immunity. Choose Abjuration to nullify Imprisonment.

Poisoned? Drink an antidote.

Trap spells? Spell Immunity.

Physical Traps? Stoneskins.

Oh yeah... Mages/Sorcerer can take the crap and dish it out too. http://www.ironworksforum.com/ubb/no...miles/wink.gif

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If not a Sorcerer casting total oblivion, then a Paladin meting out justice. Otherwise, I think I will just be a bard and torture my enemies with, "My Heart Will Go On".

Platinium Sorcerer of ALSB, Aerie Loving Sacred Band! She's MeowRrrr, and more!
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Baldur's Gate Item Mart