The Bounty Hunter fits my style of solo thief best. If it were legal I'd play an Elven Bounty Hunter/Mage (multi, not dual).
My favorite Bounty Hunter tactic is: hide in shadows before door, open door, run out of line of sight into room, hide in shadows again, scout, then stand out of monster's line of sight (no red circles visible) and throw a special snare into the room. Shut the door if things are still alive and repeat. For non-bounty hunters, set traps just at the doorstep, then open the door. Kills evesdroppers.
The best armor for a thief is Aeger's Hide. That prevents confusion, which is deadly! You can't afford to be trapped by Umber Hulks. Combined with the Ring of Free Action and Adjutha the Drinker, you're totally mentally shielded. You won't need to be shielded often, but sometimes it's vital.
There's a necklace in Trademeet called the Necklace of Missiles. You'll buy it with two charges, but you can sell and re-buy (or steal) it to recharge it to 25 charges. Each charge lets loose a 6d6 fireball. This will help you until you have your Use Any Item high-level ability and can use wands.
The skills you absolutely need are Pick Pockets, Set Traps and Find/Remove Traps. Open Locks and the stealth-skills are very useful, but aren't life & death -- you can always try again with either.
Because of this, I think that playing a Half-Orc Assassin would be the hardest to start. A Halfling Bounty Hunter would have the least trouble.
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Originally posted by PeeWee:
Firkraag: what lvl rogue and items are needed to beat em solo?
Shadow dragon: same question
These two are the easiest for a solo thief. Traps, traps, traps! If you have ToB, you'll have to set the traps out of the dragon's sight. If not, set 'em right at his feet. Set, rest, set, rest, set, then wake his tail up with something poisonous. You ought to have at least 7 traps up. If you're high enough level to have Spike Traps (24th level, not impossible if you're soloing) the poor lizard won't have time to attack you at all. If you don't have spike traps, finish him off with Arrows of Biting.
Seven Spike Traps were more than enough to finish off the Imprisoned One... they're more than enough for some overgrown lizard, too.
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planar sphere: same, I don't see how one can beat the cold room, fire room, the gov district mage there with his buddy, and then Lavok who death touches. The damned halflings are somewhat of a pain.
I haven't done this yet, but I'm planning on stealing every potion of invisibility I can get my hands on. Combined with the Cloak of Non-Detection (not impossible to get -- play patsy to the dwarf, set traps all over the room, then backstab the mage. After that, proceed as Elmonster did: lead them outside one by one. Unlike him, I plan on backstabbing them and hitting them with bolts & arrows of biting instead of with sling bullets) the fights ought not be impossible. The demon will be the toughest fight I think, but luring it through a set of traps should work fine. It can't see invisible, so sniping is also an option (with the Bow of Tascheron or the Firetooth +4).
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Nalia's keep where there is the Yuan ti mage and 2-3 trolls: even the last named troll was tough ( so level and items needed to beat em?) I'll skip the burrowers since they can be lured to the back.
You can set traps along the path to where you lure the umber hulks. They will die as they rush to get the food. You will need a lot of traps.
Tor'Gal will also fall to traps, but you'll need an acid/fire arrow/sword to finish him off. It will take a lot of traps. Again, patience and many rest cycles. You can lure him independantly of his giant troll cohorts by carefully walking forward until he "smell you". If you can't see the giant trolls when he says this, he'll attack you alone. Then run back through the traps and watch him die.
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Vampires: what's a rogue got to help em against these things and what level to tackle em on?
Daystar is the ultimate anti-vamp tool. That and stealing Scrolls of Restoration for when they actually hit you ... ouch.
For the Vamp lair, traps and Sunray. Play a Bounty Hunter: his traps cna be thrown towards hostiles as long as you can't see them, and you can paralyze even vamps. That vamp-mage is a lot easier when she isn't moving.
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Golems: heh....can I say iron golems backed up with other golems hasted is a beat down. A rogue without boots is gonna have a tough fight.
Golems fall to traps. Set the traps and fight the golems one at a time. It will probably take you days to get through that part of Nalia's Keep... but you can do it. I used this tactic on the golems in Irenicus' dungeon.
For the golems in the Planar Sphere, note that they're blocked by the bigger golems. Kill the little ones first (using Firetooth +4 crossbow) then kill the big adamantite ones. It will take some time.
Alternately, if you've been through the Underdark, use the Rod of Smiting.
Big golems get stuck in doorways. Use a Quarterstaff to kill them while remaining out of their reach. There are plenty of +3 (and better) quarterstaves.
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the prison: one area you want to visit to get your boots of speed to help for other areas... yet, npcs there can see invis AND there is an area with GREATER WOLFWEREs. ( even the first fight when you get in is tough for a solo person, you got a rogue backstabber and mages on your heels)
I haven't done this area solo. If you can kill the guy with the boots of speed first, you'll have them for the rest of the fight. Remember that "Detect Illusion" will dispel invisibility ...
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Gaxx: pro undead scroll again? on both forms? what of imprisonment and summoned creatures. Here, I can picture running out of harm's way on the first lich to have it's pit fiend help. As for weapons, use the staff of Rynn of sling of everard. This is one of the areas you can drop stuff off before hand and pick your tools. NOt all places are like this.
This one I did do solo. Here's how:
Set traps along the back wall, at the end of the ramp leading to the altar. You're going to kill both lich forms with traps, using the Ring of the Ram to slam the 2nd form into the first set of traps. Now go rest, set more traps, rest, and set more traps. You may instead choose to backstab the first form or use Sunray from Daystar; thus ensure you have enough traps to kill the 2nd form.
Use one of your two Scrolls of Protection from Magic if you doubt your ability to slam him into the traps in the one round you have before he casts Imprisonment on you.
-- Nifft, fan of traps