Another soloing post

[Elizar]

Well... I never soloed in this game, but inspired by all the posts here I thought I would give it a try [img]smile.gif[/img]

My idea is to play an evil assasin-kind-a-guy, so the obvious class choise would be; assasin (duh). But its been my experience that the assasin class kind of sucks, and I want to be a better fighter also. So can any og you give some advice on what to play then? (Im not really into how these multi-classing and dual-classing things work in 2nd edition D&D). Maybe a fighter/thief?
Also im in doubt of what fighting style I should go for, im thinking about dual-wielding.. but should it be longswords or shortswords, or both? or something completely different? Or is that single-weapon style any good?
The final question is then how much can you accomplsih when soloing with a guy with no spellcasting? Will it be possible at all to kill things such as Firkraag, or the shadow dragon (I want the shadow scale armor dammit!). And what about Kengaxx?

[Dayhawk]

spoilers:
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i'm currently going through the game as just a thief atm. it's fairly difficult, as i don't have the cloak of Non Detection yet. mages are difficult, but the shadow dragon was fairly easy to solo at lvl 17. useful items to pick up before you do things: boots of speed, staff of air, cloak of cheese, ring of air control.

fighting a large group of bad guys i'm finding to be the most difficult, due to the poor melee of a thief once the first Backstab is done, but it's doable, you just gotta be patient. ring of air control is one of the first items you should get for the improved invis once a day. that's an extra backstab in every fight.

edit: and for proficiencies, i'd highly suggest longswords and a katana. nice high Backstab damage means chunky mages before they can cast on you

[ 02-01-2004, 02:05 PM: Message edited by: Dayhawk ]

[Dace De'Briago]

Become a Assassin with high strength. When you are happy with your thieving abilities, dual class to a fighter.

Voila, an assassin character with better fighting abilities.

[Assassin]

... You have to rely on Stealth as an Assassin. The main thing will be to rely on your Poison Weapon/Backstab to disable the Mages, run away with your BoS, HiS again, then backstab. Again and again and again. You probably won't be that bad of an archer, either, with that high DEX.

Oh, and depending on your moral qualms concering traps, most of the battles can either be fairly hard, or very easy.

[ 02-01-2004, 03:29 PM: Message edited by: Assassin ]

[Dayhawk]

well, with my solo thief, i just toasted the shadow dragon, so it's doable bro. i used 2 traps, which is somewhat cheese, but take it for what you will. they were basically just used to remove stoneskin. summoned air elemental, boosted my str to 24, and went to town on him. mirror imaged with a sword (forget name) and basically got lucky enough to live through it. haha. <3 rod of res

edit: to give some insight on my gear, my thief is now lvl 20 or so, weilding a +3 longsword, agatha the drinker i think?, using single weapon proficiency. basically with a thief i'm using a lot of stealth over real combat, like you'd expect. you just gotta remember to look at all the tricks you may have. for example, in the temple where the shadow dragon is there was a lich with a group of mummies i had to get through to go on...well...that's way too much for my thief atm. you gotta think smart. lich sees through HiS, mummies don't. i basically walked by him a number of times to use up all his spells, then made him come face me alone, the mummies just stood there.

if you remember your tricks, traps, HiS, and get a few weapons for utility purposes, you should be able to kill whatever you want. next on my list is firkraag before i go to spellhold

to summarize: a solo thief is difficult sometimes, but doable so far in my experience. we'll see what happens in later levels. if you want to dual to a fighter or multi, it might help, but then again, i'm about to get the UAI HLA fairly soon, so i'm not really worried in a bit. if you want to do it, it can be done!

[ 02-01-2004, 07:20 PM: Message edited by: Dayhawk ]

[Dundee Slaytern]

Pfffft. Dualclassing or multiclassing will be a copout if you want a pure Thief character.

Soloing with an Assassin is very much doable, but do not expect to brawl with the best of them, because if that is your desire, then you are not thinking like a Thief.

First off. Until you get your Boots of Speed, Oils of Speed will be very important to you because of the Hit&Run(H&R) Tactics.

Now... we all know that Assassins get two special perks. Better backstabs (eventually) and Poison Weapon. Both are usable in H&R.

Staying in Stealth as you walk around is desirable. Try not to worry too much about Pickpocketing. An initial 60-75% in both Lockpicking and Detect/Disarm Traps will suffice. We need to concentrate on your Move Silently score. The eventual goal is to get an average of 125% in both your Move Silently and Hide in Shadows.

REMEMBER THIS! Sunlight and other light sources imposes a PENALTY to your chance to Stealth. Likewise, shadows and darkness imposes a BONUS to your chance to Stealth. So if you see a house shadow, go there to Stealth.

You also cannot Stealth when enemies are in sight, which is why movement speed is so important to a successful Assassin.

When in Stealth mode, you can whack the back of an enemy and immediately run away. When you lose sight of the enemy, find a good location to Stealth and go back to the enemy.

Poison Weapon works better with ranged H&R. If you want extreme missile bombardment, either use the Tuigan Bow or Darts. If you prefer one-hit Poison attacks, the Crossbow of Accuracy is nice.

When you pump up Lockpicking, Detect/Disarm Traps and Stealth sufficiently, move on to Traps. Soloing means certain taboo cheese is more... "honourable" to use than if you have a party.

Good luck and have fun.

[Raistlin Majere]

Youve got all the advice you need, but ill just add that soloing an Assassin is fun! Also, you might want to consider getting the Girdle of Hill Giant strength right after the Ring of Air Control...the bonus to damage will multiple nicely with BS

btw, Dundee said the Assassin gets better backstab later...this is true, but only if you have ToB, IIRC. In vanilla SoA, Assassins only get poison weapon and +1 hit/damage.(if you're gonna use a longsword, consider choosin elf as your race, 'cause that way you would get an additional +1 to hit/damage...)

[Dundee Slaytern]

ADD] If you insist on Pickpocketing, Potions of Master Thievery will serve you well. The initial cost of the potions will pay off when you rob a shopkeeper blind.

Remember that you can sell stolen goods to a blackmarket merchant (but not if they were stolen from him/her of course) for gold if you need it.

A nice easily and early obtainable weapon for an Assassin is the Blade of Roses (it's a long sword). It is +3 enchanted, which enables you to whack virtually anything in Chap2-3. It gets even better if you are an Elf.

If you want to feel safer with summons, excellent starting summons include the Horn of Valhalla, The Spider Figurine or the Djinn Bottle.

When you get your Boots of Speed, you will also encounter the Staff of Air Elemental (actual name might differ). Treasure it... ...

When you obtain a certain ToB ability, get ready to rock & roll with previously unequippable items such as the Shield of Balduran or Vhailor's Helm.

You can backstab with a Quarterstaff.

[Elizar]

Allright thanks for the info..

All I wanna know now is; is the detect illusion skill any good? [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Illumina Drathiran'ar]

Personally, I love it. It saves you the trouble of casting True Sight. I only have Jan ever do it, though... Compared to to other abilities... sadly, it's just fluff in the end.