Poll: Hardest character to solo with

[Lord Delarue]

As the title says, what is the hardest character to solo the game (+TOB maybe)?

[Dreamer128]

Shapeshifter?

[Faceman]

I figure that a Jester or a straight Bard would be most difficult, as they are designed to benefit the whole party with their songs and not so great fighters or archmages anyway. I used to put Haer Daelis in behind and let him sing is song as soon as he got the improved one, although he has some fighting skills.
But at Core Rules difficulty I think it would be very hard to solo the game as a Bard without cheating or using cheap tactics like fake talk, dragon-cloudkill or area changing.

[Faceman]

or you could cheat yourself into a gibberling

[Alson]

probably a Kensai/Mage

[PeeWee]

K, I would think it's a rogue or semi-melee type. I've asked this before and I still don't get it. Ppl say with the right items and stuff, one class can make it thru no doubt...( how did one get these items first and how was the fight to get to em?) For the said item you needed, explain how ya beat X number of npcs to get it and safely get out.

I've fought mind flayers( major pain) and right now I'm in the planar sphere. I don't see how a rogue is going to kill something - the demons- by melee and traps. The vampiric touch is tough as well as the few mages you meet in the planar sphere.

Someone who is an advocate of the soloing rogues commitee please explain to me how one can pass some of the tough parts. Already in prior posts, ppl say it can be done. It's like this:

PeeWee: Can a rogue solo successfully?

Replies: Yup, with the right tools, he can solo EVERYTHING.

PeeWee: EVERYTHING?

Replies: Yup, EVERYTHING...may need to work around stuff tho but EVERYTHING

PeeWee: K um, thanks. *to self* "now to find out what tools are where and to get to em safely....hrmm"


I'm taking into account the limited potions/scrolls too. My questioning is derived primarily because I'm hearing ppl saying it can be done as if it was easy with the "right" stuff. I was at the baldurdash site looking for patches and decided to read some of elmonster's stuff about how he soloed.

Crap, cheat right off. I'm like how is this guy going to carry all of his needed stuff for different situations - even being a mage who can solo better than most. He seems to have cheated in a bag of holding. Said he "found" it in the first dungeon. To me this aint legit and doesn't fall into the solo legit way. He was brilliant in explaining his tactics and reasons why, but without his bag of holding, he wouldn't have the items properly at his disposal. And in some cases, you can't go back to pick up "needed" item.(try planar sphere)


If a person says he uses a scroll of **** for one area, what makes me think he will have plenty of those scrolls for other areas( and how did he know which to carry along?). I still don't get it. I'll name a few fights and ask how does one beat em solo with said class.
I'm also asking for the "list" of essential items needed for the solo rogue or semi-melee type. Would be fun to read up on journals...just nothing like Elmy's discredit to himself.


Firkraag: what lvl rogue and items are needed to beat em solo?

Shadow dragon: same question

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.

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.

Vampires: what's a rogue got to help em against these things and what level to tackle em on?

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.

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)

Lichs: same..use a scroll and then? run out to waste npc magix?

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.


The list can go on, but I'm sure ppl(rogue players) have beaten EVERYTHING solo and I'm stuck in trying to figure out a legit way to do so. For one area, I can see where using invisibility potions help, but they ARE limited. I'm also considering level, ac, saves, MR, and the whole nine. I can picture ppl running in and out of rooms for npc buffs to wear down. I can picture/imagine ppl running to sleep to get traps, hp, and recharge items back...I don't see em succesfully beating the night time boogey men. Maybe I'm just not hard-pressed to solo a guy yet against the odds and know where everything I need is and what I even need to get it. Like Elmonster's journal...doesn't hold water once I found out he miraculously found a bag of holding in the first dungeon. Uh huh.

So I too would like to know what is the hardest class to solo with and what was needed/done to make em successful - without cheese or cheating. But I reckon tactics are different here - all for the glory of soloing. I know ppl have done it - defied the odds. Now to get em to elaborate on it.

[antonius]

First off, if I solo'd I'd cheat in a bag of holding too [img]smile.gif[/img]
Heck, even with 6 party members it would be useful.

All the solo stuff I've read (and Elmonster's journal is entertaining and a useful walkthrough) says "use magic". All those big bads can be taken down through magic - so PeeWee I'm with you on the how question.

Liches aren't a problem (and some of the battles are easier soloing), but a dragon is stretching it somewhat (without Use any item, at least). An awful lot of it is using weak AI, I reckon. Yes, you could take down Firkraag with traps. It's only time - you'll notice that most solo players don't patch their game (not always an advantage though). As someone once said "live by the bugs, die by the bugs".

So apart from a large lump of cheddar, is there another way?

[Faceman]

If you're talking rogue and meaning THIEF I can imagine soloing without too cheesy tactics and completely without cheating.
Ignore lockpick/pickpocket/detect trap skills and concentrate on stealth and set traps.
Typical thief tactic is to hide in Shadows, backstab, run away (even without Speedboots this can be accomplished if you manage to hide behind a corner or a door and hide in Shadows again fast enough) hide in Shadows again and continue backstabbing (you could also use Invis. Potions, but you just don't have endless supply of them).
For creatures immune to backstab (Beholders, Dragons Golems) it is -> set a lot of traps and lure the foe to them to take him out (if you don't want to set them at his spawning point, which would be cheesy tactic again).
Mind Flayers (even Ulitharids) can be killed with one critical backstab hit and mages do stand a chance if you just hide and wait for their protections to wear off.
Soloing with a mage does not seem any problem to me, as you can take out everything with the right selection of spells (However this involves a lot of resting for memorizing AND constant reloading and intelligence boosting with porions to make sure you copy every spell you find to your book)
If rogue means BARD however I can't really imagine a solo, as the wizard spells are too weak and the melee performance is bad too. You could excel as a Jester by letting all enemies slaughter each other through your confusion song, but I don't think that would do you any good on Eye Tyrants or Dragons who tend to be rather lonely

[Nifft the Nimble]

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

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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.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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)

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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.

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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

[Nifft the Nimble]

A mage doesn't need a Bag of Holding to hold infinite heavy items -- just a ferret. Have him pick your pockets. You'll get free gold (in VERY small quantities) sometimes, and other times he'll end up lifting something that was in your inventory. Later, when you're next to a store, have him give you all the items back.

It takes a lot of micro-management to make sure you're only carrying stuff you want him to steal, but it can be done.

The two vital ingredients to soloing are Patience and Cheese.

-- Nifft, beholding the power