Going Solo

[Jinxies]

You are missing out all the fun just using one character. I wish I can have 10 characters. you'll especially miss having companion when you have a lot of goodies to pick up after a battle. so my advice is to quickly get your bag of holding, scroll case, jewel bag and potion bag, they will come in handy since you are out there alone.

[DraconisRex]

Okay, how is the solo coming? I'm curious. And, BTW, I solo'ed BG:II as a wizard, though I'm not the "famous" wizard with the Staff of Wizardry. I did it without that particular game-imbalancing item. And learned a valuable lesson, too - order was imporant in which side-quest to take next. I could never finish the Amuantuar/Shadow Dragon quest because the enemies were so scaled up that even when I tried to cheat around it with the "easy" setting, it was no luck.

[Rawel]

I've checked the PHB and it seems that given enough levels there should hardly be
anything that you Can't take out. That doesn't mean there might not be things
you have great trouble taking out though. The PHB seems to say you should get Ki
strike +1,+2,+3(can hit monsters immune to normal damage) at level 9,12,15 or so
so if you level up quick enough that shouldn't be a problem. As for magic users only
killable with magic I'm in chapter 4 and it seems far more things have magic res then
damage immunity (to the point that disintegrate spell is practically no use ) More over
in 3rd i don't think there are any creatures that are actually immune to non magical
damage. You allways seem to get at best resist 20/+3 or such meaning if you do
more then 20 damage in one attack excess goes through( and of course any damage
caused by a +3 or better source). So as far as i can see you probbably should be able
to solo it but there might be places you have a really nasty time. (mostly summoners
and such) Also some monsters Remorhaz,White dragons seem to be able to do incredible
amounts of damage very quick so having more then one char to spread the load is nice.
Well anyhow that's my 2 cents and wishing you luck, please do keep us informed.
Rawel

[Nightowl2]

I had a little cheat team of 2: Paladin and Sorceress. This was to see how far, at normal play level, they could advance, since a full party only gets to around 15-17 by the end.

As it turned out, they were level 21 at the finale.

What happens is this: at the start, you level up very fast. But, there comes a time when your level far exceeds the Challenge Rating of the monsters. By the time we reached the Ice Temple, most of the enemies we killed yielded no points at all. We creamed Aurilites etc. by the truckload - nada. I think we didn't even get anything for the Big 3.

So doing every quest possible became a necessity. Most of the points were obtained from quests. Of course, there were some opponents who provided points (high-level demons, for instance).

A solo character might get a little higher than 21, but I suspect even that one wouldn't reach the max of 30.

Nightowl2

P.S. Fights become boring affairs when you don't get anything for them.

[Nanobyte]

Originally posted by Ishanda: which is fair, nano, but why did you not make it?

I think it is only possible to solo in the BG series simply because it is more of a game based on story, while the ID series is more of a hack-and-slash. I haven't made it far in the game as of yet (even parties of 2 or more have been unsuccessful), and I have my doubts about you being able to make it INTO the game, once you reach level 20 (unless you have the caplock remover) you will find battles a lot harder. Then of course, you could take levels in other classes, but be unable to return to your monk class.

[Ishanda]

Ok...Hereby my progress and replies:

Jinxies: I am not missing the fun by just having one character. I can assure you that It is a challenge bar none. Challenge=fun. Sometimes it is a little easy, but other times I have had to play a particular battle 5 or 6 times and only wo the battle cause of a better strategy. I love playing the monk because it is all about fighting strategy with her. It becomes really important to know what the enemy's strenghts and weaknesses are and figure out a way to counteract the strenghts and pounce on the weaknesses. As an example: in the goblin temple I would run into a group of enemies that included 4 bugbears, 2 orc shaman's, 1 orc witch-doctor, 1 goblin sorceror, 4 or 5 half-goblin's, 4 or 5 archers and about 10 assorted warriors of all types. Because I would be surrounded quickly and would be pummeled to death I had to have a strategy. The winning one turned out to be thus. First of, I would hide, move up behind the orc witch-doctor (he shoots magic missile and defends himself with mirror image, so imperative to take out first) kill him quick. Then I put myself into an L-shaped corner, which means that no-one can attack me from behind. (having scouted for this corner whilst hiding). Invariably the smaller, faster warriors would reach me first and would block the way for bugbears and Oroc's to get near. By the time of this battle, goblin and orc warriors were fighting against me with a -2 attack penalty. My AC was up to 23, which meant they had LITTLE chance of actually hitting me outright (without having their figures upped by a spell). I would then ignore the small warriors and shoot arrows at the remaining spell casters (with rapid shot feat, but with a penalty cause I did not have proficiency in bow). After that I would continue on to the most powerful warrior. Inevitably I would still take hits from the warriors and especially the archers (shooting magic arrows that actually penetrated). So when things were getting close I would hammer hammer away with my fists at a couple of small warriors on one side of the corner (I finished them off DOUBLE QUICK time - Since one, max two hits would do it and I had Improved Initiative, 3 attacks per round), which allowed one of the large enemies in. I would then use one (sometimes more when not connecting) of my Stunning Attack abilities to concentrate on the big guy. Him done, that allows the next big guy in ... and so no.

So, as you can see.....plenty of thought had to go into that one. And so most massed battles are for me. And so you know...this particular battle strategy came 4th...the previous three strategies in this battle got me dead in about 40 seconds (with full starting health). Fun? OH YES

And by the way... I have the bag of holding, scroll case, and 2 of each Jewel and potion bags. I have not had a problem before running out of space.

Draconis Rex: As an aside...when facing the Shadow Dragon in BG2 the only way I could beat the bugger was with a the Singing Sword (If I remember correcly he needed a plus three weapon to touch). I had my spellcasters shoot lower resistance spells and magic missiles in spell triggers immediately, using my monk (cause he was fast) running in circles around the oke and getting Minsc to hammer away with Lilarcor. Took MANY reloads to actually beat the old guy. With just a fighter it would have been impossible to take him out.

Rawel: I did notice a peculiar problem in BG2 with the monk (not sure if it persists in IWD2). when the Ki-strike comes one line with the monk, his fists are seen as magic weapons. There is this often overlooked spell (ability?) that can protect the user against magickal weapons ... result? Useless monk if not using standard old axe, which of course SEVERELY limits the monk's ability. Not seen one of those yet, we'll wait and see. As a further aside...probably one of the best things about monks are that at high levels they attain inate magic resistance...helps tremendously against magic users.

Nightowl2: You are right of course...I get VERY limited experience from kills already, most are from quests. I do not think they make the game less fun. What happens in practise (IMHO) is that at some point (like where I am now) I am far advanced compared to the enemy. The lack of XP means that the enemy will catch up, making for slightly harder battles, by which time I'll start earning some XP again, which will result in me streaking slightly ahead again and so forth. In a way I consider this new system to be slightly unfair, because even though my char is levels above the enemies I am facing now, the mere fact that I am but ONE and therefore can only count on one set of strategies to defeat the veritable horde's that I face (no chance of using magic for attack/protection, no healing, no backstab, etc), means that inevitably it is VERY HARD sometimes, and Ireckon I ought to be rewarded for that a little. Ahh well....

Nanobyte:

Let's see here. I do not particularly think that battles will be harder necessarily by the time I reach level 20. This I say because I know the monk class ability well, and said monk becomes VERY POWERFUL by that time. At around level 20(or 21) the monk has five things going for her. Number one, VERY GOOD saving throws coupled with Improved Evasion..result...area effect spells mean virtually nothing, plus I can use "fire" (and other) area potions with no fear of taking damage myself (which is nice at the moment). Number Two, Improved initiative and fast movement speed. The monk is naturally the fastest char, which means that a monk's attacks happen FIRST and at a quicker rate than the enemy's. Number three, rather high magic resistance inately, which no other character has, the value of this is HUGE. Number Four, Fists are +3 (or +4 at just over 20) weapons, which is of course marvellous. And then of course the best, the monk gets FIVE attack per round. (which is more than in BG2). These are at a lower attack rating than say a fighter's to be sure, but they happen so fast, that attacking a wizard for instance gives him/her little chance (if a couple of things are in the monk's favour). So I reckon I'll do ok by then. If thingsa need be, I have left myself an escape route by choosing a monk sub-class that lets me pick one of the cleric sub-classes and still allow advancement in monk class. (do not want to particularly do it, only if totally necessary)

So let us see. I am in Chapter two at the moment. Having just dealt with the Aurealites. Currently I am at level 13, AC 23 and doing very well thank you. It is funny that I totally overpowered the pathetic Giants in this area (they throw rocks). Not ONCE did they actually manage to hit me (they had something like a -4 to their attack roll). I go up to make some coffee while my monk SLOWLY fired her crossbow at them. I got experience for this. Then later on, whilst dealing with the chief Aureal guy, I had to use SEVEN stunning attacks on him (kept missing at the crucial moment), plus about 10 potions greater healing. He was fighting with two swords and would drain my HP quick-quick. Luckily he did not go attacking too often, cause being a monk I could hit faster (In creating my character I went for defence and not attack, so I do not hit all that often [at least against him], but I do hit quickly) and would strike him often enough to make him just heal himself all the time. At one point we were stalemating like this for about a minute and a half of real time, him being HURT. I hit, he heals, I hit, he heals. The point....I got less XP for defeating (so far) the most difficult enemy I have had to face than for even ONE Giant (and the giant's could not touch me). What I loved most about this area was just after this episode I strolled up to the cult guy and exposed him. They put two spells on me (don't know what they were) that made me loose control of my character (one showed like a berserk icon). Without me being able to do a thing, my monk went into auto-pilot and started hacking away at the werewolf and multiple followers on her own. I wacked them beautifully.

Ok..so that is the report. I'll give more maybe tomorrow?

[SpiritWarrior]

Damn you like that monk.

[Jinxies]

a little bit of spoiler

Ishanda, I was wrong, you do have lots of fun with only one character. I don't have strategy in a battle. I just go in and kill them all head on. That' my strategy. ps: you can get another bag of holding in kuldahar from conlan.

[Ishanda]

No strategy, huh? DO NOT try this solo thing then, not even with a mage.

[Ishanda]

Ok, so last night I waltzed along to Sherincal and her dreaded (or not?) minions. One-two-three ... and the minions went packing off to greener pastures, which left The half-dragon herself. As it turned out I had a tough time dealing with her. I could not get near without getting whacked, until I finally figured out the secret. Fire-arrows would not do, as I had no proficiency. That left explosive potions, lamp oil and the like. No problem, since I am not affected by area effect spells ...

So that was that...

Stay tuned for the next episode.