Swashbuckler, Bounty Hunter or Fighter/ Thief solo!

[Babyseal]

Hi all!

First of all please excuse my bad english.Im from good old Germany and im working hard to improve it. Second i love this forum very much! Nice people, tons of information...

Im back to BG2 for 3 months now and i have already soloed a Totemic Druid and a plain Paladin through SOA. Im looking for a real challenge now and im plannig to play a solo Swashbuckler, Bounty Hunter or Fighter/ Thief through both, SOA and TOB.

I need some tactics in detail about the more difficult encounters of the first/2 of the game. With UAI it should be getting better in the second/2. I will be thankfull for some information about starting thieving and weapon skills.

I have no mods installed.

Kind regards!

[Armen]

first of all welcome to the boards [img]smile.gif[/img]

can you give us an idea which encounters you are thinking about specifically?

otherwise you'll just get generic thief advice

[timothy trotter]

your english seems good to me! welcome to the boards. i thik the most diffivult one to play that you have listed, is the bounty hunter. as i have never solo'ed myself i cant be much help.

[Morgeruat]

With the bounty hunter let your traps do the work, although end game the theif HLA's make the bounty hunter traps a bit redundant, the swashbuckler has alot of power, is the F/T going to be dual or multiclassed as that changes tactics significantly.

If going with a Dual Classed (human that starts as one and switches) I'd suggest dualling at 13th level (more APR, lots of wpn prof points) and the thief class can quickly catch up, if going dual classed, you'll be very powerful throughout most of the game and have access to both fighter and thief HLA's, just remember as a thief class or fighter thief direct combat will not be a strong point for you, pic your battles and make prodigious use of backstab and weapons that make your opponents less effective (flail of ages, and celestial fury come instantly to mind, although you can't backstab with the flail)

[True_Moose]

The Bounty Hunter is really made obsolete by the time you get to ToB, as mentioned before. I personally would go for a fighter/thief, because of the backstab. When soloing, that 5x backstab can be a great help, especially when you're dealing with mages. Since mages can really mess you up while soloing (a bad roll and you're done,) the ability of a fighter/thief to get rid of mages is invaluable. Also, a fighter/thief, can make better use of the UAI ability, getting proficiencies in not only weapons normally unavailable, but also in other styles of fighting. Fighter/thieves can also get 18/xx strength, which can be a big help at the beginning, although you'll eventually be overflowing with cash and able to buy strength enhancement items. The combination of warrior and thief HLAs can truly be a terrifying thing. Time Stop (from a scroll) + Greater Whirlwind is unreal.

Swashbucklers are a good class, no doubt about it, but with the loss of the backstab, they lose the solo thief's second best friend (behind UAI.)

[Klorox]

Of the options you present, if you want power, multiclassed Fighter/Thief is your best option.

If you would consider a Wizard Slayer dualled into Thief (if you have ToB, level 13), that's the most powerful combo.

[ 02-15-2006, 06:07 PM: Message edited by: Klorox ]

[Cam_H]

True_Moose's comments get the [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

Spoiler warning: Ctrl-A or click-and-drag-over to reveal

A few miscellaneous thoughts;

I agree that the Fighter/Thief multiclass would be the way to go. On top of the benefits aready mentioned, you get access to ToB's Warrior and Rogue Higher Level Abilities.

Half-Orc is a popular powergamer's race, as you can go 19/19 with Strength and Constitution, and still go with a high Dexterity score.

Mind-based attacks will still be a problem for you, so it's worth your while to stock up on items and equipment that allow free action (e.g. Arbanne's sword, Potions of Clarity / Freedom). Mazes and Imprisonment are other potential game-enders, so likewise equipment for these would be 'ever so handy'.

Your Thief class allows you to pickpocket and steal from merchants, and this can put you in a very strong position not long into Chapter 2 ... if you don't mind taking that path. There are 80 Arrows of Dispelling in the stock of the Fletcher in Waukeen's Promenade (along with some other excellent stuff) that I would pick up at some point. How far you take this is up to you.

The Ilbratha short sword's Mirror Image ability should not be underestimated! It's available through the Mimic Blood quest in the Umar Hills. You may have already discovered this with your Paladin solo.

Weapon proficiencies are always a highly personal choice. I like to put points in Two Weapon Style, Short Bow (Tuigan), and Scimitars (Belm, Usuno's Blade) to begin with, and then adding in Katanas (Celestial Fury) and Flails (Flail of Ages - yes - I know that you can't backstab with a Flail!). If you choose an evil alignment (or are prepared to take the evil path on a Tear of Bhaal test), the Blackrazor Long Sword is an exceptional weapon for later on.

Avoid vampire confrontations by travelling around Athkatla during the daylight hours, and Negative Plane Protection is important to secure early. Use the script 'Thief Scout' to hide in shadows on an ongoing basis.

Hope that's of some use, or at least food for thought!

[True_Moose]

The only reason I would disagree with you, Klorox, is the unbelievable value of HLAs. If you dualled the Wizard Slayer at a higher level, I would be inclined to agree. Since XP will not be a problem while soloing, I would suggest level 23 or 24 to be a more powerful combination. This would enable you to get Hardiness (combined with items and the WS's MR, a great tool,) as well as Greater Whirlwind attack, while still leaving you enough XP to get UAI and any other thief HLAs that you want. The problem is of course the extended time as single class thief. That's where proper quest management and use of WK comes in.

13 is more practical, but my personal belief is a higher dual will vastly increase the potency of the character in the long run.

[Babyseal]

Thx a lot for the information guys.
I think im going with the F/T. The bounty hunter looks like a nice kit, but on the second look most high lvl traps seem useless. Im still not sure how a Swashbuckler can deal with some of the more diffifulct encounters, where multiple spellcasters are involved(No instant kills with backstabs). For exsample the planar prison encounter at the start...

[lost prophet]

your best freind when soloing a thief is potions of invisibility. take the first batle in the planar prison for example, before you enter the portal drink one. backstab,drink,backstab and continue until all are dead. this can take a while at start but when you start getting a x5 backstab you can take out just about anything that hasnt got stoneskin on. the swashbuckler and more so the F/T will be able to handle themselves in combat after a few levels so dont worry so much. If you were going to dual your fighter into a thief then i would suggest waiting even a bit onger than level 13 since then you can rack up some much needed hp and THAC0. just my 2 cents