Single character games.

[WSBoaBoa]

I know people have played ninjas and bishops solo threw the game but has anyone done any of the other classes? I was thinking of taking threw a monk just not sure how fesable this is.

[SecretMaster]

Monks work well. Try a Samurai, eventually they get extremely powerful cuz they can start casting mage spells, and when your solo you'll learn to harness that mage power at an early level.

[ScottG]

Things to look for:

Magical protection from all magic: Divinity can be "worn" with various amulets and mental isn't as big a factor because if you go insane your not killing other party members. Practically speaking this means that soul shield isn't that important but element shield and magic screen are, as is the ability to wear armor that has these resistances. Amulet swaping may happen a lot to get higher resistances for a particular battle (i.e. fire resistance for rapax and scorchers).

Physical protection will also be very important. This means high AC, Damage reduction, and a large quantities of hitpoints will be very important unless you have Guardian Angel and are prepared to spend a turn casting it - possibly before a magical protection like element shield. If you don't have a strong Guardian Angel protecting you then your primary emphaisis should be on large quantities of hit points because damage reduction doesn't reduce that much damage and occasionally hits will occur on even High AC characters and when they do they are usually for substantial damage. Moreover with potions a high hitpoint character has less probability of getting killed in a round and therefore greater probability of quaffing a healing potion the next round. Also of course Missile Shield is highly useful for preventing missle attacks much like AC.

Attacking: if your attacking with magic then you'll need to either have access to multiple damaging spells from different elements and/or you'll need the ability to summon an elemental that can do high physical damage. (the diverstiy in spells is required for the diversity in opponents resistances.) Additionally of course you'll need fairly substantial mana reserves (and potions). If your physically attacking then you'll need large stamina reserves to continue prolonged battles and should rely on weapons that don't drain as much stamina (as well as of course potions at the ready). More over Instakill is particularly usefull here, if possible max this area skill wise and weapon wise. The more Instakills the less your worn out and the less chance your opponent has of killing you. Ranged capability gives you an edge here (you attack and are less likely to take damage) but you will need a fair bit of strength to carry around a reasnable supply of ammo.

Opening locks: you'll need either magic or the skill OR spend time developing Myles's skill and draging him into no-no areas.

Item identification can be handled by selling and repurchasing if desired.

Practically speaking a solo character really needs to be that illusive do-it-all character and fortunetly without the drain of 5 other characters your solo character has a better chance of achieving this status. Utilize Hybrids and/or dual/triple classing to achieve the desired results. PLAN out your leveling from the beginning.

Casters with element shield: Alchemist, Mage, Samurai, Ranger, Ninja, Bishop.
Casters with Knock Knock: look directly above.
Casters with magic screen: Priests, Lord, Valkyrie, Bard, Bishop.
Casters with guardian angel: Priests, Lord, Valkyrie, Gadgeteer?, Bishop.
Casters with missile shield: Priests, Lord, Valkyrie, Bishop.
Characters with open lock skill: Rogue, Gadgeteer, Bard, Ninja?.
Stealth characters: Rogue, Ninja, Monk.
Armor capable characters: Fighter, Lord, Valkyrie, Samurai, Ranger, Bard, Gadgeteer, Rogue.
Critical Skill characters: Samurai, Ninja, Ranger, Monk.
Better Critical weapons: COC, Light sword, Fang, Staff of Doom, Stilletos, etc..

Enhancements: Stealth travels to other classes. Critical skill travels to other classes (except with Rangers ranged criticals). Bards instrument ability travels to other classes but is bard level dependent on use ability and to an extent on strength in some cases. Same basic thing for Gadgeteers as for Bards.

CT's method of development (usually emphasis on Strength and Intelligence) seems to be VERY good advice for a solo character when relying on magic for offensive capability.

After analysis it would appear that a Monk (at least a pure Monk) is not a very good choice because of the lack of magical resistance in the major elements (Fire, Water, Earth, and Air). This could be overcome to a degree with amulet swaping, or Ironwill skill from 100 in piety, or dualing to an elementshield or magic screen class for an appropriate quantity of levels (see opening locks below). Fortunetly you can put off encounters where you will need magical protection for almost 50% of the game.
This then allows you to enhance your magical ability latter in the game so you can concentrate on physical prowess earlier in the game. Monks do however have damage resistance, decent AC from Stealth (available early on), and critical capability (though weapons except for staffs are pretty much out). Monks additionally do NOT have the ability to open locks, which could be acomplished with several levels as a mage, alchemist, or bishop (and optimally speaking you should incorporate this ability with your magical protection - ie. alchemist, mage, or bishop). I'd say its do-able but just barely so.

I'd prefer something like a ninja bard (and its prob. the next game I'll play with it - dualing stilletos). A pure Ranger would work nicely as well, as would a Samurai.

Perhaps the best test of your solo character is: if you've chosen to play with the rapax at AP will your well developed character survive?

[SecretMaster]

Originally posted by ScottG: Perhaps the best test of your solo character is: if you've chosen to play with the rapax at AP will your well developed character survive?

Very well said.

[bowman_is_god]

I tried to solo a lord, never managed to get past that big apus type creature in the upper monastary. Eventually you would have the power of the fighter, and spells like deathwish. I always liked deathwish, but i guess resurrect wouldent help much.

[Vraul]

I'm doing a solo monk right now. Currently Level 16. He's lethal, but there's seems to be two major challenges: 1) Stamina runs out (I suppose this is a problem with all solo games?, and 2) no lockpick or knock-knock.

I was thinking of trying the Samurai solo next, but not sure about the armor. Seems like Samurai armor was lacking.

[ScottG]

Your monk must have a lot of attacks for stamina to be a problem. oh well, there are always urine samples to quaff.

Samurai's have worse stamina problems (swinging 2 swords) and as you have mentioned - not very good armor. Plus w/out stealth your likely to be seen more often when traveling about.

Of course there are lockpicks to be found in the game that can help aleviate this problem somewhat.

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

Originally posted by ScottG: Your monk must have a lot of attacks for stamina to be a problem. oh well, there are always urine samples to quaff. Samurai's have worse stamina problems (swinging 2 swords) and as you have mentioned - not very good armor. Plus w/out stealth your likely to be seen more often when traveling about. Of course there are lockpicks to be found in the game that can help aleviate this problem somewhat.

That was funny!

[SecretMaster]

if you have stamina probs ( and many ppl do) increase vitality and jack up everything that increases stamina. If your level 16, you should have some stats at 100 so you can start spending points elsewhere.

[stealthblade78]

If your running out of stamina, I found that you can sell some things to lighten load and to make your samuari a female. then you can put the necklaces of endurance of him. You can also up vitality and piety to up your stamina.