Solo Blade Tactics

[Immoral]

Yes, I did a search. I found lots of great stuff, but nothing recent/precise, so I made a new thread.

Basically, I would like to hear of tactics for the solo Blade for different situations.

1. Melee opponents - single/multiple
2. Mages - single/multiple
3. Dragon
4. Lich - NM Easy with prot. scrolls
5. Astral Prison - Party of 6 and Master Of Thralls
6. Twisted Rune party :shudders:
7. Psycho vampire/mage in Bhodi's lair (can't rememeber name)

I ask because in other threads I've read things such as, "while waiting for such and such I killed a couple dragons for fun with my solo Blade". These types of posts are what prompted me to attempt to solo a Blade myself. But so far I haven't seen much to write home about him. Except for the fact he can steal like nobody's business! I even had my rear handed to me twice by the Crypt King! :embarrassed:

I am currently 13th level. I have completed the slaver's compound (not the one with CF - I would be massacred!) (using wands basically - which still feels like a cheesy tactic) and a couple other small quests. I have stolen just about everything I can, and pick pocketed everybody in sight. I have pretty nice equipment and armor, but I still am not very good with a weapon. I can also cast just about every spell up to level 5 so far.

I try not to cheat, so maybe that is the real reason I am having such difficulty. I.E. No MMM/offhand bug usage, Scribing/Erasing/XPGain, etc..

Anyway, I would greatly appreciate some strategies for the above situations, or just random advice for my solo Blade.

Thank you,

[Vedran]

Originally posted by Immoral: I am currently 13th level. I have completed the slaver's compound (not the one with CF - I would be massacred!)

Random advice: that group of foes has lousy saves, and a save-or-else spell (preceded by Greater Malison) does wonders.

[Assassin]

Scribing/Erasing/XPGain

IMO, that is not cheese. And using Wands is very useful.

Anyways, for pre-battle buffs, always use Blur/Mirror Image/Stoneskin. As soon as you get a Thief HLA, don the Robe of Vena. Dual-wielding even normal KAtanas can help. Here are some tips for solo'ing:

Order of quests:
Slave Compound (+2 Reputation possible)
Circus Quest (+1 Reputation possible)
Fallen Paladin (+1 Reputation possible)
Illithium quest (+1 Reputation possible)
Save Trademeet (+1 Reputation possible)
Help Tiris (+1 Reputation possible)
Do the Alibakkar quest (+1 Reputation possible)


That will give you a grand total of +8 Reputation points. With it, and the Ring of Human Influence + Friends, you can buy a whole bunch of things. Plus, pretty much all of them are fairly easy, except for potentially the Rakashasa in Trademeet. Try out MMM and Offensive Spin and Haste in that situtation.

[ 04-22-2003, 06:56 PM: Message edited by: Assassin ]

[Dundee Slaytern]

The key to the solo Blade's success is the usage of acceptable cheese. By declining to use them, the journey obviously becomes harder.

Another thing to note is that you must not do the quests in the normal order, but in such a way that by the time you do it, your level is appropriate enough to do it.

Circus Tent
Mencar Pebblecrusher
Free Hendak
Copper Coronet Sewers
Tradesmeet
Umar Hills( the subquests in the village, NOT the main quest)
Slaver Compound( Slums)
~
~

Misc XP gains can be exploited from freeing Viconia and helping Jan Jansen in the Government District. The Graveyard is good for the Orphan, Uncle Lester and the Ghost Boy.

In the early stages, Web + Spider Spawn will serve you very well. Once you gain access to level 4 spells, start adding in Greater Malison and Emotion as well. Support at all times with MMM( Offensive Spin is optional, but highly recommended).

When you hit level 15, start using Skeleton Warriors.

When you gain access to level 6 spells, start using Mislead... ...

1. Melee opponents - single/multiple

Web them and hear them scream as spiders eat them alive. For fun, hit them in the head with fiery meteors.

Mages - single/multiple

For low-level Mages without Death Spell, sic spiders on them( pelt them with MMM if they do not have Spell Turning). For high-level Mages, sic an useless summon to waste their Death Spell, then sic a Skeleton Warrior on them.

Dragon

Ring of Free Action + Defensive Spin is good for defense. Greater Malison + Spook is much funnier though... ...

Astral Prison - Party of 6 and Master Of Thralls

Remember all those potions? Start drinking them. I did them at level 12 and managed to defeat them all.

Twisted Rune party :shudders:

One Protection from Undead scroll, a Shield of Balduran( need ToB HLA) and a Mace of Disruption +2 means a horribly easy fight.

Even the Improved Version of it... ...

Psycho vampire/mage in Bhodi's lair (can't rememeber name)

Skeleton Warriors and MMM.

[Immoral]

Thank you all (especially Dundee) for those great replies!

Update:

My Bade is now level 15. He has completed the following quests/fights:

1. Circus Tent
2. Free Hendak
3. Slavers Compound In Slums District
4. Kill Roger's Sea Troll
5. Cloak Of Sewers
6. Mencar Pebblecrusher & Co.
7. Free Haer'Dalis/Kill Mekrath
8. Rescue Haer'Dalis and Troup/Astral Prison
9. Skinner Murders
Currently starting Thieve's Guild Quests..

Now that I have a few levels under my belt, things are going much smoother. I still don't see how I'm going to solo a dragon, but time will tell.

Equiptment:

Melodic Chain+3
Gauntlets Of Weapon Skill
Amulet Of Power
Ring Of Protection +2
Ring Of Protection +1/Ring Of Regeneration
Cloak Of The Sewers
Boots Of Speed
Girdle Of Hill Giant Strenght

Quick Slots
1. Health Potions 2. Wand Of Summoning 3. Misc. Scroll/other Wand

Main-Hand = Daystar/Blade Of Roses/Adjatha The Drinker
Off-Hand = Kundane (for extra attack)
Ranged Alternate = Tuigan Bow /w every arrow type available

Tactics so far:

-Multiple Melee Enemies-

Cast Protections:
StoneSkin/Blurr/MirrorImage

Wade into center and get everybody's attention ON me. cast Sunfire (15d6) and watch most, if not all, become creamated instantly. If not, hit 'em again! If that doesn't do the trick, OffensiveSpin and beat the snot out of 'em the good old fashioned way! If they're undead, I hit 'em with Sunray (using Daystar), then Sunfire (if they're not already roasted).

-Multiple Melee/Magic Enemies-

Cast protections:
Soneskin/Blurr/MirrorImage/ProtFromEvil/ResistFear/Haste

Cast Silence up to 3x into crowd(Using Namarra), or until mage(s) fail save(s). Same as above if they fail save(s) to take 'em all down easy. If they make save(s), cast Animate Dead next to them and go to work with MM/MMM/Tuigan.

I feel like I'm doing fine so far, and my THAC0 is finally getting respectable (7 Main/10 Off). I find that using the Bard over, say, a F/M, F/M/T, or F/M/C, I tend to use ALL available resources. Such as spells, wands, scrolls, potions, etc. best part abou that is, with pickpockets so high, I basically have unlimited financial resources!

It's an interesting character to roleplay as well (CN). Sometimes he'll get into trouble for accusing somebody of murder and have to fight his way out, because of his impulsive nature. And other times he'll say the right thing and make a friend or two. But, who knows how long that'll last?

Example:

He made friends with fellow Bard, Haer'Dalis. But when Haer'Dalis refused to let him "see" his swords, he killed him for the insult. Now the Narcissus has a pretty nice pair of shortswords, but once less friend. [img]redface.gif[/img]

Anyway, if anybody else has any good tactical advice, such as, "HOW TO SOLO A DRAGON AND WIN USING A BARD", feel free to share.

[Butterfingers]

Dragon Slating made easy.

You DID take Spook as a starting spell right? If not, oh well.

Cast Spook. Then launch every poisonous projectile you have stockpiled. Arrows of Biting, Darts of Biting, Asp Nests, Poisoned Throwing Daggers, etc, all while in an Offensive or Defensive Spin. The dragon will be poisoned so badly he will "hiccup" and be unable to do much of anything.

Make dragon gumbo. Take Blade. Take overpowering weapon of casual disembowelment, like Flail of Ages and Celery Fury. Go into Offensive Spin. Begin chopping dragon into gumbo sized bits. Please note, this will only work if your Blade is BUFF, as in powergaming rolls and probably imported from BG1 with all the extra stat books.

Dragon duster. Cast Disintegrate. With luck, dusted dragon. Bad news, no loot left behind. Good for CN alignments since they like to gamble, and this is the ultimate gamble.

[Immoral]

Originally posted by Butterfingers: Dragon Slating made easy. You DID take Spook as a starting spell right?

I did, but to tell the truth I haven't used it. I thought it might be kind of useless with it's kinda short duration of 3 rounds.

I'll give it a try tonight. Thanks for the tip!

[Xen]

Feeblmind will also help [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Thuram]

I am playing a Blade right now. I am level 23 meaning I maxed out (only have SoA) and I am leaving the Underdark right now after killing Adalon (my chaotic nature incited me to watch what the demon would do with her eggs and she was angry with me because of this).

Immoral, you say you have the Elven Chain Mail and the Ring of protections? How are you able to combine them, this should not be possible unless you have a mod installed!

I recommend you to go for the Ring of Gaxx. Its easy enough with the righ tactics (e.g. polymorph into a jelly while the lich wastes the spells on you and use the Wand of Summoning or the Wand of Frost (?) to protect yourself while in this form against the physical attacts of possible creatures the Lich may summon. And of course don't forget Daystar and the Mace of Disruption if you already have it. As for the Demi-Lich Kangaxx ... enough have been already written how to destroy him easily).

In your weapons collection I miss the D'akkon Zerth Blade (from the bonus merchants). This weapon has been made for a bard (or F/M). I wear it always in the offhand mainly for the extra spell slots.
The right balance between melee and magic is the key for a Blade. In my opinion the extra spells are more important than an extra attack so I go with that blade instead of Kundane.
As a consecuence of it I don't see the MMM + offhand weapon as cheese - sorry for that but I am not going to lose my spell slots just because the game engine works that way.

Also I prefer the Belt of Intertial Barrier instead of a strength improving belt, because of its reduction of magical damage but I could be wrong with this.

I am missing a +5 weapon in your inventory. MMM can do it, but it is useful to have such a weapon in case the mage casts some protections. An finally also a weapon that does elemental damage and goes thru stoneskin (like flail of ages) is very useful.

Later on when you got into the Asylum don't forget to get the Ring of Free Action which is vital. Unfortunately, unless you do some tricks equipping and unequipping in the right order, that will make your boots useless. Cloak of Reflection is very useful. Combine it with a Wand of Electricity (?) and see how a mage's Spell Turning goes done very cheaply.

As for dragons, I killed Adalon mainly using Melf's Acid Arrows and Skull Traps. For a high level character like a bard they do maximum damage. Basically I casted a Mirror Image from a scroll which casted a Simulacrum from a Scroll. I had also some skeletons to distract the dragon. Stripped of Adalon's Spell Turning with the trick described above and then shot with the Project Image and Simulacrum a double Melf from the Secuencer. Kept on shooting Melf's upon it. Then you only need to wait a bit of speed it up with skull traps. The acid damage alone is immense! (Of course you will need to lower before its magic resistance).

It was not an easy fight though, but you can play a Blade absolutely without any cheese. I don't attack creatures with blue circles, don't cloudkill from distance (unless they are busy fighting my summons and hence there is a real reason to stay in this area), etc., and play at max. difficulty.

Playing a Blade is quite a lot of fun since you need to exploit any possibility if you want to succeed. It is not as traight forwared as with a F. I only complain of the small inventory space, and picking it from the Bag of Holding is just a bit too tedious.

As for fighting a group, Web is good choice. Someone should fail it's safe and get webbed. Greater Malison also helps. And meanwhile you don't get webbed because you have the Ring of Free Action - that helps also to fight while in defensive spin. An army of (hasted) Skeleton Warriors also helps and because of their high MR they don't get webbed. Summon a Djinni from a bottle and have him cast Stinking Cloud to help disable your enemies (in that case stay safaly away and use spells or wands)