Mage questions

[TheGodThatFailed]

I was wondering if its possible to solo a mage thorugh BG1.I tried a normal mage and got only 1 spell at the start.When having to kill more than 1 giberling i got killed.Is it easyer with a specialist mage?Do they get extra spells at the start in their shcool,as i saw my brother playing with edwin at level 1 who had four spells.

[Illumina Drathiran'ar]

Soloing a mage through BG1, with no imported items, just what you're given, would be, I would imagine, damn near impossible. A specialist mage gets an extra spell slot, sure, but think of those lovely times when you're ambushed by archers on all sides when you're unprepared... And I'm not even going to mention the encounter by the Friendly Arm Inn.

And Edwin gets extra spell slots from his amulet, I believe.

[mad=dog]

Yes I think it would be possible. I personally soloed a Necromancer (read: No Mirror Image!) until maximum XP and I figure I could have cleared at least the main quest though most traps would have put me in peril.
You have to head immidiately to the Friendly Arm Inn and locate a certain ring.

[TheGodThatFailed]

Ok thanks all...Depending on how many times i die,i might take a small party of say...3 people.As always,very helpful guys [img]smile.gif[/img]

[mad=dog]

Here's how I would solo:
Go to FAI. Get RoW.
Sleep. Memorize identify and friends if your cha is low.
Go to High Hedge. Get some means of turning invisible.
Go to Golem Cave. Turn invisible before the sirines. Collect the book, cloak and wand and you are set. The cloak will turn you into a wolf - a way to get rid of Annoying Little Pests, the book will raise your con by 1 and finally the wand will (with a few reloads) knock out the sirines giving you a good 12K xp to start out with and a few pearls to trade for scrolls at High Hedge.
I don't recall if you can buy potions or scrolls of invisibility in High Hegde, but I think you can at least. Otherwise I am a bit short of ideas.
With the 12K XP and gold I'd get prot vs. petrification and head out to kick some basilisks and get to level 5 where life is so much easier for a solo wizard.

[Dace De'Briago]

If you want to take out groups of enemies, the Sleep spell is amazingly effective. MUCH more effective than the magic missile spell

Don't be afraid to use wands to save your neck! Thats that they are there for.

[RoSs_bg2_rox]

Of course, anythings possible (Im pretty sure!), you would just have to rest a lot and have lots of healing potions.

[Nerull]

I'm soloing a sorcerer in BG1 (using BGTutu). Sure, sorcerer gets more spell slots, but I couldn't cast Sleep, etc. I only had Magic Missile, so not that great. The key is to be very, VERY patient. Hunt and peck, hunt and peck. Lure out one enemy at a time, then run across areas you have already explored, turning to shoot when there is enough of a gap. Save the Sleep spell for those situations where you accidentally lure out more than one or two enemies at a time. Sleep spell is THE 1st level spell at the beginning of the game. And never let the opponent anywhere near you. Run away (off the map, if necessary) if you are overwhelmed. With the respawning that happens in that first wilderness area you start in, I got to level 4 before I left for the Friendly Arm. Make sure to do as many of the noncombat (or low combat) quests early.

[mad=dog]

I made a little "tutorial" to illustrate how my method could work. The zip files are save game folders valid only with TotSC.
Made a human abjurer with this roll:
http://www.dsr.kvl.dk/~maddog/solo/Baldr018.jpg
which I realigned a bit to max str, dex + int, 16 in wis, 15 in con and the rest in cha.
http://www.dsr.kvl.dk/~maddog/solo/8...-SoloStart.zip
In Candlekeep I did the odd jobs. Only thing worth mentioning is that I whacked Fuller for the dagger+1 and used a bit of gold to raise my reputation, bearing in mind I needed some pennies for a scroll of invis. After that I went with Gorion to his demise, swiped Imoens stuff and booted her out.
http://www.dsr.kvl.dk/~maddog/solo/8...33-SoloEp1.zip
From here I turned directly south and bought a scroll of invisibility from Thalantyr and headed south and then west to the lighthouse. Close to the sirines I read the scroll and darted past the lot into the cave. Waiting for the golems to be in a favourable position I took the stuff and ran to the entrance. There I id'ed the book and wand and put on the cloak. Drinking the oil of speed I went out and used the wand to paralyze all the sirines. With the cloak you get 2 attacks pr round and combined with a sleep spell you are lethal. At this point the ball is rolling with 12K XP.
http://www.dsr.kvl.dk/~maddog/solo/8...34-SoloEp2.zip
Headed back the HH and sold redundant stuff to get a few spells. Mirror Image is important. Then into Beregost to clear up. Just to illustrate the power of Sleep+Wolf there's an image of me killing Spiders with no problems. Beware that some spells work in wolf-form and others don't.
http://www.dsr.kvl.dk/~maddog/solo/Baldr020.jpg
Other than that it's just the usual stuff. Miriam, Silke (used wand), Karlak (used wand), Marl (calm and kill). Then northbound stopping briefly to kill an Ogre and into the FAI. Collected the RoW, killed a bounty hunter and some hobgoblins. Returned a lot of loose items and sold junk. At this point we are 400XP short of level 5. Soon to be remedied.
http://www.dsr.kvl.dk/~maddog/solo/8...35-SoloEp3.zip
Back south of HH I killed Zarlaks crew (sleep) and Bassilius (sleep resistant - memorize some magic missiles). Picked up and cured Melicamp and headed out to the temple to collect my reward. At this point we are about 10 days into the game with almost 25K XP. This concludes the small tutorial.
http://www.dsr.kvl.dk/~maddog/solo/8...36-SoloEp4.zip
Next buisness could be the basilisks for even more easy XP. Or the reward could be used to recharge the paralysis wand and do the vampire wolves. It's a plain game from this point - you have plenty of spells.

Bear with me if you find this overly redundant or otherwise foolish.
Your THAC0 is incurably poor in wolfform, however the extra attack makes it very good against temporarily immobilized enemies. A plus item for a solo wizard.

[Armen]

nice work [img]smile.gif[/img]

i've never found a use for the wolf but then i've never solo'd a mage . . .

i'm surprised no-one's mentioned summoning - why be one wolf when you can direct 5 (or more)?