Solo Ranger, no class changes

[Mr Creosote]

Basil has made it to Crypt and currently adventuring on Normal difficulty.
He died fighting the Toadam Scabban's - several times on EASY. In the end I found some unidentified potions in Basil's inventory (duh...) and used them and took on the Scabbans one at a time. Not helped by Toads endlessly spawning. Made it through - enventually. He also died in the Crypt first level when he ran into 8 or so slimes, oops. The "Save often" strategem is being employed - often.

Will post some updates and bore everyone rigid [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Mr Creosote]

Update....

Basil the Solo Ratling Ninja is doing ok.

Completed Serpent Temple and Shurgeon Castle and he is still in one piece. Now off for a wander to do some errands - Janthril, Torin, deliver Clan invitation and take on the Lillies. Only have Mana for two Icestorm spells so am expecting some probs from the plants. Aim to lure them part the way back to the town and keep popping in for more Mana, least thats the plan.

I'm enjoying it. Except for the useful Teleport trio of spells, magic is pretty much useless, little Mana and the Moon offensive spells arent the most useful.

I'm putting all my money into Basil's training, and only selecting a few attributes to work on. Moon is up to 7 and just got 2nd weapon ability, so about time to go face the mine tunnels for the Assassin's dagger.

Biggest problem by far is health. No healing spell, no potions for sale, and few found. HP regen is slow so I am having to ration healing when doing dungeons, and wandering (and fighting) in the red zone a lot of the time.

[aleph_null1]

Originally posted by Mr Creosote: No healing spell, no potions for sale, and few found.

Wizard's Guild has an infinite number of the small healing potions to sell to whoever wants (needn't even be a member).

It's the only way my solo fighters ever survive! [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

[Bungleau]

Health is always a big problem at the beginning of the game... Missy Hissy was down to her last 4 GP before she defeated the first pack of worgurs she ran across

I seem to have a large supply of healing potions since then. I often find them in crates and barrels... you're checking those, right?

In any case, I'm eager to hear more about your solo game. It's always fun to solo through in some new configuration [img]smile.gif[/img] And Mama Hissy's famous words, as seen in my sig, have saved me more often than I care to think about.

[Mr Creosote]

Trouble is with the basic heal potions is they dont heal much! Also Basil is a Ratling and even with strength of 20 at mom he cant carry much. The potions weigh 0.5 each, and with his armour and stuff its easy to get over burdened. Also the base heal potions dont heal fast enough in the tougher battles. I'm now using the D'Soto Chain Mail with Regen +1 which is helping. In general I am keeping the stronger heal potions for battles and for general healing I am using Portal and Call of Home and healing in the Temple.


Update....
Basil made it to Brimloch at Level 17, and seems to be doing ok. As its been a while since I played I decided to start at the top of the map and work downwards, and without planning it the first encounter I had was with Oakenmir! Basil needed some levels so decided to take on Oakenmir. What a surprise to me when Basil's offensive Moon spells had no effect, so marched up to Oakenmir and belted him with my dual Mavin and Assassin's Dagger combo. I got killed - quickly. Then remembered I had the Argus Ward with Merlin's Shield spell, so tried invoking that and what a difference, Basil could survive!
Anyway, after 20 minds play time, and a much depleted supply of my precious heal potions, Oakenmir was no more and Basil went from Lev 17 to Lev 58, and HP's from 100 to 300+ !!!!
Inspired by that we wandered back and kicked the *&^% out of Erasmodor, for another 1.3 mill xp's.

Basil is a pretty tough character now. I wish he could deal out more damage but no real way of blessing/enchanting in any meaningful manner I am stuck with the "basic" weapons, the Mavin hands out about 17 damage per hit and the Assassin's Dagger aout 20, which are pretty low really.

I'm very dissapointed with Moon spells, of course the Portal trio are great but offensively the Moon spells are weak and no buffing spells. It means that Basil is most definitely a melee char.

Ive played it "pure" solo with one exception, I used another char so that I could invoke the Genie's Lamp to get the Amulet of Argus. I chose that as D'Soto's Chain is as good, well slightly better than the Argus Chain, and while the Argus sword is better than the Mavin, there isnt a huge difference, and I wanted the extra protections offered by the Argus amulet, the Merlin's Shield spell was an extra bonus!

Ive used no potions other than Heal, no scrolls, and although I have Evil Eye I havent used it except to try it out. Ive played mostly on Hard difficulty. I have to say it has been tougher than playing a multi class changing Solo.

Basil has completed all the Guild Quests so far, and he has concentrated on just a few skills and few Traits, I think he only has 7 skills, and not close to coming off the list of traits. I felt focus on the important Skills was more important than spreading my points around. Trouble is the cost of Guild Training now is so high I cant train those skills any longer.

Anyway, back to battle... !

[Radek]

Moon spells aren't so bad [img]smile.gif[/img] For example, Spectral Raven is the best spell from all level 3 area effect spells (better than Flamestrike or Elemental Blast). The same is often true for Icestorm: the monsters are often more resistant to fire or elements than to cold.

As far as the carrying capacity problem is concerned, a solo character simply needs mules in the inn. Create five mules and let them sit in the inn and hold the potions and other stuff of your hero. With teleporting spells, you can move the mules from one inn to another the following way:
1. When your hero reaches the gates of a new town, do not enter it. Create a portal instead and use Call of Home for reaching the preceding town.
2. Take your mules from the old inn, leave the town, and teleport to your portal. Now, enter the new town and put the mules into the new inn.
This can solve the potion (or scroll) problem. Take only as many potions as you will need on your current adventuring. The rest of your potions can be held by the mules. Note that it does not matter whether the mules are overloaded or not and how much they are overloaded. They will not lose their items even if their overloading is a multiple of their maximal carrying capacity.

[Bungleau]

I'm not sure that I've ever noticed being over capacity causing me any problems. I don't seem to hit less often, I don't seem to have fewer attacks...

Radek, does it really do anything?

[Radek]

I don't know [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img] I am never overloaded. I am always having mules in the inn.

Nevertheless, I know for sure that even a several times overloaded character is able to leave a town and be teleported somewhere without losing any items.

[Mr Creosote]

Yes, the mule technique works well and I use it, I was just trying to play this Solo game without using any other chars other than the one-off usage to invoke the Genie's Lamp.

I could well be wrong but I seem to recall decimating Oakenmir with Firestorm many times in the past but he was immune to Icestorm. Could be a level difference of course.

[Mr Creosote]

Another posting to myself..... [img]smile.gif[/img]

Basil is at level 80+ and super tough, and is walking through everything now with hardly a scratch. The challenge has gone, and I am packing in this Solo and starting another.

Any suggestions?