Going Solo

I was wondering if anyone here likes to adventure Gael Serran using one PC. As for me, I'm trying to create a Jack-of all-trades PC.

I started him out as a Warrior, setting his attributes to match the barbarian. And as soon as I got the 20 kills, I switched him and leveled him up a couple to match attributes to a paladin, and after that, swithed again to a warlock. Every time I leveled up, i only put one skill point to every skill that's available to each particular class.

Anyway, i'm just curious if anyone likes to play a PC into something akin to Michael Moorcock's Elric, Emperor of Melnibone.

[Sazerac]

I loved the Elric sagas! Moorcock was one of the greats.

Actually, though, the general consensus is that if you're going to start with a one-character party, you start with a Wizard so you can get Stone magic (you can get it through no other class combination except Zenmaster and Valkyrie, and that's almost at the Endgame). I imagine it is possible to finish the game without Stone magic, but I'd hate to brave Stout Caves and Skull Castle without "Lavawalk".

A good 1-character combo would be:

Wizard (go up in Stone as much as you can) -> Bard ->(get Traps & Locks training for those chests, plus some Moon magic) ->Samurai (finish out Fire training) -> Paladin (get Spirit Magic and that Crusade trait!) -> Ranger (go for the Vine magic!) -> Warlock (go for Moon and Fiend and finish whatever spells you have remaining in the other groups that you want) -> whatever you want from there; you should have all traits and skills at this point. If after this point you want a Warrior again, there's Barbarian...or do the Assassin quest and become a meta-killer.

Others may have different strategies. It'd be interesting to hear.

[carg]

Don't read this message when you're playing for the first time: you'll get spoilt.
You can perfectly survive without stone magic: you never need lavawalk, and most other stone spells have other school equivalents. (Though I do like stone.)
I've started with solo warrior, and then barbarian as soon as possible (mostly took a while to get that 1250 gold for joining the warrior guild and getting barb. training). After that paladin for spirit eye and healing spells, and ranger for the cures (very useful in the serpent temple). After Ishad N'Ha she could turn samurai and finally see what she was doing in the dungeons with illuminate. (This means you need to do those mantraps without offensive magic!) Next Warlock to get the teleport spells in the stout mines, and fill the gaps in the other books. Oops, warlocks may not use pickaxes! No way to nicely complete the stout mines! So up to the boogre caves and get enough levels to learn all useful spells and switch again. Ninja was the most useful class left, since I never use magic instruments (bard) and refused to spend another two days outside catching cold and worse (monk).
Then complete stout mines and switch to assassin (no advantages to stay ninja). Now I've arrived in Brimloch Roon, and I'll stick with Assassin to just before the end.
Disadvantages with this are: you want fire magic quicker for illuminate and firestorm / burning haze, and you miss the 5th level role-specific traits for paladin (crusade) and ranger (fletchery). You might prefer to get the moon spells quicker too. But then there are too many things you need in the beginning!

[emilyh]

You do need lavawalk to get the dragon ore. It's fairly difficult to survive there without it. That's about the only spot I've really needed it, though.

[Werdna]

heh heh I never remembered that I could use that spell to walk on the lava. I have always jumped from stone to stone (bridge piece to bridge piece) to get to where I needed to get to. I even was able to walk on the wall to get to that chest in Dragon Spire just before you get to the picture that you put the shards on. I must remember to use it, jumping sux.

Carg's right: you never need Stone magic! As far as Lavawalk goes, the only place creative jumping won't save your feet is Cet's Place, and there's always hundreds of Lavawalk scrolls lying about there.

I've gone solo twice now; first I did the common favorite: Wizard -> Bard -> Samurai -> Ninja -> Assassin -> Zenmaster

I then did the somewhat more difficult (but, in my opinion, more fun): Warrior -> Barbarian -> Paladin -> Samurai -> Ninja -> Assassin -> Valkyrie. The only downfall to this is that you have no offensive magic when you encounter the much-hated Mantraps, though it is quite interesting to defeat them by conventional means (thrown Knives/Explosives, Bow/Arrows, etc.).

I'm currently doing a party of two, the fighter and the caster, who will end up Valkyrie and Zenmaster, respectively. Though they certainly started out exactly as stated, they've both grown quite out of their "roles", as it were: the fighter, currently a Ninja, is a very useful caster, at home in Sun and Moon; the caster, on top of training in everything except Vine, has become a remarkable fighter in his own right, though his close range spells are generally more effective than his Kung Fu.

Going Solo definitely has its downfalls; on top of constant Inventory space problems, one can't very well become an expert in *everything*. However, both times I played through as a COMPLETELY LEGIT solo character, there was never any shortage of either experience or gold (at least on the latter until I started enchanting things). You can barely kill twenty monsters before you're leveled up again when you play solo, especially when you're an Elf with that Quick Learner Trait that I so love...

All a matter of preference. That's the great thing about this game. I never considered playing solo until I saw someone else was doing it. Hey, they give you 6 character slots for a reason right?

I love role ascending/changing classes. I like the multiclass, kick a**, stand alone kind of character.

I restarted my game with a Wizard. Every time he hit 10th level I changed roles. Wizard, Warlock (due to fast XP gain I wasn't even remotely close to going to Ishad 'Na for Bard/Samurai), Paladin, and now Barbarian. I am now ready to fight the Naga, leveling up is constant, and I have decided to spend more times at each class now.

I plan to be every class allowed and try to get everything possible. Carrying stuff is a pain, but I find 1 character easier to manage and keep track of.

I prefer Mages. That was why I wanted a Wizard to start. (Sun & Stone). Merlin's Shield is a great Stone spell. 3-5 of these babies and you won't get hit by many spells.

I bashed my way through all the treasure chests from Valeia to the Serpent Temple with nary a scratch. Armorplate is good as well, not to mention the offensive spells.

It all depends on the type of character you want. My solo guy is having an easier time than my previous 6 character party had. 100HP, tons of spells, level 5 sorcery, and just really getting into the game again. No cheats. Not doing too bad.

Never read Elric saga. Will have to find it. My personal favorites are Raistlin Majere from the "DragonLance" Series and Alodar from the "Master of the Five Magics" by Lyndon Hardy. That was a great book! Alodar was the true jack-of-all-trades when it came to magic.