Playing Solo Without Reloading Is Impossible
Beverast
Member Posts: 10
Decided to attempt a solo playthrough on insane difficulty without reloading and it is impossible. Was doing alright with my fighter/mage/thief, and got up to level 3. Spent most of the time killing Ankheg's and avoiding other enemies.
Went north towards Baldur's Gate and I got a nasty random encounter. At least 6 bandits, all archers surrounded me. I hear a chorus of "Well I kicked him in the head until he was dead NANAN" and a split second later a multitude of "pings" of the arrows flying and I was dead before I could blink. Soul destroying but so funny at the same time :-)
Went north towards Baldur's Gate and I got a nasty random encounter. At least 6 bandits, all archers surrounded me. I hear a chorus of "Well I kicked him in the head until he was dead NANAN" and a split second later a multitude of "pings" of the arrows flying and I was dead before I could blink. Soul destroying but so funny at the same time :-)
9
Comments
Next time you'll kick them in the balls to show them who's the true scoundrel.
I picked up Imoen and then started my journey to the Friendly Arm Inn. Right after talking to the big E, though, I realized that I forgot to pick up that one hidden diamond and attempted to return to the previous map. I got ambushed by a circle of bandits with bows. To my credit, I managed to kill one of them before my Ironman game came to a short, abrupt end.
You advantages compared to vanilla BG1
-you move faster
-you have kits which makes a whole difference. most kits are overpowered for BG1 portion
-you get access to low level BG2 spells. Some of them are very helpful.
It's not that hard if you know all the encounters. Just avoid fighting ghouls and such monsters that will root/paralyze you.
Major likes for the attempt. Great suggs by everyone else so far. Here's mine:
For missile attacks: I find what also helps is to keep a Girdle of Piercing/Tower Shield handy. Both are available early and will give you resistance to arrow attacks, which are some of the deadliest onslaughts in the game. Later boots of missile avoidance (from Nimbul) are also helpful.
For traps: Potions of fire resistance (fire) or absorption (for lightning traps) will help you walk over most traps. The ring of fire resistance + helmet of defense are also great for this purpose.
For anything: You will need a million potions of invisibility as well (as everyone has pointed out). These are great in every situation. Potions of giant strength and oil of speed are also hugely important.
Potions of freedom or a ring of free action are also extremely helpful for the battles with pesky enemies that cast hold spells.
When you get a lot of GPs, you can probably invest in that weird ESP amulet in Ulgoth's Beard...it grants immunity to mind-affecting magic but costs a charge.
Maybe they fixed it by now.
You need to have a plan B and even a plan C, for every situation. Potions are a must, you need to constantly re-stock. Oil of Speed, Potions of Invisibility and of Freedom, Mirrored Eyes are probably the most important. Healing potions as well obviously.
But the RP feeling is so intense. In this playthrough, I mis-timed my Command against Tarnesh: he managed to cast his Mirror Image before he went to sleep for one round, and was thereafter able to successfully cast Horror on me. He ended up chasing me throughout the FAI and pelting me with MM's, I got down to... 1 HP and right then he ran out of spells. The guards finished him off.
Overall, the flowchart of an early phase of a reasonably optimized solo hardcore run should look roughly like this: http://www.wikihost.org/w/inassorted/bgeesolohardcore
I'm probably going to change the build slightly, but that's a general idea.
You should take into account that all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. In other words: there are single classes/kits and combinations not made for soloing, especially hardcore soloing, unless you are extremely masochistic and have loads of spare time.
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/9909/animate-dead-spell-effects#latest
On Greenstone Amulet: I never do a solo without it around my neck. What's painful though is to recharge it once you've wasted the 9 initial charges after the initial purchase al Ulgoth's Beard. Very expensive.
Yes, the solution is to flee, of course, no to solo those 8 bandits heroically at low level. Low AC is just very likely to keep you alive during the process. That's what I meant.
Well, 10 charges are enough for a long while. After all, you don't face a mage/a psionic monster every 5 minutes.
Since Bandits aren't outside of Sleep range, you've a pretty decent chance of taking all of them down before they get the opportunity to start their attack action.