Cleric/Thief Solo run! Advice appreciated!

badbromance

Hey everyone.
After years of playing BG1 and 2 I have never tried a solo run so I'm going to give it a shot as a Gnome cleric/thief and see how I go.
I have read plenty of other people and their solo runs so I have a general idea of what I need to do but I'm after a few extra ideas which might help out - tactics/items etc.
At the moment I think my character will approach this as a thief would but have divine spells to buff and summons for distractions

FrozenCells

Start with 18 str and get the tome that improves your strength in BG1, it helps a lot with THAC0 and damage for this kind of character, Memorize a couple of Sanctuary spells and go for the ankheg cave north of the Friendly Arm for good loot at level 1. You can also use Sanctuary to move away and hide and come back for a backstab. Go for quarterstaff proficiency, Ulgoth's Beard has a +3 quarterstaff for sale, this should be what you're using for backstabs for most of BG1 and BG2 has Staff of Rhynn. Use buff spells like Draw Upon Holy Might and Righteous Magic for crazy backstab damage. Putting a proficiency point in Maces is a good idea with the one they added to the Burning Wizard inn, you can't backstab with it but for normal combat it's nice. In BG2 the Mace of Destruction will help out a lot against undead enemies too. If you can spare the skillpoints, you devastate larger groups of enemies by combining thief traps with Glyph of Warding. Throw an Oil of Fire afterwards for good measure. Grab Wands of the Heavens since it's probably the best wand that you're able to use and will help out a lot in certain fights and can be used straight after a backstab to make sure an enemy doesn't get up. When you get UAI, you have a ridiculous amount of options. Haven't played Cleric/Thief in a while so this is all I've got, but it's a fun class.

badbromance

Cheers for the reply.
I just took out Silke and the assassin in the building next to her by backstabbing - Command - run and hide rinse and repeat. Should keep me going for a few levels.

I picked up Neera's Quaterstaff and will use that until I buy the +3. Now im off to get the boots of stealth and start saving for shadow armor and take out solo enemies worth decent XP

Don't think I will have the points for traps

nano

Sounds like a pretty fun class and I'm tempted to try one too! I love the idea of spellcasting thieves but I can't decide whether to go Cleric/Thief or Mage/Thief for Blindness + backstab.

badbromance

nano said:

Sounds like a pretty fun class and I'm tempted to try one too! I love the idea of spellcasting thieves but I can't decide whether to go Cleric/Thief or Mage/Thief for Blindness + backstab.

It has been a lot of fun and I just landed a critical backstab for 84 damage. So so happy.
The one thing I have missed is sleep to deal with mobs. Single targets and slow targets are easy picking

nano

There's always the wand of sleep! Best wand ever. Anyone can use it and it makes hard early game fights into cakewalks.

badbromance

True but it doesn't have the sexy save penalty the spell has (Unless i'm mistaken?)

nano

I guess not, but in practice I find it hardly ever matters because most things will fail to save anyways. And it's better than nothing, right? Although... if it does exactly what it says on the wand, that also means it doesn't have the hit dice/target limit that the spell does.

Michelle

With out a doubt my favorite class!
Some tips:
Early on Staff of Striking is incredible for backstabing.
Use Any Item is probably the best first pick for ability(Belmin offhand, Robe of Vecna)
Keep every ring of invisibility you find and buy and every potion of invisibility you come across. You can't backstab from sanctuary and without RoV sanctuary is not a given.
Harm from hiding will kill many tough enemies in two hits, or one hit and damage from item.
Sanctuary, haste from potion and spinning blades will end many low level battles without picking up a weapon.
Undead for a solo cleric, even multiclass, are rarely a problem.
Save every Sequencer and Contingency spell you come across to use after UAI. I have actually sent Mel packing the first time at the end of ToB with Harm and chain contingency implosion in seconds.
Magic Resistance from simmy seriously lowers many end game bosses resistance. (makes Balthazar a chump)
Flail of Ages is your best friend before you get boots of speed as a slowed enemy is much easier to run away from. *hint* run around the corner out of sight, hide in shadows, sneak behind the slow poke and smack him with the staff of striking
dispelling is problematic for multiclass, keep one or two but fill up level 3 spells with animate dead and holy smite
Save all Improved Haste sells for simmy to cast on you after UAI. With Belm or Kundane in offhand you will be as good as or better than a fighter, with the proper buffs
15th lvl cleric is the magic level for solo clerics.(can you say"Skeletal Warrior") just watch your holy smites, it sucks to have turn your own skeletons in the middle of a battle

That's all I can think of right now. Cleric/Thief is a wonderful combo. Have fun!

Michelle

One last thing. You can't backstab with the Staff of Cheese, sorry.

Michelle

Sorry, from earlier post, I said spinning blades but meant Blade Barrier