A Solo Sorcerer for the Long Haul

Endarire

Greetings, all!

I've started a solo Sorcerer (CN Elf Sorcerer) with an intent of bringing her through BGEE and BG2EE. What ability scores are best? I want to be able to cast Wish (meaning I need at least 18 WIS), I heard I need 10 CHA for certain things, and of course having high STR/DEX/CON are handy for everyone.

My current array is, with racial adjustments:
18 STR
19 DEX
16 CON
11 INT
3 WIS
10 CHA
9 free points.

Michelle

You don't actually NEED 18 wisdom. Potion of Insight, or some such, gives 18 wisdom cheep. As far as i know intelligence does nothing for sorc.

Also if not soloing you can talk to the wish guy with a high wisdom NPC to get good results. The reverse is also true. In one playthrough I used Minsc to talk to him and get vampires for Viconia to "turn" them into my own army of undead.

Faydark

I have also tried this many times, but never finished BGII ever (with any character/group).. keep getting sidetracked .

For stats, I usually end up with:
STR: 14+ (mainly for carry capacity, those ahnkeg shells are heavy, and there's a few bodies to lug around too).
DEX: 17+ (for small AC boost, but mainly for ranged to-hit bonus for some spells and weapons etc).
CON: 15+ (16 gives the max extra hp per level for sorc, and it's retroactive, so you don't need to start with 16. At 20+ CON you start to slowly regen hp, but as a sorc you have other tricks to cover that if you need).
INT: 15+ (for surviving up to 3 int draining hits from some mindflayer types etc)
WIS: 15+ (for 18 eventually to get best outcomes from wish spell)
CHA: 10+

Keeping in mind the many stat boosts you get from Tomes in BG1, plus other things along the way.. your later game stats will be higher than these starting stats.

Spell selection is always the hardest thing for me. I've played many many wizardly types in BG, and I still can't normally decide what spells to pick with 100% certainty. I always feel like I should have gone with something else

Looking around the net and these forums, there's a lot of discussion, but it always ends up clouded by people who aren't soloing or aren't playing a sorc.

There's a lot of really useful spells, but you can only have some of them on a Sorc. Some spells that aren't very useful or are a hindrance to a party are actually quite good when soloing and you'll see them ignored from many "which spells should I pick" discussions etc. Of course, some of it comes down to playstyle and preference.

And then, if you can metagame a bit.. some spells that you might really find useful can be replaced by objects (wands, necklaces, weapons, rings, scrolls etc) which can free up your picks.

I look forward to (hopefully) a discussion focused about the solo sorcerer, and that it doesn't become polluted with advice for solo wizards, wild mages and party considerations

Endarire

I started a solo BGII Sorcerer run. I cleared much of SoA and reached about character level 19. I got bored after Chain Contingency + Horrid Wilting.

Still, I'm a Sorcerer. I have options.

zerckan

Do you guys play solo with xp-cap removed?
I play with xp-cap and find it realy hard after some point.

ryuken87

@zerckan Removing the exp cap doesn't make a huge difference for pure class characters, it mostly helps multis. A sorcerer gets extra level 8 and 9 picks at levels 32 and 36 respectively while his casts per day has already maxed at level 20 (21? I think there may be a misprint in the manual).

List your spell picks and tactics and maybe we can help.

urdjur

What XP cap are you referring to? If you're doing SoA solo capped at level 17, it can be challenging. As is BG1 capped at 9 or heaven forbid level 7. ToB is fully doable at level 31, and as ryuken87 says - going higher doesn't help much as you only really need 3-4 picks at level 8 and 9 anyway (since the selection is rather bad and the returns for greater selection diminishes rapidly from level 20 and onward) and you don't get more HLA goodness as a caster either. Most things are still lower level than you, so remove/dispel will be boss, even against Demogorgon.

As for spell list, I can recommend the thread Nightfall and I are hashing out our solo sorcerors in - they are poverty runs so you may want to change a few things, but hey - if it's doable without items, it's doable with them too: forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/22812/on-the-necessity-of-opening-doors-spoilers

I can recommend putting your first proficiency to dagger if you're maxing physical attributes. Throwing daggers have 2 APR and get strength bonus to damage, doing more than magic missile at level 1 (1d4+2) plus you can actually hit some simple foes with Dex 19 and a ranged weapon. What's more, you get a fast melee weapon proficiency too, for hit and run if you run out of daggers. In BG2 there's also a really nice returning dagger you can play with - DUHM keeps your physical attacks somewhat relevant at higher levels.