First Solo-Run - advice needed!

Kilmantor

Hi guys I'm planning my first solo-run right now and I'd thank you for some experiences.

Is Fighter/Mage/Thief really the best combination for it? I dont really know what I need the thief component for as I could simply open locks with knock and ignore the traps.

Is a Solo-Run possible even with advanced difficulties from SCS installed? I just remember some fights that where pretty hard even with 6 party-members and I don't have a clue how to win them alone.

Would be nice if you could just give me some input.

Shin

I'd recommend the thief component. Ignoring traps will be kind of painstaking considering how many there are of them in BG2. Without intense metagaming you're likely to set off a whole lot of them. There are also a lot of locked doors and containers; even if you've memorized the essential loot you'd have to spend a fair deal of slots on knock and do a lot of resting, but it depends on how you like to play.

And yes, SCS solo-runs are perfectly possible - soloing characters level up extremely quickly, and there are many ways of cheesing encounters even in SCS. But if you're new to the game you might find it challenging.

ajisgod321

I wouldn't say it's the best option but it I gun I am currently doing a solo f/m/the run myself. You miss out on a lot of goodies if you can't disarm and unlock.

enqenq

My solo berserker hasn't missed out on any relevant goodies that I know of. I've only found two containers that I'm unsure had anything useful in them that I couldn't brute force open. And it seems every plot-essential lock is easy to force open.

kryptix

If you want to cheese a bit in a solo run you can always pickpocket a ton of scrolls at the start of SOA and jump to like level 13 out of Chateau Irenicus...

However, Crom Freyr makes a good lock opener too if you want to wait a long time to use it.

Personally, I'd think an SCS solo run would involve a lot of running away from things to game mechanics, but with UAI you can get ~100% magic resist and high physical resists when you need them which makes a huge difference. You'll have to meta game each encounter and abuse invis potions, oil of speed and invulnerability potions. It might be worth it to actually waste a protection from magic scroll to kill the daystar lich right away because of how good that sword is now that its a +4.

Skaffen

Don't forget that you get a boatload of XP for scribing, disarming and opening which is a huge boost for a solo character.

But I would not go triple class: either fi/ma and focus on buffing and then fighting it out after the occasional opener spell or th/ma for sneaking arcane powerhouse with trap laying and free potions, wands abd scrolls from pickpocketing.

But in the end almost any class is viable if you know the game. I'm doing several solo runs in parallel and so far my sorceress is the most fun though.

mumumomo

Solo (at least in vanilla) is actually much easier than group play.
As a matter of fact, a solo character is much easier to protect than a whole groupe : with a few items/potions/spells you can make you character more or less immune to everything in the game.

It is to be noted that :
- thieving skills are not needed AT ALL. Lockpick is completely useless (knock, strength takes care of roughly everything, you don't need the extra gold/exp anyway). Find traps is a lot less useful when your character is immune to most effects. Hide in shadows is easily replaced by spells or items. That being said, having a theif component in your character is nice because it opens a lot of tactics (backstab, traps, UAI)

- healing magic is not needed at all. Potions heal quite well during the fights and outside, regeneration (from ring or high constitution) is all you will ever need

- Arcane magic makes things a lot easier, especially when you have to fight casters.

Multi/dual are obviously good picks when you want to play solo :
- you will level fast anyway
- it makes for a more varied gameplay (plain fighter type are doable but very boring IMO)

Although solo is doable with any character, i personnaly prefer the FMT (can do almost everything very easily) and the sorceror (by far the most powerful caster with amazing flexibility. You can toy with each encounter the way you want (summons, brute spell casting,...).

I also like the blade very much even if it is much weaker than other multis (FM, FMT to name the most obvious)


With no or little metagaming involved i would say the FMT is the best.

foolstone

For melee kind, F/T, F/M/T
For magic: sorcerer is the best choice.

ifupauline

I am soloing bg2 atm with a F/M/C, it's a power house, i really don't care about thieving skill it's not painful at all since holy power + righteous magic will give you 25 strength you can break all lock. Not mentioning your tanking ability with priest and mage buff along with the staff of magi +5 that dispel on each hit, it's not even funny, there is no such thing as "running away" with a F/M/C, to give you a little picture, mirror image + stoneskin + chaos command + death ward = genocide, not mentioning that you can get the most powerful item early in the game such as robe of vecna, amulet of power, that green belt from trademeet that reduces magical damage of 50%, clock of misplacement, ring of gaxx extremely easy to get shield of balduran, staff of magi and you are not even in spellhold yet...

Kilmantor

I started with a FMC and just got out of Irenicus' prison.
Made Charisma my dumpster (CHA just 6 but STR CON, INT and WIS maxed - half-elf), i hope I get all the quests with this low CHA. I think I'll go for the 18 charisma ring in the circus soon to compensate it.

ifupauline

Kilmantor said:

I started with a FMC and just got out of Irenicus' prison.
Made Charisma my dumpster (CHA just 6 but STR CON, INT and WIS maxed - half-elf), i hope I get all the quests with this low CHA. I think I'll go for the 18 charisma ring in the circus soon to compensate it.

Yea rolling a F/M/C can be long I usually never roll under 90, 18 wisdom 18 intel 18 constit and 18 dext is a must you don't care about charisma because u can use the ring of human influence, strength should be 15, once you do the planar sphere you will have gauntlet of ogre.

kryptix

ifupauline said:

Kilmantor said:

I started with a FMC and just got out of Irenicus' prison.
Made Charisma my dumpster (CHA just 6 but STR CON, INT and WIS maxed - half-elf), i hope I get all the quests with this low CHA. I think I'll go for the 18 charisma ring in the circus soon to compensate it.

Yea rolling a F/M/C can be long I usually never roll under 90, 18 wisdom 18 intel 18 constit and 18 dext is a must you don't care about charisma because u can use the ring of human influence, strength should be 15, once you do the planar sphere you will have gauntlet of ogre.

Buy the belt from ribald even earlier

ajisgod321

By goodies I mean the random chests and whatnot that are all over the place. I haven't played in a while so I explore every inch of every map and pick up every cent scroll potion and magical item I find

ajisgod321

By goodies I mean the random chests and whatnot that are all over the place. I haven't played in a while so I explore every inch of every map and pick up every cent scroll potion and magical item I find

ifupauline

kryptix said:

ifupauline said:

Kilmantor said:

I started with a FMC and just got out of Irenicus' prison.
Made Charisma my dumpster (CHA just 6 but STR CON, INT and WIS maxed - half-elf), i hope I get all the quests with this low CHA. I think I'll go for the 18 charisma ring in the circus soon to compensate it.

Yea rolling a F/M/C can be long I usually never roll under 90, 18 wisdom 18 intel 18 constit and 18 dext is a must you don't care about charisma because u can use the ring of human influence, strength should be 15, once you do the planar sphere you will have gauntlet of ogre.

Buy the belt from ribald even earlier

I think the belt of initial barrier is better though and as a cleric you usually engage melee using draw holy might.

keltarking

Currently trying my hand at a solo fighter/mage/thief, still working out some kinks but so far so good. I also got pretty far with a cavalier back in the day, before losing all my data when my hard drive crapped out.

On a side note, I've also done IWD with a paladin.

Dzuk5

first time with solo run is the best F/M/T
Fighter- use any weapon and get 1 atack per round from lvl and 0,5 from profenci and max traco
Mage- spell lerning free XP bust and ofcorse spells
thief- in SoA almoust any one can be backstab and with celestialfurry it would be sloter on 3mln. Xp you get trap that will kill almoust any oponent that you can't kill by yourself. also from open chest and disarm trap i get only in Amn 300000 Xp so easy XP bust.
now i play solo F/M/C and it is the best fighter mode hp 322 after spell bufing traco -15 FoA dmg 30 after 3mln XP you can use combo armor faith/defender of easthaven/hardiness 75% at max 85% resist weapon dmg
but i sugest install XP cap remover. 8 mln you can get after underdark or earlier so your hero will stack. i play with SCS it is more chaleng
also see this topic
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/28628/f-m-c-solo-run-what-items-give-him#latest

moody_mage

I'm playing a solo F/M/T right now right through from BG1EE and am now about to set off to tackle Sendai. Most of the time I play as a F/T with stoneskins and mirror images, however for bosses I become an unstoppable juggernaught of destruction throwing time stops and improved alarcities around for complete roflstompings.

The only issues I've found come from getting swamped by tough melee mobs (all mobs in TOB) and the fact I'm a spell hoarder meaning I use spells sparingly as I hate resting for some reason.

I currently have just over 6 million in each class which is level 39 thief, around level 26 mage and about level 30ish fighter.

jackjack

…seems OP xD

moody_mage

It is, however as I refuse to rest after each encounter is can be quite difficult. For example I did all of Saradush and then Yaga-Shura without resting. And those bloody giants hit hard.

mjs

i don't see the point in having max dex for any mages, except maybe m/t because you shouldn't be relying on your AC to avoid damage

Dzuk5

mjs said:

i don't see the point in having max dex for any mages, except maybe m/t because you shouldn't be relying on your AC to avoid damage

but from dex you get bonuses to range weapon and if you elf f/m; m/t; f/m/t it can be very usefull. Spell can ended arrows don't;)
with my F/M/C my sling has -24 traoco (-6 strenght -5 dex) and 28 dmg with imp.hast or whirlwind it is a michine gun;)

foolstone

without XP Cap, F/M/T rules