I'm gonna have to go with Druid... And more speficially one of it's kits... The Shapeshifter...
Actually with the faster Thac0 progression (because you are going solo) and obscenely low AC a shapeshifter would do better than a normal druid. The only thing you are really missing out on is armor but you can largely make up for that with a pair of bracers. Especially in the case of BG2EE there aren't really that many bracers that work well with druids so (with spells considered). At worst you can just switch between AC bracers and Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise as needed. Overall you are really just giving up a few AC and the secondary benefits that armor can provide (most of which can be replicated by lower level druid spells or if need be potions). In return you are starting with a character who in-form has fairly low AC, 2 attacks/round, and 19 strength. As long as you get 750,000xp in BGEE you'll have access to the Greater Werewolf form at the start of BG2EE. Thats going to make a lot of BG2EE fights a breeze. Not being able to wear armor is also not going to make ToB fights much more challenging than they already were going to be (given that you are a druid).
Also technically (if you are willing to look ridiculous) in ToB Shapeshifters can wear the big metal unit and continue to cast spells. You'll look ridiculous doing it but it will work. You have to get to the 5th level of Abazigal's Lair so the benefit is pretty marginal.
Monk starts out pretty weak and can't rely on much gear to improve AC, has no spells and can't set traps or summon cannon fodder. Gets powerful later, sure, but you first have to get to the "later".
Monks do fine in the early game if they don't have Rasaad-rubbish stats. Both Monk kits give a significant boost at low levels too. From early in BG2 monks can equip AC3 bracers and have awesome AC from then on.
This thread has officially led to my new playthrough - a no/minimum-reload run with the Totemic Druid starting in BG:EE. I'm going to write about it. I don't have a chance to play as much as @bbear does but nevertheless will try to test the druid.
I've never played the Totemic Druid before so it would be interesting to know whether the spirit animals are the real deal or not.
P.S. And finally I've managed to upload a screenshot.
I want to follow this, where do you plan on posting updates? I played a totemic druid once and felt like the giant badass venomous snake I was summoning made things pretty easy, but I did it with a 3 member party, not solo.
I am trying out as an Avenger in BG2. As @elminster mentioned, armor is not such a big deal because there are bracers and potions. However I do miss a few shields that would make the game so much easier.
@bengoshi: Just curious why bengoshi didnt roll a character with better stats. I would at least get 18 Dex and 16 Con for greater survivability. Since Totemic Druid cant shapeshift (at least until HLA), those stats are important.
I don't think a totemic druid would be that bad of a choice to be honest the vast majority of the game he can just summon his way through its only some of the big often optional battles were he would suffer he would be poor in tob I believe but in soa I don't see the big issue
I don't like min-maxed stats and generally think that high STR, DEX and CON are not for mages, clerics and druids. That's why my character has high WIS while his other attributes are not maxed.
When looking at this situation with the gaming point of view, in BG2 he'll have a girdle to give him max CON anyway, there're items that will give him the STR of a solid fighter in both games and moreover, there're tomes, for i.e., the tome of DEX will give him 18 DEX for the max AC bonus.
Well there are potions of fortitude when he needs them, but I dont recall any merchants sell them.
The places I'm aware of are BG1: Sorcerous Sundries. Even then its only 3.
In BG2 the shop owner in brynnlaw and the smithy in trademeet each have two. Past that I have no clue (I also don't know if more were added in BGEE/BG2EE though that seems unlikely). Neera's questline (particularly ToB) might also have a merchant that sells them.
The solo runs are generaly broken, due to the lightspeed xp gain.
Also it depends on how much ammout of cheese are you going to digest during the gameplay.
If you are playing a maxed 18/18/18 character, who always happens to have just the right ammout of potions/scrolls/wands and other stuff for every encounter (desptie having INT as dumpstat) than it is most likely a druid. The sole reason is the lack of heavy damage output in late ToB, which can't be offset by items.
If you do more sensible aproach and roleplay, than I would go for monk. His early game weaknesess such as slow pseudothief skills progression, slow fist progression, 1 pip weapons, lack of helmets and armors - those will be fealt heavily until the second half of SoA.
roleplay means playing dumb and reloading until you get lucky?
Hit and run tactics and kiting make complete sense with Monks since you get superior speed. Buying protective potions/scrolls for every situation also make sense.
Also, remember fhat soa grants you with easy quests (t ircus, copper coronet, darnise, thieve guild´ free market, umar) to reach 1.5mxp with very little problems while still being in chapter 2. At 1.5 mxp, your monk is level is 15 if i am correct. Which means 45% base MR (+ with items), 1d20 +3 weapons at 3.5 apr and a ac around -6. That's much more than what you need to fly through the rest of the game.
I went with Monk (for reasons already said) but the Wizard Slayer was a very close second for me. Druid would have a pretty hard time in ToB, but getting there wouldn't be as difficult, imo.
I usually play strictly no-reloads though, so even a 5% chance of death/failure in any given encounter is enough to make me a nervous wreck...
Also I think the benefit of having party members is being discounted too much in this thread. Again maybe it's because I don't reload, but having just one extra character would make all the difference in some really tough encounters (even if all he did was run around as a decoy).
No reload is so insane. I've never been able to do no reload. And to have to start over after...ouch. I do no quick-saves, which can hurt and is enough to make me be cautious with my crew, but no reload...
Re: Wizardslayer it is no worse than vanilla Fighter. On the plus side it has the advantage of rendering mages progressively more incapable of casting with each successful hit--and combined with Bala's axe and another similar axe in BGEE that's actually pretty valuable. For BG2EE I can't quite recall what weapons rob mages of casting power. And it is true, I think, that a Fighter may often kill a Mage as quick as the magic robbing action takes place. But why not gain that benefit versus just a vanilla Fighter? Granted there are better Fighter kits. But still.
Edit: Actually I must correct myself. One difference is that as a WS you cannot use a number of items.
Really i cannot understand you guys voting for monk.
Getting to TOB with a monk is trivially easy : Bgee is a walk in the park for every class. Monk do it through kiting and "backstabbing" with poison dagger Soa is the same if you know which quest to do first Once you get to hla levels (really simple once more), the monk is a powerhouse with permanent 100%MR, extremely low thaco and hitting very hard
Really i cannot understand you guys voting for monk.
Getting to TOB with a monk is trivially easy : Bgee is a walk in the park for every class. Monk do it through kiting and "backstabbing" with poison dagger Soa is the same if you know which quest to do first Once you get to hla levels (really simple once more), the monk is a powerhouse with permanent 100%MR, extremely low thaco and hitting very hard
Thats the point. It's not your class thats beating BG:EE or SoA. It's the dagger of poison, wands, potions and scrolls who beats it. Plus an insane ammout of cheese.
A level 1 commoner could kill Sarevok if you gave him enough cheese.
Really i cannot understand you guys voting for monk.
Getting to TOB with a monk is trivially easy : Bgee is a walk in the park for every class. Monk do it through kiting and "backstabbing" with poison dagger Soa is the same if you know which quest to do first Once you get to hla levels (really simple once more), the monk is a powerhouse with permanent 100%MR, extremely low thaco and hitting very hard
Good points all. My own reasoning: having tried playing a Monk once in a party of six in BGT years ago it was painfully apparent to me just how weak they are starting out in BG1. But that said, your point about how powerful monks are in SoA/ToB is very well taken. Voting monk here doesn't mean I'm not a fan of monks, incidentally. They can eventually become relatively effective in BGEE. Heck, I even penned this guide for using Rasaad for BG: the Wide. It's just that compared with the other options it seemed like soloing the monk might be the most arduous.
I get the point and i agree with it : the monk is indeed one of the weakest BGEE soloer. But the thing is that BGEE is extremely easy to solo so it does not matter.
And you don't need cheese to do it (cheese is anyway a subjective matter), you just need kiting which with superiour speed is defintely not cheesy IMO
Finally, all characters have to rely on gear in BGEE : without greenstone amulet or potions to protect you from charms/confusion/fear/hold, you rely on power word reload (=ultimate cheese)
Well according to OP, you have to Consider BG1, SoA and ToB.
It has to be a thief. The largest chunk of the saga is BG2 by far - if any of you took Hexxat all the way through SoA and ToB you know how much of a dead weight she is. Sure thieves have great utilities but on a solo run when push comes to shove you are really in over your head
I've taken Hexxat through twice and both times she was pretty much dead weight. She's just terrible in combat. I gave her every combat boosting piece of gear I had, and I still had to run her out of nearly every fight before she dies.
I've taken Hexxat through twice and both times she was pretty much dead weight. She's just terrible in combat. I gave her every combat boosting piece of gear I had, and I still had to run her out of nearly every fight before she dies.
In my game Dorn dies more often than Hexxat, that pretty amulet that gives Min HP you have enough time to make her drink a potion, while I have to keep reloading when Dorn gets chunked :I (I don't know why but enemies HATE Dorn, I make him have a good AC to tank a Dagon with Poison Weapon, all the attacks the freaking dragon made were critical hits...). Also, Hexxat is very good with a short bow, or with a weapon that gives +1 APR (or dual-wielding...).
Comments
Also technically (if you are willing to look ridiculous) in ToB Shapeshifters can wear the big metal unit and continue to cast spells. You'll look ridiculous doing it but it will work. You have to get to the 5th level of Abazigal's Lair so the benefit is pretty marginal.
I vote for wizard Slayer as weakest.
@bengoshi: Just curious why bengoshi didnt roll a character with better stats. I would at least get 18 Dex and 16 Con for greater survivability. Since Totemic Druid cant shapeshift (at least until HLA), those stats are important.
he certainly makes easy work of bg1
I've created a separate thread to post the updates.
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/30553/the-tale-of-the-totemic-druid?new=1
I don't like min-maxed stats and generally think that high STR, DEX and CON are not for mages, clerics and druids. That's why my character has high WIS while his other attributes are not maxed.
When looking at this situation with the gaming point of view, in BG2 he'll have a girdle to give him max CON anyway, there're items that will give him the STR of a solid fighter in both games and moreover, there're tomes, for i.e., the tome of DEX will give him 18 DEX for the max AC bonus.
In BG2 the shop owner in brynnlaw and the smithy in trademeet each have two. Past that I have no clue (I also don't know if more were added in BGEE/BG2EE though that seems unlikely). Neera's questline (particularly ToB) might also have a merchant that sells them.
Also it depends on how much ammout of cheese are you going to digest during the gameplay.
If you are playing a maxed 18/18/18 character, who always happens to have just the right ammout of potions/scrolls/wands and other stuff for every encounter (desptie having INT as dumpstat) than it is most likely a druid. The sole reason is the lack of heavy damage output in late ToB, which can't be offset by items.
If you do more sensible aproach and roleplay, than I would go for monk. His early game weaknesess such as slow pseudothief skills progression, slow fist progression, 1 pip weapons, lack of helmets and armors - those will be fealt heavily until the second half of SoA.
Hit and run tactics and kiting make complete sense with Monks since you get superior speed. Buying protective potions/scrolls for every situation also make sense.
Also, remember fhat soa grants you with easy quests (t ircus, copper coronet, darnise, thieve guild´ free market, umar) to reach 1.5mxp with very little problems while still being in chapter 2.
At 1.5 mxp, your monk is level is 15 if i am correct. Which means 45% base MR (+ with items), 1d20 +3 weapons at 3.5 apr and a ac around -6. That's much more than what you need to fly through the rest of the game.
I usually play strictly no-reloads though, so even a 5% chance of death/failure in any given encounter is enough to make me a nervous wreck...
Also I think the benefit of having party members is being discounted too much in this thread. Again maybe it's because I don't reload, but having just one extra character would make all the difference in some really tough encounters (even if all he did was run around as a decoy).
Edit: Actually I must correct myself. One difference is that as a WS you cannot use a number of items.
Do what's fun for you
Getting to TOB with a monk is trivially easy :
Bgee is a walk in the park for every class. Monk do it through kiting and "backstabbing" with poison dagger
Soa is the same if you know which quest to do first
Once you get to hla levels (really simple once more), the monk is a powerhouse with permanent 100%MR, extremely low thaco and hitting very hard
A level 1 commoner could kill Sarevok if you gave him enough cheese.
And you don't need cheese to do it (cheese is anyway a subjective matter), you just need kiting
which with superiour speed is defintely not cheesy IMO
Finally, all characters have to rely on gear in BGEE : without greenstone amulet or potions to protect you from charms/confusion/fear/hold, you rely on power word reload (=ultimate cheese)
It has to be a thief. The largest chunk of the saga is BG2 by far - if any of you took Hexxat all the way through SoA and ToB you know how much of a dead weight she is. Sure thieves have great utilities but on a solo run when push comes to shove you are really in over your head
Also, Hexxat is very good with a short bow, or with a weapon that gives +1 APR (or dual-wielding...).
I think Druid would have a very hard time in early BG1 unless a Shapeshifter or Totemic. Later on they get good Summons and they'd do fine I believe.