Soloing with a Bounty Hunter
Lil2Wkd
Member Posts: 50
Title pretty much covers it, I want to solo my way through the trilogy with a sneaky guy, but I'm concerned about the fact that once they hit ToB, there's a load of backstabbing-immune creatures making them largely redundant leaving you with a rubbish THAC0. Suggestions please!
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I'd probably go with Swashbuckler, I think. But that said, I've yet to try Shadowdancer.
Assassin: Wonderful class to roleplay, and definitely sneaky as you said you want your character to be. The disadvantage of getting only 15 skillpoints per level is partly offset by quick levelling as a solo player. Still you'd have to plan carefully: lockpicking for example can be very lucrative but unless you don't mind about reloading a lot, your initial focus will probably have to lie on stealth (for backstabbing and survival) and finding traps (for survival).
Poison weapon is a wonderful perk that increases in power as you level up (doing more damage at a higher rate). At lower levels (BG1) you'll be able to kill pretty much anything with it except undead, golems and slimes I think. At higher levels you'll encounter a few more poison resistant creatures and better protected mages. The trick will be to disarm these mages, for example with dispelling items or by hiding and waiting (wearing your indispensable cloak of non-detection). Hiding and waiting can be tedious but also exciting. It goes with the idea of the assassin patiently observing his hapless prey and picking the perfect moment to strike. Demons see through invisibility though.
To get the best use out of your poison weapon ability, ranged attacks with as many APR as possible are very very useful, so darts or short bows should probably be your weapons of choice. For melee either blades with low speed factor and with extra attacks (short swords, maybe scimitars) or slower but highly damaging weapons (though from a roleplaying perspective I don't really dig assassins using quarterstaves, or 2h-swords on an assassin).
Unfortunately backstabbing becomes much less powerful with the increase of backstab-immune enemies as you mentioned, so by the time you hit TOB you will have to rely more on scrolls (with Use Any Item), trap setting, and the assassination HLA (which uses the backstab modifier to calculate damage for a limited amount of time).
Possibly the most difficult to solo thief option.
Swashbuckler: less credibly roleplayed as a sneaky character IMO. I see swashbucklers more as charismatic, flashy swordsmen. This doesn't mean you shouldn't invest in stealth (as is sometimes said on forums), because stealth isn't only useful for backstabbing but also for saving your butt in tricky situations. A clever swashbuckler knows when to be dashing and when to keep a low profile.
Their survivability is enhanced by wonderful armor class, and fighter-like THACO and damage. I play my swashbucklers as dual wielders specializing in scimitars because of the availability of extra APR scimitars and because they are elegant (not too bulky) weapons that go with the swashbuckler, but you could use other weapons as well. The swasky has the advantage of being able to specialize but you'll have to be careful with weapon distribution points. I'd start with one point in scimitar and one in dual wielding and from then on go for three pips in dual wielding before you get your second scimitar pip. Or you could immediately specialize (two pips) in scimitar and from there get your pips in dual wielding. I say scimitar because of the availability of extra APR weapons and because they are elegant (no too bulky) weapons that go with the swashbuckler, but you could use other weapons as well.
Initially ranged weaponry is going to be very useful, but I wouldn't invest in it what with the little amount of proficiency points you get to spend as thief. If you play an elven swasbuckler with 19 dex you'll be able to use a bow to good effect without ever having invested any proficiency points in it.
With UAI (scrolls!), detect illusion, whirlwind attacks and otherwise warrior-like fighting skills, traps you'll be formidable late game.
The Bounty Hunter: this is the thief kit I've explored the least (except for the Shadowdancer, who apparently hasn't been properly implemented yet). Like the assassin this is a sneakier type of thief, so that fits your desire to sneak your way through the Sword Coast. However instead of using your stealth for (poisoned) backstabs and ranged attacks (lower thac0 for ranged attacks from stealth), you'll be using it for scouting areas and placing traps you're going to lure your enemies into.
A disadvantage has always been in my eyes the fact that at the start you only get two traps (one regular thief trap and one special bounty hunter trap). You could (and maybe for roleplaying purposes should) invest heavily in your set traps skill from the outset, but then to make the most of your traps you'd be resting a lot. Or you could play your bounty hunter as a regular thief initially and divide your skill points among different skills (stealth, detect traps, locks, set traps) until you have some more levels under your belt and hence more traps. Either way your trap setting skill should be (close to) 100 to be able to make good use of them.
You'll be backstabbing as well, so for weapons I think the same applies here as for the assassin. Depending on how you want to roleplay you could either pick a swift smaller weapon (short sword, scimitar, dagger) or a bulkier weapon that does more damage. Note that quarterstaves have low speed factors and are apparently great for backstabbing. Again I must say that I don't really dig quarterstaves for a sneaky bounty hunter. Even my cleric-thief decided to use clubs in spite of having heard rumors of legendary staves that grant permanent invisibily or that allow for massive backstab damage. He's too young to pull off the "wise old man with walking stick" front.
Traps remain useful all the way through the trilogy, Once you get into TOB you'll have an amazing amount and variety of traps, and you'll have had lots of practice in using them well. This plus the other benefits thieves get (UAI for scrolls and useful items, assassination) should help you get through TOB alive.
By the way, if you're still reading after all of this, one question: are you playing BG:EE or BGT/Tutu?
In the latter case, there is a little known mod out there, called trap revisions, which you might want to check out especially if playing bounty hunter. I'm going to try it out with a new playthrough.
Besides that the Rogue Rebalancing mod offers some changes to the thief kits that you might find interesting. I've used it and later uninstalled it because it seems to nerf the swashy (who loses his damage bonuses) and also the assassin's poison's potency. And there's also a mod called song and silence which introduces new thief kits.
Ok hope some of this helps...
For the whole trilogy, i'd go Swashbuckler without a doubt. It start slowly (still manageable) but from level 15-16 it starts to shine and to be on par with a fighter/thief multi
You have enough traps to play with that when you need (veryr arely since you will slaughter most foes with your blades)
The only problem it doesn't feel like a thief.
To be efficient the Bounty hunter has to use traps often which means resting often which i strongly dislike (breaks the immersion, often completely unrealistic)
Incidentally sorry to mods if this has gone off topic by discussing how it's going.
BTW Sarevok will deal serious damage to you if you fight him face to face, despite your probably great armor class. So I think the best way for you do hurt him will be through attacks from stealth (even though you have no backstab modifier) and maybe combining boots of speed and potion of speed so that you can easily outrun him after every attack in order to hide again. Therefore it might be useful to further enhance your stealth skills. An other great skill later on (in SOA) is detect illusion: maybe you can start developing that one.
- in BGEE you get the drizzt weapons but also 2 +2 scimitars
- in BG2, you get belm and the +4 wakizachi from the start and scarlet ninja to with UAI.
Speed weapons are mandatory with a thief since using 2 of them will double your damage output.
If you play a human, though, you can try a Swashbuckler dualled to mage, at such a level of a swashbuckler, that you will still be able to hit 28 mage (maximum spell slots). You loose backstab, but you practically/effectively get a hybrid, watered down, fighter/mage/thief (due to specializations and whirlwinds).
Nevertheless scimitar is a fine choice. I'm running a bounty huntress through BGT, with specs in dagger, darts and single weapon, ans so far my damage output is laughable (http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/comment/474416 if you're interested).
I might not opt for scimitar later on, simply becasue I almost always end up using them (be it as a swashmage, a fighter/thief, a ranger etc), but you have many good options yes. You could even dualwield two speed scimitars, as @mumumomo correctly pints out.
This is probably the most frustrating of my three runthroughs that I've done, I think due to the aforementioned absence of heal spells, though things got easier once I picked up the Boots of Speed. I am toying with picking up another companion to use as bait and dispells during the final fight, but the plan for that is exploding potions in the dark, try and pull what npcs I can, then invis/backstab then break out the boots and bow till Saverok is dead. Then for the first dungeon of BG2 use the team to get through and as mules, then start part two properly, starting with the Stronghold chain and taking it from there.
Be very very careful in the Duchal Palace. This might well be the most difficult part, because as you surely know, you're going to have to keep either Belt or Liia Janneth (or both) alive, against a multitude of dopplegangers.... (You might even want to recruit some people.) Best of luck.
- take 2 MR potions (be careful sometimes it get dispelled. So get 4 potions) + 1 potion of defense (AC = -10/12)
- use invis/backstab/invis/... to kill sarevok