Best single class for solo no reload (sorc excluded)
mumumomo
Member Posts: 635
Multi/dual being generally OP, i would like to get your view on the most suited SINGLE class for a solo no reload run.
The sorceror is out of the game since he is probably the easiest one, even including the multis.
Best contenders IMO :
Cavalier : very easy bg1 (poison and fear immunity), very hard to kill with carsomyr (MR) and armore of faith/hardiness/DOE. Some good summons (deva, animate dead). Can kill mafe quite easily (carsomyr dispell) Traps ca be a real problem though if you don't know all of them.
Blackguard : bg1 is ultra easy with poison weapon and fear immunity, less resilient than the cavalier (MR) but poison weapon is so OP that it is nonetheless a strong choice
Monks : bg1 is harder but not that much. Early bg2 is a real challenge. Later on, you get completely immune to magic which makes most of the rest quite simple.
Blade : need a lot of buffing but can handle everything in the game especially post hla thanks to traps and uai.
My favorite is the Swashbuckler : With dual speed weapons you fight almost as well as a fighter and you have much better ac.
Uai can make you immune to basically everything. You can also play a shorty for more safety. The fact that you can scout and handle traps is also a main advantage over fighter types.
The sorceror is out of the game since he is probably the easiest one, even including the multis.
Best contenders IMO :
Cavalier : very easy bg1 (poison and fear immunity), very hard to kill with carsomyr (MR) and armore of faith/hardiness/DOE. Some good summons (deva, animate dead). Can kill mafe quite easily (carsomyr dispell) Traps ca be a real problem though if you don't know all of them.
Blackguard : bg1 is ultra easy with poison weapon and fear immunity, less resilient than the cavalier (MR) but poison weapon is so OP that it is nonetheless a strong choice
Monks : bg1 is harder but not that much. Early bg2 is a real challenge. Later on, you get completely immune to magic which makes most of the rest quite simple.
Blade : need a lot of buffing but can handle everything in the game especially post hla thanks to traps and uai.
My favorite is the Swashbuckler : With dual speed weapons you fight almost as well as a fighter and you have much better ac.
Uai can make you immune to basically everything. You can also play a shorty for more safety. The fact that you can scout and handle traps is also a main advantage over fighter types.
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Swashy has stealth at lower levels (I'd invest heavily in it regardless of people saying it's not worth it because they don't have an increasing backstab multiplier), becomes a really good fighter later on, they have traps and will have UAI to use scrolls, wands, potions, helmets, class-restricted weapons etc. The Blade doesn't have stealth or traps (until HLAs), but they get spells early on, and like the Swashbuckler becomes a great fighter and has the benefit of UAI.
I reckon that single class mages or specialist mages if played carefully in the first half of BG1 (when they're at their weakest), have great potential as well.
Of the Warrior classes I think the Berserker ought to be mentioned. Their rage is amazing. The Barbarian's rage isn't as great, so they might sometimes need potions/items to help them out against mages, but they can get a dazzling amount of hitpoints and besides they get very good physical resistance, which is very useful in ToB.
If I had to solo a warrior I'd try a Stalker, simply because it fits my style of play. The character would depend heavily on items that protect against status effects though.
Priests could be interesting. I've never solo'd one, but I wouldn't dismiss them. They get a couple of fine damage spells, good summons, great buffs. Clerics are great in SoA, against all the undead, and Druids' Insect Plague/Creeping Doom can turn some of the toughest fights into a piece of cake.
- get fire immunity (potions, ring, scroll)
- use the helm of vhailor to get a simulcarum
- use belm + DoE or the anti-dragon sword.
- Use armor of faith
- Under improved haste (from the ring of gaax), that would yield 8 attacks / round (16 including your simulacrum). This should chew through his stoneskins and kill him fast enough.
All that equipment can be obtained by level 12-13 i would say.
After HLA, he would be a pushover.
i've never played one, but i always assumed wild mage was a no-go for no reload runs because of the potentially deadly surges. Do you have some tips to avoid that?
@thesoloer
BG1 is indeed quite easy, mostly because :
- you can skip most of it and focus on a few fights
- potions/scrolls/wands are too poweful at lower levels
- Bows are very OP, especially once you get arrows of detonation
- it's short so knowing all traps is not very hard
SoA is significantly harder :
- traps are deadly (maze trap with a fighter = game over)
- much more fights, a lot of them involving spell casters. i am not sure you have enough potions/scrolls to protect for all of them. A kobold shaman castin hold person can kill a fighter.
However you will need to have perfect knowledge of deadly traps (maze, flesh to stone) in order to activate rage in advance.
It might be boring to wait for mages protective spells to wear out as you would have little means to get rid of them.
Anyway if you play a dwarven berserker your saves will probably be all in the negatives when you reach these more powerful mages.
Bounty Hunter - if you like traps.
Assassin - if you don't like traps, but you love backstabbing. Struggles a bit in BG1 to get enough skill points. (venom+bow can mow down almost any enemy, especially mages)
Swashbuckler - for fight-oriented thieves. In my opinion, more straight-forward and more difficult than both of the thieves above.
additionally
Blackguard - easymode
Barbarian - pop rage and go to town
Blade - needs a bit more tactic than the above, but you get to cast spells and use wands, which is an advantage.
Monks - fun in BG2, a death-wish in early BG
Might be tough in BG1 tho...
No question about it.
1.) Mage/Sorcerer
2.) Cleric/Ranger
3.) Blade
4.) Paladin (Because of Purifier/Carsomyr)
5.) Barbarian/Berserker
6.) Any rogue (Use any item).
7.) Cleric
Probably something like this.
[Edited] : Just read that it was single class. So i guess it would be blade then.
2) Half Elf Cleric Ranger, or Human Beastmaster 12 dual Cleric 38
Especially no 1 is THE, player, to get the job done. Especially with grandmastery to some kinky weapon class with an imbalanced late game representative...
@SionIV Mage and Blade are up there, but I kind of understood the OP meant arcane magic excluded.
The reason the mage is so good in a no-reload game is that he has enough spells to have a backup plan. The bard in the vanilla game only has enough spells to put up his protections and then refresh one or two, the mage can be completely immune AND refresh his spell list if need be.
If this had been a normal solo game i would also have excluded the Blade as an arcane caster. But in a No-reload there is actually a huge difference between a mage/Sorcerer and blade when it comes to survivability.
So if you 'd like to make a case for a mage or a bard, I'd say go right ahead
or Orc Thief cleric
sorry I still cant decide
I don't know how viable it would be, but I've never tried playing a halfling and an evil Assassin sounds like it could be fun.
Assassins are great in BGEE. They lack skill points but i usually make do by getting around 80 in HIS/MS and 65-70 in find traps. In BG2EE however i don't like them so much because you are basically forced to use poison weapon, even for the simplest fights. Otherwise your fighting capacities are just too weak
Swashbuckler are the exact reverse :
they are not so good in BGEE (lack of PIPs, no helmet is bad for melee fighting, low passive bonus).
in BG2EE however, once you get the ball running they are just unstoppable.
By level 20 (mid chapter 2 in solo), you have :
- all the skill points you will ever need
- +5 to AC -> virtually impossible to hit in SOA
- +4 to hit/damage (on top of specialization)
- APR is their only weak point but thanks to speed weapons, it can easily be solved. Dual wielding 2 speed weapons you reach 4 APR (8 with improved haste from the ring of gaax)
From there i consider them on par or even better than Fighter/thieves multi
For the end game, APR don't really matter anyway thanks to WW and your max level +8 to hit and damage more than compensate the -4 from WW.
That way you end up with a greater damage output than any fighter (save for the kensai which has nothing else for him) AND a much better AC AND thieving skills.
If I can't recommend Sorcerer? Fine, Mage. Then Blade. You want arcane magic :P Both powerful and fun. Druids are okay but a bit repetitive and underwhelming. There are other classes that I consider easy solos like Beserker but I don't recommend them because I found them boring and/or they're a bit too risky for no-reloads.
bear. It kind of destroy the heroic feeling...
My friends told me its impossible to finish Baldur's Gate in a solo run without reloading,
I wanna try and prove them wrong !
If I die -- I start all over again ! however... I'm not planing to die so easily...
Join my adventure of fk#ing the hell out of Faerûn with my power hungry
fighter cleric majestic bitch DiViNA
In Baldur's Gate 1 there's a very small amount of cheese u can apply due to the level restriction [xp cap] so most of the Arcane magic shenanigans are out of reach.
what you CAN do [and its really doesn't count as cheese ] is use the fact the most enemies have rather low saving throws and Hit Dice.
This is basically my plan... things like "Command" [cleric spell] are under your reach even at Level 01 and they actually work on a lot of enemies lol.
I haven't finished my run yet though... but I tell you this, I never had that much fun playing Baldur's Gate 1, my heart stops at every hostile encounter !
This is great experience whether I succeed or not ^^
This is NOT a speed run.
I am playing a Half-Elf (for the cleric multiclass) and got nice stats.
After rolling stats for about 1 minute or so I ended with the following stats :
Strength :17
Dexterity :18
Constitution :18
Intelligence :17
Wisdom :17
Charisma
And here is the video :