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Going to try the ultimate challenge - BG2/SCS Solo No Reload...with a character of your choosing :p

NadNad Member Posts: 20
in General Discussion (Spoiler Warning!)
Hi, long time BG player but new to these forums :).

I'm going to start a solo no-reload game of BG2 with a bunch of the popular mods, including Ascension, SCS and Item Randomiser. I will do a write up here with lots of pictures and silliness to entertain you. What I would like your help with is to choose what character I should play!

We're going to assume the protagonist has been through BG1 and will have appropriate XP. I won't actually be starting in BG1 because I played that game to death for years before starting BG2 and I can't bring myself to go back...sorry :(. I have classic BG2, not Enhanced Edition.

You don't need to worry about legal race / class / kit combinations because I have ToBex and Shadowkeeper and will happily use both to cobble together whatever character you want to see.

A quick pointer before the character template - this is solo no-reload with SCS: unless you want to see a very short playthrough, the PC needs to at least have a chance of survival! Item randomiser also means I have no idea where the great equipment is, so I can't rely on crutches like the Cloak or the Shield to overcome difficult challenges.

As part of this challenge, I will attempt to do every quest available to a solo character and explore every area. So the PC will need to fight the likes of beholders, liches, demi-liches etc. And preferably win. Difficulty will be core rules and will not be changed.

So here's the template for your suggestions. Whichever suggestion sounds like the whackiest / original / most fun wins ;).

Race:
Class:
Alignment:
STR:
DEX:
CON:
INT:
WIS:
CHA:

Weapon proficiencies:

Starting HPs (excluding CON):

In one or two sentences, how did this PC kill SCS-Sarevok? (Serious or comedy suggestions):

In one or two sentences, describe this PC's personality and outlook:

I look forward to your ideas!

Thanks

Nad
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Comments

  • JuliusBorisovJuliusBorisov Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,760
    Let's start it - everyone just add here futher suggestion.

    Race: Halfling
  • NadNad Member Posts: 20
    Wow, superb detail Blackraven, thank you! Let's see what else is thrown into the mix.

    Berserker / Bounty Hunter is easy enough to achieve, we just create a Fighter/Thief, assign the bounty hunter kit, add some enrages appropriate to the level and don't put more than 1* in missile weapons. Voila, berserker / bounty hunter.
  • Jaheiras_WitnessJaheiras_Witness Member Posts: 614
    Hmmm...maybe a gnome fighter/illusionist or elf f/m/t might be good.

    Sounds tough. Good luck. Looks like you'll need it.
  • GoturalGotural Member Posts: 1,229
    I wish you luck, and advice you to pick a pretty powerful character.

    The BG2 portion of the game is no joke, with Vampires, Illlithids and Beholders around every corners, you will need strenght to defeat them.

    You could try a Sorcerer, well rounded single class for this kind of challenge. Playing evil could be interesting indeed !
  • DreadKhanDreadKhan Member Posts: 3,857
    Not sure how soloable it'd be, but if you are hacking, a kensai/avenger. Making good use of the kensai boosts to make shapeshifted forms scarier... do extra attacks from warrior add to shapeshifts? The kensai boost would still be something to see. I would assume he fought using daggers through BG, killing Sarevok with either his Dagger of Venom or with his Swordspider form and web. Possibly used both. Relied on throwing daggers at low levels. The strength and constitution penalties are present, but 17 cons is probably good enough, and you could use a belt in BG2 when not using a form. Boomerrang dagger kiting for most enemies, and use Elemental forms at high level to stomp powerful opponents. Fire elemental and gww would be beastly with kensai bonus'.

    If that sounds too hard, just a dwarf swashbuckler. High charisma a must!
  • deltagodeltago Member Posts: 7,811
    Race: Gnome
    Class: swashbuckling illusionist
    Alignment: CN
    STR: 9
    DEX: 16
    CON: 15
    INT: 19
    WIS: 10
    CHA: 8
    total: 77

    Weapon proficiencies: club, two weapon fighting, daggers

    Starting HPs (excluding CON): base.

    In one or two sentences, how did this PC kill SCS-Sarevok? (Serious or comedy suggestions):
    His grumpy cat familiar went for the eyes and landed a critical hit.

    In one or two sentences, describe this PC's personality and outlook:
    Does things on a whim. Could care less about what others think of him and doesn't really have any clear motivations (not looking for power, or wealth or fame) except to live life and have his idea of fun. Can be cowardly if things don't seem to go his way using both stealth or magic to run away. Grumpy Cat is his familiar and will spout random gloom much like Xan would.
  • JuliusBorisovJuliusBorisov Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,760
    In the past, we used to have Hill dwarves, Mountain dwarves and Deep dwarves.

    Now we have Meagloth's dwarves. Their stats scare enemies to death.
  • NadNad Member Posts: 20
    Gotural said:

    I wish you luck, and advice you to pick a pretty powerful character.

    The BG2 portion of the game is no joke, with Vampires, Illlithids and Beholders around every corners, you will need strenght to defeat them.

    You could try a Sorcerer, well rounded single class for this kind of challenge. Playing evil could be interesting indeed !


    Agreed. In fact, you can add any mage to the list of difficult encounters. Even low level mages are incredibly annoying, because they all start off with stoneskin, shield, mirror image and MGoI, which makes getting through their defences a pain, and they love casting chaos, hold person and charm / dire charm, of which the latter are the most dangerous as charm = game over. A single failed saving throw ends it...

    Sorcerer is always a good choice though perhaps a little overdone. Looking way ahead but Watcher's Keep level 3 might be impossible with a sorcerer, as the maze is randomised with SCS and you can end up in a dead magic zone facing pit fiends or worse. Since our stated aim is to do all the challenges rather than run, a sorcerer might not fare so well.
  • NadNad Member Posts: 20
    meagloth said:

    RACE:
    Dwarven

    CLASS:
    wizard slayer/diviner.

    STATS:
    9str
    3dex
    3con
    9int
    3wis
    3cha

    PROFICIENCIES:
    Axe*

    ALIGNMENT:
    Chaotic evil, heavy role play. Kill All. The. Things. ALLTHETHINGS!!!!!!

    Also, you should do a poverty run, using only the quarterstaff that Gorion gave you in candelkeep. And make it a level 1 run, so no leveling up.


    Very good :).

    I was with you until you suggested level 1 and poverty :p.

    Maybe if I can survive with a stronger character, I might try something like this. Except maybe with all 9s instead of 3s. I do like the concept of a wizard slayer who hates all magic except his own and is on a quest to rid the world of all mages. Except him.

    Seems like everyone wants to see evil alignment though :D.
  • NadNad Member Posts: 20
    DreadKhan said:

    Not sure how soloable it'd be, but if you are hacking, a kensai/avenger. Making good use of the kensai boosts to make shapeshifted forms scarier... do extra attacks from warrior add to shapeshifts? The kensai boost would still be something to see. I would assume he fought using daggers through BG, killing Sarevok with either his Dagger of Venom or with his Swordspider form and web. Possibly used both. Relied on throwing daggers at low levels. The strength and constitution penalties are present, but 17 cons is probably good enough, and you could use a belt in BG2 when not using a form. Boomerrang dagger kiting for most enemies, and use Elemental forms at high level to stomp powerful opponents. Fire elemental and gww would be beastly with kensai bonus'.

    If that sounds too hard, just a dwarf swashbuckler. High charisma a must!

    Thank you. Very interesting suggestion. This character sounds very powerful in offence but his defences would be very weak. No armour and a weak saving throw vs spells is not ideal in this kind of scenario. Also, all the STR belts are randomised so could be anywhere.

    Kensai / Totemic might actually be more suitable (as well as much easier to create in Shadowkeeper) as you could the spirit animals to take some of the aggro while the PC demolishes everything in sight.

    Love the idea of a dwarven swashbuckler but he might not even survive the first dungeon. Not being able to use helmets = big trouble. Then ioun stones are randomised, so it's not a case of rushing to Pai'Na either. Maybe if I used UAI at the start only to use helmets (and wait until 3m XP before using other disallowed items) it might be doable.
  • NadNad Member Posts: 20
    deltago said:

    Race: Gnome
    Class: swashbuckling illusionist
    Alignment: CN
    STR: 9
    DEX: 16
    CON: 15
    INT: 19
    WIS: 10
    CHA: 8
    total: 77

    Weapon proficiencies: club, two weapon fighting, daggers

    Starting HPs (excluding CON): base.

    In one or two sentences, how did this PC kill SCS-Sarevok? (Serious or comedy suggestions):
    His grumpy cat familiar went for the eyes and landed a critical hit.

    In one or two sentences, describe this PC's personality and outlook:
    Does things on a whim. Could care less about what others think of him and doesn't really have any clear motivations (not looking for power, or wealth or fame) except to live life and have his idea of fun. Can be cowardly if things don't seem to go his way using both stealth or magic to run away. Grumpy Cat is his familiar and will spout random gloom much like Xan would.

    Love it :). Probably quite doable too if we up DEX a bit and lower INT. Use level 1 slots for Shield, Level 2 for Strength and Level 4 for Stoneskin and we're on the verge of being able to tank. Only issue would be saving throws, especially vs death, as we don't have a good way of being able to defend against death attacks.

    Thanks for all the suggestions so far and keep em coming! Hope to be able to start tonight if I have some time :).

  • NadNad Member Posts: 20
    Just a quick question on etiquette. The forum software here is not particularly to my tastes...the black background, the clutter of menu links and options, the difficulty in seeing where one post ends and another starts, the lack of obvious formatting options. Also, it looks like posting multiple images might be a bit of pain if they have to be attached. Is there a direct link code I can use for images? Alternatively, would it be rude to write the reports on a different forum and post the link here?
  • GoturalGotural Member Posts: 1,229
    If you randomize the maze it is true you could be in troubles.

    In all honestly, this room is so dangerous that I think you will avoid it whatever your character is, don't forget SCS2 no-reload is not easy.

    As for formating posts, here is a thread explaining everything you need to know : http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/161/how-to-format-your-posts/p1
  • NadNad Member Posts: 20
    edited June 2014
    That's great, thank you. I'll try it here and see how it goes. Just a case of getting used to the notation. I'm so used to [img][/img] and [spoiler][/spoiler] that anything else seems alien!

    Woah, the spoiler tags are the same. yay!
  • NadNad Member Posts: 20
    Code of Conduct

    We want a proper challenge. These are the additional rules we'll abide by.

    1) No cheese. No abuse of the engine such as running up and down stairs to avoid spell effects. Cheese is pretty subjective, and I have no problem with using cheesy items such as the Cloak (if I ever find it), but I will try to fight fair as far as possible.

    2) Metagame knowledge and pre-buffing is allowed. The enemies will also be pre-buffed with spells and potions so this is fair enough IMO.

    3) No changing equipped items during combat. Only weapons and shields can be changed, and of course we can drink any potions or use scrolls that we possess, but equipped items like amulets, belts etc cannot be changed during combat.

    4) No pickpocketing and no stealing from stores. It's just too easy to abuse.

    5) We can only loot buildings if nobody is watching. It just seems silly to me that you can pinch everything in the Thieves' Guild for example, without any of them batting an eyelid. Of course we can loot whatever we want in hostile areas.

    6) Only 1 rest is allowed per chapter (on average)! That means 7 voluntary rests for SoA. To be fair, we do get up to an additional 4 free rests (Windspear Hills, Spellhold, Phaere and Hell). This doesn't have as much impact on a fighter/thief as on a mage, but it does mean we have to strictly ration our rages and traps rather than using them for everything and resting whenever they run out.

    7) No trap spam. Only 1 trap can be active at any time, and we cannot set another until the first has been triggered or we move to a different area.

    Does anybody have any other suggestions?

    I don't want to be playing inventory management so I will console in a Bag of Holding at the start. I won't abuse it by looting everything though, I will only loot gems, scrolls, potions and magical weapons and armour (+ normal full plate).
  • NadNad Member Posts: 20
    Yeah, a failed save is the killer. However I think (famous last words) we can manage the risk.

    My starting save vs death will be 3 and save vs spell will be 6. Chuck in some protection items and we can get those down by a point or two. Fighter level progression will be slow (500XP per level up) but at level 13+ those saves should be around 0. That's still not totally safe since many effects have save penalties, and there's always greater malison.

    We can also try to manage the effects. Enrage protects against everything except slow, death and petrification I think, and I will use that for the particularly tough fights. Arbane's Sword and Lilarcor are not randomised and are available early, and they will protect against charm, confusion and hold person, if I see the spell coming and I can equip them in time :o.

    Potions of freedom are very common with SCS, and I should hopefully also manage to get hold of some potions of invulnerability. So those will also help considerably.

    We'll see how it goes. Heroic failure is just as good as success, right?!
  • meaglothmeagloth Member Posts: 3,806
    Also, you mets have done a lot of farming in bg1, cause as far as I know, there's about 800,000 XP total.
  • NadNad Member Posts: 20
    Not sure about that. From what I recall, every party I used always hit the caps at 161k, which is 966k at least?
  • BlackravenBlackraven Member Posts: 3,486
    @Nad, I'm honored to see you bring your Dwarf to life, but like @Gotural and @meagloth I'm a bit worried over his wellbeing. I agree with no cheese, but no item changing during battles, only one trap at a time, this really harsh... Keep in mind that at higher levels backstabs won't always work. That's where traps may offer solace. One rest per chapter would mean e.g. one rest during/after Unseeing Eye, Umar Hills (where you might get level drained), Planar Sphere, etc etc. I take you're going to do at least part of these quests in Chapter 2, for gear and XP.
    One tip, If you're going to rely on Saves, make sure to stock up on potions that protect against magic. And keep in mind that Potions of Invulnerability reduce Saves by 5. Perhaps use the Claw of Kazgaroth (which is normally imported from BG1).
  • NadNad Member Posts: 20
    I will try to do a lot of quests in Chapter 2. Umar Hills, Windspear Hills and Unseeing Eye will probably have to wait until Chapter 6, as it is very unlikely I will have any suitable equipment to do those in Chapter 2. I still don't have much idea how I'll do Improved Shade Lord, with his +20 to all saves penalty followed by chromatic orbs that insta-kill :(. Maybe Spell Immunity: Necromancy might work.

    You also have to bear in mind that 3m XP grants UAI, which means all scrolls will be usable. Possibly Carsomyr too, if I can defeat Firkraag. That will help a lot, since I can mitigate physical damage with stoneskins and mirror image scrolls, and use Carsomyr + potion of magic protection to get 100% magic resistance (at least until the first remove magic is thrown :p).

    And don't worry, I will be buying every potion out there that helps! Randomiser means there isn't much to spend money on in Chapter 2...the Scarlet Ninja-To will be my only big purchase, if I get UAI in Chapter 2. Everything else will be spent on potions and later scrolls.

    We'll see about the traps. I should be able to do a lot of damage just with weapons, so may not need to resort to them much. Besides, doesn't SCS prevent boss level opponents from being damaged by traps? I've never really tried them as I tend to play fighter or mage types.
  • NadNad Member Posts: 20

    And so it begins :)

    This is the full weidu of my modlist so you can see exactly what we're playing with.

    image
    image
    image


    From SCS I've disabled beholder theft (I'll be damned if they're stealing the shield after the effort it will take to acquire it!) and illithids start visible. I've also consoled in a bag of holding and since I have OCD about seeing area maps fully, the console does that too :p.

    image


    This will be a tactical playthrough rather than a roleplay, so I will write a summary of events and commentary rather than 1st person journal style.

    Nad the Blackraven (henceforth NtB) starts by dismissing Imoen, freeing Jaheira and Minsc and heading west. He stealths to get close to the lightning mephit and launches his first attack.

    image


    Critical Miss! What an auspicious start :D.

    Second attack.

    image


    Haha! I might as well give up now, hadn't I?

    Thankfully the third and fourth connect and NtB's first enemy is dispatched!

    image


    So let's have a look at NtB's inventory and character sheets.

    image
    image
    image
    image


    NtB's open locks and find traps are maxed out and his stealth is decent. The focus next will be on set traps and then detect illusions - it'll take 5 thief levels to max those out. After that we'll improve stealth again. His saving throws are decent.
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