@elminster Battle Horrors are immune to normal weapons. At least they are for me. *Shrugs* I know because Imoen's arrows are useless against them. (I'm too lazy to switch to magical ones, since the rest of the team can kill them so quickly.)
They aren't immune to normal weapons. They are however 100% resistant to missile attacks.
Alright then. I'll punch Davaeorn's to death then. (hopefully...) Other than that, I don't think there's anything I NEED magic weapons to kill on the main story. And getting to level 8 shouldn't be TOO hard. BG1 is looking more and more possible. Still hard, but possible. The fight with Sarevok still seems like it'll be brutal, but maybe I can lure his allies away somehow?.. Without ranged weapons, I'm not sure how I'll manage that...
I tried a solo monk in tutu, was bored nearly to tears having to kite EVERYTHING with darts. Sling might be better damage now, and less infuriating to get the first few levels.
For poverty solo, I have no clue how you'll get the first bunch of levels. Its fugly tedius.
Yup. up to levels 5- 6 it is quite difficult and tedious and a kitefest at best. After these, it gets easier. However, with some meta-game knowledge, you can get to lvl 3-4 with minimum fighting.
I've not ever done this kind of challenge, but I do have to ask, won't the whole thing be kind of dicey when it comes to taking out the Assassins in BG2? At least Sorcerers have a range capability and the capacity to summon monsters to 'Block'. Seems like a Monk will have significant difficulties in this arena.
Not to say that it "Can't" be done. It is, after all, a challenge. Just saying that might be a tricky spot to get through.
You could allow yourself to reach the level 9, just to get the +1 fists.
Also I don't think getting to level 11 or so in BG1 is that gamebreaking, of course you are a little bit stronger. But in BG2, the vanilla xp cap is at 8M because of ToB and it is definitely gamebreaking and overpowered, but no one says anything because it is "legit".
I'm not certain a poverty monk isn't feasible, but an alternative presents itself and sounds more enjoyable to me— how about a non-looting monk? The only items and gold allowed are those freely gifted by others.
Imo, that should still qualify as poverty, especially if you tithe some to a church. Rewards arent that big until the city, actually, so it shouldnt be very powerful until you'd need it anyways.
Ehhh, it kind of defeats the purpose of the challenge in my opinion. But if you want to take the challenge and play that way then more power to you. Besides, what items are gifted? I can't think of any ITEMS that are gifted. At least not in BG1.
Oh. Duh. XD How could I forget that? It's not like we talked about it earlier in the thread... Silly Elrandir. Besides the dagger there's not much the monk could really use, though.
WIthout a potion or item to boost your Thac0 it would be more likely that you would miss. Sarevok's AC (once factoring in his dexterity bonus) is -5. The best a monk can get (without any item) would be 9 (with DUHM providing +3 to strength). You'd basically have a 1/3 chance of hitting him. Without DUHM your chance to hit would drop to 20%.
WIth enough reloads, you should be able to kill pretty much anything with stunning fist + saving throw luck. Not sure how much fun it's going to be however.
Well it took six years, but I'm finally doing the run. I've used EEkeeper to do a couple of things, most notably changing my race to half-orc, and changing my stats to reflect that. The 19 strength is a big boost and the big reason I did it, but I think this is feasible without it. I also just like the variety.
Here are the rules and conditions I'm going with for the run:
1. Solo: No other party members.
2. Poverty: No looting. Any non-quest items must be dropped immediately. No equipment may be used, and while gold can't be dropped, it also can't be used for anything other than quest purposes.
3. Stats: Max 108 roll for stats, which for a half-orc monk equals some beastly abilities.
4. Level Cap: I have an uncapper, so we'll be able to reach level 9+ in BG1, meaning magical fists.
5. Completion Percentage: I'll try to complete as much of the games as I can. This includes TotSC and ToB.
6. Reloads: I'll try to avoid save-scumming to have a more favourable outcome to a fight, but the run isn't over if I have to reload. If I reload it'll be after a death, and while I might give it a second try if it was close the first time, normally I'll just go to a different area to gain some more experience before trying again.
7. Tomes: If I can get access to a tome then I'll be allowed to use my gold to identify it and read it, but if I can't find a way to obtain it, then I'm out of luck. This does mean that I'll be able to obtain a coveted 20 CON that will make life much easier.
8. Difficulty: I'll be playing on Easy difficulty. I'm a wuss and this'll be hard enough without additional challenge. I welcome others to play this on Core, but I am not confident enough to do so.
If I think of any other rules that my tired brain has forgotten then I'll list them later. In the meantime, enjoy a shot of our character's stats just after leaving Candlekeep.
Just got done with my first play session. Between kiting ogres, ogrillons, and hobgoblins, and abusing building transition mechanics, I completed the quests from Unshey, Joia, Landrin, and Mirianne. I also chunked Tarnesh, Karlat, and Silke, and talked down Marl. All these things brought me to 7595 experience, or a smidgen more than halfway to level 5.
The +5 damage and -2 THAC0 difference between 18 STR and 19 STR is definitely noticeable, but in a lot of ways I don't think it's made it any easier so far. Just faster.
I come to this thread guessing that it was one of the many dead threads resurrections that i sometimes see, but in this case it was indeed only sleeping.
I wish you good luck for your adventure planned long time ago and that you are finally living.
one thing that i never understood about the solo poverty rules is why a not enchanted sling with not enchanted bullets (only the ones you can loot from enemies and containers) should not be allowed.
the staff is allowed as it is only a wood stick, something very inexpensive that you can even build by yourself, but also a sling is so. a sling is only a strip of leather or can even be built with self gathered vegetable fibers, straw or other materials, is perfectly suited for the poverty concept and not enchanted bullets are only round pieces of stone of the appropriate size and weight, something that in the RL you can grab from the ground as you walk by.
so my suggestion for you and every poverty solo player is to allow them, as a ranged option is really useful, even if i see how for a monk that is fast to abuse of it kiting forever is so easy, and imo well in theme with the poverty concept.
Well, if you want that sling and bullets in any reasonable timeframe, you're going to have to buy them. I don't think there are any enemies in BGEE that have slings and bullets to drop. There are a few containers that have slings, but bullets are incredibly scarce outside of shops.
I really like that idea, @gorgonzola , although I think the use of the word "poverty" is more just to have a catchy title for a "no items or equipment" run. That latter one doesn't run off the tongue as well. Now if only a monk could use a quarterstaff it'd be perfect.
@jmerry , well since you can't drop gold, any that you receive from quests is still going to be in the inventory. So technically one could buy it under the role-play pretense that you're simply picking up stones to use. If you fill your entire inventory with bullets then you also can't accidentally pick up items, so it's a win-win.
@Elandir no items or equipment should mean also no staff, but it is usually allowed, if is a not enchanted one.
and not enchanted sling and bullets share the same characteristics of the staff, something that is easily gathered from the ground or made with almost no equipment, i would say that the a sling suits even better the role as you need some dagger or axe to transform some gathered wood in an usable staff, it should not be rotten as it would break, and most of the wood you gather from the ground is not suitable for the use, if you want a good staff you need to fell it from a leaving tree.
so a poverty run is not a run completely without items and the sling suits as good if not even better then the staff the requirement of allowed weapon for who has no way to buy its own one.
Interesting. It seems we've seen different descriptions of poverty runs, then. I've only ever encountered the "no items at all" ones. Specifically a guide saying that sorcerer is possible and monk is theoretically possible, while every other class is impossible. In the past few days I've tried finding the guide several times, but it seems to have been deleted.
I agree with your definition of a poverty run meaning no items at all are used - though as you've seen it's pretty common to make exceptions. BG1 and BG2 are both possible, though you'd need a lot of luck - for instance at the palace. However, SoD would not be possible without mods or making exceptions to the no-items rule as Belhifet requires +3 to hit and your monk would only have +1 fists without mods. Given you've already allowed a half-orc monk, I don't think the idea of introducing some tweaks to the game should scare you off though .
@Grond0 That's interesting. I don't actually own SoD, but I do have an XP uncapper, so if my research is correct, I'll be leaving BG1 between levels 11-13, meaning level 15 by (I'm assuming) the end of SoD isn't implausible. Alas, someone else will have to test that for me, since I'm not planning on picking up the game anytime soon.
I agree with your definition of a poverty run meaning no items at all are used - though as you've seen it's pretty common to make exceptions. BG1 and BG2 are both possible, though you'd need a lot of luck - for instance at the palace. However, SoD would not be possible without mods or making exceptions to the no-items rule as Belhifet requires +3 to hit and your monk would only have +1 fists without mods. Given you've already allowed a half-orc monk, I don't think the idea of introducing some tweaks to the game should scare you off though .
Not true. You can hit Belhifet with any weapon, even a completely unenchanted one.
For anyone interested, I'll be streaming some of my play-through in a few minutes. Not sure if I'm allowed to directly share links, so the Twitch page is Caron_Driel.
Well my first stream ever is over (thank you to anyone who may have attended). We made some great progress, getting all the way to level 7.
I cleared the Fishing Village, completing Sonner's quest as well as Brun's and Gerde's before traveling to Peldvale. Doing what little there was to do in Peldvale and Larswood (including dealing with Corsone and Osmadi), I then traveled to the spider woods just east of Larswood. There I did some of what was available, most notably Fahrington's quest to recover his "scroll of wisdom". I avoided the red wizards and a big group of spiders, however, not trusting my abilities that much yet.
Afterwards I made the bold move to take on Mutamin's garden. After some stealthed reconnaissance to ascertain the exact locations of the basilisks, I used Korax to wipe them all off the map. Shockingly, it went better than I could have imagined, and we killed all of the basilisks, Mutamin, and even the adventuring party led by Kirian. After a sorrowful "putting down" of "good dog" Korax, we returned to Beregost for a well-earned nap.
Here's our progress thus far. We're advancing faster and more effectively than I had expected, and while we did suffer a handful of deaths this session, it was far fewer than I had anticipated. I'll see if I can manage another session and stream sometime this weekend.
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/63570/forum-guidelines
i would say that if streaming bg games on twitch is not for you a real and substantial way to earn money, to the extent that linking the stream here becomes a way to "to advertise or distribute products", forbidden by the forum rules, and i doubt it is the case, there should be no problem in linking here the stream and tell us when the next ones will be done.
if you load the streams recordings on YT i also think that you can post them directly in this thread, or in a dedicated other one.
i am not a forum moderator, so what i tell is only my personal interpretation of the forum rules, or guidelines as them are now called, and if the moderators tell something different is surely their interpretation of the rules the one that you have to follow.
Comments
I'm using a normal long sword in this screenshot.
However, with some meta-game knowledge, you can get to lvl 3-4 with minimum fighting.
Not to say that it "Can't" be done. It is, after all, a challenge. Just saying that might be a tricky spot to get through.
Also I don't think getting to level 11 or so in BG1 is that gamebreaking, of course you are a little bit stronger. But in BG2, the vanilla xp cap is at 8M because of ToB and it is definitely gamebreaking and overpowered, but no one says anything because it is "legit".
Really though, no clue how you can best Sarevok short of limitless reloads until he crit misses 20 or 50 times in a row.
Oh, wait, his party...
Can you even hit him non-crit?
Here are the rules and conditions I'm going with for the run:
1. Solo: No other party members.
2. Poverty: No looting. Any non-quest items must be dropped immediately. No equipment may be used, and while gold can't be dropped, it also can't be used for anything other than quest purposes.
3. Stats: Max 108 roll for stats, which for a half-orc monk equals some beastly abilities.
4. Level Cap: I have an uncapper, so we'll be able to reach level 9+ in BG1, meaning magical fists.
5. Completion Percentage: I'll try to complete as much of the games as I can. This includes TotSC and ToB.
6. Reloads: I'll try to avoid save-scumming to have a more favourable outcome to a fight, but the run isn't over if I have to reload. If I reload it'll be after a death, and while I might give it a second try if it was close the first time, normally I'll just go to a different area to gain some more experience before trying again.
7. Tomes: If I can get access to a tome then I'll be allowed to use my gold to identify it and read it, but if I can't find a way to obtain it, then I'm out of luck. This does mean that I'll be able to obtain a coveted 20 CON that will make life much easier.
8. Difficulty: I'll be playing on Easy difficulty. I'm a wuss and this'll be hard enough without additional challenge. I welcome others to play this on Core, but I am not confident enough to do so.
If I think of any other rules that my tired brain has forgotten then I'll list them later. In the meantime, enjoy a shot of our character's stats just after leaving Candlekeep.
The +5 damage and -2 THAC0 difference between 18 STR and 19 STR is definitely noticeable, but in a lot of ways I don't think it's made it any easier so far. Just faster.
I wish you good luck for your adventure planned long time ago and that you are finally living.
one thing that i never understood about the solo poverty rules is why a not enchanted sling with not enchanted bullets (only the ones you can loot from enemies and containers) should not be allowed.
the staff is allowed as it is only a wood stick, something very inexpensive that you can even build by yourself, but also a sling is so. a sling is only a strip of leather or can even be built with self gathered vegetable fibers, straw or other materials, is perfectly suited for the poverty concept and not enchanted bullets are only round pieces of stone of the appropriate size and weight, something that in the RL you can grab from the ground as you walk by.
so my suggestion for you and every poverty solo player is to allow them, as a ranged option is really useful, even if i see how for a monk that is fast to abuse of it kiting forever is so easy, and imo well in theme with the poverty concept.
@jmerry , well since you can't drop gold, any that you receive from quests is still going to be in the inventory. So technically one could buy it under the role-play pretense that you're simply picking up stones to use. If you fill your entire inventory with bullets then you also can't accidentally pick up items, so it's a win-win.
and not enchanted sling and bullets share the same characteristics of the staff, something that is easily gathered from the ground or made with almost no equipment, i would say that the a sling suits even better the role as you need some dagger or axe to transform some gathered wood in an usable staff, it should not be rotten as it would break, and most of the wood you gather from the ground is not suitable for the use, if you want a good staff you need to fell it from a leaving tree.
so a poverty run is not a run completely without items and the sling suits as good if not even better then the staff the requirement of allowed weapon for who has no way to buy its own one.
All you have to is enable Story Mode.
I cleared the Fishing Village, completing Sonner's quest as well as Brun's and Gerde's before traveling to Peldvale. Doing what little there was to do in Peldvale and Larswood (including dealing with Corsone and Osmadi), I then traveled to the spider woods just east of Larswood. There I did some of what was available, most notably Fahrington's quest to recover his "scroll of wisdom". I avoided the red wizards and a big group of spiders, however, not trusting my abilities that much yet.
Afterwards I made the bold move to take on Mutamin's garden. After some stealthed reconnaissance to ascertain the exact locations of the basilisks, I used Korax to wipe them all off the map. Shockingly, it went better than I could have imagined, and we killed all of the basilisks, Mutamin, and even the adventuring party led by Kirian. After a sorrowful "putting down" of "good dog" Korax, we returned to Beregost for a well-earned nap.
Here's our progress thus far. We're advancing faster and more effectively than I had expected, and while we did suffer a handful of deaths this session, it was far fewer than I had anticipated. I'll see if I can manage another session and stream sometime this weekend.
i would say that if streaming bg games on twitch is not for you a real and substantial way to earn money, to the extent that linking the stream here becomes a way to "to advertise or distribute products", forbidden by the forum rules, and i doubt it is the case, there should be no problem in linking here the stream and tell us when the next ones will be done.
if you load the streams recordings on YT i also think that you can post them directly in this thread, or in a dedicated other one.
i am not a forum moderator, so what i tell is only my personal interpretation of the forum rules, or guidelines as them are now called, and if the moderators tell something different is surely their interpretation of the rules the one that you have to follow.