In general, is a Thief required?
Meanbunny
Member Posts: 107
For most of all the IE games. If I wanted to solo the game as say, a druid or something like that, would I be able play the game without thieving skills (detect/remove traps and lockpicking) or the knock mage spell, or would I be missing out on good loot from chests / locked areas that would be game changing? Just wondering what you guys thought about it. I really wanted to try to solo the game as a druid or something similar. I just don't know how vital a thief is to the party, especially when you don't have access to the mage spell counterparts to their abilities.
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Traps will be a nuisance, but without the ability to open locks, you can miss a lot.
Of course, there are ways of compensating for this, mostly either with brutal power (Strength enhancing items/potions for lock breaking, Constitution enhancing to get regeneration and just out-heal any trap damage) or with magic (predominantly Wizard's Lock spell or various protection/buff spells to counter traps)
While it's possible to beat the game with almost any kit or class combo, if you want to solo, I would recommend some of the usual power-playing class combos ... like:
- Fighter/Thief (pretty obvious)
- Fighter/Mage (work around thievery with brute power and magic)
- Cleric/Mage (work around thievery with magic)
- Paladin/Barbarian (brute power+buffs)
- Monk (immunities)
...
Or, here's a heretic idea...what about playing with a Thief kit solo?
I did and I found it much more satisfying than pure brutes...
On a side note, I am really glad that there is a modern forum to discuss these games that we love so much. I am really beginning to get back into the swing of things again.
Or, as I have suggested - a Thief. Thieves can be experienced anywhere on a scale from "Total failure" to "Absolutely amazing", depending on how well you play.
As for Druids, I would play with the Avenger (gets some nifty mage spells) or Shapeshifter, without mods (the usual Druid underdog) for more of a challenge.
The Wizard Slayer is 'bad' because it misses out on a huge amount of equipment for a very slowly progressing magic resistance and spell failure, which is not great because hitting a properly buffed mage is 90% of the difficulty in dealing with them in the first place.
Cleric has Detect Traps, a level 3 spell, which does roughly the same thing as "Disarm Traps" thief ability.
Dispel and True Sight, among other things, undo enemy invisibility, much like the "Detect Invisibility" thief skill.
You miss disarm traps, and set traps.
Rangers has stealth, and in-game items host a plethora and variety of invisible making items, with or without charges, or even spell scrolls and familiar abilities. And bards can pick pockets, too.
But i say, NO. You cannot run a game (at least easily and efficiently), without a good thief. Some traps HAVE to be disarmed, some traps in certain fights HAVE to be set. Or else...
thieves can disarm traps(knock wont do this) which no one else can all there other powers can be replicated else were, including the detection of traps. The thing is though thieves can do it all in one package.
Do you require one? not if you don't mind occasionally having to tank traps. Do they make things easier? yes significantly
One problem is the fact that all these spells might leave insufficient space in your spellbooks for other spells you'd like to cast, at least at lower levels. Kitting as a Priest of Helm would help because they get free True Sights.
Also, @Meanbunny is keen not to miss major game-changing items. There are lots of major items hidden in locked containers in BG. A Thief can obviously unlock containers, and arcane casters (other than an Abjurer) can use Knock, so they can reliably obtain such items. Other characters can sometimes break a lock by magically boosting STR, but that doesn't work on the tougher locks (even with maxed-out STR). Therefore, I reckon that @Meanbunny will be missing out on stuff he wants to get unless he plays (or recruits) either a Thief or an arcane caster.
Can the series be soloed as a Druid? Yes. But can it be completed in a manner which will satisfy someone who describes himself as "pretty OCD about not missing important things"? I doubt it.
@element I am really hoping that is the case for my druid solo run.
@Blackraven Yes, I completely understand where you are coming from, but my point about this thread is doing a playthrough without optimal resources. Which is why I wanted to do a non-arcane, non-thief run, while still being able to not miss a huge chunk of the best items in the game.
Also @Gallowglass Are there any must disarm traps in the mainquest of these games? If so then wouldn't that make it impossible to solo as a druid?
In BG1, you can still nab the big goodies in a certain basement if you have 25 str... clerics can buff enough to do it iirc, but maybe not while capped.
The only real difference, clerics cant complete werewolf island really (Karoug cant be hit, and even Wand of the Heavens might not cut it, but I think you can THEORETICALLY kill him), and any non-thief solo should avoid Durlag's.
If you want an interesting solo, try either a kitted thief or a cleric thief. I dont think there is much either is incapable of doing, but it'll be pretty challenging.
As to lack of thieving skills, you'd have to metagame a bit with the traps but losing out on loot due to not being able to pick locks shouldn't be an issue if you're soloing. The best loot is either sold or dropped by foes or stored in chests that can be opened. You would do well to save the violet potion, sold at the Nashkel Carnival, in order to get the tomes that @DreadKhan was alluding to.
I believe all of these traps also allow a Magic Resistance check, so you can also use 2xPotion of Magic Protection for 100% MR. (Though that's a rather expensive way to do it.)
You get the idea.