Solo help?
sector001
Member Posts: 8
I just started playing BG again and was wondering if anyone could recommend a good solo build? I remember years ago seeing some pretty powerful sorc's out there but yea it's been awhile.
3
Comments
Paladin -> Easy and powerful
C/R - > Easy and can get insanely powerful
Sorcerer/Mage - > Mediocre to hard difficulty, most powerful one out there
Berserker - > Easy and powerful
You can solo the game with pretty much every single class, some better than others.
All divine spells
Fighter proficiency (Ranger)
Amazing stats (It's very easy to roll high on a ranger/cleric)
Racial Enemy (Ranger)
It's a very lethal combination that is without doubt the most powerful in the game right after arcane casters.
Some kind of thief mage or fmt multi are much more interesting.
For a solo, if you are not pretty familiar with the game, you probably want thief skills.
Illusionist Thief multi is a true solo dream. Save bonus, school specialization, UAI abuse, Thief traps, Thief skills in general, and of course, absurdly good Spike Traps and Time Traps. Really, this is about the safest bet for someone who doesn't know where the traps are.
If you are importing from BG1, consider F/T... F/T might as well go Dwarf IMHO, great saves, and you get 19 str from tomes as well as 20 cons. Thats also a really easy solo comparatively speaking.
Don't go pure warrior unless you like triggering every damn trap, and not being able to open containers. Also, most people find pure warrior really tedious to solo, I know I did in.
Illusionist Thief though is a powerhouse, and you could give Hexxat (replacing Jan) a shot if you run this, or even take Mr. S in ToB, the biggest, baddest fighter of them all. He likes the Ravager, or Gram, or even a good ol' Silver Sword. You can use Hexxat until then if you want.
The Assassin especially is a popular thief kit for dualling into fighter. You could go until level 9, for a x4 backstab multiplier and a 3rd daily poison weapon ability or level 10 for the increase in the poison's potency. You'll have enough skillpoints to sufficiently develop two skills. For example at level 10 you'd have 150 skill points plus racial/dex bonuses. You could have Detect Traps at around 65 (can be increased with potions/items) and Detect Illusions at 100. For Stealth, Lockpicks and Pickpocketing I'd rely on potions.
There are easier and more powerful options though. A Fighter/Thief multiclass is easier to play and probably stronger for the biggest part of the game.
For Thief->Mage dual you could wait until lvl 7 which would give you enough skill points to cover the basics (no need to invest in Detect Illusions there, because you'll have spells for that), and importantly, it's a dual you could pull off in BG1. If you went Swashbuckler->Mage, there would be reasons to waint until lvl 10 (for the Swashbuckler AC/Thac0/Damage bonus). Again, the Mage/Thief multi (or Gnome Illusionist/Multi) is imo easier to play and stronger as well.
In all cases dualing a Thief at the beginning of BG2 into Mage or Fighter can make Irenicus's Dungeon more frustrating than it already is (to many people).
Assassin-> fighter dual i a very strong class, one of the strongest class for offensive purpose (GM, attack bonus from assassin, poison weapon). Pre HLA, i feel that they are stronger than fighter/thief multi (who lack poison weapon and grand mastery). Post HLA however the multi will be much stronger.
Thief->mage duals do not compete with thief/illusionnist multi IMO (the lack of specialization will make them barely better at spellcasting, while they will be a lot less powerful as thieves)
As you gain more spells, you can use items like the shield necklace (lets you use the shield spell like 40 times and available fairly early on in BG1) or the armor spells (Ghost Armor is pretty great) to allow yourself to do everything. You can stealth in, backstab, cast a spell and resume attacking all in the same round.
As others have said, having some thief abilities is great (pretty essential for Durlag's tower unless you can heavily buff yourself) and the thief levels retain usefulness throughout BG2 as well. You will also enjoy the Use Any Item higher level ability that will let you wield Carsomyr and other items that are otherwise useless to a solo player. As you enounter tougher mages, you will find a lot of usefulness in spell casting (using breach on an enemy mage to strip away immunity to magic weapons or stoneskin or using spell immunity to protect against deadly spells, etc.). For a combat heavy game like this the fighter levels are great, too.
I highly recommend the F/M/T swiss pocketknife of classes for the extreme versatility.
Moreover, for a triple class solo you will have twice the XP as a caster that you would have as a single class mage in a 6 person party so the arcane power should be there since you don't have to divide the XP (granted the one bonus spell per level is nice).
I'm not saying that an I/T isn't great or might not be more fun for many players, but I don't find it nearly as versatile and find it to require much more micromanagement. For someone who doesn't want to micromanage or rest a lot, the FMT gives you the most versatile character for play style in my opinion. That and $.50 will get you a cup of coffee!
On the contrary, a solo sorcerer, while vastly more powerful requires much more attention, especially for the early parts of the game.
An I/T is somewhere in between.
However later on they are extremely susceptible to magic, having no way to protect against it while most other classes have solutions for this.
A sorcerer will have to rest like crazy the first levels and a few arrows could end your life before you get many levels. A dual classed or multi-classed F/M will have a very strong early game, and once you start gaining mage levels, you still got a ton of health from your fighter levels.
So you have to ask what is more important to you, enjoying a powerful class through the entire game, or waiting until mid - late game to enjoy your character.
This is one of the reasons i prefer to dual class my F/M at level 9 (Max HP) and berserker over kensai (rage immunities and fullplate).
Enemies a F/M/T can beat without buffing are enemies an I/T will simply ignore in a solo. Most aren't worth the XP while soloing, and just drain resources while offering crummy loot. Enemies that require buffing will need buffing either way.
I agree with @SionIV that you should play what you enjoy, and leave it at that I think. You don't need the best character to solo, and indeed, many great builds will have downtime that is frustrating for some, especially duals. Dualing to Fighter is a special hell in BG2, just saying.
I don't get the notion that the I/T is better or comparable with melee due to his buffing. The FMT beats 95% of opponents with one buff (stoneskin) and then goes up to three buffs (stoneskin, improved haste and PFMW) in hard situations and simply points and clicks for the combat. (Heck, the buffs for a FMT can be dropped into sequencers or used with contingencies even wearing heavy armor if appropriate for the fight). Improved haste isn't needed often but is nice when you can do max attacks per round and then use the critical strike ability to ensure they are all natural 20s as well. There are classes that need a lot of buffing to be good at melee but they aren't one of them.
Jan takes numerous buffs to be decent in melee and will never be nearly as good as the F/M/T with Carsomyr, the Flail of Ages, etc. He will max out at 6 attacks per round (dual wielding with one bonus attack item plus buffed with improved haste) compared to 10, he won't have the +1/+2 specialization, he will have penalties for using weapons like Carsomyr or FOA due to inability to get proficient, he won't have critical strike, he can't max dual wielding proficiencies, he won't have as good a THAC0 (unless we are micromanaging with more buffs), etc. It is just a no-brainer for melee just like it is a no-brainer that the I/T will be a better caster (even if you aren't playing with XP cap).
My point is really the level of micromanagement and versatility. The I/T is great and can do lots of things but needs lots of micromanaging compared to the relative simplicity of most combat for the FMT.
Quick note on the sorcerer. I disagree that the early levels are hard with them. The thing is that in bg1, wands are plentiful and very OP.
Overall i don t see any part in the game which are remotely hard for a sorcerer. But it's true that they require a lot of micro management.
Edited : durlag tower is a pain for solo sorc but is completely skippable.
An I/T can start with better stats than Jan remember, and either has a teensey ace in the hole you seem to be forgetting, Shapeshift. Delicious brains are delicious, and a FMT can forget that melee trick. Other forms can be handy too.
Another option not open is Timestop as a spell. Yes, either can make a trap, but some rough encounters are hard to use traps in, so the spell combined with Backstabbing 6 times = very, very dead enemy.
With high enough Wis, a high level IT can Wish to gain back his spells, FMT can't.
Jan ofc can also stun pretty reliably, brutal area effect stun can carry you pretty far.
If you don't mind extra cheese on a cheesey crust, @semiticgod uses Jan by taking Spider form, replaces his weapon via Shocking Grasp, then enjoys spider forms high APR, often topped with IH. A FMT gains little by this trick compared to the huge buff an IT gets from it.
FMT is better vs mooks, I agree, but not vs bosses generally.
I/T (Stop before encounter. Buff him with 3 spells. Then wade into the fray and polymorph him, then cast shocking grasp, then attack or time stop, then shapechange, then attack or use the timestop spell instead of the timestop trap or assassinate and then backstab if the spell isn't interrupted due to spending 2 rounds putting up short-term buffs prior to the fight, etc.)
FMT (Walk into encounter with stoneskin already active. Click enemy. When dead, click next enemy.)
As an aside, I am not sure what wish rest has to do with any of this. That deals entirely with spell casting which is already conceded to be Sorcerer/Mage > I/T > FMT and for 99% of the game you can simply rest without much difficulty rather than try to pull off the low % wish rest during the middle of a fight. (This is the best use for those potions of insight, IMO). Even with a sorcerer, the only reliable way to pull off wish rest is by using a series of projected images to keep casting wish until you pull it off. It is very easy to miss on that 6+ times in a row.
How the heck is casting Shapeshift to become a Mindflayer casting 3 spells?? you can toss in Timestop, sure, but enemies you kill this way are those that aren't getting beaten with melee while Stoneskinned, and its 2 spells, or 1 and a trap.
99% of the enemies (ie the easy 'pount and kill' fights) are OPTIONAL. You can bypass so many fights, and as a solo you still will easily hit the cap in SoA. Who cares if you can massacre 20 kuotoas without using anything but stoneskin?? You only need to kill the Prince iirc. Just an example.
The reason I reference the mundane part of the game is that the vast majority of fights fall into this category. You can go invisible and just walk past people (although that isn't an option with the kuotoas) for much of the game but most people don't skip these encounters. Thus the micromanaging is a bigger issue for most players than it is for you.
If you are skipping all the mundane content in the game then it is a different experience from what I would expect the OP to engage on. I agree you aren't just jumping in and curbstomping Draconis but the strategic opportunities are there for all these classes (pure arcane, I/T, and F/M/T) to win those fights even if the variations on those may look a little different for each. For a more casual player than you, I still recommend the F/M/T as the easier playthrough on a first solo experience.
Just my opinion and reasonable minds can differ (and often do on this forum!).
Once the IT gets to level 9 spell he is miles ahead the FMT in terms of power. however getting to that level of power is neither quick, nor necessary.
Let's imagine you have 2 scales from 1 to 5 (5 being the best and 1 the worst)
1st scale is ease of play.
2nd is power
Sorcerer would be 3/5
IT would be 4/4
FMT would be 5/3
Everything with power > 3 is powerful enough to deal with the game with no major concern.
There aren't that many required spells if you go Vanilla (IE no difficulty mods), but the biggest tip is watch for spells that will improve, or do not get worse, as long-term picks. Magic Missile ends up being better than Larloch's Minor Drain I would safely say, and better than Sleep in BG2 obviously, but Sleep is still worth grabbing as you don't have that many GOOD 1st level choices anyways. At 2nd, Blur is better right away vs Mirror Imagine I would argue, but Mirror Image gets a TON better than Blur.
And be cautious with summons... Many are frankly **** choices. Animate Dead is very sound, Mordenkainen's Sword is good, but other than that, MAYBE Spider Spawn to use with Web. Here is a framework of some useful spells, but you should consider some more utility spells with the remainder. You can recast the same damage spell over and over if needed, so try not to take more than 1 or 2 for a given level, as you will lack utility options, IE Pierce Magic, Lower Resistance, Secret Word, Spell Trap, Spell Shield, Protection from Magic Weapons, Spell Trigger, Spell Sequencer, Chain Contingency, Spell Strike, etc. You won't need ALL of the utility options, but think about which ones become irrelevant over time and try to stick with ones that will give better long term utility.
1st: Magic Missile, Probably Sleep and Shield
2nd: Melf's Acid Arrow, Mirror Image, Web, Knock, Maybe Invisibility
3rd: Skull Trap, Melf's Minute Meteors, Remove or Dispel Magic
4th: Stoneskin, Greater Malison, Improved Invisibility if you didn't take Invisibility especially
5th: Breach, Sunfire (MAYBE. It is good for soloing), Animate Dead
6th: Contingency, Project Image, maybe Chain Lightning
7th: Delayed Blast Fireball (good damage dealer actually, too bad it is fire)
8th: Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting
9th: Wish, Time Stop
That or some of those would make a good enough backbone to start with. You can use EE Keeper to edit the spell selection if you need to.
GOOD (boring): Just do all the quests that have nothing to do with being evil. You'll be boring and given all the EXP you want.
EVIL (F**** YEAH!): KILL EVERYBODY AND RAID EVERYTHING FOR ALL THE LOOT AND CRUSH THE DIRTY PEASANTS UNDER YOUR HEELS AS YOU STROLL INTO THE DUKES CASTLE AND DRIVE YOUR EPIC WEAPONS UP SAREVOKS BEHIND BEFORE HE EVEN BECOMES A DUKE. F*** YEAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!
So yeah I hope you enjoyed my little guide and have fun with BG:EE / BG2:EE.