Ok I have officially failed and accept defeat in my challenge. I could only make it halfway through the fight solo before my spells became exhausted.
However after coming so far (I never really expected to make it this far, heck I had doubts I'd even make it all the way through BG1), I wanted to end the run on a high note. For this fight only I have broken my rules and allowed myself a little back up, for the sake of concluding the playthrough in a fitting and satisfying manner.
Hopefully people will feel the playthrough still concludes nicely, and that my choice of 'back up' suits my character, the storyline and the overall spirit of the playthrough, and that I have not just added random NPCs to my party.
(I won't be using Shadow Keeper to level them up to my level, they will remain at mid-level. However I will take them back to Amkethran and arm them before the fight)
Fighting one on one, my battles with the previous members of the five had been close, too close. As much as I hated to admit it, Melissan now armed with the combined power of the Five, was just too strong for me, I'd never beat her alone, she has almost all the essence of Bhaal at her fingertips.
Wait!? That's it! She may hold the Lion's share of the essence, more than even me, the most powerful of Bhaal's children, but she doesn't hold it all, there was another Bhaalspawn, a powerful Bhaalspawn, who was once almost my equal, one who had recently offered to swear an oath of alliegence to me, SAREVOK!
Sarevok was still in my pocket plane somewhere, lurking. Since using my soul to resurrect him, there had been a connection between us, like it or not, our souls were now bound and I could sense his presence. He was waiting near where I had defeated Cyric's men in my fourth trial.
"So you have returned my Brother, as I knew you would", it appears that Sarevok had expected this moment from the very beginning. We were two of the most powerful Children of Bhaal, with our combined strength, we may just stand a chance, brother and brother back to back!
But there is still one more to find, the sister I abandoned back in the cowled wizards Asylum. Afterall I have put her through, Imoen probabally hates me, but I know the girl, I can talk her around, the threat Melissan poses is bigger than all of us, neither of us will be safe until we end this.
Sarevok had informed me, my plane holds power, there is a fate spirit near the portal exit. The spirit has the power to summon people from my past. And with in a moment a very confused Imoen stood in front of me.
It took the better part of the night to talk Imoen around, but here we stand in a tentative alliance, the last remaining children of Bhaal. Before we left, I sent the two of them to Amkethran to equip themselves for the fight ahead, new weapons, armour and spells. Once we got back to the pocket plane I ordered Imoen to prepare spell triggers and contingencies for our battle. Then we rested, recovering our strength, tomorrow a new lord of murder will be crowned.
I'm not 100% sure, but I have a feeling that I had the SCS improved Melissan fight installed. I have uninstalled SCS and the fight suddenly seemed to get easier (And not just because I have additional NPCs), her HP seems lower, her resistances not as strong, and she isn't summoning endless efreeti and Nishru ontop of the regular slayers, beholders and demons, nor is she as spammy with her healing. Regardless, I still doubt I'd have managed to solo it.
17 Nightal 1371
Today a new Lord of Murder will ascend. We stepped through the portal, the last remaining children of Bhaal united by a common enemy, and emerged at the Throne of Bhaal. The essence of Bhaal whirled around the room, a raging torrent of pure energy.
Melissan then appeared before us, she had been busy, absorbing the essence for her own and the results were startling, there she stood easily ten feet tall, the priestess well on her way to becoming a titan in the heavens. But this was my destiny, I wasn't about to let the priestess of some has been god steal that away from me, not after everything I have been through.
Imoen's contingency spell triggered, striking Mellisan with a barrage of three lower resistance spells. Sarevok rushed in, the mighty Deathbringer throwing himself at Melissan and her minions with reckless abandon.
With the would be goddess distracted, I raised my wand and released a pierce magic blast, stripping her protections, and then I quickly began casting offensive magics, firing off a succession of Wilting Horror Spells, Melissan found herself quickly overwhelmed. Retreating back to the essence to recover her strength.
We didn't have much time, to the South West of the room, a pathway opened, leading to some kind of energy conduit, one of three conduits feeding Melissan with Bhaal essence. Several guardians appeared, protecting the conduit from our attempts at sabotage, a powerful elemental Prince of Air and several elementals, as well as a couple of vampiric mists.
Knowing my amulet of power meant I was the only one protected from the mists energy drain attacks, I rushed to the narrow bridge blocking their access and shielding my allies. Imoen pulled out her bow and began attacking from range, Sarevok easily reaching his targets from over my shoulder (It's a good job he swore that oath, or I'd be worried about losing my head right now). I took some serious damage, and consumed a great many healing potions, but the tactic was temporary. The moment the last Vampiric mist fell, I stepped back, letting Sarevok lose on the elementals.
With the guardians taken care of, we had created a brief calm in the eye of the storm, we prepared for our next assault. Imoen prepared another spell contingency, set to once again cripple melissans magic resistance. Whilst Imoen was preparing, I began laying a trap, using both my scrolls and memorized skull traps, I set a large mine field at the foot of the throne.
Our plan prepared we shut off the first conduit, with Mellisans link to the essence temporarily broken she stepped out to ambush us once again. Imoens contingency once again fired, another barrage of three lower resistance spells struck the priestess, then a large explosion as she stepped out onto my prepared skull traps. Suddenly Sarevok was upon her, the priestess didn't know what hit her and was almost out for the count before the fight had begun.
Once again Melissan retreated to draw energy from the throne, and recover from our assault. Imoen used a scroll to call a simulacrum image of herself, the image used one of Imoens previously prepared spell sequencers to fire off 3 skull traps once again at the foot of the throne, it then proceeded to cast its memorized skull traps.
Off to the South East, another bridge had opened in response to the second conduit directing energy to melissan. This time the conduit was protected by an elemental prince of Ice, several icetrolls and a handful of salamanders.
Sarevok went in first, stopping short on the bridge so that he only had to deal with them one at a time. We dealt with the trolls first, Sarevok hacking them to pieces and then me and imoen using our respective death/fire magics to ensure the creatures stayed down.
The creatures were powerful, but Sarevok was stronger and had enough healing potions to remain standing against in the face of their assault. Once the guardians had fallen, I passed Imoen one of my wands of spell striking, as her lower resistance spells were now spent, we then closed of the second energy conduit.
Melissan stepped out into the open once again, similtaniously me and Imoen raised our wands hitting her with a dual blast of pierce magic, just in time for the skull traps to once again blow up in her face. This time Melissan did not fall, she teleported to the northern most part of the area and four spectral slayers materialized around us.
Sarevok quickly gave chase, his target was Melissan. Two of the slayers broke off in my direction, and two in Imoens. My boots and potion of speed, allowed me to keep one step ahead of the swift creatures, Imoen however was not so lucky, taking a brutal beating, but managing to keep her lifeforce intact by using a wand of resurrection upon herself.
Melissan had applied a stoneskin enchantment, I released a breach spell from my wand and carried on running whilst Sarevok attacked. As I passed by Imoen, disaster struck, my pursuers, knowing they couldn't catch me, broke away chasing easier prey, Imoen.
Both Sarevok and Imoen were taking massive beatings, I came to a stop and began casting a couple of wilting horror spells. Melissan once again succumbed to my arcane might, retreating back to the throne to recuperate.
We regathered near the third energy conduit, reapplying our defenses and curing our wounds with healing potions. Once this conduit falls, Melissan will be vulnerable. I summoned a number of allies, golems and skeletons, whilst Imoen called a floating sword.
This conduit was protected by a number of fell creatures, led by a fallen deva. We sent our summoned creatures in first one at a time, knowing the demons would possess death spells.
As suspected our minions were dispatched one at a time with death spells. Once we were sure they had exhausted their magics, Sarevok ran in and challenged the dangerous Deva. I continued summoning, trying to tie up the remaining demons and keep them occupied until Sarevok had taken down the leader.
Once the Deva fell, it didn't take too much effort to take down the remainders, our spell strike wands keeping the demons defenseless.
With the demons defeated, we had one last reprieve from combat. Imoen thanks to her previously summoned simulacrum still had her full arsenal of skull traps remaining. She laid 4 traps, and then used a previously prepared spell sequencer to lay three more. After chugging down a potion of insight, she began reading from a scroll of limited wish. A Genie materialized from thin air, and with her magically enhanced wisdom, she convinced the genie to replenish a number of our consumed spells.
With the last conduit shut off Melissan made her final appearance, this final round would determine the new lord of murder. Once again both me and Imoen released a charge of pierce magic at Melissan, hitting her in time for Imoens skill traps to blow up in the priestesses face.
Two large demons, gated into the room, and made a beeline for me. Sarevok and Imoen taking advantage of the chaos began throwing everything they had at the Priestess.
Then disaster struck, a demon changed direction and before anyone could react Imoen was torn to shreads, whats more I couldn't raise her, she had been the one carrying the wand of resurrection! Things beginning to look bleak I glanced over to Sarevok, surely my one time nemesis was faring better. Unfortunately no, the proud warrior was frozen motionless, obviously stunned or paralyzed, whilst Mellisan laid into him with with horrifying fury.
Melissan was weak, near death in fact, but I knew that when Sarevok fell, I would be swarmed, and hardpressed to defend myself. I began casting, even as the Glabrezu tried to take the head from my shoulders, I released a Wilting Horror spell, Melissan was taken aback by the assault, but still standing.
I began casting again, the second Glabrezu closing in. Somehow I kept my concentration, all of a sudden Sarevok dropped, felled by a mortal wound. Melissan spun around, fire raging in her eyes and then it happened, my final wilting horror spell released, Melissan dropping to her knees in defeat, the throne of Bhaal no longer sustaining her.
Solar appeared suddenly, raising my siblings, and putting an end to the battle. Melissan was finished, though she refused to accept it, desperately trying to cling to the essence she was ripped apart as it was torn from her body.
It was time to claim my birthright, Solar gave both me and Imoen a choice. To relinquish our essence and live as mortals, or to forge out a new destiny in the heavens. The weak willed Imoen gave up her divinity as I expected, but not me, I had fought to long for this. Much to the Solars disappointment, I chose immortality.
And so ends Zuzhul Plaguebringer's story on the mortal plane. Or does it?
Well that run was certainly different. Here are my final stats, equipment loadout, spell selections etc. I think the information page glitched, the 706 kills was for the whole of TOB, not a single chapter. For some reason the chapter section stopped resetting at the start of each chapter once I began with TOB.
I especially enjoyed playing through BG1, it was challenging, but not impossible. What's more, the new challenge made the game feel fresh again.
SOA was actually quite easy, with the quick XP from soloing, and a level cap of 31, I quickly outgrew most of the enemies in the game, and breezed through most areas with little challenge.
TOB is when things finally started to go down hill for me, the difficulty curve quickly started to rise from mid to late TOB. The level difference between myself and my enemies beginning to even out again. In the end I had to resort to cheesy tactics to deal with some of the tougher fights (Continuous resting to lay excessive skull traps for example). And as we all know, after 2 days of failed attempts I ended up taking a couple of recruits into the last battle with me (Both under level 20).
I enjoyed actually getting some effctive use out of the slayer this playthrough. We all know the transformation is actually pretty lackluster, a high level figher is typically more effective. However with my limited spell selection and poor combat skills, in comparison the slayer actually felt like a significant upgrade, throw in improved haste from the Amulet of Cheetah Speed or the Ring of Gaxx and it can put out some respectable damage.
I enjoyed playing around with some spells that I don't usually make use off. Believe it or not I'd never used skulltrap prior to this playthrough, normally taking fireball for my AoE needs, I was pleasantly surprised it is so versatile. Contagion is actually a very effective spell, especially for that typical one tougher leader type guy you typically find in packs of enemies.
I didn't like Wail of the Banshee, yes I know it allows you to kill stronger enemies than the lower levelled death spells, but it is just so unreliable, even against lowe to midlevel enemies, the death spell is pretty much guaranteed death for whole groups of low-mid leveled enemies, yet against these same enemies, I'd be lucky if Wail killed even one of them (And the casting times a lot longer too).
I did break my rules a few times through out the run, with no thief skills there were a number of locks I could not bypass, even with 25Str from the slayer transformation. In the end I bought a stack of knock scrolls for important doors/chests I wanted to access.
My difficulty of choice was Core Rules, except for a handful of fights at the end of TOB where I reduced it down to normal, or novice.
In the end I managed to access various 'restricted' spells via equipment, which helped massively:
Improved Haste: Amulet of Cheetah Speed, Ring of Gaxx Invisibility: Staff of the Magi, Ring of Improved invisibility Charm: Ring of Human Influence, Staff of Command True Sight: Book of Infinite Spells Breach: Wand of Spell Striking Pierce Magic: Wand of Spell Striking Spell Trap: Staff of the Magi Fireball/Lightning: Staff of the Magi Stoneskin: Boots of the Gargoyle
There were probabally a few others, but I sold a lot of my equipment as it outgrew its usefulness.
Well that's it. I haven't finished with Zuzhul yet, I am going to attempt to take him through IWD next and repeat the challenge from level 1 again.
Congrats on making it through, @Genryu ! And THANKS A LOT for an entertaining story. It's alright to use your family to overcome the trouble the necromancer could't deal with alone.
This thread will definitely serve as a reference materal for every other player to try a solo necromancer challenge. Thumbs up!
I made a start on round two today, but I think I'm probabally going to hold off for a week or two now until I can afford to upgrade to the Enhanced Edition (Still have my old dusty original hard copy).
I've been so spoilt with all the tweaks and upgrades that Beamdog implemented in Baldurs Gate EE, that I now can't get used to the resolution in the original IWD (I could have sworn you used to be able to change resolution in the config menu).
Comments
Yeah, the final battle was the thing that I had scares about when you started this run.
However after coming so far (I never really expected to make it this far, heck I had doubts I'd even make it all the way through BG1), I wanted to end the run on a high note. For this fight only I have broken my rules and allowed myself a little back up, for the sake of concluding the playthrough in a fitting and satisfying manner.
Hopefully people will feel the playthrough still concludes nicely, and that my choice of 'back up' suits my character, the storyline and the overall spirit of the playthrough, and that I have not just added random NPCs to my party.
(I won't be using Shadow Keeper to level them up to my level, they will remain at mid-level. However I will take them back to Amkethran and arm them before the fight)
Stay Tuned!
Fighting one on one, my battles with the previous members of the five had been close, too close. As much as I hated to admit it, Melissan now armed with the combined power of the Five, was just too strong for me, I'd never beat her alone, she has almost all the essence of Bhaal at her fingertips.
Wait!? That's it! She may hold the Lion's share of the essence, more than even me, the most powerful of Bhaal's children, but she doesn't hold it all, there was another Bhaalspawn, a powerful Bhaalspawn, who was once almost my equal, one who had recently offered to swear an oath of alliegence to me, SAREVOK!
Sarevok was still in my pocket plane somewhere, lurking. Since using my soul to resurrect him, there had been a connection between us, like it or not, our souls were now bound and I could sense his presence. He was waiting near where I had defeated Cyric's men in my fourth trial.
"So you have returned my Brother, as I knew you would", it appears that Sarevok had expected this moment from the very beginning. We were two of the most powerful Children of Bhaal, with our combined strength, we may just stand a chance, brother and brother back to back!
But there is still one more to find, the sister I abandoned back in the cowled wizards Asylum. Afterall I have put her through, Imoen probabally hates me, but I know the girl, I can talk her around, the threat Melissan poses is bigger than all of us, neither of us will be safe until we end this.
Sarevok had informed me, my plane holds power, there is a fate spirit near the portal exit. The spirit has the power to summon people from my past. And with in a moment a very confused Imoen stood in front of me.
It took the better part of the night to talk Imoen around, but here we stand in a tentative alliance, the last remaining children of Bhaal. Before we left, I sent the two of them to Amkethran to equip themselves for the fight ahead, new weapons, armour and spells. Once we got back to the pocket plane I ordered Imoen to prepare spell triggers and contingencies for our battle. Then we rested, recovering our strength, tomorrow a new lord of murder will be crowned.
17 Nightal 1371
Today a new Lord of Murder will ascend. We stepped through the portal, the last remaining children of Bhaal united by a common enemy, and emerged at the Throne of Bhaal. The essence of Bhaal whirled around the room, a raging torrent of pure energy.
Melissan then appeared before us, she had been busy, absorbing the essence for her own and the results were startling, there she stood easily ten feet tall, the priestess well on her way to becoming a titan in the heavens. But this was my destiny, I wasn't about to let the priestess of some has been god steal that away from me, not after everything I have been through.
Imoen's contingency spell triggered, striking Mellisan with a barrage of three lower resistance spells. Sarevok rushed in, the mighty Deathbringer throwing himself at Melissan and her minions with reckless abandon.
With the would be goddess distracted, I raised my wand and released a pierce magic blast, stripping her protections, and then I quickly began casting offensive magics, firing off a succession of Wilting Horror Spells, Melissan found herself quickly overwhelmed. Retreating back to the essence to recover her strength.
We didn't have much time, to the South West of the room, a pathway opened, leading to some kind of energy conduit, one of three conduits feeding Melissan with Bhaal essence. Several guardians appeared, protecting the conduit from our attempts at sabotage, a powerful elemental Prince of Air and several elementals, as well as a couple of vampiric mists.
Knowing my amulet of power meant I was the only one protected from the mists energy drain attacks, I rushed to the narrow bridge blocking their access and shielding my allies. Imoen pulled out her bow and began attacking from range, Sarevok easily reaching his targets from over my shoulder (It's a good job he swore that oath, or I'd be worried about losing my head right now). I took some serious damage, and consumed a great many healing potions, but the tactic was temporary. The moment the last Vampiric mist fell, I stepped back, letting Sarevok lose on the elementals.
With the guardians taken care of, we had created a brief calm in the eye of the storm, we prepared for our next assault. Imoen prepared another spell contingency, set to once again cripple melissans magic resistance. Whilst Imoen was preparing, I began laying a trap, using both my scrolls and memorized skull traps, I set a large mine field at the foot of the throne.
Our plan prepared we shut off the first conduit, with Mellisans link to the essence temporarily broken she stepped out to ambush us once again. Imoens contingency once again fired, another barrage of three lower resistance spells struck the priestess, then a large explosion as she stepped out onto my prepared skull traps. Suddenly Sarevok was upon her, the priestess didn't know what hit her and was almost out for the count before the fight had begun.
Once again Melissan retreated to draw energy from the throne, and recover from our assault. Imoen used a scroll to call a simulacrum image of herself, the image used one of Imoens previously prepared spell sequencers to fire off 3 skull traps once again at the foot of the throne, it then proceeded to cast its memorized skull traps.
Off to the South East, another bridge had opened in response to the second conduit directing energy to melissan. This time the conduit was protected by an elemental prince of Ice, several icetrolls and a handful of salamanders.
Sarevok went in first, stopping short on the bridge so that he only had to deal with them one at a time. We dealt with the trolls first, Sarevok hacking them to pieces and then me and imoen using our respective death/fire magics to ensure the creatures stayed down.
The creatures were powerful, but Sarevok was stronger and had enough healing potions to remain standing against in the face of their assault. Once the guardians had fallen, I passed Imoen one of my wands of spell striking, as her lower resistance spells were now spent, we then closed of the second energy conduit.
Melissan stepped out into the open once again, similtaniously me and Imoen raised our wands hitting her with a dual blast of pierce magic, just in time for the skull traps to once again blow up in her face. This time Melissan did not fall, she teleported to the northern most part of the area and four spectral slayers materialized around us.
Sarevok quickly gave chase, his target was Melissan. Two of the slayers broke off in my direction, and two in Imoens. My boots and potion of speed, allowed me to keep one step ahead of the swift creatures, Imoen however was not so lucky, taking a brutal beating, but managing to keep her lifeforce intact by using a wand of resurrection upon herself.
Melissan had applied a stoneskin enchantment, I released a breach spell from my wand and carried on running whilst Sarevok attacked. As I passed by Imoen, disaster struck, my pursuers, knowing they couldn't catch me, broke away chasing easier prey, Imoen.
Both Sarevok and Imoen were taking massive beatings, I came to a stop and began casting a couple of wilting horror spells. Melissan once again succumbed to my arcane might, retreating back to the throne to recuperate.
We regathered near the third energy conduit, reapplying our defenses and curing our wounds with healing potions. Once this conduit falls, Melissan will be vulnerable. I summoned a number of allies, golems and skeletons, whilst Imoen called a floating sword.
This conduit was protected by a number of fell creatures, led by a fallen deva. We sent our summoned creatures in first one at a time, knowing the demons would possess death spells.
As suspected our minions were dispatched one at a time with death spells. Once we were sure they had exhausted their magics, Sarevok ran in and challenged the dangerous Deva. I continued summoning, trying to tie up the remaining demons and keep them occupied until Sarevok had taken down the leader.
Once the Deva fell, it didn't take too much effort to take down the remainders, our spell strike wands keeping the demons defenseless.
With the demons defeated, we had one last reprieve from combat. Imoen thanks to her previously summoned simulacrum still had her full arsenal of skull traps remaining. She laid 4 traps, and then used a previously prepared spell sequencer to lay three more. After chugging down a potion of insight, she began reading from a scroll of limited wish. A Genie materialized from thin air, and with her magically enhanced wisdom, she convinced the genie to replenish a number of our consumed spells.
With the last conduit shut off Melissan made her final appearance, this final round would determine the new lord of murder. Once again both me and Imoen released a charge of pierce magic at Melissan, hitting her in time for Imoens skill traps to blow up in the priestesses face.
Two large demons, gated into the room, and made a beeline for me. Sarevok and Imoen taking advantage of the chaos began throwing everything they had at the Priestess.
Then disaster struck, a demon changed direction and before anyone could react Imoen was torn to shreads, whats more I couldn't raise her, she had been the one carrying the wand of resurrection! Things beginning to look bleak I glanced over to Sarevok, surely my one time nemesis was faring better. Unfortunately no, the proud warrior was frozen motionless, obviously stunned or paralyzed, whilst Mellisan laid into him with with horrifying fury.
Melissan was weak, near death in fact, but I knew that when Sarevok fell, I would be swarmed, and hardpressed to defend myself. I began casting, even as the Glabrezu tried to take the head from my shoulders, I released a Wilting Horror spell, Melissan was taken aback by the assault, but still standing.
I began casting again, the second Glabrezu closing in. Somehow I kept my concentration, all of a sudden Sarevok dropped, felled by a mortal wound. Melissan spun around, fire raging in her eyes and then it happened, my final wilting horror spell released, Melissan dropping to her knees in defeat, the throne of Bhaal no longer sustaining her.
Solar appeared suddenly, raising my siblings, and putting an end to the battle. Melissan was finished, though she refused to accept it, desperately trying to cling to the essence she was ripped apart as it was torn from her body.
It was time to claim my birthright, Solar gave both me and Imoen a choice. To relinquish our essence and live as mortals, or to forge out a new destiny in the heavens. The weak willed Imoen gave up her divinity as I expected, but not me, I had fought to long for this. Much to the Solars disappointment, I chose immortality.
And so ends Zuzhul Plaguebringer's story on the mortal plane. Or does it?
I especially enjoyed playing through BG1, it was challenging, but not impossible. What's more, the new challenge made the game feel fresh again.
SOA was actually quite easy, with the quick XP from soloing, and a level cap of 31, I quickly outgrew most of the enemies in the game, and breezed through most areas with little challenge.
TOB is when things finally started to go down hill for me, the difficulty curve quickly started to rise from mid to late TOB. The level difference between myself and my enemies beginning to even out again. In the end I had to resort to cheesy tactics to deal with some of the tougher fights (Continuous resting to lay excessive skull traps for example). And as we all know, after 2 days of failed attempts I ended up taking a couple of recruits into the last battle with me (Both under level 20).
I enjoyed actually getting some effctive use out of the slayer this playthrough. We all know the transformation is actually pretty lackluster, a high level figher is typically more effective. However with my limited spell selection and poor combat skills, in comparison the slayer actually felt like a significant upgrade, throw in improved haste from the Amulet of Cheetah Speed or the Ring of Gaxx and it can put out some respectable damage.
I enjoyed playing around with some spells that I don't usually make use off. Believe it or not I'd never used skulltrap prior to this playthrough, normally taking fireball for my AoE needs, I was pleasantly surprised it is so versatile. Contagion is actually a very effective spell, especially for that typical one tougher leader type guy you typically find in packs of enemies.
I didn't like Wail of the Banshee, yes I know it allows you to kill stronger enemies than the lower levelled death spells, but it is just so unreliable, even against lowe to midlevel enemies, the death spell is pretty much guaranteed death for whole groups of low-mid leveled enemies, yet against these same enemies, I'd be lucky if Wail killed even one of them (And the casting times a lot longer too).
I did break my rules a few times through out the run, with no thief skills there were a number of locks I could not bypass, even with 25Str from the slayer transformation. In the end I bought a stack of knock scrolls for important doors/chests I wanted to access.
My difficulty of choice was Core Rules, except for a handful of fights at the end of TOB where I reduced it down to normal, or novice.
In the end I managed to access various 'restricted' spells via equipment, which helped massively:
Improved Haste: Amulet of Cheetah Speed, Ring of Gaxx
Invisibility: Staff of the Magi, Ring of Improved invisibility
Charm: Ring of Human Influence, Staff of Command
True Sight: Book of Infinite Spells
Breach: Wand of Spell Striking
Pierce Magic: Wand of Spell Striking
Spell Trap: Staff of the Magi
Fireball/Lightning: Staff of the Magi
Stoneskin: Boots of the Gargoyle
There were probabally a few others, but I sold a lot of my equipment as it outgrew its usefulness.
Well that's it. I haven't finished with Zuzhul yet, I am going to attempt to take him through IWD next and repeat the challenge from level 1 again.
This thread will definitely serve as a reference materal for every other player to try a solo necromancer challenge. Thumbs up!
... Already waiting for an IWD run
I made a start on round two today, but I think I'm probabally going to hold off for a week or two now until I can afford to upgrade to the Enhanced Edition (Still have my old dusty original hard copy).
I've been so spoilt with all the tweaks and upgrades that Beamdog implemented in Baldurs Gate EE, that I now can't get used to the resolution in the original IWD (I could have sworn you used to be able to change resolution in the config menu).
Anyway see ya in a couple of weeks!