Few Questions about the ''Inquisitor Solo BG2/ToB''

Vithar

First of all hi to everyone!
I did few Sorc / Mage solo runs years ago and now i wanna do a solo Inq walk but i'm somehow in the dark about few things.
How am i going to fight ToB Bosses like Amelyssan?
What the hell am i going to do vs Dragons?
Am i going to get overwhelmed from huge numbers of mobs coz i lack AOE?
Basicaly thats it , give me few tips about that above and ofc everything else is also welcome.

Gallowglass

I've never tried what you're proposing, but ...

Vithar said:

How am i going to fight ToB Bosses like Amelyssan?

An Inquisitor has a super-powered fast-casting Dispel Magic - that's the biggest advantage of the class. So in most cases, I'd guess trigger Greater Whirlwind Attack -> cast Dispel Magic on enemy -> spend rest of round hacking at de-buffed enemy with Carsomyr +5/+6 or Ravager +6 -> see enemy die.

Vithar said:

What the hell am i going to do vs Dragons?

I'd expect pretty much the same as above.

Vithar said:

Am i going to get overwhelmed from huge numbers of mobs coz i lack AOE?

I doubt it ... the sort of mobs that come in huge numbers aren't usually very good at hacking through really heavy armour, so you can probably do unto them before they do unto you. Might take some time, and a few healing potions.

Vithar

@Gallowglass Yeah the Inq dispell is insane , thats for the tips dude!

DreadKhan

Carsomyr is pretty decent I hear.

Vithar

DreadKhan said:

Carsomyr is pretty decent I hear.

Yes i know that you can even Upgrade the Sword to +6 but my whole concern was Boss hitting.

DreadKhan

Most aren't immune to +6, and they should get disspelled fairly reliably iirc by the Carsomyr.

You won't be able to dispel pfmw with Carsomyr, but most buffs can be disspelled, either via casting or a hit.

Consider using FotA and Belm at times, when you need damage output, or that sexy Slow effect. You can only specialize anyways. I would start with 2 pips in Flail and THSword and 1 in THW. You can DW decently with even 1 pip btw, and mace is a very handy prof too at times. Warrior THAC0 at -2 st 1 pip twf is just fine if you've got Belm.

For ranged, probably go with either Slings for damage or Firetooth. Slings should hit crazy-hard with decent str. Are you starting with 19? No Wrath bonus will hurt, but 21 is really decent, and you can use a non-str girdle. Some are good.

Arunsun

you only need +3 weapon for most enemies, +4 for half a dozen, and +5 for two of them (lesser demon lord and death shade) and both the latest you will probably not have to face them

Gallowglass

True, @Arunsun, but when your +THAC0 is better than the minimum required enchantment, fewer of your attacks will miss. ToB bosses and dragons have good AC and good HP, so maximising your hit-probablility significantly improves your chance of killing them before they kill you, and also the +5 / +6 weapons tend to have bonus effects which are useful against them (such as Carsomyr's dispel-on-hit).

Vithar

Thanks!

Yannir

I wouldn't try tackling Kangaxx with a solo Inquisitor. Without Berserking/SI:Abjuration, that's just going to end badly.

Vithar

Yannir said:

I wouldn't try tackling Kangaxx with a solo Inquisitor. Without Berserking/SI:Abjuration, that's just going to end badly.

In the past couple of days i've read ~50 Topics on the Internet about soloing the game on Nightmare (with class different than Sorc) and everyone is acting like a pro how easy it is and blabla.
Ofc over 90% of those people are frauds and i know it , and thats why i came here to ask people who actuly seem to know what they say/do.
So thanks for the answer again and i will be happy to hear more.

Lord_Tansheron

If it's the vanilla game, doesn't a Protection from Undead/from Magic scroll just walk all over Kangaxx?

Yannir

Lord_Tansheron said:

If it's the vanilla game, doesn't a Protection from Undead/from Magic scroll just walk all over Kangaxx?

I keep forgetting this, since those scrolls don't exist in my game. Sort of. @Lord_Tansheron is correct.

Arunsun

@Gallowglass I remember reading somewhere that the lowest enemy AC in SoA/ToB was -12, which means that a -11 Thac0 is enough to hit anyone on every hit but critical miss. As he is soloing I guess he will always have a high level compared to his in-game advancement. When he will meet that -12 AC enemy he will certainly be level 20, with a base thac0 of 1. Add to this a bonus from strength (with the strength belt from the underdark i.e. 21STR , +4 to hit chance), bonus from Carsomyr (+5), bonus from specialization (+1) and another random bonus you will get from gloves or helm of the Balduran or whatsoever will get you to that -11 Thac0. I am not too sure about the -12 since it did not take EE in account but still he will have a good enough Thac0

@Vithar soloing the game in nightmare is not so hard as long as you do not get hit. Meaning a sorcerer/mage/bard may do it fairly easily. But as soon as you play something else, it really does become a nightmare. Paladin (except inquisitor), Dwarven defender and Barbarian are decent picks because they get high damage resistance which compensate the multiplied damage but you will still lack AoE. Druid is also a good pick, though harder than sorcerer. Inquisitor is decent but you will still struggle a lot. Out of these classes, I guess one can only cheese to get through the game.

Gallowglass

Arunsun said:

@Gallowglass I remember reading somewhere that the lowest enemy AC in SoA/ToB was -12, which means that a -11 Thac0 is enough to hit anyone on every hit but critical miss.

I don't know where you read that, but it's not true, or at least not in EE. Abazigal, for example, starts with an AC of -16 (base AC of -12 plus a DEX bonus of -4) ... I haven't checked exhaustively, but that's the best enemy AC of which I'm aware, although there are also other ToB bosses with better than -12 AC (e.g. Big A's later form is -15, Big B is -14 ... although the Final Boss is "only" -12, oddly enough).

Furthermore, these are their unbuffed ACs, so they might be still better when they've buffed up for combat. In addition, once combat starts, of course many enemies will try to de-buff your party, and will sometimes succeed, so to keep hitting them reliably your party needs to compare its own de-buffed THAC0 against the enemy's buffed AC. My experience in my just-completed run is that my Korgan, with unbuffed THAC0 of -15, could keep on striking reliably even against the toughest enemies, but other party members with less impressive THAC0 would start to miss if they got de-buffed while the enemy was still buffed. It seems that an unbuffed THAC0 of -15 is pretty much perfected, I can't see any reason to wish for more than that.

Grum

Cloak of sewers for 99% physical resistance and summon a deva to fight for you? Seems like a decent fallback when low on health and solo.

Vithar

Grum said:

Cloak of sewers for 99% physical resistance and summon a deva to fight for you? Seems like a decent fallback when low on health and solo.

Deva / Planetar is cool but it melts in ToB (Nightmare) and ToB(Nightmare) is my biggest concern.

Btw atm im doing fine , did the Slavers , Circus Tent , Severs for the Talking Sword and the 2nd part of the Slavers Quest , Nalia's Keep.

It's just kiting with the Bow / Sling and hiding aroudn corners to take mobs 1 by 1 (or atleast try that).

DreadKhan

Vithar said:

Grum said:

Cloak of sewers for 99% physical resistance and summon a deva to fight for you? Seems like a decent fallback when low on health and solo.

Deva / Planetar is cool but it melts in ToB (Nightmare) and ToB(Nightmare) is my biggest concern.

Btw atm im doing fine , did the Slavers , Circus Tent , Severs for the Talking Sword and the 2nd part of the Slavers Quest , Nalia's Keep.

It's just kiting with the Bow / Sling and hiding aroudn corners to take mobs 1 by 1 (or atleast try that).

How very Paladin-like!

JuliusBorisov

Grum said:

Cloak of sewers for 99% physical resistance and summon a deva to fight for you? Seems like a decent fallback when low on health and solo.

The Cloak of the Sewers gives 90, not 99% physical damage resistance vs slashing/piercing/blunt/missile weapons.

@Vithar There're a lot of solid tips for a solo inquisitor here: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/40290/solo-inquisitor-vs-firkraag-need-advice Although it's about killing Firkraag, the advice there is fine for other difficult parties. @Blackraven (yes, I have a habit of summoning you) has had some experience with soloing as a paladin in BG2. Also @Elrandir made a playthough with a cavalier, maybe he can share his thoughts about soloing in BG2.

Elrandir

I'm afraid I can't offer too much insight into BG2 soloing, but I found soloing BG1 rather simple with my cavalier. While the inquisitor functions much the same, they do have a few less defensive strengths. On the other hand, the inquisitor has their exceptional dispel magic ability which is more useful in BG2. I think it's safe to say the Cavalier is the paladin of choice for BG1, while the inquisitor is the better option in BG2.

The biggest three weapons for any solo paladin (from what I've seen) will be two-handed sword, flail, and axe or sling. For a cavalier who normally isn't allowed to use ranged weapons it was clearly the axe, but as Dreadkhan said, with STR bonuses, the slings will hit pretty hard.

Now, the next question is dual-wielding/using a shield. Sometimes you'll want a shield for sure, but how frequently do you plan to and/or do you intend to use dual-wielding? An inquisitor will have plenty of weapon pips, so you can do a lot of things. longswords (good off-hand that will boost your STR to 22 while still being useful on its own), katanas (powerful stunning katana that many like to use despite its, not exactly ideal enchantment level), and hammers (Crom Faeyr, boosting your STR to 25) are all good off-hand weapons that beg the question of where you want to invest your pips, as well as how you want to fight against general mobs.

Daevelon

Elrandir said:

I'm afraid I can't offer too much insight into BG2 soloing, but I found soloing BG1 rather simple with my cavalier. While the inquisitor functions much the same, they do have a few less defensive strengths. On the other hand, the inquisitor has their exceptional dispel magic ability which is more useful in BG2. I think it's safe to say the Cavalier is the paladin of choice for BG1, while the inquisitor is the better option in BG2.

The biggest three weapons for any solo paladin (from what I've seen) will be two-handed sword, flail, and axe or sling. For a cavalier who normally isn't allowed to use ranged weapons it was clearly the axe, but as Dreadkhan said, with STR bonuses, the slings will hit pretty hard.

Now, the next question is dual-wielding/using a shield. Sometimes you'll want a shield for sure, but how frequently do you plan to and/or do you intend to use dual-wielding? An inquisitor will have plenty of weapon pips, so you can do a lot of things. longswords (good off-hand that will boost your STR to 22 while still being useful on its own), katanas (powerful stunning katana that many like to use despite its, not exactly ideal enchantment level), and hammers (Crom Faeyr, boosting your STR to 25) are all good off-hand weapons that beg the question of where you want to invest your pips, as well as how you want to fight against general mobs.

Soloing a Cavalier in BG2 is great for one more reason: there are a lot of undead.
Make every lich exploding (except kangaxx) is awesome, and an Inquisitor can not.

Blackraven

My solo no-reload Undead Hunter died in Chapter 2 of SoA to a status effect (TorGal's fear ability), so I can't give you any insights on the late game. But what you'll basically be doing is collecting items, be it through quests or through purchases. Inquisitors, as mentioned, are very strong offensively thanks to their Dispel ability in magic-heavy SoA (in ToB magic will be a bit less of a concern). But they also need defense in order to survive, especially in battles with multiple strong foes.
So look for items that protect against status effects (Lilarcor, Shield of Harmony, Dragonslayer Sword, Mace of Disruption or Amulet of Power), and items that boost resistances (Belt of Inertial Barrier for magic and missile damage, Roranach's Horn for crushing damage, Defender of Easthaven for physical resistance, Carsomyr for magic resistance, dragon gear in Firkraag's dungeon for fire resistances, etc). You'll be switching gear a lot, depending on the battle's you're fighting.
The important thing in this respect is to figure out quest order. Taking on Firkraag right after leaving Inrenicus' Dungeon is suicide.

My experience is that in ToB muscle catches up with magic again not least because your saves and magic resistance will be very good by then.
Since you appear to be going Nightmare in ToB for the heavy physical combat at that stage of the game I'd recommend a combination of physical resistance with outstanding AC.

For the physical resistance:
- Hardiness (40% physical resistance),
- Defender of Easthaven (20% physical resistance),
- upgraded Foebane (which cast Larloch's Minor Drain on hit, and thus heals the user),
- Greater Whirlwind attacks (for lots of Larlochs).
This strategy works better with other Paladins though, as they can cast the Armor of Faith priest spell (25% physical resistance as of lvl 20 28), so you could reach up to 85% physical resistance with a Cavalier, Undead Hunter of plain Paladin, making them perhaps better candidates for you, especially taking Carsomyr's dispel ability into account.

For elemental resistance I'd rely on green scrolls and all the potions you can find.

Edited to correct miscalculation, conform @semiticgod's comment below.

semiticgoddess

Paladins and Rangers cast spells at 8 levels below their actual level. A level 20 Paladin would cast Armor of Faith at level 12, which would grant only 15% resistance for 15 rounds.

Blackraven

@semiticgod, thanks for pointing that out. I'd forgotten about it.