Easier? EASIER!? (need help surviving solo no reload BG2)

Bhaalspwan

I read somewhere that a BG1 no reload run is harder, since your charname is really puny right out of candlekeep.

Well...my experience is a bit different.

How is it in ANY way possible to get through BG2 in a no reload run?

So far, I have completed no reload runs of BG1 with an archer, swashbuckler, cavalier, fighter and cleric, but NONE of them have survived for any period of time in BG2. I either get charmed, held, stunned, color sprayed (yes pesky mephits, I'm looking at you!) or attribute drained to death. Other unpleasant stuff happens to.


I have been playing the Bg series since it's release, and consider myself a decent player, but for the life of me I can't seem to survive in BG2.

Should i just stop trying to go it solo, or is there something really obvious I'm missing?

It's kind of frustrating to play BG1 over and over, without really getting to play BG2

PLEASE dear community, help a fellow on the verge of tears survive BG2!

(Btw. I use the tweakpack to allow all race and class combinations, and the item randomiser.)

jtth

Depends on your class. In most no-reload runs if you play a caster the idea is that you are resting constantly and only move around with buffs and immunities active.

That said any mage/sorcerer can breeze through BG2 once you get summon planetar. You can make an infinite number of them and just clear a map.

@JuliusBorisov did a run through of a solo totemic druid and his advice was to never travel or move about without defensive buffs and protections, and to know precisely what you were about to face.

And the number one rule in a no-reload situation: it's okay to run away.

JuliusBorisov

@Bhaalspwan It's possible to go no-reload in BG2, even with the hardest mods installed, even solo, even with a non-optimal class/kit. Check https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/40393/maybe-this-time-no-reload-thread-jak-macleighn-the-halfling-pools-summons-at-the-throne for myriads of reports on how to beat the game It's a very useful thread, the information shared there by other players is invaluable.

FinnTheHuman

Bhaalspwan said:

Should i just stop trying to go it solo, or is there something really obvious I'm missing?

It's kind of frustrating to play BG1 over and over, without really getting to play BG2

PLEASE dear community, help a fellow on the verge of tears survive BG2!

The thing about no-reload is that they require a lot of meta game knowledge.

jtth said:

@JuliusBorisov did a run through of a solo totemic druid and his advice was to never travel or move about without defensive buffs and protections, and to know precisely what you were about to face.

Know what you are about to face, they dangers they pose, and the appropriate countermeasures. Although, a solo no-reload is a pretty amazing feat, i don't think this is any less cheesy than reloading. Especially when some people gain the knowledge they need to perform a no reload through the internet.

In a way, a no-reload still relies on plenty of reloads; all the false steps that led to your knowledge of the safest way to conduct a character through the series. You are reloading when you start a new game, spending a lot of time advancing the game to a point where you get a little more game knowledge, dying, and doing it over again. You could instead, skip the replaying of the earlier points and just replay with the same character to get that new game knowledge, i.e. reload. In this way you gain the knowledge you need for an eventual no reload.

Other variants you might be interested in that might be a happy half way step until you are ready for a full series no-reload:

• No-two-reload: If you die twice on the same fight, you're out.
  
• Get-it-right reload: Don't advance until you can reliably (say three times in a row) advance past a point you've died on.
  
• Canary-reload: Advance your progress in two sets of saves. The first is your canary, you play him through, reloading as much as you want. When you are sure of a strategy you load the second save and advance it. If that second save dies your game is over.
  

JuliusBorisov

Although I agree partially with @FinnTheHuman , I can't agree fully.

The thing is when you play each time you don't get exactly the same circumstances. Saving throws can work differently, you can work different scrolls and potions. If you use the SCS mod, the pre-buffing component for enemy mages and clerics will work differently each time, thus resulting in enemy casters getting different spells each time. Add to that people often change their characters starting a new no-reload game, or at least change stats of their characters, use different party setups. In one game you can be ambushed when travelling between areas, in other game you will be ambushed at a different time.

Also, as you go further and further in the game, you get less and less memory from your previous attempts - due to the fact that less characters survive at later stages.

I can't say that a solo no-reload is less cheesy than reloading. When I played as a solo totemic druid, especially in ToB, I had no previous knowledge about soloing as a druid. I had no previous knowledge about ways of killing dragons as a druid, ways of overcoming the Five as a druid. It was a blank experience for me. And I still don't know how to kill Melissan with a solo druid. I didn't reload that battle, so my experience is still pretty much the same.

FinnTheHuman

So yeah, @JuliusBorisov, invoking "cheese" when discussing no-reload was bad wording. If you cannot fully agree with me, then I have failed. (maybe first time I wrote that handle, its weird not writing @bengoshi)

A no-reload is a challenge, like climbing a mountain, which is worthwhile simply in the fact that it's important to the climber. But you, @bhaalspwan, seem to be taking it a step further. You appear to like the challenge of completing the saga through only playing no-reloads.

If that's important to you, I want you to go for it. It is something special to be able to do a no-reload "blind", as @JuliusBorisov, did as a druid. But i think you'll find that he already has a very deep game knowledge.

However, if you are truly desperate/frustrated and perhaps lack some game knowledge, its time to consider abandoning no-reload only playthroughs. Like learning a song on a guitar, focus on the tricky parts alone, sometimes, so that you can put the parts together and have learned the whole song in a shorter amount of time.

I don't think there is any shame in this. This was my point in saying above that these "no-reloads" entail many many reloads. I would guess that most people who complete no-reload runs have a deep working knowledge of all parts of the game.