Solo
Necroscope86
Member Posts: 79
I'm thinking of trying to Solo IWD - I think in the distant past I got to somewhere in the Dragons Eye - but we're talking a heck of a long time ago.
I'm tempted to try and solo it with a Sorc or DD - On likely Insane (Not sure about HoW).
What do you guys reckon, Sorc or DD?
(Having played both, I'm leaning towards Sorc)
I'm tempted to try and solo it with a Sorc or DD - On likely Insane (Not sure about HoW).
What do you guys reckon, Sorc or DD?
(Having played both, I'm leaning towards Sorc)
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Comments
Constitution bonuses are hard to come by in IWD. There are only four items that grant them: a pair of two-handed axes with a +1 bonus, a suit of armor in HoW with a +2 bonus, and Ogi-Luc's Great Robes, a set of robes that are only wearable by a single-class mage that have an AC of 2, set your strength to 18/99, and give you +2 constitution. (I'm unsure if this was added in HoW, but I definitely didn't get it in my solo playthrough; it would have made my life easier if I had.)
The Great Robes can get any non-elven mage into regeneration territory, and I'm assuming it's wearable by a Sorcerer as well, but I'm not positive on that. The problem is you don't get them until you've already cleared the Severed Hand, which is a good ways through the story. (Of course, a Dragon Disciple won't get regeneration until they hit level 15, which at nearly 2m XP will also be a good way through the story, though sooner than the Ogi-Luc Great Robe.)
I'm usually coming down hard on the side of the sorcerer in these debates, but with fewer potions, no Bhaalspawn abilities, no Cloak of the Sewers or other regen-granting items, solo IWD is tailor-made for the Dragon Disciple. You'll have to rest a bit more, but to be honest, you're going to have to rest a *ton* anyway; IWD is all about hordes of low-level mobs more than few high-level mobs, and an arcane caster's damage output can't keep up with that kind of combat for long.
One extra casting of Skull Trap or ADHW isn't going to carry you that much further, TBH. Hell, I know to conserve my spells I wound up spending most of the second half of the game in Tenser's form just killing stuff with melee.
Edit: If you use a mod that removes race/class restrictions, a Dwarven Dragon Disciple would hit innate regen at level 5, which would be amaaaaaazing. The Dragon Disciple's innate AC bonus would also offset the loss of dexterity, and Shorty Saves are such a huge thing for solo runs where a single Dire Charm means game over.
I love the challenge of a solo run myself, but I'm such a sucker for trying out new party combinations that I find it nearly impossible to limit myself to a single character. I haven't even been able to bring myself to use the recruitable NPCs in BG1/2 lately thanks to the tempting "Create Party" button staring back at me every time I start making just the protagonist.
I don't have much in the way of personal insight for your solo DD idea, but if you haven't already, be sure to check out the PlayItHardcore wiki's description of Sorcerer vs. DD. The info is geared toward the BG games, but a lot of the min/max details still apply to IWD.
Also @Grinkles - You are so so kind! remembering those old videos, In all honesty I know I cheated behind the scenes on those abit, I seem to recall I edited with SK slightly haha, as I wasnt that good then. Now I play purely for the challenge
They're really fantastic, the only real drawback is (a) you don't get them until after the Severed Hand, and (b) they only go on single-class mages who aren't going to take much advantage of that 18/99 strength. Useful now that slings and throwing daggers get a strength bonus, though!
- 20 Con = 1 HP every 60 secs
- 21 Con = 1 HP every 30 secs
- 22 Con = 1 HP every 20 secs
It's possible you're only after the 20 Con benchmark to help with resting times, but if you want to lean more on your regen during dungeon crawls, the difference between 20 and 22 is pretty big.Is Charisma a useful stat for IWD? I like to have one char with at least Charisma of 14, then I can use Friends to get to that magic 20 for item discounts - Not sure how useful this is on a solo run
I usually shoot for 15 Charisma. This lets me reach 20 with a single Friends spell for maximum discount, (irrelevant in the long run, but often useful in the early game). There are also plenty of charisma checks in IWD. Sometimes they're pointless, often they come paired with INT and WIS checks so you really only need a high score in one to get a favorable outcome. There are a couple useful ones, including at least one I can think of that lets you avoid combat and get extra XP in the exchange.
You can get an 18/18/18/9/3/15 with a roll of 81, which is trivially easy.
Edit to add: Any of the "mental stats" can be a perfectly viable dump stat, including Charisma. They're all providing very marginal advantages, and as I said, they often compete with each other for dialogue options anyway. You just want 9 INT for item-usage purposes, and then it's a choice between maxing Wisdom for extra utility out of a very powerful spell that comes at a level that's full of other very powerful spells that you can use as substitutes, or maxing Charisma for extra cost savings that will matter for approximately 5% of the game until you are positively swimming in gold with nothing to buy.
Str 18
Con 18
Dex 18
Int 10
Wis 18
Cha 15
PS: I did actually record the roll too haha, as I always feel people might state they got a 100+ when infact its edited :P
Think I've got my DD
Any advice on mods @Armanz92 @SomeSort @Grinkles ?
I play BG1/2 on high level SCS, but on a solo run I'm thinking I'll leave difficulty mods out.
Any must have mods? (Back when I originally played IWD, there were limited modding opportunities)
I very recently decided to give some mods a try, inspired by the component of Tweaks Anthology that lets you tweak how the random loot operates. (I was sick of re-rolling loot drops.)
It has three behaviors. First is loot is randomized on every reload (so you can save next to a chest before opening and reload if you don't like the drop-- you don't have to save before ever entering the level.) Second is in place of the random drop you get a token; picking up the token calls forth a "token genie" who will trade it for any of the possible random drops. (Essentially you get to pick your random loot.) Third keeps normal random loot, but adds a merchant in Kuldahar who will let you swap one random item for another for a fee. I've used all three and they all work exactly as advertised.
Tweaks Anthology has a *ton* of other options to pick and choose from while you're at it, some minor and some major. This is what I used to remove race/class restrictions so I could have my Dwarven Dragon Disciple, for example.
I also added Minor NPC Portraits, which doesn't change any gameplay, it just... adds portraits to all the minor NPCs in IWD. Some of the portraits are meh, but on the whole it's really impressive how much more immersive the game becomes.
Finally, I've been really, really liking the More Style for Mages mod. It adds ranged mage staffs that fire magic missiles for their attack, and which gain different abilities depending on what kind of mage you are, (Invoker vs. generalist vs. Dragon Disciple, etc.)
The staffs are really cool and thematic and fun. Some of them are a bit unbalanced, but more so if you're adding fighter levels for extra APR to abuse them. (I'm running a Fighter>Invoker who positively wrecks stuff with her staff. Overpowered, but so fun.) The generalist staff is also kind of crazy, especially if you get multiple staffs. For a Dragon Disciple with 1 APR it's mostly just going to do what the name of the mod suggests it'll do: add a ton of style.
Also included in the More Style for Mages mod is improved familiars. You can get mage familiars who are also really powerful, but the huge draw for me is the ability to instead get a Thief familiar who can learn to find *and disarm* traps. (You can get 50% find traps upon summoning, plus another 50% at 100k XP, which if you're playing on Insane will be right around the time you hit Kresselak's Tomb and really need to start disarming traps.)
As someone who has soloed a mage through IWD, I can attest that you don't actually need to disarm traps if you're willing to use the patented *Mirror Image and Cross Your Fingers* method, but it is a pretty big quality-of-life improvement for me.
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/63639/sarevok57s-mega-icewind-dale-mod-is-finally-here-and-its-a-big-one
@Armanz92 ah yeah I've seen this one, I would do it, but not until its Weidu - but thanks for the heads up!
Anyway, I can't wait to see how you handle the infamous fight at the end of Dragon's Eye! That's the one that always makes me want to CTRL + Y myself IRL after a few attempts, and it always leaves me second guessing the choices I made in building my characters up to that point.
One last piece of advice: Get used to using the L button for quick reloading during the inevitable death loops...
With decent AC, (remember, Improved Invisibility gives you functionally another 4 points of AC), and mirror images to protect your Stoneskins, they should hold up for quite a while. If you want/need, Orrick sells a scroll of Spirit Armor which'll drop your AC to 1, and from there you should be able to push it into double-digit negatives. With all your 2nd/4th spell casts devoted to refreshing your images and your skins, you've got plenty of time to do what you have to do.
Assuming you have an AoE damage spell in your 3rd-level spell slots, (Skull Trap, say), you can use that to take out the trash mobs. Your 5th level spell can either be something that helps with them, (Animate Dead, Cloudkill, or Chaos, say), or you can grab a Lower Resistance and use it to drop Yx's defenses.
If you lower her resistances, spamming Chromatic Orb should be a solid tactic; one failed save and she's stunned for 13 rounds, which thanks to Oil of Speed means 26 guaranteed hits in melee. You'll have plenty of staves or daggers that can hit her at this point.
If you have the More Style for Mages mod, your staff should be +3 by this point, so you can always use the Boots of the Fox and just fall back on the old "kite indefinitely until she's dead" tactic. It'll be a long haul, though. If things go south, you can always just turn invisible, run away, rest, and try again.
Honestly, for a sorcerer huge set-piece battles like this tend to be less of a challenge because you can just throw everything you have at it. It's the regular dungeon grind that sucks because it'll wear out your spell supply in short order. I can't even begin to guess how many times one would have to rest to finish clearing out the entire 5th level up to Yxunomei.