Baldur's Gate All - solo bard
twillight
Member Posts: 65
I've seen and even played myself a lot of solo BG "trilogy". Some classic transitions, some newer methods.
The strongest one there is the half-orc barbarian, but any build I tried could be made finishing the game, even as dual/multiclass to buff its weakness.
But bard can not be munchkined. And even has high natural charisma, which is a nuisance.
Still, I rolled pretty high, so at least I have a good start.
So Talulah came to be. Blade, neutral, evil. Shar protect her.
Leaving Candlekeep went smoothly. Thx to save&reload got Chainmail, Longbow, and even Dagger +1.
"Unfortunately" right after Gorion's death Imoen met her demise too by the hand of the belt-fetished ogre. She forgot to run, she forgot to equip melee weapon when the ogre got close...
But when met with a 3rd assassin at the Friendly Arm Inn, the darkness helped me:
Next reached the Friendly Arm Inn, where - to get a goal - "joined" up with the couple Jaheira and Khalid.
I wonder what their fate will be...
The strongest one there is the half-orc barbarian, but any build I tried could be made finishing the game, even as dual/multiclass to buff its weakness.
But bard can not be munchkined. And even has high natural charisma, which is a nuisance.
Still, I rolled pretty high, so at least I have a good start.
So Talulah came to be. Blade, neutral, evil. Shar protect her.
Leaving Candlekeep went smoothly. Thx to save&reload got Chainmail, Longbow, and even Dagger +1.
"Unfortunately" right after Gorion's death Imoen met her demise too by the hand of the belt-fetished ogre. She forgot to run, she forgot to equip melee weapon when the ogre got close...
But when met with a 3rd assassin at the Friendly Arm Inn, the darkness helped me:
Next reached the Friendly Arm Inn, where - to get a goal - "joined" up with the couple Jaheira and Khalid.
I wonder what their fate will be...
5
Comments
At least those two provided times aganst the fighter for my kill even as a meatshield. Spared me some running up-and-down.
Got hired by some Silke. Her business looked a bit shady - and was carried out in the darkness -, but whoever whoever pays the money.
[NOTE: seems the quest is either bugged, or have a serious random included. First go when I did not know the strength of the opposition she offered 400 gold. Never at reloads. Then despite I disposed the three my rep did not go down the second time reloading from the quicksave immediate the fight, neither any other time reloading from that. Got the reputation-drop though when reloading from before talking to Garrick and stealing from both he and her.]
[Btw, noticed everyone tries to give you reputation for some reason? Gaining evil abilities are really a problem!]
Did some errands in the area (Miriann's letter, Z's boots, lots of stealing), and by thehelp of a Potion of Defense cleansed the Spider House. Made me clvl 4.
After that wondered around a bit, stumbled upon some hobgoblins with an obviously magical short sword [+2] of it. Required another of the three defense potions, but now that thing is mine. Both also served dealing with some local Cyric-priest. Well, he was instable enough to not even hold up his army of undead, so I don't think anyone lost much. And he attacked first. And he head a large bounty on his head. I just feel a bit lucky my arrows hit so hard preventing his maging. Not that I have anything against priestly magic *looking up-and-around*, only I tend to like survive. [clvl 5]
Also found some talking chicken. Says some kinda minor magling, and I know it worth 50 $, only none wishes to buy it. Will have to deliver it later.
Slept well in the inn, had a pleasurous nightmare. Felt by thatdivine sign I have to found my presence, so donated at the local church (hey, if my reputation is independent from which church I donate to, it's not my fault).
[Strange fact: BG:EE's donation rate is always cheaper than BG2's, and in average cheaper even than BG1's rate. Weidu is the worst as it uses BG2 rate only, So I've settled for 15 rep, where BG1 and BG2 rate equals out. Not that I could not use the money elsewhere, but in the long term it shouldn't matter.]
[There also seems some bug with Oublek. He never identified my as Greywolf - no free reputation.]
As I felt estalished, before going to the mines tooka look around. Found a talking chicken, Perdue's Sword, Joya's Flamedance Ring, Drizzt's scimitar... I think it's time to visit the Carneval!
[Removed Nymph Cloack to show starting stats.]
Well, I killed a god. That Ursa-bear. That's a start. But had to turn back for need of healing, and if I'd been there went to the Carnival to let out some steam (after a good sleep). But it was for naught. First they tried to thieve me out (my bladic reflexes outmatched that Vitiare), then thought some shopping would be nice, but some mongrel magling was up to something - no idea, said piss off, which for he just killed the shopkeeper, or performer, or whoever she was. Well, that was a shopping discount at least.
Went to the west, always to the west - why? Divine revelation obviously. Found a book of charisma which gave such discount could buy Dagger of Venom, and gloves of dexterity which gave me an idea. Oh, in the meanwhile also killed some random merchant. I found him suspicion approaching me in the middle of nowhere you know. I mean he had acursed scrolls amongst his merchandise. So trying to rob him was entirely self-defense in the grand picture.
These annoying people are everywhere by the way. Seriously, that Sendai-girl was standing around to ask if I hate Amn? Lay down and die they should these miserablke existences. And I can help with that, althugh it's a bit tyring on the long run. I charmed her and sent against her own troop, me poking from behind.
You know what I'm missing? Identification. Wish Firebead have not taken that scroll for himself...
Oh well, let's visit High Hedge for this. My legs ached after collecting all minor improvement (chainmail +1, bracers of archery, boots of the north, resist fire ring, also bought shield amulet). Has to sleep. With all the rumours about basilisks, sirens and mustard jellies going tothe Nashkel Mines feels more attractive.
1) you're talking out of prejudice, with a fully built character, in BG1, with infinite money. And you're still sorely mistaken.
The start with any character not fighter-oriented is painful. Because of thac0, and AC, and lack of abilities. And bard gains neither.
2) Scrolls in BG are limited, in elsewhere are not really needed aside a couple of examples. But hey, with enough IN anyone can use scrolls (aside maybe some subclasses), so it's a non-issue. And if I'm mistaken, potions can do the same, so who cares.
3) Wands sound nice, but a) they cost a sufficient amount of gold b) I don't like to abose Careless Programming c) only provides major advantage in BG1, not further
Come to think of it, my self-imposed rules:
- Core Difficulty
- except for leveling up (gains maximum HP)
- no sell&buy recharge for wands
- no Fake Talk or similar abuse
4) Also can see you did not play as you said, 'cause in BG1 you CAN'T wear best armor, as best armor is a kind of platemail, while bard is chained to chains. The UAI is not available until midgame (BG2).
5) BG1 is boring with any class, as it is mainly about running around (in Boots of Speed) releasing arrows. But I did not want to skip it this time.
6) Actually I played such character before, only this time I'm dedicated to finish it. And I assure you bard has constant trouble of Thac0 during the entire playthrough, and it needs a nuanced gameplay to compensate for its lack of specialisation, as it has no thac0, no weapon progression, has bad AC, lacks spells and special abilities and so forth. Bard is bad. Seriously bad.
Even the Two Weapon Style of Blade looks good only on paper. Sure, it's a good talent with a party, but terrible otherwise. Thus my main weapon of choice is Halberds. But with BG1 I'm forced to build up other weapons - one of the reason I chose playing that part too: for the extra difficulty.
Onto business:
-----------
The Mines were shorter than I expected. Not that it did not had its own challenge, but I just turned out ... making the good decisions.
[Unfortunate fact: Violet Potion overrides everything, can't pump back the dexterity
First, met some assassin - who wanned kill some sculpture. He was dying anyway, so no idea why the fuss. Got lucky hitting him with poison twice without any damage back, but than he hit me and that hurt, so went offensive spin just to be sure.
Down in the mines the arrows of the kobolds were annyoing, more so when realised there are traps, so going back the town for healing was not really an option. Still, I feel I avoided some unnoticed [at the exit of lvl 3 managed to find a passage where the 3 traps got avoided, lucky me],
The boss of the evildoers in the mine... presented some problem, although worse were its army arriving at the scene. Good thing was to memorise some Aganazar's Scrocher - they all fell victim to just one.
At the exit though awaited a 4-member assassin group - I went easy on them, and destroyed them with 1 charge of the Wand of Frost I just found. Good thing was to find an Identification Scroll too, because I'm not running around with that spell usualy.
Also good news that stumbled into an ankegh right around there, and finished it without much of a problem, so the way towards Baldur's Gate is now open. First have to deal with the bandits of course, but still.
But the highlight of this trip was to poison the poisoner:
2) Scrolls are limited, but in great number. Between those you find on enemies and those you can buy from Thalantyr and Sorcerous Sundries, you'll never be lacking scrolls. Also, only mages, sorcerers and bards can use arcane scrolls, not all classes. And arcane scrolls are the most powerful. Only Green scrolls can be used by all classes except wizard slayers.
3) You can actually find enough wands in the game without having to buy a single one. And they break the game : wands of paralyzation, summoning and of fire will take you to the end fight of BG1 without a problem. Wands of Cloudkill and Spell Striking will be useful throughout BG2.
4) It's true that they can't wear the best armor, but they don't need it. They can cast a bunch of defensive spells at higher level. The stoneskin / mirror image combo is better than any platemail you can get. And that's not all they got.
5) Well, it's a matter of opinion, one I actually disagree with. There's a lot more you can do in BG1 than kiting, especially with a bard.
6) They do have subpar thac0, but, with everything they got, they don't need it. Even the best thac0 can miss : Aganazzar scorcher and magic missile can't. Same with weapon progression : this is not where their power come from. Although, fully buffed, they can definitively hold their own on the melee side.
For the weakness of lower levels, it true for every class, even fighters. A level 1 fighter at 14hp with thac0 17 is not impressive. Like any other classes, bards will get stronger as they level up.
Since they level up so fast, they can do more damage than mages with their spells. They're also the second best dispeller in the game behind Inquisitor because of that. They're also difficult to debuff by mages, because of their higher level.
They also have ton of special abilities, through their song and the items only they can use, like the harps sold in Ulgoth's Beard. Just try something : fully buff you bard with spells and potions, use a charge of the wand of summoning, haste the whole lot, and let them go to town while you're slinging away +3 arrows (at 3 apr) and charges of a wand of paralyzation. You're a skald ? Sing and turn your army in into a juggernaut. You'll blow pass BG1 without problem.
If you play a bard like a fighter, he will suck. If you play a bard like a bard, you can finish BG1 without taking a single hit of damage. Bards are awesome.
I’ve been playing BG since 1999.
1: A bard leaves Candlekeep with AC 0, 8hp, thaco 19, dealing 3-10 damage with long sword OR AC 1, 8hp, Thaco 17, dealing 1-6 damage and 2 attacks a round. After 1250 experience (half what a mage needs) he levels and gets 3-8 extra hitpoints. After an additional 1250 experience or when a mage is at 9-12 hitpoints, a bard will be between 14-24 hitpoints. At this moment a mage will be able to cast 2 level 1 spells or three in case of a specialist. The bard will be able to cast 2 level 1 spells at this moment. So he will at low level be as good as a mage with more hitpoints and with the ability to use better weapons (long bow, long swords) and in case of need be able to wear chain in combination with shield. While a mage will always need one of his spells to be a defensive one like armor. When a mage reaches level 3 at 5000 experience he has 2 level 1 spells and 1 level 2 spell. Or 3 level 1 and 2 level 2 in case of a specialist. At this moment a bard will be level 4 and have 2 level 1 spells and 1 level 2 spell. It takes a non-specialist mage 20.000 experience (if we don’t look at the first 1250 experience) to become a better spellcaster than a bard. Prebuffing, summoning and then simply put an armor and join combat from a distance with ranged attacks from his bow is what a bard can do. Or you can play the game more like a fighter. Prebuffing, armor, scrolls and wands … No you won’t be as good as a solo fighter with specialization, but a solo fighter won’t be able to cast mirror image from a scroll during a fight, while a bard can.
2: scrolls (and potions) are limited … but there are more than plenty. You do not need to cast from a scroll every fight. Scrolls are a low level a lot better than casting the spell yourself. Scroll of magic missiles is a killer at level 1, while the spell itself is rather weak. And there is more than only scrolls, there are items that cast spells, amulets, rings, … It helps if you know where to find them of course. But I don’t think a solo run is something a first time BG-player does. So you can simply beeline to the items you need. Glitchless speedruns are a good place to learn the game. Do you know it takes 1 scroll and 1 potion to do bandit camp?
3: wand do cost money, that is true. But in a solo run money is not a problem. Friends spell, high charisma, high reputation and pick pockets are things a bard can do. A bard doesn’t even lose spells and money on identifying things. And since you’re alone, there is simply a lot to sell in the game. Even if you do not sell and buy wands, there are enough charges in most wands to use them very effective. The wand of frost can easy kill Mulahey and Greywolf. Just be sure to finish them with something else. The wand of fireballs/scorcher in the Ankheg cave is a very easy one to get very early. Potion of speed and invisibility is enough to get it. The necklace of fireballs is a cheap item and very safe to get. Basically at level 1, you will be able to cast multiple fireballs at targets. Most classes can’t do this.
4: best armor based on AC is plate, but it is in fact full plate. But there is an armor called Mithral Chain Mail +4 in the game. Okay, maybe it is NOT the best armor in the game, but it is not that bad. So you got me, I never played BG because I didn’t know that full plate was better.
5: that is your choice. I prefer a combination of tactics. The right spells at the right moment, prebuffing and melee, kiting, special arrows when needed, sometimes disabling spells, sometimes damage spells, …
6: Thaco is overrated at low level. A bard with a long bow has Thaco 17 at level 1 and 2 attacks every round dealing 1-6 damage. A single class fighter will have Thaco 16 with a composite long bow (15 if it’s an elf), with 2,5 attacks every round dealing 4-9 damage. So a single class fighter basically has 5% more chance to hit a target. This increases later in a game when a fighter gets mastery in weapons, but that’s only at 4000 experience. At 70.000 experience bards are only 1 Thaco behind priests, but bows are better than slings due to the extra attack every round. Slings do add strength to damage, so you could argue they are as good. Bards are at 70.000 experience 3 thaco behind paladins and rangers. That’s only 15% less chance to hit something. But a bard will have some disabling options (wand of stun) or diversions (wand of monster summoning) or area control (wand of fire) or an escape route (invisibility) … Options make a bard one of the strongest characters in BG1.
Your problem is that you say bards start weak and never end strong. The be honest, that’s a mistake. Bards start as one of the strongest classes with options to wear most armors, shields, most magical items, most weapons, … but later in the game they lose some of these advantages. Once a mage has more spells he can easy protect himself from harm with spells and still have plenty of spells left. Fighters will get grand mastery in weapons and overpower the bard in fighting. A bard will never get the best spells in the game (but he can use scrolls). And since you are now playing BG1, my remark was that bards are one of the most easy classes to play in BG1.
Wand of Frost hidden and free near Nashkel mines;
Wand of Fire easy to get from the Ankheg Cave, invisibility x2 or invisibility + speed is needed;
Wand of Lightning can be found in a house in Beregost, knock spell is needed;
Wand of Monster Summoning can be found in a tomb protected by undead, 2x invisibility and you get by them.
Necklace of missiles, wand of sleep, greenstone amulet, shield amulet, … can all be bought,
So basically once you can cast invisibility and knock, you can get all the wands you need. Knock can only be found later in the game or on a lucky drop. But invisibility is very easy to get.
2) Still there's the problem of cost, the rarity otherwise (I've used 2 scrolls maybe until the end of the previous post, and sold another 2, and 3 other are left) and that 90% of spells are to be honest useless. Like ye, resist fear is nice, but actually just eyecandy. Or the armor spell. Or the pathetic colour spray. No wonder sorcerers work: you can flush out the majority of spells without even noticing.
PS: green scrolls are the most powerful. Nothing beat immunity of magic, or undead.
3) Until this point I found 1 wand of magic missile, of summoning, of frost. of MM is pathetic 1 missile wand which can only be good to disrupt mages. Frost is risky as it destroys items (I was lucky. Lost only a leather +2 and probably some potions that one time). And you don't use up the summoning ones (if you don't sell-to-recharge) because solo Sharevok's only solution is those wands.
Any condition-wand is risky (of fear, of sleep, of paralyze), as they can easily resist it (and given the low thaco and number of attacks if there are a bunch of enemies, it's still a problem).
4) True that they "don't need it". The point is, you stated they "can" while they can't.
BG1 is patheticly about Boots of Speed + (Piercing) Arrows. Get yourself BoS, Bracers of Archery, a bow, and you won't need any other equipment.With any class. So what?
5) You can, but why would you? And what's the diff between kiting with bows and kiting with wands (if you rly could sustain the cost in gold, which is lik 5-10K per recharge)?
6) Oh yeah. Try Aganzanar the Ravager please. Or the Chromatic Demon.
Btw, I hate "sleep for that one spell". That's why I would never do Poverty either. You take 1 step, shoot a fireball, sleep, repeat until leaving Irenicu's Dungeon, do non-fighting quest until 1st HLA, choose Summon Deva, summon deva for a fight, sleep, go to next fight, repeat. That's just stupid.
And dispel? Dispel WHAT? Why's everyone so into dispel? Never had any use of it.
Not that others would not be as strong int the end. Ye, maybe in BG2 bard are somewhat better dispeller than others, but who cares? Most useless talent ever.
You seriously never played the game didn't you? 'Cause summoned monsters can't transit between areas to start with.
And with all the stuff you consumed you definitly won't be able to sustain your stuff on the long term.
Where did you get even the +3 arrows? Shops don't sell those, that's sure. Well, maybe your ultimately fatigued mind (due to casting Haste) is playing tricks on you...
----------
Went on basilisk-hunting. For it worth 1 casting. Met some sentient ghoul, was helpful against some mage, but more importantly some psycho-adventurers too, as they were 4 and I left my Wand of Frost at home to start with. Sent it (him?) in just to be sure, and when they did attack the mage got paralyzed, then their cleric, then even the knight. Had to focus on the cleric though, she looked breaking free.
The mage as usual was punny, died by a single hit of poison. Against the rest still had a defensive spin to keep me going, still needed 1 healing potion.
At this point the money seems to become a nonissue IF i'm not a big spender. This meansI can get healing any time. But buying everything (like recharging wands) doesn't seem sustainable.
Encountered a drow. Killed it. Naturaly 'cause it attacked me. I'm the victim here ya see?
Visited the area W of High Hedge, but barely anything interesting was there (the free healing was nice though).
The Firewind Bridge came next. Both duels cost me one offensive spin, but the reward is awesome.
Also note that the ogre mage is a magic duel mostly, I needed all my aganzanar's, magic missles, and even my lightning bolt, as well as my ability or larloch's (clvl 9), AND finish with melee.
Laugh on me, but somewhere I put down (sold?) my chainmail +1. So went to Gullykin and fought for a +2 replacement. It was fun. It's a sad thing Gulleykeep has no shop. On the other hand if they'd have, they'd probably know the meaning of private property, lock away everything, and me would not have need of a shop to sell their stuff. Well, that's life.
Just like that zombie infestation up north.
Btw, the ogre mage here was pathetic in comparsion.
[Hate the ankeghs. Two out of three times they just get criticals. In a row. Each dealing 25+damage. Have. To. Reload.
Also, it's sure I'll never go to Werewolf Island. Have plenty of exp anyway, and it does not provide benefit of items. I mean sure, there's the Chainmail +3 at the end, but I doubt I could cut down all the greater-than-greater werewolves.
Likely won't visit the Mage Island either, as there are only a handful of wands, and I think I can live without them. The whole thing would be anyway using a Protection From Magic scroll and cut my way through.
Lastly the only l00t that worth the fuss in Durlag's aside the Tome is Kiel's Buckler. So eat your pants.]
And I never said that summoned creature can follow you from room to room. I just said that they can win most fights by themselves. Since wands have more than one charge, you can cast monsters just before a fight. And you can use this strategy multiple times. That's what I was saying.
More impotantly, why the attitude ? Because I disagree with you ? I didn't insult you, and don't plan to. Come on man, this is a friendly place. Chill out. Don't take it all too serously. I thought we could actually discuss the power level of bards, but it seems you take your assumption for truth. It's a common conception that bards are weak, but they're not. Heck, some players managed to solo no-reload the full trilogy modded with SCS and Ascension with a bard. I was actually planing another response to each point you made, because they can be debated, but now I don't care to. I'll just say that bards, with their arcane casting, UAI, Spike traps, Time stop traps, etc... can tear through the final parts of this game. Every class, played to their strength, can beat the hell out of this game.
The RR bards get extra sound & song abilities instead of traps if ya use that. Hard not to like three pips in 2WS.
Except they're only available from Baldur's Gate, which is chapter 6 out of 7. That's not exactly a r34l option for the whole game, is it? Here is exactly what you were saying: "use a charge of the wand of summoning, haste the whole lot, and let them go to town" - summons don't go anywhere.
And you don't have 5K constantly to shoprecharge a wand (which is a bug anyway for me). You prettymuch munchkining in an unsustainable way (not enough gold, to start with).
And "sings for him/HERself)? You know how annoyingly slow idiocracy that is? Sure, until you get some equipment to be able to hit something that's ok, but c'mon! 1 chance to hit in 1 minute is not playing, that's something like the poverty-game.
And I'm not simply disagree. I point out clear flaws which SHOWS he did not play the game. Suggesting a lategame-available theorycrafted method for the FIRST game out of 2.5 is proof enough. The "can use the best armor" "Demogorgon falls to wands" quotes shows he's just regurgitating those theorycrafting papers.
And suggesting for a sane playthrough the Poverty Method (take one step, cast spell, sleep, repeat) is serious munchkining. That'snot "strong", that's just something else entirely. No wonder there's no a single video, not even a written attempt for solo bard. Because everyone know they are weakas a kitten.
Like, u know where all "Blades' awesome, damage powerhoiuse, best in the game" crap comes from? DSimpson's SoA-walkthrough (Jason Cha's Dual Wield Analysis), that's where. You know what he theorycrafted upon? (I know you don't.)
- using +3 and +2 equpiment (while you'll need +5)
- 10 base thac0
- AC 0 target
Now the Ravager has -6 AC... And the crafting don't take into consideration the damage of the enemy, twohanded weapon alternatives, and other factors. So it's misleading, but people worship it religiously, although they forgot the source even (just like that the "Jesus went to India" story first appeared in Xena).
The good places to check what a character worth is the places where the stronger enemies are. I don't rly believe BG1 has anything, but checking out Durlag's Tower chessboard, the final demon back in town, mustard jellies (I'll check on these), Werewolf Island.
For the rest Ravager, Melissan, the gate-labyrinth in Watcher's Keep (that's a good one, I strongly suggest playing evil character for that) are a good start.
In the meantime
------------
checked out "East of Larwood", released 2 fireball, collected the loot. Why everyone is attacking me? I'm the victim here.
The bandit camp was ok. Picked down the outer guards, and when spotted their leader released another fireball, then plummed by arrows. That guy was slow. Well, it's his fault wearing such heavy armor you know. Did not have yet enough lore to identify that wand [of fire], so removed my armor for more flexibility, used a charge from the Shield Amulet just in case. and went in the big tent. Started Aganzanar the mage, when those ran out offensive spinned the rest (they were Near Dead aside the archer, so it was ok). Funny thing was the mage managed to cast Horror, and it struck me - Shar was on my side that moment.
For the warning of the sacrifice-to-be changed my Boots of Avoidance to Grounding before opening the chest, also drinking 3 potion of healing.
[It is wise to charge ankeghs by the way with of Avoidance on. Until they change to melee they count as ranged attackers in melee, and gain -11 to hit.]
Went to Ulgoth's Beard for shopping - could have spend all my fortunes on things, but mainly bought Cloak of Displacement. There was a harp too for charming people - but who needs that when Algernon's Cloak does the same, and is renewing every day?
Shame for the price of that Ring of Invisibility though. Not buying it.
[where is Hulrik?]
Getting in to Durlag's Tower is one of the hardest part of it XD Those battle-horrors are somehow immun to arrows (used +2 ones, had 5 from somewhere), have plenty of HP, good AC, and easily hit a bard. So offensive spin it is, AND potion of defense, AND potion of speed. Of course they're immun to poison, and I didn't even try magic. To dispose the two on the bridge already cost me 4 potions, and I was pretty hurt still after.
The of Speed lasted till the complete annihilation of above level 2. Ah the ghasts! They aghast. But don't stop.
The Defense expired after dealing with the ghost on lvl 3. I almost thought I cornered meself with its supreme mirror image, but fortunately it was dumb. Even at the loss of 1 image it recasted right there wasting potential. Still, if it'd've managed to summon that Invisible Stalker, dunno what'd I do. Offensive spin fire arrows won the day, lucky me.
Btw, why is there no healer (no, I don't need stupid priests with their fake magick - let them all be banished form all fantasy for discriminating atheists -, I only need medics) at Durlag's Tower?
Meh, teh sexist world. No flirting by succubi. Oh, cruel fate!
Even worse, she forgot I am a female, thus promised me no pleasures! The nerve!
[where's the ghost of Ulcaster?]
The Cloakwood Forest's main interest was Forest Part 2 with all the spiders. [Incredible to see if you turn on the "see the rolls" option how much the engine cheats aganst you.] I went a bit on the easy side, and sent 2 fireball and 1 charge of Frost from my wands.
Still, Sword Spiders were nuisance, only in Defensive Spin and under the Ring of Free Action aquired by Five Finger Discount helped against them. Oh, I could have used the Spiders' Bane, especially that I hardly ever manage to poison anything anymore [for some "weird reason", aka. the engine cheats as heck], but I pulled my nose for not making me immun to poison.
[poison is a poorly implemented feature, as you can't spell away from yourself even with the ~instantenous Baalspawn ability.
disease is a poorly implemented feature as 99% I think does nothing, the remaining time it is the same as poison.
stealing is a poorly implemented feature as there is hardly anything to steal, it is instant Game Over when catched, 100% is not failsafe, can regularly steal questrewards and you still have to roll even if the target has no item.]
The last time I played a blade was before the EEs to be honest. It was fun once I got into the role-play of the character. He was powerful. He was not as powerful as my F/M, but he also had no real issues in BG1, especially after he collected a nice wand case full of wands. Even if a player disallows recharging, I agree with @chimaera that there are a lot of wands available by mid-game.
1 oil of speed, 1 scroll of mirror image, 1 scroll of invisibility to get through the Nashkel mines. 1 charge from an amulet of shield can help against the magic missiles trap. 1 blast from the amulet of fireballs (or potion, or wand of fire) to kill the goons Mulahey summons and 2 blasts from a wand of frost to finish Mulahey.
1 scroll of invisibility and 1 potion protection from electricity to pass bandit camp.
1 scroll of invisibility and an oil of speed, 1 charge from the cloak of charisma and some arrows of biting to beat Cloakwood mines.
This means 10 items to reach and enter the city of Baldur’s gate. That’s all it takes.
Feel free to find other ways to pass the challenges with minimal items. The fact that a bard, just like a mage can use most items makes them very strong at the start of the game.
Concerning a skald and the fact that you call using a bard song munchkinning, means you have little to no idea what you are talking about. A bard can allways sing when he’s not attacking. That’s his class skill. Using a class skill isn’t munchkinning at all. A half-elf skald gets +3 attack, +3 damage, +2 bonus AC while under influence of his song, this means the two first arrows he fires in a round. Give him a normal long bow for an extra +1 attack, Dexterity 18 for and extra +2 on attack and you start the game in Candlekeep with Thaco 14. And as much as you like to say that bards do not get any good armor. They do in reality. Drizzt armor + Kiels Buckler + tome of dex gives him a nice negative AC. Especially in combination with mirror images. But I understand you only look at pure AC and don’t care about anything else.
Since we are all here to enjoy a game we like to play. I will rest my case. If you want to pretend you solo a game with the most difficult class to solo with, then who am I to say your perception is wrong.
I soloed a Jester, must admit Swashy was probably easier, but not by much. If Jester song didn't kill invisibility, if the damned harp worked, and if there wasn't an endless supply of money to buy the comical amount of acid arrows/arrows of dispelling/arrows of detonation, things would have been different.
Bards big annoyance is waiting for Knock, so you ignore a few chests until later game, even miss a bit of the stupid amount of money laying around.
Final point; How do you NOT have +500k unspent gold when soloing?? It gets hard to carry all the loot, but the containers made a huge difference on this.
Cloakwood Mines is not my favourite place. Too many people. I tend to use Wand of Frost and Wand of Fireball to thin them put like Peter Pan. Especially as they mostly have nothing. Except one mage who has 1 scroll of haste (after the lightning trap corridor).
Potion of Absorption (1 dose) is a must. Wand of Sleep (from High Hedge) can also help, this later is especially useful on the 1st level where you risk rep-drop with badly aimed magic.
Don't fall for the false rumour though that the final mage can fall to Stinking Cloud - he won't fall asleep even with a roll of 8 (from 2 reload = 3 casting) he never rolled under.
But I could Magic Missle his arse despite his sanctuary, then Aganzanar which can be used too to eliminate Battle Horrors (turns out they're actually effected by magic).
[Note: seems the BHs pop into existence by some trap or something, also might be related to the mage seeing you. One time I killed the "original two" (sometimes only 1 appears), then decided to cast Improved Invisibilty (seemingly the only useful lvl 4 spell I have - I notoriously don't like to buy spells), Then no BH appeared (almost).]
Good news too you don't need the papers on the guy, it'd take a lot of space. Solo playthroughs' weakness. Especially w/o containers.
After all that went to the Lighthouse for the tome. The golems hit hard, but not that tough fortunately. Sirens are avoided by 2 potion of invisibility.
Now I call this a day.
PS: wearing Claw of Kazgaroth as clvl 10 is reached (actually I'm clvl 11 at the end of this). I like that thing for this game,and there are no more spiders, so the minus on vs death shouldn't really be an issue at all (and the current cloak helps too).
-------------
Monk on low level sure be though, but later on it gets Greater Whirlwind which highly compensates.
Sure, it has problems hitting mlvl5 enemy, but not that bad. I had a solo monk starting BG2 and it passed.
No idea why anyone would wanna knock that much.Sure, it's convenient to lockpick chests with a thief, but mostly minor treasure are in there worth 100 gold on agood day. And most of the stuff can be broken by pure strength.
CurrentlyI have 50K. Had 20K before going in the Cloakwood Mines (hence the complaint on Ring of Invisibility). And I'm not a big spender. I avoid spending stuff if I can avoid. (Shame on me, I'm as much a hoarder as a dragon.)
Btw, why would a wizard wanna use bows? They have magic. Also can combine the class with thief and use crossbow. Or short bow. See no problem.
If you like to keep all one shot items and all gold as long as possible, then I understand why you don't see the power of a bard. Their bigget advantage is that they can use most items in the game.
Wizard at high level do have enough magic to do damage. A low level wizard with only 3 magic missiles at level 2 can deal at most 3d4+3 damage, so between 6 and 15. Everyone with a bow and good dexterity has 75% chance to hit something with AC 10. With two attacks every round that means 25% of dealing 2d6 damage, 50% of dealing 1d6 and 25% of dealing no damage. While the mage needs 3 rounds to deal his 6/15 damage, anyone with a bow will deal between 0 and 36 damage in the same time. Also magical arrows with special effects beat low level mage spells. That's why bows > spells at low level.
And I never thought high on Wand of Lightning. Unreliable, self-dangerous thingy.
Actually Knock HAS SOME use, namely getting Kiel's Buckler, and the Thief Guild Quest also needs 1 casting (not confirmed, high strength might be enough).
And again: charged items if you don't shop-recharge them are not that common. And even if they would, their worth is pretty much negligable in BG2/ToB.
You can eat your AC 10 as well the rest of the calculation as the engine seriously cheats, and is very much fake random mostly (any time I save, and right then get a failure, there's only 10% chance at reload I'll gain a success instead of another failure. True for first round of a fight, trying to learn a spell etc.).
And you neither take consideration of PC HP and enemy thaco + dmg, which seriously pushes the balance for the favour of the mage, who won't get into melee. And if we start ranged fight why you did not start a thief/mage instead I ask again. For solo optimize your character. If you can, you should do a dual/multi character. Bard's on the other hand don't have that luxury. Or want a crippled character? Dunno, combine Wizardslayer with Beastmaster or something and see how it goes. Make it a no-reload, and let's see what you do when at clvl 2 you get the "12 bandit archer surrounds you" random encounter. See, that's stupid. Anyone can go stupid. Now powergame your characters instead and let's see which is which still sux. Help on the way: it'll be BARD.
'Cause a crippled kit like wizardslayer can be fixed by time with UAI. The crippled thief thac0 canbe fixed by fighter combo. Mage can be fixed either by thief or fighter or both. Paladin and fighter don't even need fix if don't want. Even ranger can be boosted by cleric (because of bug/game mechanic gaining all druid spells. Druid is a nuisance, but CAN be added fighter with enough pacience at the statroll. Cleric is mostly good if equipped right (learnt through Viconia who even at my first game becaome a leading fighter, cleric is that good), and can be boosted further but fighter addition.
But Bard needs serious thoughts and planning. That's what I'm doing now.
And while it might be done easier, I solved it until now, right? (BG1 is easy, and through WeiDu I'm overleveled already by 1.) None else shown how a bard can do it, or wether it can do it at all.
Not like Monk. Monk was done as you can see HERE.
Fighter/mage/thief here. Not that not everybody did it already...
Priest/Mage is even done in Ascension (which is by rumour harder) here.
I could probably find a lot more, but whatcomes up when we look after bard? Fat lot of NOTHING. I think that points somewhere. And as none did it, why not be happy someone at last does it? Hm?
Lastly I don't know why people don't read the title of topics...
---------
As I'm already clvl 11 (that's +1 thac0 than I should) I decided to blaze through the rest.
First entered BG to buy knock, and if I buy stuff I might as well buy all spells on sale. And a couple of magic items.
Even managed to "steal" from Elmonster:
Packed my 2 resist Fire potions and the absortions potions and 15 healing potions, bracers of archery, Spiders' Bane and a couple of other stuff, and went back to Durlag. The ring of fire prot was also important. Quaffed resistances, and started to run around (boots of speed) to get the attention of monsters. Then do NOT fight, instead walk on traps! That kills 'em. Sooner or later. There's space to manouver, so rarity is harm. Although seems SOME damage is still dealt. Oh well. Quaff healing when needed.
They'll bee needed as I ran away from fights as much I could. So no fight with doppelgangers or mustard jellies. Still had to fight some Skeleton Warrior with Flesh Golems. Defensive Spin helped a lot (the skeleton lured out solo), still needed an offensive spin (and even a couple of reload). That thing was a monster.
There are overpacked heaps of potions - try to preserve them.
It was nice when potion of speed buffed boots of speed - too bad no longer applies (because game patched). And I wasn't that much into shooting arrows. So instead got the attention of all four dwarf guardian, and led them ~south. That doorway if PACKED with traps, and that is a big help, especially that THEY TOO activate them (other traps have some recharge-delay).
There's another fire resist potion on this level, take it, because the first dose you quaffed at arrival will expire before the levelboss fight.
There's also 2 Dispel Arrow, which are precious commodity.
For lvl 3: no walkthrough mentions this, but there's actually a Master Room to bypass the puzzles, and it's not even far:
Tips for fighting doppelgangers in the throne room and otherwise: When you pick up the helmet RUN OUT. Babystep back and if you see a dupie hit it with an arrow (prevents mirror image), then GET OUT of sight while it casts haste. Wait 30 seconds and you'll hear the spell fizzling away. That's the time you walk in and start killing it with arrows (retreat as needed, use the safe area to manouver).
When all doors are open go down on the right, if there's a doppelganger run past it, bash the locked door open (remove armor, save here), run in to the left side of the room where the exit is, down the corridor, cast Knock, pick up the buckler from the chest, run back without stop (funny how the "dwarves" run along you), get out of the complex. We're done here.
------------ That's the spirit!
Look at speedrun.com : the BG1EE world record was done with a blade. It was done in about 30 min.
Go on Youtube and type BG2 solo bard : you can see videos where solo bards take on the Twisted Runes or Kangaxx. Again, all alone. And the bard destroys those fights. There IS evidence that bards can be really strong. I'll thus say it again, one last time : a bard used right is not weak.
Bards get all those items and thus all the flexibility, even before UAI, outside of heavy armors which don't have meaningful immunities.I'll grant that mage/thief is probably at least equal, and probably better, but bard is definitely up there in the power rankings.