I'm undecided. I always plan to have a party of 4, because it feels like a sweet spot tactically, and because pathing. But then I somehow always end up having 6 and wanting room for more.
Tried a solo game once. Powerwise it was awesome, but it felt too lonely to my taste. Not doing it again.
Have to agree, solo is very lonely and in my opinion lacks a bit of personality.
Solo gives you the most opportunity to really delve into the differences between classes and find out how good they can be. For someone, like me, who also plays mainly for the strategy and hardly at all for RP, the far greater speed of the game when played solo is also an attraction.
Does it? As far as I can see Solo only gives you one, maybe two/three opportunities at a time to ''delve into the differences between classes and find out how good they can be''.
If you wanted to really delve into the differences between classes and get the most opportunities to do so, Blackpits is the best option. In Blackpits you can create six custom characters, which gives you even more opportunities to experiment with classes.
Why not make a group of 3-6 in Baldur's Gate? Wouldn't that give more chances to play around with different classes and kits? That would have a fair amount of strategy in itself. Solo only gives you 1-3 classes to experiment with, a group of custom people gives you 10+ classes to experiment with.
I think you are wrong with solo having a far greater speed. IMO Solo is slower, than having a party. Not playing for RP sounds like you are missing out on something.
I agree I am missing out on something with not playing RP, but it's something I don't value highly .
I don't think there's any question about the speed of the game. Playing solo I can complete BGEE in less than 2 hours with a range of different characters (with no cheats or engine abuses). In a party it takes significantly longer.
As for experimenting, I'm not quite sure of your point. What I meant in my earlier post was not experimenting in a single run, but trying out the whole range of solo characters across many hundreds of different runs. A few examples of the sorts of things that you might do when solo, but are unlikely to do in a party are:
- fully exploit the stealth abilities of things like rangers and monks.
- leverage weapon speed advantages by micro-managing fights.
- test out how to improve the shaman's spirit summons by moving between rounds.
I don't fully agree with what you're saying about the ''Speed of the game'', I think if you are playing solo all the fights and encounters take longer. Whereas even with 2 characters, the fights are over faster.
Let's not forget simple stuff, like carrying loot. It takes longer for one person to carry loot, and work out what they can take and what they can't, then a full party who can just pickup all of the loot and decide later.
I see what you mean now, with how solo really brings and tries out the full abilities of a class. To each their own I guess
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I don't fully agree with what you're saying about the ''Speed of the game'', I think if you are playing solo all the fights and encounters take longer. Whereas even with 2 characters, the fights are over faster.
Let's not forget simple stuff, like carrying loot. It takes longer for one person to carry loot, and work out what they can take and what they can't, then a full party who can just pickup all of the loot and decide later.
I see what you mean now, with how solo really brings and tries out the full abilities of a class. To each their own I guess