Solo runs - easiest and most challenging
Shangeroo
Member Posts: 84
I’ve done a few solo runs with EE, my easiest has been with a Kensai/thief (traps and UAI are ridiculous). Did a Kensai/mage too and that was easy. My most challenging has been with a sorcerer but not too bad, most against enemies resistant to magic. Thinking about doing another as a Necromancer/Cleric.
Just curious as to what has been your most challenging solo run?
Just curious as to what has been your most challenging solo run?
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with the right spells pick he has absolutely no problem in dropping the MR of the enemies to 0, and as a solo charname is very over leveled, it is possible to have him with improved alacrity and a planetar helper and/or wish in chap 2, and from lev 14 he has at least 3 PI so he can do it with at least 4 enemies/rest from that level on.
if he learn wish he potentially does not even need to rest from that moment on and he goes to each battle with the spellbook fully loaded.
what i found tricky with a solo sorcerer was the areas of wk where magic does not work.
by the way i did my solo with tactics mod installed, setting that is much more difficult then vanilla, and there the real problem is to survive the starting dungeon. there chateau irenicus is much harder and at that point the sorcerer lacks of levels (starting in bg2, importing from sod should make the things more easy) and equipment, very few ranged ammo, no braciers or other protection items and you have to face a monk with quivering palm, a lev 19 cleric, ilich that is a berseker with +3 and +2 weapons, that the sorc can not use.
still i cleared all the dungeon without even using the wands you find on the second level. sorcerers are super powerful even at very low levels, at high ones are gods.
anyway i find soloing quite boring, difficult at the beginning, then probably too easy, at least with the classes i like to play, so i don't have much experience in it.
i prefer to play with 2 or 3 people parties that for my taste and playstyle is the sweet spot, as the toons are overleveled, but not as much as in a solo, and i can use much more tactics and different approaches to the battles, while solo you have to stick to the few ones that your class allow.
i like parties like charname ft and aerie, charname kensai->mage aerie and jan, charname blade and jan.
parties that have almost the same options and capabilities of a full party, even if not its raw mlee power, using only 2 or 3 people.
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i never did try, but i think that one of the most challenging solos is a druid with scs and ascension installed, afaik no one was able to complete the solo, even if at least 2 people reached the final tob battle, but without prevailing in it.
But you convinced me, I’m going to try a Druid run instead of the Necromancer/cleric. I’ve never done the Druid stronghold so this could be fun.
even when an enemy is not immune to time stop i usually don't even bother to cast it as usually the enemy is dead before he can even react, nothing can survive to 6 MM, 6 MMA and 6 flame arrows/skull traps once his MR is set to 0, and all the spells needed have 0 casting time with rov and aop.
if we are not talking of LoB settings.
i find myself not even using often higher level damaging spells as you can do much more damage with a super fast barrage of low level ones in less then the time you need to cast adhw.
or with different spell selections 3x pierce magic or lower magic resistance, greater malison and 5 feeblemind or finger of death in a row, again super fast and even with the tob good st the enemy usually falls. if not is not a problem at all as the sorcerer has only used a PI and has still 5 of them to attack again, without having even been at risk as he has always been far away and never in the sight of the enemy.
by the way the enemies that in vanilla are immune to imprisonment are not immune to flesh to stone, even the ones that are immune to death magic. you need redundancy given their good st, but i never had problems in turning draconis into a stone statue.
the advantage of the sorcerer is that he can change tactic on the fly, as long as he keeps his spellbook always recharged with wish or spell trap he can face almost every situation.
and for the enemies like the wk demilich, immune to low level spells SI abiuration and a couple of dragon breaths make the battle last only a couple of seconds, lich seen= undead dead.
but i agree with you the duals from fighter (as is kensai i assume that yours are dual class builds and not illegal multiclass) are super powerful as well, even if they require a different approach as they can do damage also in other ways, not only with the spells.
this sharing almost the same end game arcane power for F->M, with only 1 spell/level less, less flexibility in the battle but more flexibility if you plan a little as he can cast all the spells in the game once he have learned and memorized them.
to use the thief traps with some bosses is a little more tricky if you don't set them when they are still blue as you have to set them then lure the enemies into them. but then the damage is huge, set enough spike traps and nothing survives to them.
good luck with your druid run, probably a fighter->druid is even better as you can use armors, have 3 pips in DW and get 1.5/2 more apr, but even a plain or kitted druid (totemic?) should be fun and far from impossible without ascension.
- Totemic Druid has great summons, they are OP in BG1, very strong in SoD and early BG2, and still useful in ToB ;
- Avenger feels more like an arcane nuker, definitely powerful. Their special transformations are okay, can even be very powerful in some specific situations (well, Web + spider form is useful in all situations)
- Shapeshifter is a godly fighter in BG1, but as you advance, you’ll probably use his spellcasting more than his transformation
The kensai dual build, especially the thief one (both legit, never liked using Keeper), made think of tactics using all the scrolls and potions I used to hoard but never used when I did full party runs. Never realized how much fun I could have with all those scrolls, combined with all this characters other abilities. Having 640 hps with Tenser was hilarious.
The dual Druid build does sound interesting. I guess I’ll hope to get lucky enough to get a high enough roll during character build.
the end game kensai->M that is in my actual party under tenser reaches only 240 hp, probably i should roll better stats an chose the option of maxed hp gain at least once in the life
those 400 hp more give you a much better margin if something goes wrong...
not that a toon with mage in his build like my KM need it as i know to protect him well with the spells, but for a KT or an other class that depends on hp to survive to have a such high value is really useful.
Dual wielding Axe of yielding constitution bonus, evil path extra hps, Ioun stone that gives 10 pct hp, potions of heroism, tenser transformation then use potion of power after transforming
Now if only Durlags goblet would be available in tob
on a side note to do it you must play evil and the actual hp you get is the number of the beast, what a coincidence...
There's the rod of resurrection (bought from Adventurer's mart or found in Mekrath's lair) that when used on a live character, restores their HP to full.
So it's arguably even better than Durlag's goblet ("arguably", because drinking from the Goblet is instantaneous, while activating the wand takes half a round, and many things can happen in half a round when your HP start to hit single digits).
not only heals at whatever range, but it is possible to swap it between party members and as they are tied to 1 magic action/round (to activate an item is considered a magic action), but the rod is not, its only limit is the number of charges, it is potentially possible to use a single rod to heal up to 6 people, or to heal the same tank that is taking huge damage more times in the same round, as long as the party members are close enough to transfer the rod from an inventory to the other.
selling and buying/stealing it it is easy to recharge it and as there are 2 available in chap 2 you have a potential of 20 full healings, much faster then the divine spell and more flexible then it.
let's say that the party has 3 mlee fighters that are at low hp, they can all use the rod to replenish the hp pool. then in the same round they are hit by a ADHW, survive, but are again at low health, you pass the rod to the casters/ranged and in the same round the mlee fighters are again at full hp.
and all this using a single item. this is crazy powerful, almost broken.
or the party thief is very far from the rest of the party, stabbing or setting/disarming traps, but he fails a check to hide as is near some enemies and they attack him. the rest of the party can heal him just activating the item and then clicking on his avatar on the right part of the screen, even if are half area far from him.
for those that don't have problem in using the trick no need to swap the rod between characters, a single npc can reset mid battle the whole party health in a split second, and having the wand and the 2 rods it can be done up to 18 times in a battle while still leaving a charge in the rods so they are not destroyed and can be recharged.
here we are in the realms of cheese, but the rod is one of the reasons why i disagree with those that call healers the divine casters. the regeneration items, the potions and when needed the rod, the ultimate healer, are the best way to restore party's hp, a divine caster can make way better use of his spell book then to use it to memorize healing spells.
This is why I love this game. I can still learn something new. I never knew rod of resurrection worked to heal living targets.