Solo+ - The One Man Army challenge.
Pantalion
Member Posts: 2,137
Solo runs are a lonely and curious affair, both difficult and easy at the same time, as you accumulate six times as much experience as anyone else.
The OMA challenge aims to resolve these issues, because what's the point in being incredible if there's nobody around to see?
1: The One Man Army (aka OMA) naturally accumulates groupies on as time goes on. Whenever they encounter a potential new party member, they must accept them (and indeed, seek them out as soon possible, the first port of call in BGII must be the carnival to pick up Aerie, the OMA in BG1 must pick up Xzar, Monty and Imoen before making their way to pick up, for example, Ajantis and Shar-Teel).
2: The OMA must care for their groupies, reviving them at the earliest possible opportunity in the unlikely event of their death. The only time the OMA may remove a party member is to replace them with another party member.
3: For their part, groupies are utterly useless wastes of space. On entering a map, they must remain by the map entrance until the OMA has cleared the way (you are allowed to Ctrl-J your posse to the exit when your OMA gets there, to minimise the boring). If a map does not require the OMA to "gather their party", then there's no need for the groupies to follow.
4: Should groupies encounter enemies, they must retreat, immediately, to the nearest corner, where they will cower, waiting for the OMA to save them. At no point may a groupie carry any item that is not plot-bound to them, swing a fist, pick a lock or otherwise do anything, ever, including talking or being talked to by anyone outside of character specific plotlines. Doing so will cause the OMA to instantly die of shame and embarrassment.
4: Should any effect that would end the game in a solo encounter occur and inflict upon the OMA, the game is over. They have lost.
In effect, the OMA challenge is a solo challenge without solo advantage. They only gain one sixth of the available exp, whilst carrying the entire party by themselves and suffering from a constant financial drain if their partymate somehow dies.
The OMA challenge aims to resolve these issues, because what's the point in being incredible if there's nobody around to see?
1: The One Man Army (aka OMA) naturally accumulates groupies on as time goes on. Whenever they encounter a potential new party member, they must accept them (and indeed, seek them out as soon possible, the first port of call in BGII must be the carnival to pick up Aerie, the OMA in BG1 must pick up Xzar, Monty and Imoen before making their way to pick up, for example, Ajantis and Shar-Teel).
2: The OMA must care for their groupies, reviving them at the earliest possible opportunity in the unlikely event of their death. The only time the OMA may remove a party member is to replace them with another party member.
3: For their part, groupies are utterly useless wastes of space. On entering a map, they must remain by the map entrance until the OMA has cleared the way (you are allowed to Ctrl-J your posse to the exit when your OMA gets there, to minimise the boring). If a map does not require the OMA to "gather their party", then there's no need for the groupies to follow.
4: Should groupies encounter enemies, they must retreat, immediately, to the nearest corner, where they will cower, waiting for the OMA to save them. At no point may a groupie carry any item that is not plot-bound to them, swing a fist, pick a lock or otherwise do anything, ever, including talking or being talked to by anyone outside of character specific plotlines. Doing so will cause the OMA to instantly die of shame and embarrassment.
4: Should any effect that would end the game in a solo encounter occur and inflict upon the OMA, the game is over. They have lost.
In effect, the OMA challenge is a solo challenge without solo advantage. They only gain one sixth of the available exp, whilst carrying the entire party by themselves and suffering from a constant financial drain if their partymate somehow dies.
1
Comments
Could be possible with fighter types where the higher levels get much diminished returns, with a mage it will be really tough to stay ahead of the curve far enough. You'll probably have to resort to all out cheese with one. I just finished SoA last night with a full party at 3 mio XP just getting the first HLA with my sorceress for hell. And that was with all class quests, first level of watcher's keep and Dork and Hexxat questlines.
Really frustrating: you'll run into a lot of party wipes when entering a map puts you directly in an ambush type of position and the OMA won't be strong enough to instant kill the ambushers before they beat up their helpless victims (I shudder at the thought of Watchers Keep maze level...)
Are they allowed to level up or do they have to stay at the level you recruit them at?
Just set it to accumulate at 1/6th the rate.
The "groupies" thing doesn't really seem to add much besides the xp drain and is more than a bit immersion breaking.
What's particularly immersion breaking about travelling with a group of non-combatants? Just because they're following you round talking and fawning over your magnificence doesn't mean they're any good at fighting.
And modifying experience gain would apply to entirety, including rewards that would not be divided in a full party setting, whilst adding none of the additional character quests.
@Skaffen
I'm not doing too badly so far with my B/M/T, with enough scroll scribing I'm hoping to accumulate a decent level before anything too tough crops up. I'm also not above laying down seven snares and prompting a cowled mage attack via polymorph into a Mustard Jelly, which is borderline free exp whilst my posse are quietly situated safely on the other end of town.
Ambushes and maps with enemies at the entrance are brutal though, I've had to break combat with one enemy just to distract another one who's started attacking... Usually Jaheira. I've spent a fortune reviving her already.
Up to you if you level them really, without armour, they'll still die pretty quickly, whilst costing more to raise, so it's a tradeoff.