No deaths, no reloads

[Kekkonen]

Originally posted by Xyx:
[QB]
Strange that Bio didn't fix dragon AI to respond to trap setting... One of their developers said he had been working on it. [QB]

Well, the dragon in the githyanki lair did see buff-up spellcasting as a hostile act. I talked to him, sucked up to him a little bit just to squeeze information out of that evil bastard, and then had Anomen cast resist fear in order to take the dragon out. He turned red the second Anomen started waving his hands in the air.

Personally, I thought this was a major improvement. Maybe they only react to spellcasting because they know and respect the power of magic; on the other hand, some lower creature bending over and tinkering with some trappy thingy isn't worth their attention...

[two]

Originally posted by KillerKid:
<STRONG>I have been reading most of yur posts on this thread damn there are alot but i think that two is probley playing on the easiest dificulty. You do know you can change it in the middle of a game. Because a solo player even with all that gay stuff cant be on a hard dif or hes just lieing. because i myself have a good berserker with -14 ac and thats pretty good or at least decent and still pretty much any good monster hits me once in a while. Now i easily moped the floor of the drow and all normal monsters. but like in the area with those gire giants they all hurt. i dont believe half the stuff two says or he is just on easy dif because with a party of 6 all with great stuff getting hurt alot i dout he can solo all that on hard</STRONG>

No I played on Core. I also have experimented with insane difficulty (see my thread on soloing a beastmaster on insane difficulty) and it is slower, harder, but does not fundamentally change the game.

-14ac is pretty good. But the Bard can get AC-19 before he casts any spells (blur, etc.) when using a shield. And of course he has stoneskin. That's why I can stand in the middle of 5 fire giants and yawn. If they hit me eventually I just cast another stoneskin, you can do it right in the middle of combat.

If you install the patch that fixes blur stacking, it also fixes invisibility NOT giving you a -4ac bonus. Invis+GreaterEvasion+one blr can get any Bard to -25AC no problem.

One big reason my Bard did OK was I always used spells before combat, i.e. blur, stoneskin, improved haste, globe of invulnerbility. So when I was in the middle of 5 fire giants, I was hitting them 4 times/round with CromF due to haste, which kills them in about 2-3 rounds or so.

As I keep saying, it really is NOT that hard. See for yourself. Equip a level 30 bard with some gooddies using SK, cast appropriate spells, and go into he fire giant realm. Peice of cake.

Have fun!

[Firecc]

Solo vs. group
I would guess (since I havn't solo'd) that soloing is the most difficult - to an extent. Defeating monsters and like is not too hard with a group but defeating monsters and not have your team mates blown to pieces is another thing.

That is what I think is the most difficult thing with playing with a group. Once in a while there is a "lucky strike" or a backstab that makes Minsc, or other non-mage NPC, look like mashed potatoes. Ah, and not to forget - imprisonment.


"Not challenging enough"
Another thing, being specifically prepared for just *that* encounter will make it soooo much easier. Try to play it as the first time, what the character knows it knows and nothing else. I don't mean you should walk in unprepared but since most (all?) players have played the game a least once certain things stuck in mind. Par example, it is not like it's a note on the door in Bridge D. saying: "Twisted Rune - very dangerous. Mage and monsters. Do not enter. Oh - and do not wear a rouge stone." How many survived that the first time and thought "No sweat!"?

Do not rest all the time. This "over-resting" is equal to reloading in my eyes. I doubt too many adventurers would sleep in a cavern full of beholders just because they run out of spells. (go out and sleep in a tavern).

In ToB I tries to defeat Draconis after Sendaii (no rest) since the urge in the story. I couldn't do it. But there was a true challenge in it and after resting the victory wasn't that sweet since it was cheese (IMPOW). I knew his weakness and stengths and could prepare just for him.


I wonder if anyone could play "no deaths, no reloads" with that premise? I, for one, would die very fast.

[Xyx]

Originally posted by Firecc:
<STRONG>Do not rest all the time. This "over-resting" is equal to reloading in my eyes. I doubt too many adventurers would sleep in a cavern full of beholders just because they run out of spells. (go out and sleep in a tavern</STRONG>

I vividly remember several occasions in BG1 when I was desperate for a good night's sleep. Couldn't get any; I kept being attacked by hordes of monsters.

What happened to that in BG2? Apparently, those caverns aren't that full of Beholders... As with every easy to solve issue, the developers must have had specific thoughts about where you could or could not rest. If I was an adventurer out on some life-threatening adventure, I'd rest whenever I thought it would increase my chances of survival. In BG2, that means resting most of the time...

[THE JAKER]

On the subject of resting: BG vs. SOA

I think that the developers just wimped out and made it easy to rest in SOA. Probably too many people were whining about those attacks in the middle of the night in BG!

Personally, I thought it was cool that you couldn't just camp out anywhere you wanted. I remember that while doing the Cloakwood mines, I really needed to rest to get back some healing spells + chants etc. My party was frazzled! Anyway, I picked a nice quiet room in the mines, closed the door, and tried to camp. Something like 15 guards appeared and attacked! I thought that that was a really cool, realistic reaction of the game to me trying to rest in a enemy dungeon that I had not cleared yet.

Sadly, this does not happen in SOA, even though the means obviously exist. Xyx, could you by any chance implement it? I really do love the smart beholders!

Oh wait! I forgot...Smarter enemy Magic Users first!

[ 07-30-2001: Message edited by: THE JAKER ]

[Doltan]

In a related note (speaking of the various patches taking away some cheesey tactics), I have come across one instance where TOB makes soloing more difficult: my illusionist/thief can no longer put more than 6 (?) traps on any given map. The developers have made very nice changes which forbid the cheesey tactic of surrounding any baddie with 20+ traps (the dragon in Watcher's Keep goes red after one trap is set!), but they slightly screwed my solo PC in the process.

Before you guys go off about power gaming and stupid strategies, let me explain. As a matter of practice, my solo PC places traps just about everywhere she goes (before opening any major door, for example, or before sleeping). This is really a key strategy in avoiding deaths (no reloading is still a goal of mine). She gets tons of traps because she can always cast Simulacrum and have her double set up a complete set of traps (spike, time, normal ones, etc.). This is a nice way to kill hordes of bad guys -- simply being prepared. Unfortunately, this strategy has the side-effect of having tons of worthless traps all around the screen. If you are playing the game in a true role-playing fashion, why would you expect every trap to be triggered, right? So now, such as Ust Natha or the big underdark area just outside of it, my solo PC has at least 6 worthless traps set somewhere and can no longer set up more useful ones. In trying to eliminate a cheesey tactic, the developers created a very unrealistic roleplaying situation.

Just my 2 cents about the difficulties of soloing an illusionist/thief without dying. I've especially enjoyed the comments about soloing in a "realistic" fashion.

[Xyx]

Originally posted by THE JAKER:
<STRONG>I thought it was cool that you couldn't just camp out anywhere you wanted. I remember that while doing the Cloakwood mines</STRONG>

I remember having to crawl all the way up back out of Durlag's Tower to get a good, uninterrupted rest.

I'm kinda toying with some ideas to have monsters call to each other in a sort of "chain". Right now, monsters only shout for reinforcement if they actually engage the party. I would imagine that monsters hearing others shout, could also do some shouting themselves, drawing monsters from further away to the battle. Especially nice would be if they wait for those reinforcements to arrive before joining in themselves (so they can be butchered all at the same time instead of one by one ). The fact that monsters cannot open doors is still a bit of a problem, but then again, it does mean you don't get to fight all of the dungeon in one go. That would be boring.

[Jetlar]

Hi all! Wanted to say this is an awesome post .

My big question is: is it at all possible to solo as a mage or sorcerer? It seems nearly impossible to get past the early game as a spellcaster. Once past the early game, i can understand how it would get easier and how you might be able to do it. What does everyone else think?

Jetlar

[Quest Master]

Bah, this is no problem. No reloads no deaths with a bard, BAH! My no reloads, no death game with my mage that does not use weapons or spells is tough! Boy oh boy, that's one hard fight.

The trick is just to go real slow and be careful about things!

[Tiax]

Well I am a newbie here. I always went to this site but never posted.

Well about resting, it is very hard to rest at least as possible when you are soloing.
You run out of spells an abilities very fast.
In the beginning of the game it is not a problem taverns everywhere.
But when you enter the underdark, there are only 2.
One in ust'natha and one in the deepgnome village.
When you are in the beholder dungeon you need your spells, especially with xyx's patch and I don't use the schield of balduran or the cloak of mirroring.
You have to travel really far to find a tavern and that is anoying.
And fighting drow with spells doesn't work well either so you heve to rest a lot for lower resistance summons or other MR bypassing spells.

They scould have made some sort of teleport to nearest tavern and back spell. But that doesn't exist.

And Xyx, It is really a good job on the beholders.
When I first send summons in and afther tha me, beholders and gauths from other arrea's attack me.
Like they call up on eachother and lock you in (This makes it VERY hard soloing without the schield and cloak).

But what I think people roll to high for stats especially on constitution.
No one puts points on charisma when soloing because they have the ring of human influence. Try role playing it works good for increasing the difficulty and if you want to make fights really hard don't use abdim dalzims horrit wilting or project image. Simulacrium goes because it is more balanced I think.
And try not to use spells like improved acuity this spell makes every boss easy.

There are o lot more things, the point is restrict yourself more don't use all the powerfull items but the items that fit your character from a roleplaying perspective.
Things like give your character weapons witch are typicall his class, try to use the weapons on the picture of you character.

This is a really weird example but I use a "Ice Cleric/Mage" she doesn't use any fire-spells and as much as possible ice spells.
This makes the game harder because I can't use fireballs, melf's meteors, fire elementals enz.

You should try to give your character more a personallity.

[hag]

i can dig it- i did a human MU and then dual classed to thief- picking up a ton of xp but... i maxed out too quick - i had a 15 MU - 8th level spells was my MU`s goal and then i stopped at 8000000
xp for the thief- i hadnt even gotten halfway through ToB. kinda dissapointed but solo adventure - pick up NPCs do their lil side adventures and dump em - strategy strategy but for me - i did a lot of reloads - died a lot- your purist additude is admirable I`d say