No deaths, no reloads

[ReignsOfPower]

Indeed!

[ 06-13-2001: Message edited by: ReignsOfPower ]

[KensaiRyu]

This thread makes me want to quit editing and get back to actually playing the game (something I have not done in a month except to bug test) except for this :

:::Maveru is standing behind KensaiRyu holding snake head whip
:::Snaps whip at KensaiRyu
:::Manveru says,"Get back to work on the expansion, NOW!"

he he

[two]

Originally posted by Nighthawk:
<STRONG>I'll be interested to see how far you make it Two. It could be doable, but starting over the first time I got hit by a maze or imprison doesn't sound like much fun...

If you have summoned creatures, do mazes still instakill? I guess you can try to get them hit instead. Clearly summoning is the way to go if you're trying to make it without dying.

Also, most of the fights where you can get instakilled are ones you can avoid (Dragons, Beholders, Lich in underdark). Use of Protection from Undead should make Bohdi and her kin easy.

I'm sure if the game can be soloed in under 10 days without leveling up it can be soloed without dying.</STRONG>

Actually YES, the answer is if an enemy mage is faced with 3 skeleton warriors at point blank range, and one character (me) sitting back in the distance, the mage will attempt to maze the skeletons first. Same with Liches, Beholders.

Thus, as you said, the solution is summoned beasties to throw into the front line. If they happen to not kill the mazing/imprisoning monster themselves, they buy you enough time to do it yourself.

I don't see dragons as being insta-kill. THey don't cast maze/imprisonment...at least they never did to me before. They always kill by reducing HP's, to zero. I expect to be able to kill the black/red dragons without too much trouble using summoned monsters, a mordekainen's scroll or two, etc. If my HP's get low my contingency Tensor's goes off letting me fight more/run away. By this point I'm level 23+ so I better be able to handle a dragon or two!

Actually yes, I'm pretty sure I could go the whole way with not dying, but the point of this particular solo is preparation for TOB. I will stop my solo when I hit level 23, wait for TOB, install TOB, then continue on gaining levels. By the time I finish JonI and hit the new dungeons I will be level 26-27 I think/hope.

Oh, I'm also collecting, on a table in the copper coronet, a bunch of "useless crap" like the helm of baldurun, Dwarven Thrower, etc. The FIRST special ability my Bard will get from TOB is definately "use any item." Way cool, way good, way powerful. Makes those paladin/fighter-only weapons so collectable! Not to mention druid/mage staffs, and goofy NPC-only things like that +5 2handed sword (anti-paladin only). Sigh, I'll have to get proficiency in 2 handed sword now, if only for the +50% magic resistance. But I can't wait to use helmets, use shields, any/everything...should be fun. Bards rule.

[two]

Originally posted by ReignsOfPower:
<STRONG>Two, let me put it this way, how exactly are you going to beat a bunch of Pit Fiends, a Green Dragon (Suldunessalar), Irenicus or even a bunch or Iron Golems? Being alone without a party is one of the most unwise things you can do! Besides, how boring would the game bee with Minsc's battle cries?!!
Sure you gain all the experience for yourself, but so? A meduim level party of 6 is much more powerful than a single ultra powerful main character.
Compare the fight with Sarevok and then compare the fight with Irenicus. I beleive Sarevok was alot harder because he had a quite strong party. Irenicus may have been a level 30 mage, but he fell down alot quicker than Sarevok. </STRONG>

You may be right that a medium-level party is probably more powerful than a soloist, but so what? I'm not playing to maximize my party's power, obviously.

Lots of people have finished the game solo, it's not that difficult. Give almost any character the robe of reflection (makes enemy spells useless) and CromF and a smattering of improved haste, and you are dishing out 100+ hp's of damage a round and always hitting. I know from experience that a stone-skinned Bard can be surrounded by JonI's pit fiends and kill them all in melee without getting hurt much, if at all. If you use tensor's transformation, it's just overkill at that point.


As everyone realizes JonI is totally weak if you are wearing the robe of reflection. He never casts Maze/Imprisonment on me, just damage-producing spells...strange. No matter what party configuration I had, solo or not, JonI just wasn't that tough.

Iron Golems, Green Dragons...two words...Crom F. You've got it at that point, might as well use it!

[two]

OK my Skald's journey continues:

I installed TOB! Worked fine on my Windows NT. As I said befoe, I stopped playing SOA when my Skald hit level 23, which was in the temple ruins. After TOB installed I kept going through the ruins. The Shadow Dragon fell after the following strategy:

Cast 5 skull traps in an odd locations.
Cast 4 skeleton warriors.
Send warriors to attack SD while I cast Peirce Magic #1.
Warriors getting destroyed while I cast Peirce Magic #2.
After being buffeted away, we all attack again and I get Peirce Magic #3 in.
I sang my bard song until the skeletons were destroyed, then led the SD to my skull trap nest. It walked right into them, they exploded, and end of dragon.

After levelling up my first special ability was -- duh! USE ANY ITEM. Enough said.

I ran back to the slums. After lots of running around buying and selling stuff, I ended up with the following equipment:

The scarlet ninja-to off hand. It's +3, gives an extra attack, and does poisen damage occasionally. Much better than Belm or Kundane for the +1 attack. Makes me put away DZ blade, who needs those extra spells now?

Robe of Vecna. Sure my AC is only 5 but I can insta-cast skull trap now. Also this robe does not have a problem with X of protection.

Helm of Balduran. Killer head protection, helps thatco and ac AND saving throws. Can't be beat!

I then did trademeet, my next big quest after the shadow dragon. I stole Cernd's cloak (+1 ac, +1 saving throw) after guzzling a potion of wisdom. It is better than the cloak of sewers which gives no bonus to saving throws. I'm still paranoid about saving throws, but I'm ok now. +1 helm of balduran, +1 Cerd's cloak, +2 gaax, +1 earth control, +1 amulet of protection (after Firekraag). That's low, cast a few BLUR spells and all saves are safely negative.

About BLUR by the way: great spell. Still stacks post-TOB. Must be meant to stack. This effectively makes the robe of vecna great, because low AC is trivially easy. Before any big battle I cast 3-4 blur's, get my AC to -15 or better, and saving throws way negative. The only 2nd level spells I have are BLUR and one Mirror Image. Together, plus Stoneskin, you are a melee monster.

BAD NEWS. Playing SOA after installing TOB is boring and too easy. Even if u never reload. I was just flying up the levels. 5 skeleton warriors, improved with bard song, can take out many nasties. After I did all of trademeet I was about level 27 or so. I took time trap, spike trap, went back to the promenade and took the simulacrum helm. I did the "staff of magi" quest using simulacrum+spell of magic resistance. Also used the time trap for fun. It's a poor man's time stop, works about 75% as long and is very powerful. You can get multiple uses of this per day if you keep selecting it.

Still no deaths, no reloads. I can't see dying in SOA at all, at level 27+ and some defensive spell casting, I'm pretty much untouchable. When I got the staff of magi, I generally do the following: sleep. Wake. Equip staff. Cast the defensive spell absorption spell from the staff. Re-equip with typical weapons. Now I've got 8 hours of 30 spell level protections. Nice.

I did Firekrag's dungeon. The vampires were still tricky! Ate up skeleton warriors no problem. I did some daystar sunbursting, retreating, etc. got them finally. Rest of the dungeon very easy, gained more levels, took some evasion special abilities. Got to Firekraag, he went down from the same strategy as the shadow dragon. Since my bard can wear all the anti-fire stuff now, my resistance for this encounter was over 100%.

Got Carsymor. I can use it but it's not the best weapon for me. 50% magic resistance is not worth having only 1 attack a round. I stash it in the coronet with all the other junk I've collected.

Planar sphere next, fairly easy. Lots of levels gained. Gaining levels is actually BORING. You thatco does NOT get better. You gain about 1 spell every 3 levels. The special abilities are boring too, there are only about 5 good ones, the rest are useless (magic flute? create potions? c'mon!). I am getting bored.

Level 30 finishing up the sphere. I really really want to just go to watcher's keep but need to wait for CromF. I'll race through the underdark.

Well, SOA is very easy after TOB removes the ex cap. If I had a party of 3-4 people, they would all be like, level 20 or 21 by now, doing some serious whupping. Basically TOB messes up the power curve of SOA. Soloing is very easy. Small parties will be the most powerful I think. Large parties even will get a few levels above their normal xp max.

I can't say what Watcher's Keep will bring, I'll know more in a few days/weeks after the underdark is complete. I'm just a little concerned, though. I'm going to be level 39 or 40 by the time I start it. Is this too powerful? Or is the keep THAT seriously gnarly? I hope it is, I really do.

Oh, by the way - a serious discovery here. Remember that patzer, Haer ' dalis? Whatever his name is the blade? Most people don't use him much. Well, I don't either. But -- STEAL HIS SHORT SWORD FROM HIM! I mean the one that drains dexterity. Why? The dexterity drain works THROUGH Stoneskin and THROUGH magic resistance and there is no save. I have tested this thoroughly and it really does work this way (I simulacrumed myself, had simulacrum attack me after being spelled up, did some attacks on various enemies, etc.). This is the perfect mage/dragon killer. Put Ninja-to off-hand, Chaos blade main hand. Cast improved haste. 4 attacks/round with Chaos blade. That's 8 points of dexterity drained per round. In 2 rounds the mage is dead, maybe 3 if you miss some or he's got 18 dex. This is because if any creature is drained below zero in any stat it's dead presto.

I use Chaos blade for the really tough fights against spell casters. Otherwise it's Flail of Ages or CFury.

Well, more later maybe if I'm inspired!

[two]

Sorry forgot to mention:

Rogues can wear Corthala's family armor. Big deal, right? AC 2? Well --

YOU CAN CAST SPELLS WHILE WEARING IT.

You need dex. 18 I think to put it on, but that is easy enough to get.

This is excellent armor, 25% resistance to elements, innate BLESS.

Rogues. Just do it.

A poor man's bladesinger.

[Tharan]

I hate you two. Now I am going to have to play with a bard. Sigh, damn you and your enthralling tales of bards.

[two]

Originally posted by Tharan:
<STRONG>I hate you two. Now I am going to have to play with a bard. Sigh, damn you and your enthralling tales of bards. </STRONG>

Er...sorry..I guess.

Well, I hit level 35 or so in spellhold! I stopped trying to maximize xp's at this point, it is obvious I will be level 39-40 after finishing off Bodhi no matter what I do.

By the way, the difference between a Bard level 25 and a Bard level 40 is almost invisible. It consists of a few spells, like 4! (and 3 of them are levels 1-3!), and more special abilities. But that's it. A well-equipped level 25 Bard beats a poorly equipped level 40 Bard any day. Surprising. Who cares about a few hit points?

Killed Andolon, the Silver Dragon. I want that human skin armor for the wicked bonus it gives to saving throws. I don't care about AC as much as saving throws...

HOW TO USE TIME TRAP EFFECTIVELY:
Learned this vs the silver D. I have multiple uses of time trap. 5 to be exact. I went close but not THAT close to the SD, and set 5 traps. Then I cast 5 skeleton warriors, and "attacked" one making it red. This immediatly triggered the "time stop" of the first trap, during which I ran over 10 feet, got the dragon in view, and started casting pierce magics, magic missles, etc. As soon as one time trap ended, the skeleton warrior triggered the next, with just a fraction of a second in between. You can thus sequence 5-10 time traps in a row. If I was a power gamer I would have taken more time traps, like 10. I don't think ANYTHING can withstand 15 free rounds of hacking! I think one time trap is about a round and three quarters or something like that.

Anyway, all the pierce magics hit, and then since skull trap didn't do squat I tensor's, attacked with all the skeletons, and threw melf's. Yes, melf's meteors. Works great. The skeletons lasted FOREVER. Two were left at the end of the fight. I finished her off with the Flail-o-ages. No damage, but sort of fun to figure out the strategy.

Yes, time trap(s) + skeleton warrior : a thief's way to get sequenced Time Stops!

I'm sure some baddies in TOB will be immune to time stops, so that will be fun.

I'm just racing through the underdark, I simply want to make Crom F and go to the Watcher's Keep. Something new..unknown...yes. That will be fun.

Later.

[Gawayn]

Dang, I thought I was the only one that knew about the summoned/time trap thing.

I used it once, but then my stomach retched because it is too cheesy

And yes, you never even notice a bard leveling. I had Haer'dalis in my party, and he was level 30 something while the rest were still in the mid 20's.

I was just wondering though, how often do you rest?


G

[two]

Originally posted by Gawayn:
<STRONG>Dang, I thought I was the only one that knew about the summoned/time trap thing.

I used it once, but then my stomach retched because it is too cheesy

And yes, you never even notice a bard leveling. I had Haer'dalis in my party, and he was level 30 something while the rest were still in the mid 20's.

I was just wondering though, how often do you rest?

G</STRONG>

I rest fairly often. Now, what I usually do, is get "spelled up" with blur, mirror image, some defenseive spell like spell trap via Staff of Magi, and improved haste. I then run around and kill as much as I can quickly, usually rather a lot. I cast a few more imp. haste's until they are done, then rest.

Basically, since I am soloing, have not died, have never reloaded, I'm not feeling bad about resting as often as I want.

Also -- it's better "role playing" to rest often, right? I mean, if you were REALLY standing outside a room full of baddies, would you wade inside when injured, spells half-wasted, equipment dishevelled? Or instead find a quiet corner, cast imp. invis. and rest to complete health? The latter, certainly. All in the name of good role-playing.

Yes, the summoned monster-time trap strategy is slightly...I don't know. Cheesy? However that seems to be how it is implemented, they could have had all the time traps go off at once (if there was a pile of 5 in one spot). Instead they sequenced them. Go figure. I won't resort to this, however, unless I hit some baddie that such a baddie CromF can't handle him. I didn't have Crom yet for the silver d.

[RA]

You know I am doing the same, get my bard up to 2950000XP and continue the game.
But I played also trough BG1.
My stats:
19 strenght
20 dexterity (Changed the tome of con to dex to be better with missiles)
18 constitution
19 intelligence
13 wisdom
16 charisma.

He is just great, Because I have Imported him from BG1. SO I don't have any penalties
he has a lore of 112 135% pickpockets.
Great thac0. He is just so good.

But when you solo a character you get to learn the class of your character better.
Because you learn to explore every option avaliable to survive (especially in BG1).

But I am still thinking, shall I take Two handed swords or dual wield?

With two handed swords I can quikly change to longbow (there is one in ToB with is really good I think: Taralash +5 and +2 to movement rate). I like to shoot first and then go melee.

Or short swords (short sword of mask is really good) and that scarlet ninja to.

[ 07-02-2001: Message edited by: RA ]

[two]

Originally posted by RA:
<STRONG>You know I am doing the same, get my bard up to 2950000XP and continue the game.
But I played also trough BG1.
My stats:
19 strenght
20 dexterity (Changed the tome of con to dex to be better with missiles)
18 constitution
19 intelligence
13 wisdom
16 charisma.

He is just great, Because I have Imported him from BG1. SO I don't have any penalties
he has a lore of 112 135% pickpockets.
Great thac0. He is just so good.

But when you solo a character you get to learn the class of your character better.
Because you learn to explore every option avaliable to survive (especially in BG1).

But I am still thinking, shall I take Two handed swords or dual wield?

With two handed swords I can quikly change to longbow (there is one in ToB with is really good I think: Taralash +5 and +2 to movement rate). I like to shoot first and then go melee.

Or short swords (short sword of mask is really good) and that scarlet ninja to.

[ 07-02-2001: Message edited by: RA ]</STRONG>

Wow killer stats. I can't touch that.

The questions of 2-handed sword or dual-wield is easy. You HAVE to dual wield. Attacking with ONE attack a round with a 2handed sword is pointless. The combination of scarlet ninja-to plus ANY decent 1 handed weapon is superior. Especially if you choose Daystar (longswords), CFury (katana), eventually CromF (war hammer) or flail of ages (flail). At your level you won't miss very often, and with the extra attacks you more than make up for deficiencies in thatco.

Short swords are OK if you use HD's sword of chaos I guess, but I would prefer flails or katana. Unless you are choosing short swords for role-playing purposes, go with longswords or katana or flail.

Anyway, use Tensor's to get a truly sick thatco, then you can hit dual-wield vs. even dragons no problem.

Range weapons? I don't bother. I just send in skeleton warriors or cast magic missles. I am permenantly dual-wielding. Or even skull trapping while the skeleton warriors are attacking, they are resistant most of the time.

My two cents....

[WAYNEO]

Originally posted by Gawayn:
<STRONG>Dang, I thought I was the only one that knew about the summoned/time trap thing.

I used it once, but then my stomach retched because it is too cheesy

And yes, you never even notice a bard leveling. I had Haer'dalis in my party, and he was level 30 something while the rest were still in the mid 20's.

I was just wondering though, how often do you rest?


G</STRONG>

This time trap thing sounds really cool. Would work on any dragon. Do you have to be a bard to use it?

[two]

Originally posted by WAYNEO:
<STRONG>This time trap thing sounds really cool. Would work on any dragon. Do you have to be a bard to use it?</STRONG>

Any rogue can get time trap. It's easiest as a Bard, however, because you can simply cast a "summon creature" spell and attack it. With a thief I assume you will have to use an item like that spider figurine to get a summoned creature to, finally, attack and make "red" and trigger the trap. Whew!

[two]

Well, I'm finally (finally) in Watcher's Keep. I got CromF, and I still maintain it's the single most natsy item in the game (so far). One thing I noticed, however: I'm always running low on money. NO matter how much I steal/collect, I always spend it very quickly. I didn't buy the short sword of entaglement from the Helm guys; I'm sticking with Scarlet+CF. For now.

First LEVEL: Easy. NO problems improved haste+Crom could not fix. WOW so many easy magic items! All over the frickin place! And NONE are useful/better than what I've already got. I throw them into the bag. The little ritual was easy after Umar Hills taught us how to collect notes and put 2+2 together.

Second LEVEL: Little tricky. Almost got killed in the air elemental room when I kept falling asleep. Figured out, finally, that this sleep went through saves, magic R, spell traps, etc. I ran into the corridor and smacked them. I'm gathering up all the notes and papers like crazy. Got the lovely acid head for the flail. Did the open doors thing, acid ate cold, cold froze heat. Then released the demon, he was a pain. But since I suspected he was going to attack me, I had laid down 2 time traps, giving me some free hits. I was just doing 2-3 damage per Crom. I improved hasted, and did more damage when it transformed. Almost ran out of stoneskin spells. Finally whacked it after drinking a healing potion! Wow I have not taken damage like that in years! But its dead now.

Level three for later, after I do "real" work.