soloing tips.... (this may contain spoilers!!!!)

[fugitive]

for starters: since most people who solo have already finished the game, i think that it is easiest to say for this whole topic that it MAY AND WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS!!!!
so for your own enjoyment please dont read it until you have finished the game.
when i looked through the forum a couple of weeks ago i noticed that no posts really tell you what the best characters are to solo with. since i recently started doing it for the first time after completing the game a few times with different classes, i wanted to know what some of the more (or less!!) players think to be the best and easiest (or hardest for the players who like a challenge) or most enjoyable solo characters and why. the reason being i put up a post now is that i havent found any posts that are dedicated solely to just soloing. starting a new one however, will hopefully clear things up for people who dont know what character/charactertype to pick for their first time (or for another run through but just short of ideas...).
if you could also post a few tips alongside it (like what weapons your character wields and what stats he/she has or any other information that you find important to be included, please do so). to make a little start, ill include myself:
barbarian, half-orc (experience cap removed, TDD installed )
strenght 19
dexterity 18
constitution 19
intelligence 12
wisdom 8
charisma 18

(i know, not the smartest guy around but thats okay)
he dual wields belm + 2 and the flail +4 (+5 or something against elves i think) that you can find in purskal (TDD) inside the tombs of the undead.
i rely a lot for the tougher fights on vhailors helm that i bought (maybe the best piece of equipment for soloing, since in theory, a 60% copy of you should make the game 60% easier right? ). also i have daystar and baldurs sword. not to forget ring of gaxx.
he is really good and does just about every battle without even getting hurt. i cant even remember the last time i had to reload.... the game might get boring soon so maybe ill have to change it in a way so it stays more challenging. oh well...
i used the gamebanshee site for baldurs gate to decide on which character i wanted to solo with (check the barbarian part: thats where i got most of my ideas from!!!)

please please give us your ideas and opinions because nothing is more irritating than being halfway in a game and discovering that the character that you are playing is not the character that you would have thought of it to be. i did once a half-orc thief/cleric and halfway through is just got sick of it because he wasnt able to hit anything. and that sux!!!!

thank you very much to everyone who contributes to this topic. you are a great help to me and im sure also to a lot of people who want to solo but dont know what and who to pick. thanx

(sigh, glad im done typing that one )

[Silvanerian]

The character I found it easiest to solo with is the Inqusitor.

He's great in melee and can have ranged attacks also. For me, the fact that he couldn't get beyond specialized wasn't a problem.
The +1 THAC0, +1 damage and -2 to speedfactor didn't seemed to be missed much when he already had a THAC0 of -15 or so, doing 20-30 damage a hit and with a speedfactor of 0.

The reason I think this character is the easiest to solo with is because he fights just as well as a any fighter, and most importantly he have great extra abilities.

At level 10 he's able to dispel liches almost every time, and at level 13 the dispel is a sure thing.
Some things aren't dispelled by dispel magic, and that is where true sight come in.
True sight also makes sure you don't get backstabbed by enemy thiefs.

So, all in all you have a Paladin that's able to take down any foe in regular melee combat, and if that wasn't enough, he's able to dispel the combat protections of a mage before he's able to maze you.

Equip him with either foebane and The Purifier or Carsomyr. I found the bastard sword combination better when you go into ToB and can have foebane upgraded. With it's monie drain at every succesful hit, you're able to heal yourself as you get hit.

Besides, the Paladin is better at resisting magic than a fighter. He has +2 to his saves from the start, and with a ring of protection and a another item that grants bonusses to saves, he's well below zero in all his saves.
Top that with the magic resistance the holy avengers grant and you'll fear no mage.

All in all this character was unstopable through SoA and ToB both.
He had the advantage of being powerful from the start and gained even more power all the way through the game, as opposed to a mage character that's somewhat weak at the beginning due to the fact that he has no high level spells (7 and above) for a long time.
Or the thief that can't hit anything in the start, and if do hit his foe, the backstab multiplier isn't high enough to actually finish the foe.

Is it just me or does is does the "regular" Athkatla mugger and mage have exstremly many hitpoints for they lot?
I've seen thiefs with almost 100 HP and the cowled all have 59.

Anyway, when I played the mage and the thief classes I found the game to be a lot harder in the early stages of the game, but with the paladin, he was able to deal with dragons at level 12.

Stats:
str: 18
dex: 18
con: 15 or 16
int: 15
wis: 15
cha: 17 or 18

Equipment:
Armor of the Heart
Foebane and Purifier/Carsomyr
An Ioun stone (I never use helmets)
Boots of Speed
Girdle of Bluntness
Amulet of Power (immunity to level drain is nice...no need to be an undead slayer)
Ring of Earthcontrol
Some other ring, but no Ring of Gaxx to my Paladins or Rangers.

I also found a multiclassed fighter/mage to be very powerful.

If you want a challenge I don't recommend the Inquisitor. Go for a single classed character (no duals or multies) and choose one that doesn't have great extra abilities.

-Sylvanerian

[Curdis]

turnipboy,

You didn't look too hard. There are threads on soloing just about EVERY class. And alot of the nitty gritty you appear to be seeking was on 'the Speed Solo challenge'.

For a solo character the best choice is definately a F/M/T. The level up business doesn't really matter because your character is getting all the exps. And they can do anything (except cleric spells) and use anything (just about and once the special ability kicks in).

I get the most enjoyment soloing theif characters because you can literally sneek your way to the end (and fight almost no one ). Or you can brutally backstab anyone you don't like. - Curdis - czfn fglks

[ 01-22-2002: Message edited by: Curdis ]

[Sojourner]

Maybe we should re-do the speed solo challenge - there are enough new people here. Here are some soloing links:

No deaths, no reloads - Two's famous thread about soloing a Skald

Tales of Stormreed the solo archer

Speed Soloing

[ 01-22-2002: Message edited by: Sojourner ]

[Silvanerian]

I did the SoA with a paladin in 10 days. And it was no fun at all.
It's a while ago though, but I think I only did some incity quests - the boots of speed after the slavers, some liches and that's about it.
The trick is to get healed at temples and know when the game automatically rests the party.
The whole Underdark can also be done in a couple of hours in you go straight for the eggs. And if you're into cheese, then save the cloak of the sewers and use the exploit of recharging it using the bag of holding.

In my opinion, the speed quest takes out the charm of the game.

-Sylvanerian

[Curdis]

@Sylvanerian,

I agree, except of course if you have fun doing it. The main fun for me with the speed solo challange was all the new stuff we discovered by trying a new approach. And if you want to know where all the auto sleep spots etc. are there are now plenty of people who know!

With a paladin and cheese is an achievement but try it sneaking as a thief and it gets to be fun again. - Curdis

Whoa Sojurner I just checked out the links - memories or what!

Solo Ethics (with weasel)

It is really strange seeing lower user numbers (than mine) what ever happened to Rail, Xandax and the inimiatable Nighthawk, user #69 ? I'll be reaching for the kleenex next. - Curdis doing an edit insert.

[ 01-22-2002: Message edited by: Curdis ]

[fugitive]

@ curdis
sure there is a lot of information about soloing available, however, ive been going to this website just about every day to check on posts but ive barely ever found a post that is dedicated solely to just soloing. there are a lost of posts in which a little information about it is given as a thread going off in that post (if you know what i mean), however, it is quite tiring to try and find that information and then to straighten it out again so you can use it. ive searched for at least 2 hours about hints and tips that people gave about soloing, and at the end, i had just a little information compared to the time ive been searching (you've got to admit that this whole shadows of amn collection of posts has almost grown out of hand judging it by size. not a bad thing at all, since you can find information about everything you would ever want to know about the game, however, if you want to find a very specific topic it can take ages to look for it). anyway, ive never speed soloed so as soon as im done with my current game i think ill try to do that. i will take a character that cant hide however, because i think the game will get a little boring if you just keep running away from your biggest fears and enemies . inquisitor does sound quite good, so i think ill try that (i hate it that barbarians cant wear proper mail, even though i find the barbarian rage one of the best things in the game, hence its very very short duration). so, i think that ive stated clearly enough now why i posted this . thank you for your time .

[Sojourner]

Originally posted by Curdis:
<STRONG>Whoa Sojurner I just checked out the links - memories or what!

It is really strange seeing lower user numbers (than mine) what ever happened to Rail, Xandax and the inimiatable Nighthawk, user #69 </STRONG>

I also had a link to Kitka's saga of a solo cleric, but her site has vanished. I joined this forum after the old BG Dungeon Tavern shut down. Talk about memories! There were some really good solo adventures posted there, to include Kitka's and Bob the Jester.

[Curdis]

@Sojourner, I must have missed (or forgotten about, Fable) the Kitka cleric stuff because this thread inspired me to take a break from my Wild Mage party and start a Solo Evil Cleric, partly because I couldn't remember anyone doing a straight cleric and with the evil turn being such a pain it would be a new level of challenge! - Memories - Curdis