Solo Bard... Yes I'm committing suicide!

Jared4224 · Post by **Jared4224** » Sun Jul 31, 2011 4:30 am

Hello Fellow Gamers!
Whenever I have played Baldur's Gate 1 or 2 I have always liked playing the bard. However, this is becuase Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 is VERY Arcane friendly. I have even soloed mages & bards through both of them. Now...
Icewind Dale is... fun. Its different, becuase instead of walking about city areas doing quests, you are fighting about 30 orcs & a bloody ogre in you second fight. Barring even that, The first shop that sells mage scrolls is in Kuldahar, & you have to fight about 100 goblins to get their. If I make it, Kuldahar will be the promised land, why? 2 words, Pick Pocket. You can get 2 Rings of free action, necklace of missiles, & some other magical treasure... Sell it back & your set on money. Now this is as far as I've gotten in my planning : In my actually playing i got to the goblins in Easthaven before dying...

So anyway! My real question is : I want to solo a Bard : Do I have a chance?
If I don't then stop reading, If you think I may then please give me ANY advice or knowledge you can! Thank You

Crenshinibon · Post by **Crenshinibon** » Sun Jul 31, 2011 8:45 am

Yes, you do. I was able to solo mine through the original campaign as well as the two expansions. I didn't play her the same way I would in BG and utilized a hit and run style with bows at first. After certain spells and items, I almost fully transitioned to melee.

It's especially fun with HoW where you get a level 30 cap, new spells, new items and of course new bard songs. Now that I think about it, I'm well overdue for another IWD solo.

Jared4224 · Post by **Jared4224** » Sun Jul 31, 2011 12:13 pm

Crehshinibon : Thank you, you've given me a bit more hope! I have rolled up a bard & have the following stats
Str : 10

Dex : 18

Con : 9

Int : 18

Wis : 18

Cha : 18

Half - Elf
* in Large Swords (Scimitars) :mischief:
* in Dagger (Throwing Daggers) :mischief:

Pretty good I would say... Yes I know i have terrible str & con,

but I think there are some strength enhancing items out there... Could someone give me a hint ( not a spoiler) about where I may find a strength enhancing item? Also, should I try to play the game like a fighter, a mage, or both? When is it good to use either?
Thanks again for your help!

Crenshinibon · Post by **Crenshinibon** » Sun Jul 31, 2011 7:49 pm

That's a good roll, though I would have put more points into strength and constitution, as you said.

In some fights, getting hit is unavoidable, and other time you might need to "brute force" some very damaging traps. Wisdom doesn't help you at all, unless I missed a key opportunity. Not having a high strength is really going to hurt due to having a high THAC0, so you will spend more time kiting, and occasionally getting caught when the enemies catch on to you.

You are indeed correct in remembering that there are a few strength-enhancing items scattered about, however, none of them appear to be usable by a bard. Your best bet is to rely on your level two Strength spell, which will increase your score by anywhere between one and six.

You should play the game however you want - and adapt to the situation at hand. Early game I played as an archer, against crowds of enemies I played as a mage with area of effect spells, against strong and durable opponents I would play as a fighter. Whatever your style, your spells play a key role in anything you do - they will protect you, get you out of sticky situations and give you an offensive edge.

kmonster · Post by **kmonster** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 6:49 am

I recommend restarting with a new character. Bards cannot wear the items which set strength to a high value and the strength spell only adds 1-6 for some time and the other level 2 spells are extremely useful.
You'll suffer from the low carrying capacity and physical combat power which will slow down your game a lot.
I'd definitely take 18 str.

16 instead of 9 con would yield 18 valuable extra hitpoints, I'd even take 17 con since there's a slight chance to find a potion which trades 1 con for 1 str.

The 18 points spent for wisdom are totally wasted. Lore is the only thing affected by wisdom and even with only 3 wisdom your bard would be able to identify everything you find directly even before chapter 1 starts.

18 charisma is unnecessary, the 15 class minimum is sufficient for getting all charisma based dialogue options and getting the 20 cha needed for optimal shop prices with the +5 cha from "friends" spell.

Start with bow proficiency, with a composite long bow you can shoot twice per round for 3-8 damage each. I'd also start with a melee weapon which does more than 1-8 damage, morningstar or greatsword, you can take longsword proficiency later.

Q: Do you have HoW installed ?

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 10:07 am

If you don't mind using shadow keeper, which you can find here, you can redistribute your attributes quite easily, and I wouldn't consider that cheating personally.

I'd suggest:

Str 18
Int 16
wis 9
Dex 17
Con 16
Cha 15

There are tomes available in BG1 that increase each attribute by one, and if you have Tales of the Sword Coast installed there are actually three tomes that increase wisdo by 1. With the Bone Hill mod there is also an extra tome that increases intelligence by one. So with the two extra extension and mod you should end BG 1 with

Str 19
Int 18
Wis 12
Dex 18
Con 17
Cha 16

There's cloaks available that add 2 points of charisma, so with the friends spell you can buff to 24 charisma; and there's a ring of human influence which gives you a base of 18 charisma whilst wearing it that you can find very early.

PS I recall there is another reason for reasonable wisdom I didn't see mentioned, maybe I missed it, and that's when casting limited wish spells. Or is it only the 9th level wish spell that wisdom effects?

Jared4224 · Post by **Jared4224** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 10:30 am

Crenshinibon : Thank you for your advice on battle.

kmonster : You may have a point, I suppose I will make do with 10 Wisdom... Also, I DO seem to remember their being a potion in the Dragons Eye that switched some stats around... How big a chance is it to appear? Also, I like having 18 charisma, Power Playing be damned, I'm a bard. I would much rather have good manners then swing a two handed sword

Galraen : ....

I think your talking about BG1, I was asking for Icewind Dale...

Stworca · Post by **Stworca** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 11:29 am

Well, there is "Dale keeper" for Icewind Dale.
Gatekeeper for BG1
Shadow for BG2

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 2:13 pm

Jared4224 wrote: Galraen : ....
I think your talking about BG1, I was asking for Icewind Dale...

Apologies, I missed that tiny detail due to only reading your second post!

Dale Keeper as Stworca pointed out will accomplish the same thing, but without the tomes being available, the only thing I'd change is having int of 13 and Charisma of 18, and I wouldn't do that, but you are adamant about being a pretty boy!

kmonster · Post by **kmonster** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 4:23 pm

Jared4224 wrote:kmonster : You may have a point, I suppose I will make do with 10 Wisdom... Also, I DO seem to remember their being a potion in the Dragons Eye that switched some stats around... How big a chance is it to appear? Also, I like having 18 charisma, Power Playing be damned, I'm a bard. I would much rather have good manners then swing a two handed sword

There's no such potion in Dragon's Eye, the chance to get another transfer potion elsewhere is low and I doubt you'll want to drink any of those 1:1 trades. You're stuck with the stats you choose at creation for the rest of the game and low carrying capacity is really painful if you don't have other party members to carry the stuff you find.

Bards get better rolls than fighters, you can get more than 91 as stat sum, in my first game the bard had 98, 10 wis, 16 con and all other stats 18.

Crenshinibon · Post by **Crenshinibon** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 4:50 pm

Also, in case you're wondering about why kmonster suggested a constitution score of 17, it's because non-fighter characters (bard, mage, thief and certain multiclasses) don't gain bonus hitpoints after 16 constitution. I would have to say that I agree with kmonster about the Friends spell. It raises your charisma score by six and it stacks with itself, so within a few casts, you can have the maximum allowed score of 25.

Jared4224 · Post by **Jared4224** » Tue Aug 02, 2011 9:26 am

Crenshinibon : Yes, I know about the 16 constitution thing.

Kmonster : Thanks for telling me, but I have already rolled a new character with the following stats :
Str : 18
Dex : 18
Con : 9
Int : 18
Wis : 10
Cha : 18

A good roll all in all, My con DOES worry me a bit... Balls to it, I'll be fine

Galraen : A "pretty boy" can indeed go farther then a foul smelling Half - Orc

Also, I switched p my weapons a bit, I am now using 2 handed swords & Com. Bows.

I suppose I will fill you all in on my attempt as i go along...
The only mage scrolls in eatshaven are in Pomabs shop, in the upper rooms. I only get Chromatic orb & sleep as my spells. After doing all the quests in Easthaven, I was level 3, so I had little trouble with the goblin-kin outside the town. 1 sleep spell, 1 hit from my sword & they were done

The wolves outside the Orc cave were a bit hard. I had to chromatic orb 1, sleep the other 2, & even then I lost 14 hit-points! As for the orcs in the cave, I kited the first couple orcs, them when I got to the room with the orc elite I used a sleep spell on the axe wielding orcs & cut down the archers in melee. The ogre was ... problematic. I had to sleep the hole group, & then kite all the orcs. Finally the ogre was left, who was taken down by a chromatic orb. After leaving for Kuldahar pass, I relized I was in trouble. 1 hour in rl later they were all dead, but I had used up ALL my healing potions, & was left with 6 hitpoints. I was able to defeat the orc tribe in the farming house & free the boy, but after that I had to flee to Kuldahar...

Adieu · Post by **Adieu** » Sat Jul 14, 2012 4:01 am

Jared, it's a freakin bard, the jack-of-all-trades. In friggin IWD.

...Where the average halfling thief needed more hitpoints by midgame than your ascended bhaalspawn barbarian had at the end of BG2.

Your stats, except WIS and CHA (and INT on non-arcane casters, but you're a caster), must - *must* - be all 18s on all characters even in a multi-person party in this game.

And do set it to give you max hitpoints at levelup. You're not going to get very far with an average of 3.5 hp per level... now, with 8hp per level, on the other hand, and considering that IWD chars do NOT top out hp gains at levels 9 or 10 - you could be looking at 200-300 hp by endgame

Curry · Post by **Curry** » Sat Jul 14, 2012 6:18 pm

Really, you just had to necro an ancient thread? :speech: