Beat it solo! (finally)

lunarwater · Post by **lunarwater** » Tue May 06, 2003 7:58 am

Played a pure fighter. Very challenging playing solo. My worst experiences always had to do with Hold or Blasphemy spells. My favorite experiences was getting the Cloud Kiss Throwing Axe and little slippers towards the end of game (+5 dex). By the end I was level 25. Most of the feats are obtainable if you don't specialize in all of the weapon styles.

Solo spoilers....

(Notes that help solo)
I was in fighting all of the Efreeti in the Dragons mouth and the cloud kiss axe can hit all 10 of them at one time if you stand on the bridge. It was great watching that battle go as quick as it did.

(Last battle)
Fighting Madae & Isaer was tough too, but similar tactic worked. I tried nearly every weapon I'd lugged through the game and wasn't having much luck. Then tried the Cloud Kiss again and it hurts them (with a bonus). There is another throwing axe (+5 with Lightning Dmg) that works too. Once they are alone (and no summoned guys are there), you can easily outrun them and throw the axe at em.

(Village With Drow Merchant)
Purchase the Wanderer Boots & Cloak. These help a lot when fighting giant mobs. You can easily outrun the mobs with boots of speed, hide.. seek and destroy wizards, etc... early on in the game. Purchase the mace that has fire damage too.

(Trees in the Forest)
By this time, there was two maces that you could have recieved, one drop one bought, that have fire damage. Watch those trees burn.. It works wonders.

(Druids at the Dam)
They light casting a lot of entangle, etc... Go back to town and buy a couple freedom potions. Let them cast entangle, get the animals stuck, and then go kill the druids. Hopefully you can get behind the druids and the animals will get blocked up on the bridge.

(Ogres encamped in fort after exiting dragons mouth)
Use invis potion, talk and get them to attack, sneak into fort and get right up next to mage (their leader) on the platform. There in only one orc at a time can enter the platform so this make it much easier.

(Half Dragon Outside Ice Palace)
Go to the wizard that you saved, have him buff you up (you must pay $$$), and get the circle of fire around your char. Then go up to the half dragon (before your char gets fear). And take out heavy armor etc.. from your bag of holding. This will encumber your character and not have them run around like an idiot. The dragon will hit you, yes, but it will damage him far faster than it did me.

Dex · Post by **Dex** » Tue May 06, 2003 12:36 pm

solo fighter

I guess I will need to try a solo fighter again.

I got stuck early in the game when I could not win a battle. I was facing several boars, big cats and magic users at the dam. They casted entangle and it took me 5 or 6 tries to win the battle. Then just up the road I was going to face the same number of bad guys again. I decided I could not do it.

Lunarwater,
What were your stats at the beginning of the game? What race did you play?

Patrick · Post by **Patrick** » Wed May 07, 2003 2:31 am

Wow. Lunarwater that is very impressive, congradulations. How about importing your charactor for a Heart of fury adventure. I think max level is 40?

I'll make Targos mine,
but you'll get your share.

lunarwater · Post by **lunarwater** » Wed May 07, 2003 7:24 am

I played a Human Fighter. Starting stats of

STR 17
DEX 16
CON 15
INT 10 ?
WIS 9
CHA 9

As I leveled, brought CON & DEX up by 1 and then pumped the rest into strength. If I had to do it over again I would have put a point or two into WIS because my saving throw was really bad. Unfortunately of all the items in the game, there isn't much to improve your WIS score (for a fighter).

Heart of Fury, how do I turn that on? Is that just a difficulty setting?

Krysalyn · Post by **Krysalyn** » Wed May 07, 2003 8:52 am

Originally posted by lunarwater
I played a Human Fighter. Starting stats of

STR 17
DEX 16
CON 15
INT 10 ?
WIS 9
CHA 9

As I leveled, brought CON & DEX up by 1 and then pumped the rest into strength. If I had to do it over again I would have put a point or two into WIS because my saving throw was really bad. Unfortunately of all the items in the game, there isn't much to improve your WIS score (for a fighter).

Heart of Fury, how do I turn that on? Is that just a difficulty setting?

wow, solo without powergaming (min/maxing stats)... impressive.

how many times did you die?

did you have any trouble with any of the dialog due to low skill pts?

what feats did you choose along the way?

final equipment?

lonely wolf · Post by **lonely wolf** » Wed May 07, 2003 9:36 am

Originally posted by lunarwater
I played a Human Fighter. Starting stats of

STR 17
DEX 16
CON 15
INT 10 ?
WIS 9
CHA 9

As I leveled, brought CON & DEX up by 1 and then pumped the rest into strength. If I had to do it over again I would have put a point or two into WIS because my saving throw was really bad. Unfortunately of all the items in the game, there isn't much to improve your WIS score (for a fighter).

Heart of Fury, how do I turn that on? Is that just a difficulty setting?

how did you manage with this low wisdom? it IS very bad... and why didn't you put some points in int? it would've helped you in your skills...

lunarwater · Post by **lunarwater** » Wed May 07, 2003 12:19 pm

I'll have to check this evening about final Items / Gear and feats.. I finished the game with 4 potion bags (full), 2 bags of holding (full), 3 gem bags with rings of various abilities, and then a couple scroll cases. I had relatively good stats towards end of game with all my equipment on. I was a packmule too, so i would hang onto most equipement that looked like I could use it later on. Since I had no casting abilities, I compensated this by using these miscellanious items to prepare for battle. (i.e. Fire Resist Ring & the Cloak from the battle outside the airship makes Fire Damage next to impossible).

I invested most of my skill points in Intimidation, which helped with some dialog, but you are right. Most of the dialogs ended with them laughing at my dialog choices and then having to fight. Also, most locks (except 3 of them in the Dragon Mouth) I was able to open with a Force Lock. I put a few points in Hide skill and then purchase and found several items that can Increase this skill considerably.

The low wisdom choices can be done away with in a number of ways. First of all, you get several items early on in the game that make you immune to charm, entangle, etc.. I would keep these around for just such a battle. There are also a couple feats you can take (Not sure of name), that help our on your Will Saving Throws. Then of course, I'd keep the best arrows in the quiver an only use them on Shamons / Cleric / Druid types that would cast the hold spells. Many time a tough battle would become easy if the goofy casters were out of the picture.

One thing I learned about IWD2 is that almost every battle has a weakness that is exploitable. For instance, when you arive at Kuldahar it is plagued by Undead. Early in the game you can get an axe that causes undead to disrupt and be distroyed. I laughed as I ran around the town hitting the undead (including the minibosses) and having them fall dead at one hit. Towards the end of the game, a useful way of getting around the XVIM (not to be mistaken for GVIM.. nerd/joke) Knights and Half-dragons is to hide in shadows, position yourself in a corner, etc.. and let lower level mobs push up against you. I found that the lower mobs could hardly get hits in, so use then as a shield. Use missile weapons on the tougher mobs waiting for their turn.

How many times did I die? hehe.. Too many to count.

lunarwater · Post by **lunarwater** » Wed May 07, 2003 12:25 pm

One thing I do wish though.. Is that Arrows of Biting were more plentiful in the game. Those arrow were my favorite Mage Killers, because one arrow would poisen them, disrupt almost every spell they cast, and then kill them. Too bad I didn't get these till 1/2 way through the game, because they would have been useful early on.

Krysalyn · Post by **Krysalyn** » Wed May 07, 2003 3:53 pm

it sounds as if the best tactic to succeed with a solo melee character is hit and run tactics...

with that in mind, what are the thoughts on a build based on a rogue?

i.e. something like ranger1/barb1/fighter4/rogueX ?

(or ranger3/barb3/fighter4/rogueX with a tiefling to avoid multiclass exp penalty, but then again does the exp penalty really matter with a solo char?)

and focus on using hide and sneak attack, as well as perhaps some bow use...

the rogue would have more skill pts to distribute, and would probably be better with AC and avoiding damage... plus the high dex build would make for a great ranged attacker...

a big drawback would be toe to toe power and hit points...

lunarwater · Post by **lunarwater** » Wed May 07, 2003 6:23 pm

Hit and run for the the toughest battles yes. Many of the non-boss battles though was just a matter of finding a corner where I wouldn't get completely surrounded, pick off the casters with ranged weapons and then deal with the melee types. A quarter of the way through the game I was dual wielding and able to get quite a few hits in before being hit myself. Only after dragons mouth did I have to go back to a single weapon style with shield. They just hit too hard. Luckily at that point there are some nice throwing axes that allow the use of a shield in the other hand. There are also a couple different throwing darts that return to you.

As for a rogue, I'd say go for it. This is the first melee that I've played in a while. The previous few characters I've played with 3rd Ed Rules has been pure rogues.

My recommendation would be to play halfling rogue. They get benefits to throwing darts, etc.. Early in the game you get the ice throwing dart (by the end of the game I had found 3 of em). Rapid shot feet, Up close shot, sneak attack, & hide in shadows make for a lot of fun. It is a different fighting style than melee. I usually enter battle invis. Find something to hide behind, get near it, throw dart, move behind cover, go into hiding, move to new location, repeat. High level rogues have good evasion too, and can use magic items (so all those scroll can actually help, like summon creatures). IMO its the best class. The strength problem can come into the picture, but I think IWD has some strength increasing items near the start.

Patrick · Post by **Patrick** » Thu May 08, 2003 1:45 am

Heart Of Fury is a difficulty setting beyond what is given in the regular menue. It is pretty tough

lunarwater · Post by **lunarwater** » Thu May 08, 2003 7:32 am

I don't think I can handle HOF as my solo character if it is so tough. Thats asking for a bumkicking.

Has anyone tried playing the game with a Half-orc Wizard and Halfling Fighter for laughs?

lonely wolf · Post by **lonely wolf** » Thu May 08, 2003 12:35 pm

Originally posted by lunarwater
I don't think I can handle HOF as my solo character if it is so tough. Thats asking for a bumkicking.

Has anyone tried playing the game with a Half-orc Wizard and Halfling Fighter for laughs?

I didn't, but it WOULD be a real great laugh to play with a wizard that talks like this: "I cast spell in you, you can not hurt I..." LOL...

Nippy · Post by **Nippy** » Tue May 20, 2003 5:28 am

Originally posted by lonely wolf
how did you manage with this low wisdom? it IS very bad... and why didn't you put some points in int? it would've helped you in your skills...

Intelligence is the ability used to determine the skills you get.

lunarwater · Post by **lunarwater** » Tue May 20, 2003 7:24 am

The # of skill points per level. I got 2 per level to distribute (however, almost every skill except intimidate took 2 point to raise).

lonely wolf · Post by **lonely wolf** » Wed May 21, 2003 8:52 am

Originally posted by Nippy
Intelligence is the ability used to determine the skills you get.

I know that!!!

lunarwater · Post by **lunarwater** » Wed May 21, 2003 11:34 am

Wow... made it to page 2! I'd like to thank my wife, my dog charlie.. and all of you gamers that made this happen..

Stilgar · Post by **Stilgar** » Wed May 21, 2003 11:57 am

Originally posted by lunarwater
Wow... made it to page 2! I'd like to thank my wife, my dog charlie.. and all of you gamers that made this happen..

Page2? If you mean a thread with 2 pages, you have to spam some more, cause my settings say 40posts per page.
But you're almost at 1/2, so keep up the good work