Soloing a Blade (Spoilers for sure)

Skuld · Post by **Skuld** » Wed Jan 28, 2004 7:59 am

Aquachan: My most successful solo effort was a Berserker/Mage dualed @ 13 weilding Staff of the Magi. Normal encounters were almost easy, but the rest of the game was no harder(almost slightly easier) than with a party.

Oh and about my trip through with Haer'Dalis, when I was gettin ready to fight the shadow dragon I had just finished buffing him up with the usual tensers, improved haste and a few other things I can't remember, and halfway through preparing the rest of the party I'd noticed he'd run off and killed him all by himself. I don't know how, but I didn't complain. To this day I'm baffled by it.

Bruce Lee · Post by **Bruce Lee** » Wed Jan 28, 2004 2:08 pm

Originally posted by Aqua-chan
No cheats? Bo-ring.

Well, if you're gonna play through the entire game as a Solo, I'd have to say you might want to Dual or multi-class it. Priests can find traps, but disarming and picking locks... Well, poit.
I just like thier flexibilty. They have good constitution and can often suffice as front-line fighters, but the problem with them is they only get *one* proficiency per weapon.
I've gone through with a Priest of Talos, and am now going through with a Priest of Helm. Rarely (if ever) did I use PoT's special abilities (Lightening Bolt and Storm Shield).
PoH has the Seeking Sword ability (Considered a +4 sword), but I've used that one only three or four times. You get a True Sight every five levels, which I use ALL the time.
Weaponry is pretty basic. Flail of the Ages dualed with the Mace of Distruptionis what I did, and hardly ever hit anything. Sword and Shield style is probably best.

If you are high enough level to use the shield of balduran then you are high enough level for that quest

Zephyralien · Post by **Zephyralien** » Wed Jan 28, 2004 7:10 pm

Originally posted by Stilgar
Are there any classes that haven been soloed jet?

a cleric.. lol

Aqua-chan · Post by **Aqua-chan** » Wed Jan 28, 2004 7:41 pm

Originally posted by Zephyralien
a cleric.. lol

I almost did it. Just got annoyed with the constant reloads because of Death Traps that can't be disarmed.

Bruce Lee · Post by **Bruce Lee** » Thu Jan 29, 2004 12:04 am

Clerics have access to a great 4th level spell in death ward. Lasts a long time and protects you from death effects. Very handy.

Coot · Post by **Coot** » Thu Jan 29, 2004 3:29 am

Soloing a cleric may not be as difficult as it sounds. A cleric can buff himself up, protect himself, heal himself, lower his thac0, raise his strength, summon, detect traps...
Gee, a cleric may be the most underrated class of all!

Luis Antonio · Post by **Luis Antonio** » Thu Jan 29, 2004 5:38 am

Originally posted by Bruce Lee
If you are high enough level to use the shield of balduran then you are high enough level for that quest

Sure... but I need to kill the unseeing eye and his followers, remember that. The unseeing eye is an improved Hive Mother, and her spells will not be reflected by the shield.

Soloing a cleric may not be as difficult as it sounds. A cleric can buff himself up, protect himself, heal himself, lower his thac0, raise his strength, summon, detect traps...

That's why I'd not choose to be a solo Cleric - he is overdependand on his protective buffs. And they are not plain and simple as the mage protective spells. A very hard one, I shall try one day.

Now my Blade progress:

Defeated the Shade Lord without much trouble, it is easy enough since you are able to use the wand of fire and fireball him and his statue to death.
Tor Gal (Nalia's keep) has given me a hard time (tried the web web poisoncloud and fireball technique, he kept saving, but I just used the offensive spin and filled him with as many arrows as I could and fireballed every time I could) but has gone down. The room filled with umberhulks was piece of cake: web and cloudkill, close door, no more trouble. Cheesy, for sure.

Tried to fend of the liches with my two rings of the ram, but I've not been suceeded. They fingerofdeath me everytime I've tried, even when using the gem bag cheese to recharge the rings. I'll try that again tomorrow, and I'll start Trademeet quest as well.

I'm at level 18, and things seem to have become realy easy for now, I'm gaining faith on my solo run with this blade. I've not agreed to help any side until now - gotta keep neutral to avoid vampire confrontation, that level drain thingie is just too much for me - yet.
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Question: True Bard versus true Cleric, melee, same weapon used, same number of proficiencies. Who has the bigger chance of wining?

Coot · Post by **Coot** » Thu Jan 29, 2004 6:43 am

I believe the cleric has a lower thac0 so he should win. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

Bruce Lee · Post by **Bruce Lee** » Thu Jan 29, 2004 8:37 am

You wont be able to use the shield until you get UAI.
Are you using standard ffightermage tactics like improved invisibility and spell immunity div and abj? Stacking blur? Mislead? Those spells plus improved haste and tensor and spins make the blade unstoppable if you dont mind resting once in a while.

Luis Antonio · Post by **Luis Antonio** » Thu Jan 29, 2004 8:57 am

Not all of them. I'm kinda low level yet, I need to go on a lot more to receive the good spels... But I've got to stack improved haste with offensive spin, and I'm using a lot of times the freedom (arbane s sword) and deffensive spin. But no High level spells nor habilities. I'm still level 18... But I will keep those hints in mind, they seem really scary.

Bruce Lee · Post by **Bruce Lee** » Thu Jan 29, 2004 1:10 pm

Level 18 is not that low. You have all the ingredients to make your blade an unkillable meleemachine.
Improved invis and spell immunity div and abj will stop spellcasters from targeting you. Blur (2nd level spell) + imp invis + will take your ac down low, defensive spin will get you down to game engine minimum. Mislead is awesome, a must really. Very handy for clearing bodhi's lair.

Luis Antonio · Post by **Luis Antonio** » Thu Jan 29, 2004 1:47 pm

Originally posted by Bruce Lee
Level 18 is not that low. You have all the ingredients to make your blade an unkillable meleemachine.
Improved invis and spell immunity div and abj will stop spellcasters from targeting you. Blur (2nd level spell) + imp invis + will take your ac down low, defensive spin will get you down to game engine minimum. Mislead is awesome, a must really. Very handy for clearing bodhi's lair.

Aint spell Immunity a 9th level spell?

Mislead? I'll try that, but I'm a Simulacrum man myself. Let's see then.

Bruce Lee · Post by **Bruce Lee** » Fri Jan 30, 2004 1:22 am

Spell immunity is a 5th level spell.
Mislead creates a copy and turns you improved invis. You stay improved invis until the spell runs out or is dispelled and you stay invis until the decoy is killed, dispelled or the spell runs out. So bbasically if the creatures you are fighting they can't see you for the duration of the spell. The decoy cant do much so it is best to hide it away somewhere. It can however sing bardsongs

It can also attack if you equip weapons such as kundane and belm that add attacks.

B3s3rk3r · Post by **B3s3rk3r** » Mon Feb 02, 2004 2:23 am

I have Haer-Dalis and he's a good blade. I don't think it would be good to solo. if you had 2 BLADES- You and Haer you would be unstoppable and be powerful.

Coot · Post by **Coot** » Wed Feb 04, 2004 10:44 am

I thought the blade was one of the best classes to solo because he's so versatile. Just my humble opinion

Luis Antonio · Post by **Luis Antonio** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 8:02 am

Stopped Playing for quite some time, but I had one of the biggest problems ever since I've started Baldurs Gate: I cant get to level 8 spells!!! *sigh*

However, I've invested myself with a new strenght with that - that I'd finish the game without a party and without level 8 spells. What am I doing?

Using all cheese avaiable to me. Consulting UU cheeseguide (I will translate it to portuguese soon enough) and proceeding slowly as it gets.

The Underdark has proven to be very difficult, and I think I'm gonna have to miss some of the most interesting facts - like killing the lich, destroying the silver dragon for fun and stuff...

But I'm sad about it... I'm considering hacking my character to ride on ToB soon.

Bruce Lee · Post by **Bruce Lee** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 8:18 am

I am sorry for saying this but you must not be using the spells. Level 1-6 spells are quite enough and a solo blade can breeze through the underdark. What exactly are you having problems with? Spell immunity abjuration protects you from imprisonment. You will level up very fast so your remove magic is as good as keldorns. Cast stoneskin, mirror image, improved haste and tensors transformation and you become the best fighter in the game. Add various spell protections when needed. Use vhailors helm when you need to cast higher level spells from scrolls.
Use the harps as they are really useful, the one you buy from deidre is like a wing buffet and chaos spell combined.
Only your imagination limits you when playing a blade.

Luis Antonio · Post by **Luis Antonio** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 9:41 am

You may be right, Bruce, I'm not a spellcaster by nature. But I still dont have that 'tensers transformation' spell and I'm improving spellcasting habilities - I'm very good at it right now, if you think my mages where always the ones with smaller killing rates on the normal games - Thats one of the reasons for using the bard.

I'll keep in touch and ask for help... be sure!

Bruce Lee · Post by **Bruce Lee** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 11:54 am

Yeah there is only one way to learn it and that is by doing it hehe.
A good way to explore the spells is to play a solo fighter mage dual that dualed rather late like at level 13. Then you play difficult battles as a low level solo mage

Luis Antonio · Post by **Luis Antonio** » Mon Feb 16, 2004 8:07 am

Wow!

The underdark journey has got me up to level 23 before I've met the demon summoned by the queen. No spell better than level 6 and I was up to fight and hunt down Irenicus.

No big deal, after you've learned the HLA's. Trap the whole hell and the first encounter place, and everything goes as easy as it gets - even too much cheesy.
You mislead, improved invis on your dummie, who bardsong you and tensers transformation. UAI allowed me to use Carsormir and I've bashed the demons in no time, Then it was Jonie time. (I did the same thing with Bodhi, Firkraag was just hit when I had 6 hit points, the shadow dragon stepped on too many traps for his liking and the last shadow dragon had a little forgetfullnes with feeblemind, AFTER he had started atacking me)

Jonie just took a Slayer bash down first, but it was not very good, then I've mislead again, with scroll, tensers again, with scroll, and no one could stop me again. Final movie, end of my first Bard solo.

In ToB I've decided into hacking my char to obtain 7-8-9 lvl spells and garthered an evil party - Korgan, Viconia, Edwin, Savvy (dualed to thief), Cernd (needed a druid). Lets see where it gets, but now its not a Bard solo anymore.

Thank you guys for the support!!!

My next solo will be a shapeshifter druid... and I'll post my progress here!