Soloing a Blade (Spoilers for sure)

Luis Antonio · Post by **Luis Antonio** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 7:53 am

I was up to some fun and hardiness, so I've decided to star soloing with an not classical solo class (fighter mage, Sorcerer, monk (bah), Archer or Barbarian). So I've been unorthodox:

I've just started soloing a Blade bard kit.

I don't remember my char stats by heart, but most number of points have been spent on intellingence and charisma (18 on both) sacrifying wisdom, strenght and constitution (I think a bard needs to be both intellingent and charismatic to play the bardsongs, even though they are useless when soloing a Blade)

Proficiency:

Katana (I'll soon try to fend of the armored compound, dunno how and pick up CFury)
Short Bow (To use the Tuigan Bow, fast arrow atack)
Two weapon fighting: *** (CFury and another Katana, or Longsword, my next proficiency).

Johnie Compound was no big deal, just It took long for me to get through it (I still had only 3rd level spells) and freeing Hendak and the slaves was my first stop. I needed Tuigan Bow.

Main tactics: Hit and run, grease, hit and run, horror, hit and run. Always killing archers first, potion of speed (when avaiable) or offensive spin. I still have no Stoneskin, so I cant really melee, even though I have a pair of finely crafted Katanas.

No big deal, Just it took a long time to do.

Astafas · Post by **Astafas** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 8:28 am

Did you have any question? The Blade is one of the most popular classes/kits to solo BTW...

Stilgar · Post by **Stilgar** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 8:31 am

Are there any classes that haven been soloed jet?

Luis Antonio · Post by **Luis Antonio** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 8:49 am

Did you have any question? The Blade is one of the most popular classes/kits to solo BTW...

I thought they wasn't... I'm kinda new to GBanshee and havent been here on the 'SoA Discovery' time.
And I've never heard of anyone doing it, so I've posted here to stat my progress... And it has been cool until now.
I'll try to make this one a different solo: To beat the easy quests one by one, level by level and try to fend off the most powerfull enemies one by one, 'single played'.

Are there any classes that haven been soloed jet?

Pure Druid or Cleric, perhaps?

Anyway, I'm just posting my first non classical class solo. I'm not playing a fighter/multi nor fighter(kit) or one of the comonly used characters.

I've soloed the game with a Barbarian, and it was piece of cake. With a Fighter thief and it was easy. Witha F/M and it was even easier than Barbarian.

As I've never soloed with any magic user (mages, sorcerers) and the bard is a link between fighters and mages...
I've just decided he will be the first.

Do you guys have any comments on my weapon choices, kits or anything that you know bout soloing Bards? I'd be very glad to know bout it.

Coot · Post by **Coot** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 12:20 pm

I'd improve the bards strength by wearing a belt or using potions (one good thing about soloing is that you'll have loads and loads of money

).
Celestial Fury is one of the best weapons in the game, especially for soloing.
The amulet of power (you can get it from Aran Linvail IIRC)protects you from leveldrain and speeds up your spellcasting.
Crom Faeyr is, of course, a magnificent weapon... it will be a bit hard to get all the necessary items items, of course.
Boosting your xp will help a lot. A cheesy way of doing that is memorizing high-level spells. You'll never be able to use them but you get a lot of xp without putting yourself in danger.
Try to do 'little'quests that don't involve (a lot of) fighting. For bigger quests: do the Temple Ruins quest first and use a ring of invisibility to get around tough enemies. And don't fight the shadowdragon (yet).
Good luck!

Screaming Johny · Post by **Screaming Johny** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 12:42 pm

A little later, pick up the Scimitar proficiency. Put Belm (extra attack) in your off hand. When you get UAI, pick up the Scarlet Ninja-To - Extra attack plus poison.

You can use some cheese with it by leaving it in your off-hand when you use Melf's Meteor's. Every 6th attack causes poison from range!

Tip1 with a weapon in each hand that does an extra attack, you will have 4 attacks/round. If I remember white, offesnsive spin gives you an extra, to make it 5 - the max without Whirlwind. As the Bard's THACO goes down all the way to level 40 he can make a great warrior.

Tip2 do the playhouse quest as early as reasonable. The molodic chain is well worth it.

Bruce Lee · Post by **Bruce Lee** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 4:58 pm

You should level quite fast. You have good pick pocketing skills and if you are willing to use that, equipping yourself should be easy. Remember to pick up arbanes sword, very handy short sword indeed. A good blade combo is wielding arbane and casting a web or two.
I think you'll find this to be your easiest solo so far. Or atleast there wont be anything posing sever problems as there can be with more specialized classes.
Have fun and experiment with tactics as they are all available to the blade.

Aqua-chan · Post by **Aqua-chan** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 5:11 pm

I think there hasn't been a class that hasn't solo'd yet, but as far as kits go I don't think I've ever seen a loner Wizard Slayer (for good reason).

FilipeTeles · Post by **FilipeTeles** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 5:14 pm

I think you should do a Skald.....it's a very nice bard.........

Bruce Lee · Post by **Bruce Lee** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 8:33 pm

Originally posted by Aqua-chan
I think there hasn't been a class that hasn't solo'd yet, but as far as kits go I don't think I've ever seen a loner Wizard Slayer (for good reason).

I soloed a wizardslayer. They are not so bad if you have ToB.
I think the fighterclasses are the most difficult to solo with. Most of the time they are easy but then you run into certain fights where it get very tough.
But when you solo you get all the magical items for yourself making your character almost invulnerable.
I think a class that you don't often see people use is the fighter/mage/cleric. Pretty cool class to solo with really. I haven't taken one through ToB yet but I think I will at some stage. Should be a real powerhouse at higher levels.

FilipeTeles · Post by **FilipeTeles** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 8:40 pm

the fighter are the easiests solos...........try to solo a pure mage its a lot fun...........i really enjoyed it.........

Aqua-chan · Post by **Aqua-chan** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 9:45 pm

Originally posted by Bruce Lee
I soloed a wizardslayer.

Oh, yes. Come along, prove me wrong, make me eat my words.

I know Druids are frequently Solo'd, which is fun to an extent. I enjoyed the Totemic class, but I had to take along a mage simply because I was annoyed with Protection from Magical/ Normal weapons and had nothing to bring down mage shields like that with.

This is why I can never completely solo through a game.

Clerics ARE powerhouses. I believe if you import a BG1 character who was a Thief/Cleric, you can have one in BG2. I just used Shadow Keeper to cheat my way through it and I now have a Priest of Helm/Thief. So far I have to say that the other three party members I brought along so far are for mere backup and little else.

Zelgadis · Post by **Zelgadis** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 11:05 pm

Try reading two's thread on soloing a bard. I beleive everything you could need to know can be found in here.

Luis Antonio · Post by **Luis Antonio** » Sat Jan 24, 2004 9:54 am

Well, everything has become quite usefull specially the web technique with the Arbane Short sword. I'm not proficient at it, but as a off hand weapon she is quite usefull. Thanx Bruce, I had picked it up and just read the thread before selling it.

Just destroyed Maevar guild without much trouble, just needed to move out and rest three times. Casted web, grease and fireballs - they were falling like flies. For the thieves, just casting horror was enought - and then 'offensive spin' and arrows at em!!! - for now it has been the coolest solo, I've tried. I'm still having trouble with the vampires, needed to reload once. Paid to cast spells freely on town, now they shall pay... mmmwhahaha...

I think you'll find this to be your easiest solo so far.

Well, soloing a Barbarian has been really piece of cake... only a few reloads, no dragon could stop me... But for now I'm only getting started with the bard.

I think you should do a Skald.....it's a very nice bard.........

Filipe, Skalds are the best bards, IMO, when you play with a team of your own. They rock @$$.

A little later, pick up the Scimitar proficiency. Put Belm (extra attack) in your off hand. When you get UAI, pick up the Scarlet Ninja-To - Extra attack plus poison.

Thanx Jonie- working on it.

Clerics ARE powerhouses.

I'll be sure to try that when I'm done with the Blade... Wich of the kits will you pick up guys? (I'd apreciate it if you tell me Aqua chan, no Cheats added... lol)

And thank you for the link Zelgadis... really usefull gadgets there...

(I'm really willing to fend of Firkraag now, but no levell yet (14))

Luis Antonio · Post by **Luis Antonio** » Sun Jan 25, 2004 5:40 pm

I'm having a hard time trying to defeat that blasted Neb child killer...

I'm kinda weak with a mageling!!! Can any of you help me with spell selection and quests order?

Coot · Post by **Coot** » Mon Jan 26, 2004 9:54 am

Concentrate on Neb only. He turns invisisble a few times so you have to counter that with True Sight or something like that. The kids use level drain on you so might wait until you have the mace of disruption or the amulet of power... or use the Negative Protection spell (I'm not sure bards/mages can use that though... isn't it a priest spell?). You can also use some summons to hold of the kids.
Watch out AFTER the battle. I finally defeated Neb with my Blade but I hadn't saved my game. When I looted the place I ran into a nasty trap that killed me very dead

JackOfClubs · Post by **JackOfClubs** » Mon Jan 26, 2004 6:28 pm

Web is also good for keeping Neb in one place if you have some item that grants free-action.

Yes, Negative Plane Protection is a priest spell. But...

SPOILER

The kids will cast restoration on you when you defeat Neb, so if you concentrate on killing him fast you should be okay.

Luis Antonio · Post by **Luis Antonio** » Tue Jan 27, 2004 4:17 am

Thanx! Needed to re-install yesterday, my blasted Norton Sys Works disabled SoA entry on the registry... And only by deleting it and re-instaling it could I put it to run.

Defeated Rayic Gethras yesterday - A lot of acid arrows, invisibility and offensive spin have done it. No spells cast, xcpt for invisibility.

His golems were just a metter of time - used +2 arrows after leading them to open field - the docks. Got one, then the other. Plain and simple.

Today I'm going to try to disrupt that blasted childslayer. Let's see if I can do that now.

Aqua-chan · Post by **Aqua-chan** » Tue Jan 27, 2004 6:41 am

Originally posted by Luis Antonio

I'll be sure to try that when I'm done with the Blade... Wich of the kits will you pick up guys? (I'd apreciate it if you tell me Aqua chan, no Cheats added... lol)

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.

Luis Antonio · Post by **Luis Antonio** » Wed Jan 28, 2004 4:57 am

Wohoo! now I'm hacking and slashing my way to victory... killed Neb with you help guys, thanx and tryed some things from one of the cheese guides (UU's I think v 1,4).

Web web icestorm, deathcloud and wand of fireballs... Offensive spin has become a defensive tactic: Run and hit, hit and run, cast spell, run and hit...

I'm on the unseeing eye, but I think I'm not leveled enough to beat the elder orb, I'm thinking how will I do to defeat it (I'm with the reflective cheesy chield of the beholder slayer hahaha... balduran shield)