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I'm doing the solo sorcerer thing and it's hella fun. But last night I went for the druid grove (I'm at level 13) and had some real trouble with trolls. I was able to get them (though I didn't clear the troll den) after lots of work, but it wasn't anything like fun. Anyone got some hints on dealing with them? I'd like to go on to the Keep, but my sorry luck in the grove has got me second-guessing.

Also, when do you think is the earliest time I can reasonably expect to do Twisted Rune, and what strategies did people use to complete it?

Thanky.

Use all fire/acid spells (fireballs, melf's acid arrows) to kill them. I assume that you have chosen at least fireball to your spellbook - so it kills Trolls.

U can use staff of fire (planar sphere) for summoning fire elementals or u can use wand of cloudkill (Irenicus dungeon-sold and bought back) . also u can use fireball, Acid arrow, fire arrow or Melf minute meteors.

For the main damage: use fireball (spell/wand of fire), sunfire or even death spell. Or conjure some (earth/fire) elemental. You can also use fireshield (spell/staff of fire)in combination with stoneskin/mirror image and the trolls will damage themselves.
For finishing them off you can use the mentioned spells. Probably the "cheapest" is to cast a bunch of melf's minute meteors or use agannazzar (from the re-purchased wand of fire).

Apart from fire and acid based spells, Cloudkill and Death fog works nicely on trolls. Poison also works, and a poisoned weapon is a nice way of inducing damage to any enemy without having to stay close.

I think you can go for the The Twisted Rune at your present level if you use magic protection, preferably the scroll in Adventures Mart.

A detailed game journal of a solo mage can be found here: [url="http://members.home.net/mrkevvy/journal.html"]http://members.home.net/mrkevvy/journal.html[/url]

I have only read small parts of it, but I image it can be very useful for solo mages of any type.

(Hazim, check your profile for messages.)

Sorry, double postings.

[ 04-20-2001: Message edited by: C Elegans ]

Without using the cheesey protection from magic scroll I would say you'd have to wait until you got the lvl 9 spells. I don't think I would've been able to do Twisted Rune without timestop. Though I did it the brute force method, I just charged in and fought all 6 of them at the same time. BTW don't depend on the staff of the magi for protection from evil, get the spell yourself or you'll regret it.

Staff of Magi is buggy. The patch can be downloaded from this site: [url="http://members.home.net/mrkevvy"]http://members.home.net/mrkevvy[/url]
The twisted rune can be cleared easily with Protection from Magic scroll or harder with Protection from Undead scroll or Cloak of Mirroring (the solo sorcerer cannot use the Baldurian shield). Or you can do it with the use of overkill mage spells: like project image/simulacrum or 9th level spells.

Playing a solo Sorcerer myself, I just had to rush off to the Druid grove to see for myself. After numerous spider spawn, skull traps, fireballs, flame arrows, acid arrows, glitterdust and when all else failed, chromatic orb, I set about the task of killing trolls. I managed to petrify two of the five giant trolls with "orbs", which probably is to be considered luck (although I tossed about 17 of them...)

Being of level 9, I get phase spiders with spider spawn. Against trolls, this might be better than sword spiders, since they're poisonous. I found that if the spiders manage to poison the trolls a few times, the poison evens out with the regeneration and you have time to kill them with flame arrows, etc. Against the giant trolls, it helped to throw glitterdust, since otherwise the spiders don't last very long. Needless to say, I spent a lot of time running around with trolls breathing down my neck, throwing anything with a short casting time at them whenever there was a gap.

What I would like to know, however, is how do you kill the Rakshasa? Phase spiders have no magical weapons, and the Rakshasa are annoyingly magic resistant. The number of "lower resistance" needed to put a dent in that exceeds my daily (weekly?) quota. My latest (untried) strategy is to set up a wall of spiders and throw +2 rocks at the Rakshasa. Not much of a plan, but what else to do when there¨s just me, a ferret and my legions of phase spiders?

I doubt I'll be playing entirely solo through the game since I couldn't let Imoen find her own way out of Irenicus dungeon. Given that, I very much doubt I will be able to leave her at spellhold either. Im too softhearted for this game...

[ 04-21-2001: Message edited by: Silur ]

Hmm im no expert but transfigure self has +items and is good for solo sorc

Isn't kind of dumb to use a protection from magic scroll if you are a solo sorceror? You probably need to get lucky with a few instant kill spells to succed with the twisted rune. The rakshasa isn't resistant to magic they are immune to spell levels 1-7 so lower resistance is useless. You need a better summon to deal with them.

The idea with protection from magic scrolls really comes from Elmonsters diary (see links above). From what I remember, the idea is to knock off the mage, pick up the staff and use it to beat the lich (back ) to death. Sounds every bit as desperate as my plan regarding the Rakshasa, but besides the beholder death rays leaking through the protection globe a few times, it worked.

IIRC, the sword spiders have the equivalent of magical weapons when they attack, so I'll just find something else to do for few levels and see if it helps. The chances of always getting worgs (or is it dire wolfs?) with monster summoning to get magical attacks appears even less a feasible strategy.

[ 04-22-2001: Message edited by: Silur ]