Powerplayer UBER Solo char [SPOILERS]

wotan06 · Post by **wotan06** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 8:17 pm

[WARNING: This thread will be heavily loaded with SPOILERS so, new players do not read]

Hello powerplayers, who hasn't searched for the ultimate solo char? I've read several guides, and I like more my idea, I brought it here for you to rip it apart and polish it out!

The char is a strong melee tank, with critical AC needed for HoF, sky STs, plenty of skills, and excellent enchanter, summoner and healer. Too good to be true? Check it out.

The bad things are:
-It severely exploits the export-import in-game feature, though this is NOT cheating.
-It is challenging and boring to build. (his true power depends on several times the paladin quest and he's got an 80% exp penalty most of his time)

Ok, here it goes:

Race:
deep gnome (not a surprise huh?)

Starting stats:
str 8, dex 20, const 13, int 14, wis 5, cha 14
[actually, const would be 12, but I had left a point I didn't know where to put]

Classes:
rogue(1): crow's nest
paladin(1): light of cera sumat, +1 str&wis quest
sorcerer(1): shield spell
fighter(4): weapons spec.(longswords and axes), maximize attacks
ranger(1): ambi & two weapons fighting feats
monk(1): evasion and wisdom AC bonus
helm(17): healer, summoner, enchanter, bombardier with sky DC spells

we have 4 more levels left, which I choose to put in:
paladin(1): fear immunity
sorcerer(3): extra duration for shield spell and mirror image

The order to get them is not difficult to find it out, being ranger and monk the last 2 levels, he will be with 80% exp penalty, when he gets ranger he will be at 100% so he will have to rely on the monk monastery's adventurer tome to reach level 30.

As you can probably already noticed, the power of this char mainly comes from an exploit of the paladin quest at graveyard. This would give him 40 str and wisdom.

The equipment for this char is obvious:
no armour, light of cera sumat+golden heart of charname, crow's nest, sunfire amulet, chimandrae boots, indomitable bands

The AC reachable is 76:
10 base
15 (wisdom)
11 (dexterity) (20 +7 level bonus attributes + 5 boots = 32 dexterity)
4 deep gnome racial (generic)
1 dodge feat (generic)
4 haste spell (golden heart)
5 indomitable bands (generic)
3 sunfire amulet (generic)
3 crow's nest (generic)
7 shield spell (armour)
6 divine shell (deflection)
5 expertise feat (special)
2 helm watch (generic)

besides his AC, this char will have mirror image, that together with his melee bonuses makes him a powerful tank that can also cast heal!!!. He can switch to ranged axes with his high dex too, or summon minions, and cast symb of hopelessness with a very high DC.

His STs are well above the 30s.

What else can I say? Bring up your thoughts!

kmonster · Post by **kmonster** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 9:21 pm

What a lousy character. Even a simple sorcerer could get through the game more easily and much faster without having to rely on cheating.

Crenshinibon · Post by **Crenshinibon** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 9:53 pm

True. I'm sure many of us view the import/export exploit as cheating. For some good characters check out silverdragon72's thread.

This character may work for you, but many of us like to play the game without cheats and exploits and can fairly beat it and enjoy the spoils of victory.

wotan06 · Post by **wotan06** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 10:24 pm

The idea is not to win the game, or enjoy it. Is to create the most powerful single character without cheating, i.e. using editors, non-official packs, etc. Export-Import is an in-game feature, so I don't consider it cheating.
Again, it is not about enjoy playing, but creating a massive single char under the rules of the game.
If you are not a powerplayer or are not interested in the subject, please don't post? Its not meant to offend anyone.
I'm searching for better ideas posts. On this line.

fable · Post by **fable** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 10:27 pm

He does have a point, and this is a forum that allows anybody to ask questions as long as they are pertinent to the game. If you take offense at his point of view, please don't post to that effect. Leave it to others to respond, who can help him out. Thanks.

Crenshinibon · Post by **Crenshinibon** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 10:53 pm

In that case, why not utilize the various potions that permanently increase an ability score while at the same time decreasing one as well? Also, why not redo the Guardian for maximum acid resistance?

Those two, especially the first one, should help a great deal.

If anything, for a weapon, I'd use Mordaniken's Sword (need to be AT LEAST level 14 as a sorcerer to cast level 7 spells), as in my opinion, it is THE best weapon in the game. It's ranged and makes you stronger than a full fledged fighter. This would eliminate the need for a ranger class. One level of paladin is good enough as you can use your cleric levels to cast Remove Fear to gain protection from fear for about ten turns.

With MS your BAB will be so high, that you can ignore the penalty for dualwielding and you can probably use the Golden Heart for the hitpoint and haste bonus to free the boot slot for the slippers, which grant you a +5 dexterity bonus.

I'd put at least 18 or 20 sorcerer levels in there though, to gain access to Wail of the GameBanshee or Executioner's Eyes. Twenty levels is preferred though, due to the increase in casts per day.

kmonster · Post by **kmonster** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 8:12 am

Even with wisdom boosted to 40 I don't think a cleric is mightier than a sorcerer.
But even for a cleric based one your character isn't optimal.

First you should take transmuter instead of sorcerer levels, so you could get nearly unlimited HP just by drinking the transmuter potion endlessly.
This will also make con and cha to dump stats which allows putting more stat points into int for more skills.

There's also no need to start with 8 str, since you'll get it up to 40 anyway it's a waste starting with more than the bare minimum of 1.

The ranger level is totally wasted and I think additional transmuter levels will help far more than fighter levels.

wotan06 · Post by **wotan06** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 11:49 pm

Crenshinibon, the only attribute increasing potions I know of are -2const,+1wis and -1dex,+2wis, with the paladin quest you can already rise the wisdom without any attribute loss, so why to use those potions? In the items database there are other attribute exchange potions but I believe they are from IWD I and they can not be found in IWD II.

MS better than dual wielding Light of Cera Sumat & Golden Heart with maximize attacks and 40 str??........

kmonster, with the Guardian, you get +15hp, so there's no need of being a transmuter for theoric unlimited HP. Also, a transmuter can not have the spell shield for its an abjuration. Starting with 1 str, you will only be able to carry 1lb, so any item will make you unable to move due to encumbrance. You will have 40 str, but you must be able to reach the quest and finish it.....
The sorcerer is more powerful than the cleric I agree, but with score mod of +15, those symbols of hopelessness will be pretty much unresistables, and you have access to the instant cast full heal.... and why the ranger level is wasted? the way it is posted, this char's main damage output is melee dual wielding, so those 2 feats come in very nicely... dont they?

kmonster · Post by **kmonster** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 11:09 am

AFAIK defeating the guardian only grants acid resistance, no extra HP.
Specialist wizards loose their spell restrictiction if they have levels of other caster classes.
Starting with 1 str shouldn't be too problematic since you can max out your levels near the start by exporting/reimporting. Once you gained access to the bull's strength spell it won't be so troublesome anymore, especially since you can find a bag of holding.
The massive greataxe of flame is far more effective than dualwielding with this character, haste can be obtained from other sources, so no ranger level needed. Even if you insist on dualwielding it's better to take feats than wasting 1 level.

Klorox · Post by **Klorox** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 3:43 pm

Just curious: What's the bug that allows you unlimited STR and WIS?

While it sounds like an extremely powerful character (with those stats!), I think actually getting that far into the game (I assume this bug is where Paladins gain stat points) with a gimped character would be damn difficult.

wotan06 · Post by **wotan06** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 8:36 pm

kmonster, defeating the guardian is +12hp, not +15, but my paladin got +17 I dont know why... thats besides the 5 acid resistance....
'wasting one level'... whats your levels proposal? wizard all the way? and no exploit of the 40 wisdom?

Klorox, export-import, just do the quest several times. (yeah, bit tedious, but do-able)

Klorox · Post by **Klorox** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 5:44 pm

I admire the thought and creativity you put into making such an improbable character.

If you wanted to "streamline" her a bit, you could replace the Sorcerer levels with Illusionist (favored class, less of an XP penalty, and since we're already exploiting bugs, may as well go with the "another casting class nixes the specialist mage penalties). I'd also drop the Ranger level. You have access to more than enough feats as is, and the bonus feats from Illusionist 5 make up for the lost Ranger bonuses (-4 Sorcerer levels, -1 Ranger level = 5 Illusionist levels).

This also allows you to powergame the stats a little more, as you really don't need CHA (but it's nice). You also have the option to drop STR (as kmonster said), and boost CON (or heck, boost CHA for the saving throw bonuses).

If you were actually going to play this character, how would you build her? What stats do you boost every 4 levels (I'd guess DEX for the AC bonus)?

BTW, I think it'd be damn near impossible to get that far into the game with a gimp (and I do view this guy as a gimp until the 40 STR/WIS comes about).

Has anybody played solo HoF mode with a 72 AC without exploiting so much cheese?

wotan06 · Post by **wotan06** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 7:33 pm

Thanks for posting Klorox!

So, illusionist, and which else to remove the specialist penalty? transmuter like kmonster said?

Yes, dex all the way up, see the AC section.

The cha is already maxed as a starting attribute, 14 is all a deep gnome can start with, I got it for the ST more than for the sorcerer.

And, yes, I know it will be very hard at the beggining without a wizard class, for the way I presented it, he was not going to be able cast cleric spells due to low wisdom, and str was too low to tank properly, so he would rely on throwing axes or something, though through export-import you can get him to 30 with the Targos silly quests and the BAB might be enough to melee out normal mode. He wouldn't be jumping to HoF until he's got the 40 str & wis.....

kmonster · Post by **kmonster** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 6:05 am

A cleric level is enough to remove the specialist penalty.

Klorox · Post by **Klorox** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 11:57 am

My "best" non-bug-exploiting solo character went like this:

Female Drow LN

1 Druid (Use those books that cast Barkskin)
1 Rogue
2 Fighter
1 Monk
3 Transmuter
X Cleric of Bane

...or something like that. I didn't want an XP penalty (until I took that last level of Transmuter), and wanted the Banite bonus. I don't remember stats, but I know I had maxed out DEX and WIS, with a low STR. She relied on using Short Swords and Daggers with Expertise maxed and Weapon Finesse.