I just wanted to discuss tactics, share experiences etc with people that love to solo.

I have tried an Assassin earlier this year but gave up (I am a constant restarter) but I am going to try again. I realized how useful poison is great for those random encounters between city areas and I had to reply on pickpocket (for Ribhalds ring). I am wondering if its possible to kill demons and dragons with the Assassin class (How far did you get Faraaz?).

Has anyone tried Soloing with non Mage and Thief classes?

I am not that familiar with assassins, but will offer some thoughts. First, get the guide to thieves found here at SP -- very good advice found therein. Second, when it comes to demons and dragons, you are still a thief so use traps. Extensively.

Personally, I only solo sorcerers, M/T, F/M/T, and M/C

I tried soloing with Asassin, but demons are a real pain. They see through you, and they try to paralyze you. My way was to use the Greenstone amulet and lure them out to my traps, as most arrows don't work on them, and backstabbing is tricky. Dragons are easier, arrows of Dispelling help a lot.

Ranger/Cleric is VERY easy to solo, also a Kensai (I killed a Demogorgon with 20 level Kensai, but it was on Normal level of difficulty). Sorcerer/Mage - well, my favourite. :)

I have read the thief's guide. It was the Assassin skills along with HLA's that sold me on this class to go solo.

This time I am going to take skills on shortswords, clubs and darts (Do I get 3 attacks per round with darts?).

I think I get one more choice after this so probably quarter staves (thought I have had problems backstabbing with these in the past).

What were you must difficult battles?

Mine was Xzars house (2 mages, ghouls and a golem) but my trap-setting and poison sling bullets helped me win this fight.

You have 3 attacks with darts, yes. Though your Thac0 suffers, it's much easier to aim with the sling, you're right.

You also can use different items and potions. For example, if you go to kill Golems, take a staff of striking and the belt that increases AC with blunt weapons. A pity you can't backstab these, though.

I also use one arrow of dispelling on each mage I encounter, this way the protections are down and you can turn invisible with a potion and backstab.

My Kensai got a serious problem, even in the first dungeon, He runs out of healing potion, every trap does around 100 dmg, instantly kills him >____>

I was going to dual him to a mage at lv13, but seeing a goblin archer doing 30 dmg on him, I think I gonna give up at lv9 (250k exp compare to 12.5k), how the hell do I suppose to do with such a whimpy

Hey, my Kensai was soloing on Normal only, I don't dare to solo on Insane with a char that can't cast a Stoneskin

Actually I made it today :D
After doing all the easy quest that involves no fighting, I got 500k exp (danm it, even a lv7 mage is a nightmare, they just cast stoneskin, mirror image then 3 magic missles - I'm a goner :mad: )

some notes :

- arbane +2 short sword, I need this sword badly, so I focused to kill Suna-seni, loot his corpe and ran from the rest. bwahahahaha :shake:
Same for the second encounter, I steped up, talked to Refnel and picked him up, ran(the one got poisoned and asks me to bring him to the Harper hold, don't remember his name)

- xyz short sword that allows you to cast mirror image (from Umar Hill), this is a real good thing, the spell actually becomes better when I lv up, lv12 kensai can have 6 images, weeeee...

- I bought a lot of potion from Itafer, the Rasakha in the Druid grove, mainly potion of invisibility, I had to sneak thru many badguys, after done with Fadorn, I came back for the Belm, cast haste (from Arbane), then ran from the trolls, one potion is too much, can't waste it >___>

So, all the easy quests are delepted, with those item and many potions, I went to the De' Arnist fortress, to the upstair, get the key (wasted one pot here), got one flail head from the golems (one more pot), back downstair, reassembled the flail. Now everything has changed, though I totally forgot the Amulet that set AC to 4, my kensai still rocks with the flail, after many rests, I stumbled on victory eventually, yay me :)

With those setup, I came back to the Druid Grove, kill the Rasakha (can't kill those djinni, they turn me to stone - mirror image ain't work), finished the whole Trademeet, bought the Ras (basically a Mordy sword, but only for 4 rounds >__> but that my first decoy, I can't use the Vhailor's helm, no Horn of Vahalla yet), then bought the missle amulet (kind of a fireball wand, I used this one to finish those filthy spider under the Graveyard (to get that Ioun Stone and spider figurine)

Too bad, after collecting all these times, I have only 100k exp to go, maybe I should just keep my kensai (and change his race to dwarven ?) :)

Edit : DUHM is awesome, gives you 20 extra HP for those deadly traps. AND when you rest with DUHM, you regen alot better, so I don't have to rest 2 days for merely 100 HP :)

For 'Soloing' dungeon-be-gone is essential. I hate that intro dungeon as I have played this game more times than is good for me!

Minh So, how did you beat mages that protect themselves from weapons etc?

Would it be do-able to solo with an inquisitor? He'll be able to detect mage's illusions and dispel their protections. And if that doesn't work, 50% magic resistance from Carsomyr should keep him safe while fighting the mage.

That sounds feasible to me, but how are you going to kill the red dragon to get Carsomyr? That could be difficult without traps and offensive magic.

I think that with the right potions and some heavy weaponry the inquisitor should be able to defeat Firkraag in melee combat. Again, he can dispel the dragon's protections and hack away.

I wish you well on this. With my assassin, I never dared to take on Liches and Dragons.

@Cesard : I didn't kill any mage till I got the FoA, even the two apprenties of Xar can whope my azz. Hold, charm, confuse, lightning bolt, magic missile, that's just too much >___> heh, how irony that I can win 2 stone golems, 2 fleshes, 1 clay, 1 iron in a few rounds, then lose to a single pathetic mage :lol:
Gota avoid them at all cost, so far I have killed 2, Merakth (for Haer Dalis) and Gayrick (for Edwin). And that's enough to get lv13. If I'm not going to dual him, I must change his race to dwarven (and plus, save up some potion of magic shielding :) )

Assasine may have a good time when he got HLAs, Staff of Magi, wand of monster summon and the others. I don't think liches are much trouble, but dragons, eww... fire lower resistant -> fire dragon breath -> dragon did 160 dmg to you -> you've been pawned, please reload >___>

Roger the fence and that potion selling lady at the bridge district sell potions that grant a degree of magic resistance and IIRC they also sell some potion that grant immunity to certain spell levels, although I'm not certain about that. At least they are perfect against mages. And the cloak of the sewers grant you the form of a jely with 100% magic resistance. All you need when soloing against mages.

I think Roger, along with some of the other potion shops, also sells 2 very valuable potions - Potion of Clarity (much like a Chaotic Commands spell) and Potion of Freedom (Free Action). For non-cleric solos these are ace.

Roger the fence sells 3 potions protect from magic dmg (same as the spell protect from energy lv8), 3 potions protect from magic (grant 50% magic resist). And the jelly form has something like 50 magic resist, not 100% like the spell polymorphself lv4.

So I definitely need a lot of luck and reload to finish the game with my Kensai :)

Btw, any tip for killing dragon ? The shadow dragon in particular :)

What, without traps ?

It has a very good AC, you'd need to boost your Thac0 if you do it without traps, placed at the entrance.

Maybe a Staff of the Rynn+potions of Haste, etc ?
Arrows of Dispelling for protections, Arrows of Piercing...

Scrolls of Restoration for sure, because level draining is nasty.

The belt from Trademeet comes to mind.

I would think it possible to solo an Inquisitor. Right now I just finished SoA and I'm starting ToB. Not soloing, but when properly equipped, my Inquisitor is very capable of handling most any situation. He has the saves to deal with death traps, the HP and Thaco for melee, and above all, the True Sight and Dispel magic at double your level make previously difficult fights very very easy. Firkraag could be tricky, it's true. But if you're high enough level, you should be able to stand toe to toe with him.

Dragon-killing with a solo kensai can be a problem. I suggest you buy Ras, the dancing blade, in trademeet (allows you to summon a floating sword like Mordy's blade, also immune to any type of physical damage) and bring your choice of ranged weapons (throwings axes or daggers). Ras will give you a free two rounds to try to pound the Dragon with everything you possibly have(Use potion of Heroism, or potions with similar effect to boost your melee abilities). Use the Efreeti bottle in trademeet to summon an Efreet to eat the Shadow Dragon's Death Spell first.

If you run out of options melee, use hit and run tactics with your ranged weapons. Or you can try to do Ranged Attacks first so you exhaust the Shadow Dragon's options(ie, his breath attacks, wing buffet,etc), before summoning Ras and wading into melee. (Make sure you've made the Dragon lose his one memorized Death Spell first)

Actually I'm not sure what you would do since the time I soloed a Kensai I was LVL 21 when I killed the Dragons.

Ras, the dancing blade, in trademeet (allows you to summon a floating sword like Mordy's blade, also immune to any type of physical damage) is this available in an unmodded game? from whom?

From the guy who looks like a nobleman, in the row of merchants.
But the blade only works for 4 rounds and has a lousy thac0. :(

My current solo project is Kensai, so no traps, no arrow of dispelling. Just need more and more fodders, where is the Efreeti bottle in Trademeet ? Is it available in the unmodded game, I play this game for years and don't recall anything like this.

Btw, I didn't know that monks can use all kind of wands and Keldorn can use the harp of confusion (so any Inquisitor can use this, I suppose)

It is available, yes, the Dao who floats next to the entrance to Dao camp has the bottle.
I'm not sure if you can use Staff of Fire (Planar Sphere), but if you can, 5 elementals will rush to your aid.

Monks can't use wands, it's been fixed in Baldurdash. (but in the original game yes, they can)

Ras is more useful as a meat shield than anything else.
Kensais can use the Staff of Fire, iirc. If you "recharge" the staff (sell and buy it form a merchant) every once in a while, you can have an near-unlimited supply of fodder.
There's alsp the Staff of Air, but you can only summon an Air Elemental one at a time.

The efreeti bottle can be taken from the genie at the outside of the tent in trademeet. There is also a berseker to be summoned from a horn, and you can find that in a house at the bridge district, with the halfling who sells fish in front of it. I do use the staff of air, not just for the elemental, but also for the sleep cloud you can cast from it, works just like a stinking cloud:)

Wah, I didn't know that staff is usable for everyone except monk, and although I have played this game a milions of times, I just killed those Dao Djinni for once, and long long ago :doh:

Another cool thing about the staff of command, it seems there's no save for domination from it, Korgan has -4 save vs spell, and I can charmed him alright. Maybe that's a bug ? My game got a lot of bug recently, just yesterday, my PC immune to all status ailments :shake:

It's not a bug IMO, 'cause there's nothing about saving thr in the description ! :D

But it doesn't work on magic-immune creatures. :(

So mind-control circlet is better, but the supply is not unlimited.

My fave solo is the Undead Hunter Paladin. She kicks everything out of her way, is immune to hold AND level drain, and can chunk undead with a look. Best solo ever.

I'm soloing a monk at the moment - Thank God I haven't used the Boulderdash fixpack since I've had liberal use of my wand of fire :D

As with all solo char's the hardest part are things that confuse you since all of a sudden you're a sitting duck. Of course, a maze spell and it's reload time. Other than those, not too difficult, so far: Underdark, level 28 or something, thac0 of -13 I think, four attacks per round, damage *should be* range of 14-33 or some such :) so with a few HLA's we're looking at some rather liberal damage. Greater WW - 10 * 23.5 at the mo. I wonder how many rounds Firkrag will go with me in the dance of avg 230 or so damage per round?

I'm plotting serious destruction in chapter 6 :D

Oh yeah, does anyone remember what level I get +4 fists? I mean to hammer Kangaxx hard, but of course I need to be able to hit him.

lv25 :thumb:

I really shouldn't let my monk go pass lv25 though, he's ridiculous powerful. I just leave him there in the Kuro-Toan city, go make a cup of tea, and come back pick up the spoils :(

when i was telling that a monk is an awsome character everyone was making fun of me...and NOW here he comes to prove me correct...i still insist that the best characters for solo are : assasin, monk and sorcerer.

Don't know about assassin, but hey, I won't contradict you about the other two :)

Seriously, not "everyone" was making fun. Many people (me me me!) do consider a high-level monk to be the ultimate killing machine. But others feel it takes too long for his power to mature (the Kensai/Mage has the same problem, until you reactivate Kensai levels), and therefore don't play him long enough.

I'm sure others will also say soloing a Monk can get boring. When you have such a powerful tank, which on top of it doesn't require any items, you're reducing character management both in and out of combat. That can get pretty boring when your monk can kill everything on an area map while you go have lunch (or a cup of tea if you prefer :) ). At least with a Sorcerer or a Ranger/Cleric you need to provide some input when it comes to spellcasting.

Well, you can solo a Monk in TOB only ! ;) This way you're a killing automation from the very start.

My monk got 1st HLA at lv20, means he got 2 HLAs before breaking the 3mil exp cap. Wonder if this is a bug ?

And does their fists get some dmg bonus ? I see him doing 3x dmg quite often (19 str), I know monks' fists do 1d20 dmg and all but is that enough, shouldn't they just do 27 dmg for maximum ?

Another thing I totally forgot, while monks have only 1 atk/round with melee weapon, they can make it up by using whirlwind, damn, now where's my dragon slayer, black razor... :(

Actually, a rather good question that: What is the damage calculation for my monk?

Level 28 so 1-20 from fists, fine.

+9 I think from str 21 :D
+4 from the gauntlets of crushing (I do hate having to side with that maniac, but needs must)

Do I get an additional +4 for the +4 weapon that's my bare knuckles now, or is that already accounted for in the 1-20 effectively?

I've just fried Saladrex the biggy insect - taste like chicken :yum: . I didn't know his claws are that short till I run to the exit. So with 2 rings of fire resistant, I just stood there kicking his butt :shake: And while dragon fear seems ignore magic resistant, lower fire resist does not, so convenient

Another pathetic dragon is in the courage test to the final seal. This one got a poison breath, what a nice breath :lol:

One thing I don't understand though, why true-sight does not dispel my mirror image from the Ilbratha sword. And why the hell can they dispel magic me so easy. Dispel can't go thru magic resist, and they're are nowhere near lv40 to make that spell work anyway :nolike:

The final seal battle is quite easy. Nasmirra, the drow wiz, Hive Mother are out (although cause serious wound goes thru magic resis, cloak of Mirroring save my ass). The huntress uses +1 arrow, out. T'yosshi can't hit me (-20AC) - she did give me some nice crit hits though :( . Xe Win Toh got a smite to his head, then followed by greater whirlwind :p

One interesting note, when I tried to retreat to the east gate, there're 5 golems waiting, they messed up the battle, badly. I retreated to the west gate, in hope that the golems can't go pass those 4 pillars, the plan worked. And the skel surrounded me, gave no room for the other big bad guys, I skipped the skels, use my oh-so-long fists to kill big guys :shake:

Now comes the Demogorgon, any tip ? :)

[ March 11, 2005, 17:26: Message edited by: Minh So ]

Tip? With Cloak of Mirroring and AC -20? :p