Im planning on soloing the game and would like some input on char creation. How does an evil drow sorcerer maybe MC with fighter or rouge sound to you? Is it at all possible to solo? Maybe I should take along his hired thug the half-orc barbarian? All thoughts and comments are welcome. :)

As most of us agrees,sorcerer or monk is the best solo character.But HoF players say that in HoF sorcerer is better than monk.Try a paladin 1/sorc x character
-IMO Drow Sorcerer and multiclassing with it is not good,because you're going -2 levels,you are a sorcerer so you will learn level 2 spells at lvl 4 which means level 6 for a sorcerer,and since drow's favored class isn't sorcerer when you multiclass you get -%20 experience.So that doesn't sound good to me.I really wish that they made drow wizards good,(like in books)but i think they're not good :( :( :(

[ January 21, 2003, 18:40: Message edited by: Khelben ]

I'd go sorcerer with 1 level of cleric to be able to heal yourself. The biggest problem is walking for a million years to find someone to heal you. Or else make it a sorcerer/bard...

Humans won't get the huge xp penalty since it will ignore the highest level.

Y'know, somehow I doubt the mc penalty will matter much when you consider the amount of xp a solo character would get.

If you're into spells, do the thing with the sorcerer, or else use a monk of the old order, mc to a painbearer to cast healing spells, kill things, have fun, let us know how it goes.

Even the moore if yer consider that the 20% loss is minor in compare to a 2nd char (100% split into 2 thus 50% for you, against the 80% you have with the xp penalty when solo).

I'm currently in the process of soloing a drow sorcerer, and I'm level 14 while having barely scratched the surface of the game. You know how cloudkill normally just gets rid of pesky units and does damage to wizards maybe? At the rate of experience and levelling I did, it was ending battles before they started. Oh, and go drow all the way. The spell resistance is by far worth it. After a potion that gave me +2 permanent, a caster of equal level has a 60% chance of his spell failing against my sorcerer. And my sorcerer is about 5 or 6 levels higher than any of the ones I'm fighting right now, making it more like 90%. As for multiclassing, hmm... you can buy a pantload of potions from whatshisface with all of the money you save from not having to buy party members equipment. Oh, you can buy nearly infinite 9 damage healers from that gnome, so I have a bag of holding with about 400 in it. And most the time when I'm injured I just rest anyway. Don't multiclass IMO, just go with it. You'll be amazed at the XP.

[ January 22, 2003, 13:12: Message edited by: Taluntain ]

If I were using a drow character, I would go with a wizard/monk class. Therefore eliminating the MC penalty. Just my two cents.

Thanks for the input! Hopefuly I will have the time in the weekend to try him out. :)

If you get the paladin 1/sorcerer X, aasimar is better than drow, IMO. Thinking of it again, spell resistance can worth it.
Deep gnome monk, half orc barbarian can be other overpowered builds.
However, I have doubts that any melee character can beat the game by himself.

Just one simple question..... HOW THE HELL DO YOU KILL THE PORTAL GUARDIAN IN SOLO PLAY!?

be level 30.

Ooh hell, the Guardian. Well, a sorcerer will have spells that can take it out, but the panic... Try holding on to the Worg Collar you get at the Targos Palisade. It's supposed to prevent you from panicking. Then 'Lower Resist' and 'Disintegrate' or well... I guess you'd have 'Power Word: Kill' by then. If you go the Sorcerer(ess) route, then you'll have the necessary spells to take it down, I'm sure.

I'm gonna take a drow Paladin/Sorcerer through, and see how far I get. My thoughts are that the beginning will be a bit tough, due to low class levels, but once I get those sorcerer's spells going, and those levels pumping, I'll be fine.

Think about it. Added SavingThrows and spellresistance :D Who cares about a 20% multiclassing penalty anyway when you've got all those monsters walking around like bags of experience on feet! :grin:

Edit: Mhmm... So I made a drow Paladin of Mystra and just gave him a level in sorcerer. But I'm not seeing the 20% multiclassing penalty tag in the characterscreen. See here (http://www.freewebsitehosting.net/websites/Faragon/faragon.jpg)

I went with the 4 leftover points (After maxing CHA and CON) in INT for the extra skillpoints. I do want to be able to get my concentration reasonably high, as well as the conversational skills.

[ January 31, 2003, 09:57: Message edited by: Faragon ]

I wouldn't use a paladin as a solo character, he refuses most of the rewards you will get from quests, so you are going to miss a lot of good stuff! But I would take a Drow wizard/fighter becouse that is a flexible combination. you'll have a good charisma (wich you will certainly need for conversation purposes!) becouse of the Drow race, and a Drow has wizard as his favored class so you can multiclass a lot without getting an xp penalty. Just my opinion ;)

Edit: Faragorn you don't see an xp penalty becouse your character levels are balanced. If there isn't a difference of more than 2 levels between your levels you won't get an xp penalty!

[ January 31, 2003, 10:02: Message edited by: Ancalìmon The Wise ]

Thanx for the heads up on the experience penalty thing.

Drow Wizard/Fighter? Sorry, but I don't think that'd be wise for soloing. Statwise you'd be medium, because you'd have to divide your stats between STR, CON and INT. Now if you also want CHA for conversational skills, you'd either have to min/max a lot, or half halfway stats for all.

With Drow Pal/Sorc you can have the stats I have in the link above (10,10,16,14,10,20) and you've got all you need. With Fighter/Wizard I'd get: 14,10,16,16,10,14. (Not min/maxing) Nice, but fit for solo? I don't know. Now of course you can draw points from WIS and DEX, but then you'd be wrecking those stats and iirc getting penalties on your savingthrows.

What makes the Pal/Sorc such a good combination is that it draws the two biggest advantages (namely spellpower/number and bonus savingthrows) out of one stat, namely CHA.

Another advantage of the Pal/Sorc (over the Fighter/Wizard) is that you take only one level of Paladin, purely for the SavingThrow bonus. After that you only pump the Sorcererclass. The disadvantage of having a Wizard/Fighter, is that in order to have both classes good, they require levels. If you don't level the fighterclass, you won't be able to hit a damn thing later on, and if you don't level the wizard, you won't have high level spells.

I'm not sure if some of the rewards are that important, but to me it seems the Pal/Sorc is a lot more practical for soloing than the Fighter/Wizard. And like I said before, a 20% penalty isn't very painfull I think, because you will get loads of EXP anyway.

OK, I'd have to agree partially that a paladin/sorcerer is a good choice, especially becouse of the charisma, wich i hadn't thought about. But still I find a 20% xp penalty and not much rewards very bad. A paladin/sorcerer will work in the earlier chapters, but at some point in the game, you're going to be underpowered (20% penalty!) and your hp and fighting skills will really be too low! There are creatures you can onlydefeat with melee attacks and not with sorcery. You should bear that in mind when starting your game. Also, I do not think it is worth it to get an 20% xp penalty just becouse you want a bit stronger saving throws. I change my opinion: A fighter/sorcerer is the best for me becouse you need high charisma anyway for converational purposes. The saving throw bonuses are nice, but in the end they wont really help you much. ;)

what about soloing with a deep gnome monkx/clericx?

yes, there will be an exp penalty, and the race is ECL, but I would think with all of the exp you get playing solo, and you wont really notice it...

I know there is at least one monk order that allows you to multiclass freely back and forth with a specific cleric domain...

and since Wis is important for the monk, and also has the cleric's spells based off of Wis, with the +2 Wis bonus of the deep gnome, you could start out at 20 Wis. add in the natural spell resistance of the deep gnome (and possibly the eventual spell resistance of the monk levels), innate spellcasting (mirror image, invisibility, blur), saving throw bonuses, and other minor benefits, and you have a lot of additional bonuses/abilities that the deep gnome gives you that may be very useful as a solo char.

thoughts?

You're forgetting some serious disadvantages:
-The monk needs a pretty high strength if he hopes to survive and deal some damage, and a deep gnome gets a -2 to strength
-If you play solo, you can't play without a reasonable to high charisma. A deep gnome gets a -4 to charisma! You'll miss a lot of dialogue options and quests and their rewards this way.
-Your character will level up very slow (deep gnomes' levels are considered 3 levels higher when the exp for advancing levels is determined)wich means you will soon be seriously underpowered!
-And finally, who wants to play through the game with nothing but a little twerp?? :lol: (just joking!)

I wasnt sure about Str with a monk... I figured the char would only get enough monk levels to get whatever useful benefits there are... melee would be in the begining game only, anyway, correct?

I thought there would easily be enough exp around without all of the dialog options available for a solo char...

I figured that the spell resistance, bonuses to saving throws, and innate spell ability would really help this character get thru the game, and would be worth the tradeoff of ECL.

what about a solo deep gnome cleric only?

or solo deep gnome druid?

I thought that the major exp awards were due to completing certain tasks and such, and that the huge exp gained from battles with a solo char would more than make up the difference to the minor exp losses due to some dialog options not being available...

You really like gnomes don't you? The defences of your character are certainly ok, but the offence is more important. The faster you bring 'em down, the less damage they do. And don't underestimate how much exp you can get with extra dialogue options! A druid would be a good idea, becouse he can wild shape into powerful melee creatures as well as some strong offensive spells. But you need to balance your stats with a deep gnome druid and I also advise you multiclass the Druid to a cleric for healing and defensive spells. The main problem with a druid is that he can't cast spells if you want a decent attack power(wild shape!)he can cast spells, but then he is a poor melee fighter. You can solve that problem by increasing strength, but then again, like I said, you will have to balance your stats. :D

I am not especially fond of gnomes... I just thought that they might be one of the best races to try to get thru the game solo due to their natural abilities...

I figured there was almost no way to solo the game as a melee character. It just seems to me that your character would get swarmed at almost every turn, and you would never have a high enough AC to prevent significant damage.

thus, I figured that a solo char would melee in the beginning of the game only, and only until they get decent higher level spells.

so, if the solo char was going to be primarily a spellcaster (primarily = 4 or 5 chapters of the game) that a low Str initially would not be a factor, and that increasing Str would not be worth reducing other stats that would be more important for a larger portion of the game.

I figurd that AoE spells and summons would be a viable way to get thru the game, considering that melee will be very difficult to do solo...

the druid has shapeshifting which could help initially, as well as some AoE spells that would slow the enemies down...

depending on which cleric, you can have some great summons and/or buffs/debuffs

and you could also use ranged weapons as support, since you should already be out of melee action casting spells...

I am in no way set on this build or this char, I was just wondering if it is a viable solo char to try... deep gnome is the only race that gives a Wis bonus, and thought that could be very important for # of spells, as well as the difficulty of the saving throws against your spells... I definitely appreciate the input.

Let's just put it this way: you need a good melee and a good magic skill and healing possibilities = druidx/clericx :D

@Ancalimon, just about what you said above. Strenth isn't the monk's best stat. Me and a few others would agree that it is Wisdom (for Armour Class. A monk applies his Wisdom to AC) and Dexterity (for more AC). Stick a Weapon Finesse in there at first level, and you'll be using Dexterity for Attack Bonus.
:)
INT isn't really nessecary unless you want to max out at some Diplomacy/Bluff/Intimidate skills, or identify items.
CHA isn't really important since you can't get maximum rewards anyway because you're monk. Or if you want to fully use Diplomacy/Bluff/Intimidate then fine.
STR i said about above.
CON is quite important for Hp, always a major factor in a Solo game.
As for saving throws, you've got a high Reflex(charisma), a high Will(wisdom) and possibly a high Fortitude(constitution).

@Topic. Personally, I favour the Paladin/Sorcerer, they are unbelievably powerful at high levels.

[ January 31, 2003, 15:00: Message edited by: Gopher ]

i think u can't finish solo in defeating the demon on the ice temple.....it needs 2 other character to step the shadow....

Well Gopher, you're pretty much right. I forgot about the weapon finesse and all the other stuff you said is right. But still, I'd go for a fighter/sorcerer. :D

2 characters to step on the shadow? Maybe I missed out on something when I went through the IceTemple, but the only shadow is a trap, and you only need one character to fire the prism device to open the door...

Stick a Weapon Finesse in there at first level, and you'll be using Dexterity for Attack Bonus. There is no such thing for monk in IWD2. Unarmed attack will only use STR modifier, unless you altered the game by installing a patch or something.

There is such a thing. Just use weapon finesse , equip a weapon and watch how your monk slowly forms a mountain of goblin chunks. Faragon didn't say he would take weapon finesse and then attack unarmed, he would attack armed. (I think) :D

And I've got a new suggestion: What about a wizardx/sorcererx? I tried that and it works wonderfully. The goblins can't even get near! The amount of spells he has memorized and can cast is vast. You'll need 3 ranks in armored arcana though, and thoughness would also help. What do you guys think?

[ February 01, 2003, 10:33: Message edited by: Ancalìmon The Wise ]

Faragon didn't say anything concerning weapon finesse :grin: ;)

I know, Gopher said it. I was wrong sorry ;) What do you think of my suggestion above?

Lots of low level spells, hardly any high level ones. You're better off with a straight sorcerer. Toughness is one of the lousiest feats in the game, because even if you invest 5 featpoints in it, you will only have gained 15hp. Not at all worth it. Those 5 would be better invested in feats that boost savings and spellpenetration. And as for Armored Arcana, once you get stoneskin, AC is rather useless.

Well, can you do stoneskin all the time? I don't think it's safe to rely on this spell. The character has to wear some armour. For instance, if you get ambushed by a band of Orcs? (we are playing in HoF!) You definatly won't have the time to cast stoneskin, and then move on to attacking. In the meantime, you are already dead.
It's better to play safe and have some armour on, so I think armored arcana is definatly worth taking some ranks in. Toughness isn't really good, I agree. But it might be the 15 hp that saved your life against that tough dragon. And 15 hp is al lot for Soprcerer/wizard. And if you balance your skillpoints out a bit, you will certainly have powerful enough spells. ;)

Deep gnome/Monk Lv30 Perfect class

STR:16
DEX:20(+5 to Ac)
CON:10
WIS:20(+5 to Ac)
INT:13
CHA:1

Important feats:Expertise,Power attack
AC:10(default)+5(dex)+5(wis)+4(race)+5(expertise)
29+7=36.If you use the Empty body this gives you
50% bonus to AC or AC becomes 54 making you impossible to hit the 30LV fighter can hit you only with criticals so for the HOF monsters.You will have 7 AP until LV30 so better give some to
STR and others to DEX because Improved evasion is
very important.Spell resistance is 50 wich means that a spellcaster must be Lv30 and roll d20 to
beat your spell resistance or 14-20 with greater
spell penetration.Stunning attack can be quite deadly because if he stuns you all of his attack
are sure strike and when switched to Power attack
he does 1D20+1D10+5(PA)+???(STR mod).There are a
lot of cool items for monks.Monks can do 5 attack
per round.He is very fast making it impossible to
catch with other classes.Animals can`t do him much
harm because he has 20/1 damage resistance.The DEX
boots in chapter 6 are a great Monk item giving
him +5 to dex.

*stunned by those stats*
(but your CHA is way too low for a solo :D ;) )

Ah, my mistake above. Monks Fists' do not count as a weapon usable by Weapon Finesse. I am using one of Weimer's infamous mods, which amongst other things counts Fists as "Small Weapons", ie. allowing Weapon Finesse to be used with them.

Sorry for any confusion.
Regardless, that monk seems quite alright.