Solo nightmare

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Maybe it is a little too early for this attempt,
but sooner or later it is inevitable anyway ^^.

I start this thread to gather information on which talents/spells seem to be useful for this attempt, what kinds of builds you would use and what tactics/builds have been proven useful already.

My rules for solo nightmare would be as follows:
1) You walk alone, obviously
2) If NPCs are forced in party, set follower mode to manual, so they are left behind on the battlefield.
3) Don't use NPCs, to gather items or for crafting purposes, locking picks or whatever.
4) Reload is allowed, this is not solo nightmare hardcore .

One should play this game with NPCs first time nontheless, because they are wonderfully done, but I like the solo challenge, similar to solo challenges in BG.

Ok, my first attempt is with a mage, though I've heard that it has been done with rogues already.
Origin is done, I'm in the Korcari wilds currently.

I started with Winter's Grasp (control+damage) and Mindblast (short AOE control). Then Frost Weapons (useless) to get Cone of Cold (great spell, freezes + damage, short reload time). With this combo, the Origin story was no problem at all (well 2 reloads, but I have to get used to it).

My last point went to Blizzard, so I have one big AOE damage spell, that offers good control as well (The whole cold line is pretty strong, imho).

I will put one point to force field, obviously, but after this I am not set, yet.

Sleep seems strong, but will cost 3 points. Mass Paralyze even costs 4 points.
I guess the glyphs are best then, because glyph of Repulsion will cost 3 points, but the first glyph (of Paralyze) is useful too, and both together will offer a hardly resistable AOE stun.

Well, I'm just in the beginning, so if anyone wants to join with his own plans, suggestions or attempts of doing this, feel welcome ^^.

 

Since there is no way to combine a mage and rogue there is really no way to solo the game. Magic is vital in the game as it makes battles easier and opening chest is some what vital to get some of the better treasure. I truly believe you need at least one NPC with you to play the whole game.

 

Nawh, I didn't have a rogue in my party for the whole game. I use lelianna for a few seconds before I ditched her; but I rarely opened locked chests. You can buy a lot of the best mage items in the magic shop in Denerim. And all the +20% damage gloves are found in unlocked chests, on corpses or through events. Many +damage rings are found that way too; as well as all the best staves.

As far as spells go, I highly suggest you branch into the sleep tree. Every spell except disorient is top knotch, and will let you survive those big groups even better. Then maybe the anti-mage tree for Spell Burst, since any mage boss is going to be immune to crowd control, can attack from far, and most mage leaders seem to have crushing prison. Spell burst one shots almost all of them, spell might makes your normal spells much better.

Random side notes, I'd definitely take herbalism if I was solo'ing, going to the mage tower first after you're free to choose and making a 99 stack of mana potions. Also buying all the +spell point mage books you can find.

 

I guess the game can be soloed by a rogue or a mage. The rogue will have to hide a lot and thus will avoid some fights whereas the mage will have to use some serious spell casting to get through the game. A warrior would be a much harder character to solo. I can't start to imagine the pain of stacking so many potions and the horror of getting grabbed by a large foe which would mean game over.

I wish you luck hannibal555, I don't think that this is the type of games that are meant to be played that way but kudos for trying. I'd rather enjoy the complexity of followers in my next run.

EDIT: just thought of a reason why a real solo wouldn't work.

Spoiler

The Gauntlet in the Sacred Ashes quest where you have to use your followers to cross the bridge.

 

Concerning your spoiler, you are definitely right.
But I guess, you can still solo in the limitations of the game.
Where it by all means won't let you, you can't do anything about it, so I wouldn't consider it kind of a 'cheat' in the meaning of a solo run through the game.
In your mentioned case, i would put the needed NPCs to manual mode, solve the riddel, and then let them be or ditch them.
On a sidenote, would minions do in this case? As far as I know a mage can only have 1, as well as a rogue (Ranger pet), so that wouldn't help either.
Hmm, I haven't tested this yet, but I guess a temporarily converted enemy by a mage spell can't be ordered directly by the player, can he ?

As for your concern, this game isn't meant to be soloed: you're right!
But BG II wasn't either, it was fun to solo nontheless - as was a party playtrough. These are two different ways of playing the game, where one part is more heavy on the powergamer strategical side and the other in the enjoyment of story and party management.
I like actually both.

edit:
@MunchkinBlender
There have been already solo runs by both, a mage and a rogue, if the people that posted it on the official boards are to be believed.
Even in nightmare mode.
The key element concerning the rougue is the talent Combat Stealth.
In the case of the mage it would be a good mix of crowd control and damage dealing spells.
Concerning the warrior, well that would be hard, but I wouldn't be impressed if sooner or later someone solos him, too.

 

At least in BG2 you get some rewards from soloing. Since Dragon Age doesn't work that way it is probably much harder to solo. Since you'll be skipping some quests you'll end up getting less XP as well. The only advantage is that a solo character in Dragon Age doesn't have to worry about inventory space but that's hardly comparable to getting a high level character before leaving Athkatla in BG2.

 

Well, it's not about the reward for me to level faster or similar, but rather the challenge.
I have to stress, though, that I am still in the beginning, so I can't say too much about doing a complete solo run.
This thread is therefore meant to be more of a discussion type on how possibly to overcome certain obstacles and the like.
And, if someone has already done it, he can share his wisdom, obviously ^^.

About skipping sidequests, I don't really think this will be mandatory.
But time will tell .

edit:
will finish Korcari Wilds today, maybe begin Tower of Ishal.
Due to RL I don't have too much time, but will do it slowly.

 

Spoilers following:
I bet it's doable with a sword and shield warrior in massive armor. Dual wield definitely does more damage with passives and two weapons with high elemental damage mods, but sword and shield can survive much better while still dealing decent damage. Maybe not against dragons though. Spend 100 gold on that axe from camp until you get the sword from the dwarven area, socket it with three grand master runes and you'll do a lot of damage, and still have insane survivability.

 

I think soloing, for the challenge, is a silly idea. It only proves that you have sunk too much time into RPGs, and is thus per se depressing as it suggests that, in order to be so good at a computer game that you can solo a game meant for four chars, you must have no life

Alas, if you would do it in order to have fun, that'd be another matter entirely, but as you said, that's not the case ...

 

Warden's Keep solves the inventory space problem.

 

I think you misunderstand me.
I don't find it depressing and i have indeed a life despite being able to game ^^.
By the way soloing is not that hard as you might probably guess.
Some spells are actuall pretty powerful (if not cheesy).
By the way, why excludes, having a challenge, fun?
Actually, having a challenge IS fun .


Small update:
Korcari wilds done.
Blizzard is ok for big groups, though it doesn't work always.
Best spell is Cone of Cold.
Ambushes of Rogues are solved by Mind Blast/CoC.
Biggest pain so far are archers, because blizzard is sometimes resisted, and they have a huge range and do big damage. Melees are far easier so far.
I'm lvl 5 now and having 2 more spell slots after becoming a warden.
One is spent for Force field the other one i don't know where to spend yet.
I omitted one small side quest

Spoiler

where you put some ashes on a pile of rock and an ash beast appears (iirc).
He's too powerful yet, but i tried only once.

Tower of ishal is waiting, now.

@Rahkir
warrior solo still sounds very grindy for me.
But if you want to try it, I'd be interested how it goes .

 

Going back to Warden's Keep all the time is a pain... There is a mod that puts a chest in your camp (that should have been in the original game).

@Hannibal555: no friendly fire is quite nice for a mage.

 

hannibal,
beside the point. I could solo too. I don't do it because for all the aforementioned reasons it would depress me.

 

@Raguse
I didn't want to advertise soloing.
I just like it and hope others might, too.
I did enjoy my first run with Leliana Zevran and Wynne as well.
For me that's simply two different approaches to the game, though I can understand if the concept of solo runs doesn't sound fun for others.



from now on some SPOILERS are inevitable, but I try to keep them low.


update:
Tower is done.
And it was a pain (@Ragusa: but in a fun way, I hope you'll understand me ).
Mobs were mainly finished by Blizzard and CoC.
Hadn't I used so much lyrium potions the ogre wouldn't have been so hard.
Just spamming CoC, running in circles and repeat.
Grasp of Cold was mostly resisted, but CoC worked fine.

I'm still not decided on which spells to choose next.
So far my favorites are:
a) Sleep line (Sleep and Waking Nightmare) - i don't know if it will be resisted too often in nightmare mode, though.
b) Glyph line - I read, that they are pretty strong. Gl. of repulsion on top of a Gl. of Paralyze gives a AOE stun that is hardly resistable.
But that sounds a bit uncomfortable, because you have to cast 2 spells, where otherwise one would suffice (sleep?).
c) virulent bomb line - one can milk quite some damage out of it, theoretically. And you get a pet as 4th spell.

 

hannibal, don't you notice I'm pulling your leg?

 

Ehh, the virulent bomb tree is okay, but I never found it too special, more so in a solo, where it will be harder to control. I played through the whole game in nightmare on my mage, and rarely did sleep get resisted, or coc, or anything really. I was very disappointed with nightmare, it didn't seem much harder than normal. (I never actually beat the game on normal, but my mage was my third character, so I felt confident enough in my skills to beat the game on nightmare). I never used the glyph spells, so I can't comment there.

 

But I don't want my leg to be pulled .

@Rahkir:
Hmm I guess i go with sleep then.

 

Are you playing the game on PC? Did you get the patch? If you did not patch the game than your normal play through was actually on the Nightmare level. I believe the patch fixed this issue or made Nightmare harder. I don't remember which issue it was - normal playing to Nightmare level or Nightmare playing to normal

 

I did get the patch before playing my mage; the first couple days I was messing around with other origins anyway. I wasn't aware of that bug though!

 

Me neither. If that's so then it would explain why I felt the game was becoming rather easy lately...