Solo: Weapon choices

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Um, this solo thing is starting to appeal to me and I was wondering what weapons do you recommend? The obvious choices are Flail of the Ages, Celestial Fury, Equalizer (love the immunities) and Crom Faeyr. For missles, Gensen and Taiguin shortbows and Everard's sling.

Of those who've gone it 'alone', what do you use? And how do you allocate your proficiency points? If thetruth is out there (shuddap, Mulder ), what did the famous fighter use? I'd want GM in *something* as a fighter!

Also, for those classes who choices are restricted - mages, clerics - what are the options?

I'd hate to put a point in...I can't think of bad example, but in *something* and discover I'm not using that type of weapon.

TIA

 

Weapon choices depend greatly on what class you use. You can solo as anything (as thetruth showed), so any choice is valid, really. Backstabbing types would want to look to the relevant bladed weapons (don't ignore short swords or daggers; there are many good examples, especially in ToB!), and Clerics will probably be safe with mace, hammer, flail and sling.

Mages should go for Staves (Staff o' Magi, for it's ridiculous abilities) then Slings (Everard's) and Daggers (for throwing daggers, which net you +1 attack/round over a sling). Darts are normally best avoided, but you'll have to take the proficiency eventually, anyway.

As a fighter, GM may not be the best option - what with the need for versatility, you may end up having to use a wide selection of weaponry, rather than focus. Also, GM was seriously nerfed in BG2. In general, there are powerful weapons in just about every class, but I can't remember many good spears or Halberds (at least, in SoA), so avoid these until later.

For missile weapons, short bows are the obvious choice, but some decent, easy to obtain crossbows do exist (the +4 unlimited ammo crossbow sold atop Watcher's Keep, for instance, can be got as soon as you have the money), and the bow string of Gond allows a suitable longbow to be crafted. Throwing daggers are a good choice in SoA, because they get both the same rate of fire as bows and a strength bonus to damage (IIRC). This makes Fullen's or Firetooth quite probably a better bet than Tansheron's or Gesen's for damage output! Throwing axes get the strength bonus too, but lack the +1 attack. It's also worth noting that Kensai and Cavaliers can both use thrown weapons (but not darts!).

Hope that helps!

 

if you are a mage staff of magi is essential instant invis makes solo possible plus dispel on hit.
have to kill Shangalar in bridge district to get it tho.
staff of the ram is the most damaging weapon around 70 damage on a critical hit is possible.
Had a fighter with grand mastery in darts once. 5 attacks each doing 10 or so damage. Improved haste and not much could appoach and live. Crimson dart +3 from watchers Keep made this workable but apart from cloak of the stars darts there are no others higher so litches dragons etc are immune
as far as i know staff of the magi and carsomyr are the only "dispel on hit" weapons
Depends what you want to play as really

 

Like Magpie said, it depends on what class you are soloing (which you helpfully neglected to mention ) but since you mentioned mages and clerics I will start with some good choices for them.

Mage:

Early game - darts (seriously) and a Martial +3 staff
Mid Game - darts +1/normal darts and Staff of Rhynn/ specialist staves such as Staff of Air for the abilities.
Late Game - Staff of the magi

Cleric - Im just going to reel some off because there are quite a few good choices:

Dual Weilding or single - Crom Faer, Flail of Ages
Ranged - Sling of Seeking, Sling of Everard (for when you need to hit enemies where you need high enchanted weapons)
Two Handed style - (early) Staff of Curing in the Graveyard district is very handy imo, later the Staff of Rhynn and in ToB Staff of the Ram (i think thats what it is called

For thieves or multis that like backstabbing:

Celestial Fury, Malakar, Staff of the Ram ToB, Hindo's Doom +4 ToB... I go katana because of the higher damage.

If you can use axes, the fixed (making it match its stats in the description) Azuredge is very effective against Undead... especially Liches who never seem to make their saving throw (Do Liches have low save vs spells or something?)

Carmosyr is a pain because of its dodgy magic resistance.... it sets the base magic resistance to 50% instead of adding to the current meaning that everytime it is equiped you have to go through all your equipment again and re-equip.

Ranged: Crossbows do the most damage but have lower rate of fire (a Firetooth Crossbow with Bolts of Lightning is insane in the hands of an archer ). Longbows have good rate of fire, do decent damage and there is a good one available from Ribald at the start. Shortbows have the Gesen bow, Tansherons bow and Tuigen... all handy. darts are weak but have good rate of fire and so can be deadly. Slings are a pile of pap, except the Sling of seeking which adds strength modifier to it.

 

What I was thinking of soloing? Gnome cleric/thief. Yeah, yeah, halforcs get a 19 strength, but I created this neato gnome C/T in BG1 and the stats are too good to ignore. It limits my choices, but I think I need something like that. I'll feel like I'm getting more out of my PC than just being able to wield any old thing.

edit: i'm not a piece of cheese anymore!

 

Ok, for a gnome C/T you'll be looking at either staves or clubs for backsmacking, and FoA for more up-front work. The Sling of Everard is your sole ranged option. Single weapon style is good for backstabs (doubles critical threat range), but you may want to dual-wield for the extra attack, or use a shield for extra AC and immunities (Shield of Harmony springs to mind). Unfortunately, my knowledge of clubs is severely limited, so I shall gracefully retire to let someone else have a say.

But only after adding that Blackblood +3 is quite good, as is the +2 club that adds 2 bonus points of damage / round (that even goes through protections!). I can't recall the name, though.

And I know what you mean about the ugly, ugly Tchazar gem; I buckled and acquired an Avatar... not to mention the warm, fuzzy glow inside at having donated to SP!

 

Don't forget Use Any Item! That should be the first Thief HLA you get, and then you can use ANYTHING!

 

What's this stuff about "thetruth"? I feel like I'm missing something...

For a Gnome Cleric/Thief, I'd suggest staves as well (with the option of only one point in any proficiency, your options will be many, which is good). If you put a point in Single Weapon Style, the Staff-Club +2 will be awesome for you.

That Blackblood Club is actually +3, and is another great backstabbing one handed weapon. I prefer Gnasher, which continues to do damage several rounds after hitting the enemy (you might find that to be the most difficult part of playing a Cleric/Thief -- your THAC0 isn't very good). Eventually, there's an awesome staff in ToB, which will be the best backstabbing weapon in the game.

Does this bypass the weapon restrictions of a Cleric? If it does, can you actually become proficient in sharp and pointy things?

 

thetruth is out there...

But basically, he soloed the entire damn game with a vanilla fighter, which is easily the most difficult (and arguably the most dull) solo you could do... Think about it; no spells (save for items), no skills or traps... It ought to have been impossible, really.

But that shows what I know...

@ Klorox: whilst you can use any weapon, you cannot become proficient in it, as you retain the same proficiency table (cleric). Similarly, "doctored" multiclasses (Cleric/Swashbuckler, specifically) don't get the ability to put ++ in a melee weapon. Still, there may be times when the -4 THAC0 penalty could be worth it, but I doubt it.

 

On the subject of soloing, has it really been done with every class?

I agree, the fighter is probably the hardest, but how about somehting like the Beastmaster... that would probably be pretty hard too.

 

Yeah, Beastmaster would be pretty tough; reading thetruth's posts again, the FoA saved his ass repeatedly. Without it, you'd certainly have a much harder time, and I doubt if the Ranger spells (being cack) would compensate for this - and other weapons - lost. I mean, you'd be down to clubs, staves and spears, ferchristsake!

 

I still hold that the Sling of Seeking is a better sling than everards +5. The latter should only be used when you need the enchantment to hit the enemie or run out of ammo.

 

Why? If you equip stones in the Sling of Everard, you get a strength bonus.

 

Considering Fraun (yes, that's her name) has an 18 strength, I planned on using the seeking sling until I could afford Everard's. I'll start running her around tommorow and let you know what's what. Sorry for the vagueness of her classes; it was a brain fart.

 

Liches are Save VS spell:1

 

Other than the weapons that have already been mentioned I'd recomend;

Mace of disruption, for all those undead types

Staff of striking, for when you want you're backstabs to really hurt.

 

one weapon nobody has mentioned for late game is the crossbow. If you acquire the Big Metal Unit it comes with certain types of ammo. Pulse ammo is my favorite as it gives you five attacks per round and scorcher lets you take out things that require fire. Now in the descriptions it says you must use the BMU's own launcher (is that launcher usuable by anybody by the way?) however they can be used by any crossbow giving you a weapon with a rediclas rate of fire. Think thief mages using heavy crossbows and five attacks per round ouchies!

 

Apart from a multi-class, a Druid is probably the hardest to solo.

Get the staff of striking for your cleric/thief for instane backstabbing. I am playing an Orc Cleric/Thief, with 19 in strength, and lots of cleric spells increase strength further, and improve thac0. My new favourit way to solo!

 

Completely unrelated point- for solo mages, take dual-wield daggers (seriously). You will have awful thaco, but if your fragile mage is attacking anyone, it should be because they are held/stunned/whatever. In those cases, you will nearly always hit, regardless. Double daggers gives you the best damage, then.

 

Are you serious, angryguy? A mage can't put any points into any kind of weapon style, and would get like -6 to hit with his primary weapon, IIRC!