Easy Tutu Solo?

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Alright here it is, I am going to try to solo BG1 and BG2 with easy tutu. I am going to try something new for me. I am not going to cheat except for these four items: Boots of speed, Bag of holding, Scroll case, and Gem bag. I know that I won't enjoy the game if I have to micro manage my inventory. I will also use explore area and ctrl-J to speed things up.

My plan is to try a F/T or strait up theif. This is where the request for advice comes. I have never soloed before, so I thought I would ask all you experts for some sage advice.

I am torn between straight thief so he levels up faster, and F/T for the combat/armor advantages(I can always take off my plate mail for thief functions). Please help me decide what to take!

My next qustion is how the heck am I going to stay alive to get up a few levels so I don't die all the time? I am well versed in group tactics, but how do I kill without getting killed all by my lonesome?

Third and last question. What weapon combos do you all suggest for ranged/melee slots seeing how I will only have two slots. I am leaning towards darts since they are quick, but bows do more damage. Short sword seems the way to go for melee, but I am open to advice here as well.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated, and I eagerly await your responses.

 

Hello -

Check out Tutu Tweaks at G3. One of the tweaks adds bags of holding (gem bag, scroll case, potion case, etc) to the game, and another makes them bottomless. Yet another tweak enables you to stack gems and jewelry. All of that makes inventory management much easier. The bag of holding itself isn't available until Sorcerous Sundries, though, so you'd have to cheat that in if you wanted it earlier. But with bottomless gem, scroll, potion and ammo cases, inventory is much less of a hassle.

I just finished my own EasyTutu solo, with a M/T. It truly makes for a powerful class in BG1. The most powerful aspect of the class is invisibility. NOTHING in BG1 sees through invis, and very, very few creatures (like maybe 1 or 2) have the ability or intelligence to try to dispel it. Since a M/T has both stealth and invis, this means that you can truly play the game on your own terms. Invis while traveling makes suprise encounters a joke -- you just walk away fom them while your attackers dumbly stand there. Feel free to sleep in any dungeon -- if you get awoken, they can't see you, so you just move a few feet and snooze again. First time on a map? Invis up and scout the whole thing with Find Traps on. etc.

Another hugely powerful thing is that stealth and magic use are on different timers. What does this mean? Well if you cast a spell, used a wand, or drank a potion, you can't go invis again until the next round. But you CAN stealth. So feel free to chuck a fireball at a group and then stealth up immediately, before it even hits. The opposition is powerless.

Hunt on the map just east of Candlekeep (helps for consistency if you are a self-centered evil alignment). Those black bears make for great, safe (ranged) early XP. I like to start here so that I gain some HPs before hitting FAI (my goal is to never die, so rushing over to face Tarnesh right off the bat is playing with fire).

 

Mage/thief, never thought about that combo, I will have to consider this, I ususally use a lot of invisiblilty potions but with not cheating this time they will be a lot harder to obtain.

Do you have to do a lot of attack and run with the bears? IIRC they only need to hit you once to kill you. That bas***d Tarnesh has kicked my butt many times.

 

Hello -

Buy lots of arrows from Winthrop before you set off with Gorion. Part of the appeal of the bears (besides the good XP) is that they're slow and easily kept at a distance.

 

Any suggestions for what to use for melee weapon? I have always given my theives shortsword but they rarely use them because I usually melee with my tanks. Is there a better melee weapon.

Also, what race do you all think I should use. I mostly use humans or half elves for my characters, but I am open to suggestions if there are better reaces.

 

Elves can have 19 DEX, which helps for thief skills. Though I am not sure if they are allowed to be F/T.

Half-orcs are wonderful, with 19 STR, and CON, they can do massive damage with their 19 CON and a good old stab to the back!

Short-swords are relatively fast, BUT if you are going to back-stab the speed factor is relatively useless, you WILL strike first even if you use a very slow weapon since you are invisible and will make your presence known only by that first attack.

Katanas are kewl, but I don't think there are any in BG1. Longswords have better damage potential, but slightly slower, BUT if you are going to use it for backstab it matters not.

 

I know I am pathetic, but I have never backstabbed much. I geuss I tend to power game a bit. If I remember correctly, darts are faster than arrows, but I don't know how much less damage they do, or wether or not they balance out with more attacks than arrows. I know I have used darts well to break up spellcasters concentration. I want to figure this all out before I start so I don't get frustrated from dying all the time.

 

I always LOVED Fighter/Thief, but i guess when you solo it would be too hard in the later stages because the use of magic is just paramount.

But the Mage/Thief idea seems pretty good I think! The only problem is, is that you start off quite weak in the early stages, which is what I hate, but i'm sure you get waaaay powerful later on hey!

OMG you never backstab!??? Backstabbing is my life in BG!!! It's why I love the game so much! Well, one of the reasons anyway But seriously, start doing it and you'll see why it's sooOoOoo good! Drop a monster like THAT! And if your coupled with a mage you could just sunfire everything else for some fuuuun!

 

Darts have a base 3 attacks/round which is astounding, but they do so little damage, 1d3. BUT they DO gain STR damage bonus, this is very neat, with 19 STR, you can do 1d3+7 with each hit, 3 hits will net 3d3+21=24-30 damage which is neat for a ranged attack. BUT range is shabby, which is bad for a ranged weapon.

Magical stunning/wounding darts are very potent, since enemy gets hit a lot he should save each time, and there is a good chance he will fail. And nasty things happen.

But I heard magical darts do not gain STR bonus damage for some reason.

Bows on the other hand, has two attacks/round, each arrow does 1d6 damage. But special arrows are very potent, dispelling, fire, ice are great, detonation is killer! (Greater Death Blow, one detonation arrow=A horde of Improved Mind Flayers die at the same time! ) Some special bows also offer bonus attacks, and great THAC0/damage bonuses. Range is better than darts, with composites having the best range. You gain bonus to your THAC0 based on your DEX when using bows/crossbows.

 

So bows are definitly better then.

If I go M/T, how many *'s do you get to spread around. If I recall the one F/T I played got four to go around, but don't mages only get one? So if I go with M/T and use a bow, strength won't be as much of an issue, but using an elf with 19 DEX will help with accuracy, and I will want the DEX for pick pocketing anyways. I am ging to really try to use brains over brawn this time.

 

Yeh I was wondering, if you have a M/T and use a dart, how many attacks will you get per round. Is there like a chart or something here on SP where you can view every type of weapon with every type of class or something ... because that would be very handy!

So if you don't get many attacks with darts would be definitely reccomend a short bow?

 

The base number of attacks with darts is 3. A M/T would get 3 attacks. A level 7 specialised warrior would get 4, and a level 13 specialised warrior would get 4 and a half.

 

Hello -

Expect that to change if you solo a M/T. And you can center a powergaming career around backstabbing.

Quarter staff and two-handed weapon style. Bow in the other slot. Staves are a surprisingly good choice because a star in 2H style yields +1 damage, and that +1 gets multiplied by the backstab multiplier (unlike STR damage, which does not get multiplied). 2H style also gives you crits on 19s and 20s. Also, very very few creatures are immune to crushing damage.

Elf. 19 DEX (huge for thieves), and a +1 THAC0 with bows and swords. You could also make a case for gnomes since I am pretty sure they can take a specialist mage for their mage half.

[ February 20, 2006, 15:42: Message edited by: Macready ]

 

Gnomes are very good as they get huge bonuses to their save vs spells, and wands based on their CON. +1 bonus per each 3 and 1/2 CON.

A gnome illusionist/thief will be nice I guess, with extra 1 spell/level and neat saving throws, ie:if your CON is 18 you get +5 bonus to save vs spells and wands, which are VERY important when facing mages. I guess you will enjoy hugely better saving throws right start of BG1.

 

Why not go F/M/T if soloing tutu? You might as well, seeing as you'll easilly get enough experience when there's only one character to be concerned about. I've soloed tutu with a F/M/T and though I had some difficulties, I didn't encounter anything I couldn't handle.

 

A F/M/T is a powerhorse, one man party, and really useful!

Though he will gain levels slowly and may stay weak for quite some time I fear.

 

Nah, in solo he'll gain his lvls fast enough (from my experience anyway), and I didn't find him to be weak at any point during my game .

 

When you multi class, the XP gets spread equally to all classes doesn't it? I started playing around a little this morning with M/T and I was getting my butt handed to me regularly even on the map east of candlekeep.

Is there an order of doing things to get up levels without taking ten minutes running around and shooting everything full of arrows.

I never realized how much I power gamed until I tried this solo effort. I can't even imagine trying to take on an Ankheg. Backstab sounds great, but if you are trying to take on powerful enemies it is going to take more thatn one backstab to kill them.

 

Hello -

Yes.

That's essentially how the whole game goes for thiefy solos. Attack and withdraw. Under no circumstances do you hold your ground under attack. Imagine that for every second you are both within sight of an enemy and also visible, you lose 100 XP. How would you play then? That's the thief way.

Ankhegs are a pain, because you really can't backstab them due to their hiding underground. Shoot and withdraw works pretty well for the ranged ones; for the ones that close to melee range, mirror image can help, as well as sticking close to a corner that you can duck around and restealth after taking a quick swing.

Once you get your modifier up to x4 damage, you will kill a surprising amount of stuff with a single hit. For the rest, backstab; withdraw; stealth; backstab again.

 

So it's going to be a bit of a slower game than usual for me.

I did some messing around with a gnome illusionist/thief, and I am leaning in that direction. I am going to roll up a straight theif and run around east of candlekeep to see how he plays, and then I am going to make my decision and make myself stick with it. I put a xbow in the gnome I/T hands and he seems to do well with it.

I know where the hardest fights are, so I think I am going to wander around and do a lot of killing easier things first to build up my levels. I don't think it is bad role playing for a thief to wander in disillusionment for a while after his father figure gets wiped out in the middle of the night. This web site has made me want to be more of a role player then just to tank up and wade through the blood.