Hardest possible solo

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Just finished IWD with 6 character party and I would
like to try solo. I think that solo is possible with classes which can use invisibility, sanctuary or hide in shadows. There is no need to kill every monster in game, so you can run fast and get quest XP and kill monsters related to plot and some just for fun.

I think that thief and ranger can do well because of ability hide in shadows, bard or mage need invisibility scroll and go, go, go. Clerics can use sanctuary.

So, paladins, fighters and druids will have hard time. Druids and paladins can help with spells, fighters can only rely on potions and magic items.

In my opinion fighters will have hardest time soloing. I am planning to get boots of fox in lizard kings chamber( I know it is random item, so
maybe few reloads).

I decided to try fighter and use all potions and magic items available. Will report about my progress and any interesting solutions later.

Planning play in normal difficulty and I have HoW installed.

 

Your game is doable.
I won't tell you now which tactics I would use, you made me too curious about YOUR "interesting solutions".
Have you already decided which race,stats and weapon profiencies you will take ?

Gnome is probably the strongest choice. Gnomes get saving throw bonusses and the helm of the trusted defender.
Halflings are more difficult at the start, but with strength potions or items they are superior to any other race.
Elves are good at the start for hit and run tactics, but when bonus thac0 gets useless later in the game elf becomes the weakest race.

The game will become very easy once you've found a cloak of invisibility.

 

I will go with halfling, because they can have Dex 19. Will max Con, Str, Dex and rest in Wis. Later will increase Str with Girdle of Stromnos. Weapons -
mainly bow and Axe +2 Defender, because of AC bonus.
As far as I know Cloak of Invisibility is only in HoW.
That is not so good

 

Halflings are more durable than elves as they have better CON and very good saving throws against most things, so I guess it is a wise choice. Have fun and good luck!

 

I soloed the game with a Ranger I didn't even have to use hide in shadows that much. I started a solo game with a Halfling Thief I believe it can be done with some careful planning (this guy couldn't just rush in like the ranger).
Fighter can be done with the right ammo and weapons, a thief or spellcaster may be more fun though depending on your gamestyle.
Solo is in fact a lot easier than having an entire party around.

 

Currently I am in Dragons Eye level 1 and my equipment consists of gauntlets of weapon skill, black wolf talisman, boots of fox, plate mail, helm of trusted defender, morning star +1.
Biggest problem is shamans, they are casting Hold person. And crowds of lizards, blocking way.
Planning to get Wand of freezing death from Oric, some magic will certainly help. Only need some more money.
Bad that I can not get ring of free action and necklase of missiles.

 

Try disrupting shamans with ranged attacks! And you should have a pretty good save vs spells as halflings tend to.

Wand can be used by all classes, so it is a real boon! Just be careful not to hurt yourself in the blast area of a strayed snowball swarm or ice storm!

Have fun and keep giving us feed-backs, I am curious how far you will go!

 

Lady Yxunomei was easy as goblin pie with short bow +1 & arrows +2. I did not expected that she will die so fast. Presio was nothing after I killed poison zombies and wights.
I use mainly Messenger of Seth and Axe +2 Defender.
Currently my halfling is level 9. AC is -9 and sometimes I increase that with different potions.
Now heading to Sewered Hand. I do not think there will be big problems.

 

Severed Hand is tough. Those shady goblinoid marksmen are nasty, almost always manages to hit. Then again there are hordes of nasty nasty undead and shady clerics, but I guess as long as you have good save vs spells and AC, which I suppose you have both, there will be little problem.

Good luck, and keep giving us feedbacks!

Do you have play on insane difficulty for double XP and fun? I do, and highly reccomend it, it is fun!

 

Maybe I should swith to insane, because now levels are coming slowly. Right now it is normal. And I have prepared Wand of Freezing death for goblinoids, but I do not know if this will help against undead. For them I will use some Oils of fiery burning. And of course use doorways while fighting hordes. I believe that clerics will cause more problems. But I can buy some good arrows for use against clerics later.

 

No, cold spells do nothing to undead, hence the wand is totaly useless in the Severed Hand. Sorry.

I am sure you can do many tricks to play safely. I did some when I went through with a two men party.

And definitely do play on insane, it is fun!

In vanilla IWD, there was a guy who was selling ACID arrows in the hand. They are devastating since they do +2d6 acid damage, no save, they do so much damage they kill anything fast.

DoN'T know if they are still sellable by HoW, maybe game designers thought they were kinda unabalanced (and indeed they were!) and removed them! Check and tell us OK?

Have fun and good luck!

 

I wouldn't switch to insane, you'll only reach the level cap earlier. It doesn't improve your gaming experience when gained XP gets useless earlier.

Harder difficulty will only make your character rest more often or spend more healing potions.

There is also no need to level that fast.
Once you've reached level 13 you won't gain much anymore when levelling.

Switching the difficulty while playing is imho cheating. You could as well use the cheatconsole to set your XP higher.

 

^Oh, now I am playing on insane from scratch, do you think I am cheating and/or will I get bored once I hit the cap? But mine is a 5 people big party...

 

@Silverstar: I don't know how many bonus XP Auril's Bane will give. Without it you will have about 30,000,000 XP to share at the end, so not all your party members will reach the cap.

The game will nearly over once your first characters hit the cap, I don't think you'll get bored because of this.

I don't think that you are cheating, you just play an easier double XP difficulty for faster levelling fun.

Switching levels while playing can make the game easier and is therefore cheating imho.

You cannot compare this to other cheating methods of course.

 

But then again I wanted to re-start in HoF difficulty with the same party too. Does this 30.000.000 also include HoF difficulty? Or will I get that much XP if I beat IWD+HoW+TotLM in my first run? Then I will not gain levels in HoF at all? This sounds lame.

 

My party reached about 15,120,000 XP in IwD+How+TotL at normal mode without Auril's Bane.
You get exact the double amount if you play very easy or very hard mode.

HoF mode can be beaten if you start with unequipped level1 characters (didn't try Auril's Bane yet), most of the game is not challenging any more if you start with 5 level 30 characters.

 

I once soloed IWD with a gnome fighter.. I ultra cheesed it though and used the bug with: "The Lonesome Road" axe that would heal you 10 hp everytime I equipped you due to its +1 con or something
HoW fixes this bug however, to bad..

 

Yea, acid arrows are available with HoW instaled, but there is limited amount. Wand of Freezing death was innefective in Hand.
My fighter has good AC and enough HP, so battles are easy. I killed all shadowed worgs and had some 100 HPs left. Just hack, hack and hack. Now to Dorns Deep.
Undeads were nasty, because I was working with Axe.

I was thinking that translocation arrows can give good escape possibilitie, if you are surrounded by enemies.
I have AC -14 and acid arrows, therefore big Drow ambush will be interesting.

[ March 19, 2006, 15:24: Message edited by: Westhardus ]

 

I guess it is really not the 'hardest possible solo possible' as the topic said, up to now eh?

 

Correct, but I think that it is easier with every other class or multiclass.
I want to say that solo with fighter is boring, because magic is such a fun.

And Drow ambush was simply. Orc archers died fast, orogs to. Spellswords was only noticable enemies, wizards casted magic missiles once and then were penetrated by arrows.

In Lichs room I used fireball traps to kill undeads because I wanted to continue, not stop and waste time.