Solo F/T? *spoilers*

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I'm stumbling my way through BG+TotSC with a halfling F/T. Her stats are:
STR 17
DEX 19
CON 18
INT 10
WIS 10
CHA 18
She's got 2 points in bow, 1 in large sword and 1 in small sword. I can see carrying problems with the less-than-uber 18/xx strength, but not much. I picked a halfling as I haven't played one as my PC, the 19 dexterity and sweet thieving skills.

Basically, she's trying to stealth out areas (not good yet but I'm getting ready to buy Shadow Armor) to find enemies and use her bow to kill from afar. This means she's running a lot and who doesn't do that!

Also, these are what I plan on her wearing/using:
Shadow Armor/Drizzt's Chainmail
Gauntlets of Ogre Power (GoOP)
Composite Longbow +1
Varascona +2
Flametongue
Short Sword of Backstabbing +3
Boots of Speed
Helm of Balduran
Cloak of Algernon/Nymph/Balduran

I've found it rough going by having no cleric or mage. Landrin's spiders were too tough and made me miss using Sleep. Any tips or hints would be appreciated! This is my first solo here and boy, it's getting a bit hard for me.

 

Get potions of invisiblity, and always strike the enemy spellcasters first. Backstab, potion, backstab, potion. Rince and repeat.

 

Try to get an as low AC as possible. If your AC is so low that your enemies need a critical hit to hurt you, 19 out of 20 attacks will fail.

The girdle from the ogre improves your AC against some weapon types. Get and keep it.
Find the hidden Ankheg armor in Nashkel and use it if you can't avoid melee. If your F/T has also two stars in a melee weapon you should be able to win some big battles.

You don't have to kill every monster if you play solo. Sometimes it is just better to pass them hidden in shadows or to ignore some quests. You can always come back when you are more experienced.

Get and use Algernon's cloak as soon as possible.

 

Exact opposite advice from me. Kill everything and do every quest. Don't be afraid to kill Unshey for the belt after you've given it to her, and Joia should go down before you get the ring (she's worth 900XP with no rep loss).

If you don't think you can handle something all at once, stealth and get them to the edge of your vision. Shoot-pause, run-pause-stealth. Half the time you can get out of sight and stealthed before the arrow hits, and the other half will just draw your opponent away from their group. When in an enclosed space, don't be afraid to shoot from the doorway and duck out to re-stealth. Spellcasters in small rooms are easily solved by in, out, in, out, etc. It breaks their spells, and keeps you from getting hit by anything, though it is a bit cheesy. Eventually, your level will get so high that you won't even have to worry about melee.

One place to go early is Bassilus. Take out the skels one-by-one (force-attacking the first one you find), circling around the standing stones. Everything should be kept at the edge of your vision, so you're only fighting one at a time.

Algernon's cloak is the biggest help you can possibly imagine. Backstab + Algrenon's Cloak can turn a 4-on-1 fight into 2-on-2 in a snap. Get that extra point in large sword as soon as you can; you'll have plenty of time for the small sword prof before you get the SS of Backstabbing.

 

I have Algie's cloak. I also bought a wand of sleep which is helpful early on. I've been going with baby steps: stealth (much improved now with Shadow armor and boots), listen for growling and playing the shoot-and-scoot. Some monsters I can outrun. The belt ogre stopped while I ran away, so I was able to shoot-and-scoot.

I haven't gotten many invisible potions yet. After buying my armor, I'm strapped for cash. I'm avoiding the fights I can't do now (levels 2/3) via sneaking and will get back to them when I'm better outfitted.

@Fel - Kill Joia? Damn, too bad I did that early to up my reputation!

My next big purchase is going to be the Dagger of Venom +2. It should help with Greywolf to get his nifty sword. Anyway, my strategy for now is shoot-and-scoot.

 

If you are able to buy some potions of mirror eyes I recommend going into the Bassilick area very early on. When I play a F/M/T one of the first spells I try to scribe is protection from petrification. Once you have that or a potion that protect you, the basslicks fall very easily with a bow and you get good xp for killing them. By the time I leave that area my low level F/M/T is almost at his/her max for BG1.

 

You can even go to the basilisk area (east of Bereghost temple) without a potion. They attack only the nearest enemy and you can send the ghoul friend you meet there to them while shooting until he turns hostile.

Another nice place is the dungeon between Gullykin and the Firewine ruins. You can pickpocket a longbow+2 from one of the ghosts there and get unlimited fire arrows and XP for killing respawning kobolds.

The swordsman in the Firewine ruins area has nice gauntlets.

You should only need one potion of invisibility for getting the manual of bodily health when you are in the lighthouse area.