Solo Fun - Acts of Desperation!

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I'm playing with my solo Drow Fighter 8 / Wizard 22 through Heart of Fury mode, and it's been a real blast (of the delayed fireball variety, of course . Normal mode with this solo guy was tough at the beginning but quickly became so easy that he didn't even take any damage during the final battle! Heart of Fury is seriously testing his limits, though. Some notes and self-imposed limits:

- I'm using Weidu's mod for bug fixes, infinite stacking, and the collector's edition CD (I don't view these as cheating, as the collector's edition is legal and infinite stacking is just for convenience, not power)
- I never found Symbol of Hopelessness in normal mode, so I don't have access to it.
- I am purposefully not using any summon creatures, but charming/dominating enemies is OK.
- No running away from a map if I've already started engaging a group of enemies. Note that I can go back if I kill one group and haven't *started* fighting another group.

My usual tactic has been applying the following buffs:

Shield, Ghost Armor, Protection from Missiles, Stoneskin
Mirror Image (using 5 copies), Blur, Improved Invisibility
Fireshield Red, Fireshield Blue
Haste, Emotion Hope, Bull's Strength, Protection From Evil, Mind Blank

Then I wade in there, wielding Phaen's Staff (the HOF one that grants +3 intelligence) draw as many enemies as I can to me, and blast away with Delayed Blast Fireball, Horrid Wilting, Wail of the Banshee, or Mass Dominate, depending on the situation and my mood (I hate using the same things over and over again, even if they're the most effective so I vary it up).

Note that I did find 2 Tymora's Loops the first time through, and I stole Ned's Lucky Knucky (after dominating him and then pickpocketing him about 100 times!!), so I now have a luck bonus of +8! Over half of my hits are criticals now, and with dirty fighting, I've been able to blind and slow quite a few critters, despite the monsters having HOF fortitude saves. I guess averaging 3 criticals a round will do that!

My damage output with the Greatsword of the Soulless is about 27-34 (depending on how Bull's Strength does and whether I turn Power Attack on) and 54-68 with criticals (note the damage output produces a constant number because of the luck items!). The Fire Shields each do about 33 damage (with elemental feats and luck) per hit, giving me 66 for each time I'm hit.

However, my AC is laughable in HoF mode, hovering at around 40 with haste, 45 with expertise instead of powerattack, and 49 when I use the shield + 1-handed weapon. OK for goblins and orcs, but getting increasingly worthless now that I've left the Ice Temple. Tensor's Transformation gets me up to 55-56, which is still decent for now, but even with that I get hit a fair bit, and this will only increase. And Tensor's doesn't let me replenish my Images, so it's mostly used to clean up the last few guys in an area.

One really tricky battle was against Lysara in the Ice Temple. I probably could have used Mass Dominate and made it really easy, but instead I case Delayed Fireball because I love the idea of roasting all those icy women! With its speed of 7, all of my images were gone before I cast it (stupid ice priestess slings!) and I was down to half life before it finally went off! I took off like a bat out of hell stopping to use Kegslayer on the Crystal Golem (*plunk*), making it to the jail, where I realized I couldn't cast anything because of the anti-magic effect! Several winter wolves were hot on my tail and they had some serious bite, doing about 30 damage per hit! I ran back into the that leads to Cathin, but I realized I hadn't cleared that section, so was faced with a couple of priestesses in that hall as well! Aieee! Nowhere to run, and under my own personal rules, no retreating from the map.

I finally fetched a Sanctuary potion from my belt and gulped it down, and hid all the way in one of the side rooms off the main entrance hall. There I regrouped, casting Trollish Fortitude and gulping healing potions like mad. I refreshed my Mirror Images and Haste and went sneaking out (thanks Improved Invisibility!) to see how to deal with the mobs, now scattered all over the place. I took out the Wolves and priestesses near Cathin's room first with a Delayed Fireball and some furious Thunder's Shock (Winged Blight's HOF cousin) action. Some more mobs outside and in the jail fell easily as well. Finally I went back to Lysara's room and found about 8 priestesses still there with slings as deadly as ever. However, some were still healing each other so not all were firing away, which gave me my chance to cast the super slow Wail of the Banshee, ending 5 of them then and there. I wiped out the rest pretty easily, but they still managed to knock me down below 100 HP. I then noticed Lysara wasn't there. Prowling around, I found some secret passages and finally discovered her roaming aimlessly, all by her lonesome. Thanks for the key, love!

Another randomly tough battle was just outside the wandering village, where the Ferocious Dire Wolves laid claim. At first there were just four of them, so I went in there with Delayed Fireball (I had used my Wails and Dominate on the previous battle on that map) hoping to mop them up quickly. Of course, 4-5 more came out as I cast and I was soon surrounded. No problem, I thought, as I fired up more Images and blasted DBFB again. However, the wolves kept coming, and it took 3 DBFB just to take one down! Soon I was out of Images and DBFB, surrounded with nowhere to run.

As I lay there dying, I thought about how I don't like resting too much, but I probably should have done so before this battle to get my 9th level spells back! Then I remembered: Nathanie's Ring of the Ram! No, I didn't give it back to him; I'm as experienced as I can be, so why not keep it? The HoF version lets you cast Dimension Door for some reason (or did this come from one of Weidu's mods?), and I used it to get my butt out of the mob, at which point I ran around the map being chased by those fast little furballs. I refreshed Haste and ran far enough away to begin my Trollish Fortitude + potions healing, running away some more as they got close. Still, with no images and my protections starting to wear out, casting spells like Horrid Wilting would be horribly risky. Instead I started casting my Skull Traps and the wolves obliged by running right into them. I killed 2 and injured a few this way, but I still had 5 more chasing me when I ran out of Traps!

Even one of them would be enough to take me out on a 1 on 1 melee duel, so instead I got out my Bag of Holding and drew forth Cloudkiss. Kissing the blade for good luck, I hurled this mighty axe again and again, running and hurling, running and hurling, for what seemed like ages. I had to refresh Haste two more times before it was just me and 1 wolf (at Hurt), so I decided enough was enough. Tensor's Transformation turned me into a real manly man and I wrestled with the wolf until we both bled in the snow, with my heart the only one still beating.

God this is fun! Anyone else have more solo HOF (or normal mode) stories out there?

 

That's cool! Personally, I am all against soloing as I do not want to turn the game into a Diablo clone, and I do so love controling a big bad party. But your story is so fun. Maybe I should really try soloing some day!

Thanks for sharing this with us!

 

I am not experienced enough to go solo, not to mention playing in HoF mode.

But damn, it look like fun. Good story, please continue.

 

It doesn't feel like a Diablo clone, I guess because the game isn't *meant* to be played with one character, which gives it an unpredictable challenge as you have to find weird ways to get around obstacles that were meant to be faced with a group. It does feel more like an action game, though, as I use speed (through Haste) to perform luring and dodging manuevers, often in tight spots. But that's all part of the fun!

By the way, glad you like it; think I may write up more encounters.

 

I've played the regular game with a Rogue/Wizard but havn't finished and therefore havn't started HoF yet. It's quite fun, casting some nice protections, hiding, sneak attacking one enemy only to be surrounded be about 100 in seconds

 

Nice work, Windrunner. Playing with solo or restricted parties does make things more interesting as youhave to think up tactics that you just wouldn't need to use in a powered up party situation. Good stuff.

 

Moving forward, I ventured into the Fell Wood for several tasks, and this proved to be pretty easy, since I was able to sneak by all the monsters, including that den of Winter Wolves which I knew had many more inside. No point in fighting them since I have all the XP and gold I could ever want, and besides, I really only WANT to pick fights with evil, not nature!

Anyway, the next account is not so much a desperate situation but a supremely chaotic one; here's what happened in the River Caves:

I waltzed in with my full battle regalia and was soon beseiged by Hook Horrors on all sides. I noticed that as I met the group in front of me, I was soon mobbed by a group behind me as well (they came out of the walls?). 7-8 one way, 7-8 the other, and walls on either side of me, you get that nice claustrophobic feeling. Clutching Phaen's Intelli-staff, I prayed and Wailed like a Banshee. What a horrible voice I must have, as 10 of them dropped dead just like that. I mopped up the rest with a DB Fireball followed up by a hasted, Widow-Through orgy of violence, though I had to refresh Images and lost about half my life.

Trollish Fortitude and some potions later, we went knocking on some Hook Horror doors, where pairs in each room seemed to be eating some rare delicacies. I chopped them up as they ate, pair by pair, as they were all so conveniently separated from the main group. One group tried to call for reinforcements, but another Wail + axe chopping took care of that monkey business.

Advancing forward past the bedrooms I noticed a camp of almost a dozen Hook Horrors and Guardians chilling out in front of the exit door. As I started my evil Wailing again, I noticed that a dozen more reinforcements were coming up behind me! I was trapped, and prayed for one walloping Wail.

DOH! Wail only took out 6 of them! Aiieeeeee!

With about 18 Hook Horrors left, I started dancing around wildly and Hastily, trying to figure out what to do next. No problem, I thought. They made their Fortitude saves, but can they make their Will saves?

As I had already lost all my Images and started taking damage, I refreshed those and somehow weaved and squiggled through part of the crowd into one of the bedrooms I had cleaned out earlier, thus only exposing myself to 2-3 Horrors at a time. I then tried to Dominate them en Masse.

Success! About 11 of them suddenly realized I was their messiah and my enemies soon found themselves outnumbered. Some of those resistant Horrors still went after me, but I let my new friends rip them to shreds. Join us or die, punks! I cast Mordenkainen's Sword and helped out my legion from afar. I only ended up losing 2 of my Horrors, and thus I began prowling the halls with my newfound army. I opened a door behind which emanated insecty sounds...

Fire Beetles! I almost laughed, but then realized there were dozens of the weak creatures. I sent in my army to the room and soon there was an epic battle between my 9 Horrors and me (wielding M-sword from afar) and dozens and dozens of Fire Beetles who kept sending new Beetles after previous ones died! This was an even greater orgasmic orgy of violence than before, with dozens upon dozens of creatures gnawing and slashing at each other within a packed room! Surprisingly, the Beetles actually could pack a punch, and my Horrors started falling one by one. No more 9th level spells left, and I didn't feel like hurting my Horrors with Fireballs or Wiltings.

After 4 of my Horrors and many of the Beetles bit the dust, I felt confident the battle was mine. And then the enchantment wore off. And a roomful of Beetles and 5 Hook Horror/Guardians suddenly decided I looked very tasty. And by this time, a lot of my personal buffs had run out; no images, haste, Hope, Stoneskin, Blur, or Improved Invis.

Yikes! I quickly refreshed Haste and got out of there, with about 20 creatures on my tail. Luckily, I still had 3 castings of DBFB left and 1 Mirror Image. I picked a spot and got my Images up again. I ran to the big camp area and waited as all the Horrors and some of the Beetles started to pour in as well. I then began casting and they surrounded me, causing my Images to begin disappearing.

The Fireball hit! 2 of the Horrors dropped and surprisingly some of the beetles did as well. I guess they're not THAT fiery, name notwithstanding. I ran away again, carving through some Beetles with my axe to do so. Finally, I cast another DB Fireball and the remaining three Horrors, the last vestiges of my once proud army, lay dead at my feet. I wept as I made minced Beetle out of the remaining mob with my trusty Grim Widow-Through. Grim indeed.

 

Heh, good read Windrunner.

 

Thanks! Dunno if anyone is actually reading, as I would still be having fun just rambling on to myself

I must say, not having to worry about getting XP is great, as I can skip boring battles and just go after the interesting ones (whether or not they be required).

The 4 golems beneath the Black Raven Monastery look impressive enough, but it's funny how quickly they go *plink* when exposed to a certain Targos-bought axe that was built to smash kegs!

To the Underdark I go, home sweet home...

 

I am reading, Windrunner

I think theres a journalist or author hidden in you.

Very entertaining

 

In the Underdark, I met a fellow drow named Malavon, but when I called him 'brother', he chided me for daring to speak to his social betters in such a way. What an acid sting to a dark elf's heart!

I accepted his mission, still smoldering, but knowing that I didn't have the heart to kill his camp in cold blood. I wandered around and came upon another group of arrogant drow, this one opposed to Malavon and planning to kill him. They thought me nothing but an insect, a nuisance, and set upon me with their entire strength.

With all my pent-up rage, I Wailed and Wailed, taking out 7 of my dark 'brothers' with the first accursed screech, and the rest with my second one, and I felt a grim satisfaction as I looted their bodies and spat on their corpses. They weren't even able to touch this insect.

Aluve.

 

^Coolness, Windrunner, I know WoB is the most powerful spell in the game, and you are doing a fine job at proving it. Good job at killing Malavon and his despicable crones too!

Keep posting till you are anhiliated by Isair&Madae. Not that I am trying to discourage you or something, no.

 

Heh, watch out. Being a dark elf out in the blinding light reflecting off of bright snow gives me quite a temper...

By the way, I didn't slay Malavon, thought that might have been satisfying. I just took care of the drow assasins sent to kill him. Malavon has played fair with me, so he's not on the list...

When he told me about the drider-making machine, though, I definitely felt like it was my mission to put an end to it. Becoming a drider is a faith worse than death, and is especially a concern for a drow who doesn't worship Llolth or participate in the great game of Houses. A chance to strike back at the matriarchy... sign me up!

A couple of driders interrogated me near the entrance to the drider warrens. I told them I was going to end them all, and they didn't take to kindly to that. However, they were short work for me and my trusty Grim Widow-Through.

I entered and went about collecting driders and made many nice DBFB-roasted spider dishes, Widow-Through'd after cooking. They were all separated in ones and twos, though sometimes they called in for reinforcements, who would arrive too late to save their mates, of course.

I met the Red Wizard responsible for the modified Driders and promptly ended her after pretending to be interested in her work, sneaking up on her, and unleashing a series of critical blows to her face and neck. Her Flesh Golems soon became interested in adding me to their bodies, however, but that trusty Keg-Slaying axe from Targos seemed to be happy eating Flesh Golems as well. The souped up Driders went after me, but a couple of Fireballs later ended them, but then a whole host of smaller spiders emerged from one of the beasts, surrounding me, with only my last set of Mirror Images around me and none more in my head!

I tried a Wail, but it only got a couple of the creepy crawlies, and my Images were down! I decided I had to chop my way out of there, and it became a violent race of stabbing and chopping. By the time I finally broke through, I was down to about a fifth of my health, at which point my hasted feet kicked a cloud of dust and took me far away.

Trollish Fortitude and some potions later, I came back and engaged in guerilla tactics, firing a DB Fireball at the oncoming spider horde, and waiting for them to trigger it. A few Skull Traps and several dozen axe swipes later, the lab was mine.

At this point, continuing on would've been suicidal, so I rested and came back fully fresh to deal with the rest of the warrens.

Past the Red Wizard's lab, I ran into some Driders at the end of a hallway. They summoned reinforcements, and I took to running further in (east) to replenish my Images and set up more Fireball traps.

A bad mistake. Inside were at least a dozen more Driders, and more were filtering in from every direction. With my Images up, I Wailed a plaintive song, but what strong constitution they must have had, as only 4 out of possibly 20 fell!

I soon started weaving and dancing amidst the crowd, desperately trying not to get trapped. I unleashed DB Fireball after Fireball, but even after I ran out, only a couple more had fallen. Even running past them, I would get hit, and I was down to 2 sets of Images left.

I Wailed once more, and another two fell, perhaps just to be able to not hear me sing.

I cast Mordenkainen's Sword, and started my cheap hit and run tactics, as the Driders could not possibly hope to keep up with my hasted feet. The Drider wizards attempted to use all manner of feeble magicks against me, lances of ice and various charms, but surely they would know that any powerful drow would have a strong resistance to such minor dweomers?

My Sword and I managed to whittle down their host to only 5-6 before the enchantment faded; I had only memorized the Sword spell once!

I decided to use my Skull Traps and other minor damage-causing magicks as well, but even after these were all exhausted, only one more drider had fallen. And I was out of Images.

Enter Dance of the Cloudkiss! A manuever that I seem to be growing more and more familiar with every day, a bizarre line-dance in which everyone but me would end up glowing and crackling at regular intervalls.

It would be a long dance, as every hit stung them like the tiniest mosquito, and it would have to be Death by a Thousand Cuts. Or so that was the plan.

During this whole escapade, I was running over many bits of webbing that attempted to trap me in place. My Reflexes had developed to the point that I thought I had no fear, but it was just as I was engaged in the Cloudkiss Dance that I tripped and got stuck...

The Driders were closing in on me, pure rage in their already-dead eyes. As they reached me, they wasted no time in tearing me asunder, each hit devouring a tenth of my life or more. The end was near.

I frantically searched my pack for anything that may have been of use, as I had already used up my last Sanctuary potion during a previous engagement. It was then that I found it... Cabulus' Whispering Staff!

Invoking the Staff's enchantment, I became invisible, and the driders, stupid as they are, stopped their assault, despite knowing I was in front of them, trapped!

After getting free of the web, I fled to a distant corner of the warrens, drank a whole host of potions (which incidentally necessitated a trip to the little drow's room), and came back ready to Kiss my nemeses again. This time, I decided to not be an idiot and took off one of my Tymora's Loops and replaced it with a Ring of Free Movement.

After another lengthy macabre waltz, I made those nasty Llolthian abominations snap, crack and pop to their graves, and I collapsed, exhausted, on their still-sparkling corpses.

 

Damn I'm liking this Wind, keep it up

 

I'm with Silvershield on this

I'm having almost as fun as you Windrunner, thanks.

 

Nice work. Shame you don't get to make any use of XP and level up any more.

But you have reminded me that soloing is a great way of forcing yourself to come up with new tactics and make more judicious use of specific items to make up for the lack of team mates (especially those items that offer protections and buffs that you might normally just get from your cleric).

I might start a solo game soon as you're giving me all sorts of ideas.

 

Sometimes you just feel like a death machine, perhaps made out of cheese.

After I took out the main host of driders, I cleaned out the Illithid camp on a single rest, Wailing and Fireballing out the big groups, assasinating Mind Golems with a certain anti-Kegite blade, and super-buffed spellswording on the rest. I resorted to M-Sword + Haste towards the end (when I ran out of buffs), but otherwise it seemed as if I had power over life and death itself. The Red Wizard ambush outside, so potentially threatening, collapsed like a house of cards to a single Wail that took out all of the earth elementals, wizards, and harpies... save 3. Easiest clean-up job ever! Take me on your airy ship, little man.

On to Kuldahar...

 

I am looking forward to read about it.

Especially the jungle of Chult and the Guardian.

By the way, what are the specs of your drow fighter/wizard?

 

Yeah Harbourboy, it really is amazing how many items that I never even bothered looking at with a full party have now become essential parts of my repertoire. The armor (cloak?) that grants Stoneskin, the Wand of Bull's Strength, those Blinking boots, etc. They save essential spell slots, allowing me an extra Mirror Image or Haste or Fireshield when need be, which is often quite crucial!

Stats are as follows:

STR - 17
DEX - 20
CON - 12
WIS - 6 (counting on Drow's innate bonuses to save vs. enchantments)
INT - 20
CHA - 5 (with high int, you can still get decent diplo, intimidate, and bluff scores!)

All extra ability points went into INT to boost Difficulty Class and give extra spells. This gives me a base 27 INT + 3 from Phaen's HOF Staff, which is a total of 30, or +10 to Difficulty Class! Note high strength is for use with Bull's Strength and then (later) the +6 STR belt and 2-handed weapons, which gives very good damage output when buffed up and when you don't care about AC. With the Grim Widow-Through and 3 Luck items (I found 2 Tymora's Loops in normal mode and pickpocketed Ned's Lucky Knucky after dominating him), I'm doing around 28-33 damage [fully buffed] half the time, and 84-99 damage half the time. Unfortunately, I haven't found any of the power weapons (like the Massive Greataxe of Flame +5), but the Grim Widow-Through and the Staff of Spell Resistance +5 have been more than enough for death-dealing.


KULDAHAR

These Undead sure hit hard, and they render most of my L8 and L9 spell slots useless (Wilting and Wail)! However, my favorite tactic was to run around like a little hooligan, stopping to taunt a wight and moon a Cold Bones, collecting most of the maps' undead around me so that I could unleash DB Fireball after DB Fireball. After 4 castings, even the most die-hard skeletons and spirits fell back to the earth. An undead Pied Piper of Hamelin, I was.

Meeting Heirophus proved to be an almost (un?)deadly encounter, as I stumbled into his sanctuary half drunk from my undead slaying power trip. I waltzed in, traded a few (un?)witty barbs, and (though fully buffed) proceeded to cast a DB Fireball right in the middle of his little wankfest romp room. However, I hadn't really thought things through, as there were tons of Neo-Orogs and spectral undead around, and those orogs sure hit hard! My images were gone before I'd finished casting the first Fireball, and I was surrounded with no openings, a familiar scenario. Recalling a previous narrow escape, I got out Nathaniel's Ring of the Ram and Dimension Door'd my way to a corner of the room, and ran around as I waited for the spell-lag to pass (if you cast a spell with casting time 1, you can't cast another spell until the next round).

Finally, I cast Mirror Image again and backed myself in a corner, where I could only be hit by 3 creatures at once and resumed the DB Fireballs barrage. This time, I was able to rain fiery death again and again without becoming an orog axecushion until nothing was left standing.

The Yuan-ti in Kuldahar proper proved to be about as tough as the undead, but susceptible to fun domination and Wailing tricks. I used my wily charms to amass an army of 6 Yuan-ti, which--together with me and my M-Sword-- managed to defeat the whole host of Kuldahar's snake adversaries. Then I had them turn on one another in a vicious display of comradicide as I gleefully hacked away at my former army from afar with a dancing, glowing sword.

Even Isolore thought I was enjoying myself a little too much, and he's a druid hyped up on a vicious Heartstone kick.

[ October 10, 2006, 17:08: Message edited by: Windrunner ]

 

I have NEVER found a Tymora's Loop in 3 years of playing this game.