Solo sorcerer - seriously...

Remove all ads!

The palisade battle isn't very difficult, you can even win it without spells. Those monsters don't have many HP, you have allies and you can get healed as often as you want from the priest in the building.

To handle chests and doors you can bash, learn the lockpicking skill and drink potions of master thievery, you can also use knock scrolls.

Very useful spells are shield, mirror image, eagle's splendor, improved invisibility and stoneskin, the rest depends on your playing style.

 

thanks, i still can't imagine a sorcerer taking on the goblins at the palissade all by himself, without even using spells, but if you say so.....

 

As someone who has played iwd2 4 times with essentially a solo sorcerer i can say she is undoubtedly the ONLY class that can even hope to solo the game under insane difficulty, tactics mod, and max hp for all enemies via iwd2 tweaks mod. in the vanilla game a solo sorc will be a piece of cake. heck, you could even start off in HoF as a solo sorc with summons and reach insanely high levels before the end of ch1 1.

the remainder of this post will be under the assumption that you are playing with above listed difficulty enhancers as well as an artificial enchancer in the form of limit of maximum 1 rest per map/area.

one very good build is: (5.4 courtesy of jupp)
human sorcerer(20) paladin(2) monk (1) , fighter (2) rest into sorc
- as a note blasphemy will screw you over very often but its the price you pay for the paladin ability of gaining bonus saves based on your charisma
-use the potions of magic resistance on yourself and equip the holy avenger for some nice Spell resistance

18 16 18 3 3 18 - put all into charisma

spell progression:
1. Mage armor, sleep
2. ~
3. Chromatic orb
4. Mirror image
5. Cat’s grace(crossbow kiting), Charm person
6. Fireball
7. magic missile, bull’s strength(opens doors and chests), skull trap
8. Stone Skin
9. Eagle’s splendor, Ghost armor or haste, Improved Invisibility
10. Sun fire
11. See invisibility or other, magic circle, emotion: hope , greater shadow conjuration
12. Mass haste (best buff) –
13. Otiluke’s resilient sphere(isabela and lost follower), Chaos, shades
14. Mordenkainen’s sword
15. Acid storm, Delayed blast fireball
16. Symbol of hopelessness
17. Prismatic spray or finger of death or elemental barrier, great shout or power word: blind
18. Wail of the banshee
19. Mind blank or power word: blind, executioner’s eyes
20. Mass dominate
21. shield, dispel or haste, tensor’s transformation or chain lightning
23. Vocalize or protection from arrows, fire shield blue, seven eyes or suffocate or elemental barrier (vs enemy fire shield)
25. Ray of enfeeblement or minor mirror image, ghost armor, Horrid wilting or fiery cloud or power word blind
--depending on multi class choice
27. Luck, fire shield red or emotion fear, disintegrate, gate or black blade of disaster
29. Slow or invisibility sphere, Dominate person or feeble mind or lower resistance, elemental barrier

*vital spells in red

Feat progression:
• 1. Evocation 1 (human bonus feat)
• 1. Evocation 2 (for chromatic orb)
• 3. Improved initiative (requies use of mod)
• 6. Power attack* (for mordenkainens)
• 9. Spirit of flame
• 12. Necromancy 1 (for wail of the banshee)
• 15. Necromancy 2
• 18. Improved critical
• 21. Blind fight* (get before xvim fight)
• 23. Enchantment 1
• 24. Heretics bane** (fighter extra feat)
• 25. Enchantment 2 (fighter extra feat)
• 27. Heroic Inspiration

*the reason for power attack and blind fight is that it is impossible to beat mdarfein or xvim without it as they have permanent improved invisibility and stone skin. only by using mordenkainens sword with these 2 feats do you have a chance- and its not a great chance as your whittling them down for 5-15 dmg per hit on top of their 240 hp!
**heretics bane gives you 3 damage and 1 BAB against enemy clerics and druids which includes some xvimian slayer knights, thorasskus, neo orog priests, and most importantly, xvim.

by the time you reach the palisades attack you should have already gotten level 6 maybe even 7 and this means the ability to lay down fireballs.

the harder fight was the goblins in the caves, i had to literally kite them for 10 minutes because they hit for 10 damage with ridiculous accuracy and maximized hp.

i just finished the shaengarn section of the game and it has been one of the most difficult experiences ever.

in tactics mode, many big enemies(saablic,xvim) now no longer give exp based on your level but instead give static exp(i.e 30 000 for saablic) which is a godsend for solo players because you arent crippled by the dnd CR tables which imo is one of the biggest weaknesses of the system.

the game plan here is not to only spam summons, i find that tactic a bit dull, instead its to rush vital spells such as mordenkainens sword, mass haste, symbol of hopelessness and wail of the banshee. now obviously its going to depend a lot on your stance on level squatting but even without any of it, you will still be able to progress the game under these extreme settings with relative confidence as long as you plan ahead. also, by limiting the amounts of rests you can do per map to 1 or maybe 2 you can increase the difficulty of the game so you arent carelessly spamming every spell in every ecounter and resting right afterwards.

 

I wouldn't pick "mage armor" since the far more powerful "shield" spell is available. In a solo game you level very fast so shield lasts long and you don't have party members to cast mage armor at.

"spirit of flame" cannot be taken before level 12 with this build and I would take dash and dodge early, faster movement and better AC help more than a little better success chance with a few of your many spells.

 

youre right about shield being the better choice.

spirit of flame can be taken at level 9 if you put 4 points into spellcraft at level creation. i dont think a mod has changed my initial skill point gain but i could be wrong.

dodge doesnt stack noticeably well with haste.
dodge wont be noticeable late game even with a full gamut of AC buffs when enemies hit with ridiculously high BAB.

 

Lots of people have attempted to solo a fully modded IWD2 with other classes, and they have succeeded. Seeing as even a sorcerer can beat early game with very limited magic, then there's no reason why all the other casting classes can't.

 

With 3 int (-4 modifier) you need 14 points in spellcraft skill in order to take elemental feats, this requires level 11.

 

by fully modded, you mean tactics v3.0 or v2.0 , maximized monster hp via g3 tweaks, and insane mode right? if yes, and someone was able to solo with anything other than a sorcerer, i would be impressed beyond words.

the primary issue early on is getting swarmed and having your spells disrupted which really only invisiblity and mirror image can mitigate i simply cant see how a wizard , druid, cleric, or any of the semi-casting classes can do it.

the primary issue late game is being able to hit boses that have 4-6 layers of buffs(stone skin, shield, improved invisbility, aegis) and 30+ AC, without the use of mordenkainens sword and power attack it is absolutely impossible for a caster class to beat mdarfein or iyatchu xvim. the only thing i can think of is liberal use of protection from magic scrolls in additional to excessive summoning(which will get banished rather fast anyways), but even then, some of the larger fights late game will still pose too much of a challenge for someone without improved invisiblity, mirror image, haste, and wail of the banshee.

i tested it using console commands and spellcraft requirement check relies on the points you put into spellcraft not the effective spellcraft level after modifiers.