Which classes can beat HoF Solo?

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Hi,
I started a solo dual-classed Fighter2 -> Druid
in HoF mode.
The Epilogue was a hell of fun.
Until I reached spell-level 4 to summon the beetle summons (they are stronger then most goblins/orcs), I lured 1 to 2 goblins into an entangle area and killed them with call lightning.
After getting the first summons there isn't really any big challenge anymore.
Now that you mentioned the iron golems i wonder how to deal with them.
I guess a fighter/druid would be a better option, so he can melee more effectively.
I also got a gnome cleric/illusionist to chapter 2,
but he will have problems with magic resistant/normal weapon resistant opponents, i guess.
I would appreciate a few tips, if anyone has some to offer ^^

 

For your cleric/illusionist:

I would start HoW as soon as possible.
You just need the invisibibily spell to get to Gloomfrost and back easily without fighting.
When you defeat the mercenaries once you returned you can sell their stuff and buy nearly anything you want.
Get the amulet from the remorhaz in Gloomfrost cave.

For your fighter2/druid:

A fighter/druid MC would be in fact stronger, but the harder the challenge the greater the fame.

Try to get 100 percent physical resistance. Water elemental gives 75 and with the right items (like Tiernon's shield) they can get more than 100 which will make you immune.
One dire charm, a few entangle + spike growth were enough to kill the 4 ogres and their orc army.
Call lightning and static charge are great spells if you know how to use them.
Buy the lucky scimitar, it is a great weapon.
With the throwing dagger +4 you get at the end of HoW and the boots of speed you can use hit and run tactics against the iron golems.
Let Tiernon craft the dagger for the protection spells.

You can make sure to get the right random items like a cloak of invisibility or the ring of reckless action by reloading.

 

thanks, kmonster, for your advice.

I think, i will continue my cleric/illusionist then

 

@ kmonster (and anyone else)


Is it really impossible for a plain fighter to solo the game on HoF mode ?

I have started a solo fighter game,from level 1 and it was extremely hard...
I did the small quests in Easthaven and cleared the orc cave but I have lost count of the times I had to reload.I used the hit&run tactic with my long bow,but when 6-7 Orc-archers attacked me all at once it was close to impossible.
Anyway I managed to clear the cave and arrived at Kuldahar (I haven't fought yet the goblins at the Kuldahar pass,too many...)

The only positive thing is that with all this XP my fighter is already at level 8,
but only for resting I have spent almost a year !
Well this is... frustrating to say the least.

I had played only once IWD with a party of 4,but it was some years ago and I don't remember many things...

Will the game become easier from now on ? How far in the game is the first regeneration item and the boots of speed ?
Is it doable or should I give up now that is quite early ?

Thanks ...


PS: I have HoW and the Trials of the Luremaster installed.

 

I soloed with normal difficulty, so have no idea about HoF. For me game went easy when my figter had about 10th level and good AC. My hero was halfling, I got +3 AC with Helm of trusted defender and +2 with Axe +2 defender, when soloing every bit helps.
If you will be lucky, you will find boots of fox(random item) in lizard kings lair, which are better than boots of speed because gives you +1 AC. If not boots of speed will wait you in Severed hand.
Regenerative plate mail is far, in Dorns deep, but I used better armor because I wanted bigger AC bonus and rate of regeneration is slow.

 

Thanks.I remember the boots of Fox.
Well I will have to be lucky or help my luck with some reloads

I want a regenerative item mostly because every time I rest it takes some days (rest until healed).But if it is so far in the game I guess that soloing on HoF becomes too difficult...

 

But boring without magic for sure, spellcasters are much more fun anyway.

 

@thetruth: The first regenerative item you can get is the girdle of ogre blood buyable on burial isle.

As soon as you have gotten the boots of the fox you can start HoW. Buy the 3 invisibility potions and maybe some speed or strength potions from Oswald and if you are good aligned the shimmering sash from Orrick before you leave.

Try to outrun the undead on burial isle so that you get by without using invisibiliy potions.

Gloomfrost exterior can easily be done with hit and run tactics if you have a weapon for killing trolls like Presio's dagger.

Have Tiernon craft the dagger for antimagic shell or storm shell.

You can get perfect equipment by fighting the mercenary group after your return to Lonelywood.

A great help are the cloaks of invisibility. The first one can be found in the barbarian camp after you have returned from Gloomfrost.
Chances are 50:50.
If you want to get it keep in mind that the random item is set on your first visit at the barbarian camp. You might want to use the cheat console in order to look if it will be there when you return.

What race, stats, alignment and weapon profiencies does your fighter have ?

 

My first game i actually got boots of the Fox in the western most chest in the orc cave at start of the game.

So any random chest is a option.

 

@kmonster

Thanks a lot.These are the info I was looking for


As for my character :

He is a human,ch.good fighter.

STATS :

STR - 18/00 (rolled for about 20 min. only for this)
DEX - 18
CON - 18
INT - 9 (I want to be smarter than the orcs I fight )
WIS - 3 (enough,since better saves vs. mind affecting spells with high WIS was never implemented in the game...)
CHA - 18

He has 4* in large swords and 2* in bows.The next prof.point will go to the l.swords as well.
After this I don't know where to put my next prof.points.Which weapons would help more my fighter?

So the best route to follow is doing all the quests until I reach the first level of Dragon's Eye for the boots of the Fox.
Then start HoW and go to the Burial Isle for some good items.
But:
a) Will I have enough gold for them?
b) If I start HoW I can't leave Lonelywood and return to the IWD areas before I complete the expansion's quests.Right?
So what equipment should I have before starting it? Will it be doable for my fighter? (I remember those Harpies from the TotLM )


Anyway it is a long way until the Dragon's Eye...

I have noticed that HoF mode not only changes the HPs of the enemies but I am sure that it has changed their THACO and maybe their number of attacks as well.
So I am not sure what AC I need to be ''safe'' at least from the attacks of the ''lesser'' monsters.
Attacking only with my bow makes the game very boring and also very difficult without boots of speed.I don't have always enough free space for hit&run attacks and also all the enemies have too many HPs (a Yeti ~200 HPs ), so I constantly run out of arrows

But what else can I do?If I engage in melee I will have to rest for many years (seriously) before I reach Dragon's Eye...

 

There is no time limit in the game, so don't bother about resting.
If you want to minimize it then just reload when you get hurt.
I'd consider buying the lucky scimitar.

Profiency in axes might help you with the returning throwing axes but I wouldn't put more than two points in it since the throwing dagger +4 is better. Put at least ** into daggers.

Once you started HoW you can return to Kuldahar after you have solved the burial Isle quest.
After the victory at the barbarian camp you can travel between Kuldahar and HoW as often as you want until you leave for the sea of moving ice.
You can never return to Lonelywood afterwards so buy anything you need from there before.

You just need a potion bag with the invisibility potions from Oswald and maybe some other potions to start HoW.
The girdle of ogre blood costs about 27,500 GP.

 

Thanks.Good to know this.

My fighter is still in the Vale of Shadows and I have to say that soloing HoF mode with a fighter is extremely hard.
I have reached level 10, mainly by killing skeletons ( ) but I have many problems...

- With my -2 AC these skeletons can hit me always (very good THACO) and unfortunately at the moment I don't have any way to boost my AC (money or items).At least if I were a gnome I could use that very good helmet...
Also in the crypts I can't use my bow since all the skeletons attack me at once .
The best way I have found to ''limit'' my resting time is to use hit&exit from the cave ( ) attacks with my l.sword.But it takes a LOT of time and those skeletons are MANY ...

- In the 4th crypt the skeletons respawn!But the strange thing is that it doesn't happen when I rest but EVERY time I re-enter the crypt
Is this normal?
I realized this when after killing about 30 skeletons the crypt was still full of them
The problem is that I wanted to get a key from this crypt in order to proceed my game,but I couldn't rush in to take it.The many skeletons always blocked my way...
So the only tactic I found was to fight them in melee and rest in the cave when badly injured.
Result? Rested for about 150 days in that crypt (30 days/rest) but at least now I have the key...
Even a ranger or a pure thief would be easier to solo.Stealth would help a lot.

I know.I don't have a sister to save here ,but if I knew that it would take so much time to rest (and get healed) I would make my PC an elf.
I don't know if I will live enough to complete the game

 

HoF mode beatable with solo fighter

After winning both expansions my solo fighter (I started playing her last month) has now defeated Behilfet in the final battle, it took her only 106 days and 8 hours in-game time. 3 potions of invisibility, two potions of frost giant strength to bash some locks in dragon's eye level 4+5 and a few lore raising potions were the only items spent which aren't available in unlimited quantity.

She's a neutral good gnome fighter with the following stats:

str: 18/00
dex: 18
con: 18
int: 10
wis: 2
cha: 18

missile weapons +++++
large swords +++++
maces ++
daggers ++


Gnome for the saving throw bonus versus spells and being able to wear the helm of the trusted defender and good alignment for the shimmering sash (not sure if non-good for the bone marrow belt would have been better, but I like playing good characters).
I chose slings as primary weapon since you can grandmaster them, get a strength bonus and still can wear a shield, Lehland in the Severed Hand sells unlimited bullets +2 which are enough to hurt anything but iron golems and Behilfet. The longsword of action+4 was the primary melee weapon.
The throwing dagger +4 (you get it too late to make it worth spending more proficiencies), maces were used at 2 locations but never really needed.
10 int is just enough to avoid a lore penalty for int, a potion of insight can boost lore by 30.

Resting times in the early game were kept low by paying in temples. In the orc cave in Easthaven she defeated the first 2 groups with shoot and run but the 3rd was too powerful, time and healing costs would have been too high, so she just plundered all the containers in the cave an ran away.
The random item in the NW chest was a ring which only grants a bonus to save vs spells, when entering the cave I should have made sure to find the girdle which grants bless or at least the ring of protection +1, the bonus to hit or AC would have made the early parts of the game a little easier.

In Kuldahar pass she didn't stand a chance even versus the first goblin group and had to run through to Kuldahar immediately.

In the Vale of Shadows exterior the slow moving yetis and shadows were perfect targets for her sling, the fact that they even respawn shows how pointless it is trying to squeeze out every possible XP in the prologue.
In the SE cave I reloaded until she got the ring of the warrior, she kept it equipped until the end of the game.

In Kresselack's tomb the wights were difficult, they had to be fought in melee because of their immunity to normal weapons, specialization in swords isn't as effective as grandmastery in slings. The mummy was too tough, she just ran past whenever it got close. After level 2 she had enough money for starting HoW but decided to stay around Kuldahar instead.


The first battle on the 2nd level in the Temple of the Forgotten God (I made sure to find the badge of the brave on the 1st) was too difficult to go on without using potions, so she, having reached level 13, went to Lonelywood instead.

There she found a powerful sling and gained easy XP.
On the first visit at the barbarian camp I made sure that the cloak of invisibility would be there upon returning from Gloomfrost.

On Burial Isle she ran away from the barrow wights to the wizard's tower and bought the girdle of ogre blood. To get past the undead army waiting outside she used an invisibility potion, became visible only for a short time in the cave to get Wylfdene's tribal symbol and drank the second potion of invisibility to get the proof to Hjollder (she even managed to plunder a few containers on the way).

She got teleported back to Kuldahar, after finishing the first level in dragon's Eye (made sure to get the boots of the fox) she returned with Hjollder, used the 3rd potion of invisibilty to leave Burial Isle and went to Gloomfrost.

Gloomfrost exterior was no problem and the first groups of Rhemorhazes were defeated with some effort. But then she ran out of bullets and didn't want to walk the long way to Loneywood and back to get new ammo.
After a few attempts she managed to run past to Tiernon and buy a returning throwing axe there to shoot the rhemorhaz army waiting outside his lair. Since it grants no strength bonus and she wasn't even proficient in axes it took more than 10 times as long as it would have taken with bullets, I just enabled the ranged attack script and had her shoot on her own for hours (she got fully healed by the girdle of ogre blood during this time) while watching TV. Although I hardly ever used the axe again because of the pathetic damage output throwing axe was still displayed as favorite weapon at the end of the game.
Afterwards she had Tiernon forge a dagger with useful spells and ran past the ice golem sentries to the seer before returning to the barbarian camp where she watched the barbarians kill each other. In Lonelywood she finally got powerful and valuable equipment from Purvis and the mercenary group.

Afterwards she returned to Kuldahar and fought her way through the normal game until the point of no return. Compared to the levels above Yxunomei was very easy, use antimagic skill, run in and kill her within a few rounds, leave and kill the following minions group by group.
Chapter 3 to 5 weren't difficult either, she got the girdle of Labelas from Orrick for the mythal theorie book and found the large shield of strength in chapter 4, fully buffed she even managed to melee one of the bronze sentries without taking any damage.

The tarnished sentries in chapter 6 were annoying since she didn't want to waste magical bullets for them, the idol taught her that antimagic shell doesn't protect from power word: kill.
To get the ring of reckless action she cleared Malavon's lair before going back to HoW in spite of having no ammo +3. The golems were defeated in melee and the rest wasn't too difficult.

After placing the 6 badges it was time to return to Lonelywood and start TotL. She wasn't strong enough to defeat the greeting harpies on her own, after a few attempts at getting wyverns and harpies to fight each other and clearing the yard she gave up when she saw the harpies respawn and decided the cloak of invisibility (it's essential for TotL but not needed outside) for crossing the yard in the future.
In the towers everything except the harpies was defeated and defeating all monsters in the crypt wasn't difficult.
In the castle she used invisibility to run pasts the spectral guards and beholders to the king, after defeating him she continued running down the dungeon. After a few fought and avoided battles she ran past the slimes into the jackalwere main cave which she managed to clear fully.
In the smaller caves (except the easy to clear spider cave) she just used invisibility and her feet to get the gems.


The luremaster final battle was won on the first attempt, she only used antimagic shell, shoot and run and 101 normal bullets.

Surprisingly the Icasaracht battle was the hardest of the boss battles, after a few failed attempts I decided to use bullets +2 and potions of extra healing (she could buy an unlimited number of them and had more than she'd ever need in her bag of holding) to speed things up. The 100 percent cold immunity from the vexed armor (a good thing she killed the adventurers herself instead getting them killed by the eldathyn in dragon's eye) helped a lot, she got even healed by the water kin elementals' attacks.

The rest before the Icasaracht battle was the last rest in the game, without any once per day buffs left Poquelin in Lower Dorn's Deep needed more than one attempt but the final battle was won on the first attempt easily with the throwing dagger +4.

 

You inspired me to do the game again, this time on HoF.
Up to now I did the game twice, the second time solo F/M/T on insane. Now I'm going to try a F/M/C.

Have troubles at stat rolling, spent like 20 minutes already and have
str: 18/38
dex: 18
con: 18
int: 17
wis: 18
cha: 3

I wonder:
Does charisma matter?
And what's the effect of intelligence? I researched it in BG2 and there was only number of spells per level, I could easily sacrifice a lot of it, is IWD similar?

I forgot a lot about the game and my plan is very sketchy, would it be a good idea to use Demon's Breath?
From my estimations it's the strongest blunt weapon, but I have no idea whether I'm going to have fire resistant summons and whether I'm going to have resistance myself. And as to its damage, is it like BG2 that spells cast from items are considered to have caster level of 10? I did estimations for level 10 and 5 and with the latter it was roughly at the level with Morning Star of Action +4. But well, I remember to little about the game to do good assessments, I don't really know what attacks/round I'll be hitting and whether there's a limit of 5 that you can't cross even hasted. Well, I think I'll start playing before getting to know whether my choices are good (and I'll choose Morning Stars to be safe), but it would be nice to have the answers anyway.

On to rolling dices.

 

Charisma is unimportant for your solo game, you get cheaper shop prices and can avoid fighting the barbarians after your first visit at their camp.
Int affects the max number of spells per level and the highest level of spells you can learn as well as the chance for successful scroll scribing. You can use int raising potions but it's annoying.
I'd rather dump wis since it only grants bonus cleric spells, with a little luck you should be able to set all stats except cha to 18.

There's no need for planning ahead the weapon you'll be wielding at the end, you'll have to specialize in all weapon types clerics can use. I'd start with missile and mace specialization and add flails and hammers next.
Neither Morning Star of Action +4 nor Demon's Breath can be found in the game if HoW is installed.
5 attacks/round is the limit unhasted, 10 hasted.

 

In BG and BG2 wisdom also contributed to divine spellcasting success/failure, Minsc fails a spell every once in a while in my games. It might be the same for IWD.

 

Thank you both.
Yesterday I did just 1 group of monsters that attacked, goblins...it was extremely time consuming. I don't know if I'll keep it up to the end.

 

The beginning is tough since HoF mode was not designed for low level characters, but when you reach cleric level 5 and get your first summons it will get easier.
Until then you can lure the goblins away one by one, cast hold person (cast command if you've trouble aiming) and finish them off while they're paralyzed.

 

That's what I did. It wasn't hard, it just took so much time...If something doesn't change radically I see the game as a month of playing day to day....

---------- Added 15 hours, 32 minutes and 34 seconds later... ----------

I set "Maximum Frame Rate=60" in the icewind.ini to make the game run at double speed. It was far less annoying. To get to lvl 5 I needed to kill 1 wolf, which was immune to Hold Person, which was hard, but with several undead at disposal my damage output increased greatly, further speeding things up. It's much more manageable now.

---------- Added 2 hours, 14 minutes and 15 seconds later... ----------

BTW, kmonster, did you ever think about making a solo speedrun of IWD in HOF mode?
I think it would be a nice one.

 

You'd be surprised how fast such a speedrun would be since you can avoid most fights. You don't even have to kill a single monster in order to get to Kuldahar for example.