Soloing BG1 as a mage

[Runestar]

Enjoying a little more free time than usual, and so I looked through my stash of old games. Found my copy of BG1, and decided to give it a whirl, that and I also just repurchased a DVD copy of BG2 (No ToB though).

Upon replaying, I realised that I still can't stand the hassle of micromanaging an entire party, but continue to enjoy the concept of running a single character through the game, so I decided to start a solo run as a human conjurer.

He isn't too bad, just finished Naskel mines and currently at lv6. However, I noticed that because he has so few spell slots, he seems less of a caster, and more of a wand rack. Seriously, virtually every encounter I come across is overcome through the judicious use of wands and other 1-shot consumables such as potions. Was this your strategy as well?

I may get around to posting my current sequence so far, but I am also wondering what your experiences with soloing through BG1 are like? I have never really completed BG1 (furthest was somewhere in candlekeep catacombs?) Anything I should keep in mind or prepare for the final fight (assuming I have the patience to get that far?)

I am also thinking of trying soloing with some other classes as well (possibly fighter or paladin, rogue doesn't really interest me), so hints/tips about them will also be appreciated.:smallsmile:

[Moonshadow]

Eh... You might get the absolute living crap kicked out of you in the final fight, if only because you'll be 1 v... 6 (I think) really powerful NPCs, and you won't have very many high level spell slots. But yeah, really, you'll end up relying on wands and potions a lot as a mage. You can use the Summon Monster (random number) spells as extra cannon fodder though. And you'll need Mirror Image and Stoneskin and Blur and all those defensive spells. Just remember if you're using Lightning Bolt, that it bounces off walls and can kill you really fast. And Fireball is quite easy to kill yourself with as well.

Skull Trap is a decent spell though, as I remember. You can use it to trap plot fights and get some extra firepower right at the start.

I think Ranger is a decent choice for a solo though (If you're using mods, use Archer though, they're beasts) because you get minor heals and armor of faith and all the cool bows and arrows and stuffs.

[Jair Barik]

Actuallu almost all boss fights can be trapped with any AoO spell (in some cases with targetted spells). Begin casting send character to trigger conversation then have a load of fireballs hit the enemy before they get any spells off, entangle the Nashkell bounty hunter, hold person some of the others etc. After repeatedly having enemies start casting their spells at you before you can it is pretty much fair game.

[Cogwheel]

I have one combo for a good deal of the game: Stinking Cloud+Animate Dead. Very handy.

Final fight? Stay out of their line of sight. Fire Cloudkill in their general direction to dispose of all but, uh... can I say their name? Ah well. Technically still spoilers, but anyway. You may want to summon mooks for that, I seem to remember their having spell immunity.

[Moklok]

I have never soloed BG1, but have soloed BG2+ToB 3 times. At what level do you end up at in BG1 solo?

[Runestar]

I have never soloed BG1, but have soloed BG2+ToB 3 times. At what level do you end up at in BG1 solo?

The xp cap is 161000xp, so would be 9th lv for a mage. I am not using any mods or addons.

Here's a quick runthrough of how I have been tackling the game thus far.

Candlekeep
Did all the quests for 345xp, nothing really noteworthy. Bought a sling and some bullets. Didn't bother killing Elvenhair as I did not want the reputation hit.

Post-ambush
Get the gold from Gorion/ogres, snag Imoen, Xzar and Montaron for their gear (potions of healing, haste and wand of missiles). Walk around the map triggering high-hedge before heading for the east. In fact, I will be doing this for every map (so I can go straight to those areas in future). Attacked by a wolf, didn't bother fighting back, simply exited the map.

S of Friendly Arms Inn (FAI)
Trigger Beregrost/Larswood on map, sleep the ogre and smash his skull in with quarterstaff for the girdles, head N for FAI.

Friendly Arms Inn
First go east for the ring of wizardry, then circle round the inn to the top to kill the hobgoblins (Joia's ring quest). Also trigger Ankheg's farm before heading back to inn. The assassin mage was quite easy, trick is using wand of missiles just before he talks to you to disrupt his casting of mirror image. A lucky sling shot, another missile, and he is dead.

Head for the temple to identify the ring first before going in. Talk to Jaheira for her potion of invisibility, sold some misc treasure, went up to return the girdle to the gnome (tempting, but I caved in for the xp), then the third floor for the quest to clear the spiders in Beregrost. Around 2000xp at this point.

Didn't bother resting and then left the inn for ankheg farm.

Ankheg farm
Drank a potion of haste and invisibility (from Jaheira), entered the tunnel and made a beeline for the treasure pile (noting where the ankhegs are hidden). At this point, I am still 1st lv, and a single hit will kill me. After looting the pile (for the wand of fire, some scrolls and misc stuff), return to the surface, taking care to avoid as many ankhegs as I can. Seems if you move fast enough, they won't attack you).

Once outside, I went West to talk to the fishermen to get the Cleric of Umberlee quest before going East to return the body to Farmer Brun. Also gave him some money. The xp gets me to 2nd lv, I then go North to Baldur's Gate.

Wyrm's Crossing (AKA Entrance to Baldur's Gate)
Once there, I go up to the cleric. Again, I use the wand of missiles to disrupt her casting and injure her enough to trigger the conversation. I agree to get her bowl back for her. After that, it is just a simple case of running (or walking rather) back to the fishermen, getting the bowl from them and returning it back to her before going to Beregrost. Think I hit 3rd lv at this point, but no 2nd lv spells. :smallsigh:

Beregrost
Went to Feldepost's inn and convinced the farmer that adventurers aren't all that bad, then returned the book to Elvenhair before talking to Garrick. Silke was obviously the villian here. Again, wand of missiles to disrupt her attempt at casting improved invisility, blind her (with blindness spell, had to reload once as she made her save first time round), then pelt her to death with sling bullets.

The assassin in Red Sheaf Inn faces a similar fate (blinded, then pelted with bullets), though it is a more tedious process this time round as he has a much better AC and more hp. I decide to put off killing the spiders for now, because I am not returning to FAI so soon, and the bodies seem to decay after a while.

More or less done with this area. As it is nighttime, I rest to regain my spells and to advance the clock to morning. Head over to the smith to stock up on sling bullets. Also buy a +1 sling. Leave map for South.

South of Beregrost
Sleep the ogrillions and finish them off. Loot the letter (quest item for Mirianne in Beregrost). Head West, sleep the hobgoblins and whack them for the boots of stealth. There is also a cave with some healing potions inside. Leave South.

South-South of Beregrost
Nothing of value here. Point is really to head East.

South of High Hedge
Find Bassilus, choose the dialogue option which causes all his skeletons to self-destruct. Blindness again disables him, while I spend 30 bullets or so on him. Loot his body for the +2 warhammer and holy symbol.

Next, move up, encounter a few wolves, lead them together before sleeping them. Talk to Melicamp the chicken. Head west to get the location for the lighthouse. I first go to the temple East of Beregrost to claim the 5000gp bounty before leaving N for High Hedge.

High Hedge
Found a skeleton (need its skull for the chicken quest), sleep the gnolls around the tower for Perdue's short sword, then enter the wizard's premises. Successfully reincarnated Melicamp back to human form, then went into shopping mode.

First, bought a scroll of friends, prepare 2 castings, cast them to increase my cha to 24, then purchases some items (mirror image, invis, skull trap, hold person, 3 potions of explosions, wand of sleep, recharge wand of missiles). Can't stop drooling over the claw of kazgaroth and robe of neutral archmagi. Very soon...

Somewhere along the line, I get enough xp to reach 4th lv. Prepare a variety of sleep, blindness and invis spells. Leave the map for Lighthouse.

Lighthouse (SW of High Hedge)
Spoke with the cranky seer mage, fought here (she is surprisingly tough), but nothing a blindness spell can't fix). I next head up to fight the sirines (they are good pickings at 2000xp each).

This is where the game gets frustrating. They have excellent saves (a 7 is enough to save against my blindness spells), their AC is next to unhittable if they manage to get improved invis off, and their excellent thaco means a world of hurt with their arrows of biting, even with my AC at -5 (potion of defense, 18dex and ring of prot). What I do is to go invisible, sneak into the cave and get the tome of con and the wand of paralysation. The golems are slow and fall to darts of wounding (you get 5 from the ankheg nest and 10 more in the cave). Id the wand with a scroll of id I have been saving for this very purpose.

Head back. I take down Sil and her 2 sirines by spamming potions of explosions from outside her line of sight. I then take down the individual sirines by paralysing them with the wand. Collected 6 pearls and 30 arrows. Hit lv5 around halfway through.

Finally, I kill the worgs and rescue the boy for the rep boost before leaving South.

South of Lighthouse
Encountered Barge, solved his riddle, which transports me immediately to Nashkel. The temple priest rewards me well, I then exit and head for the inn. The cleric assassin is also paralysed by the wand. Exit to the circus.

Ugh. Wrists need a rest. Probably continue tomorrow (not much, just the circus then the mines). :smallsmile:

[Triaxx]

First thing to remember is that A) There are two Rings of Wizardry, and they Stack. You can now spam Magic Missile until the game crashes. B) Summoning spells are not limited like they are in BG2. You can in fact crush most fights with nothing but hordes of summoned creatures. But Memorize at least one casting of Haste. Get Hobgoblin Archers, and drop haste. Fight has now Ended.

Seriously, I had one guy who didn't fall to this and it was the final boss of Cloakwood mines.

But that's because he casts protection from missiles. But he does it on arrival, so simply resting 8 hours, and then attacking totally negates his advantage.

[Shpadoinkle]

I'm replaying BG2+ToB for maybe the tenth time at the moment, as a paladin with the Undead Hunter kit and I'm using some mods (G3 Fixpack and tweaks, Item Upgrades, and Level 1 NPCs- I made Aerie a sorcerer, Imoen a skald, and Nalia an archer, for instance.)

I find that for random battles I can just turn AI on (I just gave everyone the Standard Attack script except for Imoen- she casts Invisibility on herself and uses her bard song) and my party pretty much rips everything apart without the need for micromanagement (Minsc and Anomen are the other two party members.) The only time I have to micromanage stuff is during really hard fights, and then it's mostly just having Aerie dispel the enemy casters' buffs and Anomen periodically cast Mass Cure, and refresh Protection from Evil 10' radius now and then.

So... yeah, if you haven't done it before, try using AI scripts. I know ally AI in most games is horribly, HORRIBLY stupid, but if you keep it simple (Standard Attack script) it manages to do a pretty good job at that.

[Drasius]

Anything I should keep in mind or prepare for the final fight (assuming I have the patience to get that far?)

The Big Bad has 100% magic resistance unless you have Tales of the Sword Coast installed, so the only magic than can damage him is Flame arrow (piercing component [1d6/arrow] only) and summons, but he will clear an entire party of mages summons and still be virtually untouched, so I think you are pretty much boned.

Other than that, you should be OK, though you will appear to have nacolepsy due to the absurd amount of resting you do. Burning through consumables is definately normal and is to be expected.

Remember, sleep is your friend for a very large part of this as there are many enemies who will succumb rather easily.

[Aricandor]

For soloing BG1 I would definitely say there's no shame in getting some mod to raise the XP cap. There's just so much of it that'll almost certainly go to waste otherwise, which is a shame both for its own sake and because some more spell slots would do you really well, even if you get no actual spells known above 5th level.

[Triaxx]

Shpadoinkle: gScripts and eScripts are possibly the best mods I've ever found. They give great intelligence to the party, and for all but the hardest fights you can simply turn them on and watch them slaughter the enemies without a lot of intervention.

Found Here (http://http://www.gibberlings3.net/cirerrek/eseries.php).

[Runestar]

Okay, so I have taken a break from my mage (or rather, lost that game when I started a new solo, then saved over the auto-save and quicksave file). :smalltongue:

Playing an elven fighter/mage at the moment, think it may be my all-time favourite choice, as it combines the best of both fighter and mage. I can attack well, augmented with some buffs/battlefield control spells from my mage side, plus wands!!!

I am also muling the viability of a human mage1 dualclassed to fighter to port over to BG2. It would probably be inferior to a multiclassed fighter/mage, with the strengths of a full fighter being apparent only in the latter part of BG2.

He would for most part be a straight fighter clad in fullplate and wielding a 2-handed weapon, but who can use wizard-only items such as amulet of power, staff of magi, wands as well as certain caster-lv independent scrolls to boost his fighting capabilities. The ability to summon a familiar would make up for the lost hp.

Thoughts?

Also, I find I like starting new characters more than carrying them through to the end. That and the slow movement speed...:smallsigh:

[MickJay]

Fighter 9/mage dual class is probably the most powerful combination out there, but that means you'll be a fighter until into BG 2. A mage/fighter combination is somewhat decent if you only want to be able to use wands and scrolls; majority of mage-only items are only good for mages. Having a few low level spells available is nice, but not really worth it.

Another benefit of fighter/mage dual classing is that later on you get Tenser's Transformation, which, if you already have a few fighter levels, makes you much, much more powerful than a pure fighter would ever be (and that's even without casting other boosting spells).

And an absolute must: find the tome of intellect and boost your intelligence to 19, for an unlimited size of your spell book. High wisdom will pay off in BG2 as well, since you can then put Limited Wish to good use.

I know what you mean about starting new characters, i have finished the game twice; I have also made dozens of starting characters, just to get the feel of playing them. For movement speed, there's a pair of boots somewhere that gives you speed (and only that) equal to having Haste on you. They're probably my most favourite item in the whole game, they're good for quick scouting (with invisibility/stealth if possible), moving around, running away... a rogue can backstab, retreat, re-stealth and come back for another backstab next round. In fact, a fighter/thief combination is among the more versatile and powerful ones in the whole game.

[Shpadoinkle]

Yeah, thieves are stupidly powerful in SoA, and even more so if you have ToB (although, in SoA you can set an unlimited number of traps, but ToB restricts the number to I believe 8. On the other hand, with ToB thieves eventually get Use Any Item...)

The thought of starting as a mage and dual-classing to fighter for scroll and wand use had never occurred to me... That's a rather interesting choice, I have to say. The biggest downside, of course, is actually tracking down the scrolls and the fact that there are limited numbers of most of them.

[Winthur]

Fighter/Mage/Thief probably the most classic of all solo characters, fun to play in both games. If you dualclass the mage into Fighter at level 2 (you can't dual at level 1) then you will forever be a horrible mage with wonderful "utility" such as, I don't know, Infravision or Magic Missile for 1d4. Nah, Fighter into Mage works better.

Also, if you're any sort of mage, Blind spell is the best thing ever. No other spell has as much utility at level 1. It allows you to kill ankhegs with level 1 characters. If you don't feel like exploiting that fact (and that's very easy particularly if you like Ajantis :smallwink:), just use it in battles, it makes a difference.

Also in BG2 soloing the game as a solo Blade, the best bard kit, is much fun. With aPack mod, other Bard kits become viable, particularly the underrated yet mighty Jester.

[Shpadoinkle]

Fighter/Mage/Thief probably the most classic of all solo characters, fun to play in both games. If you dualclass the mage into Fighter at level 2 (you can't dual at level 1) then you will forever be a horrible mage with wonderful "utility" such as, I don't know, Infravision or Magic Missile for 1d4. Nah, Fighter into Mage works better.

The point of dualling from mage to fighter isn't the spells in your spellbook, it's the ability to use scrolls, wands, and some of the mage-specific equipment without restriction. It's like giving the fighter a lesser version of the thief's Use Any Item ability, except at the start of the game.

[Winthur]

The point of dualling from mage to fighter isn't the spells in your spellbook, it's the ability to use scrolls, wands, and some of the mage-specific equipment without restriction. It's like giving the fighter a lesser version of the thief's Use Any Item ability, except at the start of the game.

Honestly you could also just go Fighter to Mage since as far as I know you can still get good weapon masteries and then make the switch to be a godly battlemage. But sure, that's true as well, and I overlooked that.

[Runestar]

Honestly you could also just go Fighter to Mage since as far as I know you can still get good weapon masteries and then make the switch to be a godly battlemage. But sure, that's true as well, and I overlooked that.

True that. I have played a kensai/mage before (and enjoyed it immensely), but the idea is a fighter rather than a mage with decent melee skills.

Instead of a fighter9-->wiz17 (where thaco caps at 12), I could instead have a wiz1-->fighter19 (thaco caps at 2) with better fighting skills. I realise it probably won't be as strong, but I am interested more in the concept than its effectiveness. Plus, it will probably be interesting to see the mage sprite engaging in combat. :smalltongue:

I have always wanted to solo a straight fighter, but would like to tweak it a little to break the mold.

[arguskos]

In the BG series (unmodded), Kensai 9 dualed into Mage is considered the flat-out best solo you can make. Make certain you have at least a few points in Katanas and Hammers before you dual into Mage, since the point late-game is to dual-wield Crom Faeyr and Celestial Fury. You get so much insanity, it breaks the mind. I've run it three times through the entire series (using BGT, of course) and it is stupidly effective. A favorite late-game tactic (though sub-par of course) is to Time Stop, Kai, and obliterate everything in the room during the TS.

Out of curiosity, is there a reason you're not using BGT? You really should be. Makes things so nice.

Man, I need a Windows XP partition so I can get my obsessive replay of the series in again. Haven't played all year, I feel like I'm behind on my annual replay(s).

[Mikeavelli]

The Big Bad has 100% magic resistance unless you have Tales of the Sword Coast installed, so the only magic than can damage him is Flame arrow (piercing component [1d6/arrow] only) and summons, but he will clear an entire party of mages summons and still be virtually untouched, so I think you are pretty much boned.

Other than that, you should be OK, though you will appear to have nacolepsy due to the absurd amount of resting you do. Burning through consumables is definately normal and is to be expected.

Remember, sleep is your friend for a very large part of this as there are many enemies who will succumb rather easily.

Just buy up all the wands of summon monster you can find, and start spamming them until he dies. You can fill up that entire room with summoned monsters this way, and he will die eventually. This actually the way I beat the game the first time, because my party was pretty terribly built and died horribly in the last boss fight.

[Cogwheel]

Here's another idea: Summon a few archers. Or lots of them, since you don't have party members with bows/crossbows.

Run in circles. Boss chases you, gets shot to pieces until his health is gradually eroded away. It's what I did.

[Moklok]

In the BG series (unmodded), Kensai 9 dualed into Mage is considered the flat-out best solo you can make.

IIRC Kensai 11/Mage was stronger then Kensai9. The only drawback was a longer wait to get your spells back, but the end result was better.(This is just from memory, I might be wrong.)

[arguskos]

IIRC Kensai 11/Mage was stronger then Kensai9. The only drawback was a longer wait to get your spells back, but the end result was better.(This is just from memory, I might be wrong.)
I've heard arguments for both. I liked 9 cause of faster access to spells and your Kensai features. 11 means that (if you're not using any mods beyond BGT) you end up getting Kensai back around Spellhold or something, which kinda sucks. 9 can be achieved sooner, as I recall.

Of course, neither is BAD. Kensai is so stupidly overpowered it blows the mind.

[Runestar]

IIRC Kensai 11/Mage was stronger then Kensai9. The only drawback was a longer wait to get your spells back, but the end result was better.(This is just from memory, I might be wrong.)

As a kensai9 dualclassed to mage, I regained my kensai abilities in the slums area, after clearing out the slaver's compound, which is fairly fast (quite easy as well, I lured all the guards into the same room, went invis, walked out and flooded the room with a death fog scroll obtained from lethinan). This is recommended if you want to enjoy your kensai powers ASAP.

Kensai 10 and 11 don't seem to offer anything substantial, apart from improved bab. Kensai9 lets you advance to mage17 in BG2 and mage30 in ToB (which maxes out your spellcasting, since mage31 doesn't offer anything). So it is practically a lossless proposition.


Out of curiosity, is there a reason you're not using BGT? You really should be. Makes things so nice.

Is that some mod? No offense, I just like to play my games unmodified, the way the designers intended them. So I don't plan to install any outside files (barring the baldurdash fixpack), tempting as improved graphics for BG1 may be. :smalltongue:

Okay, some observations on the mage dualclassed to fighter combination.

1) I can't select new spells in BG2, so no find familiar until later (when the shadow thieves get killed by the vampire). So no ring of regen or the extra hp. :smallfrown:

2) One thing that never crossed my mind - the 18 str from the mage. This normally wouldn't be an issue if you played through BG1 and used the str tome to raise it to 19 (I didn't). So you are slightly weaker until you buy the belt of str (which also means no belt of inertial barrier).

3) My saves seem pretty good, probably because I started with a mage base and added fighter's saves on top.

4) I must be a mage2 before I can dual-class, so I have a lot less hp. :smallannoyed:

[Triaxx]

BGT is a mod of a sort. It essentially converts BG1 into the BG2 engine. So you can walk out of Candlekeep as a Kensai. Or Sorceror from the beginning.

And there's a copy of Find Familiar in the fighter stronghold.

[Closet_Skeleton]

Eh... You might get the absolute living crap kicked out of you in the final fight, if only because you'll be 1 v... 6 (I think) really powerful NPCs, and you won't have very many high level spell slots.

They final boss fight is so rediculously broken that he's screwed either way. Most of your party is useless during that fight and you just have to summon spam.

[Moklok]

They final boss fight is so rediculously broken that he's screwed either way. Most of your party is useless during that fight and you just have to summon spam.

I have only played through BG1 a long time ago, but I dont remember using that many summons. I think I had Drizzt weapons though, so that might be why.

[Winthur]

They final boss fight is so rediculously broken that he's screwed either way. Most of your party is useless during that fight and you just have to summon spam.

You mean the BG1 boss fight where you can completely shut down half the fight by careful positioning so that you only aggro Sarevok and his wimpy mage, Semaj?

The one where you can spam AoE disables and damage spells into fog of war before the engagement?

The one where - assuming you are the mage in your party - your teammates have to do the work for you since Sarevok has ridiculous magic resist?

:smalltongue:

Summoning spam is not the only way. I know that on the BioWare forums some of the Iron Men (basically BG the Roguelike - never die during the playthrough, erase save game if you do) won as solo Clerics or Fighter/Thiefs. That doesn't involve lots of summonings.

[MickJay]

2) One thing that never crossed my mind - the 18 str from the mage. This normally wouldn't be an issue if you played through BG1 and used the str tome to raise it to 19 (I didn't). So you are slightly weaker until you buy the belt of str (which also means no belt of inertial barrier).

While it's technically cheating, you can edit in yourself a few tomes, instead of playing through whole BG1 again to find them. There are a few ways to work around that that are "merely" exploits (they involve importing characters from bg1 that already had the tomes in their inventory), but you might as well save yourself the trouble...

[Squark]

EDIT: Iron manning is impressive, but here's another thing done on BG 2: Solo Insane Poverty. Insane difficulty (not impressive, but 200% damage to you is still harder), solo, and, here's the kicker, NO ITEMS except what you need to complete the game. So, you're stuck with a nonmagcial quarterstaff (to kill magic golems), the 15000 GP you need for... Chapter 2, and plot trinkets. That's it. No scrolls, No weapons, no wands, no nothing. And it is doable. Admittadly, you have to go Sorcerer to pull it off, but hey. Sorcerer is one of the most fun BG2 classes anyway.


Is that some mod? No offense, I just like to play my games unmodified, the way the designers intended them. So I don't plan to install any outside files (barring the baldurdash fixpack), tempting as improved graphics for BG1 may be. :smalltongue:

If this is the case, you might want to (on a second play through) pick up David Gaider's Ascescion mod (http://weidu.org/asc.html). I say this because Gaider was one of the designers, and Accession and the assorted "Improved X" for ToB where parts of TOB that got cut to make the game easier/due to time constraints. The various unfinished business mods are also worth checking out.

Also, for BG 1, I highly recommend Sword Coast Stratagems (http://www.gibberlings3.net/scs/), even if you just do it for the ease of use AI (And maybe the removed blur effect and/or moving boo to Minsc's inventory). It doesn't make your allies geniuses by a long way, but they will intelligently pick their own targets (meaning they won't waste ammo on someone you stunned), cast a few long duration spells you'd want cast in the morning anyway (armor, Goodberry, and stoneskin, for instance), Eat goodberries when not engaged in combat (making the spell actually pretty good. You can also make them drink healing potions automaticly if you have a surplus), and Activate 24 hour items automatically. A Lifesaver. Seriously. After going back and playing Icewind Dale without access to the AI, I constantly find my self berating my characters for doing stupid things they would never do with the Ease of Use AI (No, stupid fighter! Don't disengage from the fight to go by the party leader. Stop pulling out your throwing daggers, fighter/mage with stoneskin and a greatsword. GAH!)

I know you said you don't like mods, a better AI is a must for the game. If you don't play the game through with party members at least some of the time, you'll miss the best dialogue and side-stories in the game.

[arguskos]

EDIT: Iron manning is impressive, but here's another thing done on BG 2: Solo Insane Poverty. Insane difficulty (not impressive, but 200% damage to you is still harder), solo, and, here's the kicker, NO ITEMS except what you need to complete the game. So, you're stuck with a nonmagcial quarterstaff (to kill magic golems), the 15000 GP you need for... Chapter 2, and plot trinkets. That's it. No scrolls, No weapons, no wands, no nothing. And it is doable. Admittadly, you have to go Sorcerer to pull it off, but hey. Sorcerer is one of the most fun BG2 classes anyway.
I've both Iron Manned and Solo Insane Poverty'd. SIP's are really stupid crazy hard, but can be done. Did it with a Monk once, got stuck on Amelyssan (which is pretty good, IMO). Did it with a caster a few times. Works pretty decently. Very hard to do with a Wizard though, due to difficulty of getting certain spells, though it can be done.

My favorite "trick" run (as I call these sorts of things) was an Iron Man Speed Run. I think I managed BG2+ToB in like 10-15 hours at a crazy-high speed, but it's been awhile. Very fun, but way hard, since you have to cut corners (and thus XP) and since it's Iron Man you're underleveled a lot of the time. :smallsigh: Wiped like 9 times. Finally cracked it with Keldorn, Anomen, Korgan, and myself (Kensai/Mage). Was hard though. Haven't done a solo iron man speed run though. Might try that sometime. Not even sure it's possible to combine insane poverty into there. :smalleek:

Now I want to try that, an Insane Poverty Solo Iron Man Speed Run. That'd... that'd be BRUTALLY hard, especially with all the difficulty increasing mods I've got out there.

[Winthur]

Wow Arguskos, you actually won an Iron Man?

Dayumn, now you are tempting me to try that myself...

...wait, Insane Poverty Solo Iron Man?... with MODS?

With Tactics, Improved Battles and Ascension?

Now that really sounds "Insane" and if it happens I want it documented on a stream/forum topic with screenshots :smalleek:

[Kish]

The one where - assuming you are the mage in your party - your teammates have to do the work for you since Sarevok has ridiculous magic resist?
If you have Tales of the Sword Coast (and if you don't, why not?) then Sarevok's magic resistance in the final battle is an impressive...0%.

[arguskos]

Wow Arguskos, you actually won an Iron Man?
I've done several, actually. My favorite was as a Cleric/Fighter/Mage in a non-solo, just because that multi-class SUCKS.


...wait, Insane Poverty Solo Iron Man?... with MODS?
I've done solo iron mans, but never a SIP one. I want to try it now.


Now that really sounds "Insane" and if it happens I want it documented on a stream/forum topic with screenshots :smalleek:
I had a BG2 LP a long time ago. Sadly, my comp crapped out part-way through. :smallfrown:

[Moklok]

My favorite "trick" run (as I call these sorts of things) was an Iron Man Speed Run. I think I managed BG2+ToB in like 10-15 hours at a crazy-high speed, but it's been awhile

Shadows of Amn was done in 23 minutes, Throne of Bhaal was done in 37 minutes. Of course bugs are allowed in those "insane" speed runs, but still ridiculous.

[Trazoi]

For soloing BG1 I would definitely say there's no shame in getting some mod to raise the XP cap. There's just so much of it that'll almost certainly go to waste otherwise, which is a shame both for its own sake and because some more spell slots would do you really well, even if you get no actual spells known above 5th level.
That's my opinion too, and the way I've played the Baldur's Gate series as a duo (PC + Imoen). You reach the cap waaaay too quickly otherwise in BG1 (BG2 + Throne of Bhaal not so much, or at least not that extra levels beyond the cap do much to your effectiveness).

[arguskos]

Shadows of Amn was done in 23 minutes, Throne of Bhaal was done in 37 minutes. Of course bugs are allowed in those "insane" speed runs, but still ridiculous.
Oh yes, but I'm not talking bugs or anything. :smallwink: Normal, unbugged, work.

[Lord of the Helms]

They final boss fight is so rediculously broken that he's screwed either way. Most of your party is useless during that fight and you just have to summon spam.

Not really. I don't think I used any summon spam. In fact, I did not use any summons at all. I just had decent fighters in my party, buffed properly, stayed the hell away from the traps in the center of the room, and added in AoE attacks for good measure. In particular, for everyone except Sarevok himself, hasted archers spamming arrows of detonation (so, so, SO broken) quickly cleared the room and left me with only Sarevok to kill between my entire party. Once everyone else is down, switching archers to acid arrows to pelt Sarevok was very helpful as well, since they do something like +2 +2d6 extra damage per arrow in BG1.

My party, if I remember correctly, was Me (Archer Ranger), Imoen, Dynaheir, Minsc, Jaheira and... not sure on the last one. Maybe, err, it was Branwen?

[Runestar]

Darn, so many different ways to play the game, so little time. Especially since my long weekend is over and work beckons. :smalleek:

I just got off the bioware forum's no reload thread, where someone was having the blast of a time with a most atypical party (kagain, alora and some other npcs I normally would not consider using). Blast, how do people get so creative? :smalltongue:

That said, I wish there was some way to enable to xp cap in a BG2+ToB game. This way, I won't become too powerful too early, and still have something to look forward to in the expansion (gaining lvs and newer abilities). Currently, the only thing is to reinstall the game without the expansion everytime I want a new solo. :smallannoyed:

[Triaxx]

If you want party fun and ease, you'll want thieves, fighters, and one wizard. (Because a party without Minsc isn't much of a party.) Everyone but Dynaheir gets a bow. You could cheat a bit to dual Dynaheir into Thief, and give her a bow as well. There, party, plus ease.

Seriously, a party of nothing but archers does quite a number on anything up to the final bosses.

[Gaius Marius]

I gotta say, some of the highest fun I've had with this game was playing as an assassin. This x9 backstab multiplier with a Sword of Mask is a helluva booster. Add invisibility ring and boots of haste..

Plus UMD to wield the Mage Staff, so I could Dispel Magic those pesky protections...

[Winthur]

I gotta say, some of the highest fun I've had with this game was playing as an assassin. This x9 backstab multiplier with a Sword of Mask is a helluva booster. Add invisibility ring and boots of haste..

Plus UMD to wield the Mage Staff, so I could Dispel Magic those pesky protections...

Mods have items that give additional multipliers to your backstab (like the dagger Quietus). This allows even the Swashbuckler to deal bonus damage. Given that Swashbuckler is already an amazing fight guy, it might just be kind of broken. :smalltongue:


just got off the bioware forum's no reload thread, where someone was having the blast of a time with a most atypical party (kagain, alora and some other npcs I normally would not consider using).

Alora is a single class thief with a high dexterity whose major drawback is mostly the fact that you get her so late, and Kagain has a freaking passive regeneration due to 20 CON and he's tanky as hell, plus you can get him immediately after entering Beregost. What's not to love? Other than the fact he uses axes (which admittedly are a bit sucky in BG1), he's very beefy and thus an asset.

[arguskos]

Mods have items that give additional multipliers to your backstab (like the dagger Quietus). This allows even the Swashbuckler to deal bonus damage. Given that Swashbuckler is already an amazing fight guy, it might just be kind of broken. :smalltongue:
Ohgodquietusissooooooogooooooooooooodauuuuuuugh

I love the Weidu Forge mod, because it lets you do that sorta thing. Also, the mod that gives you Sanchuudoku, the Acid Katana, is so broken. Killing that guy is a bitch though, but 100% worth it. :smallcool:


Alora is a single class thief with a high dexterity whose major drawback is mostly the fact that you get her so late, and Kagain has a freaking passive regeneration due to 20 CON and he's tanky as hell, plus you can get him immediately after entering Beregost. What's not to love? Other than the fact he uses axes (which admittedly are a bit sucky in BG1), he's very beefy and thus an asset.
I always take Kagain when going through BG1, just because he's so good. Regen plus a metric ton of hit points is awesome.

The paladin, Ajantis, is another one who gets overlooked a lot, which I feel is sad cause I really LIKE Ajantis. He's a fun dude and fairly competent (yay for a game where sword/shield is viable).

[Closet_Skeleton]

Not really. I don't think I used any summon spam. In fact, I did not use any summons at all. I just had decent fighters in my party, buffed properly, stayed the hell away from the traps in the center of the room, and added in AoE attacks for good measure. In particular, for everyone except Sarevok himself, hasted archers spamming arrows of detonation (so, so, SO broken) quickly cleared the room and left me with only Sarevok to kill between my entire party. Once everyone else is down, switching archers to acid arrows to pelt Sarevok was very helpful as well, since they do something like +2 +2d6 extra damage per arrow in BG1.

My party, if I remember correctly, was Me (Archer Ranger), Imoen, Dynaheir, Minsc, Jaheira and... not sure on the last one. Maybe, err, it was Branwen?

I think I once tried that fight by killing every enemy that wasn't Sarevok with cheats and then watched Sarevok wipe out my entire party by himself and ended up giving up.

But I couldn't even defeat the skeleton warriors in the final dungeon and had to get passed them using invisibility.

[Runestar]

So my solo mage is now in baldur's gate. Just got the dex tome, en-route to picking up the int book. Has an array of wands and enough cash to sustain spamming them. Although I am starting to get a little bored, and just want to speed through the 2nd half (now that I have the boots of speed). Still want to give ulgoth's beard a try though, since I have never actually tried ToTSC. Fighting werewolves with a mage will be interesting, but I have heard it can be done with buffs+confusion/chaos, so look forward to trying it out.

Think I may also take a break from solo for a while this weekend and go back to playing BG2 with that evil party (me, Viconia, Korgan, Edwin) I never did complete.

[Runestar]

Took a break, replaying BG2 as a solo kensai mage (fighter imported from BG1, 19 str/dex/con/int (yeah, I kinda cheat the tomes in). :smalltongue:

All I can say is wow...now I remember the reason behind all the hype. Fighter supported with mage buffs! This character absolutely destroys encounters. I was able to do a lot of difficult quests early on early on to get the required gear (planar prison/slaver's compound etc). Currently a kensai9/mage12 dual-wielding celestial fury+kundane (that short sword which gives +1 attacks). Any foe hit can basically look forward to being stunned and subsequently hacked to bits.

I don't even bother resting that often to regain my spells since the fighter portion can still take on whatever weak foes come his way.

Now hunting for a scroll of improved haste. When I get my hands on it... (the thought of taking firkagg on, then spell trigger: tenser's transformation, improved haste and protection from magical weapons)...:smallamused:

[sanguinesatan]

Baldur's Gate Fighter/Mage/Cleric walk-through SOLO NO RELOAD. [part 1]

My friends told me its impossible to finish Baldur's Gate in a solo run without reloading,
I wanna try and prove them wrong !
If I die -- I start all over again ! however... I'm not planing to die so easily...
Join my adventure of fk#ing the hell out of Faerûn with my power hungry
fighter cleric majestic bitch DiViNA :)

In Baldur's Gate 1 there's a very small amount of cheese u can apply due to the level restriction [xp cap] so most of the Arcane magic shenanigans are out of reach.
what you CAN do [and its really doesn't count as cheese ] is use the fact the most enemies have rather low saving throws and Hit Dice.

This is basically my plan... things like "Command" [cleric spell] are under your reach even at Level 01 and they actually work on a lot of enemies lol.
I haven't finished my run yet though... but I tell you this, I never had that much fun playing Baldur's Gate 1, my heart stops at every hostile encounter !
This is great experience whether I succeed or not ^^


This is NOT a speed run.
I am playing a Half-Elf (for the cleric multiclass) and got nice stats.
After rolling stats for about 1 minute or so I ended with the following stats :

Strength :17
Dexterity :18
Constitution :18
Intelligence :17
Wisdom :17
Charisma :3

And here is the video : (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVmqmLY4FIs)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVmqmLY4FIs

[Sylthia]

I would recommend you start a new thread or post in one of the more recent BG threads. Necromancy is a barred school on the forums.

[Winthur]

In Baldur's Gate 1 there's a very small amount of cheese u can apply due to the level restriction [xp cap] so most of the Arcane magic shenanigans are out of reach.
what you CAN do [and its really doesn't count as cheese ] is use the fact the most enemies have rather low saving throws and Hit Dice.

I'd count Algernon's Cloak, ankheg blinding (making them harmless), and the Sleep spell to be cheese enough.