Solo run

Greetings all!

I'm sure others have tried, but I'd like to report how much fun it is to solo.

I currently have a 15 level pure Druid and I'm clearing levels 2 and 3 of the Temple very quickly.

The only problem I've run into is the fact that opening chests is not very easy, but no big deal.

The druid has a great balance of fighting, buff and offensive spells and summons. The best thing about soloing is how quickly you level up. And, of course, great variety and ability to craft.

The only times I had to restart were early on against the Hill giant. If you play smart, not too tough early on.

The only "cheat' I used was to make sure my character had all 18s. In hindsight, I'm not sure this was needed due to the ability to crafy so many buff items.

Anyone else have any good soloing stories? How far did you get?

 

I tried a solo Sorcerer once following a guide I found on the net, but I think the guy played the vanilla campaign and probably restarted alot.

most of the spells recommended were near useless, sleep is barely effective, if you're lucky two weak enemies will drop, usually one or none. Web while VERY effective against my other parties, even holding the 18 strength fighters more often than not is a joke against enemies, I had bandits, wolves, and giant ticks just walk through it like it was nothing, stronger enemies don't even get stuck with the initial spray. You get lots of AOO's with a long spear but even with a 16 strength you almost never hit so it's like not having an aoo at all.

If I try it again solo it'll probably be with an evil cleric (I'm currently forcing myself to finish the game for once before trying party/solo idea number 507, hehe).


Rey~

 

I imagine it'd be tough with a pure sorcerer, but I can imagine a cleric/sorc or a ranger/sorc for a solo playthrough.

Sleep is NOT useless if you use it right; just need to remember that it only affects 4HD of creatures, so you would either cast it on a single orge and send it to sleep, or on a group of gnolls or goblins. Cast it on too many enemies, and only the weaker ones will drop. Also, once you hit spell level 3, take Deep Slumber, and go Coup de Grace-happy =)) I find the sleep spells being EXTREMELY handy. Ghouls Touch and Stinking Cloud are good too. I'd imagine you'll need lots of Summon Monster spells for "meat" - I'm currently doing a 3-man party; the sorcerer with Augment Summoning, Greater Focus Conj. and all the Summon Monster spells is very strong.

The evil cleric could be a good idea, except be wary that the undead you rebuke are not always strong enough to take on harder enemies. Definitely very good in the initial levels though - makes Emridy Meadows a breeze.

EDIT: FYI - Deep Slumber has got to be one of the most awesome spells. Just now I killed several Hill Giants on Temple lvl. 3 with it. It also took me only two casts to put Trommel to sleep and kill him - he, apparently, has a will save of 4 >___< Pretty much anything with low Will and under HD10, Deep Slumber can make easy.

Same goes for charm Monster - get yourself a few Hill Giants, and you're good to go =)

 

With the evil cleric the motehouse respawn has a great array of higher level undead to command. Just remember to kill your weak ones first as there's a limit on how many you can have following you.

I've solo-ed with a pure wizard once (though that was kotb- still) Elf so the +2 dex was handy, and weapon finese is a requirment. I went with a illusion specialest as I thought mirror image and later-ish greater invisabilty would be good for the defence. They were but it's a shame the displacements don't stack.

 

Having never run an evil cleric, one question: How long do the undead stay allied to you? I've charmed many a monster (Umber Hulks and Greater Temple Bugbears are the best) but have to dispatch them after resting (great fun in the inn). It would seem soloing would require a lot more resting, if only to replenish spells.

 

Not entirely sure how long it lasts, I've never tested it, I'm almost positive they'll stay while resting (8 hours). I haven't hit a critter cap yet either, at 3rd level when I was in the Moathouse with my party, my evil cleric commanded every one of the zombies, something like 8 or 10 of em? Made killing the Ogre pretty easy, and kinda comical. Same with the hill giant at Emery, small army of undead kept him busy while I sniped and flanked him easy.


Soon as I finish my group run I'm going to give it a shot, the Bodaks in the moathouse part 2 would be a blast.


Rey~

 

I think 10 is somewhere around the cap. I believe the undead are eternally faithful to you - at least I never had them run off.

As for the monsters (as in Charm Monster), they stay allied 1day/caster level, so just make sure you don't rest to heal, or rest in the Hommlet inn =) My favs are Hill Giants, Greater Temple Bugbear Leaders and the Lamia (sword +3, I mean c'mon!). I pretty much hate charming Umber Hulks, because if they confuse one of your charmed monsters, the charm goes away fr some reason. Also, they move arond INCREDIBLY slow.

 

Speaking of undead, has anyone ever used animate dead? I tried it a few days back, but it seemed useless: I tried it on both Terjon and the Emridy meadows giant, but both turned into identical 4 or so hp skeletons. Has anyone ever seen it produce something worthwhile?

 

Sadly, I have not had any good experiences with Animate Dead. Regardless of caster level or target level, the result is always the weakest tier of undead, sadly.

Has someone had better luck?

 

Best I got was a 22 hp zombie from a temple bugbear corpse, woowoo!

Pretty weak for a third level at best spell (5th for mage?), the summons at the same level will be equal or even better and wont require a corpse.



Rey~

 

Yeah, seriously. Let's hope someone decides to mod the spell a bit, so that the summons go up with caster level, or corpse's CR. I mean, there is no reason as to why I shouldn't be able to get a Gnoll Skeleton summon from a Gnoll, etc.

Although, on the other hand, I do see why undead are weaker, because they stick around until killed, as opposed to summons that have a time limit. But there's no need for them to be THAT weak. They just end up being useless.

Also, I have that weird bug where the summoned corpses just stand around and don't fight, unless you rebuke them >__<

 

Well, as far as the rules go, you're supposed to have to pay 50gp (in a certain kind of gem) per hit die for the undead, and it's supposed to work of how many hit dice the creature had (doesn't include class levels). I don't think they currently cost anything, so that could offset the possibility of them being heartier (and they still don't get to keep any cool powers or anything, so I doubt they'll ever stack up to really nice summons).

So a 1 HD skeleton from Terjon might be right, but gnolls and hill giants and stuff should be a fair bit better. Of course, appropriately animating all sorts of corpses is a no-go, because models and such would have to be created for them. But it probably could be better than it is.

 

I put my evil group on hold (one day I'll actually finish the game) and started my evil cleric run. So far it isn't as easy as I'd thought it would be, the undead are pretty feeble even against the bandit guardsmen. They're much better against a single opponent they can swarm and I assume get flank attacks. I lost 4 zombies vs the ogre, 6 lost to the bandit leader/guardsman fight. I actually use animate dead just for more meat shields.

Some things to note, Prayer doesn't affect your undead swarm so it's pretty useless. Inflict wounds will heal the undead (if anyone didn't know that). Haven't really seen what desecrate does but I use it alot. Skeleton crossbowmen will run out of bolts and no way to give them more that I've found and they don't have a melee weapon...

Crafting is your friend, and the experience loss is barely noticed since you level so fast.

Currently I'm 6th level (14 16 16 12 18 14), early levelling tactic was hire a "friend" and feed them to the frogs at the Moathouse Ring of invis is a serious lifesaver.

Gonna try to control the ghouls in the moathouse next.

I crafted pipes of pain for the sound blast, anything to do some damage, it doesn't say uses per day, or charges, anyone know if it has limited uses, or like 10 charges or something? Guess I'll find out soon enough.

Anyone know if the Sea Hag counts as undead? She'd be a killer ally!


Rey~

 

Ok pipes of pain are 1 time per day, almost rather they have charges but oh well.

at 7th level without the improved turning feat (figured I'd level fast enough this feat wasn't needed) I was unable to command the ghouls, is this a bug? I can guarantee at 7th level with a good cleric I could destroy them... I don't recall in the pen and paper ghouls being this resistant. Again at 7th level in Emridy I could command the skeleton guards but not the cleric, I might have had 10 followers by that time though, I'll have to recount my minions.

It seems kinda odd that I can roam Hommlet and even hang out in the temple of St Cuthbert with a swarm of undead following me...

Oh and I tried to animate dead a black bear and got an invalid target (although it did let me waste the spell), what no zombie bears! The nerve!


Rey~