All this talk of Soloing has led me to thoughts of adventuring with two in mind. My challenge to you is take two on your next excursion. Same rules apply as on your Solo adventure. No NPC's allowed, even for pickin' locks. Two should be expinentially more easy and intriguing than one. The 'dynamics' are changed greatly. A wizard and fighter? A cleric and rogue? One to do one and another to do the other?
I'd say fighter is the most disposable. Once you have access to Divine Power and Righteous Might, a cleric can match a fighter in melee when it matters for AC, BAB and damage. A rogue with greater invis up does nice damage too, and is probably my greatest addiction in this game. Late on he can do this himself with assassin levels, or you need an arcane caster. I'd go with a pure cleric, and a rog/ wiz/ arcane trickster. Usually I want the good domain for my cleric for crafting purposes (there aren't enough holy ranged weapons in the game otherwise) and the lack of friendly fire that occurs when calling down Holy Smite, but with a smaller party and the arcane trickster able to sneak attack with rays that might not be as necessary. Alternatively, since I think that the only lock that you need to pick in the game (rather than using Knock) is the arena of heroes chest, going straight wizard with #2 and either ignoring the arena or putting cross-class skills into open lock is another option.
I'm currently going through with a dual wielding ranger and a Druid, (bark skin ftw). It's become a little easier now that my Druid has access to higher level summon spells, still very challenging.
I've just reached level 1 of the Temple with a Duo. Rog2/wiz3, Rng2/Clr3(Sun and Plant) Character X.P. is around 55000
A bit of both, Re-created an old favorite character from 1st Ed., Sun and Plant(or animal) domain blend well with the Rangers spells and there are quite a few monsters that dual-wielding with Clerical buffs go down rather fast
yep, a LOT of complementary spells. Particularly when you hit lvl7 as a caster. LOTS of summoned and when you Craft a Druids Robe, wild Shape into Hillgiant, Enlarge,Bulls Strength,Cars Grace, Prot. from Evil, Barkskin with the Cleric using Divine Wrath/Might with Divine Shield and Protection from Evil.
More like I need a new keyboardconfused. Minor Globe of Invulnerability in 3.0 IS supposed to be stationary and negate existing spells while allowing spells to still be cast out of it, 3.1 keeps existing buffs while allowing spells to be cast out of it (found my 3.0 Players Handbook and DM's Guide) but yes, the globe should be stationary after casting as it is centered on the caster but not cast on the caster. And since my Rng/Drd is a Halfling it is kind of like a small car becoming a LARGE truck (The Bugbears on lvl2 sure didn't like it)
The bugbear room in the NE corner of level 2 is one of my favorite rooms in the temple. Lots of bugbears to slaughter.
Already done it with a full Wizard and a full Cleric. Both Human. Both CG. Fairly easy. (Maybe I borrowed some NPCs to kill and strip, but that's probably beside the point.)