Soloing

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I would actually go with The Night's Gift over Shadow Armor; better AC and higher hide in shadows bonus. Also can't overlook boots of stealth. Bounty hunters are great for their traps but I do prefer assassins for their x7 backstab.

 

If yer gonna solo as a thief I reccomend shadowdragon scale armor, Celestial fury dakkon zerth's blade. Shame you can't use amulet of power but i'm sure you'll find a way. Also mask of king strohlm is a must unless you can wear ioun stones which I believe you cannot. gloves/amulet/rings are all up to you I use gaxx rings but others might want to use the mercykiller ring or other thief skill amplifiers. As for kit.. well it depends, I'm partial to the swashbuckler but the assassin I hear gets alot of damage out there =)

 

where exactly do i get shadow dragon armor and dak'kon zerth's blade?

 

What are good tactics if you're soloing as an Assassin? I can't think of my halfling assassin taking of 5-6 people at once, he'd get crushed! Is there a certain race you should be if you solo as an assassin?

 

You needn't always take on 5-6 people together. Provided your 'hide in shadows' ability score is high enough to be reliable (ie. it won't fail right in front of the enemy) you can do some extensive scouting and plan your attack based on that. Traps become an invaluable weapon when facing tougher groups. After scouting out the area, lay some traps in a hallway or such and try to lure your enemies towards them. Once your backstab multiplier hits x5 or higher, there is not much you can't take out with a single hit. Use this to your advantage. Sneak up on that group of baddies, use some oil of speed, backstab the mage and run like hell. One or two give chase and run right into your carefully laid traps while you're busy ducking around a corner and hiding in the shadows again. Go back for another backstab and another kill. Repeat as necessary.

 

only problem is assassins dont get too many traps. at least not like bounty hunters. its hard to distribute points well enought to have a good set traps ability as well as the more needed ones like HIS,MS &FT.

dont forget about those poison arrows on mages! works like a charm.

 

Dak'kon Zerth's blade is on Diedre in the adventurers mart, For an assassin I highly reccomend bows along with your weapon choice, Yer gonna want to have -alot- of ac so high dex and good armor is a must. For groups use magicscrolls or wands. Ring of free action + web = backstab fun for large groups =) I can't stress the value of celestial fury enough. Find a way to get it asap it makes the game -alot- easier as long as you can hit enemies (that stun ability has to be the best on -any- weapon I've seen including ToB ones

 

For solo thief choice, assassin would be fun in any case, but unless you have TOB and the ability to gain higher levels, you might find that you don't get enough thief skill points to make the assassin really good at all of the skills you will probably want. A plain, straight thief might be an easier choice.

As to good solo equipment, someone mentioned the boots of stealth, you might find the boots of speed serve you better especially given that you will be doing *lots* of hit and run stuff. I'd also strongly recommend getting all the stuff you can use that summons cannon fodder for you - elemental staves, spider figurine, etc. For weapons, C Fury is a very popular choice (for good reasons) for a backstabbing weapon (I know, I know - it's a katana and you shouldn't be able to backstab with it). For missile weapons, I liked the boomerang +2 dagger (didn't have to carry ammo) until I got Firetooth. I seemed to do more damage with these than with the ammo-free bows.

As to engaging multiple opponents, someone already mentioned the use of traps. Amen brother. With speedboots, you will find that you can use the backstab / runlikeheck / repeat tactic as long as 1) your hide in shadows works all the time and 2) you can get out of the bad guys' line of sight. If you need more distance between you and them, you can use the same tactic with your missile weapon - it just takes a little longer to kill 'em.

Solo thief (whatever brand you like) is very viable. Mine was able to nuke golems (firetooth / run / hide), vampies (backstab and trap as needed), dragons (traps - ok, I'm a sissy, but that's how a solo thief would deal with a dragon), mindflayers (missiles unless you can seperate one from the group), etc. Enemy mages were no problem - as soon as their spell protections run (stoneskin fails after enough missile hits), the mage is your meat.

 

Why do you think that you shouldn't backstab with a katana? A simple question, what was a the main weapon of the powerfull ninja, one of the most known assasins/thiefs from the history? It wasn't quite a katana, but close enough

To the topic, I was soloing with a mage/thief multi-class and I had a lot of fun. To make Kangaxx demi-lich to run in panic it's something, isn't? Later I remove the exp cap, to experiment level 9'th spells, but I wasn't too happy about it. I thought that lv 9'th spells are super-powerfull, but it's not quite that. I tried some custom spells/items for more fun, but some of them are overpowered and ruin the fun of the game.
BTW: do you know that about 50% from the exp gained is from traps/locks/spells learned? A solo mage/thief is almost at the cap limit before entering Brynlaw.

 

Just curious, why does it seem that most people's solo characters are evil in alignment?

 

My favourite one solo game was with a CG fighter/thief that played through BG with. Haven't dug her save out to take her through ToB yet though.

 

> Thorr: Why do you think that you shouldn't
> backstab with a katana?
I don't have a problem with it. I think if I can sneak up behind you, any weapon I use ought to hit with a major thump. My comment was a tip of the hat to those that read "backstab" literally and who kick at using anything but a dagger or short sword for the act.

ArtEChoke - My solo thief was CN and my solo sorcerer was CG (or was it the other way around, I actually forget). I just can't roll-play an evil dude.

 

I've solo'd three times:
Human dc Berserker(-9)/Mage - Easiest of the three, my first solo game.
Dwarven Wizard Slayer - Most fun of these, finished in 5 days.
Halfling Fighter/Thief - The least interesting, finished in about 3 days.

Oh yeah, they were all of good alignment!

[This message has been edited by Earl Grey (edited August 19, 2001).]

 

@Earl Grey

You finished in 5 days???

How many game hours did you play with each?

Did they include all quests?

Thank you.

I have got lots to learn

 

to Baldursgate Fan:

I am not exactly Earl Gray, but I did something similar: when I soloed with my DC/RC it took me 35 game days and 25 hours realtime.

It goes quite fast when you know exactly what to do at every single step.

I skipped only the skinner quest and a Renal Bloodscalp quest, so I hit the Exp. cap in Brynnlaw.

 

When soloing there is not much reason to do many quests unless you want to find out how a specific quest is done solo.

Instead the solist - the way I play it - has specific goals in mind. You want experience and you want to get equipped, then you finish the game. No need to kill a red dragon unless you are a Paladin, right?

I played probably 8-12 hours a day when I did the Wizard Slayer and same with Fighter/Thief.

*Warning! Item location Spoiler below*
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Example:
Gloin Bonehead, my wizard slayer, wanted Crom Faeyr. To get the last piece to that weapon he needed something from a locked area in Athkatla and the key was in Firkraag's dungeon. Instead of battling everything there Gloin rushed through the dungeon in less than 15 minutes, skipping everything that wasn't needed. Triumphantly he ran past the big baddie and ran back to Athkatla with the key.