Monk Solo Help Please

Remove all ads!

Forgive me if this has been posted before.... I did several searches, but couldnt find anything where people said HOW a monk is supposed to solo an entire game, just that they have done it somehow.

What I am interested in is just HOW is this done? The idea of a monk running into a room of mind flayers or facing off against Firkarrg(sp) or Kangaxx alone seems laughable to me. Do you solo in that you can only do the bare minimum required to beat the game? How do you attack Irenicus if he has a fire shield and Absolute Immunity up?

The only thing I can think of is maybe you just run around waiting for their protections to fade away? My small brain is trying to comprehend beating a room of spellcasters without being able to cast breach/pierce magic, et al. Is a monk really THAT powerful in the later game?

Any insight from people here is much appreciated.

[ November 20, 2002, 10:30: Message edited by: Taluntain ]

 

Ahh thanks dmc, most informative.

 

I have just completed the asylem portion of the game with my solo monk and can tell you that I have killed the shadow and red dragons with no assistance. It has been challanging so far with quite a few reloads. The only thing I am worried about right now are the mind flairs. Ill let you know how it goes.

 

I look forward to hearing about it. I started my second game tonight, gonna try being a monk this time, though I am still of a chicken to try solo I think.

 

I know certain potions can rectify this, but is armor class and hit points ever a problem for monks?

 

Ok, I want to know how a solo monk is supposed to beat TorGal. I was fighting him with a whole party of 6 (just him, I got him to come single from his lackeys) and I couldnt keep my monk healed even by nonstop chugging potions and having Jahiera/Viv casting heal spells. Whats up with that? TorGal was smashing me for like 25-30 a pop, fast.

How the heck could 1 monk solo that? I dont see it happening. Anyone got any solo monk hints for TorGal?

 

You'd be able to it because when you solo you level up a lot faster and, at least when I solo, I go for the easy quests or ones with minimal fighting first to get my character stronger before trying the tougher fights.

 

I was above 30th level with a -11 AC when I fought the DemonKnights. I removed the XP cap.other than that I played straight. No XP boosts. I did a lot of easy quests first and just kept getting stronger.

Now for my update, I just finished my game and completed the underdark and everything else including another dragon and multiple adamants.

good luck with your game, I found it interesting but not very challanging in the later levels, maybe if I hadnt removed the cap... Hmmmmm

 

Alright, I just soloed a monk out of Irenicus' dungeon, the party in the inn, and the circus tent.

Here is my question: what do you do to heal yourself? Rely on special abilities (for whatever reason I made him Lawful evil on a lark and so I can't do this.) Rely on potions only? It seems to me that I've already chugged a number. Just keep resting and use your Lay on Hands? How do you deal with this?

I've soloed a sorceror, invoker, wild mage, through the game and fighter/thief through Act 2. With them I stole the ring of regineration (magic users used their familiars) but a monk or fighter can't do this. So, what's a monk to do? Picking up a thief for even just a bit means you aren't solo anymore.

 

You try to make it with lay on hands until you get tough enough to get the ring of Gaxx. Never tried it myself, though.

 

How about buying healing from the temple? You don't need the gold for weapons or armour anyways.

Can't remember if your evil reputation makes healing more costly though, but IIRC, it shouldn't since temples supposedly treat people equally.

 

A quick note as I advance him, it is a bit of a pain to rest up enough for healing. Maybe I'm simply not as skilled as others or maybe it's that I'm not willing to find every non-violent quest first, not sure. I've gone along and done the Harper quest, Copper Coronet, Slavers quest, and cleared the Graveyard to hit level 12 and here are my thoughts.

I had underrated the power of the Bhaal abilitis Vaampiric Touch and Larloc's Minor Drain. Wow. Lifesavers, and they even work on Shadows, Shadowfiends etc. I underestimated the amount of hitpoints that they would allow me to recover, going out on a limb here, but in some ways they are better than having heal abilities. The heal abilities are nice in that you can rest and heal more quickly but in the midst of a quest Vampiric Touch has given me 27 hitpoints back versus the 8 I'd get from a minor heal ability.

I found that I felt I had to make a run the moment I hit level 11 to the Graveyard. Level 11 grants poison immunity. In the graveyard you can find that nice Ioun stone but you need to brave about a zillion baby spiders and their nasty poison to get it. In the past with my mages I simply tossed a fireball at my own feet and absorbed the damage to avoid the potential poison. My fighter/thief snuck in, backstabbed the wench, gabbed the stone and ran away. The monk was able to go straight for the woman and take her out as well as all her spider friends. The ioun stone is the most important find thusfar in the game since I have a limited amount of hitpoints and critical hits are devastating.

Still, I can for example make it through cleaning out the graveyard or the slaver quest but then it is a day and a half of healing afterwards which is annoying.

Edited to note that the required extra rest is probably in many ways a more real roleplaying experience. THink about it, who kills a shadowdragon and one day later a red...sheesh.

[ November 23, 2002, 16:17: Message edited by: Laches ]

 

Aren't there a lot of situations where you need to unlock a door or chest in this game? How does a monk handle that? I was trying to solo a Monk, but ended up using Yoshimo for his lock opening skills.

Right now I'm lvl 11 I believe and I'm going Windspear, but I can't get by the vampires and their level drain and I don't feel like going back to a temple every time i get clobbered. Any suggestions on how to kill a vampire with a monk?

I've done the slavers, nalia's, copper coranet, Xzar, the pirates in the inn near Xzar... any other low-level quests? I'm finding it quite difficult to get through windspear. Mind you I didn't prepare well with potions. I desperately need to cheet myself some bags of holding.

 

1: get Yoshimo
2: give him a potion of master thivery (or two if your in a hurry)
3: save and go to Ribald and pick pocket him for a ring of regeneration which heals 1 hp every round, or six seconds, it's good for healing but not much use in the middle of combat.


Also I'm curious what everyones opinion on using the ctrl-R cheat is? does anyone think it's acceptable to use it providing your not in combat or aren't about to go into combat at the time and happen to have a ring of regeneration on you? I ask because I'm not sure what anyone else thinks of this, I think it's ok since all your doing is speeding the process up and you also lose any temporary buffs while your at it.

 

I do that all the time when im soloing. I dont have the patience to regenerate 70 hp usually, thats too long a wait. Generally a monk is an easy solo, because once you get to level 14 you are impossible to beat. Compound this with the cloak of mirroring and no mage in this game can touch you except for the imprisonment casters. Fighting ability shouldnt be a problem, ac however will. My best advice is to get keldorns armor and use it for your monk, its the only way to keep your ac reasonable.

Every dragon, even with tactics on, ive killed with quivering palm, this ability is ridiculously good against dragons, i get lucky with it every time, both dragons I killed on my first try.

 

My personal opinion is that using Keldorn's armor on a Monk is akin to cheating. That armor is only usable by the Monk because of a mistake by Bioware. Simple fact is that Monks are not supposed to be able to wear ANY armor. Exploiting a bug is no different from cheating. If you want to cheat, then just get SK and beef your character that way.
Besides, Monks are more than powerful enough without giving them armor they're not supposed to be able to wear.
Again, this is just my opinion, though.

 

Monks are able to use almost all of the wands in the game as well as a few mage spells, which can be a big help, although this will probably be placed under the same 'cheese' heading as the armour. As to the Ctrl + R cheat, I would consider it cheating, rather then 'just speeding things up' you can get an almost as fast result (real time) by selecting the rest until healed button for sleep options.

 

When resting until healed do you automatically use healing spells every eight hours?

Anyone know if monks can use scrolls of negative plane or whatever it is that prevents you from having levels drained?

 

Monks may use the Amulet of Power, IIRC, which protects them from level-drain.
He may also use cleric-spell scrolls, but there are very few such items.
To open chests, as per your previous question, get a girdle of giant strength and you should be able to bash open all the more important chests.
Since you're still at level 11, Windspear isn't exactly the best place to go just yet.
Try the Temple Sewers, Umar Hills (Best choice... be sure to get the Daystar first) or the Planar Prison.
Make sure you have the Cloak of Non-detection and your Hide in the Shadows high so you can go around relatively unhindered.
There's also the Twisted Rune and Kangaax. At level 11, you should be able to take care of both quests with some preparation, and your rewards will be very well worth it.
Be especially intent on getting the Rings of Gaax before you go anywhere. Short of when tactics is installed, this quest should be on the top of the list for a soloer.