Soloing Icewind Dale, a fool's quest?

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I've read some posts in the past about how difficult it is to solo this game. I am currently playing a fighter mage thief and I'm having a blast so far. I just finished of Yxonomei and am currently at level 8-9-11 with two levels coming up soon.

Tell me did you solo this game and was it easy or hard. I am going to push this through to HoW and Totlm. What are the difficult fights when doing solo?

[ September 09, 2004, 15:18: Message edited by: Taluntain ]

 

I am soloing right now also with a F-M-T (it's actually my first run through IWD). I'm at the Severed Hand and so far the only part where I had serious trouble was Kresselack's tomb. The Troll level of Dragon's Eye was also kinda hard, but not overwhelmingly so.

The lack of healing can be a pain in the ass sometimes, but using the Giving Star helps a little in that department. If there's a ring of regeneration somewhere I hope I don't miss it!

 

Good luck. There are some tough battles ahead. I can't call it a "fools quest" as of yet, having never tried this myself, but I'm sure you'll be able to comment on that soon enough!

 

Well the only battle I'm not looking forward to is the final battle of How and the final battle of Totlm.

I'm also at the severed hand now, Yxonomei was never easier.

 

Actually, I always felt that Yxonomei was somewhat of a disappointment. She's the first "big" boss you have to fight, and I was prepared for somewhat of a "coming of age" test, and I flat out dropped her quick. There were several battles not inovlving bosses that I felt were much more difficult that her.

 

IIRC Yxonomei was one of the hardest bosses when the game came out and got patched a little later. I remember the first time I had to fight her and I hadn't a chance against her and I needed a very very lucky chromatic stun on her to finish her off.

 

It's even +3, IIRC.

 

It is +3. But in the hints thread I read, I found out that for missile weapons it's +3 cumulative between the launcher and the missile. So if you have a +1 short bow, and +2 arrows, you can hit her. Or conversely, if you have a +2 bow (and there are at least two such weapons available at this point) and +1 arrows you can hit her.

All told, I was able to get 4 of my characters equipped with something that could do damage:

2 had +2 long bows and +1 arrows
1 had a +1 sling and +2 bullets
1 had Conlan's Hammer, which has a special ability in that it can hit everything despite the fact that it is listed as a +2 weapon

 

Well my multi talented character finished her off with the messanger of sseth, which you get form the high archer, and the +2 arrows. Messenger of sseth fires 4 arrows the round.

 

I definitely have to try soloing then! My last party was Ranger (extra attack with one handed weapons), Fighter/Druid and Thief/Illusionist.

I never was a great fan of Fighter/Thief/Mage though... Do you think it can be done with a Thief/Mage (Thief/Illusionist perhaps ) or a Fighter/Mage/Cleric...

 

Having a thief seems to me to be just about essential. As a dungeon crawl, there are traps all over the place. So while a f/m/c may not work, a t/m, t/i or a f/m/t should work. Quite honestly, you should be OK without a cleric, as you don't have anyone to share healing potions with.

 

There are a lot of traps in the game.
Not all of them are avoidable. So they must be set off. This can mean a lot of HP lost or other deliberating effects for which, it may not be possible to heal.

Having a thief becomes almost necessary.

 

I had an easy time soloing a paladin through the game.

An essential tip to anyone who wants to solo: USE MISSILE WEAPONS! This is a must, especially at lower levels. When one hit from an orc can nearly kill you, you'll want to be as far away as possible. However, by the end of the game when you are a level thirty killing machine, feel free to wade in with shield and sword and obliterate everything in your path.

The hardest part for me would be a tie between the orc caverns at the beginning of the game and the last level of Dragon's Eye, trying not to run over the traps.

In short, soloing Icewind Dale is most certainly NOT a fool's quest, it is quite doable.

 

@sevarus

Did you have Trials of the luremaster installed and thus engage in the final battle with the luremaster himself? I had a load of problems with him with a full party. Reloaded about 20 times and when I had him only 2 chars were still alive.

 

Fighter-mage-clerics are actually quite good when soloing, since you can use both mage and cleric spells (but you are limited to cleric weapons)

Sanctuary is very useful spell. It is like invisibilty, but first level spell. And you can turn undead while you have sanctuary.

There aren't so many deadly traps, and you can protect your character with various cleric spells before launching them.

I even tried soloing single class cleric, but that was too hard (I retired in Dragon's eye). Her thac0 was just too low... maybe dual-classed fighter/cleric could work.