Soloing Monk

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After being inspired by the thread where you had to make up your own stats, I decided to play a game as myself. The thread mysteriously disappeared though.
I figured I'd be a monk, because I do martial arts and because I never played one before.

I gave myself these stats:
STR 14 DEX 13 CON 11 INT 17 WIS 12 CHA 8

As you can see, I'm no great fighter in this game. That's where my problem starts. I only just started and I can barely even take on the mephits in Irenicus' Dungeon. Okay, I can take them on, but the Ogre Mage some djinni summons had me reload a couple of times.
My THAC0 is 14, I have 39 hitpoints and I don't know my AC, but it's probably nothing great. I have the Improved Illyich mod installed, but I should probably uninstall it so that there'll be no shadow thieves backstabbing me. If I do that, I can probably get to the point where I face (then unimproved) Illyich, but I really don't see myself beating him or anyone else stronger than a mephit for that matter.
Does anyone have any good tips for the early stages of soloing a monk?

 

some have used the term "obscenely powerful" for high level monks, specifically in ToB, but at low levels he is not the kind of character I would want to solo. I'd recommend sneaking around a lot and starting quests to get a little bit of XP, but not finishing any until you get some more XP.

 

Soloing a monk is hard going in the early stages. Sneak around - you don't need to go anywhere near Ilyich. There are a couple of traps that you won't be able to avoid - pray that they don't kill you. If you think Irenicus's dungeon is hard, just you wait. I solo'd a monk and picked a fight with Mencar Pebblecrusher. He chased me around Waukeen's Promenade while I ran like hell and threw a slingstone whenever I got the chance. It took me about half an hour to kill him. You'll level up nice and quickly. Things get easier after about 12th level. I remember that Mae'var was the first to be on the receiving end of a quivering palm, and that was quite early in the game. As with any solo adventurer, the Cloak Of The Sewers is a very good item to have. Get the Girdle Of Hill Giant Strength as soon as you can afford it.

Can monks still wear the Amulet Of Power? Or has this capability been fixed away? If not, you may find the vampires simply impossible.

Once your magic resistance kicks in and you do 1-20 damage with your fists, things become quite straightforward. HLAs will kick in quite early and then SOA, at least, becomes a cakewalk. There were some fights in TOB that I simply couldn't manage without CTRL-Y: Draconis, Abagizal and Melissan.

 

Yes... whatever happened to that thread. It was great.

 

It got moved to Whatnots

 

I have uninstalled Improved Illyich and I've now beat every creature on level one. But I have a problem. Or actually two: I can't open chests and I don't survive traps.
Now I don't need most items, but I do need the wand key and the portal key. They are both in either locked or trapped containers. I can't open the locked one (even with draw upon holy might I only have 16 strength) and I don't survive the trap (I have only 41 hp).

How should I handle this?

 

First I would probably roll for better stats, but I like the powerfull characters. Second, to avoid those wand traps, you just have to walk alongside the wall, with as little space between you and the wall. This will not activate the trap. If you keep these traps active you can use them against strong or anoying creatures on the level. Won't gain XP's for them though...:<

 

AFAIK enemies don't trigger traps when they walk over them, but that is not the problem.

The problem is trapped and locked chests that contain items that I need. I either can't open them (because they're locked), or I die when trying (because they're trapped).

I didn't really roll for stats. I just took the first roll, made my stats the way they are now and had some spare points that I didn't use. The idea of this campaign is that I'm playing myself, and while I'm a little stronger than average, I'm not raelly extraordinary.

 

I think the best way to solo a monk is to power game it as the solo monk is a very powerful class. If so then improve your stats, use stealth a lot, and wait until you get quivering palm and the high level resistances and you will wade through enemies

 

In Irenicus's dungeon, there are several traps that are unavoidable if you don't have a rogue capable of disarming them. You cannot get beyond the first level without the portal key and the portal key is in a chest with a nasty trap. If that trap does 41HP of damage and you only have 39HP, you can't survive. Question: how come you only have 39HP? You should start the game as a 7th level monk with 56HP, shouldn't you?

 

Err, I'm not entirely sure, but I think the 56 hp is 7 levels * 8hp and I think the official rules are x levels * 1d8 hp. If you play on normal/easy, you get the maximum each time, but I play on core, so my character has to roll. But I'm not really sure about that.

But after some reloads, I survived so I can go on now. I'm now out of Irenicus' Dungeon and I'm wondering what missions I could do. I have a feeling there isn't much I could handle...

Edit: just wiped out the circus.

[ November 14, 2003, 20:17: Message edited by: Menion Leah ]