Hi all,
I am currently doing 2 solo no-reload playthrough and I felt like sharing my experience.
The point is not to do only the critical path but to play normally (doing most quests) while also trying to avoid cheese. Heavy metagaming is obviously needed though.
Main rule in solo no-reload : never roll a saving throw. If you rely on rolling saving throws, you WILL get unlucky and you WILL die (even if you have negative throws everywhere). To avoid that you have to plan accordingly (spells, potions, disrupting casters,…) If you roll a saving throw, you made a mistake. Important items : greenstone amulet, boots of speed.
Run 1 : solo sorcerer.
BG1 : Get to level 6 by killing basilisks (east of temple + durlag tower) = no risk. Then play the game normally using invisibility all the time to scout safely. Battles are won easily by using web+MMM
BG2 :
- Level 9-14. Start with the easy quests involving little/easy fighting (circus, copper coronet, free market, thieves guild, umar hills). Basic tactic is still web + MMM + spiderspawn (or animate dead). This will be enough for 90% of the encounters. Spell immunity is mandatory for nasty traps and nasty mages.
- Level 15-16 : I used some cheese for shangalar (skull trap at beholder spawn, protection from undead scroll) and then killed the liches (dispel from staff of the magi + MMM, while protected by spell immunity) and kangaax (MMM + protection from undead scroll) to get his ring.
I am now level 16 in the asylum, fully equipped (staff of the magi, robe of vecna, boots of speed, ring of gaax). Getting there was really funny but I am not sure I will continue much more since I am now basically invincible. Level 9 spells will just make things worse
The most difficult fights were all linked with mobs that see through invisibility (Demon in astral prison, Torgal, bridge district assassins) and are better avoided until level 14-15.
Run 2 : solo assassin
BG 1 : ultra-easy. As usual get some xp with basilisks and then you can walk through the game using poison weapon (totally OP in BG1). Poison weapon + detonation arrow is just silly.
BG2 :
Much more difficult than the sorcerer : any group is potentially dangerous if attacked without proper preparation.
The problem is that very bad AC + no helmet means you can die VERY quickly against physical attackers (fighters, golems, troll,…). Therefore direct combat MUST be avoided. Potions of speed and kiting with tuigan bow while using poison weapon is the safest way I have found. I expect that problem to be there for the whole game.
Traps are a very powerful tool, even without using pre-fight cheese.
Magic users are not much of a problem since poison weapon bypasses most protection and prevents them from casting. Traps are easily disarmed.
I am not very far in that run having done only the early quests (circus, copper coronet, harpers, bridge district) + trademeet and the thieves guild quest. Now level 15.
Next stop will probably be watchers keep (ninjato +4, dart +3) and astral prison (boots of speed).
From there I expect no real difficulty in SOA. But I think that TOB will be challenging and will be possible only through extensive use of mage scrolls (stoneskin, PFMW, …) to protect against physical attacks.
On a final note, for my next run I am considering using an inquisitor (carsomyr, mage killer, summon deva) or a blade (almost a FM). Do you have any other good ideas (avoiding multi/dual since they are too powerful)?
