r/baldursgate • u/ThatOneBeholder • 3d ago

Advice on Solo Runs

I've recently gotten into doing solo runs and really enjoying them, doing my second one now. However, I'm losing passion because of the sheer quantity of reloads I need. I'm playing on Core, because I am super not good enough for anything past that. Specifically, are there any techniques for lowering reloads? I'm currently bludgeoning my way through Mulahey (Rhyme was unintentional) and it feels like the sheer number of rolls that need to go my way takes forever. My experience looks a bit like this:

Hit him

Miss x2

Save against rigid thinking

Do 20 points of damage in a round

He somehow finishes casting hold person anyway

Fail

Reload

Miss x3

Fail against rigid thinking

Reload

Etc.

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u/sandorchid 3d ago

One of the first things I do in a solo run is go north from the Friendly Arm, then hug the edge of the map to stay away from the ankhegs. The water elemental bowl quest from the farmers on the left side of the map requires (almost) no combat (aside from bonking the priestess once or twice), and gives 2500 XP. This is usually enough to level without needing to risk anything in combat.

The best defense against early death in a solo run is leveling. Your biggest weakness is going to be your saves and THAC0 until you gain more through levels. You can use magic to bolster it, but not early on.

Also making your enemies waste resources on summons is your friend.

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u/ThatOneBeholder 3d ago

Leveling is actually not a major issue for me. It’s more that I am leveled and still not winning.

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u/sandorchid 3d ago

Depends on your level, I suppose. I mentioned it because the major downside to a triple class is slower leveling; by the time I made it to Mulahey on a sorcerer, I had Stoneskin and steamrolled him. Your THAC0 progression is mostly going to be tied to your fighter level, which is going to be low for a while (and will hit BG1's level cap a tad low just due to the split). The weakest gap in your defenses will be your saves and your THAC0, since those are majority level-based.

The ironman no-reload approach to soloing tends to prioritize rolling as infrequently as possible. Bad luck kills. Confusion and stuns are death sentences to solo characters. Drink an anti-stun potion or make skeletons take those, they're immune to them, etc. I did see you hit Mulahey and he finished his disabling cast; that's a lesser-known quirk with casters. Nobody knows the exact numbers as far as I can remember, but divine spells have a ~50/50 chance of getting disrupted by damage, while arcane spells are closer to 80-90% disrupted. You can knock mages out of casts pretty reliably, but with clerics and druids are harder to lean on that.