The last time I played (2 years ago), my party of 4 (Necromancer, Jaheira Avenger, Imoen Riskbreaker, Valygar vagrant) easily crushed SOA and watcher's keep but couldn't quite make it through Demogorgon. I wanted to try something different so eventually opted for a solo avenger run. Well, solo in the sense of party members, as the avenger has a veritable army at its disposal.

I don't really have any solo experience but there was an excellent and very thorugh writeup of a F/M/T solo run on the Beamdog forum that is worth a read.

The avenger is extremely powerful. With dual wielding, some class specific items, and combat buffs, the avenger can achieve 25 strength with 10 APR (under improved haste) with 5 critical strikes while having an insane amount of ironskins and elemental immunity. On top of that, the avenger can summon a Clan Hunter, Smilodon, and army of anacondas while being impervious to silence and movement impairing affects. In the early game, conjure animals, which is gained at 300k experience points, is extremely effective. Not having access to breach, PFMW, Si:Div/II, or improved haste, however, means that it is very unlikely to complete the game.

Few things:

- using the v7 branch which has a smoothed out druid XP curve (level 11 at 300k XP, level 12 at 800k XP, level 13 at 1.3 MM XP, level 14 at 1.8 MM XP, and level 15 at 2.3 MM XP), a few new encounters in Chateau Irenicus, and a cloak giving cold resistance
- IAtweaks, notably simplified economy, all forge, all drops, and hardmode
- tower of deception with IA component installed
- I don't have a ton of RL time so after beating a specific challenging encounter, I would likely use the "godbow" to beat the next ones. The three groups of spiders in graveyard tomb are an example, as would golem groups in fiirkraag's dungeon.
- BG1 stat tomes applied
- NPCs can be joined specifically for their quest encounters
- NPC quests may be accelerated using console commands, which is equivalent to resting in the graveyard repeatedly, for example
- Yoshimo and Hexxat can be joined for lockpicking/trap disarming experience
- Screaming statue will be completed before going to spellhold if possible even though XP limit will be exceeded
- Core difficulty

PC stats: 18/18/16/10/18/3 (83 total) --> 19/18/16/10/21/3. The extra wisdom points gives notably an extra 5th level spell which is very strong early for an extra iron skin. Starting proficiencies are club/dagger/dual wield x2.

Part 1: Irenicus dungeon, Easy Athkatla, and druid grove
Irenicus dungeon - PCA solo @89k with strength and wisdom tomes, leave Jaheira and Minsc alone, clan hunter (CH) effectively solos dungeon with hold person from nymph on guardian, PC finds a +2 dagger. Join yoshimo for traps and locks and escape. Circus (pc struggles but can hit shadows, 342k, lvl 11 and access to conjure animals), cohrvale/amalas/cc: sewer hoboglobins/slimes (370k), empty bags and pay gaelen (415k), claim ring of protection +2 and amulet of power, prebek (enter and immediately exit to exhaust spells, fight once exhausted, 420k), rescue viconia and jan, jan's quest (chaotic commands on githyanki)/bridge ogres/skinner guards/saerk's mansion/turn in skinner (549k), turn in jan's quest and CC jailers ( bears, clan hunter, 601k), rogers quest/early temple sewers (633k), paladin cup quest (clan hunter with acid shield very strong, 695k) and turn in, join keldorn to take him home (703k), neb (true seeing and melee) and give illithium to sarles (758k), talos necklace (bash drawer) and hareishan (817k, pc lvl 12, scimitar proficiency), thieves guild up to turning in papers to maevar (mage - focus golems then clan hunter takes out mage while pc hides off screen)/mook (925k), umar hills mimic/rangers/temple location (1047k), windspear hills outside/return dryad acorns/gnolls (kill fighter to prevent turning to werewolf) (1142k), druid grove (acid shield, flame sword, painful but doable), faldorn (LMD, flame blade, bears), dao (clan hunter and bears very strong), nilthiri (rats are annoying but go down before disease takes out PC, 1302k XP, root of the problem club, lvl 13 and clan hunter gains +3 weapons and shield of the archons)

Part 2: Easy outdoor fights, Rasaad's quest, and Suna Seni
Turn in trademeet quests/tiris (don't turn in rep) 1390k, shadow temple outside, nalia keep 1st floor (CH and 2x bears for noble troll spawn, root of the problem works on trolls, many tries) and dogfood (1495k), 2nd floor de'arnise perimeter but not mage, (1502k), join rasaad, rasaad amphitheater (1528k), rasaad ambush/temple/battle (run up stairs then draw up enemies /kill remaining monks (1602k), neera outside but don't join neera(1616k), cc sewer mists (1635k), graveyard skeletons/wellyn/amsi/paladin/wraiths (1715k), suna seni (eyes of the beholder charm on cleric who GC his team, then run and summon clan hunter and then bears while cleric distracts, epic!), renfeld (easier than suna, 1807k, pc lvl14, can now summon anacondas)

Part 3: Spiders, Beholders, Dorn and Bodhi
graveyard spiders (1967k, anaconda/CH/bears) and lower level (2014k), 3rd city ambush (2048k), join cernd and rescue his baby (2061k), dorn 1/2/ambush (2111k, few tries on dorn 2), dorn 3 (2149k), kick out dorn, parisa (2159k), cc sewer mists and lilarcor first rats (2209k),beastmaster (anaconda/CH/1 bear, easy) and free hendak (2303k, pc lvl15), temple yaunti mage/undead (2406k)/beholder gauth (clan hunter very strong with spear, pc almsot dies to beholders/emphatic (2463k), undead city beholder lair (2584k), maevar (2694k) but don't turn in, crypt king (CH, then king, then summon anaconda for queen, 2722k), guild contact (3 brides, wait out of site until brides spawn, 2755k) and turni (2784k), mekrath imp (dispel magic works first try (mage lvl 17 vs 15 druid) then smack, 2803k, pc lvl 16, 2nd pip in clubs), turn in and smack mekrath (2830k), bodhi's lair (tanova - dispel magic works on 2nd try, anaconda basically solos while other summons kill brides, lassal - 4 brides, pc takes out last bride and lassal solo after summons, bodhi falls easily to buffed party, 3041k) and turn in (3091k)

Part 4: Lilarcor, Mencar, and Greater Yaun Ti
lilarcor lover (CH spear very good)/crawler (free action)/rats 2 and get sword (3175k), windspear hills mists (Chaotic commands)/2nd floor de'arnise keep except glacias (3307k, pc lvl 17, smilodon), greater yuan ti (3367k, smilodon, 2x anaconda, CH), glacias (8x spiders, outlast hardiness, 3434k) and reforge FoA+3 (3457k), troll mound guardians (OP summons, 3519k), shadow jailer/column ritual/return bones (OP summons, 3641k), ruhk (3658k, summon throughout to draw out death spells, 1 dispel magic took out an absolute immunity), mencar (dispel magic works, then creeping doom, then bash, 3731k), druid duel (3769k), temple lich, sewer rakasha (3811k, pc lvl 18, ritual)

Part 5: Torgal, slavers, and pirates
tower of deception (4047k, boss - good buffs including oil of speed, dispel magic and bash w/o summons, shadow master was harder), de'arnise keep basement (PC lvl 19, energy blades, 4101k), clan hunter +4 weapons, torgal (4210k, several attempts, rush torgal then noble trolls then gem golem) but don't turn in to nalia, grotesque (4237k), forge paws of the cheetah, unseeing eye hard mode (CH can hit through mantle, pc takes out cultists while CH tanks, 4365k), recover ashideena (3x spawns from ghost, likely could have gotten the 4th one, 4450k, PC lvl 20, CS), slavers (potion of speed and good buffs, move off screen upon entry and summon CH to south then solo haegen using CS, then cleanup, 4520k), pirates (2x creeping doom, then CH/smilodon, dispel magic on mage, then CS, spell trigger almost saves the coordinator. Pirate captain takes forever through hardiness, 4595k), forge tree folk's arm (50k)

Part 6: Gauis, Chaos, Borinall, Theshal, and Thaxy
gauis (4689k, CH and smilodon punch through gaius mantle, harmonium halbred), mekrath tower spawn (spiders, 4x ghost spider spawns, 4822k), founder (4848k) and give to family (4855k), chaos (clan hunter takes insects, PC lightning, 4916k), belm (5006k, 4x ghost spider spawns), borinall (5104k, lots of summons, all on amber then runes, 3x rune summons, water's edge) and return (5121k), theshal (5242k, bypass spawn point, rhyn +4, 4x bone devils total), theshal undead spawn (5337k, 2x SGL pretty tough, use bottleneck on stairs), shade temple undead (1x SGL, fewer undead the teshal, 5543k). PC lvl 23 (HLAs: 3x CS, 1x ritual, 1x healing touch, energy blades). thaxy (summons, ritual right before engaging, 2x heals from thaxy, normal weapons with CS wins the day, 5601k, PC lvl 24), forge boots of speed (50k, perm) and shadow dragon scale (5k)

Part 7: Hexxat, Windspear Hills dungeon, Samia
rescue hexxat (5648k, she joins 5.1MM XP), hexxat 1 (5757k), hexxat 2 (5803k), lockpick (6045k), bridge lich and kangaxx (PC hides while clan hunter does most of the work, augment with smilodon. Death ward resists dispel and enough CS with clan hunter support to work, 6145k), return gem to raelis (6174k), windspear hills dungeon (golems - use doorway and funnel, guardians - few summons to help with APR, 6825k), conster (summons before talking to fiirkraag, wait for conster to cast then whirlwind in first round, clean up, 6972k), don't turn in garren yet, samia (stay in room, kaol doesn't come so SWL don't spawn, smilodon/CH/anaconda/PC are able to take out fighters including hardiness samia and ferric, then dispel kaol after short rebuff and CS in one round, 7146k)

Part 8a: planar prison, shade lord, planar sphere, and screaming statue
forge chaos potion (50k), planar prison (eBH - outlast defenses, spiders - milk 4x spawns from each, 7550k before warden), warden direct way without destroying orb (truesight/CS warden down in first round, then 3x creeping dooms, total of 10x planar hounds spawned, then destroy orb, 7754k), empty bags, join valygar (7161k, lvl 27, 10x HLAs) to open sphere, open sphere and valygar trips on a rock, planar sphere (first floor - 8124k, lavok - rush skeletons then golems, engine room - PC takes out 4 golems solo with lots of iron skins, then carefully takes out gruops of 5, 8738k, demons - only 3x SWL, easy, 8934k), shadelord (many many tries, run south, summon CH, smack patrick a bit then run to summon smilodon, then take out SGL and patrick as able, both CH and smilodon must survive, then offscreen swarm shadelord, 9060k), forge water's edge (50k). adjust script to enable screaming statue and complete (milk 4x rounds of brides, 199k xp, 9259k, pc lvl 36),

Part 8b: gate lich, screaming statue, pai'na
gate lich (pro fire/elec/cold/regen but no stoneskin so not breached, eat silence then wait for PFMW to wear off, activate IH from gaxx then CS, lich down 1 round, 7180k), xzar bird then return beholder rod (7250k), screaming statue (4x spawns from master vampire, 199k total, 7449k), paina (7518k). Note this was discovered later. At this point all NPCs could be joined at max joinable XP (7.1-7.2 MM XP) with all chapter 2 quest XP available and most hard dungeons too

Part 9: Harpers and NPC quests
return beholder rod (9306k), korgan's quest (9330k), edwin (9349k), anomen (9364k), bard playhouse (9630k), squirreled away part 1 (9736k), ranger 1 (kill invaders, 9773k), neera (9850k), ogron assault (9873k), xzar bird (9897k), join jaheira and return xzar (9933k), galvery and reviane (9951k), jaheira rest ambush/recover montaron/barbarians (9991k), ployer (10010k), dermin (10018k), complete romance and gain harper pin which PC can wear (10118k, lvl 39), paina (10186k, 4 spawns), depart for spellhold

Part 10: Brynnlaw and Spellhold
brynlaw (dwarf, courtesans, send by desharik), give up intelligence, disable hardmode, main floor (spiders - milk 4x spawns, golems), lower level (amber golems - all summons send far away, pc takes out guardian spirits by the time summons arrive, then dispel mage, then whittle down and kite ambers using CS, very hard), lich/vampires (outlast hardiness), cat of nine lives/librarian (pretty easy, out of CS for librarian, 111911k), book (spiders - use 2x anaconda, ritual, then free action and third anaconda, 4x spider spawns, golem - summons and CH, attack elemental golem the whole time, summon smilodon aroudn 3 golems in, regen and healnig touch on CH a couple of times, 6 golems!!, 11569k), riddles and open mouth (11603k), top floor (easy parts, then mithril golem - regen on CH and position PC slightly farther away, use gaxx IH then CS, heal CH halfway through, PC down to 50% when golem goes down, 11935k), riddles (11993k, bone club), irenicus (buff well including globe of blades, pay or CS down lonk, first round dispel magic irenicus then CS, kill asylum scout and run to alcove at north, summon CH behind PC then whittle down, 12089k), noble trolls and undead spawn outside (12200k, lvl 40), perth the adept (3x coin golems, no scrolls used), sahuagin city - pretty easy overall, return with prince to kill king and then kill prince (easier then just fighting prince since no mages)

Part 11: Underdark part 1 - drow ambushes, demon knights, drow city, noble efreeti, adalon
underdark - kuo tua fall to summons + PC, drow ambush 1 - good buffs, creeping doom x3 on smilodon who runs in circles then creeps towards enemies to deliver payload, PC under CC (scroll) and ritual CS down in order ghost spiders(2x), mage(2x), priest, then cleanup, balor - dispel magic works on all buffs then melee, drow ambush 2 - prebuff with ritual, summon CH and smilodon and a couple of anacondas, send smilodon over bridge and whack priest then mage, kuotuo prince - buff well and funnel into main room, priest/wizard don't follow, gain blinding bracers (improved haste for 20 s), demon knights - buff well, 2x regen, many reloads, had to get 3 down with summons for any success, healing touch on smilodon and CH, beholder lair - wear down elder eye and tank 3x ADHW and 3x CL, noble efreeti - kite until PFMW down, then summon CH and smil, use 4-5x potions of fire resistance, betray phaere, demon lord - dispel then whack, needs some buffs, adalon - dispel and whack,

Part 12: Underdark part 2 - dracolich, ancient golem, and illithid city
maze - whisper spider ambush - buff very well including globe of blades, ritual, archon, aura of flaming death, CC, then IH from blinding bracers and CS down whisper spiders, shadow guardians - buff very well then spam creeping doom, piercing AC -28, (4-5x creeping dooms), neo otyughs - almost die due to hold,
dracolich - summon bears initially to eat 2x death spells, run around until silences wear off, then summon joloon to run away and distract, then summon clan hunter and anacondas and dispel offscreen until PFMWs (6) are exhausted, then whack. Should have taken out breaches sooner via ironskin and ensured full combat buffs before engaging.
ancient golem - heavy and full buffs, 5 anaconda, use blinding strike bracers then CS, golem goes down after 1st purge with 4 golems summoned, CH survives and helps against golems, many reloads
illithid - easy until master brain, buff well and run to behind statue, summon CH, take out umber hulk/mind flayer, then blinding strike/CS elemental golem, many reloads, rebuff then take out brain golems and brain

Nice idea for a run.

Will be following along, it will be interesting to see how far you can make it before you 'hit the wall'

Good luck!

Thanks! Key milestones will be getting paws of the cheetah, treefolk's arm, and boots of speed requiring 3 permanency scrolls, first 2 HLAs (smilodon, ritual for immunity to silence and +5 saving throws). Also, clan hunter gains +4 weapons at 4.1 MM XP which will help with grandlords. The "easy" chapter 2/3 permanency scrolls are slavers, torgal, and thaxy.

Made it through Suna Seni which required a bit of thinking to come up with a solution.

nice idea !

the avenger kit ist really nice and early a little broken.

do u know when the druid protagonist will be implemented ?

Part 3 uploaded through Bodhi, PC at 3.1 MM XP. Close to smilodon (3.3 MM XP) but far from permanency scrolls still.

I suspect the full v7 content will take quite some time still.

Part 4 uploaded up to PC lvl 18/3.8 MM experience. Smilodon, dispel magic, and creeping doom really round out the build. Attacks per round by the PC are really lacking, however.

If I can get some permancency scrolls for Paws of the Cheetah, Boots of Speed, and Treefolk's Arm, I should be in good shape. But those are locked behind the slavers, Torgal, and Thaxy, and Thaxy has some skeleton grandlords guarding the passage to him. Belm is also on the list now that I have ritual HLA.

Also, I've been saving unlocking Hexxat until the PC has 5.5 MM XP as well as avoiding lockpicking and traps where I can. At 5.5 MM XP, Hexxat joins at 5.1 MM XP and disarm traps are worth 3250 and locks are worth 1550 XP respectively rather than the 1000 and 250 they are at the beginning.

The maximum XP value for NPCs occurs when the PC has 7.5 MM XP, at which point they join aroud 7.1-7.2 MM XP, so I'm also trying to save joining those NPCs until then in case I get stuck. Notably, the PC is male so I'm planning to do the Jaheira romance which has a 100k XP quest reward.

Good to see you are still making progress.

I forget, Cromwell can forge the Improved Cloak of protection +2 right? (The Improved haste one) That would be a huge power spike, although gotta get through the slavers by the looks of it.

No, that item is Cespenar only, unfortunately. Ring of Gaxx has some wonky improved haste abilities for around 1.5-2 rounds, so that will also help once it becomes available. Will likely need some CS HLAs and treefolk's arm for the ring though, and since Paws of the Cheetah is the priority item for +1 APR (oils of speed are pretty available), that will come in a bit

I think I had the tweak installed where Cromwell/Cespenar can forge each others stuff because mine can, that would've been a big boost for you.

Which fight do you think you'll get stuck in this run?

Certain “optional” fights like Orcus will be impractical. Supreme Leader will certainly be impossible, and It’s hard to imagine getting through Sulda/Ch 7, notably the GEG/Noble Rakasha or Nizi/Hardwood golems. The amber golem fight in Brynlaww will be extremely challenging and could be a hard stop.

Part 5 uploaded - PC now has paws of the cheetah (Tor'gal's permanency scroll) and treefolk's arm (slaver's permanency scroll)! Combat effectiveness was already good but is now even better. Torgal was just brute forced down with a summoned horde, and then the noble trolls and gem golem had no chance.

I spent a lot of time trying to go in the "front" door to the slavers but the number of assassin spawns when entering that way is significantly higher than when going through the sewer entrance. Eventually I went to the normal entrance instead and foudn that slightly moving south out of line of sight from Haegen allowed clan hunter summoning to go without issue, and then Haegen can be killed fairly readily. The defense from ironskins is very good.

The pirate coordinator was taken out with some help from creeping doom (20% chance of affecting the coordinator) and dispel magic, but hardiness on the captain was pretty brutal to overcome. The PC has and will never have a way to deal with hardiness besides outlasting it.

Additionally, the "secret" version of the Unseeing Eye quest (PC gives rod to Gaal instead of combining it in depths below and then has to fight beholder + cultists) was achieved without too much difficulty, though CC:3x ADHW will be an ongoing problem since the PC has no good way to protect against magic damage.

Next upgrades are belm, boots of speed/shadow dragon scale (thaxy), and Ring of Gaxx. Getting Water's edge as well as the druid circlet would be amazing.

Thaxy down! And Theshal, though Theshal was a bit a cheesed by avoiding spawning the undead first, killing Theshal, and then spawning the undead with 2x SGL. It turns out that anacondas can hit SGLs. Thaxy required several attempts as well but normal weapon weakness is the way to go with him.

Big update - PC defeated the Shadelord, Lavok, Samia, Chaos, Conster, and the Screaming Statue challenge before setting off to rescue Imoen. In spellhold, he slew the Mithril Golem, and elemental golem, and 3x amber golems, battled Joneleth and 6x golems to regain his freedom, and left on a boat. After surviving Sahaugin City, the PC escaped the underdark while slaying many drow, a Noble Efreeti, Dracolich, a Master Brain, and killing an Ancient Golem.

However, now I'm stuck.

PC can get to Bodhi but 6x SGL + Bodhi and master vampire requiers too many APR to be doable. Can't forge anything because of Kruin
Kruin is impossible to fight fairly with 2x EG given that he can breach the PC's defenses. Even though Kruin is dispellable, he has hardiness so can't be CS'd down readily. It's possible to give him the blade to gain access to Cromwell, but there isn't much useful to forge at the moment.
Watcher's Keep level 1 and the spider queen should be doable with a solo character in "easy mode" where some statues and hardest spawns don't appear. Watcher's Keep level 2 up to chromatic demon should be doable, which gets the Air Library Note.
The troll mound is necessary for next weapon upgrade but the queen can breach and is under SI:A

So theoretically that gets the last components for golden spider figurine and Ring of Greater Djinni summoning. That doesn't seem like enough extra fire power for Bodhi, though, and the 3 fights after Bodhi (Black dragon, Jon + 3 hardwood golems, Rakasha + GEG) before hell are daunting even for a full party.

Pretty impressive to get this far though, GEG are going to be extremely hard I would presume.

Nice run!

What do you use for armor on the Avenger?

It seems I've declared victory upon exiting the underdark since its been a few weeks since I've played, but perhaps I'll revive the run at some point.

Regarding armor, shadow dragon scale is what PC was wearing for most of the game. There is a nice armor coded in the v7 branch that's not active yet, but studded leather and hide are currently pretty limited. I thought about making Red Coral Armor available for druids but couldn't get to that anyway in this run because of troll mound and kruin blocking the way.

Any spoilers about the new armour?

After playing Jaheira for a while she's towards the end sort of lacking an armour. Something like elemental resistances + res. to magic damage + lower ac would be quite nice while not being too powerful.

SPOILER!