Intro

I was playing the Black Pits: Gladiators of Thay as a solo Blade. But I got bored of those high level fights in small arenas, and decided to take a small break.

So I started a whole new BG1 solo run, this time with a Wild Mage. This will force me to play differently as I won't be able to kill people in melee, nor to get infinite money. I'll play as a pseudo-speedrun: not killing everyone, but going to the end as directly as I can. Might not do all the quests, and sneak into the dungeons.

Wishlist

I know there are a few items I'd want in that run. I'm going to add them here so I don't forget, and cross them as I get them.

• Wand of Sleep
• Wand of Fireball (Lower Chiontar)
• Wand of Lightning (Beregost)
• Wand of Paralyzation
• Boots of Speed (Cloakwood)
• Tome of Strength (Candlekeep Catacombs)
• Tome of Dexterity (Thieve's Guild)
• Tome of Constitution (Lighthouse, with Flesh Golems)
• Tome of Intelligence (Ramazith Tower)
• Tomes of Wisdom (West Baldur's Gate, Candlekeep Catacombs, Durlag's Tower)
• Tome of Charisma (Gnoll Stronghold)
• Dagger of Venom (Beregost, 18k)

Character Creation

This is me.

It's funny how the wild mage is by default multicolored.

Candlekeep

As usual, talked to Firebead and went on doing a few errands for Dreppin, Phlydia and Hull.

Doing all those quests didn't lend that much XP. I'll now have Phlydia kill a few guards for me so I can resell their gear. I have charmed, then go to sleep. She is now hostile and will attack any friendly creature that go near her. Meaning I just need to charm someone, and she will attempt to kill him or her.

The easiest way to have guards around is just to sleep in the middle of Candlekeep, just outside of her reach and charm them.

Now leaving Candlekeep.

Friendly Arms Inn

Imoen joined me, I just took her potions of healing and oil of speed and left her alone in the woods.

Taking the diamond from the tree.

Took Evermemory from the Inn tree.

Went into the first home on the left, took a quest from Joia to bring her ring back.

Charmed Tarnesh, had him cast Magic Missile on himself, and then the guards finished him. Did not get the XP, but was an easy fight.

I identified the Belt of Antipodes for 100 and sold it for 250. Also bought this book because Tethoril will ask for it in Beregost IIRC.

I now know a few spells. Nahal isn't useful for now, but will be and I'll have access to higher level spells. I'll now.

Took Khalid and Jaheira just long enough to take their Potion of Invisibility.

I tried charming the Hobgoblin and instead there was some explosion. First Wild Surge!

Had to run a bit and managed to blind him so I could hit him from afar. My THACO is abysmal, so it's taking some time, but Blindness lasts for two hours, so I'm in no hurry.

I charmed the other one, but there was no one to have it fight against, and I failed at blinding him, so I continued on my way. Far enough so I could sleep and came back to blind him again for real. He didn't have the ring either. Damn, maybe that wasn't the right group. I'll have to continue on this road.

Ha, that's better. I charmed one, he's going to get killed by the other two. I managed to loot the ring after two of them died, and then I ran, couldn't kill the last one.

Lower Chiontar

This zone is much higher level than I am. I could kill the Ankhegs quickly if I had a sleep spell, as they are affected by it, but I don't. I'm just here for the loot for now.

I went into the Ankheg's Pit and drank the Oil of Speed. I ran to the hoard, running around pillars to block line of sight with the ankhegs so they wouldn't spit on me. One hit and I'm dead.

I got out with all of that. Pretty good for a level one. I gave the dead child to his father, and went back giving the ring to Joia.

Beregost

On my way to Beregost, I stopped on a rock there to grab a Ring +1.

Once at Beregost, I accepted Silke quest, but blinded her beforehand. Nobody attacked her, and she didn't react, so I could just kill her with bullets from afar.

900 XP, the more I ever had so far, and some gold.

I then went to talk to Marl, and got 900 more XP. 300 for giving Firebead a book.

Then got ambushed by Karlat in the Inn. Same tactic, blind him and run far away to send stones. But he is tough, and my THACO is still very bad, so I have to rest in the Inn next door to recharge my magic missiles before I can kill him. Well, this is not working, he's healing when I rest. I guess I'll just have to avoid this Inn for a while.

So, I have an issue. This door is locked, I can't force it, and I won't have Knock until the end of Cloakwood. So... I will either have to play without the Wand of Lightning trick, or find another way in.

What next?

Now I'm not sure where to go next. Maybe Nashkel so I can move the main quest forward, bringing me closer to the Boots of the Cheetah, but even if I can get all the way through the boss, I'm not sure how to kill him. I might need a Wand of Paralyzation, or at least an Identify spell.

I think I should be able to be safe enough if I can get at least one level 2 spell, allowing me to cast Invisibility. For that I might need to farm either the Ankhegs (this will also bring me cash, but I'll need a wand of Sleep), or the Basilisk (but even them, I'm not sure how I can kill them with my mediocre THACO).

So I guess I'll go to High Edge, buy some spells, then do the Ankhegs, and then the Basilisks?

Because I didn't want to aggro anyone, I blinded myself when traversing the High-Edge estate. Works well, but is very slow, so I reloaded. Nice trick though, I might reuse it to get through a dangerous map I already explored. This might even be better than being invisible.

I charmed the burglar, and send him killing the skeletons.

I bought a Wand of Sleep, the Potion Container, and a few more spells, even some from levels I cannot yet cast. Identify is a must have if I want to keep my money, Protection from Petrification will allow me to farm the basilisks.

I went south, freed Melicamp from a Wolf (Blinded it, and killed it with stones). Then went back to High-Edge, tried to turn invisible using the Dweomer but instead made some gems appear (more gold for me), tried again and summoned 9 squirrels. I used them to distract a Skeleton while I ran to the estate, gave Thalantyr a skull and polymorphed Melicamp back. Got 2000XP for that, level up!

Lighthouse

Took me a while to get from High Edge to Seawatcher. If I get wayland by enemies, I die pretty quickly. If I encounter one skeleton, he will kill me, so I had to sleep to turn invisible. But when monsters appeared, I had to travel back to another map and try again. I guess it took me several days in game time to get to the Lighthouse.

I skip those, I'm heading toward the Sirines.

Here they are. My tactic is to cast a Fireball on them. Worst case scenario I expect them to charm me, but there is nobody I could harm.

Ah shit, no, that didn't work. Being charmed when you're the only character seems to be considered a death. Hmm, I will need to come back with either a Wand of Lightning, or Potion of Clarity.

Really, the Wand of Lightning is the item I need the most. And I couldn't find a way to open the house in Beregost where there is one. According the baldurwiki, all the other wands in the game are all in the city of Baldur's Gate.

So, I canceled this trip to the Lighthouse and went back to High-Edge on my way to Nashkel

Nashkel

Got attacked by a Ghast on the way. Blinded it and threw stones.

This took forever so I took a gambit and tried to cast a Skull Trap through Nahal's Wreckless Dweomer, and all it did was change my gender. Tried again and got myself silenced this time. Ah no, I silenced the Ghast. Useless (but fun).

Back at Beregost I finally managed to open the door on my second try with the Strength spell.

Finally got this. I feel confident going to Nashkel on my own now. Actually, I think I will recruit Neera first. I know I said I wanted to do a solo run, but I already did two solo runs of BG1 and I want something new. I think having two Wild Mages could lead to some funny crazy moments.

Interesting, I purposefully cast Blind on myself before being talk to by Neera, hoping that if I can't see the enemies, they won't see me. Weirdly, it seemed that the cutscene magically cured me of my blindness.

I took the bodyguards to a back alley, put them to sleep and killed them.

I turned both of us Invisible and we went all the way to Nashkel.

Got attacked by the Assassin. I don't yet have much attack spells, so I let the guards do their job.

Got the Wand of Frost in the tree at the mines.

Going both invisible in the mines.

I took the trap, so Neera can go after me (she only has 8 HP). Having Neera with me so far only adds to the difficulty.

Killed Mulahey with the Wand.

I dropped an armor next to the group outside, put myself just at the fog of war limit and send a firebal at the armor.

And boom, level up.

Back in Nashkel, got attacked by Nimbul. The guards helped me.

Then, I spent a few nights here to Identify all the magical gear I had. I plan on going to High-Edge and sell everything to buy a Robe of Neutral Archimage, or something else.

Actually, I wasn't rich enough so I bought spells for Neera and I. I then went to the Lighthouse to get some more cash and XP.

On to the Lighthouse again

Killed a few sirines on my way with the wands

Took the loot while invisible, and cast invisibility again on my way out. Neera got held by a trap, so I had to wait for her.

Improved my Constitution through the book. I'm not slowly regenerating, which makes traveling much easier.

Me and Neera seem to bond well.

Back in Beregost

I charmed Algernon in the Inn, so he would be killed by Tranzig and I could loot the cloak.

Recharged the Wand of Fire, I had just enough cash.

I charmed Raiken in the Peldvale, which allowed me to get to the Bandit Camp.

We went invisible to the Bandit camp.

I went into the tent, initiated dialog, turned invisible as they turned hostile and burn the group of three, then finished the last one with magic missiles. I looted the containers.

As I couldn't sleep inside, I went outside, put the two guards to sleep, killed them and then slept on the porch. I then blasted the name guard for his loot.

I had to go back to the chest inside to pick up the documents again as they are meant to trigger Chapter 4 but didn't in my game on the first try.