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Mar 24, 2010 -- 2:59AM, Corman wrote:

It takes a lot of work to set up, but yes. You end up with a lot of randomization (either in monster responses or in your own actions) but if you are the kind of person who never cheats at Solitaire, its doable.

Would probably be useful for testing monsters or builds out.

Picking up on the Shaman idea (which I think is great because it gets you that extra token), it might be interesting to look at other 'buddy' classes and builds.

Beast Ranger could be interesting.  Even if you just do the 'standard archer + animal for quarry' type build, it helps you pick your target better and gives you a body to block people off with.  In some cases you could select beast powers instead of melee powers to get away with not having a good strength.  I don't know if I totally recommend this because obviously being ranged-dependent puts you at a disadvantage if the monsters are in your face, but it depends on how your DM runs the game. If he lets you sneak, stalk, and snipe, it could be viable. A pure melee beast guy would at gain a built-in flank buddy, or someone to go stick on a ranged attacker to slow it down a bit. We know that TWF damage is much better, but in a solo game the tactical advantage to the second token on the field could be helpful.

In a similar line of thought, there are the various new summoning options.  Summoner Druids have Daily summons that create encounter-long allies that can act on their own.  And because these are based on powers not on a class feature, you could choose your Druid build to taste depending on what looked better for your game.  There's now an article out with more (and much better) Wizard summon powers that function similarly to the Druid ones, so once again you can get allies that will last the whole fight and possibly fight on their own.  Wizards are low on HP, but you can build them to be very high on defenses. Indeed, with multiple encounter reactive teleports, you could outright avoid several hits each fight.

Action-denial will present a disproportionately huge problem to a solo PC. He needs to be durable, have high NADS, have respectable damage output, have the skills for social interactions and for traps, and be able to cope with debilitating effects. The Paladin is perfect for this, but some more sneaky Striker would be perfect. Divine Challenge isn't very important, since you have no one to defend, so going Hybrid has little disadvantage. So, poach ShakaUVM's Save-generating build!

Be a Human or Half-Elf Paladin|Warlock who takes Hybrid Talent: Armor Proficiencies, Starfire Womb, the White Lotus Riposte feats, and the At-Wills Virtuous Strike and Eyebite. If you're a Half-elf, take Blazing Starfall from the Sorcerer as your Dilettante. At Paragon you can Student of Caiphon or Morninglord, probably the latter.

With Divine Challenge and Eyebite, your damage is good, and gets great in Paragon when you can take White Lotus Master Riposte. This makes up for the limited number of attacks you get each round. Starfire Womb lets you make a save whenever you deal radiant or fear damage. You have great NADs, great AC, lots of hp, lots of surges, and ways to use them. You have great damage and you generate saves en masse. You have social skills with stat support and thievery training. You even have access to warlock mobility powers like Ethereal Stride/Step that you can use to mitigate your -4 armor check penalty. In short, you're set.

The original thread: community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/758...

Mar 24, 2010 -- 4:37AM, Breadley wrote:

Mar 24, 2010 -- 2:59AM, Corman wrote:

It takes a lot of work to set up, but yes. You end up with a lot of randomization (either in monster responses or in your own actions) but if you are the kind of person who never cheats at Solitaire, its doable.

Would probably be useful for testing monsters or builds out.

If you're playing against yourself, I'd think you might as well roll up a full party, no?

Actually, that's not a bad idea for the one player + one DM scenario, either, except that the roleplay can get a little strange.  One way to handle it might be to have one main character that the player controls at all times, plus four others controlled by the player during combat/skill challenges and by the DM at all other times.

Mar 24, 2010 -- 9:06AM, slaughterj wrote:

With one DM and one PC, the best options probably are:
1.  Leaders (who are not too stuck on helping allies) since they can heal during the combats
2.  Dwarves since they can second wind as a minor action and keep going during combat
3.  Rangers because they can attack at long range and in melee, have Twin Strike for either which gives a bit of control (can kill two minions a turn), and have a solid list of useful skills

You could even be a Dwarven Ranger with the MC Warlord feat FTW!  Lots of healing, lots of damage, lots of skills.  Dwarf isn't the best for Ranger generally because it doesn't boost STR or DEX, but some things have to be flexible for a solo game.

I second Dwarves.

I personally would suggest a Dwarf Hexhammer though. It was my first character in solo pvp play(yes its not pve but a lot of the same rules apply) and it was flexible, optimal, and durable. It takes a few levels to get into its own, but it would wreck serious faces even before it hit its prime-time.

For those who don't know to make a Hexhammer you make a Dwarf (Con-based) Warlock, set up your stats so in the not to distant future you can get yourself plate armor(easy since you pretty much ignore Int), get a Pact Hammer for easy feat/power synergy, grab a Cloak of the Walking Wounded when you can for extra healing, and when all else fails spam the living hell out of Hellish Rebuke.

They used to recommend grabbing a MC in Fighter, but that was before Melee Training(Con) and the Battlemind class which gives options for MCing without any wierd stat acrobatics.