(Obsolete) Elemental Engine Trickster: Easy Thematic Solo Unfair SGD

[Mindeveler]

No longer viable as pure class without witch of the veil dip, thank the devs for robbing Vissaliy's shop.
Yesterday I finished my solo unfair game as Elemental Engine Kineticist Trickster and I honestly had a blast with it.
I'm by no means a hardcore player, I don't like crazy multiclassed builds or immersion-breaking gameplay when players just focus on numbers and ignore the story, but despite it being a solo unfair run I never had to do anything that I felt to be some absurd metagaming for the sake of numbers at the cost of roleplay.
That run was finished with only 24 rests total (2 of them - in the final location just to get both legendary food bonuses before the final battle and some cool screenshots) and allowed me to get Sadistic Game Design achievement as well.
My main character was also jack of all trades and to my knowledge the only skill check I failed to pass in the entire game was very high Knowledge (World) check (30) in Defender's Heart in Act 1.
I haven't skipped a single enemy or quest (except for Daeran's because it got bugged out), it was a perfectly normal playthrough in this regard.
Finally, I wanted to see full secret ending and nothing stopped me from doing that so that one was covered as well.

I'd like to share my build that is pretty simple on the one hand, but it's also the one I spent quite some time polishing/testing so you may find some of my notes interesting.
And I know kineticist has been an infamous op class since Kingmaker and it's arguably the most "lone wolf" class in the entire game, so I'm by no means saying it's a big achievement to finish solo unfair as a kineticist, but I really enjoyed this run and maybe someone will like it to.

Class

Elemental Engine with first element Fire is without a doubt the best choice for a solo run when it comes to kineticists. At level 7 you receive +20 to speed when you're fully burned. At level 13 you receive permanent Haste effect. By the end of the game you will have permanent 80 speed which mill make you as fast as the fastest of demons (with only a handful of exceptions).
And because kineticist is not "Scaled Eldritch Disciple Paladin", your speed, your stealth and your Trickster's tricks are your armor. It's a very trickster-y stealthy gameplay where you have to outrun and outsmart your enemies instead of just bruteforcing them with 100 AC and every buff in the game.

Race

Human. To play the game fully without missing any content, you need a lot of skill points and humans get +2 extra skill points per level (if we count Fast Learner feat)

Attributes

Your starting attributes will be:
Strength - 7 - dump stat. We don't need it. For carry weight, use bags of holding and "collect all" before leaving an area. Depending on whether you're a hoarder like me or a reasonable person you can collect all loot or only pick expensive items, you'll have millions in any case.
Dexterity - 20 - our most valuable attribute from the start till the end. It increases ranged AB, initiative and reflexes, we will need it all. Increase it by 1 at levels 8, 12, 16 and 20.
Constitution - 15 - increase it by 1 at level 4. Constitution slightly contributes to kineticist's damage but not enough to value it more than Dexterity. Always unequip your constitution belt before resting.
Intelligence - 14 - for extra skill points.
Wisdom - 10
Charisma - 10 - do not dump it, we will need it later. Also it's responsible for UMD and Persuasion which helps.

Background & Deity & Alignment

It's not something of vital importance, there are several good options for extra class skills or initiative (pickpocket), personally I picked Healer (Lore skills become class skills and use INT instead of WIS).
Deity - up to you. Personally I went atheism. Also I played chaotic good Trickster because I like it both roleplay-wise and bonus-wise.

Skills

This is what your skills should look like by level 20 (which you will get at the end of Midnight Fane):
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2784250738
And in the bottom right corner you can see your actual skills by the end of the game (with buffs, but nothing rare/overpriced/once per day/etc.). Add +5 to all of them except for Knowledge (World) because of World 1 bonus (which isn't displayed bit it works).
Your early priorities are UMD (you'll use plenty of scrolls in ACT1 & 2), Perception, +1 in every class skill (to make it +4), Lore (Religion) (there is quite a lot of checks in Act 1), a bit of Athletics & Mobility & Trickery.
When you reach Act 2, start investing heavily in Stealth, it will be your main skill until the end of the game.

Class Progression

Basically, kineticist gains feats every level because of wild talent feats that can be "converted" into any skill focus or bonus to saves. And at the same time he barely needs any combat feats, so we spend most of them on skill focuses.
Level 1: Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot // Element: Fire // Extended Range
Level 2: Hare Familiar
Level 3: Weapon Focus (Kinetic Blast) // Fan of Flames
Level 4: Skill Focus (UMD)
Level 5: Fast Learner // Dazzling Infusion (or whatever)
Level 6: Skill Focus (Perception)
Level 7: Improved Initiative // Second Element: Earth
Level 8: Skill Focus (Stealth)
Level 9: Persuasive // Bowling Infusion
Level 10: Enduring Earth
Level 11: Stealthy // Wall
Level 12: Tremorsense
Level 13: Deceitful // Deadly Earth
Level 14: Fire's Fury
Level 15: Skill Focus (Athletics) // Third Element: Air
Level 16: Skilled Kineticist
Level 17: Lightning Reflexes // Cloud
Level 18: Aerial Evasion
Level 19: Skill Focus (Knowledge (Arcana)) // Pushing Infusion // Empowered Metakinesis
Level 20: Great Fortitude

Mythic Progression

Level 1: Kinetic Overcharge // Bit of Fun
Level 2: Improved Initiative (Mythic)
Level 3: Magic Nullification // Stealth 1
Level 4: Lightning Reflexes (Mythic) // Religion 1, Religion 2 (Luck & Madness domains)
Level 5: Inspirational Leader // World 1
Level 6: Great Fortitude (Mythic) // Arcana 1, World 2
Level 7: Last Stand or Rupture Restraints // UMD 1, Religion 3 (Glory & Travel)
Level 8: Extra Feat (Extend Metamagic) // Nature 1, UMD 2
Level 9: Favourite Metamagic (Extend) // Mobility 1, Nature 2
Level 10: Mythic Resolve // Athletics 1, UMD 3

[Mindeveler]

Notes on feats & progression

- I do not recommend multiclassing, do not ruin a nice single-class character even for 1 dip, level 20 still gives you an extra feat and it's more than most other classes will do for this particular build.
- by the end of the game I managed to have long-lasting (i.e. without madness domain or Areshkagal's mask - that's another +30) 62 reflex save against the final boss's 56 spell DC. World 2 will also make sure I'll never roll 1 and aerial evasion is a guarantee that reflex spells can never damage me, so lightning reflexes and mythic lightning reflexes may be a bit redundant and can be spent on skill focus feats instead. Still, they're useful for situations when you don't feel like fully buffing (in kineticist's case "fully buffed" means "cast 4-5 spells").
- I mostly picked Favourite Metamagic (Extend) for extended Trick Fate but ended up never using it. I just didn't need it. Really, kineticist has more feats than he needs so feel free to alter the build a little bit to gain a bit more here, a bit less there.
- Will saves. Your will saves will be low. You'll have to deal with it. You can try fixing it with Iron Will and Mythic Iron Will but personally I didn't find it that important. Magic Nullification and Martyr's Testament ring will protect you against the majority of will-affecting abilities and spells in the game. Also despite your Will saves being low, with buffs you'll have more than enough Will to easily resist Shamira's and Nocticula's mental attacks during dialogues.
- Last Stand: basically, it's a terrible choice because of burn mechanics. It will not save you, just delay your inevitable death because it's very unlikely you'll be able to heal all your HP in the next 2 turns (including all the burned HP). And it's entirely useless if you gained Demongraft. Rupture Restraints is more useful but I never learned it and never needed it either. I picked Last Stand and regretted it. But MR 7 and MR 9 mythic abilities are all somewhat redundant anyway, i wish they could be replaced with mythic feats.
- Ascendent Element: Fire - you can pick it (if you find room for it) or you can skip it. Even though it looks like a no-brainer, it's a not a high priority feat and I never needed it / never learned it. And ever since I unlocked purely physical Sandstorm composite blast (Earth + Air), I preferred Sandstorm Cloud to Deadly Earth and Sandstorm Wall to Magma Wall.
- Do not bother with any dazzling display / tripping / etc. feats. You're not gonna trip any enemies on unfair. And, besides, there is no need to trip anyone when they're already dead.

Magic Nullification

Special paragraph for this one. It's one of your best friends: it dispels most of your buffs but gives you immunity against most of enemies' spells. As a Trickster kineticist, you don't really need spell buffs. Deadly Earth & Cloud have no DC, no AB, nothing. And Stealth 1 gives you the effect of invisibility spell. And It's really all you need.
Now, magic nullification does not protect you against spell-like abilities or most spells that bypass Spell Resistance (Shouts, Acidic spells, Pit spells, Grease, Clashing Rocks, Tsunami), this is why reflex and fortitude saves are still important.
Magic Nullification does NOT dispel domain powers or other spell-like abilities.
Also currently Magic Nullification does not dispel the following spell buffs: Microscopic Proportions, Protection from Energy, Iron Body, Bestow Grace, Trick Fate. The list is longer, you can find it on discord, I only mention the ones that are important for this particular build.
On a side note, P:K wiki has WotR spells article that I wrote myself and find very useful as a summary of all spells' defining characteristics. Maybe you'll find it useful too:
https://pathfinderkingmaker.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Spells_(WotR)

Initiative

Initiative is your other best friend. You absolutely have to be the one to take the first turn in any fight, especially in a bunch of "ambush" fights. Improved Initiative (standard and mythic), Inspirational Leader, initiative-boosting items, stacking Dexterity will help you achieve this. And Luck domain will help you with the random part.

Bit of Fun

At Mythic Rank 1 pick Bit of Fun. It's a no-brainer, honestly. First, it's trickster's feat. Second, it gives you a poor man's mirror image AND +3 to all skills at mythic rank 2.

Trickster's Tricks

* Athletics - not really needed.
* Mobility - it sounds useful but I couldn't make it work. The enemies still performed AOOs on me and there were no messages in log to explain why: if I failed the mobility check or did something else wrong or it's just bugged.
* Trickery - nope. It's a great trick, but it works within touch distance. You never ever want to be this close to your enemies.
* Stealth - Stealth 1 is your #1 pick but never downgrade it to Stealth 2 because Stealth 2 replaces Stealth 1. Whenever you attack an enemy, your stealth (no matter what kind of stealth) is compromised so you need to cast the invisibility spell again or use Stealth trick again to hide from enemies. Stealth 1 is automatically removed so you only need to use it once to hide in the shadows. Stealth 2 is not automatically removed and you cannot re-enable it before turning it off, so it's 2 actions vs 1. True Seeing helps enemies see you, but it's not a guarantee. Their Perception and your Stealth matter a lot, which is why we maximize Stealth.
Stealth 3 may be awesome for other builds (who doesn't want 100+ spell resistance?) but you already have Magic Nullification. So it's another "nope".
* Arcana - Arcana 1 has moderate priority, pick it to make sure your end-game belts have odd strength bonus so that you're a biiit stronger. Ranks 2 and 3 are useless for you.
* World - World 1 is amazing, World 2 is controversial. World 1 is a nice unconditional bonus to all skills checks (except for Knowledge (World) checks). World 2 doesn't synergize well with rerolls (i.e. mythic reflexes or luck domain rerolls). If you roll, say, 1 and 7, the game will pick 7 even though 1 is instantly turned into 20 by World 2.
* Nature - low-priority feat. Gives you some random items and random second food bonus when you rest.
* Religion 2 and 3 - highest priority. Not only Luck & Madness domains make perfect sense for Trickster, they give you excellent domain powers and spells to boost your saves, skills and let you reroll everything twice. Glory domain gives you spell-like (i.e. compatible with Magic Nullification) Heroism and cheesy Touch of Glory (bonus to your Charisma equal to your mythic level which persists until you make any UMD or Persuasion checks). Travel domain gives you +10 to speed (which is very helpful because late-games enemies are extremely fast) and spell-like Dimension Door. These 4 domains are the best ones.
Perception - nothing useful, you already have Tremorsense and for this build you don't need Trickster's improved improved improved criticals feats. And no, not spending a feat on Tremorsense to learn Perception 1 a couple of acts later is not worth it.
Persuasion - weeeeeeeell, it's broken cheese. If you want all your enemies to one-shot themselves since the moment you learn Persuasion 3, then feel free to max out your persuasion and do this. Otherwise, do not touch this trick.
UMD - both UMD 1 and UMD 2 are very helpful. Not #1 priority but definitely worth learning. And I didn't find a better option for Mythic Rank 10 than to learn UMD 3 even though you don't need it at that point.

Equipment

Buy & Collect & Keep items that give competence (and other) bonuses to different skills. Keep even old/weak ones when they use a different slot than your latest purchase. In my final fight I suddenly found it useful to equip an old ring I haven't touched since the start of Act 3.
Keep all items with bonus to initiative (Amulet of Quick Draw, Wind Master Helmet, Ring of Guiding Star). Sometimes you will need to equip them all in certain hard ambush situations.
Keep all items that give immunities and rare/untyped bonuses to saving throws.
Some particularly important items:
- Martyr's Testament ring from Regill's quest - immunity to most mind effects (both spells and spell-likes)
- Bane of Spirit - Act 3 crusade relic, the one that converts damage to force. It's the single most important item for you to bypass all resistances and immunities because no-one in this game is immune to force (to my knowledge).
- Googles of Quick Grasp (+15 to all Knowledge, Lore and Persuasion checks) - Act 5 diplomacy item. Do not pick Elixir of Transmutation, it won't stack with bonuses from books.
- Panther's Grace (Woljif's shop in Act 5) - the best armor for you.
- Happy Traveler's Shirt - an extremely helpful undershirt you can obtain in Act 4 from Jeocot. Find him at the Flesh Market, then meet him at the tavern and help him choose the name for his book (I told him his book is basically a collection of suicide ideas).
- Embrodiered Gloves - somewhat hidden ACT5 item, check google.
- Ronneck's Sacrifice boots - Storyteller item. Bonus to Athletics and Mobility and DEX? Yes, please.
- Boots of Free Rein - permanent freedom of movement effect that negates speed penalty from exhaustion (among other things).
- Items that summon creatures (quite a lot of them in the game)
- Quicken rods for your Trickster spellbook
- Mask Of The Most Worthy (the safe-to-use one) - pure cheese, I didn't use it but you can if you wish.

Spells

Most useful spells: Invisibility, Greater Invisibility, Mirror Image, Blink, Dimension Door, Death Ward, Heroism, Greater Heroism, Animal Buffs (early game), Restoration (stock up on them, they remove exhaustion unless you want to rest every 10 steps you take on the world map), summoning spells.
Late-game: Microscopic Proportions, Chameleon Stride, Trick Fate, Bestow Grace (you can find some scrolls in Iz or you can ask your paladin to craft them for you while you rest in Drezen). The wand with "Animate Dead".
Buy these scrolls/wands, use them. I found/bought much more than I eventually needed so don't regret using them to help you in tough fights in Act 1-2, after that point you'll hardly ever need any scrolls save for heroisms. And money is abundant because you can sell every single thing you loot that you don't personally need.

Act-specific recommendations

Prologue:
- Protective Luck for Camellia, 1 level in Hunter + leopard pet for either Lann or Wendu, RTWP mode (not turn-based) and the entire Shield Maze will be a walk in the park. Quasits were the only challenge.
ACT 1:
- buy high-level summoning scrolls, horrid wilting scrolls (keep 1 for the Gray Garrison, you can use the other one for Estrod tower), other scrolls, use them against enemies, sneak past enemies and gain quest XP, everything that can help you get to level 7
- you can use this MS Word file for a list of all (or so I think) Act 1 XP bonuses: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ufebI_h2ukGrhTfnYEcFPvJaMBnXj_sv/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=109215053771182257452&rtpof=true&sd=true
- basically, bosses are not really worth it, they should be the last you will deal with before you leave for Grey Garrison
- during tavern defense some of your companions may die even if they're not a part of your party (the game will still place them on the field of battle as NPCs). If they do, MAKE SURE TO CHEAT SOME GOLD, BUY RESURRECTION SCROLLS AND RESURRECT THEM or their companion quests will bug out. This situation is beyond your control and it really isn't your fault the game kills your companions behind your back, so cheating is perfectly justified here
- do not recruit thieflings for Grey Garrison, but make sure that your crusader allies survive till they unlock that door for you. Desnians are immortal and much more helpful than Hurlun's inquisitors
- make sure to bring at least 1 Dimension Door scroll for Minagho fight, it's the only way to win it ("enemies always roll 1" part of your temporary mythic boost doesn't work on scrolls and you only hit Minagho on natural 20)
- Jeslyn is a tough enemy because of all her allies, Use Horrid Wilting to clean the room a bit. Once you killed all the demons, neither she nor her endless swarms can do anything to you, except for extra experience
ACT 2:
- you'll be lvl 10 at the start of it and level 15 at the end of it (lvl 13 before the siege)
- never stop for any random ambushes on the road, they're never worth it
- again, buy & use scrolls and potions: summons, invisibility, mirror image, restoration
Act 3+:
- from this point on, the game will become relatively easy, except for a handful of tough fights (e.g. the final Demodand Conspiracy fight)

On my youtube channel there is a couple of boss fight videos from this run, so you can check it if you wish:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCc6qtI75R242u9kgwx5lTSw
I'm not a streamer though, so it's just simple no-commentary unedited videos.

[Baldurs_Gate_2]

It's a nice idea. I like solo builds. Any ideas, how long it took you playing through the campaign with that build?

[Mindeveler]

Автор сообщения: Baldurs_Gate_2

It's a nice idea. I like solo builds. Any ideas, how long it took you playing through the campaign with that build?

It's hard to say. In-game statistics says "4 days 3 hours", but it doesn't include reloads and at the same time it probably does include all the time when i just kept the game running, alt-tabbed and chatted with people in discord.
For comparison: my first game on normal difficulty with full party took me "5 days 16 hours". Much lower difficulty and fewer reloads, but it was the first game + all the party micromanagement.

Plus there are things like Blackwater where the only way me to kill enemies this time was to coup de grace them. And they would only die on natural 1. With their HP reduced to like -2000 from Deadly Earth & Cloud I legally had all the time in the world to just keep spamming CDG against helpless enemies until every enemy finally rolls 1 and dies, but I skipped that part by turning on "always roll 1" for enemies with toybox every time I started CDGing them (and turned it off again after each fight). It was the most boring map in the entire run.

By and large, it just felt like a regular game. That's why I liked it.

[Baldurs_Gate_2]

That point with the first Minagho is interesting. Can you somehow port out of the arena with dimension door where she and her minions can't reach you?

[Mindeveler]

Автор сообщения: Baldurs_Gate_2

That point with the first Minagho is interesting. Can you somehow port out of the arena with dimension door where she and her minions can't reach you?

Yep.
https://i.imgur.com/3ocSwGM.jpeg
You can teleport behind the debris.
It might take a few reloads to get the first turn, run past all the enemies without triggering too many AOOs (invisibility helps by giving you concealment, mirror images would be great too if they didn't get dispelled at the start of the fight for whatever reason (at least in my game)) and DD behind the debris but after doing that if you find just the right distance between you and her before you lose sight of her, you will be able to spam her with extended-range blasts (by right-clicking the blast and picking her as a target) while she will be far enough from you to stop trying to kill you with phantasmal putrefaction.
Then go make some tea while your kineticist is trying to hit her on natural 20.

Btw, the DD idea isn't mine, it was shamelessly borrowed from Victor Creed's video.

[Baldurs_Gate_2]

Really? I know that i tried that in my first playthrough, but i never saw dimension door connecting over the rubble. Maybe i did something wrong.

[Gorwe]

Persuasion 2 is also very useful.

[Mindeveler]

Автор сообщения: Gorwe

Persuasion 2 is also very useful.

It depends on the difficulty.
Its max DC is 10 + rank in persuasion, i.e. 30 maximum, against enemies' will save (i.e. it's them who roll the dice, add their will save to it and see if it exceeds 30). It simply doesn't take buffs or skill focus or anything else into account.
I'm afraid DC 30 it's not gonna persuade many enemies on unfair.

It's only rank 3 that is op and can easily one-shot even bosses because demoralize is enough and also because it's you who demoralize them, so you can use your luck domain powers to reroll and pick the best roll.

At the same time Persuasion 1 messes with Glory domain cheese.
So either you go for rank 3 ASAP and watch all enemies suicide themselves the moment they see you or you don't touch Persuasion trick at all in this build.

Also there is another danger in Persuasion 3 - you'll have hard time achieving secret ending because the enemies will be dying before you shoot your midnight bolt.

Автор сообщения: Baldurs_Gate_2

Really? I know that i tried that in my first playthrough, but i never saw dimension door connecting over the rubble. Maybe i did something wrong.

DD has rather short distance.
It's important to stay very close to the rabble before using it.

It may also depend on the patch. E.g. in 1.2 they broke DD usage in Woljif's mansion, they broke mandragora basement, but fixed one unreachable area in the Abyss city.

[Baldurs_Gate_2]

Have you played with the idea, to go 2 lvls in to witch of the veil so the early game becomes way easier? Because you don't even have expedition retreat, so you can't outrun enemies.

/Edit: And how did you get 138 in stealth? I theorycrafted it and i came not higher than 116 =(

[Mindeveler]

Автор сообщения: Baldurs_Gate_2

Have you played with the idea, to go 2 lvls in to witch of the veil so the early game becomes way easier? Because you don't even have expedition retreat, so you can't outrun enemies.
/Edit: And how did you get 138 in stealth? I theorycrafted it and i came not higher than 116 =(

WotV is without a doubt the definition of "easy mode" for solo playthroughs but I wanted to avoid dips and didn't want to ruin my build with them (lvl 19 feat that reduces burn for using metas is very important).
You can outrun most enemies starting with level 7 when you receive permanent +20 speed. Until level 7 you can focus on smaller locations such as Estrod Tower, some enemies in the market square, all the quest XP and so on. Use high-levels summons from scrolls and allied crusaders to defeat enemies (you can literally sell every single weapon and armor in act1, including good magical ones, the only thing kin needs is scrolls & bag of holding).

As for stealth - stacking all the dex and stealth bonuses.
Also for some reason +20 from invisibility and +20 from freater invisibility stacked.
Here is Stealth 142 breakdown:
https://content.foto.my.mail.ru/mail/leoneck/phot/h-472.jpg

Btw, speaking of invisibility... I played the entire run on 1.2 patch using invisibility A LOT only to be told later that invisibility is broken in 1.2 and all enemies basically have "see invisibility" due to an error in the code.
And apparently greater invisibility is supposed ot be stronger when they fix it, so maybe Stealth 2 will actually be much better than It was in my game.

Finally, a note to everyone: when writing the guide I made a mistake (that I later stealthily corrected) about spell peneration: I mentioned it's unreliable because of natural 20, but actually spell penetration doesn't have natural 20 thing, as it seems.
So with Stealth 3 trick you will have such enormous spellpen that no spellcaster in the game will be able to bypass it under any circumstances (the final boss's spellpen is d20+53 against mc's 80+resistance).
At the same time it won't prevent you from casting buffs.
So while Magic Nullificaiton is good for the most of the game, Stealth 2&3 may be picked (I'm still not sure about Stealth 2, we have to wait for a fix) closer to the end as possibly a direct improvement over both Stealth 1 and Magic Nullificaiton.

[Baldurs_Gate_2]

Автор сообщения: Mindeveler

Автор сообщения: Baldurs_Gate_2

Have you played with the idea, to go 2 lvls in to witch of the veil so the early game becomes way easier? Because you don't even have expedition retreat, so you can't outrun enemies.
/Edit: And how did you get 138 in stealth? I theorycrafted it and i came not higher than 116 =(

WotV is without a doubt the definition of "easy mode" for solo playthroughs but I wanted to avoid dips and didn't want to ruin my build with them (lvl 19 feat that reduces burn for using metas is very important).
You can outrun most enemies starting with level 7 when you receive permanent +20 speed. Until level 7 you can focus on smaller locations such as Estrod Tower, some enemies in the market square, all the quest XP and so on. Use high-levels summons from scrolls and allied crusaders to defeat enemies (you can literally sell every single weapon and armor in act1, including good magical ones, the only thing kin needs is scrolls & bag of holding).

As for stealth - stacking all the dex and stealth bonuses.
Also for some reason +20 from invisibility and +20 grom freater invisibility stacked.
Here is Stealth 142 breakdown:
https://content.foto.my.mail.ru/mail/leoneck/phot/h-472.jpg

Btw, speaking of invisibility... I played the entire run on 1.2 patch using invisibility A LOT only to be told later that invisibility is broken in 1.2 and all enemies basically have "see invisibility" due to an error in the code.
And apparently greater invisibility is supposed ot be stronger when they fix it, so maybe Stealth 2 will actually be much better than It was in my game.

Finally, a note to everyone: when writing the guide I made a mistake (that I later stealthily corrected) about spell peneration: I mentioned it's unreliable because of natural 20, but actually spell penetration doesn't have natural 20 thing, as it seems.
So with Stealth 3 trick you will have such enormous spellpen that no spellcaster in the game will be able to bypass it under any circumstances.
At the same time it won't prevent you from casting buffs.
So while Magic Nullificaiton is good for the most of the game, Stealth 2&3 may be picked (I'm still not sure about Stealth 2, we have to wait for a fix) closer to the end as possibly a direct improvement over both Stealth 1 and Magic Nullificaiton.

Hello

Thanks for the answer. Yeah i know some tricks from my solo run, but with Wizard you have no problem to outrun or turn invis =)

Trickster seems nice, but maybe i go for Azata or Demon. Both seem to have some good things combined with Kineticist like Superpowers or Demon Aspect.

[Mindeveler]

Imo, Trickster is the one absolute best path here because of all the tricks that synergise so well with solo playthoughs in general and kin in particular both in combat and outside of it.
Azata's powers and spells are mostly useful for spellcasters & teamwork and tbf I find that mythic path underwhelming (I'm currently on my way to it in another game as - so far - solo wildland shaman, but will likely switch to using a full party later).
I haven't studied demon closely but I'm not sure anything can outperform Trickster here.

To be precise, from Trickster we gain the following extremely useful things:
1) Stealth 1 for infinite "enter invisibility" spell-like ability. Optionally, Steath 3 for enormous spell resistance.
2) World 1 for a sizeable boost to skill checks.
3) World 2 to make sure we're immune to natural 1.
4) Religion 2&3 for extremely strong domains and (to a lesser extent) their spells.
5) Umd 1&2 for longer-lasting scrolls & infinite wands. Optionally, UMD3 for an entire Wizard spellbook.
6) Spellbook with chameleon strides, invisibility, greater invisibility (that are still important because Stealth 1& do not give +20 bonus to stealth), blink, mirror image.
7) Microscopic proportions for very nice untyped dex & size bonuses.
8) Finally, the ultimate trick fate.
All of it is just soooo good.

Plus demon is all about raging which is limited and lasts through an entire fight (afaik), but here I technically had many fights, even for each particular encounter (I become invisible, enemies stop pursuing me, the fight ends, I cast cloud again, combat begins again).

[Baldurs_Gate_2]

I am not quiet sure how Aerial Evasion works. So as long as you have burn, you got it? Because with Stealth 3 and Reflex at 56, the final boss can't hit you regardless of the spell she uses.

Fire seems pretty bad in the beginning. The demons all have at least 10 fire res. Earth deals at least decent damage.

[Mindeveler]

Автор сообщения: Baldurs_Gate_2

I am not quiet sure how Aerial Evasion works. So as long as you have burn, you got it? Because with Stealth 3 and Reflex at 56, the final boss can't hit you regardless of the spell she uses.

Fire seems pretty bad in the beginning. The demons all have at least 10 fire res. Earth deals at least decent damage.

AE costs 1 point of burn and is permanent until the next rest.
Magic Nullificaiton (or Stealth 3) is indeed the solution for the final boss because you're immune to most of her spells and clashing rocks can be easily evaded.
That said, she still has:
- death curse she uses once (if you fail both will & fort, you're dead)
- melee weapons (she doesn't use them though unless you get too close)
- tsunami (she seems to never use it agaisnt single target)

Fire targets touch AC, it really helps in the early game imo.
Some demons do have up to 10 resistance but they're actually not that common (most of the enemies in act 1 are cultists) plus the blast damage scales pretty fast with levels.

Also fire is essential for EE kin.
There are just no other options here, Fire EE is the only one who gets speed bonuses.

[gmwaddington]

Автор сообщения: Mindeveler

* World - World 1 is amazing, World 2 is controversial. World 1, despite the description, is an unconditional bonus that doesn't require a roll. So it doesn't matter how low your Knowledge (World) is, you'll still get that sweet bonus to all skills checks (except for Knowledge (World) checks). World 2 doesn't synergize well with rerolls (i.e. mythic reflexes or luck domain rerolls). If you roll, say, 1 and 7, the game will pick 7 even though 1 is instantly turned into 20 by World 2.

Is the actual functionality of World 1 documented anywhere?