The Black Pits II: Gladiators of Thay Walkthrough (Strategy) by Gejadus

Gejadus' Walkthrough (Strategy) for The Black Pits II: Gladiators of Thay.

Gejadus' General Walkthrough (Strategy)
You've been captured by evil powerful hunters led by The Winged'''! You find yourself in a huge prison with other prisoners and you have to be a gladiator in an arena. You are determined to survive and want to escape your prison. You want to be a free man/a free woman again!'''

Party members: Your goal is your freedom! In order to escape the prison you finally have to defeat an extremely powerful opponent: The Winged! Even worse she's supported by other powerful creatures! From this perspective you have to choose and create your party members carefully! There are many options. You can have up to 6 party members or just choose one! High level Mages or Witches (Sorcerers) are very powerful so you want to have at least two in your party. You don't really need a Thief in your party! In the Hunters' zone upstairs magic doesn't work. Doesn't matter! You have access to all rooms of the Hunters by force! Joker's room could only be opened by using Crom Faeyr! You can steal from The Winged her powerful gloves and the wine from Joker. When I was playing Black Pits 2 again I chose the given characters Alarion, Mireille, Lers and Rurik besides a Fighter / Mage (Multi-Class) and a Berserker and I realised that Rurik (non-human, Multi-Class) is inferior to my own creation, a Berserker (8) – Cleric (human, Dual-Class). This has effects on playing the difficult challenge with the Drows (see Battle 5). You can see my party at the end of the article: How to defeat The Winged.

Money: This should never be an issue for you! You should be able to buy all the items that you like to get. If you buy the Helm of the Noble (Charisma +1) and the Cloak of the Nymph (Charisma +2) early and give it e.g. to the knight Alarion his charisma will increase to +21. You will get reduced prices and on the long run you can save lots of money. In addition to you can play all the battles as often as you want! If you should ever run out of money just fight against The Three Dragons (Battle 18) again! Each time you fight again you will get 10000 gold as a reward if you're victorious. Rewards/Gifts from the spectators, your fans: Fighting against the same enemies again makes lots of sense if you want to get all the rewards! There are two types of rewards in each battle (see: REWARD SYSTEM on top of this page: The Black Pits II: Gladiators of Thay). You have to ask your fans for giving them to you (at the end of the dialogue with Dennaton always number 3).

Playing The Black Pits II is great fun!

Duration of game play: 5-10 hours if you follow my instructions carefully! So if you happen to have two free evenings just go for it! One of the reasons I wrote this "Black Pits 2 Gladiators of Thay Walkthrough" is because I didn't find any written one online. I personally just hate to get stuck somewhere for hours and not being able to go on. I like written guidelines that I can just read and follow if I get stuck and need a hint.

' The big gain of playing Black Pits II Gladiators of Thay: Besides that Black Pits II'' is lots of fun to play, it's really useful to figure out lots about spells from Mages and Sorcerers, e.g. how does Time Stop really work? How many spells can I use while I'm using the Time Stop spell? On which enemies does Imprisonment have an effect? In addition to I can test new protagonist players like the Dwarven Defender (article Fighter) or the Sorcerer etc. within a really short amount of time!! Do I ever want to play a Totemic Druid Fighter (article Druid) with the spell Insect Plague (Dual-Class, Human) in Baldur's Gate II, EE and Throne of Bhaal? Will I even play a Solo Walkthrough with this protagonist starting from Baldur's Gate I, Siege of Dragonspear, Baldur's Gate II up to Throne of Bhaal or do I prefer a Fighter / Mage (Multi-Class) for playing this? If I want to have the Fighter Whirlwind Attack ability and Time Stop at the same time would it make sense to create a Human, Dual-Class Fighter Mage? Or will I risk a Solo Walkthrough with a Berserker Cleric (Human, Dual-Class) who will be finally equipped with Crom Faeyr and Flail of Ages and great spells?'''

It's time for entering the arena! Dennaton is already nervous. What took you so long? The spectators can't wait any longer to see the Hero of Baeloth's Black Pits I! You will face 19 Battles before the Rebellion starts. After each 5 Battles there will be a supply of new items that you can buy by using the money that you earned in the arena. Even after the last series of only 4 Battles there will be new items available! Don't forget to buy Robe of Vecna and Gram the Sword of Grief at the end after Battle 19 (Tier 5)!

Gladiators who can fight alongside you in the arena: You're not alone in this huge prison. There are other prisoners as well. They share your destiny. According to Dennaton, the owner of the Arena, your fellow prisoners are all Legends! You can ask them to support you in your Battles. There are Mages, Clerics, Assassins who are willing to help you and Fighters as well. Here are some strong Fighters: Symm Haximus: He's willing to help you from the first battle on Timmot Gutbaum: He won't help you in the beginning, but later. He's a Cleric, and I was totally surprised to see him supporting me in the battle in a wonderful way. As a Cleric he used Sanctuary and resurrected one one my party members who already had been killed in battle! Wow! Hort Il-D'rth (Orc): He won't help you in the beginning, but later. He's extremely useful in Battle 17 against the two powerful Demilich Twins because as a Berserker he's resistant to imprisonment! Voghiln: He's a Bard whom you can encounter in Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear (SoD) as well! He might be strong but in the arena he's so drunken that he's not really of use. That's at least my experience.

BATTLES

There are 4 difficulty levels: easy, medium, difficult, extremely difficult. This is according to my game playing experience against these opponents in the arena when I played with the general setting "core rules". So all these difficulty levels are totally subjective.

Tier 1

At your starting position you have 15000 gold at your disposal. I suggest that buy the Helm of Glory (Charisma +1) first, then armors for your warriors and some good double handed swords+1 or Flame of the North. If money is left it's always good to equip all your party members with one healing potion and poison antidote. If you have a Bard in your company the Harp of Discord for confusing your enemies is a "must"!

Tier 1 - Battle 1 (1-1): Orcs Difficulty level: easy Strategy/solution: Just let your mages use the Web (spider net) spell, Magic Missiles, Flame Arrows, Melf's Acid Arrows and let finally your warriors fight. Hints: I just cheer up the spectators! I want them to be excited about the battle. I don't ask for any item yet.

With your gold gain of 11000 gold for defeating the Orcs buy Wyvern's Tail for your Cleric.

Tier 1 - Battle 2 (1-2): Two Minotaurs and some gladiators Difficulty level: easy Strategy/solution: Web – Stinking Cloud – Fireball – Magic Missiles; later Spider Spawn Hints: I just cheer up the spectators! I want them to be excited about the battle. I don't ask for any item yet.

Buy Spider's Bane for one of your Warriors!

Tier 1 - Battle 3 (1-3): Lizard Men Difficulty level: easy Strategy/solution: Web – Stinking Cloud – Fireball – Magic Missiles; summon up Skeletons Hints: I just cheer up the spectators again!

Tier 1 - Battle 4 (1-4): Umber Hulk Elders Difficulty level: easy Strategy/solution: Web and Stinking Cloud is crucial! Usually Spell Disintegrate destroys these beasts at once! Let your Cleric put a spell on your Warriors that they don't get stuck in the spider web but can move and fight: Free Action! Hints: I want to get the reward items: Lilarcor and Aeger's Hide. Go for nr.3 in the dialogue with Dennaton!

Tier 1 - Battle 5 (1-5): Drows

Difficulty level: difficult! Strategy/solution: In my eyes the best solution is 1.) to ask another gladiator in prison like Symm Haximus to join you in this battle. He does it gladly for free. 2.) to let your Cleric protect your party members from evil (Protection from Evil) and summon a demon (Gate - cleric/priest level 7). In addition to use Web, Speed and True Seeing/Sight. Hints/Warning: Be careful! If your cleric summons up an air element (Aerial Servant (Spell), the Drows might convert it and suddenly you'll face the element as an opponent. Have poison antidotes with you! When a Drow dies three poisonous spiders show up. I want to get the reward items: Cloak of Balduran and Bladesinger Chain (great item for the Fighter / Mage / Thief). Go for nr.3 in the dialogue with Dennaton! I just realised when playing the BP II again that Rurik, the given Dwarf Fighter-Cleric can't summon Gate at his level yet because of his Multi-Class. My usual choice, my own Berserker-Cleric (human, Dual-Class (see Classes); Berserker 8, 125000 experience points, was class changed to Cleric just before the 1st battle against the Orcs), is much better! He can summon Gate at this level already! Rurik's weapon proficiency is worse as well. As a Fighter / Cleric he's limited to weapon proficiency two points (++) while my Berserker Cleric can get Grand Master Skill (5 points (+++++)) concerning each weapon! You can still win this battle together with Rurik at once! Use the spell Free Action for your warriors and Symm Haximus and summon up lots of Skeletons to support you!

Summary/achievements after 5 battles: After winning 5 battles the party members could gain experience 5 times. These upgrades move Alarion to level 18, what means that he can already summon a Diva (Summon Deva - chosen special ability)! My two Witches are on level 18 as well. Spells: Project Image, Time Stop and Summon Dark Planetar. '''GREAT! This is how it works: Let your Witch (Sorcerer) use Time Stop first and then Project Image. This allows to summon up Planetars and not only one even if Alarion has already summoned up his Deva, a type of Angelic Being of this kind! So for the next battle against the Vampires you should rest for 8 hours and your new spells of the 18th level will be activated. In the following battle you would be able to summon up 2 Planetars after using Time Stop; without using Time Stop even 3!''' If you have 2 Witches 6 Planetars. If you let Alarion summon his Deva first you could have an army of 7 Angelic Beings against the Vampires. ''' Already now after 5 battles and having reached level 18 you have really powerful abilities! '''

This principal is crucial for all following battles. Even if I don't mention it in my solution explicitly in each battle you can let your Witches use Time Stop – Project Image – Planetar!

When a Witch finally has reached her maximum level of 27 after Battle 19 she's able to summon 6 Planetars. If you have 2 Witches already 12 and if you let Alarion summon his Deva first, you will have an army of 13 Angels! Impressive!

Conclusion: With these upgrades, new abilities and new items you can be very confident concerning the next 5 battles! Just the Vampires (Battle 6 (2-1)) and Mardii (Battle 9 (2-4)) will be a little bit challenging.

Tier 2

After 5 Battles the next tier starts: new items are available to buy! Go for the Boots of Speed, the Shield of Harmony, Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise, Helm of Charm Protection and Jhor the Bleeder, a mean bastard sword! Daystar is available to buy as well!

Tier 2 - Battle 1 (2-1)/Battle 6: Vampires Difficulty level: difficult Strategy/solution: web – confusion spell – Aerial Servant (Spell) (the air element is strong against the Vampires) - Diva. Powerful against the Vampires (Undead) is Sunray! If you have the long sword Daystar you can use Sunray or a Cleric with high spell ability (level 7 spell). Get protection for your party members against entchantment by using Shield of Harmony, Lilarcor, Helm of Charm Protection and the Cleric (Priest) spell Chaotic Commands! Hints: gifts from your fans: Amulet of Power!

If you have a Bard in your party and he has reached level 24 go for the Improved Bard Song! It's a huge help for the Bard and the party!

Tier 2 - Battle 2 (2-2)/Battle 7: Githyanki Difficulty level: easy (my favourite enemies) Strategy/solution: web! – Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting - Wyvern Call (Wyverns fly over the web) – Diva. Spell Free Action on your warriors! Hints: Silver Sword!! Extremely good for killing! 25% deadly (vorpal; decapitation likely)! Get it from your fans!

Tier 2 - Battle 3 (2-3)/Battle 8: Water Elements Difficulty level: easy Strategy/solution: Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting!! Hints: Firetooth +4 (e.g. for your Bard)

Tier 2 - Battle 4 (2-4)/Battle 9: Mardii and his Elements Difficulty level: difficult! Strategy/solution: Time Stop and remove Mardii's magic protection! Spell Speed on your Warriors and hunt Mardii down and kill him! Especially Jhor the Bleeder is very useful for poisoning Mardii! Mardii likes to protect himself regarding magical weapons and often uses invisibility spells. Have spells ready for making him visible again! You can also try to fire a Comet on him at once. '''Don't destroy the elements in the beginning! After being killed they will come back! But two of them instead of one! Kill Mardii first!''' I like to do it with the Silver Sword! A Mage or Witch (Sorcerer) can cast the Imprisonment spell and a huge Element disappears! It gets imprisoned deep under the earth! That's really mean! Hints: Flail of Ages

Tier 2 - Battle 5 (2-5)/Battle 10: Demons and Devils Difficulty level: easy Strategy/solution: Just let the demons kill each other! Stay out of battle. If the succubus attacks your warriors too much with charm spells – kill him! I usually spell Web next/on to her at the beginning of the battle and kill her with the Warrior who has Spider's Bane or Free Action on him. Hints: Longsword Blackrazor and Celestial Fury!

Recommendations after battle 10: It would be good to make sure that you have all the reward items from the battle 1-10 that you like before you go on! You can play all Battles again and try to get these gifts from your fans! I make sure that I really have Bladesinger chain, the Amulet of Power, the Silver Sword, the Flail of Ages and Blackrazor before I start with Battle 11 (Tier 3-1).

At this time I also start going around and talking with lots of people in the prison. I trust that you will talk with Brodle and follow his hints for going upstairs. When you finally talk with Dulf Finsterbart he will tell you that he knows the Drow Mage Bannor. He will be willing to produce a script roll for you in order to take over Bannor's role in the strong Adamantite Golem (soul transfer/spirit transfer: the soul of one of your Mages and Bannor's soul will exchange their places!). Instead of Dulf letting this produce for you you address to the Wild Mage Gerrold Dunkelbold who does it for less money. Gerrold needs a property from Bannor. For this reason you will go upstairs to the rooms of the hunters for getting a piece from Bannor's mirror that lies on the floor and bring it to Gerrold. For 4000 gold Gerrold will give you this special script roll just before the Final Battle with The Winged. His script roll works fine!

''' Kill DORMATUS! ''' When you go upstairs in the area of the hunters it's easy to get access to Dormatus' room. There are different options. I trust that you manage to enter his room. If you release Najim from his bottle now Dormatus will realise it at once and show up in order to capture Najim again. You can try to kill Dormatus now. It works but he's a strong opponent. Therefore I recommend to wait with releasing Najim and come here again after Battle 15 when your party members have already gained more experience points. Wear your normal armor again and not the uniformes when you're fighting Dormatus. Annihilate Dormatus – you don't want to face 6 enemies in your last Battle, the Final Battle!

You can also try to poison Joker. Although I had Joker's wine from her room and four different gifts (rat poison, poison from the Brewer (Belfer's mushroom friend), Gezzthemin and even Ellraish) none of these could kill Joker when she came down and joined Voghiln for drinking! It just didn't work. So I don't know if there's even another 5th poison that would work…I also got a poison from Feldrak Feldrak'l but it also couldn't kill Joker. It might be that these poisons are all not supposed to kill Joker but to weaken her only in/for the Final Battle.

Tier 3

After 5 battles the next tier starts: new items are available to buy from the merchants! Buy Boots of Speed again, Girdle of Stone Giant Strength, Red Dragon Scale and Ring of the Ram!

Tier 3 - Battle 1 (3-1)/Battle 11: Monks Difficulty level: medium-difficult Strategy/solution: These monks come very fast towards you and kick you really hard! 1.) ask another gladiator in prison like Symm Haximus to join you in this battle. 2.) Web - Summon creatures – witches: Time Stop/Project Image/Planetars as fast as possible! – True Seeing – attack a monk always with several warriors. I like my warrior-cleric using Globe of Blades Hints: Wong Fei's Ioun Stone

Tier 3 - Battle 2 (3-2)/Battle 12: Golem Difficulty level: easy Strategy/solution: Witches: Time Stop/Project Image/Planetars. Best and really mean strategy is to use Celestial Fury against the huge Golem first and knock it unconscious and spell Imprisonment on it! Or Time Stop first and at once afterwards Imprisonment! The Golem disappears! The Battle is over within seconds! Hints: Crom Faeyr!! Go for it and give it to your Cleric or Dwarven Defender!! Shuruppak's Plate!

Tier 3 - Battle 3 (3-3)/Battle 13: Lich! Difficulty level: medium - difficult Strategy/solution: Destroy these huge Skeleton Beasts (Higher Skeleton Golems) first! My Cleric will use Globe of Blades against them. Time Stop and remove the Lich's magic protection! Summon a Diva and some Planetars as additional help. Imprisonment works against the Lich as well! Hints: Staff of the Magi'''!!! A "must"!'''

Tier 3 - Battle 4 (3-4)/Battle 14: Rakshas Difficulty level: medium - difficult Strategy/solution: I let of one my Witches attack the Rakshas at once with a Comet while they are still getting ready for battle. Some get unconscious and are easy to kill then. Witches: Time Stop/Project Image/Planetars and Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting. My Cleric will use Globe of Blades. A Mage or Witch (Sorcerer) can cast the Imprisonment spell and even the Maharadscha disappears! It works! Hints: Nice rewards again: Hindo's Doom and Gauntlets of Extraordinary Specialization!

Tier 3 - Battle 4 (3-5)/Battle 15: Illithids Difficulty level: easy Strategy/solution: Web on/next to the slaves! – Be fast and kill the Illthids as fast as possible! Hints: Psion's Blade

Tier 4

New items are available to buy from the merchants! Buy Boots of Speed again, Vhailor's Helm, Staff of the Woodlands (for a Druid, Thief (level 24) or Bard (level 24)), Girdle of Frost Giant Strength, Amulet of the Master Harper and other nice items!

Tier 4 - Battle 1 (4-1)/Battle 16: The 6 fallen Devas Difficulty level: difficult! Strategy/solution: Ask Symm Haximus to join you in this battle! He's an excellent fighter! These fallen Devas are fast and go for your Mages and Witches first and want to eliminate them! Let your Knight e.g. Alarion summon a Diva at once and your Cleric an elemental. Witches (Sorcerers): Time Stop + Project Image + Planetars as fast as possible! Use True Sight/True Seeing! The Mage or Witch (Sorcerer) casts the Imprisonment spell in vain! The Devas are immune to Imprisonment! The same applies to The Winged in the Final Battle! Hint:Carsomyr! and The Answerer!

Tier 4 - Battle 2 (4-2)/Battle 17: The Demilich Twins Difficulty level: easy! Strategy/solution: Ask Hort Il D'rth to help you! As a Berserker he's immune to this mean Imprisonment spell that these two Demi Liches usually use! Let your own Berserker Warriors use their special rage ability (Enrage''')! Best weapon to attack these evil twins: Daystar!''' It's a long sword. A Mage can use the Ring of the Ram to cause additional harm! Summon up lots of creatures that the Demi Liches get distracted and don't attack your warriors.  Best strategy : Let the Fighter / Mage / Thief use Time Stop (this script roll/scroll is 6x available to buy: cost: 11200 gold for each (Charisma: +20)), and then during the Time Stop let him use a Greater Whirlwind Attack on these guys by using Daystar and another weapon +4 or +5! => So the battle becomes easy!

Hints/Warning: These two Demiliches (Lich) are totally immune to magic and can only be damaged by using weapons +4 or +5. Of course you want to get the "Ring of Gaxx" as a reward!! You fight as often until you get it as a gift from your fans! Gives you each time 9000 gold for defeating them again! Just buy Time Stop (spell level 9) and let your Fighter / Mage transfer this sript roll into his spell book and use it when you're fighting these two Liches. If your Mage still should get imprisoned let your Sorcerer (Witch) use the spell Freedom (spell level 9)! The Mage will come back at once and can continue to fight! These Demilich Twins who seem to be so difficult to fight in the beginning become an easy prey for you by using the right strategy!

Tier 4 - Battle 3 (4-3)/Battle 18: The Three Dragons: YLLAXIA; Nyxxla and Orluss Difficulty level: easy! Strategy/solution: I don't see any problems if you have strong Warriors. Start with your Knight e.g. Alarion. Let him summon a Deva, your Cleric an Element (Elemental Summoning). Put the spells Haste and Remove Fear on your Warriors and if they should struggle let your Mages or Witches use spells for removing the magic protection from YLLAXIA Hints: Gives you each time 10000 gold for defeating them again! Foebane + Angurvadal!

Tier 4 - Battle 4 (4-4)/Battle 19: The Bhaalspawn

Difficulty level: extremely difficult! / easy

Strategy/solution: You will face Enegar and Kastulor, children of the dead God Bhaal, as opponents! Best is to kill Enegar at once before he can use the most evil of his Bhaalspawn abilities the CHANGE into a strong unique Monster: The Slayer (Slayer Form)! As the Slayer Enegar's strength and dexterity are increased to 25, his constitution is increased by +5. Enegar can change into the Big Slayer; Kastulor into a Small Slayer! Not nice! You might be fast with your warriors and manage to kill him e.g. with the Silver Sword! This would save you from lots of trouble and then the fight would have been easy! '''Best strategy in my eyes is to summon a Deva and some elements first. Engar will come to the middle of the arena. Attack him with your warriors and let your Fighter Mage (e.g. Angurvadal and The Answerer) use Time Stop and Whirlwind Attack on him! Enegar dies before he can change into his powerful big Slayer Form!'''

So what to do when Enegar and Kastulor already have changed into their Slayer Forms?

When a Planetar is summoned up it can kill Kastulor but not Enegar in his big Slayer Form. Enegar can only be harmed with weapons +4 and higher - so the Silver Sword has no effect on him. Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting and the Ring of the Ram can harm him. My fights often end up like this that I killed Kastulor and the four Bhaal cult members but not Enegar yet. Enegar kills all my party members except until a Sorcerer (Witch) and one Fighter are left. My Sorcerer summons up lots of Mordenkainen's Swords in order to distract Enegar. I also summon up a Planetar and lower Enegar's magic protection. Then he gets vulnerable to hits by these Mordenkainen's Swords that he can't annihilate. My Warrior uses a weapon +4 or +5 and uses his Whirlwind Attack ability and kills Enegar. Tough Fight!

Hints/Warning: Time Stop doesn't work! The Bhaalspawn is immune to Time Stop! These two most evil creatures will just attack your Warriors like crazy while one of your Mages uses Time Stop! Forget about Time Stop!

Tier 5

The Rebellion

After the last battle an interesting conversation takes place between Tartle and Brodle. It becomes clear that the hunters haven't come back from their hunt for a long time. They are after something really big – a Tarraske. This is your and the other prisoners' chance to try to escape! Before you meet with the others make sure that you buy all necessary items from the merchants! E.g. the Axe of the Unyielding is now available, Robe of Vecna, Gram the Sword of Grief, Runehammer, Aslyferund Elven Chain and another pair of Boots of Speed as well! After the Rebellion has started you won't be able to buy from them any more. I trust that you find the place for starting the Rebellion and are able to defeat all the guards. You finally end up at this merchant place again and discover that there was an explosion. Now you have access to a Treasure Room (Vault). Take the Cloak of the Lich! (I remember playing and winning against The Winged in another way than described below when I only had a Witch and Warrior left. The Cloak of the Lich was a wonderful protection for my Berserker Warrior. The Winged just couldn't tear the soul out of the Warrior's body and kill him), the Rod of Resurrection and the Time Stop scroll! One of the treasure chests in the Vault is locked. Magic works after the Rebellion in the merchant place again so you can use the spell Knock in order to open the chest. No Thief in the whole game needed!

Talk with the other gladiators in prison who are left and you will be surprised!

You go on in order to find Dennaton and kill him and escape from prison!

In the arena you will see Voghiln, Gerrold and Lea Gosh' Aar fighting against Umber Hulks. You will support your fellow prisoners of course. After defeating them Gerrold will give you the special script roll (scroll) to change roles with Bannor!

'''You go on! You want to find Dennaton and kill him and be free at last!'''

Gejadus' How to defeat The Winged?
'>>> You are facing here the biggest challenge in the whole Baldur's Gate I+II'', EE realm!!! <<< Defeating Kangaxx the Demilich might not seem to be an easy task but this challenge here is another league!''' The Winged is extremely tough and can recover quickly after being injured and at first it seems nearly impossible to defeat her and her evil companions. Here are two solutions for defeating her: First solution: The easy way to defeat her! Create a Fighter / Mage (Fighter / Mage / Thief)! In the Final Battle let the Fighter/Mage use Time Stop in order to approach The Winged, then use the Greater Whirlwind Attack/Whirlwind Attack immediately and hit her e.g. with Angurvadal and the Answerer (Axe of the Unyielding) at the same time. After the time stop's over she's already badly wounded (or even dead!). Attack her now with all your Fighters. Especially a Berserker Warrior with Gram the Sword of Grief (double handed sword that is available to buy after destroying the Bhaalspawn – Tier 5), Ring of Gaxx and Cloak of the Lich (Vault) is extremely effective! If you still don't manage to kill her use your mages in addition and lower the resistance of The Winged several times (spell: Lower Resistance).

By the way, I couldn't kill The Winged with Imprisonment! Two times my Fighter / Mage used Time Stop and afterwards Imprisonment on The Winged - it just didn't work! I also didn't succeed in it by just using Imprisonment. Like the 6 fallen Devas in Battle 16 (Tier 4-1), The Winged is immune to Imprisonment!

Second solution: Defeating The Winged without using the Fighter / Mage / Thief abilities (see above) Usually you kill Dormatus, one of the evil party members, before the Final Battle with The Winged. You go upstairs to his room, release Najim out of his prison and Dormatus will show up… So at the end you will face only five enemies. After the dialogue with Dennaton, the five remaining hunters show up. The strategy is as follows: 1.) You want to get rid of the strong Adamantite Golem Bannor. 2.) You want to kill one weak party member: Joker. 3.) You attack with all your forces The Winged. 4.) You kill the mage Thassk Kun. 5.) You finally kill the powerful mage Pol Pyrrus (spells: resistant against magic weapons + Black Blade of Disaster, I guess)

So after the battle has started you want to 1.) use Gerrold's script roll (only 4000 Gold) to exchange the role with Bannor. You need a Mage for this - but you can also use your Bard or Thief (level 24, 3000000 experience points, High-level class ability) if they have chosen the function Use Any Item! In my case (see party below) I used my Fighter / Mage / Thief. You use this script roll straight away on Bannor. Bannor will attack you immediately so make sure that your party helps that the script roll works! For assistance let a party member e.g. Alarion conjure/summon up a Diva next to Bannor and a Thief uses the Staff of the Woodlands to summon up a beast (Shambling Mound). In addition to a Cleric summons up two fire, wind or earth elements (Elemental Summoning). 2.) Have two Witches (Sorcerers) in your party! Each of the two Witches will fire a Comet next to Joker so that he gets already pretty badly harmed. Najim who took Dormatus' role in disguise will do the rest finally. 3.) The Winged and Pol get attracted by the Mage who uses Gerrold's script roll on Bannor. They try to attack him and come close. So in possession of the Adamantite Golem use it at once in order to attack The Winged. All your party members will attack The Winged. A Berserker Warrior who uses Gram the Sword of Grief will duplicate himself by using Vhailor's Helm! The two Witches play a special role: They will use Time Stop and use the spell for accelerating their spells (Improved Alacrity) and afterwards use the spell Lower Resistance or Pierce Shield  several times on The Winged. It's good to keep the two Witches at separate places. One of the Witches should be equipped with two items that help to cast spells faster: Robe of Vecna (Tier 5) and Amulet of Power (Great item after defeating the Vampires). '''Be fast in attacking and killig The Winged. She can recover quickly!''' 4.) + 5.) After extinguishing The Winged it shouldn't be too difficult to overcome the last two enemies, the two Mages. Let the two Witches use Time Stop again and create a Project Image. This allows to summon up lots of Planetars and not only one! By the way, after the Rebellion you'll get a unique script roll (green circle on it and within the circle three stars) from one of your fellow prisoners. This roll creates a sphere around a person so that neither magic can go inside the sphere nor come out of it. I used this roll on Thassk Kun and he lost all his magic protection at once! My warriors could slaughter him within seconds.

The author of these two solutions used the following party: Alarion (given Knight); a Berserker Warrior; a Warrior Cleric (Berserker 8 – Cleric 34; Dual-Class); Mireille (given Witch/Sorcerer); another Witch/Sorcerer; a Fighter / Mage / Thief. Both solutions were played on difficulty level middle (Core Rules).

I'm already familiar with the Black Pits II, so I decided to go for a bigger challenge. Is it possible to defeat The Winged and her five evil companions (Dormatus still alive) on difficulty level HARD (not core rules)? Yes, it is! I managed with my great new party! My new party looks like this: Alarion (Knight); two Dwarven Defenders Grimbor and Boromir (my own creations) - they are extremely strong and a great team! Boromir had finally Crom Faeyr and the Axe of the Unyielding (10% vorpal) and Grimbor K'logarath; a Warrior Cleric (Dual-Class; Berserker 8 - Cleric 34); a Sorcerer/Witch like Mireille and a Mage Fighter (non-human; Multi-Class) of course! The only Battle that I lost was fighting the Drows. I didn't ask for Symm Haximus' help. In the 2nd attempt I managed without him. I didn't talk with any fellow prisoners and didn't go upstairs in order to kill Dormatus. That's what I pretty much did for defeating The Winged and her five powerful friends in the Final Battle: My Fighter / Mage used Time Stop, he drank a Potion of Storm Giant Strength, and he attacked the Winged with Whirlwind Attack by using The Answerer and Blackrazor. When the Time Stop was over she was nearly dead and the strong Dwarven Defenders helped eliminating her. Mireille fired a Comet on Joker first and went afterwards to a remote place and used Time Stop / Project Image and summoned lots of Planetars. Boromir killed Dormatus; my Cleric used Flail of Ages against Bannor and slowed him down, Mireille cast the Imprisonment spell on Bannor and he disappeared! During the whole battle it was important to have the Rod of Resurrection. Mireille used Time Stop and during this time she resurrected three party members who already had been killed. It was important to remove Pol Pyruss magic protection before my party could kill him. Joker is weak anyway, he was no match for me. Finally only Thassk Kun was left. My Cleric used the unique script roll (green circle on it and within the circle three stars) on him and my warriors killed him. Afterwards an ugly bug appeared. The usual nice ending didn't show up, just my party members were there on their own and they couldn't go back to the merchant place. I was wondering. Beamdog you created a great game! Thank you so much! But please check the game thoroughly and carefully! Unfortunately that's not the only bug in the game.

I also won with the same new party with the two Dwarven Defenders on the hardest level INSANE. This time I went upstairs first and killed Dormatus. In the arena pretty much the same strategy as for level HARD. Important is to kill The Winged first. This time my mage Fighter / Mage used the weapons Foebane and The Answerer. Bannor got imprisoned under the earth again…and Thassk Kun got finally killed by a sharp weapon of a Planetar that my Sorcerer summoned up. That's it!

Great challenge!!! I enjoyed it a lot!

Good luck for defeating The Winged and her powerful companions!

"Final words: I don't know anybody of Bioware or Beamdog. I just enjoy playing Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition I+II a lot in my spare time. I really hope that there will be a Baldur's Gate III in the near future. Beamdog (Overhaul Games), you have the huge potential to create a game that will also become a Legend! Work hard on the story line (depth of the game, e.g chasing the mad Jon Irenicus - even through the Underdark), quests (e.g. Lavok's Sphere in Athkatla; owner of a Stronghold as a protagonist fighter; fighting along Drizzt Do'Urden against Jon's sister Bodhi; Shangalar - his hideout, the Twisted Rune building, can only be entered by using a special stone, a Rogue Stone), great items (e.g. Staff of the Magi, Axe of the Unyielding, Blackrazor), dialogues of the characters (e.g. Viconia or Jaheira can be romanced by male player character) (by getting ideas from the fans on the Beamdog Forum) and create a wonderful Baldur's Gate III!"

Crucial information about The Winged
Always wear the Cloak of the Lich (or Hindo's Doom) when fighting The Winged. You will be immune to her Death Magic! The Cloak of the Lich can be found in the Vault after the Rebellion has started.

Always have lots of Oils of Speed at hand! Use them even when you are already wearing the Boots of Speed!

She seemed to be invulnerable first and invincible when I faced her for the first time. But she can heal herself completely only three times (level 6 spell) and as a maximum a fourth time by using Greater Restoration (level 7 spell). She will finally run out of healing spells and you can kill her! Be patient. Her companions don't like poison except Bannor who's immune to it.

The Monks or the Dwarven Defender are stronger than her for sure! The Inquisitor (> Keldorn) just defeated her in the Final Battle and he also seemed to be stronger than her by using two weapons, the Axe of the Unyielding and Flail of Ages.

In order to kill her, you don't need a weapon +4 or +5! A weapon +3 is fully sufficient. I already killed The Winged just by using the excellent Firetooth (dagger) (Firetooth boomerang dagger +3). Killing her by using the brilliant Blackrazor (weapon +3) and the Axe of Unyielding is a great option! Killing her by using Jhor won't work because it's only a weapon +2 and she's immune to poison. Using Time Stop and trying to imprison her won't work neither. You can't steal levels from her (but from Bannor) by hitting her with Gram the Sword of Grief because she's immune to level drain. When you look at the page of The Winged you can see that she's has only 10% resistance to missiles. So she probably gets badly wounded when you use Magic Missiles against her. I never tried it. For lowering other resistances of her you can use the spell: Lower Resistance on her several times. If your Solo Protagonist player is able to use Magic (e.g. also a Bard or a Thief level 24, Use Any Item), I recommend to kill The Winged by using Time Stop and Black Blade of Disaster what I just did by playing a Dragon Disciple.

'''Finally it's all about Strategy! When I first faced her I couldn't defeat her with a whole party on the easiest difficulty level! Imagine! Now a Solo Protagonist like the Fighter / Mage can kill her and her companions on his own on level INSANE!'''

A good strategy is of course to kill The Winged first by using Time Stop. Afterwards it's easy to defeat the others because The Winged was the only one to see you when you are invisible. If you're playing another Protagonist who can't use Time Stop, it's good to kill Joker, Thass Khun and Pol Pyrrus first by using a weapon with poison (there are many options e.g. Asp's Nest or Arrow of Biting).

What just came to my mind when playing a three Party Member Walkthrough through BG II, EE (Fighter / Mage, Nalia and Rasaad). If you love to play a Sorcerer (Dragon Disciple) I have interesting news for you. I figured out that you can make yourself invisible first by using the Staff of the Magi and afterwards you can summon Project Image (spell level 7) and you still remain invisible as Main Protagonist (in my case it was Nalia)! That's incredible! This means if you manage to kill The Winged first the other evil companions can't see you any more and can't kill you while your Project Image is active! So there's hope that a Sorcerer can defeat The Winged and her evil companions on level Insane. (21st Nov 2017)

Walkthrough Companions
Here's a small overview over your Companions who can join you in your Battles against the powerful enemies. I call these Companions Fellow Gladiators.

All of these are available for joining you in your Battles, even Lea Gosh'Aar. You just have to approach them in the right way without insulting them.

Eleven (twelve) Fellow Gladiators in the Arena :

I start with my favorite Companion in the Arena: Symm Haximus!

Of course a really good choice is always Lea Gosh 'Aar because she's a Fighter / Mage but a weird one! ;-)

Fighters :

@ Symm Haximus (Dwarf): Dwarven Defender: Weapon: Axe (his axe is vorpal and it must be an axe +4 at least because it can harm the Big Slayer); cost: he fights for free alongside you! He's brilliant against the 6 powerful Devas (Battle 16).

@ Hort Il D'rth: (Orc): Berserker / Barbarian: Weapon: Halberd +5; As a Berserker he has the enrage ability; cost: 500 or 1000 gold.

@ Hulda (Human): Weapon: Bow. She can stun enemies with her arrows; cost: 1500 gold.

(@ Minotaur. Golden Calf Idol. It's a reward item from the second Battle. The Minotaur has an Enrage ability (Barbarian Rage ability) that makes him quite powerful. You can use him once each time in your Battle; if you use Vhailor's Helm the Minotaur can be summoned twice).

Cleric :

@ Timmo Gutbaum/Timmoth Godtree (Human): Fighter Cleric: Weapon: Mace; cost: he won't help you in the first 10 Battles! Battles 11-15: 1500 Gold. For free from Battle 16 on! As a Berserker (> Enrage) + Cleric (> spell Holy Word) he's the best help against the Demilich Twins (Battle 17).

Gladiators who can use Magic :

@ Gezzthemin (Drow Mage): Weapon: Poisoned darts. Cost: 1700 gold. I like to use him against the Illithids (Battle 15).

@ Dulf Finsterbart (Mage > Conjurer; Human): Weapon: Staff. He usually summons a Planetar but not against the Vampires ;-(, Spiders, Skeletons etc! Cost: 1500 gold.

@ Gerrold (Wild Mage; Human): Cost: 500 gold.

@ Lea Gosh'Aar (Fighter / Mage!!): Weapons: two Scimitars; cost: 1500 gold.

@ Voghiln (Bard; Human): Weapon: Axe +4/+5. He's excellent against the Monks (Battle 11) and the Rakshasas (Battle 14). Voghiln likes to use the Spell Mislead. Cost: 1500 or for free if you defeated him in drinking beer! ;-)

Thieves :

@ Feldrak Feldrak'l (Fighter / Thief; Gnome): Weapons: two short swords; cost: for free.

@ Ellraish (Human): Assassin, but pretends to be a monk; Weapons: two short swords; cost: for free; very good help against the Drows (Battle 5)! Ellraish can poison his weapon!

My recommendations when to use these Companions for your Battles in the Arena : Tier 1: Battle 1: Symm Haximus or Ellraish; Battle 2: Symm Haximus or Ellraish; Battle 3: Dulf Finsterbart; Battle 4: Feldrak Feldrak'l; Battle 5: Drows: Ellraish; Lea Gosh'Aar Tier 2: Battle 6: Vampires: Lea Gosh'Aar, Hort, but he might die. Battle 7: Gith: Voghiln, Hort or Symm Haximus; Battle 8: Water Elements: ---; Battle 9: Mardii: Gerrold ?; Battle 10: Demons and Devils: ---;

Tier 3: Battle 11: Monks: Gerrold (he casts a comet on them); Symm Haximus, Voghiln, Hort; Battle 12: Golem: Hulda; Ellraish can't harm it. Battle 13: Lich Leah Redsun: Gerrold ( he can kill Lea by himself); Dulf Finsterbart; Battle 14: Rakshasas: Dulf Finsterbart! Voghiln; Battle 15: Illithids: Gezzthemin! Tier 4: Battle 16: 6 Devas: Symm Haximus (1st choice), Voghiln, Hort; Timmo Gutbaum always dies. Battle 17: Demilich Twins: Timmo Gutbaum! Dulf Finsterbart, Hort, Voghiln; Battle18: Three Dragons: Symm Haximus; Battle 19: Symm Haximus or Hort

Gejadus' Solo Walkthrough (Strategy)
When you play a Solo Walkthrough, it's a much bigger challenge than playing a whole party with six members. You need a different strategy for your Battles. That's why there's a whole new Walkthrough. Of course the solutions that I'm presenting are not the only ones for being victorious.

For more details for the Solo Walkthrough read the general Gejadus' Walkthrough (Strategy) above.

Because the protagonists are built from scratch, the game play was set on difficulty level Easy, not Core Rules. I'm aware of the fact that the enemies act more clever and stronger if the difficulty level is higher. For me personally the real Black Pits II Champion is the one who creates a protagonist here in the Black Pits II from scratch and plays it solo on level #INSANE and finally defeats The Winged and her evil companions.

Fighter / Mage Solo Walkthrough
So when you create your protagonist you should choose carefully the class. Who will finally be able to defeat The Winged? In my opinion best solution is to go for a Fighter / Mage (Multi-Class, non-human) who can use Time Stop and Whirlwind Attacks for killing her.

Import a Fighter Mage? Of course you could import a Fighter Mage who is at Mage level 19 and use him for the Walkthrough. Feel free to do so if you like! But in my eyes that's boring! >>> Let's use a Fighter Mage from scratch, a Protagonist who is just created before game play! Starting experience points at game play start will be only 500,000 points! <<<

Before the Final Battle, the Fighter Mage will have reached Mage level 19. This means that he has only one level 9 spell that he can use. I used Time Stop of course. With Mage level 20 he would have 2 level 9 spells that he could use. But we don't want to cheat. Hm. Perhaps he can upgrade himself by fighting all these animals (Bear, Snake, etc.) in the Training Arena. Check it! It's worth it!

Level UPGRADE/Level GRINDING!!! The producers of this game give you an excellent opportunity for upgrading your Protagonist. You can fight against animals at the training place. Fighting the Wyvern costs 5000 gold but gives you 150,000 experience points each time! Great for Level Grinding!

Concerning my weapon proficiency points, I'll give two to Two Handed Sword and two to Two Handed Fighting Style as well because I want to make some progress in the first six battles that will be very challenging in the beginning and I don't want to get stuck. I will use Spider's Bane and especially Lilarcor! Finally all my weapon proficiency points will get distributed during all these Battles until the Final Battle against The Winged like this: A point for Bastard Sword (Jhor and Foebane) and one for Long Sword (Blackrazor and Daystar) makes sense; one for War Hammer (Crom Faeyr), one for Axe (Axe of the Unyielding) and three for Two Weapon Style. Two Handed Sword: ++, Two Handed Weapon Style: ++, Long Sword: +, Bastard Sword: +, War Hammer: +, Axe: +, Fighting Style with two Weapons: +++

Jhor the Bleeder: Best weapon against Mardii, Lich Lea, Rakashas (Maharadscha) and the Sahuagin Prince. I like to use Jhor and Blackrazor at the same time!

Daystar: Best weapon against the Demilich Twins (Battle 17)

Crom Faeyr: Best weapon against the huge Water Elements (Battle 8)

Lilarcor: Best weapon against the Vampires in the beginning (Battle 6).

Spider's Bane: Best weapon against all the enemies in the Battles 1-4, especially when you use Web. Keep Spider's Bane for the Battle with the Lich Lea! She likes to cast Web! (Battle 13)

Blackrazor: my favorite weapon! Blackrazor can even drain 4 levels from the Dragon YLLAXIA at once! Blackrazor can raise your strength cumulative up to 25 and can give you additional Speed! What a weapon! If it was a weapon +4 or +5 it would be the best at all! If your protagonist has the Poison Weapon ability like the Blackguard for example this great weapon becomes even more powerful!

Axe of the Unyielding: Probably the best weapon in the game combined with another one handed style weapon like Blackrazor or the Answerer or Foebane. Unfortunately you only get this brilliant axe very late in the game (available to buy at Tier 5).

Gram the Sword of Grief (double handed sword that is available to buy at Tier 5): Probably the strongest weapon in the game! (I prefer the combination of Axe of the Unyielding and Blackrazor for killing The Winged). In my eyes Gram is better than Carsomyr.

Staff of the Magi: The ultimate weapon for a Sorcerer! Its power is great! The Staff of the Magi can make you invisible any time! I like as well that you can cast "Dispel Magic" on an enemy when you hit him (like Carsomyr). I remember hitting Pol Pyrrus and Joker in the Final Battle with this great Staff first when I was playing a Sorcerer. As a consequence they lost all their magic protection afterwards I used the Staff of the Ram and killed them.


 * 1) Core Rules: Probably it's better to give a weapon proficiency point to Staff (Staff of the Magi and Staff of the Ram) instead of to War Hammer. You don't really need Crom Faeyr, you can use Blackrazor instead and Blackrazor can give you strength cumulative up to +25 as well. - But it doesn't really matter! LEVEL GRINDING! If you upgrade your Fighter Mage to 8,000,000 experience points, your Fighter will be level 24 (your Mage level 20). So you can give one weapon proficiency point to Staff and the other to War Hammer anyway.

Money: The Solo player needs lots of money for excellent equipment! Of course you could fight the Umber Hulk Elders (Battle 4) over and over again for gaining 1250 gold each time. Or later you can often fight the Demilich Twins (Battle 17); it gives you each time 9000 gold for defeating them. >>> But there's an easier way for getting money! '''Money shouldn't be a problem by using the trick with buying the salbe for Dulf Finsterbart and reselling it to Belfer. By doing so, you always make 200 gold gain!''' <<<

Equipment/Armor: It's great for a Fighter Mage to wear Bladesinger Chain (reward item from Battle 5)! Wear also two rings of regeneration; later one of them should be the Ring of Gaxx!

'''Solution/Strategy: If you don't like this solution presented here for the Fighter Mage for a certain Battle just have a quick look at the 5.4 Sorcerer Solo Walkthrough! You might like that for the Sorcerer more for winning the Battle!'''

BATTLES There are 4 difficulty levels: easy, medium, difficult, extremely difficult. This is according to my game playing experience against these opponents in the arena. So all these difficulty levels are totally subjective.

Tier 1

Tier 1 - Battle 1: Orcs ; difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in arena: Symm Haximus; weapon recommendations: Two handed Sword +1; Strategy/solution: Web, Mirror Image, Spider Spawn, Iron Skins, Skull Trap, Fireball, Haste and fight! Hints: I just cheer up the spectators! I want them to be excited about the battle. I don't ask for any item yet.


 * 1) INSANE! So finally the real challenge starts! Will the Fighter Mage Solo Protagonist defeat the DROWS, VAMPIRES, 6 fallen DEVAS, The BHAALSPAWN and The Winged and her companions in the Final Battle? I'm confident after the Fighter Mage has been successful on level HARD. But let's see! I might be mistaken.


 * 1) INSANE: Fellow Gladiator: @ Symm Haximus. 1.) Web, 2.) Mirror Image, 3.) Depending on the situation: Web again or Spider Spawn…

After the first Battle buy Spider's Bane!

Tier 1 - Battle 2: Two Minotaurs and some Gladiators ; difficulty level: medium; Strategy/solution: Web – Stinking Cloud – Fireball – Magic Missiles, later Spider Spawn; Hints: Of course you want to get Golden Calf Idol! You want to be able to summon a great help – a strong Minotaur! He will become a good friend of yours and accompany you many times in your Battles!


 * 1) INSANE: Fellow Gladiator: @ Symm Haximus. 1.) Web, 2.) Mirror Image, 3.) Depending on the situation: Web again or Spider Spawn…

Tier 1 - Battle 3: Lizard Men ; difficulty level: difficult!; Strategy/solution: Web and Spider Spawn. Cast the spell Hold Person on the Chief of the Lizard Men! The Lizard Shaman likes to hide. With spells like True Seeing and Detect Invisibility you can reveal where he hides. Hint: As a single player I want to get all rewards.


 * 1) INSANE: Fellow Gladiator: @ Dulf Finsterbart. He summons Spiders and Skeletons! Dulf is a huge help! 1.) Web, 2.) Mirror Image, 3.) Depending on the situation: Web again or Spider Spawn…3x Web is pretty perfect! Support your Spiders by fighting with Spider's Bane!

Buy the Wand of Monster Summoning! (14000 gold - Charisma: +20 / 18750 gold - Charisma: +3)

Tier 1 - Battle 4: Umber Hulk Elders ; difficulty level: difficult in the beginning! (later: very easy); Strategy/solution: Web and Stinking Cloud is a good idea! Usually Spell Disintegrate destroys these beasts at once! 1.) Web; 2.) Make yourself invisible; 3.) Drink a Potion of Clarity! 4.) Mirror Image while being invisible; 5.) Web again; 6.) Spider Spawn; 7.) Fight by using Spider's Bane!


 * 1) INSANE: Fellow Gladiator: --- 1.) Make yourself invisible at once! These huge Beasts come so fast towards you! 2.) Iron Skins 3.) Fireshield 4.) Oil of Speed 5.) Drink a Potion of Clarity! 6.) Mirror Image, 7.) Hold Spider's Bane in your hands and cast Web! 8.) Depending on the situation you should cast Web on yourself or Spider Spawn first…it's good to have 3x Web and 3x Spider Spawn available!

'''LEVEL GRINDING! LEVEL UPGRADE! Fight the Wyvern 3x and gain an additional level for each - your Fighter and your Mage! Your Fighter (level 14) will now be able to use Whirlwind Attack and your Mage (level 14 as well) has access to a level 7 spell.''' I like to use Mordenkainen's Sword.  # INSANE: Yeah, upgrade yourself! You want to have access to nice level 7 spells like Spell Sequencer and transfer them into your spell book. I highly recommend to buy Limited Wish (level 7) first! Limited Wish gives you nice items, e.g. the Glasses of Identification, 2000 Gold and jewels and a very solid armor (AC -1), probably worth about 10000-20000 gold, that you can use for fighting the Wyvern for more Level Upgrades in the future! My Fighter Mage has already AC-10 for fighting the Wyvern (Dexterity: 18; this Wish Armor AC-1, Helm of Glory, Cloak of the Sewers and Shield of the Lost)! That's ideal! It becomes extremely difficult for the Higher Wyvern to harm you! Especially when your weapon is Albruin the Wyvern can't poison you any more and all your Level Upgrades become very easy! '''Limited Wish can restore your used spells as well during Battle! Wish is great!'''

 Tier 1 - Battle 5: DROWS ; difficulty level: extremely difficult!; Strategy/solution: In my eyes the best solution is to buy the spell: Protection from Magic Weapons (level 6) for 2240 gold! Fellow Gladiator in Arena: Sacrifice @ Ellraish! He's a very good help against the Drows! - First solution:

1.) Haste/Speed spell or potion (you don't have Boots of Speed yet!)

2.) Protection from Magical Weapons

3.) Mirror Image > afterwards you can cast spells without getting interrupted

4.) GATE (for 11200 Gold but can be destroyed by Mordenkainen's Sword)

5.) Fireshield (red)

6.) Iron Skins

7.) Wand of Monster Summoning: 14,000 gold – 50 charges

8.) Web + Spider's Bane

Hints: The Drows are resistant to nearly any magic like Magic Missiles, Disintegrate etc. It's good to kill the two Drow Archers first! Then they won't bother you if you want to cast more spells. I want to get the reward items: Cloak of Balduran and Bladesinger Chain (great item for the Fighter Mage !!).

Second solution (#Core Rules):

1.) Speed Potion; 2.) Summon Minotaur (Golden Calf Idol); 3.) Run into a corner and cast the prepared Spell Sequencer (level 7): Mirror Image + Iron Skins + Fireshield; 4.) Whirlwind Attack; 5.) Kill the Archers!; 6.) Protection from magic weapons; 7.) Kill the Drow Priest; 8.) Use Wand of Monster Summoning etc.


 * 1) HARD: Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Ellraish! 1.) Spell Sequencer: Mirror Image + Iron Skins + Fireshield 2.) SIMULACRUM! 3.) Let your Duplicate often use the Wand of Monster Summoning: 14000 Gold – 50 charges. Summon endless monsters! 4.) According to the situation you self use the Potion of Invisibility, Whirlwind Attacks, Oil of Speed, Protection from magic weapons, summon the Minotaur etc.


 * 1) INSANE: 2nd attempt (15.09.2017)! Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Ellraish! 1.) Spell Sequencer: Mirror Image + Iron Skins + Fireshield 2.) SIMULACRUM! 3.) Let your Duplicate often use the Wand of Monster Summoning: 50 charges. Summon endless monsters! 4.) According to the situation use the Potion of Invisibility, Whirlwind Attacks, Oil of Speed etc…5.) I used Limited Wish - control over time! So I used this mighty TIME STOP spell level 9 and used Whirlwind Attacks for slaughtering two enemies! Best is to kill the Drow Priest!


 * 1) INSANE: My Fighter Mage looks like this when I build him from scratch: Strength: 12; Dexterity: 18; Constitution: 18; IQ: 18; Wisdom: 18; Charisma: 3. I don't care about high Charisma because money is no problem in the game! I also don't care about high Strength because their are great Gauntlets and Girdles available (e.g. the Girdle of Stone Giant Strength). With Wisdom 18 I wanted to make sure that Limited Wish really works!

After 5 battles the next tier starts: new items are available to buy! Go for the Boots of Speed, the Shield of Harmony, Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise and Jhor the Bleeder, a mean bastard sword and the Necklace that protects you from poison (Periapt of Proof against Poison)!

Tier 2

 Tier 2 - Battle 1/Battle 6: VAMPIRES ; difficulty level: extremely difficult!

Strategy/solution: First solution: Only real solution that I found and worked at once was the following one: Buy Time Stop for 11200 gold (Charisma: +20) and ask Hort Il D'rth to help you in this battle! I used Time Stop at once and used Sunray two times (Daystar and Helm of Brilliance) very close to Graul and I killed him! I used the Minotaur Statue and some Fire Elements (Staff of Fire). Potions of Invisibility were useful as well and Whirlwind Attack! Skull Trap is a good weapon against the Vampires! Comet works as well!

Second solution (#Core Rules): Without using Time Stop. 1.) Simulacrum, 2.) Make yourself invisible; let your Duplicate summon the Minotaur, 3.) Run away and use Spell Sequencer: Mirror Image + Iron Skins + Fireshield; your Duplicate gets killed 4.) Still invisible run next to Graul and cast Sunray and kill him. 5.) Get invisible again and summon the Minotaur. The Vampires get attracted. Come invisibly next to them and use Sunray again! 6.) Kill the Vampires with Whirlwind Attacks.


 * 1) HARD: Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Who? The ones who produced this challenge in the Black Pits II don't make it easy for us! @ Dulf Finsterbart as a Conjurer usually summons a Planetar. If he did it against the Vampires as well he would be for sure the greatest help against them! BUT he didn't. I tried it several times. A Planetar usually kills all these Vampires easily and a Planetar even can heal you if the Vampires drained some levels from you! => Best solution is to upgrade your Fighter Mage Solo Protagonist through fighting the Wyvern to Mage level 18 (3,000,000 experience points) and then a level 9 spell is available for you. You choose Planetar of course!

Who could help you against the Vampires in the Arena? @ Timmo Gutbaum/Timmot Godtree: as a Fighter Cleric he could summon protection from level drain on you and himself (Negative Plane Protection) but of course he's not available for fighting alongside you in the arena yet.

@ Gezzthemin: he doesn't really help you. @ Hulda: she can harm some Vampires with her bow but she also gets killed. @ Voghiln: weak against the Vampires. @ Lea Gosh'Aar: very good! She's a Fighter Mage as well! @ Hort: he gets killed. @ Symm Haximus: He dies as well. @ Feldrak Feldrak'l: good! As a Fighter Thief he comes out of nothing and backstabs the Vampires!

Hints: gifts from your fans: Amulet of Power! Perhaps you didn't get this great Amulet at once but you don't want to fight the powerful Vampires again right now. You can come back here at a later time again. Later at Tier 4 when there's the Mace of Disruption available you will buy it and come back to the Vampires and just smash them! If you're lucky Graul can be killed by single hit! Strategy without using Time Stop: weapon recommendations: Mace of Disruption and Blackrazor (no fear and no enchantment possible! Hits with level drain are cumulative up to strength of +25!). You can fight on your own. 1.) make yourself invisible! (potion) and use all kinds of protection: Iron Skins; Fireshield; Mirror Image 2.) Abi Dalzim's Horrid Wilting 3.) Sunray! 4.) Whirwind Attacks! Don't stand in one corner where you can get surrounded by the Vampires and finally you can't get out of the corner anymore! You should always have space to run and make yourself invisible again!
 * 1) INSANE: Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Feldrak Feldrak'l. As I upgraded my Mage to Level 18 I could summon a Planetar! Unfortunately the Planetar got converted after he had killed all Vampires except Graul. So I had to face Graul myself. Jhor and Spider's Bane had no effect on him. So you need at least a weapon +3 for harming him. Daystar works because it's a weapon +4 against evil foes! After Graul couldn't reflect my magic attacks any more (Spell Turning (level 7)) I killed him by using Magic Missiles and Skull Traps! ;-)

'''Congratulations if you managed to kill the Drows and Vampires! These are your most difficult Battles by playing a Fighter Mage Protagonist!'''

Tier 2 - Battle 2/Battle 7: Githyanki ; difficulty level: easy (my favorite enemies) Strategy/solution: Web! - Abi Dalzim's Horrid Wilting. #Game play Core Rules: The Gish can conjure/summon Maze on you! Not nice at all! Protect yourself with Spell Immunity (spell level 5) or Spell Turning (level 7)! '''Hints: Silver Sword!! Extremely good for killing! Get it from your fans!'''


 * 1) HARD: Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Voghiln. Strategy: 1.) Web; 2.) Spell Sequencer; 3.) Whirlwind Attacks; 4.) Simulacrum - your Duplicate will summon Monsters; 5.) Summon Planetar and Mordo Swords etc.


 * 1) INSANE: Easy Battle! Fellow Gladiator: @ Hort. 1.) Web; 2.) Summon Planetar…Web again, Simulacrum…

Tier 2 - Battle 3/Battle 8: Water Elements ; difficulty level: easy Strategy/solution: First make yourself invisible (potion) and get all kinds of protection (Iron Skins; Mirror Image etc). Kill The Sanguahin Prince first e.g. by summoning a Minotaur first. He gets attracted and kill him with the Silver Sword by using a Whirlwind Attack! There are many ways of dealing with the Water Elements: Summon up lots of Fire Elements (Wand of Fire: 2800 Gold - Charisma +20). They can harm the Water Elements. Skull trap is great besides Abi Dalzim's Horrid Wilting!! Magic Missiles help as well! If you should come back later again to fight them one more time use Crom Faeyr! This weapon is extremely strong against the Water Elements; other war hammers work as well! Hints: Firetooth +4


 * 1) HARD + INSANE: Fellow Gladiator in Arena: ---. This Sahuagin Prince is much more powerful on these difficulty levels. His arrows can make you stunned (make you unconscious) immediately! Strategy: 1.) Make yourself invisible. 2.) Spell Sequencer. 3.) Use Wand of Monster Summoning and distract him! 4.) Attack him with Whirlwind Attacks and kill him! 5.) It's easy to destroy the huge Water Elements after the Prince died.

Tier 2 - Battle 4/Battle 9: Mardii and his Elements ; difficulty level: a little bit difficult! Strategies/solution: Time Stop and remove Mardii's magic protection! Spell Speed/Hast and hunt Mardii down and kill him! Or: Make yourself invisible, wait a long time until Mardii and the elements slow down again and attack Mardii! Don't destroy these elements in the beginning! After being killed they will come back! But two of them instead of one! Kill Mardii first! I like to do it with the Silver Sword or Jhor! Hints: Flail of Ages


 * 1) INSANE: Easy Battle! Fellow Gladiator in Arena: --- Strategy: Wait a long time and then attack Mardii with Jhor!

Tier 2 - Battle 5/Battle 10: Demons and Devils ; difficulty level: easy; Strategy/solution: Just let the demons kill each other! Stay out of battle. Wear something against charm enchantment that the succubus can't attack you successfully. #Core Rules: I recommend: 1.) Speed Poison, 2.) Spell Sequencer, 3.) Time Stop and kill T'alcor, the most dangerous enemy, with a weapon +3 (e.g. Silver Sword). T'alcor can knock you unconscious (stunned or confused) and kill you with one single hit! Hints: Longsword Blackrazor!


 * 1) HARD: Fellow Gladiator in Arena: --- Strategy: Use Lilarcor! 1.) Protection from fear; 2.) Oil of Speed; 3.) Kill the Succubus! 4.) Simulacrum! Let your Duplicate fight with you! 5.) Kill T'alor from a distance (e.g. with Energy Blades).


 * 1) INSANE: Fellow Gladiator in Arena: --- Strategy: There are many options as often. Weapons: Flail of Ages and Adjatha the Drinker (I didn't have Lilarcor). 1.) I killed the Succubus and another Demon who attacked me first! 2.) I watched the Demons fighting and killing each other. 3.) I used Time Stop and killed the last two ones.

After 5 battles the next tier starts: new items are available to buy from the merchants! Buy the Girdle of Stone Giant Strength and the Ring of the Ram!

Tier 3

Tier 3 - Battle 1/Battle 11: Monks ; difficulty level: surprisingly easy! I managed in my 1st attempt; Strategy/solution: These monks come very fast towards you and kick you really hard! Ask another gladiator in prison like Hort Il D'rth, Voghiln or Symm Haximus to join you in this battle. 1.) Spell Sequencer: Mirror Image + Fireshield + Iron Skins, 2.) Time Stop. During Time Stop cast Abi Dalzim's Horrid Wilting and use Greater Whirlwind Attacks! Great! 3.) Summon Minotaur 4.) Whirlwind Attacks again. Hints: Wong Fei's Ioun Stone


 * 1) INSANE: Very easy and fast Battle (about 30 secs): Fellow Gladiator in Arena: Lea Gosh'Aar - she's a Fighter Mage as well! Strategy: Weapons: BLACKRAZOR + Flail of Ages. 1.) Spell Sequencer: Mirror Image + Iron Skins + Fireshield; 2.) Summon Planetar 3.) I ran away a bit and used Time Stop 4.) Whirlwind Attacks on three monks: I killed two, the third nearly dead when the Time Stop was over. My Strength went up to 25 (Blackrazor is cumulative!) and (Improved) Haste was on me! The rest was easy.

>>> The Fighter Mage is doing extremely well so far on difficulty level INSANE!

Tier 3 - Battle 2/Battle 12: Golem ; difficulty level: easy! (1st attempt) Strategy/solution: Just summon up the Minotaur first and an Air Element (Staff of Air) and let them attack the Golem. You cast the spell Imprisonment and the Golem disappears! Won in some seconds without even using Time Stop! Hints: CROM FAEYR!! Shuruppak's Plate!


 * 1) INSANE: Very easy and fast Battle (about 20 secs): Fellow Gladiator in Arena: Hulda. Strategy: 1.) Summon Minotaur 2.) Time Stop and Imprisonment. That's it!

Tier 3 - Battle 3 /Battle 13: Lich Lea and five huge Skeleton Golems ; difficulty level: medium (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in arena: Hort Il D'rth. He died. Weapon recommendations: Crom Faeyr and Blackrazor; Strategy/solution: Time Stop and Whirlwind Attacks! Remove the Lich's magic protection! Useful spells against the Lich: Imprisonment; Abi Dalzim's Horrid Wilting; Comet. #Core Rules + HARD: No Fellow Gladiator. 1.) Make yourself invisible - Lea casts True Sight => 2.) Drink a Speed Potion - Lea casts Web. => 3.) Use Spider's Bane that you don't get stuck. 4.) Pierce Shield 5.) Attack Lea with Jhor, the mean Bastard Sword. She hates it like Mardii did! 6.) After Lea is dead summon some Mordenkainen's Swords! and/or Simulacrum and Whirlwind Attacks. Hints: '''Staff of the Magi!!! A "must"!'''


 * 1) INSANE: It's not an easy Battle against Lea on this difficulty level! Equip yourself well before you encounter her. You should have Spider's Bane available (> Web), Blackrazor (immune against fear), Jhor (poisoning Lea), lots of big Healing Potions, lots of Potions of Invisibility, Oil of Speed and the level 7 spell Spell Turning. I finally killed Lea with Blackrazor and Jhor but you can also eliminate her by using Time Stop and Imprisonment. Pierce Shield Spells can help as well. Fellow Gladiator: ---. Strategy: 1.) Oil of Speed; 2.) I attacked her immediately with Blackrazor and Jhor. She got poisoned. 3.) I ran away, made myself invisible and reacted to her attacks accordingly. 4.) Finally I killed her with Jhor. 5.) For fighting these 5 huge Skeleton Golems summon a Duplicate that uses Wand of Monster Summoning and/or summon some Mordenkainen's Swords and/or attack yourself by using Flail of Ages and Crom Faeyr. These huge Golems are pretty much resistant to any magic attack.

Tier 3 - Battle 4 /Battle 14: Rakshasas ; difficulty level: medium (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in arena: @ Voghiln. Weapon recommendations: Crom Faeyr and Blackrazor + Protection from Fire (Ring of Fire Control or Helm of Brilliance etc); Strategy/solution: Abi Dalzim's Horrid Wilting; Whirlwind Attack. WAIT until the magic protection disappears! When finally only the Maharadscha is left and hides somewhere invisibly summon a Mordenkainen's Sword. He'll try to kill it and becomes visible again. Hints: web neither worked nor Mordenkainen's Sword – it will get destroyed by Magic Missiles. Blackrazor hit the Maharadscha and stole him 4 levels! #Core Rules: 1.) Speed Potion and 2.) Attack the Rakshasas immediately with Whirlwind Attack (Blackrazor + Jhor). I killed two of them, 3.) Make yourself invisible and use the prepared Spell Sequencer: Mirror Image + Iron Skins + Fireshield, 4.) Use True Sight and Whirlwind Attacks! It seems that the Maharadscha didn't like Jhor! By the way, both the Maharadscha and Voghiln like to use Mislead. - That's what I never tried so far by playing a Fighter / Mage. Mislead is excellent for Assassins!


 * 1) INSANE: Preparation: Item that protects you from fire and lots of huge Healing Potions. On level Insane the enemies hit you really hard! Fellow Gladiator in arena: @ Voghiln. 1.) Speed Potion and 2.) Attack the Rakshasas immediately with Whirlwind Attack (Blackrazor + Jhor). I killed two of them, 3.) Make yourself invisible and use the prepared Spell Sequencer: Mirror Image + Iron Skins + Fireshield, 4.) Use True Sight and Whirlwind Attacks! 5.) Staff of the Magi is excellent for Spell trap and destroying the magic protection of the Rakshasas. 6.) At the end I used the weapons Flail of Ages and Jhor! Jhor is the beast weapon against them for sure!

Tier 3 - Battle 4 /Battle 15: Illithids ; difficulty level: difficult! Fellow Gladiator in arena: @ Gezzthemin! He's a great help!! Weapon recommendations: Crom Faeyr and Jhor! Strategy/solution: The problem is that the Illithids can kill your protagonist at once and the Slave Magician can make you unconscious (stunned)! I suggest: 1.) Haste on yourself even if you are already wearing the Boots of Speed. 2.) Make yourself invisible (potion). 3.) Kill the Illithids as fast as possible by using Whirlwind Attacks! It might be good to become invisible after each time you have killed an Illithid. # Core Rules: If you're still struggling I suggest: @ Gezzthemin!! He kills the enslaved Warriors! 1.) Invisible, 2.) Speed Potion, 3.) Potion of Clarity, 4.) Whirlwind Attacks with Blackrazor, 5.) Summon Simulacrum and let your Duplicate fight with Whirlwind Attacks! Hints: Psion's Blade


 * 1) HARD+INSANE: Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Gezzthemin!! He kills the enslaved Warriors! 1.) Invisible, 2.) Speed Potion/Oil of Speed, 3.) Potion of Clarity, 4.) Time Stop, 5.) Whirlwind Attacks with Blackrazor and Jhor. You should manage to kill all three Illithids during the Time Stop. The 4th one in the Circle dies anyway after the three have been killed. 6.) Make yourself invisible again. 7.) Summon Simulacrum and let your Duplicate fight with Whirlwind Attacks!

Tier 4

New items are available to buy from the merchants! Buy Vhailor's Helm, the Girdle of Frost Giant Strength and the Mace of Disruption (excellent against Vampires)!

Tier 4 - Battle 1/Battle 16: The 6 fallen DEVAS ; difficulty level: medium (1st attempt). I expected an extremely difficult fight! The Devas have sharp weapons (vorpal) and they can see you although you are invisible! Fellow gladiator in arena: Timmo Gutbaum. He died. '''Best choice is: @ Symm Haximus! He's an excellent fighter as a Dwarfen Defender!''' Weapon recommendations: Crom Faeyr and Blackrazor! Strategy/solution: Time Stop + Whirlwind Attacks! 3 Devas got killed. True Seeing/True Sight. Lots of huge Healing potions and Wand of Monster Summoning for distraction! Hint: Carsomyr! and The Answerer! # Core Rules: Best is to prepare chain contingency with two Mordenkainen's Swords that the Devas can't destroy and True Sight. I used Time Stop and summoned a Mordo Sword and a Planetar and used Whirlwind Attack against a Deva. Symm Haximus was a great help! But decisive were the indestructable Mordenkainen's Swords!! # HARD: No easy battle at all! @ Symm Haximus! Prepare: Chain contingency: True Sight + 2x Mordenkainen's Sword. Weapon: Psion's Blade. 1.) Time Stop + Whirlwind Attacks! 2.) Oil of Speed! 3.) The Devas will chase you. Run close to Symm and the Mordo Swords! 4.) Some Whirlwind Attacks and Victory!


 * 1) INSANE: I expect here the hardest Battle on level Insane! These Devas are just incredibly fast and powerful! @ Symm Haximus! Let's see! >>> If you want to become the CHAMPION of playing the Black Pits II you have to figure out the last Battles yourself! ;-)

Tier 4 - Battle 2/Battle 17: The Demilich Twins ; difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow gladiator in arena: @ Voghiln (Best choice is: @ Timmo Gutbaum!). Voghiln casts a spell so that he's immune to Imprisonment: Spell Immunity (spell level 5) (for my German friends: Voghiln spricht den Zauber Immunität gegen Bannzauber!). He can harm the Twins as well! He must have a weapon +4 or even +5! His weapon is an Axe. Weapon recommendations: DAYSTAR and Mace of Disruption! Best strategy: Let the Fighter Mage use Time Stop and then during the Time Stop let him use two Greater Whirlwind Attacks on these bad guys! Hints: By the way the Minotaur that you can always summon (Golden Calf Idol) is immune to Imprisonment because of his enrage. # Core Rules: Same strategy. Very easy battle! Compare this solution here with that for the Sorcerer Solo! # HARD: @ Timmot Godtree. Weapons: Daystar + Flail of Ages! Time Stop + Whirlwind Attacks! The Battle is over within seconds! Of course you want the Ring of Gaxx as a reward from your fans!

Now your Fighter Mage has finally reached 3,000,000 experience points and he can use a level 9 spell from his spell book. Buy Time Stop and transfer it into your spell book. This Time Stop role is 6x available to buy: cost: 11200 Gold (Charisma: +20/21). # Core Rules: I've already reached the maximum experience points' limit of 8,000,000 for a long time. I upgraded myself with fighting the animals in the Arena. My Fighter Mage is a Fighter level 24 (4,000,000 exp) and a Mage level 20 (4,000,000 exp). Unfortunately he has only 2 level 9 spells in his spell book - the Sorcerer has much more but my Fighter Mage can use great weapons! And that's lots of fun! Before the Rebellion the Fighter Mage should buy a bunch of useful level 9 script rolls like Time Stop!!

Tier 4 - Battle 3/Battle 18: The Three Dragons: YLLAXIA; Nyxxla and Orluss ; difficulty level: medium (1st attempt); Fellow gladiator in arena: @ Voghiln. He supported me in an excellent way! As a Bard he really played a Bard song! Unfortunately he died in the Battle. Weapon recommendations: Crom Faeyr and Blackrazor! Blackrazor can even destroy Mordenkainen's Swords! Strategy/solution: I started Time Stop at once but YLLAXIA was too fast and interrupted my spell. I took revenge and killed both of her children with Whirlwind Attacks. I used spells to remove the magic protection from YLLAXIA, summoned creatures for distracting her and finally killed her. Vhailor's Helm is very useful!!! Hints: Gives you each time 10000 gold for defeating them again! Foebane + Angurvadal !


 * 1) Core Rules + HARD: @ Lea Gosh 'Aar; @ Dulf Finsterbart; @ Gezzthemin: It's fun to fight with these Mages against YLLAXIA. They cast the spell Maze on her but a short time afterwards she comes back! It gives you a break (for summoning more Monsters)! ;-) Strategy: 1.) Vhailor's Helm. The Duplicate is a huge help! 2.) I always kill the two small Dragons first. 3.) Pierce Shield two times on YLAAXIA. 4.) Whirlwind Attacks with Blackrazor and the Answerer (Flail of Ages). Dulf summons a Planetar as help. The Planetar killed YLLAXIA with one hit! Blackrazor is such a powerful weapon! It stole 4 levels even from YLLAXIA! Blackrazor can raise your strength cumulative up to 25 and can give you additional Speed! What a weapon! Just a pity that it's only a weapon +3 and evil.

Kill Dormamus! Put your uniform aside and wear your armor (Bladesinger Chain) again! Annihilate Dormamus – you don't want to face 6 enemies in your last battle! #Core Rules: For the Fighter Mage it's easy to kill Dormamus by using Blackrazor and Jhor; but for the Sorcerer not being able to use magic only the Staff of Magi and Ram it's a very difficult but not impossible fight. #HARD: It's good to have the Staff of the Magi in addition! You can change the weapons in-between and use the Staff of the Magi for getting a break and recover your Hitpoints by wearing the Ring of Gaxx!

Tier 4 - Battle 4/Battle 19: The Bhaalspawn/Enegar and Kastulor, children of the dead God Bhaal ; difficulty level: medium (2nd attempt); Fellow Gladiator in arena: Dulf Finsterbart! As a Conjurer he summoned a Planetar while fighting! Weapon recommendations: Crom Faeyr and Daystar first against Enegar; later C.F. + Blackrazor; Strategy/solution: 1.) I summoned the Minotaur, 2.) Time Stop + Whirlwind Attacks: I killed Enegar before he could transform into the Slayer! 3.) Kastulor changed into the small Slayer Form. I killed him with Whirlwind attacks…the rest was easy. Hints: Kastulor is a mean assassin who killed me the first time. He used his mean Short Sword of Mask and stabbed me from behind (damage 7x times - Backstab) and I got stuck for 2 rounds. All enemies surrounded and killed me.


 * 1) Core Rules: It was a very easy Battle! @ Fellow Gladiator: Lea Gosh'Aar. Same Strategy as above: 1.) I summoned a Minotaur - Enegar ran into the middle and attacked the Minotaur. 2.) I used Time Stop and killed Enegar with a Whirlwind Attack by using Foebane and the Answerer. Foebane - what a powerful weapon +5! It was amazing to see how my own Hitpoints rose from 126 to 238 by using Foebane (Larloch's Minor Drain - cumulative by using Foebane)! 3.) Spell Sequencer: Iron Skins + Fireshield + Mirror Image. The rest was easy. Later I switched to Blackrazor instead of the Answerer! So I used two really powerful weapons for my Whirlwind Attacks: Foebane + Blackrazor! #HARD: same strategy: this Battle against the Baalspawn is much easier than fighting the 6 fallen Devas!

Equip yourself well before it goes on! Crucial equipment for the Final Battle is: Boots of Speed, Robe of Vecna (Tier 5) and Amulet of Power, Ring of Gaxx, lots of strong Healing potions etc. Buy Aslyferund Elven Chain, Robe of Vecna, the Axe of the Unyielding and Gram the Sword of Grief!

If Symm Haximus got killed while fighting along you in the arena he won't show up just before the Final Battle. You can convince Brodle and his warriors not to fight you. He just leaves.

''' The Final Battle against The Winged Difficulty level: medium (1st''' attempt). I expected an extremely difficult fight but it wasn't! Fellow gladiator in arena: no one but Najim! Weapon recommendations: Crom Faeyr and the Axe of the Unyielding! Strategy/solution: 1.) Time Stop + Greater Whirlwind Attack two times on The Winged! I managed to kill her. Bannor and Pol Pyrrus approached me very fast in order to interrupt my spell casting but I still managed to cast Time Stop! ;-) 2.) Make yourself invisible (potion). When you are invisible you can put all kinds of protection on you: Iron skins, Mirror Image, Fireshield, absolute Immunity (level 9) In the meantime Najim killed Joker. 3.) I cast the spell Imprisonment and Bannor disappeared successfully! 4.) I made myself invisible again. 5.) I cast the green circle script roll on Thassk Kun and he lost all his magic protection. It was easy to kill him afterwards. 6.) Only the powerful Pol Pyruss was left! WAIT! I thought that the best plan is to hide somewhere invisibly and wait. Finally Pol lost his Haste and he was back to normal again. I attacked him with Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting first. This hit him badly and he lost his spell. I summoned up a Mordenkainen's Sword and he tried to attack it. He got well distracted and I removed his magic protection with spells. I used Whirlwind Attacks and he died.


 * 1) Core Rules: I managed to defeat The Winged and her evil companions in the 2nd attempt. In the first attempt Pol Pyrrus cast Maze on me and that was the end. Ok. What was my strategy? 1.) I prepared Spell Sequencer: Mirror Image + Iron Skins + Fireshield. I also had bought some Time Stop and Imprisonment script rolls before the Rebellion. I prepared chain contingency: Simulacrum + True Sight + Mordenkainen's Sword. 2.) I entered the Arena invisibly by holding the Staff of The Magi. 3.) At the end of the dialogue with Dennaton I cast Time Stop at once. 4.) One of them used True Sight so I became visible and they attacked me but I managed to cast Time Stop. 5.) During Time Stop I attacked The Winged with two Whirlwind Attacks. It seems that she didn't like the Axe of The Unyielding and Foebane at all! 6.) After she had died I rushed away and made myself invisible again by using the Staff of The Magi. 7.) My Duplicate (> Simulacrum) survived the attacks somehow and recovered - it seemed so to me. The Duplicate was wearing the Ring of Gaxx as well. My Duplicate used a Whirlwind Attack and hit Pol Pyrrus badly by using the Staff of the Magi! The Staff of the Magi destroyed his magic protection! My Duplicate killed him! 8.) I used Time Stop and imprisoned Bannor successfully. 9.) Najim killed Thassk Kun. 10.) Together with my Duplicate I attacked Joker. The Duplicate hit him with Whirlwind Attacks by using the Staff of the Magi and I cast Pierce Shield two times on him. I attacked him with another Whirlwind Attack. He had no chance. EASY BATTLE on Core Rules! I'm surprised! The Fighter Mage is excellent!


 * 1) HARD: The Fighter Mage was victorious again! Before I entered the Arena I prepared chain contingency: Simulacrum + True Sight + Mordenkainen's Sword. I also prepared Spell Sequencer: Mirror Image + Iron Skins + Fireshield. 1.) BEFORE entering the Arena I drank Oil of Speed. I waited for about 5 seconds so that I would be able to cast a spell at once without delay. 2.) I entered the Arena. At the end of the dialogue with Dennaton I cast Time Stop at once. 3.) During Time Stop I attacked The Winged with two Whirlwind Attacks successfully (Axe of the Unyielding and Foebane)! She died! 6.) After she had died I rushed away and made myself invisible. Only The Winged can see when you are invisible - the others cannot! I used Spell Sequencer and another Time Stop. 7.) During this new Time Stop I cast the green circle script role on Thassk Kun. He lost all his magic protection and I killed him. I rushed to Pol Pyrrus and hit him with the Staff of Magi. As a consequnce he lost his magic protection as well. I attacked him with Blackrazor and Jhor (poison). He was nearly dead when the Time Stop was over. Najim who was still alive and I killed Pol. 8.) My Duplicate from the start (chain contingency) got killed by True Sight. 9.) Only Joker and Bannor were left. I made myself invisible and equipped myself well with all kinds of spells. I used Gram as a weapon. I used Vhailor's Helm and got a Duplicate again. The rest was easy! This Final Battle was much easier for me than fighting these 6 fallen Devas (Battle 16). Let's see if the Fighter Mage will be finally successful on level INSANE!

Solo Walkthrough - Conclusions:

To be honest, if you create a new Fighter Mage and he/she starts his first Battle with only having 500,000 experience points it's not easy! The six first Battles were the hardest ones! I don't know how many attempts I needed to defeat the powerful Drows. Fighting the Drows was my toughest Battle in the whole Walkthrough! Just having one protagonist and fighting the Drows. I didn't have any fellow gladiator with me because I thought he/she just would get killed anyway. Perhaps it would have been a good choice to have Dulf Finsterbart with me who summoned up a Planetar when I was fighting Enegar! Or Voghiln who impressed me with his fighting skills against the three Dragons. Fighting the Vampires also seemed to be impossible first in the Solo Walkthrough. When I finally started to use Time Stop at the beginning of the Battle it was quite easy! It's exciting to play a solo protagonist!

Dwarven Defender Solo Walkthrough
Let's see how far this physical very strong Dwarven Defender (article: Fighter, 4 Class Kits, 4.5 Dwarven Defender) will get on his own! I'm not very optimistic when he has to face strong Mages.

BATTLES There are 4 difficulty levels: easy, medium, difficult, extremely difficult. This is according to my game playing experience against these opponents in the arena. So all these difficulty levels are totally subjective.

Tier 1

Tier 1 - Battle 1 : Orcs; difficulty level: medium (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in arena: @ Symm Haximus - a Dwarven Defender as well! Weapon recommendations: Two axes +3; Strategy/solution: Strange not being able to use Web. Ok. I ran to the middle and used the Dwarf's special defense ability, Defensive Stance (article: Fighter, 4 Class Kits, 4.5 Dwarven Defender). Together with Symm we attacked one Orc – we slaughtered them together one after another. Hints: I cheer up the crowd.

After the first Battle buy the Ring of Regeneration. I also felt the need for better protection. I bought a decent armor.

Money shouldn't be a problem by using the trick with buying the salbe for Dulf Finsterbart and reselling it to the Belfer. By doing so you always make 200 gold gain!

Tier 1 - Battle 2 : Two Minotaurs and some Gladiators; difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in arena: Symm Haximus again; Strategy/solution: as above. Kill always an enemy together with Symm. Hints: Of course you want to get '''Golden Calf Idol! You want to be able to summon a great help – a strong Minotaur!''' He will become a good friend of yours and accompany you many times in your Battles!

Buy Boots of Avoidance (Senses of the Cat - these boots are not mentioned above in the item list, also other items are missing - unfortunately!) (AC +5 Bonus against arrows), Ring of Fire Resistance and Amulet of 5% Magic Resistance.

Tier 1 - Battle 3 : Lizard Men; difficulty level: easy/difficult (many attempts) Fellow Gladiator in arena: Symm Haximus; Strategy/solution: It's not difficult at all to slaughter all the Lizard Men together with Symm, but the Lizard Shaman likes to hide and after some of his companions got killed it just stays unseen. As a Dwarven Defender you can't use any spells to make him visible. So you have to try to kill the Shaman early in the Battle. Totally in the beginning it's still invulnerable. Hints: As a single player I want to get all rewards.

Conclusion : Here's already a huge disadvantage of the Dwarven Defender. He can't make enemies visible so the Lizard Shaman or later the Drow Priest might remain unseen.

Buy Elves' Bane (Girdle of Piercing) (Armor Class Bonus of 3 against arrows/missiles).

Tier 1 - Battle 4 : Umber Hulk Elders; difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in arena: Symm Haximus again. He unfortunately got killed! Weapon recommendations: Two axes +3 (two hammer +3) Strategy/solution: Use Potion of Clarity and slaughter them! Hints: Lilarcor

Tier 1 - Battle 5 : Drows; difficulty level: surprisingly easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in arena: @ Fredrak Fredrak'l. He died. Weapon recommendations: two hammer +3 and The One Gift Lost (Necklace of Missiles) for killing the small spiders. Strategy/solution: Oil of Speed! (you don't have Boots of Speed yet!). Try to kill the Drow-Priest early! Hints: The Drows are resistant to nearly any magic like Magic Missiles. I want to get the reward items: Cloak of Balduran and Bladesinger Chain.


 * 1) HARD: I tried to defeat the Drows on difficulty level HARD and I have bad news, the Dwarven Defender didn't manage. The Drow Priest makes himself invisible and approaches the Dwarven Defender and casts Harm on him. Afterwards he gets killed easily by a Drow Warrior.

After 5 Battles the next tier starts: new items are available to buy! Go for the Boots of Speed, the Shield of Harmony, Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise and Jhor the Bleeder, a mean bastard sword and the Necklace that protects you from poison (Periapt of Proof Against Poison)!

Tier 2

Tier 2 - Battle 1/Battle 6 : Vampires; difficulty level: extremely difficult! I managed after about 10 attempts. Fellow Gladiator in arena: @ Dulf Finsterbart; Weapon recommendations: Lilarcor! Strategy/solution: 1.) Oil of Speed! 2.) Summon Minotaur, 3.) Run away and make yourself invisible, 4.) Attack two times with Sunray (Daystar and Helm of Brilliance), 5.) Make yourself invisible again and use Fireshield (Wand of Fire) 6.) Attack with Lilarcor over and over again (Whirlwind attack) and use often Invisibility potions! Hints: The Axe against Undead wasn't really of use.

Give a weapon proficiency point to bastard sword and buy Jhor the Bleeder!

Tier 2 - Battle 2/Battle 7 : Githyanki; difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Strategy/solution: Just fight! Hints: Silver Sword!! Extremely good for killing! Get it from your fans!

Tier 2 - Battle 3/Battle 8 : Water Elements; difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Strategy/solution: First make yourself invisible (potion). Kill The Sanguahin Prince e.g. by using a crossbow. There are many ways of dealing with the Water Elements: Summon up lots of Fire Elements (Staff of Fire). They can harm these elements. A War hammer is very effective as well! If you should come back later again to fight them one more time, use Crom Faeyr! This weapon is extremely strong against these Water Elements. Hints: Firetooth +4

Tier 2 - Battle 4/Battle 9 : Mardii and his Elements; difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in arena: --- Weapon recommendations: Jhor and Warhammer +3; Strategy/solution: Don't destroy the elements in the beginning! After being killed they will come back! But two of them instead of one! Kill Mardii first! Make yourself invisible and wait! When Mardii gets slow and his Elements as well and Mardii starts running out of spells, attack him with Jhor the Bleeder! He won't like it at all! After Mardii has died, attack the Elements with Whirlwind Attacks or Firetooth +4. Hints: Get the great reward item Flail of Ages from your fans!!!

Tier 2 - Battle 5/Battle 10 : Demons and Devils; difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in arena: --- Weapon recommendations: Jhor and Stone Axe +3; Strategy/solution: Just let the demons kill each other! Stay out of battle. If the succubus attacks your warriors too much with charm spells – kill her! Whirlwind Attacks! Hints: Longsword Blackrazor!!!

After 5 Battles the next tier starts: new items are available to buy from the merchants! Buy the Girdle of Stone Giant Strength (20) and Ring of the Ram (the Breaker of Castles)!

Tier 3

Tier 3 - Battle 1/Battle 11 : Monks; difficulty level: easy! (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in arena: @ '''Voghiln. He was great! He didn't even get injured!''' Weapon recommendations: Jhor and Stone Axe +3; Strategy/solution: Whirlwind Attacks! Summon Minotaur; Hints: Wong Fei's Ioun Stone

Tier 3 - Battle 2/Battle 12 : Golem; difficulty level: easy! (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in arena: @ Hulda! Ellraish couldn't harm the Golem. Weapon recommendations: Two Warhammers +3; Strategy/solution: Whirlwind Attacks! Use the special defense ability, Defensive Stance! Hints: '''CROM FAEYR!!! + Shuruppak's Plate!''' Go for both!!!

The Dwarven Defender was already successful in 12 Battles and is excellent equipped now! His Equipment looks like this: Shuruppak's Plate, Balduran's Helm and Cloak; Boots of Speed; Crom Faeyr and Flail of Ages!

Tier 3 - Battle 4/Battle 14 : Rakshasas; difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in arena: @ Voghiln. He died. Weapon recommendations: Crom Faeyr and Blackrazor; Strategy/solution: Fire protection! I drank a Haste potion and attacked them at once with Whirlwind Attacks! Three Rakshasas died. Wait until their magic protection disappears!

Tier 3 - Battle 4/Battle 15 : Illithids; difficulty level: easy (1st attempt) Fellow Gladiator in arena: @ Gezzthemin was a great help! Weapon recommendations: Crom Faeyr and Jhor! Strategy/solution: Use a Speed potion first! Kill the Illithids as fast as possible!

Tier 4

New items are available to buy from the merchants! Buy Vhailor's Helm!

Tier 4 - Battle 1/Battle 16 : The 6 fallen DEVAS; difficulty level: medium (1st attempt). I expected an extremely difficult fight! The Devas have sharp weapons (vorpal) and they can see you although you are invisible! Fellow gladiator in arena: Timmo Gutbaum. He died. '''Best choice is: Symm Haximus! He's an excellent fighter!''' Weapon recommendations: Crom Faeyr and Blackrazor! Strategy/solution: Whirlwind Attacks! Hint: The Answerer!

 Tier 4 - Battle 2/Battle 17: The Demilich Twins 

Difficulty level: extremely difficult! I managed in my fourth attempt. To be honest I didn't expect to win against these Twins by playing a Dwarfen Defender Protagonist. Fellow gladiator in arena: @ Hort Il-D'rth of course! He uses his Berserker Enrage ability and he's immune to Imprisonment for some time.

Strategy/solution:

1.) Summon the Minotaur (Golden Calf Idol)! The Minotaur is immune to Imprisonment because of his enrage and he distracts the Twins.

2.) Use an Invisibility potion

3.) Run away and hide and use a Speed potion

4.) Give your Dwarven Defender the Ring of the Ram and K'logarath and let him use Vhailor's Helm! He duplicates!

5.) Let your Duplicate use Ring of the Ram! It's a strong weapon! About 15 HP!

6.) Let your Duplicate use K'logarath and support Hort this way! VICTORY!

=> Your Protagonist stayed invisible and was just a spectator of this brilliant victory!

Of course you want the Ring of Gaxx as a reward from your fans!

Tier 4 - Battle 3/Battle 18 : The Three Dragons: YLLAXIA; Nyxxla and Orluss; difficulty level: very easy! (1st attempt); Fellow gladiator in arena: @ Hort; Weapon recommendations: Crom Faeyr and Blackrazor (immune to fear)! Blackrazor can even destroy Mordenkainen's Swords! Strategy/solution: 1.) Oil of Speed! 2.) I summoned the Minotaur, 3.) Vhailor's Helm! 4.) I killed YLLAXIA's two children. 5.) I attacked YLLAXIA together with the Duplicate, 6.) Dwarfen Defender Defensive Stance (special defence ability) + Whirlwind Attacks!

Don't forget to go upstairs in order to kill Dormamus!

Tier 4 - Battle 4/Battle 19 : Enegar and Kastulor, children of the dead God Bhaal; difficulty level: difficult! (4th attempt); Fellow Gladiator in the arena: @ Hort (1st attempt) or @ Symm Haximus! Dulf Finsterbart was horrible. He always used Time Stop when Enegar had already changed into the Big Slayer Form and I got slaughtered. Weapon recommendations: Crom Faeyr and Blackrazor first against Kastulor; later Crom Faeyr and Daystar against the Big Slayer (probably the Answerer would be even better than Daystar). Wear the Belt of Inertial Barrior! Strategy/solution: 1.) Speed potion 2.) Without being able to use Time Stop, Enegar always transformed into the big Slayer Form. After killing all others I faced the Big Slayer. I was amazed that the Dwarven Defender with his special defense ability, the Defensive Stance, and his Whirlwind attacks was superior to the Big Slayer!

'''The Final Battle against The Winged Difficulty level: difficult! (2nd attempt).''' Fellow Gladiator in arena: no one but Najim! Weapon recommendations: Crom Faeyr and the Axe of the Unyielding! Perfect weapons for the Dwarven Defender! The Axe of Unyielding is 10% vorpal (deadly; 10% chance to decapitate)! If you're lucky you can kill the enemy at once or at least very fast! Equipment of the Dwarven Defender in the Final Battle: Enkidu's Full Plate, Helm of Balduran and Cloak of Balduran; Boots of Speed; Ring of Gaxx, Crom Faeyr; Axe of the Unyielding and most important the Cloak of the Lich (Vault)! Strategy/solution: 1.) Speed potion!! 2.) Wear the Cloak of the Lich (Vault)! Decisive! Kill the Winged with Whirlwind Attacks! One time I saw a hit with 56 damage points against her! The Dwarven Defender is extremely strong! 3.) Make yourself invisible! The others can't see you any more! 4.) Magic script role (green circle) on Thassk Kusk! Afterwards he's easy to kill! 5.) Kill Joker! 6.) Kill Pol Pyrrus! 7.) Kill Bannor!

''' Result : I'm still totally surprised that the Dwarven Defender managed to defeat the Demilich Twins (Battle 17) and The Winged and her evil companions (Final Battle).''' Wow! I didn't expect that at all! It's nearly unbelievable how strong a high level Dwarven Defender is by using his Defensive Stance! He seemed to be stronger than Enegar in his Big Slayer Form and The Winged in the Final Battle! But without having the Cloak of the Lich (Immunity from all forms of Death Spells), The Winged would have killed him!

Fighter Cleric Solo Walkthrough
I just want to give some general advice how to play this Fighter / Cleric and explain the most challenging Battles: Battle 6 against the Vampires and the Final Battle.

General advice : Your created Fighter Cleric should be a Berserker of course. By using his enrage ability he can't get imprisoned (by the Demilich Twins – Battle 17).

As a Cleric you want to use Crom Faeyr (Battle 12: Golem) and Flail of Ages (Battle 9: Mardii) and also sometimes the Shield of Harmony (Tier 2). Get the Golden Calf Idol (Battle 2)! You can summon a strong Minotaur who will fight alongside you! The level 7 spell Gate is a huge help against lots of enemies, especially in the beginning! Sanctuary – great spell! You can get a break and equip yourself with Speed potion, Armor of Faith, Healing etc. But some enemies are clever enough to destroy your Sanctuary. I like Globe of Blades and the Aura of Flaming Death (level 7 spells).

Battle 6: Vampires : I summoned two times a huge Beast (Gate level 7 spell) in the beginning and the Vampires got distracted. I didn't care that the two Beasts were fighting each other. I used sunray (level 7 spell and Helm of Brilliance) one or two times next to Graul and he died! One Beast survived and killed all other Vampires. In the meantime I had summoned 2 air elements and 3 skeletons as well but they didn't have to intervene any more. I didn't have any fellow Gladiator with me and I didn't use the level 4 spell that protects you from level drain.

'''The Final Battle against The Winged Difficulty level: extremely difficult! (6 or 7 attempts).''' Fellow Gladiator in arena: no one but Najim! The Fighter / Cleric is inferior to the Fighter / Mage and the Dwarven Defender. He can't use Time Stop and Whirlwind Attacks and he's not such a great Defender like the Dwarf with his Defensive Stance. What to do in the Final Battle? What are the strong abilities or spells of the Fighter / Cleric? He can't summon lots of Devas (Planetars) like the Fighter / Mage. He can't lower the resistance of The Winged. So what? Sanctuary and afterwards getting ready for Battle doesn't work because The Winged and Thass Kun cast True Sight/True Seeing. Weapon recommendations: Crom Faeyr and Flail of Ages! Best weapons for the Fighter Cleric! Crom Faeyr gives you enormous strength (25) and Flail of Ages can slow down your enemies. The Fighter Cleric has one big Plus! His Armor! My Fighter Cleric had an Armor class -9 (wearing the Cloak of the Lich; Crom Faeyr and Flail of Ages). He can even lower his Armor class to -13 by using the level 7 spell Aura of Flaming Death (AC Bonus of +4)!! Or even to -18 by wearing an excellent shield instead of Flail of Ages; -19 by wearing the Cloak of Balduran.

Strategy/solution: 1.) Speed potion!! 2.) The strategy of killing The Winged at once didn't work. The Fighter Cleric is not strong enough. I had to eliminate other allies of The Winged first. I cast the green circle script roll on Thassk Kun that you get after the Rebellion from Gerrold or somebody else fighting in the Arena. He lost all his magic protection at once. I attacked him and wounded him but he could escape by making himself invisible. Unfortunately often some of my spells got interrupted when I wanted to cast. The Cleric is just slow to cast spells. He wears neither the Robe of Vecna nor the Amulet of Power.

3.) It's good to wait! After some time the Mages lose some of their magic protection. I attacked Pol Pyrus and killed him.

4.) I killed Joker.

5.) Now the time had come to attack The Winged. I cast the (big) Regeneration spell on me (spell level 7) and attacked her with Crom Faeyr and Flail of Ages. One time I saw a hit with 58 damage points against her! Impressive! (But can you do it again?). I could slow her down with Flail of Ages. I didn't care about Bannor standing next to her and hitting me. She finally died. Without wearing the Cloak of the Lich (Immunity from all forms of Death Spells) The Winged would have killed me several times!

6.) I killed Bannor!

7.) I summoned some creatures and made Thassk Kun, who was hiding, visible. I killed him.

''' Result : It wasn't easy at all defeating The Winged and her companions by playing a Fighter Cleric Solo Protagonist but it's possible.'''

Berserker ---> Cleric Solo Walkthrough - new!
I want to be fair and give this combination a new chance. When I played it first I didn't do any level grinding by fighting the Wyern in the Arena. In addition to that I didn't have much experience in playing the Black Pits II.

Berserker "Makes for an excellent dual-class for mages and clerics. Berserker rage is incredibly powerful in BG:EE due to the +15 hit points being a massive increase at low levels and the status immunities rendering most mages obsolete. The +2 to-hit, damage and AC also gives equivalent bonuses to a sixth-level kensai while still allowing you to wear helms, bracers and armor. Only being able to put one dot in ranged weapon proficiencies is totally negligible."

So far the Berserker ---> Cleric (BC) is doing very well.He could defeat the DROWS in his first attempt and it's really lots of fun and joy to play this combination!

Dual-Class took place when he had reached 1,000,000 exp (level 12). That was after his first Battle against the Orcs. A small challenge was Battle 2 against the Gladiators and two Minotaurs by being only a one class cleric but you can rely on Symm Haximus. It's amzing to use 'Gate' in combination with the 2nd level spell 'protection from evil.' I also used it against the DROWS. Oil of Speed of course and the Flail weapons: Flail+3 and the Flail+2 with the Wyvern tail. The weapon profiency points of the BC are amazing: Flail: +++++ (Grand Master) and fighting with two weapons: +++. Idea is to give more wpp to War Hammer: +++++ (Grand Master).

The Final Battle against The Winged will be horrible again. I'm pretty sure.

Disadvantages of this Berserker ---> Cleric (Dual-class; human) combination :

1.) No Greater Whirlwind Attack because of Dual-Class. That's a huge disadvantage!

2.) No Time Stop!

3.) His spell casting time is slow. I have to see if he can use the Amulet of Power like the Kensai ---> Druid can. Then his spell casting time would get reduced by 1 at least. - Yes, he can use the Amulet of Power what helps a bit.

4.) It's hard for him/her to find weapons for poisoning Mages, e.g. Mardii. He can't use Jhor, can't use darts etc. The only option seems to be the Serpent Shaft.

5.) No Mirror Image possible.

'''=> I'm pretty sure that a Figher / Cleric is superior to a Berserker ---> Cleric. Why? Because the Fighter / Cleric has the urgently needed Greater Whirlwind Attack.'''

So how good is his Berserker Rage / Enrage? I have to find out, especially in the Final Battle against the Winged.

My Game Playing Past : For a long time I thought that the strongest character is a Berserker - Cleric (Dual-Class, human: Crom Faeyr (+++++) and Flail of Ages (+++++); Globe of Blades; Aura of Flaming Death) with all his spell abilities. I was totally mistaken. When I look back now I just see how little knowledge I had at the beginning of my BG I + II playing time. I really like this combination but it sucks.

Kensai ---> Cleric Solo Walkthrough - new!
It doesn't really make sense to play this combination. Why? As a Cleric you want to be able to use Armor, Bracers and Helm. Armor Class is one of the big Advantages of a Cleric.

Kensai ---> Druid Solo Walkthrough - new!
This combination is great! The Druid and the Kensai as well don't pay much attention to Armor. No Armor, no bracers, no helmet. I really enjoy playing this combination a lot. But I like to play the Berserker ---> Cleric as well.

'''I especially like that this combination allows the use of the Firetooth Dagger +3 !!! Of course I'll give 5 weapon profiency points to Dagger: +++++ (Grand Master)'''. A Kensai ---> Druid can only use these five weapons: Dagger; Scimitar (no Katana); Club (no Flail of Ages); Quarterstaff (> Staff  of the Woodlands); Spiar.

Best weapon for the Druid is the Staff of the Ram (THACO: -9; Damage: 30-35). Really good, especially for Armor (set to 3) is the Staff of the Woodlands.

Recommended wwp: Quarterstaff: +++++; Two Handed Weapn Style: ++; Dagger: +++++; Single Weapon Style: +

Nice items for the Druid: Amuelt of Power; Hearthold Ring (add. 7 level spell) For improving the Armor Class is the Potion of Invulnerability especially useful !!!

I like to use the following Druid Spells: Entangle (similar like the 'Web; of the Mage); Summon a Nymph (Call Woodland Beings) who can cast 'Hold Person' and heal etc; Insect Plague; Greater Elemental Summoning

But the requirement for this combination are huge! 1.) True Neutral; 2.) Wisdom 17; 3.) Charisma 17; 4.) IQ: 9 (required for reading scrolls); 5.) Strength: 15 (Kensai). Best is to neglect Dexterity (the Kensai gives an AC Bonus +2 anyway) and raise Charisma to 18 for buying the items cheap!

Of course you will buy the Nymp Cloak. Having a Charisma of +20 is ideal for shopping! It can't be better! A Charisma of only 15 doesn't help you at all for getting reduced prices.

Battle 3: Lizards : It was nice to use the Nymph Cloak in order to charm the Lizard Shaman. I let him attack his own friends.

Fanatstic! The Druid already gets the Kensai (Level 12) Class back after fighting the Lizards. For the Cleric it takes one Battle more.

Battle 2: Gladiators : If you didn't get the Golden Calf Idol at once just come back and summon a Fire Elemental (Druid Spell level 6). The Gladiators can't harm it.

Battle 5: DROWS : This Battle is often the first real challenge in the Black Pits II. The Kensai ---> Druid managed in his first attempt! Congrats! Fellow Gladiator: @ Lea Gosh 'Aar. She died. 1.) Oil of Speed. 2.) Greater Regeneration and attack with the boomerang dagger. 3.) Potion of Strength (24)...Potions of Invisibility

Nice to buy the Firetooth Dagger +3 afterwards!

Now one option would be to do Level grinding. But I decided to fight the VAMPIRES at once: Level Grinding : Probably it's best to do Level Grinding now from 2,000,000 exp to 3,000,000 exp (level 15) in order to be able summon a (fallen) Diva. These Divas and Planetars are just amazing against the VAMPIRES. In my eyes the VAMPIRES are a bigger challenge than the DROWS.

Battle 6: VAMPIRES : A real challenge but the Druid managed in his first attempt! Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Hort. Strategy/Solution: 1.) Potion of Invisibility; 2.) Potion of Clarity; 3.) Cast the level 7 spell Fire Storm on the Vampires. The Druid got visible again and stood and walked under the Fire Storm. Many Vampires got badly injured and some got even killed. At the end I summoned a Fire Elemental, used True Seeing, Insect Plague and killed by using the Firetooth+3 Dagger. Graul can't be harmed by weapons +2 only.

Great use is that I got the Amulet of Power after defeating the VAMPIRES. The Amulet of Power helps Druids to cast their spells faster. Amulet of Power decreases the spell casting time within one round (= 6 seconds) by 1. Within one round there are as a maximum '9 units' for casting a spell. E.g. summoning a Fire Elemental (level 6 spell) casting time: 9. By wearing the Amulet of Power the casting time gets reduced by one. 9 - 1 = 8. So summoning a Fire Elemental would be only about 5 seconds instead of 6.

Druid Spells and their casting time, examples : Armor of Faith, casting time: 2; Entangle: 4; Conjure Fire Elemental: 9; => So to cast a Fie Elemental takes really long, nearly one round (= 6 seconds). Terrible in the Black Pits II Arena! Spell casting can get so easily interrupted.

Cleric Spells and their casting time, examples : Holy Word 1 ! (Level 7 spell); Gate (> summon a Demon): only 5

Game Terminology 0 - instant, uninterruptible 1 - 10% time of a round 9 - slowest, 90% time of a round Many innate abilities have the casting speed of 0, which means they can not be interrupted. The fastest casting time for most spells are 1, but spellcasters may also become uninterruptible if they manage to reduce the casting time to 0 (when combined reduction is equal or greater than the spell's casting time) by combining certain equipment such as Robe of Vecna or the Amulet of Power. So can you imagine how fast a Mage or Sorceror can cast spells by wearing the Robe of Vecna (spell casting time reduced by 4 'units')  and the Amulet of Power (spell casting time reduced by 1 'unit')? Casting time for summing a Planetar: 5. Only 5! '''So this means: 5 - 4 (Robe of Vecna) - 1 (Amulet of Power) = 0 . The Mage should be able to cast several Planetars after another without delay by using Project Image! Especially by gulping a Potion of Speed. A Potion of Speed helps as well for reducing the spell casting time!'''
 * Casting Time: Time spent chanting a spell before it can be cast

So let's imagine a Sorceror making himself invisible by a Potion of Invisibility or using the Staff of he Magi. Afterwards he casts Project Image and he drinks a Potion of Speed and is wearing Robe of Vecna and the Amulet of Power. Usually a Sorceror can only summon one Planetar. But his Project Image can summon lots of Planetars at the same time!

So I have to see what it's like when my Fighter / Mage (Multi-Class; non-human) has killed The Winged in the Final Battle already and makes himself invisible. The Winged's companions can't see me any more and I cast Project Image! And the Project Image summons lots of Planetars! Amazing!

Battle 12: Monks : I tried something new. Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @Gerrold. He was excellent! Comet on the Monks!

Battle 16: 6 Fallen Devas : Usually big challenge but the Druid was successful in hist first attempt. How comes? Strategy: @Symm HAximus. 1.) Summon Fallen Deva; 2.) Oil of Speed; 3.) Summon Minotaur; 4.) Cast bigger Restoration on yourself (spell level 7); 5.) True Seeing; 6.) '''Fight by using the Staff of the Ram! '''

Battle 17: Two Liches : Use Shield of the Archones and fight together with Timmot Godtree!

Battle 19: Bhaalspawn : Kill the big Slayer with the Staff of the Ram!

The Final Battle against The Winged

'''Difficulty level: easy (1st attempt). '''Just focus on your strong sides: If The Winged is still far away use the Firetooth +3 Dagger against her or Energyblades; if she's close to you use the Staff of the Ram. Against the Mages the Serpent Shaft is of use in order to poison Joker and the two Mages Thassk Khun and Pol Pyrus.

Result : It's really nice to play this Kensai ---> Druid Solo Protagonist. I enjoyed it a lot. He's really good but not superb.

Sorcerer Solo Walkthrough
This Sorcerer is so powerful that I focus in the description only on the difficult start and the end. The Battles in-between are easy.

A Sorcerer from scratch : We can use Mireille or create a Sorcerer from scratch. Starting experience points before the first Battle against the Orcs will be 500,000. Recommended spells when creating the character: Detect Invisibility, Mirror Image, Fireshield (red), Iron Skins, Skull trap, Web, Spider Spawn.

'''Level GRINDING!!! The producers of this game give you an excellent opportunity for upgrading your Sorcerer. You can fight against animals at the training place. Fighting the Wyvern costs 5000 gold but gives you 150,000 experience points each time! Great for level grinding!'''

Spell recommendations : Level 9 : Time Stop; Planetar, Chain Contingency, Imprisonment, Black Blade of Disaster, Energy Blades; Level 8 : Simulacrum, Pierce Shield, Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting; Level 7 : Mordenkainen's Sword, Project Image, Spell Sequencer, Spell Turning; Limited Wish! Level 6 : Protection from Magic Weapons, True Seeing/Sight

There are 4 options for accelerating the casting of spells for a Sorcerer or Mage : Islandking gave the advice that Haste also accelerates casting spells! So there are 4 options for accelerating the cast of spells: Haste, Amulet of Power, Robe of Vecna and Improved Alacrity! "Combine Time Stop with Improved Alacrity, Robe of Vecna, and Amulet of Power which literally remove the pause between castings, allowing the wizard to machine-gun Magic Missile or other spells of chosen. Haste may also be used to greatly hasten projected images for quick slot scrolls casting, though does not beneficent from Improved Alacrity if used this way." (see Time Stop Article). Time Stop is three rounds. A round is 6 seconds. So the whole Time Stop duration is 18 secs.

Money : Money shouldn't be a problem by using the trick with buying the salbe for Dulf Finsterbart and reselling it to the Belfer. By doing so you always make 200 gold gain!

Equipment/Armor : You want to get the Golden Calf Idol (A strong Minotaur that fights along you in the Arena: Battle 2: Gladiators), Cloak of Balduran (Battle 5: Drows), Amulet of Power (Battle 6: Vampires), Staff of the Magi (Battle 13: Lich), Staff of the Ram (Tier 3) and the Ring of Gaxx (Battle 17: Demilich Twins) and the Robe of Vecna (Tier 5)!

Good weapons for a Sorcerer : It's good to buy the Boomerang Dagger (+2) and the Firetooth (dagger) (Firetooth throwing dagger +3) early! If you combine one of these two weapons with a Girdle of Hill Giant Strength it's quite ok. Later it's excellent to get the Staff of the Magi (Battle 13: Lich). You can harm even Devas or the Demilich Twins with this Staff! Even better is Staff of the Ram, especially against Enegar and Kastulor (Battle 19). Another option is to use Energy Blades! Best is Black Blade of Disaster (Spell level 9)! You could also transform yourself into a warrior by using Tenser's Transformation. I personally don't like it because you can't use any spells during this time of transformation any more.

Getting ready for Battle : There's a zone inside the prison where you can sleep and prepare Spell Sequencer (spell level 7): e.g. I like to prepare the combination of three spells: Mirror Image, Irons Skins and Fireshield. When you enter the arena you just click this symbol for Spell Sequencer and these three spells are activated at once (the symbol is at the place where Berserker Fighters have their Enrage ability). You can even prepare Chain Contingency (spell level 9). It's a great spell!

BATTLES There are 4 difficulty levels : easy, medium, difficult, extremely difficult. This is according to my game playing experience against these opponents in the arena. So all these difficulty levels are totally subjective.

You have 15000 gold at your disposal. Buy the Cloak of the Nymph first (Charisma +2). Buy Boots of Avoidance (Senses of the Cat) (AC +5 Bonus against arrows), the Ring of Regeneration and some healing potions and antidotes.

Tier 1

Battle 1: Orcs ; difficulty level: easy. Fellow Gladiator in Arena: Symm Haximus; Strategy/solution: Web, Mirror Image, Spider Spawn. Mirror Image helps that you can cast your spells without getting interrupted!

Buy the Boomerang Dagger +2

Battle 2: Two Minotaurs and some Gladiators ; difficulty level: easy. Fellow Gladiator in Arena: Symm Haximus; Strategy/solution: Web, Mirror Image, Spider Spawn; Hints: Of course you want to get Golden Calf Idol. You want to be able to summon a great help – a strong Minotaur! He will become a good friend of yours and accompany you many times in your Battles!

Buy the Wand of Monster Summoning (14,000 gold if Charisma +20: 18750 gold if Charisma +3)!

Battle 3: Lizard Men ; difficulty level: difficult!; Fellow Gladiator in Arena: --- Strategy/solution: Web, Spider Spawn, Speed potion, summon Mordenkainen's Sword, the Minotaur (golden Calf Idol) and cast the spell Hold Person on the Chief of the Lizard Men. Hints: The Lizard Shaman likes to hide. With spells like True Seeing and Detect Invisibility you can reveal where he hides.

Battle 4: Umber Hulk Elders ; difficulty level: difficult!; Fellow Gladiator in Arena: --- (any fellow Gladiator would just get killed; of course you could sacrifice Feldrak Feldrak'l); Strategy/solution: Web and Potion of Clarity! Wand of Monster Summoning for distracting these strong beasts! Spell Sequencer: Mirror Image + Iron Skins + Fireshield. Spider Spawn. Stinking Cloud good! Usually Spell Disintegrate destroys these beasts at once!

Additional Sorcerer level upgrade: Buy Bracers of Defense (AC6) and fight the Wyvern with the Boomerang Dagger +2! => Sorcerer is level 17 now!

Battle 5: Drows ; difficulty level: difficult!

Strategy/solution: In my eyes the best solution is to use Simulacrum and summon endless monsters with it!! Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Ellraish!

1.) Haste/Speed spell or potion (you don't have Boots of Speed yet!)

2.) Spell Sequencer: Mirror Image + Iron Skins + Fireshield

3.) Summon Minotaur

4.) SIMULACRUM!

5.) Wand of Monster Summoning: 14000 Gold – 50 charges. Summon endless monsters! I want to get the reward items: Cloak of Balduran.

>>> If you managed to defeat the Drows, everything becomes easy. In my eyes there are just two challenges to come: The Bhaal Spawn and The Winged. <<<

After 5 battles the next tier starts: new items are available to buy! Go for the Boots of Speed, Firetooth (dagger) (Firetooth +3), Girdle of Giant Hill Strength, Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise and the Necklace that protects you from poison (Periapt of Proof Against Poison)!

Tier 2

Battle 6: Vampires : difficulty level: easy! Fellow Gladiator in Arena: --- Strategy/solution: Just use Time Stop and summon a Planetar! Mirror Image and Simulacrum. Let the Simulacrum/Duplicate use the Wand of Monster Summoning. You self run away and hide invisibly and watch. The Vampires don't like Comets fired at them! >>> A Planetar can even heal you if a Vampire drained some levels from you! <<<

Upgrade yourself in the Arena again! Already now at Sorcerer level 20 you're crazy powerful! Get Chain Contingency (spell level 9) and Spell Sequencer (level 7) and prepare it for the next Battle! Chain Contingency (condition when you see your enemy and cast the spells on yourself): Simulacrum + Mordenkainen's Sword + Protection from Magic Weapon. Spell Sequencer: Mirror Image + Iron Skins + Fireshield.

Battle 7: Githyanki ; difficulty level: easy; Fellow Gladiator in Arena: --- Strategy/solution: 1.) web! 2.) Time Stop, 3.) Chain Contingency (see above) works during the Time Stop! 4.) Summon Planetar, 5.) Attack them with the Black Blade of Disaster! I saw a 76 HP hit against a Gith warrior!

I'm sure you can deal easily with the Battles 8 – 11 and 14 yourself.

Battle 12: Golem ; difficulty level: easy! Fellow Gladiator in Arena: Hulda! She can make it unconscious with her arrows! Strategy/solution: Just summon up the Minotaur first and some more creatures and let them attack the Golem. You cast the spell Imprisonment and the Golem disappears!

Battle 13 : Lich and five huge Skeleton Golems; difficulty level: medium. Fellow Gladiator in arena: ---

1.) Make yourself invisible and wait a little bit! 2.) Use Pierce Shield on the Lich Lea. 3.) Use Time Stop and imprison the Lich first! 4.) Summon Mordenkainen's Swords. They will kill the five huge Golems.

Battle 15 : Illithids; difficulty level: easy! Fellow Gladiator in arena: @ Gezzthemin! 1.) Chain contingency 2.) Make yourself invisible 3.) Potion of Clarity 4.) Energy Blades – kill the Illithids from a distance!

The Trainingscenter for fighting The Winged! The Battle against the six fallen Devas! These 6 Devas are weaker versions of The Winged! Find out what works against them. It might also work against The Winged, e.g. Invisibility and Imprisonment don't work!

Battle 16: The 6 fallen DEVAS ; difficulty level: medium; Fellow gladiator in arena: '''Best choice is @ Symm Haximus! Let him join you in this battle!''' He's an excellent fighter! He's a Dwarven Defender! Strategies: Many options:

A) Use Time Stop and Energy Blades against the Devas! Maximum hit with an Energy Blade: 30 HP. Use Black Blade of Disaster: 11200 gold/spellbook! I saw a hit with 40 HP against a fallen Deva. Symm Haximus hits only reached 25 HP!

B) Time Stop + Planetar + Mordenkainen's Sword!! (the Devas can't destroy it!) + True Sight! Energy Blades; Magic Missiles; lower resistance + Vampiric Touch!! Staff of the Magi; summon monsters for distraction!

C) Prepare Chain Contingency: Mordenkainen's Sword + Protection from Magic Weapons + True Sight. Time Stop: Summon a Planetar and use Whirlwind Attacks! Use Black Blade of Disaster!

Battle 17: The Demilich Twins ; difficulty level: easy; Fellow Gladiator in arena: @ Timmo Gutbaum is the best Fellow Gladiator against the Twins!! He crushes the two by using Holy Word! Dulf. He casts a spell that he's immune to Imprisonment (spell level 5 – school: abjuration). Dulf can also harm the Twins. Hort is also a good option. Strategy: Let the Fighter Mage use Abjuration on himself (spell level 5) so that the Twins can't imprison him any more. Additional protection: Spell Turning! (spell level 7). The Ring of the Ram harms them pretty badly! Energy Blades (level 9) and the Staff of the Magi, Staff of the Ram can be used as weapons as well. Of course you want the Ring of Gaxx as a reward from your fans!

At this stage I had already reached the Sorcerer's maximum level 31 (7,875,000 exp. Points)!

Battle 18: The Three Dragons: YLLAXIA; Nyxxla and Orluss ; difficulty level: easy-medium. Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Symm Haximus; Summon Planetar first; Improved Haste/Speed potion; create Simulacrum! (level 8) and Projected Image (level 7) for summoning lots of Planetars. Lower the resistance of YLLAXIA and summon lots of creatures for distraction.

Don't forget to go upstairs in order to kill Dormamus! #Core Rules: It's a huge challenge to defeat Dormamus because you can't use any magic! I used the Staff of Ram and in-between the Staff of the Magi for making me invisible and to recover health (have some items for restoring your health like the Ring of Gaxx).

Battle19: Enegar and Kastulor, children of the dead God Bhaal ; difficulty level: difficult! Fellow Gladiator in arena: Symm Haximus!

Enegar just transformed very fast in his Big Slayer Form and Kastulor in the Small one. Effective weapon against both was Staff of the Ram! Staff of the Ram hits are about 27 Hitpoints against the Small Slayer and 7 HP against the big one. I cast Simulacrum and summon lots of monsters for distraction: Wand of Monster Summoning and Mordenkainen's Swords that both Slayers can't destroy! Speed potion!

Equip yourself well before it goes on! Crucial equipment for the Final Battle is: Robe of Vecna (Tier 5) and later Cloak of the Lich from the Vault (after the Rebellion).

If Symm Haximus got killed while fighting along you in the arena he won't show up just before the Final Battle. You can convince Brodle and his warriors not to fight you. He just leaves.

The Final Battle against The Winged

'''Difficulty level: easy (1st attempt). I expected an extremely difficult fight but it wasn't! It was an easy Battle!''' Fellow Gladiator in arena: no one but Najim! Strategy/solution: 1.) chain contingency: Simulacrum + True Seeing + protection from magical weapons. 2.) Time Stop + Black Blade of Disaster! I managed to kill The Winged. 3.) Simulacrum/the Duplicate casts some Monsters for distraction and later Abi-Dalzim's horrid wilting on Joker etc. Najim killed Joker. 4.) I summoned a Planetar! That was a good move! 5.) Speed Potion. 6.) The Planetar and I killed Pol Pyrrus. 7.) I cast the green circle script roll on Thassk Kun and he lost all his magic protection. He made himself invisible but the Planetar killed him. 8.) Najim, the Planetar and I attacked Bannor. He died. That's it! Easy Battle!

''' Sorcerer Solo Walkthrough - Conclusions : I enjoyed this Sorcerer Walkthrough the most of all Walkthroughs so far! I wasn't totally familiar with a Sorcerer and his abilities yet and I discovered new stuff! Great! I'm impressed by the Sorcerer's abilities! The Sorcerer is so powerful! I can imagine that the Sorcerer can defeat The Winged on his own on core rules or even on level Insane.'''

>>> I figured out that you can make yourself invisible first by using the Staff of the Magi and afterwards you can summon a Project Image (spell level 7) and you still remain invisible as Main Protagonist! That's incredible! This means if you manage to kill The Winged first the other evil companions can't see you any more and can't kill you while your Project Image is active! (21st Nov 2017)

Sorcerer or Fighter Mage?

By the way, I'm playing a Sorcerer Solo from scratch on core rules right now. I'm curious if a Sorcerer or a Fighter Mage will be the better Solo Protagonist in the end. # Core Rules: Hm. I upgraded my Fighter Mage early by fighting these animals and I have to say that the Fighter Mage is doing better against his opponents than a Sorcerer. There are so extremely powerful weapons like Blackrazor and Foebane. In addition, the Fighter Mage can use Whirlwind Attacks! It was really hard for the Sorcerer to kill Dormamus upstairs by just using the Staff of Ram and Magi without being able to use magic, finally he managed. Let's see how they are both doing in The Final Battle…The Fighter Mage could easily defeat Dormamus and later The Winged and her companions. The Sorcerer seems to struggle in the Final Battle as well; but probably I just haven't found the right strategy yet. # HARD: The Fighter Mage just defeated the Drows and Vampires! It's likely that he'll finally defeat the Winged as well on this difficulty level! Yes he did! He could defeat The Winged and her evil companions on level HARD! Let's see if he even manages on level INSANE! The Fighter Mage is about to fight Mardii. This means that he was successful again against the DROWS and VAMPIRES on level INSANE! It's really amazing that a Solo Protagonist can defeat the DROWS on level INSANE!

When I will play BG II, EE again there are three options for me for a Protagonist Player: a Sorcerer, a Fighter Mage or a Dwarven Defender. I won't play a Fighter Cleric - he's too weak, and anyway if I shouldn't play a Solo I would have Anomen as a Fighter Cleric in my good party. A Dwarven Defender next to Korgan in an evil party must be lots of fun! For a Solo I see only two really good options: Fighter Mage or Sorcerer. Fighter Thief might be possible too but I've no idea about all these trap options…for sure it's something for freaks.

'''My favorite Solo Protagonist is a Fighter / Mage! He/She has access not only to all powerful spells but to all great weapons as well! So the Fighter Mage is extremely flexible and just brilliant!'''

Blackguard Solo Walkthrough
So far my favorite Solo Protagonist is a Fighter / Mage! But are there even stronger Solo Protagonist Players for playing a Walkthrough in BG II, EE and Throne of Bhaal? I really like about the Black Pits II that you can upgrade your Protagonist Player within a really short amount of time and find out!

I like the Poison Weapon ability! Can you image Blackrazor becoming even more powerful by being able to make a weapon with poison out of it?

My idea is to play a Blackguard with this ability and an Assassin as well. I also want to find out if the Assassin would become even stronger in the combination with a Fighter. I think so. In my eyes ideal would be to start with a Fighter up to level 9 and then make a class change to Assassin (Dual-class) and upgrade him at least up to level 24 that he has the Use Any Item ability!! But it's not possible. It's also not possible to have a Multi-class Fighter / Assassin. So in the Black Pits II I see the option to start with an Assassin and make a class change immediately to Fighter after starting the game. So we would be able to create an Assassin (level 12, 440,000 exp points) - Fighter (Dual-class; human) who can poison a weapon, backstabb and hide in the shadows! This sounds good!

So let's see how these three Solo Protagonists are doing in the Arena! Will any of these get stuck at a certain Battle? Will they all be able to defeat The Winged and her evil companions?

BATTLES

There are 4 difficulty levels: easy, medium, difficult, extremely difficult. This is according to my game playing experience against these opponents in the arena when I play with the general setting "easy" in the beginning. So all these difficulty levels are totally subjective.

Tier 1

At your starting position you have 15000 gold at your disposal. I suggest that you buy the Helm of Glory (Helm of The Noble) (Charisma +1) for the Blackguard first, because mine has a Charisma of +18 already and with +19 I'll get all these items even cheaper! Buy the Boots of Avoidance (Senses of the Cat - AC +5 Bonus against arrows) and Elves' Bane (Girdle of Piercing) (Armor Class Bonus of 3 against arrows/missiles)!

I highly recommend to buy the Boomerang Dagger +2 and a shield. This will be our main strategy in the beginning! Poison the Boomerang dagger +2 or Firetooth (+3; Tier 2) and attack!

Tier 1 - Battle 1: Orcs difficulty level: very easy; Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Symm Haximus! Strategy/solution: Poison your Boomerang Dagger and fight! Hints: The Blackguard is evil. He behaves in a villain way towards the spectators.

With your gold gain of 11000 for defeating the Orcs, buy Ilbratha for your Blackguard! The sword can be used once per day to cast the spell Mirror Image.

Money : Money shouldn't be a problem at all by using the trick with buying the salbe for Dulf Finsterbart and reselling it to the Belfer. By doing so you always make 200 gold gain!

Tier 1 - Battle 2: Two Minotaurs and some Gladiators : difficulty level: easy; Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Symm Haximus! Strategy/solution: Poison your Boomerang Dagger and fight! Hints: I want to get the Golden Calf Idol of course! This summoned Minotaur is strong! The Blackguard can in addition summon a Skeleton (Warrior - level 15)!

Tier 1 - Battle 3: Lizard Men : difficulty level: easy; Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Feldrak Fedrak'l. He died. Strategy/solution: 1.) Mirror Image (> Ilbratha); 2.) Poison weapon; 3.) Speed Potion 4.) Fight! Hint : I like that the Blackguard would be able to use the Spell Detect Invisibility if the Lizard Shaman should hide and try to remain unseen! Hints: I want to get the Cloak of the Sewers for better AC!

Tier 1 - Battle 4: Umber Hulk Elders : difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in Arena: ---. Although there was no Fellow Gladiator in the Arena and the Blackguard didn't use Oil of Speed, he was still successful! Here you can see how powerful this Blackguard is! Strategy/solution: 1.) Potion of Invisibility; 2.) Spell Armor; 3.) Mirror Image (> Ilbratha); 4.) Potion of Clarity; 5.) Spell Holy Might! 6.) Poison Weapon! 7.) Fight!

Tier 1 - Battle 5: DROWS : difficulty level: easy (1st attempt!); Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Ellarish. He died. Strategy/solution: Preparation for the Battle: Buy The One Gift Lost (Necklace of Missiles) for killing the small spiders. 1.) Mirror Image (> Ilbratha); 2.) Oil of Speed; 3.) Fight! 4.) Poison weapon etc.

After winning 5 Battles, the Blackguard could gain experience 5 times: 500,000 experience points at the start + 2,500,000. He has now reached 3,000,000 experience points! These upgrades move the Blackguard to level 18 what means that he can already summon a Deva (> Summon Fallen Deva)! Wow!

After 5 battles the next tier starts: new items are available to buy! Go for the Boots of Speed, Firetooth (dagger) (Firetooth +3), the Shield of Harmony, Girdle of Giant Hill Strength, Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise and the Necklace that protects you from poison (Periapt of Proof against Poison)!

Tier 2

Battle 6: VAMPIRES : difficulty level: easy! (1st attempt!); Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Hort; Preparation: Shield of Harmony and Blackguard level 4 spell Negative Plane Protection that protects from level drain through the Vampires! Strategy/solution: 1.) Cast the spell Negative Plane Protection on Hort! The Blackguard himself is protected from level drain! 2.) Summon a fallen Deva! 3.) Oil of Speed! 4.) Fight! That's it!

>>> So far the Blackguard did extremely well! It's no effort at all for him so far!

Battle 7: Githyanki: difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Voghiln; Strategy/solution: Oil of Speed, Mirror Image, Poison your weapon, summon Deva and fight! Hints: Silver Sword!! Extremely good for killing! Get it from your fans!

Battle 8: Water Elements: difficulty level: very easy (1st attempt); Strategy/solution: First make yourself invisible (potion). Kill The Sanguahin Prince first! There are many ways of dealing with the Water Elements: e.g. summon up lots of Fire Elements (Staff of Fire). They can harm these elements. If you should come back later again to fight them one more time, use Crom Faeyr! This weapon is extremely strong against these Water Elements. Hints: Firetooth +4.

Battle 9: Mardii and his Elements : difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in arena: --- Strategy/solution: Don't destroy the elements in the beginning! After being killed they will come back! But two of them instead of one! Kill Mardii first! Make yourself invisible and WAIT! When Mardii gets slow and his Elements as well and Mardii starts running out of spells, attack him with your Firetooth +3! Put poison on this Dagger! Mardii will hate it! Hints: Get the great reward item Flail of Ages from your fans! You might need it for the (Golem Battle 12)!

Battle10: Demons and Devils : difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in arena: --- Get prepared for the Battle with the Shield of Harmony! Strategy/solution: Just let the demons kill each other! Stay out of Battle. Hints: Longsword Blackrazor!!!

Result : In all these 10 Battles there wasn't any real challenge for the Blackguard yet. It's like the Blackguard would only go for a walk instead of climbing a mountain. I have to admit that the Blackguard is the best Solo Protagonist so far. Let's see what the following 9 Battles and the Final Battle against The Winged will be like!

I've already seen enough! ;-)

'''I can't wait any longer to go back to BG II, EE and play a Fighter / Mage Protagonist. Guess who will be in my party? Yeah! Dorn Il-Khan, a Blackguard!''' And perhaps we let a Thief join our team! I don't know so much about Thief Traps yet! Hexxat might fit. A team with three team members sounds good: A Fighter / Mage (Multi-class of course!), Dorn Il Khan and Hexxat! - I already started to play it and I enjoy it a lot! Core Rules for these three guys nearly seems to be too easy if you know these guys well! At least The Fighter/Mage and the Blackguard I know quite a bit. Hexxat is unfortunately not an assassin ;-(, but I really like that she can recover from Battles easily! With these three guys you don't have a Cleric or Druid in your party so it's good to steal the Ring of Regeneration from Ribald early in the game. I want Hexxat to pickpocket the Ring of Gaxx from Kangaxx first and after defeating him I'll get it again! So finally I'll have the Ring of Gaxx twice! ;-)

It was great to contribute to this great Baldur's Gate Wiki! Hope my Walkthroughs help a little bit! Thanks especially to Islandking and Faalagorn for all advice and patience and friendliness!

I don't know yet when I will continue these Solo Walkthroughs! I enjoyed working on them a lot! All of you who like Baldur's Gate II, EE and the Black Pits II, feel free to contribute and improve the stuff here! E.g. I just got to know that I should write 'grinding' instead of 'upgrade'. As a non native speaker it's hard to know…

As you see, I'm improving this page each day a little bit but it takes time. I'm a busy man…

See you!

Gejadus

Tier 3

Battle 11 : Monks; difficulty level: medium; Fellow Gladiator in arena: @ Hort. He died. Better choice is probably Voghiln. Strategy/solution: Summon Deva, Poison Weapon, Mirror Image, (> Ilbratha) and Whirlwind Attacks!

Battle 12 : Golem; difficulty level: easy; Fellow Gladiator in arena: @ Hulda! Weapon recommendations: Flail of Ages, but if you didn't get it buy Defender of Easthaven and Blackrazor; Strategy/solution: Summon Minotaur and fight! Hints: Crom Faeyr + Shuruppak's Plate!

Battle 13 : Lich Lea and five huge Skeleton Golems; difficulty level: easy! Fellow Gladiator in arena: --- 1.) Oil of Speed! 2.) Poison your Firetooh +3 Dagger! 3.) Attack at once! Lea hates poison. It looks like. 4.) Use Crom Faeyr and Flail of Ages (Defender of Easthaven) for destroying the Golems. That's it!

Battle 14 : Rakshasas; difficulty level: easy; Fellow Gladiator in arena: @ Voghiln. Strategy/solution: 1.) Oil of Speed! 2.) Poison your Firetooh +3 Dagger! 3.) Attack! Of course you can use Blackrazor as well! Just poison your great Blackrazor Longsword and fight!

Battle 15 : Illithids; difficulty level: easy! Fellow Gladiator in arena: @ Gezzthemin! 1.) Make yourself invisible! 2.) Oil of Speed! 3.) Poison your Firetooh +3 Dagger! 4.) Attack and kill the Illithids!

I enjoy a lot playing a Fighter Mage, Dorn and Hexxat in BG II, EE right now and it's nice to see here in the Black Pits II how DORN, the Blackguard develops.

Not any real challenge yet for the Blackguard in the Black Pits II. The Battle against the six fallen Devas might be the first challenging one! Let's see!

Tier 4

New items are available to buy from the merchants! Buy Vhailor's Helm and K'logarath! Let's buy K'logarath and poison this powerful weapon! In the one hand K'logarath and in the other a strong shield! This sounds good to me!

The Trainingscenter for fighting The Winged! The Battle against the six fallen Devas! These six Devas are weaker versions of The Winged! Find out what works against them. It might also work against The Winged, e.g. Invisibility and Imprisonment don't work! Of course I want to find out if poison works against these Devas here and later against The Winged!

Battle 16: The six fallen DEVAS ; difficulty level: surprisingly easy! Fellow gladiator in arena: '''Best choice is @ Symm Haximus! Let him join you in this battle!''' He's an excellent fighter! He's a Dwarven Defender! Strategy: I used Vhailor's Helm for getting a Duplicate first, then Oil of Speed. First I fought with K'logarath but changed soon to Blackrazor and the Defender of Easthaven. Easy Battle! By the way, the Devas are immune to poison! Unfortunately!

Battle 17: The Demilich Twins ; difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow gladiator in arena: '''@ Timmo Gutbaum/Timmot Godtree! He's the best choice here!''' What does Timmot do as a Berserker-Cleric in the Battle? 1.) He uses his enrage ability so that he gets immune to Imprisonment. 2.) He uses the Shield of the Archones. 3.) He speaks Holy Word and harms the Twins. 4.) He fights and kills them! Weapons: Daystar + Flail of Ages! I didn't want to be a spectator only and helped a little bit by summoning the Minotaur and later using Vhailor's Helm but my Duplicate got soon imprisoned. Timmot killed Dogar and I finished off Kazon by using the Ring of the Ram. Of course you want the Ring of Gaxx as a reward from your fans/enemies!

I hardly can believe it: No challenging Battle so far for the Blackguard! This one against the Demilich Twins would have been hard but there was Timmot!

Battle 18: The Three Dragons: YLLAXIA; Nyxxla and Orluss ; difficulty level: easy! Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Lea Gosh'Aar - she was not of use because she turned crazy when she got attacked by Dragon's Fear. Strategy: Weapons: Blackrzaor (immune against fear) and Crom Faeyr. 1.) I used Vhailor's Helm first! 2.) Mirror Image by using Ilbratha but it got destroyed by the Dragon's Magic. 3.) Poison your weapon!!! Poison is very effective against all three Dragons!!! 4.) Attack! 5.) Summon a Planetar for distraction. 6.) Kill YLLAXIA with a Whirlwind Attack!

Don't forget to go upstairs in order to kill Dormamus! You don't want to face six enemies in the Final Battle!

Only two Battles left! I always let Symm Haximus get killed in the Battle against the Bhaalspawn so I can avoid another Battle just before the Final Battle. Symm just likes the Arena too much!

Battle19 : Enegar and Kastulor, children of the dead God Bhaal; difficulty level: medium! (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in the arena: @ Symm Haximus. I let Symm die on purpose. Weapon recommendations: Crom Faeyr and Blackrazor first against Kastulor; later Crom Faeyr and Foebane against the Big Slayer. Strategy/solution : Without being able to use Time Stop, Enegar soon transformed into the big Slayer Form. After killing all others I faced the Big Slayer. I used Oil of Speed several times and for some time K'logarath against the Big Slayer too. The Ring of Ram harmed him as well. I used Vhailor's Helm and attacked him together with my Duplicate. It's also a good idea to summon a Deva or Skeleton for distracting him.

The Rebellion: The Blackguard was great by wearing the Fortress Shield and the Axe of the Unyielding!

'''The Final Battle against The Winged Difficulty level: medium! (1st attempt)!''' It's not a total easy Battle but it's also not difficult! Fellow Gladiator in arena: no one but Najim! Weapon recommendations: Blackrazor and the Axe of the Unyielding! The Axe of Unyielding is 10% vorpal (deadly; 10% chance to decapitate)! If you're lucky you can kill the enemy at once or at least very fast! Equipment of the Blackguard in the Final Battle: Enkidu's Full Plate, Helm of Balduran, Boots of Speed; Ring of Gaxx, Blackrazor, Axe of the Unyielding and, most important, the Cloak of the Lich (Vault)!

Strategy/solution: Preparation: Wear the Cloak of the Lich (Vault)! Decisive!

1.) Speed potion!! 2.) Poison your weapons!!! 3.) I attacked Joker and killed him! He didn't like the poison! 4.) I attacked Pol Pyrrus and killed him! He didn't like the poison neither! 5.) Kill Thassk Khun with a poison weapon as well! 6.) Whirlwind Attacks against The Winged! She died! Bannor got killed by Gram! The Winged and Bannor are immune to poison!

Result and conclusion : 'On difficulty level easy it was just going for a walk through the Black Pits II'' for the Blackguard and not climbing a mountain. He did extremely well'''! Excellent! I'm excited! The Poison Weapon ability is phantastic! Having powerful weapons like Blackrazor and even the possibility to add poison to it!!! And if the Blackguard should get in trouble he can still summon a fallen Deva for help! I like his Absorb Health ability once per day as well! The Blackguard, Sorcerer and Fighter / Mage are all really powerful! It might be that the Blackguard faces serious problems when playing the Black Pits II on level HARD or INSANE. I guess that the Fighter Mage does best, then the Blackguard and finally the Sorcerer.
 * 1) Fighter Mage, he's the most flexible one! He has access to powerful spells and weapons!
 * 2) Blackguard
 * 3) Sorcerer

Assassin Solo Walkthrough
I like a lot that the Assassin has the Poison Weapon and the Use Any Item ability when he has reached level 24! So he can use the Staff of the Magi and any heavy armor! The huge disadvantage of the Assassin are the few Weapon Proficiency points and this means that his THAC0 (ETW0), his chances for hitting the enemy, are not so good! The Assassin is not a Fighter!

BATTLES

There are 4 difficulty levels: easy, medium, difficult, extremely difficult. This is according to my game playing experience against these opponents in the arena when I play with the general setting "easy" in the beginning. So all these difficulty levels are totally subjective.

Tier 1

At your starting position you have 15000 gold at your disposal. Buy the Boots of Avoidance (Senses of the Cat - AC +5 Bonus against arrows) and Elves' Bane (Girdle of Piercing) (Armor Class Bonus of 3 against arrows/missiles)! I highly recommend to buy the Boomerang Dagger +2 as well! This will be our main strategy in the beginning! Poison the Boomerang dagger +2 and attack!

Tier 1 - Battle 1: Orcs : difficulty level: easy; Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Symm Haximus! Strategy/solution: Set a trap in the beginning in front of you! Poison your Boomerang Dagger and fight!

After the first Battle buy the Ring of Regeneration and Kiel's Buckler.

Tier 1 - Battle 2: Two Minotaurs and some Gladiators : difficulty level: easy; Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Symm Haximus! Strategy/solution: Poison your Boomerang Dagger and fight! Hints: I want to get the Golden Calf Idol of course! This Minotaur that you can summon in the future is strong!

With your gold gain of 12000 gold for defeating the two Minotaurs and Gladiators buy Ilbratha for your Assassin! The sword can be used once per day to cast the spell Mirror Image.

Tier 1 - Battle 3: Lizard Men : difficulty level: easy; Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Dulf Finsterbart. Strategy/solution: 1.) Mirror Image (> Ilbratha); 2.) Poison weapon; 3.) Speed Potion 4.) Fight! 5.) Summon Minotaur (Golden Calf Idol). Hints: I want to get the Cloak of the Sewers for better AC!

Buy the Bracers of Archery! This pair of bracers offers +2 THAC0 bonus for missiles and ranged weapons like the Boomerang Dagger +2, '''increasing the chance of hitting the target!! The Assassin needs those!'''

Tier 1 - Battle 4: Umber Hulk Elders : difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in Arena: ---. Strategy/solution: 1.) Potion of Invisibility; 2.) Oil of Speed; 3.) Potion of Clarity; 4.) Mirror Image; 5.) Poison Weapon! 6.) Summon Minotaur! 7.) Fight!

Buy The One Gift Lost (Necklace of Missiles) for killing the small spiders in the next Battle against the Drows.

Tier 1 - Battle 5: DROWS : difficulty level: surprisingly easy (1st attempt!); Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Ellraish. He died. Strategy/solution: 1.) Mirror Image (> Ilbratha); 2.) Oil of Speed; 3.) Fight! 4.) Poison weapon; 5.) Summon Minotaur; 6.) Set Trap! Traps are quite effective against the Drows! etc.

After winning 5 Battles, the Blackguard could gain experience 5x times: 2,500,000 exp. points. He has now reached 3,000,000 experience points! These upgrades move the Assassin to level 23, very close to the great level 24 when he can get the Use Any Item ability! Fight the Wyvern or another animal in the Training Arena for reaching level 24!!!

Result after 5 Battles :The Assassin did great so far! I didn't expect this! He's nearly as strong as the Blackguard! Let's see what the following Battles will be like. For sure Battle 6 against the Vampires will be harder for the Assassin because the Blackguard is immune to level drain!

Tier 2

After 5 battles the next tier starts: new items are available to buy! Go for the Boots of Speed, Firetooth (dagger) (Firetooth boomerang dagger +3), the Shield of Harmony, Girdle of Hill Giant Strength and the Necklace that protects you from poison (Periapt of Proof against Poison)!

 Tier 2 - Battle 1/Battle 6: VAMPIRES ; difficulty level: extremely difficult! Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Lea Gosh 'Aar or Hort Il D'rth. In my eyes there are two options for the Assassin to defeat the Vampires. First option - the harder one: Strategy/solution : Preparation for the Battle: Hold the Shield of Harmony in one hand, in the other the Firetooth Dagger +3! 1.) Set a trap in front of you. Some Vampires will get harmed but they can recover/regenerate after some time; 2.) Make yourself invisible; 3.) Oil of Speed; 4.) Summon Minotaur in order to support Lea; 5.) Fight yourself 6.) Make yourself invisible again and use Limited Wish - time control. During the Time Stop kill one or two Vampires! Remember that the Thief has the Use Any Item ability so he can use script rolls as well! 7.) Use the Wand of Monster Summoning! 8.) Use Protection from Magical Weapons "When the spell is cast, it confers complete invulnerability to all magical weapons. This includes weapons that are blessed or enchanted. The attacks of powerful monsters are also considered magical weapons." This refers to the Vampires as well! 9.) Use the Wand of Fire for having a Fireshield around you! etc. Tough Battle!

You can even use Limited Wish for Protection from Level Drain of the Vampires! Limited Wish: "I wish to be protected from Undead right now." It's just a pity that this Negative Plane Protection lasts only a very short time! It's good to make you invisible first before you cast Limited Wish!

Second option - easier Strategy/solution : I bought and used Time Stop at once and used Sunray two times (Daystar and Helm of Brilliance) very close to Graul and I killed him! I used the Minotaur Statue and some Fire Elements (Staff of Fire). The Wand of Monster Summoning is very useful as well! Skull Trap is a good weapon against the Vampires! If you need another Time Stop you can use the Limited Wish (level 7 script roll)! It's cheaper than the normal Time Stop script roll.

What might be a third option for defeating the Vampires - I didn't try it: Make the Assassin often invisible and let him backstab his enemies!

Enough for today! This Battle was really challenging! The Blackguard did much better! This Battle reminded of the Battle of the Dwarven Defender against the Vampires.

Battle 7: Githyanki: difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Voghiln; Strategy/solution: 1.) Set a Trap in front of you! 2.) Mirror Image; 3.) Poison Weapon and fight! 4.) Summon Minotaur!

Battle 8: Water Elements: difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Preparation for the Battle: Wear the Periapt of Proof Against Poison and buy the Staff of Fire! Strategy/solution: Kill the Sanguahin Prince first! Summon up lots of Fire Elements (> Staff of Fire) for eliminating the huge Water Elements afterwards. Hints: Firetooth +4.

Battle 9: Mardii and his Elements : difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in arena: --- Strategy/solution: Don't destroy the elements in the beginning! After being killed they will come back! But two of them instead of one! Kill Mardii first! Make yourself invisible and wait! When Mardii gets slow and his Elements as well and Mardii starts running out of spells attack him with your Firetooth dagger +3! Put poison on this Dagger! Mardii will hate it! If Mardii stays unseen use the Wand of Summoning Monsters. If Monsters show up, he'll make himself visible again and fight. Hints: Get the great reward item Flail of Ages from your fans! You might need it (for the Golem Battle 12)!

Battle 10: Demons and Devils : difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in arena: --- Get prepared for the Battle with the Shield of Harmony! Strategy/solution: Just let the demons kill each other! Stay out of Battle. If T'alcor is one of the enemies who is finally left, kill him first before you get stunned! Hints: Longsword Blackrazor and Celestial Fury!

In-between Result : Regarding all these 10 Battles, the Assassin only struggled in the Battle against the Vampires. Otherwise he did well! I'm not totally excited about his fighting power! He might defeat The Winged on level easy. On higher levels he will very likely get stuck. There's one chance. I have to figure out more about his backstabbing qualities. This might help a lot against many enemies but NOT against The Winged. She's able to see invisible opponents.

Tier 3

Battle 11 : Monks; difficulty level: medium; Fellow Gladiator in arena: @ Voghiln. He died. Strategy/solution: '''Make yourself invisible and backstab with Celestial Fury! If backstabbing works well there are mean hits with 90 up to over 100 Hitpoints!''' That's quite effective! Fight with Firetooth +3 dagger from a distance! Oil of Speed!

Battle 12 : Golem; difficulty level: easy; Fellow Gladiator in arena: @ Hulda! Strategy/solution: 1.) Summon Minotaur and 2.) imprison the Golem! That's it! Hints: Crom Faeyr + Shuruppak's Plate!

Battle 13 : Lich Lea and five huge Skeleton Golems; difficulty level: easy! Fellow Gladiator in arena: '''@ Dulf Finsterbart! He was great! He summoned a Planetar, a Mordenkainen's Sword, Skeleton Warriors and Spiders!''' 1.) Oil of Speed! 2.) Poison your Firetooth +3 Dagger! 3.) Attack at once! Lea hates poison.

Battle 14 : Rakshasas; difficulty level: medium; Fellow Gladiator in arena: @ Feldrak Feldrak'l. He died. Strategy/solution: 1.) Oil of Speed! 2.) '''Poison your Celestial Fury and backstab. The enemies might even get stunned!'''

Battle 15 : Illithids; difficulty level: easy! Fellow Gladiator in arena: @ Gezzthemin! 1.) Make yourself invisible! 2.) Oil of Speed! 3.) Poison your Celestial Fury and backstab all the Illithids!! All these Illithids got killed at once by backstab hits of 85, 92 and 106 Hitpoints!!

Tier 4

Battle 16: The six fallen DEVAS ; difficulty level: difficult but not impossible! To be honest I thought before the Battle that the Assassin would get stuck here. But I was mistaken. He managed!

I figured out another advantage of the Assassin besides the Poison Weapon, the Use Any Item ability and his Backstabbing Skills (see article Thief 3.7 Backstabbing) ("Backstab ability reaches x7 multiplier instead of capping at x5" - I saw the Assassin making a Backstabbing Hit x7 with Staff of the Ram with 128 Hitpoints!), it's His Armor Class! At the beginning of Tier 4 I bought the Amulet of the Master Harper and Montolio's Cloak, Wondrous Gloves and Ring of Earth Control! With his special skill Greater Evasion in addition "A more powerful version of Evasion, this ability improves Armor Class by 6 and Saving Throws by 3. In addition, Greater Evasion allows the rogue to move so quickly that his/her movement rate is increased by 2 (base is 10) and normal missiles have no chance of striking him/her. Greater Evasion lasts for 5 rounds. Requires: Evasion" '''I managed to get an Armor Class of -24!!! This is very impressive and effective!'''

So I had a brilliant Armor class against the Devas and I used a script roll for getting the Black Blade of Disaster! But I figured out that Blackrazor is even better than the Black Blade of Disaster because with Blackrazor strength is cumulative up to 25 and this gives the Assassin a better THAC0 (ETW0) for hitting his enemies! Black Blade of Disaster THAC0: -1 and Blackrazor THAC0: -2!

Battle 17: The Demilich Twins ; difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow gladiator in arena: '''@ Timmo Gutbaum/Timmot Godtree! He's the best choice here!''' What does Timmot do as a Berserker-Cleric in the Battle? 1.) He uses his enrage ability so that he gets immune to Imprisonment. 2.) He uses the Shield of the Archons. 3.) He speaks Holy Word and harms the Twins. 4.) He fights and kills them! Timmot killed Dogar and I (my Duplicate > Vhailor's Helm) finished off Kazon by using the Ring of the Ram. Of course you want the Ring of Gaxx as a reward from your fans/enemies!

Battle 18: The Three Dragons: YLLAXIA; Nyxxla and Orluss ; difficulty level: extremely difficult! Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Hort. Unfortunately he died at the very end just some seconds before YLLAXIA was eliminated. This time I tried something new: I used a short bow +5, Darkfire Bow, lots of mean arrows, Arrow of Biting! I even poisoned these arrows! The three Dragons didn't like this at all.

I'm totally surprised that the Assassin came so far in all these Battles and didn't get stuck yet.

Hm. I have to try the spell Mislead and backstab at the same time! This might be excellent for the Assassin. But even if it works well it's of no use for the Final Battle because e.g. Thassk Khun likes to use True Sight. In the Final Battle the Assassin will be much too weak for killing The Winged at once except he uses Time Stop and backstabs her with Staff of the Ram or Black Blade of Disaster or Blackrazor.

Don't forget to go upstairs in order to kill Dormamus! You don't want to face six enemies in the Final Battle! With high Armor Class and Blackrazor it was surprisingly easy to kill Dormamus. The Assassin did much better than the Sorcerer here!

Battle 19 : Enegar and Kastulor, children of the dead God Bhaal; difficulty level: extremely difficult!; Fellow Gladiator in the arena: @ Unfortunately I don't have Symm Haximus alongside me. He already died in another Battle! Strategy/solution : I can't use two weapon style because the THAC0 of the Assassin would get too bad, so I decide to go for Blackrazor and a strong shield and high Armor Class! Wow! I saw a backstabbing CRITICAL HIT of 186 Hitpoints against a Bhaal Fan! So there's some hope to win this Battle!

I tried it twice but failed. The huge problem is that Enegar and Kastulor can see you even if you as an Assassin are invisible! Unfortunately it's not possible to backstab Enegar! He must wear a special Armor like Enkidu's Full Plate. This makes this Battle extremely hard for the weak Assassin. He's really weak when he has to face a very powerful enemy like the Big Slayer and can't hide any more. I might try it some more times to win Battle 19…

Assassin Fighter Solo Walkthrough
I like a lot that the Assassin has the Poison Weapon ability!! Because the huge disadvantage of a pure Assassin are his few Weapon Proficiency points and his bad THAC0, let's try to improve this class and create an Assassin Fighter!! ''' For sure the Assassin Fighter will be crazy strong! My Assassin (level 12) > Fighter (Human; Dual-Class) got during his first level grindings (upgrades) already 5 Weapon Proficiency points for Dagger! Dagger: +++++! Imagine this Grand Master Skill of using Daggers gets improved by the Poison Weapon ability! Phantastic!! And let's use an Oil of Speed in addition that he can throw the Boomerang Dagger even more often in a certain amount of time! Wow!!! '''

If you compare the Blackguard with the pure Assassin and the Assassin Fighter, the Assassin will get the third place. The question is, who is better: the Blackguard or the Assassin Fighter? Let's see!

BATTLES

There are 4 difficulty levels: easy, medium, difficult, extremely difficult. This is according to my game playing experience against these opponents in the arena when I play with the general setting "easy" in the beginning. So all these difficulty levels are totally subjective.

Tier 1

At your starting position you have 15000 gold at your disposal. Buy the Boots of Avoidance (Senses of the Cat - AC +5 Bonus against arrows) and Elves' Bane (Girdle of Piercing) (Armor Class Bonus of 3 against arrows/missiles)! I highly recommend to buy the Boomerang Dagger +2 as well! This will be our main strategy in the beginning! Poison the Boomerang dagger +2 and attack!

Tier 1 - Battle 1 : Orcs; difficulty level: easy; Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Symm Haximus! Strategy/solution: Fight!

After the first Battle buy the Ring of Regeneration.

Tier 1 - Battle 2: Two Minotaurs and some Gladiators : difficulty level: easy; Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Symm Haximus! Strategy/solution: Buy some potions of Invisibility and fight! Hint : I want to get the Golden Calf Idol of course!

Buy the Bracers of Archery! This pair of bracers offers +2 THAC0 bonus for missiles and ranged weapons like the Boomerang Dagger +2, increasing the chance of hitting the target!!

Tier 1 - Battle 3: Lizard Men : difficulty level: easy; Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Feldrak Feldrak'l. He died. Strategy/solution: Oil of Speed! It's always good to kill the Lizard Shaman first that he can't bother you too much with his Magic!

With your gain of 13000 gold for defeating the Lizards, buy Ilbratha for your Assassin Fighter! The sword can be used once per day to cast the spell Mirror Image.

=> FINALLY after the third Battle you get your inactive Assassin class back!

Tier 1 - Battle 4: Umber Hulk Elders : difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in Arena: ---. Strategy/solution: 1.) Potion of Invisibility; 2.) Oil of Speed; 3.) Potion of Clarity; 4.) Mirror Image (> Ilbratha); 5.) Poison Weapon! 6.) Fight!

These four Battles have been very easy for the Assassin Fighter! No challenge yet! It reminds me of the Blackguard. Let's have a look how easily he can defeat the DROWS and VAMPIRES.

Buy The One Gift Lost (Necklace of Missiles) for killing the small spiders in the next Battle against the DROWS.

Tier 1 - Battle 5: DROWS : difficulty level: easy! (1st attempt!); Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Ellraish. He died. Strategy/solution: 1.) Oil of Speed; 2.) Poison your Boomerang Dagger +2; 3.) Fight! 4.) Mirror Image (> Ilbratha) etc. Hints : '''Poison is quite effective against the DROWS! Kill the DROW PRIEST first!''' Get the Cloak of Balduran and Bladesinger Chain!

Result after 5 Battles :The Assassin Fighter did great so far! All 5 Battles have been easy for him! He's at least as strong as the Blackguard so far! Let's see what the following Battles will be like. For sure Battle 6 against the Vampires will be harder for the Assassin Fighter because the Blackguard is immune to level drain!

Tier 2

After 5 battles the next tier starts: new items are available to buy! Go for the Boots of Speed, Firetooth (dagger) (Firetooth boomerang dagger +3) and the Shield of Harmony that you will need against the VAMPIRES.

Battle 6: VAMPIRES ; difficulty level: difficult! Number of attempts: 4; Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Lea Gosh 'Aar. Lea as a Fighter / Mage is good against the Vampires. She uses the spell Protection from Magical Weapons and casts Fireshield. Graul is a mean opponent who removes all the Magical Protection from Lea and casts Feeblemind/Schwachsinn on me that my intelligence gets reduced to 3. I can't heal myself so I'm helpless. But a Potion of Clarity is good protection against this spell! Lea died and I had to try again. Preparation for fighting the Vampires: Daystar and Helm of Brilliance because I want to be able to use Sunray two times! Strategy: 1.) Summon Minotaur; 2.) Make yourself invisible; 3.) Use Sunray next to Graul. I killed him at once! 4.) Oil of Speed! 5.) Fight with the Firetooth Dagger +3.

Buy the Girdle of Hill Giant Strength!

Battle 7: Githyanki: difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Voghiln. He will use spell Mislead. Strategy/solution: 1.) Mirror Image; 2.) Poison Weapon and fight! 3.) Summon Minotaur!

Buy the Periapt of Proof Against Poison!

Battle 8: Water Elements: difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in Arena: ---. Preparation for the Battle: Wear the Periapt of Proof Against Poison and buy the Staff of Fire! Strategy/solution: Kill the Sanguahin Prince first! Summon up lots of Fire Elements (> Staff of Fire) for eliminating the huge Water Elements afterwards. Hints: Firetooth +4.

Battle 9: Mardii and his Elements : difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in arena: --- Strategy/solution: Kill Mardii first! Make yourself invisible and wait! When Mardii gets slow and his Elements as well and Mardii starts running out of spells attack him with your Firetooth dagger +3! Put poison on this Dagger! Mardii will hate it! Hint : Get the great reward item Flail of Ages from your fans! You might need it (for the Golem, Battle 12)!

Battle 10: Demons and Devils : difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in arena: --- Get prepared for the Battle with the Shield of Harmony! Strategy/solution: Just let the demons kill each other! Stay out of Battle. If T'alcor is one of the last enemies, kill him first before you get stunned! Hints: Longsword Blackrazor and Celestial Fury!

In-between Result after 10 Battles : The Fighter Assassin is really strong so far. The Battle against the Vampires was a little bit harder for him than for the Blackguard…I'm curious to see what it will be like to backstab with a great sword, Blackrazor, that even gets poisoned! What about backstabbing with two weapons, Blackrazor and Celestial Fury? Does it work? What about Whirlwind Attack Backstabbing with two poisoned weapons? Is it possible?

Being invisible and using Greater Whirlwind attack works. You still remain unseen. You can approach the enemy and backstab him!

Tier 3

Battle 11 : Monks; difficulty level: easy; Fellow Gladiator in arena: @ Hort. He stayed alive! Strategy/solution: 1.) Mirror Image (> Ilbratha); 2.) Summon Minotaur; 3.) Whirlwind Attacks with Blackrazor and Celestial Fury! The Monks seem to be immune to poison.

Battle 12 : Golem; difficulty level: medium; Fellow Gladiator in arena: @ Hulda! She died. Weapon recommendations: Flail of Ages but if you didn't get it buy Defender of Easthaven and Blackrazor; Strategy/solution: Summon Minotaur and fight! Hints : Crom Faeyr + Shuruppak's Plate!

Battle 13 : Lich Lea and five huge Skeleton Golems; difficulty level: easy! Fellow Gladiator in arena: --- 1.) Oil of Speed! 2.) Poison your Firetooth +3 Dagger! 3.) Attack at once! Lea hates poison. 4.) Use Crom Faeyr and Flail of Ages (Defender of Easthaven) for destroying the Golems. I used Celestial Fury and it was interesting to see that even these huge Golems get unconscious. That's it! Hint : Get the Shadow Dragon Scale. This Armor is ideal for hiding and backstabbing! Other really good option for backstabbing is Bladesinger Chain (Battle 5: Drows: reward item).

Battle 14 : Rakshasas; difficulty level: medium; Fellow Gladiator in arena: @ Voghiln. He died. Strategy/solution: 1.) Oil of Speed! 2.) Poison your Blackrazor and Celestial Fury and fight! The enemies might even get stunned/unconscious!

Battle 15 : Illithids; difficulty level: easy! Fellow Gladiator in arena: @ Gezzthemin! Strategy/solution: 1.) Make yourself invisible! 2.) Oil of Speed! 3.) I backstabbed the Illithids. I poisoned Blackrazor first and then backstabbed. I saw a 76 Hitpoints blow (4x backstabbing). The Illithid died immediately…

Tier 4

New items are available to buy from the merchants! Buy Vhailor's Helm!

Battle 16: The six fallen DEVAS ; difficulty level: difficult! Fellow gladiator in arena: Best choice is @ Symm Haximus! Let him join you in this battle! He's an excellent fighter! These Devas are really strong opponents! They can make you stunned, sick, can let you panic and spell feeblemind on you! Strategy/solution: Holding Blackrazor in one Hand is excellent against fear! In the other Hand it's good to have Celestial Fury to stun these Powerful ones. If they make you sick too often wear the Boots of the West that make you immune to sickness. 1.) Oil of Speed; 2.) Greater Whirlwind Attacks; 3.) Summon Minotaur and fight!

Battle 17: The Demilich Twins ; difficulty level: easy; Fellow gladiator in arena: '''@ Timmo Gutbaum/Timmot Godtree! He's the best choice here!''' Strategy/solution: I was just a spectator and let Timmot fight! Hint : Of course you want the Ring of Gaxx as a reward from your fans/enemies!

Battle 18: The Three Dragons: YLLAXIA; Nyxxla and Orluss ; difficulty level: easy! Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Symm Haximus. Strategy/solution: 1.) Oil of Speed! 2.) Poison your weapons Blackrazor and the Answerer and fight! 3.) Summon Minotaur; 4.) Whirlwind Attacks. Hint: My weapon proficieney points for Long Sword: +++++.

Don't forget to go upstairs in order to kill Dormamus! You don't want to face six enemies in the Final Battle! Killing Dormamus was extremely easy! The Assassin Fighter used Celestial Fury and Blackrazor. Dormamus got stunned pretty soon. The THAC0 of this protagonist is amazing! The Assassin Fighter did great! No other Solo Protagonist killed Dormamus so fast!

Battle19 : Enegar and Kastulor, children of the dead God Bhaal; difficulty level: medium! Number of attempts 3 or 4. Fellow Gladiator in the arena: @ Symm Haximus. Strategy/solution : 1.) Oil of Speed; 2.) Poison your weapons Blackrazor and Celestial Fury. Enegar is very dangerous! He has an excellent weapon, the Halberd Ravager, that is vorpal, "Ravager +6 deals now 1d10 +6 points of damage and it has -6 THAC0 bonus. The weapons weighs 10 lbs and it has a speed factor of 3. The weapon has two combat abilities: it can deal 3-18 points with each if the target fails a save vs. poison and it can decapitate an opponent with 10% chance, for which no saving throw can be made. The decapitation instant-kills most normal enemies, most bosses are immune to it. In this state, Ravager is the most powerful halberd available and a very powerful weapon." This means, he can kill you with a single hit, what happened to me in my second attempt. Enegar is immune to backstabbing and poison! 3.) I managed to kill Enegar with Whirlwind Attacks before he transformed into the big Slayer Form!! The rest was easy! You can even stun Kastulor by using Celestial Fury! Kastulor changed into the small Slayer Form. He was already badly wounded but Symm Haximus was still alive. So I finally killed Symm because he wouldn't die after I had eliminated Enegar! I finished the small Slayer off by using the Answerer and Blackrazor.

'''The Final Battle against The Winged Difficulty level: difficult!'''

I finally killed The Winged by using Flail of Ages and the Answerer. For Strategy have a look at the Strategy for the Blackguard in the Final Battle against The Winged.

Result and conclusion : I managed to win but I'm a little bit ashamed that I needed 5 or 6 attempts with the Assassin Fighter to defeat The Winged and her companions. I guess I played poorly. Facing The Winged and fighting her alone, the Assassin Fighter wearing the Cloak of the Lich was superior to The Winged!

Comparison between Assassin Fighter and Blackguard : They are both really strong Fighters and have the great Poison Weapon ability! In my eyes the Blackguard is better than the Assassin Fighter because he can summon a fallen Deva as help, can absorb health from an enemy according to his own level and add these stolen health points to himself. In addition, he has some nice useful spells like detect Invisibility. He's immune to level drain as well. The Assassin Fighter can backstab but only 4x what is not especially strong.

Totemic Druid Solo Walkthrough
I decided to play something totally different now, a Totemic Druid! I'm just curious how strong this Solo Protagonist Player will be. I'm not really familiar with Druids characters (yes, of course I had Jaheira in my party often and I sometimes let Cernd join my party but his shapeshift skills into a Greater Werewolf were not so convincing - unfortunately). I know that Insect Plague, Conjure Fire Elemental and Greater Elemental Summoning are really useful! I want to find out how powerful these Spirit Animals are that the Totemic Druid can summon. I'm looking forward to the Druid getting the Staff of the Woodlands at the beginning of tier 4!

BATTLES

There are 4 difficulty levels: easy, medium, difficult, extremely difficult. This is according to my game playing experience against these opponents in the arena when I play with the general setting "easy" in the beginning. So all these difficulty levels are totally subjective.

Tier 1

At your starting position you have 15000 gold at your disposal. Buy the Nymph Cloak first for getting Charisma +20 that is handy for buying items. Buy the Boots of Avoidance (Senses of the Cat - AC +5 Bonus against arrows), Elves' Bane (Girdle of Piercing) (Armor Class Bonus of 3 against arrows/missiles) and the Boomerang Dagger +2 as well! I also bought the Ankheg Plate Mail! With this Armor the Druid can still cast spells!

My Druid looks like this when I build him from scratch: Strength: 8; Dexterity: 18; Constitution: 16; IQ: 8; Wisdom: 18; Charisma: 18. Of course I bought the Gauntlets of Ogre Power too for raising the Druid's strength to 18/00!

How can you buy so many good items in the beginning with only 15000 Gold? As usual, money is no issue in the Black Pits II:

'''Money : Money shouldn't be a problem by using the trick with buying the salbe for Dulf Finsterbart and reselling it to the Belfer. By doing so you always make 200 gold gain!'''

Tier 1 - Battle 1 : Orcs; difficulty level: easy; Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Symm Haximus! Strategy/solution: Fight! It was a nice surprise to see that the Spirit Wolf could make his enemies unconscious!

After the first Battle, buy the Ring of Regeneration. Buy the Helm of Glory and a strong small shield for the Druid (> Tartsche +3) as well. My Armor is already AC -9!!

Tier 1 - Battle 2: Two Minotaurs and some Gladiators : difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Symm Haximus! Strategy/solution: Summon a Fire Elemental Conjure Fire Elemental. These Gladiators can't harm it with their normal weapons! Hint : I want to get the Golden Calf Idol of course!

With gaining 1000000 experience points the Druid has 1,500,000 now! He has reached Druid level 14 what gives him a level 7 spell ! Great! I choose Fire Storm. My idea is to use Entangle often in the combination with Fire Storm. It's a kind of a Mage using Web and Abi Dalzim's Horrid Wilting. Let's see if it works!

Tier 1 - Battle 3: Lizard Men : difficulty level: easy (2nd attempt); Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Dulf Finsterbart. Strategy/solution: Entangle and Fire Storm didn't work. 1.) Oil of Speed; 2.) Insect Plague on the Lizard Shaman 3.) I reacted according to the situation with Call Lightning, Summon a Spirit Animal etc.

Tier 1 - Battle 4: Umber Hulk Elders : difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in Arena: ---. Strategy/solution: My idea to use Entangle often in the combination with Fire Storm worked here well! 1.) Entangle; 2.) Use Potion of Invisibility; 3.) Potion of Clarity; 4.) Oil of Speed 5.) Entangle again 6.) Fire Storm; 7.) Cloak of Fear! 8.) Call Lightning 9.) Fight!

LEVEL GRINDING! I made sure that the Totemic Druid reached 3000000 experience points (Druid Level 15) before the Battle against the Drows. I let him fight the Wyvern several times by using the Boomerang Dagger +2. That was pretty easy. Next levels could be easily reached at 3150000 and 3330000 exp. points. So from this stage on I could summon a powerful Elemental Prince (Greater Elemental Summoning) and a fallen Deva! Very impressive!

Tier 1 - Battle 5: DROWS : difficulty level: easy (1st attempt!); Fellow Gladiator in Arena: ---. Strategy/solution: 1.) Summon Elemental Prince 2.) Summon Deva; 3.) Whatever! You have so many options…at the end, I summoned a Spirit Wolf that made the Drow Mage unconscious!

After 5 battles the next tier starts: new items are available to buy! Go for the Boots of Speed, Firetooth (dagger) (Firetooth +3), Girdle of Hill Giant Strength, Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise and the Necklace that protects you from poison (Periapt of Proof against Poison)!

Tier 2

Battle 6: VAMPIRES : difficulty level: easy! (1st attempt!); Fellow Gladiator in Arena: ---; Strategy/solution: 1.) Summon a fallen Deva! 2.) Summon an Elemental Prince; 3.) Cast Druid level 4 spell Negative Plane Protection that protects from level drain through the Vampires on yourself! 4.) Slaughter the Vampires with Energy Blades 5.) That's it!

>>> The Totemic Druid is crazy strong because he can summon huge help: Elemental Princes and Devas! It will be very interesting from Battle 16 on when he has to fight the fallen Devas. Is it possible that a Totemic Druid is as powerful as a Sorcerer or Blackguard or even Fighter Mage? Let's see!

Battle 7: Githyanki: difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in Arena: ---

Battle 8: Water Elements: difficulty level: very easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in arena: ---

Battle 9: Mardii and his Elements : difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in arena: ---

Battle 10: Demons and Devils : difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in arena: ---

In-between Result : The Totemic Druid does extremely well! He even doesn't need any help of Fellow Gladiators in the Arena. Hahaha! He can summon great help himself! He's just smoking it all!

Tier 3

Battle 11 : Monks; difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in arena: @ Hort. He died. Strategy/solution: 1.) Summon an Elemental Prince (Zaaman Rul or Sunnis or Chan will show up!) > Greater Elemental Summoning 2.) Make yourself invisible! 3.) Iron Skins 4.) Oil of Speed 5.) Aura of Flaming Death! You remain unseen while casting this spell! 6.) True Seeing 7.) Fight with the Firetooth +3 Dagger being surrounded by the Aura of Flaming Death. Probably you could even add Globe of Blades. Hint: The Monks are immune to Insect Plague and Poison! Conclusion : Especially useful was the Aura of Flaming Death! I should always have it 3x available for a Battle!

Battle 12 : Golem; difficulty level: medium! (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in arena: @ Hulda! She died. Strategy/solution: I used Staff of Rynn as a weapon. Use (the big) Regeneration (Druid level 7 spell) and summon lots of Creatures as help. Use lots of potions of Invisibility and Iron Skins, Armor of Faith etc.

Battle 13 : Lich Lea and five huge Skeleton Golems; difficulty level: easy! (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in arena: --- Strategy/solution: 1.) Oil of Speed! 2.) Attack at once! Lea hates poison. I used Asp's Nest (Darts with poison)) 3.) Use the Firetooth +3 Dagger for destroying the Golems. Hints : If Lea casts Web on you, wear Edventar's Gift, the Ring of Free Action immediately! After I had summoned Chan, even this Elemental Prince panicked when the huge Golems were wearing the Cloak of Fear (Aura of Despair)!!

Battle 14 : Rakshasas; difficulty level: medium; Fellow Gladiator in arena: @ Voghiln. He died. Strategy/solution: Let the Druid wear the Red Dragon Scale (50% fire resistance)! Just fight with Energy Blades and True Seeing and the Firetooth +3 Dagger!

Battle 15 : Illithids; difficulty level: easy! Fellow Gladiator in arena: @ Gezzthemin! Strategy/solution: 1.) Make yourself invisible! 2.) Oil of Speed! 3.) Summon Elemental Prince in front of the Illithids for distraction! 4.) Kill the Illithids with the Firetooth +3 Dagger! 5.) The rest is easy.

Result after 15 Battles : The Totemic Druid defeats all enemies in his 1st attempt (exception: Battle 3)!! That's brilliant!!! But now the real challenge starts from Battle 16 on.

Tier 4

New items are available to buy from the merchants! Buy Vhailor's Helm! It's great that the Druid can wear helmets!

Battle 16: The six fallen DEVAS ; difficulty level: surprisingly easy (1st attempt)! Fellow Gladiator in arena: '''Best choice is @ Symm Haximus! Let him join you in this battle!''' He's an excellent fighter! He's a Dwarven Defender! Strategy: 1.) Summon Elemental Prince! 2.) Oil of Speed 3.) Fight with Staff of the Ram! 4.) True Seeing etc.

>>> '''I'm really totally surprised how strong the Totemic Druid is. It reminds me of the Blackguard and Sorcerer. Playing the Totemic Druid on #Core Rules and #Hard and #INSANE will show how good he really is! <<<'''

Battle 17: The Demilich Twins ; difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in arena: '''@ Timmo Gutbaum/Timmot Godtree! He's the best choice here!''' Make yourself invisible and just let Timmot fight! That's it!

Battle 18: The Three Dragons: YLLAXIA; Nyxxla and Orluss ; difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in arena: @ Symm Haximus. The Druid could cast Insect Plague on YLLAXIA! Vhaior's Helm was really useful!

Killing Dormamus upstairs with the Staff of the Ram was very easy!

Battle 19: Enegar and Kastulor, children of the dead God Bhaal ; difficulty level: easy/medium (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in the arena: @ Symm Haximus. Strategy: 1.) Summon Minotaur in the middle of the place 2.) Oil of Speed! 3.) I killed the Priest with the Staff of the Ram! Staff of the Ram was my main weapon. When I finally only faced the Big Slayer I summoned creatures for distraction. Each hit with Staff of the Ram was 7 Hitpoints. Finally the Big Slayer died.

Rebellion: Aura of Flaming Death and Ixil's Spike (> spear, upgraded) and Vhailor's Helm!

'''The Final Battle against The Winged Difficulty level: difficult!''' (I needed 6 attempts in order to find the right solution!). Preparation: Lots of Potions of Invisibility (at least 24), many Oil of Speed Potions, many many Asp's Nest (Darts with poison) - I recommend 240 of these darts! Firetooth +3 Dagger!! Strategy : Oil of Speed already BEFORE entering the Arena. Wait 10 sec then enter the Arena. After the dialogue I tried different stuff. Aura of Flaming Death got fast destroyed by Magic. I used Energy Blades and hit The Winged. In this Battle you have to be patient and wait! Finally the guys will run out of spells! ;-) I poisoned Thassk Khun and Joker with Asp's Nest! That was an excellent move. I attacked The Winged and the others often with Firetooth +3 Dagger! That was the key for winning the Battle! I killed her by using Firetooth (dagger) +3. So The Winged can be harmed with weapons +3!!! For distracting I summoned the Spirit Animals. This goes quite fast. Terribly slowly is casting the usual Druid Spells! How often did I want to cast True Seeing but it got ALWAYS interrupted.

Result : It's phantastic to play a Totemic Druid! Lots of fun! He has incredible spells and can summon Spirit Animals. It was a nice surprise to see that the Spirit Wolf could make his enemies unconscious and the Spirit Snake poison its opponents. In the Final Battle the Spirit Snake poisoned Thassk Khun. The Totemic Druid was just smoking it all until he reached the Final Battle. Here he struggled a bit because he's like the Fighter Cleric such a slow spell caster! Terrible! He drank Oil of Speed Potions all the time but still he didn't manage to cast powerful spells. Unfortunately there's no Robe of Vecna, Amulet of the Master Harper etc. for the Druid available. Such a pity! '''What about creating an item for Druids in a future Baldur's Gate III that helps Druids to cast their spells faster? This would be great!'''

If I should find time and do more Walkthroughs, I will only point out special stuff in the Walkthroughs in the future. Often the strategy is quite similar for Protagonists for defeating certain enemies! It also saves me time!

I don't have LOB! Sorry, I can't say anything if the Fighter Mage would also be successful on this difficulty level! I guess so! In my eyes the Fighter Mage is the best Solo Protagonist Character.

Swashbuckler Solo Walkthrough
I'll just point out new or decisive stuff from now on!

I like a lot that the Swashbuckler has the Use Any Item ability when he has reached level 24! He has to be stronger than a pure Assassin in order to defeat the Bhaalspawn! It really looks like that his Weapon proficiency points and THAC0 are much better! So there's hope!

Tier 1 - Battle 3: Lizard Men : difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Dulf Finsterbart. He survived. Strategy/solution: Weapons: I tried something new for the Walkthrough here - I knew it already from Baldur's Gate 1: Arrows of Detonation and Biting (Arrow of Detonation; Arrow of Biting)! It worked really well! 1.) Summon Minotaur 2.) Oil of Speed! 3.) 2x Arrows of Detonation on the Lizards 4.) I continued with Arrows of Biting! They didn't like the poison! Very effective!

Battle 17: The Demilich Twins ; difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in arena: @ Timmo Gutbaum/Timmot Godtree! He's the best choice here! Make yourself invisible and just let Timmot fight! That's it! I discovered that Spell Trap (> Staff of the Magi) protects you for some time from getting imprisoned by the Twins.

He did extremely well against The Winged and her evil companions!

The Swashbuckler could easily reach the Armor Class (AC) -24 maximum!

Result : The Swashbuckler is a great all round player who is for sure able to make a Walkthrough from BG I, SoD, BG II to Throne of Bhaal and defeat them all!

Dark Moon Monk Solo Walkthrough
'''>>> He's a Killing Machine! He's for sure the strongest Solo Protagonist so far!'''

He's weak in the beginning so that you start wondering! Just wait and see until he has reached 2,000,000 experience points. Finally he does not only get immune to poison but to magic as well by wearing the Cloak of Balduran! Inspite of his Magic resistance being over 100% he can get imprisoned by the Demi Lich Twins (Battle 17). The Monk is fast! Even without Oil of Speed his movement rate becomes faster and faster with all level grinding!

"Movement speed and speed factor:

'''Monks move +2 points faster than normal units from the start. They gain +1 for every five levels'''. At level 8, they receive -1 bonus to speed factor, at level 12, a further -1."

He has just one huge disadvantage: he can't make enemies visible when they are hiding. It already happened several times that I had to replay a won Battle because the Drow Priest and Mardii (Lea the Lich or the Lizard Shaman) were hiding. It was especially bitter after entering the Arena without Fellow Gladiator against the Bhaalspawn (Battle 19). I already had killed the Small Slayer and even the Big one but the Bhaal - Priest remained invisible. I figured out that you have one chance for killing these Priests in spite their invisibility. Use The One Gift Lost (Necklace of Missiles) for killing them! Try to figure out where they hide by using this Necklace and kill them by fire! Unfortunately I only had 5 loads left when I wanted to kill the Bhaal - Priest. I harmed her but she healed herself. I had to replay the Battle!

'''NO! I'm mistaken! The Dark Moon Monk CAN MAKE HIS ENEMIES VISIBLE by using his skill DETECT ILLUSION!''' This ability is there where a thief usually tries to find traps! See Monk. 4.2 Dark Moon Monk

"Detect Illusion (Dark Moon Monk only):

Dark Moon Monks begin the game with 10% chance (kit bonus) to dispel non-friendly illusion spells within 30 ft whenever their Find Traps skill is active. Does not benefit from scores higher than 100."

When I just fought against The Winged (24th of October 2017), Thassk Khun made himself invisible because he got poisoned by these mean darts arrows. The Dark Moon Monk could make him several times visible again by using his special skill 'Detect Illusion'!

The Winged and her companions got easily defeated!

Result : It seems that the Dark Moon Monk is a perfect Killing Machine!

Barbarian Solo Walkthrough
After the first Battles, it seems that it's very easy to play a Barbarian. His movement rate is high, - he's faster than normal characters -, and Oil of Speed makes him even faster so that he can get easily away from the Lizard chief in Battle 3.

His Barbarian Rage gives him +4 to strength and constitution. During this time he's immune to enchantment, maze, fear, level drain etc.!

Battle 4: Umber Hulk Elders : difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in Arena: ---. Strategy/solution: Weapons: I tried something new for the Walkthrough here: Bolt of Biting and The Army Scythe! 1.) Potion of Invisibility; 2.) Oil of Speed; 3.) Potion of Clarity; 4.) Bolt of Bitings for poisoning these huge Beasts! Easy Battle!

Battle 5: DROWS : difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Same weapon as above and Flame of the North. The DROWS don't like poison! Kill the DROW PRIEST first! Of course you could also use the Firetooth +3 (dagger).

Battle 6: VAMPIRES: difficulty level: difficult! Number of attempts: 5-6 in spite of his Barbarian Rage; Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Lea Gosh 'Aar. Lea as a Fighter / Mage is good against the Vampires. Preparation : Some Potions of Invisibility and Clarity! The Potion of Clarity is also good protection against Graul's spell Feeblemind! Buy Daystar and Helm of Brilliance because you want to be able to use Sunray! Buy Firetooth Dagger +3 for killing Graul.

=> These Battles remind me so much of the Battles of the Assassin Fighter! The Assassin Fighter struggled here against the Vampires as well as the Barbarian here. They are similar Fighters. Perhaps the Barbarian is a little bit better because of his Barbarian Rage and movement rate.

I don't have to go on playing. Just look at the results of the Assassin Fighter!

Next Protagonist please!

Inquisitor Solo Walkthrough
"Hello Keldorn Firecam!" Nice to have you hear in the Black Pits II Arena! ;-)

'''The Paladin Keldorn (Class kit 4.3 Inquisitor) is my favorite leader when playing a good party in BG II. I like to give him Anomen as assistance.''' Interesting conversations between the two of them.

My own version of Keldorn looks only a little bit different: Ability Scores: Strength 18/48: Dex.: 11 (I need Gauntlets of Dexterity as well); Con: 18; IQ: 12; Wisdom: 13: Charisma: 18.

I tried also to copy Keldorn's Weapon Proficiency points a bit: Two Handed Sword: ++, Two Handed Weapon Style: ++, Crossbow: +

I just played the first 10 Battles and Keldorn always won in his 1st attempt! He's doing great so far! He's excellent. He's a Hunter! When I have to face Mardii (Battle 9), I often wait for a long time first…Totally different with Keldorn. Besides attacking Mardii at once with poison (crossbow + bolt of biting), I used True Sight and Dispel Magic on Mardii and killed him fast and easily with bolts of biting and Jhor. Mardii had no chance and couldn't escape! Of course it was also nice and neat that Keldorn just reached 3,000,000 exp. points (level 18) before fighting the Vampires (Battle 6). So in this Battle he could already summon a Deva for help!

"The Inquisitors have dedicated their life to finding and eliminating practitioners of evil magic and defeating the forces of darkness, and their god has provided them with special abilities toward that end.

Advantages:


 * May use the spell Dispel Magic as an innate ability. Gains one use at level 1 and an additional use every 4 levels thereafter. The spell is cast at Casting Time of 1 and acts at twice the Inquisitor's level
 * May use the spell True Sight as an innate ability. Gains one use at level 1 and an additional use every 4 levels thereafter
 * Immune to hold and charm"

The Inquisitor just defeated the Demilich Twins (Battle 17). So far he has won all Battles - even against the Devas - in his first attempt! It will be interesting to see if he's even as strong as a Blackguard in the end.

'''>>> From Tier 4 on, Vhailor's Helm is available to buy! Buy it and let your Duplicate summon lots of Devas!'''

Carsomyr will be a "must" against The Winged! Keldorn won't use Blackrazor, my favorite weapon, because it doesn't fit him.

The Final Battle against The Winged Difficulty level: easy! I was stubborn and wanted to kill The Winged by using Carsomyr. But it wasn't a good decision. Three times The Winged confused me and she and her companions killed me. As soon as I changed my strategy and used Axe of the Unyielding and Flail of Ages for killing her, I managed easily. Although this awesome Axe is vorpal I never could kill her by a single blow but Flail of Ages could make her slow! By the way, The Winged can heal herself completely only three times! Afterwards she's running out of strong healing spells! Keep on attacking her! I used a Crossbow and bolts of biting for poisoning Joker and Thassk Khun.

Result : The Inquisitor is quite a guy! He managed to defeat all his enemies in his first attempt! He would also have killed The Winged and her companions in his first attempt if I hadn't been so stubborn. So the Inquisitor did great on difficulty level easy. He's a Hunter! It's very easy for him to deal with Mages. If he needs additional help, he can summon a Deva. By using Vhailor's Helm he can even summon lots of Devas!! For sure he'll be able to make a Walkthrough through the Black Pits II on #Core Rules and likely on level #Hard and #INSANE, too. The Inquisitor is excellent! It's very likely that the Inquisitor would be able to make a Walkthrough from BG I to the Throne of Bhaal. He's stronger than a Barbarian for sure!

Dragon Disciple Solo Walkthrough
In my eyes the Dragon Disciple is a stronger version of a Sorcerer! The Dragon Disciple reaches 100% fire resistance at level 16 and gets nice bonus for armor and constitution. In addition he can use a Breath Weapon once per day. This Breath Weapon is a kind of strong Fireball.

The Dragon Disciple rushed through the first 15 Battles without any effort so far! It's just a walk for him/her instead of climbing a mountain. At the right time before facing the VAMPIRES in Battle 6 he reached level 18 so that he/she had access to his first level 9 spell - Summon Dark Planetar. It was amazing to see how easily the Dragon Disciple killed the four Illithids (Battle 15) by summoning Black Blade of Disaster first and afterwards Time Stop. During Time Stop he didn't only kill all Illithids with this powerful Blade another Illithid Slave as well. Very convincing performance of the Dragon Disciple!

Useful weapons for the Dragon Disciple : Asp's Nest (Darts with poison, especially good against Mages), Firetooth Dagger +3, Staff of the Magi, Staff of the Ram, Energy Blades and Black Blade of Disaster of course! I'm just looking into Erinne Sling and bullets +4. This might he a powerful weapon for the Dragon Disciple especially in the combination with Boots of Speed and Oil of Speed.

Killing Dormamus by using the Staff of the Ram was very easy because she's resistant to fire!

The Final Battle against The Winged Difficulty level: easy! The Dragon Disciple used Time Stop and killed The Winged at once by using Black Blade of Disaster! It worked fine! After this main task was done it was easy to eliminate the others. In one hand the Staff of magi to make me unseen for the others in the other darts with poison (Asp's Nest). I killed Bannor at the end. You can just stand in the inner part of the Arena where Bannor can't get to and use a Sling for killing him. Summon some Mordenkainen's Swords that it goes faster.

Result : The Dragon Disciple did great! When I remember right, he defeated all his enemies in her (she's female) first attempt! It worked out to summon the Black Blade of Disaster first and use Time Stop afterwards for killing Enegar (Bhaalspawn, Battle 19). Black Blade of Disaster was also the decisive weapon against The Winged!

Discoveries : The Black Blade of Disaster is an extremely powerful Weapon! You can slaughter them all by using this weapon, the Devas, even all these five huge Skeleton Golems that protect the Lich Lea (Battle 13). The Dragon Disciple slaughters them all on his own by using this powerful Blade! Just make sure that you protected yourself with a spell against fear before! ;-)

I made another Discovery that is even more important! '''I hardly believed my eyes when I saw it! The Dragon Disciple had 6 attacks per round!''' Not 4 but 6!! The Dragon Disciple (I called her Aerie ;-) ; female Elf), she was wearing the Boots of Speed, I used Oil of Speed and I was wearing the Ring of Gaxx. It seems that the Ring of Gaxx gives you Improved Haste all the time when your Protagonist Player has reached a certain level, e.g. 30. It seems to be the same principle like for Carsomyr. (31th October 2017).

Cleric / Mage Solo Walkthrough
Professionals (famous characters for this class combination): Aerie; The Winged (Cleric (34) / Mage (34)!!!

Cleric / Mage is a very exciting Multi-Class combination! I love to play it! You have a huge choice of spells!

It's interesting to see that you get really strong cleric spells (level 7) much faster than a Mage! What I especially like is that the Cleric can cast his spells much faster now in the combination with being a Mage at the same time!

Weapons for the Cleric / Mage : The only disadvantage I see so far is that you have only a small choice of weapons and for using a weapon with poison the Serpent Shaft seems to be the only option. I'm about to fight Mardii and I'm very much looking forward to getting Flail of Ages as a reward item! I'm a Solo Protagonist who has over 30 levels right now (Cleric: 21 levels + Mage: 17 levels). While wearing the Boots of Speed and having drunken the Oil of Speed, I'm told that I have Attacks / Round: 2 by using a Sling Slot +4. When I now switch weapons to Serpent Shaft it tells me that I have '''Attacks / Round: 9 !!! (APR)'''. Can you imagine? 9 Attacks / Round. I don't have the Ring of Gaxx yet. I'm wondering what's going on here.

Game Terminology

APR: Attack(s) per round, the number of melee or ranged attack(s) in 6 seconds. 1/2 means 1 attack will happen in the second round, or randomly in the first round, eg. 5/2 means 5 attacks in 2 rounds. By dual wielding melee weapons you get 1 extra apr plus the extra apr gained from weapon proficiency of the main-hand melee weapon, the character strikes with off-hand weapon one time per round, twice if under the effects of Improved Haste or Whirlwind, Greater Whirlwind. The max APR allowed in game is 10, hard-coded.

Boots of Speed

Oil of Speed: "This oil increases the movement and combat capabilities of the imbiber by 100%. Thus, a movement rate of 9, becomes 18, and a character normally able to attack once in a round attacks twice. This does not reduce spell casting time however. The duration of the effect is 5 turns."

Special: Gives the drinker the status of hasted, which adds one attack per round, doubling movement rate for 5 minutes.

Haste: I don't like it because it makes your party members tired and then they start complaining.

Improved Haste

Carsomyr: Combat Abilities: Dispel Magic at level 30 on each hit !

Ring of Gaxx

After defeating the DROWS the Cleric / Mage had reached 3,000,000 exp points and that meant that the Cleric (1,500,000 exp p.) already had access to a nice level 7 spell: Summon Deva. That was ideal for fighting the VAMPIRES (Battle 6) together with Hort Il D'rth afterwards.

Battle 14: Rakshasas ; difficulty level: easy; Fellow Gladiator in arena: '''@ Dulf Finsterbart. He was excellent!''' Remove Magic is very effective against these Rakshasas.

At the maximum of 8,000,000 exp p. the Cleric has reached level 25 what means that he got the Symbol of Talos what is nice. The Mage has reached level 20 what means that he has always 2x level 9 spells at once available (besides level 9 spells on script rolls). Hm. Cleric (25) / Mage (20) - I'm a little bit inferior to The Winged Cleric (34) / Mage (34) but we are the better Strategists, aren't we?

Idea for the Final Battle is to use Time Stop and kill The Winged by using Black Blade of Disaster first! Afterwards I'll try to wait and poison the other by using the Serpent Shaft. Or to slow them down by using Flail of Ages. A good idea seems to be too to use the Staff of the Magi to destroy the enemies' Magic Protection and use the Staff of the Ram afterwards. The Aura of Flaming Death, Oil of Speed of course and some Creatures, e.g. Devas as help will be nice.

I would really like to play a (Totemic) Druid / Mage but it's unfortunately not possible!

Sun Soul Monk Solo Walkthrough
Hello Rasaad! Can you compete with the Dark Moon Monk or does he leave you in the dust behind?

The Sun Soul Monk is also incredibly fast and strong! But he can't detect his enemies, when they are invisible. For sure he needs the One Gift Lost (Necklace of Missiles) for killing his hidden opponents.

Bounty Hunter Solo Walkthrough
I'm very curious! The Dwarven Bounty Hunter "Korgath" is Harpagornis' "New Lord of Murder after beating the whole Challenge". https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/62202/the-free-for-all-lob-scs-solo-challenge/p1

I hope my PC doesn't stop working with all these trap explosions! - Seriously. When playing a thief here in the Black Pits II and setting traps and watching when they exploded, it sometimes happened that my PC crashed and I had to restart it again. I really hope that all will work smoothly with these traps exploding.

If it was really true with the maze trap, the Bounty Hunter would be incredibly strong!

"Advantages:

ability once per day in addition to the normal Thief's Set Snare. Gains one use at level 1 and an additional use every 5 levels thereafter. Set a trap in the chosen location when no hostile creatures are in sight. Traps grow more powerful with the Bounty Hunter's level and can only be triggered by enemies
 * +15 bonus to Set Traps
 * May use the Set Special Snare

1st level: Deals 3d8+5 missile damage and slows target for 5 rounds if a Save vs. Spell with a +4 penalty is failed

11th level: Deals 4d8+5 missile damage and holds target for 5 rounds if a Save vs. Spell with a +1 penalty is failed

16th level: Erects an Otiluke's Resilient Sphere around the target for 7 rounds if a Save vs. Spell is failed

21st level: Mazes the target, no save"

The Bounty Hunter easily managed the first four Battles! He even fought successfully against the Umber Hulk Elders on his own!

It was a difficult Battle against the Drows! @ Ellraish. I wasn't lucky in my first battles because I didn't get any reward items. So I hadn't the Golden Calf Idol against the DROWS. But the Bounty Hunter managed and is on 3,000,000 exp. now. Just 80,000 more for level 24!

Buy Boots of Speed and the Firetooth +3 dagger of course. With this equipment fight the Wyvern in the Arena. => Level 24!

I'm relieved that the Bounty Hunter is level 24 now! That means he can use all items > Use Any Item! So he can wear Helmets, Armors, use the Wand of Monster Summoning and Mage Script Rolls! Great!

Bounty Hunter Traps : 'The maze works! Great!' The Bounty Hunter might finally not be among the best three Protagonists here in the Black Pits II because his special trap skills work much much better in Baldur's Gate I, SoD, Baldur's Gate II and Throne of Bhaal'' where you have huge areas. Here in the Black Pits II you just have a small place for fighting and it's hard to hide and set traps.''

Race : I've also chosen a Dwarf. Dwarfes having a constitution of 19 can recover easily! It seems so at least. - That's a clever move to choose this race!

Against the VAMPIRES my plan is to use Limited Wish that gives me time control! During the Time Stop I will use 2x Sunray (> Daystar and Helm of Brilliance) next to Graul! The Bounty Hunter managed in his first attempt. He killed the last Vampire by backstabbing him! Strong 124 HP backstabbing hit (5x) with Daystar!

'''>>> Decisive will be if the Bounty Hunter manages to MAZE - TRAP Enegar before he turns into the Big Slayer (Battle 19)! Or can even the Big Slayer be MAZE TRAPPED? The Bounty Hunter's THAC0 is as bad as that of the Assassin. I also have to try if Enegar could be imprisoned but I don't think so.'''

Fighter / Thief Solo Walkthrough
For me this Solo Protagonist seems to be the strongest Solo Protagonist for a Baldur's Gate I + II and Throne of Bhaal Walkthrough (see down below). Of course I have to play him here as well in the Black Pits II.

Because he's such a great Solo Protagonist I have to describe all Battles.

WARNING : Make sure that your Fighter / Thief Protagonist has enough IQ for using Magic Script Roles. Minimum is an IQ of 9. Having an IQ of only 5 or 8 won't be sufficient for using Magic! With an IQ of 8 you're still considered illiterate. In Baldur's Gate II you need an IQ (of) 16 for using the Golem Book that can be found on the first level of Watcher's Keep.

Ability Scores/Attribute Scores (a creature’s mental and physical attributes): Starting position of the Fighter / Thief: Strength: 18/40; Dex: 17; Con: 19 (he's a Dwarf); IQ: 11; Wisdom 7: Ch: 16 (maximum for a Dwarf)// Total :85

BATTLES

Tier 1

At your starting position you have 15000 gold at your disposal. Buy the Nymph Cloak first for reaching Charisma 18 and as a result lower prices! Afterwards buy the Boots of Avoidance (Senses of the Cat - AC +5 Bonus against arrows) and Elves' Bane (Girdle of Piercing) (Armor Class Bonus of 3 against arrows/missiles)! I highly recommend to buy the Boomerang Dagger +2 as well! This will be our main strategy to use this Dagger in the beginning!

Tier 1 - Battle 1 : Orcs; difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Symm Haximus! Strategy/solution: Fight!

After the first Battle buy the Helm of the Noble for increasing your Charisma to 19 for shopping and the Ring of Regeneration.

Tier 1 - Battle 2: Two Minotaurs and some Gladiators : difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Symm Haximus! Strategy/solution: Buy some potions of Invisibility and fight! Hint : I want to get the Golden Calf Idol of course!

Buy a Full Plate Mail and a Ring of Protection +1.

Tier 1 - Battle 3: Lizard Men : difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Dulf. He died unfortunately. Strategy/solution: Oil of Speed! It's always good to kill the Lizard Shaman first that he can't bother you too much with his Magic!

With your gain of 13000 gold for defeating the Lizards, buy Ilbratha! The sword can be used once per day to cast the spell Mirror Image. Buy the Bracers of Archery as well! This pair of bracers offers +2 THAC0 bonus for missiles and ranged weapons like the Boomerang Dagger +2, increasing the chance of hitting the target!!

Tier 1 - Battle 4: Umber Hulk Elders : difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Feldrak Feldrak'l. I sacrifice him. Strategy/solution: 1.) Potion of Invisibility; 2.) Oil of Speed; 3.) Potion of Clarity; 4.) Mirror Image (> Ilbratha); 5.) Fight!

Buy The One Gift Lost (Necklace of Missiles) for killing the small spiders in the next Battle against the DROWS.

Tier 1 - Battle 5: DROWS : difficulty level: easy! (1st attempt!); Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Ellraish. He died. Strategy/solution: 1.) Oil of Speed; 2.) Mirror Image (> Ilbratha) etc. Get the Cloak of Balduran!

Tier 2

After 5 battles the next tier starts: new items are available to buy! Go for the Boots of Speed, Firetooth (dagger) (Firetooth boomerang dagger +3) and the Shield of Harmony that you will need against the VAMPIRES. Buy the Periapt of Proof Against Poison as well!

Battle 6: VAMPIRES ; difficulty level: difficult! (2nd attempt!); Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Hort. Graul is a mean opponent who casts Feeblemind on me that my intelligence gets reduced to 3. I can't heal myself so I'm helpless. But a Potion of Clarity is good protection against this spell! Preparation for fighting the Vampires: Daystar and/or Helm of Brilliance because I want to be able to use Sunray! Sunray is very powerful against Dark Creatures like Vampires or Shadows. Strategy: 1.) Oil of Speed 2.) Make yourself invisible; 3.) Use Ilbratha for Mirror Image 4.) '''Use Sunray next to Graul. I killed him at once!''' 5.) Fight with the Firetooth Dagger +3. 6.) Summon the Minotaur as help (Golden Calf Idol).

Buy the Girdle of Hill Giant Strength and the Legacy of the Masters!

Battle 7: Githyanki: difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Voghiln. He will use spell Mislead. Strategy/solution: 1.) Oil of Speed 2.) Mirror Image; 3.) Fight! 4.) Summon Minotaur!

Battle 8: Water Elements: difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in Arena: ---. Preparation for the Battle: Wear the Periapt of Proof Against Poison and buy the Staff of Fire! Strategy/solution: Kill the Sanguahin Prince first! Summon up lots of Fire Elements (> Staff of Fire) for eliminating the huge Water Elements afterwards. Hints: Firetooth +4.

Battle 9: Mardii and his Elements : difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in arena: --- Strategy/solution: Kill Mardii first! Make yourself invisible and wait! When Mardii gets slow and his Elements as well and Mardii starts running out of spells attack him with Jhor or Darts of poison! Mardii will hate it! Hint : Get the great reward item Flail of Ages from your fans! You might need it (for the Golem, Battle 12)!

Battle 10: Demons and Devils : difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in arena: --- Get prepared for the Battle with the Shield of Harmony! Strategy/solution: Just let the demons kill each other! Stay out of Battle. If T'alcor is one of the last enemies, kill him first before you get stunned! Hints: Longsword Blackrazor and Celestial Fury!

In-between Result after 10 Battles : The Fighter / Thief is what I expected him to be: Really strong!

What about backstabbing with two weapons, Blackrazor and Celestial Fury? Does it work? What about Whirlwind Attack Backstabbing with two weapons? Is it possible? Being invisible and using Greater Whirlwind attack works. You still remain unseen. You can approach the enemy and backstab him!

Tier 3

Battle 11 : Monks; difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in arena: @ Hort. He died. Strategy/solution: 1.) Oil of Speed; 2.) Summon Minotaur; 3.) Whirlwind Attacks with Blackrazor and Celestial Fury! 4.) Finally I used the Firetooth + 3 Dagger for killing the last two Monks. The Monks are immune to poison from a certain level on.

Battle 12 : Golem; difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in arena: @ Hulda! Strategy/solution: Summon Minotaur and cast the spell 'Imprisonment' on the Golem! That's it! Hints : Crom Faeyr + Shuruppak's Plate!

Battle 13 : Lich Lea (English: Leah) and five huge Skeleton Golems; difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in arena: --- 1.) Oil of Speed! 2.) Attack at once with darts of poison! Lea hates poison. 3.) I waited for a long time and then attacked Lea by using Jhor! She died. 4.) Use Crom Faeyr and Flail of Ages (Defender of Easthaven) for destroying the Golems. I used Celestial Fury before with another Solo Protagonist and it was interesting to see that even these huge Golems get unconscious. This time I just used the Firetooth +3 Dagger. Hint : Get the Shadow Dragon Scale. This Armor is ideal for hiding and backstabbing! Other really good option for backstabbing is Bladesinger Chain (Battle 5: Drows: reward item).

Battle 14 : Rakshasas; difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in arena: @ Voghiln. He died. Preparation of this Battle: Red Dragon Scale + Ring of fire protection. Strategy/solution: 1.) Oil of Speed! 2.) Fight using Blackrazor and Jhor!

Battle 15 : Illithids; difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in arena: @ Gezzthemin! Strategy/solution: 1.) Make yourself invisible! 2.) Oil of Speed! 3.) Gulp a Potion of Insight => Wisdom 18 4.) Use script role 'Limited Wish' > Control over time!

I went upstairs and killed Dormamus by wearing the Red Dragon Scale (50% fire resistance) and the ring of fire protection. I used Blackrazor and Jhor. Very easy!

'''The Fighter / Thief! What a guy! He just smokes them all!'''

Tier 4

New items are available to buy from the merchants! Buy '''Vhailor's Helm! Buy the Staff of the Ram as well for backstabbing! Use a Potion of Invisibility for getting invisible and backstabb by using the Staff of the Ram. This Staff of the Ram is the STRONGEST WEAPON for backstabbing! Nice training for the real Baldur's Gate II, EE playing!'''

The Final Battle against The Winged Difficulty level: xxx

Kensai Solo Walkthrough - new!
"Advantages: Disadvantages:
 * -2 bonus to Armor Class
 * -1 bonus to THAC0 and +1 bonus to damage rolls every 3 levels
 * -1 bonus to Speed Factor every 4 levels, to a maximum of -10 bonus at level 36
 * May use the Kai ability once per day. Gains one use at level 1 and an additional use every 4 levels thereafter. All successful attacks within the next 10 seconds deal maximum damage
 * May not wear any armor, helms, shields or bracers"

He's the King of Blades !!! So I gave him the following weapon proficieny points at the start: two weapon style: +++; Dagger: +; Long Sword: + and Bastard Sword: ++

He won his first three battles easily. If sth interesting shows up I'll let you know.

Tier 1 - Battle 5: DROWS : difficulty level: easy! (1st attempt!); Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Ellraish. He died. Strategy/solution: 1.) Oil of Speed; 2.) Summon Minotaur (Golden Calf Idol). 3.) Mirror Image (> Ilbratha) etc. I was surprised to see that the Kensai managed in his first attempt. As weapons he used the Bastard Sword Albruin and the Dagger of Vernom or the boomerang Dagger +2.

Tier 2 After 5 battles the next tier starts: new items are available to buy! Go for the Boots of Speed, Firetooth (dagger) (Firetooth boomerang dagger +3), the Girdle of Hill Giant Strength and the Periapt of Proof Against Poison as well!

It's strange and I have to get used to it that the Kensai can't use the Shield of Harmony.

Battle 6: VAMPIRES ; difficulty level: difficult! (1st attempt!); Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @Hort. He died. I'm also totally surprised that the Kensai managed in his first attempt without having the Shield of Harmony; instead you must have a Potion of Clarity (many Potions of Clarity)! One huge advantage of the Kensai is that he's incredily fast especially by using the Boots of Speed. I bought lots of Potions of Invisibility as preparation for the Battle and Daystar as well!

1.) Make yourself invisible; 2.) Oil of Speed; 3.) Potion of Clarity and fight!... 4.) Use Ilbratha for Mirror Image 5.) Use Sunray (> Daystar) 6.) Summon the Minotaur as help (Golden Calf Idol).

For fighting I used the Firetooth Dagger +3, Daystar and Albruin and the Dagger of Vernom at the same time.

Battle 9: Mardii and his Elements : difficulty level: medium (2ndattempt); Fellow Gladiator in arena: --- Strategy/solution: Kill Mardii first! Make yourself invisible and wait! When Mardii gets slow and his Elements as well and Mardii starts running out of spells, gulp a Potion of Clarity first and then attack him with Jhor and the Dagger of Vernom at the same time! Mardii will hate it!

Battle 10: Demons and Devils : difficulty level: easy (1st attempt); Fellow Gladiator in arena: --- Get prepared for the Battle with a Potion of Clarity or the two Handed Sword Lilarcor (immune to charm). Strategy/solution: Just let the demons kill each other! Stay out of Battle. If T'alcor is one of the last enemies, kill him from a distance by using the Firetooth Dagger first before you get stunned! Hints: Longsword Blackrazor and Celestial Fury!

The Kensai is successful and he is doing really well but I still don't feel totally comfortable that I can't wear any shield, helmet, bracers etc..

I got Celestial Fury. Idea is to get the Longsword Blackrazor, my favorite weapon, as well and get all the useful reward items from the Battles 1-10 and then go on to Battle 11 (Monks).I didn't do an level grinding yet by fighting the Wyvern in the Arena. I have lots of money right now I might do this as well.

Battle11: Monks : very easy! 1.) Oil of Speed and 2.) Greater Whirlwind Attacks with Firetooth +3. Voghiln and the Monotaur distracts these guys well.

Battle 12: Golem : Make sure that you have either Flail of Ages or Defender of Easthaven.

'''>>> I have to admit that this Kensai is amazingly fast and crazy strong by using weapons! He can compete with a Monk! '''Competition for you Dark Moon Monk!

Battle 13: Leah Redsun : It was fanatstic to face her and her Monster Golems together with @ Dulf. He summoned a Planetar whose weapon was quite vorpal. Easy Battle!

Battle 14: Rakhasas : Just use Blackrazor and Jhor. Make sure that you have the Ring of Fire Control.

Battle 16: The six fallen DEVAS ; difficulty level: easy! '''It's nearly unbelievable but the 6 Devas were no match at all for the Kensai! I never expected that! I reallt have to admit that he's the best Solo Protagonist so far for dealing with these six Devas! He's incredibly good!'''

Fellow gladiator in arena: Best choice is @ Symm Haximus! Let him join you in this battle! He's an excellent fighter! These Devas are really strong opponents! They can make you stunned, sick, can let you panic and spell feeblemind on you! Strategy/solution: Holding Blackrazor in one Hand is excellent against fear! In the other Hand '''it's good to have Celestial Fury to stun these Powerful ones! The Kensai could stun them! ''' If they make you sick too often wear the Boots of the West that make you immune to sickness. 1.) Oil of Speed; 2.) Greater Whirlwind Attacks; 3.) Summon Minotaur and fight!

Battle 17: The Demilich Twins ; difficulty level: easy; Fellow gladiator in arena: '''@ Timmo Gutbaum/Timmot Godtree! He's the best choice here!''' Strategy/solution: I was just a spectator and let Timmot fight! Hint : Of course you want the Ring of Gaxx as a reward from your fans/enemies!

Battle 18: The Three Dragons: YLLAXIA; Nyxxla and Orluss ; difficulty level: easy! (1st attempt!); Fellow Gladiator in Arena: This guy is so strong that he doesn't need the help of anybody. He used Greater Whirlwind Attacks for killing all three Dragons. Blackrazor can even drain levels from YLLAXIA! Hint : Get Foebane!

Battle19: Enegar and Kastulor, children of the dead God Bhaal ; difficulty level: '''easy! (1st attempt!)''';Fellow Gladiator in the arena: @ Symm Haximus. Strategy/solution : The Kensai managed to kill Enegar with Whirlwind Attacks together with Symm before he transformed into the big Slayer Form!! The rest was easy! You can even stun Kastulor by using Celestial Fury! Kastulor changed into the small Slayer Form. He and Symm were battling. I killed Symm because I didn't want to encounter him later as an enemy. I killed the small Slayer by using Blackrazor and Foebane.

'''Honestly I'm totally surprised how strong and fast this Kensai is! He smoked all enemies! So far he's the Best!''' I'll be interesting to see how he performs in the following Final Battle and on Gameplay level 'HARD'.

That's what the Kensai looks like on level 40 (8,000,000 experience points): own Health Hitpoints: 234; 242 by using the Axe of the Unyielding. THACO: Foebane: -25 and Damage: 33-39 HP Blackrazor: -23 and Damage: 29-36 HP by wearing the Girdle of Fire Giant Strength. But Blackrazor is cumulative. This means the strength can rise to a maximum of 25 and '''then the Damage is over 40 HP at each single blow! Wow! ''' Armor Class (AC): -4 (Ring of Gaxx; Wong Fei's Ioun Stone; The Warder's Signet +3)

Comparison Kensai and Dark Moon Monk : Dark Moon Monk Level 40 : own Health Hitpoints: 167; THACO: Fist (Fighting): -12 and Damage: 19-38 HP; AC: -17; Magic Resistance: 88 (113 by wearing the Cloak of Balduran)

The Final Battle against The Winged

Difficulty level: easy!

'''The Kensai defeated The WInged and her companions easily. Without being able to use Time Stop he attacked The Winged immediately by using Blackrazor and the Axe of the Unyielding. Two Greater Whirlwind Attacks were enough and he eliminated her quickly. Against the Mages it was good to use Blackrazor and Jhor.'''

Kensai ---> Mage Solo Walkthrough - new!
"The Kensai is perhaps the most popular choice for dual-classing into a mage since they have some of the highest damage in the game but lack the ability to equip armor. This works well with mage dual-classing as magic will provide most of the protection and immunities the Kensai lack." First idea is to even improve this Kensai. So you want to get something out of him, out of his Kensai skills first befor you Dual-Class him. Only humans can Dual-Class. You can see in the chart  Dual-Class that the current class of the Fighter (Kensai) requires a minimum strength of 15 and IQ of 17 to be class dualed to Mage.

Second idea is also to play a Berserker (Fighter) - Mage and compare him with the Kensai (Fighter) - Mage.

Question is when you class change the Kensai into a Mage. At level 12 (1,000,000 exp) the Kensai gets another weapon profiency point. '''Level 12 seems pretty perfect for dual-class. '''At level 13 he Kensai would get Attacks per Round (APR) 2 but Oil of Speed also helps to improve the APR.

Advantages: Level 12 seems pretty perfect for dual-class. When would the Kensai class be active again when he's dual-classed to a Mage at this level? Starting point in the Black Pits II for each new created character: 5,000,000 experience points. This means for the Kensai level 10. After Battle 1 Orcs : Kensai level 12 (1,000,000 exp) CLASS CHANGE to MAGE! After Battle 2 Gladiators and Minotaurs : Mage level 11 (500,000 exp) After Battle 3 Lizards : Mage level 12 (1,000,000 exp) - Kensai class NOT activated yet; After Battle 4 Umber Hulks : Mage level 14 (1,500,000 exp) and Kensai level 12 (1,000,000 exp) - reactivated!
 * -2 bonus to Armor Class
 * -1 bonus to THAC0 and +1 bonus to damage rolls every 3 levels
 * -1 bonus to Speed Factor every 4 levels, to a maximum of -10 bonus at level 36
 * May use the Kai ability once per day. Gains one use at level 1 and an additional use every 4 levels thereafter. All successful attacks within the next 10 seconds deal maximum damage

So just before Battle 5 DROWS the Kensai class is active again on time!

COMPARISON: PURE MAGE and KENSAI ---> MAGE

What are the advantages of this Dual-class Kensai - Mage? 1.) Speed factor - the movement of the Kensai-Mage is faster than this of a pure Mage. 2.) own Health Hit Points: much higher than those of a pure Mage. The Kensai (level12) - Mage (level 14) has HP 119 right now. 3.) Huge variety of weapons usage! The Kensai-Mage could even use Halberds oder the two handed Sword Spider's Bane what is neat in the combination with web! The pure Mage can only use dagger, quarterstuff, dart, sling

4.) May become Grand Master in any weapon class: e.g. Long Sword: +++++

5.) Much bigger Damage Hitpoints than a pure Mage!

6.) He can use the Wand of Monster Summoning and wear a Mage Robe like Vecna's Robe in spite of being a Kensai.

7.) It seems to be that the Mage can cast spells faster than a normal Mage. It must be the Kensai's Speed Factor.

Mage class features: Gameplay Kensai - Mage : Just some hints. If you read all my other stuff here it shouldn't be a problem for you. Of course in the Battle 1 against the Orcs the Kensai got help from Symm Haximus. Then the class change came. Battle 2 : Symm Haximus and a level 1 Mage against the Gladiators and Minotaurs. Of course the Mage used web script rolls etc. It was a close Battle. Battle 3 : Together with Dulf against the Lizards. Web + Oil of Speed + Summon Skeletons. I used the boomerand dagger as weapon of course. It's always important to kill the Lizard Shaman as fast as possible. Battle 4 : Umber Hulks: 1.) Web; 2.) Potion of Invisibility; 3.) Potion of Clarity; 4.) Web again 5.) Summon Spiders (Spiderspawn); 6.) Web; 7.) 4x Skull Trap etc.
 * May only use the following weapons: dagger, quarterstaff, dart, sling
 * May only become Proficient (one slot) in any weapon class
 * Hit Die: d4

Get the Wand of Monster Summoning, Spider's Bane, Script role 'Mordokainen's Sword' and transfer it into your spell book. Script role 'True Sight', Web of course, Stoneskin, Mirror Image etc. Make sure that you got the Golden Calf Idol in order to able to summon a Minotaur against the Drows and have the One Gift Lost for killing the small spiders with fire.

The Battle against the DROWS will be the first big challenge. But of course I'm confident. I have different strategies in my mind: Buy Simulacrum and let your Duplicate summon lots of Monsters by using the Wand of Monster Summoning. Or: Oil of Speed and use often Web in combination with Spider's Bane. Question is if the Drows really get stuck in Web. Or: Oil of Speed + Stoneskin + Mirror Image and just fight by using the Boomerang Dagger and summoning Mordo's Sword.

Tier 1 - Battle 5: DROWS : difficulty level: easyundefined; Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Ellraish. Strategy/solution: 1.) Oil of Speed; 2.) Summon Minotaur (Golden Calf Idol). 3.) Mirror Image....

Tier 2 - Battle 6: VAMPIRES : difficulty level: difficult (2ns attempt). Like always. This Battle seems to be harder than fighting the Drows. For me personally fighting the Vampires (Battle 6), the 6 fallen Devas (Battle 16), the Bhaalspawn (Battle 19) and the Final Battle are the most challenging ones in the Black Pits II.

Tier 2 - Battle 9: Mardii and his Elements : I had to come here again because the first time I didn't get Flail of Ages. I want to kill The Winged by using Blackrazor and Flail of Ages. Flail of Ages can slow enemies down. I tried another strategy this time in order to kill Mardii. I used Time Stop at once, removed his magic protection (spell level 5) and killed him after the Time Stop by using Blackrazor and Jhor. Blackrazor drained levels from him and Jhor poisoned him. Fast Battle!

'''>>> For me personally the very interesting question is: Who is better? A Dual-Class human Kensai ---> Mage or a Multi-class non-human Fighter / Mage?'''

COMPARISON: FIGHTER / MAGE and KENSAI ---> MAGE

Fighter / Mage : huge advantage:''' Time Stop + Greater Whirlwind Attacks! He can use bracers and gloves and pretty much any kind of weapon.'''

Kensai ---> Mage : No Whirlwind Attacks, but: nice Speed Factor and Weapon skills up to Grand Mastery, e.g. Long Sword: +++++; he can't use darts but Firetooth +3 as a missile weapon. He can't wear bracers or gloves. It's a pity!

It turned out that the Fighter / Mage is much better because of this combination: Time Stop + Greater Whirlwind (Attack)

Battle 16: The six fallen DEVAS ; difficulty level: not so easy (1st attempt). I think the Kensai ---> Mage was just lucky. Fellow gladiator in arena: Best choice is @ Symm Haximus! Let him join you in this battle! He's an excellent fighter! These Devas are really strong opponents! They can make you stunned, sick, can let you panic and spell feeblemind on you! The Kensai ---> Mage used Blackrazor and the Flail of Ages as weapons. Strategy/solution: 1.) Time Stop => Summon Planetar, Mordo Sword and fight! 2.) Oil of Speed; 3.) Summon Minotaur and fight!

Battle 19: The BHAALSPAWN ; difficulty level: not so easy (2nd attempt). '''@ Symm Haximus. '''I was really good to have Chain Contingency prepared: Stoneskin, True Sight and Mordokainen's Sword. By using True Sight I could see the Bhaal Cultists and kill them easily by using Blackrazor and Flail of Ages. It didn't work out to kill Enegar at once together with Symm Haximus.Enegar turned into the Big Slayer Form the Ravager (like his weapon too). I was surprised to see that Symm Haximus was able to kill Kastulor who had turned into the Small Slayer form. But the Big Slayer was oeverwhelming for Symm. I distracted the Big Slayer with Mordokainen's Swords and other creatures (> Wand of Monster Summoning) and killed him with Foebane and Flail of Ages.

The Bhaalspawn Enegar is very dangerous! He has an excellent weapon, the Halberd Ravager, that is vorpal, "Ravager +6 deals now 1d10 +6 points of damage and it has -6 THAC0 bonus. The weapons weighs 10 lbs and it has a speed factor of 3. The weapon has two combat abilities: it can deal 3-18 points with each if the target fails a save vs. poison and it can decapitate an opponent with 10% chance, for which no saving throw can be made. The decapitation instant-kills most normal enemies, most bosses are immune to it. In this state, Ravager is the most powerful halberd available and a very powerful weapon."

The Final Battle against The Winged Difficulty level: difficult!

I had a nice plan for the Final Battle (see below) and I used Time Stop at once and attacked the Winged with Blackrazor and Flail of Ages by using the KAI Function. I nearly killed her, only nearly. She recovered...

'''I just see that there's nothing better than the combination of Time Stop and Greater Whirlwind Attacks for killing the Winged! The Kensai ---> Mage (Dual-Class; human) has unfortunately no Whirlwind Attacks so he's obviously inferior to a Fighter / Mage (Multi-Class; non - human). '''

Fighting as a Mage by using Project Image! Idea for the Final Battle against The WInged and her evil companions is to use Time Stop first in order to kill The Winged. Afterwards I'll use a Potion of Invisibility or the Staff of the Magi. When I'm invisible the other can't see me any more. I'll cast a Project Image and I myself will remain invisible!!! The Project Image will fight by using spells. The Project Image can't attack by using weapons or Energy Blades but Magic Missiles work! I don't want to try it more often. I'm looking for the best Solo Protagonists. And for sure it's not the Kensai ---> Mage.

Bye!

Fighter / Mage / Cleric Solo Walkthrough - new!
This combination is very solid. Of course your progress in getting slots for the Mage is incredibly slow but as a Mage you can use a Script Role of the 9th level any time! So I used the Black Blade of Disaster against the DROWS (Battle 5). It was the perfect weapon for slaughtering them!

By playing a Fighter / Mage / Cleric you want to get out the best of the single Classes! So I recommend regarding the Fighter Class Dex: 18 and Con: 18. In Black Pits II I choose only Strength:9 because you can get nice Gloves and Girdles easily for improving your Strength. IQ: 15 and Wisdom: 15.

My main weapon so far was a sling +3 and bullets +4. It was exciting to get the Staff of the Magi and use the Staff of the Ram as well. You can use Flail of Ages and Crom Faeyr but not Swords like Blackrazor. Ererad's Sling from the God Tempus combined with bullets +4 is a brutal weapon! What I like about the Fighter / Mage / Cleric (F/M/Cl), he can wear a strong Armor and still use his Cleric Spells! Of course Bladesinger Chain (Battle 5: DROWS) is first choice for using Priest Spells and Mage ones at the same time. Battle 5: DROWS : Use the Black Blade of Disaster!

The F/M/Cl defeated all his enemies in his first attempt until he encountered Leah Redsun in Battle 13. I tried sth new. I gave Ellraish a chance but he failed. But Gerrold was great! He killed Lea by himself.

Battle 13: Leah Redsun : Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Gerrold. He killed Leah by himself. Gerrold likes to use comets. Gerrold is excellent as well against the Monks. The F/M/Cl used Limited Wish for Time Stop and removing Lea's magic protection. Battle 16: 6 fallen Devas : Fellow Gladiator in Arena: @ Symm. HE DIED! THIS HAPPENS VERY SELDOM! The F/M/Cl is a really good fighter but not an excellent one.

So I could go on playing against Enegar and The Winged. I'm convinced that he will manage; not easily but he will. Idea for the final Battle would be: Time Stop and Greater Whirlwind Attack with Staff of the Ram against The Winged. It should work. After she's dead Project Image (he's wearing the Bladesinger Chain) and summon two Cleric Devas. Poison the Mages with the Serpent Shaft. I'll go on playing the Berserker ---> Cleric. That's more exciting. Fighter / Cleric and Fighter / Druid (Hello Jaheira!) sounds good to me too.

Fighter / Mage / Cleric - experience points overview :

3,000,000 exp: He gets his first Higher Level Class (HLA) ability but he can't choose a Deva yet because his Cleric side hasn't reached level 7 spells yet. But he can choose Whirlwind Attack.

About 4,000,000 exp: The Cleric side gets his first level 7 spell! Yeah! From now on he can choose a Deva as HLA

About 6,000,000 exp: The Cleric side gets his second level 7 spell. The Mage side got his first level 7 spell in the meantime too. I like to use Mordokainen's Sword or Limited Wish.

 8,000,000 exp erience points : Fighter Level 18: 2,666,666 exp. / Mage Level 17: 2,666,666 exp. / Cleric Level 19: 2,666,666 exp.  The Cleric has in the end ONLY 2x level spell 7 slots (Wisdom: 17); the Mage has 3x level spell 8 slots BUT I couldn't transfer any script roles into these three slots. Is ist a bug? I don't know what's going on. I would have liked to transfer 'Pierce Shield' or 'Abi's Horrid Wilting'. Really strange.

At the end (8,000,000 exp) : AC: -14 (Fortress Shield +3; Ring of Gaxx etc.); THACO: -12 (Crom Faeyr); Damage: 23-29; HP: only 133 (Constitution of 18; Half-Elf)

Result : Big advantages of this Fighter / Mage / Cleric combination are that the Character has access to lots of different items and spells. Great! He can use Time Stop, Greater Whirlwind Attack, Black Blade of Disaster, Restoration (Cleric level 7 spell) etc.. But this Fighter / Mage / Cleric is just a compromise for me. It's solid but it will never be my favorite. Playing a Mage I would like to have at least one level 9 spell slot. His fighting skills are really good but not excellent. 2x level 7 cleric spells are really nice, but only two? Cleric Level 19 is far away from Level 25 when you can get a very useful Symbol of a God (e.g. Symbol of the God Lathander). So this combination is a little bit disappointing for me but I didn't expect otherwise.

Archer Solo Walkthrough - new!
"Archer is a Ranger kit. Archers have full access to all five proficiency levels of any bow type but can only have one proficiency point in any melee weapon."

This Warrior is very easy to play. At level 18 (3,000,000) you will get your first HLA (Higher Level Class Ability). Of course you will choose Whirlwind Attack and later Greater Whirlwind Attack. Having APR 10x (attacks per Round) is amazing and very effective!

I recommend wpp: Long Bow: +++++. Long Bow should be your main weapon and not a Cross Bow. It's all about speed! Arrows of Biting + Arrows of Dispelling + Arrows +4 (+3) and the Quiver of Plenty with endless  Arrows +1.

Battle13: Mardii : I waited a long time first and then used a Greater Whirlwind Attack and Arrows of Biting for killing him.

Battle 18: 3 Dragons : 1.) Vhailor's Helm; 2.) Oil of Speed; 3.) Arrows of Dispelling for removing Yllaxiaa's magic proctection. It worked fine so that afterwards even the Minotaur (Golden Calf Idol) did 43 damage to Yllaxia.

Battle 19: Bhaalspawn : The big Slayer got killed by Arrows +4

The Final Battle against The Winged

'''Difficulty level: easy! (2nd attempt)'''

I tried to kill The Winged at once by using Vhailor's Helm and creating a Duplicate that immediatley used Greater Whirlwind Attack and arrows +4 against her but True Sight destroyed this nice illusion and so the Archer was on his own again in fighting The Winged. He didn't manage to kill her at once.

So I had to follow the common strategy when a Protagonist is not able to kill The Winged at once: I killed Pol Pyrrus by using Jhor and Blackrazor. Pol got poisoned and level drained. Afterwards I killed Joker by using Blackrazor and the Axe of the Unyielding. It was a vorpal hit. Now it was time for killing The Winged. Thassk Khun was already poisoned and made himself invisible and Bannor is slow anayway. I used Greater Whirlwind Attack and Arrows +4 (Arrows +3 would have been sufficient) for killing her. Killing Thass Khun and Bannor was not effort at all.

For sure the idea of creating an Archer ---> Mage is good but you have to be aware of that you won't get the Greater Whirlwind Attack for killing enemies. The Archer reaches at level 18 his Whirlwind Attack Ability. Archer / Mage (Multi-class) is unfortunately not possible because Archer is a Class kit.

Result : The Archer is strong and effective and can kill many enemies at once by using Greater Whirlwind Attack and a Longbow but not all. He's vulnerable to Magic so it's good to gulp a Potion first that protects him from Magic before challenging Battles.

Cleric Solo Walkthrough - new!
I normally wouldn't play a pure Cleric in the Black Pits II. I just do it in order to confirm my conclusions and results that a Berserker ---> Cleric (Dual-class) is better than a pure Cleric and a Fighter / Cleric (Multi-class) is even superior to both of them.

Priest (pure Class: Branwen, Viconia DeVir): weak. Weapon Class: only Proficient (one 1 Slot): Sling:+; Flail:+

BETTER/SUPERIOR : Berserker (level 10 or 12) ---> Cleric (Dual-class; human. Anomen Delryn is a Fighter (level 7) ---> Cleric, he's NOT a Berserker.): still weak. Weapon Class: Grand Master): Flail:+++++, but Sling: +

 BEST : Fighter / Cleric (Multi-class; non-human: Yeslick Orothiar) Weapon Class: Specialised (2 Slots): Sling:++; Flail:++. The HUGE Advantage of the Fighter / Cleric is his Greater Whirlwind Attack Ability that he gets at 3,000,000 experience points.

Cleric Walkthroug h :

Battle 1 - Orcs : @Ellraish. He died. Animal Summoning II (Level 5). Battle 2 - Gladiators : @Symm Haximus. Summon Aerial Servant (Level 6); Battle 3 - Lizards : @Gerrold. He died. Gate (Level 7: casting time only 5); Battle 4 - Umber Hulks : @Feldrak. He died. Gate, Potion of Invisibility, Potion of Clarity, Oil of Speed. Battle 5 DROWS (1st attempt) : @ Hulda. She died. Regeneration (level 7 spell) + Draw upon Holy Might and fight! LEVEL GRINDING! => 3,200,000 exp => Cleric Level 22: spell level 7: 3x; Battle 6: VAMPIRES (1st attempt) : 1.) Gate; 2.) DEVA (1 had DEVA 2x prepared). Battle 7 - Gith : @Voghiln. Oil of Speed and Sling+3. Battle 8: Water Elements (Weird) : Fire Elements (> Staff of Fire).

Main weapon in the first 8 Battles: Sling +3 and Bullets+2; against the Vampires you need Bullets +3 at least. Pure Cleric: Sling +3: APR 1x => Oil of Speed => APR 2x - still bad in my eyes.

Battle 9: Mardii and his ELements : FIRST BIG CHALLENGE for the Cleric. Mardii can stun you! Protection: Shield of the Archons (Spell level 7); it's very similiar like the Spell Trap for the Mages. I killed him by using Energy Blades (priest). Battle 10: Demons : Remove Fear and wear the Shield of Harmony. Battle 11 - Monks : @Dulf and his two Mordokainen's Swords. Energy Blades, Aura of Flaming Death, Globe of Blades. Battle 12 - Golem : Defender of Easthaven; Regeneration (spell level 7). Battle 13 - Leah Redsun : @ Dulf. Shield of the Archones. Sling +3. Battle 14 - Raks : Dragon Scale + Ring of Fire Control. Serpent Shaft. Battle 15 - Illthids : @ Gezzi. Oil of Speed and Energy Blades.

Regarding the first 15 Battles the Priest managed to defeat all enemies in her first attempt! But how strong the Priest really is the four following Battles will show: Devas - Dragons - Bhaalspawn and the Final Battle.

By the way the Priest is a 'she'. I gave her the name Viconia and she's evil. ;-)

''' Battle 16 - 6 fallen Devas : It's usually the first huge challenge for Solo Protagonists! Of course I wanted the best fellow Gladiator to accompany her in his tremendous task; @ Symm Haximus'''. The Priest weapon profiency points are not really encouraging: Sling: +, Flail: +, War Hammer: +, Two weapon style: +, Quarterstaff: +, Two wepaon style: + Attacking the Devas by using spells is no option because tey are incredibly fast and will interrupt spell casting pretty much each time. So there's the only option with weapons. From a distance: sling+4 and bullets+4. Melee combat: Staff of the Ram. APR can get improved by gulping a Potion of Speed. The good news and surprise is that the evil Priest Viconia managed in her 4th attempt to defeat the Devas. First time they made Viconia sick. Second time she got stunned. Third time she panicked and got killed. Remove Fear can be immediately cast upon the Priest: Casting time: 1. By wearing the Amuelt of Power: at once. Casting time: 1-1 =0 So, how did she defeat the Devas? 1.) Use Vhailor's Helm and let the Duplicate summon the Mnotaur for distraction. 2.) Oil of Speed! Crucial! 3.) Remove fear 4.) Fight! Unfortunately Symm Haximus died soon. So Viconia faced three Devas on her own. Oil of Speed and lots of bullets +4! Victory!

Battle 17: Two Liches : @ Timmoth Godtree/Timmot Gutbaum. Help him! Shield of the Archones and Club of Detonation +5. Unholy Word doesn't work against the unholy ones only Timmoth's Holy Word. Battle 18 - Three Dragons : @ Lea. Symm is already dead. Lea was excellent and cast Maze on Yllaxxia what worked. This gave time for summoning assisstance, e.g. like Aerial Servants. Important is to cast 'Dispel Magic' on Yllaxxia. Battle 19 - Bhaalspawn : @ Hort. Enegar and Kastulor changed into their Slayer Forms. Hort could harm the Big Slayer. The Small Slayer got killed by the Club of Detonation and the Big one by Bullets +4.

'''It's disappointing to see that the Priest's Duplicate created by Vhailor's Helm can summon as a maximum two Devas. And the Priest has reached level 40 (8,000,000 exp).'''

Priest, level 40 (8,000,000 exp) : level 7 spell slots 8x !!!, Health HP: 157; AC: -15 (Enkidu's Full Plate +3; Darksteel Shield +4), THACO: -5, Damage HP: 18-23 (Club of Detonation +5)

So far so good. The Final Battle will show how good the Cleric really is. Strategy for the Final Batte will be to kill The Winged with Bullets +4 as well. I see no other option. The Priest is much too weak in melee combat. Only weapon for poisoning the Mages is the Serpent Shaft. Let's see if she manages.

Ranking list of the BEST SOLO Walkthrough PROTAGONISTS
This list is my subjective ranking list. You are welcome to say your opinion who's the best Solo Walkthrough Protagonist! Please add an explanation for your choice!

I think if a Solo Protagonist manages a Walkthrough through the Black Pits II on level Core Rules, Hard or INSANE it's very likely that this Solo Protagonist will manage a Walkthrough through the whole Baldur's Gate Series: BG I, Tales of the Sword Coast, SoD, BG II and Throne of Bhaal.

Ranking list of the BEST SOLO PROTAGONIST on difficulty level 'easy' :
 * 1) Kensai: He smoked them all! All enemies, even The Winged and her evil companions were no match for him. He's just incredibly strong and fast. I have to admit that's he's the BEST so far. It's a huge surprise for me. I didn't expect that. So here's serious competition for the Dark Moon Monk, the Fighter / Mage and the Fighter /Thief. Of course the Kensai should prove his skills and abilities on level #HARD and #INSANE too.
 * 2) Fighter / Mage (Lea Gosh 'Aar): Extremely flexible! Access to all great weapons and spells! Brilliant!!!
 * 3) Dark Moon Monk (He's a perfect Killing Machine! He's for sure the strongest Solo Protagonist so far! He's even stronger than the Dwarven Defender! Having reached high levels he's immune to poison and even magic (over 100% by wearing the Cloak of Balduran)!!! He has some nice spells as well (e.g. Mirror Image). No one can escape from him because of his 'Detect Illusion' skill! I have to figure out how strong he really is. Is he even better than the Fighter / Mage on level #Hard and #Insane?
 * 4) Dragon Disciple: He/She's a stronger version of a sorcerer! 100% fire resistance at level 16 and gets nice bonus for armor and constitution. She's incredibly strong by using Time Stop and Black Blade of Disaster. Having reached level 30 and wearing the Ring of Gaxx she always had Improved Haste and 6 attacks per round! Wow! Compare Combat abilities of Carsomyr for a level 30 character. Of course it will be interesting to see how she's doing on level Hard.
 * 5) Swashbuckler (He's extremely flexible, especially through his Use Any Item ability and his THAC0 is really good! Much better than this of the Assassin! The Swashbuckler's Armor Class easily reaches the maximum of -24! The Swashbuckler can use Time Stop + Whirlwind Attack and Great Weapons for killing The Winged!)
 * 6) Blackguard (Dorn Il-Khan): Can summon a fallen Deva as help! Poison weapon ability! Absorb health ability! Immune to level drain! Strong Fighter who has even access to a bunch of useful spells!
 * 7) Inquisitor (Keldorn Firecam): He's excellent! He's a Hunter and can kill Mages easily by using True Sight and Dispel Magic. He's strong and can use lots of powerful weapons. I especially like that he can summon lots of Devas like a Sorcerer by using Vhailor's Helm. In my eyes he has about the same strength like the Blackguard. I would prefer playing a Blackguard because of his level drain resistance and more exciting abilities.
 * 8) Archer: Of course the combination of Greater Whirlwind Attack and Longbow is very effective! But it didn't work properly when the Archer faced The Winged and her evil companions.He's vulnerbale concernig Magic.Hard to tell who's better - an Archer or a Kensai ---> Druid. For sure the latter combination is more exciting to play.
 * 9) Kensai ---> Druid: He's really good and strong. For sure he's superior to a pure Druid like the Totemic Druid. He didn't struggle at all.
 * 10) Sorcerer (Baeloth Barrityl): Lots of great spells but weak in melee combat when not able to use magic! See the fight against Dormamus. >>> I figured out that you can make yourself invisible first by using the Staff of the Magi and afterwards you can summon a Project Image (spell level 7) and you still remain invisible as Main Protagonist! That's incredible! This means if you manage to kill The Winged first the other evil companions can't see you any more and can't kill you while your Project Image is active! (21st Nov 2017)
 * 11) Totemic Druid (He smoked it all until he reached the Final Battle!!! Here he struggled a lot with casting spells. He's just so slow in casting spells! Like the Fighter Cleric! Terrible! But he managed to defeat The Winged and her companions. Playing a Totemic Druid is great except his slow spell casting!)
 * 12) Barbarian (Barbarian Rage and movement rate are a big Plus. He struggled against the Vampires like the Assassin Fighter. They are nearly equal Fighters.)
 * 13) Assassin Fighter (He's a really strong fighter who can even poison weapons! He struggled a bit in the Battle against The Winged and her companions. But perhaps it was only my poor playing. With his poison weapon ability he should be superior to a Dwarven Defender.)
 * 14) Dwarven Defender (Symm Haximus; compare the two Dwarfs: Kagain (Dwarven Fighter); Korgan Bloodaxe (Dwarven Berserker) - He's a Tank!): He's incredibly strong by using his Defensive Stance! Stronger than the Big Slayer and The Winged! The Dwarven Defender is a Giant! But he was helpless against the Drows on level Hard. He can't make invisible enemies seen. I can fully understand if people love to play this character. Concerning the whole Baldur's Gate Realm he's only a great team player for me.
 * 15) Fighter ---> Cleric (Anomen): He's unfortunately so slow in casting spells. Such a pity! I like this combination a lot! I should be fair and have another try with this Protagonist. I played in an early stage with him and in the meantime I gained quite a bit of experience. In addition I didn't let him upgrade (> level grinding in fighting the Wyvern). But I guess that the Totemic Druid will always be superior to him because the Druid can summon Elemental Princes.
 * 16) Assassin (Ellraish): In spite of all his nice and useful skills (e.g. Use Any Item) he got stuck in Battle 19 against the Big Slayer. He didn't make it to the Final Battle against The Winged. The Assassin is too weak in melee combat. Concerning the whole Baldur's Gate Realm he's only a team player for me. He won't make it on his own against Endgame Super Bosses who are immune to poison, backstabbing and don't care if you are visible or invisible because they can see you anyway, e.g. The Winged or the Big Slayer. Battle 19: I might try Time Stop + Imprisonment on Enegar before he turns into the Big Slayer Form...last hope for killing Enegar.

Ranking list of the BEST SOLO PROTAGONIST on difficulty level #HARD :
 * 1) Fighter / Mage (Lea Gosh 'Aar): Extremely flexible! Access to all great weapons and spells! Brilliant!!! He managed easily on level #Hard! The Fighter / Mage is quite a guy!
 * 2) Dwarven Defender (Symm Haximus; compare the two Dwarfs: Kagain (Dwarven Fighter); Korgan Bloodaxe (Dwarven Berserker) - He's a Tank!): He's incredibly strong by using his Defensive Stance! Stronger than the Big Slayer and The Winged! The Dwarven Defender is a Giant! But he was helpless against the clever DROWS on level Hard. He can't make invisible enemies seen. The DROW Priest approached him unseen and cast Harm on him so that his Hitpoints got reduced to 1 HP only! Afterwards it was very easy for the other DROWS to kill him. This happened several times when I tried it. Result: Concerning the whole Baldur's Gate Realm he's only a great team player for me.

Concerning the Sorcerer/Dragon Disciple:

>>> I figured out that you can make yourself invisible first by using the Staff of the Magi and afterwards you can summon a Project Image (spell level 7) and you still remain invisible as Main Protagonist! That's incredible! This means if you manage to kill The Winged first the other evil companions can't see you any more and can't kill you while your Project Image is active! (21st Nov 2017)

**********************************************************************************

If I find time I'll play the Swashbuckler, Dark Moon Monk, Blackguard, Dragon Disciple etc. on level #Hard and #Insane like I did with the Fighter Mage in order to find out who's really the Best! I'm convinced that the Fighter Mage will remain Number One!

Ideas for future Black Pits II Solo Walkthroughs
I just, - today is the 19th of October 2017 -, went to Beamdog Forum and got ideas for future Solo Walkthroughs here by reading Harpagornis stuff.

Ideas :

- (Dwarven) Bounty Hunter ( I hope my PC doesn't stop working with all these trap explosions! ;-) ). If it was really true with the maze trap the Bounty Hunter would be incredibly strong! - Still playing!

- Barbarian: hm, is he not a kind of Dwarven Defender? I can't imagine that he comes far when the artificial Intelligence (AI) is as good as the ones of the Drows in Battle 5 on level #HARD. - Played!

- Dragon Disciple - Played!

- Totemic Druid/Fighter (Dual): this might be hard to play here in the Black Pits II if you want to reach Druid Level 15 (3 000 000 exp points) first (> Summon Elemental Prince)! Totemic Druid/Fighter (Multi-Class) is probably not allowed. - Played (Pure Totemic Druid)!

- Swashbuckler (Thief) > Level 24: Use Any Item > Use Mage scrolls > Time Stop. The Swashbuckler has to be stronger than an Assassin (see above) otherwise he'll have no chance against the Big Slayer. - Played!

- Dark Moon Monk - Played!

- Paladin > Inquisitor > "Hello Keldorn Firecam!" ;-) > CARSOMYR is a 'must' against The Winged! I guess that the Paladin is in all variations a little bit weaker than the Blackguard. - Played!

- Cleric /Mage > The Winged or Aerie. Hahahahaha! Defeating The Winged with a Cleric / Mage. Let's see! Probably I can't choose an Elf for this combination... ''- Still playing! Next Battle will be against the Devas (Battle 16)''



I NEED A BREAK!

Of course I would like to finish the Bounty Hunter Walkthrough and try playing a new Solo Protagonist, a pure Kensai and a Kensai-Mage (Dual). "The Kensai is perhaps the most popular choice for dual-classing into a mage since they have some of the highest damage in the game but lack the ability to equip armor. This works well with mage dual-classing as magic will provide most of the protection and immunities the Kensai lack."

But I need a break. I learned lots here in the Black Pits II. I will go back to BG II, EE and play a good party with a Fighter / Mage and always 2 additional Party Members on Level #Hard on a very slow pace and just enjoy the game! Probably finally Nalia (Thief-Mage, Dual-Class) and Rasaad will be my consistent Party Members. After gaining lots of experience I might try a real Fighter / Mage Solo Walkthrough like Harpagornis suggests. Let's see. My time for playing is in God's Hands.

Yeah, enjoy playing BG II, EE on Level #Hard. Minsc, Nalia and the Fighter / Mage just defeated Torgal and the Fighter / Mage became the proud owner of a Stronghold. Before defeating Torgal I already bought Firetooth+4 for Nalia, got Daystar at the Gate of Amn (Crooked Crane Inn) and have the Berserker Warrior -Horn/Silver Horn of Valhalla (Horn House in the Bridge District) that got improved by using a diamond. Stealing a ring of regeneration from Ribald in the beginning was extremely useful! After getting a reward from Nalia I managed to buy the Robe of Vecna for the Fighter / Mage. That's great. Next journey will lead me to Handelstreff (Trademeet). There's a nice reward waiting for me for delivering the Town from the Djinnis.

My personal Walkthrough for BG II,EE :

If you want to get some impressions of how I play BG II,EE have a look at my profile page.

Observations/Conclusions/Results concerning Black Pits II Solo Walkthroughs
There are 4 main Classes: Warrior (Fighter) - Wizard (Mage) - Priest and Rogue. Only the Fighter Solo Protagonists and Mage Protagonists can really stand on their own. The Priest and the Rogue struggle except the Monks, Swashbuckler and Bounty Hunter. The Monks, especially the Dark Moon Monk with his skills and abilities and high magic resistance of 88 can stand on its own. Class combinations - either Dual-Class human or Multi-Class non-human - are usually always better than a pure form of a Protagonist. '''It became clear to be me that Solo Protagonists with Multi-Class combinations are the best ones! ''' E.g. the Fighter / Mage (Multi-class) is clearly superior to the Dual-class Kensai ---> Mage. '''There's nothing stronger than the Time Stop + Greater Whirlwind combination! '''The Kensai > Mage doesn't have it. So really strong combinations are the following Multi-Class ones : Fighter / Mage; Fighter / Thief (Coran; in my eyes Coran is with this class combination the best in Baldur's Gate I ); Fighter / Druid (Jaheira); Fighter / Cleric (not Anomen, he's Dual-Class); Cleric / Mage (Aerie; The Winged); Mage / Thief (Use Any Item ability; Jan Jansen is a Illusionist / Thief). I'm playing a Fighter / Mage / Cleric combination right now and it seems to be very solid. Can't say anything about Fighter / Mage / Thief yet.

I'm also playing a BG I, BG II and Throne of Bhaal, EE Solo Walthrough on level Insane. I'm totally impressed by a Fighter / Thief Protagonist who has the awesome Use Any Item ability (level 24). Because he can even set dangerous traps before Battles and Fights take place he seems to be even superior to the brilliant Fighter / Mage. Even Demogorgon was no match for him!

'''I'm not surprised that a Fighter / Thief is the best one! '''He is a Multi-class combination and has even access to a class that can stand on its own - the Wizard. The Fighter / Thief is extremely flexible and great!

Following the results of the Black Pits II Solo Walkthroughs only these two pure Classes seem to be able to compete with a Fighter / Mage and Fighter / Thief: Kensai and Dark Moon Monk.

(Gejadus, 17.April 2018/17th April 2018)

The big gain of playing The Black Pits II
I never want to be misunderstood. The Black Pits II itself is NOT the Main Game for me. It's BG II Enhanced Edition and Throne of Bhaal of course! But by playing the Black Pits II I didn't only had tons of fun and excitement I also figured out lots about classes, characters and their skills, possible enemies, great weapons and items in BG II. I could figure this out within a really short amount of time. I need for a Solo Walkthrough perhaps 4-5 hours but playing BG II is at least 200 hours and you don't want to find out after 50 or 100 hours that you have chosen the wrong Protagonist Player or do you? After finishing Tier 1, the first 5 Battles, within only one hour of playing your Protagonist will already have gained 3 000 000 experience points and you'll get a good insight in the character's skills and abilities.

I learned lots here by playing the Black Pits II and when I will play BG II again I have a deeper insight and can enjoy this brilliant game even more! Just recently I realized that high level Monks are incredibly strong Fighters. When I played BG I and encountered Rasaad yn Bashir I was curious and took him in my party. After a short time already I dismissed him because I thought he's weak. Yes, he's weak in the beginning, but later he will become a kind of Killing Machine!

I wish you lots of new insight in characters, classes, weapons, items and enemies by playing the Black Pits II!

Gejadus

Baldur's Gate I + II, EE and Throne of Bhaal - my personal Walkthroughs
If you want to get some impressions of how I play BG II,EE have a look at my profile page.

I expect that you already know BG II and are not a beginner! I don't explain every step - too much work and I'm a busy man - I just want to give some hints for players who already know the game well and give details only when they are necessary e.g. defeating Kangaxx. I want to help players to enjoy these brilliant Games even more.

Writing down steps on my profile page was also selfish. I didn't want to write these steps on paper for myself or do lots of savings in the game itself. It's my personal Walkthrough when I want to replay this game again and don't want to miss certain steps.

Baldur's Gate II, Enhanced Edition - short general Walkthrough for a Party of 3 - level INSANE
I finished the BG II, EE Walkthrough with a Party of three - a Fighter / Mage, Nalia and Rasaad on level Insane (15th November 2017). It was NOT difficult. It seems that I learned quite a lot by playing the Black Pits II.

You're welcome to have a look at my profile page.

Enjoy!

General Considerations for a Solo Walkthrough in Baldur's Gate, II EE
There are three aspects to be considered:

1.) THAC0 - How strong is the fighting ability of the Solo Protagonist? Is he able to defeat the Big Slayer by using brutal force or not? The Assassin in Black Pits II failed in spite of his skills: backstabbing, poison weapon ability etc.. A Sorcerer, Mage or Dragon Disciple would be strong enough by using Time Stop and summoning the Black Blade of Disaster (spell level 9). - But the Assassin is a Thief. So why should be not be able to kill the Big Slayer? He can use Time Stop and Black Blade of Disaster as well. Play it again! Or is he too weak because he has no Whirlwind Attacks? It might be that the Assassin is not strong enough to kill the Big Slayer at once (even Enegar still in his human form) and that he's finally running out of script rolls (e.g. Mordokainen's Swords) for killing the Big Slayer.

Long Sword - My favorite weapon is Blackrazor. So the Protagonist should have the ability to use a Long Sword. Celestial Fury is also a really nice weapon. So Katana as well!

=> No Cleric and Druid Solo Protagonist.

2.) Magic - it would be really great if the Solo Protagonist would be able to use Magic, e.g. Mislead, Time Stop, Imprisonment etc. So not only Mages, but also Bards and Thiefs (level 24 > Use Any Item) should be considered. Mislead is an excellent weapon for a Solo Protagonist in BG II, EE - not so much in the Black Pits II. Magic also makes the Game play really interesting.

=> No Paladins (sorry Keldorn!), pure Fighters etc.

3.) Disarm Traps and Open chests and doors - Sometimes the Protagonist can open doors and chest by brutal force. A Mage can use the spell 'Knock'. Traps can be detected even by the Dark Moon Monk what helps. But it would be nice to disarm them and not get harmed by them. So what?

My favorite Solo Protagonist is a Fighter / Mage. Just brilliant! But he would get harmed by his inability to detect and disarm traps. On such a long journey like through BG II and Throne of Bhaal it would be nice to have even these skills.

'''Create a Thief first (100% disarm traps) and then change him into a Fighter / Mage! That would be wonderful. But, I guess, it won't work'''.

Create a Mage (Illusionist)/Thief like Jan Jansen is? His THAC0 is too weak! It doesn't work.

Of course Fighter / Thief would be an option and at level 24 Use Any Item ability. Hello Coran! But Coran has much better weapon proficiency points - you can't copy it. I would also like to get Long Sword: ++++ and Bow: ++++ but it doesn't work. I'll only have ++ as a maximum for each weapon.

Or a Thief -> Fighter (Dual-Class)? Thief level 24 and afterwards change to Fighter doesn't work.

Fighter / Mage / Thief (Multi-class) would be possible but I have doubts that you can ever get a level 9 spell slot. And Thief level 24 Use Any Item? The procedure is just too slow.

What about a Swashbuckler?

Swashbuckler (He's extremely flexible, especially through his Use Any Item ability (level 24) and his THAC0 is really good! Much better than this of the Assassin! The Swashbuckler's Armor Class easily reaches the maximum of -24! The Swashbuckler can use Time Stop + Whirlwind Attack and Great Weapons for killing The Winged!)

The Swashbuckler has 1.) good THAC0 2.) can use Magic and 3.) can disarm traps and open chests !!! and 4.) can even set dangerous traps and pickpocket items like Ribald's Ring of Regeneration

Swashbuckler

Advantages:


 * +1 bonus to armor class at the start and +1 bonus every five levels (+9 AC at level 40).
 * +1 bonus to THAC0 and damage every five levels (+8 to-hit and damage at level 40).
 * May become specialized in all melee weapons a thief may use. This is an extra +1 to-hit and +2 damage (but does not gain extra 1/2 attack warrior Classes get for weapon specialization).
 * Can invest up to three points in two weapons style instead of one point (an extra +2 to-hit with main hand and +4 to-hit with off hand compared to other thieves).
 * Gains the ability to take Whirlwind Attack high level ability from the Fighter pool multiple times in place of Assassination once.

Result ''': It seems to me that it makes lots of sense to try a BG II, EE Solo Walkthrough by playing a Swashbuckler. HINT : It turned out that a Fighter / Thief is superior to a Swashbuckler! It's better to go for a Fighter / Thief! The Fighter / Thief is fantastic to play after having reached 3,000,000 experience points and the Use Any Item ability with it!'''

Swashbuckler Solo Walkthrough for BG II, EE - level 'Core Rules'
My Solo Protagonist is a Swashbuckler. I'm playing on difficulty level 'Core Rules' - so it's the normal difficulty level.

You're welcome to have a look at my profile page.

Meanwhile The Swashbuckler has reached level 24 (3,080,000 experience pints) and has the Use Any Item ability now! His real life starts now!

The Swasbuckler got the Staff of the Magi BEFORE sailing to the Asylum Spellhold Island and he's about to get the Ring of Gaax! The Staff of the Magi and Ring of Gaax would be excellent items for the challenges in the Underdark. Fighting the 5 Demonic Knights will probably the hardest challenge.

Swashbuckler Solo Walkthrough for BG I, EE - level INSANE
I just restarted it. I hadn't finished it yet with a human Swashbuckler. I created an improved version a Dwarven Swashbuckler with the starting attribute: Constitution: 19. Of course I want to get to Con 20 at least. A stronger Swashbuckler can be better compared to the Dwarven Fighter / Thief who's strong anyway and who might be the BEST SOLO PROTAGONIST at all! Let's see!

I'm glad that the Swashbuckler could defeat Sarevok as well and he made it to BG II, EE! Congrats Swashbuckler!

My personal Fighter / Mage Solo Walkthrough for Baldur's Gate
I want to try a Fighter / Mage (Dual-class; non-human) Solo Walkthrough on level Insane. Insane is the hardest difficulty level on my German BG I+II, Enhanced Edition.

Starting point will be Baldur's Gate I. I want to explore Durlag's Tower. I don't know yet about the other ToS (Tales of the Sword Coast) stuff. Maximum experience points will be 161,000.

Of course I will play Baldur's Gate II, EE and afterwards Throne of Bhaal.

This will be the real challenge for me!

You're welcome to have a look at my profile page.

I don't know if I will manage. The Swasbuckler is doing great on his Solo Wakthrough in BG II, EE on difficulty level 'Core Rules' right now. But the Fighter / Mage is my favorite Solo Protagonist so I want to try it if time allows.

Considerations for a Fighter / Mage Solo Walkthrough
My main reason for a Fighter / Mage is the amazing combination of Time Stop and Greater Whirlwind Attacks. At the same time the Fighter has access to brilliant weapons like Blackrazor, Celestial Fury and Axe of the Unyielding.

1.) THAC0 - How strong is the fighting ability of the Solo Protagonist? Is he able to defeat the Big Slayer by using brutal force or not?

2.) Magic - it would be really great if the Solo Protagonist would be able to use Magic, e.g. Mislead, Time Stop, Imprisonment etc.

3.) Disarm Traps and Open chests and doors - Sometimes the Protagonist can open doors and chest by brutal force. A Mage can use the spell 'Knock'.

Creating a Fighter / Mage from scratch : What about his Ability Scores / Attribute Scores (Strength, Dexterity etc.)? What is important?

My Fighter Mage should look like this when I build him from scratch: Strength:18; Dexterity: 18; Constitution: at least 16; IQ: 18; Wisdom: xx; Charisma: xx. => Already 70 Points. 11 for Wisdom and 5 for Charisma. => 86 Points

Weapon Proficiency Points : For sure I need at least one point for Long Sword. Blackrazor is my favorite weapon. There's Varsconia at the Nashkel Mines. I should give two points to Two Handed Sword...Spider's Bane, Lilarcor, Silver Sword, Psion's Blade. Web in the combination with Spider's Bane is great! Then I would also need at least one point for Two Handed Weapon Style. I want to use Staff of the Magi and Staff of the Ram anyway. Flail of Ages is a great weapon! So in BG II I'll give one point to Flail to. Of course it would be nice to use then Blackrazor and Flail of Ages at the same time. => Try to give 3 points to Fighting Style with two weapons.

Fighter / Mage Solo Walkthrough for BG II, EE - level INSANE
You're welcome to have a look at my profile page.

It's a big joy to play with your Solo Protagonist from Baldur's Gate I.

Ability Scores/ Attribute Scores (a creature’s mental and physical attributes): Starting position of the Fighter / Mage in BG I: Strength: 18; Dex: 18; Con: 18; IQ: 18; Wisdom 10: Ch: 3

Now at the start of BG II: Strength: 19; Dex: 19; Con: 19; IQ: 19: Wisdom: 12; Ch: (4) 18! - Ring of Influence from Aerie's Adventure.

It's fantastic to play this Fighter / Mage!

Fighter / Thief Solo Walkthrough for BG I, EE - level INSANE
I'm playing a Dwarven Fighter / Thief with the Constitution start attribute of 19. The idea is to get at least a Constitution of 20. Why? When you have Constitution 20 that means that you have a wonderful Hit Point Regeneration: 1HP/ each 60 secs! > Constitution.

Buy Buckley's Buckler very early in the Friendly Arm Inn! This amazing Buckler improves your Constitution by +1! So already at the beginning of the Game play, in Chapter 1, you can buy this Buckler after finding and selling this great Mage Ring from the Friendly Arm Inn Area that is worth 9000 Gold. You'll get a Constitution of 20! And there's still a Manual to come that improves the Constitution: Manual of Bodily Health! It can be found in Black Alaric's Cave. It's really nice to get all your Hit Points restored while traveling or sleeping!

You're welcome to have a look at my profile page.

Fighter / Thief Solo Walkthrough for BG II, EE - level INSANE
I continue on level INSANE. You're welcome to have a look at my profile page.

The Fighter / Thief has successfully completed BG II and is in the possession of BLACKRAZOR !!! It's my favorite weapon. I'm not totally excited about turning to an evil character by getting Blackrazor but I couldn't avoid it.

The Fighter / Thief did great! He's pretty much a perfect character. I can't find any weaknesses. The whole challenge was more of a walk than climbing a mountain.

Fighter / Thief Solo Walkthrough for Throne of Bhaal, EE - level INSANE
I just started Throne of Bhaal and I'm at the Marching Mountains now. Afterwards I'll go to Watcher's Keep for getting the Staff of Ram. It's a perfect weapon for backstabbing.

Meanwhile I got the Staff of the Ram and the Axe of the Unyielding on the 4th level of Watcher's Keep. I let both get improved by Cespenar. Probably I will go to level 5 soon in order to face Demogorgon.

DEMOGORGON: The Demon Prince. When all the traps exploded that my Duplicate and I had prepared for him he was only injured, not killed. Tough guy! He can summon other Demons that help him. Against Demons it's good to use Blackrazor that makes you immune to fear and charm. I have to see if the Sensate Amulet works that protects me from evil. The summoned Demons shouldn't be able to touch me any more so that I would only have to face Demorgon myself. Idea is to backstab Demorgorgon by using a Greater Whirlwind Attack. But it won't work probably because Demons can even see invisible charakters like The Winged. Another idea is to use my wonderful Firetooth +3 Dagger combined with a Greater Whirlwind Attack from a distance. This will be 10 APR after having gulped a Potion of Speed. Let's see!

>>> I really, really hope that this Demon Prince is extremely tough, especially on level Insane! I enjoyed so much the huge challenge with The Winged and and her evil companions in the Black Pit II. She seemd to be undefeatable first!

You're welcome to have a look at my profile page.

I defeated Demogorgon - see below: How to defeat Demogorgon.

After defeating Yaga Shura as well I'm just about to face Sendai.

Dark Moon Monk Solo Walkthrough for BG I, EE - level INSANE
Dark Moon Monks are pretty perfect 'Killing Machines' on high levels. The Dark Moon Monk is a late Bloomer. On low levels the Monk is weak. Playing a Solo Walkthrough with a Dark Moon Monk on level INSANE in BG I, EE is one of my biggest challenges in my whole Game Playing Time in the Baldur's Gate Series.

But the Dark Moon Monk is coming closer to the Final Battle against Sarevok! There's some hope to defeat Sarevok and his companions! - '''The Dark Moon Monk managed to defeat Sarevok, Tazok, Angelo and Semaj on his own on level INSANE! Yeah!''' I'm proud of him!

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Dark Moon Monk Solo Walkthrough for BG II, EE - level INSANE
It goes on.

Blackguard Walkthrough for BG I, EE - level INSANE
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Gejadus' How to defeat DEMOGORGON?
DEMOGORGON is the PRINCE of DEMONS!!! According to this Wiki Demogorgon is the strongest opponent! "It is the Imprisoned One in Watcher's Keep. It can summon demons from the Abyss to aid him and is arguably the most powerful boss in Bhaalspawn saga games."

Could the Fighter / Thief overcome him on his own on level INSANE? He did.

I'll explain what the Fighter / Thief did.

It's all about strategy! Set traps before the Battle! Summon a Duplicate, e.g. by using Vhailor's Helm.These traps will already wound Demogorgon but not kill him. "Demogorgon can summon demons from the Abyss to aid him." Yes, he'll summon two Mariliths and lots of Glabrezus for supporting him.

Marilith: First the two Mariliths got killed by using Blackrazor and Flail of Ages (Axe of the Unyielding).

Key words : Boots of Speed, gulp Oil of Speed, use Stoneskin, Mirror Image and Time Stop! During the Time Stop attack Demogorgon by using two Greater Whirlwind Attacks. Time Stop is crucial because Demogorgon will summon at least four Glabrezus that will attack you immediately. Demorgorgon himself is immune to Time Stop but not the Glabrezus. They won't be able to attack you while you attack Demogorgon. Carsomyr is a Great Weapon! By using it you remove his magic protection and wound him with each hit badly. The Carsomyr that I wielded wasn't improved by Cespenar yet.

Glabrezu: The Glabrezus will try to 'hold' you. For avoiding an 'hold' attack you can use the Shield of Harmony, the ring Edventar's gift, Ixil's Spear etc or use Time Stop. The Sensate Amulet didn't work concerning the Glabrezus that Demogorgon summoned. They still attacked me in spite of wearing the Amulet. It was different in the Temple District when I wanted to get Celestial Fury. The Glabrezu couldn't touch me while wearing the Sensate Amulet.

For defeating Demogorgon you'll finally get 100,000 experience points. These points probably refer to the whole quest because in my information box Firkraag (64,000) still shows up at my most powerful defeated enemy.

After defeating Demogorgon finish off the Glabrezus by using Blackrazor.

My Gameplay experience in fighting Demogorgon : I have to say that I'm very disappointed. I already managed to defeat Demogorgon in my second or third attempt with a Solo Protagonist on level INSANE. I can only contradict the statement above. For me The Winged belongs to the Bhaalspawn Saga as well and it's much much harder for a Solo Protagonist to defeat her and her evil companions on level INSANE.

Baldur's Gate I, EE - Ranking list of the Best Solo Protagonist on level INSANE

 * 1) Fighter / Mage: He did great on level Insane! Just the Final Battle against Sarevok, Tazok, Angelo and Semaj was a little bit challenging on Insane. Wearing two rings of fire protection was not enough. The Fighter Mage needed to use an extra script role for defending against fire protection and lightning bolts. Decisive was the script role 'Blind' that I cast on Tazok and Sarevok. Arrows of Biting against Semaj and Angelo! When finally only Sarevok was left it was great to have a Wand of Monster Summoning. The Monsters distracted him and I shot arrows+2 at him. By using Arrows of Biting against Sarevok he never got poisoned. The EE version is much harder concerning the Final Battle. You can't leave the Temple any more during the Battle. GREAT CHALLENGE!
 * 2) Fighter / Thief: He was excellent as well! On level Insane it was easy for him to defeat all his enemies except the opponents in the Final Battle. He could defeat Sarevok but it was an effort. He couldn't use the Wand of Monster Summoning nor the spell 'Blind' yet. Not yet! At level 24 he'll be able to (> Use Any Item). It's also a big joy to play the Fighter / Thief Solo!
 * 3) Swashbuckler: The Swasbuckler defeated Sarevok as well on level Insane! He has more options than the Monk at this level. Extremely well prepared he killed Angelo, Tazok and Semaj first by using Arrows of Biting. It's good to have this special Ring against 'Hold' when the Web shows up. Sarevok got killed by 2 traps that the Swashbuckler set, by Arrows +2 and and by these Skull Traps on the huge Skull picture that the Swashbuckler released on purpose. The Thief was well resistant to Magic. Another advantage of the Swashbuckler was that he was faster than Sarevok. The Monk was only as fast as Sarevok.
 * 4) Dark Moon Monk: The Dark Moon Monk is a pretty perfect 'Killing Machine' on high levels. Unfortunately he's a late Bloomer. On low levels the Monk is weak. In BG I, EE the Monk can reach as a maximum 161,000 experience points what means only level 8. The whole Game Playing in BG I, EE was not easy. The Final Battle was what I expected and feared : A weak level 8 Monk facing Sarevok and his companions. It was a tremendous Challenge! At least it was for me. He managed to defeat Sarevok! If he had been better equipped the Battle would have been easier.

Baldur's Gate II, EE - Ranking list of the Best Solo Protagonist on level INSANE

 * 1) Fighter / Thief (Hello Coran!): The Fighter / Thief is in every aspect better than the Swashbuckler . If you ever consider a Solo Walkthrough I highly recommend you to choose a Fighter / Thief. Already after having reached Fighter level 14 and Thief level 16 - it's about 3,000,000 experience points together for both Classes - the Fighter / Thief can choose the high level class ability/special ability Use Any Item. This means from this time on he has also access to great Spells, e.g. Spell Trap, Time Stop, Imprisonment etc and can use all items, even the Staff of the Magi! Because of his trap set ability it's very likely that the Fighter / Thief is even superior to the brilliant Fighter / Mage! The Fighter / Thief is extremely flexible and just great! WARNING : If you want the Fighter / Thief being able to use the Golem Book he has to have IQ 16! Even for using Magic script rolls a certain IQ is required. Minimum is an IQ of 9. Having an IQ of 8 you are still considered illiterate. If your Fighter / Thief has only IQ 5 or 6 he won't be able to use any Magic! Increasing WISDOM up to 18 is no problem by using the Potion of Insight! The Fighter / Thief has successfully completed his whole Walkthrough through BG II,EE. He did great! It was only a walk for him and not climbing a steep mountain. >>> The Fighter / Thief is a pretty PERFECT Solo Protagonist. I can't imagine any better one! Seriously.
 * 2) Swashbuckler: He's really good after reaching level 24, Use Any Item ability.

Throne of Bhaal, EE - Ranking list of the Best Solo Protagonist on level INSANE

 * 1) Fighter / Thief: I just started the Walkthrough but I'm pretty sure that he'll do fine. I can't imagine any better Solo Protagonist! He's a great Allrounder who can use any items and can even set very dangerous traps and can backstab (5x backstab multiplier). He has a great constitution (20). His attack abilities are also amazing! And he can even use Magic e.g. Time Stop! I'm not afraid of facing Demogorgon at all. Just use Vhailor's Helm and set lots of mean traps with your Duplicate before you release him. I don't see any serious challenge. Can't say anything about Amelissan. If it should get hard set traps as well. If Amelissan can't see you when you are invisble (The Winged is able to do so) you can use the Staff of Magi and Staff of Ram against her. A good idea would also be to use a Potion of Invisibility, approach her from the back, use Greater Whirlwind Attack first and afterwards backstab her by using Blackrazor and the Axe of the Unyielding at the same time. Let's see!  - The Fighter /Thief just defeated Demogorgon and his summoned Demons on level INSANE! - I'm not surprised. It was even an easy task.Who is able to stop this fantastic Fighter / Thief. Will Amelissan manage to stop him?

JOY of playing a Solo Protagonist on level INSANE in Baldur's Gate I, EE
overview: Maximum: lots of JOY: +++++; ++++; average: +++; ++; not much fun: +; no fun: ---

Fighter / Mage: +++++ GREAT!

Blackguard: +++++

Fighter / Thief: ++++

Dark Moon Monk: ++

Swashbuckler: +/+++ (from level 8 on Game Play became nicer. The Swashbuckler was wearing the Boots of Speed and had the Dagger of Venom and explored Durlag's Tower.)

JOY of playing a Solo Protagonist on level INSANE in Baldur's Gate II, EE
Fighter / Mage: +++++ GREAT!

Fighter / Thief: +++++ FANTASTIC!

Dark Moon Monk: +++ (so far; it's an effort to level grind him but he's getting better and better and from level 15 on it's starts to become a big joy to play the Monk)

Swashbuckler: ++++ (from level 24 on - Use Any Item ability - it's really nice to play the Swashbuckler)

Blackguard: can't say anything yet.

JOY of playing a Solo Protagonist on level INSANE in Thron of Bhaal, EE
'''Fighter / Thief: +++++ FANTASTIC! Great joy of playing! (It's the Use Any Item ability and his ability to set dangerous traps that make him pretty perfect! The Fighter / Thief can do pretty much anything. He's even independant by using alchemy. He can produce Oil of Speed and strong Healing Potions himself. He could kill Demogorgon! '''He used Time Stop in order to get rid of the Glabrezus that Demogorgon summoned and Carsomyr for slaying Demogogon himself).