As real time rpgs have never been any fun with party mechanics, Im soloing this game with a paladin.

Ive got it down to an analysis that If i specialize in Strength, Intelligence, Speed and Constitution, I should be good. My skills will be Sturdiness, Armor Use, Melee, and Threat Estimation.

Naturally strength and constitution are major as they make him a tank. However speed is also necessary for hit and run tactics. Intelligence your probably going to ask, well intelligence is good for thread estimation mostly and magic resistance will be nice.

What the build will come down to is hit and run, using terrain as an advantage and brutal if not speedy force.

Soloing might be a bit hard at times. Not sure with the pally but with my thief I count on my companions to soak up some of the damage when there are several enemies (esp when they are ranged/casters). This might be more to do with the thief's low hp. Every level I've put 2 points into dex, 1 int, and 1 in con or speed (alternating for the most part). Thus at lvl 20 I only have 74 hp.

I wish I understood how speed worked a little more. Especially when it comes to gear. On armor I would assume higher speed would be more akin to weight because the heavier armor has higher 'speed' stats. So I'm thinking you subtract your total speed stat on your armor from your characters speed stat to get your real speed. On weapons I'm not sure if the speed indicates weight or the speed of the weapon.. perhaps both? Smaller numbers mean a faster swing? Dunno. All speculative on my part.

*edit* Oh, my experience with kiting in dungeons is a mixed bag.. sometimes I'm the one getting stuck on the terrain due to light/bad pathing.

my 2 cents, which might not be worth much sine I play priest.
Don't worry about spending perfectly your stat points, I mean for skill sure, a good plan is great since it costs so much to raise a few skills to 16 and mastery.
But for stats ?
I'm now 48 in act 3, and I have stat points left over after maxing everything I could in stats.
between the 4 points by level, and the great number of secret altars and perma potions, you won't really have to worry about that.

I wish it was that easy to max skill points though, for that, You'll really have to make choices.

if I may suggest something though, it's to start by being good in melee. The better weapon you'll have, the quicker you'll kill your foes, and let's face it, a great armor will barely make a difference after a while (especially after act 1).
I also suggest you get some ranged combat points, or at least stock up on throwing knives/axes since melee is just hell (for me at least) ennemies flee a lot in act 2 and up.
and pursuing in melee is... well... it's not funny at all, your character runs after the target, and especially if he goes faster, he never attacks it.it's especially fun with your ally npc's since you can sometime see them on the map (the blue stupid points) making a dozen rounds along the edge of the map following a fleeing monster.

Which usually ends up with your ally dying due to another monster, or you being bored, going to help with a ranged attack.

Oh cool. So is the cap lvl 48? I've been wondering what the effective limit on skill points is (at least from your levels) because I'd really like to plan this out. Then again are magic boxes indeed unlimited? If so.. while expensive you could in theory correct small mistakes. For that matter what are the caps on stats? I suppose it might vary by class though.

Well I'm glad I stuck with ranged on my thief then.

I also run solo all game. As paladin the most important thing i have found is to fight running from enemy and hit them when they have no reach to you. Of course this is time consuming but i saved alot money from potions and repairs ,especially in begining. I've only upgrade melee combat armor use and smithing. If you have good weapons without bonuses you can repair it endlessly yourself with low smithing skill (godsend in iron mines)

If you play solo thief ,my advice is to use seals alot, minimum dmg in bowes is really crappy and some fights takes sooo long (brown orc warrior bastards XD).

So far act 2 with thief. Left paladin in iron mines XD but maybe i will play him more, there are nice items in the end of act 1 for melee.

level 48 is not the level cap, I still get xp and sometimes level up. It just does not happen every few minutes. :)

For stats, I only know the caps for a priest, which are 50 for str/con (and iirc dex/speed) and 100 for intelligence.
those are base stat caps, you can add gear and spell bonuses to that.

For skillpoints, I tried it with a new char (thanks console...) it's 20 in a skill. thing is, it costs a whole bunch to go from 0 to 20 (about 100 to 150 points, I don't remember exactly) the 16 to 20 points are the worst of course.
Then again, you only need 16 for master rank.

Yes magical boxes are unlimited, they just cost a bunch, and you find a lot anyway if you look for secret rooms. I'm not too sure what mistakes you would correct with them though, since the genie only helps you kill your ennemies (he doesn't quite move from where he was summoned, and he can get killed... easily too... damn undead monks which chain paralyses), he can heal you, he can act as a shop, or let you teleport somewhere else (making you see and use the map basically)

So I'm not too sure how that relates to char planning.

And yeah, I wish priest had smithing, iron mines and well, all mutli level dungons (I went through 4 by now at start of act 3) are a pain considering your weapons break in under 5 minutes. (depends on luck) So I have an inventory tab full of spare bows. Thankfully, now I can cast lightning, finally found the spell scroll.

If you dismiss the genie without asking for anything there's a chance you'll get one skill point. So just save before you free him and keep reloading until you get the skill point. I've already got about 15 skill points that way.

Hmm.. sounds like the primary stat for a class is capped at 100 and the rest are 50? Seems likely having looked at the thief only skills. None of the INT based skills require 50+ INT. Also fits nicely with the spell skills. Thief can only learn up to Rank3 on spells and it seems master rank requires more than 50 INT. Now the question is can you fudge the system by having +10 INT on your gear? lol probably not.

oh I never tried freeing a genie, kinda seemed counter productive.
I'm not sure for the 50 cap on speed and dex, I'll have to check my char later, can't play today :)
and yeah, priest skills ask for a humongous amount of INT, some need 78 iirc for master.
And no, gear bonus doesnt count for skill rank.

Well I have 60+ dex right now so it's probably safe to say the cap is 100 for thief. Highest dex req for thief skills is 74 (stealing). I'm all but positive gear bonuses *do* count towards ranks because I've scribed and cast spells of rank 2 when I have 6 skill thanks to gear. So I know it's not just a cosmetic thing on the character screen (I have a few skills that are ranked due to gear bonuses).

Solo is the only way from act 2 and up. Seriously, a level 40 dog has problems with bats, the archer can barely hit the ground and Jacques is a meat shield made out of papier-mâché.

If a Ghost ( ghost for chrissakes) catches them not only do they die quickly, but also the attacks reach you through half of the map. If you don't control their drinking during a fight you'll soon be out of potions. During the last dungeon of ACT 2 I had to leave them behind, because otherwise they ran up to enemies, gave them a tender kiss on the cheek and DIED. Constantly.

Soon as Act 3 started I gutted them with several pagan/heretic spells in a chapel, in front od all those clergymen. Now I use summoned hellhounds to distract enemies, at least they do some damage.

They were useful in ACT 1 though.