What class would work best for soloing 3 as well as 4+5? I know about getting the Thievery skill for any character in 3, so it seems like Archer might be the best class to go for that one, for teleport, etherealise, etc. (carrying items for those spells seems like it would be a bit hit and miss).

Maybe ninja for 4+5? Would miss out on a lot of spells, but I guess the wells, blessings and items would have to do for that one.

Thoughts?

A true MM3 solo could be problematic since you need the inventory space for keys and other quest items. Be also aware that you can't enter forest or climb mountains without spells since 2 party members need those skills. Archer is in fact the best class for trying this. There's also the option to make a fake solo with dead companions to carry your stuff.
A solo with hirelings won't be much different from a normal game.


If you want to be able to enter all areas in MM4+5 World of Xeen you need a robber or ninja, else you won't be able to get the key for Necropolis and therefore be unable to do certain quests or enter the dungeon of death. Since those are optional you you can still beat the main game with any class. I've soloed the game with an half-orc ninja and did a no reload solo with a human archer afterwards.

Oh yes, the keys. Well, I can always just have a storage character for those at the inn, swap them out as I need them. I think it could still be called a solo game if they never actually leave the inn and they only store things like keys.

For 4+5, did you find yourself really missing spells, or is it ok once you get into it? How did you get around forests and mountains, items with teleport on them?

I used items with teleport or etheralize for those forest or mountain squares. You definitely need an item of jumping to get to the Dragon Pharao in his the pyramid and an item of teleport for visiting the darkside corners. Items of daily sorcery and daily protection are also almost essential. It's a good thing there are also items of recharging. Items which can cast Lloyd's Beacon or town portal are very useful but not essential.

If you are a perfectionist start WoX with luck as highest and accuracy as second highest stat, getting the other stats to 255 won't be too difficult.

Just finished 3 solo. It was quite an interesting challenge to begin with. In the end, I found that having one character makes for an extremely overpowered "party". With arcane magic, you can just cast Power Shield and nothing gets through, including status effects. Then you just one or two hit even the most powerful enemies. And since you're soaking up all the experience and stat boosts yourself, you get to that point rather quickly.

I bet if you didn't have arcane magic though, you'd be constantly reloading as you got petrified/stoned/eradicated by various things. That would be even more boring than using an archer.

Archer is definitely the most powerful class, by the way.

Well done !
Did you have to use NPCs in the inns for storage or could you do without ?

I'm trying to be vague in this post, since some people don't like spoilers. But avoid reading this post, just in case.

I did end up using a second created character to store keys on. If I'd planned it better, I could have avoided that, though, by taking the transport item and avoided picking up keys. It'd be harder, though, if you couldn't enter certain dungeons until after getting that item, though. I don't feel that really took anything away from my achievement, but it might make for a more interesting challenge, and make the game hard for a longer time.

If you're interested, the biggest challenge was getting hold of some high tier items. Normally you can get those just after the second town, with Swimming and Mountaineering. In a solo game, though, they're not easily accessible until after the fourth town where you buy Teleport, or you can remember where to find a scroll of the spell.

About to start WoX now. Do you remember which things are off-limits to parties without Thievery? I can imagine doing this one without an Arcane caster considering all the extra equipment slots, but it does concern me a little bit.

Also considering if 1+2 could be done with only one character, but 1 seems like it might be too hard, and 2 seems doable, except that one particular area requires the use of an NPC. There's probably other areas I'm not considering also.

In WoX you won't be able to open some chests without thievery and miss unimportant mostly random loot from chests but I remember only Necropolis and the Dungeon of Death as areas you can't enter. The key to Necropolis is the only quest item which is in a locked chest.