My HoF experience as solo FMC

[u/Kingfanboy123]

Overall, the game is quite enjoyable except for the opening sections (and some fight in ToL). My playthrough generally followed this progression:

1. Early game (until Animate Dead spell) - extremely tedious, as a cleric must rely heavily on kiting goblins. Your THAC0 and AC are awful, due to enemy stat bonuses (–11 to AC and –3 to THAC0).
2. Animate Dead to Aerial Servant - much more manageable, though kiting remains the primary strategy.
3. Aerial Servant to Black Blade of Disaster (BBD) + Improved Haste - basically normal difficulty, with some exceptions. Your AC and overall survivability improve significantly. Moreover, Aerial Servants' immunity to non-magical weapons effectively neutralizes 80% of enemies until chapter 5–6.
4. Black Blade of Disaster to Time Stop - easy mode. Your stats become overpowered; you can eliminate most enemies in 1–2 rounds despite their tripled HP bonuses (x3+80).
5. Time Stop to final battle - story mode. Unlike in BG2, neither Icasaraht nor the final boss resists Time Stop, which means you can combine time stop and BBD.

What i particularly disliked is that some enemies in Tol have automatic dispel casts (cleric in the beginning and rakshasas). I think this a cheap and unfair way to raise the difficulty of the encounter.

[u/archolewa]

Now try in the original Icewind Dale. I'm pretty sure the original game didn't have Timestop. :)