What's the best solo build?

What's the best character build for a solo campaign? One player, one DM. To keep things fresh, the character would have to be able to handle a variety of adventure types/situations.

I'm thinking he'd have to be fairly good in social situations, since he is by default the party face. NPCs can fill gaps in abilities but it's no fun (and not practical from a playing perspective) for the player to have to take orders from his hirelings, so the character would have to be a leader or sorts. So at least average mental scores, a good Charisma, and for maximum enjoyment, decent skills in diplomacy and the other social skills.

I saw a thread mentioning the Chameleon, and that got me thinking about Conan--he was a thief or crazy tough warrior guy as the adventure/plot demanded. Of course chameleon offers spellcasting as well, which really opens up the possibilities.

What does that leave? Paladin? Warmage? How about a Duskblade? I'd like to avoid a support class like Cleric, or a rogue class; I've already played both in solo campaigns and I'm looking for a different experience.

Any ideas welcome! Thank you.

-z

Bard

Cleric. (Edit: I didn't read the full post first. Still, the cleric can cover all your bases better than more or less anybody else.)

Druid / Bard / Fochlucan Lyrist

You get decent skill points, and a slew of useful skills to split them among. Foclucan Lyrist advances both arcane and divine spell casting classes at the same time. It also removes the metal armor restriction from the druid class.

You can focus mainly on Wisdom and Charisma and a little bit on Intelligence. Druid shapeshifting gets you the physical stats of the creature (I think) so Strength, Dexterity and Constitution aren't quite as useful (Constitution is more useful for hitpoints and concentration checks).

Alternatively, Druid / Wizard / Arcane Heirophant produces similar results with more spell casting ability at the cost of skills.

I ran a very successful solo campaign with one of my main group players and he ran a barbarian. The premise was that he was the first born son of the tribal chief. His father was assassinated, and he was the prime suspect because he was second in line. He was actually framed by his brother who was believed to have died a few years ago defending a raid. In reality, the chieftan caught the older brother plotting against him and used the raid to banish him. The older brother defected to a rival tribe and helped them build a force that is poised to take over the players' tribe. He pinned the assassination on the player to cause more confusion and division in the tribe and also in the hopes that the player would be taken out by his own tribe. The player basically fled for his life with a vow to avenge his father's death. He was chased all over the countryside by bounty hunters while trying to get close enough to gather information and find the real killer. The solo premise was perfect because he was truly on his own. Nobody from his tribe was willing to side with him and anger the tribal council. The evidence was pretty damning, considering it was his blade that was found in his father's stomach. Running a solitary barbarian on the run who was trying to solve his father's murder ended up being a campaign that ran up to 9th level. I think it was as much fun for me to DM as it was for him to play as character.

I love the idea of a barbarian for a solo campaign as they are hardy tough and are basic survivors right out of the gate.

Cleric/Rogue:
-good healing
-trapfinding
-decent social skills

Bard:
-ok healing
-good at getting out of combat
-excellent social skills

Druid:
- animal companion for HP soaking
- decent healing
- good "detection" skills to avoid combat, or, choose your terrain
- not so good social skills

Druid, Favored Soul, Monk, or Paladin could all work well. They can all stand up to combat and heal themselves.

A Beguiler might be really interesting to run as a solo character who gets by through trickery.

Warlock?


-Stuart

Archivist/Wizard/Mystic Theurge or Loremaster seems like a good time - you get divine and arcane spells and with Practiced Spellcaster, you don't lose as much. Also, spellcasting is simply based off Int. Missing both Ref and Fort saves though.

Knight/Paladin would be a good face, a good tank and damage soaker and a decent spellcaster (wands, anyone?), although not much sneaking for him. Missing a decent Ref Save though.

Favoured Soul/Warmage is a nice combo if you want a tank and an arcane and a divine spellcaster. Decent weapon profs, decent armour, good spells, and so on. Throw in a bit of Mystic Theurge and you're set Also, spellcasting is based off of Cha now, so no MADness

Scout/Ranger for an awesome archer combo with *GREAT* skill points. Focus on Dex, Con and Cha, take Able Leaner at first level (as a human) and you'll have more than enough skill points to go around, all costing 1 for 1, class or not. An Int of 12 or higher would be best for this. Missing a good Will Save.

Barbarian/Ranger could make a decent hit and run sorta combatant, if you were to take Spring Attack. Take the Archer path, and use a mighty composite longbow with the highest Str rating. Then, hop into melee if need be, and whip our your greataxe. Thing about this build is you have good Skill Points from both classes, on average a fighters HP, great BAB, Good Fort, Good Ref and a bad Will Save, and are pretty groovy all around, IMO.

The Bard/Druid Foculan Lyrist build mentioned before is also very potent from my understanding; you are basically good at everything, which is sweet.

Also, never underestimate the Fighter/Rogue with TWF (I know you said "no rogues, but stilll). You can sneak, can be the face, can hit well, have decent HP, and with a good Int Score and with the Able Leaner feat, you have the Skill Points to throw aroundas you need them.

What about Psion/Wizard Cerebremancer? You get tons of spells adn powers and with that PrC, it only gets better.

hmmm, that's about all I got for now, but hopefully that helps you some

The great thing about a solo adventure is that the DM can tailor the challenges to play to the PC's strengths. Assuming the DM is putting some thought into it instead of just pulling random monsters out of the MM for the PC to fight, a PC of any class can be the focus of a solo campaign. Combat-oriented PCs will face more combat challenges, skill-oriented PCs can face more skill challenges, and spellcasting PCs will face more challenges that can be overcome with spells.

For the record, I'm currently designing a solo campaign for a paladin PC here. I've done up the first three adventures (taking the PC to 4th level) and I'm in the middle of the fourth. A paladin PC allows quite a good mix of challenges: combat (primarily), some skill (mostly Diplomacy/Sense Motive) and has the potential for spell challenges at 4th level and up.

Barbarian 7