Icewind Dale The Icewind Dale Series Thread

[octavius]

Naturally the correct way to play IWD is at a glacial speed.

 

[NJClaw]

If IWD worked the other way around and you rolled for stats, then chose a class based on your stats, it'd be more workable.

This is what I normally do when I want to start a new playthrough with a random non-planned party. I roll abilities scores outside of the game and then create characters accordingly.

 

[Piotrovitz]

Alright, I've restarted again with less powergame'y party and it's much more fun now.

I have to admit that I'm playing the degenerate EE version (can't imagine IWD without quickloot feature nowadays, as there's just so much shit to be picked up, comparing to BG).

I'm at the lvl 1 of Dragon's Eye, and the game has already thrown at me couple of neat items:
- ring +1 THAC0
- gauntlets + 1 THAC0
- cloak -1AC, -1 saving throws
- belt with permament bless on user
- necklace with Emotion:Courage 1/day
- mage-only robe with -2AC, +5% magic res, +1 extra lvl 1 spell slot

Were any of those in original, perhaps as a random drops?
My memory is a bit hazy - I think I remember the gautlets, but not the rest. Were those added by beammutt degenerates?

If so, I'm getting rid of this shit instantly.

 

[NJClaw]

- ring +1 THAC0

Ring of the Warrior.

- gauntlets + 1 THAC0

Gauntlets of Weapon Skill.

- cloak -1AC, -1 saving throws

Glimglam's Cloak.

- belt with permament bless on user

Girdle of Beatification.

- necklace with Emotion:Courage 1/day

Badge of the Brave.

- mage-only robe with -2AC, +5% magic res, +1 extra lvl 1 spell slot

Robe of Enfusing.

It's all halal.

Don't stress yourself over this, as far as i know the EE doesn't break anything with new magic items.

 

[Piotrovitz]

Awesome, thanks!

I double checked some of the items and it seems that Glimglam's Cloak, Badge of the Brave and Robe of Enfusing were random drops and I just got lucky - cannot recall ever finding those in the vanilla playthroughs.

 

[FriendlyMerchant]

Martials wouldn't be too bad, as long as you have decent casters you can throw up some kind of strength buff (like strength of one which gives the whole party 18/76). Low Dex and Con isn't great but can be worked around. The trouble is getting decent casters, imagine you choose a character to be your mage and he rolls 9 intelligence, do you just have to take that? Heck, I think Bard actually has a higher min INT than Mages do, so Bard would actually be a more reliable choice.

If IWD worked the other way around and you rolled for stats, then chose a class based on your stats, it'd be more workable.

It's a good thing you can redestribute your stat points. No reason for anyone to actually play a 9 int wizard since I can just take the points in other stats and move them to int.

 

[Cael]

Martials wouldn't be too bad, as long as you have decent casters you can throw up some kind of strength buff (like strength of one which gives the whole party 18/76). Low Dex and Con isn't great but can be worked around. The trouble is getting decent casters, imagine you choose a character to be your mage and he rolls 9 intelligence, do you just have to take that? Heck, I think Bard actually has a higher min INT than Mages do, so Bard would actually be a more reliable choice.

If IWD worked the other way around and you rolled for stats, then chose a class based on your stats, it'd be more workable.

It's a good thing you can redestribute your stat points. No reason for anyone to actually play a 9 int wizard since I can just take the points in other stats and move them to int.

Just a reminder that rolling stats then choosing a class was exactly how DnD was. IIRC, it was one of the reasons why the Paladin class is tied to Charisma: to give the poor fellow who rolled a high Cha to have a special class of his own.

 

[NJClaw]

Martials wouldn't be too bad, as long as you have decent casters you can throw up some kind of strength buff (like strength of one which gives the whole party 18/76). Low Dex and Con isn't great but can be worked around. The trouble is getting decent casters, imagine you choose a character to be your mage and he rolls 9 intelligence, do you just have to take that? Heck, I think Bard actually has a higher min INT than Mages do, so Bard would actually be a more reliable choice.

If IWD worked the other way around and you rolled for stats, then chose a class based on your stats, it'd be more workable.

It's a good thing you can redestribute your stat points. No reason for anyone to actually play a 9 int wizard since I can just take the points in other stats and move them to int.

Just a reminder that rolling stats then choosing a class was exactly how DnD was. IIRC, it was one of the reasons why the Paladin class is tied to Charisma: to give the poor fellow who rolled a high Cha to have a special class of his own.

Bard and Druid also required fairly high Charisma. But yeah, the Paladin was absurd.

 

[Cael]

Martials wouldn't be too bad, as long as you have decent casters you can throw up some kind of strength buff (like strength of one which gives the whole party 18/76). Low Dex and Con isn't great but can be worked around. The trouble is getting decent casters, imagine you choose a character to be your mage and he rolls 9 intelligence, do you just have to take that? Heck, I think Bard actually has a higher min INT than Mages do, so Bard would actually be a more reliable choice.

If IWD worked the other way around and you rolled for stats, then chose a class based on your stats, it'd be more workable.

It's a good thing you can redestribute your stat points. No reason for anyone to actually play a 9 int wizard since I can just take the points in other stats and move them to int.

Just a reminder that rolling stats then choosing a class was exactly how DnD was. IIRC, it was one of the reasons why the Paladin class is tied to Charisma: to give the poor fellow who rolled a high Cha to have a special class of his own.

Bard and Druid also required fairly high Charisma. But yeah, the Paladin was absurd.

Not only was it absurd, the special abilities didn't really live up to the hype. Lay on Hands for 2hp/level was hopeless.

 

[Piotrovitz]

Not only was it absurd, the special abilities didn't really live up to the hype. Lay on Hands for 2hp/level was hopeless.

Yeah, given the high stat requirements for Paladin it seems worthless but it kinda has it's use sometimes. Casting time is 0 I think, so it can save your ass in the heat of the battle sometimes, especially in BG1/IWD

 

[Cael]

Not only was it absurd, the special abilities didn't really live up to the hype. Lay on Hands for 2hp/level was hopeless.

Yeah, given the high stat requirements for Paladin it seems worthless but it kinda has it's use sometimes. Casting time is 0 I think, so it can save your ass in the heat of the battle sometimes, especially in BG1/IWD

I meant in tabletop, not in IE game. Paladin was absurdly bad for a PnP class.

 

[Piotrovitz]

What's the best point to start HoW/TotL to get the most fun and challanging experience? Starting it right after dragon's eye will be doable or should I wait until finishing severed hand?

 

[Butter]

Right before Lower Dorn's Deep. The Burial Isle can be a kind of a nightmare at low level.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

What's the best point to start HoW/TotL to get the most fun and challanging experience? Starting it right after dragon's eye will be doable or should I wait until finishing severed hand?

HoW works best in between Chapters 4 and 5 imo. Doing it after Dragon's Eye would be pretty hardcore since many people find the opening area (Burial Island) the hardest content in all of IWD. It's been a looooong time since I played TotL, but my recollection is that there is a bad ending that prevents you from returning to the main campaign, so you might want to treat it more as a side-story/coda to your playthrough once you complete the main game.

 

[Piotrovitz]

Question on money hoarding - are there any vendors after Severed Hand selling anything worthwhile that costs shitload of gold?

I got around 50k now and am thinking about stockpiling acid arrows for my F/T archer - they're expensive as fuck, so I'm wondering if I should save some gold for later.

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

Question on money hoarding - are there any vendors after Severed Hand selling anything worthwhile that costs shitload of gold?

Not really. One more merchant in Dorn's Deep that doesn't sell much and a couple others in HoW. The first one in HoW has some items that might be interesting, depending on your party/gear but I think you can safely buy your arrows anyway.

 

[Average Manatee]

If you want to completely buy out all known spells for your mage then you'll probably need a decent amount of gold. Gonna guess you'd want to save somewhere between 15k and 30k, since scrolls can be 1-2k apiece.

 

[The Jester]

Dose anybody have IWD2 portrait pack for IWD CE?

 

[Jvegi]

I'm trying IWD2 once again. Never finished it, last time I got stuck at the goblin fortress and drifted away.
Apparently the enemies in this game get buneses to hit at higher difficulty levels. That would explain why those fights are so damn difficult to manage, especially with limited tools. Not that they're impossible, but they usually take me a couple of tries if I don't want anybody in my party to die, and that get's quite tedious after a while. And it makes sense why characters die if they're getting hit so often without any real way of tactically dealing with it other then buying all the potions avaible, or creating a powergaming party.

I switched the difficulty to core and the fight that took me 3-4 attempts was a cakewalk. That was just one battle though, and it's supposed to be easy, it's right after Targos.

My question is. Should I switch the difficulty to core and enjoy the game as it was intended, or should I treat it as a challange because it will get better once I have more tactical options?

My party is 5 members strong, maybe I should get another tank or a sorc?

I have a:
-warrior
-monk
-cleric
-thief
-wizard

Only a monk has unusually high stats because I dumped his charisma and intelligence to minimal values. All the other characters are optimal at best and the cleric has a wasted weapon proficiency feat.

Anyway, the game is nice, I hope I'll finally finish it after all those years.

 

[hell bovine]

The bonuses to hit don't translate into improved enemy targetting, so I'd not call it tactical. It's just a numbers game, how much you can stack the ac on your tank.

I've had more fun playing on core and with unusual parties than with an optimized group.

Ps. I'd add a character with lore wilderness (like a druid), because it helps with a certain annoying maze later in the game.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

I'm trying IWD2 once again. Never finished it, last time I got stuck at the goblin fortress and drifted away.
Apparently the enemies in this game get buneses to hit at higher difficulty levels. That would explain why those fights are so damn difficult to manage, especially with limited tools. Not that they're impossible, but they usually take me a couple of tries if I don't want anybody in my party to die, and that get's quite tedious after a while. And it makes sense why characters die if they're getting hit so often without any real way of tactically dealing with it other then buying all the potions avaible, or creating a powergaming party.

I switched the difficulty to core and the fight that took me 3-4 attempts was a cakewalk. That was just one battle though, and it's supposed to be easy, it's right after Targos.

My question is. Should I switch the difficulty to core and enjoy the game as it was intended, or should I treat it as a challange because it will get better once I have more tactical options?

My party is 5 members strong, maybe I should get another tank or a sorc?

I have a:
-warrior
-monk
-cleric
-thief
-wizard

Only a monk has unusually high stats because I dumped his charisma and intelligence to minimal values. All the other characters are optimal at best and the cleric has a wasted weapon proficiency feat.

Anyway, the game is nice, I hope I'll finally finish it after all those years.

I typically play things as they were intended for RPGs. Increased difficulty can be fun id you've mastered the system, but generally it just adds it through bloat.

Its a good idea to have at least two "real" melee classes in an IWD game. I don't consider a 3E monk capable of the job. A bard is a much better "carry class" in IWD2. Dualing your rogue with fighter every other level will help a great deal.

 

[Chippy]

Stealth was broken in IWD2. So stealht classes are gimped compared to all the other IE games. Still somewhat powerful, but you have to micro-manage them because of Sewyerism or if it was a stealth bug.

 

[octavius]

So you need to rely on inv. potions to be a successful backstabber in IWD2?
Asking for a friend.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

How is stealth broken in IWD2? It's been awhile. I remember improved invisibility being broken, in that it did not remove your invisibility after you performed a hostile action. As far as sneak attacks go, I remember being able to do it 2E or 3E style.

 

[Jvegi]

So you need to rely on inv. potions to be a successful backstabber in IWD2?
Asking for a friend.

I think stealth works just fine. Lilura said invisibility is better that investing into the stealth skill and it was certainly true in ToE.

In this game however, as far as I know, you can only sneak attack every 4 rounds. So I don't think it matters either way.