Icewind Dale The Icewind Dale Series Thread

[underground nymph]

IWD2 works fine without any of the EE’s travesties.

 

[Jigby]

Install just the code injections, forgo the travesties.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Reminder that I predicted this

IWD popularity is the end result of codex hipsterism
same reason they're moving on from IWD to IWD2 now

Deadfire is going to be a beloved game on the codex in 4 years at the current pace.

 

[Gargaune]

Install just the code injections, forgo the travesties.

Can you install the engine updates without any of the content changes? And do you have a link? Google's being uncooperative.

 

[Jigby]

Install just the code injections, forgo the travesties.

Can you install the engine updates without any of the content changes? And do you have a link? Google's being uncooperative.

It's weidu with about 50 different components. Engine stuff technically is not one of them, but you can always install some cosmetic upgrade and with it, the lua code will also be installed. There's a component which increases the number of colors that you can choose from for the "paperdolls" at the character creation. That's basically a nothing-change.

 

[ferratilis]

https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/stumbling-through-icewind-dale-2-with-a-party-of-evil-mages/

Stumbling through Icewind Dale 2 with a party of evil mages

By Jeremy Peel published about 3 hours ago

Can six Red Wizards survive the chilly north?

(Image credit: Hasbro)

Fighter. Rogue. Healer. Mage. This is the archetypical role-playing party, the quadrumvirate that guarantees a good time no matter the setting. It is balanced, broad, and allows you to see as much of the spectrum of adventuring as possible—brute forcing your way into tombs, deactivating their traps, and parsing the strange scrolls found within.

OK, so you deviate from the norm occasionally; maybe you’ve got a couple of slots left over and pick a bard for comic relief, or a monk, because you’re keen to learn the combat function of a smoothly shaved head. But when was the last time you delved into a dungeon with a properly wonky line-up? What was the last RPG you completed with, for instance, six wizards?

Icewind Dale 2 is the snow-tipped hill on which I’ve chosen to die. It has no developer-made companions, so you’re free to build an entire party from scratch right at the beginning of the game. From GOG.com I download not only the game, but also the full manual and Book of Spells. I’m going to need them.

Next, though, comes the backstory. Icewind Dale 2 is set in the Forgotten Realms, and the most famous mages in Faerûn are the Red Wizards of Thay. Hailing from the Unapproachable East, they are the notoriously badnatured ruling class of a populous and cruel country built on slavery.

When the Red Wizards have appeared in other games, they’ve generally had red rings encircling their feet to mark them out as enemies. They don’t exactly help themselves when it comes to public relations: these are the types you find holding dark rituals in the middle of the woods, or belligerently pursuing vulnerable women with innate magical abilities in order to dissect and study them. Their most notable videogame emissary—the haughty Baldur’s Gate companion Edwin—would have been voted 'most likely to fatally turn on his own party' when leaving wizard school.

(Image credit: Beamdog)

But we’re going to turn them into protagonists. Our group is to be a mixture of researchers and imperialists—the former sifting the Spine of the World for arcane treasures that could bolster Thay’s power, and the latter scouting the Dale’s defences as the prelude to an invasion. If anybody asks, though, they’re simple merchants and archeologists.

In the weeds
Traditionally, the Thayan council had a representative from every D&D school of magic, so we’ll try to do the same with our party. Up front are Whambam Mam and Thrul Ovvshytt, a conjurer and transmuter respectively. In close combat terms, wizards are essentially PhD students in pyjamas—but these two compensate for their weedy physiques with summoned weapons and physical transformation.

They’re backed up by two ranged specialists. One, an old and bearded evoker named Zzimerfram, will bring the magic missiles and lightning bolts. The other, who goes by Ichadad Bod, is an enchanter trained in mind manipulation—perfect for goblin crowd control.

The party is rounded out by Kul Anthurrgangg, an illusionist I hope can stand in for a rogue, and Szass Quatch, a necromancer. The Red Wizards don’t ever leave the house without a necromancer. That’s just part and parcel of being evil.

The six of them set sail up the Sword Coast from Luskan, answering the call for adventurers to counter goblin attacks in the Ten Towns. By the time they get there, however, there are just nine towns remaining—Bremen is burning, and most of the mercenaries sent to help have been slaughtered on their ships during an ambush. Unfortunately, that includes the escort of fearsome Thayan gladiators, clerics, and knights that should have kept our wizards out of harm’s way once they alighted in Icewind Dale. Our pyjama party will have to fend for itself.

(Image credit: Beamdog)

To begin with, that goes rather well. Against the scrimshaw-and-snow backdrop of the town of Targos, the bright yellow goblins stand out a mile. Every time one sidles into view, I slam the spacebar to pause the action, then leisurely peruse my party’s menu of prepared spells. An ice dagger? Don’t mind if I do. Chromatic orb? Would be rude not to.

Quickly, though, the well of mana runs dry. More than once, we have to trudge back to the ship we rode in on and sheepishly ask the captain if he minds us having a nap beneath his boards. Targos burns to the ground while the Red Wizards get their heads down for the recommended eight hours, replenishing their spell bank in the process.

Bewarehouse
A local soldier, Brogan, tells us a goblin force has seized a warehouse at the docks, which piques the interest of the party. If we clear it, we’ll get a free look at the trading goods—some potentially magical—transported into Targos. But we could do with some brawny backup to take the blows for us. We head to the pub to rouse a mercenary trio, the Iron Collar Company, but they sneer in our faces. "Who the hells do you think ye are," says the one called Black Geoffrey, "butting into my tale while I’m sharing a tankard with my friends?" We’re on our own.

Brogan seems worried. "You might want to keep wounded members of your party—or, uh, wizards—outside the warehouse while the rest of your band storms the place," he says. "One arrow can drop a man before he even knows the archer is there."

(Image credit: Hasbro)

"Hmm," replies Whambam. "Sound advice. Still, we wizards are a lot stronger than we appear."

When Whambam opens his palms to greet the first wave of goblins, flames emerge. Szass Quatch takes the opposite approach, chilling her hands to lethally low temperatures and playing 'frostbite tag' with the panicked enemy archer. Our reward for victory is a buffet of shipping crates and containers, which yields a smattering of darts and crossbows, plus one dead cat, which we take, because no self-respecting necromancer turns their nose up at a fresh body.

Then we find a ladder, at the bottom of which are some caves, stuffed with more goblins. This is D&D, after all, and there’s no such thing as a ground floor dungeon. For a little while, Kul Anthurrgangg’s illusions work like a charm, literally—turning some of the monsters against their pals. But as our spellbook thins once more, the fight starts to flow in the other direction. A tough blighter in black armour, named Rukworm, sticks Whambam in the chest with a rusty blade—killing him instantly. At least the red won’t show on his robes.

Red dead
After a quick reload, it’s back to the boat for a kip. They say a rest is as good as a change, and so it proves when we hit the warehouse tunnels with an overwhelming barrage of fireworks. Once Rukworm is down, we bring the battle to some nearby kegs, as retribution for our snubbing at the hands of the drunken Iron Collar Company. Out of one smashed barrel falls a charred scroll which, annoyingly, not one wizard among our number can identify. But Brogan suggests the mayor’s wife can—she’s a powerful elven mage, apparently. We set off to find her, hoping this piece of paper will be the starting point for a collection of rare magicks.

Elytharra, famed for her supposed kindness, happily takes 100 gold pieces from the party in exchange for a glance over the goblin scroll. Turns out it’s an exhausted teleportation spell, now useless. The Red Wizards are fuming. Until, that is, Elytharra mentions it’s likely one of a pair—used to fast-travel a subject from one location to another. Somebody, it seems, has teleported the goblins into the caves beneath the docks. That somebody is a mage, a traitor to the town, and probably still nearby. It’s time for us to find the culprit, and steal their magic items.

(Image credit: Beamdog)

"If you have come to aid Targos, I would be pleased to pass along what arcane knowledge I can," says Elytharra. "Uh… sure," says Whambam. "The defence of Targos and all that. What kind of magic do you have?"

Elytharra’s shop shelves are stacked with strange scrolls, most of which we can’t afford. But we do splash out on Dispel Magic, suspecting there to be a rival wizard up ahead. Old Zzimerfram, however, fails to copy the scroll to his spellbook—presumably breaking his pencil. Now we’re skint, and no more powerful for our spent coin. It’s harsh, this wizarding life.

Two doors down we find Phaen of the Rags, who gives up his beggar act when he sees our teleportation scroll. It’s his, and he wants it back—but if there’s one thing a Red Wizard won’t do, it’s part with magic.

Mage engage
With Whambam buffed up by Mage Armour and Mirror Image spells, and a summoned beetle blocking most of the melee room, the mages in the gallery are free to bombard Phaen and his goblin mates with frost and magic missiles. The traitor responds in kind, knocking half the party unconscious with a single Sleep spell—laying them out on the hut’s stone floor like a red carpet. But a firebomb finally does for our rival. This town isn’t big enough for seven wizards on a secret mission.

Phaen’s rags turn out to be lined with bear fur, and magically light. Whambam puts them on, reasoning their cold protection will come in handy the next time Zzimerfram gets tasty with an ice dagger and its splash damage. Then, wonder of wonders: everybody levels up. We don’t get any new spells—we’ll have to find, buy and copy those down – but with extra spell slots per rest, our arsenal practically doubles in size overnight.

(Image credit: Beamdog)

Which leaves our party well-positioned to tackle its last job before leaving town: murdering the Iron Collar Company. It’s not an act that’s going to further the mission of the Red Wizards in Icewind Dale, exactly. But bitterness is practically a national Thayan trait, and what better way to celebrate it than with petty revenge?

"By the hells," mutters Black Geoffrey as red-robed figures file into the pub. "What brings you crawling back this time?" He feels the strength sap from his body as Ichadad Bod utters the incantation for a Ray of Enfeeblement. And from then on, no more words are spoken, as the Iron Collar Company funnels its remaining energy into survival. It’s not enough.

Gutherwulfe Henghelm, a river trader at the next table who drinks boar blood with milk, cheers us on. After Geoffrey falls, the innkeep demands we settle his tab. But Gutherwulfe buys us a pitcher, and soon enough, we’ve won the amulet he wears around his neck in a drinking game. It’s the perfect cap to a great night of wizardry. Not only can Gutherwulfe’s charm summon a slavering wolf into battle, but it does so by tapping into the shamanic magic of Rashemen—the rival magocracy next door to Thay.

In other words, it’s weaponised irony. If there’s anything the Thayans like more than winning a battle, it’s winning a battle in a way that’ll piss off their neighbours.

 

[Average Manatee]

Funny, I was about to try the opposite (no magic party) in IWD1.

I think an all-wizard party would eventually be screwed by a lack of scrolls in IWD2, but I haven't played it in so long so I'm not sure how many duplicates drop/are buyable. In IWD1 it'd definitely hurt though, even if you spread them out you'd have multiple characters with only 1 decent spell per level, or less.

 

[razvedchiki]

i ran a dwarf melee party in icewin dale 1 and it was great.( used clerics though)

 

[rusty_shackleford]

"I want a challenge, so I will make a party of only mages" said the person who never played D&D beyond level 2 before.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Funny, I was about to try the opposite (no magic party) in IWD1.

I think an all-wizard party would eventually be screwed by a lack of scrolls in IWD2, but I haven't played it in so long so I'm not sure how many duplicates drop/are buyable. In IWD1 it'd definitely hurt though, even if you spread them out you'd have multiple characters with only 1 decent spell per level, or less.

If EE, you could do it by using sorcs and come out ahead because they'd get spell levels before you find decent/any scrolls for the level.

 

[underground nymph]

"I want a challenge, so I will make a party of only mages" said the person who never played D&D beyond level 2 before.

Could be a real slog grinding all the trash mobs. Kind of a challenge.

 

[underground nymph]

I’m planning to give IWD2 another try after I’ll get some 1200p display so I can integer upscale its native resolution (800x600). My current 1080p one is unfortunately unsuitable for this due to the obvious vertical limitation.

I find the pacing in the beginning to be very good. Up until it slows down and loses my volatile attention after some time. The writing in the starting area is also very nice. Laughed hard speaking with the cat lady. It’s Avellone who wrote her if I am not mistaken.

3.5e is pretty entertaining to tinker with. I have some interesting RP ideas about at least half of the party.

 

[coldcrow]

"I want a challenge, so I will make a party of only mages" said the person who never played D&D beyond level 2 before.

Could be a real slog grinding all the trash mobs. Kind of a challenge.

5 Sorcs + 1F/T or something is easy-mode. You take summons too, only the first few lvls are somewhat slow.

 

[Cael]

Funny, I was about to try the opposite (no magic party) in IWD1.

I think an all-wizard party would eventually be screwed by a lack of scrolls in IWD2, but I haven't played it in so long so I'm not sure how many duplicates drop/are buyable. In IWD1 it'd definitely hurt though, even if you spread them out you'd have multiple characters with only 1 decent spell per level, or less.

You will definitely run into problems with lack of scrolls in IWD2. Even three Wizards is problematic.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

...since I'm not too keen on magic in IE games.

 

[Average Manatee]

Funny, I was about to try the opposite (no magic party) in IWD1.

I think an all-wizard party would eventually be screwed by a lack of scrolls in IWD2, but I haven't played it in so long so I'm not sure how many duplicates drop/are buyable. In IWD1 it'd definitely hurt though, even if you spread them out you'd have multiple characters with only 1 decent spell per level, or less.

If EE, you could do it by using sorcs and come out ahead because they'd get spell levels before you find decent/any scrolls for the level.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the EE also adds all of the broken BG2 spells so that a sorcerer group could just chain timestop and wish forever.

"I want a challenge, so I will make a party of only mages" said the person who never played D&D beyond level 2 before.

Yeah now that I think about it, IWD1 and 2 both have excellent summons to fill up the frontline so an all-mage group will quickly become easy. Even if some characters are spamming weaker summons it'll easily be enough.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Subject: Icewind Dale II, a Moral Game!
From: "Dr. Peters" <DPeters@earthlink.net>
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd,alt.politics.nationalism.white,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg,alt.politics.white-power,alt.religion.mormon

Game players, socially concerned citizens, and other distinguished gentry
of the internet,

I have recently had the pleasure of completing Black Isle Studio's latest
computer game, "Icewind Dale II". Although I am not very familiar with
the computer game as an entertainment form or tool for social education,
let me say right now that my eyes have been opened. Not only was this
game an entertaining way to let off steam from the continually mounting
pressures of life in this modern, downward-spiralling experiment that the
liberals have been calling "society", it came with a morally significant
backstory that unfolded as the game progressed. I was so pleased with
this story that I have already given the game to my oldest nephew and
encouraged him to play it, as well as mentioned it at the latest "coffee
and" at my church group.

Quite simply, "Icewind Dale II" is a cautionary tale rife with
admonishments against the #1 threat to the White society and the White
race -- the insidious threat of genocide in the "passive" form of race
mixing. It is high time that the media (so often the bastion of liberal
degeneracy) has taken up the banner of right and sought to promote true
education and proper thought in the minds of today's often perilously
misguided youth.

From the first stages of the game, where a noble Nordic civilization is
assaulted by a teeming mongrel horde of degenerate "half-goblins", the
heroes of the game must deal with the wanton bellowing masses of racially
impure monsters (for once a cultural icon designed for today's youth
portrays these beasts as what they truly are) in the only fitting manner
-- with cold, hard steel. After gaining several "levels" (these are
demarcations of power and status within the civilized community), the
heroes continue on to face more and more disgusting examples of the
barbaric ungodliness of race mixing, such as snakeman yaunti and
half-dragons. In one memorable scene a group of racially pure men are
rescued from their captors who are snake women, forcing them to
inseminate them or die in a foul promotion of race mixing (this was a
clear allusion to the Jewish media's thinly-veiled attempts to dismantle
European cultural solidarity via such twisted elements as the
manipulation of the Oscars to gain airtime for ugly halfbreed freaks like
Halle Berry). As stomach turning as these examples of barbarity and sin
may be, they are ultimately triumphed over in the course of the game as
well as a cadre of lesbian spider women and ultimately an incestuous
brother and sister who are half demon and incubus, respectively. It is
worth noting that these last two were raised by a kind, racially pure
woman with the misguided notion that "blended" children can turn out "OK"
if given love and attention -- the result of her great liberal
experiment? She is dead before the start of the game, and her two wards
are fallen into barbarity and wanton rebellion. A wise elder of the game
points out it is as though the vacuum bottle they were living in burst
asunder -- and indeed that is what the pro-genocide forces in this nation
are selling our youth, a vacuum-packed lie that will sooner or later
burst asunder and reveal the truthful world of harsh reality, causing
them and their children to crumble like the weak chaff they are.

There is a segment where a wiccan single parent of a multiracial child
(in this case a lumbering brute with no redeeming intellectual or social
merit) sees the error of her failed coupling with a man outside of her
race (who has since run off and left her with her mixed-breed son) and
attempts to take her anger out on the general populace of properly
married men and women who have wisely chosen to avoid race mixing and
produced normal healthy children. These racially pure innocents are
subjected to horrors by this sad, sick woman who believed the lie of race
mixing being acceptable, and now she uses unnatural powers to rob them of
their genetic heritage by turning them into forest animals. Hence we see
the psyche of the tragically wounded soul, burned by race mixing and
forever unwilling to point the finger of blame squarely where it belongs
-- on her own bosom.

The depths of evil in the game may seem extremely sick and disturbing to
us, but as I said before the game's ultimate triumph shows the heroes
being rescued by the fatherly patron Orrick, who is also shown
benevolently treating the inferior races (in their original, unmixed
state, one capable of being happy in its station) as a wise master treats
his servants (one amusing goblin has even been taught how to read). The
White European heroes journey back to their homelands and announce the
safety for all of their kind to be fruitful, multiply (with their own
kind), and spread in purity across the land. I especially enjoyed
playing the Paladin, although I did end up having my Sorcerer hero do
most of the talking as the Paladin refused to collect rewards for his
just deeds. "The worker is worthy of his hire..."

This game is a timely intervention on the part of a normally unconcerned
sector of our economy, and I applaud it. Not ten hundred yards from
where I sit is a so-called "public high school" which is in reality a
simmering hotbed of miscegenation. I will die before I see my young
relatives and future children being exposed to the kind of deception and
genocide promotion that goes on in that dire institution; just this week
I was driving slowly past the front of the school to get a better look at
the young women emerging at the end of the day (this is part of my social
research). In any event there was a detestable sign promoting the
society-crumbling sickness of interracial sex in the form of the words
"Love Between Cultures", with happy faces of different colors holding
hands in a barely-concealed celebration of wanton racially mixed lust.
To say it was disturbing is a ponderous understatement -- it was *sick*
and I was struck with an immediate urge to vomit. This is *real* -- it
is *not* some dark fantasy, it is IN OUR SCHOOLS, *NOW*!

I only pray Black Isle Studios will continue to produce quality product,
and that my pure genes will be passed on through the generations to
survive the apocalypse that looms over us all.

Warm regards,

Dr. Daniel Peters

 

[Average Manatee]

Tried a few strategies for Yxunomei. Turns out when you have 6 characters with low THAC0, 2 APR, dealing 16-20 damage per hit, the best one is to just run in and hit her. She fails in her initial spell and goes down like a bitch before starting a single attack.

 

[Morgoth]

Would love and IWD2:EE. Both IWD and BG were great games, and I was disappointed that BG2 turned out to be a steaming pile of shit. Tried to make IWD2 work on my computer, but no dice. Here's hoping that IWD is the sequel that IWD deserves.

This makes IWD2 run like a charm on modern computers:
https://github.com/CnCNet/cnc-ddraw

 

[Average Manatee]

And Belhifet died exactly the same way. His -12 AC doesn't fare well when about 25 attacks per round are coming in with a THAC0 of 0 to -5 and his (maximized) 350 HP drops like a rock. My best fighter did end up with -20 (-4 vs. slashing) AC which is enough to only be hit 15% of the time by him, so it was a cakewalk to tank for a few rounds.

Game took 1726 days to complete though because a single rest takes around 2-3 months by the end game lmao.

That said I wasn't really playing the game fairly since Berserkers should be verboten in IWD1, but I couldn't think of a reasonable way to get through all the hold/stun/confusion spells that enemies in IWD1 are primarily casting without Enrage. Party was 5x Dwarf Berserkers and 1x Human Berserker 1->Thief Dual, all with at least 18/92-18-18. By the end game the dwarves all have a save vs. spell around 0 so you can just kind of shrug off things. Only difficult parts were Dragon's eye (snake archers were chewing characters without a good shield up) and the salamanders with fire/ice auras (not really hard tbh but really attritions the HP bar). Everything else we pretty much sailed through, running across maps and chewing through enemies while barely being hit.

One thing I noticed is that there really isn't anything to buy in IWD1 stores except scrolls. If you're selling scrolls you'll end up with hundreds of thousands of excess gold, even if buying out shops of potions and stockpile 25 healing potions per character. Really sucks that there's no where to just buy a full plate mail or two. Two characters ended the game with standard unenchanted plate mail.

 

[Grunker]

Game took 1726 days to complete though because a single rest takes around 2-3 months by the end game lmao.

heal up your dudes before resting lol wtf

 

[mediocrepoet]

Game took 1726 days to complete though because a single rest takes around 2-3 months by the end game lmao.

heal up your dudes before resting lol wtf

The assault on the first floor of the Dragon's Eye took three and a half years. We'll never know what was in the lower levels because the villains moved while the heroes were in a coma. All we found was a photocopy of someone's butt.

 

[Norfleet]

"I want a challenge, so I will make a party of only mages" said the person who never played D&D beyond level 2 before.

Could be a real slog grinding all the trash mobs. Kind of a challenge.

Blasting trash mobs is what mages excel at, though. 6 mages is a LOT of fireballs.

 

[Average Manatee]

Game took 1726 days to complete though because a single rest takes around 2-3 months by the end game lmao.

heal up your dudes before resting lol wtf

Healing potions are 9 HP and would take several minutes to spam while running back to town only improves that to healing ~20 HP per hit at a cleric. Far easier to simply hit the rest button.

The assault on the first floor of the Dragon's Eye took three and a half years. We'll never know what was in the lower levels because the villains moved while the heroes were in a coma. All we found was a photocopy of someone's butt.

Basically lmao.

 

[Nano]

Healing potions are 9 HP and would take several minutes to spam while running back to town only improves that to healing ~20 HP per hit at a cleric. Far easier to simply hit the rest button.

Should've gone into the settings menu to disable extended resting. Immersion matters in a game like IWD.