Icewind Dale The Icewind Dale Series Thread

[someone else]

Replaying it after many years so I've forgotten most of it. Pretty dull walk and slash. Melee oriented party using the 2 rings of freedom + spells of freedom and web = win.

 

[1eyedking]

Best dungeon crawlers you'll ever find. Others in comparison are just mindless, glorified MMORPG grinding.

These ones have actual content.

 

[Surf Solar]

I'm still playing and thoroughly enjoying it. Good game. Now, I'm stuck at this dragonhead (?) dungeon. Went through all the levels, wasn't hard. Now, I'm at the final chamber, but I just can't make it (too moronic/whimpy). There are ~10 Trolls and some priestresses bombing me with their spells, and a very tiny area to fight them. So I buffed my party with all the possible spells I have, casted haste, summoned skeletons etc - I still get my ass handed. I have no idea where from I should get fire arrows to destroy the trolls, my abilities to cast melfs arrow of poison (?) or other fire/poison based are very limited.. I usually cast sleep on the trolls at first to beat the priestesses, but they eventually overwhelm me. Any idea what to do? (I don't want to cheese or to alter the difficulty). Thanks.

 

[octavius]

I'm still playing and thoroughly enjoying it. Good game. Now, I'm stuck at this dragonhead (?) dungeon. Went through all the levels, wasn't hard. Now, I'm at the final chamber, but I just can't make it (too moronic/whimpy). There are ~10 Trolls and some priestresses bombing me with their spells, and a very tiny area to fight them. So I buffed my party with all the possible spells I have, casted haste, summoned skeletons etc - I still get my ass handed. I have no idea where from I should get fire arrows to destroy the trolls, my abilities to cast melfs arrow of poison (?) or other fire/poison based are very limited.. I usually cast sleep on the trolls at first to beat the priestesses, but they eventually overwhelm me. Any idea what to do? (I don't want to cheese or to alter the difficulty). Thanks.

There is a sword that has a fire attack which can be used to kill unconscious trolls. Also, the Lizardmen in the levels above sometimes drops small "molotov cocktails" (can't remember the right name) which are also very effective. When you see a troll go down and the non-elemental attacks no longer have any effect, quickly use a fire based weapon to kill it.
Concentrate on killing the trolls first and use spells (fireball, hold person, silence and perhaps the best: long lasting druid area effect spells) to disrupt or negate the priests' spell casting.
You can use your thief's backstab ability to (hopefully) chunk one priest before the battle starts. If you have enough invisibility potions you can go invisble, backstab, go invisible and so on.
In addition to summoning monsters you can also use Animate Dead to provide some cannon fodder.

Sleep is not effective on Trolls.

 

[PorkaMorka]

Did anyone ever make a fan mod to fix the issue in IWD1 where only a portion of a group of enemies will activate if you advance on them slowly? Meaning half a group will charge you while the others sit idly in the fog of war.

If so that would help a lot.

 

[octavius]

Did anyone ever make a fan mod to fix the issue in IWD1 where only a portion of a group of enemies will activate if you advance on them slowly? Meaning half a group will charge you while the others sit idly in the fog of war.

If so that would help a lot.

That is not really a problem in IWD, since most living enemies will call for help. AFAIK only the undead can be "activated" one at a time. I don't think Kresselak's tomb will be doable if his whole legion of undead homed in on you.

 

[Surf Solar]

Did anyone ever make a fan mod to fix the issue in IWD1 where only a portion of a group of enemies will activate if you advance on them slowly? Meaning half a group will charge you while the others sit idly in the fog of war.

If so that would help a lot.

That is not really a problem in IWD, since most living enemies will call for help. AFAIK only the undead can be "activated" one at a time. I don't think Kresselak's tomb will be doable if his whole legion of undead homed in on you.

Yeah, this dungeon was a fucking nightmare, especially when the first enemies immune to normal weapons showed up. Thanks for your tips, I completely forgot this fire "oil"/molotov cocktails you mentionend. Didn't know about the ineffectivity of sleep on trolls. Then again, I'm pretty much a noob when it comes to D&D rulesets, IWD is the first where I actually enjoy the combat (ok, there was Torment..)

 

[jagged-jimmy]

Did anyone ever make a fan mod to fix the issue in IWD1 where only a portion of a group of enemies will activate if you advance on them slowly? Meaning half a group will charge you while the others sit idly in the fog of war.

If so that would help a lot.

That is not really a problem in IWD, since most living enemies will call for help. AFAIK only the undead can be "activated" one at a time. I don't think Kresselak's tomb will be doable if his whole legion of undead homed in on you.

Mhh i was playing the gog version and only one small portion of a visible mob got activated at a time. I recall this behaviour in the ice salamander palace. I read about "call to arms" but sometimes it does not happen.

 

[kmonster]

In vanilla IWD there was no group attack at all, just like in the BG games.
With the HoW the "call to arms" was added, but they didn't add it everywhere and split the monsters in some areas into several groups because of balancing reasons, some areas would just get too hard for having fun as normal player.
If you want enemies to charge in huge groups just get closer and don't keep the distance.

 

[Melissan]

I liked them. The background are beautiful and the music fits them so well.

 

[someone else]

BG and IWD doesn't require much D&D tactics compared to ToEE where players get creamed cos their mages are casting magic missiles instead of sleep.

If you have problems, use disabling spells like web + free action on your troops, horror doesn't work on friendlies and stinking cloud on mages.

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

BG and IWD doesn't require much D&D tactics compared to ToEE

That's all too true but the IWD game universe is still way more attractive than ToEE's. I love both so I replayed both a lot and going through the iced landscapes, frozen aquarium, hand of Seladrine and the whole shebang is something else than watching little dots on a map going from Homlet to the moathouse, Nulb and the temple.

Now, IWD with ToEE engine...

 

[Melissan]

Fighting dumb bagbears and humans gets old fast. ToEE was my first turn-based game and I was afraid that it will be too hard for me, but it was surprisingly easy. I don't think I've ever finished it. The IWD games are a lot harder.

 

[jagged-jimmy]

Fighting dumb bagbears and humans gets old fast. ToEE was my first turn-based game and I was afraid that it will be too hard for me, but it was surprisingly easy. I don't think I've ever finished it. The IWD games are a lot harder.

I have to agree here. In TOEE one can always control most combat situations quite easy. The strange thing is, TOEE got more replayability in my book while being booring. IWD was a nice experience overall, but i fail to see how anyone would want to replay it, because party development is rather minimalistic. I mean Ranger/Fighter/Paladin are all the same, you need a mage or two and a cleric (dual classed or not). So whats to try? A druid and a bard? I dont how that could be fun. Are there party setups which would make a run interesting?

TOEE on the other hand... endless class/feats combos to try.

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

Are there party setups which would make a run interesting?

As you said there are not that many really different party experiences to be had. The only thing that I did and changed things a bit was my "no spellcasters, single classes only" party. Huuuge resting times...
About ToEE, I also did it with many different parties, but if I agree on the "furiously wanking at party/characters creation" part, I don't think that it changes the game experience that much. Except for the good/evil path, but that's not what you were talking about.

 

[CappenVarra]

I liked them. The background are beautiful and the music fits them so well.

First sentence you wrote I can agree with

 

[mysterious-stranger]

I have tried playing the first one, but get stuck on the first mission where you have to find some supplies and kill orc's, yes I suck.

 

[Kaanyrvhok]

Fighting dumb bagbears and humans gets old fast. ToEE was my first turn-based game and I was afraid that it will be too hard for me, but it was surprisingly easy. I don't think I've ever finished it. The IWD games are a lot harder.

Not for me. I did play ToEE with an AI mod so maybe thats why it was so tough. Rtwp just fits my style more. I like to use millitary tactics instead of pen and paper tactics.

 

[1eyedking]

Now, IWD with ToEE engine...

I salivate in anticipation.

 

[Eyeball]

On the advice of this thread, I bought this off Gog for 10 dollars.

It is actually pretty bad. The graphics haven't aged well, the art style is ugly, the interface is clunky (why the fuck did I get suckered into buying a game for the Infinity engine? It is unbelievably unwieldy in combat!)

Still, I appreciate that it seems to be the kind of game that isn't afraid to kick you in the balls if you just charge in and expect to kick ass. I got several party members killed in the very first fight against some pissant goblins and had to reload and exploit their lack of AI to beat them comfortably. I am now stuck in some caves against an ogre that kills both my paladin and warrior with ease, and throwing ogres at DnD parties at level 1 is actually fairly hardcore.

Sadly, I do not find this to be all that much FUN, as the lack of a PST-like resurrect spell from the start makes a single bad diceroll lethal for a low-level character, meaning you have to run back to town and pay 100 gold for resurrection. I now have no money left and cannot afford to lose any more party members.

Maybe this is just due to my disgust for low-level DnD and for the Infinity engine in particular, but I am not enjoying this very much and will most likely just man up and finish KOTC instead. It has the same amount of combatcombatcombat as IWD but a less SHIT combat engine and looks better. That's right, KOTC looks better than this white/brown/grey pile of poo, and KOTC has PacMan era graphics.

 

[Hamster]

It is actually pretty bad. The graphics haven't aged well, the art style is ugly, the interface is clunky

0/10. Next time pretend to be a woman to make your trolling entertaining.

 

[Eyeball]

It is actually pretty bad. The graphics haven't aged well, the art style is ugly, the interface is clunky

0/10. Next time pretend to be a woman to make your trolling entertaining.

No, really, the Infinity engine is unbelievably horrifyingly awful for combat. On a scale of 0-10, where 10 is Wizardry 8's combat engine, it is rated a negative 18/99. The infinity-based PST is the best game in history, but only because combat was such a minor part of it. The way your entire party stutters when you issue a movement command, the fact that their AI seems to go full retard at weird times, forcing you to play in constant pause/unpause mode for decent results, the fact that the enemies don't really appear to have much in the way of brains apart from charging at you blindly, the fact that even doing simple things like bashing doors or moving your party around in formation is much more of a chore than it really should be and the fact that YOU MUST GATHER YOUR PARTY BEFORE VENTURING FORTH has remained from Baldurs Gate since apparently nobody told the developers just how irritating this was, although it is thankfully no more voiced.

And the graphics DO look far more dated than they should - Pick up Fallout. Even its primitive characters look far better than the ones used in IWD and Fallout remains pleasing to look at to this day, despite this dreary, drab, uninteresting looking game, where even the default character portraits look like crap.

The only good thing I've gotten out of this game is that it's made me appreciate KOTC more. Imma go actually pay this guy for his game right now and issue an apology for pirating it in the first place!

 

[kmonster]

You can turn down the difficulty to the easiest level if the game is too hard for you.

The controls are no problem once you get used to them. Maybe you should search for gameplay videos on youtube to see how the game works.

 

[Eyeball]

I know how to work it. I've completed PST more than once. While holding my nose, because the interface is objectively far from optimal.

Should have gone with a modified NWN interface instead to accomodate multiple controllable characters. Would have worked far better, but sadly, they were stuck with the shit Infinity engine at the time.

 

[Kaanyrvhok]

On the advice of this thread, I bought this off Gog for 10 dollars.

It is actually pretty bad. The graphics haven't aged well, the art style is ugly, the interface is clunky (why the fuck did I get suckered into buying a game for the Infinity engine? It is unbelievably unwieldy in combat!)

Still, I appreciate that it seems to be the kind of game that isn't afraid to kick you in the balls if you just charge in and expect to kick ass. I got several party members killed in the very first fight against some pissant goblins and had to reload and exploit their lack of AI to beat them comfortably. I am now stuck in some caves against an ogre that kills both my paladin and warrior with ease, and throwing ogres at DnD parties at level 1 is actually fairly hardcore.phics

It depends on what you want in a game. IWD is easy for me because I relate to it. I find it much easier than ToEE. I killed that Ogre in one try because I used real life common sense tactics. Real life common sense shit is the basis. Ai exploits are just details. To kill that Ogre you simply ask yourself how would I do it in real life. The obvious tactic is to scout your stealth character. Pot shot an archer then run. Have them follow you until they are in the open area and bless them with five characters armed with ranged weapons, sleep and cause fear spells. It should be the Orc archers that cause a reload not the Ogre. He is a slow low armor target that dies quickly when three or more decent archer have him in their cross hairs. The last thing you want to do is engage him.

I will say its a shame the IE doesnt have negative hp. That would make the low levels a lot more forgiving. But still treat your party like a platoon and you will do fine. Thats the beauty of the IE its realistic. Sun Tzu philosophies rule.