Icewind Dale The Icewind Dale Series Thread

[Curratum]

I always have fun killing those hordes of cold wights. There are only three or four of them, so you're almost through.

I offed the necromancer controlling them before wiping the last one, there's 4 actually. Sadly, when you aggro the 4th one, it still gives you the default dialogue which implies the necromancer is still alive and speaking through the large skeleton.

 

[Average Manatee]

smaug I installed Auril's Bane to check out the stats of these Death Knights and I can't even find their creature in near infinity. I can see a "Lord Maluradek" (Level 9 AC -4 THAC0 8) but that's a Trials of the Luremaster-only guy who certainly shouldn't be appearing in base IWD. I also didn't see any death knights in Kressalack's tomb, and I teleported to all of the areas with skeletal mages while on insane difficulty. There are plenty of Spectral Knights (level 5 AC 7 THAC0 13) but no Death Knights.

Where exactly did you see the death knights? What mods did you install? Post weidu.log.

 

[smaug]

// Log of Currently Installed WeiDU Mods
// The top of the file is the 'oldest' mod
// ~TP2_File~ #language_number #component_number // [Subcomponent Name -> ] Component Name [ : Version]
~DDRAWFIX/DDRAWFIX.TP2~ #0 #2 // DDrawFix -> Use WineD3D's DDraw Library: v1.0
~AB.TP2~ #0 #0 // Auril's Bane - Heart of Winter Version
~AB.TP2~ #0 #1 // Icewind Dale No-End Patch
~AB.TP2~ #0 #2 // Heart of Winter No-End Patch
~AB.TP2~ #0 #3 // Grog's IWD Fixes
~AB.TP2~ #0 #4 // Level 40 Rules Pack

The rest of these mods didn't say anything about new encounters. Unless I missed it.

 

[Curratum]

Jesus Christ, things are ramping up pretty damn fast... Dragon's Eye level 4, what the hell was THAT all about...

And 20 feet into level 5, my dwarf who is at AC 0 is getting hit 100% of the time by the archer enemies.

 

[smaug]

Jesus Christ, things are ramping up pretty damn fast... Dragon's Eye level 4, what the hell was THAT all about...

And 20 feet into level 5, my dwarf who is at AC 0 is getting hit 100% of the time by the archer enemies.

I can’t wait to get there.

 

[Curratum]

I can’t wait to get there.

Shit is getting INTENSE! I was trying to cheese a room with a summoner but while figuring out how to do it he called in more trolls and I was fresh out of fire arrows so I had to kite them back to a bunch of NPCs that had fire swords! :D

Dragon's Eye level 4 was probably the most intense and satisfying combat encounter I've had in an IE game so far.

 

[Cael]

Jesus Christ, things are ramping up pretty damn fast... Dragon's Eye level 4, what the hell was THAT all about...

And 20 feet into level 5, my dwarf who is at AC 0 is getting hit 100% of the time by the archer enemies.

Archery in IE games are weird to the point of broken. They hit far more often than melee attacks for some bizarre reason, and in BG, you can practically stunlock a mob with a party of machinegunners. It is by no coincidence that Kivan and Coran are considered borderline broken and both are archers.

 

[Lyric Suite]

It goes both ways too those fucking Kobolts.

 

[Cael]

It goes both ways too those fucking Kobolts.

Yeah. I usually hide and scout and use counterbattery fire to get them first. My party always have at least 1 missile weapon handy.

 

[Harry Easter]

Archery in IE games are weird to the point of broken. They hit far more often than melee attacks for some bizarre reason, and in BG, you can practically stunlock a mob with a party of machinegunners. It is by no coincidence that Kivan and Coran are considered borderline broken and both are archers.

Agree, Kivan is a killing machine, the highest killcount after CHARNAME. Just let him shoot at Sarevok while you run and it will be done in seconds.

It goes both ways too those fucking Kobolts.

Yeah, the Kobolts are horrible. Funny thouggh, everyone I know has this one story to tell: if they finished the game, the always hated the Kobolts the most. If they didn't, they did it because of the Kobolts. Those little fellas are the true test of character.

 

[Curratum]

Holy shit, I have no idea if it's a random drop but in the last level of the Dragon's Eye, I got a longbow that does a fixed 3 attacks per round. Even though it's just a +1 bonus to thac0 and damage, the elf archer ranger was already wrecking ass, now with this thing I can pretty much 100% stunlock any caster, I think my thac0 is down to 1 maybe?

 

[Cael]

Holy shit, I have no idea if it's a random drop but in the last level of the Dragon's Eye, I got a longbow that does a fixed 3 attacks per round. Even though it's just a +1 bonus to thac0 and damage, the elf archer ranger was already wrecking ass, now with this thing I can pretty much 100% stunlock any caster, I think my thac0 is down to 1 maybe?

Wait until you find the Hell Bolter and the Doom Bolter in IWD2. You'd need a new pair of pants.

 

[Curratum]

I had moderate success getting IWD2 to run in a way that doesn't hurt my eyes but I am not too keen on it, in the eternal absence of an enhanced edition.

 

[Lyric Suite]

It's fine the only thing you'll miss is the zoom thingy.

 

[Cael]

I had moderate success getting IWD2 to run in a way that doesn't hurt my eyes but I am not too keen on it, in the eternal absence of an enhanced edition.

Ah. You are one of those.

 

[Curratum]

I had moderate success getting IWD2 to run in a way that doesn't hurt my eyes but I am not too keen on it, in the eternal absence of an enhanced edition.

Ah. You are one of those.

For better or worse, I am. I only played Baldur 1 when the EE came out, I missed it back in its day and could not bring myself to mod that thing once I saw an official, out of the box widescreen 1080p version was being worked on.

Let's not turn this into another one of THOSE, though. I use the EEs literally because I like the ease of use and the modern visual options. That's it. I don't care what the original interface looked like or all that other assorted
minutiae, I just like playing games.

 

[Cael]

I had moderate success getting IWD2 to run in a way that doesn't hurt my eyes but I am not too keen on it, in the eternal absence of an enhanced edition.

Ah. You are one of those.

For better or worse, I am. I only played Baldur 1 when the EE came out, I missed it back in its day and could not bring myself to mod that thing once I saw an official, out of the box widescreen 1080p version was being worked on.

Let's not turn this into another one of THOSE, though. I use the EEs literally because I like the ease of use and the modern visual options. That's it. I don't care what the original interface looked like or all that other assorted
minutiae, I just like playing games.

The fact that you refuse to play IWD2 because of lack of EE proves otherwise.

The fact that you didn't even say that all EE did was to import BG2 graphics to earlier games, something that a mod already did 20 years ago, is also telling.

 

[the_shadow]

I played IWD with Auril's Bane, but I don't recall Death Knights (or am I thinking of Doom Knights?) so early in the game. Do you have a screenshot of them?
And have you tried backstabbing?

I can’t upload a picture cause my internet is fucking crazy shit right now, but yes their called “Death Knights” and I read an old thread on Sorcerers, someone asking the same question, from what they said it’s RNG, just hope you can kill or turn difficulty down. I don’t have the tools or gears to deal with them at level 4/5.

I've played through IWD half a dozen times, and never encountered a Death Knight there. Like you said, it must be Auril's Bane or the random monster generator went wacky.

The first few levels are always the hardest in IE games, because you have few tactical options due to lacking any decent spells/equipment. The game gets way easier after Yxunomei, and even Yxunomei is pretty easy compared to a lot of mob battles beforehand (cold wights) because you've finally got some decent items.

 

[Maggot]

Is the 3E thief sneak attack setting worth using for IWD1?

 

[Sinatar]

Is the 3E thief sneak attack setting worth using for IWD1?

It removes the stealth requirement from backstabs, but that applies to the enemies as well.

 

[Parabalus]

IIRC the 3E sneak attack can only happen once per round, so it's largely useless, since it does much less damage than a backstab.

 

[Cael]

Proof that IWD2 stealth works:

Can hang around there all day within sight of 3 different enemies and no problems. In fact, I used stealth to get around them to open the gate. Saved the Invis potion.

People who claim it doesn't work is full of shit.

 

[Master]

Nice portraits. What are those exactly?

 

[Cael]

Nice portraits. What are those exactly?

I can't remember. It is one of the portrait packs. The party is:

2x human Monk 1/Paladin 1/Cleric of Ilmater x
1x human Monk 1/Cleric of Bane x
1x human Cleric of Oghma 1/Transmuter x
1x human Sorceror x
1x halfling Bard x

To be honest, I am using it to verify an XP mod that I installed. It is supposed to be true to 3.x XP tables (IWD2 isn't true to them) but extended so that you still gained some XP at higher levels (veterans will know that you stop gaining XP about the Horde Fortress until the next chapter and generally only gain XP for half the chapter every chapter after). Currently seems to be working as advertised. The mobs are correctly giving 300XP per kill at level 1-3.

I am considering starting again with a slightly different party, and the single classed sorcerer and bard is bugging me.

 

[Chippy]

Proof that IWD2 stealth works:

Can hang around there all day within sight of 3 different enemies and no problems. In fact, I used stealth to get around them to open the gate. Saved the Invis potion.

People who claim it doesn't work is full of shit.

Show me the hostile rings on those orcs, the same 2 rounds of stealth, and place your character within the sight range (not their line of sight) but the range as per a ranged weapon, and I'll consider it