Icewind Dale The Icewind Dale Series Thread

Blasphemy and Unholy Word won't affect evil NPCS either, who constitute about 95+% of your enemies. Evil clerics do get Cloud of Pestilence, which is essentially a mass blind spell. Holy Word for good clerics is fantastic, but you don't get that until near the end of the game, and Symbol of Hopelessness is on the same spell level.

I recently completed the game with a Banite cleric. Banite's are OK, but if I could do it over again, I'd go with Tempus. You can be neutral/good/evil, both of your domain abilities are useful, and the domain spellbook selection is pretty damn good.

And Chrichton, what's the deal with your cleric heavy party? Yeah, cleric's rock, but there are some points in the game where magic isn't going to cut it and you'll need a couple of fighters with a high BAB.

 

Actually I never use pure fighter types, all my front line characters are usually battle clerics with 4 levels of warrior, sometimes two levels of paladin, one level of monk and one level of ranger I normally pick one mix in for the early game, and then top them up with the other classes towards the end or in HOF.

It's not just an interesting alternative, it's a different beast entirely.

With 20 base wisdom, +4 WIS from the Dreadmaster quests, +4 from holy transference, +2 from clear purpose, +1 from Tyrant's Dictum domain ability, +7 from level ups and +5 from every god ring, you end up with a whopping 42 WIS + Tyrant's Dictum. Add SF and GSF enchantment on top of this.

Look at the domain spells:

1 Bane, Command
2 Horror, Silence
3 Dire Charm, Rigid Thinking
4 Cloak of Fear, Emotion: Despair
5 Dominate Person, Greater Command
6 Feeblemind, Power Word: Silence
7 Gate, Suffocate
8 Flaying, Power Word: Blind
9 Mass Dominate, Summon Monster IX

They get most of the wizard enchantments which are still useful at the end game (some of the other ones are based on the HD of the monsters, etc). Holy Word is great of course but cannot compare to mass dominating 80% of creatures on the screen, making them kill off anyone that isn't dominated, and then making the dominated monsters kill each other off one by one.

I usually go with Aasimar as it makes for a better front line tank early game, but make the character a deep gnome with 20 dex and 20 wis, and take a level of monk, and you will end up with excellent AC, evasion and magic resistance.

I like this one a lot, at the end I just dump in four levels of warrior, one level of ranger and one level of monk for the evasion (there's an Ilmater monk too in the game, so it kind of fits).

No sorcerer? The sorcerer makes things that are extremely impractical to pull of with a wizard doable, such as for example stoneskinning the whole party on the fly. The flexibility their spellcasting adds to the party makes them much more valuable than yet another cleric.

 

Looking for comments on this 5 character party:

1. Lawful Neutral Aasimar Bane(X) - points in WIS.
(should I go with deep gnome instead?)

2. Lawful Good Drow Paladin(2)/Sorcerer(X) - points in CHA. uses swords.
(I really want the +CHA, +DEX and magic resistance of the drow. But he has only one skill point. Concentration or Spellcraft?)

3. Drow Rogue(1)/Transmuter(X) - points in INT.
(What's a good alignment to pick?)

4. Lawful Good Paladin(2)/Cleric(X) - points in STR. uses axes.
(Helm, Tempus or Ilmater? Help me decide!)

5. Chaotic Evil Half Orc Warrior(4)/Mask(X) - points in STR.

Any suggestion for a sixth character that I might add?

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For reference here are the domain abilites and spells of Helm, Tempus and Ilmater:

TEMPUS

Special abilities:
- Automatically gains Marial Weapon: Axe and Weapon Focus: Axe feats.
- Tempus' Strength: 1/Day (increase Strength by 6 for number of rounds equal to level).

Domain Spells by level:
1 Bless, Magic Stone
2 Chant, Draw Upon Holy Might
3 Animate Dead, Prayer
4 Blood Rage, Recitation
5 Champion's Strength, Chaotic Commands
6 Circle of Blades, Spiritual Wrath
7 Power Word: Blind, Summon Monster VII
8 Power Word: Stun, Summon Monster VIII
9 Power Word: Kill, Summon Monster IX

HELM

Special abilities:
- Helm's Shield: 1/Day (grants a +2 bonus to saves for a number of rounds equal to level)
- Helm's Watch: 1/Day (grants a +2 armor bonus as well as a +2 armor bonus vs missiles for a number of rounds equal to level).

Domain Spells by level:
1 Armor of Faith, Protection from Evil
2 Hold Person, Spell Shield
3 Exaltation, Glyph of Warding
4 Death Ward, Defensive Harmony
5 Dismissal, Greater Command
6 Circle of Blades, Globe of Invulnerability
7 Impervious Sanctity of Mind, Spiritual Wrath
8 Iron Body, Seven Eyes
9 Aegis, Banishment

ILMATER

Special abilities:
- Pain Touch: 1/Day (Touch weapon that causes a -2 penalty to STR and DEX for 10 rounds).
- Ilmater's Endurance: 1/Day (Increase CON by 6 for a number of rounds equal to level).

Domain Spells by level:
1 Minor Elemental Barrier, Protection from Evil
2 Aid, Remove Fatigue
3 Cure Serious Wounds, Magic Circle Against Evil
4 Emotion: Hope, Holy Smite
5 Feeblemind, Holy Power
6 Harm, Stoneskin
7 Holy Word, Impervious Sanctity of Mind
8 Holy Aura, Symbol of Pain
9 Horrid Wilting, Summon Monster IX

 

I don't like playing with ECL classes, especially Drow and Deep Gnome. They might be OK for fighters, but not for spellcasters. It slows down their spell progression, and unless you level squat, you're not going to get Level 9 spells at the end of normal mode.

Picking the Transmuter class for a minor increase in HP and cold resistance seems a bit pedantic. I think a druid would be better for the different spellbook (particularly barkskin, spiritual wrath, sunbeam, smashing wave, and moonblade).

 

Spell Resistance is a big deal, and if you play with small party, there is more then enough exp to go around.

 

Spell resistance is gravy. You don't have to fight many dangerous mages, and even then, you have Holy Aura.

 

Well it will just increase the satisfaction of getting those spells in HOF. I really don't pick characters builds that make the game easier, I don't mind playing through battles with gimped characters as long as I know they will come out more powerful in the long run.

It's not just that, it's also because they have what I consider the most skip-worthy opposition schools. Illusionists have the exact same opposition schools, but then transmuters win because of the gameplay elements.

 

Hmm okay.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/552350-icewind-dale-ii/faqs/21354

There's a "power gamer" who recommends that you put points into greatswords in his "ultimate powergaming party faq," ergo you are wrong about their being no decent greatswords.

Or as Josh says "balance is subjective and applicability varies based on character build, play style, and content."

 

Obviously not all supposed "powergamers" are as good at it as others. This powergamer is obviously a failure at powergaming, in the same way that many game designers are failures at game design.

 

How great is Josh's sword, Roguey? Does he let you polish it?

 

He wrote a 27,000+ word text about it which is more than you can say.

Josh describing the roshans of the world:

 

Well, if you consider that he is dead set to make daggers competetive against greatswords...

 

Which is better?
Several quick thrusts or one long thrust?

 

Tsk tsk. Quite desperate of you to hide behind argumentum ab auctoritate. I think we're done here.

 

Would he rather face it power attacking head on, or have it do a sneak attack from behind?

 

Roguey do you consider level squatting to be degenerate gameplay?

 

The way IWD2 handled xp was bad.

 

What is level squatting? Having ballast 1-level chars to pull average party xp low enough to keep getting combat exp?

 

The author recommended investing in a two-handed weapon (most likely due to the 1.5 multiplier to the strength modifier). They never commented on whether weapon selection was better or worse for great swords.

 

It means not leveling up characters even though they have already enough XP to advance to the next level. I think what you described is called muling.

 

I have to say that after reading up on some of the stuff that was discussed here I did end up restarting with an axe fighter and Bane cleric instead of what I originally rolled, so thanks to everyone that chimed in with advice.

The playthrough is currently on hold, though, thanks to the Path of Exile expansion being released and also partly due to the fact that - I'm sad to say - IWD2 feels like quite a slog. The starting area, Targos, was a ton of fun - especially since my expectations were pretty low - but the quality drops off pretty rapidly after that and the rest of the game thus far has been inferior to IWD1, in my opinion. Granted, I'm only in the Ice Temple, so I'm sure it'll improve towards the end.

 

The ice temple is the low point of the game. The remaining content is generally pretty good, although it's pretty erratic. The last chapter in particular is great.

 

That is the worst part of the game (I wonder who designed it - JE Sawyer?). Most of my playthroughs (probably 3 out of 4) actually end at the ice temple. But whenever I have passed that point I have always finished the game!!!

 

IWD 2 has probably lower lows than the first one (ice temple, generic mindflayer dungeon #101) but in the end it's the better game though, mainly because both are pretty combat-oriented and the second one has D&D 3rd edition and much better encounter design than the first one. And despite the fact that they're obviously not storyfag games the overal plot and setting were also more interesting than the in that regard very unmemorable first IWD.