Did you follow any house rules on resting?
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Icewind Dale The Icewind Dale Series Thread
- Thread starter Heresiarch
- Start date
My house rule is to rest only once a day, but in the end I only rested when stopping in Lonelywood without really needing to, and once in the final area when my whole party was tired. I used a minimum of spells.
I completed the expansion in 13 game days.
Thinking more about it, I think the best thing about HoW was that you have an End Boss whose motivations you can relate to, and even to some degree sympathize with.
So the writing is quite good for a CRPG, but too bad the rest was really substandard compared to BG 1's expansion or to IWD.
So the writing is quite good for a CRPG, but too bad the rest was really substandard compared to BG 1's expansion or to IWD.
Were you using mostly spells for healing then?
No, I used the War Chant for that. So mostly summoning spells and Slow. But most of the time my bard was singing the War Chant of the Sith.
I have a feeling having no Cleric and no one even able to use Cleric scrolls, may become a problem in Trials of the Luremaster. I remember insta death spells being the bane of my solo F/M/T. So every time someone dies I'll either have to reload or, if it's even possible, head back to a temple.
This makes me want to take another go at IWD. Reflecting on how my feelings have changed for the IE games over the years, I find that as a kid was mostly captured by the atmopshere and the wonder of the fantasy world. Nowadays I still appreciate the graphics and style, and the writing - either for being "classic fantasy" in IWD or for its old-school cheesyness in BG, but I'm just as attracted by the "building" part of the RPG - making the builds and maintaining the discipline for advancing through the dungeons. Probably that's why I've turned more towards IWD in recent times. I can't be satisfied with BG's level of storytelling any more.
IWD was the first real video game in my childhood and it have probably sealed my RPG-tastes for life. I still replay it almost each year, but what I've learned to appreciate with the time is how tone-perfect writing, art and atmosphere there. It is like playing through Tolkien's novel. No misplaced modern language, no twitter speak or endless one-liners. Just an adventure in its purest form.
Probably main reason why nothing with only one directly controlled character was able to provoke the same fervent affection in me that I have for IE games (looking at Fallout 1&2 here).
Probably main reason why nothing with only one directly controlled character was able to provoke the same fervent affection in me that I have for IE games (looking at Fallout 1&2 here).
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The entire main quest of Heart of Winter is linked to that short prologue side quest. Aihonen is the hero that, a century ago, killed Icasaracht; the "blue lady" in Easthaven is his old lover who promised him to give the magic sword he used to kill the dragon to his descendants. You agree to help her, she gives you the sword and you bring it to Jhonen, Aihonen's descendant. This apparently meaningless event brings the dragon back to life: before dying, she had prepared some necromantic shenanigans (she removed her children's souls from her eggs and performed some kind of ritual to bring her soul into those eggs in the case of her death), but her plans were ruined by Aihonen: when he killed the dragon, his sword shattered in her heart, preventing the soul from leaving the body. When the blue lady extracts the sword from the corpse of Icasaracht (that lies deep in the lake Lac Dinneshere) to fulfill her promise to her old lover, the necromantic ritual revives Icasaracht bringing her soul into her old eggs.
This stuff is extremely simple and there's nothing too special about it, but god it's so much better than the usual "the world is ending, let's save it from the approaching void" that we get nowadays.
If I remember correctly, the blue lady is also in love with Jhonen, because he remembers her her past lover.
If you complete the quest, when you return to Easthaven to kill Belhifet, Jhonen gives you the Restored Blade of Aihonen (a +1 long sword, +5 "within a dragon’s flight distance of Lac Dinneshere" with some minor bonuses). You can give the blade to the blind dwarf in HoW to get an improved version with better minor bonuses.
TemplarGR
Dumbfuck!
I have been saying it for years. IWD was the best of the Infinity Engine games. For many reasons. It is just that people prefered the story and characters in Baldur's gate and didn't see that as a video game it was inferior in a lot of ways. They were also mesmerized by the writing in Planescape and again, they didn't appreciate IWD, even though Planescape is vastly inferior as a game to it.
The reason for this is simple: Most people play through games only once, if they complete them at all. If the story or writing makes an impact, they call it GOTY BEST GAME EVER OMG OMG OMG HYYYYPEEEEE! It doesn't matter if the gameplay was shit or just mediocre, what resonates with them is the feeeeeelings the story created to them. And when we are talking about younger people with no life experience, mostly socially isolated teenage nerds, who don't even read proper literature and thus are easily amazed by mediocre video game plots, you get hype and overratedness for storyfag games. IWD had a simpler story and few premade fleshed out characters, and that was a plus for what was intended to be a dungeon crawler...
A clearer example is something like "To the moon". A nice little indie game. Well, barely a game. It is a visual novel but with a VERY emotional story. I almost cried. One of the most touching video games i have played in my life, and i have played A LOT of video games in my life. But would i replay it again? No way, it was trash. I would have prefered for the story to be an anime or something.... Yet you don't see me parade in here calling To the Moon "THE GOAT" and voting for it to be top 1 CRPG, even if its story was leaps and bounds better than many stories in the various TOP codexers vote over the years. But you do see Planescape Torment and Disco Elysium fangirls voting them #1 consistently here, and those visual novels if stripped from their writing/characters, they are literally a husk, just like To the moon is....
Dr Skeleton
Arcane
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2014
- Messages
- 871
Also Icasaracht recognizes the sword if you bring it to the final HoW fight. It doesn't change anything, but it's a nice touch.
It's because some battles are tough. Name RPGs without savescumming, even your loved Skyrim has it, if not it would be shit. And if the game is tedious it's time to think about stop playing.
Melcar
Arcane
I may not be remembering right, but the dragon you fight is the mate of the one killed by Aihonen (or maybe I'm confusing stories).
Ontopoly
Disco Hitler
I usually find myself conflicted with over doing the character building and ruining the game because it makes games too easy, or having a challenging game but also having to ignore in depth character building
The IE games (and this applies to PoE/Deadfire) require some self-restraint in order to keep them fun for the player, but how much and in which direction is very subjective per the player himself.
The one you fight is a young dragon containing the spirit of Icy. The big dragon skeleton in the Sahuagian temple was the mate of Icy before she killed him.
TemplarGR
Dumbfuck!
I think this is the secret of making them so addictive to you. Savescumming allows you to feel like you are overcoming obstacles, without actually overcoming them with skill. It makes you feeeeel GOOOOOOOD, but it is a fake feeling not based on real quality but perceived quality. Even some of my most favourite games do this, in the past i have fallen victim to the same psychological effect, it is just that as i grew up and i became old and disillusioned with this shit, i snapped out of the brainwashing and smelled the coffee...
For example, Gothic did this. Now don't get me wrong, Gothic for all its faults was a great experience. I loved it and even felt sad for days when i completed it because there was no more content and i wanted more.... But let's not lie, Gothic's battle system was garbage, utter trash. Controls were shit, animation was shit, and it was inbalanced as hell. There is not a single soul on the planet who beat Gothic without savescumming at his first try, no way. BUT, there was a strange sweetness in overcoming your grasshopper beginnings and becoming a macho man in Gothic and butchering whole orc armies at the end by yourself. It was not based on your skill, it was only a matter of time and savescumming until you managed to persevere, but it was still a nice feeling.
I think losing a few times per playthrough is ok. I don't consider this as "savescumming". I think for me, "savescumming" is literally relying on it for most battles. A little savescumming here in there is ok, but after some time it ruins it for me and i think that games that force the player to savescum often are imbalanced as fuck and should be called out on it.
Although to be fair, HoW did introduce many things that also improves the base game, like higher resolutions, containers for gems, scrolls and potions, and new Bard songs (even if the War Chant breaks the game).
There's also Crippling Strike and Sneak Attack for thieves, but I didn't enable them.
Anyone being an authority on these Thief abilities?
You were right Cael I'm bad at low levels now the game is very easy, maybe I should play on hard. After level 3 I know the best spells or at least the ones that work for me.
Almost every game has savescumming in someway, the exceptions are games with limited continues or without them. In the end you decide what is of better quality. Of course if you don't like masterpiece like Baldur's Gate II or Mass Effect 1 you have shit taste.
I don't mean to be rude, but how exactly has your perception of the difficulty changed? Because you seem to be implying (and please correct me if I'm mistaken) that it is a function of spell complexity, which strikes me as insane when arguing that lower levels are more difficult to than higher levels; in AD&D (less so in 3E, but still somewhat the case) spells generally get more complex and conditional at higher levels, not less so. If your argument is that you can understand the mechanics of high-level spellcasting, but not low-level... well, I have to say that reeks of utter bullshit.
BTW I like BG2. Calling BG2 a masterpiece is something I respectfully disagree with (hasn't aged very well, lacks meaningful C&C, encounter design is generally lackluster aside from some admittedly very fun mage battles).
I also like ME1 (and even 2 and 3 for what they are!), but then again I also like Cheerios and would still roundly make fun of anyone who proclaimed Cheerios the apotheosis of Western culinary traditions.
BTW I like BG2. Calling BG2 a masterpiece is something I respectfully disagree with (hasn't aged very well, lacks meaningful C&C, encounter design is generally lackluster aside from some admittedly very fun mage battles).
I also like ME1 (and even 2 and 3 for what they are!), but then again I also like Cheerios and would still roundly make fun of anyone who proclaimed Cheerios the apotheosis of Western culinary traditions.
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I can see how someone could find higher levels easier due to having access to more spells (in this context, "higher" meaning even just levels "5+" when compared to "1-4"). Once you reach level 3, you gain access to Horror/Web, so your fighting capabilities against big groups of enemies vastly improves; around level 5 you learn Haste and, depending on how many warriors your group has, that means adding A LOT of of attacks.
Low levels spells are weak, and the good ones get better when you're higher level, andalso at low levels you have few spells which sucks. Go play that shit gold box games you noob. If you make comparisson with food Mass Effect would be like the best barbecue you ate in your life.
TemplarGR
Dumbfuck!
Icewind Dale was awesome Josh. Don't let any retard tell you otherwise.
Melcar
Arcane
A gem in a mine of turds 
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