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Icewind Dale The Icewind Dale Series Thread

NecroLord

Dumbfuck!
Dumbfuck
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Sep 6, 2022
Messages
14,414
Looks reasonably OK. New items/Spells = good, IWD2 was badly lacking both. Obviously depends on how well they are balanced though. Some new abilities for weaker classes = good, Fighters for example had no reason to exist as a class past level 4.

Title is retarded though and makes it sound like something official or at least just a fixup rather than a full mod.
IWD 2 had many spells, but I find that the high level Arcane and Divine spells are really lacking.
No Time Stop, no Foresight, no Polymorph Any Object, Miracle, etc...
 
Joined
Jan 7, 2012
Messages
15,176
Looks reasonably OK. New items/Spells = good, IWD2 was badly lacking both. Obviously depends on how well they are balanced though. Some new abilities for weaker classes = good, Fighters for example had no reason to exist as a class past level 4.

Title is retarded though and makes it sound like something official or at least just a fixup rather than a full mod.
IWD 2 had many spells, but I find that the high level Arcane and Divine spells are really lacking.
No Time Stop, no Foresight, no Polymorph Any Object, Miracle, etc...
It's lacking everywhere. IWD2 only has Bull's Strength, Cat's Grace, and Eagle's Splendor. Why the buffs for endurance, intelligence and wisdom are missing no one will ever know I expect. It's like the campaign is being run by some weird super restricted low magic DM.
 
Joined
Jan 21, 2023
Messages
3,733
Looks reasonably OK. New items/Spells = good, IWD2 was badly lacking both. Obviously depends on how well they are balanced though. Some new abilities for weaker classes = good, Fighters for example had no reason to exist as a class past level 4.

Title is retarded though and makes it sound like something official or at least just a fixup rather than a full mod.
IWD 2 had many spells, but I find that the high level Arcane and Divine spells are really lacking.
No Time Stop, no Foresight, no Polymorph Any Object, Miracle, etc...
It's lacking everywhere. IWD2 only has Bull's Strength, Cat's Grace, and Eagle's Splendor. Why the buffs for endurance, intelligence and wisdom are missing no one will ever know I expect. It's like the campaign is being run by some weird super restricted low magic DM.
:balance:
 

Red Hexapus

Savant
Joined
Apr 28, 2019
Messages
341
Location
The Land of Potato

VHS9000

Novice
Joined
Feb 7, 2016
Messages
46
Location
Moscow
Is it me or IWD2 tough as fuck even without all the tactics mods? Haven't played it for years and feel rammed at the end of the Chapter 1. :negative:
 
Joined
Jan 21, 2023
Messages
3,733
It demands more micromanagement of every fight yes. It was designed as an extra gift for people who already had mastered IWD1.
 

Jigby

Augur
Joined
May 9, 2009
Messages
395
It's just you :D

You can just cast 5x Animate dead with your clerics, cast 2nd level Invisibility on your char (or 3rd lvl Invisibility Sphere) and you can go clear all of the goblin warrens with the invisible char + skellies. (assuming that your Animate Dead is summoning Boneguard Skeletons, but your party at this point should be around lvl 7~8, no?)

Edit: I guess iwd2 can be annoying if you play it with the usual "nice" tactics of 2 frontliners as meatshields, druid casts some entangle / spike stones crap, wizard casts web/fireball crap, cleric casts Prayer, rinse and repeat every encounter. You run out of spells quickly thanks to the Vancian system.

Edit2: With invisibility sphere, you can make the skellies invisible too and then easily surround and takeout important targets (I'm thinking of the orc sorcerers/shamans)
 
Last edited:
Joined
Jan 7, 2012
Messages
15,176
IWD2 should be pretty easy on normal difficulty, but unlike all other IE games the difficulty slider has a much greater effect. Where other games just add +50/100% damage (which is irrelevant if you have huge AC or something like mirror image), IWD2 also adds huge AB bonuses, I think enemies get +10 on insane which is where broken things like monk dips to stack massive AC, mirror image, or spamming summons (which get difficulty bonuses) come into play, normal things like fighter/barb/ranger/paladin just have no way to keep up. Taking enemy hit rate from, say, 15% to 65% along with a damage boost is ridiculous. I think they may also get some kind of bonus to saves but not nearly as drastic so save or die/save or be disabled spells are still quite effective.

For normal difficulty though it should be pretty reasonably doable with a normal setup and no cheese, assuming you're competent at building characters and utilizing the systems (I'm also assuming min-maxed stats because you did the same thing in IWD1/BGs, no one made a fighter there without 18/xx strength/18 dex/18 con). I feel IWD1 on normal is harder up until the expansion content which is badly balanced because its balanced to be possible to begun half way through the main campaign and gives tons of experience. IWD1 is just weird because insane also gives +100% XP there which means that it can actually make the game easier.
 
Last edited:

VHS9000

Novice
Joined
Feb 7, 2016
Messages
46
Location
Moscow
if you play it with the usual "nice" tactics of 2 frontliners as meatshields, druid casts some entangle / spike stones crap, wizard casts web/fireball crap, cleric casts Prayer
That's my way. Party of four with sword'n'boarding pal-o-fighter, dual wielding barb-ranger, painbearer with a single level dip into the broken ones and pure wizard. RP autism gives me a strength.

IWD2.jpg


You can just cast 5x Animate dead with your clerics, cast 2nd level Invisibility on your char (or 3rd lvl Invisibility Sphere) and you can go clear all of the goblin warrens with the invisible char + skellies
What a vile insidiousness! :obviously:
 

cretin

Arcane
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Joined
Apr 20, 2019
Messages
1,482
Is it me or IWD2 tough as fuck even without all the tactics mods? Haven't played it for years and feel rammed at the end of the Chapter 1. :negative:

It's pretty tough. It was definitely designed with IE veterans in mind, and the AI is somewhat "better" than previous IE games, by which I just mean its common for enemies to try to bypass your frontliners to get your squishies. Definitely makes things more sweaty and less uniform.
 

NecroLord

Dumbfuck!
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Joined
Sep 6, 2022
Messages
14,414
Is it me or IWD2 tough as fuck even without all the tactics mods? Haven't played it for years and feel rammed at the end of the Chapter 1. :negative:

It's pretty tough. It was definitely designed with IE veterans in mind, and the AI is somewhat "better" than previous IE games, by which I just mean its common for enemies to try to bypass your frontliners to get your squishies. Definitely makes things more sweaty and less uniform.
It's tough in the sense that you absolutely need a well rounded party or, at least, a really good character who can fulfill multiple roles.
You need a tank, healer, mage, buffer...
There are also many combat and deadly encounters which can destroy you. Yeah, can be a challenging game.
That's why you get to make your own party. Make them the way you want.
 

Snufkin

Augur
Joined
Mar 11, 2012
Messages
545
if you play it with the usual "nice" tactics of 2 frontliners as meatshields, druid casts some entangle / spike stones crap, wizard casts web/fireball crap, cleric casts Prayer
That's my way. Party of four with sword'n'boarding pal-o-fighter, dual wielding barb-ranger, painbearer with a single level dip into the broken ones and pure wizard. RP autism gives me a strength.

IWD2.jpg


You can just cast 5x Animate dead with your clerics, cast 2nd level Invisibility on your char (or 3rd lvl Invisibility Sphere) and you can go clear all of the goblin warrens with the invisible char + skellies
What a vile insidiousness! :obviously:
It's not that bad .. what i would miss is bard, as party leader with all those dialogue skills, and wizard does get delayed on getting fireball and haste (you need to find scroll, unlike sorcerer who learns them by lvl up). You may wanna pump wilderness lore on your ranger for Fellwood maze. Makes it a breeze.
 

Cael

Arcane
Possibly Retarded
Joined
Nov 1, 2017
Messages
21,936
if you play it with the usual "nice" tactics of 2 frontliners as meatshields, druid casts some entangle / spike stones crap, wizard casts web/fireball crap, cleric casts Prayer
That's my way. Party of four with sword'n'boarding pal-o-fighter, dual wielding barb-ranger, painbearer with a single level dip into the broken ones and pure wizard. RP autism gives me a strength.

IWD2.jpg


You can just cast 5x Animate dead with your clerics, cast 2nd level Invisibility on your char (or 3rd lvl Invisibility Sphere) and you can go clear all of the goblin warrens with the invisible char + skellies
What a vile insidiousness! :obviously:
It's not that bad .. what i would miss is bard, as party leader with all those dialogue skills, and wizard does get delayed on getting fireball and haste (you need to find scroll, unlike sorcerer who learns them by lvl up). You may wanna pump wilderness lore on your ranger for Fellwood maze. Makes it a breeze.
You'd want some rogue skills. Some of the traps are not fun, and there are lots of them.

Also, you don't want a Paladin or Monk as your face. They automatically decline quest rewards, IIRC. Paladins are also only really good for a dip. A Pal/Painbearer is not a bad combo for a tank.
 

Snufkin

Augur
Joined
Mar 11, 2012
Messages
545
Sorcerers are bad diplomats because it's more optimal to go human with 3 int. That leaves 2 skills which should be concentration + spellcraft to unlock feats that give boost to elemental dmg.
 

Jigby

Augur
Joined
May 9, 2009
Messages
395
You don't need to invest in the skills, with Eagle's Splendor you can have 8+ Charisma bonus. That's enough for all the diplo skill checks, with the exception of those at the end in Severed Hand (there's a diplo check I think on the Severed Hand entrance map and there's an initimidate check with the dead cats and the troll)
 

NecroLord

Dumbfuck!
Dumbfuck
Joined
Sep 6, 2022
Messages
14,414
Sorcerers are bad diplomats because it's more optimal to go human with 3 int. That leaves 2 skills which should be concentration + spellcraft to unlock feats that give boost to elemental dmg.
Yeah, but do you really want to play a human with 3 Int?
homo_erectus_georgicus2.jpg

Isn't that way too min-max?
 

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