Icewind Dale The Icewind Dale Series Thread

[Infinitron]

I played this game through a long time ago. It must not have had much of a story because I can't even remember the ending.

This was the game you run into Drizzt in right? I clearly remember not being able to kill that guy in a game and I think it was this game.

I might have to replay just to destroy him properly this time.

No, you run into Drizzt in BG1 and BG2.

 

[Joris]

Finally the original IWD content is over. Have started it in HoF mode with 1 lvl heroes and for my first playthrough o_O
With this party
Paladin (longsword, axe, GREAT saves - main tank)
Ranger 3/Cleric X (mace, hammer - second tank)
Fighter 6/Druid X (sling, scimitar - shooter/third tank)
Fighter - Thieve (bow (although crossbow would be better), short sword - archer/another off tank)
Fighter 3/Mage X Conjurer (crossbow, dagger - good shooter/offensive caster)
Bard (sling - buffer/support with songs)
Every one of them was vital at least once, maybe except for paladin, which could be a dwarven fighter as well.

Now here are some impressions of the game difficulty and balance:
(possibly spoilers)



Orc caves were damn hard for low lvl party, at least there was an opportunity to leave the cave and rest.
Goblins on the Eastheaven-Kuldahar road were the first enemies to fight till the last breath in one attepmt, wery hard at that point. Besides, from this one i have never remembered this leave battle/rest tactic again.
Valley of Shadows, Temple - OK difficulty, despite that giants that had beaten my MT in seconds. Many thanks to chromatic orb and druid elementals/bears.
Dragon's Eye (?), well, trolls and lizardmen - DAMN HELL. The Yxunomei battle seemed like an end of my adventures. It took all the potions and magic ammunition to make it, and some extra 6k to resurrect my cleric.
Surpisingly after that
Severed hand, Upper Dorn, Wyvern smth - really easy. Usually i didn't even bother myself with buffing and summoning. Well, except for Protection from evil'10, Courage, Hope and some elementals.
Lower Dorn - again OK overall difficulty. A bit of this and a bit of that, umberhulks haven't impressed me at all though.
Final battle - well, some good potions, everyone except bard switched to melee and, heh, mass invisibility have made a deal.

I'm yet to play HoW, but so far the hardest battle for me in all the 2nd ed Infinity Engine games is that one with the Demon at the end of the TotSC expansion of BG1.

 

[alkeides]

OK I just finished this. I realised I didn't actually finish the game 10 years ago. So really, the whole war started because the twins got upset that the Bryn Shander envoy gave them cakes made with holy water? That's what some sources online claim and at the end of the game they do say that they wanted to teach the people of the Ten Towns some manners. On the other hand, earlier in the game, I think Iselore said that the twins first sent out messages telling the towns to submit -- or was it simply a message letting them know that the Legion was in town?

Also, they weren't vulnerable to holy water earlier in their lives? One of them was a cleric of Ilmater.

 

[Pelvis Knot]

Yes. You should ask Sawyer about that last sentence.

 

[Edwin]

and i guess they werent happy that the heroes of the ten towns made dog food from their dad in iwd1

 

[Wyrmlord]

alkeides
Here is my understanding.

The twins initially believed that if they showed respect and tried to bargain as equals, they would receive the same treatment back in turn. All they asked was that a nation of hobgoblins, abberations, orogs, druids, scheming wizards, trolls, and other social outcasts be recognized as a nation of their own. Just for this simple request, they received an insult in return.

By the time, Madae arrives in Kuldahar, she explains that she and her brother now believe that only force is of any use in this world, and anything else is pointless. When the archdruid scolds them for wanting revenge, Madae says she doesn't care for revenge, but merely believes force is the only way of securing one's position.

It's not that they were so offended by the holy water gesture that they started a war over it. It's just that the gesture confirmed what they always believed about the "civilization of hypocritical mundanes".

 

[Volourn]

Thiw as just another way to try to pretend the evil was good. To spin that nonsense that 'all is gray and there is no good or evil'.

Thw twins were evil, and if anyone disputes it are as insane as the Master was with his whole 'purify the world by dumping it in goo' plan.

Sawyer has an issue with trying to go 'deep' when it is illogical. the twins are evil. theywn anted power. They would murder all to achieve it. That is the very defintion of evil. Everything else is a smokescreen.

 

[Roguey]

"Thiw as just another way to try to pretend the evil was good. To spin that nonsense that 'all is gray and there is no good or evil'."

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/39565-icewind-dale-2/#entry533784

Not quite as concise as Tim Cain's "No." but in the same spirit.

 

[Volourn]

Like I give a shit. Thew riting tries to make you sympathize with them, and it fails. This spin that the twins were in the right and the villagers were in the wrong is fukkin' ridiculous. It is a lame attempt to make soemthing/someone seem deeper than theya ctually are.

 

[Captain Shrek]

Like I give a shit. Thew riting tries to make you sympathize with them, and it fails. This spin that the twins were in the right and the villagers were in the wrong is fukkin' ridiculous. It is a lame attempt to make soemthing/someone seem deeper than theya ctually are.

My love, you are correct.

 

[Grunker]

How dare you attempt to refute the fact that when Sawyer makes a claim it is absolutely true?

 

[Roguey]

"Thew riting tries to make you sympathize with them, and it fails."

No it doesn't.

 

[Volourn]

Yes, it does.

 

[J_C]

No it doesn't.

 

[Wyrmlord]

Come on, guys.

No, the game did not try to make Isair's and Madae's motivations look deep and gray.

I liked it, because it was interesting.

The whole crisis with Belhifet and Yxunomei produced a new generation of aberrations that became a problem of their own. A crisis from a generation ago ripples into a whole new crisis. Half-human freaks (yuan-ti, cambions,.etc) were born in villages, lived alongside normal humans, humans showed distaste for half-humans, half-humans used their monstrous strength and uncontrollable temper to easily slaughter humans who pushed them, and the whole thing develops into a nasty war with thousands of humans killed or enslaved as breeders by a new organization of half human masters. You don't have to feel sympathy for the half-humans, but you have to acknowledge it is interesting.

Did nobody enjoy coming to Kuldahar and discovering what were the origins of the people who slaughtered much of the city and left it in ruins? How the arch-druid says that he warned of this years ago when he said, "They come from evil, and nothing but evil will come from them"? How the ghost of the two cambion's mother still has the sentimental weakness for the mass murderers her foster children have become? It's amazing!

 

[Volourn]

"You don't have to feel sympathy for the half-humans, but you have to acknowledge it is interesting"

No. It's boring and trite. It's piss poor writing that has no depth, no shades of grey. Just plain bullshit. And, it definitely wasn'ty aamzing. It was fukking shit. Juvenile psycho babble written by punks who think they write deep thoguhts but write shitty stuff.

FFS Don't be a douchbag edgy 'pretend a thinker'. This because someone spams shallow thoguhts and tells you theya re meant to be thought provoking doesn't make it so.


L0L Look at the evil monsters tear the mean humans up because they said mean things. Look how misunderstood they are. It is the humaNs' fault for being big meanies. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Infinitron]

Don't confuse poor little Volourn with long sentences, Wyrmlord.

 

[Johannes]

Volly's not confused, he's spot on.

 

[Infinitron]

Volly's not confused, he's spot on.

L0L Look at the evil monsters tear the mean humans up because they said mean things. Look how misunderstood they are. It is the humaNs' fault for being big meanies. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What did that have to do with Wyrmlord's post?

No, the game did not try to make Isair's and Madae's motivations look deep and gray.

For fuck's sake, people.

 

[Johannes]

That's irrelevant.

 

[Infinitron]

Holy shit, the Volourn virus must be spreading. Updated my ignore list.

 

[Ringhausen]

The plot of IWD2 overall felt like an episode of pokimon.

 

[ColCol]

Jesus People, Cambion's are evil alignment, This is dnd, nothing shall be allowed to escape from the alignment chart. NOTHING

 

[Stokowski]

Fucking paladins.

 

[Erebus]

The twins could have been more interesting, but they were still a pretty big improvement over Belhifet.