Icewind Dale The Icewind Dale Series Thread

[gunman]

As for the OT. I think that ID is worth it if you can stomach the IE combat mechanics and boring character system, because they're as bad as in first BG (not even character kits from BGII are there, sorry). The atmosphere and visuals are really nice, looting and difficult battles satisfying. I never liked II, the first one was simply enough for me.

Boring character system? The freedom of multiclassing in 3rd edition rules dwarfs the character development of BG2. Talking about IWD2 here.

 

[Topher]

The soundtracks are all pretty cool. I actually have the soundtrack to BG 1 and IWD 1-2 on CD, from I think the collectors editions of each game, but I'm not sure if they ever put out the track to BG2.

 

[20 Eyes]

As for the OT. I think that ID is worth it if you can stomach the IE combat mechanics and boring character system, because they're as bad as in first BG (not even character kits from BGII are there, sorry). The atmosphere and visuals are really nice, looting and difficult battles satisfying. I never liked II, the first one was simply enough for me.

Boring character system? The freedom of multiclassing in 3rd edition rules dwarfs the character development of BG2. Talking about IWD2 here.

I hate 3rd Edition multiclassing. It encourages munchkin bullshit, like taking a level of Cleric for the domain feats.

 

[gunman]

Nothing forces you to do so, just play like you feel it's right.

 

[m_s0]

I'm not sure if they ever put out the track to BG2.

The Polish release definitely came with the soundtrack.

 

[kmonster]

I hate 3rd Edition multiclassing. It encourages munchkin bullshit, like taking a level of Cleric for the domain feats.

You don't understand the 3E system.

Did you cheat yourself trying to cheat the game engine and had to give up your IWD2 attempt because you crippled your party with what you thought was "munchkin" ?

I guess you're just a 2E munchkin kiddie who misses not being able to abuse its 2E multiclassing imbalances any more. In 2E you could create a human fighter3/mage X instead of a mage for example and get 24 extra hitpoints, +3 to hit and damage and 50 percent more attacks for weapon mastery and the ability to use fighter weapons and armor for just about 1 percent of the XP needed for one additional mage level later. This is real munchkin.
3E multiclassing is far better balanced. 1 fighter level added to your mage will cost as much XP as 1 (instead of 0.01) caster level and only add 6 HP, 0.5 BAB, weapon/armor proficiencies and 0.8 feats. Taking a cleric level instead will even reduce attack power since the 1st cleric level grants no BAB.
In 3E multiclassing is far better balanced than in 2E. You don't get 8-10 levels for the prize of one when multiclassing any more.

 

[Takeda Kenshi]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEqDtbC3bL8

I'll just leave this here.

That REALLY reminds me of this for some reason.

 

[Saxon1974]

I dont normally like linear style games with combat after combat after combat but for some reason this game has kept me interested.

The game is pretty well balanced on normal as I have been killed a few times but its not too easy either.

I think the reason these games are good is they really make it feel like your in the cold north icewind dale region of the realms. The dungeons while not real deep in lore or NPC's definitely have the feel of getting lost in deep dark dungeons.

Amazes me that these ISO graphics that are more than 10 years old now still make it feel like your really in the realms than any of the 3D games do.

Another thing that I l ike is it appears the amount of gold in the game is balanced pretty well, keeps the values of gold and items meaningfull. There are many items that I still cant afford and I have been playing for quite a while.

I might actually finish this game repetitive combat and all.

 

[Kaanyrvhok]

I hate 3rd Edition multiclassing. It encourages munchkin bullshit, like taking a level of Cleric for the domain feats.

You don't understand the 3E system.

Did you cheat yourself trying to cheat the game engine and had to give up your IWD2 attempt because you crippled your party with what you thought was "munchkin" ?

I guess you're just a 2E munchkin kiddie who misses not being able to abuse its 2E multiclassing imbalances any more. In 2E you could create a human fighter3/mage X instead of a mage for example and get 24 extra hitpoints, +3 to hit and damage and 50 percent more attacks for weapon mastery and the ability to use fighter weapons and armor for just about 1 percent of the XP needed for one additional mage level later. This is real munchkin.
3E multiclassing is far better balanced. 1 fighter level added to your mage will cost as much XP as 1 (instead of 0.01) caster level and only add 6 HP, 0.5 BAB, weapon/armor proficiencies and 0.8 feats. Taking a cleric level instead will even reduce attack power since the 1st cleric level grants no BAB.
In 3E multiclassing is far better balanced than in 2E. You don't get 8-10 levels for the prize of one when multiclassing any more.

Exactly. You stole my reply. Dual classing in 2E was a mess. There was no reason not to do it early. 3E is balanced enough to where in a party of six you probably want at least two or three single class characters.

 

[jagged-jimmy]

Just finished Icewind Dale I and i liked it. I was in for some D&D adveturing and i got it. No gay elf party banter, just awesome char creation and dice rolling. Combat is interesting and there are all kind of enemies to battle.

I also found myself interested in the lore stories revealed through the course of the game. Atmosphere and writing kept me reading. Some of the locations are especially beautiful and well designed.

In the end it loses a bit of starting greatness as the end locations are just okay, but i already started into expansion.

I'd say if you want some D&D dungeon crawling - its a great fun. I especially did not want any involvement in party romances and faggy BG-like questing. If part two follows the same structure i am all in.

 

[Surf Solar]

So I just installed Icewind Dale because the art section and the talk about good music/atmosphere won me over. Are there any mods/patches I should consider installing?

Worth a note also is that I simply suck at Infinity Engine RTwP combat, so I'll probably have a hard time. Any party recommendations?

 

[octavius]

Worth a note also is that I simply suck at Infinity Engine RTwP combat, so I'll probably have a hard time. Any party recommendations?

Paladin
Ranger
Cleric
Mage
Fighter/Thief
Druid

If you want a challenge avoid bards, since the song that makes your party regenerate HP is IMO unbalancing.

 

[jiujitsu]

Personally, I love the IWD series. I enjoy IE combat, so that's good. I like the IWD story. The art and music is great. If you can accept that IWD is not BG and is not intended to have a character driven story then you should be good to play. You can write the background for all of your characters if you want and imagine how each one is and how the group works as a whole behind the scenes.

My favorite part of IWD2 are the side stories. Items or places you find that have an interesting story behind them that can just be ignored if you hate reading.

Check them out. They are worth a playthrough.

 

[Jaesun]

Worth a note also is that I simply suck at Infinity Engine RTwP combat, so I'll probably have a hard time. Any party recommendations?

Paladin
Ranger
Cleric
Mage
Fighter/Thief
Druid

If you want a challenge avoid bards, since the song that makes your party regenerate HP is IMO unbalancing.

Not having a Bard in IWD is like cooking Macaroni and Cheese... without the cheese....

 

[octavius]

Worth a note also is that I simply suck at Infinity Engine RTwP combat, so I'll probably have a hard time. Any party recommendations?

Paladin
Ranger
Cleric
Mage
Fighter/Thief
Druid

If you want a challenge avoid bards, since the song that makes your party regenerate HP is IMO unbalancing.

Not having a Bard in IWD is like cooking Macaroni and Cheese... without the cheese....

Heh, if you want cheese, replace the Ranger with a Bard.
But I think the party i suggested is more balanced with two pure fighter types and a Cleric who can also survive in the melee. OTOH you miss some quests and some quest solutions without a bard.

 

[jagged-jimmy]

So I just installed Icewind Dale because the art section and the talk about good music/atmosphere won me over. Are there any mods/patches I should consider installing?

Worth a note also is that I simply suck at Infinity Engine RTwP combat, so I'll probably have a hard time. Any party recommendations?

I am not the master of infinity combat either, but i came through quite easy with a party of five:

Fighter
Ranger
Cleric
Mage/Thief elf multi
Mage

I must say though, that i cannot think of any advantage of having a Ranger (compared to a Fighter) except for racial enemy bonus (i took undead).
Also i would probably dual / multiclass cleric too. He was kind of a wimp, without proper buffing he took a lot of damage and was not a great help. I found mage buffing (courage and hope emotions) far better.

 

[Surf Solar]

I am playing it right now, finished all the "quests" in the starter village and the expedition got ambushed. Gameplay is exactly how I expected it to be, but surprisingly I have fun. I enjoy this much more then Baldurs Gate, which I've never got the hang with.. Overall style is fantastic here, the soundeffects and music are awesome and I dig the "winter" setting. Only thing which annoys me is the terribly useless level 1 mage, but that's general AD&D problem I suppose. I've gone with the tips for party creation provided here on earlier - probably screwed some stats, but at the moment it's fun. Will see how far I manage to play it.

 

[JrK]

Also i would probably dual / multiclass cleric too. He was kind of a wimp, without proper buffing he took a lot of damage and was not a great help. I found mage buffing (courage and hope emotions) far better.

Biggest flaw of ADnD. Clerics suck at spellcasting outside of healing and can't get the necessary strength/weapon proficiencies/ApR to be any good at melee. Problem is solved by taking just 3 lvls of fighter and dualclassing. That makes 'em at least decent.

I must say though, that i cannot think of any advantage of having a Ranger (compared to a Fighter) except for racial enemy bonus (i took undead).

If you have HoW, rangers automatically gain 1 ApR if they wield a one-handed weapon and no shield. This makes them the deadliest guys in the early game, but the advantage goes away when fighters reach lvl 9.

In fact, I think the paladin is in the same boat, outside the few immunities and holy avenger they have little to offer over a fighter. Grandmastery in weapons is just so powerful in these games.

 

[jagged-jimmy]

I've gone for a shield pretty early on my Ranger, so as i am thinking of it - Ranger was just for larping.

 

[Carceri]

Ranger/Cleric multiclass is pretty badass, in my current game he has the most kills in the party.

 

[Elzair]

Is it true that one of those games was developed in only four months?

 

[Jim Cojones]

Is it true that one of those games was developed in only four months?

IWD2 was planned to be made in four months. It wasn't completed as quickly though.

 

[octavius]

Ranger/Cleric multiclass is pretty badass, in my current game he has the most kills in the party.

For me it's the fighter/thief with his backstabbing ability who has about 50% of all kills the first half of the game.

 

[Desmodus Rotundus]

Just finished it again yesterday, went with

paladin
ranger/cleric
fighter/cleric
fighter/thief
fighter/mage
fighter/mage

All multyclassed, and that's the first time I didn't take a bard with me, played it on hardest, and thanx to double exp it was too easy most of the time, except for the final battle. Starting expansion now. The key in low level infinity engine 2nd ed games are the damn bows, with their base 2 apr, especially the composite ones with +2 dam +1 hit. Got really tedious running back for ammo after a while so I installed some ease of use mod components. Like someone said already pally isn't really that good compared to a fighter on hindsight, but didn't remember how late you get the pally sword and that it wasn't that awesome, think the iwd2 one was better. Speaking of Xonomy or howere you spell her, once you realise that she needs +2 weapons to hit it's not that hard, think it took me 2 rounds to kill her, if the game had +3 arrows the end boss would have been a cakewalk as well probably.

edit: went with that party because wanted to cheese a bit, picked ranger/cleric because in bg it was broken - had both cleric and druid spells from the start, who knew that black isle would actually fix it the bugger only gained ranger spells at levels the ranger would have gotten them :D would have picked fighter/druid instead if I had known.

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

I just finished yet another replay of both ID games and I still find 1 to be way more pleasant to (re)play than 2. Still, both are good games and solid dungeons crawlers. It's just that the first also happens to have an atmosphere on top of it.
I tried a pre-made party for the first time when replaying 2, it's a nice feature for replayers. The more so considering that 3ed multiclassing infamous "souplesse" let's you evolve the pre-made character more to your liking as they level-up. In my party, only the monk escaped the eventual multiclassing. It makes for a nice balance between the pre-made stuff and your personal shit.