Icewind Dale The Icewind Dale Series Thread

[Delterius]

I mean basically anywhere that isnt a town.
Btw, I did my first team, of 1 archer, 1 Fighter, 1 Cleric, and 3 Sorcerers, and died at the first big fight vs orcs in the first small dungeon. I wonder if my team composition was too weak or the early game is too hard for characters that just use the first roll and dont min max.
Also I wonder DO i need a thief for this game? there are many traps? or I can ignore thieveS? i really hate thieves in RPG

Your issue is likely to be the 3 Sorcerers. The lack of melee power is going to hurt you early on. Not to mention that you can't swap sorcerer spells later on (like in 3E), meaning that 'optimal' spell picks won't have saving graces like Sleep. To solve that and your thief problem you should consider some degree of multiclassing. Fighter/Thieves are more than enough to cover all traps in the game and Fighter/Mages should complement your Sorcerer's spellbooks with the more situational spells. Both can be adequate fighters as well.

 

[laclongquan]

Not just likely, but certainly the three sorcerers. They are papermache at lower level, and not dexterous enough to use ranged effectively. Two meatshields probabbly enough IF the ranged can do the job, but broken like twigs otherwise.

 

[Waterd]

Ok, I tried with a new party that i randomized. I got A beastmaster a Fighter/Thief/Mage, A pure fighter, a Invoker, a Sorcerer and a Cleric. I still got owned on the fight.

I will again randomize my group but
I think I will change to the following to make it slightly easier.

1. Party creation
Reroll 80 or lower and 90 or higher. Can swap abilities from place. (like you can do in KOTC you can do it for all spots, since you choose first your class and only then reroll)

2. No casting outside combat except for the following spells:
Healing spells
Summon familiar
Mage Armor
Infravision
Enchanted weapon
Stoneskin (I dont like this one but if you cast it in a fight, you have it for another fight, so there is nothing i can do about this and is easier to allow)

3. Normal difficulty

4. Can´t move characters during combat and Can´t manually pause the game Autopause are set on
Character death
Weapon unusuable
Trap spotted
Enemy spotted
Spell cast
Character Injured
Character attacked

5. rests are stored (I will use the journal to track them)
I start the game with 2 rests Anywhere.
Everytime I complete a Quest I gain 2 rests on the wilderness.
I can rest one time per room in an Inn per game
I can´t return to an INN until at least one area is cleaned.

6. I can only buy the more expensive cure wound spell offered by a NPC healer

 

[Delterius]

Tell us more. Who's going down first? Is it because of a spell? Are you charging straight into the enemy?

 

[Courtier]

Rolling restrictions

Resting restrictions

No casting outside combat except for the following spells

Can´t move characters during combat

Hasn't gotten past first orc battle in a week

By the time this man completes his autistic creative and challenging ironman run, Grimwah will be released

At least take screenshots every once in a while and post them with a line or two of commentary so you have an LP to show for the effort... (although there's already five IWD LPs in the playground)

 

[Dr Skeleton]

4. Can´t move characters during combat

How does that even work?

 

[Excidium II]

How does that even work?

Like PoE?

 

[Dr Skeleton]

Like PoE?

Coming soon: Icewind Dale Special Edition, now with 100% more balance.

 

[Waterd]

The idea is that i found that is optimal to have my tank run like an idiot in circles while all my ranged guys snipe everybody, and they never attack, its hilarious and stupid, so i decided to only allow clicking to attack targets.
Right now I changed slightly the rules of resting too (now every quest gives 3 Rests that can be used anywhere, but traveling consumes one rest)
Right now im deep in the black wolf temple. But now im realizing im not having fun.
I really cant seem to enjoy the RTwP combat, is so chaotic, complex, buggy and lacking the finese of turn based combats of KOTC or ToEE. It just sucks, I can´t stand it anymore, Im just not enjoying the fights. It´s like playing diablo with 6 characters, and no, I dont enjoy playing diablo.
It doesnt help that I hate that i have to slowly check for traps, because even with the script to autocheck for traps, if you just click move, by the time you detect it, you already stepping on it.
The inventory micromanagment is super annoying.
But again, i could tolerate the previous thing. But gosh i dont enjoy the fighting. Maybe I will come back to the save sometime in the future. But I think definitly i should stay away from RTwP games, It seems i dont learn, I was going to try pillar of eternity, but I just can´t.
On the other hand divinity original sin fighting was quite a lot of fun. Sadly my video card died, and i need to buy a new video card to be able to try the new tactician mode, and in the meantime i decided to play icewind dale.
But gosh, did i say i hate RTwP?

 

[Delterius]

The idea is that i found that is optimal to have my tank run like an idiot in circles while all my ranged guys snipe everybody, and they never attack, its hilarious and stupid, so i decided to only allow clicking to attack targets.

Personally I sort of disagree. Circle strafing with 5 ranged characters isn't just a bother, but also melee characters have much greater potential damage. I can see the appeal in Baldur's Gate since there are so many open wilderness areas, but in Icewind Dale, for the most part, I just didn't do it.

I found it was best to sort your party in three rows: first with lots of defense and close melee weapons, second with reach weapons such as two handed swords and quarterstaves and third on range. This allows you to fight effectivelly even in cramped spaces, to pool all of your AC/Resistances into one guy and still maximizes damage. This also minimizes micromanagement, though probably not enough for someone who hates real time games to the point of actually comparing these to Diablo.

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

I really cant seem to enjoy the RTwP combat, is so chaotic, complex, buggy and lacking the finese of turn based combats of KOTC or ToEE. It just sucks, I can´t stand it anymore, Im just not enjoying the fights. It´s like playing diablo with 6 characters, and no, I dont enjoy playing diablo... gosh i dont enjoy the fighting.

Told you. No manual pause on IE games (solo runs excepted) is madness. Autopause sucks and makes the fighting hard, fucked-up as hell and unenjoyable.

 

[pippin]

How does that even work?

Good old chokepoint.

 

[Average Manatee]

Is it possible to mod IWD to not give more XP with a smaller party? That would seem to be a more ideal workaround rather than trying to layer on more and more restriction. If not then you could keep track of your XP and console all of your gains in half for a 3 man party or something.

 

[Waterd]

Ok, I will try with manual pause instead of auto puase to see if somehow I dont hate the combat so much.

 

[Waterd]

I will say though part of the reason fight is unenjoyable, because the enemy number one is horrible pathfinding and i hate when you tell a guy to attack another, and midway he changes his mind, turn around and attack something else. Jeesh

 

[Waterd]

My favorite part of the game, When a Trap your thief that maxed detect traps, do not detect, sleep your whole party , gets mauled by skeletons, and the only survivers are 2 low strenght clerics, who has to spend 20 minutes micromanage inventory to decide what items to save or not, to travel back to town wtih and revive the others, and after that, since they are encumbered, watch them sloooowwly walk to town.
Lots of fun.

 

[octavius]

I will say though part of the reason fight is unenjoyable, because the enemy number one is horrible pathfinding and i hate when you tell a guy to attack another, and midway he changes his mind, turn around and attack something else. Jeesh

My "favourite" part of IE pathfinding was in the original BG1, when I ordered my archer to shoot at an enemy, the enemy was slightly out of line-of-sight, and my archer, instead of taking one step to the side, moved all the way into melee.
That's when I realized that I had to babysit my characters' every move.

And of course Firewine Bridge dungeon was a classic. "Path east is blocked by a fellow party member? No, problem, I'll just take the alternative route west around the globe".

 

[Waterd]

Yes because of that i dropped the I cant move characters, jeesh, i need to help them make every step or they get stuck in all places, its really annoying, its not enough to choose targets, i need to tell them their path, or they will often get stuck like morons, also i need them to guide them through every step because just choosing a target may mean that halfway they path they decided to tell me to fuck off and do whatever they want instead.

I think the number one Enemy in the fights is the path finding.

Sadly now that i can move my characters again fights are soo easy. Its impossible to find a balance in this game.

 

[Delterius]

I will say though part of the reason fight is unenjoyable, because the enemy number one is horrible pathfinding and i hate when you tell a guy to attack another, and midway he changes his mind, turn around and attack something else. Jeesh

Do you have character AI on?

Trap detection is pretty shitty, yes. But are you using blunt weapons on the skeletons?

 

[Waterd]

Yes, I have character AI on, and yes im using warhammer and mace, why you ask?

 

[Delterius]

Character AIs are set to constantly attack the nearest target, just like most enemies. There's a hotkey you can use to turn it off temporarily, so that characters don't ignore your orders.

 

[Waterd]

When you play an RTS for example, the ai works the same, but if you give them the order, they will prioritize the order, they will only attack the nearest thing if thye have no order.

 

[octavius]

MPrilla's SuperScripts will fix it. They will practically play the games for you.
MPrilla rules every script!

 

[laclongquan]

I like to control my party members.

I remember how Fallout 1's NPCs act and I dont like them one bit. F2 got a lot of improvement on that but it's still not my favourite part of the game.

In short, AI off in all my IE games.

 

[Tigranes]

Rules for playing:

1) Don't pay extra for the enhanced edition, learn to use a ridiculously simple mod installation system and profit
2) Don't use AI, y u play party tactical rpg and not do party
3) Your rules sound fine but why the hell would you limit autopause, y u play party tactical rpg and not do tactics