Icewind Dale The Icewind Dale Series Thread

[IncendiaryDevice]

Just out of curiosity, because it's one of my fave encounters:

Spoiler

How many reloads did you take for the archer tower?

2-3 I think, once you realize you can cast a stinking cloud at the top of the stairs and it doesn't affect the lower floor it becomes kinda easy.
A fight that seemed hard (just for the sheer number of enemies) was that in the ice museum with the frost salamanders, but I avoided it so I dunno if it's actually that hard.

Spoiler

I now do it by casting/glugging mass invisibility before entering, once inside moving everyone into position and then letting loose with whatever I've got, usually a couple of flame grenades or fireballs depending on party, with the guy moved to the top resisted against fire ready to hack up any left overs.

 

[Jazz_]

This thread is making me want to give the EE edition of IWD a try.

Imo Beamdog did a great job with Icewind Dale EE, I found the option to gradually zoom in and out very useful during combat and exploration in general, the game feels very polished (there's a new more elegant UI, restored content, etc) and runs flawlessly on modern systems in the new engine, although the new kits kinda screw up the balance a bit, even Sawyer commented on that, but they can be ignored after all. I have just started Icewind Dale 2 and holy shit, coming from IWD EE it looks like a shittier, unpolished prequel of the first game, everything looks/feels worse, and it runs like absolute dog turd too.. If there's a game in dire need of an EE that's IWD 2.

 

[Barnabas]

The final boss debuffs your party so pre buffing is useless. I tried Icewind Dale 2 multiple times but just couldn't get into it probably because it kicked my ass.

 

[Lilura]

I have just started Icewind Dale 2 and holy shit, coming from IWD EE it looks like a shittier, unpolished prequel of the first game, everything looks/feels worse, and it runs like absolute dog turd too.. If there's a game in dire need of an EE that's IWD 2.

Clueless.

 

[Jazz_]

Clueless.

care to explain why? have you tried IWD EE? IWD 2 runs horribly on my system, framerate drops constantly, it's visibly choppy/stuttering/laggy; and it looks worse in pretty much every area, the UI is shittier, the art is shittier, and it feels clunky and unpolished compared to the first game. It's a well known fact that IWD 2 was a rushed out ''cash grab'' and doesn't hold a candle to the first game. In the words of Sawyer himself:

 

[Seaking4]

I believe that the clueless comment was more related to the EE praise rather than the IWD2 insult.

 

[Lilura]

care to explain why? have you tried IWD EE? IWD 2 runs horribly on my system, framerate drops constantly, it's visibly choppy/stuttering/laggy; and it looks worse in pretty much every area, the UI is shittier, the art is shittier, and it feels clunky and unpolished compared to the first game. It's a well known fact that IWD 2 was a rushed out ''cash grab'' and doesn't hold a candle to the first game. In the words of Sawyer himself:

Yep, I reviewed IWD:EE. Also, I don't really care what JES says about IWD2; I've played the game myself - probably a lot more than he has - and have my own opinions (see my IWD2 UI treatment).

 

[Lilura]

Also, if you are having any framerate drops whatsoever in IWD2 then you are just a retard who doesn't know how to set their rig up to play older games.

 

[Seaking4]

Reading that IWD2UI treatment piece... what the hell were they thinking with those portraits and that UI? It's hideous. I'm not even a big PS:T fan but god damn does it deserve better than that.

 

[Jazz_]

Also, if you are having any framerate drops whatsoever in IWD2 then you are just a retard who doesn't know how to set their rig up to play older games.

Which was the point of my post. IWD EE runs flawlessly on modern systems out of the box while with IWD2 I have to edit config files, install mods and proceed by trial and error to see what's making the game run like dogshit. Polishing it and making it playable out of the box on modern systems in an EE release would benefit the game, and I find the new features of the updated infinity engine worth it. Anyway, pointless discussion, it's not going to happen, so..

 

[Tigranes]

EE, ugh. No thanks.

IWD2 has one or two known issues, easily googlable - otherwise it shouldn't be screwing with your computer.

 

[Lilura]

Anyone who complains about old games not working out of the box on current gen systems is a fucking lame-o retard, fullstop. And in my tests the original ran better than the EE on my current gen system (Win 8.1), as detailed in my review.

IE games work on Win 98, XP SP2/SP3, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, with all sorts of hardware setups. It's all just user error when ppl have problems. I'm running original disc versions for all these games (ISO'd long ago because the discs were getting scratched), bought back when they first came out. With and without their expansions (IWD and SoA are less unbalanced without their shitty expansions). Current retrospective is IWD 1.06, pre-HoW.

Btw, I'm not against the EEs. It's just the lame excuses ppl give for playing them over the originals. The originals are the only TRU version of the game. In fact, I'd go so far as to say, f.e, that if you haven't played BG outside of the BG2 engine - like so many Codexers here, who started with BG2 - then you have not played BG.

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

No pause when juggling shit in your inventory certainly made a lethal difference in combat.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I watched an optimized party's playthrouh of EE IWD on youtube. I'm curious to try it out after playing through the GoG "Complete" (1.42v) with an unoptimized party.

 

[Madawc]

I've been thinking to try IWD:EE this week. How doable would be soloing it as a monk? Or let's say, 2 monks - maybe I can convince a friend to co-op.
I once soloed the original IWD with a fighter/mage and it wasn't too hard.

 

[Cyberarmy]

I recently started playing EE version. I kinda like the insane difficulty now thanks to the option which reduces the extra monster damage but keeps the insane monster numbers.

 

[Gentle Player]

I think I will just up the difficulty to give myself enough of a challenge.

Funnily enough this will actually make the game even easier thanks to the huge amounts of extra XP received. Despite having a rough time of it at the very beginning, I found my playthough on Insane to be easier than Core Rules. My Cleric and even Paladin were able to reach such high levels that their Turn Undead completely obliterated almost all of those otherwise very nasty Burial Isle undead that octavius mentioned.

Speaking of which, does anyone know if there's a way to play with the extra spawns of the harder but without the increased xp and damage taken?

 

[Baron Dupek]

There is option to turn off double damage from monsters? Interesting. But does it disable achievement for beating the game on this difficulty? Knowing BeamDawn level of programming - I'm not entirely sure.

 

[Jazz_]

I've been thinking to try IWD:EE this week. How doable would be soloing it as a monk? Or let's say, 2 monks - maybe I can convince a friend to co-op.
I once soloed the original IWD with a fighter/mage and it wasn't too hard.

I dunno if it's feasible, it probably is, but pure monks in IWD EE do not offer much depth, you have literally 2-3 abilities for most of the game, you can't use scrolls, you can't cast spells, you are quite frail and all you can do is to hit stuff with your fists, really. They don't offer many options from a tactical standpoint. Maybe dual class it so you have more tactical options?
Also, if I'm not mistaken the monk fist is viewed as +1 weapon only at level 9, and as a +2 weapon only at level 12, that can be an issue against some bosses, unless you want to use a weapon with your monk, but that makes your class-related special abilities kinda useless as I believe you have to hit enemies unarmed to trigger them (not entirely sure about that tho).

 

[kmonster]

Playing two monks co-op isn't a good idea. They do only little damage and are too vulnerable during the first part of the game, forcing you into slow, mechanics abusing gameplay. If you have much time to spare you can fill it with such a solo, but it's too slow and boring for the limited time you play co-op.

 

[Tigranes]

Well, there we are, rolled an all-diminutives party. Dwarves can literally only do Fighter, Cleric and Thief, so I threw in a Gnome Illusionist to make it a quartet, and multiclassed the Thief as a support archer. All in all extremely inefficient, of course, but that'll be part of the fun.

Tried initially to do Easthaven Caves with no rest, but on Insane with 4 it just seems numerically improbable to survive without throwing Sleep and other disabling spells in there. Got through with one rest with each of the big fights on either side, though at the end it got dicey when the fighter copped it to the ogres.

 

[boot]

What do you think of this party? The goal is not to have the strongest individual characters but a rounded party. Having the spells you need when needed is very important (cure paralysis before entering dragons eye) because iron man, being able to use good non-random loot as it pops is also good (stoneskin, defender axe, bow of pwn). Dual classes should get 'online' early.

1. Ranger -> Cleric

Spoiler

+ 2 1/2 attacks per round with no real investment. Pretty much pure cleric, gets much higher spell levels than multi class, can nearly solo 1st dungeon crawl with skeletal undead racial enemy, very nice.

-lack of shield means can't get in front without taking big hits

Shouldn't matter too much because

2. Bard

Spoiler

+Once bard pings lvl 11 won't have to worry about healing. Also makes a decent mage, can use bows. Pickpocket is nice. Bard songs are nice.

-fighter/mage is better

But we have

3.Fighter/mage/thief

Spoiler

+a fighter mage and a thief in one! Can backstab. mirror imaged stoneskinned fighter appearing in middle of room as chunks of enemy explode around him. Perfect when big fights come up.

-Only one quick weapon slot- Disgusting!!
-not a real mage

Front line

4. Dwarf fighter

Spoiler

+strong dwarf saving throws, cool voice at character creation, easy to roll for, 4 attacks per round.
- no negatives, dex is easy to fix

5. Fighter9 -> Druid

Spoiler

+static charge/call lightning auto nukes 1 enemy every round (can stack these spells as many times as you want), entropy shield, skip low Druid level shit spells, 4 1/2 attacks per round with Valiant, heal, dual class downtime is very small.

-Druid pretty much stops leveling halfway through game.

6. I don't know. Maybe a fighter->mage dual at 7 or something, use bows. A ranger who melees when appropriate. I think a strong ranged character is the way to go, but I want more spells and a real party mage. I ran with an illusionist/cleric in this spot but it was a net drag. Fighter/mage? Another bard (strangely this might be the strongest option, bard songs stack)

I leave the 6th member up to codex.

 

[pippin]

I always keep arcane spellcasters as single classes characters. The druid would be helpful as a pure spellcaster too, since its spells are often extremely helpful, especially in combat.

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

People often bleat on about how mixed classes are superior, but I've never needed them to steamroll the game, so don't really see the point. Surely it's more fun to max out interesting spells. The thief I can understand, I guess, cos it levels to 100% in all skills by mid-game and levelling becomes a bit redundant after that, combined with there being less traps in the second half of the game, but other than that it always seems like needless over-complexity for the sake of needless over-complexity.

 

[ghostdog]

Fighter3 -> Mage is a really good choice imo. He gets some beef and thac0 from the 3 fighter levels and then goes into full spellcasting and max the character.