Icewind Dale The Icewind Dale Series Thread

[Excidium II]

ugly

 

[Malpercio]

ugly

Beamdog interface? The party? The boy? Wat. Articulate, my friend.

Anyway, I re-rolled the Cleric into a Cleric/Figther.

Now I'm kinda on the edge about the Thief... I use it just for traps and pickpockets anyway, is it worth keeping it as a pure Thief? I swear, the hardest thing about these games is getting started.

 

[roshan]

Fighter/Thief is vastly preferable to pure thief since in the IE games, thief THAC0 is basically really shit. I dunno how it works in the IWD EE or the other EE games, but in the BG games, THAC0 stops increasing after a particular level, which leaves pure thieves extremely gimped THAC0 wise.

Bards are useful specially at low levels because their caster levels are higher than mages of equivalent XP. But same issue as thieves with the gimped THAC0 and number of attacks.

Ranger/Cleric is significantly better than Fighter/Cleric but it's not going to make a huge difference since you already have a Druid...

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

I love THAC0 and 6 HP low-level D&D.

 

[Nekot-The-Brave]

I love THAC0 and 6 HP low-level D&D.

Because everything is so much more deadly? You're literally always one roll away from your death.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

Because everything is so much more deadly? You're literally always one roll away from your death.

Because it's deadly is one point I like, yes. But in many RPGs I generally like low-level gameplay. I greatly enjoy the very slow start being weak, before everything gets incredibly epic, and the gradual rise to power.

Low-level D&D did a great job of that and I'd also throw Gothic into the mix as a game with excellently designed low-level gameplay.

THAC0 was just a satisfying system for me. It made one or two point difference in the numbers feel so significant. Overall D&D does a great job of making the numbers feel significant. Low numbers with bigger emphasis from point to point.

 

[Transfiguring Roar]

Agreed with Roshan, fighter/thief is the way to go. Thac0 caps at 10 for thief and bard at level 21.

With a fighter/thief it's best to distribute points at creation to pickpocket (40 is enough to get them really helpful items) and the rest into open locks, but you prob know this.

I guess you could try one of the kit classes. I bet the Swashbuckler would be ok for a normal run through Icewind Dale.

 

[Malpercio]

This is actually where I lost my save, last time I played it, iirc.

So far so good. Cleric pretty much trivialized the whole place. Wizard has been sitting ducks, although sleep is still broken against normal enemies.

 

[laclongquan]

IWD2 Rogue is a good job to stash some serious race like Deep Gnome. He can hide and scout very well, doing most of rogue duty. In battle he can provide respectable ranged attack, though not backstab because at lower level melee is a bad idea. However, his main role is to depress average level and allow XP harvest to progress at good pace. An impossible to replace role in a 6man party.

He can get a few fighter levels to up his combat skills.

 

[kmonster]

With a fighter/thief it's best to distribute points at creation to pickpocket (40 is enough to get them really helpful items) and the rest into open locks, but you prob know this.

Pickpocketing is for noobs who think they aren't good enough to beat the game without spamming save/reload. And in a party with a bard setting pickpocket to 40 is a total waste since the bard will have more naturally. And in IWD locks don't really matter, traps are painful.

 

[Transfiguring Roar]

And in a party with a bard setting pickpocket to 40 is a total waste since the bard will have more naturally.

True. I missed the part where he said he had a Bard in his party.

And in IWD locks don't really matter, traps are painful.

True enough about locks unless you want Conlan's Hammer asap. Traps aren't really much of a problem though. I've started with as low as 15 in detect traps and was still able to get through the Vale of Shadows, and slowly add skill points as the Fighter Thief leveled up.

 

[Malpercio]

I swear kuldahar is intentionally designed to make the player waste time when they come back to town and they need to sell stuff, it's driving me NUTS.

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

I swear kuldahar is intentionally designed to make the player waste time when they come back to town and they need to sell stuff, it's driving me NUTS.

Yeah, the pathfinding between all the shops, which are all at the different furthest corners of the screen is appalling, most notably/horrendously between the Inn and Conlan's Workshop. I would agree that you've correctly observed the worst aspect of the game IMO. Luckily the game is worth all the hassle IMO. Interestingly, when I asked one of the EE devs if they'll be including fast travel in the updated versions I was met with codex memes of anger, so I'm guessing some people actually enjoy all that bollocks.

 

[pippin]

IWD2 has less shops. I mean, there's the first town and everything, but you don't see another for quite a while, and you're travelling across the land, while in IWD1 you're just exploring dungeons.

 

[Dr Skeleton]

Traps aren't really much of a problem though. I've started with as low as 15 in detect traps and was still able to get through the Vale of Shadows, and slowly add skill points as the Fighter Thief leveled up.

Going through the Dragon's Eye without someone to disarm traps is very, very painful.

 

[Transfiguring Roar]

Going through the Dragon's Eye without someone to disarm traps is very, very painful.

Sure, but who does that besides the clueless and people possibly wanting to challenge themselves?

It's pretty standard to have a thief of some sort in a party.

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

I swear kuldahar is intentionally designed to make the player waste time when they come back to town and they need to sell stuff, it's driving me NUTS.

When I play ID nowadays, I always activate the cheat console and shamelessly CTRL+J my way through town. I've spent enough time walking back and fro between giant roots when I was younger. As Paul Stanley (of KISS fame) said about "I was made for loving you" : It's not something I'm ashamed of but it's not something I would want to do again. 'Nuff said.

 

[Daemongar]

IWD2 Rogue is a good job to stash some serious race like Deep Gnome. He can hide and scout very well, doing most of rogue duty. In battle he can provide respectable ranged attack, though not backstab because at lower level melee is a bad idea. However, his main role is to depress average level and allow XP harvest to progress at good pace. An impossible to replace role in a 6man party.

He can get a few fighter levels to up his combat skills.

I had a pure Thief in IWD2, which was handy for traps, chests and scouting, but I should have dual classed as I went melee with daggers. A elf thief with two weapon fighting, weapon finesse, improved crits, dirty fighting, etc and a 20 dex sounds like a damage machine, but that lack of hitpoints made this class the first to get murdered in every fight, even with +5 short swords and daggers entering the game in later chapters.

Whatever you do, if you have a pure thief, save your sanity and make them ranged. Backstabs are just too hard to pull off.

 

[SniperHF]

My fighther/thief seems to destroy everything with a Composite Long bow. The stats tab says he has over 50% of the kills

Wish + arrows were a little more common though.

 

[laclongquan]

I almost never do the backstabber character. In a party, that figure is generally far from allies when creating troubles. Generally backstabbers get surrounded and killed after a knifing.

That IWD2 Rogue is intentionally using shortbow from the start. The few Fighter level complement his bow skill. When he's creating trouble, he would be far from hostiles, so having enough space to run away back to safety is appreciated.

 

[Transfiguring Roar]

I almost never do the backstabber character. In a party, that figure is generally far from allies when creating troubles. Generally backstabbers get surrounded and killed after a knifing.

That IWD2 Rogue is intentionally using shortbow from the start. The few Fighter level complement his bow skill. When he's creating trouble, he would be far from hostiles, so having enough space to run away back to safety is appreciated.

I tend to do the same, build them as ranged support, but I also equip potions of invisibility on them for when I do backstab for a quick and safe getaway.

 

[octavius]

I almost never do the backstabber character. In a party, that figure is generally far from allies when creating troubles. Generally backstabbers get surrounded and killed after a knifing.

Not mine.
My backstabber usually does half the kills in IWD in the early parts (before the Ice Wights at least).
You need to syncronise your characters: Move backstabber in position while the rest of the party stays of of sight. If well timed, the backstabber should be able to chunck the most dangerous enemy (usually a mage or archer) just as the monsters are activated by the rest of the groups. The backtsabber than runs like hell, usually behind the rest of the party, and the either hides in shadows again or acts like a regular archer. Or even better, quaff an invisibility potion and resume backstabbing.

 

[laclongquan]

Too risky for my taste.The strike generally occurs when the backstabber is deep into enemy's lines. It would be a no-fun solo if you backstab the perimeter guards after all. Anyway, it's hard to run when they flood the routes with sentry.

Another factor is that IWD2 love to teleport spawned troops on your ass, ahead and behind. You dont want they jump on your squishies, or open your defense to let your squishy hard-on-heel backstabber in. It's too dangerous.

My party generally has a few summoned undeads to be meatshield alongside with melee warriors. The squishies are mostly surrounded by bodyguards. The shortbow rogue always act as scout, and just shoot to draw enemies in, with plenty of space to run back into defense lines.

A straight battle between well defended group against a horde of riffraff make for less reload, since we fight well prepared and less room for random chance to fuck us over.

 

[octavius]

Well, IWD2 is a bit different than IWD1, with somewhat different monster AIs, making protecting your squishies harder.

 

[Lilura]

My backstabber usually does half the kills in IWD in the early parts (before the Ice Wights at least).

Why do you lie?