Sounds like you have your 2E tactics down. Too bad this is 3E. You're going to find that many things are different enough that the tried-and-true techniques you espouse are not going to be quite as effective.

im sure ill rise to the challenge. i see lots of new spells and spell combo's to mess with [img]smile.gif[/img]

do ya reckon anyone would be interested in me making a "increased difficulty" mod for IWD2? 3x HP and 2x exp is what i usually do.
harder, but not as insane as heart of fury

Ah, the sweet sound of condescension. Most of my 2E tactics seem to be working fine; and when they don't...well...Momento Mori, baby.

ipersonally used to hate using summon spells but i found that its IS quite rewarding to see the critters take all that damage and leave theenemy set up for the kill

hehehe. sweet condescension.
i just use the tactic adapt or die.
things were quite different i found moving from baldurs gate to IWD1. lots more combat, more difficult combat, summoning limit etc.
things got tough, my party got klobbered a fair bit and out of the ruckus came new tactics to suit.

My tactics are two simply scout out the area with my rogue and then take my sorcerer in and nail the suckers with an area effect spell, run back and plop a summoned beats in front of group to take first line of attack, nail their spell casters with sleep spells and rain fire on their tanks, by the time the summoned monster is shot there aint much left to clean up.

i like the idea of being able to pick any old class.
might be interesting to have some variations of the traditional
Fighter/Mage/Thief or Fighter/Mage/Cleric.

im thinkin
Paladin/Mage/Thief?
Ranger/Mage/Thief?
Paladin/Sorceror/Druid?
Ramger/Mage/Cleric?

hmmmm
all i need now is time to play it.