I was pretty pleased to have finally completed IWD this week, for the first time. I had been as far as the Dragons Eye caves twice before, just to learn a bit about party combinations (This being my first RPG).

OK so, I went through with a four person party, comments welcome;

1: Human, Pure fighter, ****Axes **Crossbows **Great Swords. I was lucky and got Strength 18/00 on second roll too. He finished at level 13.

2: Human, Ranger, 19 Constitution thanks to permanent potion, **Bows **Long swords **Short Swords **Maces. Always used 1-Hand melee weapons and no shield (3 attacks).

2: Half-Elf, Thief, Probably a mistake, level 16 at the end, should have multi-classed (who needs a level 16 thief?)

4: Human, Cleric/Mage. Totall awesome character. Can use shield and sanctified weapons without losing any mage abilities, soo many spells too. Only problem is, I never got any Mage spell slots above level 6. I had loads of spells though, just couldnt use them. Level 10 Cleric, Level 11 Mage.

I completed the original IWD, no patches no expansions. I have a saved game within the Cryshal Tower so I can export characters, but I cant exit the tower!

I want to continue gameplay, so what do I do to move onto HOW? (Having bought it)

Glitches I found in original IWD game:
Rebelling Lizard Men in Dragons Eye
No journal Entries for chapter 5 (I went into Lower Dorns before entering the aquarium)
Frozen characters on return to easthaven (fixed by not selecting all characters when video starts playing)
Unable to leave The Cryshal tower.

Sorry for the long post, and lack of focused subject, Im just alittle excited having wanted to complete this game for a long time.
Yay! Im happy!

[ 10-24-2004, 01:53 PM: Message edited by: Soothsayer ]

.....tiny spoiler....??


I just finished IWD myself and found out that right before the last fight the game automatically exports your characters. But if you want to continue and play HOW you have to load a game that you saved BEFORE going back to Easthaven. Or I believe you can start a new game with HOW and import your characters but you may lose some gold and inventory.

Hope this helps some.

[ 10-24-2004, 03:12 PM: Message edited by: NewbietoRPGs ]

Installing the HOW/ToTL expansions changes most of the entire game enough that I recommend starting from the beginning and playing it over (which is what I did). You'll find the fights more challenging with the "call to arms". Monsters won't simply wait off-screen in the fog-of-war for you to sneak up on them. Instead everything off-screen in that area with come after your party. Some characters get new powers, and others become more limited. There are also new weapons and items available for purchase in Kuldahar to help you succeed. Definitely worth the replay.

However, if you don't want to replay the game, you can opt just to play the expansions. You'll start the game with your exported party in Lonelywood and Hjolder with tell you what you need to do.

[ 10-25-2004, 03:28 PM: Message edited by: jmsteven ]

ok thanks for the replies, advice appreciated

The bad thing is, that you lose anything in your containers and gold. You lose all scrolls and potions here.
So you may do it this way. Right before final battle, make several temporary characters, take out all scrolls and potions from container, and place them directly to inventories of temporary characters. Then, each temporary character export (Like TEMP1, TEMP2, ...). Number of temp. characters depends of number of scrolls and potions you have.

Then finish the game. Your party is saved. Start HoW with your party imported. Right after begining of game, go and buy containers again and then, one by one import your temporary characters and move all scrolls/potions back to your party. Thus, your mage can learn obtained 6+ level spells later as you'll progress.

Hope, this will help.

[ 10-25-2004, 08:04 AM: Message edited by: galdur ]

Sigh, that was my first ever post up there and no welcome, and this seemed like such a friendly forum..

Im really paranoid now, have I offended someone? If so Im sorry...

WELCOME TO THE FORUMS!!! [img]graemlins/happywave.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/happywave.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/happywave.gif[/img]
Sorry for the delay!!

OK, first: WELCOME TO IW [img]graemlins/wavey.gif[/img]

Don't worry bout that, we are really friendly here. But sometimes people forget to welcome someone, especially if he/she posts first few posts in less frequently visited forums, or if the new member gets out of the 'welcomed new user' phase very soon
(that seemed to be the case for me, because I made 5 posts in the first hour here and haven't received any welcomes)

As for the ending of IWD - CONGRATULATIONS [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img] It was a very brave decision to go with a 4 member party on the first run.
The answers you seek are already posted above and I will add only a small comment. IMO thieves in IWD are best if multiclassed (gnomish thief/illusionist is just great) or a dualclassed F/T combo

<font color = mediumspringgreen>SoothSayer,

Heh, heh, heh, the delayed welcome is not a function of how friendly you are, unless you are extremely and overtly rude and unfriendly from the very start. What gets a lack of welcome most of the time is when a new-to-the-forums member posts such an interesting question that everyone just dives in on it. Looks like you did. I'd take that as a compliment. BTW, welcome to the IWD forum.

Congrats on completing IWD!

Make sure you download and install TotLM *AFTER* you have HoW installed over IWD. TotLM is the final and complete patch for IWD/HoW (in North America).

You have three standard choices.

1.) Rolling a new party and take them through IWD/HoW/TotLM;
2.) Start a new HoW game and export IWD characters into the new HoW party;
3.) Go back to a IWD save late in the IWD game (before meeting RBP) and enter HoW with that party.

(There are other options and tweaks, like the one galdur mentioned, that could be considered semi-cheating; but that has never stopped me.)

The advantage of Option 1 is getting a whole new tailor-made party, now that you have learned a thing or two in IWD.

The advantage of Option 3 over Option 2 is that you get to keep all your gold and goodies, and get to do the IWD final battle with the same party AGAIN, after completing HoW (and TotLM, if desired).

I would do Option 3 if you are happy with your current party; Option 1 if you are not.

</font>--------------------<font color = mediumspringgreen>
What's a party,
without a song?
Bards ROCK!
Party On!!
</font>

[ 10-25-2004, 08:17 PM: Message edited by: NobleNick ]

[img]graemlins/jawdrop.gif[/img] Oops, sorry, forgot about the pleasantries... take two :D

[img]graemlins/thewave.gif[/img] Welcome to Ironworks!! [img]graemlins/thewave.gif[/img] Welcome to Ironworks!!

The forum is so busy now with new people, it's great. Hard to keep track of all the new posts. You haven't offended anyone, you just fit right in. [img]smile.gif[/img]

I'd recommend Option 1 of NobleNick's post. jmsteven put it how I'd put it. I really would advise doing it from the beginning with IWD/HoW - not only does it give you an excuse to play the game again, but the call to arms feature can be a shock before you get used to it - and the first fighting area of HoW is NOT a good place to get your first exposure to it.