Cool Story, Familiar Feel

Man, as soon as I heard IWD was out, I went out to Best Buy to buy myself a copy. And to tell the truth, I'm not dissappointed one bit! Of course, the game could of been sh*t and I still would of bought it. Anyways, I read the IWD trilogy and naturally I'm trying to find the similarities and such. I found that Hrothgar, the "Guardian" of Easthaven is the same name of the Barbarian Chieftan in the Books. Seen anyone else from the books? Know any tips/secrets? Your opinions?

A few (probably obvious) tips: Put the highest charisma-ed character as your leader, or at least have them do all the talking, it gives you more options. I put my paladin up front so he could talk and fight from the lead. And one encounter actually gave me experience for trying to TALK my way out of the fight, so the gung-ho approach is not always the best. Now if I can only get out of this crypt in the Vale of Shadows....

Some minor tips here... nothing mind-blowing but I'm feeling chatty whilst at work and away from my treasured game.

1) Tanks are your friend - Mages can be a pain to keep alive, but not if you have enough tanks in your party to protect them. Monsters go generally for the first character they "see", and so if you have a solid line of characters who can stand toe-to-toe with the baddies, they won't break through and get to your tender mages and thieves.

2) Missile weapons - Even my tanks know how to use them. In fact, every character in my party is proficient in at least one type of long-range weapon, because you never know when battle conditions may call for them, and for maximum versatility, every character should be able to resort to a distance attack when nothing else is available. For instance, if one of my tanks gets badly hurt and no immediate healing is available, I'll have them run away (to be covered by more healthy chars), then bust out a bow or x-bow so that they still contribute to the battle until they are healed up and ready to wade in again.

3) Fighter/Mages - Icewind Dale doesn't punish you if you pause the game, then enter the inventory screen. This is most useful if you have a fighter/mage character.. because you can slap some platemail on until you need to cast, pause the game, go to inventory, remove the armor, and fire away! Just remember to put the armor back on before going back into melee mode.

4) Thieves - For those of you who've gotten very far in the game, you know the value of a thief. It might not seem immediately apparent, though.. but trust me, having someone to disarm traps will save you alot of wasted time and money invested into healing up after getting busted up by traps. My thief mainly specializes in disarming traps, even above stealthing into rooms.


That's all I've got for today.. I'd just like to say again that I really love this game! I bought Icewind Dale and Diablo II on the same day.. and I have yet to play Diablo II.

Actually, Hrothgar is also one of the major characters in the literary epic "Beowulf" (the first AD&D novel?!--coincidence? (probably not)
Great story, though (IWD)--I'm having a ball.