Heart of Fury--worth a second run?

[Debaser]

I beat IWDII last night...it was a fun run, the ending was a little rushed and disappointing though in my opinion. I want to avoid spoilers, so I won't say any more...

My question is this: I imported my (now high-level) characters back into the game and started again in Heart of Fury mode.

How many new items do you find and do shopkeepers have "updated" higher level/more varied items in stock? Since this game is highly hack-n-slash oriented and doesn't have too much RP-breadth to keep you coming back for more, there are two reasons that I would play through again: to see my badasses reach 30th level, and to check out all the new HoF items....

My question is, are there enough badass items to make it worth playing through the game again on HoF? Some opinions please...

[Nightowl2]

There are some nice things to pick up. The Heart of [Whomever] sword is much better in HOF and you'll find that Deirdre has a few other upscale items, too. Also, the wife of the top guy (whose name escapes me at the moment) has a goblin slayer for sale. At least she did in the original version, but I recall seeing here that the gobbie slayer was taken out in one of the patches.

Most people, though, go through HOF for the challenge, as monsters are much tougher in this mode.

Nightowl2

[Micah Foehammer]

The goblin slayer is still in the HoF mode game, along with Kegsplitter which kills CONSTRUCTS on one hit (VERY useful for Golems of ALL types). There are several other very nice weapons available at the start.

One tip - your cash (and containers such as the bag of holding) will NOT be exported with your characters and the above named items are VERY expensive! Grab as many of the Greatswords of the Souless as you can in the end game of your non-HoF mode game as they can be sold for almost 50,000 gp! In addition, visit the merchant in the Severed Hand and buy EVERYTHING that you can afford that is an upgrade for your existing weapons INCLUDING +5 missile weapons. 40 +5 arrows are worth a whopping 25k gp on resale and have no weight. Empty your bag of holding of the "best" (i.e most expensive items) and keep them in your inventory when you export. Check the prices with the merchant in SH to see which items will garner the most cash!

I was able to buy Kegsplitter, Goblin Slayer, the Golden Heart, the Black Chimes and the +5 sling before I left on Oswald's Airship ride with more than 300,000 gps left.

HoF is turning out to be a LOT of fun and challenging as well. I just finished taking out Sherincal at the beginning of the Ice Temple - and got a whopping 16,000 xp for her - and it was WELL deserved!