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Old 01-31-2005, 08:54 PM   #1
Gorosh
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i'm about to start icewind dale for a firs time (as soon as i finish bg2+ToB - i'm in ust natha at the moment), so i wondered what should i try:

1. solo - soloing infinity game sounds appealing to me, but i doubt i will play bg2 anytime soon, so i thought solo iwd2 would be cool?

2. 2-3 characters party

3. 4 characters party - i guess this seems like the best choice, since 6 is maybe too big after micromanaging whole bg2

4. just go for a classic 6 characters party (in that case which one - my own or one of the pre-mades?)

also, how many hours of gameplay app. is there to IWD2?

thanks
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Old 01-31-2005, 09:05 PM   #2
Aerich
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Well, I'm speaking as someone that hasn't finished the game yet, but here's my impressions:

1. Solo is for crazy masochists

2. Do-able, but difficult

3. Probably the best combination of versatility and ease of micromanagement

4. Fun. Make your own, not a pre-made. It gives you a better understanding of the game if you've never played 3rd edition before.

5. Probably 100+ hours of gameplay, more if you micromanage as much as I do.

When picking the number of characters in the party, bear in mind that the 3rd ed. rules give XP based on average character level - a larger party will have a lower party level, a smaller party will get less XP but divide it among fewer characters.
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Old 01-31-2005, 09:16 PM   #3
Jerry_Seinfeld
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1. Well, if this is your first time playing Icewind dale II, then I definatley wouldn't reccomend soloing. In my opinion soloing through IWD II is way too hard since there are so many enemies, but mainly becouse, enemies decrease in XP the higher level you go, so you will be a highter level than average and end up going through levels without getting XP. (In case you didnt know, IWD II is set in 3rd ED rules instead of 2nd ED like all the other bioware games)


2. 2-3 characters, or probaly 2 since three is uneven, ends up running into the same problem as a solo character. You will be going to be tromping through dungeons, killing everone for no XP.

3. A 4 person party is a solid party, though I wouldnt take it over a 6 person party cuz of micromanaging. A good solid 4 person party is
Dwarf Fighter4/BarbarainX
Human Fighter4/ClericX
Aasimir Sorcerer
Drow ranger1//paladin2/rouge1/mageX (thanks to marty for that build)

4. First off lemme say, DONT TAKE THE PRE MADE PARTY'S!!!! THEY ARE HORRIBLE. With that said, a six-person party is probaly the overall best choice for a non-powergamer. You won't run into much XP problems (unless you go into HOF mode and you might have to level squat a few times)
A solid six-person party is
Dwarf Barbarian
Aasimir Paladin
Tiefiling Theif
Human Cleric
Aasimir sorcerer
Drow Wizard
Although this is just my opinion, really a lot of the fun comes from making your own party, so these are just suggestions.


If you are a powergamer, I'd go with a 4 person party, if you aren't, I'd go with a six person party. Well, I hope all this typing had provided some help in your quest to pick an X number party
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Old 01-31-2005, 09:41 PM   #4
Gorosh
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Quote:
Originally posted by Jerry_Seinfeld:
Well, I hope all this typing had provided some help in your quest to pick an X number party


yeah, i thought that running the game solo could end up in no exp. gain + would be quite hard...i guess my choice is something between 4 or 6, still can't decide (and i don't consider myself neither power nor roler, something in between - a player [img]smile.gif[/img]

it will probablly be 6 in the end, cause i would like to try some races / classes i didn't try in bg2 like bard or assasin, maybe monk (i've never ever played monk in any rpg, and though it sounds great on paper...i'm armour whore, can't help it [img]smile.gif[/img]
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Old 01-31-2005, 09:43 PM   #5
Gorosh
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and yeah, thanks for your suggestions
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Old 02-01-2005, 01:54 AM   #6
Aerich
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I like monks. I use them to bypass the main fight and get after the archers and mages. They benefit a lot from a strength-increasing spell. Btw, monks can have the best AC, especially if you choose a svirfneblin.

No assassins in IWD 2 - that's not to say that you can't play a character like an assassin, say a fighter/rogue.

Try out the clerics, too. There are 8 different kinds, and although they have many spells in common, they have significant differences as well.

This site describes the special abilities of the clerics and lists their domain spells, filling a major void in the substandard manual.
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Old 02-01-2005, 07:27 AM   #7
ZFR
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If youre new to 3E I suggest taking 6 characters to try out as many different classes as you can. On your second run you can try a 4 or 3 character party once you have more knowledge about how to maximize class benefits in a small party.
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Old 02-01-2005, 10:04 AM   #8
Vassago
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IMO, party creation is the hardest part of the game. Trying to come up with a party that you like and covers everything you want it to be. I have never beat the game, but I know I have taken atleast 8-10 different parties up Chapter 2. My current game is the only exception and I am mainly playing it just to see if I could. I'm running a solo Deep Gnome Monk. This brings up another point about xp. If you run a party less than 6, you can control the amount of xp you receive by squatting levels (i.e. not taking a level up when you have the xp you need). You have to be careful squatting because your xp can rack up rather quickly. In the case of my solo Monk, by the time I was headed to the Fortress I was level 6 w/ 5 levels squatted. I didn't want to take all 5 levels b/c then I wouldn't get any xp from monster kills, so I used a program called Dale Keeper to "tweak" my total xp points. I reduced my xp down to enough to go to level 7, loaded my game back up and advanced to level 7 and then went back into Dale Keeper and added the rest of my xp points that I had removed before leveling. This allowed me to contorl the number of levels I wanted to take when I wanted to level. That's the problem with squatting. If you don't use Dale Keeper, you are forced to take all of your levels at once (and they can only be used for one class). I wish they would have left this like they did in IWD where you could take each individual level instead of all or nothing.

Aside from my solo Monk, I typically take 3-4 characters. Another xp tactic would be to start with one character and then other characters throughout the game. From my experience, I've noticed that the amount of xp per monster kill doesn't change until your average party level exceeds 6. For example, a goblin will give you 75 xp points per party (not character) until your average party level is 7. Average party level is determined by adding up all of your parties levels (not effective class levels, but just levels) and dividing by the number of party members rounded down. For example, if you party consisted of Drow 5, Human 7, Deep Gnome 4 your APL would be: 5+7+4=16/3=5

I hope this helps and good luck to you.
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Old 02-01-2005, 10:45 AM   #9
Marty4
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I recomend a 6 person party, since I love the ability to do everything all the time . If you want crazy, powergamy builds, check out
http://www.ironworksforum.com/ubb/no...;f=23;t=001657 and
http://www.ironworksforum.com/ubb/no...;f=23;t=001632

These are both very powergamed creations, so if you want to be more roleplaying you cant go wrong with 2 warriors, 1 thief, 1 cleric, and 2 mages. Here's a normal, not overly powergamy party.

Dwarf fighter4/barbarian
Aasimir fighter4/paladin
Tiefling rogue/ranger (any combo of levels works, though recomended 1:2 ratio with plenty of INT and DEX)
Drow mage
Drow sorcerer
Human morninglord of Lathander.

A very versatile build mentioned by Jerry above is the ranger1/paladin2/rogue1/mage Drow. This has no xp penalty beyond that of being a Drow, and allows you to have a potent spellcaster who can take all the thieving abilities, be an emergency early game tank, dual wield longswords, wield The Sword, and is immune to fear. If you want, you can substitute one of the above characters for this guy, and ditch your rogue (unless you want to get backstabbity).

1 more thing: (minor spoiler)


If you have played BG2, you may expect a certain Sword in this game to be 2 handed. It is only one handed in this game.
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Old 02-01-2005, 01:30 PM   #10
Gorosh
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thnks

i know that creating a new party is major decision in IWD2, so i'm cautious on what to choose (and i don't think i'll replay this game with many parties, i usually play one game, then leave it for some months, even years, before i go through it again), because i wouldn't like to realise that my party sucks in the middle of the game

i think i'll play a little bit with creating a party, then i'll post it here...

one other question: what abillities / feats are useful / essential and what useless (i've read somewhere that skills like wilderness lore and some others are useless?
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