Q: Who is developing/publishing Icewind Dale?
A: Icewind Dale is being developed and published by Black Isle Studios, a division of Interplay Entertainment Corp. The Icewind Dale team consists of the core team from Black Isle Studios' award winning Fallout 2 role-playing game and members from the RPG of the Year 1999, Planescape:Torment, team.

Q: What engine is Icewind Dale using?
A: We're using a modified form of the BioWare Infinity Engine, the same game engine that was used to create Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment.

Q: What rules system is Icewind Dale using?
A: We'll be using AD&D second edition rules, the same system used in Baldur's Gate.

Q: Where is Icewind Dale set, exactly?
A: Icewind Dale is set in, well, Icewind Dale, the setting for the popular Icewind Dale trilogy of books, written by Robert Salvatore, and published by Wizards of the Coast.Your party starts in Easthaven, one of the Ten Towns of Icewind Dale. From there, the party embarks on an expedition into the Spine of the World mountains.

Q: How many new areas will we have to explore?
A: There are more than ten new, major, areas as well as several smaller locations to explore. There are well over fifty new dungeon levels to explore.

Q: What are they like?
A: We've come up with a diverse set of environments for you to explore. We have ice-filled mountain passes that lead to steamy geothermal cave systems, to haunted Elven ruins, to tunnels carved through the heart of a living glacier-and that's only a small part of what you'll get to explore.

Q: How many new NPCs can we get?
A: You'll be creating your entire, six-person, party at the beginning of the game, or you may choose to use one of the parties we've created for you. So you won't have any NPCs in your party. However, there are a large number of important NPCs that you'll encounter, some of which may accompany you for a brief time.

Q: Will we be able to use our characters or NPCs from Baldur's Gate?
A: No, you'll be creating a new party of six characters with which to explore Icewind Dale.

Q: Can I play a Drow?
A: Only cosmetically. You can change you characters' skin to black and hair to white, but there are no rules in the game to give dark elves their Underdark powers.

Q: Are there any new magic items?
A: Yes, a boatload of them. Many of the magic items that the player can find in Icewind Dale are ones that are familiar from the Forgotten Realms. Others are new, unique, items that may surprise the player. There may even be a few artifacts hidden away in Icewind Dale. In addition, many of the magic items are randomized. You can go through the game two or three times and get completely different unique items.

Q: Are there any new spells?
A: Yes there are going to be quite a few new spells as well as some exciting changes in the way the spells appear onscreen. One of the big changes that you'll notice are the addition of quite a few higher level spells, including a few ninth level ones! Some horrific new spells are only useable by your enemies.

Q: Are there any new monsters?
A: We have a horde of new monsters for you to match brawn and wits against. Something that you'll notice right off the bat is the size difference between your party members and some of the larger, fiercer, monsters. We made sure that all of the critters that you'll encounter are the right, Monstrous Manual, size compared to your characters. That means that when you encounter a Cyclops, a Rhino Beetle, or a Frost Giant-these monsters are BIG. Overall we're adding about over fifty new monsters.

Q: Will there be scimitars, whips, flamberges, and/or machine-guns in the game?
A: The weapons available to your party will be similar to the weapons found in Baldur's Gate. No assault rifles ;), however we are adding a lot of unique magical weapons that you haven't seen before. We have also added scimitars and two-handed axes to the list of available weapons. There are both mundane and magical versions of both weapons in the game.

Q: Fundamentally, are there going to be any differences between Icewind Dale and Baldur's Gate/Tales of the Sword Coast?
A: There are a huge number of small changes to make the game-engine even more exciting and responsive to the player. But on a story level, Icewind Dale is going to focus much more on dungeon exploration, in the classic sense-similar to the classic Against the Giants and Tomb of Horrors modules-rather than overland exploration.

Q: Can we play specialty priests?
A: No. General purpose Clerics make more sense for Icewind Dale in that they're better suited to the role of a general-purpose warrior, healer, and undead blaster.

Q: Is poison going to be in the game?
A: We have no plans to include an aging glam-rock band of dubious talent (ok, we'll try for a cameo ;). Seriously though, player characters won't have access to poison but some monsters that you'll meet are naturally poisonous. There may be some magic items that have poison-like effects as well.

Q: Are there going to be new graphics for the spell effects and/or portraits and/or paper dolls?
A: We're working on new graphics for most of the spell effects and you'll have new character portraits to select from. There's a huge amount of new artwork going into Icewind Dale-new art for every part of the game is much more the rule than an exception.

Q: Will there be Dragons in Icewind Dale?
A: No, Dragons will not make an appearance in Icewind Dale. We made a decision early on that if we couldn't do it "right" we wouldn't do it at all. We tried very hard to come up with a way to do Dragons in all their glory, but were unable to do so without major engine modifications. So rather than trying to do a poor implementation of Dragons, we decided it would be best to not do it at all.

Q: What resolution will Icewind Dale run in?
A: Icewind Dale will be staying with the 640x480 resolution used in Baldur's Gate.

Q: Will we have any historical characters like Drizzt or Wulfgar to meet in the game?
A: No, our game takes place about 16 years prior to the first recorded mention of Drizzt and about 80 years before Wulfgar is even born.

Q: Will there be any new races, classes, or dual/multi class combinations?
A: No, we are not changing any of the classes or races at all for Icewind Dale. However, elves in Icewind Dale can now be rangers or druids.

Q: Do Rangers get dual wield?
A: They do not have a true dual-wield ability. To make up for this, rangers get an extra attack per round with weapons that they should have been able to use dual wielding.

Q: How big will the game be, and how many CD's will it come on?
A: The game will be smaller than Baldur's Gate in terms of data. It consists of two CDs, one for installation and one for game play. We were able to use compression on many of our files to reduce their bulk.