Few questions about character building

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Hello. English is not my native language but I hope I'm comprehensible enough
Last time I played Icewind Dale series years ago, back when the games were still relatively new. I want to play it again but I have a few questions.

1) Specialist wizard and multiclassing into another caster.
At first I thought that forbidden schools are supposed to be blocked for the whole character. Yet, levels of cleric allow to freely take spells from forbidden schools. Levels of bard, on the other hand, do not. OK, specialization prohibitions apply only to arcane magic, make sen... - aaand sorcerer ignore them too. So, specialist scholl prohibations apply only to his own spelllist and bard's? Why specifically bard? It feels really random.
2) Does a specialist count as wizard in regards of favourite class? Logically he should but google brings contradictory answers.
3) I vaguely remember skills in this game being much less useful than in other 3.0/3.5 CRPGs, to the point I regreted not dumping INT for everyone but rogue/wizard/team speaker. Is that indeed so?
4) Is it just me or duergar's ECL+2 is really unwarranted? They seem to be not much better than other dwarves and way worse than drow.

 

This was a bug they never fixed.

Yes.

Animal empathy can be useful in the beginning during the palasade battle and the whole Shangarne adventure, but it drops off dramatically in usefulness afterwards.
Wilderness Lore is truly useful once in the Wandering Forest (and if you don't have somebody with this skill you probably will need a walk-through as it becomes a "Guide dang it" moment). Otherwise it doesn't do much more than give flavor text (which you might like). I think it provides an alternate way to get some good dialog options, but there are other ways to get those same options by having your party face have high mental stats (INT, WIS, CHA).
Hide in the Shadows and Move Silently can be useful on occasion for the whole party, but unless everyone has it you're better off ignoring it except for your backstabbing rogue who scouts. There are a couple parts where it can help, but you can usually horde the invisibility potions instead, and later have the wizard memorize invisibility 10' radius.

Yeah, it should have been ECL+1.

 

You kind of contradicted yourself and proved my point.
There are times when having 14 INT or WIS on the face helps with dialog. 75% of the time you only need CHA, but 10% of the time you need high WIS and 10% high INT. Probably 5% of the time you need something else, but it is more like 1% instead of 5% since they often overlap with INT or WIS. Example would be talking to the guy in the werewolf village. If you have high wilderness lore or high INT you get additional dialog options and the chance to shop for some decent items.
Which is also why I said that Wilderness lore is great for flavor text, but only is truly needed in the Wandering Forest.

 

Ideally the face would have 16 CHA, 14 INT, 14 WIS, and take a point of CHA at levels 4 and 8 as well as equipping that +2 CHA item in Targos.
The problem is that there aren't any classes that benefit from those three stats. Furthermore thieves and Bards are the only ones that get all the "social" skills you want for a face of Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Bluff as class skills.
Bards benefit from CHA and INT for skills as they are second only to rogues and also can mix it up so probably need some physical stats since they are essentially fighter/thief/sorcerers (or maybe paladin/thief/sorcerer since they get Cure spells). Clerics benefit from WIS primarily, and CHA for turning, and don't get much in skills. They also could use more physical stats. Druids don't get much benefit from CHA, and INT is a distant second to WIS. Again they need physical. Sorcerers don't get much benefit from WIS and INT above 10 is not really needed since they only really need concentration and spellcraft. Paladins have good reason not to make your face because they often refuse rewards, and they only benefit from WIS and CHA like clerics and need physical stats more than clerics as they are essentially fighter/clerics. Rangers are the same as fighter/druids. Thieves need INT and DEX. Monks also refuse rewards, and need WIS, CON, STR, and DEX so INT and CHA are by necessity dump stats. Especially CHA since a monk/thief can be powerful and thus needs INT. Fighters need STR, CON, and DEX.

 

I know that talking skills use charisma. It's just "IWD2team speaker=bard or sorcerer" for me. Bard can use INT to be a better skillmonkey. Face!Sorcerer needs INT just to be able to increase multiple skills - he only have 1 skillpoint per level.

Um, I think you misunderstood my question. Or I was not as comprehensible as I hoped.
Normally, the opposed scholl(s) of specialist wizard is forever blocked. In IWD2 a single level of any other caster class (does not matter if it arcane or divine) unblock them - so, say, a transmuter with a single level of sorcerer, cleric or druid can freely learn Abjuration/Necromancy spells from scrolls while keeping his specialist stuff.
Bard is the only exception - instead of unlocking blocked school(s) for wizard, bard himself is affected by them. Like, transmuter/bard lose access to both Abjuration/Necromancy scrolls AND blocked from taking such spells on leveling up as bard.
This whole "unblocking" mechanic is weird and exploit-ish by itself if you ask me, but bard being a unique exeption to it makes it even weirder. Can it be related to bard getting spells only from second level (as cantrips are unimplemented) as apposed to first?

 

That's only if you have INT less than 10.
That's due to the way the INT modifier works. The baseline is 10, and sorcerers get 2 skill points per level. However, there is a table in the manual (included on the CD or can be downloaded from Sorcerer's place) on page 134 "Character ability scores". You'll note that there is a negative modifier for scores below ten. You add the modifier to the number of skill points per level, with an absolute minimum of 1.
So Every class except the bard and the rogue would only get 1 skill per level with 3 INT, and only the rogue would get more than 1 per level at 1 INT.

 

Um, I know how modifiers work but thanks anyway
Yes, normally in D&D3.0/3.5 sorcerer have 2+INTmod skillpoints per level. Every class get atleast 2 skillpoints with 10-11 INT (zero mod). A character gets x4 of this number on the first level.
In Icewind Dale 2, on the other hand, Fighter, Paladin, Cleric, Wizard and Sorcerer get only 1+INTmod skillpoints. Barbarian/Druid/Ranger/Monk/Bard get 2+INTmod. Rogue get 4+INTmod. They all correctly get x4 of this number at the first level.
Thus:
a) Non-human Bard with 3 INT/Rogue with 1 INT get just ONE skillpoint per level and no more.
b) Sorcerer MUST either have 12+ INT or being a human if he wants to have both maxed Concentraition skill and some Spellcraft for elemental feats. He needs even more INT if he is the team-speaker as he will need some points in the speaking skills.
c) Bard also need INT if he wants to be a proper jack-of-all-trades and utilize both his high CHA and Bardic Knowledge.

 

Was this changed in EE? I know that in my version which came on CD-ROM 18 years ago I've looked at the .2DA file and modified it at one point to play around with skills, and by default it does follow the rules in the manual with barbarians, fighters, sorcerers, and wizards getting 2, bards getting 6, and rogues getting 8, with all others getting 4.
It's possible one of your mods changed it. Look in your override folder for a SKILLPTS.2DA file.
That is NOT normal, you're only getting half the skill points, and even less with bards.
P.S. I need to look it up which classes get more skill points, I think I made am mistake in that list.

 

There is no EE of Icewind Dale 2.
I do not use mods and I'm pretty sure that IWD2 always had this weird skillpoint thing. In fact, I remember 10+ years old discussion about how weird it is.
Than again, if you are 100% sure that you always got normal D&D 3.0 amount...

About your list - I think Paladin gets 2 points in D&D3.0, while both Barbarian and Bard both get 4. Bard get 6 only in 3.5.

Please check the amount of skillpoints your 10 INT non-human characters get per level. Thanks.

 

Thank you!
So Bard gets only 2 skill points, Fighter gets only one etc. And IWD2 indeed generally gives only half of normal D&D 3.0 amount of skill points. Maybe devs thought it would make INT more useful? Still, it's pretty much useless for anyone but casters (bard including) and rogue, unlike in tabletop or NWN1/2.
I must say, I don't like how having animal-like intelligence of 3 is not just alright, but optimal for like half of classes. Or more than half, in case of humans.
Than again, in current 5th edition INT is even more useless - only Wizard, some specific subclasses and Artificier (whom a lot of people seem to dislike) have any use for it.

 

13 Int is the underdark dwarf discount so I just use a +1 ring or hat on my 12 int sorcerer, he sells a +1 staff if you don't have those

 

What "underdark dwarf discount"? Also a +1 staff isn't that special. There are several +1 staves available in Targos, including one you can take from the traitor whose name starts with P that collaborated with the goblins to attack, and from one of the goblin leaders in the palisade battle.
Depending on the RNG you might pick one up as loot between then and the ice temple, and I'm pretty sure at least one of the priestesses of Auril has an enchanted staff that you can put to better use.
I think a generic +1 staff is available in several of the stores you can optionally get access to between Targos and the Ice temple, depending on your party and your choices.

 

drow wizard paladins are interesting as the cera sumat
(main hand Brutal Impact) gives you max spell resistance while also unlocking spell restrictions and the base martial weapon feats

fewer per day spell casts than sorcerers so keep a copy of tensers memorised for when you run out of spells

 

It is possible that I have a mod installed that makes proper AD&D skill points, I just don't recall installing much beyond the g3 tweaks, "Ammo Belts and Bottomless Bags", and the "bonus & collector's edition merchants." If the tweaks had an option to make the number of skill points you get correspond to the AD&D rules, then that's probably why I'm getting confused. I haven't installed a mod in at least 5 years.