IWD II first timer questions

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The Paladin must be Lawful Good, no other alignment can be a Paladin.

Take no more than two levels of Rogue, multiclass with Wizard -- the high INT of the Wizard will give more than enough skill points to keep important Rogue skills high.

Once you have tried some party combinations, and made it through the game once, you will be ready for the JUPP. Once you have run a JUPP party, all other parties pale in comparison. The JUPP Melee party can be tough to pull off and invloves some experience penalized characters. However, if you like toasting things with spells, the JUPP Arcane party is easy to manage, easy to run, has no XP penalties, and just chews through the game like nobody's business.

 

When the Rogue came up to Level 3, I turned her into a Bard. Haven't had a chance to really test the character out, but she seems ok so far. I copied my save game before making the changes, so I can always go back and try out something else if this doesn't work out.

Thanks for the help so far people, but I'm getting really disinterested in this game, and I wondered if anyone else had the same problem. Members of my party are always getting killed, and it's getting really tiresome having to resurrect them. The game is fun in a lot of ways, but just the constant routine of getting killed and having to resurrect is wearing very thin.

Any ideas on how to reverse this feeling of dread every time I go to play the game ?

[ March 04, 2005, 18:30: Message edited by: Aerie's Number One Fan ]

 

Getting killed?!? With this party? What's your difficulty level? If you're playing on normal, you're doing something definitely wrong. My first time party was probably weaker than yours, and my guys got killed in the tougher fights, too, but i never resurrect. I reload and retry, and after a couple of attempts i got even through the hardest fights without fatalities.

OK, the game gives you some serious challenges. The enemies you have to fight while on low exp levels are tough. But without challenge, the whole game would be boring.

("Outnumbered ten to one you say? Pshaw, man, where's your spirit?" Unknown british gentleman.)

If possible, add one of your savegames to your next post. That way people here could give you detailed advice.

 

I'm playing under normal D&D rules. It's usually my Sorcerer or Mage that gets killed, as one or two big strikes seem to be enough to take them out. My Paladin and Fighter get killed every so often, as does my Cleric, with my Rogue/Bard the only one not to get killed at all.

I've been having members killed from the first big fight with the Goblins in Targos, when they overrun the place. Like you, I just reloaded that one a couple of times before finally winning without losing people, but after that it's just too much hassle, so I just heal my party up or resurrect them with the cheat console.

I'd certainly like to know how it's possible to not have to cheat or resurrect, because I've just destroyed the dam and cleared the bridge, and there were enemies all over the place, and I couldn't see any way of getting past that without cheating, because I was getting hammered from all directions, and was constantly having to heal my party, and resurrect people.

 

I cleared out the bridge with a Human Barbarian[1]/Battlegaurd of Tempus[1] and an Aasimar Paladin of Ilmater[3]/Sorcerer[1]. I dont see how you could be having any problems.
Use the team groupings to protect your weaker members. Buy a good armour and sheild for atleast one frontliner. Make sure that one gets everyones attention. Use those potions. In the bridge fight I got the Priestess of Selune to Aid my charecters. +1 attack and saves is always welcome.

Buy the 'Bless' belt from Elytharra for someone in the lead. Get the wolf boots too. You wont find another +6 vs cold item anytime soon.

Dont go after the archers. Look at the feedback you get. Switch on the attack rolls feedback. Target whoever seems to have the highest attack bonus. Getting these out of the way ensures that those with a worse attack bonus will take longer to take you down.
IceTrolls have the maximum bonus of +13 to attack on the next map. Since your party is still at low levels have one high AC charecter up front. When he has been surrounded 1 or 2 others walk up to whack these guys. Everyone else tries to pincoushion them.

Give us your current levels, AC and HP.

 

This is my current party:

Paladin - Level 4 - 40 HP - AC 12-13
Fighter - Level 4 - 40 HP - AC 14-15
Cleric - Level 4 - 32 HP - AC 12-13
Rogue/Bard - Level 4 - 24 HP - AC 16-17
Sorcerer - Level 4 - 16 HP - AC 13-14
Wizard - Level 4 - 16 HP - AC 13

 

No wonder you get hammered. HP and ACs are miserably low. Obviously, you didn't raise your fighters CON over 11. Big mistake. And then your ACs . . . are they wearing leather armor? For heaven's sake, get plate mail as soon as possible!

Only your fighters and clerics are supposed to get into the enemy's reach at all. Your casters and your bard are support units (at least at the low levels, later on your casters will be dashing out tons of damage to the baddies), and so they must be kept behind the front lines at all cost.

 

When I said have atleast one high AC charecter, I was thinking of something in the range of 20-25.
12-15 will always get you killed. There really is a lot more power gaming in this game than in BG man.
You should have atleast taken the option of maxHP per level (in the configuration program).
Or is it that all your people have 10Con?

If you had ease-of-use you would get a great armor and sheild which would help both your AC and HP problems. You found a blade giving +3 deflectionAC in the malarite infested area. Have your fighter or paladin, wearing plate armor and good sheild use this blade. He might not do much damage but will keep others attention long enough for the rest to do some real damage.
Bard, Sorc and Mage stick to ranged weapons.

 

All my party's CON ranges from 11-13.

A big part of the problem is probably down to me choosing to play this game 'blind', in that I've not read any walkthroughs for it or anything else that gives hints or tips. I'm going through it not knowing anything except what I get from the game itself.

Obviously, knowing what I know now I would create my party differently, but I just wanted to try and play the game as 'pure' as possible.

 

Good on you for having a go at playing this game ‘pure’. You only get one chance to do this.

I personally think that Icewind Dale II is pretty difficult from a combat point of view when you don’t know how to prepare. I would recommend turning the difficulty level down on your first time through so you can enjoy the “newness” without having to stress too much about powergaming.

The AC levels that people have mentioned above are indeed what you need to play at the higher difficulty levels but I think it takes quite a bit of knowledge and planning to reach those levels (well it took me ages to work out how to do it and I had to read some powergaming guides and walkthroughs to do it)

In the meantime, try and find some better armour for your Fighter and Paladin at least.

By the way, the goblin fight at the Targos Pallisades and the Bridge Fight can be two of the most difficult battles in the game (or any game for that matter). I still get stuck on the Pallisade fight occasionally and I’ve played IWDII loads of times (or maybe I’m just useless). The Bridge Fight in particular is tough because you get no time to buff up beforehand. Useful tips of the Bridge Fight include: Invisibility, Haste, Animate Dead, Chromatic Orb, ganging up on each enemy, and/or running straight for the Ogres to try and take them out first.

But you certainly don’t need to cheat to get past those encounters!

Keep up the good work though - and don't read any walkthroughs!

 

I did create a second party to try with, and even used DKII to give them some weapons under the assumption that a party of adventurers wouldn't go to a warzone armed only with sticks, but looking over the party again, I'm not happy with it.

I might try and make a third party, but I don't want to give up on my first party, though I also don't want to ruin my first play of the game with cheating all the time, which is what I'm having to do with a party that is, apparently, as ill-equipped as mine.

 

Going blind is a good thing AN1F. But going blind does not mean you cant indulge in a little bit of powergaming. Did you not start off SoA with a fighter having 18/75-18-18-11-11-3 before?

Having a few important stats maxed out is not cheating. This is a group of adventurers not laymen washed ashore. Since this is your first run, I wont give you any advice in class selection. And the group you mentioned above is good enough to beat the game.

As far as items are concerned, here are a few non-magical ones which an experianced party may carry:
00PLAT01 : Half Plate Mail
00SHLD14 : Tower Shield
00SWDB01 : Bastard Sword
00SWDT01 : Great Sword
00BOWC01 : Composite Longbow

 

I'm probably going to make a new party and try again, because with how my first party are, I don't see them getting far without constant cheating to heal and resurrect, and that takes away from the game for me.

I'm looking at: Human Fighter, Half-Orc Barbarian, Human Paladin, Elf Bard, Human Cleric, and Elf Wizard. I see the first three being the muscle, with the bard holding his own if needed, with the Cleric and Wizard using missile weapons to stay away from the heavy hitting enemies.

I probably will give them one major weapon, shield and some armor, because, as you said, these are seasoned adventurers, and aren't coming empty handed. On a side note, I think it would have been better in IWD 2, and IWD, if you're characters started off with more than just a staff, because they are meant to be adventurers and not someone just starting out in this field.

I've not started SoA with that kind of fighter, because I've not played it many times, and I've always tried to go for a balanced character, but on my next game coming up I might give that type of character a try.

My new party will have stats similar, in that I'll concentrate on maxing out the stats that really matter for a particular class, and ignore the ones that don't.

 

Sounds good! Hope you'll have more success and fun this time!

 

It doesn't really matter that you just start with a staff because you find weapons pretty quickly. So you're going with no Rogue at all in a 6-man party?

 

I wouldn't worry about hiding the cleric in the back; pure-class clerics are much more combat oriented in 3E than in 2E. You could actually replace one of your fighters with an arcane spellcaster or rogue (or both: 1-3 levels of rogue is enough for most situations, and a high-IQ wizard can always spare a few skill pts for theiving) and still think of yourself as having three tanks.

And don't worry about the equipment; you'll get more soon enough. Porting in equipment is like porting in a bunch of cash. If you noticed, the premade parties, while they come equiped, also have far less cash than new parties; it's assumed they've already gone shopping...

 

You could meld all three humans into one and take a ... oh sorry, no more spoiling.
I'll just say that multi-classing is far more painless in 3E rules. Just keep racial preferences and XP penalties in check. Pallys and monks are the only classes who hate multing.
Bion is right, Clerics are powerful in the frontlines too. Everyone gets multiple attacks per round.
However getting items in is not the same as getting additional cash. After all the only person who will sell you anything before you clear the docks of goblins is that barbarian in Salty Dog Tavern.

 

I still think it's part of the game to deal with some economic privation at the start, counting your pennies so you can buy your first suit of scale mail, for instance. If you consider that room and board (merchant) in Targos goes for 5 gp/day for all 6 of your party members, that works out to about 300gp/year to feed and house each adventurer. This is roughly the price of a suit of scale mail, so it's obvious why nearly all of the Targos militia (and the goblin attackers) only have leather armor. In any case, the game is balanced for a lack of good equipment in the beginning...

 

If Rogue skills are that important, I'll probably give my Bard the skills instead. I figure the bard would probably stay in the back and used ranged weapons, anyway.

 

It is usually a good idea to multiclass your Bard because they get their best song at about level 10 (if I remember correctly) and don't get much better after that.

I agree with the comments re Cleric fighting skills. I played IWDII before BGII and it took me a while to get used to how useless the BGII clerics were at fighting.

But don't worry too much. Your party as it stands will be able to deal with all the important situations in this game. Remember, people have solo'd this game with every class so there are multiple ways of getting through each scene.