Difficulty Levels

Remove all ads!

I'm looking for specific information on the differences in difficulty levels. I checked the IWD and HoW manuals and strategy guides, but they don't cover this.

1) XP & monster HP bonuses for Hard and Insane
2) Any changes in enemy tactics in higher difficulties
3) XP bonus in Heart of Fury mode

Also, what will be the average level of a full party after playing through IWD, HoW, and TotL on normal? Do I need to play through it again on Insane or HoF to hit the level cap for everyone? Thanks for helping this IWD newbie.

 

I can tell you that in Insane, a lot of new enemies spawn, like Presio gets these annoying body guards that go on the offensive. Belhifet also gets two cornugons as I recall.

 

I don't believe there's any XP bonus for Hard and Insane. I forget the HP bonuses, but I would guess for Insane it's 50%. And I think there's a few extra enemies in select areas, like the Vale and the Hand.

No tactics changes that I can remember. Heart of Winter makes it's own changes, and they are significant. Everyone rushes as a group rather than strolling in one by one.

Heart of Fury doubles their hitpoints. And I believe it doubles the XP.

 

I think its a little different than that, I think insane gives you double the XP, and only doubles the damage, while HoF boosts everything in large amounts.

 

Ok, I found some answers in Dan Simpson's IWD walkthrough. I'm guessing the HP follows the XP in Hard and Insane. No mention of any increased damage as difficulty increases.

 

I know you get some extra enemies, and in Hof mode, even very weak enemies like goblins are extra hard to kill, but they also give around 2100(!) exp, so it's worth it.

 

From my experience (I played the entire game on Insane), monsters hit *much* harder at the higher difficulty. I don't remember whether their HP changes, but I'll bet their damage output (and maybe their THAC0 too) goees up.

Don't know about normal, but if you play all three campaigns on Insane some of your characters will hit the cap. I remember I installed the cap extender (to level 40) at that point. Unless you have a lot of multiclasses, expect many of your PCs to hit level 30.

As it is, I strongly discourage going through the game on Insane after you've done it on normal. It will be WAY too easy. My advice is to try and go through it on Hard, and depending on whether you find it too easy or hard, adjust the difficulty. Once you've completed the game, and are looking for a challenge, try playing it in HOF on Insane

 

Thanks, Ziad. I've just finished Vale of the Shadows with a full party on Normal without too much trouble. I got the Ultimate collection and am eager to try IWD2, so I'll probably only play through IWD a couple of times. I definitely want to max out my characters and try HoF later . . .

 

You're welcome, Drumheller.

The reason I eventually raised the difficulty to Insane was that, somewhere through Dragon's Eye, I started getting bored If you're finding things relatively easy, you might want to push it up to Hard. On higher difficulty you have to adapt your strategy a bit, since ranged attacks and spells are much more effective because enemies hit so hard in melee. And remember, if things get too hard, you can always lower the difficulty back to Normal.

In any case enjoy the game.