Ridiculous Difficulty of Game -- What's the Point?

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I consider myself a novice to average player, who really enjoys playing these games. I thoroughly enjoyed IWD I, but this game is another story. What is the point of making a game so damn hard, that every move is a struggle and every battle takes 4-5 reloads or more? The enjoyment is pretty much gone....I'll finish it because I started it...but I'm almost at the point where I dread loading it up in the morning...it's no longer fun for me, but rather has become something I have to get through.

 

You can change the dificulty on easiest.

 

Spellbound, do not get frustrated that much. The game is effectively harder, but not THAT harder. Try to rethink your strategies; maybe you should restart with a different party.

I also had some problems at first - but now I am running the game solo and find it a bit easy (Chapter 3 beaten, maybe later it will be tougher...)

 

I found that the type of tactics needed for IWD2 to be quite different than in other IE games. Even without that learning curve issue, chapter one is probably the most difficult part of the game. Your characters just don't have the resilience that they do later. A lucky hit kills instead of just hurts really bad. You can't raise your dead, yet. Stuff like that.

Overall, I think the game is hard but not overkill. But it took me a while to figure out how to play my way effectively in this game.

 

Modjahed: What class(es) and race is your solo char?

Spellbound: It's mostly about tactics and correct spell usage. For example, the first time I encountered effreties, I got my bottom kicked badly, because my spells were mostly fire-based (fireballs, sol orbs, flame strikes etc). I also tried my usual tactic of rushing my tanks to them, and they died from their own hits (fireshield )

In any case, I changed my tactics to the following: Cast stoneskin, BLUE fireshield, mordenkainen's sword, protection from elements, haste, prayer and emotion-hope on my mage, then just hammer them with him. He didn't lose a SINGLE hp, and downed 8 of those nasties. Talk about power-mage...

-thanos

 

Spellbound, like you I am a novice to average player. And yes, I did find it tough going in the beginning. I relished the challenge, though, and would think of alternate strategies instead of just reloading and hoping to get lucky. I think perhaps I have also been fortunate to create what is to me, an effective party (some people might disagree).

I have always been partial to spellcasters and my current party reflects that (I'm in Chapter 2):
Aasimar Paladin of Ilmater(3)/Cleric of Ilmater(5) with the intention of going cleric the rest of the way
Shield Dward pure Fighter (I needed at least one pure tank )
Human Druid(7)/Fighter(1) will probably add more fighter levels later on
Lightfoot Halfling Rogue(7)/Ranger(1) for dual-wielding, two weapon-fighting
Wild Elf Sorcerer(7)/Fighter(1)
Wood Elf Wizard(7)/Paladin of Mystra(1) I'm tempted to increase Paladin level to 3

I let the first three use melee weapons and the rest ranged weapons. The secondary warrior classes were taken on in the Prologue mainly to increase durability (more hit points) and also to enable the characters to have better choice of weapons.

In Chapter 1, I needed a lot of rest breaks to replenish my spells. With big groups of enemies, summoning help is a must. But my life saviours were the arcane spellcasters. With mage armours on, my wizard specialized in sleep and my sorcerer hurled magic missiles. Taking out enemy shamans and sorcerers were the responsibility of the backline while my three melee fighters engaged the vanguard of the enemy. Once my sorceror has access to second level spells, horror was invaluable. Cast it and you won't have so many enemies to engage at any one time . Just concentrate firepower at the red-circled ones - you can safely ignore those yellow bellied temporarily .

Take heart, things do get easier in Chapter 2. I am enjoying the game.

 

I am in the chapter 2 now and I don't complain.
Chapter 1 was challenging.. and that was good. I don't like brainless hack n slash and in IWD2 your party is not that powerful to just walk from fight to fight and beat everyone. Atleast my party isn't.
It's refreshing to get your *** beaten up by bunch of goblinoids. Reload, change your tactics, maybe drink some potions and give it another shot.. I like it.

[ September 19, 2002, 02:45: Message edited by: Pretend ]

 

Spellbound:

It's no IwD1, but it's not half bad. There's some slightly funny parts, so it's not nearly as serious as IwD1.

You shouldn't be this serious either.

If you care to, I can give you some hex edit information for your characters. It's really, really easy to edit the savegames. I gave all my people 25's in their stats, but then you get 7 more points during the level up process, and that brings most of them up to INT 32. But I'm going to just play the game instead of spending 2 hours figuring out all the nuainces of hexing.

Is it time for you to cheat a little? I'll help you out any way I can, or that you want...

 

What? You get 7 extra ability points as you level up? (I don't remember seeing that in the manual.) Or is that one of your editing/cheating...er...bending the rules thing you got going on there ejsmith?

 

Thanks everyone for the tips....and sorry for the bad attitude. The jellies in the monastery just got to me this morning....they kept multiplying and multiplying...first 5, then 10... ..and none of my swords could touch them... until I found,in my inventory, a sword that dealt a wallop of a "cold" punch. That took care of them. I guess they just got to me....I was simply enraged. But we've moved past it...and seem to be progressing smoothly once again.

 

Oh yea, jellies, nasty thingies. Took em out with a double shot of fireball + fire storm + cloudkill. It's a narrow corridor and they all have to cross the same area to get to you...

-thanos

 

Big B,

you get 1 additional stat point every 4 levels you advance. So, if you actually reached lvl 28+ you would have gotten 7 more stat points.

However, you generally end the normal game around 15-18, so you can only expect 4 additional points.

 

Well 4 points is better than nothing, I can put them to good use. That should help against the difficulty.

But if in a 6 person normal game, everyone gets to around 15-18 levels, and if you get less experience if you have less party members, then how do you ever reach the experience cap legitamately? That could make things difficult (in terms of wanting to max out.)

 

Oh, for that there is this thing called "heart of fury" mode. After you finish the game in normal mode, you can import your characters into a HoF game. Then you can do it all over again as a high level party with elite items, 9th lvl spells, and goblins who could own Conan.

Personally, I don't see much point in that, but a lot of people do enjoy playing with the big toys. Doing so should get you to somewhere close to the level cap, I assume.

 

No matter what level you are, you still get all the quest experience.

Read my topic about the exp for a White Dragon - you will see how to get to the XP cap.

PLus, you can export and then import - running the gave over and over with the same char.

 

See that's it. To get the exp cap you either have to solo or rerun with characters you already (bleh to the 2nd option). It just seems weird that 30000 XP is your potential but if you play 6 chars one time through, your lucky to get just half of that. Half of your potential. That just doesn't make the game look good. Disclaimer on the IWD II box: Oh by playing this game normally, you're only going to reach half your potential.

What's the point? Now I never was able to get HOW, so I am not too familiar with Heart of Fury mode. I understand it is harder, but does it reward you better with exp. since it is harder? Because that would be cool playing a fresh 6 person party in HoF mode so that by the end they would be much closer to the exp. cap. Or does it not work that way?

 

You have to beat the game once on normal before you can start HoF mode, I think. And yes, it is much harder. The monsters in the prologue are beefed up to challenge a 16th level party. If you want to take them on with our newbies, go ahead.

The game allows you to reach your full potential by playing the game once in lvl 1-16 mode and a second time in levels 17-30. Not that much different than games like single player D2, where you play through the game 3 times at increasing difficulty each time.

This allows them to make a reasonable length game that satisfies regular players like me (who prefer low to mid level D&D) and those who love hurling Meteor Swarms and Horrid Wiltings around like confetti.

 

Ahh I found a little blurb on it in the manual. Page 23, Heart of Fury, and it says that you get more xp and items not found in the normal game. That's cool. I just don't think my idea of a reasonable game length is on par with our friendly game designers . I'd say oh 20 chapters or so, up to level gazillion.

 

difficulty is a good thing dude. it's all about the strategy and creativity. games like b2 and neverwinter were toooooo easy. i like how iwd series is a little more difficult

 

I think its a refreshing change from the ludicrously easy first two chapters of all the other games. Even in BG 1, your party would laugh at the endless hordes of Xvarts in the village, which was pretty unrealistic. Here, the goblins are posed as a very real and sinister threat, quite easily capable of conquering the town. They should be hard, after all they have kicked the butts of the existing constabulary.