Difficulty Setting - Insane

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I just finished Icewind Dale on difficulty setting - Hard. It was tough, especially going through TOTL. But I completed it without cheating. A big accomplishment for me. Who here has made it through the game at insane level? If you did, please give the class and race of your party including any additional tips. I would appreciate any feedback from "insane" veterans of IWD.

 

Congratulations for beating the game.
Insane or hard level aren't harder than normal level since you get more XP, level faster and therefore have more options available.
Any balanced party will do well. A party which finished at insane difficulty was

human cleric9/mage x
human ranger7/cleric x
human fighter9/druid x
half-elf bard
gnome fighter/thief

 

Dual class characters. OK. I had 5 non-human multi-class characters. I had 3 dwarven fighter/clerics. What relief in healing the party! Thank you for your response.

 

I never cast healing spells during battles so I never needed more clerics. Druids can heal too and their spells offer additional options. The bard was the main healer, the level 11 song is great.

 

I wouldn't say that I "never" cast healing spells in the middle of combat. I don't bother with healing spells for fixing small amounts of damage. But if I have a tank that's truly in critical condition (later in the game), I'll have the character suck down a healing potion or 2 (to heal a little bit of damage in case he takes more damage while waiting for ...), but also try to have my cleric cast a Heal spell.

On the whole though, I agree that a bard singing the War Chant song is the best combat healing "spell" that you can use, short of desperately needed Heal spell. The War Chant song can do wonders on all those minor wounds, and save your cleric from having to waste spell slots on lesser healing spells.

 

When I played a "no level-up" game I reached Dragon's Eye at Insane setting. After that I had to drop the setting back to normal and then easy to make progress!

The most important thing is to have good equipment, then you can overcome the higher settings for difficulty.