Rogue necessary for Dragon's Eye?

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I've searched the threads for a while about Dragon's Eye, but so far no one has said anything definite about whether or not a rogue is essential for making it through this dungeon.

So I ask, can you complete this dungeon without a high-skilled rogue?

I'm playing a solo character Paladin/Cleric.

 

There's exactly two spots in the whole game where having or not having a rogue makes a difference between a breeze and something slightly annoying, both of them traps.

So no, you don't need a rogue. Frankly, it's not even all that essential for looting as a vast majority of the best items aren't behind locks to begin with.

 

Thank you for replying, Sir Rechet.

At this point I'm beyond Dragon's Eye. My main concern for the necessity of a rogue was with the four ropes (or just three if you make do with an unstable bridge), of which two are locked away in chests I couldn't bash open with a 24+ Strength nomatter how much I spammed F2->LMC.

I later learned from the walkthrough that you can ask one of the prisoners to pick and loot the chests in the west for you, so that will get you one of the two locked-up ropes, and since you can make do with three, then indeed you do not need a rogue.

(What I did was make a rogue, add her to my party, feed her thief mastery potions, and she could then pick them open. Then I dispassionately dismissed her.)

As I've read other remark, Dragon's Eye is truly the most annoying part of the game, and I can only concur. It's too much running about in the same place, and working through the five days of the temporal disturbance is a feat of not becoming irked enough to kick a puppy. Whomever designed it should've called in sick that day and let someone else do it.

 

Yep, Dragon's Eye sucks. There are some good fights but it gets very tedious wandering around fulfilling simplistic quests.

 

You don't need to loot the ropes, as long as you have the foresight to buy them at the Wandering Village..

 

True, and having now completed the game for the first time I know that beforehand.

 

LMAO!!!

 

I read recently in a Chris Avellone interview (posted in the news section) that J.E. Sawyer wrote the story for Icewind Dale 2 in a single weekend, by himself. I'm sure that has some bearing on some of the less than stellar story elements.

I think it's also about "killing time." I'm sure that BIS wanted a game that felt as large and expansive as Baldur's Gate, but they simply didn't have it. So many areas becoming exercises in milking the crap out of what can be done there.

I mean, does the Severed Hand REALLY need to consist of 4 levels with 4 multi floor towers, and require players to run around all of these places numerous times in order to advance the main story? Of course not! On the other hand, BIS wanted to create an entire game chapter out of a single location, so therefore Isair and Madae are nowhere to be found until you've spent several days in their fortress, slowly dismantling their operation piece by piece with absolutely no serious efforts being made to stop you. You can even comfortably rest in their lair as often as you wish, and they don't even charge you for it. It's not until their entire empire has crumbled by your hand, that the bosses see fit to try and do something about it. They are predictably unphased by the fact that a small group has wiped out their army and their operation, and seem to think they, with a couple of lackeys, will do better against you.

In the meanwhile, the player spends lots of time trying to figure out how to solve food shortages and assist with construction issues for an organization that we are planning to shut down within a few short days (possibly hours, depending on play style).

None of it really makes all that much sense when you think about it. It's still a fun hack & slash RPG, in spite of these flaws though.

 

Indeed. Nearing the end of that series of lesser and greater dismantling efforts I continually kept sneaking back to places where I'd left hitherto non-aggressive groups of enemies thinking "this time they must have learned of my naughtiness and come at me", but no, I was still enjoying diplomatic immunity.

 

The last chapter of IWD2 is completely ridiculous, but I find it fun to fight some new monsters like the Chimeras and the Slayer Knights. Either way I think it could have been a much better chapter in regards to story telling. As for Dragons Eye, it is extremely tedious and gets very repetitive and confusing once you start the whole going back in time to solve the murder. For me Dragons Eye and the Ice Temple are some of the main reasons I have difficulty playing that game again. It's funny though because I actually enjoy Dragons Eye in IWD1. I guess it's because of the boss fight and finally getting my mage that kickass robe from the necromancer.

 

Okay, re: rogues...

I always use a rogue to sneak in to the caves under Guthma's fortress. He/she talks to the goblin Pondmuk who gives him the password, then I clear the next couple of levels, clear the fortress and kill Guthma, etc. I get experience for "sneaking" into the fortress instead of just killing everyone at once--or at least, I thought I got some sort of special XP bonus.

However, I send the rangers off to Targos, rest, and come back and wipe out the orc tribe and the two goblin tribes that are in the first level (I left them alone). (They have some good wizard scrolls, including Fireball, that I can't just leave behind).

So I use a rogue, someone with high Move Silently and Hide skills, to sneak through the goblin tribe and past the orc tribe. So...how does the experience stack up? Does one get more XP by doing the fortress in a sneaky way, or does it matter in terms of XP? I thought it mattered, but now I'm wondering. If it does matter (that is, if you get more XP by doing it the "sneaky" way), then a rogue is highly profitable at that point.

 

You get more XP by doing it the sneaky way, clearing the first room in the deeper level, then going back and slaughtering the camps on the level above.