Bottomless Bag...

It was a joke, the Sisters of Battle are also known informally as the "Bolter Bitches".

 

When did we find out that she was Imoen's full sister? We know that she's both Imoen and CHARNAME's half-sister, but I don't recall getting much if any backstory on Illasera.

Also I didn't know about the Bolter Bitches until I read a Warhammer 40K crossover fic two years ago and some of the reviews/comments were talking about the "Bolter Bitches" when they were not (yet) mentioned by that monkier in the story. They are from WH40K and aside from the RTS game "Warhammer 40Kawn of War" I picked up a few years ago at a library "book sale" and a couple of other crossover fanfics (like Thousand Shenji or Shenji and Warhammer 40K) , I'm not very familiar with that fandom.

 

I consider just getting through the Ice Temple to be a significant chunk of the game, and unless you are replaying in HoF mode, you aren't going to be casting Mordenkainen's Sword at that point. You are lucky to get 5th level spells by the time you finish the Ice Temple, and often with a 6-character party you'll start the chapter with only 3rd level spells (but quickly gain 4th level at the crash site).

Sorry, it's a pet peeve that in gaming forums people immediately jump to late-game solutions that aren't really viable for 75%+ of the game when the conversation was talking about earlier areas. Note that I'm speaking in general, not necessarily specific to Icewind Dale.

Back on topic, the archers can be a pain in the Shangarne river and parts of the Horde Fortress, especially the outside when they are often in hard-to-reach places. At that point in the game spells like Blindness are pretty effective, as is the obvious like the cleric's Hold Person. Even the druid's Charm Person or Mammal or the mage's Charm Person, while seriously nerfed compared to all the other Infinity Engine games (since most of the time they just stand there and do nothing, and the enemies rarely target charmed enemies) is useful for temporarily taking a distant archer out of the fight until everybody else has been deal with. It's like a poor man's Maze or Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere. The popular Chromatic Orb tends to be too low-level to be effective for long, and the spell Sleep tends to start becoming useless around the Horde Fortress, while Color Spray is too short-ranged. I really wish IWD2 let your sorcerer swap spells at level-up, as Sleep is extremely powerful and useful in the prologue through the Shangarne River, then becomes useless and would be nice to be able to swap it for Chromatic Orb which would around then start to become useful. Better yet would be to swap for Blindness and then at the Ice Temple swap Blindness for Chromatic Orb.

 

I like morden sword on wizard as the extra feats can stretch to picking up Power attack, generally my sorcerers get it for the iron golems before the Underdark, too soon for a wizard.

I prefer throwing weapons for everyday use as the morden sword unequipping ranged ammo is annoying.
bullstrength+catsgrace is a fine early game ranged option, emotion hope plays nice with rapid shot feat, 50 rounds fixed duration is nice compared to most low level buffs.

Icetemple has a lot of clerics and I find rapid shot plus stunning/paralysis with chromatic orb gives automatic hits for plenty of dmg even on low BAB characters.


Symbol of hopelessness will prevent critical hits so I make sure lategame it doesn't overlap with my executioner eyes

 

I should point out that
In 1st and 2nd edition, bards learned spells like wizards with fewer spell slots.
In 3rd edition & Pathfinder bards were more like sorcerers.
In IWD2 (or pretty much any game where there are more character classes than party slots. Note that the original Pool of Radiance game only had 4 classes and 6 characters) I try not to take more than one of any class unless it is a mix-in of a level or two.
If I want two divine casters I take a druid and cleric. If I want two arcane I select between wizard or sorcerer for the first, then choose between the other and a bard for the second.
I lump Paladins, Rangers, Fighters, Monks, and Barbarians together as well. Only one primary of each.
I find I get more benefit from having a range of abilities by doing it that way.

 

to me clerics are the best of both worlds between sorc v wizard

learn spells by leveling up but they just get the full spell list for that level, you have the variety of the wizard with the ability to level squat and have spells that wouldn't be available by the game section you were in if you were reliant on scrolls.


I always take many casters, a mage or cleric might know every spell but they can still only cast 1 at a time and only so many casts per day with only so many memorised per day.

 

Me, I like taking a cleric, a druid, a bard, and a wizard or sorcerer. Occasionally I might take both the wizard and sorcerer and drop the bard, but I like making the bard my party "face". I'll have at least one fighter type, but that might be a monk/thief.
The fighter type gets first dibs on all AC increasing items. If I only have one "tank" I'll make sure that I have summons available to be canon fodder. I also always have somebody take some levels of rogue (not the bard, although if I have a bard they max out pick pocketing so I can take fewer rogue levels. If I make a deep gnome monk/thief I generally don't take the bard since I have plenty of rogue levels as it's a 50/50 split).
Each has their unique magic, although the bard is a backup caster with a mix mostly arcane magic with a few divine spells.
For some irrational reason I really like bards in the Infinity Engine games, as well as Temple of Elemental Evil even if I don't like Gherrick. I also like them in Neverwinter Nights but I can't explain why I like them.

 

Clerics do have some offensive spells at lower levels, but they are more limited. First level you are correct, they are not that great. Bane and Doom are underwhelming, Command as you mentioned is only 1 round, and I won't even mention Magic Stone or the inflict spells.

On the other hand, you get to 3rd level by the palisade battle enabling you to cast 2nd level spells, and Hold Person is a powerful spell. Not as powerful as it was in the Gold Box games where I was routinely casting it even in Pools of Darkness, but still one of the better single-target disablers. Chant is like combining Bless and Bane and despite the down sides is actually a pretty good buff/debuff. Silence in this game will shut down most spellcasters, unlike in BG2 (especially Throne of Bhaal) where it seems everybody had a scripted, uninterruptible Vocalize to make the spell useless. I found Spiritual Weapon to be underwhelming, about the only game I've found it great in was Pool of Radiance II:Ruins of Myth Dranor. Although it had limited utility in the first PoR from the '80s as it gave a cleric a ranged attack other than carrying lots of heavy hammers or clubs that couldn't be stacked.

Third level is when you start to get the interesting ones, but they are typically overlooked and overshadowed by summons and protection which generally benefit you more. Animate Dead, Dispell Magic, Magic Circle against Evil, and Prayer are generally more valuable than Circle of Bones, Blindness, or Glyph of Warding, and Miscast Magic is generally inferior to Silence in this game. Similarly Hold Person is usually better than Rigid Thinking, although the latter is useful on non-humanoid characters. Contagion, Bestow Curse, Ice Blade, Moonblade, and Mold Touch are usually underwhelming, although the latter can be useful against mobs.

 

DUHM (like tensors but no restriction from spell casting) and Executioner eyes support is good enough damage output, not sure why clerics are being expected to throw out 4 meteror storms a day, its not really thier job, my sorcs have plenty of zap spells to throw out.

holy word (the stun neatly covers mass heal casting time so instant battle reset if things go south) tremor (stuns avoiding will saves are super unique and spell focused unlike symbols), mass heal, resurrection support, symbol of hopelessness, animate dead, divine shell.

my only spellslingers with 40 in their primary casting stat while not struggling with BAB and do monster crits with throwing weapons

not that all matters when i only talked about spell aquisition and nothing else, a complete book of spells and not gated by scroll progression, just level up and learn them all naturally.


don't really like dmg spells as domain options since you only get 1 of each level per day, Talos/Oghma does get a super hard to resist Wail because of wisdom stacking. Ilmater/Talos also get the games single strongest Horrid wilting because it gets lvl 9 DC.


Mask; blur, mirror image, executioner eyes. first two are caster only which makes them high priority as they can't be supplied by team mates. EE only lasts ten rounds so another is welcome since arcane casters have other lvl 9 spells to be casting while clerics aren't super stacked unless you really love to cast summon monster IX

Bane; don't care about most except getting the strongest Mass dominate around, when will saves can hard counter the spell into doing nothing you really want to squeeze every last DC you can. I think this maybe the hardest to save against spell the player can ever have as focus: enchantment is also an option


Clerics care little for Evocation so can easily spare feats into the other spell focuses.


I used to pick Tempus clerics but I think i like their domain spells the least of all, just 1 extra copy of common clerics spells. I want unique things that open up otherwise impossible combos. Replaced them with a cleric of Helm, tons of otherwise wizard self only buffs and the alignment to also go Paladin which already beats the basic axe feat of Tempus.

Lathander got replaced by Ilmater, fire storm/flame strike are generic spells any cleric has already, rather take the horrid wilting and the 50 rounds emotion hope such that even my wizard doesn't feel the need to memorise it. Leave focus evocation to the professional evoker sorcerers.

I have been tempted on a Selune cleric to see if Moonblade got overlooked in some way and ends up being a complete shutdown on any enemy caster, ambush them from invisibillty so they never lift a finger.

nabbing arcane spells from domains is great because it doesn't have a counterpart to work in the reverse direction

 

wand of entanglement can be cast indoors and underground

stick > druid

I only really use it because the move speed reduction functions fully even in HoF games

 

Actually, I find that rainstorm seems to lose effectiveness by the time you leave with Oswald in the airship.
It is useful, but not that powerful atop the Horde Fortress.
That said, it is only a second level spell, and up until that point there are quite a few outdoor battles, such as the Palisade Battle, almost the entire Shangarne river chapter except for a small cave, the area outside the Horde Fortress, the battle at the top, and the three maps when you're trying to get into the Ice Temple after the airship is shot down.
I make extensive use of rainstorm and call lightning in those areas, and only stop memorizing them before entering the ice temple. I do memorize them again afterwards for the Wandering Village area, but I find by then Rainstorm has limited usefulness, it's like Snlock's Snowball Storm in that it just doesn't do enough damage and you're better off trying to memorize something like Charm Person or Mammal to disable a fighter instead.