HoF advice needed

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I've played IWD a couple of times before a year or so ago and started a new game last week, but since I know the entire story by heart it has lost its replay value to me. So I figured I'd try to do a game on HoF mode, started a new game and got my entire party killed by the first enemy in the game (wolf in the fishbone carver shop). So what's the deal with HoF mode? Is it intended for imported partymembers, i.e. characters at a higher level than 1? If so, what level do you recommend to start HoF mode with?

 

Usually HoF mode is started with imported characters from the end game who are about level 20 and well equipped, but that's too easy for my taste.
About level 7 at the start (you can start a HoW game and export your characters after gaining fast XP for this) should grant a mediocre challenge.

But even a freshly created party with 1-6 characters is playable. By killing the cellar bugs (2,140 XP each) who don't fight back unless you get into dagger range and doing non-combat quests you can get more than 18,000 XP.
The goblins are doable one by one with the right tactics and spells afterwards, once you've gained enough XP to cast your first summoning spells the game gets far easier.

 

^^what kmonster said

I just played through the entire game and both expansions my first time on HoF mode, starting with level 1 characters.

Disabling spells are very useful. Armor class means almost nothing, so you need summons and disablers (web, entangle, confusion, etc).

Stay out of melee and away from archers whenever possible, and use ranged weapons and spells yourself.

Warning - it can get very tedious....

 

Stay out of melee? Aww man, that's my favourite part of the game I was actually thinking of creating an all melee party with only multi or dual thieves and spellcasters. I guess starting HoF at level 1 is out of the question for me then, I'll see if I have an early save game from which I can export characters or get my current party to level 8-ish on normal mode.

 

I started from scratch with a non-melee party everything has been dandy until the last boss. How can I defeat him with the following?

Paladin(30)
Ranger(15)/Cleric(30)
Fighter(4)/Druid(30)
Fighter(19)/Mage(18)/Thief(23) (I think)
Fighter(4)/Mage(30)
Bard(30)

The best I can do is kill his demon buddies with arrows. The Iron Golems are constantly killing my characters before I can get Pale Justice to kill the boss.

 

Check this out

http://www.gamebanshee.com/forums/icewind-dale-11/final-iwd-battle-in-hof-mode-96980.html

I'd summarize but I'm too busy...

 

There are several possible tactics.
You could cast chromatic orb or finger of death at the boss to end the battle quickly if he gets an unlucky roll.
You could pause the game every second and have your party use hit and run tactics. Enemies who aren't close don't do melee damage.
Or you could buff your party and do melee. It's possible to get AC so low that the enemies need a critical to hit.
Not only in this case buffing is extremely important, make sure you get the perfect casting order and pause often enough to avoid to waste precious seconds.
If you use invisibility Behilfet shouldn't cast his "dispel magic" so prebuffing your party is possible.
If this is too cheesy for you you can use magic resistance to avoid getting dispelled.

I think any of your characters is powerful enough to solo the final battle, it's easier to protect and micromanage one character than a whole party.