HoF is a bit boring...

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Has anyone else found this?

After the first couple of chapters, it's pretty easy. It's nice to get the better stuff (weapons etc) but it's not really a challenge is it?

 

If you're tanking with summons its too easy.

 

I neverr have the patience to use summons...takes to long to cast them

 

HoF can be a lot less challenging than when you start at level 1, but it depends on how you play...
If you cast many costly, short-lasting spells like Holy Aura, Aura of Vitality and Executioner's Eyes during every single battle, and are willing to rest after every other map, then you'll sail through the game with ease. The game has a fixed progression, and it will wait for your characters no matter how often they sleep. The story however, tells of an urgent situation, and if you act the part, then you'll have more of a challenge on your hands.
I suggest you be sparing in your spell casting, and try to make your spells last. I finished HoF while only resting 7 or 8 times, see if you can do the same. Try Bull's Strength + Iron Skins instead of Champion's Strength at high level; Bull's Strength will last all day! See how fast you can run the gauntlet...

Oh, and turn the difficulty up to Insane (double damage) and install Tactics mod

 

I thought HoF was boring as well. I used summons and two AC 72 decoys. I didn't rest all the time, but it's just such a grind.

 

Summons and 72AC decoys, that's what I call boring.
High-AC decoys mostly require a high amount of party planning and obscure leveling schemes, just to make them possible, not to mention that they rely upon short lasting spells. People can't seem to accept the fact that they're supposed to take damage in HoF, so they persist in creating these weird decoy builds. These characters are largely useless for anything else, because they were developed for a singular purpose, at any sacrifice. And then people wonder why they get bored with their decoys...
Then we have the summons. These enhanced creatures are just as beefed up as the enemies you encounter. Seems like these 2 tactics are the only ones that stand up to the challenge of HoF, but players still have the audacity to claim that HoF is easy. Tsk tsk tsk.
I don't claim that I don't use summons, sometimes they are handy, and they make for excellent backup in large encounters. But high-AC decoys are a derived manipulation of the game rules, and summons are just cheesy.
There are other ways to play the game, and live up to the challenges, you just need to use your imagination. If you refuse to, then it's not the game that is boring, just your tactics.

 

I build to the 72 AC, but very rarely actually get there, because I don't like resting every screen.

 

I didn't realise you could turn up the difficulty....I thought HoF cancelled out the difficulty setting

 

Heart of Fury mode changes the game rules, but the difficulty setting still remains adjustable. When you adjust it, you will notice immediately that you take more or less damage.
As I understand it, all enemies get 10 extra character levels in HoF, making them a much bigger challenge. This is felt the strongest in the prologue, where you face level 11 goblins where they were originally level 1. This can lead to weird effects, like a band of speedy, hard hitting goblins becoming more threatening than Fomorian Giants. These extra levels also enhance abilities, and often abilities are boosted beyond this too, especially with bosses.
Enemies additionally gain a buttload of hitpoints as well as higher attack and damage rolls, but armour class stays generally the same, not getting over 35AC (=highest). The effects for spellcasters i'm not sure of, but at the very least, they get higher spell DC, and their spells do more damage. Attack rolls range from +26 (goblin) to +52 (powerful non-boss characters), so this is the origin of the desire to reach 72AC characters. But bosses get even higher attack bonus anyway, and enemies ALWAYS hit when they roll a natural 20, so it offers no protection against critical hits. If enemies roll a few lucky 20s, your decoy is dead, and you must reload. So that's just gambling on hit rolls alone.
I like HoF most for the higher spell levels that become available: A 6 member party won't have reached level 9 spellcasting by the end of normal mode, so I have a feeling that I haven't experienced a full game. I played Icewind Gate 2 (Weimer's old Beta of the BG2:SoA conversion to IWD2) in HoF mode a while back, and in there, even getting ambushed by simple thugs is dangerous, because suddenly they become level 11 Sneak Attackers. IWG2 HoF is unbalanced, but fun all the same. I plan to take my current party through there too.

 

I really need to learn what all these rolls are about.....I really haven't got a clue!

 

Infinity Engine games are based on old-fashioned Dungeons and Dragons board games, and they use the same dice rolls that the board games use. Fortunately, you don't need to keep track of all spell effects, and the mindnumbing iterative micromanagement is all done by the computer. Where a D&D board game would take half a day, you could clear the same dungeon in minutes on a PC game. Some people just love the board game, they get great enjoyment out of doing these dice rolls in a group, but I personally find it very tedious.
I'm meeting with a D&D group this evening, but only because they aren't playing D&D (the dungeon master hasn't had time to create a dungeon). So we're gonna play something short and fun, like Machiavelli or Kill Dr. Lucky
Anyway, a dice roll is made to determine whether an action succeeds, in this case a hit attempt. A 20-sided die is thrown. Base Attack Bonus (BAB) and weapon bonus will improve attackers' chances, while opponents total Armour Class (AC) reduce the success chance. When determining whether spells or skills are successful, a 20-sided die is also thrown.
When successful, the effect can be determined by rolling for damage. Spells and combat damage uses many different dice. A longsword is a 1d8 weapon, so it rolls an 8-sided dice for damage. Strength and other damage bonuses are added to this.
Now about criticals: there's always a 5% chance that an action will fail or succeed regardless of bonuses, which happens if you roll 1 or 20 on the 20-sided die, respectively. If enemies have Improved Critical feat, or a weapon which has bigger critical range, or if they use Executioner's Eyes spell, then their chances of rolling a critical become 10% (roll 19 or 20) or even higher. It is rumoured that Luck has a similar effect, and may even disable critical misses.
The 72AC decoy is designed with a single purpose in mind: to reduce enemies' chances to hit you successfully. But because of this dice system, it is impossible to rule out damage. So when the decoy gets unlucky, and enemies score critical hits (by the way, a critical hit allows a chance to do double or triple damage, depending on the weapon), then it dies from taking heavy damage. If it dies, then you simply have to reload, and try the exact same tactic, hoping you get luckier this time.
Besides critical hits, there are 'boss' monsters that have an even higher BAB, and they will hit you without the need to roll a critical.
All in all, the high-AC decoy is a very specialized character, designed for a singular purpose, at great expense to versatility and usefulness. And as I explained, the protection it offers is neither long-lasting nor reliable. IMO, it's the result of thinking inside-the-box, and being unwilling to take damage, or explore other options.
And the summons are just cheese. Cheese is cool for occasionally bailing you out in tough spots, but as a regular tactic of course it gets boring.

 

I'm having the same problem silvery did. HoF is boring me to tears. I didn't do any weird builds (how the hell do you possibly get to 72 AC? Nevermind, I don't wanna know) and the only spell I bother casting is stoneskin.

And my party massacres everything in a ridiculously short period of time. Hell, by the time my wiz or sorc gets off a chain lightning, it's not even worth casting, 'cause half the opposition is already dead.

Does it get any harder? I just got to the 'airship crash' part.

 

Well, the consensus so far is that enemy monsters do lots of damage even in beginner difficulty, so mostly people summon their enhanced creatures to deal with them, and rest when they're out of summons. 72AC decoys were also developed to deal with hard hitting enemies, to avoid them getting in hits. People found the decoy and summons tactics monotonous and boring, and rightly so. But an easy HoF mode with pushover monsters? That's the first that I've heard of this. If you are playing HoF mode, just wait and see, more powerful monsters will be coming up. Chapter 1 was all goblins anyway.
I'm opposed to constantly using summon and decoy tactics, so if you want to enjoy your game more, think of other tactics. If you install the Tactics mod, it will disable the most unbalancing cheese in the game, even summons: they get 10-20% hitpoints in HoF mode! You could still summon an army, but you'd need (Mass) Heal for them to be effective.

 

Hmm. If you start a game, save and then enable HoF, does it affect the ongoing game?That's what I did; I forgot to enable HoF the first time and didn't feel like going through importing my characters all over again.

Likewise, would dropping the slider from insane to merely 'hard' have disabled HoF ('chromatic orb hits you for 30 damage' annoyed me. A lot. But the monsters were otherwise pushovers)?

But yeah, so far the only enemies which are remotely threatening are the casters, and that's only because they apparently have absurdly high DCs for their spells. They pretty much die in one or two whacks from my pally or ftr or clr or rog. But even when, near the end of the Fortress, they managed to hold everyone except my wiz/sorc I didn't really have any difficulty. It was just, 'summon 1 Frost Giant, toss a few chain lightnings, win' (I didn't bother much with summons because I had the weird idea you could only have one summoned critter at a time. Guess your reference to an army of summons means I was mistaken)

 

You can cast for more than one summon at a time but there is a limit to how many you can have at a time

 

The limit is 6 creatures, and it's best to summon an army at the beginning of a large map, to get the most out of buff spells. Shorter lasting summons are okay for tough battles.
I find that IWD2, unlike BG2, is a game where your powerful spellcasters need to cast spells wisely to tackle the many hordes of dangerous monsters. In BG2 it's just a question of running up to powerful enemy spellcasters and whacking them before they get a chance to cast the worst of their spells. So the tables are turned. Spellcasters in IWD2 can still be a pain, don't get me wrong, but its just a question of disabling them - it's the monsters that are the real threat.
And changing the difficulty slider isn't going to deactivate HoF mode for you. You should be able to recognise if you're playing HoF, by the power of the special items dropped. They're on average 2 enchantment levels higher than their normal mode counterparts.

UPDATE: What might be influencing the game for you, is if you have maximum HitPoints active. So while your characters can take quite the punch in HoF, the monsters are still somewhat limited in their HitPoints. You should install the IWD2 Tweaks mod component:
~IWD2TWEAKS/SETUP-IWD2TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1300 // Maximum HP for Non-Party-Joinable NPCs

 

I think it is an enemy hp thing. I just killed a remoraz after doing 70-80 damage to it. In HoF. With the slider on insane. Maybe my memory is off, but I'd've sworn it took more killing the first time around. On normal.

On the plus side, the Fomorian giants by the airship put out some serious damage before they died (and actually took 4 chain lightnings to take out!). On the downside, nothing else has. Wait, the Queen Remorhaz did 64 damage in one hit. But it died after hitting me once. Lord Ragnar did obscene damage with his spells, but died after 64 hps. Guess I'll install that tweak.

EDIT: Oh. Nevermind. To check, I started a new game. This time the Goblins I'd been one-hit killing suddenly have 70+ hp. I guess HoF doesn't affect games from existing saves or somefink.

 

That's really bad, perhaps your HoF mode isn't working or something. I'm playing normal mode Insane difficulty, and even here the enemies have more hitpoints than that.
Check the special items you have: If they ARE HoF-enhanced items, then your game is bugged, and you might need to reinstall.
If there are no new items found, that you didn't see in normal mode, perhaps HoF isn't activated. Then it would be easier to fix.
Oh - I missed the edit. Glad it's fixed for you

 

Wow. HoF is crazy. My sorc's wail of the banshee/PW:Blind/Symbol of Hopelessness spam (3 consecutive WotBs for the win!) is the only thing carrying me through.

 

Utilise their weakest saving throw!

Some tactical thought is required, but if you use your spells properly, you will pull through. Wo/tB is a cheesy spell, and I use it only in emergencies. Only my sorceress can cast it, and on a successful day, she might have 3 level 9 castings left before resting. Try to consider your opponent's weakest saving throws, and use spells accordingly:
Mages and thieves have weak will and fortitude. Using reflex spells on thieves is wasteful. Stinking Cloud is the best way to disable rogues, because it uses their weak fortitude, and they won't wake up from taking damage.
Many of the large monsters have huge fortitude, and your Wo/tB will not be very effective. Instead, concentrate on taking them down with evocation (reflex) and enchantments (will). If you use Greater Command, and be careful not to use damaging AoE spells to wake them, you will find that you don't even need to waste your Wails on them.
Clerics are mainly weak against reflex spells. I found clerics a great pain, and try to use disabling spells with no save, like Insect Plague. It's best to take them out first in melee, then you don't need to tackle their summons and healing either.
Creatures with Spell Resistance usually can still be effected by spells, but it's just no guarantee. Wo/tB and Tremor seem to bypass SR, so save them for these critters.
Spells with no saving throw are very useful, always keep them in mind. Recitation, Holy Word, Insect Plague, Melf's Acid Arrow, Malison, and Power Word: Silence are a few that I use.

I'll just run you through a big battle that I'm preparing right now, the battling of the duergar encampment. This is kind of off-topic, because I'm in normal mode right now. But it's in Insane difficulty, so the danger level of these duergar is comparable. And it's just to illustrate how you should prepare for a difficult tactical encounter.
I rested up, so I've got all spells at my disposal. I've conjured 6 summons, and used buffs on them (Bless, Prayer from item, Emotion:Hope, Magic Circle vs. Evil - i'll cast Recitation as the battle starts). My whole party is Barkskin and Stoneskin protected, and the appropriate characters have Bull's Strength, Cat's Grace and Mage Armour cast on them. I've opted for temporary summons from the Bardic Horn of Valhalla item, Summon Shadow and Greater Shadow Conjuration spells, because I don't expect them to last long: they are just to fend off advancing duergar warriors as i blast the area with fireballs and area effect spells.
My bard will be singing War Chant of Sith as battle commences, because in normal mode the AC and regeneration bonuses are still better than Tymora's Melody.
The hardest part is getting everyone's attention and pulling back my spellcasters after they fire off their first spell:
I want to cast an Insect Plague on the cleric room for starters, with my druid. This will disable their healing and summons, hopefully. I also need to find a way to disable those awful bolters from shooting their stunning bolts, because I can't afford to get electric damage and stunned from afar. The best way that I can think of, is making the bolters blinded. Sunfire and Firestorm both force duergar to make a fortitude check to avoid being blinded. Now a fortitude check on duergar isn't particularly wise, but it's the best way of disabling them, since duergar are immune to most forms of paralysis. So my 2 clerics and sorceress will be pulling off an Emotionespair/Firestorm/Sunfire combo to start off the battle. The bolters will still fire off a shot at my sorceress, so I need her to be Mirror Imaged, Blurred and Blinked beforehand. The main problem I'm having, is getting my druid, sorceress and 2 clerics to retreat to the storeroom on time, so my summons can hold the enemies off while I make my stand. The main idea is to set up a killzone, so by the time the duergar make it through my summon line, they'll be badly hurt.
My killzone, if I ever get there, is going to be Grease, Acid Fog (they can't be paralyzed, but slowing them works fine), Confusion, Cloudkill (the orc slaves must save or die), and loads of fireballs.
I'm not sure if this is even going to work, but it serves to illustrate how you need to think to utilise your spells effectively