Icewind Dale 2 Forum Update

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(Originally posted by TBR)

Damien Foletto, Junior Designer

Availability of wands: There is quite a variety of wands in the game - more than you'll probably know what to do with. And yes, they are 3E compliant; just look for the official sticker on every package of D&D 3E wands!

Monk abilities above level 20: From J.E. himself: "They get better + value on their fists and some other general AC/movement improvements."

So another point into AC every 5th level continues, and 1 point of attack bonus for 3 levels, skip a level, then 3 levels again. For example, (first attack BAB shown only) +15 at 20th, +15 at 21st, +16 at 22nd, +17 at 23rd, +18 at 24th, +18 (stays the same) at 25th, +19 at 26th, and so on.

However, they will not get any more special, mega abilities like, "Tiger's Claw of Spine Ripping," or, "Face Chewing of the Angry Monkey," or some such craziness.

Status of the game: FC 3, I believe.

FC = Final Candidate. They are burned CD's of the game that QA gets to pound on, and we hope is bug free and ready to ship to the presser. The numbers represent which version of the FC it is. It's not unusual to go through a few FC's before shipping. If there's something that can be broken, our QA is great at finding it.

Undead attacks: AFAIK, attacks work normally on non-corporeal undead. It is different than PnP. They have to deal with your armor just like any other critter in the game.

Cleave: Cleave works pretty much the same as in PnP. If you kill a baddie on your turn, you get to do one full attack on a nearby enemy. In IWD2, you can take Cleave twice, thus allowing 2 attacks if you kill an enemy. If there is no enemy nearby (i.e. next to you), then Cleave will expire.

There is no Greater Cleave, or Sunder in IWD2.

Playing evil: You'll find that evil has some interesting repercussions in IWD2 - fun, but interesting.

Chris Avellone, Designer

Good or Evil: There are situations in the game where being evil, greedy, or mean will net you a greater reward than being good, altruistic, or polite and there are situations where the reverse is true. Many quests will play out differently depending on which road you take.

Paladins, in particular, have some difficult challenges in some situations where a more compromising group of adventurers could take an easier road... just like in IWD1.

J.E. Sawyer, Lead Designer

Button-in-button quick weapon swaps and only one shield: Seriously, I've already addressed this. It's not solely an interface concern, but a data management concern. I suggested the button-within button weapon/whatever combos that would allow free-changing of every weapon to a single shield (for instance), but it required more time than we had. Sorry.

BIS at Gen Con: We may be at Gen Con to show something other than IWD2. IWD2 is close to being done. We're actually down to about 125 active bugs.

Availability of ammo, scrolls and wands: Scrolls are quite plentiful, and wands are more plentiful than they were in IWD (at least they were in my game). We have tried to make all forms of ammo available at regular intervals. Just ask Amraith.

Number of CDs: It's looking like 2 is the magic number.

Mind Flayers: Many of the illithids in IWD2 are big, big babies who have no problems with running away when things go against them. Of course, they often leave their thralls to mop up.

Number of portraits: There are a total of 83 portraits in IWD2, with about a third of those being new -- so around 25-30ish.

Enemies using Silence: In my experiences, enemies used it often enough that I found myself saying, "Wow, I wish I had Subvocal Casting or Vocalize right now."

Maximized Attacks feat: There is a feat in IWD2 called Maximized Attacks. It allows you to cause all successful attacks to do maximum damage for 10 seconds. It is useable 1/day. Its pre-reqs are Weapon Specialization in two weapons and 4 ranks of Concentration.

Monks: They receive crossbow and the other typical monk starting profs.

Also, note this: MULTICLASSED MONKS ONLY USE THEIR MONK LEVELS FOR DETERMINING BAB AND NUMBER OF ATTACKS WHEN FIGHTING UNARMED.

In 3E, multiclassed monks have to choose between using only their monk levels for determining BAB and attack rate or using their total class BABs and the standard attack rate. In IWD2, that decision is made for you: you simply use the monk BAB and attack rates.

Wild Shape: 5th level: Arctic Boar -- 15 Str, 10 Dex, 17 Con. Weapon has a chance to "Gore", causing a bleeding wound that does 1 point of damage every round for 10 rounds.

7th level: Winter Wolf -- 13 Str, 18 Dex, 16 Con. Moves pretty quickly, has some cold resistance, but is vulnerable to fire.

9th level: Polar Bear -- 27 Str, 13 Dex, 19 Con. Mauls you to death.

11th level: Dire Bear -- 30 Str, 13 Dex, 19 Con. Mauls you to death more.

13th level: Dire Panther -- 24 Str, 21 Dex, 17 Con. Moves extremely fast. Has a chance to do a "Rake" attack that does additional slashing damage.

High Level (15+): Elemental Forms -- These are basically elementals complete with damage reduction and the ability to destroy things quickly.

There are also Wild Shape special forms that you can get from feats: Boring Beetle, Panther, and Shambling Mound. The boring beetle has some nice little resistances, the panther is good for multi-classed druids that don't want to wait around for 13th level, and the shambling mound is good for soaking up damage and suffocating creatures in its large psuedopods.

Lesser planar ally and related spells: In IWD2, the spells Lesser Planar Binding, Lesser Planar Ally, and their ilk summon elementals that are hostile towards everything around them. They attack the nearest non-elemental that isn't protected by Protection From Evil.

Roolz lawyers among you may be thinking, "BUT JSHO, PLANAR ALLIES ARE SUPPOSED TO BE YOUR FRIENDS AND GIVE YOU KISSEYS!"

That is true. However, in PnP D&D, these spells also take ten minutes to cast and often require "bartering" with the summoned creatures. Elementals are tough dudes. They have 10/+2 damage reduction and can pound you pretty heavily. Their hostile attitude is the trade-off you get for using these spells.

We had about five or six balance meetings where we got together to talk about balance in the game. One of the recurring things I heard was, "This area was really hard... BUT THEN I SUMMONED FOUR FIRE ELEMENTALS AND HAD A SODA WHILE THEY MOPPED UP."

Basically, their damage reduction and the player's ability to manipulate them were the main problems. They could post elementals at locations where creatures without magical weapons would rush through. The creatures would get waylaid by the elementals and inevitably get pummeled into bits. Now, when you summon elementals, they look for the nearest target not protected by Prot. From Evil. MAYBE it will be the one you want it to attack. MAYBE NOT. Once that target is gone, the elemental may move to almost anywhere. And if they don't see targets, they just wander around looking for something to mess up. That makes them less exploitable as damage-absorbing barriers.

New inventory screen: Well, Grand Master BWeir got that baby avatar working after much toil and trouble.

The avatar has a normal idle animation. This changes to a "battle stance" when enemies are visible. It shows whatever armor/weapons etc. the character is wearing, but not states (blur, color shifts, etc.).

It looks appropriately sized on a human avatar. The dwarf looks smaller because, well, they are smaller.

You cannot turn the avatar or zoom in on it.

The avatars always stay the same pixel size, yes.

Unfortunately, you cannot pick your avatar. I believe your avatar changes to whatever class you have the most levels in.

Dwarves and AC bonuses: The AC bonus gnomes and dwarves receive against giants isn't due to size, but due to giants being one of their ancestral enemies. Besides, dwarves are Medium creatures, not Small.