Icewind Dale 2 Forum Update

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(Originally posted by TBR)

Chad Nicholas, Scriptor

Beast claw: Beast Claw is a 2nd level druid spell that gives you +4 to STR and allows you to attack twice per round at 2d4 damage + (newly modified) STR bonus.

Summoned elementals: Elementals will lay the smack down on villagers. When elementals (and demons) attack red- or blue-circled creatures, they become a non-selectable green-circle. This means that red-circled creatures can see the elementals as enemies of them selves, and blue-circled creatures treat the attack as being attacked by a player.

There is another benefit to having the elementals (and demons) change to green-circles; if the elementals you summoned are attacking your enemies, you'll be able to heal/buff them. Druid's Elemental Legion + Wizard's Executioner's Eyes + Cleric's Holy Aura = ded N.M.E.z. Season with Haste for Spicy Xtreme flavor!

Preemptive answer1: Yes, summoned demons and summoned elementals will attack each other.

Preemptive answer2: No, there aren't any situations where an evil mages summon elementals (or demons) that go attacking innocent villagers and the villagers think they were attacked by the player.

The AI being better in IWD2: I'd say it's at the least a little better. Some people have even told me it's really good in a lot of places. At it's core, it is no different from any previous IE engine in terms of what is possible with the functionality of the IE scripting language. However, I do think we've taken what was available and improved upon previous AI as much as possible and still maintain a good framerate and memory usage.

When a creature can no longer reach it's target the attack action finishes, allowing the script to continue.

Script compiler being released: I just asked about that and was told we'd probably release it soon after the game comes out.

Damien Foletto, Junior Designer

Drow avatars from BG2: Yes, there are some of those models used in the game.

Solo game update: Skummy Bigtoe has survived Chapter 2, and is now well into Chapter 3! Currently, he is 10th level monk, and still 4th level rogue. I decided to stick with leveling rogue for a while so his hit points and BAB can be increased a lot over the course of the next couple chapters. I also wanted the monk benefits of more stunning fist (very useful against strong, but dumb, fighter types, especially giants), and wholeness of self. At 10th level, Skummy's fists are treated as +1 enchanted weapons, so magical beasties should be scared. With mage armor and a ring of protection +2, Skummy's AC is 29 - he very rarely gets hit, especially when I use the deep gnome's natural blur ability.

Without giving too much away, Skummy's proudest battle was when he was surrounded by literally 15 baddies, consisting of barbarians and assorted spell casters, and he only needed to go through 5 healing potions to keep his hit points above 80. He rarely got hit, and evaded every area affect spell. In addition, he made every one of his saving throws against mind spells, and his natural magic resistance kept him from most other dastardly damage spells. Skummy kicks butt!

Okay, now it's time to get back to it. I'll let you folks know about Skummy's progress later.

Monks being over powered: The monk's not. It's by the PHB rules. One of the reasons mine is so powerful is because he's a deep gnome. He gets a +4 AC bonus to start, has blur, invisibility, and mirror image as natural abilities. Add this with the quick leveling of solo playing, and you have one kick butt monk. Keep in mind, though; this has not been an easy play. I've kept the difficulty on normal, and had to reload a bunch of times before I could figure out how to get past certain areas. It's not a cakewalk by any means. It also helps that I know the game really well.