Icewind Dale 2 Forum Update

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(Originally posted by TBR)

J.E. Sawyer, Lead Designer

Multiclass party experiment: I tried playing through the first half of the game with a party of four characters, all multiclassed:

-- Bastine the Witness -- LG human male Paladin of Ilmater / Cleric of Ilmater
-- Niamh Elari -- TN half-elf male Bard / Cleric of Oghma
-- Kendel -- LN lightfoot halfling male Old Order Monk / Rogue
-- Rakael Laumera -- CN moon elf female Fighter / Wizard

This did not work out well. My characters had a lot of low-level spells and low level abilities. In my previous game, despite being slightly behind in XP, my six single-classed characters all had 2nd level spells by the second area of the game. I did not. This sucked. I wound up running away from a lot of battles -- but boy oh boy, my party members sure were versatile. I think the problems are twofold:

1) In the first few areas of the game, the difference in XP between a four character party and six character party are not astronomical.

2) At low levels, multi-classed characters don't find a niche quickly, and have a tendency to suck equally at all things.

My advice, for those who care, would be to play through with a mix of multiclassed and single-classed characters, play through with even fewer characters, multiclass later, or set the game on Easy difficulty for the first few areas if you really want a party like this. Multiclassing in 3E is very tempting, but it often has many low-level disadvantages.

3E opens a lot of character customization options, and you have to make a lot of difficult choices as you advance.

Bonus feat restrictions: The bonus feat restrictions for fighters and wizards are not in the game for two reasons:

-- Restricting feat access in this way is difficult from a programming standpoint. The game doesn't know the difference between a "bonus feat" and a "regular feat".

-- Wizards don't have any true meta-magic feats or item creation feats to pick from. It would be kind of odd to give wizards open access to bonus feats but still restrict the fighters' access.

That said, I was never tempted to have my wizard take just one level of fighter so I could buy Spirit of Flame or something like that. Spellcasting levels are just worth too much to fritter them away on a "quick fix". I tried that with my rogue13 /fighter 2 and regretted it.

Damien Foletto, Junior Designer

Playing Solo: Hey kiddies, I decided to take on my own challenge yesterday, and started a game using only one character - i.e. soloing. Here's how he started:

Skummy Bigtoe
Deep Gnome
Monk of the Old Order (lets me multi-class into rogue without losing my ability to level in monk)
STR: 16, DEX: 16, CON: 10, INT: 12, WIS: 14, CHA: 6
Feat: Courteous Magrocracy - +2 to Diplomacy, +2 to Spellcraft
Skills: Diplomacy 4, Hide 5, Knowledge Arcana 5, Move Silently 3, Open Lock 5, Search 3

So far so good. I got through the prelude, and blasted my way through the Palisade battles with nary a scratch (the first major battles in the game). It helps to have a starting AC of 19. I also bought a Ring of Mage Armor, which, when used, bumped my AC to 23. Over-the-top for this area, but just right for a soloing monk.

Currently, I'm in the Horde Fortress, which is the final area for Chapter One. The area previous took some strategic monkeying around, but I was able to get through it without reloading too many times (I won't go into detail of what I ran into, for obvious reasons). The Horde Fortress is proving pretty tough, particularly since my little gnome is a combined level of 9; 5 levels of Monk, and 4 levels of Rogue. Since the normal setting for the Horde Fortress is set around level 3 to 5, my little dude is traipsing around in literal "insane" mode (for PC parties over level 5). The critters are tougher, and more plentiful.

At this point I now have my WIS at 16, up 2 points since I put my bonus attribute points into WIS. His current AC is 22, 26 with the mage armor. His current saves are at +7 FORT, +13 Reflex, +10 Will. The great reflex save lets me use explosive oil bottles on my enemies that surround me. Pretty fun witling them down with a combo of punches and flaming oils.

Anyway, soloing is doable up to this point, albeit very hard. I'll let you guys know how it goes after I finish Chapter 1 tomorrow. The final fight in Chapter 1 will be really tough at this level ::shudder::

There is a formula that was specifically made for this game to balance out XP. Since I'm going solo, yes, I get all the XP, but I am seeing diminishing returns on XP from common scrub critters and quests because of my currently high XP level. I tried a game with only 4 characters, and the difference in XP between that party and my earlier party of 6 was minimal - they were, perhaps, one level higher than normal, and getting their asses handed to them (see JE's thread about the failed experiment). If you plan on going the 4 character party, I'd recommend at least having two, very buff fighters in the mix.

No, Weapon Finesse: Unarmed is not in the game. Weapon Finesse, in IWD2, only works for small blades like short swords and knives/daggers.

Well, I reached a sticking point, but I'm not giving up yet. I'm at the Horde Fortress (no spoilers, these are critters I talked about in my Designer Diaries), and the Hardened Ice Trolls are working me. The blasted orc shamans aren't being very friendly, either. THEY'RE TRYING TO KEEP THE LITTLE GNOME DOWN, MAN!

At this point, I've relegated myself to going invisible, sneaking up behind a hardened ice troll, and getting a "backstab" bonus from thwacking him. If I beat on him long enough, and before his buddies waddle over, hopefully he'll drop and I can make a beeline to the area exit, and transition to a safer, previous area.

"Why don't you just proceed to the next level and skip those damned hardened ice trolls?" you may ask. Because one of the previous critters I just mentioned has something I need to advance. This is going to be the toughest battle next to the area's final battle. With determination, Skummy Bigtoe will prevail!

This game is definitely harder to solo than in IWD & HOW.

Number of chapters: Six chapters, and one prologue.