IWD newbie with many questions before first play (so no spoilers, please)

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Do I get HoW right away or not?
What's the deal with TotL?
Party suggestions? *waits for bombardment *
Naming suggestions?
Non-spoiler walkthrough in case I get stuck? (Dan Simpson, maybe?)
Anything else I should know?

 

I would recomend getting HOW right away, if not for the gameplay itself at least for the improvements to teh engine, many small stuff your gonna like/miss from other games such as BG2 and IWD2 if you play without. higher resolution, ability to turn on and of various side menues in the GUI etc. also some cool new things for many classes. Just makes the game more fun.

TotL is a free expantion to the expantionpack, just download it and install it once you have HOW.

My only party suggestions is: play whatever YOU LIKE and think should be fun. If you want to powerplay, then play through the game a couple of times and find out for yourself what fits you the most.

Eh.... names....... go buy the Herobuilders Lorebook for D&D 3rd edition, it has several pages with name suggestions.

best non spoiler you can get is probablly asking each specific question when you come to it on this forum.

Larrel has it right, dont trust the Squirrels....

 

I installed HoW right away, it doesn't make much difference because the game suggests that you be level 10 before you enter that part anyways. I like this party:

Dwarven fighter set up for axes (there are many nice axes in the game)
Human cleric for the healing.
Elven mage
Halfling theif with short bow
Human ranger with long bow
Human paladin
I like to single class so they level up quicker.

I like Dan Simpson's walk through just fine.

I'm sure others will jump to help, but I am glad if I can help you out as you have helped me so much in the past.

 

UPDATE!
I'm thinking another BoM party, but the only ones who will be eligible will be those whose avatars have last names.

-The Halfling Fighter/Thief seems to be quite popular, and I can't think of anyone better suited than Nakia Nightshadow.
-Baronius BlackWyrm gets the nod as a Conjuror due to his unbelievable modding skill and chosen portrait here on the BoM. I'll probably start him as a thief and dual him as soon as I can get his stealth maxed, because I just love stealth Fireballs.
-What would a party be without a charismatic paladin at the head? Chevalier des Trois-Tours steps up to the plate on this one.

Three spots still open, and I'm thinking a dwarven fighter would be nice (as Brallrock suggested), but who to pick? Arahar, Faragon, etc.; did any of them used to have last names?

I also need stats help. Most of the characters will be simple enough, but Baronius's stats need info: are there any spells with stat requirements like the Wish spells in BG2?

 

You're an experienced BGII player: go with a party you'd create there, sans-kits and HLAs, and you'll do a great job.

 

RAAAAGH! "Faerus Stoneslammer be me name, boyo, and ye'll feel me ax if ye use it twice!" (Incidentally, his port is a zoom of the port I was planning to use for the dwarven fighter anyway.)

But my frustration comes with the cleric. Not only do I not know who to put in, but my first instinct (Master of Nuhn) was blocked by there being no male cleric ports for the tall races; all the male clerics are dwarves and halflings. Naturally, this means that I manage to roll up the perfect R/C (18/00, 18, 18, 10, 18, 13) with the female 'mace' port, and I've got noone to name it after. I did manage to think of Rally (and her skillet), but there's no second name, and the port is blond while Rally's avatars have all been redheads. Still, it's exported in case I find some way to make it work; maybe my next game or something.

So far:
Chevalier TroisTours (F***ing character length restrictions )
Human male
LG Paladin
Greatswords and long swords

STR 18/97
DEX 18
CON 18
INT 5
WIS 13
CHA 18

(Okay, so I cheaped out and min-maxed chev. But I'm probably going to redo him anyway, and I'll give him a lower exceptional STR and CON with a higher INT if I do.)


Nakia Nightshadow
Halfling female
CG Fighter/Thief
Small swords and bows

STR 17
DEX 19
CON 18
INT 10
WIS 11
CHA 13


Baronius BlackWyrm
Human male
LN Thief->Conjuror
Daggers and bows (to start)

STR 16 (Transferable to WIS if necessary)
DEX 18
CON 16
INT 18
WIS 10
CHA 10


Faerus Stoneslammer
Dwarven male
CN Fighter
Axes and Crossbows (mostly axes )

STR 18/94
DEX 17
CON 19
INT 10
WIS 10
CHA 8


NOTE: I've already exported them for later use, but these characters are set in silly putty, if you catch my meaning. Any and all suggestions on changes in any area are welcomed.

 

It does make a difference engine-wise: it acts as the next version up and fixes issues that could arise in the IWD portion of the game. Considering TotL acts the same with HoW (the latest HoW patch is 1.41, and there's a reason why TotL is called version 1.42), my suggestion is to always install HoW and TotL (if you have HoW of course), regardless of whether you're playing through the expansion or not.

@Fel: None of the spells have any stat requirement, so you don't need to factor this in your character creation. You can go with ultimate minmaxing to your heart's content.

I do recommend having a Cleric, a Druid, or both. They're not absolutely necessary but they do make life easier. The Bard in IWD is VERY powerful, far more than in the BG games. Unlike BG bards gain new songs as they go up in levels (some, like the one that removes and protects from fear, are really neat), and at level 11 they gain one that makes the hardest fights significantly easier. On top of that they're a lot of fun to play.

If you do decide to take both a mage and a Bard, do watch out for spell scrolls. They are much more rare than in BG2, and you may need to specialise your spellcasters. Having a specialist mage helps because of the opposition schools.

By the way I second the Fighter/Thief. Having tried one I can tell you they're true killing machines, and a lot of fun to play.

 

Silly me, I know not why I typethed that. I have only ever played with HoW installed so I would not know the difference. I guess that is what I get for posting while working the night shift.

 

I always use Universal Hint system when I'm stuck on the first runthrough of a game. UHS is the best place for solution if you want to control the spoiler-level... http://www.uhs-hints.com/uhsweb/iwdale.php Go here for IWD "hints".

 

If you're playing with HoW installed, you're really going to want a Druid and a Bard in your party.

About the F/T: Nice! I prefer Gnomes, but Halflings are good too, I guess.

 

Get HoW and install asap. I'm just an 'install all of it' kind of gal.

IWD is more BG style - no real requirements for spells, starting out at level 1, etc. What I liked was IWD was fighting fun! No heavy thinking or plotting involved.

The party I beat IWD with:
Paladin - long swords, bow
F/C (human) - warhammers, sling
F/D (halfelf) - short sword, large sword, sling
F/T (halfling) - short sword, short bow
Bard (halfelf) - large sword (2 handed), crossbow
Mage (human) - sling, dart, quarterstaff

I strongly suggest getting a bard in there for the bardic 'talents' you can play ingame. I like a F/D for the druidic spells and they get a lot in this game. Rangers don't get their spells until level 6 iirc, in case you wanted a R/C instead of a F/D.

BoM names: Aldeth the Foppish (or Idiot), Chandos the Red, Kilted Crusader, apathetic empath (he's my irl friend, I have to make a plug for him!), The Magpie, Jack Funk... Some you won't have the portraits for, but you could probably find something.

 

Okay, I'm convinced on HoW and TotL, and I might take a bard. But the only good bard port is female, and I still don't have any female double names besides Nakia. And then who should I take as the sixth; a cleric or an F/D? I've never had so much trouble with a party.

 

I'm flattered, Felinoid.

The strength is a little high. But the real Nakia points out that this character would actually be her mother in IWD and she was (is) very strong for a halfling.

 

Without trying to spoil it take a Bard there are situations where Bards open extra options as early as where you start the game. I've just beaten the game with

Human Druid
Human Bard
Half-elf Fighter/Mage/Thief
Half-elf Fighter/Mage/Cleric

When I feel ready I'm taking them into HoW and TotL.

 

@Fellinoid:
With HoW installed conjurers can't learn evocation spells, no magic missiles, stoneskin or fireball.
So you'd rather dual Baronius BlackWyrm to another mage class (I'd choose Illusionist) if you want to cast stealthy fireballs.

The fighting scripts usually make the monsters attack the nearest enemy each round, so you'd rather give longswords to your thieves if you have 3E sneak attack rules activated and want to get in a sneak attack during mid-combat.

You can beat the game with either cleric or fighter/druid as your 6th character, so choose what you like.

Clerics can get animate dead,protection from evil 10' radius (very useful), recitation, raise dead, blade barrier and symbol of hopelessness, while druids get sunscorch,entangle, spike growth, call lightning, static charge,many powerful summoning spells and shapechange.
They can even raise their physical damage resistances to >100 in shapechanged form if you find the right items.

 

Yeah, I just noticed that when I looked at the beginning of Dan Simpson's walkthrough, so I was thinking of changing to transmuter, which is my PnP favorite. (About time they got the right opposition schools. ) But another thing I saw gave me pause. Paladins and rangers getting their spells at level 6.
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NO!!! F***ing hell no! I am not playing goddamn sh*tty 3e rules with this game! I'm getting the patch and that's it. I don't care if those bastardized rules make my characters more powerful; HoW can kiss my furry tail! Absolutely end of discussion unless you can pick and choose each part of HoW to install.

Any further suggestions should be with the consideration of no HoW. Thank you.

 

With the additional restricted schools, I don't like specialists as much (but I do have a Fighter > Illusionist, because I wanted extra Mirror Images).

 

No HoW then? Well, if you have Dan's guide, check up on conjurers. There's a glitch in the game where all mage classes can cast divination spells up to 4th level. And since there's only divination up to 4th level...you get the point.

 

That's not a glitch; in fact, it's a glitch that it doesn't apply in the BG series. In 2e, Divination is separated into Lesser Divination and Greater Divination; lesser divinations are usable by all wizards, while greater divinations are forbidden only to conjurors. The real glitch is that not all the opposition schools are included:

-Abjurors should not be able to cast Alteration or Illusion spells
-Conjurors should not be able to cast Greater Divinations or Invocation/Evocation spells
-Diviners should not be able to cast Conjuration/Summoning spells (the only specialist with only one opposition school)
-Enchanters should not be able to cast Invocation/Evocation or Necromancy spells
-Illusionists should not be able to cast Necromancy, Invocation/Evocation, or Abjuration spells (the only specialist with three opposition schools)
-Invokers should not be able to cast Enchantment/Charm or Conjuration/Summoning spells
-Necromancers should not be able to cast Illusion or Enchantment/Charm spells
-Transmuters should not be able to cast Abjuration or Necromancy spells

For me, the transmuters get the best of the lot. Low level necro spells are damn near worthless, and abjuration isn't necessary with the defensive spells you can find in Conjuration/Summoning and Illusion. Getting up to the higher-level necro spells the get a bit better, but getting necro at the cost of either Invocation/Evocation, Conjuration/Summoning, or Illusion just doesn't seem like a good trade even at the high levels.