Icewind Dale

[WiseGrimwald]

I'm taking a break from Baldur's Gate and am visiting Icewind Dale for a change with a Human Paladin, Dwarven Fighter Cleric, and Gnomish Illusionist/Thief.
I think that the party should be fairly well balanced. I would have liked to have rolled two extra points for the Paladin, but she's not bad. I am trying to decide which is the better roll for my Fighter/Cleric.

 

[JustKneller]

Your Gnome can cast Cat's Grace on the 18/93 character to top off their AC. At level 8, it should last all day. A potion of mind focusing will give you 12 hours of Dex 18, but I usually save those for my mages to scribe. However, the Strength spell doesn't work as well once you get to percentiles, so the 18/13 character will have some trouble boosting up.

 

[WiseGrimwald]

Thanks for the full explanation. . I've just rollled the Paladin who has 18/99 Strength, again with slightly low dexterity. Now for the gnome who doesn't need the high constitution so much.

 

[JustKneller]

That's a good party. I'm sure you'll do great!

 

[WiseGrimwald]

Some photos that I took which are quite reminiscent of Icewind Dale. This one is of an avalanche landing at the bottom of Machchapuchare in the Annapurna range. The displacement of air lifted the roof off the hotel we had stayed in the night before! Two hours later porters ran past us carrying corrugated iron sheeting so that they wouldn't have to turn away guests that evening. I have clearer photos, but these remind me more of the game. First, the start of the avalanche: then when it landed.

 

[WiseGrimwald]

I am discovering how different the game is compared to Baldur's Gate. Sleep and Command are nowhere near as effective. This resulted in my death. However my comrades were able to clear the cave and returned to the temple to raise me. After the avalanche we are proceeding to Kuldahar.

 

[WiseGrimwald]

My experience so far makes me conclude that having another fighter in the party would have been helpful.

Kuldahar reminds me of Tatopani in the Kali Gandaki Gorge. It means hot water, due to the thermal springs. (There are many places called Tatopani in Nepal)

Tatopani which has orange trees, is three miles from Dhaulagiri on one side and three miles from Annapurna on the other, both covered in snow, The valley being three miles deep. Thus like Kuldahar it is an oasis in the midst of an ice desert.

 

[JustKneller]

I am discovering how different the game is compared to Baldur's Gate.

I would say that Icewind Dale, at least the originals which you seem to be playing (and I prefer myself), are far less powergamey than Baldur's Gate. I would argue that BG even jumps the shark with munchkinism, probably around the time that HLAs come into the picture.

That being said, your sleep spell should have been effective in the orc caves. BG's sleep spell allows a save, but affects everyone at a certain level and below. There's actually no save with IWD's sleep spell, but it only affects a limited number of hit dice (2-8, I believe). So, if you're up against a half dozen orcs and roll low...

 

[WiseGrimwald]

Well we got to Kuldahar and have done some shopping. Now poor again. Only 2gp left!! We should get better rates at the inn now. Wish that we had more gold!!

 

[m7600]

Pure mages are particularly squishy in IWD. And high level spells are not really a thing in this game. With that in mind, it's better to have Fighter / Mages than pure mages for this installment. Just my 2 cents.

And those pictures of mountains that you shared are just gorgeous.

 

[JustKneller]

With that in mind, it's better to have Fighter / Mages than pure mages for this installment

I think you mean bards.

But seriously, unless I'm doing a challenge run where a bard is not an option,, bards are my mages in IWD. A regular mage will out-level the available spells whereas a bard keeps pace. Additionally, bards can sing when they're not casting and WCoS is king.

 

[WiseGrimwald]

Journal of Greta Greatsword. Progressing nicely through the Valley of Shadows though Finnan got paralysed by a carrion Crawler we survived. We have killed an abundance of yetis including their chief.

 

[JustKneller]

Nice. I know exactly what carrion crawler you're talking about. I usually have everyone focus on it with ranged weapons/spells and hope to take it down before it gets to melee range. Those creatures are generally not super dangerous, but at such a low level, it can be deadly.

 

[WiseGrimwald]

When Mytos started casting spells we hastily retreated but Gnifty was still held. Mytos didn't follow us but the skeletons did and died as a result. We rested and returned. Finnan cast silence and this made Mytos helpless. Later a trap put us all to sleep. Gnifty had been looking for traps but didn't spot it. Fortunately Gnifty had recently found an armour spell and so was less vulnerable than in the past. She awoke first and led the skeletons in circles until the rest of the party awoke. She then fled the area leaving it to Finnan and I to kill the skeletons. A difficult battle made comfortable by using my wits! The mummy wasn't a problem. I have found that regular resting makes the battles relatively safe.

 

[WiseGrimwald]

Pure mages are particularly squishy in IWD. And high level spells are not really a thing in this game. With that in mind, it's better to have Fighter / Mages than pure mages for this installment. Just my 2 cents.

And those pictures of mountains that you shared are just gorgeous.

I will probably post others later if they are relevant to the plot. I spent three years in the area, but didn't get into the mountains as often as I would have liked as work had to come first. I did however get views of the mountains from thirty miles away on arising in the morning. I was often awoken early in the morning to the songs of praise by the local Christians. I would then go up on the roof to take in the splendour of the view and whilst up there would often join in with their praise.

 

[Antimatter]

Thanks for sharing those pictures, they are very beautiful. I think the beauty of these old isometric titles is that a lot is left to the player's imagination, and when you have RL experience of watching mountains that big, you can really get the IWD vibe. Perfect!

 

[WiseGrimwald]

Journal of Greta Greatsword Final entry

The spells of the skeletal mage were such that I was the only one to survive and had to leave behind the equipment of my party. I only had sufficient gold to raise Finnan.

I gave him my +1 hammer and bought him some splint mail. Upon returning the battle was even worse and I fell.

Journal of Finnan

There was little that I could do after Greta fell and I didn't last much longer.

 

[WiseGrimwald]

Thanks for sharing those pictures, they are very beautiful. I think the beauty of these old isometric titles is that a lot is left to the player's imagination, and when you have RL experience of watching mountains that big, you can really get the IWD vibe. Perfect!

Here are two more pictures of Machchapuchare, one when I went on the Mardi Himal trek with my wife, the other from the roof the house we rented. Somewhere I have a beautiful sunrise from my house, a completely different vibe again. On the Mardi Himal trek the hotel wasn't quite finished. No door to keep the cold out! It snowed overnight! The loos froze at night with temperatures of -25. When you have experienced it you can really empathise with the characters, the difference being that we didn't experience any animosity.

 

[JustKneller]

Later a trap put us all to sleep. Gnifty had been looking for traps but didn't spot it.

I know that trap. Left from the main chamber is a hallway that leads to a floor sarcophagus. That trap is detectable with a high enough skill, but I've never had the skill to disarm it (even with a pure Dwarf thief. I think it's a scripted trap, and then you have all those skeletons that pop out. And elf character might be able to resist it (I know they didn't implement elf and half-elf sleep resists in BG, not sure about IWD) but usually, I send a sucker in to set it off then my cleric rushes in turning undead with a heavy on a flail to bash the skeletons to save them.

I also hate imbued wights. You can really only counter their MMs with a shielded mage or bard, but then you're putting a squishy out front with potential skeleton archers and (in that fight) a skeletal mage. Usually, after I have an invisible thief scout forward for traps, I stay near the entrance and try to lure in or wait for wandering skeletons. This lets me pick off the chaff without alerting the heavies. Then, my ranged characters pick off that skeletal mage behind the post without alerting the wights. Then I can send a shielded mage forward to alert the wights. I think it's the room after that that's really nasty. You're just dumped right in front of a ton of undead. I'm turning from the start there to keep their numbers down and slowly working my way through.

I think it was clever that the devs made the first dungeon stretch all low-level undead. This way, they can have mobs and mobs of monsters like in the rest of the game, but a cleric with turn undead can keep it manageable.

Was this a no reload run? If so, that's too bad. This seemed like a pretty sweet party setup. Are you thinking of a next run? If so, with what?

 

[WiseGrimwald]

I know that trap. Left from the main chamber is a hallway that leads to a floor sarcophagus. That trap is detectable with a high enough skill, but I've never had the skill to disarm it (even with a pure Dwarf thief. I think it's a scripted trap, and then you have all those skeletons that pop out. And elf character might be able to resist it (I know they didn't implement elf and half-elf sleep resists in BG, not sure about IWD) but usually, I send a sucker in to set it off then my cleric rushes in turning undead with a heavy on a flail to bash the skeletons to save them.

I also hate imbued wights. You can really only counter their MMs with a shielded mage or bard, but then you're putting a squishy out front with potential skeleton archers and (in that fight) a skeletal mage. Usually, after I have an invisible thief scout forward for traps, I stay near the entrance and try to lure in or wait for wandering skeletons. This lets me pick off the chaff without alerting the heavies. Then, my ranged characters pick off that skeletal mage behind the post without alerting the wights. Then I can send a shielded mage forward to alert the wights. I think it's the room after that that's really nasty. You're just dumped right in front of a ton of undead. I'm turning from the start there to keep their numbers down and slowly working my way through.

I think it was clever that the devs made the first dungeon stretch all low-level undead. This way, they can have mobs and mobs of monsters like in the rest of the game, but a cleric with turn undead can keep it manageable.

Was this a no reload run? If so, that's too bad. This seemed like a pretty sweet party setup. Are you thinking of a next run? If so, with what?

I'll try again with a very similar set-up. However, this time my paladin will have great sword skill and my illusionist/thief will have armour as a starting spell. I couldn't get it till well into the game last time. What's more if I failed to memorise it, I might not get it at all. There's a real scarcity of scrolls in IWD. I'm wondering if the scrolls that you find are random or the same in every game: and what about drops of equipment?

Here's the sunrise from my roof. With views like that I didn't mind being woken at the crack of dawn! Half an hour later the mist came in and the mountains disappeared!