New Game Smell- Icewind Dale II

[Dis]

I love new game smell . I just bought Icewind Dale II. So far it is a good smelling game . Something you piraters will never enjoy

Anyways I haven't had much time to play. But I love the extra feats and skills that aren't in Neverwinter Nights. Although the journal seems to be a step back from BG2 and Neverwinter. No completed quests column?

[Traianvs]

what u on about the smell?

Btw about the journal, I never use it, but I can imagine some ppl might find it handy (if I forget about quests then it means they're not important enough )

I still need to complete my BGII game
the expansion is too frikking hard!

[Alex]

I played the first Icewind Dale and had a great time with it. Interesting, fun and very well done. So, how's the sequel? I think it was a little unnoticed at the time of its release, maybe there were other games that got more attention...

[Sarxis]

Oh I know what you mean about New Game Smell Dissident- love it, and so many kinds of smell too.

I'm kinda a connoisseur myself when it comes to PC game packaging; the aromas, the artwork, the different types of boxes and such... all very fascinating.

(of course, I don't actually save any of that stuff )

[Felch]

I got it over Christmas, and played it a bit, but haven't in about a month.

I really liked it though. I had a good time with the fights.

[da_jaymz]

Not all that cool, IMO.
It felt like I'm playing bad version of Serious Sam.
I stopped playing when I met a huge big ass dragon that was so big he could not fit in the whole screen.

[Apocalypse]

The Dig had the best smell of any game.

Wing Commander Prophecy is a far, but still highly respectable second.

[Dis]

the BG2 expansion is difficult but not impossible.

It is interesting that BG1 archers were king. In the original BG2 spellcasters are king. And in BG2 expansion melee fighters have a comeback. If you don't mind having an evil char (he can actually pursuaded to be good alignment thru conversation choices), there is a awesome melee character at the beginning of the expansion. Easily the best in the game. With him and my monk (I also had Minsc), along with my Sorcerer, Viconia, and Imoen I was able to beat the expansion.

[Grumbold]

Got bored of IWD2. Compared to IWD1 its big but frikkin hard in parts. Its also even more of a hack'n'slash fest. It feels like Dungeon Siege slowed down so you can add some D&D rules. You have to make munchkin optimised-to-kill characters or reload a lot. After defeating the big boss of the big boss behind the big boss with hints of another 4 big evil-boss-behind-the-evil-bosses to go I decided to do something else.

[Traianvs]

Ya, sarevok rlz with his deathbringer assault

I'm playin icewind dale right now and it's got that BG feeling, even though it's more linear, and you're not free to do what you want anymore... Actually I love fighting the most in the BG series so the Icewind Dale series must be perfect for me

only thing is your chars never die forever, which could be positive, but often i just say, ah well just let the fecker die, i'll revive him later! Secondly, creating your own party ensures you can do whatever you want with your party, which is nice, but still, NPC's are cooler..

of course, choices are limited since you can't have specialized rangers etc..
Do you have more specialized chars such as inquisitors etc in Icewind Dale II?

[Grumbold]

IWD2 uses the base D&D3 rules so no "kits" outside those rules. Since 3e is practically a new game with its skills and feats thats no bad thing imho. Each new game is bound to pick and choose among the new kits that get published or authorised by WotC. This one had enough to do just getting (most of) the main rules working.

[Dis]

IWD2 doesn't have inquistors and such. But it does have sub races which are cool. You have assimars, humans, and tieflings. you have duerger dwarves, gray dwarves and shield dwarves. You have dark elves, wood (wild elves) etc, etc. Some are good, some not so good. Drow is a good choice for a wizard with 1 level of rogues (which is all you really need to get through the game). Just give him/her 20 int and 20 dext.

I stick with shield dwarves though. The others don't interest me. Assimar is a good choice for a sorcerer, but you do miss out on some skill points and a feat that a human sorc would have. Plus a human sorc will level faster.

The game is linear. And I do miss NPC interaction. The game is an action type game. But there is enough storyline and dialogue to keep it going strong as an RPG.

What I liked so far- I'm not sure if this is in ID1- I haven't played it. Are runner orcs that can place exploding kegs next to your party. They coordinate with orcs that can shoot flaming arrows to ignite these barrels. Good ai for the most part. Although sometimes they fry themselves .

But the ai is better than BG2. It is very difficult to lure just one or two monsters out. Often the whole gang comes after your ass . So it does become necessary to learn how to fight against many monsters. But it's not impossible. Just takes a few tricks. Summons help out a lot here.

[Traianvs]

ah yes the good old summoning trick, that worked remarkably well in BG1, but at higher levels (so BG2 and ToB) it didn't really matter, as the enemy just confuses or charms them, or devastates them with an area of effect spell (it does help negate skull trap and so onso summoning still has its uses there) but I mean, it just takes a level 18 fighter a single strike to take out a gnoll.. you might have time to cast one extra spell that could save your ass, but I sure had the feeling that unless ye summoned an invisible stalker or other medium or strong monsters summoning didn't help much anymore! And summoning really powerful monsters is not that easy

[Dis]

in BG2 you coulse use animate dead. Sure it isn't in character for a good cleric, but I say just create a neutral or evil cleric . In any case once you get to level 12 your skeleton is now a skeleton warrior. Many spells do not affect skeleton warriors. I wouldn't have survived some lich battles without these things. Well maybe I could have survived, I would have just had to use different tactics

As for ICD2, summons aren't really effective fighters. But they do work well against melee types in grouping them and keeping them off of your party. They won't last long though. But sometimes you don't need a long time.

I'm not sure about higher level ones, haven't gotten that high up yet.

[ravagon]

Originally posted by Trajanus
And summoning really powerful monsters is not that easy

In ToB?

Ever tried a sorcerer with spider spawn, mords sword and summon planetar? Ouch.
At even moderate levels you can throw 3 or 4 spider spawns in a battle which give you 1-3 phase/sword spiders apiece.