Ice Wind Dale 2

CliffyG

CliffyG

CliffyG

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
18,398
Location
Cambridge
I've just installed this game after having it for years and never trying it, im having massive difficulties with it though, prob just me being crap but thought i could ask some advice on here.

I have a Paladin S+S, Fighter 2H, Rogue DW, Ranger, Wizard and Cleric. I've done the prelogue end battle fairly easily but only because i kept running back into the tent for healing after each fight if i took a beating.

Now i'm off into chapter 1, the first couple of skimishes took me about 10 attempts to get through with no one dying but the next one has me beat.

There are about 4 archers, a shaman and 4 melee. I fall back to entice the melee in then start peppering the shaman with magic missiles and arrows. I use the 3 melee i have to beat on anyone who comes in range. Once the shaman is down i set my ranged on the archers.

The problem is i keep losing people, lay hands healed me for 2 points lol, the cleric has 2 heals loaded but they barely do anything. The aoe stun (if my wizard doesnt get insta gibbed on the way in) doesnt seem to last long enough. If i send my melee guys into the archers it leaves my other 3 ripe for the picking for the orc melee. I'm trying to concentrate on 1 or 2 of them at a time but there are too many, too spread out and i have just quit in frustration. Surely it cant be this hard! I must be doing something insanely wrong!!!

Any tips would be welcome :).

EDIT

About the Rogue, his stealth fails all the time and i dont know how im supposed to do a surprise attack as he "comes out of the shadows" the instant i tell him to attack anyone.
 
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Are you pausing the game as each "turn" ends?

Been a while since I player but I remmember the space bar being king.

The way I used to play IWD2 was to take as many people out of the fight as possible, spread the damage around my tank characters as best as possible and use the damage characters to take the people being engaged in melee out as quickly as possible.

Fear, traps etc are king to take out mages etc, then take out their DPS by sending a close combat in then beating down with your heavy guns. Once you have killed him get your close combat guy to get in to the feared character and start the process again.

Once you get into a stride with it your set. Have you ever played any of the other infinity engine games before?
 
I always found IWD2 hard at the start, but once you get a few levels up on your chars it got easier.

I too was always running into tents to heal right at the start :)
 
Yeah im pausing it. I think part of the problem is my chars have low hit points / crap gear / not many spells and im just getting over-run. There are too many enemies for me to just have my tank control them as the archers are split up in 2 groups and then the melee wade in. I don't have fear or the traps yet either. My wizard has 2 magic missiles, aoe fire and colour flash, cleric has bless and 2 heals. Thats it. All of them do bugger all damage and the stun doesnt last very long.
 
I was hoping that provided i made a semi decent group setup i wouldnt have to go the standard walkthrough way of doing things. Kind of takes the fun out of it. I shall try and get them all grouped up a little bit then send my wizard to colour stun them but send my pally in first to take the hits on the way in. Practice makes perfect i guess lol.
 
Never finished IWD2, but if I remember correctly that early fight was one of the hardest, and I got quite a long way into it.
 
I find the way to do it is to start with some characters that dual class later on - they'll start off tougher and you'll have all the druid/cleric spells you need later on. It also frees up a slot for an extra wizard which for me always makes fights easier, especially later on.

e.g
Paladin
Fighter -> to Druid at level 6
Ranger -> to Cleric at (earliest) level 6, preferably higher
Fighter/Thief (plain rogues/thieves are always too weak)
Sorcerer ('Bombardier' role)
Wizard (Summon/Dispel/Buff role)

Sorry that isn't the tactics you wanted, I know, but there have already been some fairly extensive guides written, the link Chaosboss posted is good, also [url="http://www.sorcerers.net/Games/IWD2/index_tips.php]Sorcerer's Place[/url].
 
Sleep/entagle is stupidly effective. Most enemies will never make it out of the area effect before you finish them with arrows. Or if you want to save effort just overkap a stinking cloud. If you really want to fk them over cast slow as well and most won't make it out of area of effect alive.

More mundanely, missles can be massively effective in both Baldurs Gate and Icewind if you find some decent bows and the huge number of magic arrows you tend to accumulate. I had a halfling warrior firing 5 shots per round effectivley never missing, plus my tank with a fancy crossbow and bow/slings/darts for everyone else. With whole party firing the damage was impressive. Even a mage with good magic darts or sling can do decent damage. In open areas most melee enemies never even made it to my lines.
 
Will this game run on my NC10 ok? I played BG1&2 but never played either of the IWD games and quite fancy a "new" game for the train...
 
I have no idea what an NC10 is but i have it running on Vista x64 with a widescreen mode to make it look a little better.
 
Nooo, killed them all with just 1 down, spoke to the bloke just after and he could res. Instead of resting and saving i moved too close to another area and pulled another load and died :(.
 
And finally! Forgot i had 3 exploding fire bomb things so nuked the first bunch pretty easily. I had my cleric and mage using a slingshot when not casting too to help with damage. Think i've just about cleared the first area and all my people are level 3 now so hopefuly things will get a little easier.
 
I installed it about a month ago for the 1st time. Found some if not most of the 1st chapter very hard. lots of resting for mages and retrying. In the end i ended up turning the difficulty down a step or two for the harder battles. having such low levels and HP isnt easy.
 
I'd forgotten, I used to start all my mages off as fighters, and then dual class them after one level. Gave them a nice HP boost and lets them use swords.
 
Making some decent progress now, all are level 4. My ranger has put a level in Druid for entangle, as well as that i have sleep, and colour spray. Allows me to control the fights a little easier, on top of that my chars all have nice shiny weapons. What with my pally being able to heal too as well as 4 heal spells on my cleric i should have a bit more durability in fights. Debating whether to splash out on armour or waiting for a bit. Getting quite into it now, time for bed though :D.
 
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