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Icewind Dale Character Creation Tips

FandraxxFandraxx Member Posts: 194
edited February 2015 in Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition
I'm Mainly making this to give newer players or older players some ideas about how to create certain classes based on the game. I'm going to group classes into general categories. The classes in each category will be under the name. Also leave comments below about what you think is best for a certain class these are my opinion and its nice to get suggestions from different people. Without further delay lets get this list started.

Front Line Tanks/Damage Dealers
Fighter, Barbarian, Paladin, Monks, Front line Ranger, Front line Thief.
Main Stats: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution (Wisdom, and Charisma for Paladins, Just Wisdom for Rangers.)
So yeah this is a mouth full, but let me explain. This category is so big because there alot of options. In my opinion for Fighters, Barbarians and Paladins Constitution is the most important stat next to strength (obvs)
With all the enemies in this game your bound to get hit by something no matter how high your Dex is; you might as well give yourself some extra health to survive those hits. BUT when dealing with a front line ranger, front line thief and monk your job is just do as much damage as possible, get that dex as high as possible. You need to get your Thac0 as low as possible let one of the for mentioned classes tank the damage while you go insane with damage.



Back Line Damage Dealers/Supports
Back Line Thief, Back Line Ranger, Cleric, Druid, Bards
Main Stats: Dexterity, Wisdom, Charisma, Intelligence (Strength, mainly for rangers to wield stronger bows but is also helpful for every other class.)
Again, alot of stuff here back to explaining. The thief and ranger in this list are to give back up for your front line support with some extra damage. The cleric and druid are under this section because, they get less hp per level, can't dump all of their points into combat stats and should also also be focused more on healing and buffing rather than dealing damage. The bard is meant to be a back up mage with buffs and the almighty bards song, seriously its that strong. Of course if you play a skald your dynamic as a bard changes completely.



Arcane Spell casters
Wizards, Sorcerers
Main Stats: Intelligence, Dexterity, Charisma, Constitution, Wisdom
This one's pretty simple actually. Max intelligence on Wizards/Mages and Charisma on Sorcerers. The Dexterity is mainly for the extra ac and Constitution should only be raised to 16 as mages can't get more than +2 hitpoints per level. If you still have points after all that put em in wisdom for the extra Lore.


Thats it! That's really all i have to say about the classes in this game. Again please comment as I don't know whats best for everything. Thank you for reading and as always, SWORDS NOT WORDS.
Post edited by Fandraxx on
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Comments

  • FardragonFardragon Member Posts: 4,511
    A single class Shadowdancer might be worthwhile.
  • RedWizardRedWizard Member Posts: 242
    Everyone is Fighter X/Y dual.
    No seriously, there literally is no reason at all not to go at least Fighter 1/X unless you want to RP other combos and races. Especially considering you can dual into specialist wizards in IWD. You get a lot less XP in IWD than BG2, but Fighter 1-4/ X is still pretty easy.
    Yay, everyone is a Berserker/Whatever dual! Go powergaming!
  • FandraxxFandraxx Member Posts: 194
    Fardragon said:

    A single class Shadowdancer might be worthwhile.

    Shadow dancer is a cool class... but i just can't live without my thief traps

  • BelgarathMTHBelgarathMTH Member Posts: 5,653
    I've always wanted a single class cleric in my party so that his turn undead ability is ready for the very first big area after the prologue - the Vale of Shadows. I wouldn't want to do those dungeons with a multi-classed cleric whose turn undead ability would be down by at least a level, and maybe two levels.

    It doesn't stop there, either. IWD is an extremely undead heavy game. We're talking swarms of them, in almost every area.
  • SchneidendSchneidend Member Posts: 3,190
    Dazzu said:

    As useful as priests are, they, much like thieves, should be multid with anything or dualled from Fighter or ranger for some extra oomph. A single class cleric falls off with the inability to abuse his own buffs due to a lack of APR. By being half mage you add extra firepower, by being part thief you become an ultimate utilitarian, and mixing with a warrior gives you extra APR and lets you have more durability and you don't have to weigh down the otherwise speedy Cleric leveling speed with a second class.

    Thieves too are never worth a single slot, but should be dualled out of. A nice Swashbuckler/Mage can do quite nicely (the other kits just don't have enough thieving points to be effective by 10, the absolute latest you should dual,) as could a Swash/Cleric, though Staves and clubs are way too rare.

    Oofh, reading that much powergamey optimization literally strained my eyes. IWD has lots of undead, so as @BelgarathMTH mentioned a pure-class Cleric's turn undead would be a great boon. IWD also has a lot of high-volume fights with tons of backs you can stab with the Sneak Attack option, making pure-class Thieves, Assassins, and Bounty Hunters plenty useful.
  • FardragonFardragon Member Posts: 4,511
    The trouble with "tons of backs" is you can only stab one of them, then you are faced by tons of fronts, poking you with sharp pointy things.

    Without HIPS, the lifespan of a backstabbing thief in IWD is rather short...
  • SchneidendSchneidend Member Posts: 3,190
    Fardragon said:

    The trouble with "tons of backs" is you can only stab one of them, then you are faced by tons of fronts, poking you with sharp pointy things.

    Without HIPS, the lifespan of a backstabbing thief in IWD is rather short...

    Sneak Attack, yo. You can stab ALL the backs, without stealthing...but only once each.
  • FardragonFardragon Member Posts: 4,511
    Schneidend said:

    Fardragon said:

    The trouble with "tons of backs" is you can only stab one of them, then you are faced by tons of fronts, poking you with sharp pointy things.

    Without HIPS, the lifespan of a backstabbing thief in IWD is rather short...

    Sneak Attack, yo. You can stab ALL the backs, without stealthing...but only once each.
    IWD is also jammed full of undead. You can stab their backs as much as you like, but they aint going to take extra damage.
  • FandraxxFandraxx Member Posts: 194
    Fardragon said:

    Schneidend said:

    Fardragon said:

    The trouble with "tons of backs" is you can only stab one of them, then you are faced by tons of fronts, poking you with sharp pointy things.

    Without HIPS, the lifespan of a backstabbing thief in IWD is rather short...

    Sneak Attack, yo. You can stab ALL the backs, without stealthing...but only once each.
    IWD is also jammed full of undead. You can stab their backs as much as you like, but they aint going to take extra damage.
    We could try backstabbing heads?

  • DazzuDazzu Member Posts: 950
    edited September 2014
    One thing to consider, far, FAR more than BG is alignment. A few items there are alignment restricted... more spells than just smiting are alignment restricted here, though I wonder if they'll be god restricted (such as shield of Lathander.) But most importantly, the spell Righteous Wrath of he Faithful will give an extra APR to all partymembers the same alignment as the caster, on top of +2 damage/THAC0.

    Try to make your Cleric the same alignment as 1 of your fighters, and good alignment priests trump evil ones due to access to healing and Lathander Shield.
  • ZeckulZeckul Member Posts: 1,036
    @CamDawg did you add restrictions to BG2 spells so they're more alignment-specific?
  • DazzuDazzu Member Posts: 950
    CamDawg said:

    Dazzu said:

    CamDawg said:

    Evil clerics do not get high level healing spells (no Heal!)

    Which is kinda the most valuable one. Compare the HP jumps through the lower level variations: 8, 11, N/A, 17, 27, INFINITY! Kinda big jump there.
    Nah, it's not even that. Cure Critical (27) is also non-evil, so their ceiling is Cure Serious (17). The good news is that with BG2 spells in, they now have Cure Medium (14) at level three.

    That's great and all, but the real loss is [Greater] Shield of Lathander with no compensation I can recall off the top of my head.
  • elminsterelminster Member, Developer Posts: 16,317
    edited September 2014
    Destruction is one evil spell you'd get instead.

    Edit: Crap I got ninja'd. Umm...carry on?
  • MathsorcererMathsorcerer Member Posts: 3,042
    Don't forget that evil parties will not be subject to the Unholy Word spells that some greater mummies love to cast.

    A lack of healing spells means nothing as long as your evil bard has reached 11th level.
  • DazzuDazzu Member Posts: 950
    edited September 2014
    Mathsorcerer said:

    Don't forget that evil parties will not be subject to the Unholy Word spells that some greater mummies love to cast.

    A lack of healing spells means nothing as long as your evil bard has reached 11th level.

    Why are you building a fully evil party or fully good? That's highly inefficient to not mix to a slight degree lest you miss out on items.
    Post edited by Dazzu on
  • DazzuDazzu Member Posts: 950
    edited September 2014
    Mathsorcerer said:

    Dazzu said:


    Why are you building a fully evil party or fully good?

    Why not?

    It's inefficient. If you want the most out of a playthrough itemwise...
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