Recruiting new characters

Pingwin

Is there a way to add new characters to your party in IWDEE? One of my characters has just got killed in the Vale of Shadows and I need to replace him.

I never played the original much at all but IIRC you could recruit new level 1 characters in inns? I can't see any way to do it though in my current game.

FinneousPJ

Are you playing on PC? You should be able to move your save over to the multiplayer saves folder, load it up in MP mode and add new characters there. Then move it back to SP folder.

Genryu

Icewind Dale unfortunately never had any recruitable party members in the game. You should be able to resurrect your character if you return to the temple in Kuldahar however (And at later levels if you have a priest or druid in your group, you can raise them yourself).

There used to be a button, where you could import and export new party members into your group at anytime, but I guess they must have removed that feature in the enhanced edition.

If you are interested in recruiting NPCs maybe look into a mod simply called the IWD NPC Mod, that adds a party of story driven recruitable NPCs to the starting Tavern in Easthaven, complete with banters, quests, romances and all the cool stuff we have come to love in Baldurs Gate, and they are surprisingly well written.

If you would like to learn more, one of our members @Blackraven began a playthrough journal using the mod, his screenshots can give you a little idea of what to expect, and show some of the banters between the NPCs: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/33325/an-account-of-levinus-sternfells-expedition-to-icewind-dale-first-time-playthrough#latest

His playthrough was what inspired me to download the mod, though I've only made it to Kuldahar so far (The playthrough is still on my very big todo list!)

Pingwin

I thought there was something that only worked in taverns or in "safe" locations where you could import new characters. Must have been mistaken if it worked anywhere. Bit strange that there is no way to replace characters in EE other than by moving save files around.

I'll probably try out that NPC mod on a subsequent play through. Sounds interesting.