First playthrough, some thoughts
Elvenblade
Member Posts: 21
Three parties later and I'm finally through my first EE playthrough of vanilla IwD. My first two parties were certainly good enough to finish the game but as with so many other d&d titles I almost always get the urge to try new classes and combos partway into the game.
My first party had a wild mage, which I've never tried in Baldur's Gate before. And while she certainly was fun to play as, the randomness and wild surges started to get to me. "Oh you wanted a powerfull spell that could turn this battle into your favor? Nope! Have a flock of birds instead." That party got to upper Dorn's deep before I hit the new game button.
Second party ditched the wild mage in favor of a sorcerer whose spammingpowers truly flourishes in IwD. Balanced party, but I still wasn't content. They reached the severed hand.
The party that did finally pull through was a follows:
Dwarven defender - Axe/Shield
Fighter/Druid multi - Scimitar/Sling/shield
Sorcerer
Bounty Hunter/Fighter dual - Longsword/Bow
Berzerker/Cleric dual - Dualwielding Morningstar/Flail
Fighter/Illusionist - Bastard sword/Crossbow
The dwarf was truly the definition of a tank. He ended up with over 160hp and had the fortune of finding an awesome great shield in the hand that raised his physical resistances at the cost of some thac0, which you barely noticed. He also wore the clasp of bron's cloak so whenever he used his defensive stance he had 80% damage reduction.
The druid was pretty straight forward. Spent most of her time next to the tank healing him and ocassionally tossing out some damage spells. Once she got access to the heal spell nothing really had a chance against my dwarf. Not many scimitars to chose from in this game, or I got really unlucky with the random loot.
She used the lucky scimitar all the way to lower Dorn's Deep where she found one on Marketh that gave an addtional apr.
I'm a bit unsure about the sorcerer. The class is well suited for IwD but I think I still prefer versatility of a normal mage considering you're not exactly punished for abusing the rest button. Surprisingly enough he only had a total of 35 kills at the end of the game, but I did have him focus more on crowd control than actual damage.
Greater Malison followed by Slow and Chaos and it's pretty much gg.
First time I actually spent points on set traps and oh my they are cheesy. The special trap that the BH gets is really strong against IwD's poor ai. Scout ahead and find a group of enemies, fall back just out of sight and throw a trap at the edge of the fog of war and for the most part the enemies will just refuse to attack what they can't see.
I dualed him to fighter at level 11 because I wanted to get the stronger traps and at that time he had enough points to get 100 in lockpick, detect trap and set trap.
In hindsight lvl 8 would've been a more ideal point to dual him at. 3d6 sneak attacks, evasion and enough skill points to get you through the game. He became lvl 11 at the end of the severed hand and he was still some 200,000xp away from regaining his old class once we face Belhifet. But I'm sure he'll be a lot fun in HoW.
Now the cleric was pretty straightforward. Dualed from Berzerker lvl 9 and I was surprised at how quickly she regained her old class. She spent most of her casting powers buffing the party before battles and removing debuffs during fights. Other than that she just ripped foes apart, I hade her dual wield the Fast flail + 2 in her off hand and whatever was strongest at the moment in her main hand. I do believe dual wielding is way too imbalanced for IwD and any future parties I make will stick to the old formula.
The gnome was a fun character but I feel he would've been more useful in a smaller party. He ended up hanging out in the back picking off enemies with his crossbow and when he did end up in the middle of a fight, Mirror Image and Stoneskin was his go to spells. He wore the elven chainmail and the Helm of the trusted defender so he was pretty much untouchable.
I had him use bastard swords but it seems I was really unlucky with the random loot cause he never found anything better than a bastard sword of action +1.
Other thoughts:
- 3rd level spell Remove Magic is ridiculously op against spellcasters. It tore away all of Malavons protections in an instant. It seems many of the BG2 spells doesn't translate well to IwD
- 3rd level spell Haste is still ridiculously strong and makes the game too easy in my opinion. Only use it when i have to backtrack through an area.
- Durdel Anatha quest needs to be patched. I destroyed the idol before I spoke with the guy controlling him and it broke the quest.
- The shops could've been buffed in the EE. More scrolls and healing potions come to mind. I always end up hoarding the potions of extra healing because I know they are so rare.
- More additional content would've been nice. Finding the gnomish tools was a pleasant surprise.
- Cloudkill doesn't kill the Pomab duplicates anymore
- The random loot could be better balanced.
HoW is still awaiting me, but now I have this sudden urge to play IwD 2 again
My first party had a wild mage, which I've never tried in Baldur's Gate before. And while she certainly was fun to play as, the randomness and wild surges started to get to me. "Oh you wanted a powerfull spell that could turn this battle into your favor? Nope! Have a flock of birds instead." That party got to upper Dorn's deep before I hit the new game button.
Second party ditched the wild mage in favor of a sorcerer whose spammingpowers truly flourishes in IwD. Balanced party, but I still wasn't content. They reached the severed hand.
The party that did finally pull through was a follows:
Dwarven defender - Axe/Shield
Fighter/Druid multi - Scimitar/Sling/shield
Sorcerer
Bounty Hunter/Fighter dual - Longsword/Bow
Berzerker/Cleric dual - Dualwielding Morningstar/Flail
Fighter/Illusionist - Bastard sword/Crossbow
The dwarf was truly the definition of a tank. He ended up with over 160hp and had the fortune of finding an awesome great shield in the hand that raised his physical resistances at the cost of some thac0, which you barely noticed. He also wore the clasp of bron's cloak so whenever he used his defensive stance he had 80% damage reduction.
The druid was pretty straight forward. Spent most of her time next to the tank healing him and ocassionally tossing out some damage spells. Once she got access to the heal spell nothing really had a chance against my dwarf. Not many scimitars to chose from in this game, or I got really unlucky with the random loot.
She used the lucky scimitar all the way to lower Dorn's Deep where she found one on Marketh that gave an addtional apr.
I'm a bit unsure about the sorcerer. The class is well suited for IwD but I think I still prefer versatility of a normal mage considering you're not exactly punished for abusing the rest button. Surprisingly enough he only had a total of 35 kills at the end of the game, but I did have him focus more on crowd control than actual damage.
Greater Malison followed by Slow and Chaos and it's pretty much gg.
First time I actually spent points on set traps and oh my they are cheesy. The special trap that the BH gets is really strong against IwD's poor ai. Scout ahead and find a group of enemies, fall back just out of sight and throw a trap at the edge of the fog of war and for the most part the enemies will just refuse to attack what they can't see.
I dualed him to fighter at level 11 because I wanted to get the stronger traps and at that time he had enough points to get 100 in lockpick, detect trap and set trap.
In hindsight lvl 8 would've been a more ideal point to dual him at. 3d6 sneak attacks, evasion and enough skill points to get you through the game. He became lvl 11 at the end of the severed hand and he was still some 200,000xp away from regaining his old class once we face Belhifet. But I'm sure he'll be a lot fun in HoW.
Now the cleric was pretty straightforward. Dualed from Berzerker lvl 9 and I was surprised at how quickly she regained her old class. She spent most of her casting powers buffing the party before battles and removing debuffs during fights. Other than that she just ripped foes apart, I hade her dual wield the Fast flail + 2 in her off hand and whatever was strongest at the moment in her main hand. I do believe dual wielding is way too imbalanced for IwD and any future parties I make will stick to the old formula.
The gnome was a fun character but I feel he would've been more useful in a smaller party. He ended up hanging out in the back picking off enemies with his crossbow and when he did end up in the middle of a fight, Mirror Image and Stoneskin was his go to spells. He wore the elven chainmail and the Helm of the trusted defender so he was pretty much untouchable.
I had him use bastard swords but it seems I was really unlucky with the random loot cause he never found anything better than a bastard sword of action +1.
Other thoughts:
- 3rd level spell Remove Magic is ridiculously op against spellcasters. It tore away all of Malavons protections in an instant. It seems many of the BG2 spells doesn't translate well to IwD
- 3rd level spell Haste is still ridiculously strong and makes the game too easy in my opinion. Only use it when i have to backtrack through an area.
- Durdel Anatha quest needs to be patched. I destroyed the idol before I spoke with the guy controlling him and it broke the quest.
- The shops could've been buffed in the EE. More scrolls and healing potions come to mind. I always end up hoarding the potions of extra healing because I know they are so rare.
- More additional content would've been nice. Finding the gnomish tools was a pleasant surprise.
- Cloudkill doesn't kill the Pomab duplicates anymore
- The random loot could be better balanced.
HoW is still awaiting me, but now I have this sudden urge to play IwD 2 again
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