Icewind Dale 2: Enhanced Edition is released!
OlvynChuru
Member Posts: 3,075
It has finally arrived! Icewind Dale 2: Enhanced Edition is now available for download.
With its source code lost to time, ICEWIND DALE II was thought to be dead, with no hope of an Enhanced Edition. That time has come to an end. The Red Chimera Group, a team of modders, coders, artists, and other contributors drawn from the Infinity Engine community, is has rebuilt IWD2 with nothing more than WeiDU code and hex editing to streamline IWD2's gameplay and introduce new content.
Icewind Dale 2: Enhanced Edition revises over 300 spells and over 800 items, introduces more than 110 completely new spells, 170 new magic items and 30 new feats, and allows several of IWD2's NPCs to join the party, from Veira the ghost to Vrek Vileclaw the river troll to Xhaan the white abishai to Zack Boosenburry and his spider mount, Aocha. Even better, IWD2EE has major quality of life improvements, including quickloot and significantly faster load times.
This mod also fixes the major issues many players had with the original Icewind Dale 2: you no longer have to solve tedious, cryptic puzzles to complete certain areas, enemies in Heart of Fury Mode are empowered in interesting ways rather than just having lots of HP, and you can revise the experience system so you won't get zero experience for killing enemies late in the game. IWD2EE is fully customizable and the player can tweak their install to taste.
Icewind Dale 2: Enhanced Edition is a free-to-download WeiDU mod. You must have Icewind Dale 2 installed in order to run this mod. Put it in your IWD2 game folder and run Setup-iwd2ee.exe. Once IWD2:EE is installed, a new startup program is added to the game folder: IWD2EE.exe.
You MUST start the game using IWD2EE.exe rather than IWD2.exe. If you start the game by clicking on IWD2.exe, the game will crash during character creation or when you load a save game.
Icewind Dale 2: Enhanced Edition uses a new extender called IEex (similar to EEex and ToBEx), which lets IWD2EE add new features that could not normally be added by mods, such as new feats. IEex only works when the game is started via IWD2EE.exe. Note that antivirus programs might detect IWD2EE.exe / IEex.dll as a virus - this is a false positive. You should make sure to exclude IWD2EE.exe from your antivirus once you download it.
Also, we welcome you to our IWD2EE Discord. Please put feedback and bug reports there.
OTHER IMPORTANT NOTES:
IWD2EE is currently Windows-only.
IWD2EE is singleplayer-only. Multiplayer does not function properly.
Do not install the Widescreen Mod; it will crash the game. IWD2EE includes its own widescreen capability.
Post edited by OlvynChuru on
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The Enhanced Edition revises IWD2's encounters. Enemies often have new abilities.
Several of IWD2's complex mandatory questlines have been tweaked to reduce the amount of backtracking required, or to allow alternative solutions. The final level of Dragon's Eye, Lord Pyros' Domain, is now a single boss fight rather than a long, cryptic time loop questline.
One example of a new NPC is Vrek Vileclaw, who can be recruited at Shaengarne Ford if you persuade him. His weakness to fire and acid is represented by taking extra damage from those damage types, rather than being unkillable except by them.
Icewind Dale 2: Enhanced Edition has far more interesting items than the original game. They often have unique abilities that change the way you play.
There are over 100 new spells, many of which do things not previously possible in the Infinity Engine. The new divination spell Identify Creature, for instance, displays the stats of an enemy, which can give you clues on how to fight them.
IWD2EE also adds many new feats to the game, from PnP and elsewhere.
IWD2EE installation is customizable, so players who wish to stick with vanilla feats or other aspects of gameplay can do so, enjoying new content without having to sacrifice treasured playstyles.
0. Core (automatically installed if you install at least one of IWD2EE's components)
1. Class Revisions
2. Looser Alignment Restrictions for Classes
3. Spell Revisions
4. Spell Focus Feats for All Schools
5. Item Revisions
6. Creature Revisions
7. Better XP Progression
8. More Interesting Alternative to the Palisade Quests
9. Add Additional Ways to Progress Through Certain Areas
10. Faster Wandering Village
11. Faster Dragon's Eye
12. Shorten the Dragon's Eye time loop questline to a single battle
13. Add more scrolls to the game
14. Revised Creature Immunities
15. More Accurate Saving Throws for Enemies
16. Revise Critical Hit Immunity
17. Better Racial Enemies for Rangers
18. Cosmetic Tweaks
19. More Persuasion Options
20. NPC Core
21. NPCs start with experience
22. New GUI
23. Looping Main Theme
24. Revised Battle Square
25. Minor Damage Resistance for Armor and Shields
26. Race Revisions
27. Enemies give the same amount of experience regardless of the party's level
28. Adjust encounter level-scaling
29. Reduce enemy HP bonuses in Heart of Fury Mode
30. Reduce enemy attack bonuses in Heart of Fury Mode
31. Reduce enemy saving throw bonuses in Heart of Fury Mode
32. Weaken allied summoned creatures in Heart of Fury Mode
33. Have the party start with experience in Heart of Fury Mode
34. Reduce the delay between sneak attacks
35. Increase the level cap
36. Always learn spells from scrolls successfully
37. Add attacks of opportunity to the game
38. Change the way ability scores are assigned at character creation
39. Add more traps
40. Add key bindings for automating buffing
* Load times are much faster.
* IWD2EE includes built-in widescreen compatibility, making the Widescreen Mod unnecessary. DO NOT INSTALL THE WIDESCREEN MOD WITH IWD2EE; IT WILL CRASH THE GAME. When you start IWD2EE, a menu opens that lets you set the game to a higher resolution.
* IWD2EE includes a ddraw fix unless you already had one installed. This should improve performance.
* Scrolling the screen should be smoother on some devices.
* It is possible to scroll with the middle mouse button.
* There is now a quickloot button.
* Right-clicking a spell or innate ability on the actionbar brings up its description (though most innate abilities don't have descriptions unless Class Revisions is installed).
* You can now go through dialogue as fast as you want; there's no longer a brief delay each time you choose a dialogue option.
* The time it takes to detect traps is reduced.
* The character record screen includes a Reform Party button.
* The options screen includes a button to access the new IEex Options menu (currently it includes an option to alter the fog of war so that it doesn't flicker).
* If you do not have the vanilla option to rest until healed enabled, characters heal a number of HP equal to their level on rest, rather than only healing 1 HP.
* As long as you have the console enabled in IWD2's normal config menu, cheat keys will be enabled automatically without needing to enter a command.
* For modders, IWD2EE includes several new opcodes, and offers the ability to run Lua code in-game via the console or various hooks (and some of the new opcodes can call custom Lua functions), as well as a limited ability to modify the GUI. This opens up many possibilities for modding.
Class Revisions
This component revises the game's classes to make warriors and rogues much more viable, and it adds over 30 new feats to the game. This component is most balanced when combined with the Spell Revisions component.
Barbarians: Barbarian rage now grants immunity to fear, hopelessness, stun, paralysis, sleep, and unconsciousness. Also, Barbarians start gaining damage resistance at level 2 rather than level 11, and their damage resistance from their class is doubled if they're wearing medium armor (hide armor or chain mail). Barbarian Rage now keeps improving after level 20.
Bards: Bard songs should be more useful now. They're also spread out over more levels and scale with levels so bards no longer reach their peak at level 11. The songs can stack, but only if multiple bards sing at the same time.
Level 1: The Tale of Currant Strongheart: +1 to hit and damage and immunity to fear and hopelessness. Gains another +1 to hit and damage at levels 10, 25 and 40.
Level 3: The Song of Kaudies: All allies are immune to harmful sound-based spells and abilities.
Level 5: Tymora's Melody: +1 luck, +2 to saving throws and rogue skills. Gives another +1 to luck and +2 to saving throws and rogue skills at levels 15 and 35.
Level 9: The Siren's Yearning: All enemies must make a Will save or be stunned for 1 round or until they take damage. The save DC is equal to the bard's level. This song also imposes a cumulative -1 penalty to Will saves for 10 rounds, every round.
Level 13: The War Chant of Sith: +2 generic armor bonus, physical damage resistance of 3/-, and 3 HP healed every round. Increases to +4 AC, 6/- damage resistance, and 6 HP healed every round at level 25.
Level 20: The Ballad of Three Heroes: +5 spell resistance, 5/- resistance to all forms of magical damage, and the effects of the Tale of Curran Strongheart, Tymora's Melody, and the War Chant of Sith. Increases to +10 spell resistance and 10/- resistance to magical damage at level 28.
Creature Revisions also makes it so enemies early on use more sound-based spells and abilities (such as harpy wails in Chapter 1), which makes the Song of Kaudies more useful.
As in PnP, bards can, on certain level ups, replace one of their lower level spells with another spell of the same level.
Clerics: Clerics are not changed much by Class Revisions, but Spell Revisions improves the spontaneous casting and domain systems.
Druids: Druids get a new set of shapeshifting forms. The abilities of each form scale with the druid's level.
Level 5: Winter Wolf
Level 7: Polar Bear
Level 9: Giant Viper
Level 11: Salamander or Frost Salamander
Level 13: Shambling Mound
Level 15: Fire, Water, Earth or Air Elemental
Level 40: Black Dragon (Dragon Shape)
The druid shapeshifting feats are also changed. They now allow druids to shapeshift into Blink Dogs, Rhinocerous Beetles, and a swarm of insects as in the Creeping Doom spell.
Rogues: Rogues get +1 luck every 5 levels. They won't have the sustained damage output a warrior has, but they'll be able to land some very wicked sneak attacks (luck in IWD2 increases the chance of a critical hit).
Class Revisions also revises some of the thieving skills:
* Pick Pockets: As in PnP, pickpocketing someone involves two rolls: one to determine if you're caught, and the other to determine if you are able to take the item. Any item could potentially be stolen, including equipped items (the DC depends on the item slot and whether the item is equipped; stealing from one of their regular inventory slots is easy, but stealing an equipped weapon is very hard, and stealing an equipped suit of armor is basically impossible, with a DC of 70, on which a 20 doesn't guarantee success). In addition, when you pickpocket someone, you see a list of the droppable items they have in their inventory, along with the chance of stealing each one and the chance of getting away with it. Items that are easier to steal and less likely to get you caught are stolen first.
* Open Lock: The lockpicking system has been revised to be more like Baldur's Gate, in that picking locks is easier but forcing them open is harder, and there isn't much variance to the roll: if you aren't able to get it open after a couple of tries, you probably can't. Also, picking locks gives you experience.
* Disable Device: Disarming traps gives you experience.
Monks: Monks now get much faster and more accurate unarmed attacks, and their attack damage progresses more logically. Their base damage caps at 1d8+5, but they start with 2 attacks per round and gain an additional attack per round every 3 levels (up to 18 attacks per round at level 49). Their Deflect Arrows ability now lets them take no damage from the first missile attack that would hit them each round. Wholeness of Body now restores HP equal to the character's monk level * their Wisdom bonus, and can be used once per 7 levels. Quivering Palm can affect enemies higher level than the monk, and monks gain an additional use of Quivering Palm every 6 levels after level 15. Monks also get Abundant Step at level 10, a teleportation effect.
In addition, monk orders no longer limit multiclassing, and they have extra abilities.
Monk of the Old Order:
2nd level: The monk now adds their Wisdom bonus again to the DC of Stunning Attack.
18th level: The monk now adds their Wisdom bonus again to the DC of Quivering Palm.
Monk of the Broken Ones:
2nd level: The monk gains one use of Lay on Hands per day. Any level that would give the monk a use of Wholeness of Body instead gives them another use of Lay on Hands. When used by a Monk of the Broken Ones, Lay on Hands restores the same amount of HP as Wholeness of Body (monk level * Wisdom bonus) but can be used on other creatures as well.
6th level: The monk gains 2/- resistance to all physical damage. Another 1/- resistance is gained every 4 levels thereafter.
Monk of the Dark Moon:
2nd level: The monk gains a sneak attack bonus of 1d6. For every 4 additional monk levels after level 2, the monk gains another 1d6 sneak attack damage.
Fighters: Fighters get +1 to damage every 5 levels and +5% critical hit chance every 10 levels, and can get Greater Weapon Focus in a weapon at level 8 and Greater Weapon Specialization at level 12. All warriors get better saving throws and stronger attacks.
Paladins: Paladins get more spell slots, and they get them at lower levels. Paladins get an additional casting of Lay on Hands every 5 levels. Smite Evil is more powerful, and they get an additional casting of Smite Evil every 10 levels.
In addition, paladin orders no longer limit multiclassing, and they have extra abilities.
Paladin of Ilmater:
2nd level: The paladin can cast Shield Other (which halves the damage an ally takes, causing the paladin to take the other half) at will.
6th level: The paladin's healing spells and abilities heal 50% more hit points if used on an ally other than the paladin.
11th level: The bonus to healing spells and abilities is increased from 50% to 100%.
Paladin of Helm:
2nd level: While using the Guard action, the paladin and all allies within 20 feet gain a +2 AC bonus.
6th level: The AC bonus from using the Guard action increases to +4.
11th level: While using the Guard action, the paladin can see through illusions as per True Sight.
Paladin of Mystra:
2nd level: The paladin gains one rank in Armored Arcana, reducing their arcane spell failure by 35%.
6th level: The paladin gains two more ranks in Armored Arcana, reducing their arcane spell failure by a total of 105% (allowing them to cast arcane spells with no chance of failure while wearing the heaviest armor and shields).
11th level: All fire, cold, electricity, acid, and magic damage dealt by the paladin is increased by 20%. This stacks with feats like Spirit of Flame. This bonus applies to both spells like Fireball and abilities like Smite Evil.
Rangers: Rangers get more spell slots, and they get them at lower levels. They can gain the feats Improved Two-Weapon Fighting and Manyshot at lower levels than other classes, and they can gain a second rank in those feats for another attack per round. They are also able to use Set Natural Snare every 6 levels, which snares enemies for 5 rounds on a failed Reflex save. Set Natural Snare is much more effective than in the original game; the save DC now scales with the ranger's Wilderness Lore skill.
Sorcerers: Sorcerers will no longer hit their peak at level 20 and then experience near-zero growth. As in PnP, sorcerers can, on certain level ups, replace one of their lower level spells with another spell of the same level.
Wizards: As in PnP, wizards can choose two new spells to learn on each level up, which can be of any spell level the wizard has accessed. Generalist wizards now gain +1 to the DC of all wizard spells they cast (Specialist wizards gain +2 to the DC of wizard spells they cast of their school, but this was a vanilla feature that wasn't documented in IWD2 until now).
Although the inherent changes to clerics, sorcerers, and wizards aren't huge, all spellcasting classes benefit greatly from some the new feats, especially metamagic feats.
Looser Alignment Restrictions for Classes
Even IWD2's very broad class system can be restrictive in some ways, mostly in the lawful/chaotic axis. This component loosens a few of the restrictions, allowing certain classes to be compatible with more alignments:
Bards can be any alignment besides Lawful Neutral (previously could not be any lawful alignment)
Monks of the Old Order can be any non-chaotic alignment
Monks of the Broken Ones can be Neutral Good
Monks of the Dark Moon can be Lawful Neutral, True Neutral, and Neutral Evil
Paladins of Ilmater and Mystra can be Neutral Good
Paladins of Helm can be Lawful Neutral
Rogues can be Lawful Good
Spell Revisions
This component significantly strengthens many underpowered spells. It also switches some spells to lower or higher levels and grants some spells to classes that previously could not cast them. Here are the main changes:
- Over 90 new spells are added to the game. These include unused spells like Dimension Door, PnP spells that weren't included in the original game like Fly, Wall of Force and Reverse Gravity, spells from other games like Mantle, Stygian Ice Storm and Isaac's Greater Missile Storm, as well as unusual ones like Identify Creature (a divination spell that tells you the stats of the target creature) and Auril's Blessing (which increases the power of your cold spells). Some of the new spells are bard-only, paladin-only, or ranger-only.
- Cleric domains have better spell choices. If a spell is in-theme with the kit (e.g. Moonblade and Wall of Moonlight for priests of Selune), they can cast it at a particularly low level as a domain spell.
- Clerics can spontaneously convert spells above 4th-level into healing/harming spells of the same level, rather than into Cure/Inflict Critical Wounds. Here is the full list:
Level Good Spell Evil Spell
1 Cure Light Wounds Inflict Light Wounds
2 Cure Moderate Wounds Inflict Moderate Wounds
3 Cure Serious Wounds Inflict Serious Wounds
4 Cure Critical Wounds Inflict Critical Wounds
5 Raise Dead Slay Living
6 Heal Harm
7 Resurrection Destruction
8 Greater Restoration Energy Drain
9 Mass Heal Mass Harm
- Certain spells are available to more classes. Rangers and Paladins have much better spell choices. Spells that create magical weapons or give combat bonuses can be cast as lower-level spells by Rangers or Paladins than by Druids or Clerics (e.g. Rangers can cast Fire Seeds as a 4th-level spell, and Paladins can cast Spiritual Weapon as a 1st-level spell and Holy Power as a 3rd-level spell).
- Magical weapons like Flame Blade and Decastave have been improved. Most of them gain bonuses from Strength and proficiency (even ones that deal non-physical damage). Saving throws on magical weapons and touch attacks (e.g. Snakebite poison, Slay Living instant death) now have DCs that scale with the character's spellcasting ability and Spell Focus bonuses.
- Spells that weaken a creature rather than disabling it have a higher DC or no save at all (e.g. Deafness has no save since it simply gives 20% spell failure).
--Spell Focus Feats for All Schools[/b]
In the unmodded game, spellcasters could only choose Spell Focus to empower Evocation, Necromancy, Transmutation, and Enchantment spells. This component expands those four feats to apply to the other four spell schools as well. The new feats are:
Spell Focus: Evocation/Conjuration
Spell Focus: Enchantment/Illusion
Spell Focus: Necromancy/Divination
Spell Focus: Transmutation/Abjuration
Item Revisions
Normally, Icewind Dale 2's items are balanced terribly. There are just a few good items towering over hundreds of almost useless magic items (e.g. items that just provide +1 Hide skill or 1/- Spell Resistance). It's not even a low-magic game: one gets tons of magic items, but most of them are terrible.
Item Revisions enhances most of the magical items in Icewind Dale 2, giving them a much larger variety of useful abilities. The purpose is primarily to empower weak items rather than to weaken strong items. Overall, the total number of magical items you obtain as loot in the game won't change much, but those items are more likely to be useful.
Item Revisions also adds many new items to the random loot tables, including powerful armor, shields, rings, amulets, and ammunition.
Creature Revisions
This component enhances creatures and encounters throughout the game. Here are the main changes:
- Spellcasters are given better AI and new spell selections, including some of the new spells from Spell Revisions. They start combat with buffs on. They shouldn't be quite as tough as Sword Coast Stratagems spellcasters, though.
- Enemy clerics now use domain spells. Even clerics of enemy-only deities cast domain spells (e.g. priests of Auril have spells like Ice Storm, while priests of Xvim have acid spells).
- Enemies use more sensible items and attacks. Aurilite rangers shoot frost arrows, mind flayers drain Intelligence on hit, and large creatures have longer reach on their attacks.
- On Heart of Fury Mode, enemies are stronger in a variety of ways. Monsters' innate abilities have higher save DCs and/or deal more damage. Spellcasters cast higher-level spells than they do on normal difficulty settings.
Fixes:
- Harpies in Chapter 1 use their wail.
- Yuan-ti Half-breed Sorceresses in the battle for Kuldahar now cast spells.
- On Heart of Fury Mode, enemy monks have higher-level monk fists to reflect the fact that they are higher-level.
- On Heart of Fury Mode, creatures summoned by enemies now gain Heart of Fury Mode bonuses.
Better XP Progression
In most RPGs, you gain levels at a roughly constant level over the course of the game. In IWD2, though, you gain XP and levels slower and slower as you progress in the game, which is the biggest reason why the late game is so much less fun than the early game. This is because many enemies are rigged to be a lower challenge rating than their actual level. By the time you're in the Severed Hand, you might be fighting critters that are level 17 but have a challenge rating of 9!
This component fixes that. There are two install options. The first option sets all creatures' challenge rating equal to their level, which results in extremely fast leveling as the game progresses. The second option, which is the recommended version, sets CR to slightly below their level after level 9. Neither option will affect early game enemies much, but midgame and endgame enemies will now grant XP appropriate to the challenge they pose.
More Interesting Alternative to the Palisade Quests
This component offers a more exciting alternative to the quests you'd normally have to do at the Palisade. When you first talk to Shawford, rather than agree to do his "special assignments," you can simply choose to stand guard at your posts until the goblins attack. This jumps you straight to the Palisade battle, which will be more difficult and involve more enemies (e.g. because you didn't repair the wall, and Isherwood couldn't pick off as many goblins before running out of arrows). If you manage to win this more difficult battle, you get extra experience equal to the experience you would've gotten for completing the quests.
Add Additional Ways to Progress Through Certain Areas
This component includes several changes that make certain areas more nonlinear and add some more opportunities to use certain niche spells and skills.
* If you want to try attacking the Horde Fortress head on, you can bash open the gate to the inner fortress with a Knock spell. While inside, one of the enemies drops a wardstone that will open the gate to Guthma's cabin, though you could also sneak in by opening a grate on the roof. With the wardstone, you can also head into Goblin Warrens from the opposite direction you normally would, fight your way through, and come out the other side.
* Several locks in the Ice Temple that previously required keys or the lightning machine to open can be picked.
* It is possible to actually fight Aeij-Kllenzr't. Taunting them off the altar will begin the fight, though you can still skip the fight by banishing them with their true name. Fighting and defeating them will banish them and allow you to complete the quest with some additional rewards. This content requires Creature Revisions to be installed.
* In the Severed Hand, the door to the bridge between the War Tower and the Wizard Tower is unlocked from the start, so if you have a way to make the party fly or teleport, you can reach Orrick's study by going over the gap in the bridge.
* Riki no longer requires you to fight Iyachtu Xvim or make a deal with him to proceed to the final bosses. However, if you didn't defeat Iyachtu Xvim or ally with him, you will have to survive unkillable glabrezus while fighting the final bosses, and the bosses will be tougher in the second phase because you didn't purify the radiant pool.
Faster Wandering Village
This component reduces the backtracking required by the Wandering Village quests. You can now travel to all three sections of the Fell Wood the first time you go there (allowing you to meet the dryad, collect the horn, and fight the Will o' Wisps), rather than having to go through it three times for the three quests.
Faster Dragon's Eye
This component reduces the backtracking necessary to get through Dragon's Eye by making the alchemy quests optional. You should now be able to fight your way through the third floor of Dragon's Eye without having to go back to previous floors.
* A powerful mind-shielding spell like Impervious Sanctity of Mind or Mind Blank can allow you to pass under the Eye of Sseth without needing to become a histachii. (This is PnP-accurate; Mind Blank normally protects against an Antipathy spell).
* Opening the door in the third floor of Dragon's Eye no longer requires you to put poison in the four pools in the area; you just have to kill Thorasskus.
* The timed gate with the slime trap opens after 60 seconds rather than 24 in-game hours.
The alchemy quests can still be completed; you can still make histachii brew and poison vials. These items still offer benefits: the histachii brew allows you to sneak past yuan-ti without them attacking you, and the poison vials can now be used as consumables to poison your weapon as per the Envenom Weapon ability.
Shorten the Dragon's Eye time loop questline to a single battle
This component simplifies the final area of Dragon's Eye. Rather than having to go through a long time travel quest, you just fight one battle to prevent Izbelah from casting Temporal Stasis. The component changes some dialogs in Chapter 5 to make it clear why you're fighting Izbelah.
Add more scrolls to the game
This component adds relatively high-level mage scrolls to various spell vendors, including Elytharra, Zack Boosenberry, Suoma, Bered, and Sheemish. A solo wizard or a wizard in HoF mode will be able to learn high-end spells and keep pace with a sorcerer. This isn't too extreme: early-game vendors might have a couple of scrolls at 5th-7th level, but they won't have tons of 9th-level scrolls.
Revised Creature Resistances and Immunities
This component revises the resistances of some creatures to be more reasonable. For example, slimes in Dragon's Eye aren't completely immune to physical damage, and iron golems and will o' wisps aren't completely immune to magic (they still have high spell resistance, though).
Elementals now have regular elemental immunities rather than undead immunities. Fiends now have regular fiendish immunities (e.g. immunity to poison) rather than undead immunities.
Trolls no longer fall down and have to be finished off by fire or acid; instead they regenerate faster and have more HP but take significantly more damage from fire and acid.
More Accurate Saving Throws for Enemies
This component adjusts all enemy saving throws in the game, making them roughly equal to the player's saving throws at the same level. Thus, a level 10 enemy fighter will have similar saving throws to a level 10 fighter in the party.
Revise Critical Hit Immunity
The vanilla game gives out immunity to critical hits to enemies that shouldn't have it, including fiends and certain random enemies. This component has two options: either you can give critical hit immunity to all undead, constructs, objects, elementals and oozes and remove it for all other creatures, or you can make all creatures vulnerable to critical hits.
Better Racial Enemies for Rangers
In the vanilla game, there were a lot of racial enemy choices that simply weren't very useful. Getting bonuses against yuan-ti and undead was simply better than getting bonuses against bugbears and hook horrors. This component gives the player the ability to choose from a new set of racial enemies:
Giant Insects
Giant Arachnids
Demons
Goblinoids
Giants
Amorphous Beings
Constructs
Humans
Animals
Undead
Aberrations
Underdark Aberrations
Yuan-ti
Elementals
Trolls
Dragons
Cosmetic Tweaks
Currently, this component lets any race choose any of the available colors on character creation.
More Persuasion Options
This component adds more opportunities in the game to use Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, and other skills in dialogue.
SPOILERS BELOW
* In the fight for Shaengarne Bridge, a character with high enough Intimidate can intimidate Xuki into surrendering and dropping her gear, though the other enemies will still have to be dealt with.
* It's possible to make a deal with Guthma to stop his attack on the Ten Towns and finish Chapter 1 without fighting Guthma, though it will require both Bluff and Diplomacy.
* It's possible for the party to Bluff their way out of the fight with Thvara.
* Suoma can be intimidated into telling the party of the dark treants early on, though it requires you to be rather mean. Once you've rescued the children from Limha, you can also persuade Suoma (using Diplomacy) to tell you of the dark treants. Either way, that will allow you to fight the dark treants and move on to the Cold Marshes earlier than normal.
* The party can bribe Limha into freeing the children and turning them back to human form. The cost is lower with higher Diplomacy.
* A character with an extremely high Search or Wilderness Lore skill can potentially find the exit to the Fell Wood without having to fight the Dark Treants.
* Before fighting Harshom, a character with arcane spellcasting who has high enough Bluff and very high Spellcraft and access to illusion spells can trick Harshom in order to gain advantage in the battle in some way. The check is easier to make if the character is an illusionist.
* When the party first enters the mind flayer stronghold, a character with very high Intimidate can intimidate the Elder Brain in response to their telepathic messages and convince them to let the party leave without a fight, provided they head straight to the exit.
* In the yuan-ti temple in Chult, it is possible to talk with Ojaiha and organize a truce, provided your Diplomacy is high enough. This will allow you to move on to the fight with Cedra's forces once you return to Kuldahar.
* In the Severed Hand, there is a new character in the throne room. A party member with an outrageously high Bluff skill can convince them to call back Isair and Madae to the Severed Hand and give you an audience, starting the final battle earlier than normal.
* Lastly, this component adds no fewer than five different dialogue paths to talk your way out of the final boss fight. They typically require the character talking to be very good at multiple pursuasion skills.
NPC Core
This component allows several existing NPCs to join the party: the fighter Reig, the rogue Black Geoffrey, the diviner Veira, the cleric Emma Moonblade, the troll Vrek Vileclaw, the goblin Vunarg, the rogue/illusionist Zack Boosenburry, the abishai Xhaan, the sorcerer Pairi, and the monk Sersa.
The NPCs do have banters and interjections, but overall the production value of IWD2EE's NPCs is definitely lower than the previous IWD2 NPC mod.
NPCs gain experience upon joining to match the party's experience
NPCs start with the average experience of the rest of the party members. The second one makes them start with a fifth of the total experience of the party.
The point of the second option is to prevent certain exploits related to soloing. If you have the first option enabled, you could get pretty far into the game while soloing and reach a high level, and then recruit NPCs that were just as overleveled as your starting character. With the second option enabled, those NPCs will be at a reasonable level regardless of the previous size of the party.
The first option is recommended if you aren't planning on doing any XP exploits like that.
Cosmetic improvements to the GUI and New loading screens
This component currently adds a new main menu screen and new chapter screens. There are no new buttons, but the GUI should look better.
Looping Main Theme
Normally IWD2's main theme does not loop. After 1 minute, it ends and you spend the rest of character creation with no music playing. This component edits the main theme to loop.
Revised Battle Square
To get all the rewards for the Battle Square, one normally has to fight 25 battles per rank, to a total of 250 battles. Even if the party members are powerful enough to win all the battles, this is still very tedious.
This component makes it so one only has to beat a rank once (with 3 or more squares) to get the main reward for the rank. To get all the rewards, it will only take 30 battles rather than 250.
In addition, this component allows you to go back to the Battle Square and finish it up in Chapter 5 when you return to the Ice Temple for Nickademus's favor.
Minor Damage Resistance for Armor and Shields
Inspired by Weimer's similar component from IWD2-Ease, this component patches every armor and shield in the game so they give physical damage resistance equal to half their Armor Class bonus, rounded down.
Race Revisions
Race Revisions revises various races and subraces, giving them abilities that they're supposed to have in PnP:
* Humans get 4 extra skill points at 1st level rather than 2.
* Elves can detect traps even when they aren't actively searching.
* Gnomes get a bonus to the DC of illusion spells they cast.
* Knockdown/trip attempts against dwarves have their DC reduced by 4, as dwarves are especially stable.
* Drow and Tieflings can cast Darkness once per day. Drow start proficient with crossbows instead of bows.
* Duergar can enlarge themselves once per day.
Race Revisions also gives certain races a few new abilities:
* Half-elves and Half-orcs now get an extra feat at 1st-level (this is the benefit they get for being half-human; previously all their benefits and drawbacks had to do with their elf/orc side).
* Elves may use Weapon Finesse with large swords.
* Dwarves start proficient in axes and hammers.
* Rock gnomes have +2 Intelligence instead of Constitution.
* Lightfoot halflings may add half their Dexterity modifier rather than their Strength modifier to the damage of a sling or thrown weapon (if the former is higher).
* Ghostwise halflings gain 1.5 times their Strength bonus to damage with slings and thrown weapons, as one would with two-handed weapons. In addition, their stat penalty is to Intelligence rather than Strength.
Revise racial level adjustment/ECL
This component makes it so rather than certain subraces being one or more "levels behind" other characters, they get a certain penalty to XP. In practice, this means that these subraces don't level up that much slower than other characters early on, though at very high levels they lag behind a bit more.
Enemies give the same amount of experience regardless of the party's level
This component makes killing enemies give the same amount of experience no matter the party's level. This way, leveling up doesn't come with the dissatifaction of enemies giving less experience, and there's no incentive to delay leveling up to increase experience gain. There are two options: either you can have enemies give experience equal to 25 * their challenge rating (a six-character party will reach about level 15 by the end of the game), or it can be 35 * their challenge rating (a six-character party will reach about level 18 by the end of the game).
Adjust encounter level-scaling
Icewind Dale 2 encounters often have additional enemies for a higher-level party. This component has two options: you can make it so you always fight at least the version of the encounter meant for a medium-level party, or you can make it so you always fight the version meant for a high-level party. The higher-level versions of encounters usually just have a couple more enemies or in some cases have tougher versions of enemies; they aren't impossible for a lower-level party to complete.
Reduce the HP bonuses of creatures in Heart of Fury Mode
Enemies in Heart of Fury Mode normally have absolutely ridiculous HP: goblins in the prologue have 157 HP, and the frost spiders in Chapter 2 have 452 HP! This component reduces the HP on creatures in Heart of Fury Mode. This component is designed for a party starting HoF at a low level. It is balanced such that enemies early on will have way less HP than in the original HoF, but enemies later on won't have that much less HP. This will make Heart of Fury Mode easier, but also much less tedious (and Creature Revisions makes Heart of Fury Mode more challenging to make up for it).
Reduce the attack bonuses of creatures in Heart of Fury Mode
Enemies in Heart of Fury Mode have such high attack bonuses that it's near impossible for them to miss except on a 1. This component gives creatures outside the party a -9 attack penalty on Heart of Fury Mode. They will still have higher attack bonuses than they do on the next-hardest difficulty, but it won't be quite as extreme.
Reduce the Saving Throw bonuses of creatures in Heart of Fury Mode
Early on in Heart of Fury Mode, it can be very difficult to get enemies to fail saving throws if you're starting as a low-level party. This component gives a small saving throw penalty to creatures outside the party on Heart of Fury Mode.
Remove ability score bonuses of allied summoned creatures in Heart of Fury Mode
In Heart of Fury Mode, allied summoned creatures also get HoF bonuses, and since you reach high level more quickly, summoned creatures can be quite overpowered. This component makes it so summoned creatures don't gain the normal +10 to all ability scores that creatures on Heart of Fury Mode get (with the exception of +10 Constitution, which should at least make them decent meatshields), unless they are summoned by an enemy.
Have the party start with more experience on Heart of Fury Mode
The beginning of Heart of Fury Mode is absolutely brutal if you start at level 1 - even with some of those components installed that weaken HoF creatures. This component gives each party member some experience at the start of the game. The experience each character starts with is the same regardless of party size. You have choices of how much experience to start with.
Reduce the delay after a sneak attack before the creature can be sneak attacked again
Normally once a rogue sneak attacks a creature, that creature becomes immune to sneak attacks for about 3 rounds. This component can either remove that immunity, allowing the creature to be sneak attacked again immediately, or reduce its duration to 1 round.
Increase the level cap
This component increases the level cap to 40 or to 50 (your choice). You'll only reach such high levels if you're soloing or playing Heart of Fury Mode with a small party.
Always learn spells from scrolls successfully
This component lets all wizards successfully learn spells from scrolls 100% of the time.
Everyone can perform attacks of opportunity
This component allows characters to make attacks of opportunity in melee under certain conditions: if the enemy steps out of your melee range, if they make a ranged attack, or if they cast a spell.
Change the way ability scores are assigned at character creation
This component has three options. Two of them allow you to roll for stats rather than use IWD2's normal point-buy system. The first one doesn't allow you to increment or decrement stats with the plus/minus buttons, but you can choose which ability score each number rolled is assigned to (like in The Temple of Elemental Evil). The second subcomponent lets you use the plus/minus buttons.
The third subcomponent lets you use the point-buy system of Neverwinter Nights, where increasing a stat above a certain value requires you to spend extra points, and the minimum for a stat is 8.
Add more traps
This component adds more traps to the game, and makes certain existing traps somewhat more dangerous. Don't worry; this shouldn't turn IWD2 into Durlag's Tower. The point is to add twists to existing encounters and make trap-disarming skills more meaningful.
Add key bindings for automating buffing
This component adds a very fair system for automating buffing.
To use it, first press the "[" button to start recording spells, then have party members cast any number of spells, which must either target party members or target a point. Then press "[" again to finish recording.
After that, pressing the ";" button at any point will cause party members to cast the same spells that were previously recorded, in the same order, targeting the same party members as in the original recording. Spells that target a point will target the caster's location instead. If any of the recorded spells are not memorized at the time they would be cast, those spells are skipped.
Pressing the "]" button will erase the recording until you do a new one.
This system doesn't cheat in any way; the spells aren't cast instantly nor can you cast more than one spell per round unless you have Improved Alacrity. However, it should still speed up buffing somewhat and make it require less effort by the player. Once you have the spells recorded, you just have to press ";" without having to scroll through spell lists.
Animal Growth
Arcane Sight
Auril's Blessing
Bolt of Glory
Boulder Roll
Chaos Cast
Clairvoyance
Contagious Fear (replaces Symbol of Fear)
Contingent Resurrection
Copy Spell
Crumble
Curing Contingency
Darkness
Deathwatch
Divine Shield
Duel
Eclectic Sequencer
Energy Drain
Enlarge Creature
Enslave
Explosive Smite
Expose to the Elements
Flame Shots
Fly
Forcecage
Fortune's Favorite
Ghostform
Ghoulish Feast
Glibness
Guidance
Gust of Wind
Holy Weapon
Hunter's Mark
Identify Creature
Imbue With Spell Ability
Improved Alacrity
Improved Haste
Isaac's Greater Missile Storm (everyone's favorite Neverwinter Nights spell)
Jump
Levitate
Lightning Barrage
Lightning Spiral
Living Lightning
Make Whole
Malavon's Corrosive Fog
Mantle
Mark of Justice
Mass Harm
Mass Heal Animal
Mass Omnivision
Metafireball
Moment of Prescience
Mordenkainen's Disjunction
Null Healing
Omnipresence
Otto's Irresistible Spin
Pebbles to Boulders
Perception Filter
Perfect Invisibility
Phantasmal Killer
Polar Ray
Polymorph Self
Power Word: Heal
Project Image
Protection from Cold
Quiver of Plenty
Reanimate
Recall Party
Reflect Attack
Regeneration
Remove Magic
Repulsion
Reverse Gravity
Rewind Time
Second Chance
Shield Other
Shortening
Simple Summoning
Simulacrum
Skeleton Traps
Skip Time
Songcasting
Soul Bind
Sound Burst
Spell Sequencer
Spell Trap
Spell Turning
Spellstaff
Steal Effects
Steal Spells
Steel Wind Strike
Storm of Vengeance
Stygian Ice Storm
Summon Deva
Sympathy
Teleport Field
Teleport Step
The Jester's Party
Thorn Shots
Throw
Time Stop
Tornado
Trial by Fire
True Polymorph
True Strike
Unholy Aura
Void Sound
Volcanic Eruption
Wall of Force
Wish
Wondrous Recall
There are also several unused spells that IWD2EE adds to the game:
Lutzaen's Local Teleport
Mental Domination
Produce Fire
Protection from Magic Energy
Righteous Wrath of the Faithful
Spook
Summon Cow
Translocation Trick
Here's a list of the new feats added by IWD2EE:
You have trained as an assassin. You know how to make especially debilitating sneak attacks.
Prerequisite: 1 level of rogue, Alchemy, Hide and Move Silently 4 or higher, evil alignment
Benefit: Your sneak attacks become death attacks, which also paralyze the target for one round on a failed Fortitude save (DC 10 + half your rogue level + your Dexterity modifier).
You also gain a use of Envenom Weapon. Taking the Envenom Weapon feat gives you a second use of this ability.
However, you only gain 2 + Int modifier skill points per rogue level after the first.
Special: You may only take this feat as a 1st-level character.
Your summoned creatures are more powerful than normal.
Prerequisites: Spell Focus, Conjuration
Benefit: Creatures you summon gain +4 Strength and Constitution. These bonuses stack with temporary bonuses to Strength and Constitution.
Combat Reflexes
You know how to perform an attack of opportunity when a foe lets their guard down.
Prerequisite: Base attack bonus +1 or higher
Benefit: Once per round, if you are attacking an enemy with a melee weapon, there are certain conditions that could allow you to make an extra attack against them. These include:
* If the enemy tries to step out of the reach of your weapon.
* If the enemy fires or throws a ranged weapon within the reach of your weapon.
* If the enemy tries to cast a spell within the reach of your weapon.
When taken a second time, this feat lets you make a number of attacks of opportunity per round equal to your Dexterity bonus plus one. You cannot perform more than one attack of opportunity against a single enemy per two seconds.
Concoct Potions
You have learned the art of crafting potions. As you wander the world of Faerun you constantly scavenge for substances to fuel your research.
Prerequisite: Alchemy 10 or greater
Benefit: You gain the Concoct Potions ability, which allows you to spend resources creating potions. For every 2 points of Alchemy above 10, you are able to create a broader variety of potions.
Counterspell
You know how to negate an opponent's spell by expending the same spell.
Prerequisites: The ability to cast 2nd-level spells.
Benefit: You gain the Counterspell ability, usable once per round. If you use it on an enemy spellcaster when they are casting a spell you also have memorized, you can expend one use of that spell to counter the enemy's spell, causing it to fail.
Damage Reduction
You can shrug off some damage from attacks.
Prerequisite: Con 21+. The second and third ranks require Con 23+ and Con 25+ respectively.
Benefit: You gain 3/- resistance to physical damage for each rank in the feat.
Special: This feat may be taken up to three times.
Defensive Roll
In a pinch, you can roll to dodge almost certain death.
Prerequisite: 10 Levels of Rogue
Benefit: If you would be hit by an attack or damaging spell that would kill you, you can roll to avoid the hit and take no damage. This ability is used automatically and cannot be used again for 10 rounds.
Defensive Stance
You know how to take a defensive stance, focusing on blocking incoming attacks.
Prerequisite: Base attack bonus +2 or higher
Benefit: While you are using the Guard action, you gain a +4 generic armor bonus.
Empower Spell
You may increase the power of your spells.
Prerequisites: The ability to cast 3rd-level spells.
Benefit: You gain the Empower Spell ability, usable at will as a free action. Using it increases the damage, healing, and most stat bonuses of the next spell you cast by 50%, but causes it to take up a spell slot two levels higher.
Extend Spell
You may lengthen the duration of your spells.
Prerequisites: The ability to cast 2nd-level spells.
Benefit: You gain the Extend Spell ability, usable at will as a free action. Using it doubles the duration of the next spell you cast, but causes it to take up a spell slot one level higher.
Fast Healing
You heal your wounds very quickly.
Prerequisite: Con 23+. The second and third ranks require Con 25+ and Con 27+ respectively.
Benefit: You regenerate 3 hit points per round for each rank in the feat.
Special: This feat may be taken up to three times.
Feint
In melee combat, you are skilled at using trickery to gain the upper hand against opponents.
Prerequisites: Bluff 4 or greater
Benefit: You gain an ability that lets you feint an adjacent creature. The ability can be used once per round. The target must make a Will save (DC 10 + your Bluff skill). On a failure, for 4 seconds, the target loses its Dexterity bonus to AC, and it gains additional penalties to Armor Class and attack rolls equal to one third of your Bluff skill, rounded down. A creature gains a +4 bonus to the save for each time someone has tried to feint them in the past 10 rounds.
This feat may be taken twice. When taken a second time, the feat is Improved Feint, which lets you feint as a free action once per round. After you feint for the first time in a round, you may use another ability or cast a spell before the round is over. Improved Feint also adds +2 to the save DC.
Improved Sneak Attack
Your sneak attacks are especially deadly.
Prerequisite: 5 levels of rogue
Benefit: Your sneak attacks deal an additional 1d6 damage. This feat may be taken up to five times.
Improved Two-Weapon Fighting
You are an expert at fighting with two weapons. You can attack even more quickly with them.
Prerequisite: Dex 15+, Ambidexterity, Two-Weapon Fighting, Base attack bonus +16 or higher; taking this feat a second time requires 15 levels of ranger.
Benefit: While wielding two weapons, you get a second attack per round with the off-hand weapon (at -5 attack bonus). If you have two ranks in the feat, you get a third attack per round with it (at -10 attack bonus).
Special: A character with 9 levels of ranger can take the first rank in this feat (and can take the second rank at level 15) even if they don't meet the prerequisites. However, if a ranger does not meet the prerequisites, they cannot use Improved Two-Weapon Fighting unless they wear light or no armor.
Improved Unarmed Abilities
Your unarmed abilities are particularly effective.
Prerequisite: Stunning Attack
Benefit: The Stunning Attack and Quivering Palm abilities gain +2 DC. This feat may be taken up to five times.
Kensei
You have been trained in the way of the kensei, or "sword-saint." You specialize in fighting without armor.
Prerequisite: 1 level of fighter
Benefit: You gain +1 to attack and damage per 3 fighter levels (minimum of +1) and a +2 generic AC bonus. These bonuses only function when you are not wearing armor (robes are acceptable) and are wielding one or more melee weapons (excluding unarmed attacks and most shapeshifted attacks) without a shield.
Special: You may only take this feat as a 1st-level character.
Knockdown
You are trained to knock down or trip enemies in melee combat.
Prerequisite: Base attack bonus +5 or higher
Benefit: You gain an ability that lets you knock down or trip an adjacent creature. The ability can be used once per round. If your Dexterity is higher than your Strength, you attempt to trip the target, which must make a Reflex save (DC 10 + half your level + your Dexterity modifier) or fall down for 4 seconds. Otherwise, you try to knock down your target, which must make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + half your level + your Strength modifier) or fall down for 4 seconds. A creature gains a +4 bonus to the save for each time someone has tried to knock down or trip them in the past 10 rounds. Especially large creatures cannot be knocked down or tripped.
This feat may be taken twice. When taken a second time, the feat is Improved Knockdown, which allows you to knock down or trip even large creatures, and adds a +2 bonus to the DC.
Light Armor Mastery
You are experienced enough at wearing light armor that for you it is no more restrictive than clothing.
Prerequisites: Dex 17+, Proficiency with light armor
Benefit: While wearing light armor, you suffer no armor check penalty or max Dexterity bonus.
Manyshot
You can fire multiple arrows simultaneously at a nearby target.
Prerequisite: Dex 17+, Rapid Shot, Precise Shot, Base attack bonus +16 or higher; taking the feat a second time requires 15 levels of ranger
Benefit: When you have Rapid Shot enabled and you attack with a bow for the first time in a round, you fire two arrows instead of one. Each of these is a separate attack roll made at a -5 penalty. If you have two ranks in the feat, you fire three arrows instead of one, each made at a -10 penalty.
Special: A character with 9 levels of ranger can take the first rank in this feat (and can take the second rank at level 15) even if they don't meet the prerequisites.
Mass Spell
You may have your spells affect an area rather than a single target.
Prerequisites: The ability to cast 6th-level spells.
Benefit: You gain the Mass Spell ability, usable at will as a free action. Using it makes your next spell affect all creatures within 20 feet of the target, but causes it to take up a spell slot five levels higher. Even spells that normally only affect the caster can now affect other creatures. Mass Spell replaces the spell's normal area of effect, so it should only be used with spells that normally target a single creature.
Master of Magic Force
Your mastery of force magic has yielded impressive results.
Prerequisites: You must be able to cast 4th level spells and have a Spellcraft of 10 or higher.
Benefit: Grants 5 Magic Damage Resistance (permanent), and a +20% increase to all Magic Damage done.
Maximize Spell
You may maximize the power of your spells.
Prerequisites: The ability to cast 4th-level spells.
Benefit: You gain the Maximize Spell ability, usable at will as a free action. Using it causes your next spell to deal maximum damage and heal the maximum number of hit points, but also causes it to take up a spell slot three levels higher.
Mobility
You can dodge attacks particularly well while moving.
Prerequisites: Dex 13+, Dodge
Benefit: While moving, you gain a +4 Armor Class bonus. This bonus is doubled against attacks of opportunity due to moving out of an enemy's weapon range.
Natural Spell
You are able to replicate the verbal and somatic components of spells while shapeshifted.
Prerequisites: Cha 13+, Wild Shape.
Benefit: You can cast spells while in any shapeshifted form. However, the awkwardness of replicating the verbal and somatic components gives you a +4 penalty to casting time (you can still cast spells without penalty in your natural form).
Opportunist
You know how to take advantage of an ally's distraction of your enemy to land an additional attack on the enemy.
Prerequisite: 10 Levels of Rogue, Combat Reflexes
Benefit: If an ally would hit an enemy in melee while you are also attacking that enemy in melee, you may make an attack of opportunity against that enemy.
Persistent Spell
You may increase the duration of your spells to a full 8 hours.
Prerequisites: The ability to cast 5th-level spells.
Benefit: You gain the Persistent Spell ability, usable at will as a free action. Using it increases the duration of your next spell to 8 hours, but causes it to take up a spell slot six levels higher. Persistent Spell has no effect on spells with a base duration of less than 5 rounds.
Quicken Spell
You may quickly cast an extra spell each round.
Prerequisites: The ability to cast 3rd-level spells.
Benefit: You gain the Quicken Spell ability, usable at will as a free action. Using it allows you to instantly cast a spell, even if you've already cast a spell for the round. The quickened spell takes up a spell slot two levels higher. Only one spell can be quickened per round.
Rapid Reload
You are especially quick with crossbows. You can reload a crossbow faster.
Prerequisites: Base attack bonus +6 or higher, Weapon Focus in crossbows
Benefit: Crossbows which would normally restrict you to one attack per round instead restrict you to two attacks per round. Rapid Reload has no effect on crossbows that already allow more than one attack per round.
Safe Spell
You may shape the area of effect of your spells to avoid harming allies.
Prerequisites: The ability to cast 2nd-level spells.
Benefit: You gain the Safe Spell ability, usable at will as a free action. Using it prevents the next spell you cast from harming allies, but causes it to take up a spell slot one level higher.
Shield Focus
You are especially skilled at using shields.
Prerequisites: Shield Proficiency; gaining a second rank requires 4 or more levels of Fighter
Benefit: You gain a +2 AC bonus while using a shield. Two ranks in this feat is Shield Specialization, which grants an additional +2 AC bonus.
Spring Attack
You excel at moving while fighting.
Prerequisites: Dex 13+, Dodge, Mobility, Base attack bonus +4 or higher
Benefit: Whenever you hit a creature with a melee attack, you move twice as fast for 1 second. During this time, you do not provoke an attack of opportunity by moving out of an enemy's melee range.
Terrifying Rage
Your barbarian rage is terrifying to behold.
Prerequisites: Greater Rage, Intimidate 18 or higher
Benefit: While you are raging, enemies within 6 feet of you must make a Will save (DC 3 + your Intimidate skill) or run away for 3 rounds.
Two-Weapon Defense
You are skilled at parrying attacks while wielding two weapons.
Prerequisites: Two-Weapon Fighting or 1 level of ranger
Benefit: While wielding two weapons, you gain a +1 Armor Class bonus. Taking this feat a second time increases the bonus to +2.
Special: Rangers do not need Two-Weapon Fighting to gain this feat. However, if a ranger does not have the Two-Weapon Fighting feat, they do not gain the benefits of Two-Weapon Defense while wearing medium or heavy armor.
Whirlwind Attack
You can perform a spinning attack to hit multiple enemies around you.
Prerequisites: Dex 13+, Int 13+, Expertise, Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack, base attack bonus 4 or greater; taking the feat a second time requires Dex 21+.
Benefit: You gain the Whirlwind Attack ability, usable once per round. By using the ability, you make an attack with each of your weapons against each nearby enemy, forgoing all other attacks for the round. The radius of the attack depends on the reach of your weapon.
When taken a second time, the feat is Improved Whirlwind Attack, which increases the radius of the attack by 5 feet.
Special: A character with 6 levels of ranger can take this feat as long as they meet the Dexterity requirement, ignoring all the other prerequisites.
Widen Spell
You may increase the area of effect of your spells.
Prerequisites: The ability to cast 2nd-level spells.
Benefit: You gain the Widen Spell ability, usable at will as a free action. Using it increases the area of effect of your next spell by 50%, but causes it to take up a spell slot one level higher.
Advanced Spell Capacity
You may cast higher-level spells than is normally allowed for your class.
Prerequisite: 19 levels of cleric, druid or wizard, 20 levels of paladin, ranger or sorcerer, or 25 levels of bard. Taking the feat a third time requires 2 additional levels of cleric, druid, sorcerer or wizard, or 3 additional levels of bard, paladin or ranger. Taking the feat a fifth time requires another 2 or 3 levels.
Benefit: You gain a spell slot one level higher than the normal maximum for your class. Clerics, druids, sorcerers and wizards gain a 10th-level slot, bards gain a 9th-level slot, and paladins and rangers gain a 7th-level slot. This slot can only be used to cast lower-level spells via metamagic.
Special: This feat may be taken up to five times. The progression is shown below:
Rank Level +1 Level +2 Level +3
1 1 0 0
2 2 0 0
3 2 1 0
4 2 2 0
5 2 2 1
Here is a list of feats that are modified by IWD2EE:
Armored Arcana
You can cast spells with less chance of failure while wearing armor.
Prerequisite: The ability to cast arcane spells.
Benefit: Each rank in this feat reduces the chances of casting failure by 35%.
Arterial Strike
Your skill with sneak attacks allows you to cause a bleeding wound.
Prerequisite: At least one level of rogue, base attack bonus +4 or higher.
Benefit: Allows the rogue to sacrifice 1d6 points of sneak attack damage to inflict a bleeding wound that causes deals an extra 10 damage over 10 rounds. For every six rogue levels past 1 (i.e. at levels 7, 13, 19, and 25), the rogue sacrifices another 1d6 points to deal another 10 damage over the 10 rounds.
Combat Casting
You are adept at casting spells in combat.
Benefit: You get a +4 bonus to Concentration checks made to cast a spell while being injured. In addition, attacks of opportunity in response to you casting a spell are made at a -4 penalty.
Courteous Magocracy
You were raised in a land where mighty wizards order affairs. Where powerful spellcasters are common, cautious courtesy is the norm and everyone has an eye for magic goods.
Benefit: You receive a +2 on all Diplomacy and Spellcraft checks. In addition, when buying goods from an NPC who is a wizard or sorcerer, you are treated as having +6 Charisma (which stacks with all other Charisma bonuses), reducing prices by about 9%.
Crippling Strike
When making a sneak attack, you are able to deal a devastating blow that weakens an enemy.
Prerequisite: 10th level rogue
Benefit: Any time the character makes a successful sneak attack, the attack does its normal damage and also causes 1 point of temporary Strength damage per 3 levels of rogue. The Strength damage lasts 10 rounds.
Deflect Arrows
You can deflect incoming arrows, as well as crossbow bolts, spears, and other shot or thrown weapons.
Prerequisite: Dex 13+
Benefit: The character gains a +1 miscellanous bonus against missile weapons.
In addition, if the character is a monk or has at least 19 Dexterity, they will automatically block the first instance of missile damage that would hit them each round. Any other damage the projectile would deal (such as fire damage from Arrows of Fire) still gets through. The character must have a free hand to gain this benefit.
Special: Monks automatically gain the Deflect Arrows feat at level 2.
Envenom Weapon
You have learned the seldom taught skill of the poisoner. You are skilled at acquiring and using poison.
Prerequisite: 1 level of rogue, Alchemy 8 or greater
Benefit: Once per day, you may coat your weapons in poison. For 5 rounds, each hit you make with any weapon (including missile weapons) will poison the target unless it makes a Fortitude save (DC 6 + your Alchemy skill). If poisoned, the target takes 12 poison damage over the next 6 seconds.
Grapple (replaces the Forester feat)
While anyone can grapple something, you have the skill to grapple even a hostile creature in the midst of combat.
Benefit: You gain an ability that lets you grab an adjacent creature. The ability can be used once per round. The target must make a Reflex save (DC 12 + half your level + your Strength or Dexterity modifier (whichever is higher)) or be grappled by you for 2 rounds. While grappled, the creature gets a -4 attack penalty, a 50% chance of spell failure, and cannot move away from you. If you move, you may pull the creature along with you.
To grapple, you must have at least one hand free. The target gains +4 to the save for each time someone has tried to grapple them in the past 10 rounds. If you grapple an ally or a paralyzed, stunned, sleeping, or knocked down creature, there is no save. Especially large creatures cannot be grappled.
Great Fortitude
You are tougher than normal.
Benefit: You get a +3 bonus to all Fortitude saving throws.
Improved Initiative
You can react more quickly than normal in a fight.
Benefit: The "speed factor" delay before you attack for the first time in a round is reduced by 4. The casting time of all your spells is reduced by 1.
Improved Rage (replaces the Extra Rage feat)
You can invoke your barbarian rage more often and more forcefully.
Prerequisite: 1 level of barbarian
Benefit: You gain an additional use of Barbarian Rage per day. You also gain an additional +1 Strength and Constitution while raging; these bonuses stack with the existing bonuses of the rage effect. This feat may be taken up to three times.
Improved Smiting (replaces the Extra Smiting feat)
You may use your Smite Evil ability more often and with greater power.
Prerequisite: 2 levels of paladin
Benefit: You gain an additional use of Smite Evil per day. In addition, your Charisma modifier is added again to the damage of Smite Evil. This feat may be taken up to three times.
Improved Turning (replaces the Extra Turning feat)
You may use your Turn Undead ability more often and can turn more powerful undead.
Prerequisite: 1 level of Cleric or 3 levels of Paladin
Benefit: You gain an additional use of Turn Undead per day. You also count as 3 levels higher for purposes of determining how powerful undead you can turn. This feat may be taken up to three times.
Improved Wild Shape (replaces the Extra Wild Shape feat)
You can use your Wild Shape ability more often and more effectively.
Prerequisite: 3 levels of druid
Benefit: You gain an additional use of Wild Shape per day. You also count as 3 levels higher for purposes of determining the power of your shapeshifted form, though this does not give you access to new forms earlier. This feat may be taken up to three times.
Iron Will
You have a stronger will than normal.
Benefit: You get a +3 bonus to all Will saving throws.
Lightning Reflexes
You have faster than normal reflexes.
Benefit: You get a +3 bonus to all Reflex saving throws.
Maximized Attacks
You have learned how to maximize the effect of your attacks while performing a short concentrated attack.
Prerequisites: 4 ranks in Concentration and Weapon Specialization in 2 weapons.
Benefit: All attacks do maximum damage for 5 rounds. If you have 12 or more fighter levels, you also gain a +4 attack bonus and +4 critical threat range for the duration.
Planar Turning (replaces the old Improved Turning feat)
You may turn not just undead but also creatures from the Outer Planes.
Prerequisite: 1 level of Cleric or 3 levels of Paladin
Benefit: Spells and abilities you use that turn undead can also turn fiends and other creatures from the Outer Planes.
Precise Shot
You are skilled at timing and aiming ranged attacks.
Benefit: Reduces the to hit penalty for firing in close quarters from -8 to -4. In addition, enemies get a -4 attack penalty on attacks of opportunity provoked by your ranged attacks.
Resist Poison
Over years, some among your people carefully expose themselves to poisons in controlled dosages in order to build up immunity to their effects. A few are thereby weakened, but the strong adjust.
Prerequisite: Gray dwarf, half-orc
Benefit: You get a +4 bonus on Fortitude saving throws against poison. In addition, each second you would take poison damage, the damage you take is reduced by 1.
Special: You may only take this feat as a 1st-level character.
Spell Focus, Enchantment/Illusion (replaces the Spell Focus, Enchantment feat)
Spell Focus, Evocation/Conjuration (replaces the Spell Focus, Evocation feat)
Spell Focus, Necromancy/Divination (replaces the Spell Focus, Necromancy feat)
Spell Focus, Transmutation/Abjuration (replaces the Spell Focus, Transmutation feat)
Toughness
You are tougher than normal.
Benefit: Each time you take this feat, you gain +3 hit points, plus another hit point per level. Barbarians gain +3 hit points per barbarian level instead of +1. In future level ups, you will gain additional hit points.
Special: You may gain this feat up to 5 times in Icewind Dale 2.
Weapon Finesse
You are especially skilled at using daggers, short swords and unarmed strikes, which allows you to benefit as much from Dexterity as from Strength.
Prerequisite: Proficient with small blade/touch attack, base attack bonus +1.
Benefit: With daggers, short swords, unarmed attacks and natural weapons, you may use your Dexterity modifier instead of your Strength modifier on attack rolls. In addition, you may apply half your Dexterity modifier to the damage of such weapons (provided the halved number is still higher than your Strength modifier). Since you need your second hand for balance, if you carry a shield, apply the shield's armor check penalty to your attack rolls.
Weapon Proficiency
Benefit: You make attack rolls with the weapon normally. Two ranks in this feat is Weapon Focus, which grants +1 to attack. A 4th-level Fighter may take a third rank in the feat for Weapon Specialization, which grants +2 to damage. An 8th-level Fighter may take a fourth rank in the feat for Greater Weapon Focus, which grants another +1 to attack. A 12th-level Fighter may take a fifth rank in the feat for Greater Weapon Specialization, which grants another +2 to damage.
Normal: A character who uses a weapon without being proficient with it suffers a -4 penalty on attack rolls.
Wild Shape: Blink Dog (replaces the Wild Shape: Boring Beetle feat)
The druid gains the ability to turn into a blink dog. The blink dog form is not effective in combat, but the druid becomes under the effect of Blink (incoming attacks have a 50% chance to miss), and he or she gains the ability to teleport short distances at will. The distance the druid can teleport while in blink dog form increases based on level.
Prerequisite: 5 Levels of Druid
Wild Shape: Creeping Doom (replaces the Wild Shape: Black Panther feat)
The druid gains the ability to shapeshift into a conscious mass of beetles and flying insects. The insects are easy to crush and are vulnerable to fire and other forms of magical damage, but piercing weapons are nearly useless against the swarm. The druid can coordinate the insects to sting in concert, attacking opponents from a distance. Creatures hit must make a Will save or be distracted and receive 50% spell failure. The DC of the Will save increases based on the druid's level. While in this form, the druid is in flight and thus is protected from Grease, Web, Entangle, Spike Growth, Spike Stones, and Earthquake.
Prerequisite: 5 Levels of Druid
Wild Shape: Rhinoceros Beetle (replaces the Wild Shape: Shambling Mound feat)
The druid gains the ability to shapeshift into an enormous rhinoceros beetle. While in this form, the druid has two fewer attacks per round (minimum of 1), but they gain 5/- physical damage resistance. This resistance increases by another 5/- every 5 levels, to a maximum of 25/- at level 28.
Prerequisite: 8 Levels of Druid
Tbh I was expecting the release closer to Xmas, but that's even better.
Does the NPC project work with this? 🥺
Please help?
Quite sure the program created a new folder while unzipping.
In the folder where you installed IWD2 (the folder with a file called CHITIN.KEY, to be clear) you should have the new mod folder:
iwd2ee
and the files:
Setup-iwd2ee.exe
No I don't see the CHITIN.KEY in my folder
No I don't see the CHITIN.KEY in my folder[/quote]
If CHITIN.KEY is not in your folder, then something is wrong with your base IWD2 installation.
Just making sure: do you even have Icewind Dale 2 installed? IWD2EE must be installed on top of the vanilla game.
Yes.
thank you
I almost dropped my pants that in the year that BG3 is released, someone finally tackled the issue with IW2!
i installed this today... however, even though i follow the steps preciselly as intented ( i have the GOG version installed) when i start the game with the file recomended , i get the nicer menu, HOWEVER, all the feats/spells/items that have been altered have absolutelly no description ( I cant see any information at all) ... I presume there are new types of clerics, etc.. but i cant see that either... can you help me out somehow! Cause i am going absolutelly nuts!
thank you,
From the FAQ on Discord:
Q: The names and descriptions of a lot of feats, spells, and items are blank! How do I fix this?
A: Did you move, rename or copy your IWD2 game folder? That would cause these errors because the game doesn't know where the new game folder is. To fix this, open icewind2.ini (in the game folder where you have IWD2EE installed) in Notepad or another text editor and find the lines that say something like this:
[Alias]
HD0:=C:\Program Files (x86)\Black Isle\Icewind Dale II
CD1:=C:\Program Files (x86)\Black Isle\Icewind Dale II\Data\
CD2:=C:\Program Files (x86)\Black Isle\Icewind Dale II\CD2\
(It will say a different file path if you downloaded the game from GOG.)
You need to edit these lines to point to the new directory where you're playing IWD2EE.
I'm very excited to see the progress of this project.
I wish you much success from the bottom of my heart.
If CHITIN.KEY is not in your folder, then something is wrong with your base IWD2 installation.
Just making sure: do you even have Icewind Dale 2 installed? IWD2EE must be installed on top of the vanilla game.[/quote]
Oh damn hell spit NO I don't. I have it on disc somewhere in my computer room I believe but I can't put it on my new laptop because it doesn't have a CD drive and thought that I could be able to just play this on my new laptop that I have since I play IWDEE and BG2EE on steam from here. Crap I guess I won't be able to play this unless it can be made to play on Steam and then I will gladly pay for the game.
I am using Windows 10 _emulated by QEMU_ under a Ubuntu host. The version of IWD2 is GOG. I tried to start the game by 800x600 resolution. It shown an error message of unable to find a 32-bit color depth display mode. While the detected color depth mode is 8-bit, the actual displayed color depth is 32-bit, as the screenshot color is solid. I believe it is difficult to change the detected color depth at the QEMU. So I wish to know whether it is justified to relax the color depth checking at the IWD2EE?
Thoughts?
Did you remember to start the game by clicking on IWD2EE.exe rather than IWD2.exe?
When I set to 2.5K resolution, game doesnt stretch to it and everything looks tiny. And I cant zoom in.Thanks !
It's not possible to zoom in in IWD2EE, unfortunately. Without access to the source code, there's no guarantee that we'll be able to implement all of the features of Beamdog's EEs.
Probably not, sorry.