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Need help with Heart of Fury walktrough (no spoilers)

frostyshfrostysh Member Posts: 55
Greetings!

I have vanila Steam clean version Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition, I have created my own character, in sake of gender equality in this time a female magician, I puzzled for a long time which class to take (I am playing magic only classes with a very few exception in RPG), in the end the Wild Mage was the choice! I have regret it many times after... :s All other characters in the party were default that came with game itself.

IWDEE-MC.jpg

The battle against bloody orcs bandits leading by a Orc Shaman was incredibly tough, I spent almost three hours to defeat them! So I have couple of questions...

— Where I can get a bestiary of a kind for IWD: EE? I need to know what type of armor orcs using for an example to adjust a weapons of my party, it's always hard to chose between THAC0 and attacks per round...

— What better weapon proficiencies to take for my party tank (Undead Hunter)? I pick Bastard Sword already, and I think that was wrong... Because somebody told that in IWD will be a lot of undeads, which on HoF will be probably immune to anything except blunt stuff.

— Does sex change by Wild Surge can break a game? I actually created female char, but I have forget how many times the gender is changed already... Thanks to all gods I have somehow created kind of unisex portrait for the char on the beginning when I don't even know what magic specialization will be.

— Any other advices for the party above?

P. S. No spoilers pls, and thanks in advance for the answers!

Comments

  • sarevok57sarevok57 Member Posts: 5,975
    HoF mode is not made for a group of level 1 fresh characters, although it theory it can be done, but it requires a huge amount of cheese and exploits to do so ( especially at lower levels )

    and especially if your meta game is lacking HoF mode for new players will practically be impossible

    even HoF mode has a warning saying that your team should be at least around level 13 or so before using this mode

    so if you are new to the game I would suggest putting it on insane difficulty with double damage on, and extra XP off, this is a more appropriate challenge and once you beat the game with that, then you could try HoF mode

    also when in HoF mode i believe all enemies get this boost; +6 to hit/ all saving throws/ AC bonus, x3+50 HP, +1 APR and they are counted as 12 or 13 levels higher than they actually are

    so as you can see, not really stuff made for a low level party, that means, that an ogre that normally has 30 HP would have 140 HP in HoF mode
  • frostyshfrostysh Member Posts: 55
    edited February 2021
    Just curious why then Petrification easily can defeat Orc Elite with +6 ST? Multiple times my MC' Dweomer wildsurged into Petrification and no any failure due to ST of orcs. This is strange, what ST against Petrification Orc Elite have for an example? It's probably extremely high, 20 or something? And my party encountered an Ogre that leads group of orcs... :p What about Ogre stats? An armor? Against what type of weapon Ogre's armour are more weak?
    But thanks, at least I know what THAC0 my need on current level, it's need to be close to 7 at least. Nah, I am hardcore Baldur's Gate gamer, playing it in the past with mods on full hardcore settings and the maximum difficulty such as Swordcoast Stratagems (SCS).
    Actually my party Cleric/Ranger already has an extremely powerful spells such as Chant and Doom (one of my favorite from BG, IMHO this spell is little bit overpowered) and Hold Person (no using too much due to alignment), and in addition my second mage (Ilauna) for now has no attacking except Sleep (absolutely useless). I mean the game will be much more easier if I will manage to level my party up and gather some spells.
  • jmerryjmerry Member Posts: 3,822
    frostysh wrote: »
    Just curious why then Petrification easily can defeat Orc Elite with +6 ST?

    That would be a bug. HoF mode (and the similar LoB mode in the Baldur's Gate games) are supposed to give bonuses to monster saves. But, in the current game version, they get both +N to their saving throw rolls and +N to the target number they need to beat (the save numbers shown on the character sheet). That leaves them in the same place as the monsters at standard difficulty ... except for sufficiently low-level monsters. If that character sheet number is over 20, the save isn't rolled at all, no matter what bonus the creature gets to their roll.

    So ... most monsters use fighter arrays for their saves. This should certainly be the case for a low-level warrior type like an "orc elite". Level 1-2 fighters have petrification saves of 15. If the HOF bonus is +6, the bug makes that monster's petrification save a 21 - auto-fail. They would also auto-fail saves against wands, breath, and spells, but have a chance to succeed on death saves (20).

    The bug in question will be fixed as part of the upcoming 2.6 update. HoF monsters will have be better at saving against everything, as intended. In the case of this particular monster/effect combination, they would go from auto-failing their save to succeeding 60% of the time.
  • frostyshfrostysh Member Posts: 55
    edited February 2021
    jmerry wrote: »
    That would be a bug.
    OMG! :o
    jmerry wrote: »
    So ... most monsters use fighter arrays for their saves. This should certainly be the case for a low-level warrior type like an "orc elite". Level 1-2 fighters have petrification saves of 15. If the HOF bonus is +6, the bug makes that monster's petrification save a 21 - auto-fail. They would also auto-fail saves against wands, breath, and spells, but have a chance to succeed on death saves (20).
    Barely understand what you said... I can confirm that Orcs, Ogres, and Orc Elite has a poor saves against Death — Stinking Cloud from Dweomer usually make them fall unconscious pretty easy, well Ogres little bit better and tougher. About spells... Cannot confirm that this fighters has a poor ST against spell, but the Colour Spay work usually good, but not perfect, too bad no one left in the cave near Easthaven to test... And in addition NRD spell addin sometimes 3lvl to caster' level. Need to test with 'a pure spell'. Spell Sleep — no working at all! Zero time succeed but it's due to the HP amount of the enemies.

    — Is there any place in Easthaven where an bloody attacking spell can be bought before this shady Expedition? Those crazyhead monk from the Temple selling only protective stuff.

    And by the way, Dweomer is an insane spell! After one and half hours of reloads in the battle against Ogres and Orcs — boom! Four times Petrification in the single cast! Then Stinking Cloud, Colour Spay — result Medusa stone garden GG! :#
  • ThoriumThorium Member Posts: 36
    frostysh wrote: »
    — Is there any place in Easthaven where an bloody attacking spell can be bought before this shady Expedition? Those crazyhead monk from the Temple selling only protective stuff.

    The only spell scrolls available in Easthaven are in upstairs of Pomab's store.
    frostysh wrote: »
    What better weapon proficiencies to take for my party tank (Undead Hunter)?

    Longsword is one popular choice. Also morningstars or maces would be good picks. Probably you are also already using some ranged weapon? At higher levels you might consider dual-wielding weapons.

    Generally about HoF: I have played once a party from 1st level and it was a grind in the start. At some point it becomes easier since there are some spells that enable really cheesy tactics. So, I think that HoF is doable but not everyone will enjoy that playstyle :)
  • frostyshfrostysh Member Posts: 55
    Thorium wrote: »
    The only spell scrolls available in Easthaven are in upstairs of Pomab's store.
    Yep, but it's mean stealing so I refused to take that scroll, don't remember even what it was.
    Thorium wrote: »
    Longsword is one popular choice. Also morningstars or maces would be good picks. Probably you are also already using some ranged weapon? At higher levels you might consider dual-wielding weapons.
    I have took the characters into party that came with game, so Cadriel for an example has Long Swords already and Baern is Dual-wielder with War Hammer and Flail.
    Thorium wrote: »
    Generally about HoF: I have played once a party from 1st level and it was a grind in the start.
    I am not can call it's "grind", at least in my case, grind a thing where you do something and by small steps achieving the goal, but for me HoF is total hardcore. For an example stucked into goblin ambush, can do nothing... Have no idea what tactics to use. Goblin Marshal Arches is kind of destruction machine my frontline fighter with shield has - 6 AC bonus against projectiles and still few Marshal Archers shreading him like a paper.
  • OlvynChuruOlvynChuru Member Posts: 3,075
    @frostysh

    I recommend you try out Improved Heart of Fury Mode. This mod makes Heart of Fury Mode much more reasonable: enemies are still a lot tougher, but they usually don't have ridiculously good HP and AC. The mod is designed to be playable for a party starting at a low level, but the difficulty still ramps up quickly.
  • frostyshfrostysh Member Posts: 55
    edited February 2021
    @OlvynChuru

    Hmm... Interesting! Not read to much because of spoilers. The AI-mod for IWD sounds extremely useful! Like SCS for BG. Do you think for the next party: Wild Mage (my MC), Cleric/Ranger, Undead Hunter, Fighter/Thief, Mage, Bard; the game will be too easy later? Because it's recently was hard as hell for me with my skill to play IWD, barely managed to defeat acursed goblin's ambush after couple of hours harsh words and failed attempts... Mage has no spells, rely only on Dweomer's insanity, it's was horrible.
    8C6EE4FF250E0FAA3A737FDFD8461B03465A9E24

    But indeed after Cleric/Ranger have miraculously obtain "Animate Dead" after level up, the game become much more easier! Just curios if this tendency will persist... Actually I played BG with SCS and full hardcore possible, it's was fun but the hell hard and long time it's took... Neverless the SCS was mostly enemy AI and their abilities enhancing, was no any level cap changing (as I remember) and so on, so I am easily imported char after the end of BG into BG2 and SoD, (I have not completed those games yet), the same I want with Icewind Dale — to import char into IWD2, but with modified level caps and Kits and stuff with "Improved Heart of Fury" it's probably will be no good?

    And now few harsh word into the developer's camp... How it's happened that Baldur's Gate has moody Candlekeep on the start or something like that, where you can get al you need magical things for mages, the sequel Baldur's Gate has a dirty stupid town with Pomeranade District (as remembered right) and ridiculous stores with magical wares everywhere and a rotten sewers filled with all goods... *But* Icewind Dale is a top grade, it is a culmination! A smelling, pathetic three-huts community on the start! With rural children on the main square that don't even know what a heck a squirrel is (probably they from the city)... The idiotic Hrothgar, the brain-trauma priest from the temple, and a bloody Calishity trader with no single attacking spell scroll on the table. Evereywhere rotten fish, decay and deadly as hell itself goblins lurking around — an archaic stoneage it is! And what a heck Cleric can raise a dead? It's a freaking necromancy, isn't it?! Do anybody want to be healed by dude that turning up rotten corpses from the frozen mud?

    P. S. How to make Steam screenshots smaller size (I mean less kilobytes)?
  • OlvynChuruOlvynChuru Member Posts: 3,075
    @frostysh
    frostysh wrote: »
    @OlvynChuru

    Hmm... Interesting! Not read to much because of spoilers. The AI-mod for IWD sounds extremely useful! Like SCS for BG. Do you think for the next party: Wild Mage (my MC), Cleric/Ranger, Undead Hunter, Fighter/Thief, Mage, Bard; the game will be too easy later? Because it's recently was hard as hell for me with my skill to play IWD, barely managed to defeat acursed goblin's ambush after couple of hours harsh words and failed attempts... Mage has no spells, rely only on Dweomer's insanity, it's was horrible.

    But indeed after Cleric/Ranger have miraculously obtain "Animate Dead" after level up, the game become much more easier!

    In the original Heart of Fury Mode which you're playing, it does get easier later on since summoned creatures are so powerful, and you get better summoned creatures later on like Aerial Servant. It eventually becomes pretty cheesy, where you can just summon a bunch of creatures and sit back and they'll win the battles for you. Improved Heart of Fury Mode doesn't empower your summoned creatures so much, so you'll have to rely more on your actual party to win battles.
    frostysh wrote: »
    Actually I played BG with SCS and full hardcore possible, it's was fun but the hell hard and long time it's took... Neverless the SCS was mostly enemy AI and their abilities enhancing, was no any level cap changing (as I remember) and so on, so I am easily imported char after the end of BG into BG2 and SoD, (I have not completed those games yet), the same I want with Icewind Dale — to import char into IWD2, but with modified level caps and Kits and stuff with "Improved Heart of Fury" it's probably will be no good?

    It's not possible to import characters from IWDEE into IWD2, because IWD2 is a 3rd-edition game while IWDEE is 2nd-edition.
  • frostyshfrostysh Member Posts: 55
    OlvynChuru wrote: »
    In the original Heart of Fury Mode which you're playing, it does get easier later on since summoned creatures are so powerful, and you get better summoned creatures later on like Aerial Servant. It eventually becomes pretty cheesy, where you can just summon a bunch of creatures and sit back and they'll win the battles for you. Improved Heart of Fury Mode doesn't empower your summoned creatures so much, so you'll have to rely more on your actual party to win battles.
    Omg... Maybe I just should avoid powerful summoning and spells and so on? The Improved mod seems to change game rules entirely.
    OlvynChuru wrote: »
    It's not possible to import characters from IWDEE into IWD2, because IWD2 is a 3rd-edition game while IWDEE is 2nd-edition.
    Arghh! :#

  • frostyshfrostysh Member Posts: 55
    Install or not to install "Improved HoF" mode, this is the question! If Animate Dead spawning enhanced by HoF monsters it's a gamebreaking spell. :|
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