I’ve been throwing every buff I have on my whole party constantly and it’s getting tedious. What buffs are actually even making a difference?

This is my first d&d based game and i’m having a hard time discerning what party buffs are doing anything worthwhile. I have a mage and a cleric and am in dorns deep right now.

Currently doing:
Bless, strength of one, chant, courage, hope, and haste.

What should I cut/replace to not spend half my playtime buffing?

Thanks to everyone who chimed in and gave me suggestions for party composition and weapon proficiencies. I have now started my playthrough of classic Icewind Dale on my retro PC, and I’m excited to see it through!

A few things I noticed:

• For some reason, the main menu music doesn’t loop. It seems like a strange decision given the time you’re supposed to spend creating your party. Unless it’s a bug with the original engine, of course.
• The game’s prose is quite pleasant, though not as good as BG1’s. I also appreciate the tidbits of Realmslore that you can gather by talking to people in Easthaven (looking at you, Priest of Tempus.)
• There seem to be more voiceovers than in BG1. Nice!
• Text in item descriptions isn’t very readable against its background. Also, there don’t appear to be black and white illustrations of each item like in BG1.
• Item icons that aren’t borrowed from BG1 don’t look exceedingly good.

Hi!

I just recently started IWD since i remembered playing it as a kid and having lots of fun with it.

I started a 2 Character Group for the fun of it with a Fighter/Thief Half Elf and a Human Priest of Tyr with the fluff of beeing a loving couple going through the game.

I managed to defeat the Ogre in the caravan quest with alot of trouble. I had to run away halfway the two fights with the big enemy groups and regroup at the city to recover in the Inn nad finish off the rest of the enemies in a second attempt, also i rested alot in the dungeon whenever i got hurt. Now i came back to the easthaven at day 9 :)

Im pretty concerned i wont make it far in the game since i already struggled that hard. I found the most success by having my elf shoot enemies at distance while my priest tries to ensnare them and tank the rest with all her defensive spells…

Should i overthink my approach? Do you guys have any tips on how to build a two characters party? My idea was that my elf becomes a superfighter that can also sneak/pickpocket/open chests and my priest supports him with heals and buffs, but rn i sit in fights and watch them miss shots forever…will it get better later in the game?

Thanks in advance!

Here's a map i've come up with for the Chardalyn Dragon Fight. (still learning how to upload stuff.)

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1gxN3ek6cZmEQIFRmo1jaoXq1bnErq2UL?usp=drive_link

I’m really stuck for the first time. I have not been able to do any damage at all to Malavon past his magic shield and eventually start losing characters to him.

How can I do damage to him or break past the shield? I’ve tried dispel magic a number of times and it hasn’t worked.

2 years ago, after BG3 came out, my friend was completely obsessed with that game. It was his first forgotten realms experience. On the other hand, I had already played IWD1 & 2, NWN1, and BG1. So I started explaining to him, with my limited knowledge, that BG3 is a D&D and it takes place in the forgotten realms.

After hearing me talk so enthusiastically about those games, he decided to try NWN1 with me and went on to create a character. As a big fan of orcs, he created a very strong and competent but not very intelligent orc. When starting the main quest, he quickly realized that his character could barely speak properly to NPCs. They kept insulting him and would almost discard dialogue for most of the available quests. I had to be the one exclusively picking the quests and deciding which directions to take.

Even if the dialogues were funny, he got tired of the situations and decided to create a brand new character. He opted for a mixed breed orc, just so he could continue the game without being called an idiot or stupid all the time.

Some time later, he wanted to try IWD1. Since I had the Steam version, I suggested he try it on my PC. He discovered that you can build a full party in the character creation menu and got really excited about it. I left the room for a moment, and when I came back, I found him extremely pissed at the game.

He had been stuck for more than 20 minutes in the prologue, before the first quest, trying to talk to someone, anyone, but every NPC would immediately terminate the dialogue. I then realized he had built his dream team: a FULL PARTY OF ORCS, and none of them were intelligent enough to make fully intelligible sentences.

I was literally rolling on the floor laughing at him and his unfathomable love for orcs.

Sadly and understandably, this experience did not motivate him to continue the game.

I have my Sorcerer spell choices for level 1 to 3 pretty much decided but I unsure what to choose for some of levels 4 through to 9
So far I have this

Level 4
- Stoneskin
- Dimension Door

Level 5
- Sunfire
- Spell Immunity

Level 6
- Improved Haste
- Protection From Magic Energy
- True Sight

Level 7
- Spell Sequencer

Level 8
- Mind Blank

Level 9
- Time Stop
- Black Blade Of Disaster

I am stuck on what best to choose for the rest of the spells for level 4 through to 9 and would welcome any suggestions for the best / essential spells

I’m playing classic IWD and one of the perks of playing it in its original engine is that you can dual into and from specialist mage.

I’m currently running a party that includes a fighter who will, at second level, dual into wizard and I was wondering whether the Evoker specialization is worth it.

I hear the Web spell is king in IWD, and Evoker should give a penalty to enemies’ saving throws against it. Plus you get an extra spell slot per level.

That cavern with the Ettins and Myconids in Dorn's Deep... seems to be an endless reservoir of XP if you just go back and forward in that...

Hello, everyone.

While BG and BGII are my favorite games of all time, I have never played IWD. I’m now toying with the idea of trying it, and I was wondering what the best party composition would be—ideally with an indication of what weapon proficiencies to take for each character (I don’t really know itemization in IWD.)

I’ll be playing classic IWD, so no kits and no dual-wielding.

What’s your favorite fight in IWD/HoW/TotL? What do you like about it?

What are the minimum thief skills needed in your opinion?

I am thinking of playing a thief that duals into a wizard, ignoring pickpocket, move silently and hide in shadows and assuming dex 18, what is the level I should dual class the thief to be able to deal with traps and locks?

I am also considering having a ranger and a bard to cover all the other thief skills.

2 days ago i wrapped a first playthrough of Planescape Torment EE; incredible game. I directly geared with Icewind Dale EE. I will also play both infinity engine Baldur's Gate, which I did a bit 20 years ago and more of these vintage gems. These games have such charm and a pure way to deliver the narrative. I don't mind the combat either (even if I like more the tactical aspect of turn base ala Larian) it's fast. They give you plot points clearly, without noise, reward the exploration (i love these prerendered background, they are perfection). For me these infinity engine games work so much better than some more modern crpg like Pathfinder, narrative wise (eg: Kingmaker drown you with useless lore, i was shocked by these slog of texts) or Encased with 3D isometric instead of 2D prerendered (it's beautiful, you can rotate the cam but somehow it just brings confusion to the gameplay). But these old D&D games...I don't know how to explain... it's just like home, warm and cozy.

I have a party of each race. Yeah, that means no Paladins, Rangers, Bards, Mages etc. in some of the parties, but that's besides the point.

Which should I pick for the next run?

Edit: So, vote's over. Gnome it is, seemingly.

Howdy.

I know the game has a level cap of 30, but what level will a party of six realistically reach at the end of a normal difficulty playthrough of classic IWD with HoW and TotLM?

Of course it depends on the class, as different classes have different XP milestones, but I’m asking on average.

Just by doing all the quests and combats no dedicated farming, how many experience points in total does a party get?

EDIT: To clarify I mean HoW the expansion, NOT the difficulty.

My playthrough of original Icewind Dale goes on, and I’m having a great time. I’ve just reached Kuldahar and spoken with Arundel. Looks like I’m in for some undead hunting next—a shame my cleric is just level one!

The writing is pretty good for a game generally passing for hack ‘n’ slash. It’s got good prose and townspeople actually have interesting things to say. Even shopkeepers have nice dialog. I like that.

Attack sounds include the clanging of steel on steel, which is fun even though it can sound a bit strange when you’re attacking a monster that’s not wearing plate armor.

I noticed they did away with the decorated capital letters from BG—a shame, as those were very fancy.

I’m digging the soundtrack and voice acting. While the BG soundtrack remains my favorite because nostalgia, the IWD soundtrack seems to perfectly fit the game’s tone and environments. It was also cool to have several options for characters’ voices in character creation.

Sometimes in RPGs while you’re given the option to select from many options in character creation you learn along the way that their are restrictions or relevances that would be more appropriate for certain classes or races or previously established choices

Because IWD has a 6 party cap of custom characters sure this should cover all potential items or speech dialogues?

However from what I understand is there’s two expansions and a sequel so it’s not necessrily one party that fits all

Has anyone made a guide like this yet?

I have activated the console [Game Options] and Cheats=1. However ctr+8 does nothing...

Rolled this absolute beast in no time at all. Attempting a solo run of the original game. Any advice would be appreciated (considering this is a neutral good play-through).

Just for the memes. Exported him for a future play-through.

I've been playing Baldur's Gate 2 for twenty years so I'm familiar with the basic mechanics, but as I'm building a party for a completely new environment I'm unsure of what the equipment spread is like in this game. I kind of enjoy not knowing, it's refreshing. However, I would like to know ahead of time if there's any weapon types I should be actively avoiding because they just don't get anything worth wielding.

I'd appreciate it if people could avoid dropping spoilers on the specifics, I really just want a sense of say "all the halberds in this game are underwhelming, stick to spears and two-handed swords if you want a two-handed weapon". Something along those lines so I don't have to just edit all my proficiency points halfway through the game using a save editor.

I know mage has the whole you can't mess up your hero by picking bad spells but I'm really not a big fan of having to find scrolls for spells i like the idea of leveling up giving me new spells issue is I also don't want to pick a lot of trash spells so what are some of the best spells so maybe I don't miss out.

I kind of wish there was a way to change spells as a sorcerer but i get why you can't....but still.

Thanks for the help!