I don't think a body actually appears that you can carry. Talk to the priest and click on his Healing Tab. He will probably have three or four tabs for different kinds of services. It will be the one on the far left. At the top be things like Cure Light Wounds, etc... At the bottom of the list should be a Raise Dead option.

I just got back from the grocery store. The cart I had the luck of picking had a rusty wheel that just would not stop squeaking. In no time at all I was thinking "The squeaky wheel gets the kick!"

Go for the eyes, Boo!

Ah, hamsters and rangers everywhere - rejoice!

The bigger they are, the harder I hit!

Buttkicking, for goodness!

Evil everywhere... careful not to step in any.

When it comes to quotes, Minsc and Edwin are my favorites, especially:

"'Edwin do this,' 'Edwin do that,' somebody get this jerk a banana!"

A few nights ago I started up a BG2 EE game, importing my kensai Scathach from BG1 and changing her alignment to Lawful Neutral. I have to say, I am liking Imoen even more in this game. At least I was until the game took her away from me! That just got me ticked off. She is my favorite NPC in the series. It almost made me stop playing the game completely, and did make me stop that night.

I read up, and found that at least I can get her back, eventually. Sigh. So I spent the last few nights since escaping the Irenicus Tutorial Dungeon recruiting Nalia and Viconia. Once I got the two of them, I ditched Jaheria and Yojimbo. I cannot stand Jaheria, and Yojimbo just seemed useless. He couldn't pick a single lock in the time I had him, and never did much of anything in combat.

So now I have a solid cleric, and a decent Thief/Mage. That fills out the must-have specialties. Scathach and Minsc are both bricks. So all I need are few more sluggers to keep the enemies busy. I am thinking of maybe picking up Cernd and Valgyar for future companions. I have heard Cernd isn't all that great, but apparently there are some mods that make him an absolute badass when he shapechanges. I get the impression that the Dwarf Fighter (I forget his name) is a good tank as well, but I am not sure I want another evil character in the party.

So you started BG2, eh? I was curious when will your adventures in Amn begin. I played BG2 before BG1 so I didn't miss Imoen that much because I had no idea what role did she play in BG1.

The Dwarf fighter (Korgan/Kargan?) is a tank but it's difficult to keep him in a party if you're not evil. Also, he's rather demanding about his personal quest and if you don't do it in short time, he'll leave.

I had Cernd in my party but just during the related quest, I'm not big fan of druids and I never properly learned to handle druids.

Yoshimo is not really useful but he's...interesting. There's more to him than meets the eye but I won't say anything more, else it'll be too spoilerish.

Good on you, SubRosa! Yes, loosing Imoen is a bummer and it does take a long time to get her back. Nalia can fill her slippers in the interim. Minsc (and Boo) is a keeper of course. If you can keep Minsc and Nalia in your party with Viconia along, then you should be able to add Sir Keldorn Firecam (paladin). As I like to say about Savlian Matius, when it comes to a noble selfless hero, he is the gritty real deal. I simply love Keldorn (especially if you tweak his stats to what they should be for his class). And his 'kit' of Inquisitor is absolutely the best of the paladin kits (true sight and dispel magic!).

I agree with your assessments that Jahiera is annoying and that both Yoshi and Cernd are worthless without some serious tweaking.

Today the party explored the Umar Hills, and added Valgyar to the ranks. Going on the Temple Ruins, they also joined up with Mazzy Star, and defeated the Shade Lord. I find I am liking Mazzy. She is quite good with that bow of hers. Valgyar is not impressing me, so I think he is going to get cut from the team. Though I understand I do need him to get into the Planar Sphere back in Akatha-whatever the city's name is.

Now I have plenty of money. More than enough to pay off the Shadow Thieves to get at Imoen. So I am not sure if I want to do that first, or try tackling that Planar Sphere. I might do the Sphere first, that way I can sack Valgyar afterward.

One thing I am curious about. Is Mazzy a Paladin or not? Her character sheet says she is a Fighter. But she has Paladin powers like Lay on Hands, and she certainly acts like a Paladin.

Sounds like you're having fun!

Mazzy is a 'wannabe paladin'. The only reason she is not a paladin is because paladins must be human and Mazzy is a halfling. Talk about unfair! She'd be welcome in my order any day, for her arm is strong and her heart is pure. She's a good addition to almost any party as long as you stay fairly 'good'.

I am still Balduring on. I finished off the Planar Sphere the other day, and finally gave Valgy his walking papers. So far I have not replaced him with anyone.

Instead I gave the Gauntlets of Ogre Power to Viconia, along with the Flail of the Ages. I used EEKeeper to move around her proficiencies, to give her two points with Flails so she can use it well. That along with the Dark Mail have turned her into quite a tank. She has the best Armor Class in the bunch, nearly the best to hit, and can really dish it out with that flail. Throw in some of her buff spells like Armor of Faith, Bless, and Aid, she is something else. In the Planar Sphere, she was often the only one in the entire party who could do any damage at all, since the Golems are immune to spells, and apparently all magical and non-magical weapons. Only elemental damage enchantments on weapons could harm them.

Scathach is still the top damage dealer, and a 1 to hit Armor Class 0. Which I imagine is the best you can get. Throw in her Kai power, that makes her do maximum damage on every hit, and she can really wallop bad guys. She just picked up the Clestial Fury, which I am looking forward to putting to use. Not the least of which because it has a chance of doing electrical damage. That will give me two characters that can harm golems.

Scath's only downside is her Armor Class. At 0 it is the worst in the party. Not being able to use bracers, helmets, and other things that help armor really hurt. But I managed to find a Shield Amulet, which can get her AC down to -6. On point better than Viconia's. Of course that is when I remember to use it.

Today the party went off to see the Shadow Thieves and paid them to get into the Cowled Wizard's prison. Naturally it is not so easy as that. Scathach and company have to do some work for the thieves first. I left them at the docks, looking for Mook (how perfectly named!).

I have been in the mood to play Persephone again lately. So now she stalks the Sword Coast! It was not easy creating her in BG2. I had to first create a Sorcerer. Then I used EEKeeper to dual class her as a Fighter. Since the way the game works, she wouldn't be able to cast spells when wearing armor, I made her a Kensai. I wasn't sure if I would be able to do it with a Dual/Multi class character, as opposed to a Sorcerer/straight Fighter, but it worked.

Wow! I'll bet P-10 will be kicking some butt as a sorc / kensai! I really liked both those classes.

One thing I learned about kensais is that they can't used ranged weapons of course, but they throw things just fine. Throwing knives have the same range as arrows, while axes have a shorter max range. So my kensais always opted for throwing knives when they needed a 'ranged' weapon. There's a couple throwing knives that will come back to you after you throw them so don't have to resupply knives. Where all this came in handy was with a kensai dualed to thief. They could engage with the throwing knife from right at the edge of stealth detection (just like an archer).

So far the Sorcerer/Kensai combo has worked well. Better than the pure Kensai did in Scathach's game. The Ghost Armor spell works well to help with the armor class, which seems to be the most difficult issue for the Kensais, given how they cannot wear armor, bracers, gauntlets, or helmets. Pretty much everything that lowers your armor class!

Is there a Summon Zombie spell? I know there is Animate Dead, but that always seem to bring a Skeleton. It would be nice if I could find a way to bring Darryl into the game as well.

Speaking of the game, last night Persephone made her escape from the tutorial dungeon. This afternoon she explored about the market a bit, and poked her head inside that circus tent and teamed up with Aerie. Afterward I decided to cut her though. It is just too confusing having all those Cleric spells and Mage spells in one character. I cannot keep straight what she can do. For good measure, I sacked Jaheria and Yojimbo as well.

That leaves just Peresphone and Minsc for now, kicking butts for goodness. But I am thinking a visit to the Copper Coronet will yield Nalia and Amonen, and surely Mazzy Star will be found somewhere in the near future as well.

Can't go wrong with Mazzy, Amoen and Nalia. I liked Aerie very much, simply because she was such a naive little sweetheart - I turned her into a sorceress and she worked much better for me. I still recommend you find and get Keldorn Firecam (beef up his stats some). He can be a really good tank with a couple nice mage-busting abilities, and a fantastic personality/noble nature. He makes a great complement to Minsc up front.

My fave class was the fighter (with 5* bow) then dual classed to thief. They can clear whole dungeons by sniping, handle traps, locks etc. We'd ignore melee and give her a 'summon' animal spirit power to use instead when it was 'hands dirty' time.

I never thought about changing Aerie's class. I could make her a pure cleric. That might work. I mainly picked Amonen for a cleric. He seems alright, but can be annoying, so I am not sure if I am going to keep him around. It sounds like Keldorn is a better pick than him anyway, so there might be a replacement happening there pretty soon.

I did pick up Amonen and Nalia in the Copper Coronet, and while I was at it, went exploring around the property and discovered a den of slavery and gladiatorial games. Persephone smote evil most smitily. Next up it looks like the slavers den. Though I'd still like to get to Nalia's castle, and get down to that Faery Queen with the acorns from those nice dryads in the tutorial dungeon.

Ahhh.

Brings back many wonderful hours of memories!

It brings wonderful memories back indeed.

As much as BGII is a great game in its vanilla state, a lot of content got cut and was later restored in the Unfinished Business Mod. It continues the quest from the circus as it was supposed to, and it also makes Nalia's quest longer. And it does many other things but these two come first to my mind.

As someone who seems to generally like CRPGs, but also as someone who's put off by having to learn reams of excessively fiddly rules, I've got to ask if the Baldur's Gate games are for me. I mean, they sound cool, but while I really liked Planescape Torment I found that I just couldn't get into it because the gameplay felt so obtuse (compare to Shadowrun Returns, a very slick, simple CRPG that I really enjoyed).

So basically, is Baldur's Gate like Planescape? Because I'm interested in buying it but I don't want to waste my money.

I never played Planescape, so I am not sure. I know it uses the Infinity Engine as well, and it was made by Black Isle. Black Isle also developed the Icewind Dale games, and the original Fallout games, and published the Baldur's Gate games, if that gives you something to compare by.

Sorry, Mustard. I've not played Planescape either so can't help compare the games.

I played Planescape for just a few hours but didn't like it. To me Baldur's Gate seems very different, more interesting. But I can't be fair enough because I never really gave PT the real chance.

Bah, you're all useless to me! Useless!

Actually, thanks for the input. I've done a bit more reading around and I think BGII just wouldn't be for me; I loved Planescape's setting but found the AD&D 2-based game system too annoying to enjoy. Seeing as BGII is based on the same engine, I think I'd probably end up losing interest as well. I think I'm going to give Neverwinter Nights 2 a go, that looks to be much more up my street. At least until someone makes a CRPG based on Pathfinder.

I would go for Neverwinter Nights 1 over NWN2. I thought it was the better game, more interesting at least.

Back on the Sword Coast, Persephone and company sacked Amonen, and headed over to the Temple District. There they got themselves hip deep in the sewers, hooked up with Keldcorn, and cleared out a beholder nest. Keldorn is definitely the better pick over Amonen. Now I think it is finally time to get out to Nalia's estate.

Yay! Keldorn! Nalia's estate is a blast, and rife with loot that should help your party muchly.

I was thinking that too about Nalia's Castle. I remember my time through there with Scathach that it was a veritable gold mine. I think the Gauntlets of Ogre Power were in there too. Though I might be mistaken. If I gave those to Aerie, she might make quite the Cleric Tank.

I have been playing BG2 for a while now and have formed some opinions on it. Especially vis a vis BG1.

One thing I definitely like about BG2 over BG1 is that I almost never get attacked while resting in BG2. Where it was almost constant in BG1. It still happens in BG2, but only very rarely. That makes me a lot more willing to rest, which in turn means I don't have to worry about conserving spells so much, and can turn the mages loose much more. I still prefer the Neverwinter Nights games in this respect though. You never get attacked while resting there.

OTOH, one thing I liked better about BG1 was the way the world was laid out in a wide open fashion. The game was laid out so you could walk from one outdoor 'level' to the next, and go all over the place at your whim. But in BG2 you start in the city, and the only way to travel to other places in the world is to first unlock them via starting the quest that takes place there. It makes the world feel much less open, and a lot narrower and smaller.

Another thing that is starting to drive me nuts is constantly hearing "My weapon is faulty!". It seems that no matter where I go, I am constantly fighting monsters that I cannot damage with my weapons, and that spells do absolutely nothing to. It looks like you need at least a +3 weapon to damage a lot of monsters. So of course those are hard to come by. Persephone is now hauling around the Flail of the Ages for a backup weapon, because it is one or the only things that can harm an Iron Golem. Thankfully the group just picked up that +5 Paladin sword for Keldorn to use. So now two members of the party can hurt things. Minsc has the Elven Court Bow, which is +3, but it never harms any of the 'special' monsters, even when using magic arrows.

It does take a fair amount of bean counting and knowledge to lessen frustration - especially when it comes to mage-busting.

I found any of the guides written by DSimpson here to be extremely helpful.

Oh, and speaking of mage-busting, there are four key spells with which you can bust any mage. They are: Dispel Magic, Breach, True Sight, and Ruby Ray of Reversal. Keldorn comes with both Dispel Magic and True Sight (two reasons to love him), Breach is not hard to get fairly soon. Ruby Ray is a higher level spell so you have to fumble around with the lower level spell breakers until you get it.

Lilarcor makes a great weapon (+3 2H sword) for Minsc at this point and is not hard to get in the Slums.

Overall though, I agree. While BGII is a very good game, it is rather linear and, thus, limited in how long it is fun to play the same character.

I always found the funnest portion to be from the beginning until you actually depart on the 'go fetch Imoen' piece of the saga. That is, running all around the long list of areas and quests that help you build up for that.

Thank you for that link! I can see a whole bunch of monster fighting tips in there. Even one to bring all your gear from BG1. I saved that to my hard drive.

Sadly, Keldorn is no longer in the group. I made the mistake of going to the government district for another quest, and the next thing I knew we were visiting Keldorn's family. The end result, he has quit paladining to be with his family. It was the only thing I could do without feeling like a total ass.

So now it is back to Persephone and Minsc as the sole bricks, with Nalia and Aerie as magical/clerical support. I briefly tried out Haire Dalis, but he annoyed me, and his bard song didn't seem to do anything. So I washed my hands of him and his 'actor' friends. At least Mazzy is still out there.

I found a +3 Halberd called Dragon's Bane I think, and I gave it to Minsc, along with the dragon scale armor I got off the red dragon, and a dragon helmet. It is too bad he is a two-hander, otherwise I would have given him Peridan and the dragon shield too. I used EEKeeper to move his proficiencies around to the halberd skill so he could use it better. While I was at it, I changed him from a Ranger to a Fighter, so he could take more than two dots in a skill. It is not like he really ever does rangery stuff in my games anyway.

Aerie has been turning out to be an excellent single class cleric. I had Cromwell smith her up some Anhkeg Armor and gave it to her. Between that and her enchanted shield she has an Armor Class of -8. Her Flame Strikes and Poisons can really make a difference, same with Cause Critical Wounds (that was what put the Shadow Dragon on the ropes).

Nalia is going strong too. I took the Lower Resistance spell twice with her for dealing with those pesky bosses who are immune to everything. It helps. Her Fireballs have also cleared out rooms before the rest of the party could even get their swords wet more than once.

Last night I went to the Umar Hills and picked up Mazzy as well. As always, she's a solid fighter, and a cheerful addition to any party.

I started using DLTC Editor Pro to edit some of the items in the game to give them a +3, so they can hurt things. So far I have only done some of the Companion's unique weapons, like Mazzy's sword and bow, Keldorn's Hallowed Redeemer, the Sword of Chaos you start with, and so on. It has been making the game a lot less frustrating.

Now that for once people are not constantly whining in my ear to go do this or that, I am thinking it is probably about time to go looking for Imoen.

I have also been using the Concurrent ToB NPC Romances Hack by Sir Kalthorine ut Wistan so that my characters can actually try out the female romances. I only just started using it, but I think Aerie is hitting on Persephone with all her talk of sunsets.

That sounds great! Yes, I made Minsc a regular fighter but gave him the berserker power as well. That sounds great for Aerie - when I used her I went the opposite direction and made her a sorceress. But pure cleric sounds like it better suits your party. I always have Aerie in one way or another just because I love her personality. Although I like Mazzy, I never used her too often - only because I always had too many other characters I really wanted in my party.

If you have not done so, you can also create your own party members. They don't really have any personality beyond vanilla voice responses, but they can help fill in gaps.

Also, if you have not tried playing a monk, you might enjoy that as well. Kind of a slow starter but deadly at mid/higher levels.

Edit: Just saw your edit. Of the three women you can romance, Aerie is my fave by far.

I found a great portrait of Imoen on Deviant Art just now. Perfect to shrink down and use in the BG games, or Pillars of Eternity.

Oh, that does capture the thief turned mage that is Imoen!

I found another great Imoen pic. Again, perfect for shrinking down to use in BG, or other games like Pillars or Wasteland 2.

Wow, that is nicer than your previous one. Good find!

Baldur's Gate 3 is coming. Larian is making it (the same folks who made Divinity Original Sin).

It’s got Khajiit curious, fo sho.

I have been tinkering with Icewind Dale Expanded Edition. I bought it a long time ago, but never got far in playing it. I have been toying with running January and the Knights of Nerddom through it. But I keep ramming my head against the obtuseness of DnD 2.0 rules. For example, I am planning on playing January as a Paladin again. So I started her as an Elf. But elves can't be Paladins. So I started her as a Half-Elf, but half-elves cannot be paladins. I was thinking Blackjack would be an ideal Dwarf Bard. But dwarves cannot be bards (apparently there is a height limit to playing a guitar?). *grrrr*

I found a mod that ports the DnD 3.5 rules to IWD and the two Baldur's games. But it failed every time I tried to install it on either Icewind Dale or Baldur's Gate 1. So I just deleted it. I did find a mod that adds the soundsets from Neverwinter Nights 2 to IWD and the two Baldurs games. So January and company can use the same voices I am now using for them in Storm of Zehir.

I sympathize, SubRosa. Trying to preserve the essence of the same character across various games - each with their own quirky rules and limitations - can be a real challenge.

I just discovered that Icewind Dale 2 is going to get an enhanced edition thanks to a team of modders. It will be free to download once the beta testing is finished. From what I gather, you will need to already own Icewind Dale 2, and it will essentially act as a mod for it. More info here

I started playing the Icewind Dale Enhanced Edition. I never got far playing it before, so maybe I can finish it this time around.

I created January and her super friends - Avery, Ryo, Blackjack, Hannah, and Lucas (Lighthammer). Ok, Blackjack is not a super, but he does have a band, so he works as the team Bard. I created him as a Human, but then used EE Keeper to change him to a Hobbit. Lucas (Lighthammer), is a Half Orc Barbarian with a battle axe. Avery is an Elf Cleric of Lathandar.

I was going to make Hannah a Dragon Disciple Sorcerer, but then I found that she could not use a Longbow. I figured that since this is D&D 2.0, the spellcasters will spend 90% of their times not casting spells, and using missile weapons instead. Longbow seems like one of the best options. I was going to try doing her as a Fighter/Mage. But I vastly prefer the Sorcerer over the Wizard, since it does not have all the spell preparation nonsense.

Then I got the idea of Dual-Classing. So I started her out as a Human Fighter (since only Humans can Dual-Class). I am thinking that once she reached 2nd level I will dual class her to a Sorcerer. It will be rough for that first Sorcerer level. But once she gets to level 2 as a Sorcerer she should get all of her Fighter abilities back, including the ability to use pretty much any weapon.

January is a Paladin of course. I made her the Cavalier sublcass. The only downside of which is that she cannot use missile weapons.

So far so good. Mostly the fights have not been too bad. But there are times where one of my party gets one shot killed out of nowhere, even when fighting trash mobs of nothing but goblins. That is really annoying.

I also found the cheats for the Enhanced Edition, which are a little different from the original:

1. First edit the file called baldur.ini in the Icewind Dale - Enhanced Edition folder
(C:\Users\*username*\Documents\Icewind Dale - Enhanced Edition) - Windows 7
using a text editor like Visual Studio Code find the line:
INSERT INTO options ROWS (

And add the following in the line after it:

'Program Options', 'Debug Mode', '1',


2. Start the game and press [Ctrl] + [Spacebar] to display the console window.


C:ExploreArea()
This command reveals the entire map for the current area. Note that it doesn’t remove the fog of war; if a creature is out of your field of vision it will still remain hidden.

C:CreateCreature(“crename”)
This spawns a creature, based on its creature file name, to the center of the screen (or nearest valid point). If you’re spawning a creature you know will be hostile, you may want to pause the game before entering this command for the safety of your party.

C:CreateItem(“itmname”,##)
This spawns an item, based on its item file name, or a stack of the same item, in the inventory of the current party leader.

C:SetCurrentXP(####)
This sets the Experience Point total for the currently selected character or characters to the value noted in parentheses. Note that this sets the total, rather than adding a value to your current experience points.

C:AddGold(####)
In contrast with SetCurrentXP, this command adds an amount of gold to your party’s total based on the number in parentheses.


Without opening the console, the following commands work:
[Ctrl] + J - Move selected characters to pointer position.
[Ctrl] + R - Heal or resurrect the selected character or portrait.
[Ctrl] + Y - Kill selected monster or NPC with no EXP.
[Ctrl] + 4 - Display trigger polygons; shows traps.
[Ctrl] + 9 - Display character bounding boxes.


Area List (Icewind Dale):

AR1000 - Easthaven - Prologue

AR1001 - Temple of Tempus

AR1002 - House with Spear

AR1003 - Empty House

AR1004 - Hrothgar's House

AR1005 - Fishmonger's House

AR1006 - Winter's Cradle Tavern - Level 1

AR1015 - Winter's Cradle Tavern - Level 2

AR1007 - Pomad's Emporium - Level 1

AR1016 - Pomad's Emporium - Level 2

AR1008 - Snowdrift Inn

AR1009 - Old Jed's House

AR1010 - Scrimshanders's House

AR1011 - Warehouse

AR1012 - Torn Net House

AR1013 - Winter Wolf Pelt House

AR1014 - Strange Writing House

AR1100 - Easthaven - Chapter Six

AR1106 - Winter's Cradle Tavern - Level 1

AR1109 - Winter's Cradle Tavern - Level 2

AR1101 - Crystal Tower - Level 1

AR1102 - Crystal Tower - Level 2

AR1103 - Crystal Tower - Level 3

AR1104 - Crystal Tower - Level 4

AR1105 - Crystal Tower - Level 5

AR1200 - Orc Cave Areas

AR1201 - Orc Cave - Inside

AR2000 - Kuldahar Pass

AR2001 - Goblin Cave - Outside

AR2002 - Goblin Cave - Inside

AR2003 - Ogre Tower

AR2004 - Old Mill - Level 1

AR2005 - Old Mill - Level 2

AR2006 - Old Mill - Level 3

AR2100 - Kuldahar

AR2101 - Tower of Orrick the Grey - Room 1

AR2102 - Tower of Orrick the Grey - Room 2

AR2103 - Conlan the Smithy

AR2104 - House with Portraits

AR2105 - Townperson's House - Male

AR2106 - Townperson's House - Female

AR2107 - Temple of Ilmater

AR2108 - Oswald Fiddlebender's Airship

AR2110 - Potter's House

AR2111 - Root Cellar Tavern

AR2112 - Arundel's House - Level 1

AR2116 - Arundel's House - Level 2

AR2113 - Gerth's Equipment Shop

AR2114 - Evening Shade Inn - Level 1

AR2115 - Evening Shade Inn - Level 2

AR3000 - Vale of Shadows

AR3001 - Shrine of Auril

AR3101 - Cave - Gate Key

AR3201 - Cave - Vile Black Liquid

AR3301 - Cave - Sanctum Key

AR3401 - Cave - Carrion Crawler

AR3501 - Kresselack's Tomb Level 1

AR3502 - Kresselack's Tomb Level 2

AR3503 - Kresselack's Tomb Level 3

AR3600 - Temple of the Forgotten God Area

AR3601 - Temple of the Forgotten God - Level 1

AR3602 - Temple of the Forgotten God - Level 2

AR3603 - Temple of the Forgotten God - Level 3

AR4000 - Dragon's Eye Area

AR4001 - Dragon's Eye - Level 1

AR4002 - Dragon's Eye - Level 2

AR4003 - Dragon's Eye - Level 3

AR4004 - Dragon's Eye - Level 4

AR4005 - Dragon's Eye - Level 5

AR5000 - Severed Hand Area

AR5001 - Severed Hand - Level 1

AR5002 - Severed Hand - Level 2

AR5003 - Severed Hand - Level 3

AR5004 - Severed Hand - Level 4

AR5502 - Bridge To Labelas Tower

AR5101 - Labelas Tower - Level 1

AR5104 - Labelas Tower - Level 2

AR5102 - Labelas Tower - Level 3

AR5103 - Labelas Tower - Level 4

AR5201 - Solonar Tower - Level 1

AR5202 - Solonar Tower - Level 2

AR5203 - Solonar Tower - Level 3

AR5204 - Solonar Tower - Level 4

AR5301 - Corellon Tower - Level 1

AR5302 - Corellon Tower - Level 2

AR5303 - Corellon Tower - Level 3

AR5304 - Corellon Tower - Level 4

AR5401 - Sheverash Tower - Level 1

AR5402 - Sheverash Tower - Level 2

AR5403 - Sheverash Tower - Level 3

AR5404 - Sheverash Tower - Level 4

AR6000 - Upper Dorn's Deep Area

AR6001 - Main Cave

AR6002 - Barracks

AR6003 - Umber Hulk Labyrinth

AR6004 - Forge - Inoperative

AR6005 - Tiers Of The Dead

AR6006 - Hall of Heroes

AR6007 - Ettin Cave

AR6008 - Neo-Orog Cave

AR6009 - Orc Cave

AR6010 - Puzzle Room

AR6011 - Gear Room

AR6013 - Forge - Operative

AR6014 - Bandoth's Tower

AR7005 - Wyrm's Tooth Glacier

AR7002 - Museum Foyer

AR7001 - Museum

AR7003 - Slave Area

AR7004 - Frost Giant Cave

AR7000 - Lower Dorn's Deep Area

AR8001 - Main Cave

AR8002 - Watchtower - Level 1

AR8014 - Watchtower - Level 2

AR8003 - Gnome Mine

AR8004 - Gnome Hideaway

AR8005 - Marketh's Courtyard

AR8006 - Marketh's Palace - Level 1

AR8007 - Marketh's Palace - Level 2

AR8008 - Mine Area

AR8009 - Artisan's District

AR8010 - Malavon's Chamber

AR8011 - Great Forge

AR8012 - Broken Temple

AR8013 - Poquelin's Lair

AR8015 - Norl's House

AR8016 - Safe House


Area List 2 (Icewind Dale: Heart Of Winter):

AR9100 - Loneywood

AR9101 - The Whistling Gallows - Level 1

AR9102 - The Whistling Gallows - Level 2

AR9103 - Shrine Of Waukeen

AR9104 - Ranger's Cabin

AR9105 - The Cooper's Place

AR9106 - Cartwright's House - Level 1

AR9107 - Cartwright's House - Level 2

AR9108 - Trappers' Cabin

AR9109 - Thom Farlod House

AR9110 - Gravedigger's Shack

AR9200 - Barbarian Camp

AR9201 - Mead Hall

AR9300 - Burial Isle - Hjollder

AR9301 - Necromancer's Tower

AR9400 - Barrow

AR9500 - Gloomfrost

AR9501 - Seer Caves - Level 1

AR9502 - Seer Caves - Level 2

AR9600 - Sea Of Moving Ice

AR9601 - Icasaracht's Lair - Level 1

AR9602 - Icasaracht's Lair - Level 2

AR9603 - To The Sahuagin Temple

AR9604 - End Fight - Icasaracht

For the items list: http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/256221-icewind-dale/faqs/8494 (They should work)

I hope January and the gang enjoy Icewind Dale. I recall playing it once through many (many) years ago.

I just found out that Sorcerer's cannot dual class or multiclass in Icewind Dale. I imagine the Baldur's Gate games too. If they are even in the BG games. Grrr. It will not even work using EE Keeper, as the game is hard coded to not allow it. So if I want Hannah to be able to use magic and a bow, she has to be a Fighter/Wizard.

I hate DnD 2.0...

I think I recall that Sorcs in BGII could not dual class either. *sigh* Ah yes, the hard wired game trope of 'If you use magic, you shall not use a bow; if you use a bow you must use a dagger. . . . ' The bane of mystic archers everywhere. The best games I've ever played in terms of actually supporting mystic archery have been Diablo II and Oblivion. Oh well. D&D and Skyland were not good. ESO is not bad but it is more like Diablo II in that much of archers' magic is derived from their bow (skills where arrows can heal, split, come down as a persistent volley, etc).

Ok, I took another crack at Icewind Dale. I found a mod to help me. Phun Cheat Spells adds two spells. One allows the character to use any item, forever. So your mages and clerics can use composite longbows if you want (you still need to meet the strength requirement however). This spell won't show up in your inventory, it just sets your character so you can use any item.

The second is a spell to your character that gives you a full rest (recover hit points and spells) whenever you use it. It does not have a name that shows up in the interface, it looks like a multicolored egg, and it says there are two of the. When you click it, you won't see anything happen. But if you check your spell list, you will see it is refreshed.

How you get the spells is wonky. You have to use the console to add a potion that corresponds to the spell. Then you drink the potion, and the spell is added to you. You have to do this for every individual character. And the rest spell only works on the character who has the spell. So if you want to use it to rest your entire party, you have to give the spell to every character, and use it separately on each of them.

But it does seem to cover my biggest gripes in the game. So I restarted. This time Ryo is an Assassin. I plan to eventually dual class him to fighter once I level him up enough to get his Find Traps and Open Locks skills up to 100. He is a dedicated archer, using a composite longbow. Hannah is a Dragon Disciple Sorcerer, using a composite longbow when not using spells. Avery is still a cleric, but now he is using a katana (which is a two handed weapon in this game). And even though January is a Cavalier Paladin, she can now use ranged weapons. it is composite longbows for everyone!

Glad you're finding some workarounds. When a whole party opens up from max range with longbows, that can do some serious damage before your foes get to you!

I played IWD for a while today, and had a lot more fun than I did before. So it is working out better now. When I switch the entire party to bows, it is just stunning how they mow down the monsters as they run up.

Still pushing on with IWD. As I have read, it is basically a hack 'n slash, with a bare framework of a story hanging the disparate battles together. It is not as bad as Diablo, but not as deep and rich an RPG experience as say, Skyrim (and yes, you probably won't see Skyrim described that way often, but compared to Icewind Dale, it is!)

I have been enjoying the tactical side to the game. What I remember of the Baldur's Gate games was everyone running about pell mell and stabbing everything as quickly as they could. I would try to form a wall of fighters for my squishy mages to hide behind, and the bad guys would just run right around them and attack my mages anyway. But it seems to be working out a lot better in IWD. Maybe the AI is just dumber, because I can almost always prevent the monsters from reaching my squishies. Or it might just be that there is a lot of interiors with narrow hallways, where there is just no room to flank my fighters.

I am liking the Full Rest spell added by Phun Cheat Spells. It makes my spellcasters actually useful. Hannah can pretty much concentrate on just casting spells now. Though Avery still only uses a few buffs like Bless here and there. Still, I can use the Full Rest on each of them after every fight. That way they can use their magic every battle, like a real magician.

Plus, Icewind Dale is still a better love story than Twilight...

I found some more soundsets here. That allowed me to change around the ones I was using for Avery and Blackjack. Avery is now one of the new Sorcerer soundsets, and Blackjack is one of those from Heart of Winter that was done by Mark Hamill.

Still working through Icewind Dale. I am about a third of the way through the game now. I just got to Severed Hand (not a name I would have chosen if I was an elf making a fortress...)

This game really loves throwing hordes of enemies at you. You will take a step into a room, and a dozen monsters will attack you. Take another step, and a dozen more will come, another step, and... well you get the picture.

The monsters are spread out, and seem to have a short radius from which they will go hostile. Basically the fog of war around you. So you will be slugging it out in a huge battle in a large room, and there will be monsters at the other end of the room too far away for you to see. So they will not go hostile and join in the fight. Not until you walk far enough in to see them.

So what I have started doing is set up my team in one spot, and cast buff spells on everyone. Then I send January forward as a scout to get the monsters attention. Then she goes back to the party, and leads the monsters into their longbows. Rinse and repeat, each time with January going a little farther to get the next set of monsters.

Now that we are high enough level, Hannah has a fireball spell. That is also handy for just lobbing into rooms past the fog of war. I have cleared out monsters I never saw more times than once that way.


The Alliance battles it out with fish-stealing goblins

Zombie slayers

As a Dragon Disciple, Hannah has a breath weapon attack

I am the Lizard King, I can do anything

Now I have a fireball, ho, ho, ho!

Lizard Horde

That was my approach in the game as well. It got boring with time, especially close to the end, where you reach some Dwarven complex. My favorite location in the game was the Ice Palace, but I'm not sure if this palace is in IWD1 or IWD2. I also liked some haunted forest, where you must find your way out, it's like a maze, and you must pay attention as to where have you already been, else you might up going in circles all the time.