Icewind Dale 2 hard?

[Musopticon?]

I've been reading a lot of RPG-forums recently and the general concensus seems to be that IWD2 was a great bit harder than all the other Infinity games. I can't understand that. Sure it got some very strategic battles and you had to sometimes use your party's skills to their maximum effect, but in overall I consider it to be almost a cakewalk compared to BG 2 and 1. BG 2 had insane spell-spamming battles and hard mages and on the other hand, BG 1 was a newbie's nightmare(and mage's <_< ), having one of the hardest starts ever. I remember dieing several times in the first wolf encounter. And the undead wolf pack? Frickin' insane.

 

What do you CRPG-players extraordinaries think? Though or not?

 

(have my posts suddenly become a great bit longer?)

[Jumjalum]

IWD2 had some pretty hard puzzles and I dont remember it being a cakewalk exactly in the combat area. Maybe you had a good party setup? BG2 had some great mage fights but you just avoided them until you were high lvl enough to take them on. BG was pretty difficult to start but again you could avoid the fights you didnt like until you had enough party members or a high enough lvl. Mind you, nothing in IWD2 was as hard as that huge demon in Ulgoth's Beard. The Guardian was kinda close but didn't need half as much reloading and hair-pulling.

[mEtaLL1x]

IWD2...... for me it was cakewalk, even on Heart of Fury.

Reason? I.I.I. ! - Imbalanced Improved Invisibility! It was just too easy. Almost no enemy could see you and you was like just solo your sorc in most of the areas.

 

Among Infinity games, the most difficult for me was Baldur's Gate 2: really great battles. I remember fearing the very sight of vampires in the beginning... and then those mindflayers! damn they were hard. And mage battles - my favorite part! It was great dueling my Sorcerer with Jon Irenicus...

And then there was ToB with Demogorgon and his croneys..... the whole exp. pack is crap, really: no story, but the battles were sure rewarding.

[Arkan]

The mage battles in SoA were simply wash, rinse, repeat.

[Deraldin]

And then there was ToB with Demogorgon and his croneys..... the whole exp. pack is crap, really: no story, but the battles were sure rewarding.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I think I might have to re-install BG2 so that I can play Ascension again. That was a tough fight especally on some of the higher difficulty levels.

[aVENGER]

Despite being an IE veteran at the time I acquired it, IWD2 still managed to offer me a fairly challenging experiance. IMO, the early levels were pretty difficult (Shaegarne Bridge, Horde Fortress) with the later ones becoming progressively easier as your party was gaining more XP. There were a few harder fights later on (i.e. the Guardian, the Holy Avenger battle and the Fields of Slaughter fights) but it was mostly a cakewalk after reaching party level 6. The end battle was kind of annoying as well, but that was more due to the various bugs than because of the actual difficulty of the encounter.

 

The mage battles in SoA were simply wash, rinse, repeat.

 

Yeah, even though the enemy AI constantly cheated with illegal spell triggers/contingencies, it didn't really matter. It was pretty much True Sight -> Ruby Ray -> Breach -> hack to pieces -> repeat ad infinitum.

[Volourn]

IWD2 was the second easiest IE game behind PST. It's overrated.

[Ewen Brown]

IWD2...... for me it was cakewalk, even on Heart of Fury.

Reason?  I.I.I. ! -  Imbalanced Improved Invisibility!  It was just too easy. Almost no enemy could see you and you was like just solo your sorc in most of the areas.

have you heard of a thing called a bug

 

have you heard of a thing called a patch

[Jumjalum]

How can it be overrated? Everyone says it sucks.

[Volourn]

"Everyone says it sucks."

 

Eh? You should read more posts... and, not exaggerate.

[Sargallath Abraxium]

...Volourn stickin' up fer IWD2???...will wonder ne'er cease!!!...

 

 

...WHO LUVS YA, BABY!!...

[Volourn]

"Volourn stickin' up fer IWD2???...will wonder ne'er cease!!!... "

 

Uh. I'm not. Reread the echange again. Maybe your wemic brain will figure out the complex puzzle this time.

[Phosphor]

I only found the final battle of IWD2 hard, the rest ranged from nicely challenging to fairly easy. Now, I've never done the fight for the holy avenger sword, and I hear that one is tough.

BG2 was the hardest IE game for me, due to the heavy dependence on magic, and I've never been good at playing spellcasters.

[Sammael]

I only recall dying twice in BG2, first to the shadow dragon, and then to Irenicus. ToB was much the same, and I was only challenged by Demogorgon and Draconis.

 

IWD2 wasn't too hard, but it utilized some very frustrating tactics, such as constant ambushes, respawning enemies, enemies appearing in clusters behind the party, etc. The first time I played, I had a very hard time with Isair and Medae, because I had a 4-PC party with 2 ECL characters, but I triggered the toughest possible versions of them. Chahopek wasn't particularly difficult.

[Sargallath Abraxium]

...as many "tough" battles as there were in SoA, I dunna e'er remember dyin' 'cept fer me first run-in wit' the Flesh-ta-Stone trap in the Unseein' Eye quest (stupid Yoshimo, couldna tell a trap from a turnip); Draconis, on the other hand, wiped me sorry arse out thrice 'afore I got the "wash, rinse, repeat" strategy down pat...he had a particular hate on fer Sarevok, as I remembers, killin' the poor sap immediately e'ery time he seen 'im...

 

 

...IWD2 wasna tragically difficult (I only had three characters die on me once a piece; me Aasimar Pally & me Drow Sorc in the HA battle an' me stunned-arse Half-Orc Barby chic when she decided ta wander off on her own an' git gang-banged by Driders in the UnderDark), but I found a few battles, 'specially the Holy Avenger one, more challengin' than anythin' any other IE game had ta offer, 'cept fer maybe Burial Isle in HoW 'afore it was patched...hells, I betcha I died more in IWD/HoW more than I did in all the other IE games combined, includin' the times in PS:T wheres ya had ta die...

 

 

...WHO LUVS YA, BABY!!...

[damonors]

An IWD2 thread!

 

[insert snarky reference to many returning frost darts]

[Phosphor]

I found with IWD2 there to be more "skin of your teeth" battles than in any of the other IE games. Usually, you either plow through with ease or get your arse handed to you in short order. With IWD2, I had more evenly-matched battles where there was a real ebb and flow of combat, and I used tactics more than in any of the other IE outings, using each of my characters in a very specific role and task.

The only other IE game that had individual character usage like that was when I played my BG1/TOSC four-member team. Most of the other times it was just mob tactics.

[merry andrew]

I found with IWD2 there to be more "skin of your teeth" battles than in any of the other IE games. Usually, you either plow through with ease or get your arse handed to you in short order. With IWD2, I had more evenly-matched battles where there was a real ebb and flow of combat, and I used tactics more than in any of the other IE outings, using each of my characters in a very specific role and task.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That's a good summary of my experience with IWD2. I played through it with a party of four, and from the first big battle in the defense of Targos, I knew that it was in my best interest to know my characters and utilize them to the best of my ability.

[Logan]

I just atarted a game of IWD2 two weeks ago, I had never finished it and wanted to give it a go. I found the battles up to the Sharblah bridge to be very difficult. I'm only playing with 4 chars and 2 are dual class, which is much weaker in 3rd Ed.

 

I was pretty impressed with the graphics and dialog, then I left Targos and the endless battles became a bit tedious. My last battle was with the barbarian tribe on the way to the monestary, that was pretty tough. The farthest I've made it previously is to the begining of Dragon's Eye.

[Phosphor]

In fights against something like the barbarian tribe, it's good to keep in mind what kind of saving throws your enemy likely has. Babarians for example have low WILL saves, so hitting them with enchantment and domination magic is fantastic; you can easily scatter their number, hold them and even get yourself some allies.

Mutliclass character can be quite effective if you approach them logically and use the mix of abilities to the best advantage. In the long run, most multi-classes underperform in comparison to single-classed character, but some combos do work well. My Rogue/Barbarian/Ranger was a life-saver in a few occasions right up into the end, for example.

[Jumjalum]

Man I would start another game of IWD2 just to look at those spell icons, but I'm too engrossed in WoW.

[Dranoel]

I've been reading a lot of RPG-forums recently and the general concensus seems to be that IWD2 was a great bit harder than all the other Infinity games. I can't understand that. Sure it got some very strategic battles and you had to sometimes use your party's skills to their maximum effect, but in overall I consider it to be almost a cakewalk compared to BG 2 and 1. BG 2 had insane spell-spamming battles and hard mages and on the other hand, BG 1 was a newbie's nightmare(and mage's <_< ), having one of the hardest starts ever. I remember dieing several times in the first wolf encounter. And the undead wolf pack? Frickin' insane.

 

What do you CRPG-players extraordinaries think? Though or not?

 

(have my posts suddenly become a great bit longer?)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Those set battles and cutsequences are a pain in the arse (don't believe me? - try HoF mode fairy boy!) The numerous ambushes where you enter maps to find yourself facing an already arrayed force, whilst your own units are too often arranged in a random and ridiculous order - anyone else who has entered the orc ambush on the shaengarne or entered the orc stronghold proper with your mages positioned at the front of your party for no explicable reason, should understand what I mean. The more times you play through the game the more enemies you seem to face. The first time I played through chapter 1 there weren't too many enemies. The third or fourth time when I went through there seemed to be twice the numbers against me and when I tried HoF mode the numbers were ridiculous!

 

BG1 is frustrating cos your party is so crap but if you stick to the main roads down to Nashkel you should servive relatively unscathed. If you choose the right dialogue responses you can even dispose of Bassilus ridiculously easily and net yourself an easy 5K.

BG2 has some hard encounters. Mages are always a problem for me mainly cos I never could understand which spell dispelled what protection. Ultimately though I would just charge in with swords swinging, vaguely cast a dispel, pierce magic and/or breach in the general direction and let the melee characters remove any stoneskin, mirror images etc with the pointy bits of their swords - it seemed to work. The only real problems I ever seemed to have were against the dragons who just seemed designed to wind me up anyway. I just used to dispose of Firkraag, the black dragon and the Shadow dragon with the wands of cloud kill trick most of the time (until the ToB supplement changed their response from docile to bastard vs this tactic!)

[Dranoel]

In fights against something like the barbarian tribe, it's good to keep in mind what kind of saving throws your enemy likely has. Babarians for example have low WILL saves, so hitting them with enchantment and domination magic is fantastic; you can easily scatter their number, hold them and even get yourself some allies.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Funny - I tried that in HoF mode (even chromatic orb requires a will save!) It didn't work!

 

Back to mass summons, ranged weapons and twelve paces!

[Phosphor]

Their saves are probably ramped up for HOF.

 

The only real problems I ever seemed to have were against the dragons who just seemed designed to wind me up anyway. I just used to dispose of Firkraag, the black dragon and the Shadow dragon with the wands of cloud kill trick most of the time (until the ToB supplement changed their response from docile to bastard vs this tactic!)

 

You can still cheese that in TOB. I forget the particulars but I did it last time I managed to play as far as Firkraag.

[Ellester]

There are two things that made IWD2 harder than all the other IE games. And yes, I