Icewinddale first timer questions

[De_Priester]

Now being a baldurs gate fan and never having played icewind dale before I am sure as hell plenty confused. What I noticed is a blend between baldurs gate and neverwinter nights when it comes to skills and builds that and finding the graphics horrible

I have played bdg2 a lot and is it me or are those graphics better ? I dunno what came first bdg2 (+xpaq) or iwd2 but the graphics look very sketchy to me.

Anyway I find myself looking at the party creating thingy and wondering what to create since I am completely thinking bdg2 here and noticing if I make a party from scratch I got all sorts of new trinket choices to pick from and if possible wouldn't mind someone to give me a nice 6 party layout

I was thinking:

Human (subrace) Paladin greatsword
Human Wizzard/Sorceror (dunno yet but I am so much more familair with a wizzard)
Elven Cleric (healer/buff)
Halfling (I think) illusionist/thief (yeah yeah jan jansen )
fighter gnome ? dualwield axe/warhammer/mace ?
fighter dualwield swords

Now I know mucho gaps there and it's mostly based on my experience in bdg2 using Mage (specialist), Jaheira, aerie, minsc/boo, jan jansen, nalia, paladin dude most of the time ditching nalia after her quests and then getting the paladin for the harder quests.

So please some info would be nice.

Also I am wondering if anyone else running win2k has had memory dumps while in the normal party creation menu ? had this rather consistently but ingame it runs fine.

Anyhow any pointers about the game would be nice, going of to bed soon but love to read up about a game before starting on the quests

btw how is the storyline of the game ? Cuz it feels so empty right now the shallow party, not being a baalspawn etc no real party members

How can I enjoy the game the most just create a party or pick one ?

Input thanks !

[CopperWater]

Gnomes are the better illusionists so you might want to use a gnome for the wiz/theif. And maybe a dwarf fighter instead of a gnome. Oh yeah, Jan is a gnome.

[Galuf the Dwarf]

For your paladin, De-Priester, I think you might be better off with longswords as your mainstay for weapons.

When you dual-wield with any character, you recieve some form of penalty to your attack rolls. The lowest you can get is -2 to both weapons if you have both the 'Ambidexterity' and 'Two-Weapon Fighting' feats and equip a small weapon (which are only short swords or daggers) in the character's shield hand. Your Icewind Dale II manual will have the penalty charts for that in one of the last 20 pages (I think that's where it is in there). Also, if Rangers are wearing light armor or no armor at all (in other words, leather armor or none), they can equip one-handed weapons in both hands as if they have the 'Ambidexterity' and 'Two-Weapon Fighting'.

Sorcerors, as you may know, have a different stat for casting spells. The other thing with them is also managing what spells to cast as well their stats (enough Charisma for spells, Dexterity for Armor Class bonus, and Intelligence for Skill points, and later improve Constitution for better hit points and Concentration checks). Of course, the same could apply to wizards, though their main casting stat is, as we all know, Int, and so that would give them more points to place in Alchemy, Knowledge: Arcana, Spellcraft, Concentration (important in combat for them, Sorcerors, and Clerics, LET ME TELL YOU!).

Also, don't make too many characters multi-classed in this, as they may not be able to become very powerful in this. The only reason I say this is that you actually have to apply each new level to a character class (just thought I'd remind you of this). In the case of your Illusionist/Rogue, he might go somewhere, but he may not become the greatest rogue or the greatest spellcaster either. Also, he could wear leather armor and cast arcane spells, but he'd recieve a percentage penalty to cast (10% with normal leather armor). Divine spellcasters (Clerics, Druids, Paladins, and Rangers) do not recieve a spell-casting penalty for wearing armor.

Also, rogues can wear studded leather, but recieve a small armor check penalty. In other words, their armor causes their skills to not be performed as well as their skill points in them would allow. Studded leather has an armor check penalty of -1, so it would be best if you stuck with normal leather for a rogue (though I'd advise to not wear armor for a rogue/wizard or rogue/sorceror or bard).

Hope this all helps.