Game is very hard

[zippythezip]

I am stuck at the Dragons eye 5, have no health, no arrows, no where to rest, my party is way on its last legs. This is about my 5 try at this game. I have it set now at very easy and its still hard. The game seems all save and load. Are there any places to rest on this level? The final boss woman here just chews my party up in about 3 seconds. The game really was fun up to about Dragon 2, then the level of difficulty got turned up way high. I should add that before this game I had never played D+D, THACO is a strange word to me, and maybe at 49 I am too old for these games:laugh:
Any one else find this game very hard?

[HandsomeDevil]

I agree that the difficulty in Dragon's Eye ramps up considerably after the second level (for what it's worth, kmonster mentioned that it does get easier). As I mentioned in my self-hijacked thread, it's irritating that the monsters don't drop much useful stuff for you. Consequently, you may have to suck it up and go back to Kuldahar for ammo.

As for rest, you can rest around Egenia although I've often just got back to that level and rested at the doorway. I 'cheat' a little, in that I'll save before resting, so if I get disturbed I can just reload.

A couple of very basic tactics (that you have probably already figured out):
- Missile weapons are wicked in this game.
- Edge carefully into enemy territory, so you can reveal and pick off your enemies one at a time.
- Web and Entangle spells are your friends.

I'd tell you about buffing up your characters pre-battle, but unless you know what's coming (i.e., you've completed the game before - and I haven't), it's hard to know when to blow off all your best spells.

THAC0 = to hit armor class zero. The lower this number is, the more likely your character can hit an opponent. I played the first iteration of D&D (I'm 35) and the latest 3rd (3/3.5) edition but I skipped over the second when it came up with arcane stats like "THAC0".

TOEE certainly sucked, but it did have the far more elegant 3e rules going for it.

[kmonster]

I agree with HandsomeDevil, just go back to Kuldahar and resupply if you run of of ammo. Your inventory should be full with stuff you'd want to sell anyway.
There's no time limit in the game.
You can pickpocket Arundel,Orrick and Oswald for nice equipment if you haven't done it yet. Just save before trying and reload if your attempt fails.

The DE boss fight is in fact one of the hardest (for many even the hardest in the whole game), nearly unfair since she's immune to nearly all weapons you've found until now.
Try to keep her busy with summons and kill her minions first, run away afterwards for regrouping or resting and you'll have an easier time when you meet her alone again somewhere in level 5. (doesn't work with HoW installed)

For resting you can go back to DE level 4 and ask the adventurers you have rescued there to watch your sleep, if you have already killed them for XP and their great equipment you have to go up at least another level.

You can gain a lot of XP to make your party stronger fast by trying to rest on level 3, the cold wights yield a lot of XP and do relatively low damage. Just make sure that you've magical weapons equipped and fully healed.

Setting down the difficulty to "very easy" halves the amount of XP you get, so I recommend keeping the difficulty setting at normal except for scroll scribing and very hard battles. (If you have HoW keep it at very easy since the XP gain is doubled instead.)

[Kipi]

One good tactic as well is to attack the boss with one of your ranged weapon using characters, then block her way with two characters in narrow place. If you do it right, which is very hard btw, she is trying to get past the characters who are blocking her way, but can't, and won't do anything. Just hack her down then and you don't take any damage...

[zippythezip]

Thanks for the help, finally beat her........what a fight! I tried to run but the door closed in front of me and I was trapped. She loved going after my weak ranged party members. So I placed one in a corner behind my fighters, the rest of my party killing of the rest of the gang. I think I was lucky, only 3 members killed, cost me a fourtune in Kaldahar to bring them back Now I need to kill more to buy arrows:laugh: I do have HOW installed, will this affect my game?

If you have HoW keep it at very easy since the XP gain is doubled instead.

)
Thanks again, you sure make a game more enjoyable

[Gilliatt]

The difficulty of this game depends also on the party you have. Icewind Dale was designed to be played with a party that has many "tanks" (fighters and rangers). I had 3 tanks in my party, 1 fighter, 1 ranger and 1 fighter/thief, and found the game pretty easy. I also had a bard, which at a certain level (if you have Heart of Winter) regenerates your hit points with a song. That being said, I am sure many have done it with different party combinations since you also have to get characters that suits your style of playing.

Another battle trick is to never hesitate to pause your game during a fight. You cannot control 6 characters at the same time unless you pause your game. I will also insist again on what HandsomeDevil said: never go in the middle of a battle unless you have to, try to lure your enemies one by one.

Edit: We were writing at the same time, so forgive me for asking questions you have just answered. Do you have the Trials of the Luremaster expansion as well?

[zippythezip]

One thing I enjoy about this game is to press the space bar and plan. Sometimes the plan works, love it when a plan comes together. I do have Trials of the lure master installed as well. I thought like most games you just tried expansions after you had played through once. When installing the game a few years back I never installed them. I hope this will not ruin my first time through.

[kmonster]

Don't worry, the expansions won't ruin anything, they will rather increase your fun, even when you don't enter the expansion areas.
Installing HoW adds more spells, special abilities and bard songs which might help you get through the game.
But it makes some monsters smarter on the other hand, in some areas (like Kuldahar Pass) the monsters work in groups now, so when you attack one of them, the whole group attacks you, no more picking one monster after another from the fog of war.
The closing door that doesn't open until Yxonomej is defeated is also an addition from HoW.

[Cyro]

Personally I was grateful IWD was as hard as it was, without the immersiveness of it's more story focused counterparts (Baldur's Gate series and Planescape Torment) it had nothing else to balance it, at least the difficulty crreated a challange to pull me back...

Distasteful as it may seem, you could always export your characters and start over for quick grind through the easier area's. Personally I had few problems at Dragons Eye, but The Shattered Hand (latter on) was a good challenge.

Oh, and For party line up - Paladin, Fighter, Ranger, Fighter/Mage, Cleric and Druid made for an easy time for the most part. It's a game really is designed for the warrior build.

[zippythezip]

I have a fighter, paladin, ranger, mage, cleric and thief. I may start again but I am in the severed hand now. I think it took me less time to finish "Titan Quest" then it did to pass through the Dragons eye IWD is certainly a better game then that effort. I am on "easy" setting, I guess thats better than using cheats.
Thanks for all the help, I will keep you informed of my progress. I also own and never played ,planescape, BG1, BG2, Lionheart , and IWD2.

[HandsomeDevil]

I had to start again after a complete re-install. I'm still in the Vale of Shadows and its killing me (because it seems to take forever). Just for comparison's sake, I'm using a Paladin, Bard, Cleric/Ranger, Cleric/Illusionist, Fighter/Thief, and Illusionist.

I had Planescape - it's a neat game. Somewhat less combat-heavy than most CRPGs, as I recall it. I've got BG2, but it's SO big that I haven't finished it yet. It's so easy to get in over your head with that game - walk in the wrong doorway and WHAM! Your whole party gets ganked. I'll go back to BG2 once I finish IWD.

...and I may have to find the IWD expansions...

[kmonster]

@zippythezip: "fighter, paladin, ranger, mage, cleric and thief" isn't a weak party. It's rather a standard party, maybe even the party the game creators had in mind. I think I've even seen a walkthrough in a magazine recommending such a party.
The only weak point besides the fact that thieves are better when multiclassed might be your character stats, the bonusses you get for having 18 instead of 14 str,dex or con are quite big.
But the pregenerated characters don't have 18 in all stats either.

Don't feel bad about reducing the difficulty, playing "easy" with a "normal" party is still harder than playing a harder level with a "powergaming" party. And don't hesitate turning the difficulty to "very easy" if you want, the battles will be a little shorter and easier, but the story won't change.

You can restart the game with a powergaming party and overrun your enemies if you want, but it's not neccessary. Your party has 3 warrior characters quite capable of fighting, a thief to handle locks and traps and will gain access to the powerful high level mage (if the mage's int is high enough) and cleric spells.

Some advice:

- "Emotion hope" and "emotion courage" are extremely powerful buff spells
- The buffing order can be quite important, cast the buffs with the shortest duration like "haste" last and pause to avoid loosing time which can make the first buffs run out too fast. Summons can benefit from buff spells like "haste" too.
- Combining "stoneskin" and "mirror image" can make your mage nearly invulnerable if you have trouble keeping him alive.
- Buy the rogue's cowl and the spell scrolls you want from Orrick in Kuldahar before you start chapter4 and his inventory changes.

[BlueSky]

and maybe at 49 I am too old for these games:laugh:
Any one else find this game very hard?

@ Zippy

No, 49 is not too old, myself have seen 51 years go by and you'll find that quite a few of us here are elders in terms of age.

[HandsomeDevil]

If it's of any consolation, you're not the first one to remark on the difficulty of the game:

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You're in good company, Zippy!

P.S. This was not a "UTFS" reply.

[Aerich]

IWD is definitely a tactical challenge. I've played it a lot (e.g. 6-7 complete runs through the game, including one with beginner characters in HoF), and there's still some battles that require reloads.

You may find that some judicious multiclassing will make subsequent runs easier by increasing the versatility of some characters, particularly the thief and cleric classes.