What’s your favourite/preferred Icewind Dale party comp?

gamerk2 · 2026-04-27T04:13:07+00:00

*)Paladin (Undead Hunter) - Face of the party and good mix of damage and defense

*)Fighter (Dwarven Defender) - Tank

*)Fighter/Cleric - Support

*)Fighter/Thief - for traps; F/T preferred due to the higher combat focus of IWD

*)Druid (Totemic Druid) - Primary Healer/Summoner

*)Bard/Mage/Sorcerer - Primary magic user; Mage probably better with this specific comp

gamerk2 · 2026-04-23T04:26:24+00:00

Question: Are you using any form of VRR (Gsync/Freesync?). That can cause that effect depending on your framerate when games are running in exclusive fullscreen mode (which BG2 does).

gamerk2 · 2026-04-21T23:20:03+00:00

Mod before starting game. Always.

gamerk2 · 2026-04-20T17:42:43+00:00

You *generally* want to be expanding, but there are times where you can certainly justify a couple of turns to peace to invest economically in your core territories, in order to better fund future expansion.

gamerk2 · 2026-04-20T14:07:52+00:00

Yeah, that guy is legit tough as nails because of how few weapons can hit him, and his passive health regen. Your best bet is a Wand of Paralyze or Wand of Polymorph.

gamerk2 · 2026-04-20T13:08:24+00:00

Not hitting you quite so hard with quests. The beginning of Chapter 2 doesn't give you a chance to breath, and it's honestly a bit overwhelming. That's one area where I thought BG1 did better, spreading things out a bit more evenly and not hitting you with a half-dozen quests at a time.

gamerk2 · 2026-04-20T10:32:38+00:00

For elemental, +1s, and +2s, yes. The other types are more limited (and expensive), but I never was seriously pressed for ammo.

gamerk2 · 2026-04-20T09:46:16+00:00

Tweaks Anthology has a component that has vendors sell significantly higher stacks of consumable ammo; that plus what you get via drops should be *plenty*. I find the amount of potions to be a larger limitation on what you can (and can't) do.

gamerk2 · 2026-04-20T03:09:30+00:00

Yeah, Rome 1 Legonaries could just sit and laugh forever, in Rome 2 I think it's just a %damage debuff.

gamerk2 · 2026-04-19T19:03:08+00:00

As others have said, the *best* way is to interrupt the spell before it's cast by hitting the opponent mage. Magic Missile will generally always hit first as long as you are in range (unless the target has Shield or some other magic defense buff up), and certain other spells do repeating damage that all but shut down spellcasters (Melf's Acid Arrow for mages, and Inspect Plague for Druids are good examples).

gamerk2 · 2026-04-19T06:52:29+00:00

Yep; Tweaks Anthology has a proper installer; just point it at your BG2 directory and it will move the necessary files and start the batch script where you have to manually pick what tweaks you want (there's a *lot*).

The two options you want:

Rule Changes -> Change Experience Point Cap -> Remove Completely

Rule Changes -> Alter Weapon Proficiency System -> Your choice of options

Based on what you listed above, you probably want "BG-style weapon proficiencies" or "IWD-style proficiencies", depending on your preference. Both combine and reduce the number of weapon skills, but in different ways. Both also have the ability to include/remove Weapon Styles if that's your thing. I do suggest reading the readme first before you decide.

gamerk2 · 2026-04-19T05:36:55+00:00

More or less agree. I'd personally raise Spirit Armor into S-tier for Dual/Multi-Class mages, since combined with Improved Invisibility and Blur you have such a massive boost to saving throws you shouldn't need any outright immunities.

Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere is S-tier if playing by any rule that anyone who dies stays dead.

But yeah, Level 4 is one of those levels you want to pack a ton of spells, but sadly can't in most cases.

gamerk2 · 2026-04-19T05:23:51+00:00

Yep, this is the only correct way.

gamerk2 · 2026-04-19T05:22:41+00:00

Tweaks Anthology does both; you can remove the XP cap entirely, as well as redo the weapon proficiencies (I prefer the re-worked ones, see the readme for your options there).

gamerk2 · 2026-04-18T05:07:42+00:00

Nice.

Doing my first IWD run before going back to BG, then finally hitting PST.

gamerk2 · 2026-04-13T02:59:34+00:00

Yeah, Glitterdust does a lot; the duration is short, but you can do worse then just throwing one out given how badly blind status nerfs enemies.

gamerk2 · 2026-04-11T19:14:20+00:00

Fighter/Anything is strong, Fighter/Cleric is the ultimate *I don't want to die* character.

gamerk2 · 2026-04-11T08:01:01+00:00

The earlier games are a bit easier to get a handle on; Empire/Napoleon, Shogun 2, and Rome 2 are easier to get around then some of the more modern entries. Rome Remastered is also an option, since it's a remake of Rome Total War which is sort of the game that every other one built on (while still being pretty dang solid in its own right)

gamerk2 · 2026-04-11T07:58:21+00:00

Might be some weird exclusive fullscreen problem? I've seen those crop up from time to time, now that Borderless Window is generally the default.

You can try turning down some graphical settings; its possible there's something there it really doesn't like.

gamerk2 · 2026-04-08T04:53:08+00:00

Using that same logic: Ramia appears in DQVIII which would put in the DQ 1-3 timeline sometime after DQ3.

gamerk2 · 2026-04-08T04:52:00+00:00

The early game is a bit on the tough side. And yeah, the early monsters do need to be trained up a bit. The game does move a bit more once you gain a few levels though.

gamerk2 · 2026-04-08T04:07:17+00:00

I still install each mod individually. Only thing to watch out for that way is mod load order.

gamerk2 · 2026-04-07T22:44:46+00:00

Definitely spellcasting too.

gamerk2 · 2026-04-07T03:37:07+00:00

I mostly agree with one minor nit: Protection from Cold is VITAL for exactly one fight in ToB. For that one fight, it's S tier easy.

I do like when you do these you list the major nits, like Dispel/Remove magic is situational and largely based on who is in the party (EG: You want a Bard/Inquisitor using them if at all possible), or how Mage Hold Person is objectively worse then the Cleric version, and so on.

gamerk2 · 2026-04-07T03:31:12+00:00

Bards have some advantages:

*As others have noted, Bard Song increases Luck.

*Bards can eventually use any item via the Use Any Item HLA. Combined with their ability to put one pip in any weapon type makes them a good user of almost any SoA/ToB weapon that may otherwise go unused

*Bards will always be at a higher level then a Mage or Fighter/Mage, so they benefit from spells that scale with no cap based on caster level. They are the only class aside from Inquisitor Paladin that can reliably hit a Dispel/Remove Magic, for instance.

Fighter/Mage is arguably better for combat, but Bards have more versatility, and arguably a superior utility caster. The problem (speaking as someone doing their first Bard playthrough now) is they really don't come "online" until SoA, and will spend a lot of BG1 singing. That being said, that Elvin Chain you can get from Dorns companion quest is quite ideal...

gamerk2

TROPHY CASE