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The latest from the IWD2 forums.Josh SawyerBards and weapons
Bards do not gain a choice of martial weapons in IWD2; they simply get MW: Large Swords.
Naked women
No naked women in IWD2, old or otherwise.
I take pleasure in jolting our players with occasional weird things like that. If you can't take the heat*, stay out of the kitchen**.
* heat = sight of an old naked woman with no eyes.
** kitchen = Gloomfrost caves.
State of the build
Hello. Icewind Dale II has been hovering around 100-150 bugs for the past week or so. At this point in time, I feel eXtreeeeeemely confident in saying that the game is currently less buggy than Icewind Dale I was on release. However, Icewind Dale was somewhere north of Fallout 2 in bugginess -- it wasn't sparkling clean. The bugs we are currently addressing are all relatively minor. However, all things considered, we will probably keep pounding away at them for several more revs. This may make some people happy, some people angry, but it is probably in the best interests of the developer, publisher, distributor, and consumers. The weavings of game development are often confusing and frustrating for everyone involved -- sorry for the vague-y nature of the update, but it's the best I can give.
Now, for some definite good news. Because Icewind Dale II's designers have minimal involvement with the bug-fixing process at this stage, the designer caravan will be moving on to new projects soon. The sooner this happens, the sooner you can get a peek on what we're working on.
Hoo-ray.
Drow voices
http://feedback.blackisle.com/sounds/drowfemale1.wav
http://feedback.blackisle.com/sounds/drowfemale2.wav
http://feedback.blackisle.com/sounds/drowfemale3.wav
http://feedback.blackisle.com/sounds/drowmale1.wav
http://feedback.blackisle.com/sounds/drowmale2.wav
http://feedback.blackisle.com/sounds/drowmale3.wav
Damien Folletto (Puuk)Soloing
Skummy update:
Skummy is more than halfway through the game now, and it's EXTREMELY hard. Since his level is 16, he far exceeds the normal party level for the areas, and is subjected to the craziness that is insane level (which is what happens if your average party level is significantly higher than what the "normal" setting the area was designed for). Since Skummy no longer gets XP for killing critters, I have him avoid fights as much as possible. If a fight is unavoidable, then I am slammed by a bunch of high level monsters. When that happens, 9 out of 10 times I must turn the game's difficulty down to easy, or the dreaded Very Easy. So you'll know, Easy setting makes the baddies do 25% less damage per hit and have a -2 penalty to their to-hit. Very Easy sets their damage @ 50%, with a -4 penalty to-hit. It's a big help for the solo monk that has a 30 AC. However, since the critters usually cannot hit Skummy at the Very Easy setting, and there are a lot of critters, sometimes I am relegated to sitting at my desk and watching Skummmy swing away for 20 minutes just to get an opening wide enough between the multitudes of monsters so he can escape. IWD2 was designed from the beginning to be a party based CRPG, and it is very evident from playing the game solo. I much prefer playing the game with a full, or near full party.
Now, I'm not saying that soloing is not doable in IWD2 - hell, I've gotten more than halfway through the game that way. However, I will say that the game is far more interesting with an actual party, even if there are only 3 characters in your party. The different character classes and races really can complement each other, and the game.
It is quite a bit different in IWD2. I soloed in BG2, and ended up so powerful, nothing could touch me about halfway through CH 2. In IWD, pretty much the same thing. I was pleasantly surprised to see that this was not the case with IWD2, particularly because the game was designed from the beginning to be party based, and not solo. Granted, the player can put the difficulty at Very Easy and mow through the hard stuff soling, but where's the fun in that? The different dialog options and such still make the game fun, but the battles get over the top by mid game soloing. The best times I've had with IWD2 is definitely with a party of 4 or more characters.
Tex Yang (Bloodlust)Q&A
Q: Is "flanking an opponent" present in the game? If so, do rogues deal sneak attack damage in doing so?
A: Yes, rogues can sneak attack enemies, per 3E rules.
Q: A rogue invisible as per the "Improved Invisibility" spell deals sneak attacks every round?
A: No, they would get the first sneak attack in, but would need to get out of the field of vision from *all* enemies in the vicinity before they could attempt another one (so a hasted rogue with improved invisibility would have a better chance of pulling this off).
Q: Are high level rogues able to "Hide in plain sight" taking a penalty to their skills (since there is no Shadowdancer in the game)?
A: Sorry, no "hide in plain sight".
Q: Will rogues deal sneak attacks to undead (vampires?), elementals, plants and oozes? I know that by the book they don't (except for vampires) but the ranger DOES apply his favored enemy bonus on them, right? And in IWD1 the thieves backstab the creatures I mentioned above.
A: No, creatures that are immune to criticals do not get sneak attacked.
Q: Lastly, if the answerer of those questions has played the game in its present state, could he please post his personal opinion of rogues in combat; I once read an interview (I think it was an interviwe) which said the rogues in IWD2 combat were pretty disappointing, their only real uses were disarm traps and open locks (pretty much as 2nd edit thieves).
A: Thieves are very useful in combat, what I usually do nowadays is start a battle, and pick out the enemies who are attacking other party members, and manually control them to go sneak attack each one of them - they can't deal more than one sneak attack on an enemy without going out of all enemy's field of vision, but they do get one sneak attack against every different enemy (you could line 5 enemies against someone else in battle, and while they're busy with that character, take your rogue, and do a sneak attack to every one of them once).
Q: Will the Feat Rapid Shot apply to Crossbows?
A: Yes, rapid shot works with crossbows, throwing axes, throwing hammers, and throwing daggers.
Q: What avatar will the shadows use-- the ones from IWD, or the BG2 ones? Also, will any feats in IWD2 have charisma as a prerequisite?
A: The ones from the original IWD, I believe (they look like the ones from IWD and I have no idea what the ones from BG2 look like since I wasn't here yet). There are no feats that use charisma as a pre-req, the usual for feats are # of levels, other feats, intelligence, wisdom, and dexterity (in no particular order), though there are a few that use other things.
Q: Are feats with ability score prerequisites available to characters using items to up their scores? Or must they for reals have 13 in Str? I'm assuming the latter, as that makes the most sense.
A: at pre-reqs are calculated according to base scores
Q: Can bards play their bard song whilst invisible or does the song cancel the spell? Sorry if this has been asked already.
A: Depends - regular invisibility or hidden in shadows, no; improved invisibility, yes.
Q: Can monks dual-wield their fist and a weapon? This could be done in BG2 (monks couldn't do it but everyone else could), so I'm curious if this is possible in IWD2 and if the monk's unarmed bonuses apply while dual-wielding.
A: No, monks may not do an unarmed attack and an armed attack at the same time - due to the calculations involved between the classes. (Monks unarmed = +11/+8/+5/+2, for example, while other's unarmed = +11/+6/+1)
Chad Nicholas (Briareus)the best domain
IMO, Bane. Nothing beats Dominating a creature and having it beat on its buddies for a few minutes. With Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus: Enchantment, resisting a Dreadmaster's charm is quite difficult. Plus, you get to be evil.
The game timing
One Round = Six Minutes In Game Time = 7 secs Real World Time
Two Rounds = Twelve Minutes = 14 secs
One Turn = One Hour in game time = Ten Rounds = 70 secs
Two Turn = Two Hours in game Time = Twenty Rounds = 140 secs
Twenty Four Turns = One Day = 1680 secs in Real World Time
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Icewind Dale II Forum Update
