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From the Icewind Dale II Forums:Dave MaldonadoXP and difficulty
Q: How does experience currently work ?
A: Work...? Er... PC's get XP, and when they have enough to level up, the player goes into the PC's character screen, presses the level up button, chooses whatever class to level up in, and then takes care of the resulting shenanigans (distributing new skill points, feats, ability score points, picking new spells, whatever's relevant to the current level-up).
Q: How do the difficulty levels work at the moment ?
A: In reference to the Magical Happy Difficulty Slider, it works as it has in all other IE titles.
In reference to the per-area stuff, there are basically three levels of difficulty for each level based on party level ranges. The more levels there are, the more monsters there will be.
I should also add that it's not always "more monsters." Sometimes nastier monsters replace the easier ones, or entirely new enemies will appear. ^_^
Q: Is quest experience now per character or still a lump ?
A: Currently, no. Lumpity-lump!
Q: How has the switch to 3e changed the distribution of quest xp ?
A: We now use Challenge Rating for XP awards instead of flat values, so a lower-level party gets more XP for doing harder quests and less for doing easier ones, with "harder" and "easier" being relative to the party's level.
Monk avatars and other stuff
Monk avatars are still in the game.
Q: Will pit fiends use the crappy BG2 pit fiend animations or will they finally look like pit fiends? Will there be xvarts, tasloi, and gibberlings? Will there be any celestials (for good-aligned clerics to summon)?
A: Yes (no they won't). No, no, no. No.
Q: The weapons. Is the hand axe in or not? Is there an additional penalty for dual-wielding two medium-sized weapons? If we decide to use a one-handed weapon without a shield, will we get 1.5 x the Str bonus to damage?
A: Yes. No. No.
Q: I would also like to know if the elemental avatars will be changed as i far prefferred the BG2 ones to the IWD ones.
A: There's a mix, e.g. the smaller fire elementals use the smaller BG2 ones while the huge mega-HD fire elementals use the big fat IWD ones.
Q: Status of non-magical items (like armors, helmets and robes) color selection
A: Not currently in. Currently.
Q: Good clerics summoning Devas instead of pit fiend, baatezu etc
A: No
Q: Do the Aasimars and Tieflings get the additional 1st level feat and extra skill points that regular humans recieve
A: Currently No.
Q: "JE made a comment that Wilderness Lore can only be used with the tracking feat, etc etc... the question is this: 'Can someone who does not have the tracking feat put ranks into wilderness lore as a cross-class skill?'"
A: Why yes, magical sock puppet. ^_^
In fact, there currently is no Tracking Feat; it's all about the Wilderness Lore skill now. It's cross-class for everyone but barbarians, druids and rangers, of course.
Some Feat Pre-requisites
Dirt-Felching: two and a half levels of rogue, CHR < 5
Goblin-Pinching: three levels of dwarf tunnel-fighter, BAB 5+
The Bard Songs
The current (^_^) Bard songs:
* Bard Songs. Bards have the ability to sing melodies that have magical effects on creatures within thirty feet. As they advance in level, they gain additional songs. The songs are described in detail below.
* 1st level: The Ballad of Three Heroes. When the Ballad of Three Heroes is played, all the bard's allies gain +1 attack bonus, +1 damage, and +1 saving throws.
* 3rd level: The Tale of Curran Strongheart. When the Tale of Curran Strongheart is being played, any fear effects on the bard's allies are removed, and they gain an immunity to fear effects for as long as the song lasts.
* 5th level: Tymora's Melody. When played, Tymora's Melody gives the bard's allies +1 luck, +3 saving throws, and +2 to their Knowledge(arcana), Alchemy, and rogue skills.
* 7th level: The Song of Kaudies. When the Song of Kaudies is played, the bard's allies have a 50% chance to shrug off the effects of spells such as Silence, Shout, Great Shout, Command, or any other sound-based attack.
* 9th level: The Siren's Yearning. When played, the bard's enemies must make a Will save or be entralled, unable to take action until ten rounds pass or they take damage.
* 11th level: The War Chant of Sith. When played, the bard's allies gain +2 armor bonus, damage resistance of 2/-, and they regenerate 3 points of damage per round in combat.
There is no Perform skill (and thus no requirement ^_^).
Tex Yang (Bloodlust)Soloing
Personally I think that the XP deal with less party members makes sense. I see it as trying to, say, fix a car or building something. If you do these things by yourself, you'll learn a lot more than if your did it with the help of your friend(s).
Also, as far as too much XP for solo/less characters, let's just say that even though I know the areas like the back of my hand, it's not the easiest thing in the world to do. A contrast would be the original IWD/HoW and IWD2. In the original IWD/HoW, I could solo really easily due to the fact that I could maximize the benefits against the amount of XP that I got from less party members, as I could make a gameplan and map exactly what I needed to do throughout the game in my head in advance. In IWD2, I will go around and reach certain spots in the game where I tell myself, "What was I thinking, trying to do this alone??". These also go along with the thoughts I usually have afterwards of "I wish I had a party right now" because, quite frankly, it just simply IS better and more effective doing things with a party in this game.
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Icewind Dale II Forum Update
