Why is Icewind Dale so easy solo?

[Vorpalbob]

I have been playing Icewind Dale as a Dwarven level 7/6 Fighter/Cleric. Solo. So far the game has been devoid of almost any challenge. I am in the temple that contains the Heartstone Gem, playing on the standard difficulty.

Does anyone have a clue as to why solo characters are so broken?

(perhaps because he is getting xp meant for six characters...)

[Keld Denar]

(perhaps because he is getting xp meant for six characters...)

This. Baldor's Gate and a few other 2nd ed CRPGs are also relatively easily soloed. Heck, Pools of Radiance (3.0) is also soloable as a straight cleric or cleric/rogue due to how powerful Turn Undead + accelerated XP gain is in a game dominated primarily by undead.

[Mr. Mud]

Standard Mode is also not very "Standard" in IWD. Pretty easy :smalltongue:.

[Pain~less]

Thats why you should play IWD in extra hard mode! Heart of something, was it? Solo, of course.

[evil-frosty]

It doesnt really matter that he is getting extra EXP as he is one vs a lot so statistically he should be getting hit a lot more then he can dish out.

First Standard is easy, insane makes it at least a challenge. Secondly without Heart of Winter installed you can make monsters come at you one by one with you just being careful how you move, combine this with bow specialization in the game you can just move out of melee range and then shoot them. I would recommend playing Icewind Dale 2 as it is much more challenging.

[LibraryOgre]

Solo as something challenging. Solo as a single-classed thief.

[Korivan]

Can't believe noone mentioned this...In Icewind Dale 2, they forgot True Seeing. Meaning once you grabed Improved Invisibility...its over, you won, congrats.

Also, Baldur's Gate had a crap load of glitches that were easy to exploit. In fact, for me at least, the most troublesome aspect of all these games is your minion managment. Maybe its just me, but I had a terrible time getting these guys to follow me right, keep them from advancing too soon. And of course, if you did forget them, you had to wait for them to reach you before you could progress.

Another thing, once you beat the game once, you knew where everything is, or near enough. Once you had that, you were solid.

Even if you don't go the cheesy way as above, theres no time limit. Once your out of spells, simply find a nice place, rest. Didn't matter if you beat the game in 1 day or 1,000 days. Money is supper easy to come by, and if your solo, your only spending on yourself, much of what you find can be sold for cash. The only thing soloing had difficulties is that you can get swarmed pretty fast. Someone once posted on these threads that Wizards had a hard time, but once you summon in a few things it was a piece of cake.

All in all, easy game, fun game, keep em coming.

[Fitz10019]

... the most troublesome aspect of all these games is your minion managment. Maybe its just me, but I had a terrible time getting these guys to follow me right...

I played the Baldurs series, the Icewind series and NWN before I ever sat down at a table to play with other people. In hindsight, the 'unmanagable minions' were excellent preperation for playing with other people, who don't listen to you either. :smalltongue:

[JonestheSpy]

Even if you don't go the cheesy way as above, theres no time limit. Once your out of spells, simply find a nice place, rest. Didn't matter if you beat the game in 1 day or 1,000 days.

I always thought that was a big flaw of most computer RPG's (the ones I've played, anyway), especially since the plots most often have some kind of imminent threat heavily implied. I usually play as if there was such a deadline, hoarding spells as much as possible so I can go longer between rests, just to make it more challenging. But it'd be pretty cool if the designers actually just wrote it "You've got a week, or Imonen dies a horrible death"...

[infinitypanda]

The first Fallout game was like that.

[Harperfan7]

The first Fallout game was like that.

Barely, and I heard they eventually took it out.

[Coidzor]

No. It's more like two months, but then there's overland travel by foot to take into account throughout California and a bit of Nevada.

In the second one one can play after beating the game's main quest and go and do all the sidequests, but in the first one, beating the first part of the game just gave one a new time limit for a different quest.

[Manga Shoggoth]

I always thought that was a big flaw of most computer RPG's (the ones I've played, anyway), especially since the plots most often have some kind of imminent threat heavily implied. I usually play as if there was such a deadline, hoarding spells as much as possible so I can go longer between rests, just to make it more challenging. But it'd be pretty cool if the designers actually just wrote it "You've got a week, or Imonen dies a horrible death"...

There have been a couple of CRPG games like that - non-DnD, of course. Off the top of my head:


The original Magic Candle game
The second Might and Magic game (I think)
The second Bards Tale game (which had sections of the dungeon that had to be completed in a given time)

[Cespenar]

Heh, on the time limit subject, I recall (either in BG or IWD) that you press the rest button, and...

Your party has rested for 102 days and 8 hours.

[chiasaur11]

No. It's more like two months, but then there's overland travel by foot to take into account throughout California and a bit of Nevada.

In the second one one can play after beating the game's main quest and go and do all the sidequests, but in the first one, beating the first part of the game just gave one a new time limit for a different quest.

In the second one, you have a quest with an urgent limit...

that you can (and almost definitely will) ignore, and even if you do it the results are the same as if you didn't ignore it.

And the first Fallout had a couple endings based on completion time, and a hard and fast deadline for the water chip bit, but they patched out the second deadline.

Also: I really hate deadlines in games in general. Like Fallout anyway, but...

[Matthew]

Nah, the lack of a time limit is what thankfully keeps you from being tied to closely to the rail road tracks. That is basically why Icewind Dale is so easy; every encounter pretty much leads to every other with virtually no freedom of choice as to what to take on next. Very different from Temple of Elemental Evil, for instance.

[Mr. Mud]

Anyone remember Darkstone? I just reinstalled it, and I'm planning played a good bit. :smalltongue:.