Some Icewind Dale love

Allright… Made some plans with a certain friend of mine.
We get a nice three week christmas/winter holiday from the university
here in Finland. We're gonna play Icewind Dale 1 over local area network.
We do it almost every winter. It's almost like a tradition. Just the two of us, a dark room, two computers, lots of sauna and swimming in the snow, soda and heaps of unhealthy food.

No internet, no work/school and most of all… absolutely no women
It's like the highlight of the year

So.. we had this crazy idea. We're going to play (or try to) through the Iwd1+How+Luremaster with only two evil characters. We've done it before with 4 characters and it was quite easy. Is this doable?

They both would need to be able to kick arse in melee.. and the party would need some healing ability and some thieving ability (the game has tons of traps & locks..)

How about this:

1. Human // Fighter --> Cleric(/Druid) dual-classed quite early (3-6 level…)
and
2. Human // Thief --> Fighter dual-classed quite early… Or should we go multi-class?

What do you think?

There is also the possibility of going triple class… fighter/mage/thief and fighter/mage/cleric. Could be a viable option because with the expansion the exp-cap is quite high and with only two characters the exp gain would be much faster.

EDIT: Oh, and I'm not a power gamer. In fact, I hate power gaming. I just want to make sure that the game can be played through with reasonable effort

Very jealous, Zak. My gaming group was all geeked up to do IWD2 a couple of months ago, but our dreams were dashed when we spent 2+ hours trying to get connected but just couldn't find a way around the problems our Hawaii member was having. Talk about bummed…

Boy, that sounds like a lot of fun! The fighter/mage/thief is a good call, but you might consider going with a straight cleric instead of a combo. It's nice to be able to turn undead at a high level, especially in the HOW expansion. That would make for a challenging start, though.

Hmm..
I guess there are a few options. I'd go with multi-class rather than dual-class, so as to have access to all the character's abilities all the time.

1. Cleric/Thief & Fighter Mage
This covers all your core classes, and the F/M would be a solid performer. The Cleric/Thief wouldn't be that great at melee but would be superb backup and utility.

2. Fighter/Cleric & Fighter/Druid
Both solid tanks with excellent crowd control and party bolstering spells, with lots of healing. No thieving abilities though, but the Cleric can use Detect Traps to at least allow avoidance of them. Locks would be a problem however.

3. Mage/Thief and Fighter/Cleric
A bit more diversity at the lack of melee power. But all your bases for traps, locks and healing are covered. You could make the M/T a Fighter/Mage/Thief to boost the melee power. I doubt the triple class would be a problem with only two characters.

4. Fighter/Mage/Thief & Fighter/Mage/Cleric
A good pairing as you pointed out, and maybe the most practical but it kind of lacks style.

Originally Posted by chamr
Very jealous, Zak. My gaming group was all geeked up to do IWD2 a couple of months ago, but our dreams were dashed when we spent 2+ hours trying to get connected but just couldn't find a way around the problems our Hawaii member was having. Talk about bummed…

Yeah. When we were kids ( < 16 ) we used to play over LAN almost every weekend. The good old days. Now all my friends are spread across finland in different cities / jobs / schools etc… and everyone is so damn grown-up and worried about what their significant other thinks that those LAN weekends are out of the question. These Icewind Dale sessions are all that's left. But they are great.

Originally Posted by Squeek
Boy, that sounds like a lot of fun! The fighter/mage/thief is a good call, but you might consider going with a straight cleric instead of a combo. It's nice to be able to turn undead at a high level, especially in the HOW expansion. That would make for a challenging start, though.

Yeah.. straight cleric would work. But dual classing from two or three fighter levels would give better melee ability and more HP practically for free. Being pure just does not make sense in the 2.5 rules.

Originally Posted by Gallifrey
Hmm..
I guess there are a few options. I'd go with multi-class rather than dual-class, so as to have access to all the character's abilities all the time.

1. Cleric/Thief & Fighter Mage
This covers all your core classes, and the F/M would be a solid performer. The Cleric/Thief wouldn't be that great at melee but would be superb backup and utility.

2. Fighter/Cleric & Fighter/Druid
Both solid tanks with excellent crowd control and party bolstering spells, with lots of healing. No thieving abilities though, but the Cleric can use Detect Traps to at least allow avoidance of them. Locks would be a problem however.

3. Mage/Thief and Fighter/Cleric
A bit more diversity at the lack of melee power. But all your bases for traps, locks and healing are covered. You could make the M/T a Fighter/Mage/Thief to boost the melee power. I doubt the triple class would be a problem with only two characters.

4. Fighter/Mage/Thief & Fighter/Mage/Cleric
A good pairing as you pointed out, and maybe the most practical but it kind of lacks style.

So you'd think the triple-classes would be "safe but boring" -choices? But they would work?

Some low-level clerical spells in IWD become much more powerful when they're cast at higher levels and also have longer durations, and that's something to keep in mind when you're playing a cleric.

For instance, a high-level cleric can become strength 25 and bash down any door. Or he can become invulnerable and ignore traps when he wants. Eventually, he is able to destroy even the most powerful undead in the game. Finally, he can stay sanctuaried for long periods of time, allowing him to cast all those nice protection spells, one right after another.

Yes, Clerics are extremely strong. But what's the level cap for IWD with the expansions? Playing with only two characters, a multi-class will still hit the cap and probably fairly early on (comparatively speaking).

As for the triple classes, sure they'd work. I guess it depends on what you each like to play for determining the fun factor. The only thing I'd be wary of is that even though you'd level quickly (again, comparatively speaking), you may not level fast enough and would be very frail at the start. A pair of two-class multiclasses might have a stronger starting position.

It's been so long since I've played these games though, so keep that in mind. You might also consider a Cleric/Ranger, since don't they get both Cleric and Druidic spells? Or some such thing?

Originally Posted by Gallifrey
But what's the level cap for IWD with the expansions?

The cap's at 30. In Heart of Fury mode, you get there pretty fast. I doubt you could reach it going once through a regular single-player game, but maybe you could with only two characters.

The beginning part of the game quite easy so that is not a factor. It is later in the game when the problems start showing up

And yeah, I believe that mixing ranger/cleric would enable the cleric to cast nature spells. It could be quite interesting to do a Ranger --> Cleric dual-class.

How about dualing from thief --> druid ?

Originally Posted by Squeek
The cap's at 30. In Heart of Fury mode, you get there pretty fast. I doubt you could reach it going once through a regular single-player game, but maybe you could with only two characters.

You can get there with the expansions in impossible, which isnt quite as ridiculous as HoF mode

Originally Posted by Zakhary
The beginning part of the game quite easy so that is not a factor. It is later in the game when the problems start showing up

True. Chances are that you could do well with nearly any combination you choose so long as you both know how to get the most out of the class(es) chosen.

I remember playing IWD2 with two friends, I played a Bard. That Bard saved the day more times than I would've believed possible. And managed to dish out more damage and chaos than I thought he'd be capable of. Point being, when you're only playing one character you can really get into the finer workings of the class abilities and pull off some surprising things.

And yeah, I believe that mixing ranger/cleric would enable the cleric to cast nature spells. It could be quite interesting to do a Ranger --> Cleric dual-class.

I've never played one, but I've heard it's a really strong combination. You'd be pretty flexible in what you can do - tank in heavy armour, sneak in light armour, heal, crowd control and so on.

How about dualing from thief --> druid ?

Too bad you can't do that. Dual classing is still limited to engine-allowed multiclasses. I had a Druid/Rogue in IWD2, a tiefling. She was really solid at the start, and up through the Ice Temple. After that though the multiclassing of those two classes started to hinder more than help, as the rest of the party became significantly stronger, her split of two very different classes hurt.

Originally Posted by Gallifrey
Too bad you can't do that. Dual classing is still limited to engine-allowed multiclasses. I had a Druid/Rogue in IWD2, a tiefling. She was really solid at the start, and up through the Ice Temple. After that though the multiclassing of those two classes started to hinder more than help, as the rest of the party became significantly stronger, her split of two very different classes hurt.

Yeah, you're right. Just found about that too. Cant go Rogue/Druid. But that's propably for the better anyway