Baldur's Dale, The Infinity Engine Games Thread Options

[SubRosa]

I started playing the Icewind Dale Enhanced Edition. I never got far playing it before, so maybe I can finish it this time around.

I created January and her super friends - Avery, Ryo, Blackjack, Hannah, and Lucas (Lighthammer). Ok, Blackjack is not a super, but he does have a band, so he works as the team Bard. I created him as a Human, but then used EE Keeper to change him to a Hobbit. Lucas (Lighthammer), is a Half Orc Barbarian with a battle axe. Avery is an Elf Cleric of Lathandar.

I was going to make Hannah a Dragon Disciple Sorcerer, but then I found that she could not use a Longbow. I figured that since this is D&D 2.0, the spellcasters will spend 90% of their times not casting spells, and using missile weapons instead. Longbow seems like one of the best options. I was going to try doing her as a Fighter/Mage. But I vastly prefer the Sorcerer over the Wizard, since it does not have all the spell preparation nonsense.

Then I got the idea of Dual-Classing. So I started her out as a Human Fighter (since only Humans can Dual-Class). I am thinking that once she reached 2nd level I will dual class her to a Sorcerer. It will be rough for that first Sorcerer level. But once she gets to level 2 as a Sorcerer she should get all of her Fighter abilities back, including the ability to use pretty much any weapon.

January is a Paladin of course. I made her the Cavalier sublcass. The only downside of which is that she cannot use missile weapons.

So far so good. Mostly the fights have not been too bad. But there are times where one of my party gets one shot killed out of nowhere, even when fighting trash mobs of nothing but goblins. That is really annoying.

I also found the cheats for the Enhanced Edition, which are a little different from the original:

1. First edit the file called baldur.ini in the Icewind Dale - Enhanced Edition folder
(C:\Users\*username*\Documents\Icewind Dale - Enhanced Edition) - Windows 7
using a text editor like Visual Studio Code find the line:
INSERT INTO options ROWS (

And add the following in the line after it:

'Program Options', 'Debug Mode', '1',


2. Start the game and press [Ctrl] + [Spacebar] to display the console window.


C:ExploreArea()
This command reveals the entire map for the current area. Note that it doesn’t remove the fog of war; if a creature is out of your field of vision it will still remain hidden.

C:CreateCreature(“crename”)
This spawns a creature, based on its creature file name, to the center of the screen (or nearest valid point). If you’re spawning a creature you know will be hostile, you may want to pause the game before entering this command for the safety of your party.

C:CreateItem(“itmname”,##)
This spawns an item, based on its item file name, or a stack of the same item, in the inventory of the current party leader.

C:SetCurrentXP(####)
This sets the Experience Point total for the currently selected character or characters to the value noted in parentheses. Note that this sets the total, rather than adding a value to your current experience points.

C:AddGold(####)
In contrast with SetCurrentXP, this command adds an amount of gold to your party’s total based on the number in parentheses.


Without opening the console, the following commands work:
[Ctrl] + J - Move selected characters to pointer position.
[Ctrl] + R - Heal or resurrect the selected character or portrait.
[Ctrl] + Y - Kill selected monster or NPC with no EXP.
[Ctrl] + 4 - Display trigger polygons; shows traps.
[Ctrl] + 9 - Display character bounding boxes.


Area List (Icewind Dale):

AR1000 - Easthaven - Prologue

AR1001 - Temple of Tempus

AR1002 - House with Spear

AR1003 - Empty House

AR1004 - Hrothgar's House

AR1005 - Fishmonger's House

AR1006 - Winter's Cradle Tavern - Level 1

AR1015 - Winter's Cradle Tavern - Level 2

AR1007 - Pomad's Emporium - Level 1

AR1016 - Pomad's Emporium - Level 2

AR1008 - Snowdrift Inn

AR1009 - Old Jed's House

AR1010 - Scrimshanders's House

AR1011 - Warehouse

AR1012 - Torn Net House

AR1013 - Winter Wolf Pelt House

AR1014 - Strange Writing House

AR1100 - Easthaven - Chapter Six

AR1106 - Winter's Cradle Tavern - Level 1

AR1109 - Winter's Cradle Tavern - Level 2

AR1101 - Crystal Tower - Level 1

AR1102 - Crystal Tower - Level 2

AR1103 - Crystal Tower - Level 3

AR1104 - Crystal Tower - Level 4

AR1105 - Crystal Tower - Level 5

AR1200 - Orc Cave Areas

AR1201 - Orc Cave - Inside

AR2000 - Kuldahar Pass

AR2001 - Goblin Cave - Outside

AR2002 - Goblin Cave - Inside

AR2003 - Ogre Tower

AR2004 - Old Mill - Level 1

AR2005 - Old Mill - Level 2

AR2006 - Old Mill - Level 3

AR2100 - Kuldahar

AR2101 - Tower of Orrick the Grey - Room 1

AR2102 - Tower of Orrick the Grey - Room 2

AR2103 - Conlan the Smithy

AR2104 - House with Portraits

AR2105 - Townperson's House - Male

AR2106 - Townperson's House - Female

AR2107 - Temple of Ilmater

AR2108 - Oswald Fiddlebender's Airship

AR2110 - Potter's House

AR2111 - Root Cellar Tavern

AR2112 - Arundel's House - Level 1

AR2116 - Arundel's House - Level 2

AR2113 - Gerth's Equipment Shop

AR2114 - Evening Shade Inn - Level 1

AR2115 - Evening Shade Inn - Level 2

AR3000 - Vale of Shadows

AR3001 - Shrine of Auril

AR3101 - Cave - Gate Key

AR3201 - Cave - Vile Black Liquid

AR3301 - Cave - Sanctum Key

AR3401 - Cave - Carrion Crawler

AR3501 - Kresselack's Tomb Level 1

AR3502 - Kresselack's Tomb Level 2

AR3503 - Kresselack's Tomb Level 3

AR3600 - Temple of the Forgotten God Area

AR3601 - Temple of the Forgotten God - Level 1

AR3602 - Temple of the Forgotten God - Level 2

AR3603 - Temple of the Forgotten God - Level 3

AR4000 - Dragon's Eye Area

AR4001 - Dragon's Eye - Level 1

AR4002 - Dragon's Eye - Level 2

AR4003 - Dragon's Eye - Level 3

AR4004 - Dragon's Eye - Level 4

AR4005 - Dragon's Eye - Level 5

AR5000 - Severed Hand Area

AR5001 - Severed Hand - Level 1

AR5002 - Severed Hand - Level 2

AR5003 - Severed Hand - Level 3

AR5004 - Severed Hand - Level 4

AR5502 - Bridge To Labelas Tower

AR5101 - Labelas Tower - Level 1

AR5104 - Labelas Tower - Level 2

AR5102 - Labelas Tower - Level 3

AR5103 - Labelas Tower - Level 4

AR5201 - Solonar Tower - Level 1

AR5202 - Solonar Tower - Level 2

AR5203 - Solonar Tower - Level 3

AR5204 - Solonar Tower - Level 4

AR5301 - Corellon Tower - Level 1

AR5302 - Corellon Tower - Level 2

AR5303 - Corellon Tower - Level 3

AR5304 - Corellon Tower - Level 4

AR5401 - Sheverash Tower - Level 1

AR5402 - Sheverash Tower - Level 2

AR5403 - Sheverash Tower - Level 3

AR5404 - Sheverash Tower - Level 4

AR6000 - Upper Dorn's Deep Area

AR6001 - Main Cave

AR6002 - Barracks

AR6003 - Umber Hulk Labyrinth

AR6004 - Forge - Inoperative

AR6005 - Tiers Of The Dead

AR6006 - Hall of Heroes

AR6007 - Ettin Cave

AR6008 - Neo-Orog Cave

AR6009 - Orc Cave

AR6010 - Puzzle Room

AR6011 - Gear Room

AR6013 - Forge - Operative

AR6014 - Bandoth's Tower

AR7005 - Wyrm's Tooth Glacier

AR7002 - Museum Foyer

AR7001 - Museum

AR7003 - Slave Area

AR7004 - Frost Giant Cave

AR7000 - Lower Dorn's Deep Area

AR8001 - Main Cave

AR8002 - Watchtower - Level 1

AR8014 - Watchtower - Level 2

AR8003 - Gnome Mine

AR8004 - Gnome Hideaway

AR8005 - Marketh's Courtyard

AR8006 - Marketh's Palace - Level 1

AR8007 - Marketh's Palace - Level 2

AR8008 - Mine Area

AR8009 - Artisan's District

AR8010 - Malavon's Chamber

AR8011 - Great Forge

AR8012 - Broken Temple

AR8013 - Poquelin's Lair

AR8015 - Norl's House

AR8016 - Safe House


Area List 2 (Icewind Dale: Heart Of Winter):

AR9100 - Loneywood

AR9101 - The Whistling Gallows - Level 1

AR9102 - The Whistling Gallows - Level 2

AR9103 - Shrine Of Waukeen

AR9104 - Ranger's Cabin

AR9105 - The Cooper's Place

AR9106 - Cartwright's House - Level 1

AR9107 - Cartwright's House - Level 2

AR9108 - Trappers' Cabin

AR9109 - Thom Farlod House

AR9110 - Gravedigger's Shack

AR9200 - Barbarian Camp

AR9201 - Mead Hall

AR9300 - Burial Isle - Hjollder

AR9301 - Necromancer's Tower

AR9400 - Barrow

AR9500 - Gloomfrost

AR9501 - Seer Caves - Level 1

AR9502 - Seer Caves - Level 2

AR9600 - Sea Of Moving Ice

AR9601 - Icasaracht's Lair - Level 1

AR9602 - Icasaracht's Lair - Level 2

AR9603 - To The Sahuagin Temple

AR9604 - End Fight - Icasaracht

For the items list: http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/256221-icewind-dale/faqs/8494 (They should work)

[Acadian]

I hope January and the gang enjoy Icewind Dale. I recall playing it once through many (many) years ago.

[SubRosa]

I just found out that Sorcerer's cannot dual class or multiclass in Icewind Dale. I imagine the Baldur's Gate games too. If they are even in the BG games. Grrr. It will not even work using EE Keeper, as the game is hard coded to not allow it. So if I want Hannah to be able to use magic and a bow, she has to be a Fighter/Wizard.

I hate DnD 2.0...

[Acadian]

I think I recall that Sorcs in BGII could not dual class either. *sigh* Ah yes, the hard wired game trope of 'If you use magic, you shall not use a bow; if you use a bow you must use a dagger. . . . ' The bane of mystic archers everywhere. The best games I've ever played in terms of actually supporting mystic archery have been Diablo II and Oblivion. Oh well. D&D and Skyland were not good. ESO is not bad but it is more like Diablo II in that much of archers' magic is derived from their bow (skills where arrows can heal, split, come down as a persistent volley, etc).

[SubRosa]

Ok, I took another crack at Icewind Dale. I found a mod to help me. Phun Cheat Spells adds two spells. One allows the character to use any item, forever. So your mages and clerics can use composite longbows if you want (you still need to meet the strength requirement however). This spell won't show up in your inventory, it just sets your character so you can use any item.

The second is a spell to your character that gives you a full rest (recover hit points and spells) whenever you use it. It does not have a name that shows up in the interface, it looks like a multicolored egg, and it says there are two of the. When you click it, you won't see anything happen. But if you check your spell list, you will see it is refreshed.

How you get the spells is wonky. You have to use the console to add a potion that corresponds to the spell. Then you drink the potion, and the spell is added to you. You have to do this for every individual character. And the rest spell only works on the character who has the spell. So if you want to use it to rest your entire party, you have to give the spell to every character, and use it separately on each of them.

But it does seem to cover my biggest gripes in the game. So I restarted. This time Ryo is an Assassin. I plan to eventually dual class him to fighter once I level him up enough to get his Find Traps and Open Locks skills up to 100. He is a dedicated archer, using a composite longbow. Hannah is a Dragon Disciple Sorcerer, using a composite longbow when not using spells. Avery is still a cleric, but now he is using a katana (which is a two handed weapon in this game). And even though January is a Cavalier Paladin, she can now use ranged weapons. it is composite longbows for everyone!

[Acadian]

Glad you're finding some workarounds. When a whole party opens up from max range with longbows, that can do some serious damage before your foes get to you!

[SubRosa]

I played IWD for a while today, and had a lot more fun than I did before. So it is working out better now. When I switch the entire party to bows, it is just stunning how they mow down the monsters as they run up.

[SubRosa]

Still pushing on with IWD. As I have read, it is basically a hack 'n slash, with a bare framework of a story hanging the disparate battles together. It is not as bad as Diablo, but not as deep and rich an RPG experience as say, Skyrim (and yes, you probably won't see Skyrim described that way often, but compared to Icewind Dale, it is!)

I have been enjoying the tactical side to the game. What I remember of the Baldur's Gate games was everyone running about pell mell and stabbing everything as quickly as they could. I would try to form a wall of fighters for my squishy mages to hide behind, and the bad guys would just run right around them and attack my mages anyway. But it seems to be working out a lot better in IWD. Maybe the AI is just dumber, because I can almost always prevent the monsters from reaching my squishies. Or it might just be that there is a lot of interiors with narrow hallways, where there is just no room to flank my fighters.

I am liking the Full Rest spell added by Phun Cheat Spells. It makes my spellcasters actually useful. Hannah can pretty much concentrate on just casting spells now. Though Avery still only uses a few buffs like Bless here and there. Still, I can use the Full Rest on each of them after every fight. That way they can use their magic every battle, like a real magician.

Plus, Icewind Dale is still a better love story than Twilight...

I found some more soundsets here. That allowed me to change around the ones I was using for Avery and Blackjack. Avery is now one of the new Sorcerer soundsets, and Blackjack is one of those from Heart of Winter that was done by Mark Hamill.

[SubRosa]

Still working through Icewind Dale. I am about a third of the way through the game now. I just got to Severed Hand (not a name I would have chosen if I was an elf making a fortress...)

This game really loves throwing hordes of enemies at you. You will take a step into a room, and a dozen monsters will attack you. Take another step, and a dozen more will come, another step, and... well you get the picture.

The monsters are spread out, and seem to have a short radius from which they will go hostile. Basically the fog of war around you. So you will be slugging it out in a huge battle in a large room, and there will be monsters at the other end of the room too far away for you to see. So they will not go hostile and join in the fight. Not until you walk far enough in to see them.

So what I have started doing is set up my team in one spot, and cast buff spells on everyone. Then I send January forward as a scout to get the monsters attention. Then she goes back to the party, and leads the monsters into their longbows. Rinse and repeat, each time with January going a little farther to get the next set of monsters.

Now that we are high enough level, Hannah has a fireball spell. That is also handy for just lobbing into rooms past the fog of war. I have cleared out monsters I never saw more times than once that way.


The Alliance battles it out with fish-stealing goblins

Zombie slayers

As a Dragon Disciple, Hannah has a breath weapon attack

I am the Lizard King, I can do anything

Now I have a fireball, ho, ho, ho!

Lizard Horde

[Lopov]

Basically the fog of war around you. So you will be slugging it out in a huge battle in a large room, and there will be monsters at the other end of the room too far away for you to see. So they will not go hostile and join in the fight. Not until you walk far enough in to see them.

That was my approach in the game as well. It got boring with time, especially close to the end, where you reach some Dwarven complex. My favorite location in the game was the Ice Palace, but I'm not sure if this palace is in IWD1 or IWD2. I also liked some haunted forest, where you must find your way out, it's like a maze, and you must pay attention as to where have you already been, else you might up going in circles all the time.

[Acadian]

Those tactics sound wise. I recall from BG2 that is helped to have your party all together how you want them, then send a scout out to go fetch some foes for them.

Certainly no lack in variety when it comes to foes and spells in this collection of shots.

[SubRosa]

Yesterday I beat Icewind Dale like a red-haired gnomish stepchild. It was a grind. I am glad I had that rest cheat mod, and the cheat codes to rest. Otherwise I do not think I would have made it. I really like the rest mod, as it allows me to use my magicians like they should, as people who cast magic for a living. Rather than people who use a sling 99% of the time, and only cast a spell once in a blue moon.

I started the Heart of Winter dlc, and got a little way into it so far. I think it is meant to be played with a different group of characters. But I did it with the same team from the original campaign. I was able to import them from after the end of the original game, so they came over with their levels and items. It was a little confusing, because the original character files I made of that at first level were also there. But I got which ones were which sorted out eventually. If you start out with a first level character, the game automatically levels you up, so I think you are supposed to be something like 11th or 12th level, like the ending characters were.

Heart of Winter looks pretty small from what I have seen of the strategy guide on the GameBanshee site. I am just about halfway into the first part of Burial Isle, so still early on. I am not sure if I want to stick with it, or maybe go to something else. I have been thinking of maybe trying a more personal third-person/first person game like Fallout 3 or New Vegas instead. Or maybe even going back to January's Skyrim or Oblivion games.

[Acadian]

So many games, so little time!

[Lopov]

I dimly remember Heart of Winter. Actually the only thing which I remember, is that you fight some ice dragon at the end.

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

So apparently in 3 days there is supposed to be some fancy to do regarding Baldur’s Gate III.

https://baldursgate3.game/

[SubRosa]

So they are previewing for the preview to happen in 3 days. I love game companies...

TBH, I am not excited with Baldur's Gate 3. It is being made by Larian, so it will probably be using the same game engine as the Divinity: Original Sin games. I could not get into DOS because of how insanely hard it is to mod, and the lack of console commands.

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

So they are previewing for the preview to happen in 3 days. I love game companies...

TBH, I am not excited with Baldur's Gate 3. It is being made by Larian, so it will probably be using the same game engine as the Divinity: Original Sin games. I could not get into DOS because of how insanely hard it is to mod, and the lack of console commands.

I’m taking the “wait and see“ approach with it. I never played the Divinity games, but if this looks ok I might check it out sometime.

[SubRosa]

I beat Icewind Dale - Heart of Winter like a red-haired orc stepchild. It really was short.

Dragon Battle

[SubRosa]

I created Blood Raven in Baldur's Gate 1. I made her a Fighter-Mage, something I have never tried before. So far it is ok. I am using an Armor spell to make up for the inability to wear armor. But you can carry a shield, so she is going the Longsword + Shield route.

[Lopov]

Are you planning to run a party or mostly solo / just Imoen? Because with F/M the only thing you actually need is a thief, the rest is optional.