Good luck!

Best of luck! I think you'll enjoy it.

The story is a bit underrated IMO, but where Icewind Dale shines compared with BG is in locations and sounds. These things are marvellous, and the game has some truly wonderful locations.

Tons of combat too, but you probably know that already. Means you may want a more fighter-based group though, like a fighter/thief instead of a clean thief for instance.

Good luck! It has some tough battles but the game rocks!
Quick question: Can I start heart of the winter with a fresh party?
Never tried it :I

Old school RPG's FTW. Have a fun time playing the titles and prepare for a lot of reading cause the dialogue and the story is very rich in those titles :)

Best of luck!

I wouldn't worry too much about your party unless you are playing on the hardest settings. I'm definitely not a power gamer and I've completed it three times without coming too unstuck, although there are plenty of hard fights. My most enjoyable playthrough was with a multi-classed party that allowed me to explore and experiment with classes I was less familiar with. However, I do recommend you include a good spread of classes (fighter, mage, cleric, thief), as they will all be very useful at some point.

To me Icewind Dale is all about the great atmosphere and enjoying the combat and character progression. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

I played them also in that order. Icewind Dale user interface is not up to BG2 standards, it is closer to BG 1 (e.g. journal and such). I played IWD on "Insane" difficulty level, I liked it because you level up faster then, and with a good party I didn't find it that hard (I felt BG2 in normal difficulty was harder).

I liked Icewind Dale quite a bit. I've been meaning to start playing IWD2, but still pondering about a good party. I found some online tutorial of good parties for IWD2. Since it has a different ruleset, just re-creating my IWD party to IWD2 didn't seem quite so straightforward, so maybe I'll make a completely different party to IWD2.

My IWD party was (yes I had to run the game and check it, IWD is still installed; I haven't quite memorized these):

Paladin (human, lawful good)
Fighter (dwarf, true neutral)
Fighter/Druid (half-elf, true neutral)
Cleric (human, neutral good)
Mage/thief (elf, true neutral)
Illusionist (gnome, true neutral)

Maybe a bit generic and boring party, but worked for me. I re-rolled each character quite many times so that I got good amount of points to allocate for them, and I also had in the options enabled that I always get the max HP points when I level up. Somehow I just don't like to leave those things up to mere chance, I guess I am a powergamer too...

Thanks for your encouragement and luck everyone.

I have made a party (quite similar to yours Timppu but basically with a Fighter/Thief instead of a Fighter and a Bard instead of a Mage/Thief - never played one of them before so thought I would give it a try).

Its a bit daunting getting involved in another big RPG but I think I am ready!

Don't do what I did and forget to take a thief along! I had to duel-class my transmuter (I don't think he's still quite got his mage skills back actually)
You probably want to make them multi-class them though, either a mage/thief or fighter/thief

Bards get a bad rep but assuming you're playing the GOG version with the Heart of Winter extras then higher level Bards get a song that regens the health of the whole party, which is awesome!

Have fun, IWD is great. I too really liked using a Bard. Being able to identify items is very convenient. Also, having a second mage is nice as well for buffing the party and de-buffing the enemy. The Druid has some nice AoE spells as well.

Good luck, what keeps me hooked is if the story flows smoothly. If it hitches after a point I have the bad habit of losing interest and moving on.

I agree. I also love the item descriptions - much more creative than the Baldur's Gate games - and there's just something about getting to create an entire party of my own that bonds me to the game more than letting me just have one and then having pre-made characters join up.

My big nitpick about the game is that it's so combat-oriented but the engine isn't optimal for combat. So many fights have gone pear-shaped for me because I told a character to go in one direction only to see him go in the opposite direction and take the long way around because of the wonky path-finding. I have to micro-manage the party so much that it takes even more time than a regular turn-based game would.

Good luck. We will be waiting your return in a few months from such an epic quest young warrior.

This reminds me that I never completed Icewind Dale. I'll get on that once one of two things happen: I break down and buy a GOG copy, or I locate my old disks.

Good luck but you are aware that BG and IWD - despite of looking similar - are completely different games, are you? I've finished BG1 and BG2 but quit IWD2 somewhere during second chapter. It was just too much fighting to my taste and found it boring. But if you are ok with it - you'll probably like it.