Hey guys, new IWD-player here, longtime fan of Baldur's Gate. I've finally decided to try these games out, and I have some questions I was hoping some of you might be able to answer. :)

I have both IWD & HoW, and looking at the xp tables, there seems to be alot of xp to earn in HoW - I am wondering if this'll have an impact on the normal game, i.e. should I play Icewind through first before playing the expansion, or is it better to simply install the expansion aswell? I'm concerned the higher level cap might make the original game too easy.

Is it possible to import your IWD-party into IWD2 or must one make a new party?

Related to the above question; should I build my party for the IWD endgame or the HoW/Trials endgame? Or the IWD2 endgame? ^^

Are there any dedicated IWD-mod sites? I know of G3 and SHS, ofcourse, but I find the IWD-content strewn all across those sites and difficult locate.

Is there a ToBEx-version for IWD? Kinda gotten used to no cosmetic swings, and things like monsters dropping inventory on frozen death etc would be great to have!

Is there a mod-installation tool like the BWS avaliable for IWD?

Much obliged, NN

1. In a normal party game with 6 characters you won't even get close to the XP or the level cap.
It's your decision how you want to play the games.
The expansion updates the game, higher resolutions, more items in shops, smarter enemies, a few new spells, bags for better inventory handling and highlight option. Installing HoW modernizes the game from BG1 style to ToB style.
Even if you have the expansions installed you don't have to go to go to Easthaven and do the expansion areas before the game is over, you can export your characters into a new expansion only game or reload a prior save and start the expansion from there.
I'd try vanilla IWD first, you can install the expansion if you don't like it..

2. IWD2 has to be started with a fresh party, it uses totally different rules.

3. Build it for having fun during the game. You can beat the game with 6 of the pregenerated characters for example. Unlike in BG2 strength is important.

The rest I don't know, I prefer playing the game unmodded and I recommend doing the same.

I can only answer a few questions but iirc, you can make a higher level party just for HoW content or you can make a new party that starts at level 1 to play through both the original game and the expansion. I think you would enjoy just starting the game new.

As for party build you definitely want at least 1 tank, 1 thief-type for locks/traps, 1 cleric-type. I personally think everything else is optional after that. I don't remember being able to import characters from 1-2. They use different rulesets. I think IWD 1 uses a simple version of 2nd edtion AD&D (similar to Baldur's Gate) and IWD2 uses 3.5 (which is closer to NWN).

Have just finished the game myself, and you can export your characters and start the expansions with the same guys you played the main game with. You can do the expansions before killing the last boss too. If you don't, it's not a problem, but be aware that the various bags and their content won't come across, so if you have 500,000 gold worth of equipment in a bag of holding..... DO'H!!

I wouldn't have been able to go on without the ability to highlight (it's the Alt key btw, not Tab like in Baldur's Gate), so I recommend you install the expansion. If it's the GOG version, they are pre-installed I think (or maybe there's an option to skip them in the installer, not sure). Other than that it's fine to play it vanilla, but you may want to use the fixpack and tweakpack, so you can have bottomless bags of holding for example, which makes inventory management much easier. The dungeons are sometimes huge, and you don't always have easy access to a merchant. Also good to be able to stack hundreds (or thousands for that matter) of arrows easily, as you'll go through piles of the stuff. Thought I had plenty, but still ran out on all my characters in one of the early dungeons.

It's an excellent game with fantastic music and atmosphere btw. Heavier on combat than BG though, so you need good tactics when you get overwhelmed. Clever use of chokepoints can be vital.

Like above, I'd recommend a thief of some kind (probably a fighter/thief) so you can deal with the traps and chests with no fuss. A cleric is also essential, for a healer. I used a pure mage too. Bit of a pain in the first half of the game, but towards the end of the main game he starts to become very useful, and I imagne he'll be quite powerful by the end of the expansions (I just started HoW). At least one fighter (or some kind) is needed. Personally I went with a paladin (as group leader), fighter, and ranger, but you can do whatever you fancy.

There is a semi-random drop of items in the game so not sure how representative my run was, but we picked up a wide range of excellent axes, and many good 2-hander swords. There are also many good bows.

Generally you can play the expansions later in the main game. I usually do it after finishing Lower Dorn's Deep, but before confronting the force behind the current troubles in the Dales. The same applied to the Heart if Winter expansion and Trials of the Luremaster. They're completely different games, with different timelines and different rules (2e and 3e respectively). No importing is possible. Build for the main game. The expansions are more difficult but have the same base. There are precious few mods for IWD or IWD2. The engine, though based on BG, has some major differences that make modding much more complicated. G3, PPG and CoM have the most mods. I didn't know SHS had any IWD mods (the 1PP stuff as for graphics in all IE games). You can also look over at Sorcerer's Place for some small stuff.

You can also try the IWD-in-BG2 conversion at G3. G3's mods are compatible, as is a version of IWD NPCs at PPG. It may be a beta, but is quite stable. For IWD1/2, no. It is part of IWD-in-BG2 though. Big World? There aren't enough mods for the games, so no.

The original cap without expansion is 1,800,000 XP, you'll get about 1,000,000 for everyone in a party of 6, you won't even get close to the cap. Installing the expansion won't change anything if you play at normal difficulty, if you don't enter the expansion areas you won't get XP there. Just don't play another difficulty than normal, else you'll get too much XP (at very hard or very easy you get double XP to make the game easier for example).
Don't install any mods (extra battles, extra items, extra XP, easier game).

Since you fear the game being too easy and want a challenge don't enable "max HP at level up", don''t multiclass your thief, don't give your characters more than 14 con or 14 dex (exception: thief, bard) for cheesy extra HP and AC bonus, the difficulty of the game depends a lot on the physical stats of your characters.
If you want the game to be easy you can of course do the opposite.

I'd just like to point out, though, that the game is by no means easy. You should get plenty of challenge even if playing with min-maxed characters. Rushing into combat in this game is not a good idea, you need to be more tactical.

I've heard you can get maybe 2,500,000 XP per character in a 6-member party after playing the main game and both expansions, which will be *well* short of the experience cap of level 30 (with expansions installed).

I'd install the expansion just for the ability to highlight (Alt-key), as I don't think that was in the vanilla main game.

If you want a tough game, you can always go with characters without re-rolling or distributing points.

Ah, there we go! Thanks guys.

Nah, I wont use the max HP on levelup, that's abit cheesy imo, though I'd prefer it if my characters had decent stats atleast. Decent as in not 18 in every single stat, but maybe in the main stat atleast.

Thanks for your replies everyone, you've adequately answered my questions! :)