I dunno, I remember reading somewhere that some dialog, where you should have minimum 14 (or was it 15) WIS to get some option... But then, this earlier discussion suggests that it is fine if either INT or WIS (not both) is high enough:

http://www.gog.com/forum/icewind_dale/what_stat_affects_dialogue_options/post17

The example I mentioned earlier (someone leaving you his items) was probably wrong, it was actually a class based option. I think it was certain character in chapter 6, which you can persuade to find a new career if your negotiator is certain class, at which point he leaves all his belonging to you. I don't think it had anything to do with WIS.

That one's available for a Bard. So, yeah, it's class-based.

A WIS-based one doesn't ring a bell for me at all, but that doesn't mean there isn't one though.

Best of Luck - My Favorite of the Infinity Engine Games ;-)

I often end up using the poor cleric as bait because they can only use slingshots for ranged weapons and are better armored than the mages, also if their HP gets low the healer is right there, guaranteed!
Running out of arrows was always a danger too
SO annoying feeling that you should switch between longbow / Crossbow and Sword and Shield 4 times over constantly though

Unnecessary bump to let everyone know that I am really enjoying this game!

My team is:

Paladin
Fighter/Thief
Fighter/Druid
Cleric (probably should have chosen Ranger/Cleric in retrospect)
Bard
Mage

I tend to have my three fighters up front destroying, my bard playing tunes (just got that one that heals, which is crazy good) and casting the occasional spell or shooting the odd arrow, my cleric slinging rocks, and my mage casting fireballs and magic missiles and slinging rocks.

Some druid spells are fun too.

I reckon I am probably about halfway through the game, just finished the Severed Hand stuff, and my team is pretty good at fighting bad guys (better than my team was in BG I think). The story is not amazing, but good enough to keep me interested, but its the fights (and levelling) that really keep me going.

I really enjoyed Icewind Dale when I played through it back in 2012. Before that, I played IWD2 and that was the first DnD I ever played and finished, so I had made some critical errors in character design (such as having a monk, but not enough of that one skill...was it wisdom? That gives him extra dex...the guy was a punching bag). I had learned from these mistakes and I remember having a pretty decent party in IWD1. Like Lou, I consider IWD1 the best game done with the Infinity Eng.

Yeah no that's a good choice, you need a dedicated healer in IWD. You're probably going to suffer only having one Mage though.

I recall cleric makes a pretty good melee fighter too? So to me keeping him/her as a slingshot person is underutilizing him. I think a cleric can wear quite good armor, and while the weapon selection is quite limited, cleric can wield some pretty good hammer-type weapons?

Not sure about the mixed classes. Since I didn't want to have a thief-only person (but just someone who can find and disarm traps as a sidejob), I had hard time deciding whether she should be something like fighter/thief, or mage/thief. In the end I opted for the latter as it seemed I could use same allocated points for both classes quite good, but the downside was that if I had the best "thief armor" on, then she couldn't cast mage spells. And if she just had some mage robe, then she didn't necessarily have all the same stealth bonuses etc. from thief armor, and of course not as good AC either.

So in the end I ended up carrying two sets of armor for my mage/thief. Whenever I wanted to use her as a thief, she would wear the thief padded leather armor (Stuidded Leather of Armor +4: Shadowed, for example) and such, and while she was a mage, she would have some mage robe etc.

Then again, at some point I found a Robe or Armory (AC 3) for her, and that with e.g. a Cloak of Protection, a Cyclocone hat and a buckler gave her AC -5, without affecting her spell casting. And late in the game her stealth and trap detection was so good anyway that I had no real use for the puffed thief armor for those either, so I could keep her using the same armor all the time.

I kinda agree with Crosmando that having two mages might be beneficial in many encounters, but luckily you also have a half-druid. I recall druid could make some very kickass offensive area spells, like those spike spells and such which are quite comparable to the poison cloud and gas cloud spells from mages (you can, and should cast e.g. the spike spells several times to the same area, they do multiple damage then to incoming enemy hordes). I tend to use those druid area spells all the time in combat, the only bad thing about them was that when the fight was over, some of those spike spells would last quite long, meaning you had to wait a long time before proceeding (you don't want to step on your own spikes either).

By the way, which difficulty level did you choose? While the encounters are supposed to be harder in e.g. insane level, you also level up faster then. Like some have suggested, the game might hence be even easier on "tougher" difficulty levels, as long as you have been playing on that level for quite some time.
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Just started it a couple days ago myself. Played it a long time ago, can't remember if I finished, but I'm remembering certain things as I encounter them.

So far, not as fun or engaging as Baldur's Gate, but that may have a lot to do with building your own party and not having the chatter, banter, and little quirks of the NPCs. Those were characters. My party of six feels like only a formula for killing bad guys.

I increased the difficulty by one level. I'm pretty happy with the level its at.

Last night I sent my cleric into battle a bit more, as support, but generally I have found 3 melee to be sufficient.

I sometimes use my druid and my bard to help my mage out with spells. I have found a couple of times that I would have preferred another mage type character but it hasn't been too much of a problem yet.

Finished it!!!

It was a bit shorter than I was expecting, shorter than Baldur's Gate I think, but maybe there were some side quests I missed. Not that that is a complaint, I thought it was a perfect length, I didn't get bored at any stage. Loved the atmosphere, the story wasn't amazing but still enjoyable.

Now, I don't know whether to try IWD2 or TOEE.., I think I'll make a separate topic and ask for some help choosing.

Awesome! No, I don't think you missed anything. It's definitely shorter than BG. I actually recommend IWD2 next, as that uses the 3.0 rules, which gets you used to rule set. ToEE uses the 3.5 rules, which are similar but do have some differences, but you'll be used to the rule set after playing IWD2 and be able to jump right in to the turn-based goodness of ToEE.

Aah, thanks, I didn't know that!

Including the Heart of Winter and Luremaster? Wow, that was fast... For me it took several weeks at least, and I thought I was fast.