I found this FAQ on creating a party, and I notice there's a heavy amount of dual/multi-classing. Is it possible to go through the game with strictly single-class party members? I mean, obviously the game allows you to do it, but is it going to be near impossible?

And while I'm here, there's also mention of what I presume to be a mod or something called Heart of Winter and a Heart of Fury mode. Are they included in the GOG version of Icewind Dale? Any patches I need to know about, that sort of thing?

Thanks in advance.

The GOG version includes both expansions (Heart of Winter and Trials of the Luremaster) and is fully patched, the Heart of Fury mode is also included.

The FAQ you linked isn't very good, the author doesn't even seem to know that warriors get an extra half attack at level 7 and that HoW removes the XP cap with a level cap for example.

The game is of course playable with only pure class characters only, I guess that's even the standard way, dualclassing just makes it easier.

Dual classing is, in general, a powergaming tactic (so I usually do it with at least a couple of my party members. :P ) But yes, it should be no issue playing through with pure classed characters.

Heart of Fury, as noted, is included and is basically a super hard difficulty mode.

Grrrr....still on the subject of "Creating my party," I've created it 3 times now. Let me explain.

First I created a party of 4, figuring to play on Easy mode with the standard Fighter, Thief, Mage, and Cleric. I started the game, tried to pick someone's pocket in the tavern & got slaughtered.

Came back to the game the next day & my characters are gone. I never actually "Saved" my game, but I at least expected they'd be available for choosing since I spent a while creating them in the first place.

So I created a new 6 member party & started the game. But wait, its my party of 4 from the day before! So I quit, completely reloaded IWD, and again there's no PCs to choose from. So I create my party of 6 again, start the game, and guess who's in the tavern...my party of 4 again!

Seriously, I can't even find where in the directory this phantom party of 4 might be saved....wtf & help?!

All game save normally should under below folder.
C:\Program Files\GOG.com\Icewind Dale Complete\mpsave

I also found there is a tempsave folder, go and check is there any file. For me the folder is empty.
If there is anything, that might be the phantom party.
C:\Program Files\GOG.com\Icewind Dale Complete\Tempsave

By the way, I don't think we can choose a character from pervious party unless exported from the game.

After a night of sleep & looking at it again, I thought mpsave might be the folder but I was afraid of screwing something up. Thanks for letting me know that was the right folder.

This game better be good after all the times I've created the same party over & over. ;-)

The only way you can use a party member again is if you export the party member.