Since I took one solo character through BG, BGTOTSC, BGII, had a great time, and only hit level 30 just after finishing Watcher's Keep in BGII, (at about the 85% completion mark) I thought I'd do the same in Icewind Dale after downloading it here.

I don't recommend it. In IWD, It's not the same.

For one thing, I played on Hard difficulty, and I hit level 30 very early in the game (after finishing the Severed Hand, hit it halfway through the Luremaster's Castle).

Second, compared to BGII, the items in IWD are very low-power. Regeneration rings are nigh non-existent. Magic resistance is very rare. I played for 16 hours without finding a single magic helm. The weapons are weaker. You can't cast "simulacrum". My paladin Hulda could only summon 2-3 cardboard-strength skeletons to assist her, much less 7 Astral Devas as my BGII paladin could.

Third, there are no epic-character abilities after level 20. All you get for the last 10 levels is +20 hp, a few spells, and -5 thaco. Thats it.

So overall, for the most enjoyable IWD experience, I'd recommend avoiding the solo challenge and using the NPC mod instead.

Charles

Thanks for sharing your experience. I was considering either soloing or using the npc pack. I'll go for the npc pack now.

IWD was created and balanced for creating and playing your own party of 6 at normal difficulty. This will yield the best experience.

As noted, the game is designed for a party of 6, so it shouldn't be a surprise that the solo experience is far different and not optimal.

Re the low magic: this is one aspect that I really like about the game. I find it's far more enjoyable when there are few high powered items and there's not a sword of doom in every other barrel.

Out of curiosity, what character did you play solo (race and class(es)) ?

Though the `creating your own party'-part depends on who you ask and what you are looking for in the game :) I'll be going for the npc mod because the reason I never finished IWD2 was that I couldn't sustain an emotional connection with 6 characters I made up myself. That's why my options were either playing solo or with the npc mod..

Soloing is good for exploiting the prologue. There's tons of easy quests you can do that doesn't involve alot of combat. Each quest is worth 1200XP, 2400XP if you play on Very Easy or Insane (which I don't recommend, lol). Unless you are a multiclass character, you'll usually gain a level each time you finish a quest. Handy for making a strong party since you can then export the character once you used up all the easy quests and do it again until you no longer gain a level after each quest. The import and export functions are there for a reason. Use them!