Kmonster, I believe that's based on the character's INT and CHA scores (the option to get him to leave his gear behind as well), or is that part of the Unfinished Business mod?

Good luck Holylight! Looking forward to reading your adventures! Thanks for joining in too! :)
Nicely done K, grats!!!!

I know you can get this option in the unmodded game, I had it in one of my previous playthroughs and Dsimpson tells about it in his faq without mentioning stat requirements.
I guess the stat check is for int since usually my paladin is running ahead with her boots of speed, but since I don't have a save from before opening the stairs I can't check it.

Not a problem! I'm always interested in trying something like this at least once. Even tried to do the no reload challenge on the BG2 Forums on the Bioware site. That didn't go very well. Haha. However, whenever I play IWD I always wish that there were certain features from BG2 added into it like HLAs, Kits, Party Members and Banters, and maybe some trap setting, but there are certain things I wish BG2 had that IWD has, like some of the new spells.

Alright, update time!

Cleared out the Vale of Shadows, even all the tombs, and stuff. So, Combat Spells like Chromatic Orb, Magical Stone, Sunscorch, and Shillelagh became my best friend since sleep doesn't really work on undead, and neither does horror. Same with the healing spells.

In the room with the lever I had to bring most of the enemies back to the stairs to fight them at least 3-4 at a time while buffing with Bless, Remove Fear, and Barkskin.

Spoke with the big bad of the major tomb(I can't even spell his name so I'm just gonna call him the Big Bad since he does call himself the evil.), and then went after Lysan.

With Lysan, I tried to use the Silence, 15' Radius scrolls I had on Soren, but I ended up silencing myself instead of her. While that was going on Akiel got charmed, and we tried to take out the yetis and Lysan one by one, with Kalyinara trying to tank Lysan, and Soren trying to tank the Yetis. Once the Yetis were down, the group went to work on Lysan when suddenly, Akiel became uncharmed and went after her too!

Then, the group went back to the big bad, and got their reward. They went back to Kuldahar to restock on supplies, and spoke with Arundel, and now they have to go to the Temple, and find the Hearthstone Gem.

Atalaya - Diviner - 4
Akiel - Fighter/Thief - 4/4
Soren - Fighter/Cleric - 4/4
Kalyinara - Cleric/Ranger - 4/4
Analethene - Druid - 5
Aiko - Thief - 5

Note: Yeah, I wish I did use some of the IWD NPCs because they talk, but nevermind about that. Also, I'm starting to wonder why I picked Queen Ellesime's voice to be Atalaya's.

Edit: Also, so much death, and used up potions, I can't tell you how many times Soren died. Atalaya, Akiel, Analethene died a couple, and Aiko and Kalyinara lived to fight another day. Go Thief, and Cleric/Ranger!

I have decided to give this a try using a Brother Sister Duo:

Azaghal-Kain Fighter/Mage - Currently 2/2
Azabeth-Kain Fighter/Thief - Currently 2/2

The whole armor thing is a drag but Azaghal will go Fighter in Full Armor until Mage Levels increase and he can at least cast scrolls. Azabeth will go Figher in Full armor and strip to Lock-pick as traps will not be an issue till she levels a bit. Health Potions anyone.

Off to find that caravan ;-)

Update -

You have to play a lot more strategic and it will be a slower moving game with only two at least for now. A lot more snipping / attack and retreat - ranged weapons are a definite necessity now. Not having a healer means coins go for potions. I upped the difficulty a notch to get an XP boost for fasted leveling. Currently:

Azaghal-Kain Fighter/Mage - Currently 3/3
Azabeth-Kain Fighter/Thief - Currently 3/4

Making my way across Kuldahar Pass in search of Kuldahar itself. (I love killing Goblins)

Welcome to the fun, Lou! I wish you luck on your brother-sister duo run! I don't think I would be able to do a duo run quite yet.

Also, quick question. If someone manages to beat IWD without any reloads, does that mean that we have to make a new thread for IWDII, or do we keep posting it in here?

Update time for my party.

The group cleared out the temple. They used the same spells as before except with horror, and entangle mixed back in. The reason why I decided to use entangle again was because I got the boots that makes someone immune to entangle. On some of the tougher fights I used most of the same buff spells until Atalaya reached level 5 then I started to use haste.

After making it to the last chamber, the group could not find the Heartstone Gem. Mainly, because it was stolen. (Obviously, Lol.)

The group returned to Kuldahar for some rest, and to restock on some supplies, mainly Elixirs of Health, and some arrows for Aiko. Then, the group spoke to Arundel, and told them about what happened at the Temple, and that the Heartstone Gem wasn't there, and Arundel decided to send the merry band off to Dragon's Eye.

Atalaya - Diviner - 5
Akiel - Fighter/Thief - 4/5
Soren - Fighter/Cleric - 4/4
Kalyinara - Cleric/Ranger - 4/4
Analethene - Druid - 5
Aiko - Thief - 6

Note: May do Dragon's Eye tonight. Also, after this run, I don't think I'm going to be using Full Plate and Packing Steel again.

Edit: Soren was the only one who died, and that was once.

In HoW I made the first big mistake even before starting the first fight. When talking to the bard in the inn I didn't choose the dialogue option to make him sing his ballad as soon as they were available, there's no way to get the hidden glacier rose sidequest any more, the chance to make a poor man happy and gain 630,000 XP is gone forever.

After returning from the barbarian camp and questioning the major about the delegate the party started Burial Isle exterior. The first waves of barrow wights were defeated quite easily but left confused characters, my suicidal druid started wandering off, triggering a new group of barrow wights to attack him far away from the rest of the party.
So the rest of the party had to hurry to save him using everything they had (a good thing I cast fire protection spells at everyone so I could bombard him) and finally succeeded. Immediately after the battle I added "dispel magic" to the spells to memorize at the next rest, but since buffs were still active I continued with clearing the rest of the isle.
Magic is more effective than physical combat (unless you're wielding three white doves), the drowned dead never made their saves versus sunscorch.
Afraid of what was waiting inside the cave I used a dimension door to get to Hjolder and back to get XP for finding him and returned to the renewed Lonelywood map where I could solve the killings now.

With the newly gained XP my party felt ready to enter the Burial Isle caves and fighting the undead there went well, too well.
Without buffs, summons and hardly any spells left the party continued clearing the cave. The paladin using the throwing axe to shoot a wailing virgin failed her save and got hopeless with 1 drowned dead beating at her and died since the party couldn't help fast enough on the narrow bridge. Dispel magic wasn't available since the party hadn't rested yet. The cleric cast raise dead to bring her back immediately, she didn't use a different weapon from pale justice in the cave any more.

In spite of having no problem with the difficult battles down there character death six happened there too, avoidable like the ones before. When you reenter the cleared cave a few undead respawn, since they're only a few I didn't care buffing, summoning or keeping formation, my bard got damaged by a drowned death, managed to retreat into safety behind the other party members so I didn't have to care for her any more, but suddenly she died without obvious reason. Reading the text revealed that she took 38 damage from a virgin wail.

After raising her in the temple (don't know why I couldn't find the scroll in the inventory) it was time for spell learning. The bard only knew level 1-2 spells scribed in chapter 1 and the mage hadn't learned any since the beginning of chapter 4. The 80 hour journey was the perfect opportunity for using red potions which dump str to 3 for 24 hours, now the mage can cast spells up to level 7 and the bard up to level 5, I even had her learn a few higher level spells although I doubt she will gain enough XP to cast them during the game.
Knowing that Lonelywood would be different when I return I dared the first (and probably only) pickpocket to get an oil of speed and a ring of free action from Purvis.

Now the party has arrived at Gloomfrost, 6 character deaths and still no reload.

Good job Kmonster! Sorry about the bard thing though.

Update time for the party again.

Cleared the first floor of Dragon's Eye.

Many lizard men were killed, and the group had to use their usual tricks to kill them. Using Horror, and Entangle as well as the offensive spells, Chromatic Orb, Magic Missile, Magical Stone, Agannazar's Scorcher, Shillelagh, and Skull Trap.

The only real difficult fight was against the lizard king, but I somewhat foresaw this and buffed up using Bless, Prayer, Barkskin, Draw upon Holy Might, Haste, and Animate Dead. Then when the fight came around, Atalaya cast her Skull Trap and killed most of the Lizard King's men. Also, the buffing did its job because nobody died.

After finishing the clearing out of the first floor, the group came upon some people from the village and got some experience for saving them.

Now, onwards to the second floor!

Atalaya - Diviner - 5
Akiel - Fighter/Thief - 5/5
Soren - Fighter/Cleric - 5/5
Kalyinara - Cleric/Ranger - 5/4
Analethene - Druid - 6
Aiko - Thief - 6

Resurrection Note: Atalaya died once, Akiel died once, and Soren died twice. No reloads so far lets hope that I can manage to keep it that way! However, there were many close calls for Akiel since he decided he wanted to be main tank instead of Soren. Not that I mind that. It makes giving the nice tank items to a lot easier.

Note: May or may not continue on with Dragon's Eye tonight, but who knows since it is Fall Break this coming week in college. Also, I noticed as a Diviner, Atalaya can't learn conjuration spells, but can still use the scrolls. So this kind of helped me determine that when Aiko duals into mage, she isn't going to be a specialized mage.

Nicely done everybody. It was my anniversary this past week so I wasn't able to play but I will posting some new info here soon. Peace

Oh, happy belated anniversary then!

Update for me again.

Second floor of Dragon's Eye seemed to be hard.

However, similar tactics were used as before while killing the lizard men, and the beetles. I hate those beetles. The only thing different was using the Flaming Oil on the trolls. I hate the trolls now too. Especially mixed with clerics.

The group found the Conlan's son and told him to get home.

Then, they found a room filled with trolls and clerics. So I had Akiel pull them back into that nice chokepoint right outside their room, and then cast entangle on the spot. However, that didn't work out so well because Soren, Akiel, and Analethene died. So then, Atalaya, Aiko, and Kalyinara had to retreat up to the first floor and resurrect the three that died. Went back down the second floor, and Akiel and Analethene died again when we reached the room that they died in. However, Soren had keep tanking until Kalyin could resurrect Analethene and Akiel again. This time though, Atalaya used horror and scared most of the trolls, and then bam. Dead Trolls and Clerics.

Spoke with the Mother, and asked to rest, and then cleared out the rest of the floor.

Atalaya - Diviner - 6
Akiel - Fighter/Thief - 5/6
Soren - Fighter/Cleric - 5/6
Kalyinara - Cleric/Ranger - 6/5
Analethene - Druid - 7
Aiko - Thief - 7

Resurrection Note: Analethene died twice, Soren died a couple of times, and Akiel died like...ten.

Note: Yeah, next time I try this I'm getting rid of full plate and packing steel because all the other armors reduce Akiel's thieving skills except for Leather. Same with Aiko, except she has one more level before I dual her into a mage.

Edit: May or may not do the third floor of Dragon's Eye tonight.

I made a mistake looking at the spell tables, the bard can cast level 6 spells and got the leftovers from the mage, lich touch and invisible stalker are the only level 6 spells, seven eyes is the only level 7 spell with more than one scroll outside TotL.

Snow trolls, yetis, frost salamanders, frost giants and winter wolves weren't difficult in chapter 5, now about 5 levels higher and better equipped the party could afford to clear the outside area without buffs left and could even save a few summoning spells for later.
Since the outside area was so easy and only the cleric (I don't know why) was fatigued the party decided to continue inside. With the support of summoned wolves the party beat the the first remorhaz ambushes without too much trouble. I was wondering why those relatively easy monsters were worth 10,000 XP each, the answer was soon to follow.

At the 3rd or 4th surprise attack the thief at full health was one hit killed by a rhemorhaz, he had 70 HP but took 71 damage, 26 crushing (2 resisted) and 45 fire (4 resisted), death #7.

After casting a raise dead spell the party decided to rest outside, facing those monsters at only half strength was too risky. When they returned after resting and preparing they didn't face any trouble, the druid cast his first level 7 spell and summoned 2 shamblers, in combination with the bard song they have 100 crushing resistance and could have handled the remorhazes alone.
I had the bard initiate dialogue with Tiernon to get the bard specific option and then the druid talk to him about crafting a weapon to get a scimitar (since I missed the one from Marketh).
My party had memorized a lot of fire spells for the ice golem sentries one level lower, but they have magic resistance, after the 3rd failed spell I gave up casting (they took lots of damage from the still active static charges however) and fought them with weapons. They were not as tough as I remembered so I didn't have to rest before meeting the seer. I wasted a rest afterwards to memorize dimension doors to loot the remorhaz I left in the pit, but since my paladin killed the beast at the edge of the pit she could pick up the amulet.

After dealing with the barbarians and Purvis the fatigued party took their well deserved rest in the Whistling Gallows Inn.
I expected a very hard battle upon leaving the inn so I prepared, it was total overkill. The paladin rushed forward, the thief shot arrows, the cleric cast symbol of hopelessness disabling both fighters, the bard cast a fireball (hitting and interrupting the own druid), the mage a magic missile and the battle was almost over. Since there's nothing left to do in HoW except for leaving for the sea of moving ice it's time to talk to a certain halfling.

After 89 days and 8 hours, 7 deaths and 0 reloads the party ( XP range from 1,960,557 to 1,965,171) is now starting TotL.

Another update from me.

Third level of Dragon's Eye.

Mostly the same stuff as before, except for Undead all over the place. So horror didn't work, and I had to use skull trap, and holy smite like it was going out of style.

When we got to place where Presio was at, I wasn't even aware that Presio was even in the fight so I didn't even do any pre-buffs, and yet somehow the group managed to survive it. That kind of reminds me of the Minimal Reload Challenge on the Bioware Forums. So I'm kind of happy that I did that, but hopefully I won't make that mistake again if I go through this again.

Atalaya - Diviner - 7
Akiel - Fighter/Thief - 6/6
Soren - Fighter/Cleric - 6/6
Kalyinara - Cleric/Ranger - 6/6
Analethene - Druid - 7
Aiko - Thief -> Mage - 8 -> 1

Resurrection Note: Analethene died once, Soren died once, and Akiel died three times.

Note: Probably the last update for tonight, and Dualed Aiko to Mage, and picked Sleep and Magic Missile for her two spells.

Hey all -

Great job to all those adventuring in the Spine of the World ;-)

Been busy so far this week but I have progressed some. I finished up the Pass and moved into Kuldahar proper. Spoke to everyone and equipped myself for one of my favorite sections of the game (The Val and Kresselack's Tomb). After gathering all the information and finishing off the Yetis chasing Mirek I boldly entered the Vale.

I finished off Crypt #1 (East of the Entrance) with little problem and headed South and back North to Crypt #2. I almost bought it when I set off the Shadows Trap - I always forget about this one. I even had Azabeth Detecting Traps (oops). This battle has made me think for the first time that a duo is going to be difficult. The real test will be the entrance to Kresselack's Tomb as I have always found that to be a somewhat challenging encounter.

On a side note: Does anyone know if this GOG Version contains the Free Trials of the Luremaster add on or should it be installed separately?

TotL proved difficult from the beginning. The evil party in the SE tower brought several characters close to death but could be defeated without casualties.
After resting the party continued with the harpies in NE tower. The druid cast creeping doom, 4 of the 6 summoned swarms were sent to the harpy queen, keeping her busy for the rest of the battle, I guess 1 or 2 would have been sufficient.
The buffs didn't help much, they were soon dispelled. The mage was in melee but since he was protected by by stoneskins and mirror images it didn't bother me, when they were dispelled he recast them, but then he (and the cleric) got infected by panic, although he still had most HP the remaining party members couldn't kill the attacking harpy faster than she killed him, death #8.
The battle was finished quickly afterwards, raise death was cast and the rest of the towers was no problem, now the party is entering the crypt.

It's included in the GOG version.