Well I got though the first two chapters on HOF and im starting to think that the people who wrote the HOF guides may be grossly exaggerating how hard it is unless the game suddenly ramps up in difficulty later I don't understand why people level squat and take characters with 70+ AC.

I got through the first two chapters easily and just cleared the first area of chapter three and no problems so far. HOF is EXTREMELY fun IMO. The enemies don't just fall over in one second so you can actually cast spells on them before the tanks kill them. Not only do they have way more hit points they're are alot more enemies than the first go through which is a huge plus. Story wise I like Baulders Gate series better but for game play HOF mode IWD2 is my favorite infinity engine game. Walking around with level 20 characters in the first few chapters makes the game play out totally different as you get to start off with all the high end abilities, spells and gear.

My favorite spell combo for my party is circle of protection against evil + holy aura + mass haste + aura of vitality + hope + executioners eyes + and the three bard song buffs cast on the party and its summons lets me usually clear half map before that stuff wears off.

Tremor, mass heal, holy word, malison, wail of the banshee, mass dominate, symbol hopelessness, recitation pretty much instantly turn the tide of any battle thats not going my way.

I'm using
Paladin(X)/Fighter(4)
Barbarian(X)/Fighter(4)
Cleric(X)/Paladin(1)
Druid
Bard(X)/Rouge(2)
Specialist Wizard Conjuror

Three of those characters are largely considered crap by most HOF guides ive read so far. I think anyone who was worried that HOF was too hard should give it a try because I haven't had this much fun playing a game in a while. I post something if i suddenly hit a wall in difficulty.