Party creation

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hello, i'm new to IWD, and had a question about party creation. do you have to create your entire party, or can you add NPC characters like in the BG series?

 

There are no NPCs roaming the world who will join you. You have to (or rather, get to) create your entire party.

 

i guess thats kinda good, you get exactly what you want in your party. but i liked having the different NPC's with there different personalities in the party. i never liked it when people made there own party for single player in BG(made a multiplayer game then tranfered the save file to single player) they always seemd to over powered.

 

Understood. This is one of the key distinctions between the Icewind Dale games and the Baldur's Gate games. Baldur's Gate provides a number of pre-made NPCs who can join you who all bring a significant social dynamic to your playthrough, in addition to their combat abilities. And those dynamics change further when you mix and match certain party members together. Baldur's Gate is a bit more focused on the roleplaying experience.

IWD on the other hand allows you to create your "ultimate party" and bring it through the game from start to finish. This game has a greater focus on combat, and is a bit more hack & slash.

Both are well done, and enjoyable games in their own right. I prefer Baldur's Gate, but there are plenty of folks around here who prefer Icewind Dale.

My advice, don't look for one to be the other, or vice versa. Enjoy each of them for what they are.

 

i agree, just trying to distinguish the differences so i can properly adjust my playing style. from what i've read (and what you said) this game focuses more on combat than BG so having an entire custom party will most likely not make your party seem overpowered. i never could understand why people would use cheats and mods that made your party more powerfull, takes the challange out of the game.

thanks for the help

 

There is an npc mod available -- complete with banter and romance. You just make one character and import the other five (although they are fairly set in their class and it pretty much means your main character must be a mage).

 

As a personal reccomendation, try the game without mods first - there is an NPC mod available though Icewind Dale uses a slightly different version of the engine than Baldurs Gate so there will be a few confines in how you use the NPCs from the mod than any other character.

I found Icewind Dale was actually quite nice in the fact it paid more attention to your character - race, class and stats than the Baldurs Gate series, so while the interparty banter is missing you feel a little bit more embedded into the world itself.

Have fun with the game That's the most important part.

 

As you guys have pointed out, this is a key difference between BG and IWD. But I find it does give some replay value by allowing you to create unusual party combination. First time through take the usual balanced party, but then try something different - maybe a themed party or a totally unbalance mix so as to challenge your usual style and tactics.

My best ever IWD game was with 5 Gnomes, that is not something you get to do in BG.

 

Not to get too far off topic, but technically you can create such a party in Baldur's Gate by creating a multiplayer game and creating whatever party members you want from scratch. But again, this is an IWD related thread primarily, so I better stop derailing.

 

The design of IWD and the path the designer's force you take pretty much makes NPCs useless. There are no real side-quests you can partake in this game. Nothing but straight on plodding your way through the plot. Though I still love it for what it made to be, a slug-fest. I have beat this game Seven-Ways-To-Sunday and still love it every time I replay it.