The December/January 2017 RPG Reload Play-Along: Icewind Dale

Discussion in 'General Game Discussion and Questions' started by Shaun Musgrave, Nov 30, 2017.

  1. Shaun Musgrave

    Shaun Musgrave Well-Known Member

    Jul 8, 2013
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    Freelance writer, teacher, business owner
    Ibaraki, Japan
    Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the RPG Reload Play-Along. Each month, we'll be playing an iOS RPG together, sharing laughs and tears in equal measures. The post on the front page is basically here to announce the game in question and give a few tips on getting started. The real action will be happening here in the TouchArcade forums, where you'll find a thread dedicated to each month's featured game. Sign up if you haven't already, post your screenshots, ask for advice, or just chat about your misadventures with others. We've got a great community of RPG fans here at TouchArcade, so let's make the most of it!

    With the end of November comes the conclusion to two Play-Along events. Our October/November Play-Along of Final Fantasy Tactics comes to a close, with plenty of great results. Some Reloaders were playing through it for the first time, while others were revisiting it with special conditions. A surprisingly large number actually finished the game, which is always great to see. That was part of the reason for the somewhat-spontaneous Bonus Edition of the Play-Along, which saw Reloaders competing to get the highest score in Solomon's Boneyard. Some very impressive scores were posted, and I think everyone had fun going back to the newly-updated classic. Thanks to everyone who participated in either event, and I hope you'll see fit to join us for this month's game.

    Depending on how far north you reside, it's probably starting to look a little festive outside your window. Whether you're living a real white Christmas or just imagining one, you've probably got a mess of holidays coming up. So with that in mind, I felt like we should have something a little chilly in theme and long enough to get you through at least a few family dinners. I also didn't want to do another Square Enix game, because we need a little variety now and then, right? With all of those considerations in mind, I felt like the next game we tackle should be Beamdog's lovely Enhanced Edition of Icewind Dale. It's a lengthy, sometimes tough adventure that offers quite a few options in terms of viable strategies.
     
  2. Krötenbändiger

    Krötenbändiger Active Member
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    Jan 6, 2017
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    The Return of Krötenbändiger

    How could I resist that? Yes, I'm definitely in! Are there any special instructions, like throw some dice or read the leaves at the bottom of my tea pot in order to create the character?

    Krötenbändiger
     
  3. RHess00

    RHess00 Well-Known Member
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    Apr 28, 2012
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    I think I'm going to sit this one out. I'm knee deep in Skyrim at the moment and I'm still tracking down moons in Odyssey. It's my first time with Skyrim so I've been putting a lot of time into it.
     
  4. Avellone

    Avellone Member
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    Dec 1, 2017
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    I don’t know if I will have time to actually play, but (as everyone who is on discord knows) I am extremely familiar with IWD (and the infinity engine games generally) and really enjoy creating parties so please feel free to ask any questions about builds or the game. I am happy to build a party for anyone based on play style.

    My baseline recommendations are:

    1. Use a vanilla bard (there are good bard specific items and regular bards get better songs as the game progresses)

    2. Use Druid (either single classed or dual classed) because druids have a special spell list in IWD that is very useful.

    3. Don’t use more than 1 wizard because there aren’t many high level scrolls to go around. If you want two arcane casters, make one a sorcerer so they can pick any spell without needing a scroll.

    4. Don’t use a single class thief. You can bash any lock and traps aren’t that big of a danger. A multi or dual classed thief can be very useful.

    5. IWD is mostly about close quarters fighting, so I wouldn’t build a ranged specific character like an archer. That said, giving a bow to your bard is a good idea (possibly with halberds as a ranged weapon to switch to).

    You will want at least 2 (preferably 3) front line fighters. None of them need to be pure fighters though. A level 3 fighter dual classed to a cleric, Druid or wizard can function as a front line fighter for the entire game. Buffs and equipment will more than make up for the low number of fighter levels.
     
  5. OrangutanKungfu

    OrangutanKungfu Well-Known Member

    Dec 29, 2015
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    Looking forward to reading Krotenbandiger's adventures here! Like Rhess, I have too many other games going on right now, but I will be following this thread - happy Icewind Dale, players!
     
  6. Dr.Traveler

    Dr.Traveler Well-Known Member

    Dec 10, 2008
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    I just got to DQIII in my replay of the original trilogy, so if I jump in it’ll be a late start on this one.
     
  7. Winter9

    Winter9 Well-Known Member

    Feb 1, 2011
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    I love Baldurs Gate and I want to play this. But my new phone and ipod are so small I'm not sure it is possible, I will try and see. I bought it and tried to play it on my earlier bigger phone, but not having a tablet it felt a bit too small.

    It might go on sale on steam for Christmas though so that's an option.
     
  8. RHess00

    RHess00 Well-Known Member
    Patreon Bronze

    Apr 28, 2012
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    Ok this thread was making me sad so I downloaded it. I doubt that I'll finish but I've always wanted to try one of these games. I'm using Shaun's suggested party but I was pretty lost on races and abilities so I just used whatever felt right. I usually do something to add challenge but this time the challenge is going to be playing this beast on my little iPhone SE.

    So first I figured out how to buy and equip armor and weapons and then I left town. My first encounter with enemies ended badly. I have it set to auto pause when encountering enemies but I don't know how to tell my people to attack. A couple of them started attacking on their own but the rest just stood there and waited to died. Help?
     
  9. RHess00

    RHess00 Well-Known Member
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    Apr 28, 2012
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    I found scripts!

    I also found the difficulty slider and slide that thing as far left as it would go...at least until I figure out what the heck I'm doing.
     
  10. OrangutanKungfu

    OrangutanKungfu Well-Known Member

    Dec 29, 2015
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    Go Rhess! Pleased somebody's playing. In completely out of date news, I just finished chapter 3 of FF Tactics... Flipping amazing game. If only I'd started properly a month earlier!
     
  11. RHess00

    RHess00 Well-Known Member
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    Apr 28, 2012
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    I successfully completed a mission by killing some orcs and their leader. I guess I wasn't paying attention when I created my characters because I just noticed my mage has 4 HP. A maximum of 4 HP. She dies a lot.
     
  12. RHess00

    RHess00 Well-Known Member
    Patreon Bronze

    Apr 28, 2012
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    Yeah I was surprised at how much I liked it after I got into it. With all the options you could play it over and over and not play the same way twice.
     
  13. Winter9

    Winter9 Well-Known Member

    Feb 1, 2011
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    I thought to try it myself and then realised I don't have it on apple I have it from google play. Lovely. Well I hope it goes on some sort of supersale on steam. I played it a little bit on my last phone and the little I played was great fun, but tell me how it is on SE? My phone is SE too.
     
  14. RHess00

    RHess00 Well-Known Member
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    Apr 28, 2012
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    Well you can zoom in on the battle so that helps a lot but the buttons on the sides and in the inventory screens are pretty small and you can't zoom on them. It can be a little frustrating at times but not unplayable. It could be unplayable if you have large fingers though.
     
  15. RHess00

    RHess00 Well-Known Member
    Patreon Bronze

    Apr 28, 2012
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    Finished with the prologue and started chapter 1. I'm still kind of lost though. The problem is the easy difficulty is too easy but when I move up to normal, I get decimated. An in game tutorial would be a big help because I still haven't got a handle on manually directing my people. I guess I just need to find a good tutorial online.
     
  16. Winter9

    Winter9 Well-Known Member

    Feb 1, 2011
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    Fairly average woman hands I think ^^ I'm still not sure what platform to get it on, but I haven't had time to play almost anything except our raids so. Hectic times, I'm glad it's a two month game.
     
  17. RHess00

    RHess00 Well-Known Member
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    Apr 28, 2012
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    For Icewind Dale, a computer with a mouse would be the way to go if you have that option.
     
  18. Winter9

    Winter9 Well-Known Member

    Feb 1, 2011
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    Yep :) I'm hoping they put it on sale on Steam. Steam Winter sales are ridiculous.
     
  19. Avellone

    Avellone Member
    Patreon Silver

    Dec 1, 2017
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    I’ve been playing these games since release and I’ve never enjoyed them as much as I do on iPad. I find that I feel more connected to the game world through the iPads touch interface.
     
  20. Winter9

    Winter9 Well-Known Member

    Feb 1, 2011
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    I wish I had an ipad, would be much easier. Still waiting for that winter sale.
     

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