Too Hard?

I'm an adult gamer who has played ADnD for most of my life. I loved Baldur's Gate (one and two) and especially Icewind Dale. But... I have never before in my life come across such an IMPOSSIBLE game to play. This just absolutely sucks! I have upgraded to a faster computer since finishing Icewind Dale, so I couldn't just input my winning characters. I didn't think this would be a problem so I started right in with Heart of Winter. Alright, alright, at least they told me not to. So I go and start Icewind Dale from scratch. My characters were all around 10th level before talking to the shaman. That was almost three weeks ago and I haven't even reached him on the burial isle yet!! I'm getting my ass kicked on a daily basis by Barrow Wights and Drowned Dead!!! When creating this game, maybe they should have had the graphics team place giant red S's on their chests! Christ, these are just powerful undead right. Then maybe my undead spells should work against them? I think I downloaded into Krypton. I did the unthinkable for the first time. I went in and modified the level toughness. It's on 2 year old setting and I still get beat every time! Next time I think about wasting 40 bucks on a game, I'll pass. I could go downtown and pay two guys to kick me in the nuts for half that. F-

Why did upgrading your computer prevent you from being able to use your original Icewind Dale characters with HoW? All you would have had to do was copy the character files onto a disk or over a network onto your new computer. Unless you'd somehow lost, sold, or otherwise parted with your old machine, I guess.

Also, are you aware that you can turn down the difficulty in HoW? There's a 5-point slider in the options -> gameplay menu. The default setting is the middle setting (3) but there is no significant penalty for turning it down -- you'll just lose some experience points. You characters really aren't going to miss the XP anyway, because HoW is so limited in scope and length.

And finally, since it sounds like you used pre-rolled 9th level characters when you started HoW, perhaps you might consider trying a new party. I have a magic-heavy party (includes a Bard, who can cast 5th level spells, and also two specialist mages, a transmuter and an abjurer -- a combo that means that together they can cast every spell), but I think HoW would be easier if I had one more fighter or paladin instead of a second mage.

Finally, if you don't have a Bard, STOP right now and just go make a new party. Bards are so useful in HoW that I personally feel they are too useful. The Bard gets an 11th-level song that not only gives armor class bonuses but also *regenerates everyone in the party 2hp* ... *every round!* His other songs (like remove fear) are also handy at times. And having a Bard means you can pretty much use any magic item you find as soon as you find it. Plus bards cast spells. Plus no other character gains levels more quickly. And you can still have 5 other characters who rock.

Incredulix

I must agree that heart of winter is very hard, even though I did manage it. The burial isle is second only to the final battle (Isacaracht, a frost dragon with 400+hit points and woth 100 000 xp) in difficulty. The key is to use haste all of the time. I was also at the same levels, just level 10 with 2 11s, and 2 9s. The AVOID THE POLAR BEAR SPIRIT. It is far too hard To fing Hjollder quickly head up to the north-west corner of the mounds. Avoid battles with more that 3 drowned dead with a wailing virgin. These are very hard, and always go for the virgins.
The burial isle took me 5 attempts on normal. Isacaract took me 23 on easiest!

I found that if you have 3 people with bows and +2 arrows and u have 3 people with hand weapons, i.e sword or mace then you'll anything that gets in your path:#

http://www.FIELD_MESSAGE_liliaceldar.com/

quote spinne

I'm an adult gamer who has played ADnD for most of my life...

I know this sounds harsh but everyone who fits this description should definitely definitely know how to copy character files and save files between computers. So from here it's not hard to see why you find this game hard.

On the other note I personally thought 3 melee might be a bit much for this game. A lot of terrains are WAY too narrow for that, but then again, I'm not an expert of this game.