well, long holiday here and lots of free time so i dusted off the old icewind dale ii that i never finished, installed the ease-of-use mod and off i went, vowing to finish it this time.
boy, was i in for the surprise of the season. the ease-of-use mod (which unfortunately, i neglected before), really brought back fun into this game. no more cluttering of arrows and bolts which made inventory management tougher than those inventory management i took up in college. tears almost fell from my eyes when i found out that i can stack an infinite amount of arrows, bolts, bullets, etc., recalling those days when i spent almost half the time playing just managing an inventory of six people.
<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" /> i also liked the teleporting feature; no more endless walking around for all those boring "fetch me" quests.
and i believe treasure drops are now randomized (i can't recall for certain in the readme). for example, i found a keg in a cave that once per day, can give you high-powered items once you destroy it. that's assuming of course that you don't get the misfortune of spawning a very, very tough monster in it. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/memad.gif" alt="" /> in the next party i had, the keg wasn't in the cave anymore. my lvl 4/5 party managed to spawn a lot of +3/+4 weapons and other armor/jewelry (took a lot of resting of course) that made the game a bit too easy. i wouldn't do that again. i just carried away by the sheer excitement of a new discovery.
what really made me ecstatic was when i found out that druids (love playing them; had a blast with a greater werewolf in bg2) got a massive overhaul in the mod. i do believe they were severely limited in the original iwd2 game. now they have new spells, and can take on powerful new shapes. as much as i liked playing shifters in hotu, i'm having as much fun with the druid in iwd2 with the ease-of-use (eou). at lvl 5, they can take on the shape of a verbeeg, which is a slow-moving giant but has 3 attacks per round on a critical range of 19-20/x3. 3 attacks per round, at a very young level! my party of 3 druids, a rogue, a bard, and a sorc (all humans and yes, no clerics) wiped the floor out of every monster from the shaengarne bridge all the way to the horde fortress with not a single death. 3 verbeegs made short work of everything (shamans, goblin witch doctor, orogs, ogres, orcs, etc., etc. etc.) while the bard just stood there singing her stupid songs. the rogue? well, he just pretty much opened locks and disarmed traps for the party. i guessed he doesn't want to fight alongside druids that much. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" /> and the sorc? aside from the occassional flinging of low-level spells, she just walked nonchalantly in her blazing red robe, probably thinking she's a supermodel or something. heh!
by the time i got to the ice temple, my druids already can take the shape of a fomorian giant, which does bludgeoning damage, and thus made golems run for their lives. the giant can also stun foes with their gigantic fists, which when not fighting, they often use to scratch their bald heads. hey no joke here, they really do that. play it and see.
now, i just finished the eight chambers easily with a lvl 12 druid who can take on the shape of a wyvern, which can deal 4 attacks per round at 1d20 damage, plus extra 6d4 acid damage on a crit range of 19-20/x3. or a remorhaz, which also has 4 attacks per round at 4d6 dmg with extra 4d6 fire dmg (goodbye trolls). by the way, i found out in the character sheet that the remorhaz is highly resistant to fire, and that's what i used in the 5th & 8th chamber, the chamber of immolation. true enough, it didn't sustain any damage at all from the flame strikes, and those monks kissed the flames so fast i couldn't believe my eyes. i also took on the feat wild shape:treant at lvl 12. the treant is a powerful melee fighter w/ 4 attacks per round, and its branches can entangle opponents. it's so funny to watch those monsters getting all tangled up by 3 treants. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />the treant has substantial resistances, but is highly vulnerable to fire.
one more level and my druids can take on the shape of a red half dragon. wohoo! isair and madae, your fellow half-breeds are coming for you! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />
btw, before you begin to think that druids are overpowering, they still can't cast spellswhile while shapeshifted, no drinking of healing pots, equipment bonuses and char stats are disregarded/altered by the shapes. so i guess it kind of balances off in a way.
now i'm having fun again, and that is what gaming is all about.
