Icewind Dale: ToEE - Total Conversion

Since the IWD:ToEE will be based on IWD:EE i decided to upgrade my version.

A couple weeks ago I purchased IWD:EE from GOG, and i have been powering through it.

For those that don't know -

IWD:EE is basically a combination of this:

• Icewind Dale
• Heart of Winter Expansion (accessible in Kuldy if you are lvl-9 or higher)
• Trials of the Luremaster (add-on to Heart of Winter) (accessible from within HoW - Lonelywood's tavern)
• MOD: Unfinished Business (except Marketh's Ring quest)
• MOD: Item Upgrades
• MOD: Fixpack
• Uses the BG2 UI (new classes, kits, additional spells and items, etc)

Even though I am almost done with the IWD:EE game, I just learned something new... If you have GOG IWD:EE ver2.5.17.0 then you can activate the AoE markers for your spells. But I don't think it is limited to the GOG version.

Go to your Documents -> Icewind Dale - Enchanced Edition folder and edit the Baldur.lua file


locate the Show AOE setting and change it to 1:



Here is a Fireball area:


As noted above, I don't think this is limited to GOG versions, and it should work on BG:EE, too.

If you have BG:EE and/or IWD:EE it is worth a try if you have a sufficiently new enough version. I've seen notes about it working in BG:EE v2.5.16 but you may need to add this line into the Baldur.lua file if it isn't in there already.

 

Wow, cool to see this is still being worked on. I'm very sad right now that Realms Beyond is probably not going to be a thing, but I remembered that ToEE is probably the closest thing to it. And then I remembered that the was an IWDEE total conversion (I mod IWDEE), and here it is! So, I feel a bit better now. Thanks for that.

 

@grammarsalad
You're here too?! Alleluia!

PS: IWD in EET (the Russian version, not the k4thos version) is available in beta form now!

 

BTW, if you guys need any new spells, conditions and such that would be possible in Temple+, I could probably do some. I've been fooling around with my own translation of Melf's Minute Meteors, for instance (there's no official 3.5 version).

I never played the original IWD, so I'm not sure what were considered the iconic spells/abilities there.

 

ToEE does a decent job of covering 3.5 spells, so IMHO the special spells are not essential. However, most of the IWD unique spells were added to IWD2 (which was 3.5). So they were available through both games.

Here is a link of an old bg IWDification info page that describes most of the extra IWD spells: https://www.gibberlings3.net/mods/spells/iwdification/

If you feel motivated, some of the spells were fairly fun to use. A few examples from memory are : Shroud of flame, the Emotion spells, and the Hopelessness/ pain symbol spells.

Just some FYI for your modding pleasure. Enjoy.

 

IWD2 was mostly the Baldur's Gate II engine adapted for 3.0, not a full, purpose-built engine.

 

Yeah, I looked through the spells and some sounded fun. I mostly know stuff that overlaps with BG, though, and from what I've read, there's actually a lot of difference in the 'good' spells due to different encounter design and such.

Like, BG2 was big on the spell defense puzzles that don't even exist in P&P. But I've heard that IWD doesn't really have enough solo wizards for that stuff to matter, and I'd rather not replicate all the weird, more specialized (anti-)dispels anyway.

Also, I assume skull trap was also popular, but in BG that's just because it can be used like an uncapped fireball. I'd probably fix the cap aspect, and at that point, I'm not sure it's different enough to bother. Are there situations where it could actually be used as a trap, which would make it interesting? I think I could make it so that when someone goes within a small radius, a trigger is set, and then at the beginning of the next round the explosion goes off.

The Emotion spells might technically be in the game already. In 3.0 they turned into a single spell with a choice of effects, and then in 3.5 it got broken back up and renamed. So, like, Crushing Despair is the descendant of Emotion: Hopelessness. Emotion: Hope is Good Hope, which is now Bard only for some reason. I think Emotion: Fear might just have gotten rolled into Fear.

Seven Eyes sounds really cool, but I don't know if people actually use it (it's pretty high level, too).

 

I think other than spells, there are a bunch of unique weapons whose special effects aren't available in ToEE, such as bonus vs creature type weapons.

 

There are situations where you can use it as a trap in order to pull enemies onto it. Iirc IWD was not as given to spawn-trap camping as was BG...enemies usually did not instantly appear. As you mentioned, the cap was a big factor for damage, but also the damage type was useful.


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I most likely used some difficulty mods and I did play the harder mode after my first play through (HoF), but iirc these fights were memorable even on the first play-through:

• The initial fight at the bottom of the Black Wolf temple = quite a difficulty spike, considering the unexpected and considerable welcoming party
  
• Marilith battle in Dragon's Eye = suprised by supporting Yuan-ti mages, archers and stuff

But again, as the original ToEE was originally more difficult without 3.5, I think this will also impact IWD.

I look forward to the adventure, no matter how long it takes.

 

Yeah, I know the damage type is also advantageous. I kind of don't like the idea of a Necromancy spell that's just a more advantageous fireball for the most part. I guess that'd be faithful to the original.

Symbol spells are kind of a similar situation. The P&P mechanics would be hard to make work as anything but a trap that the player encounters. So they end up as AOE blasts in IE games, which kind of makes them just better versions of Power Word spells.

(The P&P skulltrap has a fun sounding suggestion, where you can trap the skull of an animated skeleton, and then they blow up when someone attacks them. It does negative energy damage, too ([2+level]d4), which could heal other undead in the area. That'd be a nasty surprise in an enemy group.)

I usually find that a lot of the difficulty of an IE encounter comes from my party not actually doing what I tell them to. Like I want to cast a spell near a doorway, but the exact target is out of line-of-sight, so the wizard decides to run directly into melee. So in that respect, it'd be difficult to not make the encounters easier in the ToEE engine. That's kind of why I ended up back here, though. I got frustrated going through Throne of Bhaal, because the deadlier encounters just mean you're more likely to lose from the engine misinterpreting what you want.

 

Skull trap is useful even if capped to a similar damage limit as fireball because it deals 'magic' (force) damage.