Save Games for Icewind Dale: Trials of the Luremaster

These save games for the free expansion pack Trials of the Luremaster were
played from a save game in Heart of Winter just before embarking on the trip to
the Sea of Moving Ice. The party used was imported in Heart of Winter after the
last battle in the original game. I played the free expansion on the version of
Heart of Winter in "The Ultimate Collection" which was automatically patched up
to version 1.42 when the free expansion was installed. Apart from this, I did
not use any additional mods or cheats.

PLEASE BE WARNED THAT THE FOLLOWING TEXT MAY CONTAIN MINOR SPOILERS!

Even though the save games cover my first (and probably only) run through the
expansion, I sometimes took a sneak peak in the following excellent source:

	Dan Simpson's FAQ v5.1 (main source of guidance)


My Party for Icewind Dale

I studied quite a few FAQs and forum posts before creating my party for the
original game, to make sure I didn't throw myself into the game with a set of
utter battles morons.

The following lists were produced by using the "Output Text" button in the game
itself and then I tidied it up to exclude the uninteresting information. The
names were for the most part concocted, except I wanted the first letter of
their names to indicate either their class or weapon proficiency. Furthermore,
I have listed the attributes from the start in Lonelywood compared to the same
attributes as they were in the end of Trials of the Luremaster, to give you an
idea of how I evolved the characters. Of course, you could just continue from
the last save game back in Lonelywood and complete Heart of Winter with the
considerably stronger characters. Note that the start of Lonelywood also means
*after* playing the entire original Icewind Dale, as I used the same party. The
party was approximately level 11-12 when I embarked upon Heart of Winter itself.


Praescott

A paladin and leader of the party. Meant to use swords and bows. I liked having
this type of leader in Baldur's Gate I and II and wanted one for Icewind Dale as
a backup healer. Also, I wanted him to use the "Pale Justice" sword. The name
starts with a "P" to indicate that this is a paladin.

Class........................ Paladin

Gender....................... Male
Race......................... Human
Alignment.................... Lawful Good

Abilities.................... Start of HoW	End of TotLM (NOT HoW!)

   Strength.................. 18/85		18/85
   Dexterity................. 18		18
   Constitution.............. 17		17
   Intelligence.............. 9			9
   Wisdom.................... 15		15
   Charisma.................. 17		18 (used a tome in TotLM)

Level........................ 11		15

Armor Class.................. -8		-6
Hitpoints.................... 123		135

Weapon Proficiencies......... Start of HoW	End of TotLM (NOT HoW!)

   Bows...................... ++		++
   Crossbows................. +			++
   Axes...................... -			+
   Great Swords.............. ++		++
   Large Swords.............. ++		++


Herryck

Not too much thought into Herryck, except that I wanted someone to be capable of
using halberds and spears, hence the "H" in his name. It soon became a little
misleading, however, as I made him use spears most of the time.

Class........................ Fighter

Gender....................... Male
Race......................... Half-Elf
Alignment.................... Neutral Good

Abilities.................... Start of HoW	End of TotLM (NOT HoW!)

   Strength.................. 19 (item)		19 (item)
   Dexterity................. 19 (item)		19 (item)
   Constitution.............. 18		18
   Intelligence.............. 10		10
   Wisdom.................... 10		10
   Charisma.................. 10		10

Level........................ 11		17

Armor Class.................. -3		-5
Hitpoints.................... 142		150

Weapon Proficiencies......... Start of HoW	End of TotLM (NOT HoW!)

   Bows...................... +++		+++
   Halberds.................. ++		++
   Spears.................... ++		++++


Almarin

The dwarven Almarin, with "A" to indicate his proficiency for axes, was meant to
be this race because I wanted one fighter with a darn good constitution. As you
can see, his strength is not too shabby either.

Class........................ Fighter

Gender....................... Male
Race......................... Dwarf
Alignment.................... Chaotic Neutral

Abilities.................... Start of HoW	End of TotLM (NOT HoW!)

   Strength.................. 18/96		18/96
   Dexterity................. 17		17
   Constitution.............. 19		19
   Intelligence.............. 9			9
   Wisdom.................... 9			9
   Charisma.................. 7 (item)		7 (item)

Level........................ 11		17

Armor Class.................. -5		-5
Hitpoints.................... 141		159

Weapon Proficiencies......... Start of HoW	End of TotLM (NOT HoW!)

   Crossbows................. +++		+++
   Axes...................... ++++		+++++
   Great Swords.............. -			+


Theyn

As you might already have guessed, the leading "Th" in his name refers to the
fact that his is a thief. He is also a mage, however, partly to support the
second specialist mage, but also because a thief alone doesn't really cut it.

Multi-Class.................. Mage/Thief

Gender....................... Male
Race......................... Half-Elf
Alignment.................... True Neutral

Abilities.................... Start of HoW	End of TotLM (NOT HoW!)

   Strength.................. 16 (item)		16 (item)
   Dexterity................. 18		18
   Constitution.............. 17		17
   Intelligence.............. 18		18
   Wisdom.................... 9			9
   Charisma.................. 10 (item)		10 (item)

Level........................ 11/12		13/15

Armor Class.................. -5		-5
Hitpoints.................... 81		86

Proficiencies................ Start of HoW	End of TotLM (NOT HoW!)

   Open Locks................ 100%		125%
   Move Silently............. 120% (item)	140% (item)
   Find Traps................ 105%		110%
   Pick Pockets.............. 35%		45%

Weapon Proficiencies......... Start of HoW	End of TotLM (NOT HoW!)

   Bows...................... +			+
   Missile Weapons........... +			+
   Daggers................... +			+
   Quarter Staves............ +			+
   Small Swords.............. +			+


Chloe

She is a genuine cleric, hence the "Chl" in her name. I have never really tried
a single-class cleric before and I read that their "Turn Undead" ability is a
must in Icewind Dale. Also, she is of course the main healer in the party.

Class........................ Cleric

Gender....................... Female
Race......................... Half-Elf
Alignment.................... Neutral Good

Abilities.................... Start of HoW	End of TotLM (NOT HoW!)

   Strength.................. 17		18/00 (item)
   Dexterity................. 17		16 (potion in TotLM)
   Constitution.............. 17		17
   Intelligence.............. 6			6
   Wisdom.................... 18		20 (potion in TotLM)
   Charisma.................. 11		11

Level........................ 12		18

Armor Class.................. -7		-6
Hitpoints.................... 96		108

Weapon Proficiencies......... Start of HoW	End of TotLM (NOT HoW!)

   Missile Weapons........... +			+
   Clubs..................... -			+
   Flails.................... +			+
   Hammers................... +			+
   Maces..................... +			+
   Quarter Staves............ +			+


Martaena

Finally there's Martaena, with "M" for mage. She is a Conjurer, a specialist
type I read was one of the best in Icewind Dale (as long as the Heart of Winter
expansion pack is NOT installed on top).

Class........................ Conjurer

Gender....................... Female
Race......................... Human
Alignment.................... Chaotic Good

Abilities.................... Start of HoW	End of TotLM (NOT HoW!)

   Strength.................. 16		16
   Dexterity................. 18		18
   Constitution.............. 18		18
   Intelligence.............. 18		18
   Wisdom.................... 7			7
   Charisma.................. 11		11

Level........................ 12		16

Armor Class.................. 0			-3
Hitpoints.................... 60		64

Weapon Proficiencies......... Start of HoW	End of TotLM (NOT HoW!)

   Missile Weapons........... +			+
   Daggers................... +			+
   Quarter Staves............ +			+

I deliberately avoided genuine elves in my party because I didn't like the idea
of not being able to use the "Raise Dead" spell on them. (At that time I didn't
know that the higher "Resurrection" spell could do the trick.)


Miscellaneous

I was relatively thorough during the expansion pack and investigated almost all
areas, cleaning enemies out of all the dungeons I discovered.

In general, I have the following notes about these save games:

  * I turned ON the "Maximum Hit Points per Level" option right from the
    beginning in the original campaign.

  * My two mages, Theyn and Martaena, and my cleric, Chloe, have a lot of
    summoning spells prepared. I really love summoning spells and used
    various elementals as "buffer" fighters, at least in the areas of the
    expansion pack where they were not killed too quickly.

  * All party members are prepared with bows, crossbows or slings, as I
    also liked taking down enemies from a distance. However, the paladin,
    the two fighters and the cleric were also sufficiently equipped with
    great melee weapons for whenever the going got tough. The paladin was
    of course equipped with the magnificent "Pale Justice" sword as soon as
    I found it in Lower Dorn's Deep in the original campaign.

  * As temporary storage in Heart of Winter, I used a closet in the last
    southern room on the second floor of "The Whistling Gallows" in the
    town of Lonelywood. All surplus items and weapons were placed here,
    along with "useless items" from the original game. However, I sold a
    lot more weapons in the shops of Lonelywood than I did in Kuldahar. I
    did not use a temporary storage container in Trials of the Luremaster.

  * I did not kill the depressed paladin in Anauroch as I did have a
    suspicion that it would hurt my reputation. I didn't give him any of
    the "red water" he asked for either.

  * Praescott, my paladin, went down from -8 to -6 in Armor Class because
    I accidently took out a protection ring, and as I wanted to put it
    back in, the game wouldn't let me! Probably some rule, Bioware changed
    in patch version 1.42.

  * I bought virtually all the arrows and bolts I could from Hobart. In
    the beginning of Trials of the Luremaster, I had almost filled up the
    inventories with especially fire arrows.

  * I was a little picky with the teleporting crypt things and never let
    then get away with it to begin with. As soon as it happened, I reloaded
    a save game - at least until later, where most of the target crypts
    were cleaned out and no longer posed any danger.

  * In the first two dungeons below the castle itself, I let the monsters
    fight each other without intervening. Of course that didn't give me as
    much XP as I could have gained, but it sure saved me a lot of work.

  * Because I had little crushing weapons (only my weak cleric had one), I
    decided not to bother killing the stone nuisances in the last dungeon.
    Instead, I just rushed in, grabbed the flawless gems, and ran out.

  * If you load the quicksave, you will find yourself just outside the inn
    in Lonelywood right after having used the ring to return from Anauroch.

  * You may wonder why I let Almarin use a slightly weaker axe during the
    last third of Trials of the Luremaster. The reason was simply that he
    often went bezerk (a weakness of the stronger axe), hunting down one of
    my party members and even killing him og her off after an otherwise
    succesful battle. Quite an annoyance.

The last quicksave states 45 days and 3 hours.

JCH, 7 December 2003
