Hi,

I'm new to Icewind Dale & Baldur's gate stuff, and having played IWD for past 2 days, I was wondering:

1) As levels progress, does your characters' attributes (Strength, Wisdom, etc...) ever increase? My chars. ate level 4+, and I've yet to be able to increase any of their attributes! It would suck big time if they stayed static

2) Is it me, or is there like no GOLD in this game? I'm struggling just to scrape up enough gold to buy good armor for my guys! Does this improve as the game progresses?

3) All in all, good game, but I think Diablo (yes, the original) is better, and that Diablo II will really blow this out of the water. (I know, 2 somewhat different types of games). IWD/Baldur's gate does have the advantage of being able to play turn-based style, but this doesn't offset some of its faults.

This is not Diablo, this is a FAR more interactive game, and it's based on the rules set forth in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Stats for players are fixed at the time of creation. Your numbers of spells you can cast before resting, total hit points, and number of attacks change as the game goes on. AD&D is a much more thourogh and established world, and as i said before, go back to Diablo and hack'n'shash, leave the more challenging game to those who can appreciate it. These two games are like comparing a Ferrari (BG, IWD) to a fiat (D &D2).

As for money, ever thing that maybe you could sell stuff for money? I have been fine on that aspect, sell a potion or two.

'Nuff Said

I have to say that I agree with Lord_Galad (more or less). :p
Half of the charm of the game is that you have to make your party at the beginning of the game, and you get to make 'em what they will be for the rest of the game. True AD&D fans would spend a lot of time making their ideal party at the character generation screen.
And there are always magical items that raise some of your stats...

In response to the orginial questions. 1) your PC stats usually don't go up, except be magical items. 2) gold really wasn't a problem. You can find a ton of stuff and either use it or sell it. 3) I think BG & IWD are better _adventure_ games. D & D2 are pure hack and slash. They are like first person shooters but only from the third person. I enjoy the greater depth of BG and IWD. And just wait until BG2!

Hmmm. First of all, I haven't had that much of a problem with gold. Maybe you are just not searching the areas thoroughly enough? Also, you have to scavenge the treasure left behind by the monsters.

As for faults, I have NO idea what you are talking about. I have not run into any problems with this game whatsoever. There are a ton of small things that have been improved from Baldur's Gate (too numerous to mention), and I think Icewind is a great game (possibly the best RPG ever?), and so is Baldur's Gate.

Diablo (1) is better? oh-kay! Well, everyone is entitled to their opinion. I would like to point out that the Diablo games are almost pure "twitch" arcade style games (Guantlet with some RPG elements), while BG and IWD are true Role Playing Games. So I don't think they can really be compared. For the record, I have IWD and Diablo 2, and I really like them both, they are both killer games.