Going through the Ice Palace...

[Darmort]

Hey there, just an old face... well, not that old, but meh, whatever...

My party for Icewind Dale II consists of:
Level 6 Human Fighter, Level 6 Dwarf Barbarian, Level 7 Human Cleric, Level 5 Rogue/Level 1 Fighter Halfling, a Level 8 Human Sorceress and a Level 8 Elf Magus... right now I'm at around 42 Levels, I think it's the maximum amount of Levels I can have before starting to take XP Penalties, and I wonder if this is what my party needs, to stay at this sort of level until I've done the Ice Palace and onto Chapter Three, or level up right now for more HP...

If you need additional information on the party, just ask... I can't give it right now because my disc's gone missing... :?

[kmonster]

1. First let me say that the game is easily beatable without the game mechanics abuse called level squatting. If this is your first attempt you'll surely have more fun without this kind of cheating.

2. If you really want to do it: It's surely doable keeping all characters at their current levels until you each level 30.
But it might be faster if you spend 6 additional levels for your cleric and sorc, I recommend cleric 10 (extra attack, extra feat, extra stat point, iron skins, champion's strength and -most important- greater boneguards with "animate dead" ) and sorc 12 for "animate dead" and "mass haste", better "stoneskin" and "improved invisibility". Just don't forget to desquat your cleric to level 10 just before he gets enough XP for reaching level 11.
If you don't desquat your party can reach level 30 during chapter3 while trying to find your way through the forest. If you get into trouble just desquat your cleric and/or sorc a bit more.
But how fun is playing with a overpowered level 30 party ?

3. Against level 1 enemies a level6 party gains the same XP as a level 1 party, but against somewhat better enemies even a level 4 party gains less XP than a level 3 party. And you aren't fighting level 1 enemies in chapter2.