Icewind Dale II Preview @ GameSpot

GameSpot has put together a preview of Icewind Dale II, based upon the press copy that's been floating around the web. A snippet:

    You're going to want to choose a few solid frontline warriors--fighters, barbarians, or paladins; a magic-user of some kind, such as a wizard or sorcerer; some sort of healer, such as a cleric or druid; and a character with thieving skills, like a rogue. But since Icewind Dale II uses the free-form 3rd Edition rules, you're free to distribute skill points and take different heroic feats to balance out your characters and even help them fill out other roles in the party. For instance, you might want your paladin character to invest skill points in the diplomacy skill in order to get the best results when speaking with other characters. Or, you might want your bard character to invest skill points into the search and disarm device skills in order to find and disarm traps, sort of like a surrogate thief.