Icewind Dale EE: Warrior

Warriors are some of the most powerful forms of character in Icewind Dale, they are generally the most effective at dealing damage especially when mixed with other classes. They are also able to take more damage than any other class making them the most effective upfront attackers. Here is a compilation of all the Warrior based classes from Icewind Dale Enhanced Editon and what classes you should use and why.

The main warrior classes included in this post are: Fighter, Ranger, Paladin and Barbarian.

Above all things warriors need to have a high Strength, Dexterity and Constitution to be successful because these stats are physical based and Warriors mostly do physical attacks so be sure to make these stats as high as possible.

Fighters are very powerful due to their ability to specialise in any weapon and take a huge number of hits. They are also very simple to use which makes them ideal for new players and they are also great at dual classing and multi classing which makes power gaming with them easily possible.

• Fighter

May wear helmet

May wear all types of armour

May specialise in any weapon

Hit Die; D10 (the amount of HP per level not including Constitution Modifier)

Needs at least 15 Strength to dual class.

Kits

• Kensai

+2 bonus to armour class ( Armour class also known as AC determines how hard it is to inflict physical damage on a character, the lower the number the better, a bonus will be called + but it will infact the -)

+1 extra damage every 3 levels

- 1 bonus to speed factor ( makes them faster at attacking)

May use the Kai ability once per day, every 4 levels gains another Kai ability to use (deal maximum damage for 10 seconds)

May not wear any armour or gauntlets

May not use ranged weapons

Kensai make a great dual class combo with Mage dual at level 9 or 13, Kensai are great at dual classing with Mage because like Mages they can't wear armour and they give Mages more offence and defence.

In Icewind dale it would be a good idea to specialize in long swords and get 3 points in 2 weapon fighting style.

• Berserker

May use rage once per day, every 4 levels gains another rage ability to use ( +2 attack and AC, +15 temporary HP and is immune to: fear, charm, confusion, maze, feeblemind, hold, imprisonment, stun, level drain and sleep).

May not specialise in ranged weapons

-2 to hit rolls and AC when rage ends

Berserker are fairly straight forward to use, you basically use rage to become immune to threatening moves and you attack attack attack.

Makes a good dual class combo with Cleric, Druid, Mage and Thief  level 9, 10 or 13 are good levels for dual classing. 

• Wizard Slayer

Each successful hit decreases foes chance to successfully cast a spell by 10% and is cumulative

1 % magic resistance per level

Cannot use magical items, excluding armour, boots, gauntlets, helmets, healing potions and weapons

Basically the Wizard Slayer can completely render spellcasters useless, so if you hate spellcasters Wizard Slayer is an obvious solution.

Makes a good dual class combo with Mage, Druid, Cleric and Thief  level 9, or 13 are good

• Dwarven Defender

May use defensive stats once per day and one more every 4 levels (gains 50% resistance to physical damage, +2 bonus to saving throws and -50% movement speed).

Gains 5% resistance to physical damage every 5 levels max 20%

Can only be dwarf

Cannot get a maximum of 4 points in war hammers and axes

Cannot get more than 2 points in other weapons

Overall Dwarven Defenders are excellent physical tanks and can take alot of hit while dealing alot of damage. 

Fighters are offensively more powerful than any other class, they are good with multi classing and dual classing because of this. The best fighter combos are Kensai/Mage, Berserker/Cleric and the gnome fighter/Illusionist.

In some ways a Ranger is like a Fighter/Druid because of the ability to control animals and later on the ability to use some druid spells. In other ways they are similar to a Thief because they can hide in shadows and the Stalker kit is even able to backstab.

It is because of their ability to be versatile that makes the Ranger a strong class to pick and a fun class to play as.

• Ranger

May wear any armour
May use any weapon
May wear helmets
May not exceed 2 points in a weapon, but may have up to 3 points in two weapon fighting style and automatically starts with 2 points
May pick a racial enemy to deal +4 damage against a creature type of your choosing
May use tracking to find out who has been walking in the area
May hide in shadows while wearing studded leather or less
May use charm animal once per day +1 more every 2 levels
May use druid spells starting at level 6
Must be good alignment
Hit die; D10
Can only dual class into cleric meaning they need at least 15 Strength, 15 Dexterity and 17 Wisdom

Ranger make a good dual class combo with cleric, dual at 9 or 12. If you play as a half-elf you can multi class into a ranger/cleric which are really powerful.

• Archer

+1 to hit and damage rolls every 3 levels for ranged weapons
May get 5 points in all bows and crossbows
May use called shot once per day +1 more every 4 levels (grants effects while using ranged weapons that are cumulative, called shot lasts for 10 seconds)

May not wear metal armour
May not exceed 1 point in melee weapons
May not use charm animal

Archer is probably the best ranged weapon class there is, if playing as one you should consider being an elf because they get a dexterity bonus which helps ranged weaponry. They can also dual class into cleric but then the only weapon worth using would be the sling so it may not be an effective dual class combo, if dual classing dual at level 12

• Stalker

+20% move silently and hide in shadows
May backstab to get a maximum of x4 damage
At level 12 may cast: Haste, protection from normal missiles and Minor spell deflection

May not wear armour greater than studded leather

Stalker works well when dual classing to cleric because you get to back stab (use dual wielded club for maximum effectiveness), good hiding ability and the ability to cast a few spells (most importantly haste). If dual classing dual at level 12 for all the skills needed.

• Beast Master

+15% to hide in shadows and move silently
May summon a familiar
May cast animal summoning: 1 at level 8, 2 at level 10 and 3 at level 12

May not use metal weapons
May not wear armour greater than studded leather


Once again this makes a good dual class with cleric, you should use dual wielded clubs or quarter staff. Dual at level 12.


Overall the ranger kits are great, my favourite is the stalker cleric because they have a wide variety of options but the overall most powerful would probably be the elf archer because of all the added effects with called shot and the ability to get 5 points in ranged weapons.

Paladins are basically people who follow the lines of honour even if it hinders them. They are the sort of person who would take off their armour when fighting the poor man with no armour. Luckily Icewind dale doesn't make you follow the rules of honour otherwise you would probably get yourself killed and in enhanced edition not all Paladins have to be good because there is a kit class called Black guard that has to be evil. With any Paladin class you can become a fallen Paladin by doing the wrong thing.

Paladins are quite an interesting form of class, they have several abilities including: Lay on hands (heals a certain amount depending on your level and charisma score), detect evil and protection from evil. Later on they even get the ability to use cleric spells, they need wisdom to use these. They also get access to the all powerful holy avenger weapons.

Despite these extra things the Paladin is quite linear to play with and only the kit classes determine how effective they will be because regular Paladin is outclassed by them.

• Paladin

May wear helmets
May wear any armour
May get 2 points in any weapon and 3 in two weapon style
May use lay on hands
May use cure disease once per day
May use detect evil
May use a form of protection of evil that lasts for 24 turns
May use smite evil once per day (deals 1d6+ 1d6 for every 3 levels of Paladin)
At level 3 gains turn undead, treated as 2 levels lower than cleric
May use cleric spells at level 6
At 3rd level become immune to fear
+2 bonus to all saving throws
Immune to disease
Must be lawful good
Hit Die; D10
May not dual class or multi class
Must be human

• Cavalier

+3 to hit against demon and draconic beings
May cast remove fear once per day +1 more every level
Immune to charm, fear, moral failure and poison
+20% resistance to fire and acid

May not use ranged weapons

Cavalier are absolute tanks, due to their immunities combined with already great Paladin saving throws and Hp the cavalier is very powerful. Unfortunately they can't use ranged weapons but that won't stop them from being excellent up front attackers.

• Inquisitor

May cast dispel magic once per day +1 more every 4 levels, is cast at a speed factor of 2x the level of the caster.
May cast true sight once per day +1 more every 4 levels (can see invisible foes)
Immune to charm and hold

May not use lay on hands
May not use cleric spells
May not turn undead
May not use remove disease

Inquisitors have an easy time against mages, they can remove all their buffs with dispel magic and proceed to kill. Their loss of a lot of Paladin bonuses is not that severe, later on lay on hands isn't that useful, Paladins rarely need their cleric spells and remove disease isn't needed because they already have their own immunity so the only total loss is turn undead which is great during later levels. Inquisitor is a great class to play as and is sometimes considered the best Paladin kit because of how easy it is to beat magic users.

• Undead Hunter

+3 damage to undead
Immune to hold and level drain

May not use Lay on hands
May not cure disease

Have you ever felt like undead are just a pain to go against, if so this class although linear is very good to use. There isn't much to say about it other than it can destroy undead.

• Black Guard

Immune to level drain and fear
May use absorb health (deals 2 damage x level of user then heals the same amount, doesn't work against undead, constructs or extraplanar creatures)
At level 5 gains poison weapons ability +1 more every 5 levels
At 3rd level may use Aura of despair (depending on your level has negative effects on enemies)

Must be evil
May not use detect evil
May not use protection from evil
May not use Lay on hands
May not use cure disease

Well this class really shoves chivalry right down the toilet and even resorts to poisoning weapons. I don't like this class much although it is actually ok because  its absorb health can replace Lay on hands and is better, It has immunity to level drain and fear and 2 great abilities. If you like taking the dark side but also like Paladin this is the class for you.

Paladins are a fun class to play as and they have decent kit classes available to them, basically the kits all play very similarly so just choose the one you find useful or like best.

Barbarians are people who live in the wild, they are very resilient because they have adapted to the tough environment of Icewind Dale.

• Barbarian

May not wear armour greater than splint mail
May not exceed 2 points in any weapon and 3 points in two weapon fighting style
Moves 2 points faster than the normal character
Immune to backstab
May use rage once per day +1 more every 4 levels (+4 Strength and Constitution, -2 penaly to AC, +2 to saving throws and immunity to: fear, charm, hold, maze, stun, sleep, confusion and level drain
At level 11 gains 10% physical resistance
At level 15 and 19 gains 5% physical resistance
Hit Die: D10
May not dual class or multi class

Overall I think barbarians are very good, they move quickly and get access to rage making them very powerful. Unfortunately they don't get grand mastery and they are also very brute force and generally run into battle. They are fun to play as which is the main thing and if you like just running into battle no matter the risk then Barbarian is the class for you.

So that's all the Warrior based classes, hope you found this useful, please comment