Not really in response to anyone in particular, but kinda to various abstracts from a whole host of posts (heck, it's an IWD discussion, it'd be a sin for me not to contribute *something*)…
Someone said it was 'lacking' (paraphrase) because you select six characters, but none of them have any individual characters, they are all just dolls for the choices you make.
Someone else then said, yes, but this mod can make IWD awesome, because it gives all the characters actual characters and in-game interaction.
Hmmm…
How my brain sees this is…
"I don't want to invent *my own* characters by the use of my own imagination, I need someone else to imprint forced characters onto me."
Further…
The largest 'wing' (for want of a better word) of the RPG community believes that a 'great' RPG should be a game with imprinted characters and dialogues.
When, what my brain thinks is…
"Why is the game forcing my characters on me? How am I supposed to ROLE play if the roles are already cookie-cutter and unchangable?"
Having a stereotyped character decide between either killing an injured Goblin or not killing an injured Goblin is NOT my idea of *role* play, that's just a stereotypical character choosing different 'paths', the charatcer will still be the same character the next time you play it.
Now…
With Icewind Dale:
One of my front Fighters can be a large burly woman with a male's voice and my other front Fighter can be a tiny Male with female's voice…
And my imagination fills in all the blanks I need to imagine a 'role'-play.
And…
The next time out I can choose an entirely different front-line with entirely different mental imagery and imagined interaction.
So, weirdly, while people are insisting that forced characterisation *increases* the 'ROLE' aspect, for me, I find the exact opposite to be true!