You don't play the Icewind Dale games for their stories. You play them for their tactical combat.
Which is grand. Oh, and brutally difficult for newcomers. AD&D's 2e was hilarious at level one. Oh, you got hit. You have four hit points. Well, you had four hitpoints, now you have none. Guess you're dead. Mind, it didn't help that back when I played them for the first time I looked at every single crowd control/summon spell in the game, decided they were boring and that what I really needed was more damage. Dispel magic? Psh. That's for sissies. Colorspray, you say? But I could fire a single magic missile, and that would do so much more damge!
Yeah, uh, it's possible my play was suboptimal.