Neverwinter Nights, Another Classic RPG series Options

[SubRosa]

@Subbie-
Is January a monk?

January is a monk, pretty much like she is in her fiction. Except without the high tech hagfish armor.

Nice! Khajiit is running a Kenku shadow monk in a D&D campaign right now. It’s a blast (when the rolls are going right anyway, lol)!

I had to look up what those things are. The Kenku sound really weird, but cool. Crow People! I am guessing that is good old-fashioned tabletop D&D? I have not played it since 3rd edition, so I am totally out of the loop these days. It sounds like it would be really challenging to play a Kenku in a tabletop setting, since you can only mimic things you have previously heard.

Cool screenshots, Subbie! And yes, you just drag potions/healing kits onto your henchman for them to use it. Potions have definitely been helpful for the most part, although I haven't had a chance to use some types (e.g. lesser restoration, which does come in potion form).

I've really enjoyed my time with the game so far, and have played way too much of it the past couple of days or so. I am in the Chapter One finale right now after getting back all the Waterdhavian creatures at the Road to Helm's Hold.



I've gotten pretty decent at the game, but there are still some things I am trying to figure out. I just cannot figure out how to make my normal attacks quicker, because they are fairly slow. The Great Cleave feat and attacks after killing an enemy help, but I am talking about normally. Also, I can't figure out why I can't use the Level I Paladin spells. They are dimmed out and just say "0," even though I know the spells. I've been able to use Lay On Hands but that's it. And every once in a while I have a "weapon is ineffective" message without being able to figure out what weapons WOULD be effective. There's some other things here and there but those are most of the big issues I am having.

I've gotten more comfortable with making my own choices on leveling up, too. Briefly considered taking another class but I think that is too confusing with my inexperience, so I'm sticking with just being a Paladin--at least for now. Makes more sense to fully learn how one class works before I try to take on another one.

There's a lot in my adventures that I could go over, but that would take a long while to type so I'll give a synopsis. I first went to Beggar's Nest, and for a while I was doing decently on my own. It wasn't until I got clobbered by those snake cultists in service to Gulnan that I realized I had to get a henchman. So I went back to the Trade of Blades and picked the first follower I could find, Daelan Red-Tiger the Half-Orc. Dude's an absolute beast. No way I could've gotten through most of the stuff I have without him. And that dire spider in those catacombs on the way to Gulnan was total [censored]. It made me have to go over to the Peninsula District and finish that place before going back to Beggar's Nest. The Docks District was relatively easy to get through but that was probably because I had learned a bunch of the ropes of the game at that point. Blacklake was the easiest one to do, which I saved for last. Made a lot of gold along the way and FINALLY got a belt near the end of Chapter One.

Desther is a grade A d-bag. I think they were kind of telegraphing that. What surprised me was who was helping him. I think the deliberately made Desther the one way, to make that second person more of a surprise.

The issue with the Paladin spells might be two things. First is with a Paladin you have to memorize the spells you want to use. That is not just knowing them. I believe when you open your spellbook (shortcut key B ), you will see the spells you know on the left, and the one's you have memorized on the right. There will be a bunch of blank boxes there when you start. Make sure you add the spells you think you want to use to the boxes on the right. Also make sure you select them for each level.

Or your Wisdom might be too low to cast the spells. A base wisdom score of 10 + the spell's level is required to cast a spell.

I think it might just be the way the game works that makes it seem like your attacks are going slow. Some fights can go on for a long, long time. I am using Flurry, which gives you double the attacks, and it seems like I am going slow too. I would not worry about it.

I get that weapon ineffective message sometimes too. It might be a creature that can only be hit by a certain level of magic item (+1, or +2, etc...) I think some also have a Damage Resistance that soaks a certain amount of damage for every hit, and if you just roll under that you do nothing, and you get that message. But if you roll high enough, some damage will get through.

Multiclassing can get tricky. The main thing is that there is an XP penalty if your two classes get more than 1 level apart from another. The real trick is learning the loopholes. Some races get a favored class, which does not count towards that in multiclassing. So you can be as lopsided in your levels as you want so long as one of your classes is that favored one. I remember that Elves have Wizard as a favored class. When Humans multiclass one of their classes is automatically considered a favored class, no matter what it is. So humans can do 2 classes and never have a penalty, no matter what they are. It is good to be a Human in this game, you get some nice perks like that.

The Rage of the Red Tiger! Yes, Daelan is a monster! I have dabbled with the other companions, but he is always my go to in the end. He just plows through everything.

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

@Subbie-
Is January a monk?

January is a monk, pretty much like she is in her fiction. Except without the high tech hagfish armor.

Nice! Khajiit is running a Kenku shadow monk in a D&D campaign right now. It’s a blast (when the rolls are going right anyway, lol)!

I had to look up what those things are. The Kenku sound really weird, but cool. Crow People! I am guessing that is good old-fashioned tabletop D&D? I have not played it since 3rd edition, so I am totally out of the loop these days. It sounds like it would be really challenging to play a Kenku in a tabletop setting, since you can only mimic things you have previously heard.

Yeah speech is a little weird but my Kenku doesn’t do a lot of talking anyway. When he does, Khajiit says things like “In a myriad of different voices for each word, Quaorl (that’s his name) says...” and this one just says what needs to be said. One time, one of our party members was going to fight so Khajiit said “Give’em hell! Quaorl said that in the voice of a sailor which he overheard speaking to another sailor.”. He can make mimic noises almost perfectly too! Set him up in the corner of a tavern and have him mimic a lute player.

Here’s a rough drawing Khajiit did of him.

This post has been edited by TheCheshireKhajiit: Jun 18 2019, 02:25 AM

[SubRosa]

@Subbie-
Is January a monk?

January is a monk, pretty much like she is in her fiction. Except without the high tech hagfish armor.

Nice! Khajiit is running a Kenku shadow monk in a D&D campaign right now. It’s a blast (when the rolls are going right anyway, lol)!

I had to look up what those things are. The Kenku sound really weird, but cool. Crow People! I am guessing that is good old-fashioned tabletop D&D? I have not played it since 3rd edition, so I am totally out of the loop these days. It sounds like it would be really challenging to play a Kenku in a tabletop setting, since you can only mimic things you have previously heard.

Yeah speech is a little weird but my Kenku doesn’t do a lot of talking anyway. When he does, Khajiit says things like “In a myriad of different voices for each word, Quaorl (that’s his name) says...” and this one just says what needs to be said. One time, one of our party members was going to fight so Khajiit said “Give’em hell! Quaorl said that in the voice of a sailor which he overheard speaking to another sailor.”. He can make mimic noises almost perfectly too! Set him up in the corner of a tavern and have him mimic a lute player.

Here’s a rough drawing Khajiit did of him.

Very cool! January would totally team up with him to kick supervillain butt, or orcs, whatever comes first!

[RaderOfTheLostArk]

@Subbie-
Is January a monk?

January is a monk, pretty much like she is in her fiction. Except without the high tech hagfish armor.

Nice! Khajiit is running a Kenku shadow monk in a D&D campaign right now. It’s a blast (when the rolls are going right anyway, lol)!

I had to look up what those things are. The Kenku sound really weird, but cool. Crow People! I am guessing that is good old-fashioned tabletop D&D? I have not played it since 3rd edition, so I am totally out of the loop these days. It sounds like it would be really challenging to play a Kenku in a tabletop setting, since you can only mimic things you have previously heard.

Yeah speech is a little weird but my Kenku doesn’t do a lot of talking anyway. When he does, Khajiit says things like “In a myriad of different voices for each word, Quaorl (that’s his name) says...” and this one just says what needs to be said. One time, one of our party members was going to fight so Khajiit said “Give’em hell! Quaorl said that in the voice of a sailor which he overheard speaking to another sailor.”. He can make mimic noises almost perfectly too! Set him up in the corner of a tavern and have him mimic a lute player.

Here’s a rough drawing Khajiit did of him.

Is he one of Mirocu's people? Maybe our resident bird knows him?

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

Very cool! January would totally team up with him to kick supervillain butt, or orcs, whatever comes first!

Thanks! Khajiit is sure January would be a more than worthy adventuring companion!

This one has really been enjoying playing Quaorl. His background is criminal/spy and he has an obsession with shiny things. He joined a martial arts monastery in hopes of learning to fly (Kenku don’t have wings anymore and Quaorl is on a personal quest to learn how to fly. He read in a book that certain monks have flight like abilities.). The monks could sense the avarice for all that is shiny in Quaorl’s soul, and told him before he could learn anything else, he would need to tame that dark dragon within. They taught him techniques to quiet this obsession and also how to fight with spear and his own body then sent him out into the world on a journey of self betterment. More power would open to him, they promised, if he would find causes to lend his strength to.

This obsession with shiny things is a character flaw that Quaorl actually has to contend with in game. Whenever he enters a new room or area and there are no immediate enemies to fight, Khajiit asks the DM if Quaorl can see anything shiny. If he can see something shiny, he must make a wisdom saving throw to avoid blindly rushing into the room to investigate the shinies. This could be bad if the area is booby trapped or there were some hidden enemies lurking about. The saving throw must be higher than 15 at lvl 5, 10 at lvl 10, 5 at lvl 15, and 1 at lvl20, the idea being that as Quaorl gets stronger, his obsession is easier to control, while also still being something that he has to fight and still get beaten by occasionally.

[RaderOfTheLostArk]

It sure is great when you get a spoiler when you are looking up information/help that is completely unrelated or related to something you are not looking for...

I'm in Luskan now, and I did everything in the city that I could prior to entering the Host Tower. I also stormed through Kurth's and Baram's quarters and laid waste to their armies as well as the High Captains themselves (I like to imagine that Daelan and I absolutely mutilated Baram after finding out what he did to those children he kidnapped). So the only thing left to do then was head into the Host Tower, except I had a brainfart and forgot how I was going to get in. Googling it did not come up with anything related to the question...instead, I was informed of a spoiler that was going to happen very soon. THANKS, GOOGLE. It's not really any of the posters' fault; the discussions were posted in forums from 2002-2006 and I imagine they were not deliberately trying to spoil anything.

I suppose part of it is my fault. I almost immediately thought of the answer after I angrily closed out Google. But I figured I put in harmless search terms that would come up with what I wanted. And that wasn't the first time I came across information that suggested the upcoming spoiler either. Earlier this week, I wanted to look up info on a certain character...and it indirectly foreshadowed something bad was going to happen.



Anyway, I ended my play session just outside the door into the Host Tower. I got the forged papers and seal I needed to bypass the guards, but I haven't actually stepped into the Tower yet (rather just past the gate with the first guard). I felt that would be a good place to end for the day as a "cliffhanger" of sorts.

This post has been edited by RaderOfTheLostArk: Jun 24 2019, 04:20 AM

[RaderOfTheLostArk]

And the Neverwinter Nights main campaign has been conquered! What a ride that was.

As much as I really enjoyed it, however, a bunch of Chapter 3 and a bit of Chapter 4 got pretty frustrating. There is a big jump in difficulty from Chapter 2 to 3, with so many enemies being able to hit hard and sometimes very quickly. Also didn't help that Daelan Red Tiger--for all of the immense help he has provided me--is so susceptible to fear spells. It took me way too long to remember about Potions of Clarity and figure out that was what they were used for (i.e., saving throws against fear spells).

Unfortunately, I couldn't convince Aribeth that she could try to atone for what she had done, and I had to kill her. I do feel sorry for her and I could empathize with her to some extent, although it obviously doesn't excuse betrayal. Maugrim was actually pretty easy to fight, although his concealment spells must have been pretty damn good because there were so many swings-and-misses. At the same time, he kept missing with a lot of his attacks too, and even when he did land hits they didn't do much damage.

Fighting Old Ones in the Source Stone was also a real PITA. But I eventually got through and defeated Morag. It was an immensely satisfying victory after all of the nonsense I had to put up with. Sadly, however, Daelan died, but it was his AI's fault as he kept trying to go at Morag before we should have.

Just started the Shadows of Undrentide expansion a bit ago. Didn't realize it would be a separate story from the main campaign, which is a bummer. I was hoping it would be a continuation, especially considering the allusions and predictions Haedreline made after I defeated Morag. (I suppose that will be in the Hordes of the Underdark expansion?) Still, it's nice to be able to mow down all these enemies so far in SoU, since my character from the main campaign was automatically exported when I finished it.

[SubRosa]

Congrats on smiting evil! I have played both SOU and HOTU, but it has been so long I don't remember either much. I don't think either continues the main story though. I think one just has you start in an inn and go down to the hollow earth Drow area and explore, and the other starts you out as a slave clearing out a vast dungeon. I do think some of the NPCs are featured in one of the expansions.

[SubRosa]

I discovered a way to hide your helmet on another forum today:

There's a bug, ahem 'feature', that still exists in this version where if you quickly don your armour after your helmet then the helmet isn't displayed. Easiest way to do it is to quick slot your helmet and armour, take them off, then click the helmet and immediately click on the armour. Whilst it isn't displayed you still get the helmet bonuses etc.

I quickslotted the Thayvian Circlet I just found, and my armor, and it works. You just have to unequip both. Then hit the helmet and armor quick keys in order.

[SubRosa]

I was looking back over SOTU and HOTU, and now I remember more. The idea behind SOTU was for you to start with a brand new character at level 1. But you could import your character from the original campaign. The idea behind HOTU was that you would take your SOTU character and import it into that. But I also believe you can import your OC character as well. HOTU is intended for high level characters. If you create a new character for it, you start at level 15.

I have definitely done SOTU. But I do not think I have ever done HOTU. If I am still in the mood for more NWN after I finish the original campaign with January I might take a crack at it.

[SubRosa]

January denies the power

Monster Party

January is having a ghoulishly good time

Mini-me attack!

Low Blow

January's chest

[RaderOfTheLostArk]

I discovered a way to hide your helmet on another forum today:

There's a bug, ahem 'feature', that still exists in this version where if you quickly don your armour after your helmet then the helmet isn't displayed. Easiest way to do it is to quick slot your helmet and armour, take them off, then click the helmet and immediately click on the armour. Whilst it isn't displayed you still get the helmet bonuses etc.

I quickslotted the Thayvian Circlet I just found, and my armor, and it works. You just have to unequip both. Then hit the helmet and armor quick keys in order.

Ooh, I wish I knew that earlier. Would've definitely done that. And what a coincidence, the Thayvian Circlet is the one Eliza Maddox (my character) has too.

I'm playing SOU with Eliza. Kind of hard to justify from a role-playing perspective, but whatever. I took her helmet off since she is so strong compared to everything else that she doesn't need to wear it.

I was looking back over SOTU and HOTU, and now I remember more. The idea behind SOTU was for you to start with a brand new character at level 1. But you could import your character from the original campaign. The idea behind HOTU was that you would take your SOTU character and import it into that. But I also believe you can import your OC character as well. HOTU is intended for high level characters. If you create a new character for it, you start at level 15.

I have definitely done SOTU. But I do not think I have ever done HOTU. If I am still in the mood for more NWN after I finish the original campaign with January I might take a crack at it.

Eliza leveled up right after defeating Morag, reaching level 16. I upgraded stats and skills for her right when I started SOU. It's nice to just kick everything's ass for a change.

January denies the power

Monster Party

January is having a ghoulishly good time

Mini-me attack!

Low Blow

January's chest

Wow, those mods look really good!

That Yuan-Ti necromancer 'boudda get wrecked. So is Desther.

Ghoul party, dude.

Nice pics!

[SubRosa]

This place is hot

Doing the Neverwinter hustle

They are not worthy

An average fight

Leaping lizards

[RaderOfTheLostArk]

The Hordes of the Underdark expansion sure is something else. [censored] drow stole all my equipment at the beginning! I have mixed feelings on that. I was really attached to that stuff, but at the same time I've found some beastly equipment delving into the Underdark that has made me not really miss my old stuff that much (well, I still do a little). And it's a way to spice things up by making you have to collect powerful equipment again.

I knew this expansion was supposed to ramp up the difficulty, but geez, some of these fights have sometimes just been unfair. Some of these mobs are crazy, and then you have the smaller ones of 3-5 enemies that have a lot of health and hit really hard. I have to admit I've had a bunch of frustrations so far, but I won't drag on too much about them here.

Eliza Maddox dispatched the Valsharess earlier today, but she wasn't the true big bad. After killing her, that son of a [censored] Mephistopheles killed Eliza and threw her into the Eight Hell, Cania. Killing the Valsharess broke the limited power she had over Mephistopheles (I'm still somewhat confused on how we could defy her as much as he did given her binding of him). Fortunately, Eliza was able to get Nathyrra and Deekin to come thanks to the Reaper's help. Now Eliza is on a quest to find out the Reaper's true name so she can get him to send them back to Toril and break him from Mephistopheles' control.

While figuring out what to do next in Cania, she came across a devourer called "The Scrivener" (and the only nice devourer and sort of endearing at that). His mini-quest led Eliza to run into none other than Aribeth de Tylmarande herself! I wanted to take her in my party, but it was too big with Nathyrra and Deekin in it. But I didn't want to part with them after being reunited in one of the Nine Hells. I suppose I could've gotten one of them back later when returning to Toril, but whatever.

Anyway, before this gets too much longer than it already is, Eliza is now trying to walk the road that the Sleeping Man did so she can figure out the Reaper's true name.



Running into Aribeth brings back to mind my mixed feelings on the expansions not being continuations of the main campaign, but that's a discussion for another time.

This place is hot

Doing the Neverwinter hustle

They are not worthy

An average fight

Leaping lizards

Oh boy, the hallway in Castle Jhareg with all of the Red Slaads and Fire Elementals. That was a trip, alright. Had to use the Stone of Recall quite a bit even with Daelan helping me out.

The mummies' slaps have nothing on January on the Monk's MMA abilities.

I forget which dungeon had the bowing skeletons, but neat pic.

An Average Fight reminds me of how much I wish I wasn't so lazy in installing FRAPS so I can take screenshots. I've come across a bunch of battles that screenshots would've been perfect for, especially in the Hordes of the Underdark expansion.

Lizards bringing swords to a fistfight is a big mistake with January.

Is January on her own? That's even more rad if she is.

This post has been edited by RaderOfTheLostArk: Jul 7 2019, 05:36 AM

[SubRosa]

I vaguely recall some of what you are saying about HOTU, but only the little bit at the start of all your stuff being stolen. So I probably never got past the beginning. Hopefully I will still be in the mood for it after I finish the original campaign, because I want to do HOTU someday.

January is doing the game solo. She struggled at first. But once she got some monk levels under her belt it became easier and easier. I think what makes it possible is that she has an item now that makes her immune to mind-effecting spells (and she will later get a monk power that confers the same). She also has monk powers that give her resistances to spells, immunity to disease and poison. Plus massive Armor Class bonuses. She has an AC of 35 right now. Almost nothing can hit her in these massive mob battles. Not that she has not died a few times and I had to reload my previous save. But she is just breezing through the game right now.

I also cheated a bit in creating her stats. January is the protagonist from superhero fic Stormcrow. So I gave her some superheroic stats. I made her an Elf so she could start with a Dex of 20, gave her a STR of about 16, and a Con of 18, then sort of 14s and 15s for the mental stats. Some of those, like WIS and CHA, I raised when she leveled. Of course she found several stat adding items in the game as well, and that has pushed her STR and DEX up even higher. INT as well, but she does not really use that as a monk. As an Elf she can also detect traps without being in the trap detecting mode. Which is one of the big reasons I did that.

I also am so heartily sick of D&D and its class skills, that I made all of her skills class skills. In the future I will do that for every class I play. It is just annoying. That allowed her to raise up Open Lock and Disarm Trap. So she can open any lock in the game right now. She is still limited in Traps however, as only a Rogue can disarm traps over a DC of 35. I had not realized that until now.

The same mod I use to change the appearance of her armor and items also allowed me to make her look human again as well. The tiny-ness of Elves in this game looked weird to me.

Here she is now. She just turned level 14, and just started the Third Act. I think the game divides experience points between you and your companions, so by going solo I believe she is higher level that this point that usual.

[RaderOfTheLostArk]

And down goes Mephistopheles! Eliza Maddox has etched her name in Faerunian lore once again. Apparently, there is ending dialogue based on your actions throughout the expansion. I got a good ending, but I would like to get the "best" ending. So I may go back to an earlier save to do that (wouldn't have to go back far to do it, it seems). I'll try not to give anymore spoilers about how it all went down.

What a trip this whole journey has been. It has been quite some time since a game really captured my interest like that, and I played it too much this past month. But it was so much fun. I'd like to go back through at some point with the same character so I can curbstomp all the enemies that caused me trouble. Luckily, I can go to specific chapters to do that, but I'd also like to use a different companion for a full playthrough. Whenever I do get around to it, I'm going to use Sharwyn.

I'll try to give some full thoughts on this whole experience later.

*snip*

A bit of advice for when you consider HOTU, if I may: If you want to play it, it's best if you are REALLY in the mood for it. It's grueling. I was really invested, so I enjoyed it overall (albeit with some frustrations). If you're kind of in the mood for it but not a whole lot, the difficulty might dampen the experience quite a bit. Maybe that wouldn't be the case for you, but it's just a forewarning.

Well, that sucks the XP is shared. I had no idea. Personally, I don't think that is very fair, because it is tough without a companion (especially when it is your first time playing like with me).

I certainly don't blame you on the "cheating" and I agree on the old-school D&D restrictions. NWN's mechanics in that regard didn't bother me too much (and fortunately it still gives you a ton of options with your class along with multiclassing), but conceptually I think a lot of the restrictions of yesteryear are outdated and obnoxious. I get the idea behind them though, and I actually don't think they should be done away with altogether. For example, instead of making certain types of magic locked away totally by straight-up warriors or kinds of magic-casters who wouldn't normally cast it, make them inefficient at casting it to begin with but still able to use it and even become viable. Maybe newer editions of D&D do that already though. I think it should be difficult but not impossible to become a "jack-of-all-trades."

[SubRosa]

It looks like XP is not shared when you have companions, but rather you receive an XP penalty when you have them. Which is pretty much the same. January finished the game at level 17, going it alone.


Momma said knock you out!

How did he get up there?

January has a bone to pick with this guy

Cold shoulder

Larry, Moe, Curly, and Shemp

Red scare

Getting hammered

Big Red

Getting hot under the collar

Turning up the heat

January is fireproof

Looks like January picked the wrong day to stop sniffing glue...

[Acadian]

More fun shots of Jan in action!

Red Scare = “Go for the crotch, Boo!”

When it comes to dragons, looks like she went from the freezer into the frying pan with the ice & fire from them. So glad that Jan’s Stormcrow cape is indeed fireproof.

Sniffing glue – haha – those are indeed some groovy special effects going off.

[SubRosa]

I guess Boo wouldn't be able to go for the eyes on that one...

I started Hordes Of The Underdark yesterday. I have been enjoying it immensely. I did not realize that there was an npc who would give you the rod of resurrection before you went in. Nor did I know you could go up and out of the inn and into the city to shop. I just went straight in. Eventually I went back just to see if I could. Thankfully you can do that. I was wondering what I would do with all the loot I picked up if not.

I also finally figured out how the teleport thing works. I wish I had realized that to start with too.

Wow, there is a lot of loot! I don't really feel bad about losing all my gear to start with. Well, not since I used the console to get some of it back, like my armor and helmet. I just found a pair of uber monk gloves that adds a ton of damage. Plus I think a +4 belt of Agility. January is really geared up already.

I have also been solo'ing it with no problem. I got the rod of resurrection after going back out once and then heading back in, and resurrected Daelan and Sharwyn. But I did not bother teaming up. The same with Deekin. It is kind of fun going it alone in this game. It's a first. January just hit level 18, the highest level I have ever had a character in any D&D game.

[RaderOfTheLostArk]

I guess Boo wouldn't be able to go for the eyes on that one...

I started Hordes Of The Underdark yesterday. I have been enjoying it immensely. I did not realize that there was an npc who would give you the rod of resurrection before you went in. Nor did I know you could go up and out of the inn and into the city to shop. I just went straight in. Eventually I went back just to see if I could. Thankfully you can do that. I was wondering what I would do with all the loot I picked up if not.

I also finally figured out how the teleport thing works. I wish I had realized that to start with too.

Wow, there is a lot of loot! I don't really feel bad about losing all my gear to start with. Well, not since I used the console to get some of it back, like my armor and helmet. I just found a pair of uber monk gloves that adds a ton of damage. Plus I think a +4 belt of Agility. January is really geared up already.

I have also been solo'ing it with no problem. I got the rod of resurrection after going back out once and then heading back in, and resurrected Daelan and Sharwyn. But I did not bother teaming up. The same with Deekin. It is kind of fun going it alone in this game. It's a first. January just hit level 18, the highest level I have ever had a character in any D&D game.

The lady in the cellar (White Thelma or something like that, IIRC) sells some stuff, but yeah, the shopkeepers outside the tavern have much better stuff. Just wait until you get even further into the DLC. You get some crazy powerful stuff. I remember finding a decent amount of monk equipment, actually, one being called Gloves of the Hin Fist +7. The loot definitely mitigates the blow of losing your equipment, fortunately.

It took me a while to figure out how the Relic of the Reaper (the teleporter thing) works too.

January sure isn't someone to be trifled with. If 18 is the highest you have ever been in D&D, you're going to blow that personal record out of the water at the end of HOTu. Eliza Maddox was level 18 after the main campaign and Shadows of Undrentide, and at the end of Hordes of the Underdark she was level 27. And that was always with a companion (it is possible to have two at the same time in HOTU), so it'll be interesting to see what January ends up being when she is all done since she will have all the XP to herself. But she has her work cut out for her in chapters 2 and 3, that's for sure.

Deekin really endeared himself to me in SOU, and I was somewhat surprised he popped up again in HOTU. So I took him along again and eventually got my second companion to join us later in the DLC. The second companion, however...had some seriously wonky AI. I'll leave it at that for now so I don't spoil anything.