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Chorrol.com _ General RPG Discussion _ Neverwinter Nights

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 16 2014, 07:58 PM

I dusted off my copy of Neverwinter Nights 2 a few days ago. I installed - or actually reinstalled it - a few months ago along with Neverwinter Nights 1. I played through most of NWN 1 back then with a dual-weaponed Fighter/Rogue named Kestrel.

Earlier this week I decided to take a crack at NWN 2. I found that I had never installed the two expansions, so I threw those on too (I have NWN1 Diamond Edition, and NWN2 Platinum). Then I discovered that my NWN2 version was not up to date, even though I had thought the Platinum edition was the final version. So I tried updating it through the built in updater. But Atari's server doesn't work anymore, so I cannot. I went looking online for the manual patches, but could not find them anywhere either. Though I did find a manual patcher program that would work if I had the patches. In the end I found NWN2 on Gog, and just bought it from them again. That gave me the final version of the game, which does not require the cd to be in the drive to play. Thank you Gog, for being reliable after the original publisher of the game refused to support their product.

This is what worries me about Steam, not to mention all modern games that require you to log into a server to authenticate before you can play your single player game. Are they still going to support games like Skyrim 10 or 15 years from now? Or are they going to shut those servers down for new games instead? Then we will have to either buy a DRM-free version of the game from Gog, or resort to pirates to make an illegal crack to play the game we legally bought. devilsad.gif

Anyway, I rolled a new toon to beat the game with (yes, that is just for you Wyrd, in case you ever read this wink.gif ). She is a Wood Elf named http://i.imgur.com/him6xFr.jpg. I went with my old standby of a Ranger. Since Kestrel was a dual-wielder, I went the archer's path with Antheia. So far she has slogged her way through the swamp, Fort Locke, the graveyard, and all the side dungeons. A few minutes ago she and her crew stepped onto the docks at Neverwinter itself.

I experimented a bit with her Ranger animal companions. First I tried a wolf, because of their knockdown ability. But her Wolf Asena hardy ever knocked anyone down. So then I tried a boar (named Varahi), but that one did not do anything for me either. Finally I went to Artio, the brown bear. She isn't super either, but has managed to live through most of her battles, which is better than the other ones did. Thankfully you can resummon your companion if they die, so they don't really die.

Speaking of which, I have been using the http://neverwintervault.org/project/nwn2/other/tool/nwn2-character-editor to change her animal companion. It lets you edit most things about your character, but not everything. It doesn't allow you to edit your companions at all though Turns out you can edit all the companions too. When you go to the file open screen, you have to open each character - be it the player or companion - separately. The PC is the playerlist.ifo file, and the companions each have their own *.ros file. It requires installing Java, which did not thrill me.

I am using http://www.nexusmods.com/neverwinter2/mods/199, which adds a few heads and bunch of hairs from Oblivion, including our old favorites by Ren and Corean. There are not that many mods for NWN2 on the Nexus though, but I did find links to a bunch of them http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/anyone-with-access-to-something-awful-neverwinter-nights-2-mods-fixes.88771/#post-3031932 - just click on Show Spoiler to see them all. I downloaded the Easy Mod Compilation from near the top. I am using the extra heads from that as well, but I am still not really thrilled with what is out there, at least for the elf faces.

The Compilation does come with a really handy little mod that allows you to multi-class your companions. It is the three loose .xml files in the zip file. I used it to multi-class Neeshka to a Swashbuckler/Rogue, which seems perfect for her.

Speaking of multi-classing, I just multi-classed Antheia as a Sorcerer as well. That will allow her to eventually become an Arcane Archer (a Prestige Class). She just needs a few more Ranger levels to get her Base Attack Bonus higher. Being a Sorcerer gives her a few arcane spells in addition to the few Ranger spells she has. She took one that gives a +20 to her attack rolls, along with a Color Spray - which I have always liked. Since she is usually the first in the party, the latter makes for an excellent opening move when entering a room. Being a Sorcerer also gave her a Familiar. She chose a cat named Sekhmet. So now she has a bear and a cat. Since Elanee is also in the group, she has a badger companion. So now there are four people and three animals, making quite the army tramping around the Sword Coast.

Posted by: Acadian Aug 16 2014, 10:13 PM

What a superb tour guide you are of games I have not played and may never get to! I think I understand your frustration with old games. A couple years ago I tried to get Diablo II going again on my newer machine and ran into tons of problems. Lots of research and tweaks fixed most of them, but not good enough to happily play. Sounds like gog is sort of an answer for those kinds of things regarding older games?

Anyway, your game and character look fabulous! smile.gif

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 16 2014, 10:33 PM

http://www.gog.com/ is the best thing to happen in computer gaming for years. They take old games whose source codes have been released to the public (basically that is when the developer gives up the legal rights to them, because the games are so old that they don't make money selling them anymore). They update the games to install and run on a modern computer, and often throw in extras like soundtracks and artwork.

At the same time they strip out all the DRM schemes, which often cause games to not work at all on PCs. So unlike Steam games that require you to log into Steam to play them, or EA games like Dragon Age or Mass Effect that require you log into their servers, or Diablo 3 that requires you to log into Blizzard's servers, you download the game from Gog, install it, and never have to log into anyone's servers or have a disc in the drive to play it.

They are owned by the same indie developer that makes the Witcher games. They are like the old school game publishers such as EA or Activision, but without all the Evil. Gog is a game company made for gamers, rather than to exploit gamers.

Edit to add: http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2013/05/30/good-old-games-gog-com-and-the-drm-free-revolution/

Posted by: mirocu Aug 17 2014, 02:05 PM

Wow! That pic of your character was almost enough for me to consider getting this game! It looks awesome! blink.gif

I may have to click on that gog link at some point. If only I didnŽt just get a job.... biggrin.gif

Posted by: Acadian Aug 17 2014, 03:46 PM

SubRosa, thanks for editing in that article. You've convinced me, I think, that if I ever get the itch to play an older game again, I'll go to gog. smile.gif

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 17 2014, 05:28 PM

I think Buffy would feel at home in the Neverwinter Nights games. There are no horses to ride, and sometimes sniping from very long distances can be impossible because the game forces you to talk to many of the key plot point villains before fighting them. But the rules are very friendly to elf arcane archers, to the point of there actually being an Arcane Archer prestige class. The companions have been rather entertaining so far, especially Neeshka and Khelgar, who are lots of fun when they start trading insults.

Now that I have gotten farther into NWN2, I am noticing some things I do not like. The camera can be a pain in the rear. Like Tomb Raider, it has a habit of putting itself inside of walls or roofs, so you cannot see anything until you move it around. I never had any problems with the camera in NWN1.

Spells can be hard to cast. Opening your spellbook, clicking on the spell, and then clicking on your target clears the spell from your memorized spells list rather than casts it. Which is really frustrating in the middle of the fight. So you have to either move the spell from your book down to the hotbar at the bottom of the screen, or pull up the quickcast bar, and clutter your screen with yet another UI element. But even then, clicking on a spell in either tends to make it automatically go of on you. It seems you have to left click your target, then right click on your spell in the hotbar, and then it will.

I was very disappointed in my Color Spray too. It takes so long to actually go off, then all the bad guys have long since moved out of the way. Likewise the other spell that adds +20 to hit takes so long to cast, the battle is usually almost completely over before it goes off. I just fired up NWN1 and created a Sorcerer to test with, and her spells are so much easier to cast, and a lot quicker to go off. One thing I like about NWN1 is that I can left click on a target, and it brings up a radial wheel menu of things I can do to it. From there I can pick the spell I want to cast on them. It means going through a lot of nested elements, so its best to pause the game while doing it. But I can cast all my spells that way, without cluttering up the UI even more, or accidentally deleting them.

So far I have to say that while NWN2 has prettier graphics, and adds more classes and races, I think NWN1 is the better game. But I will keep trying with NWN2, maybe I will warm up to it, or find some mods to work around my issues.

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 17 2014, 11:03 PM

Ok, I fixed the spellcasting issue. There was an option I had to un-tick that made spells automatically target whatever was selected with a left click. Now they work the same as they did in NWN1.

Antheia has moved farther along in the game, and picked up Qara as a follower. She is a Sorcerer, and I have to say, wow. She can literally clear a room with just one fireball. Very impressive. Given that I can usually rest between fights, she can bring that to the table nearly every battle. Fireballs and other area effects spells seem to only harm enemies, which is an added bonus. This makes me want to play a Sorcerer.

Posted by: Acadian Aug 17 2014, 11:38 PM

Oh, good news on the spellcasting problem! I'm starting to get intrigued by NWN now. . . . biggrin.gif

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 18 2014, 12:52 AM

Gog has both NWN1 & 2 for only $25 if you buy them together. I'd say that is definitely a good deal.

I had a lot more fun playing NWN2 today than I did yesterday, so that is good. I am now farther in the game than I ever was before.

Another thing that is very different between games is the way the world is laid out. NWN1 was done similar to the Diablo games. Each outdoor "level" is a big square area with all sorts of stuff. Each level has any number of exits at the map edges that lead to other levels. You move through the world by transitioning from one outdoor level to the next through these points at the map edges.

NWN2 also has waypoints at the map edges, but instead of directly leading you to another, adjacent level, they take you to a world map. On the world map you can select the place you want to go to next. It is a pretty standard thing in Bioware and Obsidian games. The KOTOR games do it, Dragon Age Origins, Fallout 1 & 2, and so on.

While it is faster to move around the world the NWN2 way, I kind of prefer the NWN1 way. It feels more - dare I use the word - immersive.

Another thing is that like Baldur's Gate 1, NWN1's outdoor levels are huge. They are big square areas filled with lots of stuff to discover, kill, and/or loot. Much of it is not related to the main quest of the game at all. It is just extra content you can ignore or explore as you choose. NWN2's outdoor areas are much smaller, and the content is almost always directly related to the story. For example, early in the game you get a quest to go to clear out a bandit camp and rescue the people they are holding hostage. The only thing on the map is the camp. In NWN1 or Baldur's Gate 1 the same camp would have taken up a quarter of the map, and the rest of the map would have other stuff in it.

Now there are side quests in NWN2, and a few optional areas you can journey to on the world map and explore. But so far the optional areas are very few, and like the other levels, relatively small.

So what I am trying to say is that NWN2 is much more tightly focused on the story of the game than NWN1. NWN1 is not as open a world as BG1, but it does give you the feel of a more open place, and has more non MQ stuff in it.

Posted by: Acadian Aug 18 2014, 03:41 PM

When I was BG'ing, I'm trying to think why I never started NWN. I'm sort of recalling that I somehow got it in my head that NWN was an online game? Sounds like I was quite wrong.

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 18 2014, 04:30 PM

There was another game called http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neverwinter_Nights_%28AOL_game%29 that was an online MMO back from 91 - 97. It was on America Online, and I think it was one of the very first MMOs ever. So that is probably what got you confused.

Then in 2002 Bioware came out with the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neverwinter_Nights that I am playing, and later http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neverwinter_Nights_2 followed it. These are single player games. But they also has a multiplayer component, so you can play online with others if you want. It isn't an MMO where millions of people log into a company's server. Instead it is more like Vampire The Masquerade, where one person acts as the Game Master, and their computer acts as the server, and a handful of other people log into it. Or a website might even have an actual server of their own hosting players. I never bothered playing online myself.

Just to make things even more confusing, there is another game called http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neverwinter_%28video_game%29 that is an MMO that came out just recently.

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 20 2014, 01:53 AM

Tonight I created another NWN2 character. http://i.imgur.com/exMvVUc.jpg. I was originally going with a name of an Underworld goddess like Allatu or Akka, but after choosing that hair, it http://download.pchome.net/wallpaper/info-614-7-3.html.

Posted by: Acadian Aug 20 2014, 02:48 AM

Welcome to your Drow Paladin! She looks great. The graphics and scenery in that screenshot are stunning! Is that NWN2 vanilla? Holy pigs, grass and trees if it is - that's a great looking game!

Posted by: Lopov Aug 20 2014, 11:13 PM

QUOTE(Acadian @ Aug 18 2014, 04:41 PM) *
When I was BG'ing, I'm trying to think why I never started NWN. I'm sort of recalling that I somehow got it in my head that NWN was an online game? Sounds like I was quite wrong.

I'm like you, I wonder why I never started NWN, it was definitely on my games-to-play list back then. But maybe my computer wasn't able to handle it or maybe I discovered original FOs before NWN and I moved to them, leaving Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale (and NWN) behind.
The game looks great, though, I'm looking forward for more updates.

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 20 2014, 11:19 PM

That is the vanilla game in those pics. Except for the character's head, which is from a mod. The only mods I am using are one that adds more heads and hairs, and a few other minor ones. Both the NWNs are fun games, and definitely worth giving a try. Especially given how low the price is these days. Though if you do buy them, get them from Gog, since Atari stopped supporting them.

Posted by: Acadian Aug 21 2014, 12:47 AM

Oh wow on the unmodded background - that is some very nice background graphics compared to BG. smile.gif

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 21 2014, 03:31 AM

Tonight my newly created Sephiroth won the Harvest Cup, and fought off the monstrous attackers attacking the village. Then she went to retrieve the mysterious shard that the attackers were after. She was actually able to talk her way past the lizard men in the final room, which was rather nice. All those points I put into Diplomacy worked! So too did starting her out with a high Charisma (17 if I recall).

A few more pics from tonight's gaming.

http://i.imgur.com/teroWPT.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/QgjEyFF.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/opfnSck.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ZxciGy1.jpg

Now if I can just find a 20 foot katana, like that http://s1.hubimg.com/u/8324674_f520.jpg laugh.gif

Posted by: mirocu Aug 21 2014, 03:49 PM

Such pixies! Me wanna play!! ohmy.gif ohmy.gif

Posted by: Acadian Aug 21 2014, 04:23 PM

I saw these on your other thread, but note here that you've added the monster katana! Maybe she needs a light saber? Or perhaps a pet shark with freakin' laser beams coming out of its head (that shark bit is a SubRosa quote from somewhere). laugh.gif

Posted by: mirocu Aug 21 2014, 04:45 PM

QUOTE(Acadian @ Aug 21 2014, 05:23 PM) *

I saw these on your other thread, but note here that you've added the monster katana! Maybe she needs a light saber? Or perhaps a pet shark with freakin' laser beams coming out of its head (that shark bit is a SubRosa quote from somewhere). laugh.gif

Sounds like Star Wars and AVGN to me... laugh.gif

Posted by: Lopov Aug 21 2014, 07:42 PM

Beautiful shots, I like the one with the pigs the most.

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 21 2014, 09:25 PM

QUOTE(Acadian @ Aug 21 2014, 11:23 AM) *

I saw these on your other thread, but note here that you've added the monster katana! Maybe she needs a light saber? Or perhaps a pet shark with freakin' laser beams coming out of its head (that shark bit is a SubRosa quote from somewhere). laugh.gif

http://youtu.be/Bh7bYNAHXxw laugh.gif


QUOTE(mirocu @ Aug 21 2014, 11:45 AM) *

QUOTE(Acadian @ Aug 21 2014, 05:23 PM) *

I saw these on your other thread, but note here that you've added the monster katana! Maybe she needs a light saber? Or perhaps a pet shark with freakin' laser beams coming out of its head (that shark bit is a SubRosa quote from somewhere). laugh.gif

Sounds like Star Wars and AVGN to me... laugh.gif

Alien Versus Geriatric Nurses?


QUOTE(Lopov @ Aug 21 2014, 02:42 PM) *

Beautiful shots, I like the one with the pigs the most.

As Winston Churchill said: "I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals."

Posted by: Pseron Wyrd Aug 22 2014, 06:13 AM

QUOTE(SubRosa @ Aug 16 2014, 11:58 AM) *

toon


I HEARD THAT! nono.gif

Posted by: Acadian Aug 22 2014, 02:53 PM

QUOTE(Pseron Wyrd @ Aug 21 2014, 10:13 PM) *

QUOTE(SubRosa @ Aug 16 2014, 11:58 AM) *

toon


I HEARD THAT! nono.gif


Well, she's gotta tape up her monitor, grind up some skilz, get all immersed and beat the game! laugh.gif

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 22 2014, 05:03 PM

QUOTE(Pseron Wyrd @ Aug 22 2014, 01:13 AM) *

QUOTE(SubRosa @ Aug 16 2014, 11:58 AM) *

toon


I HEARD THAT! nono.gif

I had hoped that invoking the T-Word might lure you back! wub.gif

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 23 2014, 03:02 AM

I am having fun playing a paladin. You do not get the same amount of Feats as the straight Fighters, so lag behind a bit on the score, especially Cleave/Great Cleave which Sephiroth has not been able to take yet. But the extra perks make up for it, especially in the coolness factor. One of the early bonus class Feats allows you to add your Charisma bonus to all saving throws. Likewise the Smite Evil power allows you to add your Charisma bonus to your attack roll. The Lay On Hands lets you heal your Charisma bonus x your level in points. I created Sephiroth with an 18 Charisma, so I am getting the most of it. Ooops, I created her with a 17 Charisma, but she wears a cloak that gives her a +1 to Charisma, raising it to 18.

Being immune to disease is nice too, as is being able to cure it. It seems whenever you fight undead in this game, you get diseased, over and over again. I went through about 8 Healing Kits in the Graveyard just curing diseases before getting the Cure Disease power.

The Turning Undead has been great too. It really works! In BG turning usually made some of them run away. Meaning I would just have to chase after them to kill them. But in NWN2 I am killing skeletons outright when I turn. The ones not smited freeze in their tracks, which is really nice. They cannot attack unless you get next to them, and you don't have to chase after them. It is the best of both worlds.

Posted by: Acadian Aug 23 2014, 04:04 AM

Yay for Paladins! biggrin.gif

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 23 2014, 11:11 PM

http://i.imgur.com/TWzeHES.jpg

Posted by: Acadian Aug 23 2014, 11:34 PM

What a great shot. Nice capture of the effect and Seph looks great (still liking her armor/tabard alot).

I agree that in BG, turning undead was not that necessary - but it was fun! And only clerics really had the juice to do it at higher levels. Happily, BG II provided paladin kits - my fave was the inquisitor - he was focused on the biggest threat in the game - enemy mages. With four spells, you can bust up any shields or mischief that an enemy mage can throw at you - and the inquisitor could cast two of them (true sight and dispel magic) as special powers. For those awesome powers, he had forsaken turning undead and laying on of hands.

Posted by: mirocu Aug 24 2014, 03:46 PM

QUOTE(SubRosa @ Aug 24 2014, 12:11 AM) *

http://i.imgur.com/TWzeHES.jpg

Sweet pixie! biggrin.gif

By golly (sorry for stealing your catchphrase, Acadian), if I only had more time IŽd get this game!

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 24 2014, 04:29 PM

QUOTE(mirocu @ Aug 24 2014, 10:46 AM) *

QUOTE(SubRosa @ Aug 24 2014, 12:11 AM) *

http://i.imgur.com/TWzeHES.jpg

Sweet pixie! biggrin.gif

By golly (sorry for stealing your catchphrase, Acadian), if I only had more time IŽd get this game!

But then you would have to create a new character! laugh.gif

Or perhaps Lothran could make the journey to the Sword Coast?

Posted by: mirocu Aug 24 2014, 05:10 PM

QUOTE(SubRosa @ Aug 24 2014, 05:29 PM) *

QUOTE(mirocu @ Aug 24 2014, 10:46 AM) *

QUOTE(SubRosa @ Aug 24 2014, 12:11 AM) *

http://i.imgur.com/TWzeHES.jpg

Sweet pixie! biggrin.gif

By golly (sorry for stealing your catchphrase, Acadian), if I only had more time IŽd get this game!

But then you would have to create a new character! laugh.gif

Or perhaps Lothran could make the journey to the Sword Coast?

It would be a new game entirely and then creating one is ok biggrin.gif

Maybe Lothran would make an appearance there. I think heŽd fit in quite nicely happy.gif

Posted by: Lopov Aug 24 2014, 10:05 PM

That's indeed one great shot of Turning Undead. Which reminds me when I played BG for the 1st time, my English wasn't good back then, I was 12 or 13 years old, and I thought that Turning Undead means that they'll literally turn around. laugh.gif That's why I never used it because what's the point if they'd just "turn around".

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 24 2014, 11:01 PM

Some pics of today's gaming:

http://i.imgur.com/k8TTU2M.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Ewm9BuK.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/7kNkGSD.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/DdopcKZ.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/7oCqiHD.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/tTN3LQv.jpg

Posted by: mirocu Aug 25 2014, 04:18 PM

Yet another series of amazing pics! biggrin.gif

I really like all the colours smile.gif

Posted by: Acadian Aug 25 2014, 10:45 PM

In addition to my comments on your other thread, whut he sed:

QUOTE(mirocu @ Aug 25 2014, 08:18 AM) *

Yet another series of amazing pics! biggrin.gif

I really like all the colours smile.gif


tongue.gif

Posted by: Lopov Aug 26 2014, 03:14 PM

The Dire Wolf shot is my favorite, it has some special energy and the wolf just looks stunning.

Posted by: Pseron Wyrd Sep 15 2014, 12:04 PM

I was just released from the hospital after suffering from a seizure brought on by SubRosa's flagrant and excessive vocabulary abuse. But my heart condition has stabilized now. I just need to avoid reading dumb words on the internet, my doctor tells me. He tells me that reading gaming forums on a daily basis shortens a person's lifespan by five to ten years. He has the People Magazine article to prove it, too. "The hell with that," I tell him, "I've got the constitution of an ox. My Grandfather read five gaming forums a day and he lived to be almost thirty."

Well, anyway, cerebral hypoperfusion prevented me from properly replying last time. Neverwinter Nights 1 holds a special place in my affections. It's the game that showed me what roleplaying was all about.

After I beat the game with my first toon after I finished the game with my first character I made a second character, a peasant girl who idolized Aribeth. She became a Paladin and wielded a Bastard Sword because that's what her idol did. She even saved up to buy a ring that once belonged to Aribeth. That was my first-ever roleplaying character.

I'm not fond of NWN2 though. Obsidian forces a primitive "good" or "evil" choice on us before they'll allow us into Blacklake. Alas, because I roleplay with a modicum of sophistication almost none of my characters fit into Obsidian's rigidly Manichean worldview. Most of my characters won't work for The Man but they don't want to involve themselves in extortion either. So that's the end of that. I've tried to play the game twice and I am forced to stop at exactly the same point in the story both times. I've never gotten out of Act I.

I am not a fan of Obsidian.

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 15 2014, 02:32 PM

Glad to hear your brain is feeling a little better. I think the best medicine is more exposure. It is like what George Carlin says about people using antibacterial this and that. By never exposing ourselves to bacteria, our bodies have lost our natural resistance to them, so we just get even sicker when that 1% of germs gets through our soap. When I was a kid, we never worried about washing our hands or swimming in the lake. And I turned out just fine! *cough, cough, cough...*

I am still slogging through NWN2. But I find I liked NWN1 better as well, though for different reasons. I don't mind the choice to become a lawman or a criminal so much, especially as I am playing a paladin. But it would be nice to have a third, less polarized choice.

What bothers me most about NWN2 is the way companions are forced upon you. In the first game they would just hang around inside one of the main buildings, and you could go over and talk to them at your leisure. You could recruit whoever you liked, and ignore anyone you didn't. But in NWN2 the game forces every companion into your party, and you literally cannot get rid of them until you have gone through the next part of the game.

It really rankled me with Bishop, who I cannot stand. He isn't Chaotic Evil, he's Chaotic Annoying. I literally used a cheat code to remove him from the game. That came back at me later though, as I got stuck at a point where there was a cutscene with him, and since he wasn't there anymore, it wouldn't start, and I couldn't continue. So I had to cheat code him back into the game. The really pathetic thing is that he didn't contribute anything at all to the plot. So why the F did you force him on me Obsidian?

Posted by: Pseron Wyrd Sep 16 2014, 10:42 AM

Another person who likes George Carlin. You are a winner!

I was on an Obsidian rampage yesterday. I wrote a post on the official forums suggesting that Obsidian was over-rated. My email notifications tell me that I got four replies within the next hour. That must be some kind of personal best for me. Pissing off four people in one hour is no small achievement. I haven't had the nerve to read them. I imagine they're full of slander against my ancestry, references to my personal grooming habits and sly insinuations about my sexual orientation.

Despite my catty attitude, I actually think Obsidian is a good developer. I really do think they do quality work. It's just that their game design philosophy is not one that I am comfortable with. They seem to be all about control. It seems to me that they specialize in controlling the player's experience. I like freedom. I like to go off in my own directions. I just don't think I'll ever feel completely comfortable with an Obsidian game, as good as they are.

Well, shoot. This thread is making me want to re-install Neverwinter Night 1 now. Thanks a lot, Subbie. I need this like I need another cerebral hypoperfusion. I have, like, six or seven games I've bought off of Steam that I haven't gotten around to playing yet. *...facpalm...*

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 16 2014, 04:50 PM

I have noticed the same thing about Obsidian. It was really glaring in FONV, where they took an open world franchise, and tried to make it as absolutely linear as possible by either blocking areas off with collision boxes (invisible force fields that prevent you from moving through them - if you open up the GECK you will see them all over the place), or by filling them up with super powered monsters that your starting character cannot survive. So no one starts an FONV game and heads straight to Vegas. They always go south along the highway to Primm. To do otherwise is simply suicide.

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 20 2014, 07:28 PM

Talking about Neverwinter Nights 1 has prompted me to roll a new NWN1 toon to grind up and beat the game with. http://i.imgur.com/wbXzhdq.jpg is a Sorcerer, my first mage character in one of old D&D computer games (The NWNs, BGs, IDs, and so on). Here sidekicks are Morrigan, a Faerie Dragon (I love the sparkles she leaves in her wake), and some dude from the tutorial who is a temporary companion.

Posted by: Lopov Sep 20 2014, 07:30 PM

Mhm, she's pretty but is she vanilla or somehow modded? I'm asking because her armor is quite revealing, in a positive way of course.

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 20 2014, 07:33 PM

She is vanilla, mostly. The outfit is a vanilla one. I am using a mod that allows you to change the appearance of different parts of your attire, swapping out meshes and textures. But you can only pick from the things in the vanilla game. She was originally wearing a long yellow gown, which I swapped parts around to make the pantsuit thing, which seems much more practical for adventuring in.

Posted by: Acadian Sep 20 2014, 11:12 PM

Nice to see you taking a mage approach to NWN. That screen (for some reason) looks rather Morrowindesque to me. Partly the characters and partly Velada's outfit perhaps. Or I'm just crazy. tongue.gif

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 20 2014, 11:48 PM

I know what you mean, because I was thinking it too. It is the heads I think. Like in Morrowind, in NWN1 you pick from a number of heads to use, instead of being able to change the eyes, brows, noses, etc... Since the games are from the same era, they have about the same (lack of) polygons. So they look pretty much alike.

Posted by: SubRosa Mar 31 2015, 02:39 PM

I am giving Neverwinter Nights 2 another try. Hopefully I can play the main campaign all the way through this time. I was inspired to port Persephone over to play, and had to do a lot of tinkering.

Importing a custom portrait was easy. It just has to be in a .tga format, at 128 x 128 pixels. You put it in your Neverwinter Nights 2\Portraits folder (not the Override folder). Then in the game open up your character sheet and double click on the picture, and it will let you change it.

I gave her a lot of feats that mimic the powers that undead have in this game: immunity to poison, fear, paralysis, and so on. That was a long list, but worked out fine. Persephone is mostly a fighting type, but she also uses some magic, most notably summoning Darryl. I originally tried going the Fighter/Sorcerer route with her. But she would have to take Sorcerer up to level 8 before she could learn the Animate Dead spell. That was way more than I wanted to put into a magic class. The Wizard was no better. Then I gave dual-classing as a Cleric a try. It turns out that by taking the Undeath Domain, Persephone was able to gain Animate Dead as a feat at 2nd level. And by taking the Death Domain, she got a Shadow she could summon at 1st level.

So now she is a 1st Level Fighter/2nd Level Cleric. I will probably be putting most of her levels into Fighter from here on out. Though I might still take a few Cleric ones to improve her summoning later on. She is my first Fighter character, and wow, even at first level in that class she is awesome. Power Attack + Cleave = a swath of dead monsters behind her.

http://i.imgur.com/vVIEZkF.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/thzrI8P.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/usOwOKw.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/VOQLMZY.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/k7edIu2.jpg

Posted by: Acadian Mar 31 2015, 08:15 PM

I loved seeing some shots from NWN2 as I have only played BG1, BG2 and Icewind Dale from the D&D stuff. It sure looks like NWN2 took a huge leap in terms of graphics and such! No more tiny figures on tiny green circles. Persephone (and big sword and Darryl) made the transition nicely! The last shot looks a bit Morrowindesque – just missing mushroom houses.

I'm looking forward to seeing Persephone adventures in this new land!


Posted by: mALX Apr 12 2015, 04:08 AM

QUOTE(SubRosa @ Sep 16 2014, 11:50 AM) *

I have noticed the same thing about Obsidian. It was really glaring in FONV, where they took an open world franchise, and tried to make it as absolutely linear as possible by either blocking areas off with collision boxes (invisible force fields that prevent you from moving through them - if you open up the GECK you will see them all over the place), or by filling them up with super powered monsters that your starting character cannot survive. So no one starts an FONV game and heads straight to Vegas. They always go south along the highway to Primm. To do otherwise is simply suicide.



I learned this the hard way, got stuck with all my saves in a giant radscorpion nesting ground on my virgin exodus from Goodsprings heading north from the cemetary (on the 360, so couldn't console a safe exit). Finally ended up starting a new game, lol.





@ SubRosa - these shots are amazing, I never realized how good this game actually looked!

Posted by: mirocu Apr 16 2015, 11:24 AM

Judging from RosaŽs pixies, Neverwinter seems just like my kind of game! If I only had energy and devotion to delve into a new franchise that is...

QUOTE(SubRosa @ Sep 16 2014, 05:50 PM) *

I have noticed the same thing about Obsidian. It was really glaring in FONV, where they took an open world franchise, and tried to make it as absolutely linear as possible by either blocking areas off with collision boxes (invisible force fields that prevent you from moving through them - if you open up the GECK you will see them all over the place), or by filling them up with super powered monsters that your starting character cannot survive. So no one starts an FONV game and heads straight to Vegas. They always go south along the highway to Primm. To do otherwise is simply suicide.

Sweet Jeebus! blink.gif blink.gif

What does your brain look like if you take an open world game where the player has basically total freedom to do whatever, and make it more linear than Super Mario Bros?? wacko.gif

Posted by: SubRosa Apr 16 2015, 05:01 PM

All of Obsidian's games are basically that way. The truth is, I think most gamers are lost with an open world, because they don't know how to 'beat' the game. So developers like Obsidian and Bioware always make it clear where you have to go and what you have to do next.

I gave up on Neverwinter Nights 2 yesterday, after finishing Act 2 of the main campaign. I don't want to get too spoilery, but at that point you lose one of your companions, and they are replaced by another. It was a very poor trade, IMHO, and just ticked me off. I don't think I will ever give it another go. Where Neverwinter Nights 1 has much poorer graphics, and uses the older D&D 3.0 ruleset vs the 3.5 rules in NWN2, it is a much better game. It is less linear, not at all pushy with companions, and doesn't force a pre-set background upon your character.

Posted by: SubRosa Apr 24 2015, 09:37 PM

I am having a lot of fun playing Persephone in Neverwinter Nights 1. I had to do a little modding magic to get Darryl into the game. I did dual class Persephone as a Fighter/Cleric to get some magic. But she has still needs another level before she can get the Animate Dead spell. Instead I found an Animate Dead feat that one of the prestige classes gets, and I used the character editor to give it to Persephone. She has teamed up with Sharwyn, an npc bard who can handle those pesky tasks like picking locks, so she has not called on Darryl much lately. But I am starting to think of discarding Sharwyn and just using the editor to up Persephone's open lock skills.


http://i.imgur.com/gSaCMYa.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/TMbyLEZ.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ENdhT2R.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Q9OSdt1.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/1s0mX4n.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/fC4hdm5.jpg

Posted by: Acadian Apr 24 2015, 09:58 PM

Neat! I was very thankful for a character editor when playing BG II. It is ever so helpful to modify classes of NPCs that have good personalities into skills/attributes that you need them to have. And combining stuff into your own character is very helpful as well.

Like Persephone, Buffy was a hybrid in BG II. Ranger (archer) with find/disarm traps, unlocking (from the thief class) and a summon critter spell from the druid side of things. In return, she ignored melee and armor.

Thanks, as ever, for sharing some screens from your game. I’m so glad you’re, once again, enjoying NWN I. There are some creepy looking foes there! Sharwyn looks like a good helper, but no one can compare to Darryl and I’m sure Persephone misses him. Although I love the dire wolf helper, It seems most of D&D is sort of designed around a 6-member team – is that the case with NWN?

Posted by: SubRosa Apr 24 2015, 10:25 PM

I was thinking of creating Teresa of the Faint Smile rather than Persephone for this time round in NWN1. I would have gone the same route you took Buffy in BG2 - Ranger with either some dual-classed rogue or druid levels. Or straight Ranger with lockpicking/trapfinding skill points and some animal summoning done via the console or character editor.

The NWN games are actually much smaller party-based games than the BGs. NWN1 allows you to have 1 companion maximum. Of course you can summon one critter as well, and your companion might be able to summon a critter as well. Plus there are Familiars, which do not count toward your one summoned critter limit. So a spellcaster might have a Familiar and summon a bear. Your companion might also summon a wolf. And you would end up with a party of five.

NWN2 allows you to have up to three companions for most of the game. During one part of the game an npc named Shandra joins your group, and you cannot dismiss her. But she does not count toward your 3 companion limit either. So for that period you have four companions. Plus familiars and summonings of course. Because of summonings and Shandra, I often had six or seven in the party in NWN2.

In other news, I did download Baldur's Gate Reloaded for Neverwinter Nights 1 and got it working. Once I beat NWN1 with my toon, I might create Teresa of the Faint Smile for that.

Posted by: Acadian Apr 24 2015, 10:39 PM

Thanks for the info. I think I'd prefer the smaller party where each character does several of the 'required' party skill things instead of so many single purpose characters in the party.

Gosh it would be wonderful to see Teresa again - in any game you bring her to! happy.gif

Posted by: mALX Apr 25 2015, 01:47 AM



Oh, that eyeball is ... urk. Freaky.

OMG, Teresa? YES!!!!! And Aela if she has a companion!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT !!!!


These screens really remind me a lot of Morrowind, especially that green Golem, lol. All awesome shots!



Posted by: SubRosa Apr 29 2015, 06:39 PM

http://i.imgur.com/ZhXza6G.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/tuK3omX.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/CQ3MafI.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/hqbo9SX.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/zMMXh6g.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/pNWkLE0.jpg

Posted by: Acadian Apr 29 2015, 09:49 PM

Wow, those are some colorful goblins! bluewizardsmile.gif redwizardsmile.gif greenwizardsmile.gif yellowwizardsmile.gif purplewizardsmile.gif whitewizardsmile.gif blackwizardsmile.gif

Really looks like Persephone is calling down power from the heavens to smite those undead. Big book indeed! That demon is one big scary lookin’ dude! Whew, at least the lich is not giant like that book and demon.



Posted by: mALX Apr 30 2015, 05:50 AM

QUOTE(SubRosa @ Apr 29 2015, 01:39 PM) *

http://i.imgur.com/ZhXza6G.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/tuK3omX.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/CQ3MafI.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/hqbo9SX.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/zMMXh6g.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/pNWkLE0.jpg



Oh, I do like the look of those goblins! I think a Player should be able to see them coming before they attack, which always makes me happy, lol.

Very much like the look of the lich too, is Persephone talking to him or is this about to turn into a fight?

The giant book is AWESOME! Love that screen!

The "Demon" one reminded me of a few enemy battles I saw last night watching the ESO vids - they have some big boss fights for each region kind of like some of the old Mario games had - and they are BIG bosses, like that Demon is. Really oversized compared to the player, and with a lot of hit points.

Kind of made me wonder if they were overpowered because they are supposed to have groups of 20 attacking at once (because in the vid they were very hard to kill even with many hits) or if they tone it down some for single player mode so it will be more like doing the Gatekeeper at Shivering Isles.


Awesome Shots !!!

Posted by: SubRosa May 2 2015, 02:55 AM

http://i.imgur.com/ihLK5GX.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/5V4TKSW.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/RGbX7a0.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/K6M4qwH.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/OhQxIK4.jpg

Posted by: Acadian May 2 2015, 03:14 AM

Goodness, it’s a zombie invasion! ohmy.gif

I had such a laugh over the wererats – er, werecats. tongue.gif

Bone golems – ugh, I remember those from BG II.

Persephone found a dwemer centurian! wink.gif

And a dragon!

I’m so glad that you and Persephone and Darryl are having fun in NWN I! smile.gif

Posted by: mALX May 2 2015, 02:17 PM

QUOTE(SubRosa @ May 1 2015, 09:55 PM) *

http://i.imgur.com/ihLK5GX.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/5V4TKSW.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/RGbX7a0.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/K6M4qwH.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/OhQxIK4.jpg




I keep being surprised by the extreme detail in the textures of this world; they are amazing - but the characters don't seem as high resolution in comparison.

These monsters are huge! I guess you really need a group to fight them. I saw some similar oversized beasts in the vids of ESO and wondered if they will be too hard for a solo player to kill, or even just a party of three, lol.

Well, I have to say my favorite of these is Godzilla, dear gods is Persephone alone against him?

Awesome shots!



Posted by: Rohirrim Sep 4 2015, 12:38 AM

http://dnd.wizards.com/products/digital-games/pc/sword-coast-legends

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 4 2015, 01:31 AM

That looks really cool! I was thinking it reminded me of Dragon Age: Origins. Then I saw it says it was made by the leadership team that made DA:O. I wonder who that really is? I looked it up, and it is Dan Tudge. Apparently he was also the Director of DA:O.

It requires Steam though. sad.gif

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOiZGWeGxVI. It looks good.The Mordekin's Sword spell was really neat. I also noted that the party necromancer was spamming what looked like magic missiles. That is not something I am used to seeing in any D&D based game, as usually in them Wizards get their two spells to cast a day and then spend the rest of the time jabbing things with pointy objects. So that is good to see.

The Ogre Zombie near the end is cool.

I liked the voice actor who does the Dwarven Rogue. But the necromancer's voice actor just sounds silly.

I noticed that the character casting the heals also used a bow. Was that a cleric? Are they allowed to use non-blunt weapons now?

Posted by: Rohirrim Sep 4 2015, 01:46 AM

QUOTE(SubRosa @ Sep 3 2015, 08:31 PM) *

That looks really cool! I was thinking it reminded me of Dragon Age: Origins. Then I saw it says it was made by the leadership team that made DA:O. I wonder who that really is? I looked it up, and it is Dan Tudge. Whoever that is. Apparently he was also the Director of DA:O.

It requires Steam though. sad.gif

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOiZGWeGxVI. The Mordekin's Sword spell looked really neat. I also noted that the party necromancer was spamming what looked like magic missiles. That is not something I am used to seeing in any D&D based game, as usually in them Wizards get their two spells to cast a day and then spend the rest of the time throwing jabbing things with pointy objects. So that is good to see.

Now they get some infini-cast low-level spells called cantrips, and gain more spell slots based on level for more powerful spells.

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 12 2019, 11:57 PM

I downloaded the Enhanced Edition of Neverwinter Nights 1 a while ago. I decided to finally give it a whirl. It comes with up to 1920 x 1080 resolution at 144 mhz. It is nice and sharp, but it makes everything really small. So far as I can tell, all the mods from the old version of the game work fine with it. At least all of those I have tried. So that is good. Likewise, saves from the original game seem to work fine with it as well.


https://i.imgur.com/iEJ9LPC.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/8X046tt.jpg

January is a monk, and I plan to multiclass her as a cleric or perhaps a sorcerer. I might try both, and see how they work out.

Posted by: Acadian Jun 13 2019, 12:04 AM

Very cool! smile.gif

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 13 2019, 12:35 AM

Just out of curiosity, I loaded up the Diamond Edition of NWN1 that I bought from Gog as well, and compared it to the Enhanced Edition. There are almost no differences. The EE has a few more visual effects. However, I also found a bug in on of those. Anti-Aliasing on the EE causes the screen to look blurry. So I had to turn it off. However, the regular edition has up to x4 Anti-Aliasing, and it looks just fine. It also has the same screen resolutions, even up to 144 mhz.

I think the real changes to the EE were in getting the multiplayer to work again, which I do not care about. I think I am going to uninstall it, and go back to playing the regular edition.

Unfortunately, while saves from the regular game will work on the EE, the reverse is not true. My saves from the EE do not work on the old version. So I will have to start over. I never even finished the tutorial, so no big loss there however.

I also kind of wonder if I start as a Sorcerer, take a raven familiar, and then use the console to change my class, will I still have the familiar?

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 14 2019, 01:28 AM

I went back to the Enhanced Edition after all. It has a high resolution font that is easier to read in 1920 x 1080 than the similar font in the original game version.

I also found that if I started as a Sorcerer and then changed classes, the familiar remained. However, with a new class there is no way to ever summon the familiar again. So once it gets killed or unsummoned, it is gone forever. So that is not an option.

I played January a bit, and she leveled up her second time as a Sorcerer. She took a Raven familiar whom I named Nevermore. It was that or Croaker, or Edgar Allan. I like the familiar/sidekick. But I found I am not really using the Sorcerer spells.

I took Mage Armor, but it does not look like I need it. I also took a Grease spell, but it does not seem really ideal given that January is a melee fighter herself. I also took an Identify, and will probably find a use for that in the future. She picked up a crossbow in the tutorial, and that gives her a 1d8 ranged attack to start every fight out with before closing to melee. So she really does not need any 1st level attack spells.

I am not sure if I will keep the Sorcerer level or not. I can remove it with a cheat code to remove experience, resetting my level down to 1st. Then I can do another code to add the XP back, and level up again. I like the Raven. I just am not sure about the spells. I guess I just have to decide if the Raven is worth the level. It probably is. I can use the Leto save game editor to beef up its stats, so it can stand up to a fight. It should be worth it then, as it will give me a fighting companion. Then I would not have to take any of the regular companions in the game.

Posted by: RaderOfTheLostArk Jun 14 2019, 04:04 AM

Well, SubRosa, I also have just now fired up Neverwinter Nights (got it when it was free sometime this past year). Yet this is my first time ever playing it. By Ysmir's Beard, the tutorial is LONG. Had to stop for the night but I'll try to play some more tomorrow.

I'm not well-versed in how D&D works, at least the in-depth stuff. I know enough to get by in a video game where it tells me something I don't know, but I would be awful if I ever played pen-and-paper. Even in a video game, however, there are some terms that I am expected to understand but I don't. I have pretty much no idea what "thac0" or "saving throws" mean. (The first is something to do with armor and the second is evading damage from an attack, I guess?). But I more-or-less understand things like the classes, at least.

Anyway, here is what I remember creating for my character at the beginning.

Name: Eliza Maddox
Physical Characteristics: Female, red hair down to the shoulders
Class: Paladin (default package)
Deity: Keanu Reeves (I tried to take it seriously, but I couldn't think of anything that would work. I thought about pulling from TES, but I decided I didn't want to take from another video game. So I just picked the One/Ted/Johnny Silverhand.)

I picked a Paladin since I thought it would be a good blend of magic and melee. There sure seems to be a lot to learn, but I'm looking forward to seeing how this goes.

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 14 2019, 09:47 PM

Welcome to Neverwinter and the frozen North Rad!

Thac0 is short for To Hit Armor Class Zero. It was a simplified way to figuring out what you need to hit. In the original D&D rules they had a big chart of what you needed to hit each armor class. The later streamlined it down to just the one Thaco stat.

In the early D&D versions the lower your Armor Class the better, with it often going into negative numbers. -10 being the best, +10 the worst. They changed that around with the 2nd edition, where the introduced the Thaco idea, and a higher armor class was better. Since then your base Armor Class is 10, and from that you add bonuses for armor, shields, dexterity, and so forth.

I don't think Neverwinter Nights uses Thaco though. I think that went out after the D&D 3.0 version rules came out. Now you just have an attack bonus. You roll to hit, add your bonus, and if it is equals or exceeds your target's Armor Class you hit.

Saving Throws are used to resist attacks or otherwise harmful effects. If a monster poisons you, you get a saving throw. If you succeed you might take no damage, or only half damage. If you fail you take full damage. So the better your bonus to saving throws, the better.

Paladins are a strong class. You are immune to fear and disease. You can heal. You can turn undead. There is a lot to like. I enjoyed playing one in NWN2.

Posted by: RaderOfTheLostArk Jun 15 2019, 04:25 AM

QUOTE(SubRosa @ Jun 14 2019, 04:47 PM) *

Welcome to Neverwinter and the frozen North Rad!

Thac0 is short for To Hit Armor Class Zero. It was a simplified way to figuring out what you need to hit. In the original D&D rules they had a big chart of what you needed to hit each armor class. The later streamlined it down to just the one Thaco stat.

In the early D&D versions the lower your Armor Class the better, with it often going into negative numbers. -10 being the best, +10 the worst. They changed that around with the 2nd edition, where the introduced the Thaco idea, and a higher armor class was better. Since then your base Armor Class is 10, and from that you add bonuses for armor, shields, dexterity, and so forth.

I don't think Neverwinter Nights uses Thaco though. I think that went out after the D&D 3.0 version rules came out. Now you just have an attack bonus. You roll to hit, add your bonus, and if it is equals or exceeds your target's Armor Class you hit.

Saving Throws are used to resist attacks or otherwise harmful effects. If a monster poisons you, you get a saving throw. If you succeed you might take no damage, or only half damage. If you fail you take full damage. So the better your bonus to saving throws, the better.

Paladins are a strong class. You are immune to fear and disease. You can heal. You can turn undead. There is a lot to like. I enjoyed playing one in NWN2.


Thanks! And huh, Rad is a good nickname for my username. Never thought of that one before.

RE Thac0: Oooooohhh, so that's why it is a "0" instead of a "o." I remember that TESI: Arena had negative numbers mean better armor. Always struck me as rather odd. Thac0 isn't in NWN; I just brought it up because it was related to how much I didn't know about older D&D stuff.

RE Saving Throws: So I was more-or-less right. I think the "throws" part just puzzled me a bit.

Yeah, I've tried to branch out more with different playstyles in RPGs. I've usually played Warriors first and foremost, but I have tried to incorporate some more variety. A Paladin seemed like a nice balance of melee and magic with relatively little restrictions to have to think about. Fortunately, the character creator gave me the option to take where they recommend you put your points into. I don't think I am experienced enough to make an informed decision on where I put those points, and certainly not enough to purposely gimp myself and still make it through.

I'll try to get some screenshots later. Not sure how to do that in GOG at the moment. Any tips on that?

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 15 2019, 04:35 PM

QUOTE(RaderOfTheLostArk @ Jun 14 2019, 11:25 PM) *

QUOTE(SubRosa @ Jun 14 2019, 04:47 PM) *

Welcome to Neverwinter and the frozen North Rad!

Thac0 is short for To Hit Armor Class Zero. It was a simplified way to figuring out what you need to hit. In the original D&D rules they had a big chart of what you needed to hit each armor class. The later streamlined it down to just the one Thaco stat.

In the early D&D versions the lower your Armor Class the better, with it often going into negative numbers. -10 being the best, +10 the worst. They changed that around with the 2nd edition, where the introduced the Thaco idea, and a higher armor class was better. Since then your base Armor Class is 10, and from that you add bonuses for armor, shields, dexterity, and so forth.

I don't think Neverwinter Nights uses Thaco though. I think that went out after the D&D 3.0 version rules came out. Now you just have an attack bonus. You roll to hit, add your bonus, and if it is equals or exceeds your target's Armor Class you hit.

Saving Throws are used to resist attacks or otherwise harmful effects. If a monster poisons you, you get a saving throw. If you succeed you might take no damage, or only half damage. If you fail you take full damage. So the better your bonus to saving throws, the better.

Paladins are a strong class. You are immune to fear and disease. You can heal. You can turn undead. There is a lot to like. I enjoyed playing one in NWN2.


Thanks! And huh, Rad is a good nickname for my username. Never thought of that one before.

RE Thac0: Oooooohhh, so that's why it is a "0" instead of a "o." I remember that TESI: Arena had negative numbers mean better armor. Always struck me as rather odd. Thac0 isn't in NWN; I just brought it up because it was related to how much I didn't know about older D&D stuff.

RE Saving Throws: So I was more-or-less right. I think the "throws" part just puzzled me a bit.

Yeah, I've tried to branch out more with different playstyles in RPGs. I've usually played Warriors first and foremost, but I have tried to incorporate some more variety. A Paladin seemed like a nice balance of melee and magic with relatively little restrictions to have to think about. Fortunately, the character creator gave me the option to take where they recommend you put your points into. I don't think I am experienced enough to make an informed decision on where I put those points, and certainly not enough to purposely gimp myself and still make it through.

I'll try to get some screenshots later. Not sure how to do that in GOG at the moment. Any tips on that?

Thac0 always makes me think of Thak, a monster ape from one of the original Robert E Howard Conan stories. https://conan.fandom.com/wiki/Thak

I use Fraps to take screenshots, and host them on Imgur.


http://www.gamebanshee.com/neverwinternights/nwnwalkthrough.php

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/188666-neverwinter-nights/faqs

https://nwn.fandom.com/wiki/Main_Page

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 17 2019, 12:28 AM

After briefly flirting with first multiclassing as a Sorcerer and then as a Cleric, I reset January back to 0 xp and went with a straight Monk. I mostly liked the Sorcerer for the raven familiar. But the problem is that while I could buff up its hit points with the save game editor (so it could survive fights in the later game), it would rest back to its defaults every time it was summoned. Editing it every time was too much work.

The Cleric was similar. Like the Sorcerer, it gives you a summon animal spell. But even in the early game it was dying whenever faced with a tough opponent. Unless I was going to commit to the class, it was not going to be really useful.

I even tried using the console to give her some of the Pale Master feats for summoning undead, and took one level in Pale Master (otherwise you cannot use them). But they just did not look right for her. I thought about it because necromancy runs in January's family, pretty deeply in fact.

So I am just going it as a straight Monk. Sadly Monks cannot use scrolls. I am going to see if I can figure out how to mod that so they can. It would be nice if she could use some Summon Creature scrolls to give her some backup in big fights. Or I will probably have to recruit a companion after all.


https://i.imgur.com/qEQuKM8.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/LFoHSZ6.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Kxopskc.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/pGuhKOA.jpg

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 17 2019, 05:40 PM

Rader, one thing I am remembering about NWN is that potions are definitely your friend in this game. I keep the bottom row of the first tab in my inventory filled with potions, sorted by type for easy access. Healing of varying types on the right of course. Other good potions to stock up on are:

Barkskin = armor class bonus
Aid & Bless = nice bonuses for a fight
Clarity = makes you immune from mind effecting spells like Fear or Charm (a necessity in certain dungeons!)
Antidote = removes poison effects
Lore = Gives you a bonus to your lore skill, for identifying magic items
Bull's Strength, Eagle's Splendor, Owl's Wisdom, Cat's Grace, etc... = each gives a bonus to a particular stat. Pick the ones best for your class
Haste = Double your actions. Save these for big boss battles.
Lesser, Normal, and Greater Restoration = gets rid of all sorts of magical penalties. I am not sure if these come in potions, but they do come in scrolls that all classes can use.

You can even have a companion drink a potion in your inventory. I forget exactly how. I think you can drag and drop the potion from your inventory onto their picture in the UI.

Posted by: Acadian Jun 17 2019, 09:48 PM

Welcome to NWN, January! I remember the monk form BGII being a pretty good class. Looks like you and she are having fun! smile.gif

As ever, thanks for all the wonderful info on your games. This is certainly a great resource for anyone interested in NWN.

Posted by: TheCheshireKhajiit Jun 17 2019, 10:42 PM

@Subbie-
Is January a monk?

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 17 2019, 11:11 PM

QUOTE(TheCheshireKhajiit @ Jun 17 2019, 05:42 PM) *

@Subbie-
Is January a monk?

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

Posted by: TheCheshireKhajiit Jun 17 2019, 11:22 PM

QUOTE(SubRosa @ Jun 17 2019, 05:11 PM) *

QUOTE(TheCheshireKhajiit @ Jun 17 2019, 05:42 PM) *

@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)!

Posted by: RaderOfTheLostArk Jun 17 2019, 11:25 PM

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.

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 18 2019, 12:16 AM

QUOTE(TheCheshireKhajiit @ Jun 17 2019, 06:22 PM) *

QUOTE(SubRosa @ Jun 17 2019, 05:11 PM) *

QUOTE(TheCheshireKhajiit @ Jun 17 2019, 05:42 PM) *

@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.


QUOTE(RaderOfTheLostArk @ Jun 17 2019, 06:25 PM) *

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! laugh.gif 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.

Posted by: TheCheshireKhajiit Jun 18 2019, 02:23 AM

QUOTE(SubRosa @ Jun 17 2019, 06:16 PM) *

QUOTE(TheCheshireKhajiit @ Jun 17 2019, 06:22 PM) *

QUOTE(SubRosa @ Jun 17 2019, 05:11 PM) *

QUOTE(TheCheshireKhajiit @ Jun 17 2019, 05:42 PM) *

@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.

https://imgur.com/a/Xc32xfv

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 18 2019, 02:28 AM

QUOTE(TheCheshireKhajiit @ Jun 17 2019, 09:23 PM) *

QUOTE(SubRosa @ Jun 17 2019, 06:16 PM) *

QUOTE(TheCheshireKhajiit @ Jun 17 2019, 06:22 PM) *

QUOTE(SubRosa @ Jun 17 2019, 05:11 PM) *

QUOTE(TheCheshireKhajiit @ Jun 17 2019, 05:42 PM) *

@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.

https://imgur.com/a/Xc32xfv

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

Posted by: RaderOfTheLostArk Jun 18 2019, 03:34 AM

QUOTE(TheCheshireKhajiit @ Jun 17 2019, 09:23 PM) *

QUOTE(SubRosa @ Jun 17 2019, 06:16 PM) *

QUOTE(TheCheshireKhajiit @ Jun 17 2019, 06:22 PM) *

QUOTE(SubRosa @ Jun 17 2019, 05:11 PM) *

QUOTE(TheCheshireKhajiit @ Jun 17 2019, 05:42 PM) *

@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.

https://imgur.com/a/Xc32xfv


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

Posted by: TheCheshireKhajiit Jun 18 2019, 04:18 AM

QUOTE(SubRosa @ Jun 17 2019, 08:28 PM) *

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

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.

Posted by: RaderOfTheLostArk Jun 24 2019, 04:19 AM

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.

Posted by: RaderOfTheLostArk Jun 29 2019, 02:34 AM

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.

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 29 2019, 04:31 PM

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.

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 29 2019, 11:49 PM

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.

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 30 2019, 01:52 AM

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.

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 30 2019, 06:56 PM

https://i.imgur.com/PNIposW.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/GTuW11I.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/tTTJlop.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Uk0y7Jr.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/YExvcHO.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/hST7yxJ.jpg

Posted by: RaderOfTheLostArk Jul 1 2019, 01:15 AM

QUOTE(SubRosa @ Jun 29 2019, 06:49 PM) *

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.

QUOTE(SubRosa @ Jun 29 2019, 08:52 PM) *

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.

QUOTE(SubRosa @ Jun 30 2019, 01:56 PM) *

https://i.imgur.com/PNIposW.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/GTuW11I.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/tTTJlop.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Uk0y7Jr.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/YExvcHO.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/hST7yxJ.jpg


Wow, those mods look really good!

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

Ghoul party, dude.

Nice pics!

Posted by: SubRosa Jul 7 2019, 02:27 AM

https://i.imgur.com/KevBdEu.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/2ir0kV6.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/0mgbBTA.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/HUJjdPf.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/S6ObTc7.jpg

Posted by: RaderOfTheLostArk Jul 7 2019, 05:35 AM

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.


QUOTE(SubRosa @ Jul 6 2019, 09:27 PM) *

https://i.imgur.com/KevBdEu.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/2ir0kV6.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/0mgbBTA.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/HUJjdPf.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/S6ObTc7.jpg


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.

Posted by: SubRosa Jul 7 2019, 04:53 PM

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.

https://i.imgur.com/aDyy7c7.jpg 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.

Posted by: RaderOfTheLostArk Jul 8 2019, 12:46 AM

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.

QUOTE(SubRosa @ Jul 7 2019, 11:53 AM) *

*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."

Posted by: SubRosa Jul 15 2019, 09:52 PM

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.


https://i.imgur.com/8R2zNxz.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/TnPYZQh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/VYZXRjY.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/SsTCJCx.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/GJnrO8u.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/ndqZOtV.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/rAAjogS.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/ehiAH5M.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Ja0WLOK.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/spqsarR.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/XPOUAhk.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/5lk0YRC.jpg

Posted by: Acadian Jul 15 2019, 11:01 PM

More fun shots of Jan in action!

Red Scare = “Go for the crotch, Boo!” laugh.gif

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.

Posted by: SubRosa Jul 16 2019, 11:39 PM

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.

Posted by: RaderOfTheLostArk Jul 17 2019, 03:04 AM

QUOTE(SubRosa @ Jul 16 2019, 06:39 PM) *

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.

Posted by: SubRosa Jul 17 2019, 01:15 PM

QUOTE(RaderOfTheLostArk @ Jul 16 2019, 10:04 PM) *

QUOTE(SubRosa @ Jul 16 2019, 06:39 PM) *

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.

I remember Deekin from Neverwinter Nights 2. He is a companion and a merchant, and I liked him in that. I also remember him from when I did SOU with a previous character. I love his horrible singing! smile.gif

I skipped SOU with January, so she might not get as high level Eliza did. I was afraid of getting burned out on the game after the original campaign, which often happens since it is so long. I am glad I stuck it out to finally do HOTU.

Posted by: SubRosa Jul 19 2019, 01:48 AM

https://i.imgur.com/9oKALtx.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/zS0w4KR.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/PgCE1Bu.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/BkufZT4.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/sr9SUIp.jpg



Posted by: RaderOfTheLostArk Jul 19 2019, 02:59 AM

QUOTE(SubRosa @ Jul 17 2019, 08:15 AM) *

I remember Deekin from Neverwinter Nights 2. He is a companion and a merchant, and I liked him in that. I also remember him from when I did SOU with a previous character. I love his horrible singing! smile.gif

I skipped SOU with January, so she might not get as high level Eliza did. I was afraid of getting burned out on the game after the original campaign, which often happens since it is so long. I am glad I stuck it out to finally do HOTU.


Speaking of NWN2, would you recommend that game as well? How similar/different is it to NWN1? I tried searching for some reviews and such, and it seems to be fairly different. (Also, even though it was only a few people on a couple of websites, I was a bit surprised at how much in some forum posts years ago people trashed the original game. Mostly the original campaign.) But I haven't found enough information to really convince me whether or not to buy the game. I do know that Bioware made 1 while Obsidian made 2, which I found a bit odd.

So what are your thoughts on NWN2? And that's good to know Deekin is in there, too.

QUOTE(SubRosa @ Jul 18 2019, 08:48 PM) *

https://i.imgur.com/9oKALtx.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/zS0w4KR.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/PgCE1Bu.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/BkufZT4.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/sr9SUIp.jpg


Something that did really piss me off in HOTU: Death magic. Death magic is total [censored]. Got hit with it in the beholder lair especially. I couldn't understand why I was getting one-shotted until a later boss did the same thing. From what I gather, that is what death armor potions are for and that is their sole purpose. It is such a cheap move, and it was already tough enough sledding as it is. That beholder pic got me thinking about that again.

In case you didn't know--because I couldn't figure it out until I looked it up--when those goblins slime you, those switches that the one goblin is operating apparently hit you especially hard with damage or stat reductions or something like that if he operates the switch that is the same color as the slime. Luckily, the goblins were pushovers.

The Djinn merchant! Such a useful resource.

There was only one time I encountered that hand, and it was a bunch of them in the same room later on in HOTU. Still not entirely sure what they do.

Posted by: Acadian Jul 19 2019, 02:26 PM

What a hoot!

Green Woman (beautiful effect btw) and Purple Man.

Beholder vs Jan. . . methinks they're both lookers. wink.gif

And Mr Hand. tongue.gif

Posted by: SubRosa Jul 19 2019, 03:35 PM

QUOTE(RaderOfTheLostArk @ Jul 18 2019, 09:59 PM) *

QUOTE(SubRosa @ Jul 17 2019, 08:15 AM) *

I remember Deekin from Neverwinter Nights 2. He is a companion and a merchant, and I liked him in that. I also remember him from when I did SOU with a previous character. I love his horrible singing! smile.gif

I skipped SOU with January, so she might not get as high level Eliza did. I was afraid of getting burned out on the game after the original campaign, which often happens since it is so long. I am glad I stuck it out to finally do HOTU.


Speaking of NWN2, would you recommend that game as well? How similar/different is it to NWN1? I tried searching for some reviews and such, and it seems to be fairly different. (Also, even though it was only a few people on a couple of websites, I was a bit surprised at how much in some forum posts years ago people trashed the original game. Mostly the original campaign.) But I haven't found enough information to really convince me whether or not to buy the game. I do know that Bioware made 1 while Obsidian made 2, which I found a bit odd.

So what are your thoughts on NWN2? And that's good to know Deekin is in there, too.

QUOTE(SubRosa @ Jul 18 2019, 08:48 PM) *

https://i.imgur.com/9oKALtx.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/zS0w4KR.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/PgCE1Bu.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/BkufZT4.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/sr9SUIp.jpg


Something that did really piss me off in HOTU: Death magic. Death magic is total [censored]. Got hit with it in the beholder lair especially. I couldn't understand why I was getting one-shotted until a later boss did the same thing. From what I gather, that is what death armor potions are for and that is their sole purpose. It is such a cheap move, and it was already tough enough sledding as it is. That beholder pic got me thinking about that again.

In case you didn't know--because I couldn't figure it out until I looked it up--when those goblins slime you, those switches that the one goblin is operating apparently hit you especially hard with damage or stat reductions or something like that if he operates the switch that is the same color as the slime. Luckily, the goblins were pushovers.

The Djinn merchant! Such a useful resource.

There was only one time I encountered that hand, and it was a bunch of them in the same room later on in HOTU. Still not entirely sure what they do.

The Save vs. Death is an old D&D staple. The Beholder is the most infamous for using it. As you have noticed it has a bunch of eyes. In the classic pen and paper version of D&D each of its eyes shoots out a different magical attack. I believe the big center eye is the Death Ray one, though I could be wrong. I never liked it either, though there are other things about D&D I dislike even more, like the whole spellcasting system.

I eventually figured out the goblin slime. One of the goblins actually said that it made it easier for them to hit me. Though starting with an Armor Class in the 30's it really didn't help them any. January rolled through them like the superhero she is.

The big glowing hand is a classic D&D wizard spell, actually several. There is Bigby's Grasping Hand, Bigby's Crushing Hand, Bigby's Interposing Hand, etc...

The whole Bioware/Obsidian team up was kind of common for a while. After Bioware did KOTOR 1, Obsidian made KOTOR 2. So apparently back in the day the two companies had some kind of deal with Obsidian came behind and did all their sequels.

Neverwinter Nights 2 has a lot to recommend it. It uses the D&D 3.5 rules instead of 3.0 as NWN 1 does. That adds a few small improvements. The graphics are certainly vastly improved in NWN 2. It plays mostly the same, except you have more companions, and more control over the companion AI and inventories.

There were a lot of things I did not like about NWN 2 however. The companions are forced on you by the game's plot (although you can later dismiss them). The landmass to explore is dramatically smaller., and the game is much more linear. Most of all I did not much like the plot of the original campaign, which forced a background on your character. But that is a minor grievance compared to things later in the plot which annoyed me. I have never been able to finish it. Maybe after I do HOTU I will take another crack at it with January.



QUOTE(Acadian @ Jul 19 2019, 09:26 AM) *

What a hoot!

Green Woman (beautiful effect btw) and Purple Man.

Beholder vs Jan. . . methinks they're both lookers. wink.gif

And Mr Hand. tongue.gif

I thought the whole green thing was hilarious. It immediately had me thinking of Ghostbusters and getting slimed.

The Purple Man is actually a djinn, whose bottle you find. He is a merchant you can trade with whenever you call him out of his bottle. I keep forgetting I have him though!

Posted by: SubRosa Jul 21 2019, 11:28 PM

https://i.imgur.com/0yF7Yi4.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/phlLPL2.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/kd03Lrf.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/UzRmiNM.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/fFUJhKP.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/2T3ktvT.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/UAIJcVU.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/oAZ3TER.jpg

Posted by: Acadian Jul 22 2019, 01:22 AM

Wow, what a variety of foes Jan fights in these shots. Dark elves, spider daedra, flesh astronauts and zombies. Best of all was the trio in the library - Wing Gurl, Vulture Dude and Big Red Bonehead. tongue.gif

And all solo it appears!

Posted by: SubRosa Jul 24 2019, 12:10 AM

All solo.

Tonight I finally beat Hordes of the Underdark like a bad stepchild. I have to say, I did not like it much. It started out fine. I did not even mind having my stuff stolen, since there was so much amazing loot just all over the place. But that was the problem. It is what we would have called a Monty Haul in the old days of pen and paper gaming. There are too many uber magic items being showered on the player. In the end it makes them all feel worthless.

I really hated the big battle you are forced to do. Whenever RPGs like NWN or Pillars of Eternity try this, it just falls flat, because they are not made for it. That is what games like the Total War franchise are for. It was just a major pain. The pain got worse later when I had to start shapeshifting to get through dungeons, or putting that stupid puzzle ring on and off an on and off ad nauseum. The longer the game went, the more frustrating it all became. I am so glad to be done with it.

But with that out of the way, I think I will try taking another crack at NWN2. This time with a superhero monk.

https://i.imgur.com/aRxo6wF.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/ZgqNy8r.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/pGGm470.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/XkWTGjo.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/6mSUJxK.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Fx78996.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/dejzVIQ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/mWbTvYj.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/5UmZWMY.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/ofC6ETd.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/hdUXmc5.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/cp65uaR.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/2jMvXG1.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/6a0iL07.jpg

Posted by: Acadian Jul 24 2019, 08:56 PM

Wow, that game is full of interesting encounters/foes. The beholders look pretty scary - the ones in ESO have lots of eyes but no mouth. Grats to January for completing the game!

Posted by: RaderOfTheLostArk Jul 25 2019, 12:14 AM

QUOTE(SubRosa @ Jul 23 2019, 07:10 PM) *

*snip*


Shame that you didn't like it after you started off liking it a lot. But at least you got to go through it this time.

Regarding the powerful weapons, I see where you are coming from. Personally, it didn't bother me too much with how the difficulty kept mostly scaling up. I got my astral blade up to +10 enhancement along with the keen and electrical damage upgrades through Rizolvir's smithing.

I liked the big battle if only for it being something different. There were some things that bothered me about the whole process leading up to it, but I didn't mind the battle itself. That being said, the mechanics weren't the most well-suited for it, like you said.

The puzzle ring was pretty annoying, I'll definitely agree on that. Getting to the Knower of Names was a big chore, even though I understand it is supposed to be difficult to get there.

I felt the length of the main campaign was what was obnoxiously long, not so much HOTU. If I wasn't so invested in the game and having so much fun, it would have been downright infuriating. But HOTU did have some unfairly difficult encounters that extended its length. I know it is supposed to be more difficult than the original campaign and SOU, and I am cool with that. But goodness, sometimes it was just ridiculous.

Overall, though, I enjoyed it. The whole of NWN was a very enjoyable experience. I'm still debating about getting NWN2. From what you said about it, I'm going to hold off on it. No biggie, I got other stuff to play, and I'm not chomping at the bit for another really long adventure.

What did you think about NWN as a whole now that you have gone through it again (except for SOU)?

QUOTE(Acadian @ Jul 24 2019, 03:56 PM) *

Wow, that game is full of interesting encounters/foes. The beholders look pretty scary - the ones in ESO have lots of eyes but no mouth. Grats to January for completing the game!


Totally forgot beholders were in ESO. Been so long since I've played that game.

Posted by: SubRosa Jul 25 2019, 01:16 AM

I still love NWN over all. It brings back that classic pen and paper RPG feel. I just love the old isometric style games like it, the Baldur's Gate games, Icewind Dales, and Pillars of Eternity. I did play SOU, it was just a few years ago. I liked it too, except for the whole slavery part near the end. There are also a crap ton of user created modules that I have never even touched. Some came with the Enhanced Edition. I just found The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh online. It's a classic pen and paper D&D module. So I might go back to NWN1 to try that.

Posted by: SubRosa Jul 28 2019, 02:17 AM

I started NWN 2 a few days ago. I created January as an Aasimar (basically a nephilim). She is still a monk. I have looked at some of the other classes I might multiclass her with, but do not see anything that seems worth trading any of her monk levels for. The Favored Soul looked interesting. It is basically a cleric that does not have to memorize spells (like the Sorcerer is with Arcane Magic). But the Feats the Favored Soul receives are based on using weapons, which is counter-productive for a monk.

https://i.imgur.com/YjKzRc0.jpg

I have been experimenting with some new mods this time around.


https://www.nexusmods.com/neverwinter2/mods/81 - This mainly just makes it easier to read the text in 1920 x 1080 resolution.

It also increases the size of the character portraits to 256x400 pixels, which is good and bad. The good thing is they are higher resolution. The bad news is the original portraits get all stretched out of proportion and look terrible. So you need all new portraits for your player character and companions. I Googled the companion names and found some decent pics or artwork for each, that I cropped down to use as portraits. So I covered that. I found some mods that add new companion portraits, but they just look bad.

https://www.nexusmods.com/neverwinter2/mods/32 = This restores the pre-expansion menu artwork. I think it looks better than the replacements that the expansion packs put there.

https://neverwintervault.org/project/nwn2/script/companion-and-monster-ai-22 = This improves the AI of your companions. The vanilla AI is pretty bad. It still is not good. But any improvement is better than how it is in vanilla.

https://www.nexusmods.com/neverwinter2/mods/199 = Adds our old favorite Ren's Hairs from Oblivion to the game. It also has a bunch of replacement heads. I was not impressed with those, so I deleted them. But the new hairs were worth it.

Posted by: Acadian Jul 28 2019, 05:04 PM

Welcome to January's adventures in NWN2! Looks like some good mods you have going and things are looking very nice.

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 2 2019, 11:05 PM

I am working my way through Neverwinter Nights 2 with January. I ended up discarding my AI mods and taking that part of the game back to vanilla. I have been having trouble with animal companions this time (a Druid NPC has one). It won't attack in combat. Instead it just stands there. That is even if you use the party command to attack.

Last night I finally figured out that I can manually command it to attack individual monsters. First you have to left click on the animal companion to select it the same as you would any of the companions. Then you right click on the monster, hold the button down until a box pops up, and from that you can left click on Attack. That forces the animal companion to attack that specific monster.

Speaking of which, for the longest time I thought that right clicks did not even work. In NWN1 if you right click on a character it brings up a radial menu, and from there you can do things like select spells to cast, activate feats, do emotes, etc... In NWN2, to make that radial menu work you have to not just click, but hold down the mouse for a few seconds before the menu pops up. Doh!


https://i.imgur.com/2C4XZTw.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/tc6zwek.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/MCBQGz7.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/8TPc7QJ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/naudT6k.jpg


Posted by: Acadian Aug 2 2019, 11:53 PM

So glad you're sorting out the interface differences and getting everything to work okay. Wow, January looks great. I very much like her look and she is really stylin' with that hat! In fact the game seems to look pretty good. Glad you and January are enjoying it. smile.gif

Posted by: SubRosa Jul 3 2020, 05:35 AM

I decided to go back to Neverwinter Nights 1. I have been doing Shadows of Undrentide. Finishing it will round out my NWN1 official campaigns. Afterward I might do some of the modules that came with the enhanced edition.

It has been a tough go around with SOU. I had a lot of trouble in the first act. To the point where I constantly had to use the cheat codes just to stay alive. I think I did the various areas out of order (though naturally the game does not tell you what order to clear the areas). For example, I saved the dragon for last. It looks like I should have done that first, as there is a magical phylactery you get that turns you into a frost giant which you can use when you fight it. It pretty much guarantees victory.

But once I got into the second act things smoothed out. It all went fine today. I wrapped up at the start of the third act.



https://i.imgur.com/hiqZjwD.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/q9hN6TK.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/2vSHab7.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/DxTCVfM.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/6DUjuot.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/IyzcZCm.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/UTcJdEW.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/LjgbmMn.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/QpREnfW.jpg

Posted by: Lopov Jul 3 2020, 06:58 AM

These kobolds don't seem to be the talking type.

Nice black jacket. Is it vanilla?

Hit that gnoll!

The dragon looks like to be made of stone.

January lives up to her name, when she transforms into a frost giants.

Posted by: Acadian Jul 3 2020, 07:22 PM

Glad to see January enjoying NWN1 after her somewhat rocky start. Do I gather she is running solo? Though I never played NWN nor TESIII, the pix remind me a bit of shots from the Morrowind game.

I smiled when I saw Jan with the Scorpion King. I pretty much liked everything The Rock did related to those 'Mummy' movies.

Posted by: SubRosa Jul 3 2020, 08:13 PM

Lopov: I was able to talk with the first group of Kobolds for a little while. But eventually they went hostile and I had to kill them all. I think the game is designed so that you have to, because they stole an artifact which you have to get back, and they won't surrender it peacefully.

All of Jan's gear is vanilla. I just use a mod that allows me to change any armor or weapon to the appearance of any other one in the game.


Acadian: I was going solo for the first act, and that is probably one of the reasons I had so much trouble. Though granted, I don't think any of the companions could have survived the fights Jan was in. For the second act I have had Deekin the Kobold Bard as a companion. I liked having him around. He stayed back out of the way and gave Jan a lot of buffs from his bardic song.

The Rock was really good in the new Jumanji movies. Definitely give them a try. They were delightful!

Posted by: macole Jul 4 2020, 03:39 AM

NWN-1 is looking pretty good! Much better than I remember in fact. In my game all the characters had this dark chin shadow that made them look like they had a heavy beard.

There was a Witcher mod for NWN1 that I played once. That was long before the Witcher game came out.

Posted by: SubRosa Jul 5 2020, 03:54 AM

Macole, I do still get a mustache on my female characters in some angles. It can be frustrating. But I agree, it looks really good for an 18 year old game. The texture quality was really good. Even if the were not very many polys on the meshes.


I just beat Shadows of Undrentide like a red-haired kobold stepchild. The whole thing was decent, but not great. I find I enjoyed the vanilla campaign better than Shadows or Hordes of the Underdark. Though a lot of people appear to think the expansions were better. I guess I am just a contrarian.

Now I might have a go at some of the premium modules. Or I could try going back to finishing the NWN2 game I started with January last year, but never finished.


https://i.imgur.com/SjFh046.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/DaJqW0Q.jpg

Posted by: Acadian Jul 5 2020, 02:24 PM

So {little oops/edit embarrased.gif } many mummies, so little time.

Colorful indeed!

Posted by: Lopov Jul 5 2020, 07:01 PM

The first screenie looks like a drawing from some colored comic book!

Heurodis is stupid to call January "wretched creature". Jan will defy her and defeat her!

Posted by: SubRosa Jul 7 2020, 11:50 PM

I am back to playing Neverwinter Nights 2. Where the combat in NWN1 tended to go by really slow, almost boringly so, in this game it is the opposite. Combat tends to go by so fast it is impossible to tell what is going on, let alone actually command people.

I have really been getting annoyed at the game not allowing me to rest, either because the dungeon is set up to simply disallow it, or because a certain amount of time has not passed since I last rested. I was about to give up playing when I found https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B0yWOHhOwN6WQU4wazVqb20tdkE, it is part of a group of items called Silverwand Sundries. Using the Verge automatically rests the party, regardless of where you are or how long since you last did so.

Looks like the same person also created https://www.nexusmods.com/neverwinter2/mods/125?tab=files. One of the additions is the ability to meditate, which does the same as resting, without restrictions.

Posted by: Lopov Jul 9 2020, 06:48 PM

Can you use some mod to rest?

I remember that in vanilla Baldur's Gate you could rest inside inns or in wilderness but not inside caves or any other interior locations, so I used a mod that allowed resting in interiors.

EDIT: I didn't read the final sentence before what I wrote above, so I see that there is a mod to do it.

Posted by: SubRosa Jul 12 2020, 03:19 AM

I beat the Neverwinter Nights 2 original campaign a little while ago. It was meh.

Near the end your castle is attacked by an enemy army. This part gets a little tricky, as the battle is broken up into two main scenes. In the first scene you have to defend the walls from enemy siege towers. You have to destroy the towers, and all the baddies they disgorge. You are allowed to bring two companions, each of which will lead a contingent of troops that you select. You should in the very least have Greycloak infantry and archers. But depending on how you did the quests running up to this, you might have Ironfist Dwarves and Lizardfolk as well.

I took my wizard and sorcerer companions - Sand and Quara - thinking they could use their fire-based spells to destroy the towers at a distance. It did not work out that way. There really was not much opportunity to shoot them as they came up. Instead I spent almost the entire time smashing them after they had docked with the walls. So I could have used melee companions like Casavir or Khelgar instead.

But it all worked out, so no big deal. After you destroy six of the towers you successfully complete the scene, and go to scene two.

This one has you on the ground inside the bailey, defending from more bad guys coming through the gate. Again, you pick two companions, and what groups of soldiers they will lead. You can't use the same companions you used in the first scene. They remain on the walls. This time I went with Elanee and Khelgar, and took the Ironfist Dwarves and Lizardfolk. You fight wave after wave of attackers. But this one went relatively easily. That is when I ran into a bug.

One of the bosses - Garius - is supposed to show up and summon an avatar of the King of Shadows. But he never turned up. I killed all the monsters, and just stood there waiting forever, with nothing happening. I found a fix for this using the console -

Type: DebugMode 1 and hit enter
Type: rs 3541_death_nwalker and hit enter

This runs a script telling the game the avatar has been killed. It worked perfectly, and moved things along.

After that it is a relatively straightforward dungeon crawl against the Big Bad, the King of Shadows. It is notable in that all of your companions come for it. They are not available for the entire dungeon crawl. But they are all there at the end. Depending on how much influence you have gained with them during the game, some might betray you and go over to the bad guys.

Apparently there is an option for you to do the same, and become the henchman of the King of Shadows. As if! Even if I was not playing a Good character, I would never become the slave of some magical creep.

Then you fight, destroy some statues, fight some more, and the game ends. And they kill everyone! Seriously, after you win, the ending slides starts with *rocks fall, the party dies*. I am not pissed. Just incredulous that a game company would do that. But then again, this is Obsidian, and they seem to love trolling their fanbase.

However, the expansion Mask of the Betrayer seems to continue the story. I am going to start that. I imported January from the end of the original campaign already.

Posted by: macole Jul 12 2020, 05:06 AM

So, so game story. Yeah, that's how I remember NWN2 also. Mask of the Betrayer, the first expansion was my favorite of the NWN2 series. I still have some pics of my Mask of the Betrayer party.

Posted by: SubRosa Jul 12 2020, 07:21 AM

I started Mask of the Betrayer, and so far I am enjoying it, certainly more than the original campaign. I find the whole Spirit Devourer part of it disturbing. But I am avoiding most of that thanks to the rest mods I mentioned above.

I am having an odd bug with it. The first NPC you meet is a Safiya - a Red Wizard of Thay. She is supposed to have a shaven head and tattoos. But she has hair in the game. I found out that it was because of the Nen's Hair mod I am using. Some of its files change Safiya. I thought I had found them and removed those individual files. But apparently not. Ok, I found it. I had to remove the entire Whatbrick subfolder in Nen's.

Now that I have, I think I prefer her with the hair.

Posted by: Acadian Jul 12 2020, 12:02 PM

Hair is good. tongue.gif Grats on finishing NWN2.

Posted by: SubRosa Jul 15 2020, 12:46 AM

I am still plugging away through Mask of the Betrayer. It is ok, but I am having headscratching moments, and exasperation at times. As seems to be typical of Obisidian, they have level scaling issues, even though it is not an open world, and they know how powerful you will be at every stage in the game.

In one case I opened a door, and 7 ancient vampires appeared out of nowhere behind me. Half the party was literally dead in seconds. In more than one other battle, just seconds into them and everyone was missing half their health. None of these are big boss battles at high points in the game mind you. Just regular encounters while exploring. The boss battles have been much easier in fact.

But then in other battles I literally just walk over the bad guys without breaking a sweat.

Given that I have now played several Obsidian games recently, I am seeing this is a common thing in all of them. Even going back to New Vegas, they were putting Cazadors and Deathclaws right next to the area you start the game in. Is it really that hard to know that your characters will be X level when they reach a specific area, and populate it with creatures that are also X level? Is that asking too much Obsidian?

Otherwise I am mostly enjoying the story. But to be honest, a lot of it takes place on other planes, and that does not do much for me. I play fantasy RPGs to get away from the real world. This is like playing an alternate RPG world to get away from the regular RPG world, to get away from the real world. One step away is good enough for me.

https://i.imgur.com/UwtVesM.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/vRt7Ard.jpg

Posted by: Lopov Jul 15 2020, 07:22 AM

Great moves! If there wasn't the enemy behind her, it looks like she's in a middle of a dancing lesson.

At least in New Vegas you can go in other direction, whereas in NWN it sounds like these are all regular encounters and hard to avoid. Then again, original FOs could be merciless as well, if you wandered in some area, where high-leveled enemies were present.

Posted by: Acadian Jul 15 2020, 02:27 PM

Heh, looks like Talos got a better gig in TES.

Moves! Lara Croft got nothing on you, Jan! tongue.gif

Posted by: SubRosa Jul 17 2020, 06:48 AM

I beat Mask of the Betrayer like a red-haired pit fiend child. It was pretty good. But I really did not much care for all the multiplanar aspects to the story, especially all the time in the Shadow Plane. I did like the final showdown in the City of Judgement and the Wall however.

I found myself having a strange bug with many of the companions. Gann was the worst. When trying to make them cast spells, they would often just do nothing. I checked, and they were not paralyzed, or confused, or feared, or anything of the like. There was nothing preventing them from acting. They just would not cast any spell I selected for them to. They would attack in melee however.

Another really annoying thing was all the enemies that went invisible, or something similar. They would look transparent, and the game would not allow me to attack them. In spite of the fact that my characters had the Blind Fight feat, and tons of points in the Spot and Listen skills. I could only fight these creatures by using area-effect spells.


https://i.imgur.com/RSIuerK.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/ZajqWRn.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Qnv15ub.jpg



Posted by: Lopov Jul 17 2020, 09:37 AM

Has January become a giant?

That's one big skull!

That mask is ugly, isn't it? dry.gif

Posted by: Acadian Jul 17 2020, 06:47 PM

Is that the attack of the midget mummies? Love Jan's high ponytail! And that bear has some serious bling going on!

Posted by: macole Jul 17 2020, 10:28 PM

Kaelyn the Dove, was my favorite companion. She reminded me of my all time favorite companion Fall-from-Grace of Torment. Kaelyn's endings were very disappointing. I tried several times to get a happier ending but the best I could do left Kaelyn in an endless battle against the wall.

Did Jan use an enlargement spell?

Okku is very colorful. Believe in him so he lives on.

That's a very good picture of Jan's moves.

Posted by: SubRosa Jul 22 2020, 12:19 AM

Lopov: Jan had an enlarge person spell on her, that made her giant sized. The penalties to your armor class and dexterity really do not make it worth it. But it did look neat.

The giant skull was a Lich who was on your team. At least for a little while.


Acadian: The bear is a spirit/god, who you can recruit as an companion. He was helpful in the battles.


macole: Kaelyn was my favorite companion too, followed by Safiya. I liked both their voices. I typically use Kaelyn's voice for all my NWN games, and in some other games too I think. I read ahead, so was prepared to get the best ending I could for her.




I have been playing Storm of Zehir for a few days now. It seems to be a big retool of Neverwinter Nights 2, almost like a sequel to it. In many ways, it feels like a different game.

For starters, it looks like all those things about preventing resting that I hated were added by SOZ. They were added by that same mod that allows you to resurrect Shandra Jerro. I just deleted that, since I do not expect to ever play NWN2 again. In any case, I am glad I found those mods that allow you to rest anywhere, anytime, as I will need them for SOZ.

They changed the crafting system. Now you are given a bunch of crafting books. You find recipes in the game, and they are automatically added to the appropriate book. When you want to make something, you do it from the book, and it creates the item if you have the right materials. I was hoping I might be able to take existing items and enchant them. But that does not seem to be possible. It looks like you have to create the enchanted item whole cloth. But I could be wrong.

The strategy map is different. Instead of a big map where you click on where you want to go and you are teleported there, you actually move on the map. It reminds me of the strat maps in the Total War games, where you can see hills and mountains and lakes and the like, which funnel your movement. There are tons of random encounters on the strat map. They just randomly appear right in front of your eyes. If your lead character has a decent Survival, Move Silent, and think Hide skill you can avoid the encounters if you want. I think if you have good Search or Spot, you will get lots of random treasure spawns as well. Ryo does, so I gets lots of goodies just walking around.

Speaking of which, in this game you can switch characters during dialogue and on the strat map, in order to make use of your party's skills. So if you want to Intimidate someone, you can switch to your character with a high Intimidate skill, and so on. This makes the whole party much more useful, and worth creating with a diverse set of skills, rather than just being extra swords in a fight.

There is not much to the strat map however, at least in Act I. I think the game moves to a new location in Act II however. Encounters on the map with random monsters are really simple. It takes you to a small tactical map that is usually just a wide open space with you and the monsters. You fight them, and then you are done, and go back to the strat map. Places to explore are tiny, unless they are tied to specific quests. It intensely reminds me of Pillars of Eternity 2 (also made by Obisidian), which does things in exactly the same way.

The basic story is that you start out shipwrecked, and get back to civilization. The first civilized people who find you take you prisoner and are threatening to execute you. Except a merchant steps in and speaks on your behalf. That makes you her employee (Let's not used that ugly 'slave' word). Becoming a merchant seems to be a big component in SOZ. They seem to want you to work your way up through this person's trading company, make deals, etc... I could not give a crap. I do not play fantasy RPGs because I am looking for a merchant simulator. It is like the strongholds that are so popular in these games. I don't want to play a castle administrator game either. I play these games because I want to create toons, kill monsters, take their treasures, smite the Dark Lord, save the realm, and all that good Aragorn stuff.

I also did not like the heavy-handed way the game basically arrests you and forces you into serving this merchant. You are literally given no other options to take. Even playing a nice person like January, my first reaction was "Why don't I just kill you all instead?" A less nice character like Persephone would have literally killed the entire city.

It also starts you out with basically nothing. However, I short-circuited that by creating my party in the NWN2 original campaign, skipping the tutorial, then exporting each one of them. That starts them out with the XP to make 3rd level. Then I went into the character editor and tweaked their stats, feats, and starting items. After all, they are superheros. I created January as a Paladin this time, and gave her a pair of wings from a mod I found. Avery is a Favored Soul, basically the Sorcerer version of a Cleric, who does not have to memorize their spells). Ryo is a ranged Rogue. Finally Hannah is a Sorcerer.

Speaking of which, in this game you can create up to 4 starting characters. I think the first one is still considered "you", while the others are basically companions. But as I said before, you can switch between characters during dialogue and tests, so in a lot of ways your team in interchangeable. Basically that is it, a team experience, rather than one person with some helpers, which I like.


https://i.imgur.com/28rM5qx.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/d2h6slP.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/sYRnLtt.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Q9NxQnE.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/w37Tqvq.jpg

Posted by: Acadian Jul 22 2020, 01:18 AM

Nice that you can really customize your team. Also sounds good that you can 'play' as different characters within your party. Jan's team looks good!

Posted by: Lopov Jul 22 2020, 09:53 AM

I like Ryo's outfit.

Quite a battle in the Singing caverns.

So your team can explore the island one by one, they don't need to travel in a group?

Can you enter that walled place in the upper left corner of the map?

Posted by: SubRosa Jul 27 2020, 07:08 AM

You have to all travel in the same group. The character that you select is considered the "lead", and the game uses their Survival, Move Silent, Spot, etc... skills to avoid monsters and find random treasure on the strat map.

The walled area to the side is a city. There are several that you can visit. But there is almost nothing to them. You can visit inside a tavern in each, and talk to the bartender to sleep, or one npc who might have a quest. There is also generic trade menu you can use. Not to sell your normal loot, but the special trade crates you can find in the game. It is part of the whole "be a merchant" subplot.

I finished the first Act of the game, and got a little way into Act II. It just was not making me excited however. I remember when Skyrim came out people loved to say it was a mile wide, but only an inch deep. Well, this is not nearly that wide, and certainly less deep. It all feels really generic and shallow, especially given its preponderance of random encounters.

Posted by: Crimson Paladin Aug 5 2020, 10:13 AM

I actually played NWN2 before NWN1. When I first tried out 1, I was unimpressed and couldn't muster the interest to get through the tutorial. But then I tried Shadows of Undrentide, and I was hooked, and ended up playing it far more than I ever played NWN2. I never did bother to play the original campaign, though. I played through most of the premium modules, however. It's wonderful that Beamdog put the later premium modules up for sale in EE, since until then, there was to my knowledge no way to purchase them anymore.

As for NWN2, I played all the expansions. I couldn't get into Storm of Zehir, however. I managed to play all the way to the end, but I never had much interest in replaying it.

Posted by: Acadian Aug 5 2020, 11:42 AM

Crimson Paladin, good to hear what you're up to! Though I never played any NWN, I know what you mean about sometimes getting pulled in by sequels. For me, BG 2, Diablo 2, TES 4, TES 5 have filled many hours. Their predecessors . . . not so much. smile.gif

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 5 2020, 11:05 PM

I played Kotor 2 before Kotor 1. It made it a little harder playing the first game, because I was so used to the extra crafting options and perks in the second game. But in the end I prefer Kotor 1. The same with NWN1 over 2. I think both come down to the companies that made them - Bioware vs Obsidian. Obsidian has this love of "Dark Fantasy/Grim Dark" A lot of people think it is nuanced and realistic. I think it is just reveling in people being dicks. As much as I like the mechanics of a lot of Obsidian games, like the Pillars of Eternity games, I find myself liking their choices in storytelling and setting less and less.

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 13 2020, 09:40 AM

I created a Kaelyn the Dove soundset for Neverwinter Nights 1. https://www.nexusmods.com/neverwinter/mods/894. It replaces the vanilla Female Fighter soundset in the game.

Posted by: Crimson Paladin Aug 26 2020, 08:33 AM

I created a mod in Neverwinter Nights 1 unlocking the additional robes and chest armor models from patch 1.69 into the Craft Armor functions. It's https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1692189302and https://neverwintervault.org/project/nwn1/script/armor-tabards-loincloths-and-overcoats, but I must disclose that there are other armor modification mods that do this and much, much more, made by people who actually understand coding.

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 11 2022, 07:57 AM

I just fired up Neverwinter Nights 1 EE again, and discovered that it has been updated since the last time I played. It is now version 88, and a lot has changed. Among the new improvements is built in user interface scaling, with a lot of fine control over exactly how much you want it to scale. That is a big improvement, as playing the game at 1920 x 1080 could be an eyestrain with the original UI.

I also noted that the graphics in general looked a lot crisper and just better all around. The older version of the game I had (77) was a little blurry. But 88 looks a lot sharper.

There are also a lot of little things added to the game options that you can tweak now. Plus you can directly download a lot of user made modules directly from the game.

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 15 2022, 01:04 AM

I finally figured out how to create modded items in Neverwinter Nights 1. It is a process, but you only need the tools that came with the game. Namely the Toolset and Hack Pak Editor. I used it to create swords and armor for Blood Raven and Stormcrow.

Here is how it works. It looks exhausting, but I went really granular. Once you get the hang of it, it can go rather quick.


CODE
Start by opening the Toolset.

In the original version of the game this is located within the main menu of the game.

In EE, the link there has been removed. Instead go to your Neverwinter Nights\bin\Win32 folder (not the one located in This PC\Documents, but the one on a regular hard drive). Double click on nwtoolset.exe

When the Toolset starts, you should see a Welcome! box already open, set to Open an Existing Module. Change that to Creat New Module, and press OK.


***


A module creation Wizard starts, click Next to start it. (Basically go through it all to make a new area, and stick with the defaults. None of that will matter in the end.) Keep the default name it gives, as it will not matter, and continue. Click on the Area Wizard button in the next window. Again, use the default name in the next window, and pick any Tileset. It won't matter. Click Next in the Area Size window, again, it will not matter. Then click Finish. You should now have a Create Areas window open, with the Current Area showing the one you just created selected. Click Next, then Finish.

Note, if you are going to create many items, it is worth it to keep this module you are creating, and give it a specific name.


***


Now you will be back in the main Toolset Window. Go to the top Menu Bar -> Wizards -> Item Wizard. This will bring up an Item Type window. Pick the kind of item you want to create, and click Next.

Give it a temporary name (this will change later), and click the Magical box. I do not think what you select in the Item Level or Quality boxes matter.

Select Palette Category comes next. Again, pick the kind of item you want.

In the next window, click the box for Launch Item Properties, and click Finish.


***


You will be back in the main Toolset screen. But now you will see a box on your right with a tree of items, and the one you just created will be selected. Right click on it, and select Edit Copy.

An Item Properties window will come up. At the botoom will be the Item Name. Change this to the final name you want to appear in the game. Now look at the Tag and Blueprint ResRef boxes. Copy the name from one into the other, they both must be identical. (This is the entire reason we had to make this copy of the item. You cannot alter these fields the first time you made the item.). Whatever name you use here will be what you name the rest of your files as, and what you will use to acquire the item in the game.

Now tweak your item how you want it, across the various tabs. Many of the entires are hard-coded, and cannot be edited. Like the Total Cost, Base Weight, Armor Class, etc... These will all automatically changed based on the variables you can change.

If it is Armor or Clothing, start with Appearance. The base stats of any armor is based on the appearance of the Torso. If the Torso looks like chain, it will have chain's armor class, arcane spellcasting penalty, skill penalty, etc... The starting options are unarmored cloth, and become heavier in class as you go up in numbers. There are drop downs for each portion of the armor, with numerous options to choose from. Tweak the appearance and check back to the General tab until you get what you want for the stats. For Armor, only the Torso section matters for the item's stats.

Also note that you can change colors in Appearance, and the box for it will have Leather 1 hightlighted. You can click this, and it drops down all the other areas of the armor you can change the color for as well. Take your time and make it look how you want.

Once you have that set, go to the Properties tab. Some will be selected already. You can add or remove them by using the little -> <- keys between the Available Propterties and Assigned Properties boxes. Select all the ones you want. You can also double click one in the Available list, and it will automatically populate in the Assigned box.

Note that many properties (like AC Bonus) will populate at its lowest level. Double-click on it in the Assigned Properties box and it will bring up a Select Property Parameters. Here you can change the value of the bonus. Again, double-click the parameter you want, and you will see it come up in the Item Cost Parameter on the left. Click Ok, once you are done with it.

Also note that in the Properties Tab, you can check the box for Identified near the bottom. Do so.


***


Once you are finished, click OK to all. This sends you back to the main Toolset Window. Now you will see the two versions of your new item on the right side. Rick-click on the second version, and Export. It will bring up a window to save it in your This PC\Documents\Neverwinter Nights\Erf folder. The filename will be that of the Tag and Blueprint ResRef boxes. The extension will be .erf. Don't change anything, and click on Save. In the comments window that pops up next, just click Ok, then Ok again.

You are now done with the Toolset. You can close it without saving if you want. But if you want to go back and make changes to your item later, you will have to start over from scratch. So I suggest leaving it open until you finished creating it and test it in your game.


***


Now go back to your Neverwinter Nights\bin\Win32 folder (not the one located in This PC\Documents, but the one on a regular hard drive). Double click on nwhak.exe this time.

This starts the Bioware Hack Pak Editor. Go to the top Menu Bar and click on Resource -> Add.

It brings up a window showing the contents of the ERF folder you just save to above. You will see the file you just created. Double click on it, and you will be sent back to the main window. Nothing will appear to have happened. But do not worry! That is normal. Now go to the Menu Bar again, and click on File -> Open. A new window will pop up, showing your ERF folder, with your file already selected. Click on Open.

Now you are back at the main window once more. But now you will see your file listed down under Resource. Right-Click on it, and Export. Now you will have to browse to your This PC\Documents\Neverwinter Nights\Override folder. Save it there, and close the Hak Pak Editor.


***


Finally, go to your game and test.

Once in the game, open the console and type in (this is case sensitive!):

DebugMode 1

then

dm_spawnitem (your file name)

This will be the name of the file in your Override folder, and the name in the Tag and Blueprint ResRef boxes from the Item Properties. Do not put in the .uti extension at the end.

It will appear under your cursor. Pick it up and you can use it. If you did not check the Identified box, you will have identify it first either yourself, or through a merchant.


***


At this point all you need to use the item in the .UTI file in your override folder. You can delete the other files if you want. However, I suggest you hang on to at least the ERF file, if not the module.

This is because if you ever want to go back and edit the item, you can open the Toolset, and go to File -> Import, and bring in the ERF file. From there you can edit the item and re-export it as a new UTI file.

You might save a single module for all of your item mods. That will allow you to skip creating one every time you make an item. Simply start the Toolset, and load the module from the opening Welcome! box. Once it starts, Go to the Menu Bar and click on the 'Go To Start Location' button. Then look to the right and click on the Paint Items icon (it looks like a sword). Then select the Custom tab beneath it. You will see your modded items in here. From this point you can go to the top Menu Bar and click on Wizards -> Item Wizard to create a new item.

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 27 2022, 01:37 AM

https://i.imgur.com/RjWiiet.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/bctRYWq.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/oCOl7po.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/hOdjmyY.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/iRZiPDt.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/SFarqa4.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/FffsA8y.jpg

Posted by: macole Jun 27 2022, 04:20 AM

Blood Raven is out making the Sword Coast look better than ever. That outfit is stunning.

Posted by: Acadian Jun 27 2022, 08:32 PM

Another fun world for Blood Raven to explore! Is she playing solo? Wow, those rats are bigger than she is!

Posted by: SubRosa Jul 4 2022, 07:31 AM

I beat the original campaign of Neverwinter Nights 1. It was fun playing a Fighter/Sorcerer. It worked really well. Like the guides I had read beforehand said, you are basically a fighter that uses magic to buff yourself up. Plus you have a few spells on the side for extra offense.

I found the See Invisibility spell to be really, really useful, given all the enemies who liked turning invisible. The combination of Mage Armor and Shield (both 1st level arcane magic spells), gives you a +7 bonus to armor class. So they work well together. I was using them to the end of the game. Throw in Stoneskin, which absorbs damage, and the various elemental resistance spells, and you end up a tank. A tank that can start off every fight with a fireball.

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