Neverwinter Nights, Another Classic RPG series Options

[SubRosa]

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.

Anyway, I rolled a new toon to beat the game with (yes, that is just for you Wyrd, in case you ever read this ). She is a Wood Elf named Antheia. 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 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 NENs Final Face Head Hair Combination Project, 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 in this post - 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.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Jul 10 2020, 09:35 PM

[Crimson Paladin]

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.

This post has been edited by Crimson Paladin: Aug 5 2020, 10:16 AM

[Acadian]

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.

[SubRosa]

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.

[SubRosa]

I created a Kaelyn the Dove soundset for Neverwinter Nights 1. You can get it here. It replaces the vanilla Female Fighter soundset in the game.

[Crimson Paladin]

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 here and here, 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.

[SubRosa]

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.

[SubRosa]

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.

[SubRosa]

Blood Raven is now exploring the Sword Coast

Shields on

Fireball!

Getting trolled

Orcs and goblins

There goes the neighborhood

Rats, why is it always rats?

[macole]

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

[Acadian]

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

[SubRosa]

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.