[Skinny Minnie]

Yep, I'm still slashing (and piercing, if you count longstanding henchman Tomi and his arrows) my way through Neverwinter Night's main campaign. My level 16 Paladin is kicking some major butt. She's got 13 AC armor along with 2 health regeneration rings, about 20 custom melee weapons, she can carry 400 pounds, and she's lugging around over one million in gold. Respawning is waaaay too expensive in both gold and XP to even consider any more so I save every ten feet. She's fought a war in a snow globe (I'm not kidding) and battled several huge dragons, of which the last one, Klauth (see pic below) was majorly nasty and required portaling back to Tyr about three times mid-battle for healing and picking up dead Tomi. Klauth's challenge rating read "Impossible" until she poisoned him first, which involved killing yet a different dragon, and even after she poisoned Klauth it was a madhouse there for a while.... There was also a haunted town that was mired forever in nighttime, which had a cool and creepy back story and a twist as she exited it. I like the puzzles, plot, and quests better than in most of the other action-RPGs I've played; they're less "UPS-driver-ish" and tie into the main theme better, even though the main theme lost some of its luster mid-way through. Outside of a few bugs (and that *still annoying* "stand there bobbing up and down whilst you wait your turn to dish out damage" thing), this is one of the better RPGs I've played. I downloaded both the Sacred and Beyond Divinity demos, but to be honest, the isometric/static 2D backdrop view thing just felt sooooo old after whipping around in 3D for so long now. Ick. I loved the fully-3D interface of Dungeon Siege, and after NWN, I'm totally hooked on it now. I'm glad I have both NWN expansion packs, er, if I have any casual gaming time left after le bebe finally decides to show, that is (due date Tuesday, feels like never)....

Oh yeah, and I imported my Paladin into the Hordes of the Underdark expansion just to peek around when she was a Level 15, and she got annihilated! That's when I decided to go running back to the main campaign and finish it before trying HotU again! Does anybody know what the heck level you have to be to survive in HotU, or does it depend upon the character class?

[eriq]

Minnie. I'm so jealous. What adventures you must have already had playing this game! I'm still in the first chapter of the game in the BlackLake District!!! It's kind of slow but from what I hear the game really picks up after this part?

I LOVE the interface and I'm playing the game at 1600x1200 all effects on. WOW.

[Garyos]

This is a game I really wanna start playing again, but I don't know if I'm up to it... What's the funnest character class to play as? I'm usually a rogue, but I've already tried that... A monk? A mage? Or just a barbarian or something?

[Skinny Minnie]

Eriq, yeah, the first chapter just consists of building up experience for your character and it's on the boring side compared to the rest, so hang in there! There are a lot of puzzles (not too difficult but not done-to-death in RPGs either) as you progress as well. I'm just entering Chapter 4 now (that red dragon was my final boss of Chapter 3). The chapters seem to keep getting better in general. The goodies get better and better as you go along, too. Ahh, women and shopping go together like, well, women RPG characters and tradesmen's shops!

Garyos, I like the Paladin the best out of the three I've tried (a Cleric, a Fighter, and my Pally). You can choose either a male or a female character without penalty to the class, but you probably already know that.

The cleric was too weak for the front lines and seemed better-suited as a background healer in a large party, although there were a lot of spells available for the Cleric compared to the Paladin's. I just found that summoning creatures as the Cleric annoyed me because my tiger and bear mainly got in the way, blocking my path in the smaller rooms. My daughter likes playing a Cleric because the creatures protect her, and she can transmorph herself into other creatures (like a giant spider, etc.) and buff (cast strengthening spells on) herself and her summoned critters, so I guess it depends upon whether you're a front-lines kinda player like I am or not.

I have a Level 13 Fighter stuck in limbo in a multiplayer NWN Guild I joined back in January, but honestly, I felt she was a little too easy to play because Fighters get a gazillion Feats (special moves, etc.) as they level up compared to the other character classes. Also, they get no spells whatsoever, so they can't heal or buff at all except with potions, which can get expensive. They can take mega damage, though.

My Paladin is my fav because she has just enough strength and constitution for the front lines (albeit not as much as the Fighter and without the chance for so many Feats--Paladins can pick out a single Feat about every 4 levels or so). She does have a limited number of spells including buffing ones she can use on herself or party members/henchmen, though, like Bull's strength, Prayer, Bless, Aid, as well as a few healing spells too. She can also cure others of disease (very handy-- diseases from enemies come up a lot in the game and Tomi gets hit a lot) and she's completely immune to disease herself. Paladins are also immune to Fear (that enemy "mind spell" that causes "burning skulls" to circle over your character's head and makes your character randomly wander away from the fight). Paladins also have some cool Divine Powers given to them automatically early on, like being able to Turn Away Undead (cast the Fear thing on the undead baddies) and Smite Evil. All you have to do is rest to recharge spells and powers and you can use them again, and some can be used multiple times before resting. Also, Paladins have high charisma, so they can charm the pants off most NPCs and get more gold and more info out of them. The major drawback is in the Alignment Department: unlike most of the other classes where you can choose to be Chaotic Good or Evil, Neutral Good, etc., the Paladin's sole choice is Lawful Good. If you're inherently a goody-goody yourself like I am, you'll be fine with that. However, if you start bullying around the nice NPCs too much with threats or randomly kill good NPCs, your alignment will shift away from Lawful Good which will eventually prevent you from leveling up. (Persuading NPCs to give you more gold for quests doesn't affect anything negatively, though-- trust me there. ) By the way, I think a Barbarian is limited to being Unlawful, period, so no goody-goody-ing around for them, baby, or they can't level up any more....

[Zygomaticus]

I'm debating between getting Neverwinter Nights or Knights of the Old Republic as my first RPG game. Ever. Which do you suggest?

[Garyos]

Originally Posted by Kode

I'm debating between getting Neverwinter Nights or Knights of the Old Republic as my first RPG game. Ever. Which do you suggest?

KOTOR, definetly. Stronger story, better graphics, and (IMO) more fun, with a big party and lots of Star Wars geekiness.

[Skinny Minnie]

Garyos,

That second guy is Tomi, my NPC henchman who lockpicks, disables traps, and fires arrows for me in the background. There are about six henchman you can hire throughout the game, and you can alternate between them one at a time, but Tomi works well for me as an offset to my melee and spells so I've stuck it out with him. My daughter hired Daemon, a melee half-Orc, and also alternatively tried Linu, a healer, but beware: She had separate situations with each of them in Chapter One whereby when they were each separately killed and respawned at a safe zone, they each came after her and killed her when she portaled back to the safe zone to pick them up!

Kode,

Oy! I have KotOR for the HexBox, but somehow it got pushed aside and I never got too far in it. It seemed easier to understand as far as the rules and regulations go, though, than NWN does, but maybe someone who has actually played all of KotOR can help you more there. I've played a bunch of easy action-RPGs before like Diablo II, Dungeon Siege, Divine Divinity, etc., but NWN is my first "AD&D 3"-rule-heavy RPG, and all the dice rolls, restrictions, penalties and that sort of thing were intimidating at first. You'll wanna keel over if you look at the manual, ha ha. But the good news is, you can ignore a lot of it at first, really. In the beginning, I basically just picked a general tank character (Paladin, or Fighter, etc.), bought the highest-damage Greatsword and most protective armor I could afford, and went to town bashing. I hired Tomi in the very beginning for 150 gold to pick locks, disable traps, and shoot arrows in the background, and I've still got him with me going into the fourth chapter of the game. I've also helped him with four personal quests of his own. He's a riot to talk to, and his death story when he dies and you portal back to the safe zone to pick him up (where he magically respawns, like all the henchmen do when they die) is worth hearing at least once.

A lot of the AD&D (Dungeons & Dragons) dice roll stuff flies by in print near the bottom of the screen (as NPC conversations do), showing basically whether your character and the enemies are evenly matched or not and who's failing and succeeding with spells and weapons damage, but in the early chapters I just ignored it all. Your red lifebar in the right upper corner of the screen (see pic above) tells the general tale in a couple of minutes or less during a fight. All you really have to do is click on everything. Really. Nice NPCs show up in blue when you hover the mouse cursor over them, and you'll automatically just talk to them if you click on them. Baddies always show up in red when you run the mouse cursor over them, and they'll start charging at you, spells and swords blazing, the minute they see you anyway! Just click on one baddie and your character will go to town until all the close-by ones are dead. If you get stuck in a jam and your health is low, you can transport back to the closest safe town from almost everywhere in the game with a portal stone you get free at the beginning of Chapter One. You can get healed for free in any of those towns, plus make purchases and sell the boatload of stuff you aquire as you fight, then portal back to *exactly* where you were (mid-battle and all), although the portaling back costs a little gold.

I only started looking up the meanings of stuff like "saving throws" and "fortitude" when I got enough gold to really do some major shopping. Then I wanted to know what the offered items (+3 fortitude or "Freedom of Movement" cloaks, vampiric regenerating weapons, etc.) really would do for me before I spent my dough on them. But by then I was a lot more comfortable with the game, so it wasn't so intimidating. And shopping is *always* fun, hee hee.

Some quick tips: Don't get overwhelmed in the beginning training about the radial menu stuff. Just open your inventory (one of the buttons below that face icon in the right upper corner), and drag weapons and health potions into your Quickbar at the bottom so you can use the corresponding F-keys to quickly grab stuff. You can also right-click on the quickbar slots to add your character's special spells/powers if any for quick access, too. Between F-keys and just plain pointing and clicking, you'll be pretty golden. You've gotta open up your spell book when you level up (not too often) to add spells for quick use, but again, that's just a different little icon under your face picture at the top right there.

[Garyos]

Does it matter what order you play the expansion packs in? What new stuff do they add to the table, and are the new classes cool enough that I should get the expansion pacs before I start with the original campaign?

[Skinny Minnie]

Garyos,

Did you just edit a minute after you posted while I wasn't looking, or did I answer a question about "who is that 2nd guy you've got with you?" that wasn't even there to begin with? Don't toy with me, Gary, 'cause I'm old! And the AG edit notification thingee gives you a little leeway time-wise before it shows a post as being edited....

Okay, I played the basic NWN only a little while (with a crippled character I goofed up anyway), then ran out and got the expansions and started right over, so 99% of my NWN experience has been playing the basic NWN campaign but with Shadows of Undrentide and Hordes of the Underdark installed as well. Mini Minnie just has the plain NWN without any expansions, though, and I can tell you from her furor that yes, even the basic characters available in the plain game (like the Cleric) get additional spells once you add the expansions on. Mini was furious upon learning that her Cleric could not cast Continual Flame from Level 3 on like my Cleric could. Continual Flame lights up your weapons, armor and jewelry so you can see in the dark whenever you're wearing/holding said items. (Jeez, no wonder she gets killed so much, ha ha.) There are supposedly different and better goodies available in the main game with the expansions installed, too, as well as the additional character classes like you mention. Actually, all three of my attempted classes (Fighter, Cleric and Paladin) are in the basic game, and there really are a lot to choose from even just in the basic NWN, but there are some fancier ones in the expansions. I also noticed, when I imported my Level 15 Paladin into HotU, that there were a whole lotta upscale goodies available to buy/find in the HotU campaign that weren't in the main NWN campaign; believe me, I wasn't in HotU very long and even at that it was very noticeable. Also, NPCs in HotU kept referring to some adventures of mine that I haven't had yet, so I'm assuming they were referencing some Shadows of Undrentide stuff.... Each campaign is separate story-wise, though, so don't worry....

[AGA]

HotU is strictly for very high-level characters, like 17+. Anything less any you will die a horrible death. Shadows of Undrentide, however, is a lot easier. Can't remember what level characters I played that with, but they weren't very high, and I had no trouble finishing it. The add-ons add things like Prestige classes (nifty little sub-classes of existing character types) and Epic-level characters, I think. I didn't really pay much attention to the gameplay changes, it was the actual game itself I was interested in Check www.bioware.com if you want to find out what's added. Definitely play SoU before HotU though...

[Garyos]

Originally Posted by Skinny Minnie

Garyos,

Did you just edit a minute after you posted while I wasn't looking, or did I answer a question about "who is that 2nd guy you've got with you?" that wasn't even there to begin with? Don't toy with me, Gary, 'cause I'm old! And the AG edit notification thingee gives you a little leeway time-wise before it shows a post as being edited....

Sorry, I got confused and edited out the question because you'd already answered it after I posted the original post... or something.....


Anyway, seems like I'll have to wait for the ezpansions... I started character creation just now, and they had a heap of cool prestige classes that they told me I couldn't play without Undertide..... I've always wanted to play an Assasin in D&D. It won't cost me anything anyway, since I'll just borrow 'em from my local library... I just need to be a teensy bit patient first.

[Skinny Minnie]

LOL Garyos!

Or you could start the basic NWN with a different character, just to go through the training and get the lay of the land first. Then once you have a little experience under your belt, your library should have the expansions available and you can start over, huh? I wound up goofing up my first character (putting points into traits that weren't listed to be part of my class, like trying to increase lockpick on a Paladin ) and starting over once I realized certain traits were so weak they were losing every dice roll and thus never working for me....

[Skinny Minnie]

Originally Posted by AGA

HotU is strictly for very high-level characters, like 17+. Anything less any you will die a horrible death.

Yeah, no kidding, AGA! My rear end is still smarting from my Level 15/Paladin/HotU encounter!

I'm going into the last Chapter (Ch. 4) as a Level 16, though, and I'm wondering if I'll even make it to Level 17 before the end of the basic NWN! There are four "Words of Power" to find to save Neverwinter and I've already got three of them from Chapter 3, so I wonder how long it will be before the end of the game comes. I may be forced to play SoU first just to level up enough to make it through HotU. It's too bad in a way, because most people claim that HotU is the best of the three stories. Even so, though, SoU is supposed to be better than the plain NWN campaign, so I guess that will have to do....

[Garyos]

Originally Posted by Skinny Minnie

LOL Garyos!

Or you could start the basic NWN with a different character, just to go through the training and get the lay of the land first. Then once you have a little experience under your belt, your library should have the expansions available and you can start over, huh? I wound up goofing up my first character (putting points into traits that weren't listed to be part of my class, like trying to increase lockpick on a Paladin ) and starting over once I realized certain traits were so weak they were losing every dice roll and thus never working for me....

Well, I've gotten pretty far in NwN before (as a rogue), but I had to stop because my machine was just too crappy to play it very well back then... I've been meaning to play it with my new computer for ages, but I don't have a desire to go through the most boring part of the game AGAIN while I wait.... Do you have a link to a place with the best nwn mods by any chance?

[Skinny Minnie]

Hmm, I haven't even touched upon the mods yet, unfortunately. Sorry! If you run into any good ones, though, please post them! I'd hate to have to finally lay asunder my Dagger of Chaos, which isn't a dagger at all but really an awesome greatsword!

i love RPGS but i'm verry picky when it comes to playing them. does NWN have a good story line? i'm not a big fan of the whole 1,700 missions thing ware you go kill someone and get a weapon or a lump of money

[Skinny Minnie]

It's not an epic story, but for the most part it's a good one, especially compared to other action-RPGs like Diablo, Divine Divinity, and Dungeon Siege (jeez, NWN is a grand-scale story compared to DS, but what isn't? ). I think the quests are up a notch from the typical action-RPGs as well, and many of them tie into the overarching tale pretty well. There are also way more puzzles than the usually-nonexistant variety in those other games. I'm a "goodies" freak and I love tweaking stats on my character now, too, so as NWN is more intense in those departments than the typical dungeon crawls, it's right up my alley.

that sounds kinda cool. i was a diablo/dungen siege fan but did'nt like that fact that you could not edit the states of your charicture exactly the way you wanted

[LeisureSuitedLooney]

I love replaying NWN, especially with the new Epic Builds that have been provided by Bioware. The game is so replayable, given all the character classes, henchmen, etc....I have several games going at once, each with a different henchman, and class, just to see how many different paths I can choose. I hope they do a NWN sequel!

[Skinny Minnie]

Whoa!

I just imported my L16 Paladin into Shadows of Undrentide for kicks. (I just picked from "pregenerated characters" in the beginning instead of creating a new one, and my faithful Paladin The Siren showed right up in the list alongside the game's premade characters. I had just "saved character" from my basic NWN campaign besides saving my actual game where I left off so she'd show up in the list.) Unlike HotU, this one seems really easy for a Level 16 character. Should I just be creating a new character from scratch instead? I wonder if the game will acclimate itself to my higher level and provide tougher enemies earlier on or not? When you play the basic NWN campaign in multiplayer, if anyone in your party is at a higher level than the rest of the party, it affects the baddies and they automatically get tougher. Also, the goodies become upper-level goodies as well. I know this because one guy in my online guild brought in a Level 10 monk early on in Chapter One to our all-Level 3-character party, and the rest of us started getting annihilated. The same Chapter One areas that formerly had easier enemies became horror shows. Needless to say, he switched back to using a lower level character.

Another thing I noticed about SoU is that the henchmen are different (at least in the beginning so far); Tomi is gone, boo hoo! However, on the plus side, you can manipulate a henchman's inventory now via opening up both inventories and dragging and dropping. I bought some nice armor, jewelry and a better bow for Dora, my new kickin' lockpickin' sidekickin' Rogue. (Her level seems just a little bit behind mine, similar to what Tomi's was in the 4th chapter of the basic NWN. I wonder if I had created a new character for SoU if Dora's level would be a Level 1 along with my new character's or what.) I can't seem to sell her old axe at any rate, though, because it's for Dwarves/Rogues only, so it shows up in red and I can't bring it over to my inventory to be able to sell it. Maybe I'll have her just drop it on the ground and leave it somewhere if she gets overburdened at some point.