NWN1 pure Wizard tips

[Gaznak]

TBH I never had enough patience to play NWN1 from start to finish, even the main campaign, although tried to not a few times in all these years. IIRC, my farthest try was like having played through two (maybe three) chapters or something.

Now I feel kinda ripe to try it again as a pure wizard (I was never a fan of class-mixing in RPGs... and yes, I do know I miss much fun being such a narrow-minded dick). A human wizard (I was never a fan of playing as a RPG character of any other race as well... and yes, I do know all the consequences as well).

Though various NWN wizard guides are aplenty, the living opinions of conoisseurs are always better. I would welcome any tips, from starting attribute distribution to skills, spells, familiar and henchman choice and so on (although nothing can surpass my old love for Pseudodragon, I suppose).

I plan to play GOG Diamond edition (not Enhanced, of course) with Community Patch 1.72 and Henchman mod installed (no monster AI tweaks as for now, I think, only for henchman inventory/behavior management).

Thanks in advance.

 

[Cryomancer]

Simple.

• Don't invest levels into "pale master" as contrary to P&P it don't give +caster level
• Save money, being able to use a high level spell even if is only once in early campaign is a huge advantage. It can make the fire dragon trivial without weaking him
• Don't pick any specialization. It don't worth, contrary to BG1/2.
• Henchman? Pick a tanker.
• Familiar? i recommend Panther, Hell Hound, Faerie dragon and Pseudodragon. Those are the best IMO.
• Stat allocation? Max INT
• For low level spells, I suggest letting your familiar to kill stuff and focus on mirror image, Endure elements, Expeditious retreat, magic missile(only useful after about lv 5), nvisibility,Knock, Web, Haste, Flame arrow, Scintillating sphere(that sphere is better than fireball IMO). Try to get all of this spells in your spellbook ASAP
• For mid level spells, Evard's black tentacles, Phantasmal killer, Polymorph self, stoneskin, elemental shield, dominate person, Lesser spell mantle, Isaac's greater missile storm, Tenser's transformation and acid fog. Try to get all of this spells in your spellbook ASAP
• High level spells? The typical ones. Stop Time, Wail of the Banshee, Mordenkainen's sword, Finger of Death, Horrid wilting, Black Blade of Disaster, Bigby's crushing hand, Mordenkainen's disjunction. This spells are incredible good.
• Some high level spells are pure trash. For eg, incendiary cloud(8th tier) deals the same damage of acid fog(6th tier) and acid >>> fire as fire resist is way more common. And don't slow down enemies. Is way better to just empower your acid fog. Read the description of every spell.
• Skills? Put everything in spellcraft. You will need it to cast epic level spells.

When dealing with spell immune creatures, I suggest buffing and casting tenser's transformation. Or tentacle rape black tentacles

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

If you insist on playing NWN as a pure wizard (and I don’t really know why you would, the first few levels are going to be really tedious), I would strongly recommend playing SoU into HotU over the OC. The OC has very little quality content in terms of writing (Charwood is really the only area I think is interesting), and the dungeons are almost entirely a slog of copy-pasted trash mobs. SoU starts off pretty weak, but the second half isn’t bad, and HotU is definitely the most well-done campaign BioWare put out for NWN, plus you’ll get the fun of epic-level wizard shenanigans.


Edit: When I refer to the early levels being incredibly tedious I do not mean difficult. They will be pretty easy, but you will be rest spamming like crazy, and there are few things as tedious as abusing rest in NWN.

 

[plem]

I like the pixie familiar because it frees you from having to take a rogue henchman, as she can unlock doors and disarm traps for you
sleep is amazing at low levels, you can end encounters quickly by casting it and coup-de-grace-ing your sleeping foes
feats that increase spell DC are always good

overrall, playing a wizard in NWN is pretty easy because you can rest at will and there's scrolls everywhere
(unless you're playing a mod like swordflight)

 

[Gargaune]

Paging Dr. ERYFKRAD, Dr. ERYFKRAD to the wizards advice thread, stat.

SoU starts off pretty weak, but the second half isn’t bad, and HotU is definitely the most well-done campaign BioWare put out for NWN, plus you’ll get the fun of epic-level wizard shenanigans.

I wouldn't even say SoU starts weak, the first chapter's the most open and non-linear of the campaign. I dunno, I love that little campaign in its entirety and I enjoy it more than HotU, but that's probably because I hate the Underdark.

I plan to play GOG Diamond edition (not Enhanced, of course) with Community Patch 1.72 and Henchman mod installed (no monster AI tweaks as for now, I think, only for henchman inventory/behavior management).

Dunno about your community patch and henchman mods, but I've played a few campaigns on the EE with no show-stoppers. Beamdog do have QA issues, but I've mostly run into them on the builder's side, and I'd be surprised if you had trouble especially with the official content. Also, the only NWN campaign I've ever played a Wizard on was Tyrants of the Moonsea, an EE expansion, and I do recommend it warmly. In fact, GOG has it at €1.69 on the Christmas sale right now.

 

[Cryomancer]

Edit: When I refer to the early levels being incredibly tedious I do not mean difficult. They will be pretty easy, but you will be rest spamming like crazy, and there are few things as tedious as abusing rest in NWN.

Not true. Just use your familiar/henchmann to attack while you use a crossbow at range. You don't need to cast a spell every single "turn". Also, after the tutorial you are lv 3. So you can easily cast Ghostly visage and have a DR 5/+1 and magical weapons are rare in early game. Using spell every single turn is something that you will only start to do later in game. This applies to every D&D game except 5E games where wizards can cast firebolt at will. If you really need to cast every turn, just get money and buy wands.

 

[Ramnozack]

Grab martial weapon prof, grab a greatsword, buff it with magic weapon and flame weapon, buff yourself with bulls strength, endurance, cats grace, ghostly visage, mage armor, and shield. Cut through everything with your familiar, easy.

 

[luj1]

Beholder familiar is my favorite, gets all sorts of random effects as you lvl up... sleep ray, paralyzing ray, instant death ray, etc...

otherwise, wizard is not hard to play

during early levels grab 1d10 heavy crossbow and elemental dmg arrow for a nice chunk of damage

I like gnome/halfling as they get bonuses to AC

crucial defensive spells are stoneskin, haste, improved invisibility

you need a mix of defensive, offensive and control spells

if you want to multiclass wizard, rogue is fun

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Roll a barbarian

 

[oldmanpaco]

There is only one wizard to play and his name is Muscle:

Spoiler

edit: Fuck now I want to try to play this. I'm so bored.

 

[Cryomancer]

For pets, I would recommend Panther. Sneak attack. 3 Attacks per round. +3 damage. He can easily carry you in the first chapter. Later you can change to more "magical" pets. I remember that the panther scored 30 damage when I was lv 3(was a crit). I don't like that you can change familiar every level but I use it. IMO changing familiar should only be in severe situations, like if the wizard become a vampire and his familiar is not a bat/rat/shadow/etc.

 

[Sinatar]

Tip 1: Don't play Neverwinter Nights

 

[Lacrymas]

Don't play the OC would be my recommendation. There isn't all that much that can be said about pure Wizards. You'll be resting quite a lot at first and spamming that frost ray like there's no tomorrow, but the first few levels go by quickly enough. You also have a henchman to tank for you and 99% of NWN content really isn't difficult.

 

[Ryzer]

Tip 1: Don't play Neverwinter Nights

Tip 2: Uninstall it

 

[gothfox]

GOG has it at €1.69 on the Christmas sale right now.

imagine paying money to beamdog. ew.

 

[d1nolore]

When you get bored of the OC try HotU.