NWN Neverwinter Nights (NWN & NWN2) Modules Thread

[hkt]

Did another playthrough of Swordflight in anticipation for ch5.

Went with bit of fun and tried whip wielding, horse riding, and 20+ levels of shadowdancer to get a really big epic shadowlord.
It came out way better than I expected, whips have great CC effects like DC20 stun which synergize with improved whirlwind attack. That combination regularly locks up a few of the low will fighter type enemies.
There's nice variety in whips as well and even one or two big unique ones.

Horse riding felt a bit limited you can't bring them anywhere except outdoor areas but I still got some decent value out of it on the ch3 fire giants which are brutal with low AC.

 

[notpl]

Doesn't Shadowdancer cap at 10 levels?

EDIT

Also, anticipation for chapter 5? Fuck, I sort of petered out with swordflight in chapter 2, I had no idea it was still being actively developed. When's it supposed to drop?

 

[hkt]

The lvl 10 cap for prestige classes only applies up to level 20 after that you can go crazy and pick 20 more, 30 is the real cap i suppose.

As for ETA, the creator posted that he's in the playtesting testing phase working out the kinks. No rush though take your time and make it a banger. :D

 

[Gargaune]

And then there should be a final Chapter 6 after that.

 

[notpl]

Alright, I'm jonesing for more Swordflight after ruminating on it for a day. What are some build ideas if I haven't played NWN1 in awhile and my munchkin-fu is a bit rusty? And of course, I don't remember the magic equipment availability very well, although I do remember it being incredibly diverse. My gut instinct is a ranger/shadowdancer/assassin dex build with enough int to make good use of death attack and general skill competency but I remember swordflight having a LOT of sneak attack-immune enemies, so maybe that's a bad idea?

 

[notpl]

And is Swordflight fully functional on the enhanced edition, or should I bust out the old diamond edition for it? I apologize for asking, as I'm sure this has been covered in this thread several times, but the search functions are pretty barebones here and I couldn't find a clear answer just throwing keywords together.

 

[Ziggy]

played swordflight until about halfway through chapter 3 (then my pc died and i didnt have a backup) as a bardbarian with some blackguard in the mix, went rather well. on ee too

 

[Gargaune]

What are some build ideas if I haven't played NWN1 in awhile and my munchkin-fu is a bit rusty?

I'd always recommend a few levels of Rogue for utility since your main companion through the series is a Bard, she can handle traps but she can't open locks for you. Beyond that, it's been a while and I'm not enough a of a minmaxer to advise.

And is Swordflight fully functional on the enhanced edition, or should I bust out the old diamond edition for it?

RK develops and tests primarily on the DE, so that's his official recommendation. That said, I've played chapters 1 through 4 on the DE, but once Ch.5 comes out I'll be switching to the EE. It's been solid for me in other modules, so I'm up for it.

 

[EtcEtcEtc]

Finished all the campaigns and two premium modules.

The OC is bad. I think someone mentioned that the plot of an ancient lizard queen coming back to manipulate people and become a god is pretty cool - and on it's face it is - but the way it plays out is such boring shit. It also speaks to a problem I have with shared universe storytelling like Forgotten Realms, Marvel Comics, etc - was this ancient lizard race around or spoken of before Neverwinter Nights? Because it seems like just added cruft of "Oh by the way there was also an ancient precursor race" which, at some point it all just starts getting ridiculous - Forgotten Realms has: Gods, a gajillion races, precursor races, devils and demons on the outer planes, - like the constant need to add another layer just makes it all seem silly at some point. Also Arbelith was mentioned multiple times as a high point, wtf are people talking about? She only stands out as a character because literally everyone else is one dimensonal. She's just Bastilla from KOTOR before Bastilla. She sucks.

Undrentide was more fun - the writing was better, quest design was better - I liked the interlude where it just felt like you and your buddies were going on small adventures disassociated from the main plot - helped provide some variety. I wish the Shadow City had been explored more rather then the final floating continent, and the final battle fell flat, but it was still fun.

HOU was really good. Good opening dungeon - fun bit in the underdark, and especially the final chapter - the fight with the opposing party built of prior characters was great. Also exploring the nine hells was closest to Torment that Bioware has ever gotten, just really good writing in there with the Sleeping Man, the knowers, etc, loved it. I didn't use her, but Arbelith realizing she threw away all her beliefs out of pride rather then because she loved that fey fuck from the first game.

Darkness over Daggerford was good, I played the EE premium version. Fun stuff, nothing fantastic but much better then the OC.

My biggest surprise has been Pirates of the Sword Coast though - it's surprisingly good. There's lots of little skill checks, the story is fun, and it has a fantastic Troglydyte companion, Garm, who comes from a society where if you defeat someone in battle you are honor bound to eat them and they are honor bound to follow you until you do. It leads to some very funny dialogue that's coming from story telling rather then wacky memes or references. It's also just super weird. I love it.

 

[notpl]

Alright, operating on the assumption that I want to do Swordflight as an assassin, where should I start? As I see it, the four options are rogue, bard, ranger and monk.

Monk is the most interesting, but also requires the widest stat spread to be viable and comes with severe weapon restrictions. Pretty much has to use a kama, and while I'm sure swordflight provides decent options there it's still a demerit. Plus, a monk/assassin can only be lawful evil, which might be problematic for a roleplaying-heavy module.

Ranger is the martial option - free dual wielding feats, martial weapon and medium armor proficiency to make the character a bit tougher against sneak attack-immune enemies, a few utility spells of almost no use, and full BAB progression. This character could end up with 6 attacks per round base by doing 9 ranger and assassin/shadowdancer from there.

Rogue is obvious - more skills, more sneak attack dice. The problem is that this doubles up on the assassin's strengths as well as its weaknesses, and the weaknesses are what kill characters in Swordflight. Against half the enemies in the game, this character is just fucked.

Bard is a wildcard, having most of the rogue's skills, some spellcasting, unique buffs, but similar shitty proficiencies and BAB to a rogue or monk. I feel like this COULD work, but I have no immediate ideas as to how.

My inclination is toward monk or ranger, for their ability to compensate for the assassin class's inherent weaknesses and the ability to access some cross-class content, as I remember Swordflight having a good deal of unique stuff there and a pure rogue/assassin will be shoehorned into strictly thief-type stuff. Thoughts from more accomplished NWN min/maxers?

 

[Gargaune]

EtcEtcEtc, get Tyrants of the Moonsea next. Actually, play the free Siege of Shadowdale and Crimson Tides of Tethyr modules first, then move on to the TotM EE expansion.

notpl, you've got Zarala in Swordflight, if you roll a bard yourself just look for a mod that gives you a Summon Bard spell and you'll be able to do AC/DC covers.

 

[rogueknight333]

And is Swordflight fully functional on the enhanced edition, or should I bust out the old diamond edition for it? ...

EE introduced a steady stream of bugs into Swordflight, varying with each patch, so if it is practical for you to use Diamond instead that is the safer option. It has been extensively tested on Diamond and your chances of running into bugs on that is much lower. That said, it has been some time since I received an EE-specific bug report, so hopefully EE works on the most up to date version.

Alright, operating on the assumption that I want to do Swordflight as an assassin, where should I start? As I see it, the four options are rogue, bard, ranger and monk...

Assassin is actually a rather weak class in NWN whatever you do. Its only real advantage over a Rogue is the ability to paralyze with its Sneak Attacks, and since trashmobs typically die so quickly paralyzing them is redundant, and bosses typically are immune to paralysis, most of the time taking Assassin levels just means taking Rogue levels except with half the skill points and without the bonus feats (and this last also means no Epic Dodge for DEX assassins unless you get the feats from some other class, typically Shadowdancer). Technically they also get a few bonus spells (Improved Invisibility in particular being a very good one), but rogues with Use Magic Device will most likely be able to duplicate this one way or another.

Death Attack is probably a bit more useful in Swordflight than it is in NWN generally, since in Swordflight even trashmobs can often be rather tough and some bosses are not immune. Another advantage of Assassins in Swordflight is that they can expect to get some very good assassin-specific items, including armor offering Hide in Plain Sight as a bonus feat, obviating the need to take a Shadowdancer level for that purpose. It is still probably not worth it from a pure power-gaming perspective.

If you still want to play an assassin just for the fun of it, I would be inclined to suggest monk as the base class. This will give you Evasion and Improved Evasion (another thing you lose out on by taking assassin rather than rogue). Monk also gets Knockdown as a free class feat, and that is very useful for rendering your targets vulnerable to your Death Attack. Extra attacks are a good complement to classes that get bonus damage for each attack, as Death Attack provides. Monk gives you option of either taking 5 Shadowdancer levels as a third class to get Defensive Roll and qualify for Epic Dodge. That assumes you are DEX based - STR based could work too (better DPS but worse AC), or with Monk even WIS based is an option if you want to take Zen Archery and use ranged weapons. Alternatively you can take a few levels in a warrior class as a third class for better BAB and dual-wielding (Fighter bonus feats might do as well as Ranger at giving you dual-wielding capability if you are going for that, though Ranger is better complement in terms of skills).

Being largely limited to using Kamas as your primary weapon is not a big deal, as there are some good one available and in any case once you take any weapon-specific feats with any class your options are similarly limited. The main disadvantage of Kamas is that they have no special crit bonuses, but since an assassin can expect to be doing heavy Death Attack damage to enemies who are not crit immune in any case that is not a huge loss in these circumstances. Playing as a consistent alignment should ideally enhance the role-playing experience (unless you just want to technically be Lawful Evil to qualify for the classes but not actually play as if you were Lawful Evil, in which case I guess the frequent alignment shifts in Swordflight could be an issue).

notpl, you've got Zarala in Swordflight, if you roll a bard yourself just look for a mod that gives you a Summon Bard spell and you'll be able to do AC/DC covers.

Bard/Assassin could be viable too, but you do have to be aware that Zarala will often render your Bard Song bonuses redundant. If playing a Bard (with whatever other classes) in Swordflight, I suggest taking Curse Song so you can use your Bard Song to debuff enemies while Zarala handles the buffing.

 

[notpl]

I'm well aware that Assassin is a bad class in its NWN implementation, it's absolutely a roleplaying/aesthetic choice. Monk/Assassin sounds like a way to make the best of a bad situation. The chapter 1 dungeon is going to be a nightmare, though.

 

[notpl]

What does the message "You have found a source of knowledge about the monastic path" when finding certain books mean as a monk?

 

[rogueknight333]

What does the message "You have found a source of knowledge about the monastic path" when finding certain books mean as a monk?

Not much. When you first acquire the "Meditations for Monks" book in Ch. 1 when playing as a monk, you get that message and a small XP reward. It does not mean the book will later have any special purpose beyond the obvious if that is what you are wondering.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Alright, operating on the assumption that I want to do Swordflight as an assassin, where should I start? As I see it, the four options are rogue, bard, ranger and monk.

Monk is the most interesting, but also requires the widest stat spread to be viable and comes with severe weapon restrictions. Pretty much has to use a kama, and while I'm sure swordflight provides decent options there it's still a demerit. Plus, a monk/assassin can only be lawful evil, which might be problematic for a roleplaying-heavy module.

Ranger is the martial option - free dual wielding feats, martial weapon and medium armor proficiency to make the character a bit tougher against sneak attack-immune enemies, a few utility spells of almost no use, and full BAB progression. This character could end up with 6 attacks per round base by doing 9 ranger and assassin/shadowdancer from there.

Rogue is obvious - more skills, more sneak attack dice. The problem is that this doubles up on the assassin's strengths as well as its weaknesses, and the weaknesses are what kill characters in Swordflight. Against half the enemies in the game, this character is just fucked.

Bard is a wildcard, having most of the rogue's skills, some spellcasting, unique buffs, but similar shitty proficiencies and BAB to a rogue or monk. I feel like this COULD work, but I have no immediate ideas as to how.

My inclination is toward monk or ranger, for their ability to compensate for the assassin class's inherent weaknesses and the ability to access some cross-class content, as I remember Swordflight having a good deal of unique stuff there and a pure rogue/assassin will be shoehorned into strictly thief-type stuff. Thoughts from more accomplished NWN min/maxers?

Roll a barbarian.

 

[notpl]

Alright, operating on the assumption that I want to do Swordflight as an assassin, where should I start? As I see it, the four options are rogue, bard, ranger and monk.

Monk is the most interesting, but also requires the widest stat spread to be viable and comes with severe weapon restrictions. Pretty much has to use a kama, and while I'm sure swordflight provides decent options there it's still a demerit. Plus, a monk/assassin can only be lawful evil, which might be problematic for a roleplaying-heavy module.

Ranger is the martial option - free dual wielding feats, martial weapon and medium armor proficiency to make the character a bit tougher against sneak attack-immune enemies, a few utility spells of almost no use, and full BAB progression. This character could end up with 6 attacks per round base by doing 9 ranger and assassin/shadowdancer from there.

Rogue is obvious - more skills, more sneak attack dice. The problem is that this doubles up on the assassin's strengths as well as its weaknesses, and the weaknesses are what kill characters in Swordflight. Against half the enemies in the game, this character is just fucked.

Bard is a wildcard, having most of the rogue's skills, some spellcasting, unique buffs, but similar shitty proficiencies and BAB to a rogue or monk. I feel like this COULD work, but I have no immediate ideas as to how.

My inclination is toward monk or ranger, for their ability to compensate for the assassin class's inherent weaknesses and the ability to access some cross-class content, as I remember Swordflight having a good deal of unique stuff there and a pure rogue/assassin will be shoehorned into strictly thief-type stuff. Thoughts from more accomplished NWN min/maxers?

Roll a barbarian.

I am congenitally incapable of playing a character who cannot sneak.

 

[Gargaune]

Roll a barbarian.

I am congenitally incapable of playing a character who cannot sneak.

Roll a Barbarian/Rogue.

 

[notpl]

probably should have just done fighter/str rogue multi because this character is real real bad

 

[rogueknight333]

Monk is likely to be rather painful at low levels in Swordflight. Perhaps I should have emphasized that more when making that suggestion. Not that Monk/Assassin is precisely good at any point, but you can expect to have a few more resources at your disposal later on. In particular, once you get the first assassin level you can put points in Set Traps and/or Use Magic Device, either of which significantly increases your tactical options. Getting HiPS from the special assassin armor is also a big help. Make sure you are actually using the buffs from the Meditations book (among other sources).

 

[Don Peste]

 

[notpl]

Monk is likely to be rather painful at low levels in Swordflight. Perhaps I should have emphasized that more when making that suggestion. Not that Monk/Assassin is precisely good at any point, but you can expect to have a few more resources at your disposal later on. In particular, once you get the first assassin level you can put points in Set Traps and/or Use Magic Device, either of which significantly increases your tactical options. Getting HiPS from the special assassin armor is also a big help. Make sure you are actually using the buffs from the Meditations book (among other sources).

Use Magic Device is not really viable for an assassin, as the DCs for even the simplest spells are in the mid-20s and you cannot take 20 on the rolls. Since charges and scrolls are consumed regardless, any character but a bard is going to waste 9 out of 10 attempts and quickly bankrupt themselves. With a level of assassin for sneak attack and Improved Knockdown from monk progression, combat has become bearable for now, although I have a sneaking suspicion I'll have to use a save editor to respec into a combat class later in chapter 2 when the game becomes more of a straight combat gauntlet (the exterior areas where one fights waves upon waves of monstrous humanoids was where I remember giving up last time)

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

"Original Neverwinter Nights"

Videogame "journalists"

 

[rogueknight333]

Use Magic Device is not really viable for an assassin, as the DCs for even the simplest spells are in the mid-20s and you cannot take 20 on the rolls...

The DC check is only relevant for scrolls, you should still be able to use many wands (among other items) with only a few points in Magic Device. It is possible to get enough skill points to even use scrolls effectively as an assassin, but with fewer skill points it means sacrifices elsewhere and might not be worth it. Combat should actually get a little easier at mid-level as you can potentially have HiPS, Set Traps and possibly some Use Magic Device skill by then, any one of which gives you additional options for cheesing difficult fights.

 

[notpl]

Is it a known NWN bug that paralyzed creatures don't lose their dexterity bonus to AC? I've tested it repeatedly with Death Attack on all sorts of different enemies and they definitely don't lose any defense, at least some of the time.