NWN Neverwinter Nights (NWN & NWN2) Modules Thread

[hkt]

Those might have uncanny dodge I, they retain their AC even if caught flat-footed.

 

[rogueknight333]

Possibly the creatures in question have Uncanny Dodge, which prevents them from losing DEX AC?

There is a known bug whereby being flat-footed can also remove negative Dodge AC inflicted by things like Curse Song, or being slowed or taunted.

Aside from that, I do not know of anything, though if you are playing in EE running into novel bugs is entirely possible.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

novel bugs

What is this, the forgotten realms version of a bookworm?

 

[notpl]

Those might have uncanny dodge I, they retain their AC even if caught flat-footed.

Paralyzed is different from flat-footed, unless the problem is that NWN treats them all the same for purposes of the feat. Not really worth worrying about, at any rate, as I doubt it's going to get patched even if it is a bug.

 

[notpl]

Oh, good lord, True Seeing lets enemies see you through non-magical stealth in NWN? That's a pretty severe blow to a dedicated stealth character. Will anything break severely if I reroll a more potent character for chapter 3? I guess I could just use a save editor at the end of part 2 to reconfigure and then save all the story choices to carry over.

 

[Sabotin]

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

The wiki has pretty good documentation regardings bugs and special quirks of the game, it's not exactly pnp faithful.

Btw how'd you test this? To trigger death attack the target's gotta be flat-footed and after getting paralysed it's stilll flat-footed and will have the same AC anyway.

 

[notpl]

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

The wiki has pretty good documentation regardings bugs and special quirks of the game, it's not exactly pnp faithful.

Btw how'd you test this? To trigger death attack the target's gotta be flat-footed and after getting paralysed it's stilll flat-footed and will have the same AC anyway.

By fighting Cherys, the optional companion in chapter 2, screenshotting the log of hits/misses, then reloading and recruiting her to see what her AC breakdown is once she was on my team. With her paralyzed I was missing on 26s, 27s, etc., when her flat-footed AC should be 23.

 

[rogueknight333]

Paralyzed is different from flat-footed, unless the problem is that NWN treats them all the same for purposes of the feat...

It does, and Chelys has Uncanny Dodge, so that is explained.

Oh, good lord, True Seeing lets enemies see you through non-magical stealth in NWN? That's a pretty severe blow to a dedicated stealth character. Will anything break severely if I reroll a more potent character for chapter 3? I guess I could just use a save editor at the end of part 2 to reconfigure and then save all the story choices to carry over.

Enemies with True Seeing are not that common, but, yes, you will need tactics other than stealth to deal with them. It is generally not a good idea to be a one trick pony in Swordflight.

Switching out characters will not precisely break anything as it should be possible to play each chapter independently, though it would mean you would not see some of the consequences you otherwise would in later chapters for decisions made in earlier ones (most notably alterations to Zarala's alignment). Using a save editor as you suggest should work, as information is not saved to the Swordflight database until the final conversation ending the module. You might end up also regretting whatever you switch to, though, as I have laid sadistic traps for characters of all types throughout the series.

 

[notpl]

Still, though, I have to assume that the ability to either dish out or take/avoid damage - one of the two, at the very least - will become a character progression filter at some point no matter what traps you've laid for the obvious munchkin builds. Speccing into shadowdancer instead of Assassin at the very least would make a monk incredibly dodgy/tanky.

 

[rogueknight333]

Still, though, I have to assume that the ability to either dish out or take/avoid damage - one of the two, at the very least - will become a character progression filter at some point no matter what traps you've laid for the obvious munchkin builds. Speccing into shadowdancer instead of Assassin at the very least would make a monk incredibly dodgy/tanky.

There are definitely stronger builds than what you are using. That was plain from the start. And Monks are tanky, the class mostly gets defensive benefits. I am not sure what you think Shadowdancer in particular would add here, though? In Swordflight Asssasins can get HiPS from items, and you already have Evasion as a Monk feat. Shadowdancer might eventually help you meet the requirements for Epic Dodge (if you are DEX-based) but that would not be relevant until well into Epic levels.

 

[luj1]

Undrentide was more fun - the writing was better, quest design was better

I actually prefer SoU to HotU

its very cleanly executed, HotU is a thematic mess

 

[luj1]

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.

Agree that PotSC is underrated among smaller modules. I liked it more that DoD and Kingmaker

what is your opinion on Winds of Eremor and Dark Rangers Treasure

also the first Witch's Wake is excellent

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Dark Rangers Treasure

Either this one or Witch's wake I remember stepping out of the in to be greeted by an absolute army of mephit thingies. Kept killing, they kept spawning and eventually the game crashed.

 

[notpl]

Still, though, I have to assume that the ability to either dish out or take/avoid damage - one of the two, at the very least - will become a character progression filter at some point no matter what traps you've laid for the obvious munchkin builds. Speccing into shadowdancer instead of Assassin at the very least would make a monk incredibly dodgy/tanky.

There are definitely stronger builds than what you are using. That was plain from the start. And Monks are tanky, the class mostly gets defensive benefits. I am not sure what you think Shadowdancer in particular would add here, though? In Swordflight Asssasins can get HiPS from items, and you already have Evasion as a Monk feat. Shadowdancer might eventually help you meet the requirements for Epic Dodge (if you are DEX-based) but that would not be relevant until well into Epic levels.

Defensive Roll + scaling AC bonus/concealment/DR and a summon that gets very strong in epic tier. Isn't Ch.3 where epic progression starts?

 

[EtcEtcEtc]

Agree that PotSC is underrated among smaller modules. I liked it more that DoD and Kingmaker

what is your opinion on Winds of Eremor and Dark Rangers Treasure

also the first Witch's Wake is excellent

I haven't played Winds of Eremor or Dark Rangers Treasure, Kingmaker was pretty bad - and Witch's Wake seemed really cool but then it just ended out of nowhere - I was enticed enough by the initial design that I went searching for follow ups, but there was obviously never anything else made in that series.

Kind of blows my mind it was a module directly associated with the game but it never saw any follow ups. Was the author someone at Bioware?

 

[luj1]

yeah

 

[rogueknight333]

Defensive Roll + scaling AC bonus/concealment/DR and a summon that gets very strong in epic tier. Isn't Ch.3 where epic progression starts?

Yes, you get into epic levels in Ch. 3. However you would not normally reach level 27 (the minimum at which you could take Epic Dodge) until Ch. 4, so Defensive Roll would only be marginally useful before that.

I never thought of Shadow Evade as being all that useful in a rest-restricted module due to its short duration and limited uses per day, though I suppose it could be if used judiciously.

The default Summons in Swordflight tend to be very weak at high levels as they were designed to take on Bioware monsters not Swordflight monsters. I improved Balors summoned by the Gate spell as of Ch. 2. Familiars and Animal Companions are potentially improved as part of a quest in Ch. 3 (and by default in Ch. 4) and Elementals summoned by the Summon Creatures spells potentially improved in Ch. 4. Other summons are the default ones as of now though Ch. 5 when it comes out should have quests allowing Blackguard, Palemaster and Shadowdancer summons to be improved. The summoned Shadow Fiend's Shadow Attack might be useful in some contingencies but I would be wary of relying on it too much.

Shadowdancer is certainly an option offering some benefits, but you might be overrating it in this context.

 

[notpl]

Defensive Roll + scaling AC bonus/concealment/DR and a summon that gets very strong in epic tier. Isn't Ch.3 where epic progression starts?

Yes, you get into epic levels in Ch. 3. However you would not normally reach level 27 (the minimum at which you could take Epic Dodge) until Ch. 4, so Defensive Roll would only be marginally useful before that.

I never thought of Shadow Evade as being all that useful in a rest-restricted module due to its short duration and limited uses per day, though I suppose it could be if used judiciously.

The default Summons in Swordflight tend to be very weak at high levels as they were designed to take on Bioware monsters not Swordflight monsters. I improved Balors summoned by the Gate spell as of Ch. 2. Familiars and Animal Companions are potentially improved as part of a quest in Ch. 3 (and by default in Ch. 4) and Elementals summoned by the Summon Creatures spells potentially improved in Ch. 4. Other summons are the default ones as of now though Ch. 5 when it comes out should have quests allowing Blackguard, Palemaster and Shadowdancer summons to be improved. The summoned Shadow Fiend's Shadow Attack might be useful in some contingencies but I would be wary of relying on it too much.

Shadowdancer is certainly an option offering some benefits, but you might be overrating it in this context.

Hrm. You raise good points, and maybe it's worth sticking to my guns on the character concept since the modules are designed to be hard as balls regardless. Making the best of a bad situation, then, I think it would probably be smart to get four levels of a full-BAB class by 20, so that BAB reaches 16 before epic levels. Just splitting monk/assassin evenly, the fractions don't work out in the player's favor, and every bit of BAB seems to help here. What do you think of fighter versus blackguard? Fighter is obviously *better*, since I could take kama specialization to get some much-needed bonus damage on every hit on what is otherwise not a very damaging dex build, but is the multiclass XP penalty much of a concern? Things seem to scale pretty aggressively in Swordflight, such that being higher level actually makes many situations exponentially more dangerous.

 

[rogueknight333]

Hrm. You raise good points, and maybe it's worth sticking to my guns on the character concept since the modules are designed to be hard as balls regardless. Making the best of a bad situation, then, I think it would probably be smart to get four levels of a full-BAB class by 20, so that BAB reaches 16 before epic levels. Just splitting monk/assassin evenly, the fractions don't work out in the player's favor, and every bit of BAB seems to help here. What do you think of fighter versus blackguard? Fighter is obviously *better*, since I could take kama specialization to get some much-needed bonus damage on every hit on what is otherwise not a very damaging dex build, but is the multiclass XP penalty much of a concern? Things seem to scale pretty aggressively in Swordflight, such that being higher level actually makes many situations exponentially more dangerous.

Are you playing a race where a multiclass XP penalty would be an issue? Prestige classes such as Assassin do not count for that purpose so if you are Human, it would not be an issue, and Fighter would clearly be better. Assuming you do not have high charisma (and CHA is probably serving as a dump stat for a Monk/Assassin) pretty much all a few Blackguard levels is giving you (aside from BAB) is an extra 1d6 Sneak Attack damage. Assuming it is an issue, then the XP penalty could be a problem at lower levels but gets less so as the series goes on, both because of scaling and because various opportunities to farm respawning encounters will open up (though actually doing the farming might get tedious).

More BAB is always helpful, though in the case of Monks one thing to be aware of is that you will get access to some "Advanced Meditations for Monks" books in the course of play that allow you to cast Divine Power, significantly mitigating BAB issues (often a problem for Monk builds). You may not want to rely on a short duration and limited use thing like that all the time, but it can be very helpful in fights against high AC foes.

Also I have been assuming that you will join the Thieves' Guild in Ch. 2 to gain access to the special Monk armor giving HiPS (though even if you do not, you will eventually get versions of this armor in later chapters). If by some chance you lack the skills for that (Disable Traps & Open Locks, primarily) or choose not to, Shadowdancer actually might be worth taking.

 

[notpl]

Yeah, I've already got that, though I was wondering if I'd need to snag a level of SD at some point to free me up to wear other, better monk armors. We'll see if it ever becomes an issue.

 

[0sacred]

Did anyone try Ultima IV: Rebirth? Is it worth playing?

Bonus points if you can tell if it's faithful to the original

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Did anyone try Ultima IV: Rebirth? Is it worth playing?

Bonus points if you can tell if it's faithful to the original

One of the first NWN user-made modules I downloaded a couple of years or so after the original game's release was an Ultima IV module but I only played the first few minutes and opted to play and complete the NWN version of PoR instead (first module I played to completion, in fact, and it got me hooked on modules). Don't know if the Ultima IV module I took a look at was this one though. Didn't like how generic it felt. There were a lot of meh modules back then along with many good ones.

 

[Tom Selleck]

I'm surprised there isn't more discussions of adaptations of older (2/3/3.5E) modules beyond the very obvious (pool of radiance, eye of the beholder). Has anyone played any more?

The NWNVault seems to have a bunch, but who knows if they're shit? https://neverwintervault.org/tags/classic-pnp-conversion

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I'm surprised there isn't more discussions of adaptations of older (2/3/3.5E) modules beyond the very obvious (pool of radiance, eye of the beholder). Has anyone played any more?

The NWNVault seems to have a bunch, but who knows if they're shit? https://neverwintervault.org/tags/classic-pnp-conversion

I remember playing against the reptile cult, or whatever it was called. Decent module.

 

[rogueknight333]

These are some of the better PnP conversions:

C2 - The Ghost Tower of Inverness and S4 - The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, by SirOtus
N1 - Against the Cult of The Reptile God by Rich Barker
Uk2 - The Sentinel by heresiologist
S1 - Tomb of Horrors by Ghool