NWN Neverwinter Nights (NWN & NWN2) Modules Thread

[hkt]

After taking my sweet time with Swordflight Chapter II, I'm happy to say that I've completed it. All of the good things said about it weren't a bit exaggerated, it really is a Baldur's Gate-esque adventure with myself liking certain parts of the experience more than Swordflight's spiritual ancestors. I don't think there ever was a moment where I was incredibly frustrated or bored with the module and there are many stand-out moments, but my favorite part of the game was the Forest of Mir goblin army quest. Prior to leaving the city I was starting to kick ass and had a comparatively easy time, as much as one can have an easy time in the series. But the moment I entered Tebnas, the goblins and their hill giants started assraping me like crazy, I really had to think about my strategy this time around and was forced to avoid overlooking even the most minute and minor advantadge I could use. It was a big jump in difficulty, but a welcome one at that. Smashing the gobbos was incredibly satisfying and the quest presented arguably the most difficult encounter of the chapter - Gorav, Ulaz and the Aranea caster. Apart from the humanoid army portions, the class quest for evil rogues and the one for monks were excellent and one of the most memorable parts of my playthrough.

The companions I also found to be quite interesting. Lead performer in that regard is naturally Zagash the fucking baller. Dude made life so much easier for me on so many occasions due the merit of being undead or having a fear aura around him. I got used to him so much that I started to dread doing the "Help Zekar" quest with Talu and Snajagh who I didn't even gear up or adventure with beforehand - instead opting for Chelys and Barazh. Thankfully much difficulty was offset by Snajagh being a Cleric and the temporary Harper companion having an undead instakill rapier. The Helmite orc duo henchmen and their quest were likewise quite cool, as was the brief half-fiend companion you could have for the Zekar tower.

The RP options and reactivity are as great as they were in Chapter I, so in summary - excellent. As a player of an evil PC I really liked that being a baddie was not penalized nor discourgaged as much as it is in some of the classic CRPG titles. If anything, it's probably more optimal to play an evil or at the very least neutral, leaning to evil, character due to Zagash being so useful as well as the half-fiend quite literally being able to solo the tower for you.

Now, I'm gonna have to ask again for tips on my build here, since epic level character building are uncharted waters for myself. I've had a pretty good time with this build and as I've said above I can't say I ever hit a wall and struggled for a very long time with an encounter. It is a bit worrisome for me that my sneak attacks are most likely going to get increasingly irrelevant as time goes on and more enemies wind up being immune to crits and sneak attacks. I've been very greedy with the two-handed feats and I am yet to take the almost essential Blind Fight, which should be my last feat before epic levels, unless you guys think something else is more worth it. For the other things I don't have much idea in all honesty, be it spreading my levels and taking feats after lvl 20, so any help is welcome!

Your build is pretty locked in you mainly have to decide how far you're willing to take monk.

Lvl 11 for poison immunity or all the way to 20 for mind immunity with the trade-off being less skillpoints and sneak damage.
Personally I'd take 20 monk for comfort and to avoid losing my dodge and tumble bonuses when hit by some mind effect. (don't take slippery mind in rogue special bonus feats then)

In epic levels I agree with Rogueknight if you're capable of reaching 25 dex unbuffed you should go straight for epic dodge.

After that it becomes kinda up to you
2 greater dex feats = 1ab/1ac/1skillpoint/1reflex save
epic prowess + armor skin = 1ab + 2ac and you give up the latter

Sometimes there's an angle for epic skill focus I like it on taunt but among rogue skills I don't know if there is one that warrants an epic feat for a +10 bonus.

A ch3 specific tip your build benefits from is buying scrolls of Owl's Insight at the druid vendor.
It's the only place that sells them and the buff gives more AC/saves than Zarala. I mainly use it on very big boss fights if I know it won't be dispelled.

Second part of ch3 has different content based on your race.
The human path has the least sneak immune enemies in my experience. Had you picked halfling you were heading to what is possibly the hardest zone + boss as a rogue.

Good luck

 

[Pikoman]

Good to know you enjoyed the module, though perhaps you should be warned that most people do not think the subsequent chapters are as good, so if you continue the series you have an excellent chance of running into situations that are either incredibly frustrating or boring, which one perhaps depending on how much of a power gamer one is.

Playing as evil is supposed to be more advantageous, on average. As I saw it, if being good offered more material advantages than being evil, there is no reason why any character in the world with more than half a brain would ever be evil.

The biggest problem with your build is that your BAB, and AB generally, are a bit low, so you can expect to sometimes struggle against enemies with high AC (who are not that rare in Swordflight). Again, the books allowing Monks to cast Divine Power should be of some help here. Blindfight in indeed the most crucial feat to get, though Toughness and Improved Critical: Kama would also have been nice to take if you could have fit them in somewhere. Once in Epic levels you should probably primarily focus on taking Great Dexterity feats and try to eventually get Epic Dodge. For that you will need to take the Defensive Roll feat as a Rogue bonus feat at level 10 (you already have Improved Evasion from Monk) and keep your Tumble skill up (which you want to do anyway for the AC bonus). Monk starts to offer diminishing returns past level 20, so you might want to start focusing more on Rogue at that point.

I've read up on some of the latter modules and it was my impression as well that they are not as well received, but in all honesty it's no wonder if you compare them to Chapter II. It'd be really unfair to expect from one person in his free time to make multiple big sized modules with the same freedom of exploration and design as in Calimshan. Not only it would be incredibly hard and tiring to pull off for a single person, but it wouldn't really make much sense from a story perspective, since a more focused and streamlined way of doing things is necessary in order for the plot to move forward. The increasing focus on combat I don't mind either, I recently finished the Minotaur Maze/Lich Lair and in certain ways it was a more fun experience than some of the other very well made dungeon delves in the first two chapters, though I'd imagine it'd be quite the trial by fire for anyone who struggled a lot with the first two chapters. The jump in difficulty is indeed palpable, though entirely manageable for myself at least so far.

My thoughts exactly on your philosophy behind evil alignments. If we have to be realistic, having a moral code and rigid set of values would make your life harder while upholding them - not the opposite. For example, I remember being pretty miffed by the Baldur's Gate merchants being omnipresent and knowledgeable regarding your "evilness", slapping you with huge price tags on everything, because they somehow know you killed a dryad in some forest or similar bullshit.

Thanks for the build tips! Thankfully(or regrettably, considering the amount of gold I splashed) I have two sets of the meditations book actually, since I bought one from a merchant before finding one in the Consuming Fire HQ. The AB is indeed the problematic part of my Monk/Rogue experience, no doubt about that. It's good though that with the sheer amount of APR with flurry and the haste item, my PC tends to get a hit in a satisfactory amount of time against high AC mobs, be it by rolling a nat 20 on an attack or just managing to roll a 19 or whatever is needed as minimum for the mob faced.

Your build is pretty locked in you mainly have to decide how far you're willing to take monk.

Lvl 11 for poison immunity or all the way to 20 for mind immunity with the trade-off being less skillpoints and sneak damage.
Personally I'd take 20 monk for comfort and to avoid losing my dodge and tumble bonuses when hit by some mind effect. (don't take slippery mind in rogue special bonus feats then)

In epic levels I agree with Rogueknight if you're capable of reaching 25 dex unbuffed you should go straight for epic dodge.

After that it becomes kinda up to you
2 greater dex feats = 1ab/1ac/1skillpoint/1reflex save
epic prowess + armor skin = 1ab + 2ac and you give up the latter

Sometimes there's an angle for epic skill focus I like it on taunt but among rogue skills I don't know if there is one that warrants an epic feat for a +10 bonus.

A ch3 specific tip your build benefits from is buying scrolls of Owl's Insight at the druid vendor.
It's the only place that sells them and the buff gives more AC/saves than Zarala. I mainly use it on very big boss fights if I know it won't be dispelled.

Second part of ch3 has different content based on your race.
The human path has the least sneak immune enemies in my experience. Had you picked halfling you were heading to what is possibly the hardest zone + boss as a rogue.

Good luck

Thanks, man! Will deffo go for Epic Dodge whenever I am able to, per your and rogueknight's suggestions. I'll have to think on how much monk levels I'd want to put in as you've said as well, definitely. Not entirely sure if mind immunity at lvl 20 would be worth it by itself, though the couple extra HP I'd get, as well as some extra AC from getting more monk levels in might be good, not to mention the saves.

It's a pretty big relief to here that they aren't much SA immune mobs on the human path lmao. The scroll merchant tip is noted as well, I already have a shitton of Owl's Wisdom pots hoarded from the previous chapter, but might as well splash some bank on its superior version in regards to buffing my Wis.

 

[Gargaune]

rogueknight333 or any other Toolset jockeys around here, are you aware of any mod that gives you fully functional placeable doors? As in the original tileset doors but freely placeable, not scripted "secret door" placeables? I swear I saw one some time ago, maybe last year, but now I can't find it for the life of me. I'm aware of the Toolset trick to "unhinge" a door from its tile, but it's a right pain in the ass to place via X/Y.

 

[rogueknight333]

rogueknight333 or any other Toolset jockeys around here, are you aware of any mod that gives you fully functional placeable doors? ...

Possibly this hakpak is what you want? Nothing else comes to mind.

 

[Gargaune]

Possibly this hakpak is what you want? Nothing else comes to mind.

Thanks, guess that's gotta be it! I'd actually looked at it, but the author didn't pack the .2da in the demo hak and I'd just thought it was deprecated. The doors are just decor, though, no area transition. You could toggle a ground area transition on the animation state, but it's kinda hackneyed.

So you've either got this or dialogue-driven doors, but those aren't NPC accessible, I suppose the best approach is still the tileset trick.

 

[Sweeper]

In regards to the playerbase and DM side it's a mixed bag and can vary greatly - as is the case with big PWs most of the time. I myself have steered away from retarded drama and the resident weirdos and cybersexing degens (there's a sizable amount of those types even if erotic roleplay is a permaban offence according to server rules) have left me alone. DMs aren't very active and approachable as well, unless you're in an official faction, though even that is not certain to net you very frequent DM events and interactions.

I read some anon on /vrpg/ talking about how he got a shit ton of nude pics from wine moms on NWN's PWs. I found it sussy, and yet here we are.
Think I'll stick to the single player shit.

 

[TheKing01]

Tried Ultima IV: Rebirth.

Unfortunately, didn't care for it. The NWN engine and mechanics just don't translate well to a good Ultima experience imo (segmented world as opposed to being seamless, DnD style early 2000s combat, lack of world simulation i.e no day/night cycle, NPC schedules, context-sensitive conversations since the NPCs don't move from their current location) . These deficiencies were exacerbated as I played it through the context of mutual playthroughs of the Ultima remakes for Dungeon Siege, which are excellent RPGs in their own right.

Honestly, the DS remakes make me wonder why the modding scene for Dungeon Siege wasn't more prominent. I suppose it's because NWN1 was coming from a much more recognized setting and developer. Shame, because I can name more than a few TCs for NWN that'd probably work better in Dungeon Siege.

 

[Gargaune]

lack of world simulation i.e no day/night cycle, NPC schedules, context-sensitive conversations since the NPCs don't move from their current location

I mean, you can do all of that in NWN, but it takes a bit of effort to script everything. Guessing more than the port author had to spare for the project.

 

[Pikoman]

I read some anon on /vrpg/ talking about how he got a shit ton of nude pics from wine moms on NWN's PWs. I found it sussy, and yet here we are.
Think I'll stick to the single player shit.

Yeah, I saw the exact same thread you are talking about. Needless to say, I was shocked myself by some of the stuff that has happened and sadly most of the gossip was surrounding the same server I've played on extensively. The great stuff are still there though, be it on POTM, Arelith or other less populated servers. I think it is a great flaw in RPG development that a similar philosophy to NWN's hasn't been widely accepted since its inception, there is no tool in other games comparable to the DM client and Aurora and no other game is able to replicate the PnP experience as well as NWN. It's a good idea to give the online experience a spin in my book - either you get lucky like me and stray from much controversy/weird shit/terminally online people or you simply waste some time and leave the server, realizing it's not your thing.

 

[luj1]

PWs are great

I used to play on Noctar's Noble Realm. I think it was among the best RP/social PWs out there content-wise, very detailed and handmade, picked up a prize from the NWNVault back in the day. The crafting system was very addictive too. NNR was founded in 2003 and the world was HUGE, on the level of a commercial title.

There is a good Dark Sun server in development, very difficult and unforgiving

 

[Shuruga]

I just posted my second module, the Demons of Tyrbas, over on the Vault. It won't appeal to everyone, but I tried to put together an interesting story, engaging battles, and some meaningful decisions along the way.

Edit: Up now on Steam, too.