NWN Neverwinter Nights (NWN & NWN2) Modules Thread

[Nerevar]

Who knew a spreadsheet could be so much fun. Now to see if I can make a Fighter/CoT/Wizard that doesn't suck (thinking about restarting my Swordflight playthrough as I dislike my simple character).

 

[Lacrymas]

Now to see if I can make a Fighter/CoT/Wizard

Paladin/Sorcerer/CoT seems like a better alternative. Paladin and Sorc generally complement each other perfectly, while CoT is a stronger Paladin which stacks with the Paladin bonuses. Wizard/Fighter are polar opposites attribute-wise, the only benefit fighters get from high INT is access to Weapon Master and more skill points (correct me if I'm wrong), while both Paladin and Sorc gain a looot more from high CHA, gives access to both divine and arcane spells, while still being able to have semi-high INT if you want the skill points. If I were to build a Fighter/Wizard, I'd probably go Fighter/Wizard/Arcane Archer (Weapon Master) maybe, but I'm sure there are a lot of alternatives.

 

[Nerevar]

Not sure how I could make that split work better than the one I'm working off but the saves look good.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Currently Rogue 4/Ranger 4/ Cleric 14 (was Rogue 4/Ranger 4/ Cleric 12 at lvl 20 for 16 BAB and getting 4 attacks per round).
I think it's a reasonably powerful character (tho a lot of SF3 is pure AIDS no matter what) , although if giving advice for making a swordflight 3 character I'd like to have at least 10 AC more (have 47 normally, 52 with bard song from Zarala).
Perhaps dex-based rogue/monk/cleric with a finessable weapon and maxed DEX and WIS could achieve a more comfortable AC while maintaining cleric spell casting and rogue skills/UMD? Dunno.

 

[Jason Liang]

Rogue 8/ Wizard 2/ CoT 10 is pretty good if you want to be able to do everything (other than wear heavy armor).

Rogue 8 + Wizard 2 gets you to BAB +7 to start taking CoT as your prestige class.

Wizard 2 is reasonably front-loaded and useful. It doesn't hurt your final BAB if you're going to take 10 levels of CoT, and all you need is a Ring of Wizardry and you'll be able to cast up to level 5 spells from memory.

Rogue and CoT are both pretty self-explanatory.

Overall I'm pretty fond of x 8/ Wiz 2/ Cot 10 setups.

 

[Lilura]

Enhanced GUI with transparent panels (full UI write-up).

 

[rogueknight333]

Who knew a spreadsheet could be so much fun. Now to see if I can make a Fighter/CoT/Wizard that doesn't suck (thinking about restarting my Swordflight playthrough as I dislike my simple character).

I doubt I would recommend this unless your character is primarily one or the other of these classes (e.g., a Fighter adding a level or 2 of Wizard for Spellcraft skill dumps and gaining the use of scrolls and wands, or a Wizard adding a level or 2 of Fighter for a few extra feats and free proficiencies). For a caster class to be effective, it needs lots of levels to cast spells that are actually powerful, overcome spell resistance, etc. True Spellsword characters tend not to work well in 3E D&D without access to prestige classes that NWN did not include. That said, if you do want to play a Spellsword type of character, the class combination most power-builders would recommend would probably be Paladin/Sorcerer/Red Dragon Disciple, with 4 Pal/26 Sorc/10 RDD being a typical spread at Lvl 40. In general, Lacrymas is right that Paladin/Sorcerer has much better synergy than Wizard/Fighter, but Palemaster complements a Fighter quite well, so you could take a few Wizard levels to qualify for that.

... the only benefit fighters get from high INT is access to Weapon Master and more skill points (correct me if I'm wrong)....

To be more precise, the benefit fighters get from high INT (in addition to skills) is that an INT of 13+ is a prerequisite to taking certain feats potentially useful to Fighters such as Improved Knockdown or Expertise. Since possessing the Expertise feat is a prerequisite for becoming a Weapon Master, that indirectly makes a 13+ INT necessary for that class.

Currently Rogue 4/Ranger 4/ Cleric 14 (was Rogue 4/Ranger 4/ Cleric 12 at lvl 20 for 16 BAB and getting 4 attacks per round).
I think it's a reasonably powerful character (tho a lot of SF3 is pure AIDS no matter what) , although if giving advice for making a swordflight 3 character I'd like to have at least 10 AC more (have 47 normally, 52 with bard song from Zarala).
Perhaps dex-based rogue/monk/cleric with a finessable weapon and maxed DEX and WIS could achieve a more comfortable AC while maintaining cleric spell casting and rogue skills/UMD? Dunno.

It is not bad, but those Ranger levels are not doing all that much for you aside from opening up some additional content (particularly if you have used them to keep your Animal Empathy skill at a reasonable level). A lot of power-builders actually recommend against getting 16+ BAB with a Cleric build, since theoretically one can just use the Divine Power spell to get 4 attacks per round, and with the last attack at one's full BAB in that case too (assuming one can always remember to in fact use this spell when needed). In the specific case of Swordflight with its rest restrictions though I suppose one could do worse than remove the need to rely on finite spell slots for that purpose.

I would not count on ever achieving an AC that is actually comfortable in Swordflight. Certainly a Monk would offer more defensive bonuses than a Ranger (though it would mean giving up using a shield). As an alternative to DEX and Weapon Finesse, with Monk one can also focus on WIS in conjunction with Zen Archery and a missile weapon, which would also help with Cleric spells. In general DEX-based characters (and Monks focusing on various abilities) will tend to have better AC once one gets into Epic levels, as at that point the Ability bonus starts to exceed what one can get from heavy armor. With a caster class one can also readily use the Improved Experise feat to add exactly +10 to AC, since Expertise being active does not weaken one's spellcasting, only physical attacks.

In NWN generally, one of the best combinations to really maximize AC (at the cost of being somewhat lacking in offensive power) would be a DEX-based Bard/Palemaster. This is not as great for that purpose in Swordflight specifically, since Zarala often renders the Bard Song bonuses, and many of the buffing spells, of such a build redundant, but one could still get the effective AC increase from Curse Song reducing enemy AB.

 

[Nerevar]

Wait is SR common in Swordflight? Hmm maybe it is good if I just go back to the Fighter 4/Monk X KazeKama.

 

[eXalted]

Rogue 8 + Wizard 2 gets you to BAB +7 to start taking CoT as your prestige class..

Why the 2 levels in Wizard? Only for the BAB?

 

[Nerevar]

4 Pal/26 Sorc/10 RDD

I've found some builds using this looks really good. Can I take 8 Pal/BG pre epic for that 4th attack? What do I even lose by having 4 less caster levels?

Enhanced GUI with transparent panels (full UI write-up).

Really liking that new UI upgrade and the slightly bigger font this is a godsend. I think I was straining my eyes reading tiny fonts.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

It is not bad, but those Ranger levels are not doing all that much for you aside from opening up some additional content (particularly if you have used them to keep your Animal Empathy skill at a reasonable level). A lot of power-builders actually recommend against getting 16+ BAB with a Cleric build, since theoretically one can just use the Divine Power spell to get 4 attacks per round, and with the last attack at one's full BAB in that case too (assuming one can always remember to in fact use this spell when needed). In the specific case of Swordflight with its rest restrictions though I suppose one could do worse than remove the need to rely on finite spell slots for that purpose.

Everything that actually relies on spells to kill things must be a pain to play in SF3 tbh. I would prefer to have only 1 ranger level (or none at all) but I had to get rogue levels regularily to meet the increasing skill requirements and to push Tumble/UMD higher and not taking ranger levels would incur an XP penalty (after I had taken the first ranger lvl in SF2 which was not worth it in hindsight). The only class quests that are worth it in SF2 are mage, cleric and thief. Didn't do the monk quests, so I can't say anything about that one. SF3 has an immensely slow pacing - you can literally play for 10h or more and still be nowhere near a level up - so adding 20% XP penalty on top seemed unwise.

Furthermore, that character is surprisingly good offensive-wise and can go on forever which is important because I do quests usually without resting or backtracking, for instance a quest like subterranean snakes I did from start to finish.
Long duration buffs, pro evil, extended aid, bull str, darkfire, bark skin (plant domain) and most lvl 1 and some lvl2 spell slots dedicated to Divine Favor and ext. Divine Favor, this character is a capable melee fighter even without Divine Power. And for those really hard to hit enemies you still have a few copies of Divine Power, ext. Divine Power in the spell book and one of those monk books that let you cast Divine Power in the back pack for emergencies. And if there's something that really, really, really has to die right away you'll still have a slay living (WIS 33 currently fuels this well) and 3x harm memorized. Deathward, true seeing - you're usually prepared for everything. So, all in all I have no complaints about this character from an offensive viewpoint.

The problem really is that (some) enemies tend to shred thru 52 AC, stone skin and improved invis as if you were naked. That makes btw. all summons fucking useless. What's that 27AC summon monster IX elemental going to achieve in this environment? Serve as a distraction for 1 or 2 combat rounds?
Must be a blast to play as a wizard. The only way to defeat some encounters is good old Darkness+Ultrasight because it breaks the enemy AI, they'll just stand in the darkness area doing fuck all and you can kill them at your leisure.

Of course I already suspected that when i read the readme. Guys, guys, I have an idea. You remember in SF2 when you were lvl12 and I gave you equipment I deemed appropriate for that level range? I have good news for you. Now in SF3 you'll be lvl20+ but you won't get better equipment. Awesome or what? :highfive:
::: and the masses rejoice:::

Ah, the pristine joy of fighting a dozen huge water elementals who do nothing but spamming knockdown.

Drowning attack, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown
Drowning attack, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown
Drowning attack, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown
Drowning attack, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown, knockdown

And yes, they will knock you down eventually and then you will die. (tip: use a shapeshift scroll and shift into an iron golem, they still knock you down but can't damage you and you can just wait until the arcane archer girl has put them down)
That reminds me, I really wish I could switch out Zarala for that Arcane Archer chick. For some reason that girl didn't have that brain disease that makes you run up into melee range and only then shoot your bow like Zarala does. Another nasty habit Zarala now developed is that she just de-equips her bow and then runs up into the melee brawl and starts throwing punches like a monk. (this is no joke - she really does attack ppl with her fists, does it all the time). FFS, but why Zarala? Why?

:butwhy:

Before anyone asks, override is empty. The custom potions of cure severe wounds or whatever the name was, those that are supposed to heal 60-100 HP don't work btw. Just as an fyi, they only cure ~18-28 HP, less than a cure critical potion as it looks.

 

[Nerevar]

That sounds hard actually. I might need to think seriously about what character will be able to go the distance into CH3.

 

[Jason Liang]

Rogue 8 + Wizard 2 gets you to BAB +7 to start taking CoT as your prestige class..

Why the 2 levels in Wizard? Only for the BAB?

2 levels of Wizard gives you:
1) the ability to memorize and cast 1 1 lvl 1, lvl 2, 1 lvl 3, 1 lvl 4 and 1 lvl 5 spell per rest with a Ring of Wizardry.
2) the ability to cast lvl 1 spells normally as per a lvl 2 wizard/ specialist
3) the ability to use wizard scrolls, staves, rods, robes etc... of any level with impunity
4) the ability to create wizard scrolls, although it's kind of expensive
5) a familiar

Going into Epic levels, Wizard is one of the best classes to take (not that there are many good epic level NWN modules). You are no longer on Wizard's poor BAB and savings throw progression, and you'll get 4 free epic level feats by level 20, which makes wizard way better than sorcerer in NWN.

 

[rogueknight333]

4 Pal/26 Sorc/10 RDD

I've found some builds using this looks really good. Can I take 8 Pal/BG pre epic for that 4th attack? What do I even lose by having 4 less caster levels?

You lose two epic feats that you would otherwise get at Sorc lvl 23 & lvl 26, your spells will not become immune to Greater Dispel at Sorc 24, and it will take a very long time to gain access to high level spells. You do gain BAB 16 (possibly, depending on when you take RDD levels) and a few HP, and will be a stronger warrior at lower levels, so it is certainly quite playable.

...Before anyone asks, override is empty. The custom potions of cure severe wounds or whatever the name was, those that are supposed to heal 60-100 HP don't work btw. Just as an fyi, they only cure ~18-28 HP, less than a cure critical potion as it looks.

Odd, it has always worked for me, and still does (just tested it), and no one has reported such a bug before. Even if there is nothing in the override, are you using patch haks or anything else that might modify standard NWN? If they are not working for you, that is a serious issue, as they are intended to be your main source of healing in combat.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Odd, it has always worked for me, and still does (just tested it), and no one has reported such a bug before. Even if there is nothing in the override, are you using patch haks or anything else that might modify standard NWN? If they are not working for you, that is a serious issue, as they are intended to be your main source of healing in combat.

I don't have anything installed except that 1.71 community patch that Lilura linked earlier. However it didn't work before I installed that either. At the beginning of the module it would sometimes (not always) heal the proper amount outside of combat (but never during), later it stopped working entirely and just heals approx. as much as a cure serious wounds potion.

The merchants are running out of gold too early and the one guy who has like >200k of my money (the bard merchant) just "doesn't buy that type of item". Not cool, bro.

those hak files are in my hak folder:
patch171.hak
patch170.hak
SwordflightB.hak
SwordflightA.hak
ctp_babylon.hak
ctp_loadscreens.hak
ctp_common.hak
wrm_seasonalv10.hak
ctp_dwarf_hall.hak

That's it. I think I was already in the city when I installed the community patch, and those potions didn't work right there in the first pirate cave, so...

 

[rogueknight333]

Cure Severe Wounds potions are one of the main things I expected people to be spending money on, so if you are not buying them you might be breaking the economy. You could go to the Ilmaterian temple and buy some extravagant luxuries like a Rod of Restoration or Elixirs of Regeneration (overpriced, but buying them will give the temple plenty of gold to take other loot off your hands, and give you some useful alternatives for healing).

As for your bug, I had a thought that Healing Domain might be somehow messing up the modified spell (should have been noticed before now if so, but who knows?), but I tested that and it still works fine for me. Cure Severe Wounds depends on modifiying the "nw_s0_curcrwn" script that controls how Cure Critical Wounds functions, making it heal more if cast from that specific potion (I had to use an existing cure spell or henchmen would not spontaneously drink the potion), so anything in the override, or a hak, that modifies how that spell or spells in general work might conflict with it, but that seems not to be the case here, if the timing rules out CPP as a culprit, so at this point I have no clue.

 

[Inf0mercial]

So i kinda restarted after hitting a bit of a wall into chapter 3 with a palemaster/fighter (i just don't have the needed attack to hit shit i think ill come back and fuck around with the build to see if i can fix it later) and holy shit were there always this many fucking sneak attacks? Just got destroyed like 3 times in a row by those gargoyles in the desert, Dragon disciple/fighter does not do well with multiple rouges it seems.

Also i still hate water elementals.

 

[DeepOcean]

Do I lose much skipping the rest of Swordflight 1 and going straight to 2? I read the Neverwinter Vault page and got really interested. Really loved the tavern on Swordflight 1, really good stuff but the module started losing me with too much straight combat dungeon crawling after straight combat dungeon crawling and not enough quests. While I applaud the taking the kiddies gloves off attitude, but it is still NWN 1 combat, straight combat dungeon crawling with only one character and a unreliable AI henchman, it isn't exciting stuff, really not that motivated to finishing it. Maybe it was because I made a passive character, dunno, should have made a rogue or spellcaster, anything more active, any kind of fighter on NWN 1 is a utter bore.

There are some really great fights like any fight with a mage that are truly a threat and how many enemies aren't shy of using special attacks like the bandit leader disarm attacks or some challenging fights like the last fight with the two giant spiders at the end of the spider tunnels, I just think that for each one of those there were other 10 that were a waste of time. Does Swordflight 2 improve on this?

 

[Nerevar]

I think Swordflight 1 gets you ready for what to expect in the module (from what I've gathered so far) being ready to deal with undeads and prolonged times were you do not have access to resting.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Cure Severe Wounds potions are one of the main things I expected people to be spending money on, so if you are not buying them you might be breaking the economy. You could go to the Ilmaterian temple and buy some extravagant luxuries like a Rod of Restoration or Elixirs of Regeneration (overpriced, but buying them will give the temple plenty of gold to take other loot off your hands, and give you some useful alternatives for healing).

I did buy a rod of restoration from the temple so I have someone to sell loot to. However, it's not like I broke the economy by amassing large amounts of gold. Now that I payed the 100k to the portal wizard I have like 50k left, that's effing poor men.
No, it's just that a lot of money is with people from who you can't get it back so easily, like the music shop owner for instance. Now I have to remember everytime I loot one of those Fumblwhatever lutes to keep it to sell it later to that guy, likewise, to keep any clothing items to sell it to the tailor etc. Adds more unnecessary busywork and inane inventory management. Not cool.

As for your bug, I had a thought that Healing Domain might be somehow messing up the modified spell (should have been noticed before now if so, but who knows?), but I tested that and it still works fine for me. Cure Severe Wounds depends on modifiying the "nw_s0_curcrwn" script that controls how Cure Critical Wounds functions, making it heal more if cast from that specific potion (I had to use an existing cure spell or henchmen would not spontaneously drink the potion), so anything in the override, or a hak, that modifies how that spell or spells in general work might conflict with it, but that seems not to be the case here, if the timing rules out CPP as a culprit, so at this point I have no clue.

Since that CPP is the only thing installed except SF it must have something to do with that. I'll try to test it by de-installing it. Of course I don't know how to de-install it, the setup doesn't come with a de-installation option and there's no info in the readme, so I will probably just delete the hak files and see what happens.

 

[Lilura]

Uninstall CPP by re-running 1.69 CR.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

So i kinda restarted after hitting a bit of a wall into chapter 3 with a palemaster/fighter (i just don't have the needed attack to hit shit i think ill come back and fuck around with the build to see if i can fix it later) and holy shit were there always this many fucking sneak attacks? Just got destroyed like 3 times in a row by those gargoyles in the desert, Dragon disciple/fighter does not do well with multiple rouges it seems.

Also i still hate water elementals.

You will have trouble hitting some enemies even with all the +AB cleric buffs, so any character that has lots of levels in a 1/2 BAB class like Palemaster won't be very happy in SF3. You need cleric spell casting (cleric or paladin) or high UMD to use scrolls/items. You will need Darkness+Ultrasight, either be able to cast it or use scrolls thru UMD.

I played a Paladin->CoT->Weaponmaster (7, Scimitar) in Ailund Saga, which was a blast to play until part 4 when most mobs were suddenly crit immune. Perhaps a char like that would work reasonably well in SF3?
Another idea would be Rogue->CoT->Weaponmaster, 14 INT, 14Dex -> then go full STR with Scimitar, improved knockdown and darkness for sneak dice+ weapon master crits, I assume a char like that could deliver large amounts of damages to vital organs in a very short time, and usually the enemies can't hurt you if they are dead... of course a char like that would need a lot of buffing resources, potions, flame weapon scrolls, darkness and ultrasight scrolls and the like. Aid and bless potions. One of those monk divine power books etc.

Do I lose much skipping the rest of Swordflight 1 and going straight to 2? I read the Neverwinter Vault page and got really interested. Really loved the tavern on Swordflight 1, really good stuff but the module started losing me with too much straight combat dungeon crawling after straight combat dungeon crawling and not enough quests.

This won't be any different in 2 and 3.

 

[Inf0mercial]

So i kinda restarted after hitting a bit of a wall into chapter 3 with a palemaster/fighter (i just don't have the needed attack to hit shit i think ill come back and fuck around with the build to see if i can fix it later) and holy shit were there always this many fucking sneak attacks? Just got destroyed like 3 times in a row by those gargoyles in the desert, Dragon disciple/fighter does not do well with multiple rouges it seems.

Also i still hate water elementals.

You will have trouble hitting some enemies even with all the +AB cleric buffs, so any character that has lots of levels in a 1/2 BAB class like Palemaster won't be very happy in SF3. You need cleric spell casting (cleric or paladin) or high UMD to use scrolls/items. You will need Darkness+Ultrasight, either be able to cast it or use scrolls thru UMD.

I played a Paladin->CoT->Weaponmaster (7, Scimitar) in Ailund Saga, which was a blast to play until part 4 when most mobs were suddenly crit immune. Perhaps a char like that would work reasonably well in SF3?
Another idea would be Rogue->CoT->Weaponmaster, 14 INT, 14Dex -> then go full STR with Scimitar, improved knockdown and darkness for sneak dice+ weapon master crits, I assume a char like that could deliver large amounts of damages to vital organs in a very short time, and usually the enemies can't hurt you if they are dead... of course a char like that would need a lot of buffing resources, potions, flame weapon scrolls, darkness and ultrasight scrolls and the like. Aid and bless potions. One of those monk divine power books etc.

Do I lose much skipping the rest of Swordflight 1 and going straight to 2? I read the Neverwinter Vault page and got really interested. Really loved the tavern on Swordflight 1, really good stuff but the module started losing me with too much straight combat dungeon crawling after straight combat dungeon crawling and not enough quests.

This won't be any different in 2 and 3.

I am using a skim build with Keen and then critical feat so any 14 and up is a crit for me which makes it able to kill things if it hits them the base AC is high and i have a lot of immunity's, i mean i could reshuffle some spells and move attack buffs up but that would mean relying on a lot of buffs up till now running on Improved invis and some elemental absorbing ones has been fine i think i just need to go through the spell list and idk shuffle some debuffs and buffs up the list.

The character is just in epic levels so once i hit another level couple levels of fighter it should have the attack bonus i just think its in an awkward stage where it does not have the striking power to kill things fast enough in large battles or when i do go full buffs it does not have the staying power for longer dungeons i mean i still have like 15 rest tokens but i hoard shit obsessively.

So i mean i can either kill an encounter and have to rest or have an encounter last like 10 mins in what should be a 1 min fight as i grind them down. also mind blank is godly in chapter three i am wondering how classes without easy access to it get along.

 

[rogueknight333]

... but it is still NWN 1 combat, straight combat dungeon crawling with only one character and a unreliable AI henchman, it isn't exciting stuff ... Does Swordflight 2 improve on this?

In Swordflight 2 you are placed in the middle of a large city with lots of sidequests, so from that point of view it is like a much larger version of the starting inn. However, it is a larger module with more of everything, so there are also numerous combat-heavy dungeon crawls like the one in the first chapter as well. If that is not your cup of tea, it may not be for you.

I actually sympathize with your attitude to NWN combat, as it is quite similar to my own first reaction to the game, coming from Infinity Engine games, and others of that or older vintage. Once I had gotten more familiar with NWN's combat systems, learned some of the tactics one can use within it, and found a few player-made modules with much better designed combat than those in the official campaigns, I came to like it a lot more, but it certainly still has problems. Ideally, I might have preferred to make a campaign like this as a full-fledged indie game with my own combat system, but that was just not practical given Swordflight's scale, since I also wanted to release something this decade. NWN does have the advantage of a toolset that is relatively easy to learn and quick to use.

...Now I have to remember everytime I loot one of those Fumblwhatever lutes to keep it to sell it later to that guy, likewise, to keep any clothing items to sell it to the tailor etc. Adds more unnecessary busywork and inane inventory management. Not cool.

Fair enough. I set up some merchants who only sell specialized types of items to only purchase specialized items as well for verisimilitude, but that may not be the best fit with merchants who also have limited gold.

... Since that CPP is the only thing installed except SF it must have something to do with that. I'll try to test it by de-installing it. Of course I don't know how to de-install it, the setup doesn't come with a de-installation option and there's no info in the readme, so I will probably just delete the hak files and see what happens.

Probably not a good idea to just delete the haks. There is a manual uninstaller located on the CPP project page (https://neverwintervault.org/project/nwn1/other/patch/community-patch-project), though it may be hard to find among all the other files, and as Lilura said you can also uninstall it through the 1.69 Critical Rebuild. Looking though the CPP documentation, I do notice that Cure Critical Wounds is one of the spells it modifies, so I suppose there could be a conflict. As I understand it, my own module-specific spell modifications should take priority over CPPs, but perhaps it is not doing so in this case for some reason. Also, taking note of all the different files there, I wonder if there are errors in the downloads for some language versions and not others? That might explain why nothing like this has been reported to me before. But at this point I am just speculating wildly.

Possible bugs aside, I have some doubts about the advisability of using CPP with Swordflight, since one of the things CPP does is improve the standard AI, and I left many monsters using that stupid AI for a reason. For example, given the complaints about the Water Elementals, I do not remember Knockdown being such a major problem in my own playtesting, and it is possible that CPP could be responsible for the difference. There is a bug in the standard AI that causes mobs with the Knockdown Feat to typically fail to use it, which is just the sort of thing CPP tends to correct. I got around that issue by assigning mobs with Knockdown a custom AI that would have them use it some of the time. It basically tells them: "If the right random numbers come up, try a Knockdown. Otherwise, default to the standard AI and do whatever idiotic thing it suggests." You can certainly get unlucky and get knocked down by my AI, but if the standard AI is telling them to use it as well, they might indeed spam it constantly for a more difficult challenge.

Speaking more generally about the various discussion about the best builds for Swordflight, I can say that I have playtested the series with a very wide variety of characters and it is perfectly possible to complete it with character builds that are sub-optimal and that represent a wide range of types. Naturally some will be easier than others, and all can benefit from extensive knowledge of their capabilities and use of intelligent tactics. Any reasonable build can expect to find some situations in which its particular talents shine, and others in which it is at a particular disadvantage. In my experience, Cleric builds tended to have the easiest time (NWN Clerics are OP), and Arcane Archer was a close second (being effective at range can greatly expand one's tactical options). Shifter was the hardest, but was still quite playable.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Also, taking note of all the different files there, I wonder if there are errors in the downloads for some language versions and not others? That might explain why nothing like this has been reported to me before. But at this point I am just speculating wildly.

I have the German version. I also installed the German CPP. I think only the dialogue file is different though between different language versions, not some spell scripts.
In the beginning the potions worked outside of combat. During combat they would heal only little like a normal potion but after combat ended they'd heal for the bigger amount. No idea how being in or out of combat can influence the functionality.

Yeah, those water elementals really didn't do anything else but spamming knockdown and they would keep doing it so you would also never get up again.

VoD: Oh look who's running up to me, Zarala whatcha doing... aaaaannd
Zarala: WARCRY
VoD: ... and you successfully feared me and yourself, wtf? I can reload now.
Zarala: Always happy to help!

update: after installing the 1.69 CR and deleting the CPP haks the potions work exactly as advertized in and outside of combat