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NWN Neverwinter Nights (NWN & NWN2) Modules Thread

Fluent

Arcane
Patron
The Real Fanboy
Joined
Apr 8, 2021
Messages
830
Nice to see continued support from Beambros and continued interest from the community. NWN is such a treasure trove of deep and interesting user-made modules that one can play just NWN for a lifetime and continue discovering interesting things. IMO of course. I played about a dozen modules last year alone and had a blast with each one (posted them earlier in the thread I believe). The game just works, plenty of lore, plenty of deep RPG mechanics and it's FUN (to me) and enjoyable. Glad to see u guys still rocking with this classic! Cheers! :D
 

DeepOcean

Arcane
Joined
Nov 8, 2012
Messages
7,394
Is there a way to increase the henchmen limit to 5 or is it hardcoded to two on NWN?
 

Gargaune

Magister
Joined
Mar 12, 2020
Messages
3,136
Is there a way to increase the henchmen limit to 5 or is it hardcoded to two on NWN?
It's not hardcoded, NWN1's henchmen limit is configured per module and you can go past two (e.g. Kingmaker starts you off with four of 'em), but if I recall correctly there are some issues with their default levelup packages that require additional scripting if you do. I haven't looked into it in detail 'cause there hasn't been much call with the AI being what it is, but companion controls might make a case for it.

If you mean to expand the party size for existing campaigns you'll have to check the Vault or get your hands dirty.
 

eXalted

Arcane
Joined
Dec 16, 2014
Messages
1,213
Only thing left is disabling clicking outside during conversations. Sometimes I missclick during a convo in a fan module and all hell breaks loose when I talk again to the NPC as the conversation variables are now broken.
 

Sabotin

Scholar
Joined
Jun 16, 2016
Messages
189
I've tried it and what I could figure out is ctrl+click/drag to select party members and then shift+(double)click to make them walk somewhere.

Is that it or I just don't know what to do? Never tried DM client in all my years...

Anyway just this seems an immense QoL improvement. I might even try a squishy character build and actually enjoy it?
 

Gargaune

Magister
Joined
Mar 12, 2020
Messages
3,136
Well that didn't take long: they fucked up the save format. At least that's what it looks like, because when you load a savegame, it scrambles all the tile source lights in the area all areas! Disabled lights become red, red lights become purple, green become yellow and purple become blue, that's as far as I've bothered to check. Sample from a quick module I made to test:
83819332-lightsbug.jpg

And I've confirmed that this is going wrong on saving data, rather than loading - I grabbed a save from the Diamond Edition (OC finale in Morag's caves) and I can load it in the EE till I'm blue in the face, no problem, but if I load that save and then make a new, EE save from it, bam, when I load it the map's like a Christmas tree.

And I'm left sitting here, wondering like the philosophers of ancient Greece... how the bleeding fuck do you miss THAT in QA?!

Now, in all fairness, there is one thing I haven't tried, and that's a clean install. I've tested it with a clean Override, but I don't have the patience to reinstall the whole fucking thing tonight. But I'm really getting tired of this.

I've tried it
So you're on the latest public build? Can you please check for the bug above? Try an indoor area, I've confirmed it in crypts and caves, look for source lights that are either off or non-yellow and see if they change on save/load.
 

Sabotin

Scholar
Joined
Jun 16, 2016
Messages
189
This is pretty funny. I've tried save/load near a torch-on-wall yellow emitter and it turned white. Doing it again turned it off and on the next save/load it turned red. After that it stayed red.
 

Gargaune

Magister
Joined
Mar 12, 2020
Messages
3,136
This is pretty funny. I've tried save/load near a torch-on-wall yellow emitter and it turned white. Doing it again turned it off and on the next save/load it turned red. After that it stayed red.
Downright hilarious. And you're right, saving over and over again will keep cycling some of the light states. I'm guessing they screwed up some indexing for the source lights themselves or, worse, something's getting truncated or spilling over when writing the save file, which might mean that there's more broken stuff in this build. Either way, it's not fit for purpose, these save files will be definitively broken.

Just to confirm, you're running an updated installation too, right? Not a clean install?

Oh, and how did you get the companion controls to work? I can't find the setting under Server options, I can select henchmen via Ctrl+Click/Drag but I can't do anything with them.
 

Sabotin

Scholar
Joined
Jun 16, 2016
Messages
189
I've updated to 1.32 on dev branch, not sure if it makes any difference, since it the same number?

The companion thing you have to edit in settings.tml in your documents folder. There's a "player-party-control = false" line under [server].

Btw I don't think they have any kind of comprehensive QA, just what bugs people report. I'll be honest though I've no clue what could cause such a bug, it doesn't seem related to anything that was changed at all?
 

Gargaune

Magister
Joined
Mar 12, 2020
Messages
3,136
I've updated to 1.32 on dev branch, not sure if it makes any difference, since it the same number?
I imagine it's gotta be the same thing.

The companion thing you have to edit in settings.tml in your documents folder. There's a "player-party-control = false" line under [server].
Thanks. Once again, sticking shit into a config file without a matching Options field. Though I suppose I shouldn't be surprised since it looks like it's pretty much an experimental "give it a go" feature right now, a bit underwhelming. Like you said, the only thing you can do is tell henchmen to go to a specific place and their order behaviour is still active (e.g. Follow Me), which is a significant improvement but falls way short of even Balkoth's Minion Control system, let alone DM posession. Balkoth's actually lets you command henchmen to go somewhere, pick something up, activate an object, attack a given target etc.

As for the DM mode, since you asked, you can check it out from the Debug menu: hit CTRL+Shift+F12, check the DM box, click Login and you can posess any creature which isn't your current henchman from the radial menu. Your DM PC fades out and you can play that creature entirely as if they were your PC. That's what I thought this would be and I was actually curious how they'd handle PC AI while you're controlling someone else, but alas, I was being fabulously optimistic.

Btw I don't think they have any kind of comprehensive QA, just what bugs people report. I'll be honest though I've no clue what could cause such a bug, it doesn't seem related to anything that was changed at all?
Hard to say, they were working on shadows on the latest patch, so maybe someone was messing around with the source lights related to that and mismatched an index somewhere. Another possibility is that Beamdog changed something in the save format and cocked up a buffer size and the game's picking up garbage data when reading the lights, which could be much worse since it might be reading garbage in other parts as well.

Either way, I'm fairly certain the error's being introduced when writing the save file, that's why loading DE or older EE saves works properly, but the ones made on the latest build start cycling through the available lights. And note that this isn't affecting only the currently loaded area, but all of 'em as far as I can tell - I tested by making a quick module with two separate areas, a Crypt and a Cave, and they both got bugged. If I recall correctly, NWN bakes copies of the current module data into the save files themselves, so once you load a .32 save and this shit gets in there, your progress will be fucked for good going forward.

If you're on the dev branch, you ever check their bug reporting portal? I hope they're aware of it, 'cause it's effectively game-breaking. I'll try a clean install in the next day or two, though it's probably a waste of time, this looks pretty definitive.
 

DeepOcean

Arcane
Joined
Nov 8, 2012
Messages
7,394
So, not even something as simple as a Kotor controlling system? Meh, dunno why I expected something actually useful from them.
 

Suissant

Novice
Joined
Sep 28, 2021
Messages
32
So I've been playing Swordflight Chapter 1 and I think I found a bug. The first time time I played I found 6 slaves outside the inn and 4 in the sewers for a total of 10 murdered slaves. This completed Gaduish's quest without any problems. The second time (I had to reroll my character, damn spiders were raping me) I found only 4 slaves outside the inn and 4 in the sewers for a total of 8 and Gaduish never acknowledges the quest as completed. I'm stuck because you're supposed to complete all the quests so you can talk to Zarala.

How viable is a dual wielding strength-based rogue in this module? I was thinking in doing something similar to Ilura's rogue/shadowdancer build but instead of dex-based it would be strength based and taking some fighter levels.
 

Orud

Scholar
Patron
Joined
May 2, 2021
Messages
1,112
Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming!
8193.32 fixes the loading issue for HoTU chapter 3 introduced by .30, meaning people can (hopefully) finally finish the campaign now. Kind of weird of how the campaign was completely busted for years (e.g. magic dispel cave permanently nuking your entire gear).
 
Last edited:

rogueknight333

Arbiter
Joined
Jul 31, 2017
Messages
347
So I've been playing Swordflight Chapter 1 and I think I found a bug...

The exact number of slaves spawned might vary slightly in different playthroughs, but so long as you kill all that actually spawned it should not matter. Are you playing with the EE? I suppose this could be one of the countless bugs it introduced, but otherwise it seems more likely that you overlooked a slave who wandered off into some corner or something. In any case, you can resolve the matter by:

1) Hitting the tilda key and typing:

DebugMode 1

and hitting Enter, and then

2) entering the following command:

SetVarInt NW_JOURNAL_ENTRYj_gaduish 2

and then clicking the cursor on your PC to set the variable on him. This should update your journal and mark the quest as completed as far as Zarala is concerned.

3) followed by leaving Debug Mode by entering:

DebugMode 0

How viable is a dual wielding strength-based rogue in this module? I was thinking in doing something similar to Ilura's rogue/shadowdancer build but instead of dex-based it would be strength based and taking some fighter levels.

That should be ok. Rogue/Warrior combos are generally a good choice for the series. Without the AC boost from being DEX-based, and also considering that you need a DEX of at least 15 to qualify for Ambidexterity and so cannot go all in on min/maxed STR, you might do better to go with a shield rather than dual-wielding - but either is viable.
 

Suissant

Novice
Joined
Sep 28, 2021
Messages
32
The exact number of slaves spawned might vary slightly in different playthroughs, but so long as you kill all that actually spawned it should not matter. Are you playing with the EE?

No, I'm playing vanilla Diamond Edition with Swordflight as the only custom content. It's possible I forgot to take a head from one of the corpses. But I'll try the debug mode as a last alternative.



That should be ok. Rogue/Warrior combos are generally a good choice for the series. Without the AC boost from being DEX-based, and also considering that you need a DEX of at least 15 to qualify for Ambidexterity and so cannot go all in on min/maxed STR, you might do better to go with a shield rather than dual-wielding - but either is viable.

I was thinking something like STR: 16, DEX 16, INT 12, weapon focus and specialization on kukris (would have to spend a feat on exotic weapons though, so I may go scimitar instead). Should I go for the shield instead of dual wielding? I was thinking of taking HiPS and amidexterity later.
 

d1nolore

Savant
Joined
May 31, 2017
Messages
662
The exact number of slaves spawned might vary slightly in different playthroughs, but so long as you kill all that actually spawned it should not matter. Are you playing with the EE?

No, I'm playing vanilla Diamond Edition with Swordflight as the only custom content. It's possible I forgot to take a head from one of the corpses. But I'll try the debug mode as a last alternative.



That should be ok. Rogue/Warrior combos are generally a good choice for the series. Without the AC boost from being DEX-based, and also considering that you need a DEX of at least 15 to qualify for Ambidexterity and so cannot go all in on min/maxed STR, you might do better to go with a shield rather than dual-wielding - but either is viable.

I was thinking something like STR: 16, DEX 16, INT 12, weapon focus and specialization on kukris (would have to spend a feat on exotic weapons though, so I may go scimitar instead). Should I go for the shield instead of dual wielding? I was thinking of taking HiPS and amidexterity later.

For Swordflight with a strength rogue unless you’re a nwn veteran I’d recommend dropping the dual welding and go two handed. Kukri are not a good choice, cost an additional feat and low damage. Also lower dex and put something into Wisdom, rogues are already low Will, dumping wis is bad ju ju.
 

d1nolore

Savant
Joined
May 31, 2017
Messages
662
This is what I would do for a str rogue/fighter:
Str: 16
Dex: 12 - commit to str or dex, don’t float between, use heavy armour(get feat from fighter lvls). If you are doing str rogue you won’t need most dex skills anyway.
Con: 14 - hp + 2 fort
Wis: 14 - you want +2 will, will saves are mind effecting which are rogue killers.
Int: 12 - str rogue won’t need stealth etc
Char: 8 - definitely not a talker character

luck of heroes, strong soul lvl1 - if you can take both lvl 1, take Iron will when you can. No weapon focus or specialisation, you don’t need them and will get a better bonus by just switching weapons. Consider taking power attack & cleave with fighter levels, cleave will give you a lot of extra attacks over all and you can use power attack to help overcome Damage reduction. Use heavy armour and two handed, start with and alway carry a heavy flail. A str rogue is going against the grain to increase damage, so utilise the strength with a high damage weapon, and 2 handed weapons have a 1.5 modifier to damage.

Swordflight is not really made for casuals, aka not easy mode. So you want to build a capable character and saves are well utilised not just an afterthought. There’s traps, poisons, diseases, and spell effects to overcome.
 

Suissant

Novice
Joined
Sep 28, 2021
Messages
32
This is what I would do for a str rogue/fighter:
Str: 16
Dex: 12 - commit to str or dex, don’t float between, use heavy armour(get feat from fighter lvls). If you are doing str rogue you won’t need most dex skills anyway.
Con: 14 - hp + 2 fort
Wis: 14 - you want +2 will, will saves are mind effecting which are rogue killers.
Int: 12 - str rogue won’t need stealth etc
Char: 8 - definitely not a talker character

luck of heroes, strong soul lvl1 - if you can take both lvl 1, take Iron will when you can. No weapon focus or specialisation, you don’t need them and will get a better bonus by just switching weapons. Consider taking power attack & cleave with fighter levels, cleave will give you a lot of extra attacks over all and you can use power attack to help overcome Damage reduction. Use heavy armour and two handed, start with and alway carry a heavy flail. A str rogue is going against the grain to increase damage, so utilise the strength with a high damage weapon, and 2 handed weapons have a 1.5 modifier to damage.

Swordflight is not really made for casuals, aka not easy mode. So you want to build a capable character and saves are well utilised not just an afterthought. There’s traps, poisons, diseases, and spell effects to overcome.

Thank you. Swordflight is indeed not for casuals. I gave up on my last character because I couldn't get past the sword spider fight on the first level of the ruins.
 

rogueknight333

Arbiter
Joined
Jul 31, 2017
Messages
347
This is what I would do for a str rogue/fighter...

A viable build, but there are other alternatives (all with one sort of trade-off or another).

It is good to have high saves, and in Swordflight you might also want Wisdom to get various special dialogue options. However, in many cases saves will not be good enough regardless, so you will also need to rely on potions, etc. to provide immunity. So you certainly could consider minimizing WIS to get more points for other abilities. Note also that you can use potions etc., to temporarily boost abilities like WIS or CHA that you typically only need in special cases.

It is perfectly possible to make use of Stealth even as a Heavy Armor-wearing STR rogue. You will get a penalty to the skill, but if it is high enough stealth can still be used, especially considering that you will also eventually get access to items boosting the skill. Not having Stealth would also limit the value of Shadowdancer's HiPS. Without HiPS available to allow you to retreat into stealth, you really need AC, so probably want to use a shield rather than 2-handed or dual-wielding fighting style. Any kind of Rogue is also going to want a way to generate Sneak Attacks, and HiPS is also good for that, though you can use Knockdown (among other options) as well.

Dual-wielding is nice for Rogues because you can get bonus Sneak Attack damage on every extra attack. You do need to be able to spare the three relevant feats though (usually requiring Fighter levels), and as indicated above the lack of a shield will hurt your defence unless you have some alternative defensive trick, like retreating into Stealth with HiPS. With HiPS and a STR build, you could indeed instead go for a 2-handed weapon, which would be a lot simpler and much more effective against Sneak/Crit-immune enemies.

I was thinking something like STR: 16, DEX 16, INT 12, weapon focus and specialization on kukris (would have to spend a feat on exotic weapons though, so I may go scimitar instead). Should I go for the shield instead of dual wielding? I was thinking of taking HiPS and amidexterity later.

Kukris are a good weapon if you can spare the extra feat (which can be a big if with dual-wielding feats also needed), since the extra crits tend to make up for the low base damage, especially so at higher levels when enhancement, elemental damage, etc. make the base damage of weapons relatively unimportant. They are also one of the few light off-hand weapon choices available to gnomes and halflings (though that seems not to be relevant here). They are however at a disadvantage against crit-immune enemies. Also Rogues can expect to do a lot of Sneak Attack damage against any foe who is not crit-immune, so have less need of additional bonus damage from crits. Scimitars would not be a good choice for dual-wielding, since not being light gives you a penalty, and again their main advantage (better crits) is less important to Sneak Attackers. Short Swords or Maces (better damage against Skeletons and others more vulnerable to blunt damage) would probably be a better choice if you do not take Exotic Proficiency. If you do take Exotic along with dual-wielding feats, you could also consider using one of the double-sided weapons (Two-bladed Swords, Dire Mace, etc), since I rewarded players who take all the numerous feats needed for those by typically making good magical versions available earlier than they would be for most other weapons.
 

d1nolore

Savant
Joined
May 31, 2017
Messages
662
This is what I would do for a str rogue/fighter...

A viable build, but there are other alternatives (all with one sort of trade-off or another).

It is good to have high saves, and in Swordflight you might also want Wisdom to get various special dialogue options. However, in many cases saves will not be good enough regardless, so you will also need to rely on potions, etc. to provide immunity. So you certainly could consider minimizing WIS to get more points for other abilities. Note also that you can use potions etc., to temporarily boost abilities like WIS or CHA that you typically only need in special cases.

It is perfectly possible to make use of Stealth even as a Heavy Armor-wearing STR rogue. You will get a penalty to the skill, but if it is high enough stealth can still be used, especially considering that you will also eventually get access to items boosting the skill. Not having Stealth would also limit the value of Shadowdancer's HiPS. Without HiPS available to allow you to retreat into stealth, you really need AC, so probably want to use a shield rather than 2-handed or dual-wielding fighting style. Any kind of Rogue is also going to want a way to generate Sneak Attacks, and HiPS is also good for that, though you can use Knockdown (among other options) as well.

Dual-wielding is nice for Rogues because you can get bonus Sneak Attack damage on every extra attack. You do need to be able to spare the three relevant feats though (usually requiring Fighter levels), and as indicated above the lack of a shield will hurt your defence unless you have some alternative defensive trick, like retreating into Stealth with HiPS. With HiPS and a STR build, you could indeed instead go for a 2-handed weapon, which would be a lot simpler and much more effective against Sneak/Crit-immune enemies.

I was thinking something like STR: 16, DEX 16, INT 12, weapon focus and specialization on kukris (would have to spend a feat on exotic weapons though, so I may go scimitar instead). Should I go for the shield instead of dual wielding? I was thinking of taking HiPS and amidexterity later.

Kukris are a good weapon if you can spare the extra feat (which can be a big if with dual-wielding feats also needed), since the extra crits tend to make up for the low base damage, especially so at higher levels when enhancement, elemental damage, etc. make the base damage of weapons relatively unimportant. They are also one of the few light off-hand weapon choices available to gnomes and halflings (though that seems not to be relevant here). They are however at a disadvantage against crit-immune enemies. Also Rogues can expect to do a lot of Sneak Attack damage against any foe who is not crit-immune, so have less need of additional bonus damage from crits. Scimitars would not be a good choice for dual-wielding, since not being light gives you a penalty, and again their main advantage (better crits) is less important to Sneak Attackers. Short Swords or Maces (better damage against Skeletons and others more vulnerable to blunt damage) would probably be a better choice if you do not take Exotic Proficiency. If you do take Exotic along with dual-wielding feats, you could also consider using one of the double-sided weapons (Two-bladed Swords, Dire Mace, etc), since I rewarded players who take all the numerous feats needed for those by typically making good magical versions available earlier than they would be for most other weapons.

Yeah there’s different ways to do it, I would avoid dual welding with a strength build because it’s nullified to an extent by using smaller weapons. You are better to focus on utilising your sneak attack which you don’t need to invest in str. Or just take ranger levels for free feats.

I would heavily avoid stealth in heavy armour, it will not be useable for the first 10 levels. As the way stealth works by rolling d20’s even with 0 spot and listen you will see someone with 10 stealth 50% of the time, and it rolls every round(6seconds). So you really want 20+ asap.


Some tricks to help you along:
-Heal and heal kits provide the strongest healing in the default game; heals more than potions and increase with the heal skill, they can be used on summons and companions even undead summons, but most importantly they do not provoke an attack of opportunity in combat.
- Give Zarala scrolls, most specifically summon scrolls and she’ll add an extra summon. Give them as you go or she’ll use them all up.
-Mage armour gives you +4 AC regardless if you are wearing armour.
-Use bludgeoning weapon vs undead. Slings are also bludgeoning weapons.
- always max tumble, even cross classing, or time it with a class with it as a class skill. Tumble gives +1 AC per 5 points invested, but counted after armour check penalty. But that can be countered by bonuses to tumble. So even if you are a fighter in heavy armour at higher levels tumble will give you extra AC.

If all else fails play a barbarian.
 

Suissant

Novice
Joined
Sep 28, 2021
Messages
32
Some tricks to help you along:
-Heal and heal kits provide the strongest healing in the default game; heals more than potions and increase with the heal skill, they can be used on summons and companions even undead summons, but most importantly they do not provoke an attack of opportunity in combat.
- Give Zarala scrolls, most specifically summon scrolls and she’ll add an extra summon. Give them as you go or she’ll use them all up.
-Mage armour gives you +4 AC regardless if you are wearing armour.
-Use bludgeoning weapon vs undead. Slings are also bludgeoning weapons.
- always max tumble, even cross classing, or time it with a class with it as a class skill. Tumble gives +1 AC per 5 points invested, but counted after armour check penalty. But that can be countered by bonuses to tumble. So even if you are a fighter in heavy armour at higher levels tumble will give you extra AC.

If all else fails play a barbarian.

I actually didn't know you could give scrollls to Zarala. I thought she was completely useless. The only thing I asked her to do is buff me with her songs and stand her ground at the entrance of the dungeon. I was investing on UMD, but at low levels it's almost impossible to use any scrolls. Giving summon scrolls to Zarala will be a great help.
 

rogueknight333

Arbiter
Joined
Jul 31, 2017
Messages
347
...I would heavily avoid stealth in heavy armour, it will not be useable for the first 10 levels. As the way stealth works by rolling d20’s even with 0 spot and listen you will see someone with 10 stealth 50% of the time, and it rolls every round(6seconds). So you really want 20+ asap...

It is definitely harder to pull of as a low level character, though not necessarily impossible (and low level characters often cannot afford good heavy armor anyway). In many cases there is nothing to lose: if the mobs fail to spot you, you can get a Sneak Attack in, but if they do and attack, you are kitted out as a tank and ready for them. At any rate as a long term build plan it is not necessary to give up on Stealth just because you are using heavy armor and/or a shield. Especially so if one eventually takes HiPS, which requires Stealth to be used to maximum effect, and possession of which means that even being spotted on one check gives the option of retreating into Stealth again. Invisibility potions can also be used as a back up.

I actually didn't know you could give scrollls to Zarala...

She will use wands, magical musical instruments, etc. as well, though as d1nolore also points out, she will tend to waste all the charges on the first trashmob she comes across, so careful rationing as to when such items are given to her may be called for.

To add to the general tips, Setting traps is often an excellent way for Rogues to cheese low level encounters.
 

Suissant

Novice
Joined
Sep 28, 2021
Messages
32
To add to the general tips, Setting traps is often an excellent way for Rogues to cheese low level encounters.

Yeah, I know. Setting traps saved my ass more than once in the bandit lair ;)
 

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