First, let me get my excitement out of the way! My parents did the unspeakable this christmas-- they got me a computer! And they are all anti technology! woo hoo!

I started playing it today (at my moms, I am there for the holidays and havn't played it on my new comp yet :p ) and I am so excited!! Food does not exist anymore, nor does sleep! "Go to the bathroom!" my mom will say, and I will respond "what's a bathroom!?" Thats how great it is!

As a beginner, I need some help. I am familiar with 3rd edition rules (3rd is better than 2nd :p ), and am an avid fan of Icewind dale II as well as BG2. I just wanna make sure I am doing things right! So far I have completed the prelude and I'm in the peninsula district. So far I am a fighter1/rogue2 (duh, they rule!) and I took Linu the cleric as my henchwoman. For the rogue selection thingy I picked bandit, and had the comp pick the skills for me because I liked what htey chose. My feats so far are dodge, weapon finesse, the ones you normally get, and some other ones that I can't remember choosing at the moment.

I bought the Neverwinter Nights Diamond version. I just want to know if I am doing things right so far, going fighter/rogue and choosing the cleric as my henchman. Are there any prestige classes I should work towards? Did I choose the right feats? Did I choose the right henchman?

Thanks in advance for your help :)

Hey, welcome to the NWN owners club! Here's your membership card and a keyring. :p

Good choice of character (taps JiggaJay's back). Some fighter levels will give your rogue a good selection of feats and some extra punch. Or, if you go the other way, some Rogue levels will allow your fighter to cause more damage (that nasty, nasty Sneak attack...) and to deal better with traps and/or locks.

I normally go for the Rogue/Ranger combination. Just one single level of Ranger gives you Martial Weapons, Medium Armor, Dualwielding, Racial Enemy (humans :evil: ), and Trackless Step (bonus to Hide when in the forest). I am a gadget freak, so I normally boost trap placing and dismantling. I also like to put some points in "Listen", so that I know what's behind corners before I'm there.

If you are into guides, there is a very complete one about NWN rogues at the top of this page:
http://www.sorcerers.net/Games/NWN/index_tips2.php

Well, for prestige class, seeing you're a rogue, then I believe the most fit for you would be either assassin or shadowdancers. The assassin's death attack is a good addition to your sneak attacks, improved invisibility also helps a lot, the downside would just be that you get very few skill points despite having so many class skills (only 4 + int mod. for an assassin), as for the shadowdancer, while they have more skill points every level (6 +int) they have fewer skills, however, just one level would give you access to hide in plain sight, very useful against groups of enemies, tho the shadowdancers don't have sneak attack (you're a rogue so you've got that anyway), shadow daze is also a good skill, seeing it can grant flat-foot conditions, summon shadow gives you a nice distraction while you sneak behind your enemies, they also gain slippery mind and improved evasion for free on level 7 and 10, defensive roll is also nice.

But anyway, the choice is yours to make, I frankly like a combination of both, but seeing you already have 2 classes and the game only allow you to have 3 classes, well, I don't think that's an option. Plus, you need to be evil to become an assassin, so if you don't like playing an evil character then that would probably be a no.

How do I go about taking a prestige class? Aren't there prerequisites, such as taking X levels in rogues and having X number ranks in certain skills? Im lost lol :)

The manuals tell you what the prerequisites are for each of the prestige classes. It also tells you what the prestige classes can do for you. The manual is your friend - especially in D&D.

That would work if Diamond came with the expansions manuals, the only manual it has is "normal" NWN.

The game tells you the prerequisites anyway.

Or you can check that: http://www.nwnwiki.org/Main_Page

Shadowdancer would be my pick for prestige class to complement a fighter / rogue, especially if you are a stealthy one. The "Hide in Plain Sight" ability is just too cool, especially combined with your Sneak Attack and any item that gives you regeneration.

Prerequisites for all of the prestige classes, along with all the other PrC details, are listed on BioWare's NWN site.

The prerequisites are also all there in the level up screen. Even though the prestige classes will be greyed out, you can still click on them to read about the class attributes and pre-requisites.

Oh boy, no I feel like an idiot :p
In my excitement i didn't even scroll down to see the prestige classes, I just clicked rogue and then next.... Now I see that the level up screen shows the prerequisites... Oh boy...

Well, I don't think you can get much use out of prestige classes in the OC anyhow. You get only up to level 16 or so.

Another tip: switch henchmen from time to time. Then you can complete all their quests, and get the corresponding rewards. Also, you can judge better how they stack up against each other.

I used my Shadowdancer levels all the time in the OC.

"Weapon Finesse" might cause you some trouble later on if you plan to become more of a melee type character.

It's been awhile since I played NWN, but I think it applies your dexterity bonus to your weapon...and works only with light weapons. You might need to stay focused on short swords and daggers.

Yep, short swords and daggers tier brouche style!! That's the only way I roll baybay!

Short swords & Daggers >>> YOU!

lol jk >.>

Works with rapiers, hand axes, kukris, light hammer, kama, mace, short swords, whips, daggers and unarmed, so I think he still has a good choice. Isn't it suppose to work with sickles too?

no rapier, no whip for two-weapon fighting.

you can hold only one whip in your main hand and because of unknown reason game engine consider a rapier as a medium sized weapon even though it is described as small. (well rapier supposed to be light medium weapon...but it stil doesn't work as light weapon in off-hand)

So hack your enemies with short sword and dagger

edit : just found out that rapier is actually medium weapon (as Chevalier said)...and sorry for misunderstanding FireKnight..

[ December 28, 2005, 22:39: Message edited by: Ruin Ehwazehs ]

I am aware the rapier wouldn't work for two-weapon fighting if it's equipped in the off-hand, but that's not what I said, I said weapon finesse works with it.

Also, I believe the way two-weapon fighting works is that only the off-hand weapon needs to be light for you not to suffer a big penalty from wielding two weapons, so he could still equip a rapier in his main hand if he wanted to.

Shadowdancer would complement your skills. Perhaps Harper Scout for the roleplaying value, if you feel like it. Assassin if you go evil. Otherwise... I don't really see much. Shields won't work for you, so think about dual wielding feats. If you're into big damage, what about katana proficiency and dual wielding with a short sword?

@Ruin: Rapier actually is medium-sized but it's also light. It's the only medium-sized weapon which is light.

Personally, I'm a fan of Rogue/Weapon Master/Shadowdancer wielding a Rapier, but that requires loads of feats investment and patience before you can take Weapon Finesse or levels in Shadowdancer. It's more of a HotU build, really. Rogue (x)/Fighter (4)/Shadowdancer(1) is a good bet otherwise. Again, you may be best served by leaving the Shadowdancer level until post-Epic, though. This character works really well as a STR-based dual-wielder, with Short Swords or Kukris as his specialisation.

Shadowdancer's have one really good ability: Hide in Plain Sight which is so powerful it feels like cheating. The thing is, you get it at level 1. There isn't much benefit to taking more than 1 Shadowdancer level. They don't get sneak attacks, whereas Rogues and Assassins get 1d6 sneak every other level.

I wouldn't recommend the "Recommend' button, but if you're completely new to the game and absolutely hate reading manuals, go for it. A bit like Russian Roulette though and don't whine when your character is crap by the end of the campaign.

Big problem with a high DEX, weapon finessing build like yours: you'll be total crap against anything that is immune to sneak attacks (undead, dragons, golems...). And there are plenty of those in the OC. Prepare to stand there doing 1-3 points of damage per hit to some huge dragon with 100 hit points. But hey, you can just Hide in Plain Sight, right? No, dragons have True Seeing. :eek: Linu? Oh Linu?? Can I get a heal up in here???

That's where "use magic item" comes in handy XP. I was looking over my character, and I'm thinking about changing him to either Ranger/Rogue or Monk/Rogue. Monk Rogue really appeals to me, i've never tried it but a halfling dual-wielding Kamas with weapon finesse and 5 sneak attacks a round just sounds too cool.

You could even try Wepon Master with kamas... Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack... that's the kind of fighting monks do.

But I like rogues :p Just read my sig!

For hide in plain sight, you could also go with druid5/shapeshifter7 :o
Hehe, no doubt you'll take it, it's so much faster than 1 level of Shadowdancer :)

It's probably not much use for you, but 5th level shadowdancer gets you Defensive roll. Another way to get it is rogue bonus feats, every third level after 10th, but you have plenty of better choices there. Anyway, you need it for Epic Dodge (http://nwn.bioware.com/underdark/feats.html#EpicDodge), which is a really cool feat. Also, you dont need Tumble of 30, just 1 will do, it's a bug. Darn useless one, though, everyone takes Tumble, even as cross-class.