As the topic title states, I'm playing though this game for the first time. Since I don't have a lot of time to devote to playing games, I would like to make my play-time count. I'd like your feedback on how to go about this to make it as rewarding as possible.

I have the Diamond edition and have installed everything it offers (expansions, mods, etc.) and updated to the latest patch (had to do critical rebuild to install it, BTW). I have tinkered with my character’s stats using LETO (downloaded from SP) to make him resemble a PnP character of mine. Nothing crazy, cheesy, or game-breaking.

I am playing as a human fighter and have weapon focus in long sword. In fact, I just found my first long sword +1 after defeating the intellect devourer. Yay! I am at about level 4 right now and am thinking about doing the weapon master prestige class later on. I have been getting the skills that will allow me to do that if I choose, but they seem to be useful anyway. Cleave is a life-saver when surrounded by multiple escaped prisoners.

I have completed the prelude and the peninsula and have just barely started the area with the docks. I made it through 90% of the peninsula and prison area all by myself and finally went back and got Tomi to help with opening locked chests. I intend on keeping him for the foreseeable future, as I find his company to be agreeable.

So, here are some of my questions, comments, observations that I’d would appreciate some feedback on from those of you who have some experience with this game. I know that some of my questions will come from my general unfamiliarity with 3E rules.

-Am I splitting XP with my henchman? Pros and cons of henchmen?
-I have taken the craft weapons and armor skills. Just one rank so far for each because I don’t know what good they are. Should I continue to develop these skills? In general, what skills are useful and which aren’t? I have been sticking mainly to class skills and NPC interaction skills like persuade and the like.
-Which feats are worth taking and which are useless? I’m concerned about getting feats that are on the list but not really used in the game or just are not worth it.
-What are good weapons to focus on for a weaponmaster? I’m planning on doing long sword. Are there better weapons to focus on to get more out of the class?
-What good are fire beetle bellies and should I be carrying these things around?
-About 2/3 of the way through the Peninsula quest, Aribeth and everybody else who I had previously spoken to started taking to me like they had never spoken to me before. Is this normal/okay?
-The game crashes all the time, which is very frustrating and the only feedback the MS can give on the error report is that they are researching the problem. Are frequent crashes normal?

Thank you in advance for any help/advise that you are willing to lend. I’m not looking for spoilers or anything that would rob my game playing experience. I just don’t want to be playing and at some point in the future regretting the way I developed my character because of something I did not/ could not foresee.

Which Windows are you playing on? The game kept crashing on me all the time on 98, but practically never on XP.

I'm playing on XP with SP2.

For questions about feats and such, I'd recommend checking the guides here: http://www.sorcerers.net/Games/NWN/index_tips.php

There should be faqs for Fighters and Weapon Masters.

For the crashing, check your Override folder. I had some stuff in mine that was causing me to crash. I made a backup and went through the folder, cleaning out some junk.

Didn't see any issues like the one your having with Aribeth, but I quit playing the OC pretty soon anyway. It's really pretty dull compared to the thousands of better mods out there...

The crashing could be due to your character editing with LETO, depending on what you've done with it...

Regarding some of your other questions, you do share the XP with henchmen and also summons, I believe. It's up to you to decide if you want them along or not, but at least in the OC henchmen add a small bit of badly needed atmosphere to the otherwise uninspired campaign. Each NPC comes with a quest that you gradually unravel. It's also very hard for magic-users to get through the game without a tank to help them out.

As for feats, personally I take pretty much only those that are used automatically since I don't want to bother manually using any of them. But that's because I play mages or sorcerers who are already badly deprived of necessary quickslots. With fighter-type characters it's probably a different story.

[ September 25, 2007, 00:17: Message edited by: Taluntain ]

-Am I splitting XP with my henchman? Pros and cons of henchmen?Yes, you split XP with henchmen, summons and familiars. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as NWN scales XP to your level. In the end, you'll be perhaps a level lower than if you had not taken along a henchman, but that's no big deal.

Pros: Banter, extra skills (open locks, healing, back up fire power).
Cons: Slight lag in levelling, trying to keep them alive despite their moronic AI.

-I have taken the craft weapons and armor skills. Just one rank so far for each because I don’t know what good they are. Should I continue to develop these skills? In general, what skills are useful and which aren’t? I have been sticking mainly to class skills and NPC interaction skills like persuade and the like.I've never used craft weapons and armor, so I can't help you there. They seem fairly useless, though, as you'll only be able to create non-magical weapons/armor (if I remember correctly).

Generally, for a fighter-type character, I'll stick with Discipline (useful for resisting knockdowns and disarm attempts). Any other skills are fairly optional. If you do go for a Weapon Master, stick 4 points into Intimidate, then wait until you gain WM-levels before adding more. Intimidate is only a cross-class skill for the fighter, while it's a class skill for the WM. Don't expect too much use of this skill in the OC, as it's a skill that was only introduced in one of the expansions.

Other useful skills I like to pick are Healing (more mileage from healing kits), Lore (no need to go to shops to identify your newly found equipment) and Tumble (per 5 skill points an extra point in natural AC). Some find these useless, I find them convenient, but it's not critical to your build in any way.

-Which feats are worth taking and which are useless? I’m concerned about getting feats that are on the list but not really used in the game or just are not worth it.If you want to make your character a Weapon Master, you'll have plenty of feats you'll need to choose as a requirement. Other than those feats, Cleave, Improved Critical, Weapon Focus and Weapon Specialization are good choices for a Fighter.

Remember that you need 13 dex and 13 int for Dodge and Expertise, respectively, which are both required for a WM.

-What are good weapons to focus on for a weaponmaster? I’m planning on doing long sword. Are there better weapons to focus on to get more out of the class?Longsword is a safe choice for any character. For maximum power of your WM, you might want to go for weapons that have wide critical ranges, such as kukri's, scimitars, or rapiers, and then dual wield them (hey, another 3 feats to pick) so you can score as many crits as possible. Alternatively, go for max damage per crit and choose a scythe as your main weapon. Note that for the scythe and the kukri you'll need Weapon Proficiency: Exotic. Other good choices are Greatsword and Greataxe.

-What good are fire beetle bellies and should I be carrying these things around?None, if you're not a mage of some kind.

-About 2/3 of the way through the Peninsula quest, Aribeth and everybody else who I had previously spoken to started taking to me like they had never spoken to me before. Is this normal/okay?No. Don't know what's causing that, either.

-The game crashes all the time, which is very frustrating and the only feedback the MS can give on the error report is that they are researching the problem. Are frequent crashes normal?Definitely not. My game rarely crashes, so something must be wrong. I'm no expert on this, but you might try reinstalling your game and seeing if it functions normally without patching/ doing anything out of the ordinary.

You can get 17+ levels even with a henchman. You really don't need more.

As far as henchmen are concerned: Talk to them. Solve their little quests in each chapter. The rewards are huge. The most important for a fighter are Daelan's (the half-orc barbarian) and Grimnaw (dwarf monk).

Feats for a fighter: henkie already mentioned those required for weapon master. Aside from those improved critical and weapon specialization are good. I think dodge is a great skill for everyone (as is mobility) -- and spring attack, a great feat even if you are not a WM, allows you to run through a horde of enemies without fear of AoO. For dual wielding you need ambidexterity, two weapon fighting and improved two weapon fighting. Great cleave is great early on, but becomes fairly useless later.

Skills: you've wasted some choices. You cannot craft weapons or armor in the OC (there are no materials to make thing with). As henkie mentioned, heal is a great skill for a fighter, persuade is good, as is lore. Discipline is a must.

Weapons: The top weapons for WM are all dual wielded -- the best is rapier/scimitar, followed by katana/bastard sword. Dual bladed swords are better than dual wielding long swords. For a two handed weapon, the scythe is the best followed by the great sword. Your long sword is just fine. Be sure to visit the weapon and armor shop (and go to the basement) with your sword. With the right ingredients it can be made more powerful.

I chose to do the OC without prestige classes. The mod was designed for the base character classes. My fighter/thief had no problems.

Thanks for all the advise, everyone. It's been very helpful. I think I'll be dual wielding with my weaponmaster. Should I take a level or ranger to get the requisite feats or should I be able to do it with the feat slots I'll be getting?

The Ranger Dual Wield Feat only works if you are unarmored or in light armor. It might be worthless for you to take a level of that class if your character is already using and designed for medium or heavy armor.

What does it take to get the items from the various henchmen? Can I just hire them, hand them the thing that they are looking for and be done with it, or do i have to adventure with them, progress through levels with them and talk to them the whole time?

You have to be of a high enough level (they have to level up twice from their starting level, per chapter), then you can talk to them and make them give you the quest. Then you can simply give them the item they were looking for. Getting the rewards from all of them is fairly easy to do.

So, if I have to level up twice with each one, that would mean I'd have to go through 10 levels or so to get everything, right? That sucks.

No. Once you realise you have almost finished the chapter and have collected various strange items, you recruit each one and talk to them several times to complete thier quests.

Good to know. Thank you.

A lot of the suggestions I've recieved for my character, as an aspiring weaponmaster, are to dual wield. My guy has 11 maybe 12 dex. So the 15 dexterity needed for ambidexterity is not possible. Do stat-altering items open feat options or do the base stats have to qualify?

Base stats, of course. Otherwise, you could just drink a potion before leveling or something cheezy.

NWN (and 3rd ed. AD&D) is a complex game and one should generally not "think about becoming" a prestige class. You really have to plan ahead for it. You need both 13 INT and DEX and if you don't start with those you're unlikely to get there by the end of the campaign, and if you do you'll get maybe 1 or 2 levels of weapon master, so why bother?

The NWN campaign is fairly easy, though, and you could probably get away with dual-wielding even without the feats.

So, if I have to level up twice with each one, that would mean I'd have to go through 10 levels or so to get everything, right? That sucks.My explanation wasn't very clear, sorry for that.

Basically, what happens is this. At their default level for a chapter, they'll tell you the first part of their story. Once they (and thus, you) gain a level, they'll tell another part of their story. Gain another level and they'll tell the last part of their story.

This works from their default level of a chapter. So if you start a new game in the OC with a character you've already played through SoU, you'll be around lvl 12. If you then talk to a henchman, you can tell them to level up, and they'll level up to 11 or 12, and you can get the entire story from them in one go, as they start at level 4 and would tell their entire story once they reach lvl 6 anyway.

Hope this clarifies things.

About the Ambidexterity thing: Yes, you need base stats, and, as Sir Fink explains, it's generally best to plan your character out in advance, as this works best. And, to me, is a big part of the fun anyway.

Two months of playing this game and I have finally gotten to the third chapter of the OC. It taken this long to get here for a couple of reasons:

1) I'm not able to spend too much time gaming.
2) I have tried to do every subquest I could along the way.
3) This game sucks, and I have found it increasingly difficult to find the will to continue to play it.

At first, I really liked the game but now it is just old and boring. And it’s not the storyline that bugs me, either.

The monotony of everything is killing me. I rarely pick up any new or interesting items.

There is little variety in scenery: you have the indoor tile-set, you have the outdoor, the crypt, and you have cave/underground. There is precious little in between. I mean, for heaven’s sake, the Dryad’s home/lair used the brick and mortar tile-set that you would find inside a house in the city. Did that strike anybody else as odd? All the cities and towns look the same and it’s always twilight out. Overall, the graphics are mediocre at best. I’ll take the outdated but beautifully rendered 2-D of the Infinity Engine over this left-handed monkey’s intro to 3-D modeling any day.

I could go on about other things, like how I find it incredibly stupid that my guy likes to shout obscenities and verbal challenges at the inanimate objects that he bashes, but I think you get the point: I don’t like this game.

Is this game redeemed by the expansions? I have not played either of them.

Do yourself a favour, skip the OC and export your character to HotU or download a good mod from the net. The OC is rather boring and repetitive and if you don't enjoy it now you won't like it later (although some passages are IMHO better than others).

Ditto what Caradhras said: the OC is just going to bore you and\or piss you off...

SoU is a little better...from what I hear HotU is even better than that.

There are TONS of mods that are better...

The lack of tilesets can get old after a while, but I'll say this...if the mod creator did a good job, you won't even notice that your seeing the same tilesets over and over...you'll be too into the story.

Oh, and if you have the Diamond Edition...DON"T PLAY KINGMAKER...honestly, it's worse than the OC...to me, it's so insulting that I consider Kingmaker one of the WORST games I've played...so, beware...

SoU is great. People rave about HotU, but I loved SoU. Maybe it's because I play rangers quite a bit, and Chapter 1 SoU is fantastic for them. Lots of animals to charm and talk to, a use for tracking skills... much better than the idiotic 1-dimensional OC. Repetitive is the word! Chapter 2 is perhaps even worse than 1. I've never got past it. Not due to the difficulty, just the boredom. At least a Weapon Master will kill the hordes of weak enemies quickly. HotU is decent, but it's just to 'roided up for my tastes. Too many magical items make me feel it's not my character doing the work - but then, that was also my problem with BGII & ToB, and I decided to help make an extra item mod for it, so what do I know?

Just make sure you start SoU with a level 1 character (a friend of mine exported his character from the OC, predictably it was awfully boring).

I have to agree with Giles Barskins. I recently got the game with SoU from a friend. And so far, the original game has been...boring. Repetitive. I have obtained three of the required ingredients...and there was nothing major or special or memorable. Lots of enemies rush to me, I cast fireball and BOOM they shriek in agony and die. Rest and repeat. This is boring!

Although I had to say, I kinda liked the zombie infested town area...The game suddenly kinda felt like Resident Evil series...for about a few minutes I was even having fun!

Should I try the expansion quest, to tell you the truth I have little will to do it. And I don't even want to enter the world of mods for NWN, which is odd as I am a mod freak when it comes to IE games. Oh well... This is sad.

If I want a good RPG with memorable NPCs, story and places, plus lots of tactical options, it seems I would prefer my modded BG2. If I want an action with good, shiny 3D graphics I would play Prince of Persia or Resident Evil series. This game tries to be both and fails miserably.

Chapter 3 and parts of Chapter 2 are actually quite good. But Chapter 1 and Chapter 4 are horrible. Nowadays, I'm not playing much of the original campaigns anyway. So many good custom module around. :)

I am playing the OC for the first time as well (actually I am playing NWN for the first time too). It is a bit like IWD, but with worse graphics and story. It is quite boring to run between houses that all look the same. Old 3D ages a lot faster than hand drawn 2D backgrounds and sprites. Hopefully the expansions will be worth it once I get that far.

Playing the expansions is like playing an entirely different game than the OC.

SoU is way better. And the community mods are great too. I haven't found one yet that was as boring as the OC...course I tend to look for high-rated ones...

I recommend you to try Blackguard module. Is in 3 parts and allows you to play as a truly evil character. Is one of the best around and completely bug free.
Other than that A Hunt Through the Dark is a very good module that allows you to play as a drow.

You could also install PRC. Works perfectly with the original campaigns and most modules. Is an improvement taking the rules closer to AD&D adding classes, races, skills and feats.

I finished Chapter 1 and, well, I do not know what to say. First I laughed and then I cried.

Déjà vu.

Apparently this also continues throughout the OC... *sigh*.

I'm thinking of installing NWN with SoU and HotU again.

I never started on SoU and HotU, but finished the OC once. I tried playing it again sometime ago but (not surprisingly) was nearly bored out of my mind with the dull storyline, repetitive tilesets and silly quests.

So.. I guess my question is, can someone recommend me any good mods that I can play instead of the OC, in which I will gain enough levels as if I'd finished the OC, and then I can export that character to start SoU and then HotU.

Or is that even possible, exporting characters you've created in a mod? Sorry, I've never tried any mods for NWN before.

Thanks in advance!

It's possible. However, you don't seem aware that you start at level 1 in SoU again... so you don't need a bridge module. There's only a gap of a few levels between SoU and HotU (you can check for bridge modules for that on SP), but you don't really need them there either. HotU just levels up your SoU char until it's the appropriate level.

Oh.. I didn't know that, because I installed them all, but never got around to playing more than the OC.

So.. even if I finished the OC with a level 20 character, I'd still be reset to level 1 in SoU? Great, that means I can just play SoU and skip the OC.

Thanks!

Actually, no, you can start your level 20 character in SoU and he'll be level 20. Rather boring, I imagine.

I see, thanks for all the help. I'll probably try it out once I finish my BG2 run.

You can start in SoU with a character of any level, but it won't scale up in difficulty to match it, so it's best to start with a new character.

Yeah, I played through with a player that had already been through the OC and it wasn't much fun. Mind you, I find the end chapter of SoU to be very difficult so it was a mild relief :p

BTW, what level can I reasonably expect to be at the end of Sou, if I do a large portion of the side-quests?

And what level would HotU adjust me to if it finds my character level to be too low?

http://www.sorcerers.net/Games/NWN/expansions.php

Thanks, Tal. Should have just checked it out myself. :)

Aw you guys, you're making me wanna play NWN now :p

I finished the OC some days ago, thankfully it got a little better towards the end, otherwise it would have been extremely boring. What a huge disappointment. At least SoU has been somewhat better than the OC and it does not seem to be as long as the OC, fortunately. Maybe HotU will be the saviour...

HotU is the best of the bunch by far.

Don't be fooled, SoU is much shorter than the OC (good thing too, as the OC was faaaaaaar too long for its own good). The OC never got better for me, even towards the end, but that may be because I was so sick of it by then. SoU is my personal favourite, and is actually quite good, though people seem to prefer HotU (too "epic" for my tastes). Both SoU and HotU are stellar works of art compared to the OC.

I played a lot of multi-player NWN a few years back and had a blast. I don't mean Persistent Worlds ("PW's") either. I mean 4-5 players and a DM making their way through a dungeon. Much like reliving the old days of pen-and-paper. I always felt like that was the true purpose of NWN and Bioware often said as much.

Too many people expected NWN to be Baldur's Gate 3 and were, not surprisingly, disappointed. It's kind of too late to get into multi-player NWN now as it's so old and the active player base has shrunk. There are PW's around still but I always found them to be like MMORPGs only even more boring.

Don't be fooled, SoU is much shorter than the OC (good thing too, as the OC was faaaaaaar too long for its own good). The OC never got better for me, even towards the end, but that may be because I was so sick of it by then. SoU is my personal favourite, and is actually quite good, though people seem to prefer HotU (too "epic" for my tastes). Both SoU and HotU are stellar works of art compared to the OC.

Yep, I just finished SoU. It was a lot better than the OC, but it still left a bit cold. I thought the interlude was longer than the actual chapters, a bit silly. HotU better be great, otherwise the official NWN campaigns will fail miserably overall.

HotU is really in a different legue to the other two, so you shouldn't be disappointed :)
Also make sure you check out some of the better mods out there - some of them make the official NWN campaigns look amaturish.

Ravenloft Mod was nice.

Which one? There are hundreds ;)

So, I started SotU the other day, playing as a sorcerer. I made it to the destroyed city before I couldn't take any more of this horrible game.

I just don't like it. The graphics, the voice-acting, the everything about it. I'm unistalling it from my HD tonight.

I really do understand how you feel, Giles Barskins. Believe me, I do. :cry:

Alright, I reneged on my vow to uninstall this NWN. I figured I'd give HotU a try since Tal recommended it and you know what?

I like it so far!

I'm playing a monk/sorcerer/DD and am doing quite well so far. The tilesets have come a long way and if I don't play with the sound on, it's quite nice. I was browsing some of the modules out there on NWN Vault and there are a few I'd like to try as well.

HotU is an interesting diversion. I usually don't like playing godlike characters, but my halfling fighter/weapon master (kukri) was so much fun -- especially after getting Hatred and Strife.

I played a barbarian/bard/red dragon disciple in SoU -- the character made the game interesting. I first tried with a ranger then a paladin but didn't like either.

Thus far, I think I like playing rogues the best in NWN.

There are some excellent mods out there:

Darkness over Daggerford
Twilight/Midnight (for Paladins)
A Dance With Rogues (mature themes)
Tortured Hearts
the HeX coda 1 (unique story)
Shadowlord/Dreamcatcher/Demon

Wake looks interesting as does Rose of Eternity.

HotU is an interesting diversion. I usually don't like playing godlike characters, but my halfling fighter/weapon master (kukri) was so much fun -- especially after getting Hatred and Strife.
HotU appeals to my inner munchkin, plus it's a good module for my characters to reach maturity.

I played a barbarian/bard/red dragon disciple in SoU -- the character made the game interesting. I first tried with a ranger then a paladin but didn't like either.
I loved my Barbarian/bard/RDD too, even though this character was originally conceived for the sole purpose of having a barbarian which had all rages, as a barbarian character should have.

Furthermore, I can only agree with the modules T2Bruno recommends. Darkness over Daggerford is great, the HeX coda is very different than most other modules (storywise, at least, and A Dance with Rogues is a must if you enjoy playing rogues. The mature theme can become a bit excessive, but by granting experience for unlocking and disarming traps and granting little experience for killing foes, it actively promotes to play rogues the way they were meant to be played, IMO, i.e. by sneaking past many enemies and being an alround sneaky bastard.

I'd also recommend Tales of Arterra. Especially the second part (The Awakening), though you should at least play the first part (The Lost) for the background story. The way the plot unfolds in The Awakening is just fantastic.