Neverwinter Nights 2 (May Contain Spoilers!! - Please Use Tags)

[Achilles]

By the way, are there any more Bags of Holding in the game than the one in the Captain's Bedroom in Crossroad Keep? I only found that one.

Nope, that's it. Magic bags are pretty scarce.

 

And are there any decent headgear other than those +Int wizard headbands and the occasional helmet that grants +1 Concentration? Hardly found any headgear at all during my first playthrough. Boots, gauntlets and belts were also very few and far between, both at the shops I found and as loot.

Nope on that count too. Seems that the random loot generator tends to shy away from that stuff. Either that or the devs wanted to not-so-gently nudge us toward crafting for our accessories.

 

I tried using the chase camera but felt it too limiting to see what was going on around me that way when you have more than once character to babysit. On the few solo-missions in the game the chase cam worked fairly well though. Traditional perspective view had to suffice, with lots of zooming in and out.

Have you given any thought to Driving Mode? Might take a little getting used to, but I've had pretty good luck with it so far.

 

 

I found at least the choices of female player faces to be fairly unremarkable and look very similar to each other.

I think this could safely apply to most races and both genders. Humans appear to have the most variety, but how much fun could playing a human be?

 

I still hope that I get to choose a panther for my companion after a bit more levelling up.

I believe you choose your companion during the character creation. It's hidden though. If you use Recommended after picking your class, then you skipped the screen. At least that's how it worked for my Sorcerer and his familiar.

[Astrotoy7]

I believe you choose your companion during the character creation. It's hidden though. If you use Recommended after picking your class, then you skipped the screen. At least that's how it worked for my Sorcerer and his familiar.

 

lolz...Ive been playing in the 'Realms since Icewind Dale...no recommend button for me

 

I did get the screen when levelling up when I picked my animal companion....there was just no panther available. I picked a grizzly instead. With Elanee in my troupe, between her changing shape, her summoned creatures and animal companion, and my summoned creatures and animal companion, its like a travelling freakin circus

 

@stoffe - go to sands shop, has some nice headgear...I picked up the good ole thavian circlet and "headband of fireballs" from him There are numerous helmets, sold my the Docks armourer, Simmy, Deekin, the dwarf lady(forgot name!), Temple of Tyr etc.

 

I recommend to newer players, dont storm around dungeons without searching for treasure, try travel every room, keep the z key pressed, t will show you things like chests and barrels that can contain goodies etc. The warehouse and eyegouger clan areas are particularly full o goodies....took me to 70,000 GP Im only at lvl 8 and I have a great array of equipment, this is very different to NWN1, where the good stuff came very later on

 

mtfbwya

[stoffe]

Nope, that's it. Magic bags are pretty scarce.

 

Too bad, it's hard enough to lug around every decent item you found that might be useful for other party members you pick up later, tons of different essences and crafting components, a truckload of metal ingots, potions, scrolls etc with the few magic bags there are. They should give you some place to stash all the junk you might need later but not right now, some place you could access throughout the game.

 

Nope on that count too. Seems that the random loot generator tends to shy away from that stuff. Either that or the devs wanted to not-so-gently nudge us toward crafting for our accessories.

 

Haven't done much crafting since it requires special feats and you have so few feat picks already as it is, and none of your party members seem to come with them already granted AFAIK. Does your main PC have to do the crafting, or could I "sacrifice" some NPC that doesn't see much action (like Grobnar or Bishop) to be used primarily as a crafter?

 

Have you given any thought to Driving Mode? Might take a little getting used to, but I've had pretty good luck with it so far.

 

The problem with all the closeup camera modes, IMHO, is that they don't allow you an overview of what your party members are up to, only what's going on in front of the character you control. Such camera modes work OK in Morrowind/Oblivion (where I always play in 3rd person mode) since you only control 1 character there, but in NWN2 it feels restricting. A shame since the game looks much better when you see the ceiling and sky.

 

I think this could safely apply to most races and both genders. Humans appear to have the most variety, but how much fun could playing a human be?

 

I started a new game yesterday and wanted to try some other race than an Aasimar this time, and was struck by the fact that most selectable female player heads are quite ugly. All the half-elven heads looks like cavemen with their faces perpetually locked in an angry frown (reminded me more of orcs than elves), and most of the female elven faces are no better. I was under the impression elves where supposed to be graceful and pretty. Not so in this game it seems, my old Aasimar character's appearance, which I didn't think much of when I picked it, looks almost looks amazingly cute by comparison.

 

So I had to settle for playing a Dark Elf this time, at least it fits them to look constantly pissed off. Even if mine is Chaotic Good I suppose everyone will treat her like **** giving her reason to look perpetually angry since I get the impression most people tend to hate Dark Elves at first glance. (Hopefully that doesn't cause too much trouble at the Trial later, that was hard enough even without racial bigotry factoring in.) Haven't even gotten through the Harvest Fair yet and several people have already seen fit to insult her for being a Dark Elf even as she's lived in the village for her whole life.

 

(Which brings another story-nitpicking question to my head: Do elves mature very late, and then speed-mature into adulthood? If my character is supposedly 120 years old, and the "Event" that devastated West Harbor happened roughly 20 years ago, and my character was supposedly a baby at the time, then elves must be babies for at least a 100 years and then grow to young adulthood in the following 20 years. Seems like the story was primarily written with the human/planetouched/half-races in mind otherwise.)

[SpaceAlex]

heya! for those of you with *decent* nvidia graphics cards.... download the newest nVidia 93.71 drivers

 

I have a high end graphics card and the differences I noticed were astounding(shadows, reflections etc all looked *superb*) Apart from the hair lookin a bit weird on *some* characters, I dont get people complaining about the graphics Really, is Oblivion a better game because you see trees 5 miles away in teh background...

 

RPGS are all about:

1. Storyline

2. Storyline

3. Storyline

 

 

I agree with you. If you have a good graphic card, you really can't complain about graphic (beautiful trees, spell effects, dynamic shadows (*cough* Oblivion *cough*...).

 

I wouldn't mind better performace though. Even on my 8800 GTX, the game rarely goes above 30 FPS (min 24 FPS i belive) when the in-game settings are maxed out (including water reflections on + 4xAA). I noticed that the shadows really tax the graphic card. If i set them to low, the game never drops below 45 FPS... but the shadows make the game much more enjoyable for the eyes, and 30 FPS isn't all that bad, so i leave them on.

 

As for Oblivion, it looks great with all those mods out there (high res LOD textures, Quarl's texture pack and others), and runs much better on my system than NWN2 (never drops below 40FPS...not even in the forest). What the game doesn't have is a good story and interesting quests... sure, some quests were great, but most were just hack&slash (go to a dungeon and kill a bunch of dudes). I got so sick of all those dungeons after 100+ hours of gameplay that i decided to stop playing the game for a while. Not to mention the "one voice actor per race" rule (all imperials sounding the same).

 

Other than that, Oblivion was a good game.

[Jae Onasi]

Too bad, it's hard enough to lug around every decent item you found that might be useful for other party members you pick up later, tons of different essences and crafting components, a truckload of metal ingots, potions, scrolls etc with the few magic bags there are. They should give you some place to stash all the junk you might need later but not right now, some place you could access throughout the game.

What about dropping them off at your room in the inn, since you can drop items? Or just leave them on the workbenches in the inn? I accidentally left something on a workbench one time and was able to retrieve it.

 

Haven't done much crafting since it requires special feats and you have so few feat picks already as it is, and none of your party members seem to come with them already granted AFAIK. Does your main PC have to do the crafting, or could I "sacrifice" some NPC that doesn't see much action (like Grobnar or Bishop) to be used primarily as a crafter?

I set Qara to do 'craft wondrous items' and Elanee to 'craft magical arms and armor'--I would actually switch those around since Elanee can change out her spells and Qara's set with hers, but now I wished til I'd gotten Grobnar to let him do that stuff. I made a Darksteel +2 chain shirt and the value went from 700-something to 7000-something at Sand's. I think I read somewhere that you can make something with up to 3 magic enhancements, but I haven't been able to try it yet.

 

All the half-elven heads looks like cavemen with their faces perpetually locked in an angry frown (reminded me more of orcs than elves), and most of the female elven faces are no better. I was under the impression elves where supposed to be graceful and pretty.

I must have picked the elf with the perpetual Barbie-doll smile, then. The mohawk hair choice was very amusing.

(Which brings another story-nitpicking question to my head: Do elves mature very late, and then speed-mature into adulthood? If my character is supposedly 120 years old, and the "Event" that devastated West Harbor happened roughly 20 years ago, and my character was supposedly a baby at the time, then elves must be babies for at least a 100 years and then grow to young adulthood in the following 20 years. Seems like the story was primarily written with the human/planetouched/half-races in mind otherwise.)

More likely a writer who forgot about such things.

 

Hmm, I'm fairly certain I've checked those vendors numerous times and only found the circlets Sand sells and the occasional +1 Concentration helmet. Perhaps there is random loot at the vendors that happened to decide not to spawn much headgear in my game. Seems like most headgear you give your party-members doesn't show up on their model anyway (tried to give Khelgar a nice farmer's hat in Highcliff but he still looked the same ), but it still feels like a waste to leave an equipment slot empty for most of the game.

I found a number of +1 concentration helmets and the thayvian circlet at that guy who's tent is hiding in the middle of the houses on the dock, but they're not labeled as such. Yeah, I wish they'd change the appearance when you equip them. I was looking forward to seeing Khelgar in the Stag Helmet.

Luck does seem to play a major role in what loot you find though. My party canvas the whole (hostile) area for anything that highlights and grabs any loot found, but for example during the warehouse I mostly found junk... Traps, thieves' tools, some cheap gems and the occasional non-magical weapon and armor. Cost me more in wand/scroll/potion/medkit usage to dispatch the thugs than I recuperated from looting.

Whew--hubby and I both in our games found crates with something like 17 darksteel chain shirts and 17 shortbows which earn a nice sum, especially if you upgrade them. I ran around the warehouse after dispatching all the bad guys to double check to make sure I hadn't missed anything--it's easy there with all the crates and all the areas. Of course, we were all encumbered leaving the warehouse with all our loot.

In any case, it seems like some of the loot is random and some of it is fixed--the crates with the chain shirts and shortbows seems fixed since they were the same for both of us (and on repeat playthroughs when one of us has died repeatedly--I won't say who, it's just not me ), but some of the barrels and other crates were different.

I rested a zillion times so I didn't eat up so many heal potions and kits, and since I have a ranger with a ton of points in survival, I can see the enemies before they can see us. That way, I'm not using up the first round defensively--I'm attacking off the bat. I cast things like stoneskin, animal companions, and bless before we even walk up to the enemy and say 'Hello, meet Mr. Electric Mace, Mr. Acid Arrow, and Ms. Firewall, and have a Nice Day.'

[Achilles]

Too bad, it's hard enough to lug around every decent item you found that might be useful for other party members you pick up later, tons of different essences and crafting components, a truckload of metal ingots, potions, scrolls etc with the few magic bags there are. They should give you some place to stash all the junk you might need later but not right now, some place you could access throughout the game.

Meta-gaming to the rescue! There are 2 boxes and 3 workbenches in Fort Locke that will be accessible throughout acts 1 and 2 (I think even for part of act 3). That's 95 slots. Also, there are three more workbenches in the Sunken Flagon for another 72 slots. Bad news is that you have to do a bit of travel to access all your stuff and keep a constant reminder to grab your stuff before act 3 begins.

 

Mostly, I just use the bags for inventory management (i.e. all the armor/weapon crafting materials go in a bag which then goes in the blacksmith workbench...taking only one slot).

 

Haven't done much crafting since it requires special feats and you have so few feat picks already as it is, and none of your party members seem to come with them already granted AFAIK. Does your main PC have to do the crafting, or could I "sacrifice" some NPC that doesn't see much action (like Grobnar or Bishop) to be used primarily as a crafter?

Any NPC with the right skills/feats can craft. To make basic items such as armor, weapons, or potions, all you need is skill points (which most of your party members pick up by default). Feats only come into play if you want to enchant items or make enchanted items. I usually look to Sand, Qara, and Grobnar to pick up the necessary feats.

 

The good news is that you can use scrolls to cast the necessary spells for enchanting. So if Grobnar is going to make a set of magic boots but doesn't know the spell (and he's the only one with the Craft Wondrous Item feat), then he can simply use a scroll (hang on to your scrolls, btw!!!). The bad news is that you're not supposed to be able to do this (bug) and they might be "fixing" this in a later patch. The only reason I knew to do it was because I tried it before I learned that you couldn't do it .

 

The problem with all the closeup camera modes, IMHO, is that they don't allow you an overview of what your party members are up to, only what's going on in front of the character you control. Such camera modes work OK in Morrowind/Oblivion (where I always play in 3rd person mode) since you only control 1 character there, but in NWN2 it feels restricting. A shame since the game looks much better when you see the ceiling and sky.

The only part where I struggle is when they spawn you into a nook or cranny with your PC at the back and/or smack-dab into the middle of a fight. Generally, I play with the camera about mid way back (so I still get the 3rd person feel) and pointed at a slight downward angle (so that I get some of the benefit of top-down for party management. Again, takes some getting used to.

 

 

I started a new game yesterday and wanted to try some other race than an Aasimar this time, and was struck by the fact that most selectable female player heads are quite ugly. All the half-elven heads looks like cavemen with their faces perpetually locked in an angry frown (reminded me more of orcs than elves), and most of the female elven faces are no better. I was under the impression elves where supposed to be graceful and pretty. Not so in this game it seems, my old Aasimar character's appearance, which I didn't think much of when I picked it, looks almost looks amazingly cute by comparison.

I'm holding my breath for a community made head pack.

 

(Which brings another story-nitpicking question to my head: Do elves mature very late, and then speed-mature into adulthood? If my character is supposedly 120 years old, and the "Event" that devastated West Harbor happened roughly 20 years ago, and my character was supposedly a baby at the time, then elves must be babies for at least a 100 years and then grow to young adulthood in the following 20 years. Seems like the story was primarily written with the human/planetouched/half-races in mind otherwise.)

Ha! I appreciate wanting to leave the door open by allowing us to pick our age, but maybe they should have just forced one upon us.

 

I think some NPC calls your party a traveling circus or something when you walk around with an Aasimar, a Tiefling and elf and a dwarf in the group. Yay for multi-culturalism. As for shape changing I only found the Bear wildshape and elemental forms useful, the badger and wolf forms don't seem to grant her anything she doesn't have in her natural form already.

The rowdy sailor in Highcliff

 

I got so sick and tired of seeing Elanee turn herself into a goddamn badger that I turned off ability usage. "Oh, here comes a bad guy. Better turn myself into a squirrel and prepare to get stepped on". Gah!!

 

Oh and Paladins with their Turn Undead.

Three Shadow Reavers trying to kick my ass

and Casavir is just standing 2 feet away with Turn Undead queued. Hmm...try swinging that big heavy Holy Fist of Tyr's Undead Smiting* in your hand instead, you oaf. Even if you switch over to him and have him throw some blows, he reverts right back to Turn Undead as soon as you switch away.

 

*not an actual weapon.

 

Hmm, I'm fairly certain I've checked those vendors numerous times and only found the circlets Sand sells and the occasional +1 Concentration helmet. Perhaps there is random loot at the vendors that happened to decide not to spawn much headgear in my game. Seems like most headgear you give your party-members doesn't show up on their model anyway (tried to give Khelgar a nice farmer's hat in Highcliff but he still looked the same ), but it still feels like a waste to leave an equipment slot empty for most of the game.

Yeah, not very many helmets available. The decent ones are way too expensive when you need them and far too underpowered once you can afford them.

 

If you look at the .utc files for each of the party members, you'll see that there's an option to have helmets show for them. Wish there was a way to do that for my PC.

 

Luck does seem to play a major role in what loot you find though. My party canvas the whole (hostile) area for anything that highlights and grabs any loot found, but for example during the warehouse I mostly found junk... Traps, thieves' tools, some cheap gems and the occasional non-magical weapon and armor. Cost me more in wand/scroll/potion/medkit usage to dispatch the thugs than I recuperated from looting.

Opened up a container and found one of the rarer crafting books, then I got charged by a mob of bad guys and killed. Had to reload my save. Went back to the same container and got 7 gold that time

 

Yeah...definitely need some luck.

[stoffe]

What about dropping them off at your room in the inn, since you can drop items? Or just leave them on the workbenches in the inn? I accidentally left something on a workbench one time and was able to retrieve it.

 

Might work for the majority of the game, but you'll have to remember to go back there and pick them all up before Act 2 ends, since you won't be able to visit the Inn any more during Act 3.

 

 

I set Qara to do 'craft wondrous items' and Elanee to 'craft magical arms and armor'--I would actually switch those around since Elanee can change out her spells and Qara's set with hers, but now I wished til I'd gotten Grobnar to let him do that stuff. I made a Darksteel +2 chain shirt and the value went from 700-something to 7000-something at Sand's. I think I read somewhere that you can make something with up to 3 magic enhancements, but I haven't been able to try it yet.

 

Hmm, does the one with the craft skills have to be the one casting spells required to enchant the items? In that case I suppose I'll have to use either Qara or Sand for enchanting duty since Grobnar doesn't have a whole lot of arcane spells as a bard, and most of the spells required for enchanting seems to be arcane spells. At least I got that impression from quickly browsing some of those tomes you find throughout the game. Elanee is too useful in battle, in particular at higher levels, to nerf by giving her crafting feats instead of combat feats though, in my opinion.

 

I must have picked the elf with the perpetual Barbie-doll smile, then. The mohawk hair choice was very amusing.

 

Hmm, what type of elf do you play as? I checked through most of the races when creating my new character yesterday and thought most of the female elven faces either looked masculine or angry. Ironically some of the tiefling faces looked the most natural, non-malevolent and happy of the lot.

 

Whew--hubby and I both in our games found crates with something like 17 darksteel chain shirts and 17 shortbows which earn a nice sum, especially if you upgrade them.

 

That stack of chain shirts was the saving grace that prevented that quest from being a complete economic disaster in my earlier playthrough. Just too bad I had to use up several wands worth 3000 gp each to clear out the warehouse, so I still didn't gain that much from it in the end.

 

But I guess that's my own fault for not bringing Qara and not resting after every battle. I only tend to rest when it's absolutely necessary since that seems more natural.

 

 

Of course, we were all encumbered leaving the warehouse with all our loot.

 

Magic bags are useful for that, sticking the heaviest loot in them can make quite a difference and you should have been able to get at least three by then, if I remember correctly.

 

I wonder if it makes a difference what you tell Sir Pretty-boy when you exit the warehouse. It's just too much fun seeing the (imagined) look on their faces when they are about to charge in if you don't tell them what you've done and just let them go on with their "important" mission. Perhaps not the most professional thing to do if you work for the city watch, but they earned it with that attitude of theirs.

 

 

Since I have a ranger with a ton of points in survival, I can see the enemies before they can see us. That way, I'm not using up the first round defensively--I'm attacking off the bat.

 

Does that really work in the warehouse though? Seems like pretty much all the thugs are encounter-spawned. They don't exist in the area until you trip a trigger nearby, which spawns them in. Which becomes too obvious to be realistic if you go through the warehouse the "wrong" way, since they'll spawn right behind your back in plain view at a number of occasions.

[Achilles]

What about dropping them off at your room in the inn, since you can drop items? Or just leave them on the workbenches in the inn? I accidentally left something on a workbench one time and was able to retrieve it.

The game never forgets where you leave stuff. I've left loot on the ground in chapter 1 and been able to retreive it in chapter 3. May that's why save games are 17mb each.

 

I set Qara to do 'craft wondrous items' and Elanee to 'craft magical arms and armor'--I would actually switch those around since Elanee can change out her spells and Qara's set with hers, but now I wished til I'd gotten Grobnar to let him do that stuff. I made a Darksteel +2 chain shirt and the value went from 700-something to 7000-something at Sand's. I think I read somewhere that you can make something with up to 3 magic enhancements, but I haven't been able to try it yet.

Don't forget Sand. He can learn new spells from scrolls and most of the metamagic feats they want to give him by default suck anyway .

 

And yes, you can only fit 3 enchantments per item. The good news is that if you find a +1 armor that you really like, you can add the +5 enchantment and the +5 will overwrite the +1 (they won't stack for +6). The bad news is that if the armor has 3 enchantments, it won't allow you to do this, even though you are trying to max an existing enchantment.

 

I found this out after crafting a set of hide armor for Elanee using the Salamander hides. So I used the toolset to remove the +1 enchantment from the armor so that I could add the +5 later

 

crafting rant: btw, don't hold your breath for a 3rd red dragon hide. If you want to actually use the two that you get, you'll need to hack the recipes (crafting.2da). There are more than a few crafting bugs, some of which will be fixed in 1.03. There are community mods and published fixes for the others, if you're so inclined

 

 

Whew--hubby and I both in our games found crates with something like 17 darksteel chain shirts and 17 shortbows which earn a nice sum, especially if you upgrade them. I ran around the warehouse after dispatching all the bad guys to double check to make sure I hadn't missed anything--it's easy there with all the crates and all the areas. Of course, we were all encumbered leaving the warehouse with all our loot.

In any case, it seems like some of the loot is random and some of it is fixed--the crates with the chain shirts and shortbows seems fixed since they were the same for both of us (and on repeat playthroughs when one of us has died repeatedly--I won't say who, it's just not me ), but some of the barrels and other crates were different.

Yeah, I quit doing that after I figured out that I was only getting 10 gold for the shields and 4 gold for the daggers.

[Achilles]

Hmm, does the one with the craft skills have to be the one casting spells required to enchant the items? In that case I suppose I'll have to use either Qara or Sand for enchanting duty since Grobnar doesn't have a whole lot of arcane spells as a bard, and most of the spells required for enchanting seems to be arcane spells. At least I got that impression from quickly browsing some of those tomes you find throughout the game. Elanee is too useful in battle, in particular at higher levels, to nerf by giving her crafting feats instead of combat feats though, in my opinion.

Yep, the one doing the crafting has to have the feat and the spell. The scroll will only save you some of the time though as many of them are restricted. It almost makes sense to use Grobnar though, because he can use almost any scroll thanks to his high Use Magical Item skill. Either way, I agree with you re: Elanee.

 

Does that really work in the warehouse though? Seems like pretty much all the thugs are encounter-spawned. They don't exist in the area until you trip a trigger nearby, which spawns them in. Which becomes too obvious to be realistic if you go through the warehouse the "wrong" way, since they'll spawn right behind your back in plain view at a number of occasions.

I really dislike that a great deal about this game. It gets really aggravating when you're rescuing Issani. There are two or three rooms in that cave where you spawn another army of orcs everytime you turn around.

[stoffe]

Meta-gaming to the rescue! There are 2 boxes and 3 workbenches in Fort Locke that will be accessible throughout acts 1 and 2 (I think even for part of act 3). That's 95 slots. Also, there are three more workbenches in the Sunken Flagon for another 72 slots. Bad news is that you have to do a bit of travel to access all your stuff and keep a constant reminder to grab your stuff before act 3 begins.

 

Lots of running around though, and keeping track of where you've put everything. Once the next patch comes out and restores database functionality to the game I think I'll make an NWN2 version of a "magic chest" mod I made for NWN1 where you cast a spell-ability (unlimited uses/day) to spawn a bunch of chests that you can store things in and then cast it again on them to make them vanish. Then the chests will keep their content and whenever you need something from them or want to store something else you just cast the spell again to make them appear. It was rather useful to stash things from loot-intensive campaigns and modules.

 

 

Any NPC with the right skills/feats can craft. To make basic items such as armor, weapons, or potions, all you need is skill points (which most of your party members pick up by default). Feats only come into play if you want to enchant items or make enchanted items. I usually look to Sand, Qara, and Grobnar to pick up the necessary feats.

 

Thanks, good to know, perhaps I should look more into crafting during this playthrough, I never really got around to it during the first one. Perhaps Grobnar has his uses after all. I mostly used scrolls before to let Sand memorize new spells and then give everything he already knew (or couldn't use) to Neeshka and let her put her Use Magic Device skill to use instead. Quite handy late in the game when I had accumulated a nice stack of Premonition and Spell Mantle scrolls.

 

I got so sick and tired of seeing Elanee turn herself into a goddamn badger that I turned off ability usage. "Oh, here comes a bad guy. Better turn myself into a squirrel and prepare to get stepped on". Gah!!

 

I've turned off automatic spellcasting and ability use for all the spellcasting party NPCs. Gives you more precise control of the party's resources if you do that, since the spellcaster AI does not seem particularily context sensitive at all. If I got a gold piece for every time Qara tried to Fireball a Fire Elemental the party would have no economic troubles at all. I can imagine it would be absolutely maddening if you play on the difficulty level where your AoE spells can hurt friendly characters as well.

 

Oh and Paladins with their Turn Undead. Three ****** ******* trying to kick my ass and Casavir is just standing 2 feet away with Turn Undead queued. Hmm...try swinging that big heavy Holy Fist of Tyr's Undead Smiting* in your hand instead, you oaf.

 

Even if you switch over to him and have him throw some blows, he reverts right back to Turn Undead as soon as you switch away.

 

Somehow I found Casavir to be quite useless. A melee fighter without much strength that only have buff spells with apparently microscopic duration, and by the time he's finished buffing the rest of the party has already killed all the enemies. And if he wades into melee without buffing he tends to get killed or badly injured most of the time. I usually bring along Khelgar instead, he tends to produce better results. In particular after he gets the Hammer of Ironfist, monk or not.

 

I have to agree it's quite irritating that the AI all to often overrides actions you have queued for your party members and does what it wants instead. So at the start of every major battle I set the whole party to puppet mode and queue up what I want them to do, and then turn off puppet mode after a few rounds to let them handle themselves.

 

 

In particular the True Name Recitations with the Gith or Ammon Jerro is very annoying in that regard. To be able to use it with any reliability I have to set them to puppet mode and then remain in control of the character until they start chanting and the pillar of light appears. Otherwise they often just quit reciting and do something else instead. BTW, is it a glitch in my game or does only Ammon Jerro have sound for when reciting a True Name? Seems the Gith does so silently.

 

 

The game never forgets where you leave stuff. I've left loot on the ground in chapter 1 and been able to retreive it in chapter 3. May that's why save games are 17mb each.

 

17 Mb? My final savegame at the end of chapter 3 is a whopping 150 MB in size. Quite ridiculous. My savegame folder is 8 Gb is size. I think I'll have to make less saves during this playthrough and do more overwrites of older savegames.

[montnoir]

Pardon me... did someone say "I let Sand learn new spells from scrolls"?? I'm magic illiterate and only go forth with a party of hard hitting melee fighters. But for my next Wizard or Sorcerer playthrough I need to know what's what. One of those things would be what exactly it means and how the learning spells from scrolls work? Is it added to the spellbook temporarily or is it added for keeps?

 

It's an excellent game, forget about it! It's like an updated Kotor2. Lots of TSL Déja Vú going on.

[stoffe]

Pardon me... did someone say "I let Sand learn new spells from scrolls"?? I'm magic illiterate and only go forth with a party of hard hitting melee fighters. But for my next Wizard or Sorcerer playthrough I need to know what's what. One of those things would be what exactly it means and how the learning spells from scrolls work? Is it added to the spellbook temporarily or is it added for keeps?

 

Put the scroll in the spellcaster's inventory and right-click on it to bring up the context menu and pick the "Scribe scroll" option. This will scribe the spell into the wizard's spellbook so you can memorize it, though the scroll will be lost in the process.

 

This only works for Wizards and with scrolls of arcane spells though, scrolls with divine spells cannot be used for scribing. Sorcerers and Warlocks have no spellbook and can only learn new spells at levelup, while Clerics and Druids already know all spells they can cast automatically.

[Astrotoy7]

....Seems like most headgear you give your party-members doesn't show up on their model anyway (tried to give Khelgar a nice farmer's hat in Highcliff but he still looked the same ), but it still feels like a waste to leave an equipment slot empty for most of the game.

 

Yes! This was a bit disappointing, and I was actually thinking it was a glitch !! This part of it is quite similar to KOTOR, but even though you *do* see teh changes in clothing and weapons...doesnt make it into headgear for NPCs....methinks this has something to do with the way cutscenes have already been pre-rendered(without headgear).... if not, hopefully it can be fixed or modded in future

 

mtfbwya

[Jae Onasi]

Yes! This was a bit disappointing, and I was actually thinking it was a glitch !! This part of it is quite similar to KOTOR, but even though you *do* see teh changes in clothing and weapons...doesnt make it into headgear for NPCs....methinks this has something to do with the way cutscenes have already been pre-rendered(without headgear).... if not, hopefully it can be fixed or modded in future

 

mtfbwya[/QUOTe]

I can live with the lack of headgear in the cutscenes if I can just see what Khelgar looks like in the stag helmet. It's the little things in life that amuse me, you know.

 

Oh, and I managed to run Sand out of money--he won't let me sell to him anymore.

[Achilles]

I can live with the lack of headgear in the cutscenes if I can just see what Khelgar looks like in the stag helmet. It's the little things in life that amuse me, you know.

This is probably the quickest way to do it and it doesn't even involve opening the cumbersome toolset.

 

• Open up C:\Atari\Neverwinter Nights 2(or whatever drive/directory you installed the game under)

• Find the Data folder and open it

• Locate Templates.zip and double-click on it (I'm assuming that you have a file compression app that handles .zip files here )

• Find co_khelgar.utc

• Right-click and extract it (and remember where you extracted it to)

• Use a GFF editor to open the file. I'm assuming that any ole gff editor will work. The KT editor didn't play nice, but I've heard that KGFF will work. I've been using GFF Editor without any problems whatsoever (was written for NWN1, IIRC).

• Find NeverDrawHelmet and change it from 1 to 0

• Save

• Copy to override and enjoy.

 

EDIT: Or the super-duper easy way - PM me your email addy and I'll send you the modded file.

[stoffe]

Use a GFF editor to open the file. I'm assuming that any ole gff editor will work. The KT editor didn't play nice, but I've heard that KGFF will work. I've been using GFF Editor without any problems whatsoever (was written for NWN1, IIRC).

 

It will probably work fine for UTC files but I'd be careful about other types of GFF files. I've heard (but not yet confirmed myself) that NWN2 introduces the Rotation and Vector field types to the GFF format that the KotOR games also had (but NWN1 did not). The Bioware GFF editor will delete fields of those data types if you save such a GFF file with it.

 

* * *

 

If anyone has played as a Dark Elf: Is my game just bugged, or is it normal that I get the "light sensitive" penalty whenever being outside even if it's in the middle of the night? Is moonlight really too bright for a Dark Elf to handle?

 

Further, are there any dialog/quest penalties further on for playing as a Dark Elf, even if you have high charisma/diplomacy? So far none of my party members seem to object to or think it's any strange travelling with a Dark Elf, even though surface elves are supposed to despise their dark cousins, and dwarves dislike elves in general.

 

Regarding the Darkness problem mentioned earlier it seems it was some graphics setting causing it. After messing around with them a bit I can now see enemies within a "friendly" Darkness cloud without problems. Don't know what it's good for though since the spell description apparently thought it too obvious to describe how it affects an enemy to be caught in darkness.

[Achilles]

It will probably work fine for UTC files but I'd be careful about other types of GFF files.

I've had pretty good luck with .utc and .uti files. Haven't tried anything else yet. Based on your recommendations, I probably won't try anything else either

[Jae Onasi]

This is probably the quickest way to do it and it doesn't even involve opening the cumbersome toolset.

 

(snipped much goodness)

 

EDIT: Or the super-duper easy way - PM me your email addy and I'll send you the modded file.

 

Hey, I might not be too chicken to try that one. But I sent you my email anyway.

[Achilles]

Hey, I might not be too chicken to try that one. But I sent you my email anyway.

Now be sure to post a screenie for the rest of us when you're finished playing dress-up with your dwarf

 

@stoffe

I haven't played Dark Elf yet, so I can't help you. Sorry

[Astrotoy7]

...Oh, and I managed to run Sand out of money--he won't let me sell to him anymore.

 

what the hell have you been selling him........or shouldnt I ask

 

@achilles - send me that file plz ! add @hotmail.com to my name !

 

@stoffe - The Drow of the Forgotten Realms live in a deep underground cities like Menzoberranzan, Sshamath etc. Sunlight indeeds weakens them. In the novels, it took Drizzt a very long time to get accustomed to the surface world.

 

mtfbwya

[Jae Onasi]

what the hell have you been selling him........or shouldnt I ask

Everything I didn't want (like a lot of the darksteel chain shirts and all those shortbows from the warehouse) including a few big items that I didn't think I'd be using so I could get a couple things I did really want. He pays more for stuff than any other merchant, sometimes a thousand or more for the big items. In fact, if you wanted, you can buy some things at 1 merchant and sell them to him and make a slight profit, but not enough to make all the running around (or clicking on an item ad nauseum to buy it multiple times) worth it. Of course, now I can't sell to Sand anyway.

[stoffe]

@stoffe - The Drow of the Forgotten Realms live in a deep underground cities like Menzoberranzan, Sshamath etc. Sunlight indeeds weakens them. In the novels, it took Drizzt a very long time to get accustomed to the surface world.

 

Yes, but there is no sunlight during the night is there? As soon as my dark elf goes outside, even in the middle of the night, she's hit with the light sensitive penalties. Sunlight I can understand, but moonlight?

 

And if Drizzt could get used to sunlight eventually, shouldn't our Harborman Dark Elf have done so as well by now seeing as how she's been living in Harbor Watch her entire life since she was a baby, never have lived underground at all and most certainly haven't stayed indoors all that time? Unlike Drizzt she's not an outcast from the Underdark, after all (though Esmerelle may have been).

 

(So it is intentional and not a bug then, I guess?)

[ChAiNz.2da]

Wow.. catching up is definitely a read.. hehehe

 

For those of you waiting on the Official patch release, I've been running the beta for a week now and everything is working great... I'd highly suggest installing it They do offer a roll-back for those that it royally screws their game.. hehehe

 

2 major perks is it allows dual-wield quickslots (left/right hand).. and it also adds more storage slots to bags of holding, and their variants (from 24 all the way up to 142).

 

AI is still crap Other misc. fixes that no one was really moaning about (me included).. but overall it's still a decent patch

 

 

============================

 

 

As for Party Management... this is the best little console command I stumbled upon whilst messing around in the Toolset making my uber-gear

 

rs kr_roster_edit

 

It will allow many great little functions for Party Management..

 

- reset stats for npc's

 

- add all available companions to your "npc party pick" roster (wouldn't recommend as it might break quests).. meaning you could pick the Paladin or Construct for Fort Locke if you wanted...

 

- change your party size (still only a maximum of you + 4 others) BUT you can set it for Act I and below which is really sweet (especially for the Warehouse )

 

Still.. it's nice to have more members in your party for the early acts because you can get more one-liners.. hehehe

[stoffe]

As for Party Management... this is the best little console command I stumbled upon whilst messing around in the Toolset making my uber-gear

rs kr_roster_edit

It will allow many great little functions for Party Management..

 

Nice, I'll check that one out. Another fairly useful one is rs kr_influence which will start a dialog allowing you to view the influence you have with all party members as well as modify it.

[ChAiNz.2da]

Nice, I'll check that one out. Another fairly useful one is rs kr_influence which will start a dialog allowing you to view the influence you have with all party members as well as modify it.

 

oooohh.. kewl, just what I was searching for next hehehe

 

Oh! forgot to mention that the roster edit script (above post) will also allow you to bring up the Party Selection screen so you don't have to enter/exit the Flagon or your Keep in order to change Party Members.. probably the best function that script offers

 

I've changed my party mid-battle before just to see if it was possible