Nights that are Never in Winter, of the Second Variety · 11:15pm Aug 27th, 2014
So, I've owned Neverwinter Nights 2: Platinum for a few years now. In the past, I've not been in moods conducive to playing the game. After being introduced to Out of Context D&D, I began to feel the desire to play the game, so play it I've been... in small doses. So far, I've collected the shard from the lizard folk without mass murder through diplomacy, and joined forces with a dwarven monk and extorted a merchant not once, but twice. My party thus far is pretty entertaining, having only my unarmored Lawful Evil Tiefling monk, Lauren, to contrast what's-his-name the Lawful Good dwarf monk who uses the light armor. I know that unless my memory from previous sessions is mistaken, I meet up with a Tiefling rogue not too long from now [pretty sure that encounter is on the present map], but it still leaves my party surprisingly lop-sided, having no tank or spellcaster. Fun, right?
Any advice for a newbie to this game?
You will meet a Palatine a little bit later (And some other people before). Later you have to select your party-members for each job so there is variety. I played as a neutral-good witcher and finished the game and the add-on; so it is quite possible without beeing a fighter.
The game is quite good, there is quite the atmosphere later on.
2407254 So it's not too different from Shadowrun Returns in that aspect, huh?
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Yes, but in Neverwinter Nights they don’t want money
You recruit a sorcerer early on when you get to Neverwinter, but she's a bitch personality wise, though since you're playing an evil character you might be able to win her loyalty by endgame. You'll get a regular wizard by the end of the first chapter, and though snarky he's better both in utility and personality, and since your character is lawful you'll get along fairly well.
The original game will really drag in some places. However, Mask of the Betrayer will more than make up for it.
Wait a moment. Dwarven monk? Last I remember, Khelgar is a fighter until pretty late in the game. He was usually my default tank.
Spellcasters in early game are kinda useless. I mean, everybody in early game is kinda useless, but spellcasters are also much more squishy than anything else, so don't worry until you get to Neverwinter itself and get Qara(sorcerer Spiritus Arcane mentioned) and/or Sand(wizard).
You won't get a cleric until closer to mid-game, though, and considering the fact that the original campaign has a lot of undead(in comparison with other campaigns) - it could be a problem. Though at lower difficulty settings you can safely replace cleric with a bunch of potions and don't bother. You get a druid pretty close to the beginning of the game, though, and she can act as a not very good cleric if needed.
Anyway, if you want advice, I'd say the following:
1. Don't let Neeshka(tiefling rogue) get into close combat until at least mid-game - give her a bow or something at first.
2. Monks are somewhat squishier than fighters in early game, but by late game they can tank without any problems. Note: Quivering palm is usually useless - and always useless on bosses. And don't ever let a monk use armor - use robes at most.
3. If you are playing on a difficulty of "core rules" or higher - be careful with AoE spells.
4. Try to gain influence with NPCs you recruit - some of them would betray you in the final fight otherwise. Barring that - look into ways to preemptively disable them if possible. Un-equipping them won't work IIRC - they just get new equipment via script - but equipping heavy armor on a spellcaster, for example, might work. Not sure about that, though.
5. Power words - kill, stun, etc., as well as wail of the banshee and other spells, whose effects depend on hit dice and/or total HP of enemies, don't really work on enemies most of the time by the time your spellcasters get access to them.
6. Loot everything and steal from everyone Neeshka can steal from. You can never have too much money.
Well, that's all I could think of right now.
You can make anything work without much of an issue. I wouldn't say spellcasters are vital to a party, but they do save a fair bit of money on magical item use.
Also, Druids, Favored Souls, and Clerics are somewhat overpowered.
Though I'm fairly certain that it would be apparent that Druid is overpowered once you start at level one with a pet dinosaur.
2408036 Khelgar! That's his name. I wasn't sure he was something else because of what he said he wanted to be. So should I continue to let him work without a weapon? Also, he dies more than my PC [which is to say, he has fallen in combat at least once].
At least I know that I'll have a ranged member in my party soon.
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Well, if you are letting him go without a weapon - and only in light armor - then he is pretty much guaranteed to die since he doesn't have improved unarmed strike feat by default and without it fists are a piss-poor weapon with some penalties.
No, right now he is a fighter and so he should use weapons - look through his weapon proficiency feats on character page and pick him up some fitting 1-handed weapon and a shield. Medium/heavy armor would do him good too.
In Neverwinter itself(In Merchant Quarter if I am not mistaken) there is a temple of Tyr. You'll be able to get a quest from Khelgar there(more like for Khelgar from the head of the Temple) to pass several(three, I think) trials. After passing them(it won't happen until you would participate in Ember trial - if you want spoilers, I'll explain more) - Khelgar would be given option of restatting into monk - so you don't need to pick any feats for him to be more monk-like now, you'll do it then.
If you have any further questions, don't hesitate to ask =)