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Neverwinter Nights
Topic Started: Dec 17 2006, 09:59 PM (2,013 Views)
Krazy
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I haz powah!
Yeah, I was planning on taking Rogue next and maximising, Disarm Trap and Open locks. Stealth isn't important with invisibility, I drank my remaining 3 potions of invis finishing the game when the Balrogs spotted me.
"Well, ‘course dis one’s betta! It’s lotz ‘eavier, and gots dem spikey bitz on de ends. "
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Krazy
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It seems 2 rogue levels was quite sufficient to finish the Golden Chalice . Quest (which I did fully now - shame I missed out first time as there is some phat l00t down there) but damn was I next to useless in the final fight. Which I may add was tough with me as a a virtual bystander, summoning a badger and my panther companion and firing my shortbow.

Still I took a level anyway to up my conversation skills. So went as a Rogue 2/Wiz 2 and came back a Rogue 3/Wizard 4.
"Well, ‘course dis one’s betta! It’s lotz ‘eavier, and gots dem spikey bitz on de ends. "
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Krazy
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That nice little book in the academy was a pleasant surprise. Choices, choices, Rogue 4/Wizard 5 or Rogue 3/Wizard 6? I'll think I'll go with the latter, no need to spend my accumulated skill points yet.

The other thing is that skills work differently in NWN2. In that if I level up as a wizard I can add points to my rogue skills at cross-class cost to the max level allowed because it is still one of your class skills instead of the cross-class level in NWN. Otherwise I could spend those points directly on improving rogue skills never needing to take another rogue level. So it looks like I'll need another rogue level some time.

Not sure what wizard feats to pick as Spell Penetration is bad when you have a party and I don't like all those Maximise thingies unless you are a sorcerer and can choose on the fly.

How is Princess J'aime faring?
"Well, ‘course dis one’s betta! It’s lotz ‘eavier, and gots dem spikey bitz on de ends. "
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Bex
puppet dictator
I haven't had any time at all to play the last couple of days, so she's the same. Probably won't tonight either.

Sounds like you're managing alright.
I belong to one of those families that does not speak to or see its members as often as we should,
but if someone needed anyone to fall on a sword for her, there would be a queue waiting to commit the deed.
-Min Jin Lee
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Krazy
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Yeah, very tough at first, but after Hyath it was fine. I'm Rog 3/Wiz 7 now having just rescued Pia, but I'm pretty much forced to take a level of Rogue next as I've got 18 skill points to get rid of, never mind the 12 I'll get from the next rogue level.

Still I've got 4th level spells and that should be good enough for now.
"Well, ‘course dis one’s betta! It’s lotz ‘eavier, and gots dem spikey bitz on de ends. "
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Krazy
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Finished part I just short of level 11, and even with a couple of Fighter levels Pia has impressed me. We finished the Bear Pit fight by ourselves and romped through the Clerk's home albeit with Vico.

The only thing is she is waaaaaaaaay to sweet and I don't like her av. Something about it.

"Well, ‘course dis one’s betta! It’s lotz ‘eavier, and gots dem spikey bitz on de ends. "
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Bex
puppet dictator
You will desperately wish for a word, any word, other than "sweet" by the end of it all.

And I think it's the hands. Or the weird chain bracelet-y thingies.

Between Hyath and the Academy Compendium (thought you'd like that) and figuring out to only recover traps from objects, I finished Part 1 at level 13, IIRC 3 levels higher than my first run. An evil arcane spellcaster is definitely the powergamer's route.

Good ol' bad ol' Vico. Sometimes it seems like you just can't get rid of that guy.
I belong to one of those families that does not speak to or see its members as often as we should,
but if someone needed anyone to fall on a sword for her, there would be a queue waiting to commit the deed.
-Min Jin Lee
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Krazy
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Yes, it is. I finished Part I first time through just at level 10. Serves me right for doing the evil route first time round :lol:

Oh but there is one snag I'm finding, upgrading heavy armour and weapons.

Not having the proficiencies means I can't upgrade them, which is annoying.I don't really want to spend feats on these things but it looks like I might have to.

I guess you got heavy armour prof from Hyath though. (I don't know because I already had fighter levels at the time)
"Well, ‘course dis one’s betta! It’s lotz ‘eavier, and gots dem spikey bitz on de ends. "
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Krazy
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I took the controversial move of taking a level of fighter so I can upgrade everyone's weapons and armour. Only upgrading Pia's armour though.
I'm now Rogue 4/Wizard 8/Fighter 1

So far none of the battles have been remotely difficult now. Breezing through them.

The Orcs in the Inn absolutely stomped them without any loss of life, same for those in the forest (explosives 4TW!)

Szith, again, stoneskinned Vico and he emerged unscathed from the battle, no-one died. Those Dhorn were useless against him (again!).

Drow Ambush, only Anden died...but that's to be expected, :lol:

And Pia, my sweet, hasted verily kicked drow ass, Rogue 4/Bard 7/Fighter 2. She and Vico took down the Priestess quite easily and more importantly early. I really didn't have much to do in the fight except wade in and attack Near Death opponents.

I can see now you don't really need that wide a spell selection and a sorcerer should have an even easier time of it.
"Well, ‘course dis one’s betta! It’s lotz ‘eavier, and gots dem spikey bitz on de ends. "
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Bex
puppet dictator
No, Hyath doesn't grant any extra proficiencies, and if you aren't an appropriate class, his armour gift isn't much use. I was thinking about taking a fighter level soon as well, for the same reason as you.

Sziths got killed by Dhorn again, so I reloaded and he slaughtered them instead. Seems weird that it can go either way, but it does. I have no idea if the Dhorn Officer would grant the same bonus XP as Sziths does, since it was only a footsoldier left standing in my first game. I suppose I could have checked.

You're correct that a minimalist spell selection is sufficient. Stoneskinning party members, eh? I'm too used to that being a target:caster spell. Smart.

My group is just about to get Pia back post-waterfall.

Romancing Vico is entertaining. Probably because I'm a total pervert. Fortunately, that wasn't exactly a secret.
I belong to one of those families that does not speak to or see its members as often as we should,
but if someone needed anyone to fall on a sword for her, there would be a queue waiting to commit the deed.
-Min Jin Lee
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Krazy
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OK, must be a minor bug, then as I seem to remember it saying you'll get the knowledge on how to use the armour after resting.

It took me while to adapt to the changes of certain spells from 2nd ed. as well. I got used to stoneskinning party members in NWN2, taking the annoying but very useful sorceress along. In NWN, I generally stuck to big dudes with even bigger swords. :D

I liked the romance with Vico more than with Pia, by a long shot. I'm not sure whether I believe Pia is that innocent for lack of a better word, and the fact that I have to act all protective towards her.

Look out for the lines (it happened after the drow bit for me) that Pia says after resting, some of those cracked me up.

But then again I was reading the vault last night, and Pia's dialogue was getting a lot of praise... *shrugs* Maybe its me but it seemed that the females were more in favour of this mod than the males. But like you already said there wasn't too much brain activity being displayed there.

(as for being a pervert, I think you have to be to 'get' this mod without coming over as the 'this is disgusting filth' type person, does that make me one by my own reasoning? I guess so :lol:)

I wanted to ask you, when you play evil characters (I know you've already said you generally don;t), whether you are like me, that I suddenly get all guilty and feel its wrong when I decide to do some evil that's unscripted like wipe things out. I feel slightly better when the game allows it although still a little uneasy. Yet, when I play good characters and act all honourable and selflessly I do actually feel good. I guess like most people I'd rather be saving people than killing them.
The reason is that, I chose the "grow a backbone" type comments when I was evil towards Pia, and actually starting feeling sorry for her and felt relieved when she was still alive and I got her back.

Edit: Taking the 1 level of fighter had now given me a 20% XP hit. :(
"Well, ‘course dis one’s betta! It’s lotz ‘eavier, and gots dem spikey bitz on de ends. "
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Bex
puppet dictator
Ooh, right, that only doesn't happen if the third class is a prestige class. Well, unless you've followed that whole rule about keeping classes within a level of each other. Guess I'll probably just leave things as they are.

The AI being what it is, I haven't favoured casters as henchmen myself. I'm most used to playing a bard or a r/f/sd hybird though, both of which are fairly effective in melee, so NWN's arcane system is fairly new to me.

I typically don't play an evil character because I just feel too bad about really following through with it, though I'll often go with CN so that I have a reason to be kind or cruel on a whim. I do tend to feel better about doing the "right" thing, and suspect that J'aime may drift into CN territory by the end. Looking at it as everything that happened at Hyath's temple being a slip (ok, a BIG slip) while lost and scared and angry, I can see it.

Incidentally, in the whole scenario at the Dwarven Inn, there appear to be several dialogue options that will immediately shift you into a CN alignment, regardless of what it was before.

Pia's romance gets cloying. I am not a sugar-sweet person, and tend to get frustrated with anyone who needs a lot of hand-holding. So while she is very cute... it's like all you really CAN say about her romance is that it's sweet. Over and over and over again.

Even in the first game, Vico started to grow on me, which is a huge tribute to how well he's been written (and I was furious at him through much of Part 1). He's honest, takes sarcasm well, and can be screamingly funny even while he's being a bastard. And the romance adds a layer of tenderness to him without breaking character. It's really well done, though I can see how some players would never be able to forgive his actions enough to play it that way.
I belong to one of those families that does not speak to or see its members as often as we should,
but if someone needed anyone to fall on a sword for her, there would be a queue waiting to commit the deed.
-Min Jin Lee
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Bex
puppet dictator
Oh yeah, meant to say that I left them yesterday right outside the ancient battlefield. I'm hoping the bonehead won't be too much trouble, especially if I can abuse the terrain.

For the drow ambush, after spotting something in the shadows, J'aime laid out every trap in her inventory (bonus: less stuff to deal with later), buffed the party a bit (just protection from evil and haste on everyone) and got them to stay by the entry. J'aime triggered the attack and ran back to the party. The priestess and both warriors were killed by the traps, and the wizard and assassins injured. Pia, Vico and Anden dealt with the assassins, while J'aime cast Ice Storm at the wizard a couple of times, bringing him to near death. Then the wizard stepped on the one trap that hadn't been sprung yet and died.

The entire party didn't drink a single healing potion, though J'aime got poisoned by the archer and had to use a restoration potion afterwards. Even Anden's dire wolf survived.
I belong to one of those families that does not speak to or see its members as often as we should,
but if someone needed anyone to fall on a sword for her, there would be a queue waiting to commit the deed.
-Min Jin Lee
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Krazy
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Ah traps! I keep selling mine.

What's that they say about Pride coming before a fall?

Bonehead gave me a lot trouble this time, but I prevailed by the skin of my teeth (although I didn't deserve to). Basically Anden got caught by the fear aura before I could protect him, and boney went chasing after me, I kept running away and he eventually went back after Pia and Vico. Vico who I also forgot to switch the belts was also out for the count, and the dragon took out Pia, by then Vico came round and was protected from fear and started whacking bonehead, but didn't last long. Anden who got caught again by the fear aura was the only one left standing (but I'd wasted on my two rods of res, after the normal skellies beat him up!), and so I resurrected Pia but she got pwned again. Also Boney chased me up on to the platform which didn't happen last time.
I never got a concerted effort from all 3 to hit boney at the same time which made it a lot harder.
Eventually I got Anden to follow me whilst Boney was beating a summons to pulp, and I used a scroll of monster summoning IX. The elder fire elemental eventually beat Boney up assissted by Anden on the bow.
I was a mere onlooker, with no spells left and my ranged missiles useless against the creature.

I had no problem with the drow jail. I was easily making the checks and have just escaped with Rizzen. (I reported Vico, and watched as his neck was snapped...)

But, yes, I agree they way Vico is written is exceptional. My emotions certainly changed, from Part I to Part II.
"Well, ‘course dis one’s betta! It’s lotz ‘eavier, and gots dem spikey bitz on de ends. "
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Bex
puppet dictator
Got beat up a bit by the hundred or so skeletons, mostly because I wasn't able to take the mages down as quickly as when playing a more melee-oriented character. Lost the wolf at this point, which I fully expected.

When Bonehead showed up, the party beat a strategic retreat to the altar, which worked long enough to swap around some gear. When I tried to reposition Vico and Pia to get multiple ranged attacks going (Anden had been attacking alone), Bonehead figured out the path up.

The battle that followed was dramatic, but I didn't lose a single party member. It's a damned good thing that they had lots of healing potions though, and that I had a few potions of heal as loot from the drow ambush that I could dole out in dire need (2 for Pia, 1 for Vico).

J'aime managed to set Bonehead on fire a couple of times (Combust is fun), which helped a bit, but after that she was pretty much reduced to scrambling to replenish buff spells on the others, whilst trying not to get hit (and still taking a beating). Eventually, she just stayed out of the way.

Vico and Pia meleed, and because Bonehead switches targets occasionally, they both managed to hang in there pretty well. The fight might have been over a bit faster if Vico and Pia hadn't decided it was suddenly very important to kill a stray skeleton I hadn't even noticed was still standing. Right when Bonehead was near death, of course.

Anden was just out of range, so he mostly managed to attack unmolested, and eventually landed the killing blow.

All in all, an intense, but enjoyable battle.

Much further along now, all reunited, and Vico appears to forgive J'aime for setting him on fire as well. It was the only way.

I took screenshots of stuff today, mostly because setting things on fire looks cool. Might post them to their own thread, so as not to bog this one down with images to load. Depends how they look as .jpgs, I guess, as the .tga files are huge.
I belong to one of those families that does not speak to or see its members as often as we should,
but if someone needed anyone to fall on a sword for her, there would be a queue waiting to commit the deed.
-Min Jin Lee
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Krazy
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I haz powah!
I've just got past the city gates. Kept going back to Rugnar's to sell of the Drow gear and rest after the fights though I needn't have bothered casting spells, Pia and Rizzen seem more than capable at hacking everything to death.

Still I cleared out the Lich's area, and have a whole array of spells to try out on the next bunch of drow, and traps of course. Plenty of them, I'm going to set up a killing field for them. Of course I no longer have Vico (good riddance!!!) and the xp penalty is annoying. Still can't do much about that now.

Undecided whether to a 3rd run, although an evil rogue/cleric would be worth a go with all the nice cleric gear you can get.

"Well, ‘course dis one’s betta! It’s lotz ‘eavier, and gots dem spikey bitz on de ends. "
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Bex
puppet dictator
Yeah, my group is parked right outside that tomb. Quite happy with the current configuration. It's good to have Vico back.

And I managed to end up CN again, through some conversation option with Rizzen expressing dismay at the ways of drow society, which I honestly think is more of a human perspective than strictly non-evil. Drow culture is pretty alien. Oh well.

It's very tempting to do a run with a rogue/cleric, for sure. If it sways your decision at all, Rizzen apparently also has a bit of a romance track for late in the game, if you're otherwise unattached and treat him well.
I belong to one of those families that does not speak to or see its members as often as we should,
but if someone needed anyone to fall on a sword for her, there would be a queue waiting to commit the deed.
-Min Jin Lee
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Krazy
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I haz powah!
Stoneskinned and Hasted Pia and Vico are a real pair of meatgrinders.

I laid out every trap I had for the drow and they were pwned, and I mean pwned. All their warriors were killed straight off the bat by the negative energy traps, and the deadly sonic traps stunned the rest. I collected heal potions off all but one of them. Sweet.

All from traps collected in the Do'Vrinn household. Nothing like using their own traps against them.
"Well, ‘course dis one’s betta! It’s lotz ‘eavier, and gots dem spikey bitz on de ends. "
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Krazy
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I haz powah!
I'm still going to say getting the general's key quest is stupid. If you make a run for it you can't get out out of the building, even with the general's key nor pick the locks, that just doesn't work for me. You can't pickpocket the seargent for a key out either you just get his sword. And I cannot seem to get away without sleeping with him, it doesn't matter what line I choose.

Actually, I'm going to change that to really stupid. I pickpocketed the gardener's key. It opens a door from the outside. When I make a run for it, and try that door from the inside. It doesn't work. That's just stupid if you ask me.
"Well, ‘course dis one’s betta! It’s lotz ‘eavier, and gots dem spikey bitz on de ends. "
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Bex
puppet dictator
Ask the general if he's afraid you'll find his panties, then immediately say you're sorry. You'll get kicked out, key in hand.

That's the only way I could find. It is a pretty railroading quest.
I belong to one of those families that does not speak to or see its members as often as we should,
but if someone needed anyone to fall on a sword for her, there would be a queue waiting to commit the deed.
-Min Jin Lee
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Krazy
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I haz powah!
:blush: that does work...still, I still think this quest could have been done better. Given pt 1, got to v1.12 and pt 2 is on 1.03 I'm hopeful that there might be some refinements to pt 2, because as it stands I don't feel it is as good as pt 1, in certain areas.

Still I do a bit ashamed at getting worked up over that quest in light of the bigger picture, which is the mod is still an amazingly awesome experience that someone has done gratis for my enjoyment.

So please skip over my untimely outburst, and my humble thanks for providing me with that answer.

Anyway, I took down the cult, which was difficult, until I resorted to the extreme measure of summoning a Balor with the level 9 Gate Spell. He quickly demolished the lot of them though. :lol:
"Well, ‘course dis one’s betta! It’s lotz ‘eavier, and gots dem spikey bitz on de ends. "
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Krazy
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I haz powah!
IoP pt 1, done, reunited with friends. If you know what you are doing it can be done quite quickly although I had to waste 3 heal potions taking out a Doom Knight that wouldn't leave me alone and another 1 for a Warrior Zombie as his scythe critical hits wasted my stoneskin pretty quickly.

Rog 4/Wiz 12/Fig 1. Not bad for a 20% penalty hit for most of pt. 2. Might even make level 18 by the end.
"Well, ‘course dis one’s betta! It’s lotz ‘eavier, and gots dem spikey bitz on de ends. "
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Krazy
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Nearly at level 18 and just entered the Planes. My little band crushed King Amphetamine and Cohorts again, and got myself the nice minidress. I lost my "Rebel" status for doing a teensy little evil thing. Never mind.
"Well, ‘course dis one’s betta! It’s lotz ‘eavier, and gots dem spikey bitz on de ends. "
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Krazy
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Je suis fini. I love the ending so clever. First time round I couldn't rescue the "damsel" in distress from the cave as the Bridgekeeper was hostile for some reason, but that was really well done. :lol:

With +12 picks I made all the locks bar the DC70 one at the end, then I forgot about knock and bashed it down anyway.
In fact I didn't use knock once the whole time...
"Well, ‘course dis one’s betta! It’s lotz ‘eavier, and gots dem spikey bitz on de ends. "
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Bex
puppet dictator
Whee! I might get to finish over the weekend. I use knock quite a bit, whenever I don't feel like moving gear around, etc., but it's admittedly a lot easier with the sorc-casting, not having to give up the potential to cast something else if I don't need any knock spells that day.

So what choice did both your princesses make at the very end?

Alignment with a descriptive status is really hard to hang onto, as the instant you shift on either axis, you're no longer purely that alignment and the game strips the title. I never get to stay "Free Spirit" for long.

The bit with the "damsel" and Bridgekeeper was really great, I agree.

J'aime is in Moonville, but hasn't done anything more than sell a bunch of drow gear and talk to Sioril once. Having Vico convince the sergeant to let us in was amusing, as was his little outburst with the priest. I think Vico is possibly feeling a mite stressed.
I belong to one of those families that does not speak to or see its members as often as we should,
but if someone needed anyone to fall on a sword for her, there would be a queue waiting to commit the deed.
-Min Jin Lee
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