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NWN
Newbie Guide
Neverwinter Nights is quite a new game, and more different
from other games than it might first glance. I'm a newbie
myself to the game (although not to DnD), so consider this
as a work-in-progress and of little value to an advanced player.
But after hearing the pain some of my newbie friends are going
though, I thought I would take this first effort as a helpful
guide. In this version, the organization is weak, but it tries
to cover several points that the new player should know.
This
is not Diablo. Or Diablo 2.
Despite some similaries in graphics and in concepts, NWN is
a VERY different game from Diablo or D2. First of all, it's
primarily a role playing game (RPG). Those NPC's that prattle
on and on... the quests so numerous you'll need to actually
use the 'Journal' function... your alignment, race, and attitude...
It's not a click-fest. In fact you could enter a battle, and
face and kill several opponents without a single click! And
yet, for those interested, tactics can play a very important
role. Yes, the NPC's can talk and talk, but they're not an
unimportant side-element, but a key player in the game. Keep
in mind that eventually, there will be dungeons written by
DM's who hate this and like a good combat game, and there
will be more choice for those who can only take so much. Or
play an evil character and yes, you can threaten and talk
trash to many of the NPC's. I've not tried it yet, but I think
you can try to rob them :P (Haven't you wondered what it would
be like to take Cain out to a back alley and knock out some
teeth after hearing for the 985th time to stay a while and
listen?!)
It
only looks real-time!
It was striking how much dancing around the combatants do,
and how much was going on in battle. And yet, there's a VERY
key thing to understand. Everything takes place on the basis
of a round. A round is six seconds. Look closely. You will
take precisely one swing, fire one arrow, drink one potion,
or pick one lock, every six seconds like clockwork. There
is no concept of weapon speed in the sense of cycle time (how
often you swing), only in terms of initiative (whether you
swing first or the other guy). So don't think (like I did)
that a heavy crossbow will fire much less than a shortbow.
Both fire at the (glacial) speed of one shot per six seconds.
If you click on a foe, you'll keep attacking it until it or
you are dead. If it dies, and another foe is within in arc
in front of you, you'll make an "attack of opportunity"
and engage him. (Making it even less of a click-fest) Does
that mean it's slow and boring and tactics don't matter. Not
necessarily. Your character can move, at least some distance,
within those six seconds, and still get an attack in. A favorite
move of mine is when fighting a tough foe along with my henchman.
I circle around to the foe's back. Either I or my henchman
will get a sneak attack chance, hitting them from where they
can't see us. Some classes (i.e. rogue) get this bonus to
hit from behind. Notice the AI isn't dumb. If you flank him
like this, chances are good he'll try to dance around and
get both of you in front of him again. Also, you can open
yourself up to being hit while moving if you time it wrong
(during his swing), or you might end up still walking when
your
turn to swing comes around and miss a swing that round --
tactical fighting calls for skill. Other examples of tactics
-- you see a mage start a spell. If you recognize what he's
doing, or if you have a skill to realize what he's doing,
you can choose a "counterspell" action and try to
mess him up. (I think, this is one I need to investigate more)
Henchmen
If you read the tips on file save/load, you'll note that the
NWN standard module assumes you have a henchman with you,
and its difficulty level was based on this assumption. So
by all means, hire a henchman!
They seem to be fairly cheap, about 150 gold (not per day,
just one-time). Choose one that complements your character.
A lot of things are locked, and if you're not a rogue, strongly
consider hiring "Tomi" the halfling rogue. I've
found him to be extremely helpful, and more robust than I
would be in combat -- he's one tough cookie. In the Blade
building there are other choices, including a tough warrior,
a sorcerer, a cleric, and a few more. Note you can only hire
ONE henchman at a time. If you hire a second, the first one
is no longer with you. But if you want him back, just ask
-- you don't have to repay or anything. (Perhaps it's more
accurate to say you can't bring along more than one of your
henchmen with you.) Other players have suggested having a
pet along is very nice, although I've not tried that yet.
The idea is, get the bad guys off you.
Ability
Points
Your stat points matter. A lot. Each class has at least one
"primary" ability that plays a big role in his other
skills (e.g. "Int" and the Wizard for determining
the number and max level of spells he can cast). But each
stat matters for each person. Str is vital to be able to carry
things without being encumbered, dex and con and wis all can
affect saving throws vs different attacks, dex helps (or hurts)
AC, con helps hit points, charisma affects how others respond
to you. Two key points to know about ability points. First
is that their bonus is rounded off and so accrues only for
'even' values. For example, 15 dex is only as good as 14 dex
as far as AC or saving throw bonuses, and 17 Con no better
than 16. Try, as far as possible, to make your ability scores
even (unless you plan to raise them soon). Speaking of raising
them, every six levels you'll get to add one ability point.
That's different from one "buy-up" point when you
make your character. Back then it cost 3 'pts' to go from
17 to 18, but every six levels you can make a choice like
boost a 17 score to 18. That suggests that unless you're going
to really push one ability to the exclusion of all others,
to give up on an 18 or 17 and get several other stat points
in lower abilities.
Ranged
characters
Take the "point blank" skill when you get a chance.
The thugs close on you rapidly and if you plan to stick with
a ranged attack instead of melee, this is a must have. Rapid
shot is another good one for you. For the character who wants
to do both, using the quickbar is a must (see below). Keep
in mind that in the DnD world, unlike Diablo 2, spellcasters
and archers who are alone with no golem to protect them are
in trouble of getting eaten alive, even by creatures not too
strong. Spellcasters who don't surround themselves with a
party or strong henchman should pick up some concentration
so that their spells don't get disrupted by being smacked.
(Still, the 3E rules beat the 1E where you were automatically
disrupted even with a 1 pt smack)
Quickbar
- the key to success
This is a great game feature, and really beats the Diablo
hotkey setup. You get 12 actions you can assign to the Fxn
keys, and another 12 for Shift-Fxn and 12 more for Ctrl-Fxn.
The really nice thing is it's not just for spells. Potions
can go there, wpns, alternate wpns, and yes, even your armor!
"Special skills" like Smite Evil or Lay On Hands
go there too. For example, my setup has F1 and F2 still assigned
to Move Silent and Detect, Cure Moderate wounds in F3, Cure
Serious in F4, Lay-On-Hands on F5, Longsword and Shield in
F6 (drag both to the quickbar), F7 for my crossbow, F8 for
an alternate two-handed wpn when I want maximum ooompf and
less safety, F9 for Parry and F10 for Smite Evil. I use Shift-F1...F4
for my spells/scrolls, and figure I'll have more for the Ctrl-set
of 12 later. Now that I picked up a lvl in Sorcerer, I plan
to make my armor a hotkey to be able to take it off immediately
to cast a spell (otherwise, high chance of Arcane failure)
Master the quickbar, it will make your life a lot easier!
Camera
The camera view and controls take some getting used to, and
I'm still not 100% comfortable with them yet. I (think I)
prefer the top down view, since the follow-me cam twists around
too much for my liking. The third view won't let me zoom out,
so that one is "out" as far as I'm concerned. You
move by clicking on the ground, and you pan around to see
my moving the mouse left or right. With a middle button you
can spin it around so fast your head will spin, but that loses
my vertical angle and I avoid it. So basically, click on where
you want to go then move the mouse left or right to spin the
camera to face where your character is facing. (Or look behind
you if you're paranoid)
The
interface is pretty intuitive. If you click on something the
default action makes sense. Foe? Hit it. NPC? Talk to it.
Door? Open it. For non-default actions you right-click once
for a 'radial' menu then click on your selection. Or when
you start to remember where on the wheel your choices are,
you can right-click-and-drag right to your selection, which
is faster. Some games call that a "gesture" click.
The positions don't change on you, which is nice. I do this
to control my henchman. I know that "Follow me"
is at the 4 o'lock position, and "park your butt here,
don't move!" is six o'clock. These two, issued quickly,
have saved him repeatedly. If he were a cleric I would gesture
right-click and flick the mouse up to 12 o'clock for "Heal
me!"
Balance
The DnD rules have been around for decades. The monsters,
combat system, items, and rules on AC etc have been worked
over to death, and they're balanced to a degree you'll not
see in any normal game. It puts the D2 system to utter shame
in that regard. Your armor matters. Monsters of same level
as you have roughly a 50% chance hit someone who wears light
armor with dex, a 10-25% chance ot hit someone with massive
armor, and 75-95% chance of hitting a clumsy old man in his
bathrobe. You may not be thrilled with the "quiet"
drops of longsword+1 or tower shield, but it's quite balanced
unless the DM makes a "candy" dungeon.
Encumbrance
A peeve / warning for the newbie. Characters have a weight
limit which depends on their strength. Yes, your halfling
can't lug around 8 pieces of full platemail and still run
and fight the same as if he were a BNM. When you exceed your
weight limit, you're "encumberd" and you start moving
around in moderate slow motion. Keep piling it on and you
become "heavily" encumbered. We're talking glacial.
Molasses in January. Or Charis the day after playing 2 hours
too much tennis. Slow, slow, slow. What can you do? Don't
ignore strength ability completely when you start out. Don't
pick up everything you see (what I tend to do). Use your recall
stone often to sell/dump things in town. Find or buy a "bag
of holding" which magically reduces the effective weight
of things kept inside it". Finally, although it's great
fun to see all the different looks your character can have,
don't carry around banded mail, splint mail, and a breastplate.
Save
often, and use two or more files
I narrowly escaped being burned pretty badly. Twice now I've
had save files that could not load. There is an autosave,
but it's so infrequent it's dangerous. Fortunately, I use
a two save-file system, alternating which one I save to. Even
so, I had to fight one of my toughest battles all over again
when this happened. (Now I use the three-file system
--
There are likely other topics some of you would like to see
covered, so feedback is welcome. Do keep in mind this is intended
as a newbie guide, and that I'm one myself :P If anyone has
tried multiplayer and can shed some light on the mechanics
and implications for a single-player character, please respond
with some info, and maybe we can travel through the Blackland
district together!
Charis
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