NWN2: Thoughts?

[schild]

That halfling has a nose that could bring a shabbat service to a screeching halt.

[Riggswolfe]

Min/Maxing improves the odds in a D20 game, but a well-balanced scenario never lets it reach the point where I can guarantee freedom from the loading screen.  Even with the best gear, you've stilll a 5% chance of taking a critical hit every time the enemy hits you and ideally spell resistance doesn't exceed 19 either.  All I ask is that I never see that screen unless I made a mistake - is that so wrong?

Even without min/maxing I rarely die in an encounter. Usually if I do it is because I got cocky and wasn't paying attention to the tactical situation. The only exception is the rare encounter with a beast/person that has some kind of instakill ability, like a medusa or gorgon.

[Signe]

I'm ugly but at least I have a mohawk.  Why is the camera so fucking slow to turn when you hit the edges of the game?  Why?  It makes me angry.  I'm liking FFXII too much to play this right now, but someday I'll want to and that camera is going to piss me off.

[Riggswolfe]

Played it some last night, the camera drives me batshit insane. Other than that it is a decent game and the NPCs/storyline are much improved.

[Riggswolfe]

I found a potential "fix" for the camera issue I've been hating:

In your My Documents\Neverwinter Nights 2\ folder, open up nwnplayer.ini, and find the line "CameraFollowAlways=0". Change this to "CameraFollowAlways=1". This will cause the Camera to always follow you - even when standing still.

That's my biggest bitch with the camera. I want it to work more mmoish, so if I rotate my character the camera rotates with him.

[Xilren's Twin]

I found a potential "fix" for the camera issue I've been hating:

In your My Documents\Neverwinter Nights 2\ folder, open up nwnplayer.ini, and find the line "CameraFollowAlways=0". Change this to "CameraFollowAlways=1". This will cause the Camera to always follow you - even when standing still.

That's my biggest bitch with the camera. I want it to work more mmoish, so if I rotate my character the camera rotates with him.

THANK YOU!

That was my biggest gripe thus far.  I hate games where you feel like you are fighting the interface instead of playing the game and the default camera control and options sucked.

That said, just got through the tutorial part.  I was hoping they would let me send my 8 year old thief into the brawl competition but no dice...

Has a lot more spells then I remember, and even a ton more than DDO for certain.
Started with a Elf Cleric with Strength and Magic domains. :)

Xilrens
BTW, overall comment on the character graphics.  Remember, this is NOT designed to play in a first person mode despite everyone wanting to.  Zoom in at your peril.

[Riggswolfe]

Is anyone playing a warlock? I almost made one and am considering restarting and making one. They look so cool for spellcasters.

[MrHat]

Is anyone playing a warlock? I almost made one and am considering restarting and making one. They look so cool for spellcasters.

Considering it.

[Lum]

That halfling has a nose that could bring a shabbat service to a screeching halt.

Frodo Schneerson is crying RIGHT NOW.

[Yegolev]

Worst faces in a game?  Thief: Deadly Shadows.

[Morfiend]

Im playing as a Aasmir Paladin. I usually play through these D&D games as a Chaotic Neutral Rogue/Warrior, so I thought I would go a different path and try a pally. Having a good time so far despite having a few CTDs. The game does seem really really buggy. I had some wierdness happen. At one point, I got my hands on a greatsword, so I gave my fighter friend my shield. Right after that I zoned in to the first dungeon, and noticed I had no weapon in my hand, so I pulled up my character sheet, and saw that I had my greatsword equpied AND my shield, which my friend was also using, and I was unable to unequip it. Some how it just disapeared in like 2 minutes, after I had to hand to hand a few mobs to death.

Im not sure how I feel about the exp curve for more powerful classes. I dont see why the Drow takes 3 times more exp to level than the other classes. I mean, the Drow need a LOT of exp. I think for a normal human its 1500 to get to level 2. For a Plaintouched its 3000 to level 2, and fro a Drow its 6000 to level 2. Thats a big difference.

Any one interested in getting a game going online?

[Strazos]

Drow take more exp because of their innate abilities, supposedly.

[Furiously]

Any one interested in getting a game going online?

Yes.

[Morfiend]

Drow take more exp because of their innate abilities, supposedly.

Yeah, I know. But thats a shitload more exp. I mean if it continues at that ratio, by the time the Drow is level 5, everyone else will be 10+ and their innate abilities are not that good.

[Strazos]

If you want a RP reason, you could go with something like...

Traditionally, the Drow are a closed culture. Practically no one ever leaves Drow society, and very few insiders are allowed in. As such, Drow do not have much of a propensity for adventuring, and hence, perhaps they have a much harder time "growing," so to speak. Drow culture is all they know, so they have a much harder time growing beyond that?

Just a thought. From a mechanics standpoint, it can still suck I guess.

[Rasix]

Maybe they're doing the responsible thing and getting people to stop prancing around as elves.

[Strazos]

An Anti-Drizzt/Legolas function?

[geldonyetich]

Spider love is its own population control.

[Furiously]

You have a hard life - you are drow!

[Strazos]

Built-in angst?

[Furiously]

You have 57 books by RA Salvatore (And I hope I misspelled his name) going against you.

[Riggswolfe]

Im playing as a Aasmir Paladin. I usually play through these D&D games as a Chaotic Neutral Rogue/Warrior, so I thought I would go a different path and try a pally. Having a good time so far despite having a few CTDs. The game does seem really really buggy. I had some wierdness happen. At one point, I got my hands on a greatsword, so I gave my fighter friend my shield. Right after that I zoned in to the first dungeon, and noticed I had no weapon in my hand, so I pulled up my character sheet, and saw that I had my greatsword equpied AND my shield, which my friend was also using, and I was unable to unequip it. Some how it just disapeared in like 2 minutes, after I had to hand to hand a few mobs to death.

Im not sure how I feel about the exp curve for more powerful classes. I dont see why the Drow takes 3 times more exp to level than the other classes. I mean, the Drow need a LOT of exp. I think for a normal human its 1500 to get to level 2. For a Plaintouched its 3000 to level 2, and fro a Drow its 6000 to level 2. Thats a big difference.

Any one interested in getting a game going online?

In their defense this is straight out of the pen and paper game. It seems to hurt more at lower levels than at the higher levels where it starts to even out a little more.

[Bunk]

The Drow end up two levels lower than everyon else  - you'll be 8 when others are 10. The main reason being that you can start with all stats 14+, and you get spell resistance, which is huge.

The cameras are a bitch, I find myself flipping between styles. Hopefully the ini fix improves. The camera should turn when I do.

Graphics aren't bleeding edge, but they are still way above the first game. Modders will come out with better heads and hairstyles soon enough.

I played three hours last night, didn't like my character and promptly restarted. Glad you can skip the fair if you want to.

If I can settle on a viable camera, I think the game is still a potential winner.

[stray]

I've restarted a few times. Monks aren't really for me. Since I'm playing a game with loot, I want to use it.

Bards suck. Having your main character low on hp and armor, without any reliable/damaging range spells (at least early on?), is a bad idea. This game doesn't seem to support it well. In PnP it might be different, but here, it's almost necessary to initiate attacks with melee (which, in turn, means you get all the aggro). Seems like fights last twice as long.

It's probably not the class so much as it is the way the game plays.

[Strazos]

What about ranged? What about making your party members fight up front?

If possible, I always have a bard in my parties - they're just so useful. But never on the front lines.

[stray]

Bards could be cool as support characters, but not your main.

As for party members fighting up front, I had a fighter in my group. He seemed to fall behind a lot, and would only take the aggro off me after I'd get knocked down to 1/4 health.

Maybe it's gets better though, I don't know.

[edit] I never bothered with ranged weapons though. That's my fault. Do bards even get any good skills for that?

[geldonyetich]

AD&D 3rd Ed Bards have always sucked every time I've tried them.  So far as I can gather, it has a lot to do with being jack of all trades, master of none, and the PnP designers had gone out of the way to punish them for that.  If Bards are a swiss army knife, they're ones made out of flimsy low density metal that snaps off if you try to do so much as to remove a bottle cap.  You can't even mix them with another class to improve their situation - Bards are too diluted as it is.

In favor of Bards is the capacity to wear light armor without arcane spell interferance and to throw out some party reinforcement or foe hindering songs (of which certain spells could do a better job).  Still, for the most part I'd only play a Bard as a form of high difficulty slider.

So anywho, downloading NWN2 from Direct2Drive.  Planning on a coop game.

[Nija]

Bards are awesome main characters, you guys are nuts. 16 bard/4 fighter is great.

focus/spec greatsword, plate, go to town.

edit: yes, plate. take off armor and buff, put on armor and fight. sing. Take 2 levels of barb instead of fighter if you want to be saucy.

[geldonyetich]

How is that better than, say, a 16 Cleric/4 Fighter?

[Morfiend]

Any advice on a fighter/rogue build?

Im not very good with making multiclass builds. Im not sure why. Maybe its cause in 2nd edition multiclassing sucked so bad that I was always afraid of it. Also, with all the prestige classes I get over whelmed.

[Nija]

How is that better than, say, a 16 Cleric/4 Fighter?

Nothing is better than Cleric.

[geldonyetich]

Ah, but is anything worse than Bard?

[stray]

Why is a cleric so great?

Sorry, I'm a newb.

[geldonyetich]

They're somewhat tank-magey.  The best armor meets reasonable weapon skill and spellcasting which has potency that oft rivals that of the wimpy cloth wearers.

[Nija]

Why is a cleric so great?

Sorry, I'm a newb.

http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=504618&forum=95&sp=0

Ah, but is anything worse than Bard?

Very true. Most people make amazingly shitty bards. The best part about finding/using a powerful bard build is that it is very unexpected.