Differences in NOtR

[🐉Kesseleth🐉]

I'm playing through G1 for the second time, with plans to jump into the second when I'm done. I am aware that with the NOtR expansion Gothic 2 is considered to be the hardest game Piranha Bytes ever made (although I admittedly only have G1 as a reference), but since I'm a complete ♥♥♥♥♥ for challenge this excites me greatly. However, I'm curious as to what exactly is changed in the expansion and I can't find a decisive list of what exactly NOtR does to rebalance gameplay beyond the new areas. It adds new monsters, reduces the number of healing items, and makes upgrades more expensive, but does it do anything else?

[Oneeyed]

The biggest differences are

- Armor values of opponents are greatly increased (doubled to quadrupled)
e.g. a Dragonsnapper has an armor against the 3 different weapon types of 40 in classic Gothic 2 and 150 in NOTR.
- There are new monster types in NOTR (ice wolves, bloodhounds, razors and so on)
- There is a new world to explore (Jhakendar)
- In Jhakendar you find a lot of people from G1
- Locations of plants which gives permanent bonuses have changed and some deleted (especially in the valley of mines)
- Permanent stat potions decreased from +5 to +3
- changed power-ups e.g. you now get +1 strength for eating every 25 apples instead of only one time in classic, 50 dark mushrooms now give only +5 mana instead of +10 and so on
- pick pocket now gives more XP the more you pick pockets instead of XP depending on in which chapter you pick pockets
- changed skill point system instead of 1 skill point per 1 attribute point it is now depending on your attriubte value (1-30 = 1 skill point, 31-60 = 2 skill points, 61-90 3 skill points, 91-120 4 skill points, 121 - 200 5 skill points)
- traders now have completely new trading inventories e.g. Zuris now has a lot of powerful spell scrolls right from the beginning of the game

[ImSexyAndiNOED]

Gothic 2 with the addon becomes much harder.Greater challenge overall.
There is a list posted above my comment with most of the new stuff.
And i'd like to add a few more things.

- More references to Gothic 1 ,the Sleeper ,the barrier and old buddies.
-Weapons(swords and bows/xbows) now offer more damage ,but they require a lot more strenght/dexterity in order to be used.
-Stone tablets ! Yes ,the permanent potions have decreased from +5 to +3 ,but you find a lot of stone tablets that will not only increase your stats ,but will upgrade your skills too.
- Belts ! The belts are good for increasing armor protection or strenght or dexterity.