Multiplayer Questions and Class Suggestions.

[Vacien]

So I recently completed the main title of the game after slogging through the third chapter of it and getting through the rather short fourth. Suffice to say I was surprised how much a spike in difficulty I felt when I went from clearing out powered up Ogres or Spell casting deer to Dragons who seemed like I needed a 12 levels more to even compete. With some help from a buddy and a lot of patience I got through it but now I'm kinda stuck in a conundrum.

I've been wanting to do some more of the role playing aspects of the game with people, but I'm not familiar at all with the survivors, not to mention half of them seem to need a vault download that I'm not too shabby on getting up and running. Along with that, I've been playing the other classes in my free time (I started as a druid rushing into shifter for an absolutely terrible time) and have some ideas for fun characters but played in the actual game, they either get train wrecked from being mostly back line buff classes or more utlity style characters. Any suggestions or advice?

[The Flying Rodent]

Hey Vacien! I personally haven’t had much experience on the RP servers that require vault downloads (e.g. Arelith), but I have played a fair bit of Vanilla-ish NWN over the years, with a teensy bit of RP’ing, so I might be able to at least help out in the ‘class-suggestion’ department.

First thing to remember if you plan on going online Solo is just that: you’re playing Solo. Whilst it’s still possible to play a utility style character that way (if anything, support classes like Cleric and Bard have been made quite overpowered in order to be able to play them solo), you’re only going to be able to use the utility if you’re playing with someone else. I’d prioritise making characters that can survive in their own, and only recommend playing something like a Medic or an Archer if you can consistently find people to party with.

Secondly: a large component of successful character building in NWN comes down to prioritising what is specifically useful to that class or class combo, and then trimming out the fat. The term ‘min maxing’ is rather appropriate here. For example, if you’re making a brawny Fighter type, then get a butt load of Strength (I.e start with 16 minimum and then pump all of your points into it) , and don’t feel bad starting with absolutely no investment into Wisdom or Charisma, as you’re basically never going to use either of them.

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/nwnecbguild/index.php

Thirdly, have a look around at some builds for some inspiration . There’s a few up on the forums here (I put a few up yesterday actually) , but there’s also thousands scattered around on NWN 1 forums. The above link is a good source of character builds. An awful lot of learning about character building is simply trial and error, and basing yourself off of other build plans and trying to understand their strengths is a good starting point.

Given that you are considering something with utility, perhaps this build would be useful:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1528998775

And finally, RP and good character building are not mutually exclusive . If anything, a lot of the veteran role players are amongst the best character builders, simply by virtue of having played for a long time . Try to prioritise both of you can!

[Vacien]

Thanks for all the advice, lot to drink in from the suggestions but it helps out abit in understanding the build and such part of setting up a character. Kinda wish I knew what they did to the Swiss Army Knife Classes to make them so strong for better understandings (IE Clerics, Bards, Etcs). Though I'm still not sure what servers would be good to jump on, if I should start a new character or use a pre existing one etc.

[Reifam]

I'd like to mention that going with a character 'build' may not work with the really hardcore "walk not run because immersion" RP servers like Arelith and Ravenloft. I checked their forum pages and you actually have to contact an admin/DM and formally justify to them with an essay on why you feel you should have the class and how it relates to your character.
https://www.nwnravenloft.com/forum/index.php?topic=4659.0

[The Flying Rodent]

You ‘can’ still make a pre-planned character build for Arelith or Ravenloft. They would just be different , given that PRC content changes how some of the classes work, and there are lower level caps on those servers (Arelith caps at 30, Ravenloft at 20).

But yes, you do have to go to extreme lengths to play on those types of RP servers, and in some cases , get experience on those servers. It is not everyone’s cup of tea; I never got into either Arelith or Ravenloft, because I didn’t like having to worry about every single waking moment of my character’s actions , and/or have to rely on a DM’s permission to get experience for my character.

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As for ‘The Swiss Army Knife’ classes in Cleric and Bard: They basically just got given too much of a good thing.

A Level 20 cleric on vanilla nwn can, with self buffs alone, reach the +20 Magical Attack Bonus Cap with any weapon (Bless/Aid/Prayer all +1 each for +3, Battletide +2, Divine Power / Divine Favour / Greater Magic Weapon all +5 each for +15, 15 + 2 + 3 = 20]. They can also cast some quite nasty offensive spells [ Harm, Blade Barrier , Storm of Vengeance amongst others], can select additional domains to expand their spell pool [ and get spells from other classes like Haste and/or Improved Invisibility and/or Creeping Doom in the process], and THEN have a bajillion buffs and heals up their sleeve.

You can also multi class Clerics with other things to make up for any weakness in proficiencies, or throw in Monk levels to convert all their Wisdom (used for spellcasting) into Armour Class. As a result of all of the above, a Cleric can be built into pretty much ‘any’ sort of archetype class: a tank, a spellcaster, an Archer, a Stealth character, you name it. Pretty much the only thing clerics ever worry about is being Dispelled, which is less likely the more Cleric levels they have.

The build that I linked to above makes use of a few of these things: it mixes cleric with Monk and Shadowdancer for extra AC, running speed and stealth, gets plenty of Attack Bonus and damage from cleric buffs, and can also be played as an off caster/medic as well. Or just rely on Epic Dodge and High Ac to tank everything as a front liner and not get hit, using their extra speed to retreat and Heal is necessary (another thing: Heal restores ALL missing HP, which is quite broken).



Bards are a bit different , and aren’t as straight-up overpowered on their own. Their strength lies in their flexibility as a class.

Bards can select just about every skill in the game, can convert themselves into basically every Prestige Class in the Game (including some that specifically require Arcane Levels), and can grant themselves some frankly ridiculous ‘effective’ Attack Bonus and Armour Class figures (I.e. increasing their own and lowering their opponents’) by combining high- level Song, Curse Song and Taunt. As such, Bards are often not built as ‘support characters’, even though that is what they’re technically supposed to be.

Instead , they’re multiclassed in various amounts (could be a couple of levels of Bard for skill dumps and Prestige Class pre-req’s, to 25+ levels of Bard for a kickass song) with combat classes like Fighter and/or Champion of Torm and/or Blackguard for proficiencies and an extra Basic Attack per round (4 levels of any of these high Attacj Bonus classes before level 20 is enough, e.g. 16 bard 4 Fighter ). Or , maybe Pale Master and/or Red Dragon Disciple for ridiculous base stats and immunities.

Doing either of these things can allow Bards to become some of the strongest melee tanks in the game, both offensively and defensively . They also blend nicely with Shadowdancer to become decent ‘Stealth tanks’, mesh well with Arcane Archer abilities , etc.

[Shia Luck]

I think you'd benefit more from a post suggesting the 3 classes of your fun build and what you want it to do and getting advice on that. Same goes for PWs. Say what you want and someone might find you the perfect answer. (aka, the question is a bit vague).

(Dont be put off btw, druid/shifter is a very hard class to play well. The rules on how one form becomes another are just insane and massively affect how good each form is.)

Have fun :)

[Vacien]

Thanks for the advice, I was looking for something that I could just jump into with little bit of serious, little bit of silly, and not an essasy to just get access to the server with every action being like I'm playing Detroit: Become Human.

As for my 3 major builds I like to try and make they usually come down to either Bloodlusting Melee character, Some kind of Playful Illusionist/trickster, and usually my Gnome hating Barbarian. The Bloodluster I try to get a two handed weapon, specialize in it and get stuff like Greater Cleave and improved Initiative so my guy is just flying out attack after attack at my enemy, the Illusionist I attempt to get Charm spells or spells that confuse the opponent (more like actually confusing them over causing the ailment confusion). As for the Barbarian, usually I just try to make a really dumb half orc who hates things smaller then him, especially tricky gnomes.