Any tips to start the game?

[Eddiemate]

I know you're probably tired of these threads that are new players asking for advice, but I haven't played this game since I was about 8 (and that was only with god mode) and obviously I learned nothing from that time (I mean... I was 8 playing with god mode...). i played a few hours after buying but I still feel a little lost about everything, so I just wanted to know what advice the community has :)

[jimbobslimbob]

May help you out:

If you are looking for some beginner tips / help: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/NWN-Players/discussions/0/1500126447382748871/

If you are after character builds: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/NWN-Players/discussions/1/

[UrbanHermit]

nwn.fandom.com/wiki/Main_Page is your friend, along with your internet search engine of choice.

DO NOT be concerned about the XP penalty for using henches/summons/familiars. The game scales a bit for party size, so overall, it's not a big deal.

Daelen and Grimnaw are both excellent tanks to "hide" behind at low levels. Grimnaw's knockdown can be useful for tough foes. There's no shame in running circles around your tank to aggro mobs onto him and then choosing a target to go after yourself.

I highly recommend the Henchmen/AI mod. Ver. 1.08 is working in the EE.
https://neverwintervault.org/project/nwn1/hakpak/original-hakpak/henchman-inventory-battle-ai-mod
Only for the henches AI/inventory and stackable items though. I uncheck the Enemy AI "improvements" when installing it. Being a more casual gamer, I find the enemy improvements to be annoying. But having access to your hench's inventory is awesome for hauling heavy loot, especially if you're a low STR character. You access it by right clicking on their profile picture.

EDIT: Taking back what I said about stackable items. I mention this in my latest post below, but want to make sure it gets put in here for others who first read this. It causes problems with quest items disappearing if they get stacked. I had to go searching for a way to respawn something with console commands to continue a quest. So, Henchman AI/Inventory is still awesome, wouldn't want to play without it, not so much for the other stuff.

For all the locked chests, if I do feel like fighting solo (and not a rogue), I'll take Tomi along, dismiss him at the beginning of an area in a safe spot, clear the map, then go back and get him to run through and unlock everything. That may sound like extra time, but I prefer it over the annoyance of bashing everything.

With the henchman AI mod, forget about Lore unless it's a requirement for a build. Park Sharwyn next to your favorite merchant. Invite her to the party, talk to her, ask her to ID your stuff, tell her goodbye, and go sell your loot. Of course you may want to take her out now and then for a fight or two. She's not bad, her song is useful and I just love the way she says, "Yes, is there something you need?" :-)

About merchants... you want to get a "favorable" reaction to get the highest price for your loot. However, all favorable reactions are not equal. I do a quick save ('G' key) before talking to a merchant for the first time, as that sets the rate you get until your Appraise skill changes, and do a few quit/reloads if I don't get a good price on my items. That may be a bit cheesy, but I like getting good gold for my stuff.

Okay... Sorry, didn't realize I'd carry on like this. Hope it helps.

[Eddiemate]

It's fine, I really appreciate it. You gave me a lot more tips than I expected when I first opened this topic. I never even would've considered looking into a mod without that suggestion (and tbh I'm still unsure about having a mod but... hench inventories? Yes please).
I'll have another go at trying the ropes later. Thanks!

[UrbanHermit]

That's the great thing about this game - player created content.

I know I emphasized the henchmen in my first post, but I consider them to be an integral part of the game. That Henchmen AI mod is easy to use. You don't have to extract things into various folders, it has an installer that is quite friendly to use.

And I don't know if you're looking for build advice or playstyle tips and such... I'm only recently getting back into this game again and having to get re-familiarized with things myself. I'm thinking along the lines of "quality of life" tips.

A couple other things come to mind.

Use your quickslots. You have three bars (36 slots) with Shift and Ctrl. Put healing potions in the top one! It baffles me when I watch a youtube video and see people playing with the inventory open so they can use healing potions. If you think you'll be using a potion/scroll/weapon/item a lot... slot that thing.

For example, something I do right off the bat, for chapter one of the OC, is slot the default torch you automatically get into Ctrl-12. There are several plague victim pyres you can light in the different city districts for 25 XP each. I like being able to just grab the torch with my quickslot, light it, and put it back. If you store it in the lower left corner of the first inventory page, it will always go back to that same spot if you unequip it right away.

Got an item with extra Charisma or Persuade on it? Slot it and pop it on every time you talk to an NPC in case there's a Persuade check. Just be sure to remember to put your fighting gear back on afterwards. That extra Persuade will do nothing to help you with saving throws... and don't ask me how I know that.

Use the pause feature - Spacebar. When I first started playing this game, as a melee character, I treated it like any other and just ran from one fight to the next and let things play out in real time. That works ok for fighter types, but now I'm playing a sorcerer for the first time and realizing the importance of pause>think>act. It's how the game is designed... use it.

I don't know how many times my sorc has harmlessly blasted Daelen with her little Wand of Frost trying to target the enemies he got swarmed with in real time. Pause the game, reposition the camera, click the target, go.

[Eddiemate]

To be honest, I was hoping for build advice too (nothing too in detail, like... what race/class stuff might be fun) when I was first making the post, but now that I think about it I'm glad it didn't really come up. A lot of the fun in games like this is making your own builds.
I did set up quick slots but I had no clue that there were multiple bars! Definitely going to try utilising those more.
Glad you mentioned the Persuasion item tip, because I know I would've been like "I know this is useful" then forget to do it all the time.
Finally... bless you for telling me about that pause function. I was hoping it was like that when I bought the game and it really made me struggle playing in real time, even with a melee character so far. This will help sooo much.

[myeqchars]

Originally posted by UrbanHermit:

nwn.fandom.com/wiki/Main_Page is your friend, along with your internet search engine of choice.

...

For all the locked chests, if I do feel like fighting solo (and not a rogue), I'll take Tomi along, dismiss him at the beginning of an area in a safe spot, clear the map, then go back and get him to run through and unlock everything. That may sound like extra time, but I prefer it over the annoyance of bashing everything.

With the henchman AI mod, forget about Lore unless it's a requirement for a build. Park Sharwyn next to your favorite merchant. Invite her to the party, talk to her, ask her to ID your stuff, tell her goodbye, and go sell your loot. Of course you may want to take her out now and then for a fight or two. She's not bad, her song is useful and I just love the way she says, "Yes, is there something you need?" :-)

About merchants... you want to get a "favorable" reaction to get the highest price for your loot. However, all favorable reactions are not equal. I do a quick save ('G' key) before talking to a merchant for the first time, as that sets the rate you get until your Appraise skill changes, and do a few quit/reloads if I don't get a good price on my items. That may be a bit cheesy, but I like getting good gold for my stuff.

Okay... Sorry, didn't realize I'd carry on like this. Hope it helps.

These are GREAT tips! I'm a new player too (and new-ish to the D&D type games) and I was wondering if you dismissed a henchman if it cost gp to re-hire him again, or you only have to pay the 1st time?

[ArnMan]

There are hundreds of modules on the Neverwinter Vault and this gives you an plenty of options to play around with character builds.

You might a simple module such as Amber Inn to try out a wizard build, then play it as a rogue, then try it out as something else.

[Tesseract]

Originally posted by myeqchars:

I was wondering if you dismissed a henchman if it cost gp to re-hire him again, or you only have to pay the 1st time?

The payment is for the henchman's services for the duration of the chapter. So you don't have to pay again if you tell them not to come with you for a while.

[UrbanHermit]

Originally posted by Eddiemate:

To be honest, I was hoping for build advice too (nothing too in detail, like... what race/class stuff might be fun) when I was first making the post, but now that I think about it I'm glad it didn't really come up. A lot of the fun in games like this is making your own builds.

The OC is pretty forgiving. As long as you put a little thought into your build, you should be ok.

I've never played a character to level 40, yet, having only played through the OC/SoU/HotU and a few modules from the Vault. but I like looking at Epic builds to get ideas for the early levels.

I'm actually a bit excited about revisiting this timeless classic with the Enhanced Edition. Seeing this game in 1080p on my 24" widescreen monitor is pretty sweet. I couldn't get the older 1.69 Diamond edition to run 1920x1080 smoothly. Had to settle for 1280x720.

And I'm very happy to see that this "old game" is still attracting new players.

Take a look here for build ideas:
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/nwnecbguild/
Scroll down and you'll see sub-forums for level 20/30/40 builds. There's also an excellent sub-forum for Game Guides.

And then there's a searchable archive of the old Bioware forums Epic Character Builders Guild:
https://world-of-greyhawk.github.io/buildsearch/index.html

And now you will probably curse me for all the hours you will spend trying to educate yourself on the art of NWN build crafting.

Another thing about the henchmen... you don't HAVE to take them along to complete their quests. As long as you have the items they seek in your inventory when you talk to them, their quest will complete.

I like to eventually hire all the henches and then park them in Tyr's Temple, where Aribeth is. That way if I'm out and about and decide I want a particular henchman, I can just use the Stone of Recall to pop back into the temple and grab 'em.

Except for Sharwyn. Like I said before, she gets parked near a merchant. Usually Durga at the Shining Knights Arms and Armor, as he seems to be the one I get the best prices from. They must be really good friends by now.

And yes, you only pay them once the first time. They can be invited and dismissed over and over as many times as you like as often as you like.

[UrbanHermit]

Aaaand for those with the patience to actually read my wordy suggestions...

I really like to try and figure everything out on my own when adventuring through games like this, but sometimes I just get stuck and have to turn to a walkthrough. Here's my favorite:
http://www.gamebanshee.com/neverwinternights/nwnwalkthrough.php

For those who don't like the appearance of helmets, like me - there's a bug that allows you to equip them and have them "hidden." Put your helmet and armor in two adjacent quickslots, click to remove both, equip the helmet then quickly click the armor. You'll have to get the timing just right, but done properly you'll see in your inventory the helmet is on but not showing on your character. It will stay that way for the duration of your session, unless you die and have to respawn or reload a save.

The down side to that is if you have a helmet that gives an Ability modifier, removing it may affect things like extra spell slots. I've yet to have a problem with doing this. And... I really do not care for seeing my character wearing a helmet.

If you are using the stacking inventory feature in the Henchmen AI/Inventory mod, be aware, that if you need to use an item that is stacked for a quest or crafting, and you drag the whole stack to the container, you will lose the whole stack.

You need to split them from the stack before using. Just right click the stack and choose "Split" from the radial menu. This also works for things like potions, if you want to give a henchmen some of your healing potions, for example.

I lost a Diamond in Marrok's forge because of this. Made me sad because they are rare. And there are recipes that require multiples of the same item. They won't be recognized as a stacked quantity, they need to be separate, single items. Just split off however many multiples of one that you need.

And speaking of Marrok, it's really worth it to craft the items he makes with the rare materials you find in Chapter One. They can be sold for some serious profit. Here's an excellent guide:
https://ackadia.com/neverwinter-nights-solution/nwn-chapter1-marroks-forge-recipes/

Be sure to set aside some of the +1 weapons and various armors you find on that list to make his specialty items. I just drop them on the floor, off to the side from Durga, and do the crafting after finishing everything else in the chapter.

I completed chapter one with over 86,000 gold by doing that on my last run through it.

That's it for now. Happy travels, fellow adventurers.