Just 3 little questions from an older gamer

[zanathas]

The expansion packs for NeverWinter Nights (SOU, and HOTU) were they made to continue your characters progression (level wise) or must you start at level 1 all over again with a new character. I would love to see my character keep progressing upward. What are the level ranges that you should be to play SOU and HOTU. Also, what would be the best order to play the game in including all the modules premium or otherwise that were in cluded in the game. Thank you.

[raubrey]

Hello fellow older gamer,

The Original Campaign is standalone but SoU and HotU are linked.

So the OC runs about 14-15 levels, and I've had as high as 17.

SoU - Then you restart at level 1 (though are given a few levels) and do similar with SoU usually
running 1-14 or 15.

HotU - You continuey (if you wish) your character on to about level 25ish.

The other models are purely standalone. I don't have a suggested order but would probably play them after the main module, as they are not as fleshed out.

[zanathas]

Originally posted by raubrey:

Hello fellow older gamer,

The Original Campaign is standalone but SoU and HotU are linked.

So the OC runs about 14-15 levels, and I've had as high as 17.

SoU - Then you restart at level 1 (though are given a few levels) and do similar with SoU usually
running 1-14 or 15.

HotU - You continuey (if you wish) your character on to about level 25ish.

The other models are purely standalone. I don't have a suggested order but would probably play them after the main module, as they are not as fleshed out.

Thank you for this info it does help to know this. What i have done though is once I have finished the OC I saved my character and imported him into SOU. Is this not recommended? Or will the game become too unbalanced? (Which they should have made the expansions higher levels).

[red255]

it would become rather unbalanced.

Generally I would consider running thru the prelude exporting the character so I would start SoU with a minor assortment of gear and level 3. to avoid that nasty level 1 schenanigams.

but yeah running thru the SoU you end up level 13 or 14 or so.

in HotU after killing my first monster I shot up to level 15 and eventually ended up around level 30 something

if you import the hero of the OC into HotU you will be a few levels higher, but its really not as big a deal you also will have more money making buying the weapon upgrades easier but with a high enough appraise skill you can somewhat easily make money from the vendors in chapter 2. there are some absurdly expensive stacks of poison arrows/bolts you can sell and buy back for less than you sold them for repeatedly.

so not really *that* big of a deal.

[zanathas]

Awesome

[Shia Luck]

There's also user made modules for after HotU (and iirc, tho I never played it myself, one for between SoU and HotU. (There tends to be a little gap in levels so quickly gaining one or two in HotU is not uncommon.) I don't recall the name of that one, sorry, but for when you finish HotU there's the Sands of Fate series (3 modules) which will take you all the way to lvl40 in a similarly high magic environment, so you can keep all your high powered gear from HotU without unbalancing things. :) Neverwinter Vault is your friend for those and thousands of other community adventures and mods..

Have fun :)

[red255]

All I know is I gained so much XP killing my first enemy in HotU from SoU that i solidly leveled up I think completely.

XP gains slow down a bit later.

if you are a cleric you can kill your companions and raise them for more XP. which would get you into the 20s range. before it slows down.

in chapter 2 there are some vampires that if you wait and don't stake them get back up so you can kill them again for more XP. sort of thing is kinda slow but you leave the game running and let it go for a few hours and come back leveled up.

I last played thru the game as some sort of half orc Ranger barbarian. mainly because some poster was having difficulty and I made a claim that well... a Barbarians Uncanny Dodge would be helpful to maintaining your DEX AC when flat footeded.

was a build I took thru the OC, then did the prelude again and took a level 3 version thru SoU and HotU.

at the End of HotU it had bane of enemies and Devestating critical. as things go it was probably pretty strong all things considered.

used a double bladed sword because thats the spirit of the build. as a third prestige class I took Champion of Torm mainly for feats without the XP penalty fighter would give.

[raubrey]

I vaguely recall a similar experience to @red255's. HoTU wasn't unplayable due to importing but I was just a tad OP to be sure. :)

The other thing, is there is far less incentive to get through HoTU --as it was meant to be played --if you have a bunch of gear, imo anyway. Of course, you could export w/o gear, too.

[Lady MacBeth]

Red255 you should have been prompted by HOTU to lvl up to 15 to begin with when starting with a character under that level.

[claudius]

If you want to play at a higher level some of the games level scale. I know SoU does because once I assigned xp to level up playing a cleric. The outcome was some maps were MORE difficult. There was one map towards end that had numerous very powerful intellect devourer type enemies. Numerous enemies with an area effect stun is very dangerous and only way I could beat them was sanctuary to avoid them and pull the levers or whatever I needed to do. I think OC and HotU also level scale a bit. You can either grant xp via console or you could export and import and run a chapter twice to level up a bit more. I think OC capped at 20 and HotU capped at 40. I don't know about SoU.

[Lady MacBeth]

They all level scale a bit, which can lead to encounters that you cant beat. I personally never use henchmen in the OC so I reach scaled up encounters in it. The stronger intellect devourer like you mention being one. When playing a dwarven defender with a weapon that cant hurt them I just had to let them chase me around like an annoying puppy dog. (they couldnt hurt me either)

[zanathas]

Thank you all for your help it was very informative