@Lemernis, it sounds to me like what you want is the eldritch knight prestige class. It's actually one of the easier ones to start.
If you are new to NWN2 rules, go to your character creation screen, and scroll down to the greyed-out "prestige classes". Look at the eldritch knight. It will tell you exactly what it does, and exactly what feats you have to take to activate it.
Your character will have to get to fifth level for third level arcane spells to start it though, so it won't come into play until pretty late in BG1.
Once it's active at level 5, though, it is the consummate fighter/mage. It has D6 for hit dice, a fighter's base attack bonuses and attacks per round, access to martial weapons, and full arcane spell progression.
Your only other choice other than a prestige class (and there could be others that would appeal to you), would be to take alternating levels of mage and fighter. This would make you a decent fighter, and a not-so-good mage under 3rd edition rules.
Also, if you spread your classes around, you need to learn the rules regarding "favored classes." A toon may have its favored class, and one other class. If a third class is added, a SIGNIFICANT experience penalty will apply unless the two non-favored classed are kept within one level of each other. Only the favored class may be left at one level or ignored.
The experience penalty will also apply for a character with two non-favored classes that are any more than one level apart from each other.
EDIT: About your tech problems: Please make sure your game version is 1.23.1765. Then, make sure you have installed BGR EXACTLY as instructed in the latest version of the downloadable install manual on the Nexus. Then, make sure your override folders are EMPTY at both User/MyDocuments/NeverwinterNights2 AND C://ProgramFiles(x86)/Atari/NeverwinterNights2. Also, make sure your version of WinRar matches your operating system. There are both 32 bit versions and 64 bit versions of WinRar. Yours MUST match your own Windows 7 version.
@belgarathmth Thanks for the tips on building a F/M.
Re: installation problems, I'm running WinRAR 32 bit and Windows is 32 bit also. I've been doing everything as directed.
How's this for freaky, though: I uninstalled the game entirely. Everything. No folders left. Both on the C drive directory and the My Documents directory. Nothing there. I reinstall NWN2. I try to play the Campaign. In that slot is... Baldur's Gate: Reloaded.
So, I got as far as Shank before I decided that I should finish my IWD Series playthroughs before I start on BGR. ... And starting off as a wizard probably wasn't the smartest of moves, I kind of used most of my spell book on Shank. Har.
What build to go with depends on how you envision your fighter/mage. Are you a mage that can let lose with a two-handed sword/bow and arrows when you want to conserve spells for tougher foes, or are you a fighter that buffs up before difficult fights and can shoot off a fireball if things get hairy?...
Well here's how I play him in BG:EE, and if possible I'd like to follow along these lines:
A meleeing dual-wielder with Long Swords who also casts debilitating spells in the heat of battle (or upon sighting enemies) like Sleep, Blindness, Ray of Enfeeblement, Horror, Glitterdust, Hold Person, Slow, and so on. Using the Armor and Shield spells to improve AC, and familiar for higher HP.
From what I'm reading about BGR being rather deadly early on, I think I may want to start out as a Fighter.
With the ability points available at character creation I think I would go with
Str 14 Dex 16 Con 12 Int 15 Wis 10 Cha 10
(From a RP vantage I can't bring myself to have lower than 10 on an ability.)
So he will mainly be a fighter who can cast a few choice spells, I guess.
Something like the following perhaps?
Start as a Human (extra feat at creation, medium-sized, any favored class)
1 Fighter (1) Luck of Heroes Two-Weapon Fighting Toughness 2 Fighter (2) Weapon Focus (Longsword) 3 Wizard (1) Necromancy as school (or any other school you prefer for RP reasons.. be careful though as you'll lose out on good buff spells if you pick any but Necromancy here), Beetle as familiar for a few extra HP Weapon Focus (Short Sword) 4 Wizard (2) Improve DEX by 1 so you qualify for Improved Two-Weapon Fighting later 5 Wizard (3) 6 Wizard (4) Practiced Spellcaster: Wizard 7 Wizard (5) Any metamagic feat. I'd probably go with Extend Spell for extending the stat buffs, but the choice is yours 8 Eldritch Knight (1) Improve INT by 1 9 Eldritch Knight (2) Improved Two-Weapon Fighting 10 Eldritch Knight (3)
Must have skills are Concentration and Spellcraft, the rest are up to you (you don't get many choices though as fighter/wizard/EK unfortunately. Appraise might be good even though it's crossclass). 4 attacks per round, you end up with 4th level spells, good defenses with mage armor/shield/mirror image/displacement/stoneskin, and once you hit mid-levels you'll probably have a couple slots left over each rest for offensive stuff. You won't be able to keep buffs up permanently, but you should have enough raw melee power without them to be able to handle mooks. You'll also be a fairly tough cookie early on with two-weapon fighting and the fighter levels.
This is just a first rough draft which I'm sure can be improved greatly... http://nwn2db.com/ is an excellent site for building NWN2 characters, might be worth creating your own build.
Well, I'm now nearly at wit's end in trying to get this mod to run.
I have followed every instruction to the letter, at least best I can tell, and I am still unable to get this mod to play properly. This is the protocol I have followed:
Installed NWN2 and updated. Installed MotB and updated. Installed SoZ and updated. Yes, the game is version 1.023 (1765)
I made sure the following two folders were empty (which they would be anyway after a fresh installation):
a. Location 1 (Install Directory): e.g. … Program Files/Atari/Neverwinter Nights 2/override or Program Files (x86)/Atari/Neverwinter Nights 2/override b. Location 2 (My Documents): e.g. … My Documents/Neverwinter Nights 2/override
I placed the six BGR .rars in Libraries/Documents/My Documents/Neverwinter Nights 2, and then, separately, in order of Parts 1-6, selected "Extract Here" for each .rar.
But when I open the game, I continue to get the screen shown below when attempting to start a New Game under Campaigns:
And what does play is clearly broken.
Now I did have a brief glimpse at what the mod is supposed to look like at one point in my efforts to install and play this mod. I got the proper screen under Campaigns that shows the three Campaigns for NWN2, MotB, and SoZ in the first three slots, and the BGR campaign in the fourth Campaign slot that appears at the bottom. When I selected BGR I got the opening movie. The character I created was unarmored, as he should be. The PC spoke to Winthrop with Winthrop responded in his BG1 voice, with accompanying animations. Winthrop's store opened. Etc.
But here when I select any of the four slots named "Baldur's Gate : Reloaded" there is no starting movie, the character I created is armored, Winthrop uses a stock NWN2 voice, he just stands there (no mirthful animated movement), his store doesn't open, etc.
The game prompts you to update after each installation. And there's a lot to each update from the original disks. It takes roughly 30-45 minutes to update each (NWN2, MotB and SoZ, each, respectively).
I want to try one more time by (sigh) uninstalling and reinstalling, but this time running each vanilla campaign, one at a time, hopefully thereby populating all of the game's files. I will even attempt this by not updating and just running each disk right out of the box. Although by the time I get to the first expansion wouldn't NWN2 require updating in order to run MotB properly?
If one had bought each of these upon release, one would have updated each one at a time, right? Why would I not install and update in the order they were released? Just asking.
I uninstalled NWN2 (via Control Panel, Uninstall Programs). All folders removed (I even deleted the empty Atari folder for good measure). I then reinstalled NWN2. I did not update, however.
I now go in to try play the vanilla campaign right out of the box for NWN2 and, as I noted before, here's what I get:
I have the 6 compressed .rars still in my Downloads folder, but that's it. I.e., I did not place them anywhere or do anything with the .rar files as yet.
@Lemernis, I suggested over on the other page that maybe you have to restart your computer to finalize an uninstall, but I'm not sure about that. Also, there should be a way to skip some of that updating by waiting until Storm of Zehir is installed before running update. (Most game companies put needed updates on expansion discs that they release, understanding that many people may be playing for the first time with the expansion.)
Finally, I suppose it's possible that one of your discs has somehow gotten corrupted. (Electromagnetic pulses from passing alien spaceships, maybe?)
If you want to play this badly enough to spend a $20 bill on it, you might want to try buying the complete version of the game at GoG.com. It would save you some major headaches on troubleshooting to have the whole, updated program available to you in the cloud.
My own setup is done from disks, though, and it worked for me the first time. Again, I'm so sorry this has happened to you. I really want you to be able to play with us.
EDIT: Another idea about the weirdness: Did you try to keep saved games somewhere? I think Windows tries to hold your saved games and settings even when you uninstall a game. I seem to remember an automatic feature that has surprised me before when I would uninstall and reinstall games - my old settings and saves would still be there, leaving me scratching my head. Your computer has to be getting that "Baldur's Gate Reloaded" label from somewhere, so I'm wondering if Windows saved it somewhere. Do you have any games under "Load Save"?
Waiting for NWN2 to dl from gog now but think I may play around a bit normally with it while waiting to get some more reactions to this mod before attempting to install it and play.
GOG was a great option here as I haven't played NWN2 for ages and have no idea where my disks are not to mention I don't recall if I got the expansions on disk or digital - $20 and you get it all no muss no fuss - I'm liking it!
After you follow the link, find and click on "posts". There are over 400 of them. Do NOT click on "forums", or you'll be in a very confusing, user-unfriendly place.
I think we early adopters are kind of winding up being a second wave of beta testers. Still, I'm having great fun! This thing has the potential to be a phenomenon.
Here are some promotional screenies. They are from my attack on the gnoll fortress. My party is CharnameCleric, Animal Domain Panther, Minsc, Branwen, Xan, and Imoen. In photo one, we are attacked by both the gnolls from up the stairs, AND the gnolls and xvarts from the West (they come running and coordinate just as in SCS). When the dust has cleared, only I and Xan are left alive. Minsc and Imoen have been stabilized and can be revived since I am a cleric, thank Oghma, but poor Branwen is permanently dead.
I've encountered quite a few issues but inspite that I'm still enjoying it - the battles are quite difficult.
Just wondering whether anyone else has come across this particular issue: Shar-Teel refuses to attack, I've checked her behaviour & can't find fault - I constantly issue the command to attack & yet nothing, she just follows my PC & stands there passively when there's a battle.
Also @belgarathmth how did you get Xan? Is recruiting him dependant on your alignment, because my PC (NE) spoke to him & he just thanked me & left. Just so I know what to expect what are his stats? I'd like to know if he'd make a viable Eldritch Knight.
I would strongly suggest that anyone intending to play this unlocks multi-classed NPCs, it seems a waste to have so many classes added that only your PC has access to. I'm currently working on turning Kagain into a Red Dragon Disciple & Shar-Teel into an Assassin.
Alot of the content that they've added is great, I could of done without some of the extra head options though - Some look terrifying & not in a good way. I'm glad they fixed Hideous Blow so it can be pre-cast. My overall character concept for my PC is: Warlock (6), Mystic Knight, Warrior of Darkness, Blackguard. But that's dependant on how many more levels I can gain.
@Lemernis If you wanted to be a tank of an Eldritch Knight I've played an Earth Genasi - Fighter (1), Sorcerer (6), Eldritch Knight, Dragon Disciple to great effect through the main story & Mask. You take hit to Cha but the bonuses to Str & Con make a dramatic difference at early levels & you can focus solely on increasing your Cha. I think his Stats at character creation where, 18,12.16,12,6,13 he wore full plate coupled with a tower shield & cast everything as a Still Spell until epic level then took automatic still (1-9). It really depends on what level you can reach. The issue I've found with wizard/fighter/eldritch knights with two weapon fighting in 3rd is that you have to split your focus between 3 stats (str, dex & int). If you're set on being a Wizard I'd suggest being a Swashbuckler/Wizard over a Fighter, that way you're only spending points on two stats (dex & int).
@Isair, have you checked out http://neverwinter.nexusmods.com/mods/794 and clicked on "Posts"? It is getting unwieldy to keep bouncing among forums to check people's questions about this project.
In my current first run, I am lawful good, and Xan gave me the join dialogue. I would say that your alignment is indeed your problem with getting him to join you. You may also have a charisma issue. You only get one shot per character in BGR to get each of them to join you. Bad alignment, bad charisma, or refuse to accept their quest immediately, and they are gone forever, bye bye, "see ya, wouldn't wanna be ya."
Party breaks have also been confirmed present for Xzar and Montaron, for good aligned characters, right after the Nashkel mines.
If we want a discussion of BG in 3rd edition rules, now possible with this project, I would suggest moving to the off-topic forum.
I'm kind of wondering what the BG:EE mods and devs think about this project, and I am actually rather surprised that they have neither moved the thread to off-topic, nor shut it down outright.
One big factor, though, is that the devs of BGR are receiving zero financial compensation for SEVEN YEARS of work! There is an unconfimed rumor floating about that the project leader was hired by a game company based on his efforts.
The BG:EE team is in fact working for financial compensation, so they are unfortunately forced to jump through all the legal hoops put before them by the license and copyright holders, somewhat infamously at this point.
@Lemernis, Hallelujah! Welcome to Sword Coast Heaven, Brother! (edit: I just stumbled onto this video, but it is easy to imagine that all the soloists and small ensembles are being sung by various BG npc's. LOL - maybe I should start a new thread just for having fun with this video - or not. )
What build to go with depends on how you envision your fighter/mage. Are you a mage that can let lose with a two-handed sword/bow and arrows when you want to conserve spells for tougher foes, or are you a fighter that buffs up before difficult fights and can shoot off a fireball if things get hairy?...
Well here's how I play him in BG:EE, and if possible I'd like to follow along these lines:
A meleeing dual-wielder with Long Swords who also casts debilitating spells in the heat of battle (or upon sighting enemies) like Sleep, Blindness, Ray of Enfeeblement, Horror, Glitterdust, Hold Person, Slow, and so on. Using the Armor and Shield spells to improve AC, and familiar for higher HP.
From what I'm reading about BGR being rather deadly early on, I think I may want to start out as a Fighter.
With the ability points available at character creation I think I would go with
Str 14 Dex 16 Con 12 Int 15 Wis 10 Cha 10
(From a RP vantage I can't bring myself to have lower than 10 on an ability.)
So he will mainly be a fighter who can cast a few choice spells, I guess.
Something like the following perhaps?
Start as a Human (extra feat at creation, medium-sized, any favored class)
1 Fighter (1) Luck of Heroes Two-Weapon Fighting Toughness 2 Fighter (2) Weapon Focus (Longsword) 3 Wizard (1) Necromancy as school (or any other school you prefer for RP reasons.. be careful though as you'll lose out on good buff spells if you pick any but Necromancy here), Beetle as familiar for a few extra HP Weapon Focus (Short Sword) 4 Wizard (2) Improve DEX by 1 so you qualify for Improved Two-Weapon Fighting later 5 Wizard (3) 6 Wizard (4) Practiced Spellcaster: Wizard 7 Wizard (5) Any metamagic feat. I'd probably go with Extend Spell for extending the stat buffs, but the choice is yours 8 Eldritch Knight (1) Improve INT by 1 9 Eldritch Knight (2) Improved Two-Weapon Fighting 10 Eldritch Knight (3)
Must have skills are Concentration and Spellcraft, the rest are up to you (you don't get many choices though as fighter/wizard/EK unfortunately. Appraise might be good even though it's crossclass). 4 attacks per round, you end up with 4th level spells, good defenses with mage armor/shield/mirror image/displacement/stoneskin, and once you hit mid-levels you'll probably have a couple slots left over each rest for offensive stuff. You won't be able to keep buffs up permanently, but you should have enough raw melee power without them to be able to handle mooks. You'll also be a fairly tough cookie early on with two-weapon fighting and the fighter levels.
This is just a first rough draft which I'm sure can be improved greatly... http://nwn2db.com/ is an excellent site for building NWN2 characters, might be worth creating your own build.
Thank you for this! I will study this and bone up at the link you provided!
This is my namesake character, so for me he must be a half-elf from the RP standpoint.
Maybe it was just the excitement of finally getting the mod to work on another computer, and then the eagerness to begin playing, but I did not see Luck of Heroes among the Feats.
I chose at Fighter 1 for Feats
Two-Weapon Fighting Two-Weapon Defense
and for Skills
Parry Tumble Intimidate Taunt
And he dual-wields long swords, mostly in Parry mode. I only have Studded Leather on him now, but I will give that to Imoen as soon as I get past Tarnesh and can buy splint mail for him at FAI.
In NWN2 can spellcasters cast while wearing armor?
Thank you for this! I will study this and bone up at the link you provided!
This is my namesake character, so for me he must be a half-elf from the RP standpoint.
Maybe it was just the excitement of finally getting the mod to work on another computer, and then the eagerness to begin playing, but I did not see Luck of Heroes among the Feats.
I chose at Fighter 1 for Feats
Two-Weapon Fighting Two-Weapon Defense
and for Skills
Parry Tumble Intimidate Taunt
And he dual-wields long swords, mostly in Parry mode. I only have Studded Leather on him now, but I will give that to Imoen as soon as I get past Tarnesh and can buy splint mail for him at FAI.
In NWN2 can spellcasters cast while wearing armor?
There are a lot of new rules in 3rd edition compared to 2nd. For instance, if you dual-wield with an off-hand weapon that is not considered light for your race, you get a -2 penalty to all attack rolls. A light weapon for a medium-sized creature is any weapon that is small or tiny in size. So you'll probably have a very hard time hitting stuff with two longswords at low levels, since they are medium weapons and you'll get a total of -4 to all attack rolls (-2 for dual-wielding, another -2 since your offhand-weapon isn't light).
Also, the defense bonus from Two-Weapon defense is a Shield bonus of +1 AC. The 1st-level mage spell Shield also gives a Shield bonus, but +4, and the two effects won't stack.
You can cast while wearing armor, yes, but (almost) all armor imposes a % chance of arcane spell failure. The heavier the armor, the greater the chance of an arcane spell failing. Armor material can also impact arcane spell failure (in unmodded NWN2, Mithral armors have lower spell failure chance). You can circumvent this by using the feat Still Spell, but spells cast with that feat occupy a spell slot one level higher than normal.
There's tons of stuff like this. http://nwn2.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page is a good place to start if you want to check up on NWN2 rules. Some of the information is not completely up to date, but it's still fairly comprehensive.
Updated the OP to let everyone know there's a place to report bugs, just like there is here. https://www.assembla.com/spaces/bgr-bugtracker/messages Also updated it with the information about the unrestricted multiclassing thing.
For multiclassing your companions without being restricted to one class (To make Ajantis a Paladin/Divine Champion/Annointed Knight, for example), do this:
-Open the NWN2 Toolset (NWN2ToolsetLauncher.exe) -Click on Plugins at the top -> Campaign Editor -Select BGR -In the box at the right, Under 'Behavior', click 'AllowUnrestrictedLevelUp' and change it to 'True.' -Click 'Save Campaign' above the box, and you're finished.
This. Thank you so much.
I've been playing BGR and enjoying it, but I just can't stand it when I see unnecessary changes. Such as not being able to get Kivan until after Nashkel, Jaheira only being able to level in druid, Xan being an Illusionist instead of an Enchanter (I wouldn't have minded too much if he was just a general mage, but he can't even use the spells he could in BG). I've heard that Dynaheir has been changed to a Sorcerer too instead of an Invoker.
This multiclass fix at least lets me open Jaheira up for fighter levels if I want to (along with any other multiclass characters missing their other class), but unfortunately can't help Dynaheir and Xan (actually I'm not sure about Dynaheir I might be able to have her as a sorcerer/mage, but certainly Xan). Because I would need to change his first level to change the specialization.
... I'm kind of wondering what the BG:EE mods and devs think about this project, and I am actually rather surprised that they have neither moved the thread to off-topic, nor shut it down outright.
One big factor, though, is that the devs of BGR are receiving zero financial compensation for SEVEN YEARS of work! There is an unconfimed rumor floating about that the project leader was hired by a game company based on his efforts.
The BG:EE team is in fact working for financial compensation, so they are unfortunately forced to jump through all the legal hoops put before them by the license and copyright holders, somewhat infamously at this point.
It seems that as long as a mod or BG related project isn't charging money for a product that they don't own the rights to (as differentiated from accepting donations to cover operating costs) Atari, Hasbro, Wizards, et al, are content to leave it alone. Which does make sense. It's ultimately in the interest of maintaining a thriving fan base, which is essential to continued sales of such a game, which is now ancient by computer game standards. The very active and ardently devoted fan and modding community for BG has kept this game from disappearing. Cost:benefit-wise I'm sure it makes more sense to let the modding/fan community continue to do its thing (as long as it's not for profit), as that serves to maintain interest in the product and continues to generate sales of the game.
@Isair, oh, sorry, I didn't see your question last night about Xan's stats. I don't know anything about the Shar-Teel issue, so you may want to report that as a bug.
He comes as a second level illusionist (when I found him), with Spell Focus:Illusion selected as his first feat. I gave him Toughness when he hit level 3, to help him with that constitution/hit points problem of his.
A lot of people are reporting that Xan is often killed by Mulahey's skellies and kobolds before they get a chance to recruit him. You have to kill Mulahey and Co. as quickly as possible. When I found Xan, he was at "Injured". Also, I refused to offer Mulahey any mercy. If I had fallen for his fake mercy plea, allowing him to summon his second wave of skellies, Xan probably would have been killed before I could talk to him.
Comments
If you are new to NWN2 rules, go to your character creation screen, and scroll down to the greyed-out "prestige classes". Look at the eldritch knight. It will tell you exactly what it does, and exactly what feats you have to take to activate it.
Your character will have to get to fifth level for third level arcane spells to start it though, so it won't come into play until pretty late in BG1.
Once it's active at level 5, though, it is the consummate fighter/mage. It has D6 for hit dice, a fighter's base attack bonuses and attacks per round, access to martial weapons, and full arcane spell progression.
Your only other choice other than a prestige class (and there could be others that would appeal to you), would be to take alternating levels of mage and fighter. This would make you a decent fighter, and a not-so-good mage under 3rd edition rules.
Also, if you spread your classes around, you need to learn the rules regarding "favored classes." A toon may have its favored class, and one other class. If a third class is added, a SIGNIFICANT experience penalty will apply unless the two non-favored classed are kept within one level of each other. Only the favored class may be left at one level or ignored.
The experience penalty will also apply for a character with two non-favored classes that are any more than one level apart from each other.
EDIT: About your tech problems: Please make sure your game version is 1.23.1765. Then, make sure you have installed BGR EXACTLY as instructed in the latest version of the downloadable install manual on the Nexus. Then, make sure your override folders are EMPTY at both User/MyDocuments/NeverwinterNights2 AND C://ProgramFiles(x86)/Atari/NeverwinterNights2. Also, make sure your version of WinRar matches your operating system. There are both 32 bit versions and 64 bit versions of WinRar. Yours MUST match your own Windows 7 version.
Re: installation problems, I'm running WinRAR 32 bit and Windows is 32 bit also. I've been doing everything as directed.
How's this for freaky, though: I uninstalled the game entirely. Everything. No folders left. Both on the C drive directory and the My Documents directory. Nothing there. I reinstall NWN2. I try to play the Campaign. In that slot is... Baldur's Gate: Reloaded.
So, I got as far as Shank before I decided that I should finish my IWD Series playthroughs before I start on BGR. ... And starting off as a wizard probably wasn't the smartest of moves, I kind of used most of my spell book on Shank. Har.
Start as a Human (extra feat at creation, medium-sized, any favored class)
1 Fighter (1)
Luck of Heroes
Two-Weapon Fighting
Toughness
2 Fighter (2)
Weapon Focus (Longsword)
3 Wizard (1)
Necromancy as school (or any other school you prefer for RP reasons.. be careful though as you'll lose out on good buff spells if you pick any but Necromancy here), Beetle as familiar for a few extra HP
Weapon Focus (Short Sword)
4 Wizard (2)
Improve DEX by 1 so you qualify for Improved Two-Weapon Fighting later
5 Wizard (3)
6 Wizard (4)
Practiced Spellcaster: Wizard
7 Wizard (5)
Any metamagic feat. I'd probably go with Extend Spell for extending the stat buffs, but the choice is yours
8 Eldritch Knight (1)
Improve INT by 1
9 Eldritch Knight (2)
Improved Two-Weapon Fighting
10 Eldritch Knight (3)
Must have skills are Concentration and Spellcraft, the rest are up to you (you don't get many choices though as fighter/wizard/EK unfortunately. Appraise might be good even though it's crossclass).
4 attacks per round, you end up with 4th level spells, good defenses with mage armor/shield/mirror image/displacement/stoneskin, and once you hit mid-levels you'll probably have a couple slots left over each rest for offensive stuff. You won't be able to keep buffs up permanently, but you should have enough raw melee power without them to be able to handle mooks.
You'll also be a fairly tough cookie early on with two-weapon fighting and the fighter levels.
This is just a first rough draft which I'm sure can be improved greatly... http://nwn2db.com/ is an excellent site for building NWN2 characters, might be worth creating your own build.
I have followed every instruction to the letter, at least best I can tell, and I am still unable to get this mod to play properly. This is the protocol I have followed:
Installed NWN2 and updated.
Installed MotB and updated.
Installed SoZ and updated.
Yes, the game is version 1.023 (1765)
I made sure the following two folders were empty (which they would be anyway after a fresh installation):
a. Location 1 (Install Directory): e.g. … Program Files/Atari/Neverwinter Nights 2/override or Program Files (x86)/Atari/Neverwinter Nights 2/override
b. Location 2 (My Documents): e.g. … My Documents/Neverwinter Nights 2/override
I placed the six BGR .rars in Libraries/Documents/My Documents/Neverwinter Nights 2, and then, separately, in order of Parts 1-6, selected "Extract Here" for each .rar.
But when I open the game, I continue to get the screen shown below when attempting to start a New Game under Campaigns:
And what does play is clearly broken.
Now I did have a brief glimpse at what the mod is supposed to look like at one point in my efforts to install and play this mod. I got the proper screen under Campaigns that shows the three Campaigns for NWN2, MotB, and SoZ in the first three slots, and the BGR campaign in the fourth Campaign slot that appears at the bottom. When I selected BGR I got the opening movie. The character I created was unarmored, as he should be. The PC spoke to Winthrop with Winthrop responded in his BG1 voice, with accompanying animations. Winthrop's store opened. Etc.
But here when I select any of the four slots named "Baldur's Gate : Reloaded" there is no starting movie, the character I created is armored, Winthrop uses a stock NWN2 voice, he just stands there (no mirthful animated movement), his store doesn't open, etc.
I want to try one more time by (sigh) uninstalling and reinstalling, but this time running each vanilla campaign, one at a time, hopefully thereby populating all of the game's files. I will even attempt this by not updating and just running each disk right out of the box. Although by the time I get to the first expansion wouldn't NWN2 require updating in order to run MotB properly?
If one had bought each of these upon release, one would have updated each one at a time, right? Why would I not install and update in the order they were released? Just asking.
I uninstalled NWN2 (via Control Panel, Uninstall Programs). All folders removed (I even deleted the empty Atari folder for good measure). I then reinstalled NWN2. I did not update, however.
I now go in to try play the vanilla campaign right out of the box for NWN2 and, as I noted before, here's what I get:
I have the 6 compressed .rars still in my Downloads folder, but that's it. I.e., I did not place them anywhere or do anything with the .rar files as yet.
How could this even be occurring?
Finally, I suppose it's possible that one of your discs has somehow gotten corrupted. (Electromagnetic pulses from passing alien spaceships, maybe?)
If you want to play this badly enough to spend a $20 bill on it, you might want to try buying the complete version of the game at GoG.com. It would save you some major headaches on troubleshooting to have the whole, updated program available to you in the cloud.
My own setup is done from disks, though, and it worked for me the first time. Again, I'm so sorry this has happened to you. I really want you to be able to play with us.
EDIT: Another idea about the weirdness: Did you try to keep saved games somewhere? I think Windows tries to hold your saved games and settings even when you uninstall a game. I seem to remember an automatic feature that has surprised me before when I would uninstall and reinstall games - my old settings and saves would still be there, leaving me scratching my head. Your computer has to be getting that "Baldur's Gate Reloaded" label from somewhere, so I'm wondering if Windows saved it somewhere. Do you have any games under "Load Save"?
GOG was a great option here as I haven't played NWN2 for ages and have no idea where my disks are not to mention I don't recall if I got the expansions on disk or digital - $20 and you get it all no muss no fuss - I'm liking it!
http://neverwinter.nexusmods.com/mods/794
After you follow the link, find and click on "posts". There are over 400 of them. Do NOT click on "forums", or you'll be in a very confusing, user-unfriendly place.
I think we early adopters are kind of winding up being a second wave of beta testers. Still, I'm having great fun! This thing has the potential to be a phenomenon.
Just wondering whether anyone else has come across this particular issue: Shar-Teel refuses to attack, I've checked her behaviour & can't find fault - I constantly issue the command to attack & yet nothing, she just follows my PC & stands there passively when there's a battle.
Also @belgarathmth how did you get Xan? Is recruiting him dependant on your alignment, because my PC (NE) spoke to him & he just thanked me & left. Just so I know what to expect what are his stats? I'd like to know if he'd make a viable Eldritch Knight.
I would strongly suggest that anyone intending to play this unlocks multi-classed NPCs, it seems a waste to have so many classes added that only your PC has access to. I'm currently working on turning Kagain into a Red Dragon Disciple & Shar-Teel into an Assassin.
Alot of the content that they've added is great, I could of done without some of the extra head options though - Some look terrifying & not in a good way. I'm glad they fixed Hideous Blow so it can be pre-cast. My overall character concept for my PC is: Warlock (6), Mystic Knight, Warrior of Darkness, Blackguard. But that's dependant on how many more levels I can gain.
@Lemernis If you wanted to be a tank of an Eldritch Knight I've played an Earth Genasi - Fighter (1), Sorcerer (6), Eldritch Knight, Dragon Disciple to great effect through the main story & Mask. You take hit to Cha but the bonuses to Str & Con make a dramatic difference at early levels & you can focus solely on increasing your Cha. I think his Stats at character creation where, 18,12.16,12,6,13 he wore full plate coupled with a tower shield & cast everything as a Still Spell until epic level then took automatic still (1-9). It really depends on what level you can reach. The issue I've found with wizard/fighter/eldritch knights with two weapon fighting in 3rd is that you have to split your focus between 3 stats (str, dex & int). If you're set on being a Wizard I'd suggest being a Swashbuckler/Wizard over a Fighter, that way you're only spending points on two stats (dex & int).
From what I have seen thus far (and I'm only still making my way up to FAI as yet) this mod seems well realized.
Loved Xzar and Monty, and their very in-character reaction to my response to their suggestion that Immy and my character accompany them to Nashkel.
In my current first run, I am lawful good, and Xan gave me the join dialogue. I would say that your alignment is indeed your problem with getting him to join you. You may also have a charisma issue. You only get one shot per character in BGR to get each of them to join you. Bad alignment, bad charisma, or refuse to accept their quest immediately, and they are gone forever, bye bye, "see ya, wouldn't wanna be ya."
Party breaks have also been confirmed present for Xzar and Montaron, for good aligned characters, right after the Nashkel mines.
If we want a discussion of BG in 3rd edition rules, now possible with this project, I would suggest moving to the off-topic forum.
I'm kind of wondering what the BG:EE mods and devs think about this project, and I am actually rather surprised that they have neither moved the thread to off-topic, nor shut it down outright.
One big factor, though, is that the devs of BGR are receiving zero financial compensation for SEVEN YEARS of work! There is an unconfimed rumor floating about that the project leader was hired by a game company based on his efforts.
The BG:EE team is in fact working for financial compensation, so they are unfortunately forced to jump through all the legal hoops put before them by the license and copyright holders, somewhat infamously at this point.
This is my namesake character, so for me he must be a half-elf from the RP standpoint.
Maybe it was just the excitement of finally getting the mod to work on another computer, and then the eagerness to begin playing, but I did not see Luck of Heroes among the Feats.
I chose at Fighter 1 for Feats
Two-Weapon Fighting
Two-Weapon Defense
and for Skills
Parry
Tumble
Intimidate
Taunt
And he dual-wields long swords, mostly in Parry mode. I only have Studded Leather on him now, but I will give that to Imoen as soon as I get past Tarnesh and can buy splint mail for him at FAI.
In NWN2 can spellcasters cast while wearing armor?
Also, the defense bonus from Two-Weapon defense is a Shield bonus of +1 AC. The 1st-level mage spell Shield also gives a Shield bonus, but +4, and the two effects won't stack.
You can cast while wearing armor, yes, but (almost) all armor imposes a % chance of arcane spell failure. The heavier the armor, the greater the chance of an arcane spell failing. Armor material can also impact arcane spell failure (in unmodded NWN2, Mithral armors have lower spell failure chance).
You can circumvent this by using the feat Still Spell, but spells cast with that feat occupy a spell slot one level higher than normal.
There's tons of stuff like this. http://nwn2.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page is a good place to start if you want to check up on NWN2 rules. Some of the information is not completely up to date, but it's still fairly comprehensive.
I've been playing BGR and enjoying it, but I just can't stand it when I see unnecessary changes. Such as not being able to get Kivan until after Nashkel, Jaheira only being able to level in druid, Xan being an Illusionist instead of an Enchanter (I wouldn't have minded too much if he was just a general mage, but he can't even use the spells he could in BG). I've heard that Dynaheir has been changed to a Sorcerer too instead of an Invoker.
This multiclass fix at least lets me open Jaheira up for fighter levels if I want to (along with any other multiclass characters missing their other class), but unfortunately can't help Dynaheir and Xan (actually I'm not sure about Dynaheir I might be able to have her as a sorcerer/mage, but certainly Xan). Because I would need to change his first level to change the specialization.
The closest thing I've found to help with changing the first level is this: http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=nwn2scripts.detail&id=45
But it was outdated back in 2007 and so certainly doesn't work now.
I don't suppose anyone here knows of a way to change the first level of a companions class? Or to just somehow edit the wizard specialization?
I have been enjoying BGR (after I got the camera under control) but these small changes just bug me.
Xan's stats are:
STR12 DEX18 CON8 INT16 WIS12 CHA10
He comes as a second level illusionist (when I found him), with Spell Focus:Illusion selected as his first feat. I gave him Toughness when he hit level 3, to help him with that constitution/hit points problem of his.
A lot of people are reporting that Xan is often killed by Mulahey's skellies and kobolds before they get a chance to recruit him. You have to kill Mulahey and Co. as quickly as possible. When I found Xan, he was at "Injured". Also, I refused to offer Mulahey any mercy. If I had fallen for his fake mercy plea, allowing him to summon his second wave of skellies, Xan probably would have been killed before I could talk to him.