The max number of slots possible actually changes based on what chapter you are in. It makes me think that at some point the devs considered larger parties.
It was always possible to add additional party members, even in NWN1. There is no hard coded cap (or if there is it's stupidly high). It's soft-coded by the module designers.
There is a practical limit on the size of the character portraits on screen, you can end up with a scrolling list in NWN2 even without tampering, since summons, familiars and animal companions are treated as party members.
I would prefer to see multiclassing handled in a similar way to SoU/HotU: You have a couple of character-appropriate options to choose from, tied to your influence with that character.
The only real reason I wanted multiclassing is Neeshka - It isn't really appropriate to help her with her personal questline if you are roleplaying a lawful character. You can end up having to murder a bunch of security guards who are just doing their jobs. Since the game becomes very difficult without rogue skills I felt the game was forcing me to take rogue levels myself if I wanted to RP lawful.
The issue with the autolevelled characters picking gimped feets, and therefore making them much worse than the companions you meet early on is a bigger problem, and one that really has to be put down to inexcusable carelessness by the developers.
PS: If you select the option to have Kelgar become a monk you effectively get a free respec to first level. If multiclassing is enabled you can take just one level of monk and everything else in the class of your choice.
Ah yes - the raid on the warehouse. I vaguely recall being surprised that was the first time I could not simply bludgeon my way through the standard encounters
The number of NPC slots rises and falls occasionally throughout the game, so I would not look too hard into upping the limit - it is a deliberate part of the design of the levels you are playing, and you will be cheating yourself if you tweak the game to make to too easy. Most of the time the combat difficulty is fairly low, due to the everyone-wakes-up-at-the-end mechanic, apart from the occasional speed bump like that warehouse. You don't want to miss the speed bumps that make the game a little more interesting as you were even more overpowered than expected.
Changing topics - the lure of multi-classing is high at low levels, but does it make sense to give Qara a level of favored soul? It seems like a pretty strong first level, and you get a bunch of utility 1st level castings - yay! In practice, you have traded away level 20 as a sorcerer for level 1 as a favored soul, by the end game, and that trade might not look as good. For the rest of the game, you will always require one more level than expected to achieve the next caster level. I have produced many underpowered PCs over the years by giving in to such temptations . In this game, mixing divine and arcane rarely produces a great synergy, without something like the Mystic Theurge prestige class to aim for.
I would say it doesn't make a whole lot of plot-sense for Qara to take a level of Favoured Soul either. She doesn't come across as particularly religious...
@subtledoctor horrified as I am by your blatant disregard for the level design and difficulty curve of game, we play single player games in whatever manner pleases us the most . Myself, I could never resist enabling the half-celestial non-player race from the Mask of the Betrayer expansion - it may not be an optimal build, but I loved playing characters based around getting the biggest stat total I could (and trying to make use of it). I would usually end up with some variety of half-celestial dragon disciple, channeling into either a monk (as a class that uses most of the stats) or a holy warrior type, who get the epic divine feats for crazy stat boosts off charisma.
One of the other neat things with half-celestials is the -4 level adjustment penalty, which the game forgets to factor when awarding xp, treating the party as if you were the stated level. This lets you exceed the level cap for the game, going past 16 (but not reaching 20) to make the most of the xp tables . Otherwise, you had to play a svirfneblin for the best effect, and life as a first level gnome is hard! (Celestials get some brokenly powerful racial feats, as they were intended for NPCs in a post-level-20 game.)
If I remember correctly, there's a feat in NwN2 that let's you apply for four extra caster levels. Do you could potentially make a Figther 4/Wizard 16 with full Wizard casting.
Hmmm I'm on the fence with spontaneous bard casting.
I'm sort of use to it since that's how it's been done in 3.X, Pathfinder, and 5e but I wouldn't mind them being prepared casters. I will say I would keep spells scaling with Charisma though.
PS: If you select the option to have Kelgar become a monk you effectively get a free respec to first level. If multiclassing is enabled you can take just one level of monk and everything else in the class of your choice.
Does Khelgar change his favored class to monk if you do that? If you're getting creative with splashy character builds, you have to be very careful about the potential experience penalty for non-favored classes. Normally, all dwarves have fighter as their favored class.
PS: If you select the option to have Kelgar become a monk you effectively get a free respec to first level. If multiclassing is enabled you can take just one level of monk and everything else in the class of your choice.
Does Khelgar change his favored class to monk if you do that? If you're getting creative with splashy character builds, you have to be very careful about the potential experience penalty for non-favored classes. Normally, all dwarves have fighter as their favored class.
No, but the mod that enables multiclassing seems to take away the penalty for non-favoured classes, so it amounts to the same thing.
I think it makes just as much sense as Bards being spontaneous casters, it just didn't fit the previous lore on them (same as with bards going to spontaneous casting in 3rd ed)
I prefered the 1st edition idea of bards being divine casters drawing on the druid spell list. That was closer to the original idea of the welsh bard (although that was largely invented by the Victorians, so is hardly authentic).
The current version is more inspired by troubadours.
These orca must have decent AB because my frontliners' AC is 23-25 (equivalent of -3 in 2E) but I'm still getting hit pretty often.
That's pretty low. I assume you don't use (Improved) Mage Armor and Barkskin at all? Those can be cast on others, stack together and last for hours, and you can throw Stoneskin on top of that as well. Even if you don't want to spend arcane slots on Armor, you can still dedicate Elanee to Bark/Stone and she'll do a much better job than just playing the healer.
If you fight against the engine you are going to have trouble. It's simply not designed as a pause-and-give-everyone-orders game. It's designed to be played without pausing at all. One of the reasons for the large numbers of trash mobs - if you don't pause and let the AI do it's job you blow through them quickly. Anyway, what is happening is the party are coded to follow "the leader". In NWN1 that was always the PC, so it was simple enough. However in NWN2 whenever you switch characters everyone else in the party recieves an order to follow the new party leader, and this may override whatever instruction you gave them previously (depending on how far away they are and what their follow distance is set to). You can turn this off by issuing a "hold position" order from two different characters (as the character issuing the order also needs to recieve it). However, you will have to remember to issue a follow order when it is time to move on.
I will second @batoor, this particular stretch of the game is always the test of whether I am engaged enough with my PC to soldier through the uninspiring fights. This bit with the orcs is a nadir of the game, feeling very repetitive of what has come before, just as the PCs are really coming into their own and want to stretch their legs a bit.
It is worth persevering though, as the game does pick up considerably (if never reaching BG heights) after this little chapter. For the record, I am enjoying @subtledoctor's tale as he discovers a game I enjoyed greatly, back in the day.
Comments
The max number of slots possible actually changes based on what chapter you are in. It makes me think that at some point the devs considered larger parties.
There is a practical limit on the size of the character portraits on screen, you can end up with a scrolling list in NWN2 even without tampering, since summons, familiars and animal companions are treated as party members.
The only real reason I wanted multiclassing is Neeshka - It isn't really appropriate to help her with her personal questline if you are roleplaying a lawful character. You can end up having to murder a bunch of security guards who are just doing their jobs. Since the game becomes very difficult without rogue skills I felt the game was forcing me to take rogue levels myself if I wanted to RP lawful.
The issue with the autolevelled characters picking gimped feets, and therefore making them much worse than the companions you meet early on is a bigger problem, and one that really has to be put down to inexcusable carelessness by the developers.
PS: If you select the option to have Kelgar become a monk you effectively get a free respec to first level. If multiclassing is enabled you can take just one level of monk and everything else in the class of your choice.
The number of NPC slots rises and falls occasionally throughout the game, so I would not look too hard into upping the limit - it is a deliberate part of the design of the levels you are playing, and you will be cheating yourself if you tweak the game to make to too easy. Most of the time the combat difficulty is fairly low, due to the everyone-wakes-up-at-the-end mechanic, apart from the occasional speed bump like that warehouse. You don't want to miss the speed bumps that make the game a little more interesting as you were even more overpowered than expected.
Changing topics - the lure of multi-classing is high at low levels, but does it make sense to give Qara a level of favored soul? It seems like a pretty strong first level, and you get a bunch of utility 1st level castings - yay! In practice, you have traded away level 20 as a sorcerer for level 1 as a favored soul, by the end game, and that trade might not look as good. For the rest of the game, you will always require one more level than expected to achieve the next caster level. I have produced many underpowered PCs over the years by giving in to such temptations
One of the other neat things with half-celestials is the -4 level adjustment penalty, which the game forgets to factor when awarding xp, treating the party as if you were the stated level. This lets you exceed the level cap for the game, going past 16 (but not reaching 20) to make the most of the xp tables
I'm on the fence with spontaneous bard casting.
I'm sort of use to it since that's how it's been done in 3.X, Pathfinder, and 5e but I wouldn't mind them being prepared casters. I will say I would keep spells scaling with Charisma though.
The current version is more inspired by troubadours.
Even if you don't want to spend arcane slots on Armor, you can still dedicate Elanee to Bark/Stone and she'll do a much better job than just playing the healer.
^Yes, you can actually cast basic stoneskin on your frontliners. That's a bit weird:P
It is worth persevering though, as the game does pick up considerably (if never reaching BG heights) after this little chapter. For the record, I am enjoying @subtledoctor's tale as he discovers a game I enjoyed greatly, back in the day.