So i'm playing Neverwinter Nights and i have notice something... the companions (besides your familiar) SUCK!!!!!!!! and it is bugging me so much, are they any companions worthwhile enough to not just go solo? (P.S. i have diamond edition)
in my opinion, not really, I usually bring the thief types around just for trap detection and lock picking, especially in hordes of the underdark I found bringing a companion along to be too much of a hassle
Hmm... Well, I recall some scripting issues that the caster companions would have. Practically all of them would cancel their spells halfway through casting them for some reason. Nathyrra would often just sit there doing nothing. I vividly recall Boddyknock constantly casting Scare (a very useless fear spell) on everything, including things like zombies and skeletons which were very immune. Deekin would cast Sound Burst on everything even though his crossbow would be 10 times as effective. Yeah, companion AI was pretty pathetic in that game. The one exception to this was the warrior classes. Daelan and Valen were absolute beasts, as I recall, and I often didn't like bringing them because they tended to be more effective than my character. In the original campaign I never used the companions because 1. I didn't need them, 2. I got more XP without them, and 3. They were boring and had almost nothing to add to the story. I only ever added them to speed through their quests to get the reward items.
Familiars were almost worse really. Most were very weak in combat and useless aside from the few special abilities and spells they had. Animal companions (rangers and druids), however, were quite different. Many of them were very strong and could be buffed quite a bit by spells and magical items. They had specials more useful for combat too.
In any case, not sure what can be done about it... Pick warriors or go solo?
The only NPC of NWN's OC I was fond of is Grimgnaw. Mainly because he's the ONLY evil joinable NPC of the OC. And the only dwarven monk in D&D cRPG history to boot. (And no, Khelgar Ironfist doesn't count).
Thst being said, the joinable companions get better within the expansions. Xanos and Deekin are especially well written.
I always take Tomi Undergallows so I don't have to spend any skill points on Open Locks or Disarm Traps. His AI is pretty good at finding and disarming traps automatically. Sometimes you have to stop after he detects traps and let his program proc for a second or two before he does his thing. He also makes a decent contribution to combat by way of third edition sneak attacks, which are fairly effective if your main character can tank.
I am part of the minority who find the Neverwinter Nights OC quite enjoyable. The whole plague storyline leading up to your grand confrontation with the big bad of chapter one (do I need to be spoiler sensitive here?), and the storyline of the the last chapter with all the time travel, are interesting and engaging to me. There's lots of good Forgotten Realms lore to be found as well. So I disagree with @God on that.
I will admit that the middle chapters in Port Llast, the Neverwinter Woods, and that whole area kind of bog down and turn into a bit of a boring grindfest, but if you stick it out to the end, I find the endgame to be worth it and rewarding as far as story.
I will agree with the majority that Hordes of the Underdark is the best of the official content. If you just can't stand leveling your character through the OC, the alternative of Shadows of Undrentide is available, which is also quite good, and it introduces Deekin and his backstory. (Deekin is probably the most beloved NPC character from the series.) Although I usually take Dorna through that, much as I'd rather have Deekin, because I don't play rogues, and I need one for all the traps.
if you make a melee character, you can easily solo the game, there are so many potions at your disposal that its almost impossible not to solo the game
always keep potions of speed/bless/aid/bull str/bear con on you and you will be fine
(almost every merchant will have these available in some way or another)
plus potions of cure critical wounds, get lots of those, until you can find potions of heal, potions of heal are almost priceless for how good they are
and as I said before, don't be afraid to use them, they are EVERYWHERE
There's a mod called henchman mod which lets you Manage your companions' inventory ( thus giving them better armor and weapons), it is quite good!
It also gives you a lot more control over their AI as well. It was made by Tony K, the same guy who did the AI mod for Neverwinter Nights2, which eventually became that game's default AI in a later expansion.
If you do want to play through the official content, it's worth looking into community enhancements that make that experience more bearable. Here's a somewhat dated list which you may use as a starting point. Sadly, the old NWVault at IGN is no more, so you'll have to find the files on other sites.
Comments
Play a mod. Or the expansions. The OC is just baaad.
Familiars were almost worse really. Most were very weak in combat and useless aside from the few special abilities and spells they had. Animal companions (rangers and druids), however, were quite different. Many of them were very strong and could be buffed quite a bit by spells and magical items. They had specials more useful for combat too.
In any case, not sure what can be done about it... Pick warriors or go solo?
Thst being said, the joinable companions get better within the expansions. Xanos and Deekin are especially well written.
I am part of the minority who find the Neverwinter Nights OC quite enjoyable. The whole plague storyline leading up to your grand confrontation with the big bad of chapter one (do I need to be spoiler sensitive here?), and the storyline of the the last chapter with all the time travel, are interesting and engaging to me. There's lots of good Forgotten Realms lore to be found as well. So I disagree with @God on that.
I will admit that the middle chapters in Port Llast, the Neverwinter Woods, and that whole area kind of bog down and turn into a bit of a boring grindfest, but if you stick it out to the end, I find the endgame to be worth it and rewarding as far as story.
I will agree with the majority that Hordes of the Underdark is the best of the official content. If you just can't stand leveling your character through the OC, the alternative of Shadows of Undrentide is available, which is also quite good, and it introduces Deekin and his backstory. (Deekin is probably the most beloved NPC character from the series.) Although I usually take Dorna through that, much as I'd rather have Deekin, because I don't play rogues, and I need one for all the traps.
always keep potions of speed/bless/aid/bull str/bear con on you and you will be fine
(almost every merchant will have these available in some way or another)
plus potions of cure critical wounds, get lots of those, until you can find potions of heal, potions of heal are almost priceless for how good they are
and as I said before, don't be afraid to use them, they are EVERYWHERE
Ossian studios did that for nwn1 and Mysteries of Westgate for Nwn2.