@Arvia
Those baddies do love to use Mind Effecting Spells and watching your character get beaten to death... that's not fun, I had a learning experience once with Fear effect as the Sorcerer I was playing at the time was trying badly to fight a Dragon and getting Scared, at the time I was using Spells to protect him from Mind Effects and used the LVL 1 spell Protecion Against Good or Evil....failing to remember that some enemies are Neutral, yeah he got beaten down a couple of times before I realised and I felt so stupid afterwards.
That guy leading the Lord's Alliance outpost at the front line against the Elk Tribe annoyed me big time, he had everything he needed to negotiate and help people in need but no he just wants to sit back and watch an entire Elk Tribe suffer and die, you have something they need and ending hostilities is what you need...the choice is simple to me but he is like "nah let's just waist men and resources defend a line we can end today just so the Tribe gets wiped out".
LOL , Very first fight in HotU , and they use Darkness. That's going to be happening a lot. I guess I'm glad now I took Blind Fight for that last feat.
And yeah, I had forgotten (years and years since I played this, remember), that the roleplayed prologue to Hordes of the Underdark does assume that you are the person who completed the Shadows of Undrentide campaign. A lot of the opening dialogues, and the first companion you can get, won't mean much to you if you never played SoU, although there are several references to the OC and the Neverwinter Plague, as well as to the Hero of Neverwinter, as well.
A few of the dialogues won't even make sense if you're not the person who defeated the villain of Shadows of Undrentide.
I think it's only the beginning that's heavy on the SoU references, if I remember correctly. But that first companion you get is really fun, and probably the most popular NWN companion ever written, and he will mean a lot more to you if you played the SoU adventure with him.
So, @Arvia , what do you think? If you'd like to do SoU first, I may decide to go back and do it with you concurrently. I've never seen all the paladin-specific dialogues in SoU people have mentioned.
Are you into NWN enough currently that you want to keep playing NWN after you finish the OC? And if so, would you like to start over at level one in SoU so you can connect better to the characters and the story in HotU, or maybe just read about it somewhere and proceed on into high level play with your current character in HotU?
one thing you have to watch out for in SoU is that you are probably only going to hit level 13 at the very end if you started at level 1 in chapter 1
and in HotU if you are level 13 ( or even maybe level 12 ? ) or higher, you will not be bumped up to level 15 which will no doubt make HotU down right brutal if not impossible since:
you lose all of your sweet stuff at the very beginning of the game
- although later you get it all back, but it sure ain't early enough thats for sure -
@BelgarathMTH a tip about respawning in HotU ( if you haven't figured it out already )
first you need rogue stones to do so
next you actually have to go to that weird "pocket plane" place and *set* a place to respawn to ( i believe all you have to do is just go to the pocket plane from where you were previously and you can set that as a spawn point )
i also believe you can set like 6-8 spawn points as well, so thats pretty neat
this will only work for chapters 1 and 2 though
also something to keep in mind:
get bags of holding and lots of 'em, especially when chapter 2 comes by, you will want them
eventually you might find a genie in a bottle, and if you do, make sure to keep that guy around, 3/day he acts as a mobile store and if you especially don't have bags of holding you are direly going to need that guy to sell stuff to
also, if you can, you want to get AS MUCH money as possible not only for weapon upgrading but for something else that you will find out...
@sarevok57
Yeah importing doesn't LVL you to 15 but I also remember getting huge XP from a couple of enemies while being lower LVL.
The Djinni merchant guy only buys gear from you capped at $5000 in chapter 1 and if you want enough money for the rest of the game I don't sell the better items to him, just off load what I need to and wait for a different merchant, there are some pretty expensive purchases in HOTU and last time I sold most of the chapter 1 stuff to him I couldn't get most of the stuff I wanted in chapter 2, still he is very useful for off loading that extra gear.
@BelgarathMTH, well, first of all, congratulations on your victory against the Borg Queen
Condolences on the reload, and thank you for the warning. I'm sure that I would have tried to tank the Blade Barrier, too.
And I haven't finished Chapter Three yet! I only got as far as the second cave in the Moonwood, I was too tired from my 24h Friday shift...
Yes, I like NWN enough that I want to continue. I had understood that you import from the OC into HotU, but the way you describe it, it sounds more reasonable to play SoU first. But you know that game and I don't, so what do you think?
Starting with level 1 in SoU would give me the chance to correct some of my not ideal choices about feats, at least. It looks like I'll be dead in HotU without Blind Fight, but I need to take Improved Critical at level 15, to stand a chance against dragons and the final fights.
On the other hand, we wouldn't even reach level 15 in SoU, and we would have to give up our amazing equipment. But it must be playable with lower levels, if it was meant to continue that story. Maybe you would even be overpowered now, having imported from the OC.
I would like to play both, if the story is worth it and if it was meant to be played that way. I'll have to rely on your opinion here. If you want to keep your current character, I will import this one into HotU, too, when I finish the OC. Or we start from scratch in SoU. If you don't want to play SoU again, then I will continue as you do, with this paladin build, and play SoU later.
@Arvia
Yeah Blade Barrier is a bit nasty, definitely avoid that one.
I really like SOU and each time I go to play HOTU I always play SOU first, without giving things away you start as a bit of a nobody to the world but everyone knows your teacher and things happen that force you to become an adventure earlier than planned but adventure calls and wether for personal gain or Lawful duty you set out.
I will say that some encounters in
chapter 1 can be a touch difficult for a low LVL but a savvy adventurer and smooth talker may just find options besides clubbing your enemies to death or slashing if you prefer.
There are some items in SOU that can only be obtained by certain Classes, 1 item can only be obtained by a Paladin, and 1 can only be created by a Class that can cast spells but neither are necessary so don't feel compelled to did that.
No matter what character you import to HOTU your character retains Thier experience and items including a special book I found in SOU called "the Art of Lichdom" but unfortunately it wasn't usable but I thought it was funny to keep, maybe my Wizard had plans down the road ?.
@Arvia
Yeah Blade Barrier is a bit nasty, definitely avoid that one.
I really like SOU and each time I go to play HOTU I always play SOU first, without giving things away you start as a bit of a nobody to the world but everyone knows your teacher and things happen that force you to become an adventure earlier than planned but adventure calls and wether for personal gain or Lawful duty you set out.
I will say that some encounters in
chapter 1 can be a touch difficult for a low LVL but a savvy adventurer and smooth talker may just find options besides clubbing your enemies to death or slashing if you prefer.
There are some items in SOU that can only be obtained by certain Classes, 1 item can only be obtained by a Paladin, and 1 can only be created by a Class that can cast spells but neither are necessary so don't feel compelled to did that.
No matter what character you import to HOTU your character retains Thier experience and items including a special book I found in SOU called "the Art of Lichdom" but unfortunately it wasn't usable but I thought it was funny to keep, maybe my Wizard had plans down the road ?.
about starting with your items
they get stripped away from you at the beginning of HotU, and it will be a while in chapter 1 before you get them back
i actually started a HotU play through with my paladin from SoU and i got my butt kicked hard, i had no money, so i couldn't buy anything great, even after selling what i could, just the fight outside the inn i almost couldn't win
and then when i got to the under mountain the first drow fight i lost, then i buffed up as best i could and tried again and still lost
now with that being said, i was trying to do it solo style, but at level 14 that seems nigh impossible, unless i attempt some serious exploits,
so instead i will just finish this fighter/monk/weapon master in the OC, import over to SoU for 2 levels and then start HotU at level 20 or so with some actual cash like i normally do
@Arvia , One of our options would be to play through SoU , so you know the story and the characters, which will deepen your appreciation of HotU when you get there, but then, we could still bring our OC paladins into HotU, which I think would be my preference, because, like @sarevok57 said, the highest level I ever made in SoU was level 14.
I've always been a little confused about that, because if you create a new character in HotU, you get automatically leveled to 15, so I always thought that's the level they expected you to start, but if you import from SoU, you're going to be 14 at the highest. (Unless it's possible to hit level 15 doing a psycho serial killer run of SoU.)
That definitely makes the start of HotU much harder, so it may or may not be worth it to sacrifice the levels and whatever money you end the OC with to tweak your build to something you like better. (I'm still sorry about that Spring Attack. I led you into that choice, and I was wrong. "I thought I could train her as well as Master Yoda. I was wrong. :shoulders slump:")
I'm a little more in the mood today to see how a low level paladin will fare in SoU, so I think maybe I'll start a run there today rather than continuing further into HotU. I can then start working on whichever of the two runs I want, as the mood strikes me. SoU is a lot more challenging than the OC in its combat scenarios.
@sarevok57 , I remember what you're talking about with needing money for the ending of HotU. And you need lots of money for a heck of a lot of crafting opportunities, and that crafted gear is really needed - the game is balanced for it. I remember that no matter how much money I was able to make, it was never enough, and I just barely wound up with enough to make the ending easy.
I noticed that I had a lot of money when I started HotU last night, and I thought it was starting money from the game, but apparently it was just my imported money from the OC that didn't get stolen with all the gear. I was able to buy a Tower Shield +3, Ring of Protection +3, Amulet of Natural Armor +3, and a whole lot of healer's kits. I'd really hate to have to start the beginning of the game without those things.
@BelgarathMTH, I'm so sorry for having said that about the feats, I didn't mean to make you feel bad. Spring Attack is actually quite good, when I'm outnumbered I can run to a choke point, or change targets (hit the spellcasters first) without provoking Attacks of Opportunity. I'm just worried how I'm going to survive in the Underdark without Blind Fight (I've reached level 15 and picked Improved Critical) and would maybe make a different choice next time.
But I also know that I would have made lots and lots of completely wrong choices without your help.
I don’t know how enamored you three may be with the idea (if you’re playing pure games for instance), but there are community created bridge modules intended for the exact scenario you mention (lack of levels going into HOTU). Obviously, the SOU to HOTU transition has a lore gap, and these mods were designed by members of the community to fill it. They’re mentioned here. https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/70761/modules-between-sou-and-
I apologize if that was already known to you folks. Cheers.
@BelgarathMTH yeah, the money you had from a previous game is the only thing that doesnt get stolen which is nice, when i play through the OC and SoU i usually start HotU with a million+ gold
but when i imported my level 13 paladin from SoU i had no gold left because i used what little i did have on potions of heal ( i was only able to buy like 11 of them ) so i literally started HotU in my tighty whities at level 13
that really made the game hard, and as i said before i was just barely winning fodder fights, despite the fact i was getting some killer XP from my low level, it wasnt killer enough, and since i had no good gear yikes a doodles
im ALMOST tempted to try it again, but ugh, its so much effort and im a lazy player, so im just going to continue my fighter/monk/weapon master and bring that character into HotU and wreck shop like i usually do
I have finished Chapter Three. Here are a few impressions from my adventures in the Moonwood and the Spine of the World.
I had a silent conversation with this one here. I couldn't really understand (maybe I should play a ranger in the future), but look how the boar looked at me, I'm sure it was trying to tell me something.
Trying to warn me what was lurking in the caves, I suppose.
I hate drow. And they make me run so much. I'm glad I have those boots, and my bow. And I had no idea they could cast those Black Tentacles from a distance! I thought they appeared around the caster!
This Hill Giant Champion almost got me, with two Critical Hits.
But that's nothing compared to the damage that chest dealt me! That was *really* close, because I was not at full health. That's it, I'm never going to tank a chest again, I miss too many traps, I'd rather waste expensive elemental arrows.
I killed the Hill Giant Chieftain and wondered why I could take his head. I took it with me, just in case.
I know that chromatic dragons are supposed to be evil, but this one was just protecting her eggs and didn't threaten me. I gave her the head of the Hill Giant Chieftain, because they had tried to raid her lair. She gave me useful information, and I saw no reason to attack her.
Then, yet another dragon, but this time a good one. I knew that as soon as I entered her cave, because it had the same music as in a temple. Very thoughtful, to let us know right from he beginning that she's on our side
So, I was ready to confront the Fire Giants in their lair.
Then I went to this thread to look something up and noticed that I had overlooked a whole cave. I went there, killed Guzud and freed the Last of the Mohicans.
I was surprised how good Power Attack is, especially combined with the extra attack provided by the Boots of Speed, and buffed with Greater Magic Weapon and Divine Favor. Poor Guzud hit my AC only once.
I didn't know why I could take his head, too (I already had another orc head in my inventory, from the woods in the north, and no idea who wanted that). I looked it up in a walkthrough and noticed that I had missed a quest (and a shop!), because I hadn't found that guy in the Mercenary Barracks.
I went to talk to him, gave him the two orc heads, and he asked me to find and kill their king. I remembered that there had been a door in a cave that I couldn't open. I went back, and there he was.
@BelgarathMTH, I have included his "I surrender" dialogue for you, because you missed it. I don't know if it would have influenced your choice. He raided our supply caravans, and this is a war. He was trying to manipulate me because he wanted to live, not because he regretted his actions. I chose justice over mercy, in this case.
Perfect. Level 15 before having to fight the Fire Giant King and the dreaded Klauth. I chose Improved Critical: Longsword.
Look at my fight with King Skrogg, there was my first critical hit on an 18 with my new feat.
Thanks to those lucky rolls and the amazing damage (and my AC 40, thanks to the shield), I didn't even have to heal myself during this fight.
Careful, Arvia, remember that overconfidence will kill you!
I know that blue dragons are evil. But he's sleeping (he just went ZZZzzzzzzzZzZ and didn't even react when I tried to talk to him), and has been raised from a stolen egg to be killed and fed to Klauth to strengthen him. I decided to let him live, for now, and think about it. All evidence suggested that the sphere with the dead dragon's essence was needed to weaken Klauth and beat him.
I decided to go and have a look at Klauth first. He told me that he had the last missing Word of Power, and offered me to give it to me if I brought him dragon eggs. I didn't agree to work with him, of course, but I kept asking him questions about the Old Ones and the cultists, and then told him that I would leave. He didn't seem to care.
I paused, walked my avatar a few paces away and thought for a while. My roleplaying explication is that I didn't want to resort to his methods to defeat him. (although I absolutely understand that others did this, because it seemed like the only and very reasonable choice, since you find *three* ritual books suggesting it. And against an ancient, powerful species planning to magically dominate and enslave the whole world, there are no Geneva Conventions)
The truth is, this is what @BelgarathMTH had written in his report:
"If any player can kill Klauth at full strength without killing this baby, I'd love to see that. However, if you try it, expect many, many deaths, resulting in either so many respawns you get busted down to 0 xp for the level you're at, or reload after reload."
That triggered my fighter's spirit, and I really wanted to see if it can be done. I love challenges. But I also know that I have more courage than wisdom.
I had reached level 15 before this fight, and I had 11 or 12 Potions of Heal in my inventory.
I decided to give it a try, but not without a hard save before the fight, just in case.
I had Bull's Strength and Greater Magic Weapon active already, and had taken a Potion of Endurance before entering here (boosting my HP to some 170), just in case. I cast Divine Favor, Bless and Aid (both from the scabbard) on top of that, took a deep breath and talked to Klauth again. He still gave me the option to get out of it without a fight.
That answer to his last question really resonated with me. I *was* ready. Time to die, for him or for me.
The next screenshots are not from very good angles. I'm glad I remembered taking some at all, the way my heart was pounding and my fingers were trembling.
My buffed damage and saving throws plus Helm's Ring of Elemental Resistance worked together. He seemed to notice that and changed his strategy.
That was when things got really serious. He took a third of my HP with this one attack. I didn't hesitate and took a Potion of Heal immediately. That's why I bought them. I'm not taking risks now to save supplies.
There goes the most important part of my buffs:
Ouch. I didn't know what else he had in his spellbook and how long I would have to fight him. I wanted to stay as close to full health as possible. This time, I only used a Potion of Cure Critical Wounds. He was down to Near Death now, but I had no idea how many Hit Points that meant.
I also noticed that I missed more often than before his Dispel Magic. He seemed to have cast something that lowered my attacks, too, I think. I didn't know if it would make a difference, but I deactivated Power Attack, because of the penalty, hoping that I could hit him again before the next devastating spell.
Hah! That felt exactly like facing and beating Demogorgon for the first time in Durlag's Tower.
Tyr protects his fools, it seems. I was very lucky, and I'm glad to have survived this. (oh gods, if I had calculated the respawn penalty before, I probably wouldn't have done this) @BelgarathMTH, please don't feel bad for having killed the young dragon now. You took the wise, reasonable approach, making sure that you took no risk, because the future of the whole world depended on it. I honestly expected to try this, take a reload or two and then rage quit. And I wouldn't have considered *not* following the advice in that ritual book if I hadn't read the thoughts about it that you've shared in your report.
The armor *is* very red, but it goes with my cloak, and doesn't look so bad on a female character. Nine Hells, I've earned it, I'm going to wear it! And look at that, AC 42!
(I'm still using the Golden Circlet, of course. I just took it off for the picture, because it's such an ugly helmet).
And *then*, after the fight, when I went back to sell my loot (after giving the monster's ugly head to Gorgatha and receiving the belt, of course) and reviewed my spells, I noticed that I could have used a level 4 spell in this fight! I miss something like in BG, where the level up results show you if you've gained a new spell slot. I really must remember to check after every level up.
I quickly filled the gap with that amazing Holy Sword spell, went to the temple to heal and rest, and then reported to Aarin (I should have gone directly to him, of course. But I didn't want to be unprepared in case I didn't get an "I'll be back in a moment" dialogue option), who gave me the latest news and took me to Chapter Four.
@Arvia, Wow, congratulations! You showed it could be done. I'm still not too sure I'd have the courage to try it that way, but I'm thrilled for you. It's too bad the game won't let you try to do something with that blue dragon baby. I think you earned it as a companion that you could raise to be good. Or if not, maybe one of those two female dragons in the area would agree to take care of it. Probably we'd ask Gorgotha, because Akulatraxas would raise it to be evil. I wonder if Gorgotha would say it had to die, because it's one of Tiamat's children, and cannot be anything but an evil creature no matter how it's raised.
As it is, just leaving it down there with no one to take care of it doesn't seem very merciful, because it'll starve. I wonder why it wouldn't wake up for you, but with me, it started saying it was hungry and wanted to be fed? Maybe you killed all the yuan-ti before they could finish the ritual, which might mean the blue dragon's body was an empty shell with no spirit there, sort of like being born in a permanent coma, where it would never gain consciousness?
**********************
Okay, so I started a paladin today in Shadows of Undrentide. I used the same character file as with the OC, so the same stats and feats and all that, but I decided to change the name to something else, mostly so I could tell the two paladins apart easily in my saved character files. I went with "Michael of Torm." Sorry, I wasn't feeling very creative, as far as choosing a different deity or anything like that.
I made level three just before I started writing this report. I don't want to write too much story in my progress reports, because I don't want to spoil anything. I'll maybe just share level ups, gear upgrades, and some highlights of the more exciting battles as I go along.
So, the first dungeon of the game involves clearing an ancient elven crypt of giant spiders and kobolds who are defiling it. These kobolds are the same ones who attack your starting town, so they may not be deserving of mercy. I wound up killing them all, but I wasn't thinking. I forgot that it's possible to talk them down and get what you need without killing them. It's risky, though, because a failed Persuade check can get you into really big trouble here if you try talking, instead of using some knockout gas that you're provided with by the spirit of the crypt.
After I cleared the crypt, the elven spirit who guards it gave me the key to a treasure room and told me to take the stuff as a reward - he said he'd rather a worthy living human have it than for it to stay buried with the dead.
After I solved the death puzzle in there that the elven spirit didn't think to inform me about, I got a set of three paladin-specific items, plus a very nice cloak. It was frustrating at first, because even with my Lore skill at 6 at level two, and then 7 at level three, I couldn't Identify any of it, there was no money to pay to have it Identified, and it was too heavy to carry around.
I was scared to death it was going to get erased from the game if I left it anywhere, but I remembered that in my room where the game starts, there was a chest that says "Your Belongings", so I had Dorna help me slowly drag all the armor pieces back there, and left it in that chest, hoping to get enough money when we cleared the rest of the crypt to be able to Identify everything.
I was very relieved when we did make enough gold, and the armor was still there in my room when we got back.
I also made enough to buy an Amulet of Natural Armor +1, so with all the shiny new gear, my AC is up to 25, which is really good for level three. The plate armor also has a charisma bonus and a bonus first level spell slot, although I won't have any spells until next level.
so here i was, bumming around chapter 2, not finding any good items and then these just came along the way:
this is a mammoth +5 tower shield that can ONLY be used by lawful alignment apparently, ah thank the gods for those monk levels, because that is one sexy shield
and then here is a cool sounding cloak; +5 deflection bonus vs evil, although most of what i battle is evil, i prefer the double protection from my fortification cloaks, so this one will be sold
@BelgarathMTH, of course I wouldn't have left the blue dragon down there. I thought the same thing, asking Gorgatha to raise it, or, if she refused, the green one. But the idea to be able to raise it to be good and keep it as a companion would be so cool, imagine a dragon companion! And if Drizzt can be good even as a drow, then dragons can change, too.
I've read somewhere else that it wakes up when you attack it. I don't know why it was awake and talked to you.
Nice to meet your newest paladin, "Michael of Torm". I'm not creative with names, either. I hate to try to come up with another one every time, and unlike you I don't feel comfortable using my own name in games. I think I'm going to use Torm again next time, too. This whole "zealous justice" thing with Tyr is difficult, and their "Tyr's justice is swift!" when executing Rolgan left a bad taste in my mouth.
Why won't you share any story content?
Could you please mention which kind of gear you buy and why, like you did with the belt of guiding light etc in the OC?
Good luck!
@sarevok57 , with Dex 13 you can take the Dodge feat for +1 AC bonus even when you're wearing heavy armor. And that's the shield that I found, too!
@Cerabelus , why would anyone want to strengthen Klauth before fighting him?
@Arvia tis a great shield, that is a huge AC bonus, and with the dodge feat, its a little bit more complicated than that; it gives you a +1 dodge AC bonus against the last attacker attacking you, so if you are doing one on one, then its definitely +1, but if you are fighting more baddies at once, then you are only getting that AC bonus against one of them
and here i am just before entering the luskan gate being as OP as possible
just a hair under that level 14 mark, i wonder if i will hit level 15 again in luskan like i did with my other character?
@sarevok57 thanks for that, I thought that the Dodge feat means generally a +1 AC bonus, not only on one or the last attacker. Does that mean that I only need Dex 12 for the +1 to AC bonus on heavy armor?
However, I remember my first failed attempts to survive in the Peninsula District without and then with Dodge and Mobility... but that might also have been influenced because I didn't know that walking or changing targets opened me to Attacks of Opportunity, and my general inexperience with the game mechanics.
I might try another build in SoU, but it will take me some time to get there, I won't be playing much this week.
@BelgarathMTH is there a reason why you went with 13 dex and 11 con instead of 12 dex and 12 con?
Dodge and Mobility, only need +1 constitution from boots to get extra hit points, or +3 from an endurance potion. I coudn't think of any place else to put the single point that was left over, and 14 dexterity would be useless since I wear heavy armor.
From the description, the +4 bonus from Mobility against attacks of opportunity applies while drinking a healing potion, so I still think it's a good defensive feat.
@BelgarathMTH is there a reason why you went with 13 dex and 11 con instead of 12 dex and 12 con?
Dodge and Mobility, only need +1 constitution from boots to get extra hit points, or +3 from an endurance potion. I coudn't think of any place else to put the single point that was left over, and 14 dexterity would be useless since I wear heavy armor.
From the description, the +4 bonus against attacks of opportunity applies while drinking a healing potion, so I still think it's a good defensive feat.
Ah, so the Mobility Bonus applies in general against Attacks of Opportunity, not just against one opponent like the Dodge bonus? I should read more...
Those feats are so complicated, it's hard to understand (for me) what is better in which situation. But it's true, any defensive feat is worth it, especially during low levels.
Power Attack for example is useless during early levels, you won't hit anything.
The "recommended" build doesn't care how many reloads you need during the early game.
too bad spring attack doesnt make it so you dont take attacks of opportunity when drinking a potion
also you can avoid attacks of opportunity if your tumble skill is high enough ( the DC is 15 ) but if you're wearing full plate and using a tower shield, you need A LOT of ranks before you can even begin to be able to pass that check, but i usually have pretty decent ranks in that skill, since for every 5 ranks you have in that skill you get an extra AC bonus, hence the reason why i like throwing some monk levels into my characters
@sarevok57 thanks for that, I thought that the Dodge feat means generally a +1 AC bonus, not only on one or the last attacker. Does that mean that I only need Dex 12 for the +1 to AC bonus on heavy armor?
pretty much, with heavy armor you will get no AC benefit of going over 12 dex, but if you want the dodge feats you need 13, and also your reflex saves will increase still, so thats why with the character i have now who requires 13 dex to become a weapon master i will always give him 14 instead because of that extra save bonus compared to 12
and with power attack i usually always take that feat at lower levels, not for its combat ability, but the ability to open chests, for solo runs it is basically the only way of opening those ridiculous 40 DR chests while using a great axe, plus also in my opinion, if you can at lower levels great cleave is way better than whirlwind, i always find myself in situations where great cleave would be dropping baddies faster than whirlwind would, but weapon master need whirlwind so thats just the way she goes, but overwhelming critical and devastating critical are also amazing feats for melee characters and you need great cleave ( plus some huge str ) but if you can get your STR that high, those feats are almost mandatory
I made levels four and five today. This character has been getting really lucky hit point rolls. I got my strength raised to 15 at level four. Nothing much exciting happened at level 5.
In the white dragon Tymofarrar's cave, we got a blue light saber from one of his kobold guards. Too bad it's a short sword instead of a long sword. I thought about giving it to Dorna the dwarven thief (she can be a thief/cleric, but I always level her as a pure thief - be sure to click "I want to talk about your training" on all companions because a lot of them have choices, and you don't want them leveling randomly between classes).
But I decided to use it myself for now, since there have been no magic longswords in the game yet. Even though I will lose +1 BAB from the magic short sword not syncing with my Weapon Focus: Longsword, I need that 1d6 cold damage. We already fought a mummy that I couldn't damage with a normal longsword.
I can't think of any way to report much game detail in SoU without completely spoiling the whole story. It's a much more conversation-based, story-based, and much less grinding-based game than the OC. Also, it is quite stingy with money and magic items, compared to the OC, at least at the beginning.
There's a slang term in NWN jargon for what the OC does with its liberal showering of the player with money and magic items - "Monty Hall", sometimes jokingly spelled "Monty Haul", a reference to the old American game show "Let's Make a Deal", originally hosted by a man named Monty Hall.
On the game show, he gave away to audience members wearing the best and most outrageous costumes, bunches of cash and prizes from behind curtains, large stage doors, and gift boxes, often offering, "This prize is nice and it's yours, but would you like to trade it for what's behind door number two?" You could either trade, say, $100, for a new car, a fabulous trip, a large appliance, more cash, or, you could get "zonked" with a worthless joke prize, or something of much lesser value than your original prize.
A lot of players complained about many of the "Monty Hall" elements in the OC, such as the portal stones, the unlimited respawns, unlimited resting, and the excessive availability of magic items. So, much of the stricter balancing in SoU was in reaction to those criticisms of the OC. I think HotU went back the other way a bit, and probably found the best balance of the three original content releases.
Most of the user-created content is even more restrictive and withholds magic items even more than any of the original official content.
why would anyone want to strengthen Klauth before fighting him?
Hehe oh you know my Wizard was getting pretty good and I though "hmm I wanna fight Klauth at his maximum" than being surprised when my Wizard got several beat downs "No! I thought I so much better than this", he wasn't unbeatable but was a much harder fight than I expected and my pride and arrogance was given a reality check.
@sarevok57
At this rate your probably gonna find the Hammer of Thunderbolts in no time.
Seriously though your getting some great finds, I've had so many bad chests from the OC ☹️, I remember one time though my LVL 8 Wizard was at Helms Hold between chapter 1 & 2 and randomly found a scroll of Horrid Wilting.
actually, still not getting the hammer of thunderbolts and im level 16 in chapter 3 going for the third word of power, i dont think its even possible to get that hammer at level 16, i think you have to be level 17 ( i tried respawning on a weapon chest and she wouldn't go) but i found something else interesting while i was in the luskan tower:
a ring of protection +5!! holy jumpins, sold for a nice 9700 gold hahaha, i prefer my cloak of fortification +3
and STILL have not found a belt of fire giant str grrr, last play through i found like 3, now i aint finding squat, luck of the draw i suppose haha
actually, speaking about the belt of fire giant str....
i finally found one, although, it wasn't with complete honesty, i quick saved before i opened this chest and then saw there was another belt in there, so i kept reloading to see if this belt would show up and about 25-30 reloads later she finally appeared
although with this being said this is the only item that i "fished" for, all the other cewl items i found so far where just based out of random luck
and while i was on my adventures i thought; i finished big green's quest, why not give 'er a whack aye?
so with no spell/potion or buff preparation i wanted to see if i could still take her on, everything was going good, but then i started to fail some breath weapon saves ( no doubt rolling 1s or 2s oi ) and i thought; im not going to drink a potion this entire fight, and lets see what happens; and she was a close call, but stuck with it, 1st try no potions
on my other play through with the half-orc fighter/rogue/barbarian i was able to take her out with no potions and i was only half health and still won on the first try, so this current charname has some catching up to do on the badass department
cruisin' around luskan and i happen to find one of these:
a +3 warhammer already? check please, this is the second play through where the random +3 weapon was the actual weapon i was using, hell yeah
and then this is ALWAYS a beautiful find:
ah the boots of speed, tis a glorious find when you find these pair of booties
and then the one dude... Barum or whatever...? his chums are quite tenacious when it comes to attacking in groups:
and speaking about hard battles, if it wasnt for a certain item, this fight would be like fighting 10 Klauths at once:
hahaha, seriously, how in the sweet hades do you survive this without an amulet of health?
I didn't have the Amulet of Health when I fought those Shadow Fiends. None of them landed a Strength Drain on me, I don't know why. I had several Potions of Lesser Restoration and didn't need them. I guess the AC from the amazing shield helped.
********************
I played only for about half an hour in Chapter Four before going to sleep yesterday. I had long and insightful conversations with Lord Nasher, Aarin Gend and our lizard friend H. (can't remember how to spell her name).
I felt like grabbing Nasher (or should I call him Pilate?) by his collar and shaking him, but I kept calm and mentioned the importance of atonement instead. At least he regrets what he has done.
The Lizard Lady also had some interesting information about Aribeth and confirmed my own theory. @BelgarathMTH, I'd like to discuss the ethics around all this, but probably better after the final fight. I'm sure there's more to come.
Then I went to buy a Ring of Protection +5 and Amulet of Natural Armor +5 (wasting tons of money because I bought them from the priest, before I noticed that the Arms and Armors shop was still there, but retrospectively I will consider it tithing).
With the Red Dragon Armor and my incredible shield, that's AC 46!
I also bought a Nymph Cloak +5 (it's not blue, it's golden), giving me Charisma 20.
Comments
Those baddies do love to use Mind Effecting Spells and watching your character get beaten to death... that's not fun, I had a learning experience once with Fear effect as the Sorcerer I was playing at the time was trying badly to fight a Dragon and getting Scared, at the time I was using Spells to protect him from Mind Effects and used the LVL 1 spell Protecion Against Good or Evil....failing to remember that some enemies are Neutral, yeah he got beaten down a couple of times before I realised and I felt so stupid afterwards.
That guy leading the Lord's Alliance outpost at the front line against the Elk Tribe annoyed me big time, he had everything he needed to negotiate and help people in need but no he just wants to sit back and watch an entire Elk Tribe suffer and die, you have something they need and ending hostilities is what you need...the choice is simple to me but he is like "nah let's just waist men and resources defend a line we can end today just so the Tribe gets wiped out".
Good luck in the Moonwood ?
And yeah, I had forgotten (years and years since I played this, remember), that the roleplayed prologue to Hordes of the Underdark does assume that you are the person who completed the Shadows of Undrentide campaign. A lot of the opening dialogues, and the first companion you can get, won't mean much to you if you never played SoU, although there are several references to the OC and the Neverwinter Plague, as well as to the Hero of Neverwinter, as well.
A few of the dialogues won't even make sense if you're not the person who defeated the villain of Shadows of Undrentide.
I think it's only the beginning that's heavy on the SoU references, if I remember correctly. But that first companion you get is really fun, and probably the most popular NWN companion ever written, and he will mean a lot more to you if you played the SoU adventure with him.
So, @Arvia , what do you think? If you'd like to do SoU first, I may decide to go back and do it with you concurrently. I've never seen all the paladin-specific dialogues in SoU people have mentioned.
Are you into NWN enough currently that you want to keep playing NWN after you finish the OC? And if so, would you like to start over at level one in SoU so you can connect better to the characters and the story in HotU, or maybe just read about it somewhere and proceed on into high level play with your current character in HotU?
and in HotU if you are level 13 ( or even maybe level 12 ? ) or higher, you will not be bumped up to level 15 which will no doubt make HotU down right brutal if not impossible since:
- although later you get it all back, but it sure ain't early enough thats for sure -
@BelgarathMTH a tip about respawning in HotU ( if you haven't figured it out already )
first you need rogue stones to do so
next you actually have to go to that weird "pocket plane" place and *set* a place to respawn to ( i believe all you have to do is just go to the pocket plane from where you were previously and you can set that as a spawn point )
i also believe you can set like 6-8 spawn points as well, so thats pretty neat
this will only work for chapters 1 and 2 though
also something to keep in mind:
get bags of holding and lots of 'em, especially when chapter 2 comes by, you will want them
eventually you might find a genie in a bottle, and if you do, make sure to keep that guy around, 3/day he acts as a mobile store and if you especially don't have bags of holding you are direly going to need that guy to sell stuff to
also, if you can, you want to get AS MUCH money as possible not only for weapon upgrading but for something else that you will find out...
Yeah importing doesn't LVL you to 15 but I also remember getting huge XP from a couple of enemies while being lower LVL.
The Djinni merchant guy only buys gear from you capped at $5000 in chapter 1 and if you want enough money for the rest of the game I don't sell the better items to him, just off load what I need to and wait for a different merchant, there are some pretty expensive purchases in HOTU and last time I sold most of the chapter 1 stuff to him I couldn't get most of the stuff I wanted in chapter 2, still he is very useful for off loading that extra gear.
Condolences on the reload, and thank you for the warning. I'm sure that I would have tried to tank the Blade Barrier, too.
And I haven't finished Chapter Three yet! I only got as far as the second cave in the Moonwood, I was too tired from my 24h Friday shift...
Yes, I like NWN enough that I want to continue. I had understood that you import from the OC into HotU, but the way you describe it, it sounds more reasonable to play SoU first. But you know that game and I don't, so what do you think?
Starting with level 1 in SoU would give me the chance to correct some of my not ideal choices about feats, at least. It looks like I'll be dead in HotU without Blind Fight, but I need to take Improved Critical at level 15, to stand a chance against dragons and the final fights.
On the other hand, we wouldn't even reach level 15 in SoU, and we would have to give up our amazing equipment. But it must be playable with lower levels, if it was meant to continue that story. Maybe you would even be overpowered now, having imported from the OC.
I would like to play both, if the story is worth it and if it was meant to be played that way. I'll have to rely on your opinion here. If you want to keep your current character, I will import this one into HotU, too, when I finish the OC. Or we start from scratch in SoU. If you don't want to play SoU again, then I will continue as you do, with this paladin build, and play SoU later.
So, what do you think?
Yeah Blade Barrier is a bit nasty, definitely avoid that one.
I really like SOU and each time I go to play HOTU I always play SOU first, without giving things away you start as a bit of a nobody to the world but everyone knows your teacher and things happen that force you to become an adventure earlier than planned but adventure calls and wether for personal gain or Lawful duty you set out.
I will say that some encounters in
chapter 1 can be a touch difficult for a low LVL but a savvy adventurer and smooth talker may just find options besides clubbing your enemies to death or slashing if you prefer.
There are some items in SOU that can only be obtained by certain Classes, 1 item can only be obtained by a Paladin, and 1 can only be created by a Class that can cast spells but neither are necessary so don't feel compelled to did that.
No matter what character you import to HOTU your character retains Thier experience and items including a special book I found in SOU called "the Art of Lichdom" but unfortunately it wasn't usable but I thought it was funny to keep, maybe my Wizard had plans down the road ?.
about starting with your items
i actually started a HotU play through with my paladin from SoU and i got my butt kicked hard, i had no money, so i couldn't buy anything great, even after selling what i could, just the fight outside the inn i almost couldn't win
and then when i got to the under mountain the first drow fight i lost, then i buffed up as best i could and tried again and still lost
now with that being said, i was trying to do it solo style, but at level 14 that seems nigh impossible, unless i attempt some serious exploits,
so instead i will just finish this fighter/monk/weapon master in the OC, import over to SoU for 2 levels and then start HotU at level 20 or so with some actual cash like i normally do
I hadn't considered the harsher start for Martial types, my Wizard had a much easier time.
Starting in SOU as a Wizard can be a little rough at first but it's the same for Martial types on HOTU.
I've always been a little confused about that, because if you create a new character in HotU, you get automatically leveled to 15, so I always thought that's the level they expected you to start, but if you import from SoU, you're going to be 14 at the highest. (Unless it's possible to hit level 15 doing a psycho serial killer run of SoU.)
That definitely makes the start of HotU much harder, so it may or may not be worth it to sacrifice the levels and whatever money you end the OC with to tweak your build to something you like better. (I'm still sorry about that Spring Attack. I led you into that choice, and I was wrong. "I thought I could train her as well as Master Yoda. I was wrong. :shoulders slump:")
I'm a little more in the mood today to see how a low level paladin will fare in SoU, so I think maybe I'll start a run there today rather than continuing further into HotU. I can then start working on whichever of the two runs I want, as the mood strikes me. SoU is a lot more challenging than the OC in its combat scenarios.
@sarevok57 , I remember what you're talking about with needing money for the ending of HotU. And you need lots of money for a heck of a lot of crafting opportunities, and that crafted gear is really needed - the game is balanced for it. I remember that no matter how much money I was able to make, it was never enough, and I just barely wound up with enough to make the ending easy.
I noticed that I had a lot of money when I started HotU last night, and I thought it was starting money from the game, but apparently it was just my imported money from the OC that didn't get stolen with all the gear. I was able to buy a Tower Shield +3, Ring of Protection +3, Amulet of Natural Armor +3, and a whole lot of healer's kits. I'd really hate to have to start the beginning of the game without those things.
But I also know that I would have made lots and lots of completely wrong choices without your help.
I don't regret being your paladin padawan
I apologize if that was already known to you folks. Cheers.
but when i imported my level 13 paladin from SoU i had no gold left because i used what little i did have on potions of heal ( i was only able to buy like 11 of them ) so i literally started HotU in my tighty whities at level 13
that really made the game hard, and as i said before i was just barely winning fodder fights, despite the fact i was getting some killer XP from my low level, it wasnt killer enough, and since i had no good gear yikes a doodles
im ALMOST tempted to try it again, but ugh, its so much effort and im a lazy player, so im just going to continue my fighter/monk/weapon master and bring that character into HotU and wreck shop like i usually do
I had a silent conversation with this one here. I couldn't really understand (maybe I should play a ranger in the future), but look how the boar looked at me, I'm sure it was trying to tell me something.
Trying to warn me what was lurking in the caves, I suppose.
I hate drow. And they make me run so much. I'm glad I have those boots, and my bow. And I had no idea they could cast those Black Tentacles from a distance! I thought they appeared around the caster!
This Hill Giant Champion almost got me, with two Critical Hits.
But that's nothing compared to the damage that chest dealt me! That was *really* close, because I was not at full health. That's it, I'm never going to tank a chest again, I miss too many traps, I'd rather waste expensive elemental arrows.
I killed the Hill Giant Chieftain and wondered why I could take his head. I took it with me, just in case.
I know that chromatic dragons are supposed to be evil, but this one was just protecting her eggs and didn't threaten me. I gave her the head of the Hill Giant Chieftain, because they had tried to raid her lair. She gave me useful information, and I saw no reason to attack her.
Then, yet another dragon, but this time a good one. I knew that as soon as I entered her cave, because it had the same music as in a temple. Very thoughtful, to let us know right from he beginning that she's on our side
So, I was ready to confront the Fire Giants in their lair.
Then I went to this thread to look something up and noticed that I had overlooked a whole cave. I went there, killed Guzud and freed the Last of the Mohicans.
I was surprised how good Power Attack is, especially combined with the extra attack provided by the Boots of Speed, and buffed with Greater Magic Weapon and Divine Favor. Poor Guzud hit my AC only once.
I didn't know why I could take his head, too (I already had another orc head in my inventory, from the woods in the north, and no idea who wanted that). I looked it up in a walkthrough and noticed that I had missed a quest (and a shop!), because I hadn't found that guy in the Mercenary Barracks.
I went to talk to him, gave him the two orc heads, and he asked me to find and kill their king. I remembered that there had been a door in a cave that I couldn't open. I went back, and there he was.
@BelgarathMTH, I have included his "I surrender" dialogue for you, because you missed it. I don't know if it would have influenced your choice. He raided our supply caravans, and this is a war. He was trying to manipulate me because he wanted to live, not because he regretted his actions. I chose justice over mercy, in this case.
Perfect. Level 15 before having to fight the Fire Giant King and the dreaded Klauth. I chose Improved Critical: Longsword.
Look at my fight with King Skrogg, there was my first critical hit on an 18 with my new feat.
Thanks to those lucky rolls and the amazing damage (and my AC 40, thanks to the shield), I didn't even have to heal myself during this fight.
Careful, Arvia, remember that overconfidence will kill you!
I know that blue dragons are evil. But he's sleeping (he just went ZZZzzzzzzzZzZ and didn't even react when I tried to talk to him), and has been raised from a stolen egg to be killed and fed to Klauth to strengthen him. I decided to let him live, for now, and think about it. All evidence suggested that the sphere with the dead dragon's essence was needed to weaken Klauth and beat him.
I decided to go and have a look at Klauth first. He told me that he had the last missing Word of Power, and offered me to give it to me if I brought him dragon eggs. I didn't agree to work with him, of course, but I kept asking him questions about the Old Ones and the cultists, and then told him that I would leave. He didn't seem to care.
I paused, walked my avatar a few paces away and thought for a while. My roleplaying explication is that I didn't want to resort to his methods to defeat him. (although I absolutely understand that others did this, because it seemed like the only and very reasonable choice, since you find *three* ritual books suggesting it. And against an ancient, powerful species planning to magically dominate and enslave the whole world, there are no Geneva Conventions)
The truth is, this is what @BelgarathMTH had written in his report:
"If any player can kill Klauth at full strength without killing this baby, I'd love to see that. However, if you try it, expect many, many deaths, resulting in either so many respawns you get busted down to 0 xp for the level you're at, or reload after reload."
That triggered my fighter's spirit, and I really wanted to see if it can be done. I love challenges. But I also know that I have more courage than wisdom.
I had reached level 15 before this fight, and I had 11 or 12 Potions of Heal in my inventory.
I decided to give it a try, but not without a hard save before the fight, just in case.
I had Bull's Strength and Greater Magic Weapon active already, and had taken a Potion of Endurance before entering here (boosting my HP to some 170), just in case. I cast Divine Favor, Bless and Aid (both from the scabbard) on top of that, took a deep breath and talked to Klauth again. He still gave me the option to get out of it without a fight.
That answer to his last question really resonated with me. I *was* ready. Time to die, for him or for me.
The next screenshots are not from very good angles. I'm glad I remembered taking some at all, the way my heart was pounding and my fingers were trembling.
My buffed damage and saving throws plus Helm's Ring of Elemental Resistance worked together. He seemed to notice that and changed his strategy.
That was when things got really serious. He took a third of my HP with this one attack. I didn't hesitate and took a Potion of Heal immediately. That's why I bought them. I'm not taking risks now to save supplies.
There goes the most important part of my buffs:
Ouch. I didn't know what else he had in his spellbook and how long I would have to fight him. I wanted to stay as close to full health as possible. This time, I only used a Potion of Cure Critical Wounds. He was down to Near Death now, but I had no idea how many Hit Points that meant.
I also noticed that I missed more often than before his Dispel Magic. He seemed to have cast something that lowered my attacks, too, I think. I didn't know if it would make a difference, but I deactivated Power Attack, because of the penalty, hoping that I could hit him again before the next devastating spell.
Hah! That felt exactly like facing and beating Demogorgon for the first time in Durlag's Tower.
Tyr protects his fools, it seems. I was very lucky, and I'm glad to have survived this. (oh gods, if I had calculated the respawn penalty before, I probably wouldn't have done this)
@BelgarathMTH, please don't feel bad for having killed the young dragon now. You took the wise, reasonable approach, making sure that you took no risk, because the future of the whole world depended on it. I honestly expected to try this, take a reload or two and then rage quit. And I wouldn't have considered *not* following the advice in that ritual book if I hadn't read the thoughts about it that you've shared in your report.
The armor *is* very red, but it goes with my cloak, and doesn't look so bad on a female character. Nine Hells, I've earned it, I'm going to wear it! And look at that, AC 42!
(I'm still using the Golden Circlet, of course. I just took it off for the picture, because it's such an ugly helmet).
And *then*, after the fight, when I went back to sell my loot (after giving the monster's ugly head to Gorgatha and receiving the belt, of course) and reviewed my spells, I noticed that I could have used a level 4 spell in this fight! I miss something like in BG, where the level up results show you if you've gained a new spell slot. I really must remember to check after every level up.
I quickly filled the gap with that amazing Holy Sword spell, went to the temple to heal and rest, and then reported to Aarin (I should have gone directly to him, of course. But I didn't want to be unprepared in case I didn't get an "I'll be back in a moment" dialogue option), who gave me the latest news and took me to Chapter Four.
Level: 15
Reloads: 1
Respawns: 9
As it is, just leaving it down there with no one to take care of it doesn't seem very merciful, because it'll starve. I wonder why it wouldn't wake up for you, but with me, it started saying it was hungry and wanted to be fed? Maybe you killed all the yuan-ti before they could finish the ritual, which might mean the blue dragon's body was an empty shell with no spirit there, sort of like being born in a permanent coma, where it would never gain consciousness?
**********************
Okay, so I started a paladin today in Shadows of Undrentide. I used the same character file as with the OC, so the same stats and feats and all that, but I decided to change the name to something else, mostly so I could tell the two paladins apart easily in my saved character files. I went with "Michael of Torm." Sorry, I wasn't feeling very creative, as far as choosing a different deity or anything like that.
I made level three just before I started writing this report. I don't want to write too much story in my progress reports, because I don't want to spoil anything. I'll maybe just share level ups, gear upgrades, and some highlights of the more exciting battles as I go along.
So, the first dungeon of the game involves clearing an ancient elven crypt of giant spiders and kobolds who are defiling it. These kobolds are the same ones who attack your starting town, so they may not be deserving of mercy. I wound up killing them all, but I wasn't thinking. I forgot that it's possible to talk them down and get what you need without killing them. It's risky, though, because a failed Persuade check can get you into really big trouble here if you try talking, instead of using some knockout gas that you're provided with by the spirit of the crypt.
After I cleared the crypt, the elven spirit who guards it gave me the key to a treasure room and told me to take the stuff as a reward - he said he'd rather a worthy living human have it than for it to stay buried with the dead.
After I solved the death puzzle in there that the elven spirit didn't think to inform me about, I got a set of three paladin-specific items, plus a very nice cloak. It was frustrating at first, because even with my Lore skill at 6 at level two, and then 7 at level three, I couldn't Identify any of it, there was no money to pay to have it Identified, and it was too heavy to carry around.
I was scared to death it was going to get erased from the game if I left it anywhere, but I remembered that in my room where the game starts, there was a chest that says "Your Belongings", so I had Dorna help me slowly drag all the armor pieces back there, and left it in that chest, hoping to get enough money when we cleared the rest of the crypt to be able to Identify everything.
I was very relieved when we did make enough gold, and the armor was still there in my room when we got back.
I also made enough to buy an Amulet of Natural Armor +1, so with all the shiny new gear, my AC is up to 25, which is really good for level three. The plate armor also has a charisma bonus and a bonus first level spell slot, although I won't have any spells until next level.
Reloads: 0
Respawns: 0
If you capture the Blue Dragon while it's alive you can give it to Klauth and strengthen him before the fight.
One time I did this and I hit him with every cold spell I had and others...I ran out of spells to hurt him and died lol, took several attempts.
And another time he kept killing me at the start of the fight by casting Power Word Kill, I had to retreat and get some Spell Mantle protection ready.
this is a mammoth +5 tower shield that can ONLY be used by lawful alignment apparently, ah thank the gods for those monk levels, because that is one sexy shield
and then here is a cool sounding cloak; +5 deflection bonus vs evil, although most of what i battle is evil, i prefer the double protection from my fortification cloaks, so this one will be sold
I've read somewhere else that it wakes up when you attack it. I don't know why it was awake and talked to you.
Nice to meet your newest paladin, "Michael of Torm". I'm not creative with names, either. I hate to try to come up with another one every time, and unlike you I don't feel comfortable using my own name in games. I think I'm going to use Torm again next time, too. This whole "zealous justice" thing with Tyr is difficult, and their "Tyr's justice is swift!" when executing Rolgan left a bad taste in my mouth.
Why won't you share any story content?
Could you please mention which kind of gear you buy and why, like you did with the belt of guiding light etc in the OC?
Good luck!
@sarevok57 , with Dex 13 you can take the Dodge feat for +1 AC bonus even when you're wearing heavy armor. And that's the shield that I found, too!
@Cerabelus , why would anyone want to strengthen Klauth before fighting him?
and here i am just before entering the luskan gate being as OP as possible
just a hair under that level 14 mark, i wonder if i will hit level 15 again in luskan like i did with my other character?
However, I remember my first failed attempts to survive in the Peninsula District without and then with Dodge and Mobility... but that might also have been influenced because I didn't know that walking or changing targets opened me to Attacks of Opportunity, and my general inexperience with the game mechanics.
I might try another build in SoU, but it will take me some time to get there, I won't be playing much this week.
Edit: I meant this *week*, not "weak" :facepalm:
Dodge and Mobility, only need +1 constitution from boots to get extra hit points, or +3 from an endurance potion. I coudn't think of any place else to put the single point that was left over, and 14 dexterity would be useless since I wear heavy armor.
From the description, the +4 bonus from Mobility against attacks of opportunity applies while drinking a healing potion, so I still think it's a good defensive feat.
Ah, so the Mobility Bonus applies in general against Attacks of Opportunity, not just against one opponent like the Dodge bonus? I should read more...
Those feats are so complicated, it's hard to understand (for me) what is better in which situation. But it's true, any defensive feat is worth it, especially during low levels.
Power Attack for example is useless during early levels, you won't hit anything.
The "recommended" build doesn't care how many reloads you need during the early game.
also you can avoid attacks of opportunity if your tumble skill is high enough ( the DC is 15 ) but if you're wearing full plate and using a tower shield, you need A LOT of ranks before you can even begin to be able to pass that check, but i usually have pretty decent ranks in that skill, since for every 5 ranks you have in that skill you get an extra AC bonus, hence the reason why i like throwing some monk levels into my characters
pretty much, with heavy armor you will get no AC benefit of going over 12 dex, but if you want the dodge feats you need 13, and also your reflex saves will increase still, so thats why with the character i have now who requires 13 dex to become a weapon master i will always give him 14 instead because of that extra save bonus compared to 12
and with power attack i usually always take that feat at lower levels, not for its combat ability, but the ability to open chests, for solo runs it is basically the only way of opening those ridiculous 40 DR chests while using a great axe, plus also in my opinion, if you can at lower levels great cleave is way better than whirlwind, i always find myself in situations where great cleave would be dropping baddies faster than whirlwind would, but weapon master need whirlwind so thats just the way she goes, but overwhelming critical and devastating critical are also amazing feats for melee characters and you need great cleave ( plus some huge str ) but if you can get your STR that high, those feats are almost mandatory
In the white dragon Tymofarrar's cave, we got a blue light saber from one of his kobold guards. Too bad it's a short sword instead of a long sword. I thought about giving it to Dorna the dwarven thief (she can be a thief/cleric, but I always level her as a pure thief - be sure to click "I want to talk about your training" on all companions because a lot of them have choices, and you don't want them leveling randomly between classes).
But I decided to use it myself for now, since there have been no magic longswords in the game yet. Even though I will lose +1 BAB from the magic short sword not syncing with my Weapon Focus: Longsword, I need that 1d6 cold damage. We already fought a mummy that I couldn't damage with a normal longsword.
I can't think of any way to report much game detail in SoU without completely spoiling the whole story. It's a much more conversation-based, story-based, and much less grinding-based game than the OC. Also, it is quite stingy with money and magic items, compared to the OC, at least at the beginning.
There's a slang term in NWN jargon for what the OC does with its liberal showering of the player with money and magic items - "Monty Hall", sometimes jokingly spelled "Monty Haul", a reference to the old American game show "Let's Make a Deal", originally hosted by a man named Monty Hall.
On the game show, he gave away to audience members wearing the best and most outrageous costumes, bunches of cash and prizes from behind curtains, large stage doors, and gift boxes, often offering, "This prize is nice and it's yours, but would you like to trade it for what's behind door number two?" You could either trade, say, $100, for a new car, a fabulous trip, a large appliance, more cash, or, you could get "zonked" with a worthless joke prize, or something of much lesser value than your original prize.
A lot of players complained about many of the "Monty Hall" elements in the OC, such as the portal stones, the unlimited respawns, unlimited resting, and the excessive availability of magic items. So, much of the stricter balancing in SoU was in reaction to those criticisms of the OC. I think HotU went back the other way a bit, and probably found the best balance of the three original content releases.
Most of the user-created content is even more restrictive and withholds magic items even more than any of the original official content.
Reloads: 0
Level: 5
Hehe oh you know my Wizard was getting pretty good and I though "hmm I wanna fight Klauth at his maximum" than being surprised when my Wizard got several beat downs "No! I thought I so much better than this", he wasn't unbeatable but was a much harder fight than I expected and my pride and arrogance was given a reality check.
a +3 warhammer already? check please, this is the second play through where the random +3 weapon was the actual weapon i was using, hell yeah
and then this is ALWAYS a beautiful find:
and then the one dude... Barum or whatever...? his chums are quite tenacious when it comes to attacking in groups:
and speaking about hard battles, if it wasnt for a certain item, this fight would be like fighting 10 Klauths at once:
hahaha, seriously, how in the sweet hades do you survive this without an amulet of health?
At this rate your probably gonna find the Hammer of Thunderbolts in no time.
Seriously though your getting some great finds, I've had so many bad chests from the OC ☹️, I remember one time though my LVL 8 Wizard was at Helms Hold between chapter 1 & 2 and randomly found a scroll of Horrid Wilting.
a ring of protection +5!! holy jumpins, sold for a nice 9700 gold hahaha, i prefer my cloak of fortification +3
and STILL have not found a belt of fire giant str grrr, last play through i found like 3, now i aint finding squat, luck of the draw i suppose haha
i finally found one, although, it wasn't with complete honesty, i quick saved before i opened this chest and then saw there was another belt in there, so i kept reloading to see if this belt would show up and about 25-30 reloads later she finally appeared
although with this being said this is the only item that i "fished" for, all the other cewl items i found so far where just based out of random luck
and while i was on my adventures i thought; i finished big green's quest, why not give 'er a whack aye?
so with no spell/potion or buff preparation i wanted to see if i could still take her on, everything was going good, but then i started to fail some breath weapon saves ( no doubt rolling 1s or 2s oi ) and i thought; im not going to drink a potion this entire fight, and lets see what happens; and she was a close call, but stuck with it, 1st try no potions
on my other play through with the half-orc fighter/rogue/barbarian i was able to take her out with no potions and i was only half health and still won on the first try, so this current charname has some catching up to do on the badass department
I didn't have the Amulet of Health when I fought those Shadow Fiends. None of them landed a Strength Drain on me, I don't know why. I had several Potions of Lesser Restoration and didn't need them. I guess the AC from the amazing shield helped.
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I played only for about half an hour in Chapter Four before going to sleep yesterday. I had long and insightful conversations with Lord Nasher, Aarin Gend and our lizard friend H. (can't remember how to spell her name).
I felt like grabbing Nasher (or should I call him Pilate?) by his collar and shaking him, but I kept calm and mentioned the importance of atonement instead. At least he regrets what he has done.
The Lizard Lady also had some interesting information about Aribeth and confirmed my own theory.
@BelgarathMTH, I'd like to discuss the ethics around all this, but probably better after the final fight. I'm sure there's more to come.
Then I went to buy a Ring of Protection +5 and Amulet of Natural Armor +5 (wasting tons of money because I bought them from the priest, before I noticed that the Arms and Armors shop was still there, but retrospectively I will consider it tithing).
With the Red Dragon Armor and my incredible shield, that's AC 46!
I also bought a Nymph Cloak +5 (it's not blue, it's golden), giving me Charisma 20.
That's it. Ready to enter the War Zone.