@Arvia no worries! I’ll learn how that is done and will do so going forward. Thank you for the information. I’ll brush up and commence forthwith.
Yeah, I agree on the portrait! The bearded fella with leather armor would have also fit for a Sigurd, had I gone the barbarian route. Alas, plate in the current portrait fits a paladin better, hence opting for this one. Cheers, be well! Hopefully, have a quiet shift.
@BelgarathMTH My pleasure. I learn so much from you folks, I’m happy to provide even an inkling of help in return. MAD is an acronym for Multi Attribute Dependent, meaning a build requires a heavy investment in more than two or even three attributes. Any Paladin in D&D is inherently a MAD build, to be fair about it, but Sigurd version 2 is much more focused on what he’ll do as opposed to what his first iteration would have been.
I have read all of this thread and it made me buy the whole neverwinter package from beamdog. I played all of these games when they first came out. So I am joining in on the minimal run.
Today we got started on the scorpion people lair at the beginning of the next chapter, and fought the dreaded manticore. This horrible monster is where many players get their first reloads of the game. Luckily, I know how dangerous it is, and I knew what to do.
The thing has four poison quill sprays that you can't do much about. One quill spray will take most of your health, and a second will kill you. Thank goodness it doesn't have infinite casts of it. You have to heal every time, and pray that he doesn't get his next spray cast before your heal takes effect.
Here it is. *gulp* Deekin got trapped on the other side of the locked doors, and I'm actually glad of that, as he would stand no chance here. (The doors close and lock as soon as you go in here, "It's a trap!", and usually your companion is going to get locked outside, unless you get lucky with the delay in their following AI.)
Poison Quill Spray Number One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Darn the flat-footedness while using healer's kits. It kept hitting me at first in melee while I was tyring to heal up from the quills, and I think it took three kits before I was finally able to get up to full health and start fighting. It couldn't hit my AC once it went to melee, and I wasn't under the flat-footed condition, without a critical hit, but I was having trouble hitting it, too, so the whole thing took a very long time. In the end, I prevailed.
Thank *Torm*, FINALLY a longsword +1. At last I can hit things at a decent rate, as my BAB will be increased by 2 (magic enhancement bonus + Weapon Focus: Longsword). Or at least plus one BAB. I had been using Kronk's ice short sword for the extra 1d6 ice damage, although I switched to my normal longsword for this fight when I saw I couldn't hit very well.
I made level seven and took two cross-trained ranks of Search skill. I happen to know there's a place coming up that will be very annoying if I can't find a certain secret door. There will be a hallway with Fireballs firing from two directions from four different alcoves at a very fast rate, that can only be slowed down slightly by pulling some levers and some very careful timing, (and forget about trying to get your companion any further into that dungeon through that), that can be avoided by detecting a secret door. I *hate* finishing this particular puzzle dungeon without being able to find that blasted secret door.
I found a treasure room in the "Stinger" (scorpion people) lair that was trapped so thoroughly there was no way I was going to be able to collect the stolen items there without Dorna. I went back to switch out Deekin for her, and, she was bugged to not be able to disarm any traps in this chapter. I looked it up online, and somebody posted a way to use the debug console to fix her, using some complicated looking computer code commands, but I'm not bothering with that. The treasure in that room will just have to stay there.
(I wish Beamdog would fix Dorna in SoU to work as intended, but they've already said they are mostly interested in their multiplayer NWN customers, and they don't believe that there are enough of us single-players to warrant spending any resources on improving the OC and the expansions. Too bad, but I still enjoy playing, despite all the old bugs still being there.)
At least I know that Dorna can't do her intended job any more in this interlude chapter, so I might as well use Deekin and enjoy his hilarious commentary on game events, useless as he is in combat. At least I often get a bard song buff from him, so that's nice.
I’m on the Beamdog client. I’ll see if I can figure out if there is any difference. Either way, I’ll fix it, or barring that, just stop posting screenshots. I’m fairly confident I can work out the tech side.
ah, so that is what MAD means, i have actually heard this term before, a few years back when we played PnP players refused to play paladins or monks because they required so many stats to be high to be "useful" per se
@BelgarathMTH
that is unfortunate that beamdog has basically abandoned the single player crowd, perhaps one day, someone will come out of the shadows with a mod that will fix SoU short comings? plus worse case scenario, if you cant use dorna for a thief, make her a cleric instead, so she can wear that heavy armor and perhaps help tank some baddies with that big CON she has
and only level 6 at this point? did you have a team mate the whole way through chapter 1? because im pretty sure i hit level 7 in chapter 1 with my paladin but i was going solo though, didn't know if the XP penalty for bringing someone along was that big
now for the HotU play through, we have yet another weapon upgrade, because why not? no such thing as to OP aye? haha
now on every hit, the enemy needs to make a save vs DC 24 or lose 1 STR, snice
so levels and game play later, we have a new critical hit damage record:
the drow was definitely having a bad day ouch
ah shucks, that was only 184 damage, i actually did 188 damage to something else but i didn't know if it was higher or not, oh well, record for now stays at 184...
out of all the fights in HotU, this next one, is one i kind of dread, but, it went much better than usual, i learned a little caveat by mistake which made this next battle easy as pie
with antimagic active, this guy can cause some serious problems, but i wonder how hard is he with all my magic stuff actually working?
yup, thats about right, good stuff
so stuff happened in chapter 2, the finale came by and this happened to my dude apparently
he dies.... lol?
and then we start chapter 3 here:
ah, the eighth layer of hell; Cania, i suppose its poetic justice since my character is lawful evil, this would be a fitting place for him to go if he were to fall, i know that you come here regardless, but if anything made any RP sense in my run, this is top notch
so we explore around our new "home" talk to some peeps, find some stores, throw an imp into a grinder ( oops ) find some familiar faces ( of all places for that to happen ) and we get a bit of an upgrade:
and its off to chapter 3 land, what surprises await us in this chapter...
Progress made: Peninsula District, about to enter the fourth level of the prison (once we jump back through the portal).
Tomi Undergallows Respawns: 1
Sigurd of Tyr Respawns: 0
I've decided to flesh out a few things for standards that I'll be using for this run through. I won't accept lower than 10 HP on level up. I loathe the arbitrary nature of how multi consecutive low HP rolls can sometimes create a weak toon, so I'll take 10 or higher only.
Looting will be in enemy occupied territories only. Prison chests or buckets? Cool, loot away...use their own equipment against them. Peasant houses? Off limits, for obvious paladin reasons.
I'm on the fence about monetary rewards. I'm considering taking them, but with the caveat that that particular gold total will only be used for healing kits or healing potions, instead of for the pocket book. I could also consider taking only gold from a fellow Tyrran (Aribeth & Fenthick) and turn away all other rewards. That seems the best role-playable approach in my mind, but I'm open to other ideas and feedback.
I'll probably have more additions to the standards piece, but for now, I need to finish up nightly stuff then rack out. Be well.
In HOTU chapter 2 you can find some pretty unique gear and possibly a set belonging to a certain someone from the OC and left down there, who it belonged to and where they are well search around and check those stores.
@BelgarathMTH, great progress! I'm already dreading those fights, the Manticore looks scary. And I hate riddles and puzzles in a game, at least in a minimal reload. Especially if I'm playing for the first time and really have to think instead of just knowing things like "the prince is 30 and the princess is 40".
Hm. I understand that Beamdog won't develop or upgrade more single player content, but I consider it a pretty severe bug if your only available rogue companion can't be used, with all the traps and locks. That's not fair. Not everyone who buys these games is interested in multiplayer or POW, although I know it's the majority.
@EnialusMeliamne, I understand and respect your desire to turn down rewards, but I don't recommend it, unless it's one of the few occasions where we have to do something that we're not happy with.
You're going to need healing supplies, potions, and good equipment, and the "no stealing, no looting unless among enemies" policy already limits our income. There are some really expensive but important items that you probably won't be able to afford if you don't accept rewards. If it's about paladin ethos, I'd say it's my duty to be well equipped, well armed and armored, because the city of Neverwinter and every life in it depend on my success.
That said, you have my highest respect if you try to do this under a vow of poverty, but it's going to be hard.
Ok got my charname Ultor Sandor, a human fighter. I used the portrait with the horned helmet. I will try to figure out how to post screenshots. Anyway I am taking 6 levels of fighter then barbarian all the way. He will use great sword.
@Cerabelus
just finished HotU actually, makers island was the second place i visited out of the 5
so progress of chapter 3:
found some cewl looking armor, and thankfully my alignment matches it to boot:
for this armor alone, this is half the reason why i play evil runs, the other half; level ups
oh, we have a new recorded record for critical hit damage:
and then, this is probably my most favourite/best fight in HotU
the amount of items you get from this fight is absolutely ludicrous
and then we break out critical hit record for the last time, not too shabby for a one handed weapon eh?
and then we finally reach the finale of chapter 3, but before we battle the last boss, here be a look of all the stats i could achieve:
some of these might look like duplicates but its actually show more of my special immunities and such
and then some final screenshots of the final battle, and this is a big time spoiler, because it shows who the last boss is, but these screen shots show more of a "oh burn, sucks to be you buddy" sort of thing hahaha
ah, natural 1s, it goes both ways
and that is it campaign done, and then a bunch of epilogue stuff which is actually pretty neat, although it wasn't completely accurate claiming that my guy was such a great hero and such, too bad they didn't write anything for evil characters but oh well
now perhaps i might start working on that module i was working on before, or maybe i will just creep this forum for a bit and take a break, i think in the last 2 weeks i've played NWN for about 100 hours, so we shall see what is next...
Congrats @sarevok57! Dude, your toon is a freaking beast. I’ve never beaten HOTU, but I’m really looking forward to when I get there now. AC in the 60s?! YES, PLEASE! I think my paladin for SOU will add some levels of monk.
Oops, I actually made level seven in that last post, not level six. @sarevok57 , Thanks for catching the error. Congratulations on your finished run. It looks like you had a lot of fun.
Congrats @sarevok57! Dude, your toon is a freaking beast. I’ve never beaten HOTU, but I’m really looking forward to when I get there now. AC in the 60s?! YES, PLEASE! I think my paladin for SOU will add some levels of monk.
i actually could have hit almost 70, there was a ring of protection +9 that i could have bought, but i kept my ring of resistance +3 instead, because i was still wearing a clock of deflection +5
and if you add monk levels to your paladin i add them at levels; 2,7,12,17,22,27
the reason being is that if you are a human with 10 INT you will have 5 skill points, so then i dump all those skill points into tumble, and for every 5 ranks you have in tumble you get a +1 to AC, and since at those levels i mentioned above thats where the ranks are at 5,10,15,20 ect
plus just even taking 1 level of monk is amazing because you get:
evasion
cleave
+2 to all saves
all for free, its a pretty good deal, you dont get BAB for that first level, but what you get in return i think more than makes up for it
Thanks much for the suggestion! I'll be consulting that very post when that time comes. For today's entry, thus far anyway, I'll post the following for humor's sake, copied straight from the journal notes area for my character (edit: for those of you wondering, you can find this information in the localvault folder):
Tomi Respawns - 7
Sigurd of Tyr Respawns - 3
Tomi Respawn - Prison gang up surrounded
Tomi Respawn - Kurdan Fenkt on a 40 damage critical
1 Sigurd of Tyr Respawn - Luxor
Tomi Respawn Twice - Luxor
Tomi Respawn Swords of Never
Tomi Respawn Meldanen Apprentice
2nd Sigurd of Tyr Respawn - Meldanen Apprentice
3rd Sigurd of Tyr Respawn - trapped chest that my useless @$$ rogue companion couldn't see. In the name of Tyr, Why DO I EVEN PAY YOU!?!
Tomi Respawn - Bloodsailor house
Recruited Linu to replace Tomi, whose checkered past I could not abide.
Linu Respawn - Bloodsailer Lieutenant
Come back to Blacklake District with Tomi at a later level for trap. Also, to get the Tomb of Never item. Swords are rough there.
Come back to the Blacklake District at a later level for apprentice and wizard combat. Magic is rough there.
EDIT: Updated journal totals and entries. I think I'm going to put this play of the OC on hold for a few days. I'm beyond annoyed at the game, again, which utterly defeats the purpose of playing it. I'm finding the lack of AC for the companions to be a real problem (Just like I did in the past). If they draw any sort of aggro, and they do (OFTEN), they end up getting beaten by the multiple attacks stick. I don't use taunt on my paladin, so it's definitely a recurring issue.
I think SOU is calling me again. At least there, I can update Dorna's AC (Does anyone use the barbarian sorcerer, ever? *Crickets*.
@EnialusMeliamne , I don't know if you would consider it cheating, but I dumped Tomi before entering the Tomb of Never, took a Potion of Invisibility, walked in, took the item, walked out and picked up Tomi again. I don't know if it's possible to beat the swords without tons of respawns. I've found that solution in another discussion, because as a paladin of Tyr I really wanted to complete the quest for Oleff.
Thanks, @Arvia! Good suggestion, and likely one I will follow when I pick this playthrough up again. I did that quest many years ago during one of my many failed attempts to stay engaged with the OC (Of which I'm feeling the compulsion to put it on hiatus once again), and also found it rewarding. It seems very much like a paladin-y thing to complete.
@EnialusMeliamne , I don't know if you would consider it cheating, but I dumped Tomi before entering the Tomb of Never, took a Potion of Invisibility, walked in, took the item, walked out and picked up Tomi again. I don't know if it's possible to beat the swords without tons of respawns. I've found that solution in another discussion, because as a paladin of Tyr I really wanted to complete the quest for Oleff.
there is a bit of a caveat to this fight to make it so its not "so insane" but it requires some somewhat fast acting though:
so first obviously, before you go down, do all your necessary buffing, keep plenty of those potions of speed handy ( if you can )
then the nano second you arrive in the area where the swords are, pause the game ( sometimes it lets you right away, sometimes it doesn't, kind of dumb )
but if it lets you right away, this will help you get better positioning by.... running away like sir robin
and where you run to, is the back corner of the room ( behind the stairs where you came from ) if done correctly, only one or two of the swords will come after you so now the fight is a little bit more feasible, and once you take out the one or two swords, you can slowly lure the other ones one by one,
or if the above doesnt work, your handy dandy henchman will easily make the swords go aggro, especially if your henchman is set to melee, they will gleefully go running to their doom while you run in the opposite direction so then again, you can slowly lure them in to you so then you dont have to fight all 4 at once, sucks for the henchman, but hey, stupid is, is stupid does i suppose, good thing we have absolutely no control over our henchmen, because you know, they might actually survive a bit better......
also AC wise, the evil dwarven monk actually has some decent AC, but he's evil, so no doubt that will be an easy pass for paladin play throughs
@EnialusMeliamne
Companions in the OC are umm how do I put it...less than good.
If we had Inventory control we could give them some better stuff and maybe a better chance of survival but I'd really like to have full party control in future content, if they bother making any.
I gave up on them years ago and prefer my Wizard's Pixie Familiar for locks and traps.
yeah, don't know if full party control ( like BG style ) is even possible with the NWN engine, but even if it was like NWN 2 that would be a huge improvement
but also with that being said, that means the AI of enemies would have to be cranked up as well because they also join the derp a derp train with henchmen on how good their AI is
so if we had smarter henchmen, then we would need smarter baddies
playing NWN almost feels like that episode of reboot when enzo made it inside the super computer and asked to be better than everyone else, so instead of making him better, the super computer just made everyone else worse, by under clocking everyone and lowering the RES, now i know how enzo felt haha
Yeah the AI would need to be given an "Enhanced Edition" maybe things like Teamwork, having Martial types hold the front line, Clerics supporting, Mages spelling, Bards doing stuff, Rogues shiving.
Today we defeated the evil mummy of Kel-Garas, with the help of the desert beduin, restoring their oasis, and allowing us to water our oxen and proceed on across the desert to the encampment of the worshipers of Ao, where I hope to find someone who can help us learn more about the nature of the artifacts and why our mysterious villain wants them badly enough to try to kill Drogan and to destroy Hilltop.
***********************
The beduin leader directed us to take his ancestral weapon from this tomb. I know from past runs that for a druid, it will be a Desert Wind flaming scimitar, but for me as a paladin, it was a Desert Fury morning star with extra fire damage vs. undead. I decided to use it for now, but later gave it to Dorna, for reasons that you will see if you keep reading.
Oh, yes, I started using Dorna again instead of Deekin, despite her inability to function as a rogue any more. I couldn't keep Deekin alive without a massive expense of healing resources, because the much-hated bad companion AI kept making him run straight up into melee, even while wielding a crossbow. Sigh.
When I went to this chapter, Dorna had re-instanced into a rogue 4/cleric 3, so I decided to use her cleric ability to wear good armor and use a shield, giving her a decent chance to survive the melee that the horrible companion AI insists all companions must run right up into no matter how you try to set their instructions. She could also be told to cast Bless and Aid immediately after resting.
This puzzle room is deadly if you stand in those little black things. I think they're supposed to be beetles or something. They get released as soon as you enter the room. You want your companion to be on "Stand Your Ground" outside this room. Then, it takes about two minutes before they finally run their duration and go away. I advise against falling into the trap and trying to fight Kel-Garas' sending while standing in these things.
So, I got to the Fireballs trap, and my total Search rank of 3 would not find the secret door to allow me to bypass it. Rats. Maybe that's for the better, because looking for a way around, I saw a door going in the opposite direction I had never noticed before.
I wound up locked in a tomb with a very powerful undead monk named "Master Zaar." Dorna couldn't do anything to it, and I couldn't hit it on a 19. I was at a total loss of what I was supposed to do here, while I was slowly being beaten to death, with no way out of the locked room. I was going to run out of healing supplies.
I started thinking, "There's got to be something else to this encounter," so I ran around the room looking around, taking damage all the while. I saw a skeleton on the floor, and thought maybe clicking it or destroying it was what I was supposed to do. Lo and behold, it had this on it:
It doesn't really say what it does, but I think that the "Holy Avenger" property on the sword means it permanently has the benefits of the fourth level paladin spell by the same name. It can cast Dispel Magic once a day, but more importantly, it increased my BAB by at least 4, and I think it strikes as a +4 or +5 weapon against a creature's magic weapon to hit requirement.
So, now I could hit this evil monstrosity, but it was still a race against my healing supplies. I won just barely, with only one healer's kit left.
So now, I had to get through the Fireball corridor the hard way. Pulling two levers slows down their fire rate, but you still need to study their slowed down firing pattern to determine the best moment to make a run for it. I had Endure Elements active to give me at least a chance in heck if I messed up. There's a white glowing field about mid way through that protects you from the fire, while you pull two more levers there, study the firing pattern in the second half of the gauntlet, choose your moment, and run for it again. At the other side, when you open the door there, the fire stops, and you can call your companion on through. Whew, I'm so glad to be through this part.
This skeleton blackguard can be very serious business. He uses sneak attacks, so as soon as I saw that, I focused on him, and ignored his minions. He turned out to be much easier than I've experienced before, because of my shining new Holy Avenger sword. He dropped some really evil blackguard items - If you were wanting to play Darth Vader, now's your chance.
Oh, *now* we can find a secret door. This one let us bypass some more heavily trapped hallways. It seems the game will not use your companion's Search skill, only your own. (Which is totally bogus, but you know, there's the NWN companion AI again.)
The first fight with Kel-Garas. He dropped the rod that is like his phylactery. It can only be destroyed by placing it on the altar in the Temple of Lathander.
After defeating him the first time, I made level 8. I raised my strength to 16, and took two points each in Discipline and Heal, making up for some of the points I put into Search before. I got a sadly lousy hit point roll of 5. I gained a level 2 spell, so now I have Bull's Strength.
So now we have to take the "phylactery" to the Temple of Lathander in the beduin camp. This fight can be won easily by going straight to the altar, clicking on it, and placing the rod there. You know to do this if you've been paying attention. Kul Garas puts up a Blade Barrier in front of the altar. This time, (in contrast to Morag's instakill Blade Barrier), it's just a regular clerical Blade Barrier, and it can be tanked. As soon as you put the rod on the altar, the fight is over, and all the baddies are instantly destroyed.
Pay attention, though, because the Blade Barrier will still be active, and the beduin leader wants to run right up to you and talk. I had trouble getting out of the stupid Blade Barrier because the game wouldn't let me move. I needed a healer's kit or two until I could finally move out of the damage. Grrr.
Comments
Yeah, I agree on the portrait! The bearded fella with leather armor would have also fit for a Sigurd, had I gone the barbarian route. Alas, plate in the current portrait fits a paladin better, hence opting for this one. Cheers, be well! Hopefully, have a quiet shift.
The thing has four poison quill sprays that you can't do much about. One quill spray will take most of your health, and a second will kill you. Thank goodness it doesn't have infinite casts of it. You have to heal every time, and pray that he doesn't get his next spray cast before your heal takes effect.
Poison Quill Spray Number One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Darn the flat-footedness while using healer's kits. It kept hitting me at first in melee while I was tyring to heal up from the quills, and I think it took three kits before I was finally able to get up to full health and start fighting. It couldn't hit my AC once it went to melee, and I wasn't under the flat-footed condition, without a critical hit, but I was having trouble hitting it, too, so the whole thing took a very long time. In the end, I prevailed.
Thank *Torm*, FINALLY a longsword +1. At last I can hit things at a decent rate, as my BAB will be increased by 2 (magic enhancement bonus + Weapon Focus: Longsword). Or at least plus one BAB. I had been using Kronk's ice short sword for the extra 1d6 ice damage, although I switched to my normal longsword for this fight when I saw I couldn't hit very well.
I made level seven and took two cross-trained ranks of Search skill. I happen to know there's a place coming up that will be very annoying if I can't find a certain secret door. There will be a hallway with Fireballs firing from two directions from four different alcoves at a very fast rate, that can only be slowed down slightly by pulling some levers and some very careful timing, (and forget about trying to get your companion any further into that dungeon through that), that can be avoided by detecting a secret door. I *hate* finishing this particular puzzle dungeon without being able to find that blasted secret door.
I found a treasure room in the "Stinger" (scorpion people) lair that was trapped so thoroughly there was no way I was going to be able to collect the stolen items there without Dorna. I went back to switch out Deekin for her, and, she was bugged to not be able to disarm any traps in this chapter. I looked it up online, and somebody posted a way to use the debug console to fix her, using some complicated looking computer code commands, but I'm not bothering with that. The treasure in that room will just have to stay there.
(I wish Beamdog would fix Dorna in SoU to work as intended, but they've already said they are mostly interested in their multiplayer NWN customers, and they don't believe that there are enough of us single-players to warrant spending any resources on improving the OC and the expansions. Too bad, but I still enjoy playing, despite all the old bugs still being there.)
At least I know that Dorna can't do her intended job any more in this interlude chapter, so I might as well use Deekin and enjoy his hilarious commentary on game events, useless as he is in combat. At least I often get a bard song buff from him, so that's nice.
Reloads: 0
Level: 7
@BelgarathMTH
that is unfortunate that beamdog has basically abandoned the single player crowd, perhaps one day, someone will come out of the shadows with a mod that will fix SoU short comings? plus worse case scenario, if you cant use dorna for a thief, make her a cleric instead, so she can wear that heavy armor and perhaps help tank some baddies with that big CON she has
and only level 6 at this point? did you have a team mate the whole way through chapter 1? because im pretty sure i hit level 7 in chapter 1 with my paladin but i was going solo though, didn't know if the XP penalty for bringing someone along was that big
now for the HotU play through, we have yet another weapon upgrade, because why not? no such thing as to OP aye? haha
now on every hit, the enemy needs to make a save vs DC 24 or lose 1 STR, snice
so levels and game play later, we have a new critical hit damage record:
the drow was definitely having a bad day ouch
ah shucks, that was only 184 damage, i actually did 188 damage to something else but i didn't know if it was higher or not, oh well, record for now stays at 184...
out of all the fights in HotU, this next one, is one i kind of dread, but, it went much better than usual, i learned a little caveat by mistake which made this next battle easy as pie
with antimagic active, this guy can cause some serious problems, but i wonder how hard is he with all my magic stuff actually working?
yup, thats about right, good stuff
so stuff happened in chapter 2, the finale came by and this happened to my dude apparently
and then we start chapter 3 here:
ah, the eighth layer of hell; Cania, i suppose its poetic justice since my character is lawful evil, this would be a fitting place for him to go if he were to fall, i know that you come here regardless, but if anything made any RP sense in my run, this is top notch
so we explore around our new "home" talk to some peeps, find some stores, throw an imp into a grinder ( oops ) find some familiar faces ( of all places for that to happen ) and we get a bit of an upgrade:
and its off to chapter 3 land, what surprises await us in this chapter...
Progress made: Peninsula District, about to enter the fourth level of the prison (once we jump back through the portal).
Tomi Undergallows Respawns: 1
Sigurd of Tyr Respawns: 0
I've decided to flesh out a few things for standards that I'll be using for this run through. I won't accept lower than 10 HP on level up. I loathe the arbitrary nature of how multi consecutive low HP rolls can sometimes create a weak toon, so I'll take 10 or higher only.
Looting will be in enemy occupied territories only. Prison chests or buckets? Cool, loot away...use their own equipment against them. Peasant houses? Off limits, for obvious paladin reasons.
I'm on the fence about monetary rewards. I'm considering taking them, but with the caveat that that particular gold total will only be used for healing kits or healing potions, instead of for the pocket book. I could also consider taking only gold from a fellow Tyrran (Aribeth & Fenthick) and turn away all other rewards. That seems the best role-playable approach in my mind, but I'm open to other ideas and feedback.
I'll probably have more additions to the standards piece, but for now, I need to finish up nightly stuff then rack out. Be well.
@sarevok57
Did you go to the Makers island?
Hm. I understand that Beamdog won't develop or upgrade more single player content, but I consider it a pretty severe bug if your only available rogue companion can't be used, with all the traps and locks. That's not fair. Not everyone who buys these games is interested in multiplayer or POW, although I know it's the majority.
@EnialusMeliamne, I understand and respect your desire to turn down rewards, but I don't recommend it, unless it's one of the few occasions where we have to do something that we're not happy with.
You're going to need healing supplies, potions, and good equipment, and the "no stealing, no looting unless among enemies" policy already limits our income. There are some really expensive but important items that you probably won't be able to afford if you don't accept rewards. If it's about paladin ethos, I'd say it's my duty to be well equipped, well armed and armored, because the city of Neverwinter and every life in it depend on my success.
That said, you have my highest respect if you try to do this under a vow of poverty, but it's going to be hard.
yeah it's F12 for GOG, it saved to Documents\GOG Galaxy\Screenshots\Neverwinter Nights Enhanced Edition as a PNG file??? never heard of it.
It's been awhile since I've played NWN but apparently i was last playing a Cleric named Alexia, i don't remember that.
just finished HotU actually, makers island was the second place i visited out of the 5
so progress of chapter 3:
found some cewl looking armor, and thankfully my alignment matches it to boot:
for this armor alone, this is half the reason why i play evil runs, the other half; level ups
oh, we have a new recorded record for critical hit damage:
and then, this is probably my most favourite/best fight in HotU
the amount of items you get from this fight is absolutely ludicrous
and then we break out critical hit record for the last time, not too shabby for a one handed weapon eh?
and then we finally reach the finale of chapter 3, but before we battle the last boss, here be a look of all the stats i could achieve:
some of these might look like duplicates but its actually show more of my special immunities and such
and then some final screenshots of the final battle, and this is a big time spoiler, because it shows who the last boss is, but these screen shots show more of a "oh burn, sucks to be you buddy" sort of thing hahaha
ah, natural 1s, it goes both ways
and that is it campaign done, and then a bunch of epilogue stuff which is actually pretty neat, although it wasn't completely accurate claiming that my guy was such a great hero and such, too bad they didn't write anything for evil characters but oh well
now perhaps i might start working on that module i was working on before, or maybe i will just creep this forum for a bit and take a break, i think in the last 2 weeks i've played NWN for about 100 hours, so we shall see what is next...
hmm those stats are slightly intimidating and perhaps put Thor to shame?, I think we shouldn't ever be on the wrong side of your Hammering.
I wonder if my Wizard could give you a Finger of Death before you caved in his skull, I wont try it.
plus i believe i had 12 ranks in spell craft so i get a +2 bonus to all saves vs spells
i actually could have hit almost 70, there was a ring of protection +9 that i could have bought, but i kept my ring of resistance +3 instead, because i was still wearing a clock of deflection +5
and if you add monk levels to your paladin i add them at levels; 2,7,12,17,22,27
the reason being is that if you are a human with 10 INT you will have 5 skill points, so then i dump all those skill points into tumble, and for every 5 ranks you have in tumble you get a +1 to AC, and since at those levels i mentioned above thats where the ranks are at 5,10,15,20 ect
plus just even taking 1 level of monk is amazing because you get:
evasion
cleave
+2 to all saves
all for free, its a pretty good deal, you dont get BAB for that first level, but what you get in return i think more than makes up for it
Tomi Respawns - 7
Sigurd of Tyr Respawns - 3
Tomi Respawn - Prison gang up surrounded
Tomi Respawn - Kurdan Fenkt on a 40 damage critical
1 Sigurd of Tyr Respawn - Luxor
Tomi Respawn Twice - Luxor
Tomi Respawn Swords of Never
Tomi Respawn Meldanen Apprentice
2nd Sigurd of Tyr Respawn - Meldanen Apprentice
3rd Sigurd of Tyr Respawn - trapped chest that my useless @$$ rogue companion couldn't see. In the name of Tyr, Why DO I EVEN PAY YOU!?!
Tomi Respawn - Bloodsailor house
Recruited Linu to replace Tomi, whose checkered past I could not abide.
Linu Respawn - Bloodsailer Lieutenant
Come back to Blacklake District with Tomi at a later level for trap. Also, to get the Tomb of Never item. Swords are rough there.
Come back to the Blacklake District at a later level for apprentice and wizard combat. Magic is rough there.
EDIT: Updated journal totals and entries. I think I'm going to put this play of the OC on hold for a few days. I'm beyond annoyed at the game, again, which utterly defeats the purpose of playing it. I'm finding the lack of AC for the companions to be a real problem (Just like I did in the past). If they draw any sort of aggro, and they do (OFTEN), they end up getting beaten by the multiple attacks stick. I don't use taunt on my paladin, so it's definitely a recurring issue.
I think SOU is calling me again. At least there, I can update Dorna's AC (Does anyone use the barbarian sorcerer, ever? *Crickets*.
there is a bit of a caveat to this fight to make it so its not "so insane" but it requires some somewhat fast acting though:
so first obviously, before you go down, do all your necessary buffing, keep plenty of those potions of speed handy ( if you can )
then the nano second you arrive in the area where the swords are, pause the game ( sometimes it lets you right away, sometimes it doesn't, kind of dumb )
but if it lets you right away, this will help you get better positioning by.... running away like sir robin
and where you run to, is the back corner of the room ( behind the stairs where you came from ) if done correctly, only one or two of the swords will come after you so now the fight is a little bit more feasible, and once you take out the one or two swords, you can slowly lure the other ones one by one,
or if the above doesnt work, your handy dandy henchman will easily make the swords go aggro, especially if your henchman is set to melee, they will gleefully go running to their doom while you run in the opposite direction so then again, you can slowly lure them in to you so then you dont have to fight all 4 at once, sucks for the henchman, but hey, stupid is, is stupid does i suppose, good thing we have absolutely no control over our henchmen, because you know, they might actually survive a bit better......
also AC wise, the evil dwarven monk actually has some decent AC, but he's evil, so no doubt that will be an easy pass for paladin play throughs
Companions in the OC are umm how do I put it...less than good.
If we had Inventory control we could give them some better stuff and maybe a better chance of survival but I'd really like to have full party control in future content, if they bother making any.
I gave up on them years ago and prefer my Wizard's Pixie Familiar for locks and traps.
I like Deekin from SOU and HOTU.
but also with that being said, that means the AI of enemies would have to be cranked up as well because they also join the derp a derp train with henchmen on how good their AI is
so if we had smarter henchmen, then we would need smarter baddies
playing NWN almost feels like that episode of reboot when enzo made it inside the super computer and asked to be better than everyone else, so instead of making him better, the super computer just made everyone else worse, by under clocking everyone and lowering the RES, now i know how enzo felt haha
***********************
The beduin leader directed us to take his ancestral weapon from this tomb. I know from past runs that for a druid, it will be a Desert Wind flaming scimitar, but for me as a paladin, it was a Desert Fury morning star with extra fire damage vs. undead. I decided to use it for now, but later gave it to Dorna, for reasons that you will see if you keep reading.
Oh, yes, I started using Dorna again instead of Deekin, despite her inability to function as a rogue any more. I couldn't keep Deekin alive without a massive expense of healing resources, because the much-hated bad companion AI kept making him run straight up into melee, even while wielding a crossbow. Sigh.
When I went to this chapter, Dorna had re-instanced into a rogue 4/cleric 3, so I decided to use her cleric ability to wear good armor and use a shield, giving her a decent chance to survive the melee that the horrible companion AI insists all companions must run right up into no matter how you try to set their instructions. She could also be told to cast Bless and Aid immediately after resting.
This puzzle room is deadly if you stand in those little black things. I think they're supposed to be beetles or something. They get released as soon as you enter the room. You want your companion to be on "Stand Your Ground" outside this room. Then, it takes about two minutes before they finally run their duration and go away. I advise against falling into the trap and trying to fight Kel-Garas' sending while standing in these things.
So, I got to the Fireballs trap, and my total Search rank of 3 would not find the secret door to allow me to bypass it. Rats. Maybe that's for the better, because looking for a way around, I saw a door going in the opposite direction I had never noticed before.
I wound up locked in a tomb with a very powerful undead monk named "Master Zaar." Dorna couldn't do anything to it, and I couldn't hit it on a 19. I was at a total loss of what I was supposed to do here, while I was slowly being beaten to death, with no way out of the locked room. I was going to run out of healing supplies.
I started thinking, "There's got to be something else to this encounter," so I ran around the room looking around, taking damage all the while. I saw a skeleton on the floor, and thought maybe clicking it or destroying it was what I was supposed to do. Lo and behold, it had this on it:
It doesn't really say what it does, but I think that the "Holy Avenger" property on the sword means it permanently has the benefits of the fourth level paladin spell by the same name. It can cast Dispel Magic once a day, but more importantly, it increased my BAB by at least 4, and I think it strikes as a +4 or +5 weapon against a creature's magic weapon to hit requirement.
So, now I could hit this evil monstrosity, but it was still a race against my healing supplies. I won just barely, with only one healer's kit left.
So now, I had to get through the Fireball corridor the hard way. Pulling two levers slows down their fire rate, but you still need to study their slowed down firing pattern to determine the best moment to make a run for it. I had Endure Elements active to give me at least a chance in heck if I messed up. There's a white glowing field about mid way through that protects you from the fire, while you pull two more levers there, study the firing pattern in the second half of the gauntlet, choose your moment, and run for it again. At the other side, when you open the door there, the fire stops, and you can call your companion on through. Whew, I'm so glad to be through this part.
This skeleton blackguard can be very serious business. He uses sneak attacks, so as soon as I saw that, I focused on him, and ignored his minions. He turned out to be much easier than I've experienced before, because of my shining new Holy Avenger sword. He dropped some really evil blackguard items - If you were wanting to play Darth Vader, now's your chance.
Oh, *now* we can find a secret door. This one let us bypass some more heavily trapped hallways. It seems the game will not use your companion's Search skill, only your own. (Which is totally bogus, but you know, there's the NWN companion AI again.)
The first fight with Kel-Garas. He dropped the rod that is like his phylactery. It can only be destroyed by placing it on the altar in the Temple of Lathander.
After defeating him the first time, I made level 8. I raised my strength to 16, and took two points each in Discipline and Heal, making up for some of the points I put into Search before. I got a sadly lousy hit point roll of 5. I gained a level 2 spell, so now I have Bull's Strength.
So now we have to take the "phylactery" to the Temple of Lathander in the beduin camp. This fight can be won easily by going straight to the altar, clicking on it, and placing the rod there. You know to do this if you've been paying attention. Kul Garas puts up a Blade Barrier in front of the altar. This time, (in contrast to Morag's instakill Blade Barrier), it's just a regular clerical Blade Barrier, and it can be tanked. As soon as you put the rod on the altar, the fight is over, and all the baddies are instantly destroyed.
Pay attention, though, because the Blade Barrier will still be active, and the beduin leader wants to run right up to you and talk. I had trouble getting out of the stupid Blade Barrier because the game wouldn't let me move. I needed a healer's kit or two until I could finally move out of the damage. Grrr.
Level: 8
Reloads: 0
Dorna Deaths: 1 (J'Nah)