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Seeking Wizard Henchman (NWN EE)

DorothyjeanDorothyjean Member Posts: 1
edited August 2020 in General Discussions NWN:EE
I want to play a battle cleric (melee damage, tank, healer) as the protagonist and have my henchman be a wizard (utility spells and magic damage.) I'm wondering what I need to do or where to go to make this happen. Official campaign doesn't support wizard in this fashion, and neither does SoU/HotU until 75% of the way through. At least, according to what I've read.

I was thinking of going as a multiclass fighter/cleric/wizard and swapping between roles (fighter/cleric) when a wizard is available as a henchman and wizard when a shield cleric is available as a henchman. I'm unsure as to how the multiclass levels would end up end game. I wouldn't want a switch-back-and-forth character that can't hold his own because his max level per class is say only 13.

Any ideas?
Post edited by Dorothyjean on

Comments

  • StaranStaran Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 295
    Download tomi’s henchmen system OHS from Neverwinter vault. Create your own henchmen. Save character. Go into the ohs module and Then add it to Tomis database. Load up your game, rest and a guy shows up. Ask him to add that henchman.

    https://neverwintervault.org/project/nwn1/other/ohs-henchman-system
  • 1varangian1varangian Member Posts: 367
    edited August 2020
    Hows the AI going to manage a Wizard? Is there a way to stop them from fireballing your protagonist and getting killed in every fight?

    I just got so frustrated with Tomi getting himself killed all the time I stopped playing in the prison. I thought he was the "easy" henchman that would stay back with a bow and pick locks. But he *really* likes to draw attention and get slaughtered by mobs. A Rogue who always fights to the death (his) is not a very solid concept. A Wizard would be squishier still.

    All this frustration would go away if we just had a fully controlled party. Plus having more than two characters in the party would be much more interesting and fun.

    Sometimes I just want to play single player, but the henchman system always completely ruins it for me.
  • BelgarathMTHBelgarathMTH Member Posts: 5,653
    @1varangian , There are some ways to mitigate the brain dead AI. If you press "V", it will bring up a set of voice commands. They are also accessible through the radial menu, but I always place them on my quick bar for fast access. They are "Stand Your Ground", "Follow (without attacking)", "Defend Me" and "Attack Nearest."

    You can use "Stand Your Ground" to make him freeze in his tracks and wait until you need him to come forward. "Follow" will call him back to you if he's trying to run off. "Defend" makes him attack the same target you are, although it doesn't work very well, and the AI usually overrides that one after a single round. "Attack" makes him do what he usually does by default.

    Set him to stay medium or far following distance behind you.

    The companions still like to switch targets randomly and start moving around in combat taking multiple attacks of opportunity. I used to get so frustrated with them that I spent a long time always playing solo. Nowadays I usually take Tomi and just live with the problems because I want him for traps and locks. I can usually keep him mostly alive by building Heal skill and using Heal packs on him a lot. His sneak attacks do come in handy. I don't even bother with the bow, because he won't stay out of melee with it, so he does more sneak attack damage with his blade.

    The OC really shows how the devs were wanting to make a multi-player D&D game, and didn't do that good a job with the single player experience. Later modules for the game, starting with the expansion packs, did a better job, such as allowing you to give your companion better equipment. User created content like "Saga of Aielund" uses hack paks that allow the player to give more detailed commands to companions.

    But you're right that it's frustratingly terrible in the OC. Spellcasters are next to worthless, casting random spells that often have nothing to do with the situation at hand, and are made even worse in that they often start casting in the middle of melee without even activating defensive casting mode.
  • StaranStaran Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 295
    Using a pure wizard in 3rd edition is fustrating whether it is your henchmen or your main.
    “That barbarian can cleave all day long but I rest after 3 fireballs? “
  • 1varangian1varangian Member Posts: 367
    BelgarathMTH wrote: »
    @1varangian , There are some ways to mitigate the brain dead AI. If you press "V", it will bring up a set of voice commands. They are also accessible through the radial menu, but I always place them on my quick bar for fast access. They are "Stand Your Ground", "Follow (without attacking)", "Defend Me" and "Attack Nearest."

    You can use "Stand Your Ground" to make him freeze in his tracks and wait until you need him to come forward. "Follow" will call him back to you if he's trying to run off. "Defend" makes him attack the same target you are, although it doesn't work very well, and the AI usually overrides that one after a single round. "Attack" makes him do what he usually does by default.

    Set him to stay medium or far following distance behind you.

    The companions still like to switch targets randomly and start moving around in combat taking multiple attacks of opportunity. I used to get so frustrated with them that I spent a long time always playing solo. Nowadays I usually take Tomi and just live with the problems because I want him for traps and locks. I can usually keep him mostly alive by building Heal skill and using Heal packs on him a lot. His sneak attacks do come in handy. I don't even bother with the bow, because he won't stay out of melee with it, so he does more sneak attack damage with his blade.

    The OC really shows how the devs were wanting to make a multi-player D&D game, and didn't do that good a job with the single player experience. Later modules for the game, starting with the expansion packs, did a better job, such as allowing you to give your companion better equipment. User created content like "Saga of Aielund" uses hack paks that allow the player to give more detailed commands to companions.

    But you're right that it's frustratingly terrible in the OC. Spellcasters are next to worthless, casting random spells that often have nothing to do with the situation at hand, and are made even worse in that they often start casting in the middle of melee without even activating defensive casting mode.

    Yeah I do all those things. The most important voice command FLEE is shouted at dead ears.

    The AI can never really be good enough. Any time spent on programming AI would be better spent coding in full party control.

    I just can't play NWN in single player. I get it now. Which is really a shame with the potential of infinite replayability.
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