So I picked up the whole Neverwinter Nights 2 Platinum Collection Batch or whatever for my new computer. It's fun, but I know a way to make it more fun. And that is to play the expansion with friends.
So the expansion I'm talking about is Storm of Zehir. It's different from the rest of the Neverwinter Nights campaigns you can play, because it doesn't focus on a single player character with a bunch of cohorts. Rather, it's about a whole party, like those old D&D games. It has a bunch of neat features, like allowing you to switch between party members mid-conversation, which is good because different party members will have different things to say, some quite amusing. It's got a free-roaming overworld map, where you can find all sorts of hidden goodies and random events. It's got an interesting trading system, supposedly, but I haven't experienced it yet.
Oh, and it's got a plot there somewhere, too.
So I'm going to need six brave(or cowardly) adventurers to make up the party. My selection will be totally arbitrary, and I might even make a character of my own, so try to make some interesting characters. Or failing that, make anti-interesting characters that are so generic that they collapse into themselves and become a comedy-singularity. If I don't get any interesting characters I'll have to pick up some of the cohorts I can recruit, but they're kind of one-dimensional. Even the awesome bro-druid with the dinosaur companion doesn't have much character beyond that description.
Now, in order to create a character, you'll need to make a few choices:
Name: No explanation should be necessary.
Gender: Male or Female.
Race: Not ethnicity, but species. There's quite a few options:
Dwarf: Split up in the stereotypically dwarven Shield Dwarves, the slightly more magical and less gruff Gold Dwarves, and the evil and level-adjusted Grey Dwarves, AKA Duergar.
Elf: Oh god, there's too many. There's the Moon Elves, pretty much your usual elf, and the Sun Elves that get a bonus to intelligence instead of dexterity. There's the Wild Elves, who are tougher and less civilized, and Wood Elves, who are stronger yet frailer than the Wild Elves. Finally, there's the Drow, evil elves with a painful level-adjustment.
Gnome: Short folk intended for comic relief. There's the typical Rock Gnomes who are surprisingly tough little buggers, and the Deep Gnomes(Svirfneblin), who have a whopping three levels of level-adjustment.
Halfling: Like Hobbits, but without the lawsuits. The Lightfoot Halflings are the standard ones, but Stronghearts are superior in every way because they get an extra feat instead of a luck bonus. And that extra feat can, in fact, replicate said luck bonus if you want.
Half-Elf: Humans breed with everything. That said, you can be either a Half-Elf or a Half-Drow. There's no appreciable difference stat-wise.
Half-Orc: Big. Strong. Stupid. At least, that's the stereotype.
Human: Adaptable little blighters. Can breed with just about everything. They get extra skill points and one extra feat as well.
Planetouched: As I said, humans breed with everything. Even with beings from beyond this plane of existence. Planetouched are more diluted than half-breeds, but they all have a level adjustment for their power. The Aasimar are part-angel, and are well-suited to divinity-powered classes. The Tieflings are part-demon or part-fiend, and are better at (evil)things like (evil)wizardry and (evil)sneaking around. The four types of Genasi correspond to the four classical elements: Air, Earth, Water and Fire. They all have a penalty to charisma because of their weirdness.
Yuan-Ti Pureblood: For some reason, this is an option. The Yuan-ti are evil lizard people who get nothing but positive stat bonuses and a bunch of abilities, so they have two levels of level adjustment. They also have some plot-relevance in this game, so tread carefully if you pick this race.
Gray Orc: Not quite the same as a regular orc, having a bonus to their wisdom score. They're just as stupid, but they make just as good clerics as barbarians. They have a level-adjustment, too.
Level adjustment, for those that don't know, basically means that a race needs more experience to level up. A first level character with a level-adjustment of one will need to have enough experience to reach level three to advance to level 2, then enough XP to get to level 4 to reach level 3 and so on. High LA is not that fun, although it is survivable.
There are twelve base classes and innumerable prestige classes. I'll just post the base classes for now, along with some of their features.
Barbarian: Big and tough meatshields. Get angry and hit stuff hard. Have some useful skills like survival, intimidate, taunt, listen and craft skills. They cannot be lawful.
Bard: Jacks of all trades, they can fight a little, cast some spells, and play music. They have a variety of crafting, social and thievery skills, plus Use Magic Device. Oh, and they can't be lawful.
Cleric: Standard heal-bitch. Servant of the Gods. Can also buff themselves into a CoDzilla, or buff other people too. Oh, and turn undead. They also get some power or the other from their selected "spheres" of power. Have crafting skills, Diplomacy and Heal.
Druid: The nature-based spellcaster. Less healing and more shapeshifting than the Cleric. Has to worship a god in this game. Has a bunch of skills like Diplomacy, Heal, Spot and Survival. They have to be at least a little neutral.
Favored Soul: The sorcerer of the divine spellcasters. Learns only a few spells, but casts them more often. They get by without the studies and meditation of clerics and are slightly more martial, getting free proficiency and specialization in their deity's favored weapon. Has crafting skills, diplomacy and heal.
Fighter: Bog-standard meatshield. Gets extra feats from a small list. Has some crafting skills and intimidate. Pretty much just multiclassing fodder.
Monk: Unarmed fighter that doesn't fit in at all with the setting, really. Still pretty decent, especially with all the monk-specific equipment they can get. It's best not to multiclass when going monk because they constantly benefit from progressing further. They have to be lawful, although they can sneak around.
Paladin: Lawful Good servants of the Gods. They can do some divine healing and spellcasting, but their real power is their ability to SMITE AND CLEAVE EVIL. They have some useful skills, too, but precious few skillpoints.
Ranger: They sneak about and hunt whoever their favored enemy is, fighting with either two swords or a bow. They also get an animal companion and some divine spellcasting, like a mini-druid. They have lots of useful skills like crafting, hide, move silently, listen, spot, search and survival, making quite good party leaders.
Rogue: Skillmonkeys. They sneak attack and make reflex saves well, but their focus is their skills. They get social skills, crafting skills, hiding skills, thieving skills and Use Magic Device, as well as more skillpoints than anyone else. They also make excellent party leaders, lacking only survival skills.
Sorcerer: Sorcerers bend the universe to their will with nothing but an affinity for magic and raw will. They can cast spells often, but they can only learn a few.
Spirit Shaman: What, did you think Wizard was next? These guys are kinda like Native American shamans, I guess, having abilities useful against spirits. There aren't many spirits around here though, but they can cast some divine spells like druids, as well as having a few skills like druids.
Swashbuckler: Favoring agility over strength, they wield light weapons while wearing light armor and in general imitating that particular breed of movie protagonist. They have some skills too, like crafting and Diplomacy.
Warlock: Nope, not a Wizard. They're like even more extreme versions of a sorcerer, and get their power from the depths of hell itself. They have unlimited uses of their magic, but they don't get access to conventional magic. Instead, they use eldritch blasts, which are mostly just direct-damage spells. They're also a lot tougher than your usual squishy wizard, wearing light armor and even getting damage reduction. They have some useful skills like Use Magic Device, but precious few skillpoints. Finally, they must be either evil, chaotic or both.
Wizard: Finally, the last base class. The typical wizard is a robe-staff-pointy-hat deal, who can learn a great deal many spells but only memorize a few to cast at any given time. They can specialize in a certain school of magic, although that bars them from another school. They also get some bonus magic feats, as well as having useful crafting skills but hardly any skillpoints.
From Good to Evil and from Lawful to Chaotic. Or just say "Ah, screw it" and be neutral on one or both axes. Make sure your class allows it is all I ask.
God: There's a great deal many, so unless it's important to your concept you can ignore this part.
Concept: Finally, what sort of character is this? There's many ways to build any one class, some being better than others, but ultimately it's possible to beat this game with nothing but bards so feel free to pick something silly. This is probably the most important part, so put some effort in it. In fact, you should probably start here, despite the fact that I put it down here. If you have a you're not sure how to represent your concept within the race-class-alignment system, feel free to leave those fields empty, so long as you write something here.
Now, there are some roles I'd like to have in the party. You can take on more than one role, and you don't need to take on any. Having multiples of any one role is fine, except for the position of party leader maybe. Just pick whatever you think goes well with your concept:
Party Leader: Someone to lead the part on the world map. May or may not actually lead the party; he's just the guy that makes the skill checks. He'll need a lot of skills, like spot and listen to detect monsters and treasure, hide and move silently in case we want to avoid aforementioned monsters, and survival so the part can move faster. This would probably be a ranger, rogue, or a rangerogue.
Talky Guy: Yes, this is distinct from Party Leader, though you can take both roles. Someone with a bunch of conversation skills and aprpraise. Could be a rogue or a bard.
Thief: Opens locks, disarms traps and possibly even scouts ahead of the party. Most likely a rogue.
Meatshield: Someone who can soak the hits, whether through armor, dodging or just plain taking damage. Hitting back optional but preferred.
Blaster: Some spellcaster that focuses on offensive spells, whether divine or arcane. To tell the truth, not having one won't make the game unbeatable, but hey, blasting people across the room with a great big fireball is fun.
Heal-Bitch: Medic! Medic! It's a thankless job, but someone's gotta do it. Well, not really, this game is doable without one. But it's much easier with one.
Buffer: Someone who helps other people do their jobs better, with magic. The Blaster, Heal-Bitch and Buffer are all easy to cross, although having a pure generalist will make you a bit less effective.
Crafters: Craft Alchemy, Craft Weapon, Craft Armor and Craft Trap are all skills I like using, some more than others though. Many classes have one or more of those skills, so you could have a barbarian forging his own sword or a wizard making himself some thunderstones.
Enchanters: Spellcasters with various 'Create X' feats, mostly Create Wondrous Items and Create Magical Arms and Armor. Since you need to cast a specific spell to enchant an item, it's best to have a spellcaster with a wide array of spells rather than a sorcerer-styled one. Warlocks need not apply, I'm afraid.
So, are you interested? You'd better be after reading all this. Unless you skipped all the way to the end or something, in which case, shame on you. To help you with character creation, here is a summary of what you need to post:
Name:
Gender:
Race:
Class:
God: (Optional)
Concept: (Must have)
Role/s: (Optional)
Author
Topic: Let's Play NWN2: Storm of Zehir (Read 2159 times)