Junior Adventurer's Guild: July: Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir

[Tangerine]

@Eyestabber I want to sacrifice the paladin, but he's a little suspicious of my intentions. He won't join up. Got any ideas?

[Dorateen]

People who run 5-6 custom characters got it right: SoZ is hard and all companions are criminally gimped. Sure they may have illegal amounts of stats, but the feat selection is intentionally retarded way too often.

You and Dorateen have convinced me to try a size 6 party. But how do you get it to stick? When I edit PartyCreationSize for Campaign_X2 in the Toolset and then save the campaign, it reverts back to 4 once I close the Toolset.

You have to find the base module file, I forget which one it was called, but it would open the starting area. That is where you change the party creation size and save it in the toolset. You might have to change the overall party limit to 6 as well. There are 2 different campaign settings.

[1998]

The fuck is that happening? The one month I am basically out it wins

[J1M]

The fuck is that happening? The one month I am basically out it wins

Had to be done. Picking a game that's only 3 years old felt wrong.

[Eyestabber]

Well Frens, I'm here to inform you that Zehir's bitch status has been updated. Here's video evidence of "Eyestabber's Trading and Raping Company" holding Zehir's head into the toilet:



Beat this bitch on the highest difficulty with a Lvl 18 4-man party. No cohorts were ever used during our adventures. So @Oyster Sauce badge me!

And now it's time for...

Employee performance review

We at Eyestabber's Trading and Raping Company value efficiency and commitment above all else. Only the most brutal and relentless rapists are deemed worthy of the privilege of carrying out the company's mission on Toril. To that end, we hold our employees to strict performance standards and encourage continued improvement to their raping capabilities. So, without further delay, let's review the job performance of the crew that proved beyond any doubt that snakes can, in fact, be brutally raped.

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Hugh Gladstone, the Dragon Master Negotiator
Role in the company: frontline tanking and damage dealing
Assignments: hostility termination specialist, crisis negotiation and deliverer of violent rape
Performance: Mr. Gladstone is the perfect embodiment of ETRC's ethos, a brutal murder machine that carried the most combat content from Lvl 1 to Lvl 18. There's a reason why this build is so well known in NWN 2: it works wonders and you would be hard pressed to find a better Fighter for the job. Since crit immune enemies are rare in SoZ, with the Herald himself NOT being immune, this crit-based build shines brightly in the campaign.
Score: 10/10
Notes: I changed the linked build to replace knockdown with Cleave and Great Cleave. Keep in mind that power builds in the wikia are geared towards PvP, so some adjustments should be made for SoZ.

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Ian Badblood, Jack of Many Trades, Master of All
Role in the company: Overland map navigation
Assignments: trap neutralization, wealth acquisition specialist and deliverer of long range, sneaky rape
Performance: despite being new to the company, Mr. Badblood far exceeded The Management™ expectations, delivering outstanding results in his job while also providing valuable assistance to the damage department. Thanks to his efforts, Samarach's dangerous traps and persistent trash mobs were skillfully neutralized and his coworkers all agree Mr. Badblood performed the job of two people all by himself, allowing The Company to save precious resources that would have to be diverted to a 5th person otherwise.
Score: 9/10
Notes: The only reason this build doesn't get a 10 is because I believe it can be further optimized with more STR and a more conservative usage of skill points, leading to full usage of the "Mighty +5" property of his bow (which requires 20 Strength). I think the creator overestimated how much INT is actually needed for a Rogue/Ranger to work.

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Barian Unders, Arcane Gentleman and Scholar
Role in the company: Arcane mastery and area destruction
Assignments: general craftsman and deliverer of magical rape in large areas
Performance: sometimes the simplest solution is the best, as Mr. Unders proved today.
Score: 8/10
Notes: A simple Wizard/ASC with one level of PM because "why not?", this build is essentially a watered down version of the Red Sock, ditching the Red Wizard prestige class in favor of more flexibility and crafting feats. It's a solid base that can definitely be improved upon to maybe include UMD and improve its lacking survivability.

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Aldo Pontyfaith, the Frenzied Stormlord
Role in the company: buffing, healing and frontline combat
Assignments: keeping other employees in fighting shape, coordinating efforts and developing team synergies, helping Mr. Gladstone in his rape spree
Performance: in every group project there's always someone who fails to meet everyone else's expectations and sadly that was the case for Mr. Pontyfaith. While his frontline performance was admirable and beyond what employees with his credentials usually deliver, his supporting capabilities were found to be lacking, especially since he failed to complete the full course of Divine Casting, dropping out at Lvl 7. We are fully confident that Mr. Pontyfaith would've delivered a better performance had the deadline for the assignment been pushed forward, but as it stands the results he showed were...sufficient at best, mediocre at worst. Mr. Pontyfaith will not be terminated at the moment, but he should undergo mandatory training courses going forward.
Score: 6/10
Notes: this build simply needs more time to come online. At Lvl 17 (Earth Genasi means +1 adjustment) we're stuck without level 8 and 9 divine spells, which really suck. In a 5 or 6-man party the level would be even lower, which would be a disaster. To make matters worse, Zehir is fully immune to lightning AND spears can't be made out of Cold Iron or Adamantine for busting DR, which further limits the effectiveness of Stormlords. I think there's a 10/10 Stormlord build for SoZ out there, but this isn't it. Level adjustments just hurt too much for spell casting classes.


OH, AND BEFORE I FORGET: I nominate King Arthur: Knight's Tale for next month's game.

[Finarfin]

There should be a rule that if two people nominate the same game, it gets boosted.

[Acrux]

People who run 5-6 custom characters got it right: SoZ is hard and all companions are criminally gimped. Sure they may have illegal amounts of stats, but the feat selection is intentionally retarded way too often.

You and Dorateen have convinced me to try a size 6 party. But how do you get it to stick? When I edit PartyCreationSize for Campaign_X2 in the Toolset and then save the campaign, it reverts back to 4 once I close the Toolset.

You have to find the base module file, I forget which one it was called, but it would open the starting area. That is where you change the party creation size and save it in the toolset. You might have to change the overall party limit to 6 as well. There are 2 different campaign settings.

Thanks, I went through all the SoZ modules and looked at the scripts, but I couldn't find anything that worked. However, I did find this "SoZ Party Max Override" that does the same thing and you can just drop it into the main Override folder.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... JJqK13_RHw

Now hopefully I'll have some time to actually play soon!

[Eyestabber]

@Eyestabber I want to sacrifice the paladin, but he's a little suspicious of my intentions. He won't join up. Got any ideas?

► Show Spoiler

Don't send an evil character to talk to him. Grykk knows better than to believe evil people, which should be a lesson to us all.

You and Dorateen have convinced me to try a size 6 party. But how do you get it to stick? When I edit PartyCreationSize for Campaign_X2 in the Toolset and then save the campaign, it reverts back to 4 once I close the Toolset.

You have to find the base module file, I forget which one it was called, but it would open the starting area. That is where you change the party creation size and save it in the toolset. You might have to change the overall party limit to 6 as well. There are 2 different campaign settings.

Thanks, I went through all the SoZ modules and looked at the scripts, but I couldn't find anything that worked. However, I did find this "SoZ Party Max Override" that does the same thing and you can just drop it into the main Override folder.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... JJqK13_RHw

Now hopefully I'll have some time to actually play soon!

Wait, did you seriously spend all this time trying to mod the game yourself and only now decided to look up with such a mod already exists...?

Now back on the topic of power building, I messed around with MoTB character creation and I'm confident that a Human Cleric 7/Stormlord 10/Warpriest 1 would perform better than the one I used. Warpriest 1 provides a permanent Bless-like aura without compromising spell progression. I think these auras are very valuable in SoZ since you get jumped right after loading a new map way too often. Pre-buffing is a privilege, not a right in SoZ. Which is why I was really inclined to bring Finch aboard, but ended up not doing so because I took a moment to ponder on the back and forth required to craft another set of gear for a new party member and decided "fuck that". But really, you guys should look into bards, inspirations are juicy and they can become deadly archers with Arcane Archer.

► Show Spoiler

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[Acrux]

Wait, did you seriously spend all this time trying to mod the game yourself and only now decided to look up with such a mod already exists...?

Not exactly. I found it as I was troubleshooting. And it hasn't been a ton of time, maybe a couple of hours.

[J1M]

This LA+2 party turned out to indeed be bullshit. It wasn't so much difficult as it was tedious and catching up on XP due to the ECL calculation wasn't going to happen given the balance between quest and combat XP. I also find it frustrating how the AI uses wastes spell slots so I'm going to create a new party in the extreme other direction. A group that never needs to rest because sleep is for the dead.

1. A Rogue/Ranger/Swashbuckler/Duelist that should be pretty sturdy on the front line and able to cover all of the party's non-crafting skills.

2. Also going to build a full BAB fighter that uses the full BAB prestige classes I've skipped before.

3. Heal bot.

4. Warlock crafter.

[Eyestabber]

This LA+2 party turned out to indeed be bullshit. It wasn't so much difficult as it was tedious and catching up on XP due to the ECL calculation wasn't going to happen given the balance between quest and combat XP

The more I theorycraft, the more I realize NWN 2 was pushing HUMAN SUPREMACY. There are surprisingly few builds that make full usage of the stats provided by ECL adjusted races. In most cases just having that extra feat with no strings attached is simply better, especially given the soft level cap of SoZ. You need Lvl 17 (Wizard, Cleric and druid) and Lvl 18 (Sorcerer, Favored Soul, Spirit Shaman) to reach Lvl 9 spells, so ECL tends to do more harm than good there.

I also find it frustrating how the AI uses wastes spell slots so I'm going to create a new party in the extreme other direction.

Use the AI mod for things like auto-looting and disable spell casting on party members.

A group that never needs to rest because sleep is for the dead.

You may already know this, but you can buy "Alarm Stones" for around a thousand gold. Every stone lets you rest once inside a dungeon.

1. A Rogue/Ranger/Swashbuckler/Duelist that should be pretty sturdy on the front line and able to cover all of the party's non-crafting skills.

I don't know about "sturdy", skill mules need high INT and that cuts into their combat prowess, which is why I made mine into an archer.

2. Also going to build a full BAB fighter that uses the full BAB prestige classes I've skipped before.

I read great things about the Dwarven Defender.

3. Heal bot.

Here's a fun fact: I made use of combat healing a grand total of ONCE in my campaign, during the final fight when my fighter went down shortly before the Herald. The problem stems from the fact that NWN 2 gives us full HP per level, BUT healing spells are not scaled to account for that, so healing is never a good usage of your turn until you unlock Heal and Greater Restoration. The real value of divine casters comes from their buffs IMO. Oh and BTW, forget about Persistent Spell since all buffs are removed as soon as you leave an area.

4. Warlock crafter.

Give the Warlock Buddy a try, it's gonna make your life easier.

[Tangerine]

@Eyestabber I want to sacrifice the paladin, but he's a little suspicious of my intentions. He won't join up. Got any ideas?

► Show Spoiler

Don't send an evil character to talk to him. Grykk knows better than to believe evil people, which should be a lesson to us all.

I had to drop one of my characters temporarily since they were all evil and hired on one of the good pre-mades. The final bonus, once you sacrifice 11 cohorts, is +2 Str, +2 int, and +1 everything else.

[rusty_shackleford]

Some pins in case I get busy over the holidays.

Knight's Tale


Storm of Zehir


Unified look for the Neverwinter Nights series (NWN1, NWN2, Zehir in teal)

Looks like we will need to pick one of these for @Eyestabber. I'm partial to the snake and skull pin for Zehir because I like the color palette and given the stigma surrounding the original campaigns for NWN1 and NWN2 I don't see us nominating them any time soon.

I had to stare at the snake/skull for a bit to figure out what it was

First draft (snake prominent):


Same thing shifted up two pixels to make the skull more prominent:


EDIT: Since someone will ask for it, the one-pixel compromise:


Unified look:


Open to other suggestions.

@Eyestabber

[J1M]

This LA+2 party turned out to indeed be bullshit. It wasn't so much difficult as it was tedious and catching up on XP due to the ECL calculation wasn't going to happen given the balance between quest and combat XP

The more I theorycraft, the more I realize NWN 2 was pushing HUMAN SUPREMACY. There are surprisingly few builds that make full usage of the stats provided by ECL adjusted races. In most cases just having that extra feat with no strings attached is simply better, especially given the soft level cap of SoZ. You need Lvl 17 (Wizard, Cleric and druid) and Lvl 18 (Sorcerer, Favored Soul, Spirit Shaman) to reach Lvl 9 spells, so ECL tends to do more harm than good there.

I also find it frustrating how the AI uses wastes spell slots so I'm going to create a new party in the extreme other direction.

Use the AI mod for things like auto-looting and disable spell casting on party members.

A group that never needs to rest because sleep is for the dead.

You may already know this, but you can buy "Alarm Stones" for around a thousand gold. Every stone lets you rest once inside a dungeon.

1. A Rogue/Ranger/Swashbuckler/Duelist that should be pretty sturdy on the front line and able to cover all of the party's non-crafting skills.

I don't know about "sturdy", skill mules need high INT and that cuts into their combat prowess, which is why I made mine into an archer.

2. Also going to build a full BAB fighter that uses the full BAB prestige classes I've skipped before.

I read great things about the Dwarven Defender.

3. Heal bot.

Here's a fun fact: I made use of combat healing a grand total of ONCE in my campaign, during the final fight when my fighter went down shortly before the Herald. The problem stems from the fact that NWN 2 gives us full HP per level, BUT healing spells are not scaled to account for that, so healing is never a good usage of your turn until you unlock Heal and Greater Restoration. The real value of divine casters comes from their buffs IMO. Oh and BTW, forget about Persistent Spell since all buffs are removed as soon as you leave an area.

4. Warlock crafter.

Give the Warlock Buddy a try, it's gonna make your life easier.

Yeah when I saw an alarm stone I had to re-read it because it sounded too good to be true. Basically like adding a cheat into the game. Especially at a trivial cost.

The intent is to leverage that INT for damage and defense via Insightful Strike and Canny Defense.

Fighter will be 2h supreme cleaver with some Neverwinter Nine splashed in there because I like the concept of it and the 'build' is basically done at level 8.

Fair point about healing and D&D. By heal bot I just mean someone that tops people up between fights so we don't have to rest.

[Tweed]

Are there any kobold mods for this game? There was for NWN.

[Eyestabber]

I choose the "one-pixel compromise" @J1M, @rusty_shackleford. I don't like the unified idea because it disincentives playing every single NWN module, which goes against my agenda. Every NWN experience is unique and they all deserve unique badges.

The intent is to leverage that INT for damage and defense via Insightful Strike and Canny Defense.

Oh right. I completely forgot Duelist was even a thing.

Are there any kobold mods for this game? There was for NWN.

Yes.

[rusty_shackleford]

ok, badge added @Oyster Sauce

[Tweed]

I choose the "one-pixel compromise" @J1M, @rusty_shackleford. I don't like the unified idea because it disincentives playing every single NWN module, which goes against my agenda. Every NWN experience is unique and they all deserve unique badges.

The intent is to leverage that INT for damage and defense via Insightful Strike and Canny Defense.

Oh right. I completely forgot Duelist was even a thing.

Are there any kobold mods for this game? There was for NWN.

Yes.

Maybe this isn't a complete loss after all.

Kobold Patron Deity:
- Kurtulmak.

Meh. His only god-like power is being six feet tall and being really good at digging.

[J1M]

I choose the "one-pixel compromise" @J1M, @rusty_shackleford. I don't like the unified idea because it disincentives playing every single NWN module, which goes against my agenda. Every NWN experience is unique and they all deserve unique badges.

Interesting how much of a difference one row of pixels can make. Strongly oppose this method of selection as setting a precedent but it worked out this month.

[Tadeusz]

Strongly oppose this method of selection as setting a precedent but it worked out this month.

How were the badges selected before?

[Bertram_Tung]

Strongly oppose this method of selection as setting a precedent but it worked out this month.

How were the badges selected before?

it is largely based on whether @Oyster Sauce likes you or not

[Dorateen]

@Oyster Sauce I'd like to hereby request an honorary Storm of Zehir badge when available, for completing the adventure in 2009.

This is the page from the journal recording our party's approach to the Temple of the World Serpent


One of the things I like to do in isometric party games, is to have our rouge scout ahead, while the party remains behind. Often he will come running back, chased by a horde of monsters. This is a screenshot of the line that mentions him shooting Serpentlord Ar'Sulis, and then the yaun-ti crashed through a door going after the halfling.


This is a screenshot of the party standing victorious over Zehir.


A random collection of screenshots taken throughout the course of the adventure.

► Show Spoiler

Meeting Ahri Golemkin


Soliciting Beleuth the Calm, but we had no room in the party for cohorts.


Just an atmospheric screen.


Fighting a dinosaur in Chult


That's me getting up close and personal with a raptor.


Our friend Shamal, that djinn you could summon.


Shamal in battle.


Down in that Underdark bazaar


The Banite Enclave, smiting evil.


More Banites, our ranger kills Fell Emriss


The Final Battle. We divided up and fought Zehir on the balcony, while our paladin ran down to take care of the rest of the yuan-ti. I had activated Defensive Stance, and I recall our cleric would use Righteous Might.


Zehir's corpse.

This game was the crown jewel of the Neverwinter Nights franchise.

[Tangerine]

Completed

► Show Spoiler

Tangerine Ar'piji-aychkyu: Snakeman Rogue/Ranger.

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Orange Baumsteinberg: Jewish Gnome Wizard

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Mandarin D'ahrkee: Nigger Drow Cleric

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Bergamot of clan Jig Gaboo: Abbo Gray Orc Barbarian/Berserker

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Talked shit to a snake god.

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No idea what happened to all those companions that adventured with me. What a mystery.

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Game is so buggy they let you redo your ending because they know it probably broke.

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Thoughts

► Show Spoiler

Good: The dungeons are very short, but I liked that, since no dungeon ever overstayed its welcome/they never felt like a slog. I like temperate European forests as much as the next guy, but jungles are a nice change of scenery for a setting. I appreciate the game lets you explore on your own terms and doesn't guardrail you, allowing you to get into fights that are way over your head.

Break-even: There's a lot of asset/scene recycling. You'll see the same interiors used at least five times. It doesn't bother me, but it might be a turnoff for some. I like the idea of the trade system, but it's not very in-depth. You'll be making millions in gold easily with only a bit of effort.

The Bad: This game is incredibly buggy, with pathfinding/character AI state being the worst offenders. My party would occasionally teleport across the map, but the biggest annoyance was characters ping-ponging between the enemy they're attacking and rallying back to the selected character.

I know this is supposed to be focused more on the adventure than the role playing, but I picked a Yuan-ti pureblood because I was expecting the game to do something with it. It only ever comes up once, and it's when you go the Night's Rest Inn to meet Sa'Sani's agents you've been looking for. Turns out, they're yuan-ti and they reveal she's one too. Which would be fine, except my character is also a yuan-ti and the agents talked about how much of an idiot my character is for not having sensed it. Thanks for making my character retarded so you could keep your twist, game. Later on, Sa'Sani calls me a Scaleless One to my face after I'm done saving the world. Absolute disrespect.

[Dorateen]

One thing people might overlook, SoZ's "mini-dungeons" were a throwback to the side dungeon adventures found in the Gold Box games, starting with Curse of the Azure Bonds, and also featured in Death Knights of Krynn. ((Skullcrusher and Ribsmasher are also Gold Box references.) The expansion took a more oldschool approach, which was welcome at the time of release.

[rusty_shackleford]

The Bad: This game is incredibly buggy,

This is why I'm holding off for the EE. I have zero hopes it will fix anything, tho.

[gravelord]

I haven't played Storm of Zehir since it came out and I have 0 memory of any of the campaign. I had a good time replaying MotB recently but I couldn't stand the main campaign. Time to see how Zehir shapes up.


Meet Montague Dufresne, bard extraordinaire. He drinks, beats his wife, plays in a band that's totally gonna hit it big one day, and serves as the resident skill monkey.


The only stat that matters


And the rest of the party. Basic as fuck, but I don't care for most of the classes in NWN. Wizard, Bard, Cleric, and Int Fighter/Swashbuckler. I would have liked to fit in a ranged specialist somewhere to add a little more meat to the party; for now the Cleric and Fighter are gonna do most of the heavy lifting.

Only now noticing I made three quarters of the party lawful and half of them lawful good. Time to bring civilization to the jungle riffraff.

[methoxetamine]

Would it still count if I play the remaster?

[Oyster Sauce]

Would it still count if I play the remaster?

Yes

[Tangerine]

There's a pre-gen evil female elf ranger named Eviel Whitehunter. Make of that what you will.

[gravelord]

Some random screenshots

► Show Spoiler

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He claims to be dead, but this guy was standing up, bouncing up and down in some kind of kung fu pose.

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Make up your damn mind.

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You got any more of those love potions? This +CHA hat is making me look like a chef.

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This spooky night market is no place for a bunny.

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One of the mind flayers in the market was keeping slaves. I had the option to start an all out brawl to free them. On closer inspection, the slaves are Gnomes.