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

[Eyestabber]

Ok guise, after just 5 hours I have decided my murder machines party:

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Rogue/Ranger skill mule and overland map specialist.

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Cleric/Secondary frontline. Will go Stormlord + Frenzied Berserker

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Classic Dragon Master Negotiator. Main frontline and talker.

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Simple Wizard/Scholar. Also our craftsman.

I may or may not hire a cohort. I think Finch is the strongest candidate, but Quarrel is also a possibility. No ******* since I already have a OL guy.

[Dorateen]

Here was a screenshot of our six character party, washed up on the beach in the rain.



Ranger, Paladin of Tyr, Dwarven Defender, Cleric of Lathander, Wizard and Rogue.

As mentioned above, XP is divided among the party, so having two extra characters is not necessarily an advantage. We leveled more slowly, creating some challenging encounters to run into.

[TheEmptyRoad]

What do y’all mean by an overland character? Like, a Ranger who guides through forest trails and makes you travel faster? Can this role be combined with one of the four basic food groups? (Fighter/Rogue/Wizard/Cleric)

[Eyestabber]

What do y’all mean by an overland character? Like, a Ranger who guides through forest trails and makes you travel faster? Can this role be combined with one of the four basic food groups? (Fighter/Rogue/Wizard/Cleric)

Yes and yes. Whenever you leave a map you enter the overland map. In this mode only one character's skills are considered:

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The character selected is my Rogue/Ranger. His skills will be checked against overland map encounters, most notably:

Spot OR Listen: detects enemy mobs (the higher value is checked, you don't need both)
Hide OR Move Silently: prevents mobs from aggroing on you
Survival: negates movement penalty for bad terrain. No effect on roads

Theoretically any of the four archetypes can handle these checks so long as you cover all bases in a single character. Multiclass + Able learner is your friend, but classes like Ranger, Druid and Barbarian have a clear edge since they have all you need in their class kit. In other news:

nwn2main_override_i2SlfBrv0U.png

About an hour and half into the game and I made this for my fighter with my lvl 6 Wizard. His Full Plate is also +1, Cleric has a similar spear and even Rogue has a +1 bow. I love NWN 2 crafting.

[J1M]

That's top notch advice.

Survival combined with Track on the map also increases the range you can detect enemies.

[Tangerine]

You're going to want to get magic weapons as soon as possible, since you run into wraiths and other enemies that require them pretty quick.

[Nooneatall]

Should I wait until the enhanced edition on July 15th or just go download it from GOG? I played vanilla like more than a decade ago.

[Tadeusz]

Should I wait until the enhanced edition on July 15th or just go download it from GOG? I played vanilla like more than a decade ago.

You may look into the topic for NWN2 EE: viewtopic.php?t=4237-neverwinter-nights ... ed edition
It may come with better compatibility with modern systems but, knowing modern devs, it will probably be bloated, unoptimized and censored.

[Eyestabber]

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Hello, old friend! I missed you! :')

[rusty_shackleford]

Hello, old friend! I missed you! :')

Huh, that means he always survives the end of the base campaign. Didn't know that.
There's no save import, right?

[Tadeusz]

There's no save import, right?

► Show Spoiler

Yes, Khelgar always survives in the lore. Neeshka and Sand can survive too if they are by your side in the end. There are some rumors in SoZ though that hint that other may have survived too. Casavir is confirmed I think.

[Nooneatall]

Should I wait until the enhanced edition on July 15th or just go download it from GOG? I played vanilla like more than a decade ago.

You may look into the topic for NWN2 EE: viewtopic.php?t=4237-neverwinter-nights ... ed edition
It may come with better compatibility with modern systems but, knowing modern devs, it will probably be bloated, unoptimized and censored.

I stopped playing the GOG version because it kept crashing

[rusty_shackleford]

Should I wait until the enhanced edition on July 15th or just go download it from GOG? I played vanilla like more than a decade ago.

You may look into the topic for NWN2 EE: viewtopic.php?t=4237-neverwinter-nights ... ed edition
It may come with better compatibility with modern systems but, knowing modern devs, it will probably be bloated, unoptimized and censored.

I stopped playing the GOG version because it kept crashing

The game was notoriously buggy when it was released, was never really fixed. Main reason I always wanted an EE for it and am hoping that fixes the issues.

[rusty_shackleford]

Got flashbacks to me trying to play the base NWN2 campaign and it barely worked, all the characters would be invisible, repeated crashes


ATI drivers were something

[rusty_shackleford]

The character selected is my Rogue/Ranger. His skills will be checked against overland map encounters, most notably:

Spot OR Listen: detects enemy mobs (the higher value is checked, you don't need both)
Hide OR Move Silently: prevents mobs from aggroing on you
Survival: negates movement penalty for bad terrain. No effect on roads

Theoretically any of the four archetypes can handle these checks so long as you cover all bases in a single character. Multiclass + Able learner is your friend, but classes like Ranger, Druid and Barbarian have a clear edge since they have all you need in their class kit. In other news:

Do the skills have to all be on the same character?

[Tadeusz]

I stopped playing the GOG version because it kept crashing

Understandable. Have you tried a client extension? https://neverwintervault.org/project/nw ... -extension
I didn't have problems with crashes but I had a problem with jerky character movements and this extension fixed it.

[Acrux]

If anyone is having trouble with stuttering animations, there's apparently a bug if you haven't restarted your computer in the past day. There's a fix from Jade Empire that work with NWN2 also. Just drop the dll into the top folder.

https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/file ... utter-fix/

[J1M]

The character selected is my Rogue/Ranger. His skills will be checked against overland map encounters, most notably:

Spot OR Listen: detects enemy mobs (the higher value is checked, you don't need both)
Hide OR Move Silently: prevents mobs from aggroing on you
Survival: negates movement penalty for bad terrain. No effect on roads

Theoretically any of the four archetypes can handle these checks so long as you cover all bases in a single character. Multiclass + Able learner is your friend, but classes like Ranger, Druid and Barbarian have a clear edge since they have all you need in their class kit. In other news:

Do the skills have to all be on the same character?

The three map skills do need to be on the character you select as lead while exploring the overworld map. You can, but don't need to, also pile on the rogue stuff like search and disable device. From what I've read, crafting skills, spells, and feats can be spread across the party.

[methoxetamine]

Any recommended mods? I'm eyeing the texture pack and UI resolution pack

[Tangerine]

I've been feeding One of Many my more swarthy cohorts for easy XP. I don't see how this could possibly backfire on me.

[Eyestabber]

I've been feeding One of Many my more swarthy cohorts for easy XP. I don't see how this could possibly backfire on me.

Perfect usage for almost all cohorts. This playthrough changed my mind on the party limit mod. 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 ******** way too often.

My trading company is printing money. Soon gold will be a non-issue. I'm at Lvl 13 and about to recruit Finch the Bard. My mage unlocked the full crafting options (20+ craft weapons/armor + craft magical arms armor + craft wonderous items feats). Here's something fun: it's been a very long time, but if I remember correctly the OC crafting system works in SoZ. Benches in SoZ should not allow you to place anything in them BUT if you go inside your trading post in any town you will see "old" benches. I might do some testing, but I won't use this method since it's pretty much an exploit.

EDIT: rewritten post since the original was written in bed, on a phone and under the effect of sleeping pills. Congratz to anyone who managed to understand it.

[Eyestabber]

Wrote a mini-guide on the crafting system of Storm of Zehir. Didn't finish the game yet, but I needed a place to write down a couple findings.

viewtopic.php?p=274024-nwn-2-storm-of-z ... de#p274024

EDIT: I CAN CONFIRM THAT NWN 2 OC RECIPES WORK IN STORM OF ZEHIR, YAAAAAAI!!!

[Tangerine]

I've been feeding One of Many my more swarthy cohorts for easy XP. I don't see how this could possibly backfire on me.

Perfect usage for almost all cohorts. This playthrough changed my mind on the party limit mod. 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 ******** way too often.

My trading company is printing money. Soon gold will be a non-issue. I'm at Lvl 13 and about to recruit Finch the Bard. My mage unlocked the full crafting options (20+ craft weapons/armor + craft magical arms armor + craft wonderous items feats). Here's something fun: it's been a very long time, but if I remember correctly the OC crafting system works in SoZ. Benches in SoZ should not allow you to place anything in them BUT if you go inside your trading post in any town you will see "old" benches. I might do some testing, but I won't use this method since it's pretty much an exploit.

EDIT: rewritten post since the original was written in bed, on a phone and under the effect of sleeping pills. Congratz to anyone who managed to understand it.

It turns out feeding cohorts to One of Many gets you stat buffs. The first tier is +1 Str, +1 int. Now I definitely don't see a way this will backfire and continue to feed the beast.

[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 ******** 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.

[Eyestabber]

UPDATE: IT WAS NOT, IN FACT, BEST IN SLOT according to my tests against Zehir.

Ok boys, the preparations for Zehir are complete. This is what I believe to be best in slot, or very close to BiS gear:

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The gear goes head / cloak / armor / gloves / belt / boots / weapon / necklace / ring / ring
Rogue: +6 INT / +4 all resistances / Mithral Chain Shirt +4 with fire and cold res / +6 DEX / +6 STR / +6 CON / +3 Longbow with Mighty and Holy + Cold Iron Arrows with Axiomatic, Outsider Bane and Sonic damage / +3 Natural Armor / +3 Protection / 20 Electrical resistance

Edit: everywhere I looked online said "vs X" enchantments are supposed to stack with each other, but they clearly don't. Zehir is a Chaotic Evil Outsider and yet I never dealt more than 12 magical damage to him, which means only 2d6 were being rolled. The moral of the story is simple: don't put more than one enchantment that deals "2d6 magical damage vs creature type".

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Wizard: +6 INT / +4 all resistances / Grey Robe of the Archmagi (there's better stuff to be had) / Bracers of Armor +8 / +6 DEX / +6 CON /whatever / +3 Natural AC / +3 protection / whatever

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Cleric: whatever / +4 all resistances / Mithral Full Plate +4 with cold and fire res / +6 DEX / +6 STR / +6 CON / +3 Spear with Holy and Axiomatic / +6 WIS / +3 protection / 20 Electrical resistance (YES, Stormlords become immune at level 9, but I'm done grinding)

Edit: same problem the archer ran into. Don't bother with axiomatic, evil is a billion times more common than chaotic.

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Fighter: whatever / +4 all resistances / Mithral Full Plate with acid and cold res (RDD is immune to fire) / +6 DEX / +6 STR / +6 CON / +3 Cold Iron Falchion with Holy and Keen / +3 Natural Armor / +3 Protection / 20 Electrical Resistance

Edit: Keen and the "improved criticals" feat do the same thing, so once your level is high enough to take the feat you should replace keen with sonic damage. Contrary to widespread belief online, they do not stack.

[J1M]

No doubt you will wipe the floor with the final boss, the reports of its difficulty are exaggerated.

[J1M]

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.

[rusty_shackleford]

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

[J1M]

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.

[Tadeusz]

I like unified NWN logos and NWN2 was nominated in June. Perhaps the first to complete SoZ may have the privilege to choose the badge.