Well, I have Gowan Oakheart (cheese name for the cheese build), a chaotic good shield dwarf now at 8th level: 4 fighter / 1 bard / 3 RDD. He’s using a scythe for its 4x critical and threat range. Will probably forego the frenzied berserker for 5 levels in Neverwinter Nine. . .just seems cooler to me. I haven’t had improved critical available to him yet, but he’s taken weapon focus, knockdown, power attack, cleave, and greater cleave so far. Hoping improved crit is there at 9th level, though I’m not sure if it has pre-reqs. His strength is now at 22 without items, giving him like a +12 to hit with a +1 scythe.
You’ll definitely have requirements for the Neverwinter Nine class when it becomes available, and it isn’t a bad choice to finish out the build by any means. The power attack feats aren’t quite as good if you’re not going with Frenzied Berserker, though they’re still a reasonable feat investment.
Man, I really can’t wait for the PRC2 to come out with their huge list of new base and prestige classes. Bard is so lame when I could be choosing Hexblade or another spontaneous casting class to be a Dragon Disciple of my own color choice.
This game has stunningly bad party AI – it would be better if they did nothing. Am I missing some trick to making it work for me?
Well, you can turn it off. That worked for me :)
I’d suggest giving the AI mod that’s out there (look in the “Fun Stuff for your NWN2” thread) a try for something better. :)
Gowan is now 4 fighter/ 1 bard / 10 red dragon disciple. He’s sporting a 33 strength, which will soon be a 38 once he hits 16th and finds a king’s tear so as to craft that +8 belt (wearing +4 now). I thought my 20 monk had nice dmg output, but when this guy crits he’s in the triple digits. Very nice.
Just need something better than this +2 scythe. The strategy guide lists a Death’s Handmaiden, but not sure if that’s a drop or can be bought from a merchant. Will probably just craft a +5 scythe and put some bonus effects on it.
I was playing this morning and Khelgar’s astral blade somehow turning into a +1 club. I think there are still some unfortunate bugs…
What’s weird is that he started the fight with a blade and then I suddenly noticed his animations had changed.
The door! Get away from the door!
Bugs in NWN2? Yeah, there are a few, but it’s not bad.
The door! Get away from the door!
Mostly, it’s got the same quality control issues that plague all new releases these days.
The door! Get away from the door!
Really, considering the scope and technology of the game, it was a pretty playable release.
The door! Get away from the door!
I just picked NWN2 up, judging that it’s patched enough to play at this point, and was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to build a warlock. I’m very interested in a spellcaster not using the spells memorised mechanic, and I also have a weakness for warlock/necromancer classes in most games, as they usually have interesting mechanics compared to the warrior/mage/healer staples.
I presume that the Cha focus is for increasing DCs of my invocations, but why the DEX focus? The game also doesn’t make it very clear which mage-related skills/feats do appply to a warlock and which don’t. I guess concentration works, and all the spell enhancement metamagic feats don’t but other than that, I’m a bit lost.
DEX is so that you can actually hit things with your Eldritch Blast attack. As for the mage-related feats, not sure. I haven’t done much with warlocks–except splash a couple levels to other characters for their superb buffs.
Gowan got invited into the Neverwinter Nine and is now sporting a tunic with that symbol on his chest. Sad that I geeked out over that, took a screenshot with my character sheet up (C key), and made it my desktop’s background.
I’ll probably start over and play a 4th time with a wood elf ranger/arcane archer. Might wait for the 1.04 patch to see if NPC AI is improved so I can leave puppet mode off and just hang back and fire away while they engage (hopefully semi-intelligently) the enemy.
SPOILER QUESTION for Chapter 1
I’m at the “Old Owl Well” part of the game, in chapter 1 - the walkthrough I referenced for something or other told me to do the “dwarven scouts” encounter for Khelgar before I move on to chapter 2. Problem is, I have no dwarven scouts map location and neither of the gamefaqs walkthroughs mention it other than to say I should do it (and how to do it).
It seems I should have it by now according to the guides, but I don’t - what do I need to do to get this side quest? I’ve talked to Khelgar to no avail.
Spoilers for Backov:
I believe I first saw the dwarven scouts location appear on my map after visiting Old Owl Well for the first time. Talk to everyone there and see if it triggers. If not, try doing the first of the orc series of quests.
Another possibility: did you talk to the monks in Neverwinter about Khelgar’s desire to change classes? The scouts are part of that arc, and perhaps it won’t occur until you visit the temple.
Warlocks are primarily support in NWN2. Their damage output is only so-so, but they can spam DC 30+ effects like slow, daze, confusion, charm, and blindness at will. As far as casters go, they are also very hardy with a d6 hit die, ability to wear light armor without arcane spell failure, a regeneration ability, damage reduction, and excellent saving throws. The bad news is that for some reason, Obsidian socked it to all of the warlock’s high-end invocations. It’s really mindboggling, considering how frequently wizards and sorcerers can rest and regain their spells, that the few dark invocations warlocks get have been nerfed so badly for fear that they’d be overpowered. That doesn’t stop them from being pretty badass with the right build, though.
As an aside, there are overrides on the NWVault that revert many of the warlock’s invocations back to their PnP levels of greatness for purists and munchkins alike.
Here’s a fun invinci-lock build, your 5 attribute points distributed as shown:
Race: Human (or Aasimar if you want a higher CHA)
Alignment: Any evil
STR: 12 (+1)
DEX: 12
CON: 14
INT: 10
WIS: 8
CHA: 18 (+4)
You’ll want to get Leaps and Bounds to compensate for the low DEX until you can get gear that boosts it. If you’d rather, you can take two points out of CON and put them in DEX instead. It’d make starting out easier. You’ll eventually want to buy or craft the best CHA-boosting gear you can as well.
The goal is to take all warlock levels except for two levels of blackguard mixed in as early as you can. Blackguard’s Dark Blessing stacks with the Dark One’s Own Luck invocation, meaning all of your saves will be 30+ at the end, rendering you more or less immune to most spells. You’ll need the 13 STR for power attack + cleave feats, 5 points in Hide, and an evil alignment until you pick up the blackguard levels. With a reflex save that high, don’t forget to buy a Ring of Improved Evasion to nullify a lot of direct damage spells and most traps. You’ll miss out on a few high level warlock abilities if you do this, including one 4th tier invocation. There are only two decent top-tier invocations anyways, so it isn’t so much of a big deal. On the plus side, blackguard gives you the medium armor proficiency, so you can take battle caster and wear medium armor–or heavy mithril armor–without arcane spell failure. Throw in some regeneration items and the innate fiendish resilience class ability and this build gets pretty hard to kill. Flip on defensive casting and spam away.
As for feats, Spellcasting Prodigy works for warlocks, boosting the DC of their eldritch essence effects. Spell Penetration and Greater Spell Penetration both work for your eldritch blast for overcoming spell resistance. Combat Casting applies to warlocks using defensive casting as well. The crafting feats technically work in combination with Use Magic Device, since you can use scrolls to fulfill crafting recipes. The problem is that the caster level of scroll-based spells maxes out at 10, prohibiting you from doing the really good recipes. You’re probably better off letting the wizard do the crafting. Unfortunately, that’s about it for warlocks. They got shafted for feats. You’re stuck taking things like Toughness, Skill Focus (Concentration), and Improved Initiative.
Warlocks in PnP have superior mobility (unlimited Flight and later unlimited Dimension Doors), making them perfect skirmishers (explains the DEX focus I think).
All that is gone in NWN2 though, so I dunno what to make of them. I guess getting a mithril Full Plate and be a tanking nuker (get Battlecaster and Medium Armor Proficiency, maybe 1 Level of Barbarian)?
Edit: Curses, too slow!
Been thinking about my 4th build since Gowan is approaching the game’s end. Probably going to go with a male tiefling, blue skin, yellow eyes (no, won’t give him Nightcrawler as a name <g>) rogue. I’ll have to look at the prestige classes of assassin, shadow thief, etc., but was looking for some tips to build an uber rogue/assassin class. I’m looking at feats like dual weapons, improved dual, dodge, mobility, weapon finesse, etc, but definitely open to suggestions.
I never liked playing dwarves.
I always thought there should be separate human subraces for the northern barbarians and the eastern desert dwellers, etc. that just does +1/-1 at max plus very low +%/-% for resistances (ie Uthgar gets +5% frost resistance, -5% fire resistance).
In NWN 1, I loved rogue / shadowdancers, as Hide in Plain Sight was incredibly useful (i.e., insanely overpowered, effectively free invisibility). NWN 2 nerfs SDs incredibly, but HiPS is still useful if you’ve got high stealth scores and light armor. I usually go with high DEX dual-wielders to maximize sneak attacks, though I’d like to try a rogue / duelist at some point.