NWN2: Discussion

[Dark_Raven]

If I had a choice I would leave Bishop for dead.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I would chunk him myself and that bitch Qara.

[Sand]

Qara is actually very useful.

 

Bishop is NWN2's G0-T0.

[Dark_Raven]

She is useful for carrying loot and casting spells. Her attitude rubs me the wrong way.

[Darque]

I thought everything rubs you the wrong way.

 

 

I kid.. I kid..

[Atreides]

Qara is actually very useful.

 

Bishop is NWN2's G0-T0.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I actually kind of like Bishop. He's definately not as annoyng as G0-T0.

[Deraldin]

I just had the game crash three times in the past 20 minutes. Once when attempting to beat up the first group of thugs that come after Neeshka. Once when the game seemed to lose the textures for all the little icons (quickspell, quickslots, character pictures, targeted item, queued actions and mode bar) during a fight while halping out the watch. And another time while beating up the same thugs as during the first crash, but this time it just froze right after the fight began. Maybe I should roll back to 1.01. <_<

[Volourn]

Poiosn, disease, level drain,a nd other stuff like that, I almsot always laugh at. It's so easy to defend against or fix. Why are people so scared about such wussy stuff?

[Pop]

I remember level drain being a problem in BG2 because it would erase spell memorizations, such that if you didn't protect your spellcasters, you'd have to re-list your spells after every fight. I'm not sure if that's the case in NWN2. It would also reduce the abilites of your fighters right quick, if they got rushed. The NWN system doesn't make it nearly as debilitating. Greater undead are comparitively easy to handle.

 

In the crypts prior to getting Elanee, poison and disease are an annoyance, as no one has spells that can counter them (expensive potions are the only recourse). But the rest / death system being what it is, they're of absolutely no consequence for the rest of the game. They don't even complicate combat all that much. It makes one nostalgic for the days when a mutated spider's venom could actually kill a party member. Hell, it makes one nostalgic for untrivial RPG death. The worst poison or disease does is reduce strength such that they become encumbered.

[Wistrik]

I thought everything rubs you the wrong way.

 

 

I kid.. I kid..

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Apparently Jeanette doesn't.

 

I thought my female warlock was going to look special throughout the game. Then I replaced her default armor with something more useful and now she looks like everyone else. So much for originality. Her blasts are too weak to be very useful at level 5. She kills faster with a quarterstaff, which I end up using because the enemies close for melee before she can usually launch a second blast. In a way I feel like I'm playing a Diablo 2 sorceress again, though at least her firebolt can kill in one hit by the time she's level 3. There are times I really miss SSI's awesome turn-based D&D battles.

 

I may go back to playing Half-Life 2 this weekend. I need to play something with FPS greater than 3 at 1680x1050, and with generally nicer graphics. Plus I love racing around in the airboat and dune buggy, though the airboat maps are my favorites. Alyx is probably better looking than most NWN2 characters, and she has better moves. I also like that everyone's mouth moves right. Kudos to the HL2 animators. Not bad for a game that's a few years old now, though Episode 2 will crank things up a few notches when it comes out next year. Fast zombies are scarier than anything I've seen in NWN2. I always get nervous when I hear them scream in the distance, and Ravenholm is awesome to play in with the lights out and the sound cranked.

[aVENGER]

In the crypts prior to getting Elanee, poison and disease are an annoyance, as no one has spells that can counter them (expensive potions are the only recourse).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Actually, you can get Elanee before going to the graveyard if you head straight to Highcliff from Fort Locke. I accidentally did this on my very first playthrough and I've been using that little trick ever since. :cool:

 

 

Her blasts are too weak to be very useful at level 5. She kills faster with a quarterstaff, which I end up using because the enemies close for melee before she can usually launch a second blast.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I usually snipe the enemies from across the screen with Eldrich Spear+Draining Blast and by the time it takes them to reach me half of them are already dead or badly injured. The rest usually succumb to a slew of AoOs as they ignorantly run past Elanee and Khelgar who act as my front liners. :ph34r:

[Atreides]

Yay I finally finished the game! Actually clicking on the final portal was pretty hard.

[Darque]

Congrats. :joy:

[Darque]

In the crypts prior to getting Elanee, poison and disease are an annoyance, as no one has spells that can counter them (expensive potions are the only recourse).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Umm.... no.

 

You can use first aid kits to remove both.

[Noceur]

Man, I still haven't finished it. I'm on my third character though (monkey grip half-orc now, hehe).

 

I keep making new characters when I reach mid/end chapter 3 for some reason.

[Noceur]

I thought everything rubs you the wrong way.

 

 

I kid.. I kid..

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Apparently Jeanette doesn't.

 

I thought my female warlock was going to look special throughout the game. Then I replaced her default armor with something more useful and now she looks like everyone else. So much for originality.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yeah, the starting kit for the Warlock (female) is the coolest looking armor... I really hated to replace it.

[Spider]

poison can do more than constitution damage, and cure disease during battle is not always so easy to pull off... nwn2 disease incubation periods seems to take rounds rather than hours or days.  more than once we seen disease incubate while battle were still continuing.  poison, disease and level drain is all a real pain for Gromnir, though level drain is worstest.

 

Like I said, I have no respect for poison or disease and only a little for level drain. If poison does do more than con damage, then that is after an incubation period as well which typically incurs after a fight is over. And yes, disease is counted in rounds so that can actually come into play, but you also get a fortitude save so it may also do nothing. Most of the time, it has a marginal effect on any given fight at best (and no, I don't let my sick characters die just so they'll be rid of it).

 

elanee, the only priest available til more than mid-way through game, is a druid, not a cleric.  as such she cannot cast full restoration.  she gots access to lesser restoration and neutralize poison and cure disease, but those are all 3rd level spells... same level as call lightning.  do you honestly load elanee up with cure disease, lesser restoration, and neutralize poison if you not know you is gonna need those spells? 

 

Lesser Restoration, the only spell needed to be cast in combat when under the effect of both disease and poison (will remove the bad effects and most likely the fight will be over before they appear again, if they do) is level 2, not three. Remove disease can be applied after a fight so it's only a rest away. Typically my level 3 list for Elanee is one or two Call Lightnings, a bunch of cure serious wounds and maybe something else. But it depends on whether or not I have Qara in the party. If Qara is present, Elanee doesn't need to be a nuker and becomes a crappy healer instead. Although she can be made into a decent tank.

 

in any event, auto-ressurect seriously nerfs game.  whatever rationalizations roshan or spider wants to use

 

I've already conceded this point. The fights are easier when you don't need to worry about every single party member. And yes, a lot of our different perspectives comes from you wanting to protect everyone and me following the rules of the game. I still prefer a game that allows resurrection to have auto-res, but I do recognize that fights should be made tougher if that is the case. NWN2 only goes half way it seems, fights on the level of BG2 but with auto-res. While it should be something more like fights on the level of BG2 Tactics and auto-res.

 

I still would prefer to have no resurrection at all though.

[Jorian Drake]

I still would prefer to have no resurrection at all though.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

resurrection is part of most fantasy worlds, and first of those are DnD ones, BUT not like this, characters should normally die, and then a druid or cleric could get them back.

(NPC or PC)

[Tigranes]

Yet there can be methods of death from which there is no resurrection, and even manual resurrection a la spell or rod has consequences (you have to rest to memorise the spell? If you are low level you have to use precious money to revive characters?). Not insta-resurrection-during-a-freaking-battle.

 

The main gripe with death in BG games was that you'd have to carry the loot of the dead person. Since in NWN2 this is not the case (and you can access inventory of dead people), that main gripe has been eliminated. So I'd love to see, say, even fanmade mods that disable this autores stuff from the OC.

[Diamond]

In the crypts prior to getting Elanee, poison and disease are an annoyance, as no one has spells that can counter them (expensive potions are the only recourse).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Umm.... no.

 

You can use first aid kits to remove both.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It was an annoyance to me even with heal kits, as I run out of them too soon and all my characters suck at Heal skill (ranging from -1 to 0).

[Tigranes]

I supose there's a reason you invest in heal points, huh?

 

In my efforts to roleplay I would often heal the diseases when possible, but if not 'suck it up' and move on. Except there's not any 'sucking up' there, because diseases hardly ever do anything tangible. Then when characters die, well.

[Diamond]

I didn't need heal points anywhere else though. Later, my main was wearing an amulet of health and Khelgar was a monk (the two characters that matter in the battle ).

 

Besides, I cheated in that crypt. When a character has suffered the disease for too long, I just let them die in the next battle, and voila, they wake up without any side-effects.

[Junai]

The auto-rez'ing is one thing, but what about the "sitting on the sidewalk for 5 seconds to get full party-heal" -option? Why even bother memorizing healing-spells, or having a cleric in your party at all? Just die, and sit down afterwards to get a full party-heal.

 

On the other hand, I'd go crazy if winning a fight depended on getting in an important heal-spell in the middle of the combat, which on my 2,8 ghz 7600gs -machine is laggy chaos of fireworks, crazy pathfiniding and weirdo AI even on lowest settings. So I guess auto-rez and auto-party-heal is the only way to make sure players don't lose interest completely. At this moment I'd rather have the game play itself actually, and just let me take part in some of the close-up dialogues.. kinda like those old rpg-books, "A: stay back -> go to side 54"/"B: walk boldly through the shadows -> go to side 108".. I used to like those books.

 

J.

Edited December 2, 2006 by Junai

[Diamond]

The auto-rez'ing is one thing, but what about the "sitting on the sidewalk for 5 seconds to get full party-heal" -option? Why even bother memorizing healing-spells, or having a cleric in your party at all? Just die, and sit down afterwards to get a full party-heal.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Seems to me not much different from NWN1.

[Junai]

The auto-rez'ing is one thing, but what about the "sitting on the sidewalk for 5 seconds to get full party-heal" -option? Why even bother memorizing healing-spells, or having a cleric in your party at all? Just die, and sit down afterwards to get a full party-heal.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Seems to me not much different from NWN1.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Well.. I said the same thing about NWN1 4 years ago.. ^_^

Anyway, now that you have a party with cleric(s) and all, this hardly seems necessary.

Edited December 2, 2006 by Junai

[Spider]

resurrection is part of most fantasy worlds

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Really? Man, do we have a different perspective of reality. Resurrection most certainly isn't part of most fantasy worlds in my view. Especially not in the sense that it's being used in D&D. Possibly as some sort of miraculous event like Jesus, but even then it's hardly present in a majority of fantasy worlds.

 

Or did you mean that it's present in most fantasy rpgs? If we look at the pen and paper variety, again it's not exactly common. Of all fantasy RPGs I've played, only one has resurrection as casual as it is in D&D. And that's, well D&D. Granted, there are a lot of systems out there I haven't tried so it's possible that I've just missed them. If so, please enlighten me with examples.

 

If we're restricting ourselves to crpgs exclusively then you may have a point. I'm not sure though. Most fantasy crpgs I've played have been set in the D&D world, but the ones that haven't had resurrection that I can recall. Nor have they been party based so the point is somewhat moot (the ones I can remember off the back of my hand are Oblivion, Gothic 3 and Lionheart). I guess if we include action crpgs like Diablo and Titan Quest I'll have to give up though, but then we're definitely straying.