Mask o' the Betrayer!

[taks]

hmmm... did not see them. must restart. like i said, i can debug console them in, but that's no what i wanted to do. somebody mentioned that there is also an associated quest, know anything about that?

 

taks

[Cantousent]

No. I don't remember that quest, which is really odd, since we had to make sure all the quests were completable before the game shipped. On the other hand, they were still working on stuff when I left.

 

I always tried to do cold runs as if I hadn't played any of the game, so I didn't console in weapons or use the bonus scrolls unless directed. We could use them, but I took what the game gave to a player starting a fresh install without bringing characters or items from the NWN2 campaign and without the preorder bennies.

[Volourn]

Finished the first chapter. Pretty good game with very little if any bugs effetcing me. I thought I had a problem with the SM; but I jumped the gun.

 

 

The joinable npcs are, on the whole, much better than the NWN2 OC ones. There are no really annoying Neeshka type ones. I really like Safiya though two things bug me about her - first off, she comes off 'too goody goody' for a Red Wizard, and she comes off as too emo at the start. You just met her, and you can already tell she has big secrets to tell, and she seems way too into you. I'm sure I'll learn about why later on; but still.. Overall, great character. Gann, and the Angela re rather cool though the angel should NOT be wanting to travel with my chaotic evil Red Wizard (who nobody not even Safiya recognizes as ones meh) who just gobbled up a spirit of a god. L0L

 

 

I haven't done much with the spirit meter; but it looks managable. It seems alright.

 

Battles are a lot more challeneging than the OC (still not super hard; but that's ok). Then again, I have no real tanks (angel isn't too bad) though other ice demo summon. Combat is definitely more fun. I'll ignore the ph@t loot as that's not surprising.

 

The new PrCs, spells, and feats are neato though I wish some more dwarven subraces were added as well as spells like Time Stop too. Epic spells are just as limited (if not more so) than HOTU's as they all seem to be variations of each other. At least HOTU's epic spells had defensive ones.

 

Story is much more more interesting than the OC yet again even with the attempt to cover it up, the story is obviously another version of 'PC is the Chosen one' as everything is about the PC. *shrug* The Okku choice was very solid.

 

Overall, very good thus far. I'd give it around a 8-8.5. It's pretty much tied (thus far) HOTU and TOB as best epxansion. there's a chance it'll be better too in the end.

Edited October 18, 2007 by Volourn

[Starwars]

Volly, you will get an explanation of Safiyas behaviour later on. It's a solid explanation, but all in all something I missed in MotB is the ruthlessness of the Red Wizards. You sort of touch upon it later on, but I always wanted (prior to the expansion I mean) a plot where you were heavily involved with the machinations of Thay, and where you got to see the cruelty (slavery and all that).

 

I also thought combat was rather fun for the most part when playing my Bard, and using Safiya, Gann and Kaelyn. But if you put either of the more melee oriented characters in the party the game unfortunately gets rather easy for the most part. I suspect that might be the case for a PC who plays a melee oriented character as well. I usually stick with more skill-based characters since I think those are the most fun.

[taks]

cant, it may have just been someone guessing over at the bioware forums.

 

taks

[taks]

The two NPCs that I consider a must for devotion are Safiya and Okku. Safiya because I'm a mage and Okku because his perks fit in with my playing style the most.

um, does okku look like he's bleeding profusely from his paws through the remainder of the game, or is it just an Act I thing?

 

taks

[Pop]

OBA - Okku Bleeds Always. Gann says it's a sign of vanity, but, you know, that's coming from Gann.

 

So to get One of Many, you can't have gotten Kaelyn? Or does Kaelyn leave / attack when you get One of Many, or what? Because I imagine it'd be a bit harder to fight Okku with just three people.

Edited October 18, 2007 by Pop

[Tigranes]

You have to kill Okku and OoM resides in his husk, so they are mutually exclusive, and you can't get OoM until you kill Okku.

 

On the other hand, if you choose not to get OoM, you can use the opportunity to get yourself Eternal Rest.

[Pop]

Ah, I had thought it was Kaelyn and OoM that had been mutually exclusive.

[Cantousent]

Nope. It's Okku and One of Many. One of Many has some of the most hysterical lines in the game. However, Okku is a better choice for all of my builds. Hell, Okku is just plain better altogether. He's an absolute brute, if you'll pardon the pun.

 

One of the things that should have and would have made the game much better is a certain spot where Okku would turn against you during another fight. Some misguided soul wrote up a bug report that the fight was impossible (not true, since I finished that fight before they "fixed" it). It's really too bad, because that made for an interesting battle. Since I'd left a whole stack of healing potions on him, I literally had to do a HUUUUUGE amount of damage to him. ...And THEN I had to finish the damned hag I was fighting at the time. It was a great surprise.

[Zoma]

Oh, THAT battle. At first I thought it was a bug that caused the hag to disappear and one of my companion to start attacking me!

 

Eventually I realised what was happening. I blame dumbdowned Aree-Pee-Gees lately for not making me think enough.

[Cantousent]

Well, if you want a harder fight, take on that battle with no-one except Okku in your party. Unless they went completely brain dead, there is no one else to turn against you and you have to do all the heavy lifting by yourself. Of course, unless you've got mind blank or some other similar effect going, you'll end up doing all the heavy lifting anyhow. Some of the DCs in the game are literally impossible without a roll of a natural 20. At least some were when I last played. I also thought that was a great idea.

 

I think making it through the game without a single devouring of spiirt (until the very end) is fairly tough. I thought it should be tougher, but I wrote a long and contentious report saying is should be possible to do so. I think it should have been harder, as I said, but I would rather it be possible and easier than it should be than impossible.

[Cantousent]

There are three different folks to feed to the ape-folks. You can trick the Shou merchants, you can trick two of the berzerkers, and you can trick Anya. I've done all three to test, however, I'm boring. I play these games multiple times and have virtually never played an evil path and have never finished a game as an evil person. I think One of Many's evil assed lines are the funiest in the game.

[Tigranes]

I think it's very hard to go through without a single devour unless you a) Satiate at least once (i never did in my Good playthrough) or b) you know what you are doing, i.e. never going back and forth between World Map areas and such. I think the balance now is alright because while I wouldn't mind it being harder, some people are never attracted by the mechanic and are quite irritated with the Spirit Meter.

 

Cant, thanks for that - I have no idea who the Shou merchants are though, is that something I missed? I assume the berserkers you speak of are the two newbies. I'll try that after my guy returns from the Thay Academy.

 

Currently playing with OoM and well... he's pretty crap until you can get the Warlock edition. His Rogue build is terrible (my Rogue is at least twice more effective), his fighter is decentish but nowhere near Okku (and he's undead so harder to heal). I think he's so far a little underdevelopped - it's very hard to get his influence up if you screw up two or three chances - but the concept is great and he's nice to have around. I do think that Okku is better though, and most people will agree with him.

 

Plus, Okku's model/texture is damn awesome.If they would only get the height right in conversation cameras, they've never been able to do that with dwarves or gnomes either and you'd end up Grobnar talking directly into your crotch (or butt).

[Pop]

The shou show up at a certain point later on (I think after you've beaten the Wood Man part of the game?) just off the side of the path that you showed up on coming from Okku's barrow, near where the golem's body lies. You can either feed them to the ape dudes or get them a new, mind-boggingly expensive wagon from the arab merchant in the bazaar.

[Starwars]

I think you have to get them the wagon regardless before sending them off to be eaten.

Had no idea that you could send Anya off as well, that's great.

 

I'm not one who normally enjoys evil playthroughs, but I must say that I really enjoyed the evil path in MotB. One-of-Many, like Tigranes said, is not as powerful as Okku, but I really enjoyed its utterly evil nature. It was funny how you could gain influence with both OOM and Kaelyn if you succeed your Bluff checks with Kaelyn. And I loved the sort of idea that you have this 'pet' around. Making it devour the Sleeper made me giggle with glee, and I loved the turn of events if you let it devour Myrkul. I also liked the mention of him in the ending (if you succeed the influence check I suppose) where it travelled with you and made people feel generally uneasy around my character.

That said, I would've *loved* it if you could discover more on the backgrounds of the different personalities.

 

Okku was perhaps the companion that was intially the least appealing to me. But I really enjoyed having him along as well, and the voiceactor (and the little effect on his voice I suppose) felt very appropiate. Though I wish he were a bit less powerful for balance reasons (it makes sense since he is what he is, but still...).

 

Speaking of voices, I really enjoyed most of the acting in the game. There was not a single point (and there were many in the OC) where I thought "this actor stinks". Myrkul was a bit "what the hell" when you first hear him, but it's really fitting somehow and unique. That was my favourite part of the game.

 

The narrator is also great.

[jaguars4ever]

Finished MotB earlier today. 'Tis easily one of the best NWN campaigns on par with HotU. I'm just kind of ever-so-slightly nerfed about the end storyline. Everything set itself up for the epic r0xx0r teh planz0rz b0xx0r event, and then it resulted in a more...selfish culmination.

 

Seriously, how can everyone suddenly "forget" to

take down the freakin' wall

. Fortunately, I killed that evil bastard

Rammaq

, so

Kaelyn

got her optimal ending. I hear her other ending (excluding the ones when you, uh, permanently bid her goodnight) is rather depressing. Someone elaborate.

[Starwars]

I can't remember details at the moment, but if you don't stop Rammaq (as in kill him), in the ending Kaelyn and her siblings get ambushed by him. Her siblings are killed in the battle, and only Kaelyn lives. She is essentially a broken woman after that. Maybe someone can elaborate a bit more.

 

That happened to me on my first playthrough, and I was rather sad about that. I usually don't like the goody-goody characters to much, but I really liked Kaelyn.

[Tale]

Kind of dissapointing to find that Utterdark Blast can't be used to heal One of Many. Even with PvP on difficulties. He's undead, it's negative energy. What's the problem? :'(

[SteveThaiBinh]

Okay, help me please. Or rather, reassure me.

 

I've just finished MotB for the first time (I thought it was fantastic, by the way) with a ranger dual-wielding flaming swords, and he just, only just, made it through the final battle with you-know-who. I'd really like to start a new game with a bard character (with some conversation skills, to see what my bumbling ranger and his woeful bluff attempts missed), but I just can't imagine how my bard would survive the endgame without turning the difficulty down to easy (which is cheating). Can anyone suggest a viable strategy for building a bard character capable of surviving this battle? Is it really easy and I'm missing something?

[Cantousent]

Make good friends and keep them close. I'd suggest making sure Okku is your closest and dearest ally going into the final battle and not having a romance with anyone. Personally, I think you could do it, but making it a little less hair ripping might help. Safiya can live through the battle, but it's a bruiser.

[Pop]

not having a romance with anyone.

Why, exactly? Having Safiya / Gann for the first half of that last battle is useful.

[Cantousent]

Okku combined with Bestow Life Force is easily the best person to aid you in the final battle. Safiya and Gann just don't come close. Safiya is especially extraneous for my builds. Remember, he's talking a bard.

[Pop]

I meant the last part, where you're sucked into yourself and whatever love interest you have follows.

 

But it shouldn't be an exclusive thing. In my first playthrough I got 100 influence with 3 out of 4 characters (Gann hovered in the 60s) and we did alright for ourselves in the final battle.

[Cantousent]

They let you take more than one NPC with you? Hmmm Interesting. No comment.