Nwn 2

[Stuie]

Ok - so you don't like NWN2 and never have, and you want to talk about EQ2. Hmm... maybe that requires a *new thread*.

[Harovan]

Uh oh, the thread police is finally here.

I like NWN2 as a game and I think my posts and my knowledge about it show this. I just hate the fact that is buggy beyond belief and has a clumsy, almost unplayable interface.

But you are probably right, I should bugger off to greener pastures. It is pointless to talk about some games in this forum and EQ2 is one of them. All threads we had so far on this topic were spammed and trolled to death by Asher. I have little desire for a new run. I will move my gaming discussions to other sites.

[Dis]

The interface really doesn't seem worse than NWN1, or do you not like that one? I love the quick cast menu, much better than what nwn1 had. I don't remember exactly what they had, just the radials. I ended up using the hot bar keys. But in nwn2 I don't need to put my spells on my hot bars as the quick cast menu is so easy to use.

The camera sucks, and the game is sluggish (which may be my crappy video card). That and the crashes are my biggest complaint, other than that I don't have any problems with this game.

The game story is excellent I think, and the combat is pretty fun as well. It's closer to what you'd get in BG2 type combat. More strategic. It's just so much better having pretty close to a full party 4 or 5 players isn't bad. It's worth putting up for a few crashes to desktop. These only seem to happen when I have a browser window open when opening a new module for the first time (doesn't do it when you enter back into a module you've previously been in thankfully). The game is linear, but I expected that after kotor 1 and 2 (and nwn1). It seems a trade off. You get good story, but lose a lot of freedom.

Just starting chapter three. I have the game paused right now. The opening fight can be challenging for a mage, but I didn't have my buffs up. This time around I started off with tensor's transformation. This is slow, but was effective. But in the end I'm better off as a caster. Had greater stoneskin, improved mage armor, greater invisibility, shadow shield (not sure if it stacked, but I figured the more self buffs the merrier), mirror image, and ghostly visage.

This time around after all those buffs I mentioned I didn't care about aoe damage. The one Lord guy seems immune to all damage, and my summoned elemental didn't seem to care. empowered lesser Isaac's missile storm worked good. But greater fireburst really torched their ass. Those undead dudes didn't like that. Got this first phase out of the way. .

time to move on. First time I died, but I didn't prepare. And I hate fights when you have to fight alone. Tough for low armor classes as they were really knocking me down too much, and I couldn't cast spells.

[Jon Miller]

I have a freind who recently started EQ2 for the third time (Which is as many times as he has started WoW up).

I have thought about joining him (I only played EQ2 at launch).

JM

[Stuie]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph
But you are probably right, I should bugger off to greener pastures. It is pointless to talk about some games in this forum and EQ2 is one of them. All threads we had so far on this topic were spammed and trolled to death by Asher. I have little desire for a new run. I will move my gaming discussions to other sites.

Oh stop it. Keep discussing it in here and maybe Asher won't notice.

[Dis]

first really challenging battle (seems impossible to me now). Red dragon. This is in line for the red dragon battle in bg2 in terms of challenge for those who complain nwn1 was too easy (and it was).

I still haven't figured out how to do it. I'm not dead yet, but I got 2 party members down and I'm out of resurrects. Couldn't memorize many heals because I need those slots for energy immunity. And you need energy immunity I tried it first time with just protection from energy (I didn't have the cleric in my party), didn't work. I died real fast. I got this dragon withing a sliver of dying, after a few minutes of fighting (with many pauses ) he's back up over 1/2. very frustrating. He's around 50% right now and paladin and monk (khelgon) are dead. This time around I have the cleric and have 5 people in my party this time instead of 4 (didn't realize it would let you go out with 5, but it did).

I just can't see how to beat this guy. Everything else has been fairly easy till now. guess I'll have to try something else out.

[Dis]

hmm, well third try is a charm I guess. Dragon went down real easy this time. I don't understand that. Khelgar died, and I just resurrected him when I noticed construct killed the dragon. Going to check the log soon as I post this.

dragon went down easy as a kobolb. . well maybe not that easy.

edit: I see what did it. Empowered vampiric touch. Had to limit my area of effect spells for obvious reasons. And I don't have greater missile storms because I didn't pick it up for some stupid reason (and havn't found a scroll for it), so it was 2 empowered lesser missiles storms, 2 empowered magica missiles, and 2 empowered vampiric touches that did the trick. My paladin and construct did pretty good. Khlegar didn't do ****. not sure I should have converted him to a monk. Oh well, I dont' really use him much, just for this mountain area with the dwarf quest and all. Anyways, that's a badass spell, can't believe I haven't used it until now.

[Harovan]

Bah, the dragon is weaksauce. Most of its damage is fire. Any unprotected chararacters, who come into his breath cone (such as any fighters) will most likely die.

Load the badger queen up with "Energy Immunity: Fire" (6th level druid spell) - That makes your party 100% immune to his most terrible weapon. Buff your whole group with it and then cast Harm several times with Mrs. "Know that" (6th level cleric spell). I loaded her up with 4 harms, of which 2 were resisted and 2 stuck. Once the dragon succeeded to heal up, the second time we had dragon chops in dill sauce. No casualities.

If Khelgar doesn't kick ass as a monk, you leveled/equipped/buffed him not right. You find a lot of crap guides on the web, many favor a sneaky DEX monk who uses parry. Their argument is the +AC he gets from DEX. This is good and dandy for a soloing monk or one you play yourself, but not a bot like Khelgar in a group-based game. Parry isn't that useful against a multiple encounter (pretty much all in this game) and the DEX bonus is void if he's caught flatfooted.

Nah, give him 14 DEX, that's enough. Buff his AC with equipment (several Robes, Boots of the Sun Soul, Amulet of Natural Armor, Cloak of Fortification; watch that all boni are of different type!), stoneskin him (and re-stoneskin if it wears off), skyrocket his STR (boosts both hit and damage), give him high Tumble, lean back and watch him wipe out whole encounters singlehandedly. EDIT: Oh, and don't forget to haste/re-haste him, that makes a huge difference. No perma-haste items in this game (which is good).

You're a wizard if I recall correct. Your mission is not to charge into the fray or do all the damage yourself (that would be a sorcerer), your mission is to stand back and act where it is necessary. Buff, rebuff, counterspell, dazzle/paralyze/screw up otherwise, one-shoot low-health critters, and keep control over the battlefield (that's the most important thing).

Remember Sand's hilarious dialogues with Qara? In one she tried to advise him some actions against Luskan and he replied, that she lacks the intelligence to see the big picture and should shut up; he'll call her when it's time to burn Luskan to the ground.

[Harovan]

As for the NWN1 OC being easy - and I don't complain - but if that's easy, the NWN2 OC is super easy. No matter what you do, you will win this game. There's always a way out. You can't spoil much, because the game is party based. Even if you build a 5 wizard / 5 sorcerer / 5 druid / 5 warlock dual wielding quarterstaves with monkey grip (which has to be about the worst character possible), you will win - your henchmen will make it. Neither decision in this game really matters. And that sucks.

[Stuie]

So Sir Ralph - are you going to give the expansion a try?

[Harovan]

Nah. At least not now. Perhaps when it hits the 10€ bin, or I skip it and play it when the second comes out.

[Apocalypse]

I just got both this and the expansion last night. It seems pretty nice so far. The graphics are quite good even on my year and a half old laptop, and things run smoothly. The camera does suck though. Plan is to make a Pally/DC/RDD. Still very early in the game though.

Are there any persistent worlds that people here are playing at?

[Dis]

Yeah I hear about some bugs with the expansion and the original campaign, I'll wait on that.

And I did use energy immunity the second time around, but my melee guys weren't bringing him down fast enough the second time. I don't use the druid. I suck at druids, though I read a druid guide, I think the problem was I wasn't using her in shapeshift form. But I prefer a cleric. Clerics rock

There's nothing to say a wizard can't go rush in there and use vampiric touch. I've used it a couple more times last night. It rocks . I usually like to stay back as it's easier to see the overall picture of the battle. My wizard with all the buffs on has a decent A/C and doesn't really get hit too much. I was even swinging the gith sword last night . Once a mob is near death I usually don't cast spells and send everyone on auto attack.

And why would a sorcerer be any better in the fray than a wizard? They both have low A/C (to start with), both invoke attacks of opportunity for casting spells. I use defensive casting myself, as I keep my concentration maxed.

And I use puppet mode for everyone. I like to micromanage things like BG2 battles. It's slower, a lot slower, but I prefer it this way. I guess I'm a control freak.

Did the 2 black dragons, they were easy. I guess once you figure out the right spells you could say this is as easy as NWN1. I don't remember that much of it, but I do remember it being fairly easy. Especially the original original campaign. Perhaps the game engine is what makes it easy. Both KOTOR games were easy as well.

Nothing will ever match some of the fights in BG2 I guess. That red dragon fight was always the hardest for me as I had a hard time getting his protections down and keeping them down.

[Apocalypse]

I haven't encountered any bugs yet at least.

[Dis]

anyways I'm on the final battle and getting my ass kicked. I'm not sure what to do, only got him down to inured (still around 70% left) and my party members go down in like 3 seconds.

very frustrating.