Neverwinter Nights Hints

Character Development Tips

• 1 of 12: If you're not sure what class of character you want when you start playing the game, choose a fighter or barbarian. They're much easier to play through the game with than the other classes, especially for people who aren't very experienced in playing CRPGs with thieves and magic-users.
• 2 of 12: When allocating your created character's ability score points (also known as stats), keep in mind that you'll get one more point to allocate when you reach levels 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20, and that you'll be finding lots of equipment during the game that will boost ability scores (as well as temporary bonuses from spells and potions). This means that you don't have to put all of your points in your character's one most important stat, and you should probably boost up some other stats a little.
• 3 of 12: But also keep in mind that no amount of magical enhancements can raise an ability score more than 10 points above its natural value, so don't make anything important way too low.
• 4 of 12: Another important stat fact is that your Intelligence modifier is added to the number of skill points you get every time you level up. This makes an Intelligence of at least 12 very useful for just about every character class, including barbarian! By that, I mean a "natural" Intelligence of at least 12 -- stat bonuses you have from equipment and potions don't count for anything during the level-up process. (Also note that the advanced combat feats Disarm, Improved Disarm, and Improved Parry require an Intelligence of at least 13.)
• 5 of 12: When you come to the "packages" part of character creation, it's best to configure your own package instead of choosing a default one, because that way you'll be able to determine exactly where all of your starting skill points go, and what feats you start with. My favorite skill point distribution and feat list never quite match any of the pre-defined packages, and yours probably won't, either.
• 6 of 12: Unless you're a real split-class addict, never give your main character another class to burden him with, and always increase his most important stats when you get to add to stats. If you do decide to try multiclassing, be sure to read about the XP penalties on page 148 of the instruction manual. You can avoid such penalties by making one of your two classes be a favored class (which is determined by your character's race). Note that there seems to be no way to avoid XP penalties if you add on a third class.
• 7 of 12: You'd think that you'll get less XP for a combat kill if a henchman is with you, and that is true at first. However, that changes before long, particularly after your character goes up a few levels. You then usually get more (often *way* more) XP for a kill if you have a henchman, especially with high-level opponents. Also, if you can summon or dominate a low-level creature and keep it alive for the duration of combat, its low level averages in with your higher level, thereby increasing the amount of XP you get. (If you're thinking of using these tips or the following one to maximize your XP, see my Game Version Notes first.)
• 8 of 12: Rangers and druids can really rack up the XP by using their Animal Empathy skill to dominate several minor creatures at once. There's a glitch in the original version of the game that makes a dominated animal stay with you forever (or until killed) if you save your game and then restore it right after dominating the animal. Do that with one weak animal (deer, chicken, etc.) after another to add several into your party at once. That really ups the XP you get for combat kills, especially if you *don't* have a henchman or regular animal companion with you (since their higher levels would lower the XP somewhat). Note that the main difficulty with this routine is that the weak creatures can get killed very quickly in combat, and having them stand their ground in a safe spot will remove their XP bonus unless the safe spot is very close to the combat.
• 9 of 12: Another XP note is that when you're able to level up, waiting to do so until after you do more combats *won't* get you any more XP. The amount of XP you get for a combat kill is based on what level you could be, not what level you actually are. (Note that this is different than in some other similar games you may have played.)
• 10 of 12: The exact number of hit points you gain when you level up is chosen randomly within a range that can be rather wide (especially for characters with a big Hit Die), so hit the "cancel" button on the "Level Up Summary" screen and try again if you don't get enough. To figure out what the max you could get is, look up your character's class in the manual (pages 45 thru 55) and see what his Hit Die value is. Add to that his natural Constitution modifier, and you'll have the max HP increase that you can get. For instance, a barbarian has a Hit Die of 12. If his Constitution modifier without enhancements was 4, then he could gain at most 12+4 = 16 HP per level-up. (Note that your first two level-ups will always give you the max, but the rest will be random.)
• 11 of 12: A useful note about skill points is that if you don't use all of your current allotment when you level up, all unused points will be saved over and added in to the total the next time you level up. This can be useful if you have one skill point left and the only thing you want to increase would cost two skill points -- just save the point and wait until you level up again. Also, this can be handy if you're doing the "smart" thing and playing through the NWN main campaign with the old version 1.10 installed (to get more XP). In that case, you should save up lots of skill points to be used on all the new skills that SoU and HoU add in (Appraise, Intimidate, Tumble, etc.). The more extra points you have saved up, the higher you can take those skills as soon as you start the expansions.
• 12 of 12: To finish the game at the max character level of 20, you'll need to do many if not all of the optional quests and combats in all of the chapters of the game. As a rough guideline, here's a list of what my level and XP were at the end of each chapter during one thorough playthru as a fighter. (Note that I was playing on version 1.10 of the game with a henchman all the way.) If you'd like a copy of the character for importation into other NWN game modules, e-mail me at dunigase@yahoo.com and ask for Slash Masterson's BIC file.
  
  Prelude: Level 3 with 3,000 XP
  Chapter 1 (main): Level 8 with 32,625 XP
  Chapter 1 (finale): Level 9 with 39,984 XP
  Chapter 2 (main): Level 15 with 110,754 XP
  Chapter 2 (finale): Level 17 with 138,717 XP
  Chapter 3: Level 20 with 208,327 XP
  Chapter 4: Level 20 with 231,912 XP

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