Neverwinter Nights 2/Mask of the Betrayer/Storm of Zephir

**FactionHeir** · 02-02-2009, 12:46

I think that while the story of NWN2/MOTB is intriguing, the difficulty level is not adequate.
The difficulty level of the OC seemed pretty well scaled with some fights towards the end a tad too easy (defending CK) but MOTB was a complete walk in the park if you used your OC character, mainly due to the high magic and crafting system employed in both campaigns (you know, starting with a mithril full plate with 30/- cold and electricity and immunity to criticals and sneaks with a praetor shield or custom heavy shield with 3 other resistances buffed with magic vestment +5... add to that your MOTB crafting of 15d6 elemental and +8 enhancement...).
I played those the first time with a human fighter/wm, second time as drow wiz/ek and third time as aasimar fs/bg.

SoZ on the other hand was a nice change of pace where really every skill is relevant at the start for survival, but towards the end, you only really need a few due to your keep income going through the roof (anyone for going afk an hour and coming back to see your character is now a millionaire - or simply resting a bit more for the same effect?). Battles there were scaled nicely though the last act was a bit of a slashfest with nothing being able to stand up to your party (even if you got rid of all your cohorts and played with only 2 PCs as I did for the extra challenge). Was fun to have a few places where sneaking was encouraged though and of course an epilogue that you can dictate.
Played that with a yuan-ti fs/dc though i was disappointed at not having a lot of roleplay opportunities with that race as I should have had IMO outside of a few "I am yuan-ti too" which didn't even elicit a response most of the time.

And a hint:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

**Meneldil** · 02-02-2009, 17:58

I'll definitely give it a try then. I'm really looking for a good RPG, and playing Secret of Evermore/Mana or Seiken Densetsu for the billionth time isn't that entertaining now.

Hope the difficulty level isn't that easy for a beginer. I really liked the fact I had to load quite often in BG (1, the 2nd became quite easy as your characters leveled), because each NPC group you'd meet could easily tear you a new one

**Vladimir** · 02-02-2009, 19:26

Originally Posted by FactionHeir

I think that while the story of NWN2/MOTB is intriguing, the difficulty level is not adequate.
The difficulty level of the OC seemed pretty well scaled with some fights towards the end a tad too easy (defending CK) but MOTB was a complete walk in the park if you used your OC character, mainly due to the high magic and crafting system employed in both campaigns (you know, starting with a mithril full plate with 30/- cold and electricity and immunity to criticals and sneaks with a praetor shield or custom heavy shield with 3 other resistances buffed with magic vestment +5... add to that your MOTB crafting of 15d6 elemental and +8 enhancement...).
I played those the first time with a human fighter/wm, second time as drow wiz/ek and third time as aasimar fs/bg.

So basically they're like the NWN expansions? Tons of cash and easy ways to get superpower weapons. Do you think it reasonable to go through NWN 2 without using crafting skills?

**FactionHeir** · 02-02-2009, 22:38

Yes, the equipment you find in the OC is reasonable without being overly powerful. You should be able to beat the game just fine with a bit more challenge that way.
As for MOTB, the equipment you find is just about as powerful as your crafted equipment (well, not in terms of 15d6 elemental damage, but in terms of enhancers, immunities and the like), so it can't really be challenging I suppose unless you go around more or less all by yourself with minimum amounts of companions (which means though, that you lose out on some dialogue and RP)

Its reasonable to play the game on Very Hard difficulty for the OC and MOTB.

**Vladimir** · 02-03-2009, 01:55

Ah, thanks. The main reason I drifted away from the Paladin is because in normal campaigns it's too simple to wade through the masses of baddies, hacking and slashing. Maybe I'm too old but I don't understand game developers allowing so much uBer 1337 stuff in what should be gritty, dangerous games. I mean, ya it's fun when every hit has a 50% chance to decapitate but it then becomes a game about stuff and not a party adventure. And really, who the hell can carry around 100,000 gold pieces?

**Meneldil** · 02-03-2009, 07:59

Tried it for a few hours today. Looks okay, though the fellows aren't that bright (I'm gonna have to download the AI pack), and the game is sometimes quite confusing, gameplay-wise. If find it hard to click on characters and items, the camera sometimes go crazy, etc. etc.

Only have two characters now, can't say much about the dialogues and roleplaying between them. The voice acting isn't that bad, but I'm not really impressed by the "farmer who comes out of nowhere and is actually an important dude" plot. I would have prefered a more original begining rather than a copy/paste of BG1 (and a billion other games) starting plot but heh, I guess it's much easier to introduce a story in a RPG that way.

My wizard is already level 3. Kind of surprising, given that it would usually take hours to level up in any other DnD game. I plan to multiclass him Wizard/Arcane Scholar of Candlekeep/something else (Pale Master or Eldritch Knight likely, I'm neutral good so I can't be a Red Wizard of Thay, saddly I must add, I would have enjoyed being as annoying as Edwin was in BG1/2)

**FactionHeir** · 02-03-2009, 08:15

Yeah, I'd go with strategy camera mode (left most one) and ignore the whole target thing. That's how I manage to play it

**Zenicetus** · 02-03-2009, 20:07

I bought NWN2 a while back, but bailed out about 30% of the way through the OC. It was a combination of things, with these being the most annoying (I've played through all the earlier games by the way; the BG series, IWD, NWN1 so I'm familiar with the format):

* Sketchy system performance that should have been a lot better considering the fairly basic look of the graphics.

* Fussy camera control. In battles and dungeon crawls, it seemed like I was spending as much time trying to get the right view angle on the action, as I was on tactical commands. The camera can't cope with something basic like walking up a hill. I know it's been improved from the first release, but it still seems unnecessarily clumsy.

* Tiny map areas outside. You'd walk your partly for what felt like a few hundred yards and hit the edge, having to pause for another scenery load to another tiny area. If you didn't find whatever you looking for, but knew it was on the current area map, then you'd know it was right over there a few paces away because the map was so restricted. There's a pause for loading when you go into any doorway from outdoors to indoors, and often indoors as well. I could live with the indoor loads, but the tiny outdoor areas just felt very cramped, not like moving through a big fantasy world at all. It kills the incentive for exploration.

* Archery seems useless, due to very short engagement distances for combat.

* The commands to control your party are very limited. If you're playing a squishy class like Wizard as the party leader, there isn't a way to tell your tank to open a dungeon door and go in first, without actually taking over that character and being the new party leader. This leads to a lot of frenzied mouse clicking just to get the whole party through a door and into the tactical arrangement you'd like (casters and archer types to the rear). This has been a limitation in earlier BG/NWN series, but I was hoping for some improvement. There's too much incentive to play a stronger class that can lead from the front instead of the rear. I ended up playing as far as I did into the OC as a Warlock to get around that (i.e. ability to wear medium armor), but Warlock is a somewhat boring class as a caster.

Does the AI pack improve that last complaint? I hadn't heard about it before this thread, since I don't hang out on the NWN forums. I might give it another go, if it does. About the only thing that seemed better than NWN1 was the overall look of the world, with fewer repeating/tiled objects like that first game. In other respects, like the small area maps, it felt like a step backwards.