Comments on the character building process and other things.

[Gabrielles blades]

Well, ive some annoyances with the process of building a character using the neverwinter nights version of d&d
For instance...
statistics of strength and the like, you pay more for higher just like it used to be...except that now higher has a marginaly better effect compared to previously where if you had say 20 strength over 18 strength you really noticed it. - so essentialy i would as an orc be paying 6 points to raise strength to 20 from 18 only to get 1 more dmg/attack...extremely inefficient to say the least - same can be said about elves with dexterity and dwarves/gnomes with constitution; it doesnt seem to really be worthwhile to go from 18 to 20 in char creation unless you just want to roleplay as a very one-sided character.

Note too, only even-numbered statistics matter, if you have 21 23 25 etc etc of a statistic its basically a complete waste because it only counts the even numbered ones; which really sucks since lets say for example you made a character with a base of 20 strength dext or whatnot, and then as you leveled up you pumped that stat even higher, making it 25 at level 20...Ok, so you have 25 strength..but your modifier is +7 and wont be +8 till you get to 26 strength, oh oh so you say get some equipment, well you maximum stat bonus you can get from casted spells/items combined happens to be an even number (+10) so youll have 35 strength...and will be 1 point away from it having any meaning at all, so your prety much screwed since that means you wasted 3 char creation points to get to +20 from +19 since it will have NO effect at all on your character.

Note too: a cleric or wizard (or those that share those spells) are currently able to buff all of the stats by +5 fairly easily; which wouldnt really matter except for the fact that unless you make custom gear (which no one would allow you to use) you cannot raise your stats nearly as easily. Its prety crazy being able to make a cleric with 300 hit points and attack power comparable to a barbarion...AND be able to cast spells; this really boils down to the fact that there is either 1) a shortage of equipment for other classes to use to gain comparable stat bonuses OR 2) that those spells given to the clerics/wiz are realy overpowering and shouldnt have been included as spells that last 20 hours gametime. note - yes you could make gear with the stat bonuses, but think about it, a cleric doesnt need this gear and so would be capable of wearing gear that gave other bonuses thereby gaining as much as you have gained and so still be ahead.

Some other things of note:
why is it that all weaponry cannot be used with finess? it is limited to a very few small weapons - which doesnt even include the scimitar which to me is the epitome of a finess style weapon.

Also of note, the finess style makes some chests/fights nearly impossible to work with since they give the monsters or chests a high resistance to attack; which makes it so as a finess character almost everything is landing for nothing. while a strength character will be able to blow through the resistance.
P.S. i wish when you clicked on a locked door that *needs* a key or quest item to open that it would say so, terribly annoying spending that few seconds trying to unlock a door or knock it down to no result.

Why is it that i lose attack value for a "heavy" weapon in secondary slot - note that the only light weapons are small weapons or double-blades which excludes the vast majority of weaponry.

Why is it that i lose many attacks per round using a shield as a monk, but i can equip a torch and have no issue? And it doesnt even make sense really since if i get the feats of ambidexterity two weapon fighting and improved two weapon fighting my attack values will not increase - so im apparently not using my offhand for fighting.

Wholeness of Body: The monk can heal damage equal to twice their class level, once per say. use selected....but it only heals 20 maximum? thats half what it should be according to its description.

Some other annoyances are game-design things, like for instance, if i was going to play as a rogue who is massively strong/dextrous/inteligent i can make a major weakness of constitution....except that doing that would make it next to impossible to play *any* mods out there because of the fact that *im* the one who has to take the damage all of the time; im really sick of having to be the one-man army you know? id like to be able to make a character with a major flaw like that and be able to survive by depending on a party of other people like in BG2 and like games; its simply not possible to do so however in nwn, if you have that as your flaw your prety much dead meat no matter what class you play.

and as a P.S. i miss being able to duel class a cleric/wizard and having all of the highest possible spells for both classes - just couldnt cast it as often, with nwn though it seems you need to be atleast level 17 to even get one level 9 spell /sigh.

Also to note: differences between a fighter and a monk (not a complaint just a notice): monks get 5 attacks/round with primary but each attack is with a sequentially lower attack bonus, they can use flurry of blows to gain a 6th attack but all other attacks in the round suffer -2 attack penalty.
Now a warrior on the other hand will have 6 attacks per round as his base- attacks per round, so no need for a feat to gain the 6th attack.
So whats the difference?
a monks would look like this:
+22/+17/+12/+7/+2
A fighters would look like this:
+25/+20/+15/+10 and +24/+19
So overall a fighter is having a much higher chance to hit something when compared with a monk.

The damage output i think equalizes, monks do 1-20 + strength mod + glove elemental damage, while a fighter would be doing 1-10 + strength + enhancement bonus (+3 at most usualy) + elemental, and his weapon will generaly have a better chance to critical or have a higher critical multiplyer.

So this means a fighter in top notch gear is capable of thoroughly whooping a monks bottom. A monks real advantage lies in the fact that he is virtualy impervious to magical attacks because of his naturally high resistance.

Some other things i miss: contingency spells, non-detection abilty, reduction in spell-casting time spells/equipment - yes haste does this but in bg2 there were items that furthered this making it possible to chain cast which made time stop really effective (right now im not sure its worth wasting a level 9 spell for 9 seconds of time stop if i cant cast really fast).

[WOLFGIR]

Wow, a long post adressing alot of things. THough I tend to agree with you in many aspects ( I still like a bit of chance, mainly when playing the single player missions, I want to roll thoose D6´s!)

Even scores are indeed vital. Many feats have the prerequisit for either 13, 15 or even 19 (not in the game... yet)
Also a spellcaster needs 10+spell level to be able to cast that level spell at all. IE 19 in Int allows a wizard to cast 9th level spells. 17 in int does not. Nor does 18, 18 however gives you more skill points, bonus spells.

The straight line to 20 is expansive to start with cause you get 4 free points to increase your character, hence 18 0 +4 to 22 = +6 (Now for a fighter attacking later on four times every round will get a whopping great deal out of that for damage and hitchance.

For rouges, the dexterity will give them an increase in initiative (flatfooted sneak attacks) skills(alot are based on dex) and AC.

About the Clerics and wizards.. well head over to www.wizards.com and check the forums for D&D 3:ed
But again... there are enouh material to buff up the other classes enough. A barbarian that uses a potion of invisibility and then attacks an unprepaired wizard..

Finesse is a feat for rouges mainly and the dexterious fighter. Small weapons or otherwise you are stuck in either long lists or the discussion, hammer is a medium weapon too.. etc It is not a system builed on "finesse" it is based to be rather simple and fun Scimitars are not only descibed as the nice little Drizzt razorblades but also the hooked massive pieces of chunk metal that orcs like to use. Same same ... but different..

The two weapon question I leave you to ponder some more

About the Monks/fighter.
Monks can sneak, they can jump and neither class will ever be what they are in pen and papaer. A very important aspect to remember when you play a CRPG.

Casting time can´t be compaored with BG2. Spell takes spell level rounds to cast vs spells are instantaneus ( takes one standard action to cast) full round action to cast or other. (Feather fall and some other more ritual like spells that also existed in the 2:nd edition)-

You get another action with haste that allows one extra spell to be cast. Time stop gives you how many rounds to act freely?? It is not a waste of time!

The problem with the design of play is a real pain in the butt! I agree totally with you here, but again this game is for playing MP as the pen and paper version is too so to speak. You have groups to play with, not single player aspects. It is not like in Morrowind where tou can rise to insane levels and be good with many things.

The new D20 system is only up to 20 levels, an epic continuation would be a nice implement!.

"Some other annoyances are game-design things, like for instance, if i was going to play as a rogue who is massively strong/dextrous/inteligent i can make a major weakness of constitution....except that doing that would make it next to impossible to play *any* mods out there because of the fact that *im* the one who has to take the damage all of the time; im really sick of having to be the one-man army you know? id like to be able to make a character with a major flaw like that and be able to survive by depending on a party of other people like in BG2 and like games; its simply not possible to do so however in nwn, if you have that as your flaw your prety much dead meat no matter what class you play."

I agree, but I know this problem when I bought the game since it is a MP game with a nice single player campaign in it. But boy, do I know this problem!

Well I hope you don´t see this a a critical post, but rather hope that I might have been able to give you some answers of the game, and also give you another voice that screams with you for some changes

Have fun playing it! I have tremendous fun playing a Monk/fighter/rouge (Impossible in Pen and paper by the original rules) oh and he IS wearing orange robes!