Combat

[Albromor]

I finally installed the game last night but I have yet to play it because 3E is still fairly new to me (I played my very first P&P 3/3.5 game over the Christmas holiday). So what I have been doing is slowly reading through the Game Manual so that I can at least have some mental preparation on game mechanics before I proceed.

I read on combat and I noticed that there was no place to pause while in combat. Did I read this right? How exactly does combat work in this game? (yes, I did a search!) I've never played a game that "is a real-time game overlaid on top of the turn-based Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Editon Rules" (Manual, p.112). Just what exatly does this mean for gameplay and especially combat? Also, could you give me an example on how *you* utilized this Action Queue.

I've played BG1, BG2, IWD, NOX, and Divine Divinity but NWN appears to be different in a number of areas. Thanks.

[ 01-13-2004, 12:00 PM: Message edited by: Albromor ]

[andrewas]

The game can be paused at any moment (in single player anyway, in MP you an imagine the chaos this would cause). In combat or out of it. Much the same as in the older Infinity engine games.

If you set your character up properly - mostly by setting quickslots for special attacks or items you want to use quickly, you can do most fights without pausing.

The action queue you can ignore for the most part. All it does is keep track of the orders youve issued to your character. If you could directly order your henchmen around being able to manipulate their queues could be very handy, but with only a single character under control you wind up issuing orders as you need them.

[philip]

Space pauses the game.

Basically combat works the same as in p&p. You see monster or vice versa, initiative is rolled and actions are taken. All rolls are done for you so you don't have to do anything special.
The only thing you have to do is change equipment if you think you need and do special actions, such as casting spells and using special combat modes.

The action queue is handy if you want to do actions quickly behind each other. I played a bard and I used it with pause, gave it actions bard song, buff spell and attack. Unpause and the actions are taken as soon as possible.

NWN's combat system doesn't differ much from BG's, the differences are only the different rules set and limited control over henchmen in NWN. I think if you just start playing you'll see that it's not so different after all.

[Albromor]

Thanks, guys, you both were clear and concise and answered exactly what I was looking for. Much appreciated.