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    Neverwinter Nights 2

    Game » consists of 7 releases. Released Oct 31, 2006

    The sequel to Bioware's Dungeons and Dragons PC role playing game of 2002, Neverwinter Nights 2 puts the player in the role of a peasant that must realize his importance in the world through an epic adventure.

    Short summary describing this game.

    Neverwinter Nights 2 last edited by PatheticMan on 11/20/22 03:38AM View full history

    Summary

    Set in the Dungeons & Dragons universe, Neverwinter Nights 2 (NWN2) is a role-playing game that puts the player in the weak position of peasant at the outset. But by the end, the player will become quite powerful. But whether the character is saving or dooming the land in the process is entirely up to player actions. The game was built using BioWare's Aurora engine and shipped with a fully-featured toolset.

    NWN2 had three official expansions :

    Mask of the Betrayer and Storm of Zehir were both developed by Obsidian while Mysteries of Westgate was developed by Ossian Studios.

    Plot

    NWN2 is divided into three acts.

    Act I

    The story begins a sudden invasion of West Harbor by extraplanar creatures called Githyanki and their hordes of minions. It is unclear exactly what it is they want, but they appear to be searching for something. The player must help fend off the invading Gith, and protect the village. After the invaders are driven away, it is revealed by the player character's foster father, Daeghun, that they were looking for a special silver shard that, appearantly, had a large role to play in the defeat of the Shadow King, years ago. It turns out that the shard is not in the village, but that it was hidden by Daeghun in a nearby swamp. This swap has been infested with Lizardfolk, the player must defeat the Lizardfolk and retreive the shard from the ruins.

    Daeghun is convinced that the shard must not fall into the hands of the Githyanki for fear of what they might do with it. The player is sent on a journey to the city of Neverwinter to seek out Daeghun's brother, Duncan, who might be able to shed some light on the mysteries of the shard and who also has a shard. During the journey to Neverwinter there will be some minor quests to complete, and along the way the player will meet the first three companion characters. The first of the three is Khelgar Ironfist, a dwarven fighter who wants to become a monk; the second is a tiefling rogue called Neeshka; lastly is Elanee, an elven druid who discovered that an unknown evil is spreading over the land, destroying the druid circle of which she is a member.

    Upon arrival in Neverwinter the newly formed party makes their way to Duncan who owns a local Inn called The Sunken Flagon. However, despite rigurous studies, he can't tell the player's character much new, nor can he shed any lights on the mysteries of the shard. Duncan gives the second shard to the player's character and suggests that they seek out Aldanon the sage, who might be able to find out more about the shard through magical means. Unfortunately, Aldanon lives in the quarantined district of Blacklake, and the player must somehow gain access, which can by choosing either of two different quests; by joining the city watch, or to work with the thieves' guild. During these quests the party continues to be pursued by the Githyanki, who have followed the player to Neverwinter. The player also meets some more potential companions during these quests.

    When the party makes it to Aldanon, they're told that the shards are somehow connected to a dead Warlock, Ammon Jerro, who once possessed a silver sword. Through more research, it's uncovered that there is still one remaining descendant of Ammon Jerro. Her name is Shandra Jerro and she lives on a farm nearby. The party quickly makes their way to the farm, but when they get there it's already under attack from the Githyanki. The player and their companions fend off the attack and rescue Shandra, after which they take her back to The Sunken Flagon. Shortly after they arrive there, however, the Inn is assaulted, and this time the Githyanki manage to succeed in abducting Shandra Jerro. The player is then tasked with rescueing her with the help of a ranger called Bishop.

    With the help of Bishop, the player manages to track the Githyanki to their lair just north of Ember. The player rescues Shandra a second time, and this time she decides to stay with them. In order to not be a burden to anyone she asks the player to help her train in becoming a swordarm.

    Gameplay Components

    Your companions
    Your companions

    Based on the 3.5 Edition of the AD&D Rules, Neverwinter Nights 2 makes use of an isometric point of view by default, but provides the player with the ability to control the camera at will. The player uses the mouse and keyboard to navigate through the various environments, issuing simple commands to party members with various hotkey combinations and mouse clicking. Players are given relatively complete control over all the characters within the party, and can take control over each character individually or simply have them all follow one character around, but this raises issues with the game's pathfinding A.I.

    As with the previous game, Neverwinter Nights 2 ships with a comprehensive toolset for the creation of user-generated content, allowing for significant modification and customization of the game's base content. This has allowed for a large selection of multiplayer and single player games based around original player content, creating a hefty amount of replay value for the title. Neverwinter Nights 2 was generally well-received, although it was criticized for its relatively steep hardware requirements, broken quests, buggy pathfinding AI, and several crash bugs.

    Character Creation

    Character Screen
    Character Screen

    Players can choose from a wide variety of races and classes for their character, each with their own strength and weaknesses. When creating a character the player can choose to either use a pre-built character or to create one themselves using an extensive character customization. Since the game uses the Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 ruleset one also has to distribute points accross several attributes such as strength, constitution, dexterity, agility, intelligence, charisma and wisdom. Putting points in each of these stats affects different abilities. Intelligence for instance, affects the strength and number of spells of a wizard's spells, while strength and constitution are important for a fighter class to be able to dish out and take damage. Of course a player can choose to completely ignore such things and just go completely crazy and create themself a ridiculous character.

    Races

    Neverwinter Nights 2 is set in world filled with a wide variety of races, whether you meet them along the way or pick from one of the many available during character creation. The majority of the races are of the standard fantasy variety, such as Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, and more. The only races featured in Neverwinter Nights 2 that are unique to the Dungeons & Dragons lore, are the Planetouched and Yuan-ti Pureblood. Every race--with the exception of Human, Half-Orc, Gray Orc, and Yuan-ti Pureblood--has a sub-race, each with its own strengths and weaknesses, characteristics, and background. Nearly all races (or rather, the sub-races) also have a favored class. The only exceptions to this are the Human, Half-Elf, and Half-Drow races. For these, the favored class can be any base class which has the highest level. (e.g. The favored class for a human with level 12 fighter/level 10 Warlock multiclassing, is the fighter class.)

    Dwarf

    The dwarf race is famous for their ability to not only drink a lot, but also their skills on the battlefield and strong physique. They are extremely resistant to high levels of physical and magical attacks. They are hard workers whom fully dedicate themselves to the task at hand. They are often considered to have a poor sense of humor, and they are generally wary of anyone they don't know. When someone does manage to earn their trust, however, they find that Dwarves can be very generous.

    Physically dwarves are small, averaging between 4'3" and 4'9", with the exception of gold dwarves, whom are usually a bit shorter than average. However, they are also compactly built, being almost as broad as they are tall, and weighing almost as much as humans. The skin colors of dwarves are even more diverse than those of humans, with the shield dwarf being closest to the average human complexion, while gold dwarves tend to have a deeply tanned skin, and gray dwarves generally vary in different shades of gray.

    Dwarves can have a variety of hair styles, but most of them are bald (whether by choice or not is unclear). All male dwarves grow thick facial hair in a variety of styles that may, or may not, indicate their social status. While female dwarves generally do not have beards, some gold dwarves do. A beard is something to be immensely proud of in the eyes of a dwarf, and as such they take extremely good care of them through frequent grooming.

    The dwarves are a long-lived race, with many of them living past two hundred years of age, and some of them even living as long as four centuries.

    Shield Dwarf

    The shield dwarves are the most common kind of dwaves. They used to be at war with Goblins and other creatures from the Underdark. They lost the war, and the empires of the Shield Dwarves dissapeared. Now the scattered survivors roam the Realms.

    Favored Class: Fighter

    Racial Traits

    • Ability adjustments: 2 Constitution, -2 Charisma.
    • Darkvision: Allows the dwarf to see in the dark, up to 60 feet .
    • Stonecunning: Grants the dwarf a 2 bonus to search checks when inside.
    • Skill Affinity (Lore): A 2 bonus to Lore checks.
    • Weapon Proficiency: Dwarves are proficient with Dwarven Waraxes.
    • Hardiness vs Poisons: 2 racial bonus to saving throws against poisons.
    • Hardiness vs Spells: 2 racial bonus to saving throws against any spell or spell-like effects.
    • Battle Training vs Orcs and Goblinoids: 1 bonus on attack roles against any Orc or Goblinoid race.
    • Battle Training vs Giants: 4 dodge bonus against monsters of the Giant type.

    Gold Dwarf

    The Gold Dwarfs are the only of the 3 races that practice magic, although they never acquired the hubris that caused the downfall of some human nations. They fought, and survived, many terrible wars against evil humanoids. They are a proud race, living confident in their remote homes. Some, however, have left the sactuary of their homeland in favor of exploring the rest of the region surrounding the Great Rift.

    Favored Class: Fighter

    Bonuses and Penalties

    The Gold Dwarf receives a 2 bonus to Constitution, and a -2 penalty to their Dexterity.

    Racial Features

    • Darkvision: Allows the dwarf to see in the dark, up to 60 feet.
    • Stonecunning: Grants the dwarf a 2 bonus to search checks when inside.
    • Skill Affinity (Lore): A 2 bonus to Lore checks.
    • Weapon Proficiency: Dwarves are proficient with Dwarven Waraxes.
    • Hardiness vs Poisons: 2 racial bonus to saving throws against poisons.
    • Hardiness vs Spells: 2 racial bonus to saving throws against any spell or spell-like effects.
    • Battle Training vs Aberrations: 1 bonus on attack roles against aberrations
    • Battle Training vs Giants: 4 dodge bonus against monsters of the Giant type.

    Gray Dwarf

    Gray Dwarfs are an evil and bitter race due to years of enslavement and cruel experimentations at the hands of the illithids. When they finally rose up and regained their freedom, they emerged as a new subrace of Dwarf with limited mental powers, but they retain the superior skill and workmanships common to the Dwarf race. While most of the Gray Dwarf race is evil, some have turned their backs on those ways in search of a different, better life. The majority of Gray Dwarves have found themselves a niche in the Underdark, where they craft and trade weapons with the warring races of that realm.

    Favored Class: Fighter

    Bonuses and Penalties

    Gray Dwarfs receive a 2 bonus to their Constitution, and a -4 penalty to their Charisma.

    Racial Features

    • Darkvision: Allows the dwarf to see in the dark, up to 60 feet.
    • Stonecunning: Grants the dwarf a 2 bonus to search checks when inside.
    • Weapon Proficiency: Dwarves are proficient with Dwarven Waraxes.
    • Immunity to Poisons: Gray Dwarves are immune to all forms of poison.
    • Immunity to Phantasms: Gray Dwarves have a natural immunity to the phantasmal killer and weird spells.
    • Immunity to Paralysis: Gray Dwarves can't be paralyzed.
    • Hardiness vs Spells: 2 racial bonus to saving throws against any spell or spell-like effects.
    • Battle Training vs Orcs and Goblinoids: 1 bonus on attack roles against any Orc or Goblinoid race.
    • Battle Training vs Giants: 4 dodge bonus against monsters of the Giant type.
    • Greater Skill Affinity (Move Silently): 4 racial bonus to Move Silently.
    • Partial Skill Affinity (Listen): 1 racial bonus on listen checks.
    • Partial Skill Affinity (Spot): 1 racial bonus to spot checks.
    • Spell-like abilities:
      • Once a day: enlarge person, as a wizard twice the gray dwarf's level (level 3 minimum)
      • Once a day: invisibility, as a wizard twice the gray dwarf's level (level 3 minimum)
    • Light sensitivity: -2 circumstance penalty to attack rolls, saves and checks when in bright sunlight. This penalty is always present when traveling outdoors, be it day or night, so it's advised to take the Daylight Adaption feat as soon as possible.

    Elf

    Elves are well known for their poetry, song, and magical arts. In the face of battle, however, they often prove themselves to be talented with both sword and bow, as well as being great strategists. They can live well past the age of 700, and due to their long-lived nature they aren’t quick to make new friends, but the bonds that they do strike with others tend to be stronger, and longer lasting, than a friendship between humans.

    An elf is slim and stands four and a half, to five and a half, feet tall. The skin of an elf tends to be pale, their hair dark, and eyes a deep green. They are unable to grow facial or body hair, and generally prefer to wear comfortable and loose-fitting clothes. Elves are naturally graceful, and some of the other races find them to be almost hauntingly beautiful.

    Sun Elf

    The Sun elves hail from the land of Evermeet, where non-elves are not allowed. And while they are generally considered to be the most civilized of all elves, they are also a haughty race, living a secluded life and rarely involving themselves with non-elven races.

    Sun elves are also called gold elves due to their bronze skin, and golden or green eyes. Their hair varies from golden-blond, copper, or black hair. The majority of sun elves lead a life of study and contemplation, leaving them with a stronger mind but weaker body than the other elven races.

    Favored Class: Wizard

    Bonuses and Penalties

    Sun elves gain a 2 bonus to their intelligence, and a -2 penalty to their constitution.

    Racial Features

    Hardiness vs Enchantments: 2 racial saving throw bonus against enchantment spells or effects.

    Classes

    There are a wide variety of classes to choose from in Neverwinter Nights 2. Classes are divided into two distinct categories: base class and prestige class. The base class is one that can be chosen at level 1, whilst the prestige class can only be chosen after certain requirements have been met. Furthermore, charaters can have a total of 3 base classes when multiclassing, but only one prestige class.

    Base Class

    The base class is one that can be chosen by pretty much any character, and usually doesn't have any requirements other than the need for a specific alignment. Everyone chooses one base class during character creation, and at later levels up to two more of base classes can be added if the player decides to create a multiclassed character. The following 15 classes are available in NWN 2 (two in Mask of the Betrayer expansion, and one in the Storm of Zehir expansion):

    Combat Classes
    • Barbarian
    • Fighter
    • Monk
    • Paladin
    • Ranger
    • Rogue
    • Swashbuckler (SoZ)

    Spellcasting Classes

    • Bard
    • Cleric
    • Druid
    • Favored Soul (MotB)
    • Sorcerer
    • Spirit Shaman (MotB)
    • Warlock
    • Wizard

    Prestige Classes

    A prestige class can only be chosen once certain prerequisites have been met, like--for instance--having certain feats, being of a particular race, etc. They are also limited to having only 5 or 10 levels, as opposed to a base class which can have 20 levels. They also lack epic progression (although they can choose epic bonus feats).

    Original System Requirements

    NWN 2 was infamous for its harsh system requirement at launch, with GameSpot describing it as a " performance-guzzling monster".

    Minimum

    • Operating System: Windows XP
    • Processor: Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz or AMD Athlon XP 2000 or equivalent
    • Memory: 512MB RAM
    • Hard Disk Space: 5.5GB Free
    • CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive: 4x(DVD) 8x(CD)
    • Video: 128MB Pixel Shader 2.0 (ATI 9700 Pro or nVidia 6800 or better) - should be compatible with DirectX version 9.0c or higher
    • Sound: Windows XP-compatible sound card
    • Multiplayer: Local area network with TCP/IP protocol or Broadband Internet connection
    • DirectX: DirectX version 9.0c or higher (included)
    • Microsoft .NET 2.0 Framework for toolset (included)

    Recommended

    • Operating System: Windows XP
    • Processor: Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 or equivalent (or higher)
    • Memory: 1GB RAM
    • Hard Disk Space: 5.5GB Free
    • CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive: 4x(DVD) 8x(CD)
    • Video: 256MB Pixel Shader Model 2.0 (ATI X1600 or nVidia 6800 GT/GS or better) - should be compatible with DirectX version 9.0c or higher
    • Sound: Windows XP-compatible sound card
    • Multiplayer: Local area network with TCP/IP protocol or Broadband Internet connection
    • DirectX: DirectX version 9.0c or higher (included)
    • Microsoft .NET 2.0 Framework for toolset (included)
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