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Originally Posted by dteowner
The game went from very easy to very difficult in a real hurry in Neverwinter. I'm working the City Watch branch and my well-equipped, well-buffed party of Khelgar, Neeshka, and my scythe-wielding cleric were hopelessly outmanned on 2 quests (one for the Watch and one for Neeshka). I had to stoop to picking up the druid just for the extra manpower.

This one isn't drawing me in as much as NWN1 did. We'll see if that changes as I get further in. I just turned level 9.

God, clearing that warehouse of sneak attack crazy rogues was annoying. Especially with Mr 'I know no religion besides Power Attack, no matter what you set my AI to' Khelgar.

Things that make the watch quests tolerable (and I suspect you've got another reload-a-rama fight coming up) are: Stoneskin and Call Lightning. A delightful due of destruction found on Elanee. Alternatively, if you're not ashamed of turning down Hardcore diff to Default/Normal for a minute a level 8 Qara (as long as she knows stoneskin - mine does) who goes Fireball spam happy is an even better replacement. I had a lot of reloads before getting to the 'oh. duh. Stoneskin.' realization.

If it makes you feel better, the evil Thieves Guild quests are even harder. Room after room filled with full plate wearing guys with power-critical longsword will mess you up on Hardcore. All too often it would be just my evil PC left standing.

(Fighter/Wizard/Eldrich Knight. With still spell to eliminate the armor arcane failure penalty on his full plate and tower shield he doesn't die unless I give him permission to: With combat expertise up at that point in the game I was running with an AC of 32, mirror image in case they rolled a 20 and hit me, Displacement so half of all attacks just fail anyways, and stoneskin up to eliminate most damage of the guys who beat the 50% miss chance, rolled a 20, and somehow didn't hit an image. Which wasn't… anyone really.)

Once you get sent to Old Owl Well is when the game's story started to draw me in. And I couldn't stop playing for the entire last quarter of chapter one.

I did Old Owl Well and the orcs over the long weekend. I noticed some of the old magic reaching for me while doing the orc caves. I think y'all were right that the game didn't catch its stride until a ways in.

The complete-ist in me has had a good conniption and settled in for a serious pout over this influence stuff. I actually like the concept quite a bit, but I can tell it's keeping me from working on companion quests and that's just mean. I've had several other instances already where I feel like I've missed out on something (that Dr. Livingston guy I found outside the Eyegouger cave?). Good game design, but a real pisser for me.

Originally Posted by dteowner
The complete-ist in me has had a good conniption and settled in for a serious pout over this influence stuff. I actually like the concept quite a bit, but I can tell it's keeping me from working on companion quests and that's just mean. I've had several other instances already where I feel like I've missed out on something (that Dr. Livingston guy I found outside the Eyegouger cave?). Good game design, but a real pisser for me.

The influence thing is pretty good AND pretty annoying all at the same time. Ironically (and probably deliberately) the most dysfunctional party I've found is the first party you start with. None of them like each other. It's a good way to showcase the influence gained/lost system. Dumping Neeshka with my Lawful Good monk/fighter (I detect traps by running through them, since I've got something like +15 to all saves and immunity to most nasty stuff) helped make the world a happier place for elves and dwarves.

If you're looking for a laugh if you do an evil playthrough, keep Elanee in the party, but mock or infuriate her every chance you get, and never do what she suggests. NWN 2 is so far doing a pretty good job of making me HATE my evil character for being such an evil prick. He's not 'dark cool'. He's not 'edgy'. He's a sarcastic, violent, murderous fiend without a shred of decency, respect for others, or remorse. I cheer every time he dies.

As far as I know, Livingston guy isn't tied to any companion sidequest. Not even Grobnar (gah. Hatred in gnome form.)

Originally Posted by EverythingXen
NWN 2 is so far doing a pretty good job of making me HATE my evil character for being such an evil prick. He's not 'dark cool'. He's not 'edgy'. He's a sarcastic, violent, murderous fiend without a shred of decency, respect for others, or remorse. I cheer every time he dies.

I bet Freud would have a field day with that one!

I started chaotic good and have been on a steady (if gradual) march toward lawful. I'm having a rough time with all my companions. I intended a trio with Kelghar and Neeshka (eventual monk, rogue, and my combat-centric cleric--covers most of the bases given that I don't get too enthused about hocus pocus). That's not panning out so well. So far, I've come across the bard, the paladin, the sorc, and the druid, plus the ones I intended to keep. I used the sorc for a while and set up her spells for crowd control, but I don't see that I'll be able to keep her happy. Heck, I'd probably get the most influence with the pally, but I just don't like paladins. What a mess…

You have to pick your companions carefully. For example, avoid taking Elanee and Neeshka at the same time. Generally, if you agree with one, you lose influence with the other. It is really annoying yeah. I generally cheat and start off with 30 influence with everyone…

Yep, even I cheated on the influence and I rarely bother to mess with cheats(…not that I'm pearly white honest--usually just too lazy.) It just got too aggravating not saying the right lines, messing with not being too nice to one and alienating another, reloading, reworking the dialogue trees, etc--especially since the influence thing effects how the npcs figure in the end game.

Interesting, I just played according to my alignment and let the chips fall where they may.

On my first play-through, I ended up in bed with Elanee, getting Khelgar to "monk," and alienating Neeshka and Qara.

On my second, rather to my surprise, everybody other than Sand remained loyal, although I never got Khelgar to "monk" or friendly with Elanee.

I truly didn't attempt to pander to any of them -- I just played my morally ambiguous Chaotic Neutral Arcane Trickster Drow as I imagined him. It was very rewarding, I thought. (OTOH in MotB, influence seems extremely unbalanced -- it quickly hit 100 with all of my companions, other than One of Many, on both of my play-throughs, and I played them very differently.)

I was about the same as your first play-through, PJ.

The only thing that really ticked me off was that at my trial, Shandra Jerro, despite my seemingly constant agreeing with her all the way through (never lost influence once), wouldn't testify on my behalf. Stupid heifer.

Maybe she didn't like your hair.

(She did testify on my behalf on the first play-through, but not on the second. I got the special Orator(?) history feat for my brilliant oratory on the first try, but not the second -- that time, my performance was merely "above average.")

That ought to be a feat available on this board, in which case you both would definitely qualify.

Ohh we're special all right!

Originally Posted by blatantninja
I bet Freud would have a field day with that one!

I always cheer when people, even fictional ones, get what they deserve… good or bad.

Can't say I blame you on being creeped out with your evil character,EverythingXen--especially after reading Prime J's description of all the truly despicable and purely evil actions his technically Chaotic Good Drow got away with in MotB. Apparently this game really gives that alignment something besides lip service.

Originally Posted by dteowner
I've had several other instances already where I feel like I've missed out on something (that Dr. Livingston guy I found outside the Eyegouger cave?).

Keep playing. You haven't seen the last of him.

Originally Posted by magerette
That ought to be a feat available on this board, in which case you both would definitely qualify.

Then how come I never manage to convince anybody? It's so much easier in RPG's.

DM: Make a diplomacy check.
(roll)
DM: Okay, he turned into a Social Democrat.

The problem is there's no effective curse available that would make certain people (*cough*) fail their saves….

Originally Posted by blatantninja
I was about the same as your first play-through, PJ.

The only thing that really ticked me off was that at my trial, Shandra Jerro, despite my seemingly constant agreeing with her all the way through (never lost influence once), wouldn't testify on my behalf. Stupid heifer.

there's easy way to gain influence with shandra right before the trial begin. just talk to her and be really sweet to her. as in, talk about your childhood and deagun freely. that will add about +6 influence with her at once. that was always enough for me to get her back up during the trial. I actually quite liked the whole trial thing. rather interesting. probably the best part of the game IMO.

Heh. Two different approaches to the trial. Both were amusing. The monk tried to diplomacy his way through, and was mostly successful. Lost a few diplomacy checks, despite the max rank… because they automatically removed my lucky hat! The evil eldrich knight kept mocking the court, the audience, insulting Sand, and threatening to slaughter every last man, woman, and child in Luskan in response to these accusations. Probably not the best approach, but faithful to the alignment. As a high level eldrich knight anyways it's not like the court would be anything BUT a chance to mock authority and exert dominance: in pen and paper he'd just teleport when bored of it… or burn Neverwinter to ash.

Good game. Glad I waited this long to get it (there are still things broken but apparantly a lot less things than for the first six months of release, which is sad.)

Quick "yes I'm that stupid" question. I'd just bet there's a place where you can see your influence rating with the various RPCs. Ain't in their character screens and ain't in mine. Werzit?