How to play ?

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Which playing style do you recommend for NWN ?

My monk just finished the prologue and arrived in the normal game, got the main quest and is now in the henchmen tavern with 3000 XP. The action hasn't started yet.

The question is: how should I play the game ?
Which playing style is most rewarding:

a) no spoilers, no reloads.
Seems the most fun but is the game fair enough for this ?
You can get resurrected for the sacrifice of some gold and XP, but won't this lead into a dead-end since you get weaker(XP penalty) and poorer with each failed survival attempt ?

b) Save every few minutes and reload only when your character gets killed/diseased/poisoned or something similar.

c) Save before every encounter, try out every possible way of talking to find out (with the help of reloading) which option yields the best result for you.
Save before you open chests and reload until you get something really useful.

Or should I use a different approach ?


2 other questions:

1) I could rob any chest or container without negative consequences until now. Should I keep playing this way ?

2) I don't like the rogue henchman. Is it worth spending skill points in thieving skills like disarm trap or won't that be enough to succeed anyway if my monk can have only half as many ranks as a rogue in them ?
With 12 int and without expansions my monk has plenty of skillpoints to waste.

 

Q1: Something in-between a and b. Playing with no reloads is obviously more desirable, but the game doesn't always play fair - you're walking around the countryside, there's absolutely no one around, and suddenly a bunch of enemies spawn around you. That doesn't happen very often, but often enough. When I played the game I used to save every few minutes, but only reloaded if I was killed. Anything else (including the hiring or familiar getting killed) I just lived with. It's quite fun that way, and not terribly frustrating.

Q2: If you've got the skillpoints, and don't want Tomi, then there's no point in saving the points - spend them on disarm traps. They might not be enough to open ALL chests, but then again almost all teasure is random, and 99.99% of chests contain worthless loot anyway.

 

a) Getting ressurected is unlikely to lead to a dead end. The penalties seem to be a fair bit, but you won't be dying too often so you don't actually lose all that much. Additionally, while you respawn at full health, whatever killed you will stay at whatever damage you inflicted, thus making your second attempt easier.

b) This is what I tend to do, as I find it offers the most enjoyable playing experience for me.

c) I wouldn't advise this as having to reload to find the most powerful option seems a bit unnecessary to me. The OC isn't all that hard, so it isn't as if you really need the most powerful drops.

1) Depends how in-character you want to be. If you are trying to RP as much as possible, then no. However, if you wish to have all the loot and items, feel free. No-one really cares about you stealing their possessions, even from right under their noses.

2) The traps have a relatively low DC, so if you take Disarm Traps, then you will likely soon be able ot disarm them. I wouldn't bother simply because a monk has such good saves and Evasion that the traps you can't walk around are unlikely to do all that much to you.

 

b) for me, but depends what difficulty level you are playing on.

The way NWN skills work, it is reasonably easy for a non-rogue to become a passable rogue, although my preferred approach is to take my first level as Rogue for loads of skill points then 'save' them up until about 10th level for another Rogue level. This should be enough for the whole game. But if your Monk has loads of spare skill points you should be able to deal with traps OK.

 

Since you're playing a monk I wouldn't even bother with points in Disarm Traps. At level 9 you'll get Improved Evasion at which point most traps will be a joke. Simply run over them without worry.

Get some gloves with elemental damage on them and you'll be bashing chests open quickly enough.

The NWN OC is just too easy mainly due to the Stone of Recall. You can use it as much as you want. Recall to the temple and ask the priest there for healing. It's free and it heals you completely of any malady. And of course you'll find loads of potions and scrolls to heal you and cure you of the various afflictions.

 

Are you kidding? The deadliest weapon in NWN is the 50d6 of repetitive overuse injury damage you suffer from having to use the Stone of Recall every five minutes to get back your idiot henchman who has died yet again.

 

Who needs a henchman? If you don't want to spoil the game get rid of them ASAP.

 

No spoilers? Fine. After all, people who write walkthroughs make it somehow. No reloads? You aren't seriously going to restart if you die, are you? I would say just play the game as you like and don't think so much about other people's expectations. Someone will always say you reload, you min-max, you whatever. Just make sure you have fun while playing and don't worry too much.

Besides, I think you're going to die quite often if you don't reload. Not oh-so-often, but still. Unless you can run from battles you aren't prepared for and come back when you are. Again, I would say save often, reload rarely, and you should be happy.

Another concern is that to make sure you don't have to reload, you would need to make an awfully versatile character and have tons of skill in playing it (which borders on metagaming) or min-max and powergame a lot. Is reloading less realistic than min-maxing? Hmm... In my opinion, playing without reloading is surely a great achievement and a show of player skill, but the art of staying alive in cRPG is full of metagaming. You just need the kind of knowledge your character wouldn't likely have in his brain.

IIRC there are traps able to kill you, especially if you aren't at full health.

No idea but magical traps are normally supposed to be handled by rogues only. Judging by the devastating effects of some traps (unless I remember them wrong), the DCs shouldn't be too low.

 

I say quicksave and go with the flow...

You do realise this is an RPG...

Just do what you think is appropriate man...

 

Fire and Lightening are the traps to watch out for. The rest are pretty harmless.

 

@Rotku: Have you ever had your tank fail a will save on a Sonic trap?? While you were busy running away from a pursuing mob?? Trust me...it aint pretty!