gekko's Guide to NWN Part 1
 

Ahem. Since very few of you seem to know what NWN is, and we got 17 days to kill before we can play it, I've decided to write a guide to NWN. My hopes is that by June 18 you can pick up the game, and have some understanding of what you're doing, how the game works, and you'll be ready to play without asking 5 million questions. With that being said, I'll begin writing. Feel free to reply and discuss this, as I'll create a new thread for every part I write, and It won't get in the way. Most of this stuff can easily be found at the NWN site, but it's like 30 pages, and a lot of people don't want to dive right in. So I'm trying to spread it out.

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Basic Terminology

• Module: The entire adventure, if using the toolset, it can be your own created adventure. Contains all locations, areas, creatures that are included in the adventure.
• Area: One set place within the module such as the inn, the evil castle or the underground caverns for example.
• NPC: Non-Playing Character. Any character that is not operated by a player: shopkeeper, bandit, street urchin and so on.
• PC: Player Character. A character in the adventure that is operated by an actual Player.
• Module Creator: If you're making a module with the Toolset you are officially a Module Creator.
• DM: Dungeon Master. The person who controls the game and all things in it. The DM is different from the Module Creator. The Module Creator actually makes the module while the DM controls it as the players are playing the module. Of course the Module Creator and the DM can be the same person- you make a module and then run it with players.

Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition

Neverwinter Nights follows the Dungeons and Dragons 3rd edition ruleset. Dungeons and Dragons has been around for a while, and NWN follows the 3rd edition of the rules. It really doesn't matter if you've never played D&D before, or if you have no clue what the previous rules said. Basically, you'll be able to play NWN just fine without it.

Character Creation

You'll begin by creating a character. I wouldn't recommend picking something that you have no interest in, pick one that suits your style more. However, you can make your character unique. If you think of a Knight, you always think of a fighter. However, in NWN, you can make your character unique, like have a Knight who's skilled in magic. Be unique, it's a fantasy world.

Abilities

Before choosing a race for your character, you need to understand the basic abilities that each character has. These abilities affect how your character performs in the NWN world

• Strength (Str): Indicates how developed your muscles are for physical tasks such as lifting or pushing. The stronger you the better you are at melee.
• Intelligence (Int): Your ability to reason, to learn and comprehend your surroundings. The more Int you have the better skills you will possess.
• Dexterity (Dex): How nimble, quick and graceful you are. The more Dex you have the better you can avoid damage from enemies or traps.
• Constitution (Con): How hardy you are. Different from Str in that Con refers more to endurance, stamina and general health. The more Con you have the more damage you can weather and less likely you will be to contract disease or succumb to poison.
• Wisdom (Wis): Your perception, strength of will, and intuition. The higher your Wis the more in tune with your surroundings you will be.
• Charisma (Cha): This is a mix of leadership, personal magnetism, physical appearance, verbal ability and social skills. The higher your Cha the more likely you will be able to sway, intimidate, seduce or bluff and so on those around you.

The first column is the actual ability scores, and the 2nd column are the modifiers gained for that ability score. Ex. 16 Dex has a modifier of 3.

Hit Points

Hit points (hp) is the amount of damage your character can take until his is dead. If you have 20 HP, and get hit with an arrow and it takes 10HP, you have 10HP left. Get hit with another, and you're dead. Simple RPG stuff. However, builders can chage that rule in their module to standard 3rd Edition D&D rules which are you become unconcious at 0, and lose 1 HP per round for 10 rounds to which point your HP is -10HP, and you're dead. I don't really get that, so if someone is a D&D fan, can you please explain more?

HP isn't just health, it also has to be with intelligence. At level 1, your character is pretty dumb. But at level 20, he's much smarter. So if your level 20 character gets hit with 10 arrows, they aren't just sticking out of his body but he's sucking it up. It means he is smarter, and avoided getting hit in critical areas.


That's all for part 1. Part 2 becomes more confusing, so I won't hit you with it today. But just remember, understand it now, and you'll be playing more on June 18th.