This page captures my notes on the NWN, so-called, Official Campaign i.e. the first released game for NWN1. It is the story of the rise of the Hero of Neverwinter, who defeated the plot of the “Old Ones” return. This was copied from wiki V.1 on 22nd June 2013. Some of the internal links need to be revised.  The early Bioware links are broken forever! And now the Vault links are also broken. The page has sections,

Walkthroughs | Character Creation | Forums | The Forge | Other Oddness in Neverwinter| Port Llast | Luskan & the Tower | Beorunna’s Well | Return to Neverwinter

Walkthroughs

Looking for some help and came across these walkthrough sites

Creating a Character

The official campaign (OC) aka Neverwinter Nights has a number of persuasion and hence Charisma tests. I tried a bluff and rude Barbarian and came to the conclusion that a 10 CHA was too low as I was not being offered sufficient quests and thus losing XP which was hard enough to come by anyway! I down loaded Leto, the game file editor and upped my Charisma to 16. After all, I don’t want the reputation as a powergamer. Also one of the quests in chapter 3, requires a high intelligence to win. I used potions to improve my INT at this point in time, but it does suggest that the power gamer trick of mini-maxing points is undesirable for this game!

There is a point where my Paladin returned to the Temple of Tyr with a very temporarily low intelligence and the dialogue options had been appropriately changed – “Me hurt, you heal me?”

Forums

My Notes and Hints

These notes are mainly the result of my first run through the game with a Paladin, accompanied by Sharwyn. See also NWN Playing a Paladin on this site. I have several others being run through as well.

The Forge in Chapter 1

Specifically looking for help with the forge and checked out Game Banshee and put in this search. Not very helpful, although implies that I can get the adamantite from Oleff at the end of his quest using persuasion. Let’s see if PlanetNeverwinterNights forums has any better advice. Someone there claims that Loxar has one. He’s the gang lord in the Blacklake District servant’s quarter. Don’t forget to persuade Ophala Cheldarstorn, when recovering her items, you might get a diamond.

Lord Shar at PlanetNeverwinterNights says, which he characterises as spoilers,

Adamantite is probably a random drop in Act3. I had 3 adamantite chunks by the end of Act1″

  • From Oleff, if you finish the Never Tomb quests and Persuade for a better pay
  • From Loxar, the bully in the Blacklake outer district
  • From the head dude at the Blacklake zoo with the +1 longbow.

Now I’m looking for a diamond,

  • there’s one in the Seedy Tavern, at the end of the 1st floor down, there is a large room guarded by a Lieutenant, and there is a trapped chest. This has a diamond. I was previously given the bad advice that the Blood Sailor Lieutenant guarding Vengeul’s girlfriend has it, although I didn’t find it. (Twice!)
  • After you finish Ophala’s quest which can be gotten at the Moonstone Mask Inn. You must persuade a diamond out of her. If you don’t persuade a diamond out of her, you have slim to no chance of finding another diamond in chapter 1. Diamond are fairly rare in the Single Player module that comes with NWN. (Thanks Deadslayer PNWN.)

The items required for magic items in the forge can be quite exact i.e. Magic Armour AC5 is 4 + 1, and not 5 or better. The cost for Armour seems to be 500 GP and I have had the chromatic breast plate +1 and Scales of Truth made up, using the breast plate from the half orc armourer (and the diamond) and a chain shirt from Aribeth (and the holy water). Neither seem as good as the Armour of Comfort, its better armour and lighter. The Chromatic Breast plate increases resistance against electric, cold and fire damage, while the Scales of Truth permit a see Invisible spell to be cast three times.Keep your magic components for the forge, you meet another forge in chapter three and the recipe book is the same.

Other oddness in Chapter 1

Tamora of the Moonstone Mask will not speak to women (it seems). While this makes sense in story terms, its unusual in 21st century story telling. There’s many reasons why she might want to talk to a female adventurer given her problems. Secondly, do not offer her the “shop” pass coin. She’s looking for help, not work.

There is an easy way to defeat Eltoora’s automaton. See Playing a Wizard.

Helm’s Hold

The Chapter 1 finale seems quite a challange for my first wizard. See Playing a Wizard at this site.

I also have had some fun i.e. difficulty with a Ranger, traveling with Boddyknock Glinckle. Keeping Boddyknock alive during the first fight isn’t easy, but is easier with the familiar. However, it seems you can only sleep on that level if all the monsters deemed as part of the first fight are slain. Some of them are in Dester’s ritual room, I think, so they need to come to you while leaving Dester in there. You can kill all the undead, rest to restore hit points and the Sorcerer’s spells and then attack the ritual room, I have defeated Desther, but not without losing the rest of the party.

If not playing a powerful fighter, this fight needs some preparation. Make sure you have the potions you want i.e. buy them from little Johnny in the dungeons before you leave Fenthick. He also has some high level summoning scrolls, which is not so helpful if you are a conjuror. (The key mage spells are dismissal and elemental resistance.)

Chapter 2 – Port Llast and surroundings

The Game Banshee walkthrough suggests going south then east then North and finishing each compass point. Last time I played I did the easy bits of each route and then the hard bits. I know I’m not very good at the game, but I find the end points of each route a bit tough at the levels I currently possess (at least with the Pally) and I suspect I’ll find the last route a bit easy close to Port Llast.

When Vardoc attacks you, and dies, is his magic armour always something you’ve got. I did this twice today and both times I got something I used in the fight.

The Werewolf quest, Ander, in the inn; provides background on werewolf quest once you’ve spoken to Neurik. There are four werewolves that need to be found to complete this quest. See Neurik after finding the three boys and then go to the werewolf cave in the Green Griffon Inn area to find Karathis.

  • Barn – on the road to Charwood. i.e. on the “South Road”, immediately due south of Port Llast in the North-eastern cave, right in the NE corner of the map. Right at the very end, of course…
  • Geth – in the Neverwinter Woods. Found on the East Road.
  • Urth – upstairs in the Outlying Farm in his parents house.
  • Karathis – in the werewolf cave on the Green Griffon Inn map. He provides a journal indicating that Alhelor is the Black Wolf. Take journal to Neurik.

Right! I have come up against Brother Toras in the Arcane Brotherhood Tomb. He is a bit of hard case for a Paladin & Sharwyn. This is what the Bioware Forums have to say about the fight. Basically very hard for a fighter type, best use knockdown and invisibility. PlanetNeverwinterNight offers this advice, which says that Potions of Clarity help. Maybe I should do Mutamin’s Challange first and get another level. I did this and have obtained two very useful magic items, a belt of strength, a shiney new tower shield and two new feats. Now lets see how this ‘brother’ handles me! Another bioware forums thread, found using Google:”brother toras”. So, in summary

  • use a potion of clarity to defend your mind
  • use the usual buffs, Cat’s Grace & Barkskin, Protection from Evil & Aid this makes it very hard for the minions to touch you, and Sharwyn’s song increases the buffs and immunities
  • attack him first before his minion zombies, while they crowd around you, you need to attack him to disrupt his spells to stop his defences going up
  • use rings and pendants that maximise defence against fire and spells, not the armour class.
  • use the Kinslayer sword; it has magic damage that gets though some protections

N.B. I say hard for a fighter, I have now done this with a Mage and its no easier. I have written this up on my Playing a Wizard page.

Luskan and the Arcane Tower

The Contrapulator has a limited number of charges. Ask for what you want first!

In the Ruins of Illusk, you meet a demon called Voreal. He’s quite tough and very well protected magically. Yet again use the Kinslayer sword, buff up (including the potion of clarity) and hit it as quickly as possible, I had to teleport back to the Temple of Tyr once. Once its magical defences expire it seems quite easy to hit so possibly power attack, smite evil etc would work well as it has a lot of hit points, but I was more concerned about getting into a position where the weapons worked as the magical defences expire. Knockdown works but the follow up didn’t seem to.

In the Arcane Tower on the 4th floor, I had some serious problems with Rimardo Domine and his minions. I have the Kinslayer and a +2 Bastard Sword, but the Iron Golem doesn’t seem to care. This link claims to be the Monster Manual entry for v3.5, but isn’t very helpful. This is how I did it, with my Paladin. Tune the armour for magic resistance, not being hit. We need great saving throws, so use the Scarab of Protection +2, Lesser Ring of Power & the Rainbow Armour. Use a potion of clarity, and everything else. Don’t let the Iron Golem trap you in the entry passage. Either sword should work as it’s immune to fire. Your animated armour will join you in attacking the Golem pretty quickly. With my Barbarian, I don’t seem to remember the Golem being so hard, I ran past it to attack and disrupt Rimardo Domine while the animated armour and Linu dealt with the Golem.

Chapter 3 – Beorunna’s Well

OK, we enter chapter 3 and come across the trial of Rolgan – now we need those experience points and you get more by winning 5-0. I found this walkthrough with a way of winning the trial 5-0 without bribing a juror,cheat da game, which is required for my Paladin. You need to find Lodor & Zeb as witnesses, buy Lodor booze and talk to him and cure Zeb’s knee and talk to him. The questioning of witnesses and summing up needs to be carefully done and Claudio’s hints at cheat da game help. You need some insight so I had a ring of insight +2 and two potions of Fox’s Cunnning gave me an INT of 17. I have created a page mirroring Claudio’s comments NWN Rolgan’s Trial; the game is getting old and you never know what the site owner’s will do with the data.

In the Wizard’s Lab, in order to get the Staff of Command, its best to memorise “Dominate Person” or take a scroll before exploring the Wizard’s Lab. Also Eltoora sells a Rod of Beguiling, but its jolly expensive. I wonder if its available earlier as treasure, but most fighter types will sell it.

In the Snow Globe, its probably a good idea to wear the Amulet of Ages, and remember, Dragons are scary, have all your party drink Potions of Clarity

At Fort Ilkard, I have some trouble in destroying the catapults. This thread at  bioware’s forums suggests you nee to use the catapults not bash them to destroy them after their commanders are dead. Yup, that did it! Thanks to Google and Quiviro. No thanks for the Game Coders! Secondly, there are good and bad ways through the redemption of Elk Tribe quest, in order to have access to the good way, you must explore the whole map and explore the Orc Lair in order to meet Uncas before visiting the Elk Tribe fort. Tediously, I learned this through experience.

Right! Moving on to Moonwood. The Saving the Supply lines quest suggests that you should do this after the Snow Globe and Fort Ilkard since you need to kill the Orcish King! This was a piece of the proverbial with my Paladin(10)/Fighter(4). However, the meeting with Ixaristu and the Eagle Tribe of the Uthgardt was very annoying. Firstly, he’s very brave for a wizard and the bears will kill him if you let them. Secondly, a paladin’s lay on hands is not sufficient to trigger the dialogue to allow you to offer to heal. You must have a healing spell memorised. I rested to relearn Cure Light Wounds. Twice; my spell memory is a bit small because of how I did the fighter levels and my WISdom’s a bit low due needing the points elsewhere.

As I approach the Spine of the World, we now get to meet the dragons. I took the quest from Akulatraxas, the green dragon and killed the Fire Giants. Its getting easy now, with the magic scabbard offering an Aid and a Bless, the Ghostly Rod and Sharwyn’s 17th? level bard song I’m a bit of a monster. I then moved on to meet Gorgotha, the gold dragon who sets me up to take on Klauth, the ancient Red Dragon. This wasn’t so easy, but I didn’t do anything very clever, I maximised my defence against the breath weapon (i.e. fire) and then buffed up as normal including a potion of speed as well as getting Sharwyn to enhance my PC for battle. She also cast planar binding to summon a Death Slaad, but they’re getting a bit weak at this level, at least they’re something for the dragon to worry about ’till it dies. So I returned to Gorgotha for my reward and she explains that Green Dragon’s are evil. This should have been my cue to pop back and give it a bit of a seeing to, but I didn’t do this till later. The Game Banshee Walkthrough suggests that taking on an ancient green dragon is a bit of a trick and frightened me off. However since finishing the game, I went back and gave Akulatraxas, a good kicking, so if you’re playing good, I’d take Gorgotha’s hint and pick up the XP.

Chapter 4 – Return to Neverwinter

Don’t get trapped in the War Zone, if the monsters gang up on you, they can do a lot of damage, but the wizards and their guardians arn’t too hard by now and even the portal guardian wasn’t too hard. Hmm. I wrote that after playing a Paladin, maybe the immunities and saving throws helped, it was trickier using a Barbarian.

You meet two dragons in the Dragon chamber. This took me a couple of attempts, but I made sure I was rested so my henchman (Sharwyn) had all her spells available, I gave her some powerfull scrolls, (using the enhanced ai interface) including planar binding again and with the song, potion of bulls strength and speed, they went down quickly enough. Certainly, I have had harder fights in Baldur’s Gate II.

I found it hard to keep my henchmen alive in the final fight. Sharwyn died a glorious death saving humanity from the resurgence of the Old Ones. However I wanted my Barbarian’s companion Linu La’Neral to survive. I have written up the fight on Dello in Neverwinter.

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