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Howdy!
After having finished the very first Baldur's Gate and while playing the (Absolutely brilliant-!) Daggerford Campaign for the original NWN, i managed to get my hands dirty with the Platinum Edition of NWN2.
First things first : I'm not an absolute newbie to D&D 3.5 , having finished the OC a while ago and having some (albeit - more on the storyteller side, wich i love) DM 'xperience.
So i started MotB, after having heard -wonderful- things about it, and wanting to complete the "Shardkeeper Saga".
Indeed, MotB started GREAT! In the first 2 hours or so, it managed to suck me much more deep than the OC ever managed to do (well, almost..).
In the OC run i was a much less experienced player, and managed to make an absolutely sucky Drow Character (Chaotic Good with levels like 13 Warlock/2 Priest/1 Bard/1 Herald of the Nine or so).
After considering both the new Favored Soul and the good, ol' Cleric/Fighter favourite, i chose a Bard, the one I find really reflects myself. . with an on-the-fly- but solid build.
A Dwarf, of course, 'coz everyone loves them.
This jack-of-all-trades guy has some serious Parry Skills, and is specc'd into Dual Wielding.
I'm overall very happy : he dishes out some serious damage, provides neat buffs and a great selection of -useful- spells .. not to mention the whole Knowledge/Diplomacy/Multiuse Kickass Guitarist Of Impending Doom thingie.
The initial lack of a tanking character hurts.
Though I can certainly take the role of tank (and must) with Parryn' and Dodgin' awesomeness, most of the times attemtping to cast anything means Sure Death, if the spell isn't Mass Block Person or Heroism kind o' thing.
Wich, BG docet, i tend to use a lot.
That wouldn't be a problem if the dear mage would do her magery.
Fighting is a lot harder than in the OC. The first true boss (Red Mage in the Theatre - i haven't memorized any name yet apart of Khaji : / ) took like 20 attempts in EASY mode.
Even with Imp. Stoneskin/Stoneskin on me, Inspire Defense/Toughness, Impr. Invsibility etc, she gets oneshotted by sneak attacks and spells, all while Song of Liberty fails to remove roots and Healng Potions fly low.
And apparently, a Swarm of Metheors and 2 Fireballs in a row are barely suffcient to get a crowd of enemies INJURED.
Of course, Throwdown effects are lethal on the party - you can't parry while stunned.
Currently, i'm against some guys in the Tavern Shadow Realm area , and i can barely get them to "Gravely Injured" before dying, even using all the potions and defensive strategies i can think of, and pausing at every turn.
I will gladly welcome any suggestion and post any info you come by, and thank you all Mighty Kind lads for reading this Wall Of Text!
Many thanks,
-Amez
P.S: Sorry for the lacky english and the missing names..
Post edited March 25, 2011 by Amez
This question / problem has been solved by DarrkPhoeniximage
Hi, Amez. I've never play NWN myself, so I can't be much help in that regard. However, you might want to post this on the Neverwinter Nights board here on GOG if you haven't already.
I'm a bit surprised you're having trouble so early in the campaign, as I don't remember many of the early fights being particularly difficult (aside from those in the Death God's Vault). You do definitely want a character that can tank, though, as you'll come across quite a few enemies that can quickly wipe out your squishier companions (which is basically every companion aside from Okku). One potential difficulty, though, is that most of the companions aren't particularly good damage dealers unless you carefully micro-manage them, so if your own character can't dish out the pain all that well then you'll need to spend a lot of time pausing and issuing orders. You should also be aware that you'll be facing quite a few enemies immune to sneak attacks and criticals, so if you're used to relying on either you'll have some difficulties in many of the fights. With the dual-wielding build you mentioned you should probably try to get or make some weapons with good elemental damage (2d6 or better for each weapon), as this can dish out some good damage when combined with the higher number of attacks dual-wielding characters have).

Also, since you'll probably be relying on magic for dealing damage there are a few things to keep in mind. First you'll want to choose feats that increase the DC of your spells, since if your target makes its save then you're looking at half damage or no damage from the spell (alternatively try to use spells that don't allow for a save); hitting enemies with spells that lower their saves (e.g. Doom) before throwing your high-level damage spells at them can also be quite helpful. You'll also want to make use of metamagic feats (e.g. Empower Spell) to boost up the damage potential of your offensive spells, or increase the duration of your buffs (Persistent Spell can be great for lower-level spells). Be sure that you're also using Combat Casting mode when casting spells in the thick of things so that you don't draw attacks of opportunity when trying to fire off spells. And remember that Isaac's Greater Missile Storm is your friend.

You'll also want to be sure you have a balanced party, and since your own character isn't a tank this basically necessitates including Okku in your party. You'll also want Safiya (as your own character isn't a dedicated arcane caster), and for the final slot choose your favorite between Kaelyn and Gann (as they both fulfill pretty much the same role). For controlling them you can pretty much just let Okku do his thing, but you'll probably want to put Safiya in puppet mode, and have Kaelyn/Gann either in puppet mode or the AI set for ranged attacks with them only casting spells when you specifically tell them to (the AI simply doesn't handle spell-casting very sensibly outside of basic healing).
I agree with DarrkPhoenix that you need to put your spellcasters (everyone except Okku/One of Many) on passive mode and manage them yourself. The AI is bad at spellcasting even with
the AI-improving mod.

I played MotB with a bard myself. It's a good choice since the bard is a very powerful character in 3.5 ed. You do need to know how to use it, though.

First, remember that a bard's spellcasting should be mostly restricted to buffs. You don't have good offensive spells and even if you did, their DC is too low to be much use.
So as a bard you're mostly a fighter with buff spells and songs.

Your main abilities should be curse song, song of heroism and song of requiem. Curse song is the best debuff in the game and song of requiem does a lot of sonic damage (and heals you after you take the additional feat).
Those last a short time though, so you should pick lingering song as a feat if possible.
All right, thanks to all for your suggestions.
After doing some tricks and whatnot, my experience overall has improved.
If you can help me now, though, a new bug arose :
Do you know the Shadow Theater scenario? When you finish it, you're supposed to be greeted by some witches -wich causes the plot to advance.
This is not the case. I even checked the area for invisible enemies and yes, i had checked the table.
In boredom, i found the portal in the Tavern wich brought me an "Overwhelming" Difficult encounter.
I don't want to restart it all over.. and the internetz did not help.
If you can help me.. thanks for your patience.
-Amez
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Amez: All right, thanks to all for your suggestions.
After doing some tricks and whatnot, my experience overall has improved.
If you can help me now, though, a new bug arose :
Do you know the Shadow Theater scenario? When you finish it, you're supposed to be greeted by some witches -wich causes the plot to advance.
This is not the case. I even checked the area for invisible enemies and yes, i had checked the table.
In boredom, i found the portal in the Tavern wich brought me an "Overwhelming" Difficult encounter.
I don't want to restart it all over.. and the internetz did not help.
If you can help me.. thanks for your patience.
-Amez
IIRC, the witches greet you once you exit the theater after having killed the Red Wizards, and tell you to go deal with Okku. Are you saying this didn't happen in your game?
Love your class choice. Defeat your enemies with the power of Rock & Roll!
I found this guide very helpful since I played a bard (two-handed+rogue backstab) also:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/922154-neverwinter-nights-2/faqs/46584
Post edited March 26, 2011 by DodoGeo
avatar
Amez: All right, thanks to all for your suggestions.
After doing some tricks and whatnot, my experience overall has improved.
If you can help me now, though, a new bug arose :
Do you know the Shadow Theater scenario? When you finish it, you're supposed to be greeted by some witches -wich causes the plot to advance.
This is not the case. I even checked the area for invisible enemies and yes, i had checked the table.
In boredom, i found the portal in the Tavern wich brought me an "Overwhelming" Difficult encounter.
I don't want to restart it all over.. and the internetz did not help.
If you can help me.. thanks for your patience.
-Amez
avatar
mystral: IIRC, the witches greet you once you exit the theater after having killed the Red Wizards, and tell you to go deal with Okku. Are you saying this didn't happen in your game?
Exactly.
I found someone having the same bug here

Seems to have been solved only through reinstalling the game. Maybe someone will provide a better solution later.
I solved modifying a string in the Savegame's Main.xml file.
Thanks anyway for all your suggestions, expecially to mystral and Phoenix whom is getting some rep for answering the original question..!
Post edited March 28, 2011 by Amez