TL;DR: Cant hit shit, used recommended stats, what the fuck do I do

I got this game back when it was free, but only decided to give it a try now, not a huge fan of these DnD style RPGs, but I got nothing else to play, and was excited to dive in the supposedly huge modding community
But of course, I would try out the base game first, lots of people said that I could just skip directly to the expansions because the base game is not that good and the expansions are way better, to I start up shadows of undrentide, make a rogue, what the actual fuck is going on?My character is unable to hit any enemy whatsoever, and even the companion that you pick up at the start have a hard time doing anything, they hit maybe once every 5 tries, while every enemy hits like a truck, being able to kill me in one or two hits, the AI wastes my potions, so I'm fucked
Is this expansion supposed to be taken on by a higher leveled character?The companions are low level, and even that, arent gnolls and kobolds supposed to be weak, low level creatures?Why is this so hard?
I played other Bioware games, but none of them were this bad, I'm at a complete loss about what to do
So, how does one get into this game?

TLDR; create a Fighter. Play the first game FIRST.





Um, if you haven't played ANY AD&D games before
try playing the first game
FIRST.

You might want to read the manual, since there is a LOT of info about character creation and progression.

Some character classes require a LOT of micromanagement, like (SURPRISE!) a rogue class.

A lot of people give bad advice.

While not the best RPG story of all time, their Original Campaign(OC) is not that bad, and really most of the weakness and hokiness in chap 1. Chap 2 and Chap 3 are a fair bit better. Definitely worth one play through IMO. Plus some of the characters show up later in "Hordes of the Underdark", so you get backstory here.

Also the OC starts with a bit of tutorial that will quicly and easily run you up to third level before you face any real challenge which greatly improves survivability.

I love Rogues, but in this game, be a Fighter/Rogue, and go strength based. It will make combat MUCH easier.

See my post here in another Rogue thread about stat distribution for a Fighter/Rogue:
https://www.gog.com/forum/neverwinter_nights_series/rogue_protagonist_stats/post9

Welcome to one of the best games ever made. :)

Everything scientiae and Peterscott have said is true.

Despite the common consortium, I love the OC of NWN. I find it as good, if not better than the expansions. And, if you are new to D&D 3 rules it is the perfect game for you. Expansions are slightly more difficult or extremely more difficult depending on your class.

If you are that new to D&D, spellcasting classes (like Druids, mages or Clerics) may be intimidating for you. Play a Ranger or Fighter. Rogue's are a little bit on the thin side, they are fun to play but not so powerful in combat so you may want to avoid that. You can hire Tomi as Henchman for the thief works like finding&disarming traps and lockpicking. If you are a Wizard, there is one familiar that also does those things. Pixie?

If you want to go rogue or do not care about traps, you can hire Grimgnaw or Daelan to the punching for you. Grimgnaw is a killing machine (suits him considering his God), and Daelen is the perfect fighter. You can not give them items.

Alas, I recommend you play a DRUID. Be an ELF DRUID (so you can use Long Sword and Long Bow) and you will be a GOD on the field. They are good at anything. Fighting, Healing, Buffing and even dealing Magic damage. Of course, they are not as good the classes that excel in them but since NWN is a solo game (unlike other D&D games where you have a party of 4-6), having all those qualities in one character makes it exceptionally powerful in NWN.

However, if you are patient (did not seem like you are based on your post) you can try to be a wizard. I do not recommend to be a Sorcerer since you need to know a lot about the game to be able to play that Class or ask someone to recommend you the spells you should choose.

After you pick your class and you are distributing your Abilities (STR, DEX etc), it is always a good idea to click the recommend button to see what is important for your class. You do not want a Wizard with low INT.

Which other Bioware games have you played? And what is the RPG you play most?

EDIT: Added comment about Druids.

Started the original campaign, and yeah, its a lot better now, guess I should have done more research, thanks everyone Played a shitton of Dragon Age Origins and KOTOR, through they seem to be a lot more simple and straightforward than NWN, still play lots of KOTOR 2 to this day

Unfortunately, the recommended abilities/skills/feats are usually garbage. You'll do much better figuring out things on your own than trusting those.

I have played all of those multiple times as well.

NWN definitely has the most complex RPG system, because it tries to match the complex pen and paper D&D 3.0 rules.

KOTOR and Dragon age were allowed to just have their own simplified thing.

DA:O is a Fun RPG, but the RPG system is actually too simplified (and too MMO) for my taste. Only Three classes with no multi-classing and minimal variations. Since it is a party game with full party control you will play all three classes in your first game. There is little difference replaying with a different classes.

In NWN there are over 20 classes, and your character can have up to 3 classes. There thousands of combinations vs 3 options in DA:O.

Don't get me wrong though DA:O is great. I have played every origin story, many of them more than once and have finished the game on many complete play throughs. I love the origin story setup. That kind of work we probably won't see again, with the likes of EA in charge now. Having a complete mini adventure based on your starting class/race/social station. It's a fantastic intro to the world to play all the origin stories.

For NWN1, I agree that this is largely a true statement, but to keep this on topic, a rogue is primarily a support class in D&D 3.0, at least at low levels. Since NWN1 won't let you recruit a party aside from a single sidekick, you're better off choosing a "tankier" class such as the aforementioned fighter, or a cleric, until you become a more experienced player. Build your character to have at least a 16 in its primary statistic, 14 in CON, and 14 in STR if it's not your primary statistic.

STR directly affects your attack bonus, and also your damage, so if you plan to do a lot of melee fighting, you cannot skimp here. It's possible to substitute DEX for attack bonus if you take the Weapon Finesse feat and use an appropriate weapon, but STR is still used for damage if you end up in melee. So if you're starting out with a fighter or cleric, set your DEX to 12, plan to eventually wear the heaviest armor you can find (which limits the AC bonus you gain from DEX), and concentrate on whacking things.

Also note that your attack bonus improves as you level, and it improves faster for warrior type classes (+1/level), at a medium rate for priests/rogues (+3 for every four levels, awarded as +0/+1/+1/+1), and slowly for mages (+1 per two levels). So while everybody basically sucks at level 1, fighters become less sucky fastest.

SoU is intended for level 1 characters, and it's story continues in HoTU. In my opinion, these two do provide a superior story than the base game by a considerable margin. I'm not of the opinion that you must or should play the base game first, but if you're new to this genre you should at least consider playing through the base game tutorial level to get the hang of the mechanics.