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I just started playing NWN a few days ago and so far it's been really awesome, but the one gripe I have is that it gets almost unplayably hard at some points and I'm still on the first chapter. idk if it's because I'm playing as a wizard or what but there's hordes of enemies that just gang up on me before I can even cast one pitiful frost bolt. It's at a point where it feels like I'm missing some key aspect of the game that's making it this hard. Also I think I might have fucked myself over by picking the wiz specialty that bars you from using summoning spells...

I originally started playing on normal, but even on easy I'm still dying at least 5 times on each encounter. Should I just reroll as a barbarian or wait it out and see if it gets any easier as I level up?

thanks
This question / problem has been solved by Jason_the_Iguanaimage
I also found wizard to be unpleasantly hard in NWN1, but it makes sense that it would be, since early-level wizards are extremely weak and fragile in normal D&D rules, but in normal D&D they have the support of a full party of other classes to protect them. That's a major reason I prefer NWN2.
There is probably no shame in going to City Core, Trade of Blades and hiring Daelen. There's your barbarian right there.

A couple of the familiars have super hiding abilities, pixie and panther I believe, making them good scouts. Try one of them. Panther deals tons of damage with sneak attacks. Pixie has rogue skills- can disarm / unlock.

One other thing worth mentioning because I made this mistake my first playthrough. Start in the Prelude, not Chapter 1. No question.
Post edited October 16, 2016 by tristanlist
I started in the prelude, and had that one henchman Pavel along with me. Being a fighter, he should have served the purpose of protecting the casters as I mentioned before, but I found him to be a liability, as he kept running off toward new enemies right after killing the last one, not letting me rest or heal. I think you get some limited control over them by issuing voice commands, but it's not like in NWN2, where you can take full control of any party member and make them do what you want.
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touched: I started in the prelude, and had that one henchman Pavel along with me. Being a fighter, he should have served the purpose of protecting the casters as I mentioned before, but I found him to be a liability, as he kept running off toward new enemies right after killing the last one, not letting me rest or heal. I think you get some limited control over them by issuing voice commands, but it's not like in NWN2, where you can take full control of any party member and make them do what you want.
Yes, you could have ordered him to stop with either a voice command or a radial menu option.
Right, it's not like in NWN2... which is why I prefer NWN1 vastly over the sequel. ;) Controlling a whole party turns the game into a squad-based tactics game and that's not what I'm after in RPGs.
In D&D, wizards are weak early on and overpowered at high levels.

That being said there are plenty of ways to make the game easy even as a low-level caster; just get one of the melee henchmen (I prefer the monk, but the barbarian is good too), get the panther companion, use buff spells like protection from evil and mage armor on both, then watch them kill stuff while supporting them with a crossbow, wands and the occasional debuffing or crowd control spell for tougher fights.
Wizards are extremely weak before level 5 in most DND settings. Like someone else said, your best bet is keep your Dex high and use a fighter henchman like Dealen or that crazy monk by your side. Shoot enemies from far away while that guy (you can only hire on in OC) does most of the killing and save your spells for hard enemies. Dealen or that evil monk will take care of almost all situations without a problem.

Take note that once you become higher level like 8 or 10, you will be a killing machine.
Even in modules without henchmen, familiar + summon creature I + buffs + crossbow get the job done on early levels.

Wizards aren't that weak early on, you just need to use a different strategy than on higher levels.
High-level wizard can basically throw fireballs and lightning at whatever they want dead and that's it. Also, summons get relatively weaker at high levels, so you can't really rely on them that much.
Post edited October 16, 2016 by Taro94
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Taro94: Right, it's not like in NWN2... which is why I prefer NWN1 vastly over the sequel. ;) Controlling a whole party turns the game into a squad-based tactics game and that's not what I'm after in RPGs.
And I'm not after a solo game that uses game rules designed for a full party. If you wanted to, instead of controlling the party you could treat the NWN2 party members like NWN1 henchmen and just set their behavior and/or give them voice commands like in NWN1, and at least you'd have the support and class variety of a full D&D party.
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Taro94: Right, it's not like in NWN2... which is why I prefer NWN1 vastly over the sequel. ;) Controlling a whole party turns the game into a squad-based tactics game and that's not what I'm after in RPGs.
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touched: And I'm not after a solo game that uses game rules designed for a full party. If you wanted to, instead of controlling the party you could treat the NWN2 party members like NWN1 henchmen and just set their behavior and/or give them voice commands like in NWN1, and at least you'd have the support and class variety of a full D&D party.
It's a matter of preference. Moreover, while D&D rules are made to support full parties, it's still the module design that matters the most; you can quite easily beat the original campaign with any character solo, even a rogue.
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Taro94: It's a matter of preference. Moreover, while D&D rules are made to support full parties, it's still the module design that matters the most; you can quite easily beat the original campaign with any character solo, even a rogue.
"Even a wizard" would be more impressive, since I find rogues to be much more survivable than wizards at lower levels, with their dexterity-based AC bonus and dodging feats.

Do you also disdain RPGs like Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Planescape: Torment, etc.? Are they "squad-based tactical games" to you and not RPGs? Personally, I spent at least as much time playing as Imoen in Baldur's Gate as I did my own character because she was fun to play as, and I liked scouting around an area hidden as a rogue to decide how to approach an encounter with the rest of the party, and maybe opening up the battle with a backstab just as the wizard is tossing the crowd control spell I ordered.

Bioware knew the benefit of a full party in D&D-rules games then, and dropped it for NWN1 for unknown reasons. I'm glad NWN2 brought it back. Having a full party that you can (but don't need to) control gives you options, like if a situation isn't as much fun to play as with my wizard, I'll switch to play as one of the fighters, or if a situation needs careful healing, I'll play as the cleric. Whatever's more fun or useful.
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Taro94: It's a matter of preference. Moreover, while D&D rules are made to support full parties, it's still the module design that matters the most; you can quite easily beat the original campaign with any character solo, even a rogue.
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touched: "Even a wizard" would be more impressive, since I find rogues to be much more survivable than wizards at lower levels, with their dexterity-based AC bonus and dodging feats.

Do you also disdain RPGs like Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Planescape: Torment, etc.? Are they "squad-based tactical games" to you and not RPGs? Personally, I spent at least as much time playing as Imoen in Baldur's Gate as I did my own character because she was fun to play as, and I liked scouting around an area hidden as a rogue to decide how to approach an encounter with the rest of the party, and maybe opening up the battle with a backstab just as the wizard is tossing the crowd control spell I ordered.

Bioware knew the benefit of a full party in D&D-rules games then, and dropped it for NWN1 for unknown reasons. I'm glad NWN2 brought it back. Having a full party that you can (but don't need to) control gives you options, like if a situation isn't as much fun to play as with my wizard, I'll switch to play as one of the fighters, or if a situation needs careful healing, I'll play as the cleric. Whatever's more fun or useful.
Well, feel free to replace "rogue" with "wizard" there - I, myself, find solo rogues much more challenging to play as than wizards, on all levels.

You're completely correct, I approached Infinity Engine games more times than I remember and always stopped relatively early on, couldn't really force myself to like the party control system. I'll repeat, this is a matter of preference and nothing more. I'm not denying quality of these games, they simply don't float my boat.

Just as a side note, I think NWN, at least in some ways, resembles pen and paper D&D more than Baldur's Gate and the rest (including NWN2). Players in D&D typically control a single character. The point of the game is to roleplay your character (hence the name) and controlling five or more of them really subtracts from the experience for me. As I said, it doesn't feel like a role-playing game to me.

As for your last paragraph, if there's a feature in a game, you are expected to use it. There is full party control in NWN2 and as such its modules are designed with it in mind. A player that doesn't like full party control might be therefore at a disadvantage. This, of course, is still better than Infinity Engine games, where you are forced to control everyone, but it's still something to keep in mind.
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Taro94: You're completely correct, I approached Infinity Engine games more times than I remember and always stopped relatively early on, couldn't really force myself to like the party control system. I'll repeat, this is a matter of preference and nothing more. I'm not denying quality of these games, they simply don't float my boat.

Just as a side note, I think NWN, at least in some ways, resembles pen and paper D&D more than Baldur's Gate and the rest (including NWN2). Players in D&D typically control a single character. The point of the game is to roleplay your character (hence the name) and controlling five or more of them really subtracts from the experience for me. As I said, it doesn't feel like a role-playing game to me.

As for your last paragraph, if there's a feature in a game, you are expected to use it. There is full party control in NWN2 and as such its modules are designed with it in mind. A player that doesn't like full party control might be therefore at a disadvantage. This, of course, is still better than Infinity Engine games, where you are forced to control everyone, but it's still something to keep in mind.
I understand there are many different definitions of what is and what is not a true RPG, so I agree that we're using different definitions -- mine is a wider, more encompassing one. I do fully consider NWN1, Skyrim, Gothic, Risen, etc. to be RPGs, but I count the vast number of full-party control games as RPGs as well, like all of the SSI Gold Box D&D games, the Ultima games, the Might and Magic games (not the "Heroes Of" ones), the Wizardry series, etc. To you, single-character games are more like pen and paper because you as a player only play as one character in pen and paper, while to me, full-party games are more like pen and paper because pen and paper games almost always have and are made for full parties, regardless of who is controlling them. So yes, I agree that if you don't like the kind of gameplay in Baldur's Gate or the other games I mentioned above, NWN1 is the better game for you. Since I prefer that kind of gameplay, NWN2 is the one for me.

To your other point, though, a given player is not always expected to use all features included in a game. Often there are mutually contradictory features included as options to give different players ways of playing differently. The fact that you can set the party members with specific actions for their AI (which you can also do in the Infinity Engine games) and simply let them act as AI agents shows that they were giving options both for that kind of gameplay and for full party control.
Post edited October 16, 2016 by touched
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Taro94: You're completely correct, I approached Infinity Engine games more times than I remember and always stopped relatively early on, couldn't really force myself to like the party control system. I'll repeat, this is a matter of preference and nothing more. I'm not denying quality of these games, they simply don't float my boat.

Just as a side note, I think NWN, at least in some ways, resembles pen and paper D&D more than Baldur's Gate and the rest (including NWN2). Players in D&D typically control a single character. The point of the game is to roleplay your character (hence the name) and controlling five or more of them really subtracts from the experience for me. As I said, it doesn't feel like a role-playing game to me.

As for your last paragraph, if there's a feature in a game, you are expected to use it. There is full party control in NWN2 and as such its modules are designed with it in mind. A player that doesn't like full party control might be therefore at a disadvantage. This, of course, is still better than Infinity Engine games, where you are forced to control everyone, but it's still something to keep in mind.
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touched: I understand there are many different definitions of what is and what is not a true RPG, so I agree that we're using different definitions -- mine is a wider, more encompassing one. I do fully consider NWN1, Skyrim, Gothic, Risen, etc. to be RPGs, but I count the vast number of full-party control games as RPGs as well, like all of the SSI Gold Box D&D games, the Ultima games, the Might and Magic games (not the "Heroes Of" ones), the Wizardry series, etc. To you, single-character games are more like pen and paper because you as a player only play as one character in pen and paper, while to me, full-party games are more like pen and paper because pen and paper games almost always have and are made for full parties, regardless of who is controlling them. So yes, I agree that if you don't like the kind of gameplay in Baldur's Gate or the other games I mentioned above, NWN1 is the better game for you. Since I prefer that kind of gameplay, NWN2 is the one for me.

To your other point, though, a given player is not always expected to use all features included in a game. Often there are mutually contradictory features included as options to give different players ways of playing differently. The fact that you can set the party members with specific actions for their AI (which you can also do in the Infinity Engine games) and simply let them act as AI agents shows that they were giving options both for that kind of gameplay and for full party control.
Right, Infinity Engine games + NWN2 and NWN simply take different approaches and interpret D&D spirit differently, indeed there's something for everyone. ;)
Post edited October 17, 2016 by Taro94
The key to playing a wizard in NWN at low levels is to have meatshields.

* You can summon a badger at level 1 that's tougher than most level 1 fighters.
* You can have a familiar with damage resistance and regeneration. (Pick a mephit, or an imp.)
* And finally, of course, you can hire a meatshield henchman. Cast Mage Armour on him for greatly enhanced survivability.

Unlike in NWN2, familiars in NWN1 are highly effective warriors at low levels, and can take on those hordes of enemies easily. Plus, you can even control them directly so you don't need to rely on voice commands. (Via the radial menu, or by making a shortcut) For added fun, pick a fire mephit, send him ahead to distract a whole mob of enemies, and then cast Burning Hands at them. The Mephit is fire immune. Works even better after level 5 when you get fireballs.

The AI can make all these allies a pain, true enough. Learning the voice commands is key to your sanity. "v, w x" makes henchmen/summons/familiars stop in place. "v, w, e" makes them attack. "v, e, e" makes them follow you without attacking IF you're playing modules that have this feature enabled (i.e. not the OC) or have an AI mod installed.

Even worse, each ally you have reduces the XP you get for beating an encounter. The game kinda compensates by spawning more monsters if you have a bigger party, (counting familiars and summons) which kinda defeats the point of having those extra allies in the first place, but well. That's NWN for you.

So all in all, once you gain some levels you'll want to do without summons and such. Just a single henchman will do.

Finally, you want to use the right spells for the job. Key spells at low levels are:
* Sleep. Gets rid of whole groups of goblins in one go. Colour Spray also works.
* Burning Hands. The only worthwhile damage spell, since it lets you hit groups of enemies. (Magic missile is great and all, but not until you reach level 5 or so.)
* Ghostly Visage. Makes you pretty much invulnerable to the foes you face at low levels.
* Combust. You need to get close, but it kills single tough foes for most of the early game. Though you may need to run in circles for a bit until they burn to death.

On a side note, I find that sorcerers are more suited to the OC than wizards are. There's just so much hack-and-slash gameplay against endless hordes of enemies that wizards run out of spells all the time. Sorcerers may be less flexible, but in the OC a blunt instrument is just what's needed.