I got up to the shade lich in Neverwinter Nights 1 and couldn't beat it with my bard solo. I think it was tougher because I didn't have as high of a strength and damage amount and because I was going solo.

-I want to try this time with a companion. Which would be better for a ranger warrior (PC). Dorna or the orc mage guy? Also do they come with you when you get to the area and get turned to stone.

-What race is the medusa main boss at end of game? I want to take that racial enemy. If its undead then I'll do that but what type I have no idea.

-Are there any other tips anyone can give me? This game was much tougher than Baldurs Gate series.

Yes, if you're playing solo then a high damage-output is a must.

By "Shade Lich" I presume you're talking about the boss in the mage's tower in the final act of the "Shadows of Undrendtide" campaign. If so, you've almost reached the final boss and you should be able to barrel through by splurging your accumulated cash on wands and other consumables and using those. Heck, the necklace of fireballs you got earlier should have enough charges to carry you through every boss fight. I wouldn't bother playing Ranger in NWN1 unless you're really in love with the concept. I'd recommend a Fighter/Rogue (any split) or a Fighter/Druid (1 level fighter, rest druid) to get a similar flavor. The Ranger comes across as a really haphazard mix between the Fighter, Rogue, and Druid, but is remarkably weaker than each.

Personally, I've never taken Dorna or Xanos into the final act. Not a big fan of either of them (their unfavorable multi-classing makes them excess baggage after a while). I know that Deekin does come with you, though. I believe she's a monstrous humanoid. Aside from the final boss, the Stingers are the only other monstrous humanoids. Wouldn't worry too much about favored enemies. Unless you're lucky enough to be in an outsider-heavy or undead-heavy campaign the categories are too split up to benefit from it consistently. NWN1 can be very difficult or very easy depending on your character choice. This is especially true given the tendency for players to attempt to solo it, and the near-total focus on damage output this entails.

So what about a bard that fights? Is that a difficult choice to solo if I just spam bard song and increase strength?

I just did some research on bard. Turns out he is one of the best damage-dealers out of fighters in the game. The bard song gives more than specialization from fighter would. Whats more you could dual to 4 levels and get both. Bard song gives armor class bonuses, bonus to health, damage, to hit and all saves. This might turn out well if I get a high strength. Thank you.

My favorite combo in NWN is the Bard/FTR. I take bard at level 1, a level of FTR at character level 2, then all Bard until level 18 (the last 3 levels are FTR up to level 20). Of course, you may want to juggle that a bit for the SoU campaign, since you finish at around level 12. But it can be a great class mix. Take Still Spell so you can cast in armor if you want to (or if you go with just long-term buffs, you can take off your armor to buff, then put it on and you're ready to rock), and go with high STR and pump it as you level. It's very effective.

Do be mindful that your overall damage depends on other factors, like how accurate you are, how many attacks per round you get, and your odds of a critical hit. An optimized fighter (particularly one that goes for the weapon master path) will leave you in the dust in this regard.

With that said, bard is a fine damage-dealer if you assign your attributes and spells wisely. I have no reservations about your ability to deal damage with a bard, just don't expect to keep up with a dedicated fighter. If you're going to multi-class, I'd only take a single level of either fighter or barbarian, primarily for free proficiencies. Taking more than that... you'll never really make up what you lost in access to higher-level spells.

Seems you're happy with a high-strength bard, so let's focus on that. My recommend attributes:
STR 16
DEX 12
CON 12
INT 10
WIS 8
CHA 16

This gives you enough charisma for full bard spellcasting, so you can put all further advancements into strength. Your starting strength is high, but not so high as to hurt your other abilities. Wisdom is your dump stat; bards have a strong will save so this should be self-correcting. Dexterity, constitution, and intelligence are balanced to give you a good mix of skill points, hit points, and armor class. Feel free to drop dexterity by 2 points if you feel you need more skill points or more hit points. Ninja'd by Coelocanth. What matters here is getting that all-important BAB of 16 by 20th level, which pays off in spades in the epic levels. However, given that SoU ends long before you go epic I wouldn't advise more than 1 level of fighter.

Good recommendation, although I'd personally tweak it to this:

STR 16
DEX 8
CON 12
INT 14
WIS 8
CHA 16

Reason is you can boost DEX with Cat's Grace and Relfex is one of the Bard's high saves, so no real need to worry about the impact on saves. As well, if you're wearing heavy armor (and you will be with a Bard/FTR, amirite?) you don't get any AC benefit from higher than 12 DEX. As well, I'm a skill point junkie and can't get enough of them.

Speaking of skill points, you could also opt to raise INT to 16 and drop CHA to 14. Since in the SoU campaign you won't get access to higher than level 4 spells anyway, you don't need higher than 14 CHA. If you take the character to HotU, you can just pump CHA twice then switch back to STR.

I'd agree with that reasoning. Basically, we're in agreement on 16 strength, 8 wisdom, 16 charisma, and 10-14 on the others (distributed by taste). Not sure if I'd go with the 14 charisma approach, but it'd work.

Oh definitely. I just thought I'd toss in my 2 cents for the OP's benefit.

Re the 14 CHA, there are pros and cons. The cons being that you wouldn't hit 16 CHA until level 20, delaying access to higher level spells. As well, you miss out on a bonus level 3 spell casting during SoU since you have only a +2 modifier on CHA (this can be mitigated by CHA boosting gear).

FYI, I accidentally assigned 4 too many build points (serves my right for not double-checking my point buy) so those should be 12's and not 14's. I've edited my earlier post, but your quote still uses my original numbers.

I had accidentally thought that NWN1 had 32 point buy (like NWN2) and must have mentally counted WIS 8 as worth a -2 (Pathfinder point buy rules). Too many variant rulesets @_@

LOL - I thought it looked off somehow (too sweet), but never even bothered to add up the point buy. I'll edit my post with the actual numbers.

yeah, too many rule sets.

You guys are awesome. Thanks for the help! I do agree on fighters being deadly.
I was just saying that bards have become much better in fighting area than when I first played them in Baldurs Gate 1. :) The only character I have stated that might be able to tank a fighter would be a barbarian. But seeing as there is no max hp on levelup, it would be a hard shot in the dark. I know what a bitch Sarevok was in Baldurs Gate 1 and I fought him with a party. A lvl 16 fighter wielding a +6 sword, wielding a twohanded sword in one hand. Friggin monster. Drizzt or Artemis would get his ass kicked.

You were very helpful before. If I can ask one question.

I went to load the save I previously ignored after icewind dale and I noticed that something weird happened to game. In Neverwinter N 1 my character didn't get full health from his level up. I thought I enabled that in game options. Is there something I didn't download?

This is stored in nwnplayer.ini

Just fine the "max hit points" line and swap it from 0 to 1. Regardless of the setting, you will always get maximum hit points at level 1.