I'm pretty much a complete beginner to D&D games, having only spent a couple hours in Planescape: Torment (shame on me, I know). I picked up NWN2 because I wanted just hours upon hours of RPG-questing plus a somewhat-tactical party management system.

I started out the original campaign with a Fighter, basically using the game's recommendations when leveling up to get an idea for how things work.

I'm currently trying to clear the bandit camp north of the fort right at the start of the game, and every fight right now is on a knife-edge of life and death. I'm burning through healer kits and cure-wound potions like kindling. At least one of my companions is down after most fights, and I tend to backtrack away from enemies to rest up between fights.

Is this just the way the game is? Run in, pick a fight, run away to heal, run back? And my characters attack so slowly. One attack every 4-5 seconds, while they each have at least two enemies hitting them.

I'm assuming I'm just completely missing something, especially since I toned it down to Easy difficulty and am still struggling. Again, this is my first D&D game, but I've played a lot of other RPGs (and not counting ARPGs) and never struggled like this in the early game, so I feel like I'm just missing something huge about this particular system.

Thanks!

Some time ago I wrote this:
http://www.gog.com/forum/neverwinter_nights_series/beginners_guide_for_character_creation_in_nwn2/page1

It is not perfect, but a good start.

some more advice:

- Do not play an ELC class. These are classes that level up slower than others (aasimar, tiefling, all genasi, drow, yuan-ti, gray orc, deep gnome, gray dwarf). hope I didn´t forget something. This makes things much harder.
- Do not get an exp penalty. (I´ts written in the guide)
-hold down the right mouse button and a menu shows up. Go to issue command and order your party to attac. Sometimes your group stops attacking the enemy (this happens when you give another command or sometimes when you change group members.
- save ofen and in different slots, rest after every hard battle
- level up all your group members when you get the message.
- use spells to make your party stronger (buffs) Some basic spells with long duration are protection from alignment (evil), stoneskin, barkskin, spell that raise your main stat. Haste lasts short but is great.

That it for the beginning. Ask again I you want to know more.

The Fighter is a fine pick for keeping things simple. The game's suggestions, though, are not quite so fine. They should still be functioning, though.

You might want to just post your character (race, level, attributes, and feats) and we'll be able to see pretty quickly if there's a major problem with him and hopefully set you on the right track. The bandit camp can be a little tough if you didn't do any of the side-quests (the Graveyard or the Swamp Cave), since you'll be about 2 levels lower than you would have otherwise been. The bandit camp is the hardest of these three areas, so I'd highly recommend leaving it for last.

As for Neeshka, don't worry as much about her. She can't wear heavy armor and she has relatively poor hit points and she prefers melee combat, so she's practically always going to be the first party member to drop. Essentially, this is the game's "difficulty release valve". Some players can steamroll their way through these areas, others cannot. Leaving the option to fall back and rest was the game's solution to difficulty.

I do have one general piece of advice: trade in your longsword and shield for a greatsword; two-handed weapons rock the house. Shields are nice, but the problem is that fighters can wear heavy armor and have excellent hit points; the characters who need this bonus are the ones who can't use the shield in the first place! Better to use a two-handed weapon so you can bash in the skulls of anyone who tries to ignore your burly fighters and attack the more fragile spellcasters and rogues. Shields work well for Clerics (who are hybrid warrior/spellcasters) and for Paladins who are at least 6th level (divine might). It can also work well if you're fighting in narrow corridors where the fighters can actually block off the passage and prevent enemies from reaching other party members. In most situations, though, a two-handed weapon is just plain better.

Do not horde potions and scrolls and items just to sell them

Utilize powerful scrolls, wands, and potions to gain an edge in (and sometimes before entering) combat. If you feel like you're about to enter into an ominous area, buff-up with spells and any of the myriad items. Don't forget about traps and alchemical weapons in the first few levels either! A flask of greater alchemists fire goes a long way in your first few levels.

The OC campaign is a pretty high-magic environment by the time you finish Act 1, and it gets downright ridiculous near the end - basically, you'll never want for gold, so there's no reason to horde!

For a first time player, I'd recommend setting the proper AI behaviour per companion, and then divvying out limited use items to them. They'll use them at their discretion and leave you free to concentrate more on the battle.

The AI is terrible in my opinion, but it's certainly enough to get you through all fights in the OC campaign if you equip them properly and take a good hard look at each of their behaviour tabs.

A few more things:

- In my first point I mistook race and class. The things I wrote were races.
- Identify magic items before you use them.
- Steal from every merchant. You can pick pocket one or two magic items from most of them. For reasons unknown nothing happens if you fail, just try again. ( Do not do this in baldurs gate and maybe some other games without lots of save/reload. The whole area will get hostile if you fail.)
-All casters want max concentration skill. Otherwise their spells will fail when they take damage or cast near enemies.

Using items is a good advice. Often I have tons of them but instead of just using them I reload if something goes wrong. Shame on me. Remember that the AI of your group is pathetic in using items or spells, but mostly it is better to use something than to use nothing.

The areas around Fort Locke are tough. I did the Graveyard before the bandit camp, there is a lot of nice equipment at the Graveyard. Try using the commands, like Follow Me and pull back to a safe place to rest before your companions rush headlong into another melee. These first areas are tough because you do not have the hit points to grind out wave after wave of enemies.

One other thing that helped me was giving Neeshka a bow, either short bow or crossbow. This prevented her from dying in every melee.

Good luck.

Heading towards Highcliff & picking up Elanee before going to the bandit camp will make it easier.

Very true. :)

Don't try to engage the camp all at once. Do a Sergeant York and kill the ones in back first without the guys in front seeing. Go around back and find the path up to the camp. Set up an ambush at the bottom of the hill, then lure the bandits in a few at a time.

The early game can be rough without a healer in party, it gets easier when you get one.
In the meantime, don't conserve potions, little things like everybody gulping down a bull's
strength or cat's grace can turn the fight around.

Also, try to figure out crafting weapons and armor and magic weapons.
It's a bit complex system, but getting that extra bit of help can make a difference.

Also, single handed weapons + shield work just fine, shield bonus itself is no big deal but shield is one more item you can enchant to give some nice bonus. Single handed weapon used in two handed style when you need max damage is a nice compromise.

Thanks everyone for your input! A little more information about my current character and party, though I think I can make some adjustments from here:

I'm playing a half-elf fighter (5) and have Khelgar and Neeshka in my party, so the point about not having a healer making it tough is noted. Bandit camp seems to be the last thing I have available to do before heading to Highcliff, so I'm thinking I might just bypass the end of this, head up there, and come back later.

I'm at the final room of the camp now and can take out maybe two bandits before my party is gone. I'll have to go back and find some more potions I think. One of the things I'm struggling with is timing; it seems I'm always too late given the characters' long response time to get them to heal up.

Another problem is that I did the graveyard and everyone now has drained CON + DEX, but I can't find any options at the fort or nearby for clearing those (guessing I must head to Highcliff).

I definitely need to use grenades a lot more.

What's the trick for not alerting everyone nearby to come and attack me? I'd like to do the trap/ambush strategy, but I haven't found a way to not alert entire groups.

I will soldier on for now.

Funnily enough, I see it the other way around.

Early levels, everybody is pretty brittle. Especially in mob fights, not getting hit all the time is a big deal.
So if the mobs hit with a roll of 16, and a heavy shield rises that to roll of 18, that almost halves the amounts of hits you receive.
Could be better even, say from 18 to 20, cutting the hits by 2/3.

Neeshka goes down easily, but Khelgar is not a a soft kitty.
Heck, I'd actually go and give neeshka a shield proficiency to improve her survivability, good shield and light chain.

In the higher levels, getting 1.5x the strength bonus into the damage is the main thing, that's when it can make a big difference.

But that's just thinking, I haven't done a lot of hit/damage math and generally equip my fighters with 2-handers just because I really like 2-handed swords. :)

There is a wizard in that room with a wand of lightning so the best idea is charge in and take him out fast... don't give the thief a bow or she tends to stand in the doorway blocking the dwarf from getting in.

p.s. go invisible!

The reason I go and get Elanee before doing any quests around forte locke, is you get her before she takes "Natural Spell" feat. You may find others better suited to the way you play her.