I have a character I created for Baldur's Gate that I'd like to translate to NWN. He is a half-elf Neutral Good Ranger/Cleric with the following stats:

STR: 18/00
DEX: 16
CON: 16
INT: 12
WIS: 18
CHA: 10

How would I translate his abilities in Baldur's Gate to D&D 3rd Edition? I have some familiarity with AD&D and AD&D 2nd Edition rulesets, but almost no familiarity with D&D 3rd ed. and above. So I may have questions about terminology, heh.

Flynn

Probably more ranger than cleric as in BG he was a front-line damage dealer with Kahlid and Minsc. The three of them in Plate or Ankheg Plate was a formidable combination. He was dual weilding a warhammer and mace most of the game. He would also supplement Jaheira's healing spells, so he would need to have some Cleric levels, so maybe something like Ranger 7/Cleric 3, for example?

I was figuring stats would be different as I have messed around with character creation in NWN and IWD2. I jusrt haven't made a serious push in either game to dig into the game. I have played through the proluge in both NWN and NWN 2 though. =)

Edit: Here's what I came up with for starters:

STR: 14
DEX; 12
CON: 12
INT: 12
WIS: 16
CHA: 10

Started as a Ranger, taking the Standard configuration and am at the beginning of SoU. Plan is to take a Cleric level within the next one to two levels to have basic healing spells and then go from there. Probably concentrate more on Ranger than Cleric levels overall.

Flynn

Interesting article on conversion from AD&D to d&D 3rd Ed. is here: http://www.sellin.com/DnD/3rd.html
So if your character is lv.1, then your stats directly translate into:
STR: 23
DEX: 14
CON: 14
INT: 12
WIS: 18
CHA: 10

If he is higher level than 1. then add "+1" to any stat for each 4 levels gained (starting from 4, then 8, 12, 16, etc.)

Intelligence is of extreme importance in D&D 3rd Edition, so you might want to raise it higher or you will get less skill points on level up.

You can use cheat engine or console commands to fix your stats.. Why? Because same 14 Str is nowhere near close to 18/00 Str in AD&D.

That is an interesting article. Downloaded the conversion book to check it out in more depth. =)

I think at INT 12 I do get a bonus skill point at level up, if I read the skill screen correctly. I'm not certain how many you get per level - is it a set amount, an amount based on level (i.e. 3 points at levels 1 - 3, 4 at levels 4 - 6 etc.) or based on class? I haven't completely finished reading the manual yet, heh.

Flynn

If your INT stat says +1, then you get an extra point, two points for +2 and so on.
After that, it's based on class. Clerics get very little.. was it 1 or 2 points, while rangers get quite a few points, second best to rogues if memory serves.

Concentrating on ranger, while adding a bit of cleric can potentially make a strong versatile character.
At some point, ranger gets a free two weapon fighting feat, but that doesn't work if wearing heavy armor.

When choosing levels, the way attack bonuses work, is a high attack class like ranger, gets one point
every level up, while medium class gets 3 points per 4 levels, the first being a skip level.
This means, for optimal build, you should take 4 levels or cleric as long as you take any,
and if you take the fifth, you might as well take it up to 8th.

Also note, Hordes of the Underdark is a direct sequel to SoU, so you might want to use the same character there as well.

Neverwinter Nights, which is based on 3.5 D&D rules is a lot more user friendly then D&D2 rules. Most basic difference is on Thac0 and AC. In 2nd rules small numbers were good. In 3.5 bigger is better. Let me try to share my experience.


CLASSES AND LEVEL UP

There is no multi or Dual classing in NWN (Neverwinter Nights). You get experience points, you level up and you choose as which class you want to level up. Lets say you started as Ranger. Became level 2 and selected Cleric. You are lv1 Ranger and Lv1 Cleric now. Then you leveled up again and selected Ranger again. Now you are lv2 Ranger and Lv1 Cleric. You can level up , up to three different classes. My recommandation is, Dont multi class if you dont know what you are doing. Stick to Ranger or Cleric. That way you can be sure that you will be powerful enough.

ABILITIES

* The first difference you will meet is that there is no random rolls while creating your character. You get a fixed amount of points to distribute. You start with 8 in each of them and 30 to share amongs them as you please.

* There is a recommended button which is awesome. It will atleast give you idea which skills are important for your class.

* Increasing ability beyond 14 cost more points. 2 points from 14--> 15 and 15-->16 (total of 4) and 3 Points from 16-->17 and 17-->18 (total of 6). So increasing an ability from 14 to 18 costs 10 points.

* Abilities are easy to understand. There are no 18/33 stuff. In Baldurs Gate Constitution or Dexterity 7 and 14 didnt matter. It was all the same. You had to look at charts to see which benefits you will gain. Here in NWN there is no need for that. 10 is the ZERO ground. any 2 points beyond that gives you +1 and below that -1. So

6--> -2
8-->-1
10 --> 0
12--> +1
..
18--> +4
20--> +5

Now thats where things get interesting because EVERY ABILITY is important in NWN. in BG you didnt have to worry about charisma or Wisdom or intelligence if you were a Fighter. Make it 18 STR, 18 DEX, 18 CON and distribute the rest and you were good to go. However NWN gets things different. I will mention why in SAVES section.

NOT: You get a free ability bonus every 4 level (lv 4, 8, 12...) which you can put on any skill.

AC (Armor Class) and Thac0

First of all, there is no Thac0 thing in NWN. There is ATTACK BONUS. in BG small numbers for both Thac0 and AC was better. However in NWN bigger is better. Lets give an example.

You have +5 Attack bonus. Enemy has 22 AC. You have to roll D20 + 5 > 22 to be able to hit him. So you roll 17 and you hit. Very simple.

When you look at an armor, what benefit it will give you is very simple. It will say ...

AC: 5
Max Dexterity Bonus: 2

That means it will give you 5 AC bonus but will limit your Dexterity AC bonus to 2. So even if you have 30 Dexterity, you will only get +2 from your dexterity modifier. What does that mean?

1. If your Dexterity is high, lets say 22 (which means +6), its better to wear armour that doesnt cap your dexterity much.

2. If you are a Fighter, better leave Dexterity at 12 maximum because you wont get any Dexterity bonus while wearing HEAVY ARMOR in NWN. This wasnt the case in BG.

PROFICIENCY

IN BG, every weapon type had its own proficiency and you were able to give 5 points for fighter or 2 points for Rangers maximum. There is no such thing in NWN. There are only 3 Armor Proficiencies: Light Armor, Medium Armor, Heavy Armor. For weapon there are: Simple, Martial and Exotic. You need to heave these Features (see FEATS section), or else you wont be able to wield or wear item. Some Classes start with their unique proficiency like Rogues. Tho you can be more focused with a weapon in weapon focus feat.

SKILLS

Remember thieves were able to unlock locks and disable traps and Rangers hide in shadows in BG? Well, in NWN everyone do almost everything. Every level, you get Skil points based on your class + intelligence modifier and you are free to distribute them as you please. In first level you get 4 times normal points.

Tip: So if you are planning a dualclass with Rogue, its always best to select Rogue at first level so you can get the most skill points.

There are class skills and cross-class skills. You can see which ones while distributing skills. This means that you may increase your class skills normally but you will need DOUBLE skills to be able to increase a cross-class skill. So if you are a Ranger who wants to disable traps and open Locks, then you will need to give 2 points to make it 1 point. Also, the maximum level you can get it to is halved which means you cant get it to maximum levels. So its best to stick to your class skills.

Every skill is also based on an ability. So having high Dexterity increases skills like Open Lock and Disable traps.

FEATS

That is completely new in NWN. Every few levels depending on your class, you get to choose which feats you want to take. You want to dualwield? Get Ambidexterity and dual wield feats. You want to smash opponents? Get Power Attack. etc. I wont go into detail in this cos its a huge topic. Only know that some classes get some abilities for free when they reach a certain level like Rangers get Dualwield at lv 1.

Tip: Humans start the game with 1 more FEAT that they can select freely.

SAVING THROWS (aka SAVES)

Remember we said every ability is important? You bet they are. In BG it was weird. In NWN however there are only 3 Saves. (I am not exactly sure which ability increases which Save. Someone might check it)

Fortitude: Ability to resist knowdowns etc. High STR increases Fortitude.

Reflex: Ability to avoid traps or area of effect spells like fireball. You save against a trap and you get half damage.

Will: Ability to resist charms. Wisdom or intelligence effects this. Not sure.

SO this is the end of my knowledge. I hope it helps and sorry if I wrote something wrong. That is what I know.

Regards
Engin.

Rangers get 4 SP + INT Mod, so in my case 5 SP per level; Clerics get 2 + INT Mod, so 3 in my case. Half-Elves don't have a specific preferred class, so at least I don't have to worry about XP penalties for getting class levels out of sync. Rogues get 8 + INT mod per level. The standard Ranger configuration in NWN gets the Dual Wield feat (combination of Two Weapons and Ambidextrous) from the start. In-game description only mentions working with light and not working with heavy. Does it work with medium? That seems to be unclear. I also can't find an entry for Dual Wield in any of the three manuals. That was the plan. Thanks. =)

Flynn

Yeah, it reminds me of some of the systems used in Japanese RPGs. The only problem for me is I'm used to AD&D 2nd Ed. so thinking jRPG norms combined with the name D&D doesn't compute. =)

Thanks for sharing these with the forum. I wanted to touch on this last item: Looks like it's Wisdom's modifier that's added to the Will saving throw according to the manual. Hey, thanks again. Very helpful. =)

Flynn

I am old school - started with boxed set D&D in the late 1970's ... played and DM'd thru all versions up to and including 3.5 as well as more games other than D&D than I'd care to catalog here.

If you are up for it, join me on my server and I'll help you make that PC as close as we can manage. I operate a Neverwinter Nights server, this is a server that has been customized to be more like D&D - we have added over 100 spells, swimming climbing jumping rope use and more.

http://playnwn.com

I hope to see you on the server. Meet me on the server and I'll slip you some free smokebombs too.

Don't remember. But it's easy enough to test.
You see your attack bonuses on your character sheet.. somewhere there.
So just equip two weapons and check the stats, then equip heavy armor and recheck.

Mind you, there still are penalties for dual wielding, so it's not a practical fighting style from the start,
if you like your hits connecting. 2-handed weapon might be the best bet most of the time anyway.

It seems Dual Wield is a unique feat for Rangers where it grants the benefits of 2 Feats (Two weapon Fighting and Ambidexterity) but only when wearing Light Armor. In my game it says that it doesnt benefit when wearing Medium or Heavy Armor.

http://nwn.wikia.com/wiki/Ranger

Although a ranger is automatically proficient with medium armor, many rangers prefer light armor as medium armor disables their dual-wield abilities.

EDIT!!!: You should also keep 2 things in mind.
1. Using a light weapon (like dagger or short sword) in off hand decreases the penalty for BOTH main hand and off hand by 2.
2. Also, Off hand only receives HALF of the strength Damage Modifier bonus. So if you have 18 STR (thus +4), then your main weapon gets +4 Dmg while your left hand gets +2 Dmg.

EDIT 2: [url=http://nwn.wikia.com/wiki/Dual-wield_(feat)]http://nwn.wikia.com/wiki/Dual-wield_(feat)[/url])

Ranger/Cleric is one of the trickiest combos to convert from AD&D to 3rd edition. The best way to do it is to take 1 level in Ranger at the 1st level for weapon proficiencies and skill points, then progress as a Cleric for the rest of your career. The reason for this is that Cleric provides 3/4 bonus to your combat progression, while Ranger provides diddly squat for your Cleric spellcasting progression. Put bluntly, if you go Ranger 9 / Cleric 1 you'll end up with the combat power of a 9th level warrior and 1st level spellcaster, but if you go Ranger 1 / Cleric 9 you'll end up with the combat power of a 7th level warrior and 9th level spellcaster. It's not hard to see why investing all your levels in Cleric is vastly preferable. Doesn't mean you have to do it that way, but the tradeoff vastly favors investing heavily in spellcasting.

14 strength is a tad low for a dedicated front-liner. I generally like to have at least 16. One option could be to drop your dexterity down to 8 then raise it with magic items. I'm not sure where they list 23 as the equivalent of 18/00. The AD&D tables indicate that 18/00 strength gets +6 damage and +3 attack. In 3rd edition, 22 strength grants +6 damage and +6 attack while 16 strength grants +3 attack and +3 damage, so we'd expect 18/00 to map somewhere in the middle of these two (19).

In general, though, the AD&D tables don't map up very nicely to the 3rd edition tables.

True enough from "optimal build" point of view, but from roleplay viewpoint, if he feels the character should be more ranger than cleric, a ranger6/Cleric4 is the equivalent of 9th level ranger but still has the casting power of 4th level cleric (which is a nice tradeoff for 1 point of BAB imo).

It's not like you need optimal build for the OC anyway, but even so, should be more powerful than plain ranger anyway.

I have a question. Why does he even need to have Cleric levels? Level 10 Ranger can already cast level 2 divine spells. Same as Level 4 Cleric minus the amount per rest, but plus improved 2Weapon fighting at lv9 and also the extra 8 HP. Dont get me wrong, I am asking to learn. I am kinda new to NWN myself.