Hey all. I've played NWN1 for years and D&D for decades. I've just started playing NWN2 for the first time and am rather disappointed overall. I find the UI to be cumbersome, clunky, and uninformative. I spent half an hour just trying to correct the camera spin until I eventually gave up. When the first area loaded up I thought I had been captured by an evil French Impressionist who had trapped me in one of his water colors. I've tried chalking all this up to simply a new game experience and soldiered on.

I was unhappy to learn that Shifters aren't in 2, even moreso when I read that the druid wildshape was gimped in various ways. I've installed Tony's AI mod and Cute's wildshape mod. While poking around the vault, I stumbled on Reeron's spell fixes, so I threw that in too.

Thought it may be due to Reeron's mod, I assume that the durations weren't changed much from vanilla, which makes me again unhappy to learn that spell durations are now very short. I had been looking forward to using a druid for my virgin play but it seems that casters have a harder time in 2 than before. I just picked up Neeshka(?) but was feeling bummed at the game in general so I quit.

I'm well aware that I play games differently than most. I have a different style, use different Self Imposed Restrictions, and approach games with a different perspective. It may be this is why I'm not feeling the game.

One thing I do is I like to slug all the way through encounters without a rest, considering it cheating to sleep in the middle of a dungeon or mission. It's doing this that I then become worn out, and start using up the potions, scrolls and other trinkets that clog up my inventory. I like using them up where I feel they've been put to good use and not "wasted".

The short spell durations now make me feel that the devs think I'm resting after every encounter, or they expect me to. This makes healing and other items worthless, if you're constantly healing up. In short, it goes against my whole play style, which is partly why I quit my game. Not rage quit, but disappointment quit.

As such, I'm wondering how often you guys rest. I'm curious to know how other gamers handle this, particularly casters. Do you rest after every encounter, so that your spells are always topped off? As a non-caster, do you find the game easy?

I've also noticed something else. The game has the very annoying habit of forcing my PC to be front and center during every conversation. It doesn't matter if I try to use another character to talk for me, the game teleports my guy right to the front, inches away from the bad guys. Then, after the conversation is over, everybody attacks me first. This not only means I get hit often, due to poor AC, but also prevents me from casting spells. If I try to run away, ALL the bad guys chase after me, instead of attacking anybody else in my party. This crap was unacceptable in BG, I can't believe they're still doing this shit in more recent games. Looking online, I see that conversations will pop me out of wildshape too, yet another minus.

I'm wondering if I should continue, start over with a non-druid (maybe a warlock), or just move on to some other game. Most of the threads here are about technical issues. I don't see too much discussion on gameplay and people's thoughts.

I'd agree about the camera; definitely the most annoying part of NWN2. That said, I find the UI is otherwise fine and would have more choice words to say about NWN1's radial menu. Eh, I wouldn't say that casters have it rough in NWN2. Rather, they aren't quite as insanely overpowered as they were in NWN1. Casters can be a little fragile at low-levels, but that's why they pair you up with Khelgar early on. He can pretty much carry you through the early stages of the game.

I played my first playthrough as a bard who never so much as touched a weapon, relegating himself to a "support and assist" role. I never had any problems and found it quite enjoyable. I also prefer to play this way, though the OC really isn't supportive and this will be difficult to pull off. That said, aside from the final dungeon it should definitely be possible. Stock up on healing kits, and turn the spellcasting AI off so you can manually manage your companion spellcasters. The AI, even on the most conservative settings, is way too spell-happy if staying power is an issue.

If you like this style of play, Mask of Betrayer and Storm of Zehir will be better for you. MotB actually punishes you for resting too often (unless you use the suppression exploit, as many people do), and SoZ typically doesn't allow resting in-dungeon. All spell durations in NWN2 follow the 3.5 rules. Generally speaking, spells that got nerfed going from 3.0 to 3.5 were nerfed for a reason. Yeaaahh... that's a nasty one, and a complaint I had when the game first released. It doesn't happen in the expansions thankfully, but it's definitely one of the issues. If you're not feeling the OC, then I wouldn't recommend slogging through it. Because you haven't even reached its truly obnoxious moments (although quite frankly, experiencing "The One Plot Door to Rule Them All" is something anyone with sufficient masochism should do). The NWN2 OC is a flawed gem; it has moments of brilliance, but it also has its problems.

It seems you don't have the patience for its bullshit, in which case I'd recommend moving on to Mask of the Betrayer, Storm of Zehir, or Mysteries of Westgate. Alternately, there are some positively amazing user-created modules out there. Your pick.

I tend to play melee characters, and as such rarely rested in dungeons, if at all. The only exception to this was a couple of the early dungeons where the game throws a lot of undead with stat-lowering abilities at you while giving you very limited access to Lesser Restoration, Cure Disease, and Cure Poison. Managing the casters in the party, though, I tended to tell the AI to not cast spells (or just put them in puppet mode) then controlled their spellcasting manually, mostly just using it for more difficult fights or to quickly clear out the occasional large mob (at least before my melee characters all had Great Cleave). With regard to the lengths of buffs these tend to be pretty short at lower levels (although I think they're the same length as they were in NWN1 for the most part), but improve with caster levels; there are also the metamagic feats you can use to extend them, topping out with Persistent Spell (which will make your lower-level buffs last for an entire day).

As for enemies targeting you for being front and center, most large fights you can see coming and throw up your buffs and protective spells prior to the fight. Most enemies will also switch targets if a melee character engages them, so as long as you have your companions cover your strategic withdrawal you can usually get away from the front lines without too much trouble.

As for alternative classes, if you have MotB installed you might try going with a Spirit Shaman; they've got the same spells as druids, but handle spellcasting like a sorcerer, which can let you get a bit more out of your spellcasting during long slogs (since you won't have spells per day being taken up by spells you thought might be useful but which you're finding no use for). No shapeshifting, but given the fact that conversations pull you out of wildshape that might not be too bad. Warlock (since you mentioned it) could also work well, as they do play a bit like a spellcaster, but at the same time there's no limit to how many times they can use their invocations, so they can just keep going like melee characters without having to worry much about resting.

If nothing else, the game is worth playing for the last couple of hours.
From the time your fort is attacked, until the end, has a very epic feel.
I have just now finished the OC with a Halfling Warlock.
I'll tell you what, after playing NWN2 mods for a few months, the OC is like a walk in the park.
Although Light of Heavens is no pushover, one on one with a Halfling Warlock.
Every modder seems to want his mod harder than the last persons.

Regarding the camera spin, I was ready to rage-quit when I started. But I got some good help here:

http://www.gog.com/forum/neverwinter_nights_series/nwn_2_camera_making_me_sick?search=camera%20spin

That at least made the camera situation tolerable.

Since you asked specifically about playstyle...

When I first got into NWN1, I played 3 or 4 caster characters back to back - I loved the game. My virgin playthrough I went a bit crazy with the resting, as it didn't have that "time advances 8 hours" feel that Baldur's Gate has with it.

Ever since that, though, I've taken a more hardcore approach with SIRs. As a caster, I don't rest in a dungeon, or while exploring a ruin or something. Resting for me is usually reserved for inns, taverns, or the occasional campsite. Playing like this makes the game feel more gritty to me - choosing to use that memorized magic missile is a big commitment to the encounter, and it helps justify spending gold on things like scrolls and rods/wands/staves so that I have more disposable resources.

In NWN2, all of my casters usually carry around some form of ranged weapon and mostly play support while someone like Khelgar deals with most of the mundane enemies. Whipping out the spells is saved for a big encounter, or when the tank is getting beat on. Playing like that makes it feel more visceral, because a few level 3 spells make a huge difference in how easy an encounter is (they can make it trivial) but then I've expended those resources for the current trek, and have to ration the remaining ones.

To address the last part of your question, I find playing something like a rogue or fighter not necessarily easier, because everything they've got is always available - I don't have to ration and manage how my rogue swings his rapier, he just swings it the same, every time. But at the same time, they don't have that well of "ohshit" spells to draw on when things get tough.

In summary, I feel casters can easily be viewed as OP if you're resting after every single fight. In my opinion, it's left up to the player to impose their own restrictions so they can tailor their gaming experience. After all, unloading with 4 or 5 fireballs on every encounter is a fun power trip every once and a while, but it's not the gaming experience I'm really looking for.

I hate the resting-rebuff cycle caster characters have to spin through. So I rarely play a caster.

I'd suggest a paladin if that sounds nice to you, good combat abilities and saving throws, good durability. Only do buffs for bad fights, use lay-on-hands to continue after skirmishes..

Or my mainstay characters, being mostly a melee fighter, barbarian or ranger but with a couple of rogue levels splashed in, to get evasion and some skill points for lockpicking and trap disarming.

Then grab the first regeneration item you see and you don't need to rest anymore but rarely.

Melee characters have easier early gameplay, gets harder later on but you can keep up if you find good enough magic items. Actually MotB might be easier again with a melee char as you can build insanely strong equipment.

Casters definitely have little staying power at lower levels. It does get better later on, though. By the epic levels if you're in this kind of cycle, the problem is that you aren't pacing yourself very well. Paladin is a great choice for the OC. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the developers pretty much presumed you were playing a longsword specialist Paladin, and all the "evil path" choices are just for show. MotB gives you access to three epic level spellcaster NPC's, and the two melee-oriented characters are incapable of using magic weapons. So yeah, from a party-balance stand-point a melee character makes a lot of sense, and the ridiculously powerful weapons you're permitted only strengthens this choice. Still, I ran this campaign through as a sorcerer; an epic level campaign with spell-spamming can be a load of fun.

You should be using the kL_MetaPrepa.
It takes the chore out of rebuffing.

http://neverwinter2.nexusmods.com/mods/197/?

Thanks, and to others for spellcraft explanations.
So.. does someone use counterspells? Never bothered myself.

It's a rather useless ability. You have to expend your own spell slots to "counter" the enemy's own spells, and you must have an appropriate counter-spell prepared. In the vast majority of cases you'd have been better off casting spells yourself rather than playing around with this finicky system.

The ability is far more useful in pen and paper, usually in situations where you can't allow the enemy to get off even a single spell. In a CRPG, the AI simply isn't intelligent enough and the stakes simply are never high enough that a single spell is going to have that much impact.

About resting in particular, if you play the other campaigns, you'll find resting is more restricted. In MotB, you have a chance of your sleep being interrupted by wandering monsters if you sleep in a dangerous location. In SoZ, you can't rest in dungeons at all, unless you buy some Stones of Alarm, which were probably added to placate those who wanted to be able to rest anywhere, and there's also the chance of wandering monsters if you camp out in the wild.

In both, time advances 8 hours when you rest, unless you're interrupted.

And as others have said, the other campaigns (especially SoZ) don't teleport your main character to speak to people.

Many of your camera troubles can be fixed just with the options menu, and others by editing the config file.