Is it possible to play Neverwinter nights I with a Wizard?

[Zid]

I have recently bought NWN + Shadows of Urendentide and Hordes of the Underdark. I want to play through all episodes, and I am thinking about creating a Wizard character. Given as most computerRPGs have very many battles in them, is is possible to play as a Wizard or should I just go Fighter?

[Wraith]

Although it's certainly more difficult to play as a Wizard, it's definitely possible.

Hirelings in NWN are not complete morons, if you're willing to forgive one or two 'accidents', so having a Meat-Shield to protect you is quite plausible, and the Rest/Recover Your Spells system is very simple and doesn't take much time, In-Game or otherwise.

Take your time to make sure you have the right spells for the right job, complete as many sub-quests as you can find for the bonus XP and you'll be just fine.
Heck, if you really wanted to make it easier, just ply an Elf - a Wizard with a Longbow isn't as ineffective as it sounds, so long as you have a big mean Half-Orc between you and your target, even if you have rune out of spells :smallsmile:

Failing that; Multiclass and have the best of both worlds. :smallwink:

[Douglas]

Yes, Wizards are most definitely viable in NWN. Here are some of the reasons why:

1) The Panther familiar is a capable melee combatant.
2) You get a henchman, and you have several good melee folks to choose from.
3) Summon Monster is immensely buffed from P&P and lasts 24 hours. For a good portion of the game, a summoned monster is actually a more powerful fighter than your henchman.
4) If the above three factors somehow fail to rip your opponents to shreds, you can cast however many spells you need to and recover them all with a mere few seconds of resting.

BTW, you can heal your familiar to full just by talking to it and selecting the dialog option to feed it. Only possible outside of combat due to requiring conversation, but still.

[Tom_Violence]

Yeah, its definitely very possible. In fact, I often found it easier than playing as a fighter, for much the same reasons as douglas mentioned.

[Douglas]

The one place I remember having serious trouble the time I played most of the way through the original campaign as a wizard was in Halueth Never's tomb. The four Swords of Never that attack you there are very powerful for that point in the game, and beating them required both some serious buffing for the whole party right before entering and a bit of luck with placement and damage on my Fireballs.

[Inhuman Bot]

Yes, and fairly easy, but I would strongly consider playing as a sorccerer.
All the classes are viable in NwN (arcane archer sucks, but still possible to use...) and the Monk is extremely kickass in NwN, especially at higher levels.

[Zid]

I´ve played NWN2, and found it strange that the dwarfen fighter is so kickass when he becomes a monk. Strange how CRPG and pen and paper doesn´t always overlap.

[JMobius]

I've noticed the awesome that is NWN/2 monks, but I've yet to be able to determine what exactly is different that is responsible. :smallsmile:

[Myatar_Panwar]

I´ve played NWN2, and found it strange that the dwarfen fighter is so kickass when he becomes a monk. Strange how CRPG and pen and paper doesn´t always overlap.

Really? I find it hard to believe. He is pretty kick-ass when u give him a Greataxe + greatcleave. But then again I haven't been able to complete that side quest yet. Quick question about it: He starts out as chaotic good I believe. Yet monks require lawful. Do npcs change with actions as players do? Oh, and are there other class changes for your npcs besides the dwarf?

And so I'm not completely derailing from NwN1: Wizards can get a Panther familiar!? :smallconfused:

[Archonic Energy]

Yes, Wizards are most definitely viable in NWN. Here are some of the reasons why:

1) The Panther familiar is a capable melee combatant.
2) You get a henchman, and you have several good melee folks to choose from.
3) Summon Monster is immensely buffed from P&P and lasts 24 hours. For a good portion of the game, a summoned monster is actually a more powerful fighter than your henchman.
4) If the above three factors somehow fail to rip your opponents to shreds, you can cast however many spells you need to and recover them all with a mere few seconds of resting.


5) Isaac's lesser missile storm
6) Isaac's greater missile storm

need i say more?

[Morty]

need i say more?

Yep. Empowered Isaac's Greater Missle Storm.

[Archonic Energy]

Yep. Empowered Isaac's Greater Missle Storm.

heh :smallamused: too true!

so powerful it's BANNED on some servers!

[Tom_Violence]

Really? I find it hard to believe. He is pretty kick-ass when u give him a Greataxe + greatcleave. But then again I haven't been able to complete that side quest yet. Quick question about it: He starts out as chaotic good I believe. Yet monks require lawful. Do npcs change with actions as players do? Oh, and are there other class changes for your npcs besides the dwarf?

And so I'm not completely derailing from NwN1: Wizards can get a Panther familiar!? :smallconfused:

No, no, and yes. :smallsmile:


heh :smallamused: too true!

so powerful it's BANNED on some servers!

Haha, damn right it was! I used to help run an NWN RP server and that was only one of many absolutely bananas spells that got the boot almost immediately. NWN is still one of my all-time favourite games, especially online, but by god you've gotta keep your eye on them spellcasters!

[Douglas]

heh :smallamused: too true!

so powerful it's BANNED on some servers!
Yeah, really, how did they ever think that 2d6/caster level damage with no attack roll and no save could possibly be balanced, especially for a 6th level spell? Sure, if you're fighting a group of enemies it gets all spread out, but there are other spells to handle that situation and in the typical boss fight you can very quickly get it down to just the one boss remaining - who then gets hit by every single one of the missiles each time you cast the spell.

[TheEmerged]

Having completely played through all 3 campaigns with several different classes? Except for a couple of encounters, wizard was actually the easiest. There are several non-core spells that give the wizard a kind of damage resistance/extra HP that are extremely helpful, and as others noted the Summon Monster spell is much more powerful in NWN than in the normal game (until you get to the final, epic-leveled campaign).

I usually used the Pixie familiar myself for the "pocket rogue" effect (she'll disarm traps and unlock chests just like a rogue). She still does respectable damage until the final, epic-leveled campaign too.

[Mr. Mud]

Wait... I... My...Wizard... can..
PANTHER FAMILIAR?

*runs to get his old copy of Neverwinter*

[Kupi]

To give a more specific response, it sounds like you're worried about the eight-hour rest. This rule does not exist in NeverWinter Nights. Instead, you are allowed to rest at any time (an action that takes about eight seconds to complete), so long as there are no hostile entities within a certain radius of you. Resting completely replenishes your HP and any daily abilities (including your spellbook), so you can be much looser with your spell pacing than you would be in P&P.

[Cainen]

Wizards are quite powerful in NWN, pretty much regardless of what you do. Save or Dies are plentiful, though so are immunities, and Wizards can easily be made into a frontline fighter with the proper distribution(though you'll want to stop at level 15) of stats and the right spells.

On the other hand, they can also blast the enemies to death. Flame Arrow is a low-level spell that generally keeps up with your level progression, though it'll be weaker in the levels between 8, 12, 16, and 20. They're easily empowered and this can make up for the weak save - Empowering this spell generally ends up with more or less the same results as Maximizing it.

If you're more daring, you can load up on the defensive spells and drop Elemental Shield and Mestil's Acid Sheath. If you don't feel that's enough, Death Armor adds to it. These spells all damage the enemy when they hit you - with DR and a Con buff, this isn't a problem. Elemental Shield and Mestil's Acid Sheath all scale with your caster level without a hard cap, so they're always relatively powerful and always scale with the enemies, too - Death Armor DOES have a cap, but it's not a useful spell because getting hit at third to fifth level is inviting death.

Weird also isn't as powerful as it seems - it forces two saves, both of which have to be failed to kill the enemy. Wail of the Banshee only forces one save, and it's rare you'll ever be fighting more than 17 enemies at one time and even rarer that it'll only be slight chip to the enemy.

Oh, and Tenser's Transformation is horrible because it sticks you with a weak sword that you can't unequip.

[Vonriel]

One more thing everyone hasn't mentioned:
Material components? We don't need no stinkin material components! Stoneskin is a very viable and very, very powerful spell here, as is greater stoneskin. I typically loaded up on at least two if I can spare the slots, one for me and one for the henchie (though, I can't remember if greater was self-cast only or not). Some of the summons were worthless garbage, because they did last too short, but the Summon Monster # spells were always very useful.

Personally, I found that the missile storm spells were potent enough that I didn't even need to really bother with higher level death dealing spells, except Horrid Wilting, because that one was just fun to use.

TLDR? Well, basically, yes, they're viable, and they're powerful. Sorcerer is almost as powerful, believe it or not.

And yes, you can get a panther familiar as a wizard. I don't know what they were thinking with that, though...

[Mx.Silver]

No, no, and yes. :smallsmile:

Actually, One of Many in the expansion packs can change classes too (into one of two other classes in fact).


TLDR? Well, basically, yes, they're viable, and they're powerful. Sorcerer is almost as powerful, believe it or not.
Yeah, my first playthrough was as a Sorcerer. It was ridiculously simple compared to some of my later attempts with other classes.


And yes, you can get a panther familiar as a wizard. I don't know what they were thinking with that, though...
"Hmm, how are we going to provide a viable alternative to taking the Hell Hound?":smallamused:

[Ronsian]

I played a druid, and it was way to easy. I think in the end it was my huge henchman, some big animal companion, the SUMMON animal companion, and me as a huge bad-ass bear. I stopped, because I would just walk in a room, and my team would kill everything.

[loopy]

I played a druid, and it was way to easy. I think in the end it was my huge henchman, some big animal companion, the SUMMON animal companion, and me as a huge bad-ass bear. I stopped, because I would just walk in a room, and my team would kill everything.

So not much different then D&D 3.X then? :smallwink:

[Bayar]

I played a druid, and it was way to easy. I think in the end it was my huge henchman, some big animal companion, the SUMMON animal companion, and me as a huge bad-ass bear. I stopped, because I would just walk in a room, and my team would kill everything.

Druids are more powerful than paladins. My paladin got killed repeatedly by the bosses in the prison. My druid just disemboweled them. Heh, and I used summon monsters to trigger traps. Just like in any other D&D game :smallcool:

[Saithis Bladewing]

I found playing as a Wizard the easiest going of any class once you hit around 5th level. The sheer number of buffs, summoning spells and the fact that you can basically rest whenever you want makes you a walking god.

[Arioch]

I played a wizard for NWN and a sorcerer for Shadows and Hordes. Ah, memories. Isaac's Greater Missile Storm for single enemies and Firebrand for mobs. Those two spells are all you need, really.

[Swok]

It's very possible. I didn't see it mentioned, but I have to mention the pixie as a good familiar choice. It's a rogue on a leash that you can control. You can't control henchman.

Just expect to rest an extreme amount if a Wizard, and still quite a bit if a Sorcerer.

[Maxymiuk]

I'll join my voice to say it's very workable. I found it helpful to go the buffer/summoner route to cut down on the need to rest. Hit the henchman and the summoned creature with Stoneskin/Bull's Strength/some elemental resist and use the rest of my slots for battlefield control and debuffing. It made the game almost too easy.

[Squatting_Monk]

Not only is it viable, like everyone's said, it's probably the most viable class in NWN. Sure, it's weak for the first few levels, but once you hit level 5, you're nearly unstoppable. Proper spell selection can be rather complicated, though, so you might want to start off with a Cleric or someone who can melee as well as cast. (The first time I played through, I used a cleric. I didn't figure out how to cast spells until the final boss fight, but I still pwned. :smallbiggrin:)

Wizard is quite versatile, too. I like combining it with Arcane Archer (whoever said AAs suck has apparently not played them; they can achieve the highest AB in the game) or Rogue/Assassin.

One more thing to note: SoU and HotU are meant to be played separately from the original campaign. Start a new character in SoU, then take it through HotU after that. The NWVault (http://nwvault.ign.com) has plenty of modules designed for Wizards. My favorite is Almraiven (http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=modules.Detail&id=5007), a murder mystery module. Simply incredible.

[konfeta]

Sorceror in NWN is IMO stronger than a Wizard; at least in the campaigns. The Sorceror has far more flexibility and potential damage output than a Wizard (especially with metamagic); and to be honest, Wizard's main advantage in terms of number of spells known is moot. You won't be casting that many different spells anyway.

[TheDarkOne]

NWN isn't a hard game, even on the "D&D hardcore" difficulty setting(or what ever it's called) you'd almost have to try to make a bad character before you start having trouble. I did SoU and HotU with a Halfling paladin. Just play what ever class you want.

[Erothayce]

This isn't a question about the wizard but i don't know where else to ask. How can I make NWN: Diamond edition work with Vista?

[Zid]

I´ve started to play as a Wizard, but I am a little set back by the fact that he requires so much micomanaging, and resting feels like "cheating". I´ve looked through the prestige classes and I don´t really like what I am seeing. Does anybaody know if Arcane archer is any good(meaning that arrows stack with bow enchancement)?

[Cainen]

Arcane Archer is horrible because it wrecks your spellcaster progression for lackluster abilities. Just build a ranged rogue with a few levels of a caster class if you want that sort of character - if you're feeling adventurous, you could get to +16 BAB before or at 20 so you'll have the maximum amount of iteratives during epic level, since you're stuck with the amount of iteratives you had at 20 throughout the rest of the game.

[Prophaniti]

Yeah, wizards work pretty well, as long as you're careful with your spell selection. For me, it was usually more effort than I wanted to put into it, so I played fighter types and just hit things. Probably my favorite character was a fighter/rogue dual-wielder. At higher levels, he attacked so often the animations didn't keep up and people would just die without him moving. Very amusing.

In HotU I made a wizard who eventually ended up with Automatic Silent, Still, and Quickened Spell feats all maxed. It was actually kinda hard to do, and required planning it from level 1, but at level 40, he cast everything with no action whatsoever, just looked at it and a fireball erupted. It was pretty damn cool.

[Hzurr]

This isn't a question about the wizard but i don't know where else to ask. How can I make NWN: Diamond edition work with Vista?

You have to go online and get the most recent patches. If memory serves, it's something like 9.26 or 9.27, but I could be making that up. But yeah, figure out which edition you have, then go download the various updates since then. That's how I got it to work on my vista machine (which has since exploaded, which is why I can't go and check to see which version you need to upgrade to). But yeah, it takes a little while, but you can get it working.

[Castaras]

Patching to make it work on Vista.

Wizard wise, I prefer the Pseudodragon to the panther. But that's just me. =P

But yeah, you can do it with wizards. The more powerful, the better they get.

[DeathQuaker]

It's been a Looooong time, but if you're playing through the OC, the early levels will be a little tough, but if you don't mind a good elf companion, take Linu La'Neral with you--she's a very melee capable cleric and can keep enemies at bay while you blast them and then heal you if you get hurt.

Once you get to higher levels, much as with any D&D game, you'll be fine.

Also, I'd get a bunch of expendable magic items (wands, etc.) when you can--saves you from having to cast and therefore rest so much.

Similar advice for the other campaigns; for SoU I'd go with the dwarf cleric-thief for a companion till you gain a bit of power.

If you want to be solo, you might eventually multi a little into rogue to get some lock picking and trapfinding abilities (there are spells that can help with those, but it's nice to free up your knock slots with combat spells)---not to mention some of the social skills which can get you some more fun dialogue options.

[Don Julio Anejo]

Hehe. Wizard.... Race: dwarf
Wizard 18/Rogue 2.

Okay,
STR 12
DEX 14
CON 14
WIS 8
INT 18 (23)
CHA 6

Feats:
1. Expertise, Extend Spell
3. Improved Expertise
5. Empower Spell
6. Spell Focus: Necromancy
9. Maximize Spell
10. Greater Spell Focus: Necromancy
12. Take a level of rogue here, put 15 points into these skills: Tumble, Use Magic Device, Open Lock, Disable Trap. For your feat take Shield Proficiency.

What you take after that doesn't matter that much.

Also, wear all the +AC stuff you can find (Robe of the Archmagi, Boots of the Sun Soul, Ring of Protection (if you're not using Shield spell), Amulet of Natural Armor if you don't have spell Shadow Shield yet). If you can find a small shield at least +3, wear that during difficult fights. At 5% spell failure you get 4+ AC.

Also use any AC boosting spells you can find (Haste, Shadow Shield, Mage Armor, Shield, Cat's Grace). Use your improved expertise.

Very, very cheesy build and kills everything.

[Zid]

Hehe. Wizard.... Race: dwarf
Wizard 18/Rogue 2.


but that gives you a multiclass XP penalty

[Wraith]

For cheesy builds I always preferred the Fighter 2/Druid X. NWN doesn't have the same morality and class restrictions as D&D, so a character with Fighter armour, shields and weapons but casting like a Druid...

...Well, AC35, Greater Stoneskin and Energy Buffer all the same time was the least of it.

I appreciate that doesn't help much in a thread about using Wizards though :smalltongue:


I´ve looked through the prestige classes and I don´t really like what I am seeing. Does anybaody know if Arcane archer is any good(meaning that arrows stack with bow enchancement)?

I agree with this, and also find it true of quite a few other Prestige Classes. Some of them are just down to limitations of the game's engine - Shadowdancer loses it's biggest advantage, teleporting through darkness, for example - whereas others are quite similar to the D&D variety in that they just aren't very good.
Pale Master is a good example of this. It lets you summon a few critters and make a special touch attack (Because the most sensiblee option for a low/mid level wizard is to get right up close into melee!) at the cost of some casting levels...
*Maybe* a viable option (said because I know that any number of people are about to jump in and prove me wrong :smallwink:) if you're playing a Monk/Wizard or a specialised Fighter/Wizard, but pure Wizard? No thanks...

I'd like to see some seriously weird PrC's added, rather than ones that just give a few non-visible abilities, as an incentive to take Prestige Classes. Planar Shepherd, Fang of Lolth and Oozemaster would all be a giggle, if only because what they do would look great in 3D!

[Don Julio Anejo]

Fighter/druid is a newb build (I've been PvPing in NWN for around 3 years before finally putting the game away)... No tumble, no UMD (for Boots of the Sun Soul), bad saves, no evasion...

Druid-monk with expertise and in robes is another matter. Easily 70-75ish AC in +5 gear (standard +5 stuff available in the OC) at level 20.

Or Druid 33/Monk 6/Shadowdancer 1 dragon shape build.

Another fun cheese build - Sorcerer 36/Paladin 3/Monk 1.

Multiclass XP penalty... meh, if you care about it, make him a gnome.

On any PVP server with devastating critical on and without items that give +10 fortitude or the like, easily half of all builds will have 10 levels of Pale Master.

Arcane Archer has the highest AB possible in the game, but without uber enchanted special bows and arrows, he's going to hit for 25 damage. Not very much at level 40 when people have 600+ HP.

[Douglas]

Does anybaody know if Arcane archer is any good(meaning that arrows stack with bow enchancement)?
In Neverwinter Nights 1, the Arcane Archer's arrow bonus stacks with everything and applies to both attack and damage. This makes it actually a decent class for archers, just don't bother with more than a short dip in a spellcasting class to qualify.

[snoopy13a]

I´ve started to play as a Wizard, but I am a little set back by the fact that he requires so much micomanaging, and resting feels like "cheating". I´ve looked through the prestige classes and I don´t really like what I am seeing. Does anybaody know if Arcane archer is any good(meaning that arrows stack with bow enchancement)?

My first time through I played a Sorceror and while it was fun, it was a bit tedious to have to summon my companion and go through the buffing routine. Second time through I played a Paladin and it was fun just doing the hack and slash route.

I'm actually playing NWN2 after about a year or so and I have the goofiest character possible. I'm playing a duelist who started off with as a fighter with a intelligence of 18. I'm also chaotic good and it is fun to try and balance out that alignment (e.g. joining the watch but taking a couple bribes here and there :smalltongue: )

[SolkaTruesilver]

By the way, you will probably want to use a lot of "Summon Monsters". When you are in the higher-level, when you see that the elemental you summoned is water, SUMMON ANOTHER ONE.

Water elementals have the stupid tendency to suicide in the middle of the battle, with a chance of insta-kill anyone around them. Including you. Even if they haven't killed you, they might have killed your henchman. And even if they haven't, you're still naked without a meat watershield