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Neverwinter Nights Guide and FAQ, written by Lyte It Up 420 Edited and Revised by Sorial(admin@unixhelper.org Feel free to contact me for anything at Steveuo_die@yahoo.com Website-www.geocities.com/steveuo_die The newest version of this FAQ will always be available at www.gamefaqs.com www.neoseeker.com www.cheatportal.com www.cheathappens.com www.cheatplanet.com www.cheatcc.com _______________________________________________________________________ CONTENTS: I - Version History II - Copyright III - Intro(read first!!) IV - Survey V - Email system(read first!!) VI - F.A.Q. VII - The Basics a.notes/tips b.controls c.character creation VIII - Gameplay IX - Walkthrough a.prelude b.chapter 1 c.chapter 2 d.chapter 3 e.chapter 4 X - Hacking a.dm client b.console mode c.toolkit _______________________________________________________________________ I-VERSION HISTORY. CURRENT VERSION: 4.8 _______________________________________________________________________ Friday, July 26, 2002 Version 4.8 ---------------------------------- Hacking Secion added. Revised Chapter 2 completed. Sunday, July 21, 2002 Version 4.7 ---------------------------- Some updates with notes/tips, small quest additions/updates. Update to Intro, FAQ and E-mail system. Re-revisions of prelude + Chapter 1, revision of pre walkthrough. Thursday, July 18, 2002, Version 4.6 -------------------------------------- Revised and edited Chapter 1 is now up. Updates to chapter 3 and FAQ. Monday, July 08, 2002, Version 4.5 ----------------------------------- Revised Prelude finished. Monday, July 01, 2002 Version 4.4 ---------------------------------- FAQ update, walkthrough and quests of chapter 1 and 2 now completly done. Sunday, June 30, 2002 Version 4.3 ---------------------------------- Survey updates, minor walkthrough updates. Major update for the rolgan's trial quest. Saturday, June 29, 2002 Version 4.2 ------------------------------------ Some major quest updates, walkthrough updates, and changes fixed with the final battle. Friday, June 28, 2002 Version 4.0 ---------------------------------- Chapter 4 completed, some minor quest updates. Friday, June 28, 2002 Version 3.0 ----------------------------------- Chapter 3 walkthrough done. Some more Minor text format changes. Update to E-mail System. Thursday, June 27, 2002 Verion 2.1 ----------------------------------- Minor text format updates. Quest updates in chapters 1 and 2. added E-mail system(pls read b4 sending e-mail) Tuesday, June 25, 2002 Version 2.0 ------------------------------------------------ Chapter 2 walkthrough done. Sunday, June 23, 2002 Version 1.0: ---------------------------------------------- Major update, please read the intro before starting on the walkthrough. Chapter 1 pretty much done. Saturday, June 22, 2002 Version 0.3: ------------------------------------------------ The basics and Gamplay are pretty much done. Started on the walkthrough, been up all night working on it will have another update tomorrow. Friday, June 21, 2002 Version 0.1: --------------------------------------------- This is the first version of the guide, which is not even considered a version. -Set up the content menu a bit -Set up copyright info -Completed intro to the guide -Posted first survey question -Started some other aspects of guide, nothing much really done though. __________________________________________________________________________________ II-COPYRIGHT. This FAQ is Copyrighted by the International Copyright Law. No webmaster may duplicate this work and use it as thier own. If you wish to use this FAQ you must recieve consent from me and give full credit where credit is due. Any un- authorized duplication in ANY way will result in immidiate action. You may make copys for your personal use. It is illegal to modify, adapt, translate, create derivative works, rent, stake credit for the work, include in a promotional CD, publish in a magazine, or sell for profit under any curcumstances without coming to an agreement with me. Copyright (c) 2002 a "Lyte It Up" Production, by Steve Eik, all rights reserved. __________________________________________________________________________________ III-INTRO __________________________________________________________________________________ This is my first attempt at a guide, not just on Gamefaqs but anywhere. Not many people know who I am, in fact I wouldn't be surprised if nobody did. The truth is as I did come to GameFaqs very regularly, I really never posted anything on the message boards or made myself known. I'm sure there are a lot of other people like that out there and hope no one holds it against me that it took me so long to get involved and contribute to the community. My experience with games is great, mainly RPGS, and have played and beaten just about every RPG, action, and platform game for just about every system. So if my credentials meet your standards, go on with my guide, if not then no harm done. Please remember that a majority of this guide was written my first time through the game, and it is very likely that I missed a quest or something similar, please do not email me about a missing quest asking about it, as I will add that quest as soon as I learn about it/do it, I'm not keeping stuff from you guys! If you notice I miss something then please feel free to send it in, look at the e- mail section below for instructions you will definitely be given credit for your help. You may also send in suggestions, praises and even hate mail. Hey, I enjoy a good laugh as in my experience 99% of hate mail is little uneducated children who feel they are having their beliefs challenged because "the world revolves around them only!" If you think something is wrong with the site or would like to see something changed, that's suggestions not hate mail, and please label your mails depending on what is inside the mail, will help me organize the mail when I eventually put up a mail system. Revisions of this guide are not done by me, so if you have a question about an edit or specifics added in the revisions send it to admin@unixhelper.org. The way that this guide is set up is a main walkthrough, then a list of quests at the bottom. Since most of these quests are not mandatory, including them in the main walkthrough would have a lot of people angry that they don't have to do them, but if your one of the people like me that like to complete every quest, then they are in order of how you would encounter them (i.e. chapter 1 shows quests first from city core, then those from the other districts as you would go there through the walkthrough)so check there by name of the quest you need help with, or just go through the list if you wish! *******IMPORTANT********* since most of the chests in this game give random items I cannot give lists of items, furthermore I like it that way because this is a linear game and since it is that, you should really try and do most of this on your own. I will point out important items that you will need just incase you would miss them but normal loot from chests, boxes, tables and the like will not be listed. IV-SURVEY _________________________________________________________________________________ This is a section not really related to the FAQ but just a fun way to have your opinion heard. Although this is an anonymous survey you can wish to have your opinion heard as long as it is adult and non-vulgar. The best opinion/answer will be placed here with or without your name(depending on your wish)every time I update the results. The results of each survey will be updated in each version, and a new survey question will be introduced every month or so. Please remember that you do not have to enter an opinion for the "contest." You can just leave your answer to the Survey and your answer will be added to count. Please also know that winning this "contest" does not make you eligible for any prize(s). I am a poor man and this is all for fun to see who can come up with creative responses and answers. You can only vote ONE time, and if you vote more then once for a question ALL of your votes will not be counted for that question, so MAKE SURE you have the answer you want to put. Mailing Survey answers...very simple, just put Survey Question #x (x should be the survey question) in the topic, then type the letter (a, b, c, d etc.) in the body of the e-mail, and if you want to add a comment or complaint or anything at all just type it right after the letter of your answer. That's it! Remember the comment is TOTALLY OPTIONAL as is the entire survey. Survey Question #1 Is Neverwinter Nights all that you Expected? a) Its more! The reviews didn't do it justice! I can't stop playing! (0 votes) b) Yes! What an amazing game, it takes up all of my gaming time! (3 votes) c) Yeah its good, but not worth obsessing over. (4 votes) d) Its alright, but I've played better. (0 votes) e) I didn't like it. (0 votes) f) I hated it! It was too overrated! (0 votes) g) RPGs do not interest me. (0 votes) f)I hated it! It was too overrated!(0 votes) g)RPGs do not interest me.(0 votes) _______________________________________________________________________ V - E-MAIL SYSTEM _______________________________________________________________________ I was hoping I wouldn't have to add one of these this soon but I guess I have to. When answering a question please make sure to give all information needed so I know what you are talking about! Don't just ask how to defeat a random monster without telling me what chapter it is in, where you found the monster, etc because I haven't put up a bestiary yet. When submitting information on a quest, be detailed please! I cannot stress this enough. I got a quest submitted saying "you get a quest from a whore to bring a brooch to some guy to do something else" he apologized but still this doesn't help me at all. READ THE FAQ before asking a question, I've received so many questions already answered in the FAQ, so do me a favor before you ask me what seems like a stupid question, make sure you've read the FAQ's and the walkthrough. If you are asking a question about a quest, please make sure to look in the QUESTS section under each chapter. I cannot stress this enough, I've gotten so many questions about quests that are already added, because they don't bother to look under the actual chapter walkthrough. Read intro for more info on this issue. Don't feel bad if you don't receive a comment back, or if your name wasn't given credit to something that you sent in. I give credit to the person who sends first, sorry to say, and I've received many e-mails about one particular thing I've missed. I thank you all for your time to try and help but would be too time consuming to give credit to everyone who sends in the info for the one event. As for answers to questions, I rarely will answer back, mainly because most of the questions I receive are either already on the FAQ, added to the FAQ, or answered in the walkthrough/quest section. If you received an answer consider your question unique that really made me think about the answer. _______________________________________________________________________ VI - F.A.Q. (Frequently Asked Questions) _______________________________________________________________________ Asking a question...Please don't ask stupid questions or questions already answered in this section or in the guide. Please do not ask questions asking if any rumors are true, as 99% of the time rumors are TOTAL BS. Please put Question in your subject. You probably won't recieve a reply to these questions unless its a totally unique question no one has asked and proved quite puzzling. Please also remember that I am writing this walkthrough as I go through the game and it may take awhile to answer your question. Remember that I am only one man and I need time to find the answers to your questions. Please only submit a question ONCE. Thank you. Q. How do I get into Luskan? A. I wasn't going to originally answer this question because it is explained in the walkthrough, is explained totally in the game, and I wanted you guys to figure things out for yourselves. But sadly because of all the questions regarding this subject I will give you the full answer. If you bothered to read the journal of the man in the caves it said that they are sending people to NEVERWINTER WOODS and CHARDOCK. Now they want more then just one proof that they are located in Luskan so hmmm, go to both NEVERWINTER WOODS and CHARDOCK to get the evidence needed. Killing Vardoc is not needed to get there, and I don't think Solomon is either(though theres no way to avoid killing her). All you have to do is get the Journal from the people in The caves to the north, Neverwinter woods, and Chardock, and they will open Luskan to you. --------------------------------------- Q. How do I open the doors to get into the tomb's for Never's tomb? A. Another question I didn't want to answer because it is so blatently obvious. If you go to the first tomb(which is already open all you need is a note from the guy in hall of champions) and READ THE BOOK, it tells you to put the things into the chest. Also if you READ MY GUIDE it said to PUT the items you got in the first tomb IN THE CHEST RIGHT NEXT TO THE DOOR. If you can't figure it out now, then turn off your power, go sit down and watch some barney. --------------------------------------- Q.How do I get to where the people are performing the cerimony with Aribeth on top of the tower on chapter 2? A. Yet another question i didn't want to answer because I went through it in my walkthrough and its so simple to figure out on your own. The door is locked, theres no way to open it. You can watch the cerimony or head down into aribeth's chambers, get the books you need and come back out and kill the cerimony people, get any loot you want and return to town to end the chapter --------------------------------------- Q. Ahhh I still can't get into Luskan!!! I musta missed, dropped or sold my proof! A. Selling quest items is impossible, and you can always look in the pools that are located in the temple of every Chapter to buy back quest items that you forgot to take or dropped. --------------------------------------- Q. Ahhh I'm stuck on the creator race in chapter 3!!! A. Again I'm dumbfounded by how some people can get stuck in here, so I'll answer each of the questions. The lightning in the doors you can walk through, so just walk through them(easy just try!!) For the sound quest just follow the mephit. For the light test just put the colors of what it says in the right order. For the color test you have to put 2 colors in the primary color field, then put their color in the secondary color fields, BOTH in the secondary HAVE TO BE THE SAME COLOR. If you Chose Blue and Yellow that makes green put the green stone in the secondary ones! Also for the color test,he one I received the most questions about, you can just do trial and error, I mean wow theres only 3 different colors you can put in the secondary fields. All this is stated in the book you can get from a lot of the chests, enemies, and book cases. _______________________________________________________________________ VII-THE BASICS. A. NOTES/TIPS Just a few things to keep in mind: -Make sure to update frequently. There will be regular bug fixes no doubt about it, so make sure you always have the newest version of the game. -Change your settings, you can change controls, display, anything at all. -REST OFTEN, I cannot stress this enough. By resting you get skills back that you already used, and also complete restoration of HP. You can do this anywhere as long as your not near an enemy(s) -Save often! You'll hate yourself if you run into a trap or die unexpectadly and your last save was hours ago. Rest and save are the most important things you can do! -Use your map often, even if you have it at smallest, you have the important locations on there, and can also add your own -Talk to your merc's, set up thier tactics the way you want them to be. Although you cannot buy items or equipment for your merc's, they do automatically level when you do, and upgrade weapons and armor automatically free of charge! -Read books, alot of time they will have tips or hints or a special use, notes especially, mostly books will teach you more about the history of this world, and might help you later on in your journey. -Persuasion is one of the most useful skills in the game. It allows you to access quests you wouldn't be able to, ,enter places you wouldn't be allowed to without paying, and make people give extra rewards for quests. -Set hotkeys! This is most important for spellcasters and especially important in multiplayer games. For item's you can drag them onto the hotkey, and for anything and everything(and i mean everything) else just right click on the hotkey slot. Right click to remove a hotkey as well. Hold shift or ctrl for another bar of hotkey possibilities! -When you level up you can check and see the amount of HP you will gain, and if you want more cancel and go through it again, until you find the max amount of hp gained for the level.(Thanks to Hauie!) -When you get stuck in a part of the game CHECK YOUR JOURNAL, I cannot stress this enough, the quests that you have there will tell you what you have to do better then I can, so please DO NOT EMAIL me about not being able to get into Luskan or not being able to do something else. -If your a Mage or Wizard, using spells is the best way to unlock and disarm a chest. Especially with spells such as Fireball that can destroy 3-5 chests at a time without triggering a trap! -For a fighter, a room full of enemys and a boss can be the hardest thing in the world to do. Best way to do this is to lure them out of the original room and go to a doorway, where only one or two monsters can attack you at once through the doorway, also make sure you put your cleric(you should have a cleric if your a fighter type)to heal you at 75% hp before doing it, so she'll start healing you at 75, and chances are it'll be under 50% when she actually gets the spell off. -For more tips when you are loading read the tips that they give you, sometimes they are obvious tips, but sometimes they can really help Note from Sorial: The damage done to your character has nothing to do with your armor class. Armor class only dictates how easily you can be hit using a d20 roll (20 sided dice). Keep in mind that having an armor class above 20 does not mean you can’t be hit - a natural 20 (unmodified 20) always hits no matter what your armor class. The higher level an opponent is, the more likely they are to be able to hit you. Also, the quicker or stronger they are, the more likely they are to be able to hit you. Right-clicking on the opponent will also tell you if their attack rolls are increased, and give you an idea of your impending doom. Once the attack roll is made and results in a hit, THEN is when damage is rolled and modified by any equipment you might have that absorbs that damage type, etc. B. CONTROLS. The controls in this game are really unique, and you can easily look and see what the controls are, or change them, so I'll just list some of the major hotkeys. The arrows move the camera around, and zoom in and out, and * on numberpad changes the views of camera. I Inventory M Map V Quick chat P Player list J Journal O Options B Spells [ Previous Inventory Tab R Rest ] Next Inventory Tab These are the defaults, and you can easily change or look for the complete list of moves in the options menu. C-CHARACTER CREATION The staff at Bioware made making a character incredibly easy. First off you have to pick weather you want to make a character of your own or choose from one of their pre-made ones. I made one for myself. Next you choose your gender, easy choice. Now you choose your race. Each race (with the exception of humans) have bonuses and decreases in major stats. They also have special skills just for picking that class. Also they even show the favored class for that race! And for those of you who have no idea what your doing they have a recommended button which picks out the easiest race/class/stats/etc. -Dwarf-bonus to magic resistance but cannot read scrolls or use magic wands(thanks to ThebirD) Next are the classes. Again you see their advantages and disadvantages and a basic description of each class. -Barbarian -Bard -Cleric -Druid -Fighter -Monk -Paladin -Ranger -Rogue -Sorcerer -WIzard Again if you are totally new to these type of games, press the recommended and they will choose the easiest one. Next up is alignment. Again simple to choose, depending on what you want to roleplay in the game, recommended moves to the highest, since it is usually easy to be good rather then evil. I chose truely nueutral. Next you get to set your stats. Click on each stat for a detailed discription for what they do and which class needs what. From that you can either manually put points into stats you want, press the recommended button and have them automatically put points into skills determaned on your class, or have them automatically put skills in, then take off points off of the skills you don't want/need, and put them on skills you need for that class. Next you get to pick your package...basically the subclass of the class. Each class has different ones, and again it is easy to choose, just read the advantages of it or press recommended. Customize is just that, picking body's and heads and other physicall appearances. Now just pick your name and voice and your ready to start the game!! _______________________________________________________________________ VII-Gameplay Gameplay is really easy if your familiar with the 3rd edition D&D system. Using your skills is referred to as making "skill checks". Some skills have a certain amount of times per rest period (a day, even though it goes by quite fast) that you can use it. Once you use it that amount of times you must rest before you can use it again. The same goes for spells and special abilities, like the druid's shapechange ability. Battle is dice related, and skills that you have can help your rolls (either add or decrease) same goes for armor and weapons. Feats are similar to skills, but are typically much more powerful, and a bit more specialized. Spells also use the same rolling of the die. Pause is an awesome tool, because battle is in real time, and while the game is paused you can use items or choose a magic spell to use, setting up a whole chain of spells or attacks so you can stragegize your moves. Pause is usually unuseable in multiplayer games though. (thanks to Dejime for confirmation!) (Sorial's note: A server administrator can set up their server to either allow pause use or not. Default configuration is to have pausing disabled.) Movement is easy; just click where you want to run to and you run there (or walk if you happen to be in detect or stealth mode). Getting used to that and moving the camera around with the arrows will determine how good you are at this game. Left clicking on people will bring up dialog (if they're not hostile, in which case you'll attack them - you can tell what you're about to do by paying attention to what the cursor looks like when you hover the mouse pointer over them. Also look at the color they glow. Red is hostile, blue isn't.), left click dragging items is how you loot things as well as equip them or move them from different bags. Right clicking an item will bring up a small menu, with things like drop, equip, look, etc. The gameplay of this game is very nice and easy to learn and get used to. If anyone has any other comments for this section send me in an email. _______________________________________________________________________ A. PRELUDE Training Facility You start off the game in a basic "learning" stage. After you watch the intro, you start in the senior barracks. Turn around and get the club from the chest behind you, then go talk to Pavel (you have no choice in this really, since there is a trigger to make him notice you once you leave your room). You can talk to him for a while if you want, learning more about the story, after which he'll tell you to see his brother on the other side of the room. When you talk to Pavel's brother Bim he will tutor you in very basic things, like click this and this will happen. You don't need this tutorial unless you really don't know what you're doing. After talking with Bim go through and talk to Olgerd the dwarf in the next room. He will give you some items depending on your class and teach you how to use inventory and stores; he will also sell you some gear if you have the money. You should at least have enough for a reasonable weapon or suit of armor, which is basically the only thing you really need to spend money on right now. Don't bother with buying any missile firing weapons, since you can get what you'd like for free a few rooms from here. Take advantage of Olgerd's stock - it's quite complete compared to many of the shops you'll find out in the "real world", plus the prices are discounted. In the next room, you can talk to the Berna for help with using your map and journal. This is still pretty simple stuff that you could figure out yourself (especially if you read the manual!), but if you need it then go ahead. Remember to keep picking up items along the way. You can press the TAB key on your keyboard to highlight items to check out, such as chests and bookcases that might have items within. It will also make enemies stand out a little more clearly if you're entering a room that's a bit darker than most. The next series of rooms are the training halls, all connected by a hallway of their own. Each training room has a sign outside it's entrance that explains what type of training is within, and who the instructor is. Note that you step into the weapon training hall from Berna's library, and the connecting hallway is just around the corner from the library exit. Also note that there are four training halls. One for combat, one for arcane magic, one for diving magic, and one for thievery. Each class must go to one of these halls corresponding to the type of character it is, with one exception: the bard. A bard can choose any of those training quests (except divine magic, even though bards can heal) since that class has enough of all class type skills to complete them. Here's a rough breakdown on where you should be for the class you chose: Fighter Combat training hall, should receive chainmail Paladin Combat training hall, should receive chainmail Ranger Combat training hall, should receive chainmail Monk Combat training hall, should receive boots of reflexes Barbarian Combat training hall, should receive boots of reflexes Rogue Rogue training hall, should receive three minor spike traps Sorcerer Arcane magic training hall, should receive a rod of frost Wizard Arcane magic training hall, should receive a rod of frost Cleric Divine magic training hall, should receive chainmail Druid Divine magic training hall, should receive a ring of fortitude Bard Any training hall except the divine magic training hall. Should receive a rod of frost from any of the halls you can use. The first training room is the combat training hall. Here you learn from Herban and his aides how to use different attacks; you can get a heavy crossbow, light crossbow, sling, short bow and long bow with loads of ammo for all. Even if you don't plan on using any of these, make sure you run back and sell the things you don't want to Olgerd for that extra bit of gold that's crucial, especially at low level. This training hall is also the only one of the 5 halls that all character classes can do the trial for. Non-fighter style classes will not be able to get the gift from Herban at the end of the trial since they have their own tutors to go to down the hall, but it's good practice anyway for a beginning player (and why else would you be reading this anyway?). Also in this room are 5 rare monsters if you want to see what your future might hold. Try right-clicking on one of them (or any creature and most other things as well) and examining them. These creatures are all very tough, and the description indicates the relative ease you'd have in defeating them. You cannot attack these creatures, since the module is set up to keep them protected, so there is nothing else to do here. Heading down the connecting hall will take you to another training center behind the first door to the left. Clicking on the sign by the door will tell you this one is for arcane spell casters, and within you can go through a tutorial on using your magic skills. At least talk to the tutor and do his test even if you know how to handle your spell caster; you get a neat magic item (Rod of Frost with unlimited charges) as a prize for completing it). In the same room, regardless of your class, you can get Melf's Acid Arrow and Magic Missile scrolls. You can also find a few tomes to read. Next, head down and pass a locked door; don't worry about that just yet, and go visit Ketta in the rogue training center on the left if you're a rogue, or Elynwyd in the divine magic training center to the right if you're a cleric or druid. If you have completed the combat or arcane spell casting trials there is no need to go in either of these, so talk to the guard at the end of the hall to continue into the graduation room where Aribeth is waiting. In the graduation room you can get items from the desks behind Aribeth. Talk to her and she will tell you that you graduated. Listen to her story, after which you will be attacked. These guys are pretty tough but luckily you have 6 other graduates in addition to yourself and Aribeth (who all get targeted before you do) in that room that'll help take care of them. Once they've been dispatched, talk to Aribeth and offer your help and she will give you the key to the locked door we skipped past earlier, back in the training connecting hall. Be prepared, because now you will encounter battles. Nothing you can't handle, but make sure to rest or use a healing potion (You put healing potions in a quick slot, right?) if your life gets too low. The first enemy you will encounter is right outside the room where you and the other graduates were attacked. You'll run into a rather pompous mage who looks similar to the ones that attacked, but this one is quite different. You can't defeat him, so wait until he summons a pair of goblins before you attack, and focus your attack on the goblins while the mage teleports away. They're easy to take out, even for a wizard character. Remember that locked door that you couldn't do anything with before? Unlock the door and fight your way through the tunnels (and a second mage who summons a pair of goblins who is also undefeatable), picking up items along the way. It's unnecessary to go back through the training halls and other areas you've already seen, though if you want to you can get a little practice with combat by doing so. It won't help your experience points, for a reason you'll find out about a bit later. Fight your way through the rooms until you meet up with Pavil from the senior barracks. He will tell you how his brother died and that he will join you for free instead of the usual fees that you'd have to pay for a hireling. It doesn't matter if you say yes or no because he will leave once you exit the academy, but keep in mind that this game was designed to gauge its difficulty levels around you and a hireling. Continue through until you get to a room with an old man standing in the center. Here he will explain leveling up, and give you enough experience to level up. This is the reason why rooting around for experience points in previous rooms isn't really worth the time unless you as a gamer need practice with this game. (Note: a quest is now done) Use your skill and other points wisely (pressing the recommended button is a good idea unless you really know what you're doing) and head to the next room. Continue onward picking up loot and fighting off the monsters. There are several chests and whatnot to search through, and some decent equipment can be found (contents of these chests are random of course) if you're lucky. Eventually, you'll run into a very large room with a skeleton (sometimes two), a goblin or two, and a mage. This mage can be defeated, and you should target him with everything you've got and take him out quickly. Even a barbarian or other tough character can be knocked down pretty easily by this guy if you don't close with him and take him out immediately. Ahh the wonders of second level characters. It might even be a good idea to save your game prior to entering this room in case things go badly with a few magic missiles the mage likes to target on your tender behind. Note also that this mage fires magic missiles in pairs, which means he's at least 3rd level, perhaps 4th (1 magic missile at 1st level, another at 3rd, and so on for the odd levels to a maximum of 5 magic missiles at level 9). While this might not seem significant now, knowing little details like that will help you later in the game. 3rd edition D&D players will have a distinct advantage playing this game, at least starting out. There is no real boss to this level, and when you eventually get to the stables where two figures are fighting off a group of goblins, you are at the final scene of the prelude. Both of the figures are characters you'll be dealing with and hearing about throughout chapter 1 of the game. Help them out if you want, but you probably won't be doing much damage compared to them. As the combat proceeds, you'll notice a nymph, a yuan-ti, and an intellect devourer all teleport out of the room. These are the Waterdhavian creatures you were sent to protect - there is no way to keep them from leaving, so don't waste your time trying. When the goblins are defeated talk to Fenthik and learn more about the story. Make sure you tell them that you will indeed help, and you will level up again! (Quest completed) Now they will leave, you can level up and leave as well because there's nothing else for you here. Congratulations; you are now done with the prelude! Quests: 1) Academy Training. This entry is automatically in your journal when you first start the game. You finish it by completing your training quest and talking to the man who shows you how to level up. 2) Combat Training. You get it when you first enter combat, simple enough right? You finish this quest in the stables when you tell them that you will help them and level up for the second time. Just a word for the wise now, if you had any trouble at all with this first level of the game you should seriously consider turning off your computer, because it is about to get insanely more difficult. With that said lets move onto... _______________________________________________________________________ B. CHAPTER I City Core _______________________________________________________________________ You start off in the sanatorium. There's nothing much to do here but talk to the people you just met in the previous section. You can persuade the nurses to tell you some information about Desther and his Helmites, that they showed up soon after the plague hit. Head north to the Hall of Justice and meet Aribeth. Learn some more about the plague and receive the stone of recall. Before leaving go to the door directly across from where you came in, on the right. It’s the only other door that isn't locked. In here talk to Olef and get a quest (you might need to use persuasion to get the quest) Collect items and go back out and you can choose to hire a thief (you may want to wait till you get all the other choices) As soon as you exit Bethany comes running up, if you help her then you get another quest, more on this in the quest section. In the Moonstone Mask (you can see sign on map) Gills can give you an alternative to the Olef quest, if you want to be an evil alignment. I kept Olef's quest so I don't know anything about it (Note from Sorial: You can do both. I did the tombs quest first, then visited the Moonstone Mask to get information on Olef to blackmail him with). Also in the Moonstone Mask, Ophala the owner will give you a quest if you can persuade her to, again look at the quest section. (you do not need to persuade her to actually get the quest, you can acquire it later on) In the Shining Knight’s arms and armor, if you talk to the shop keep about rare items he will give you a key to the back room where a dwarf will make rare and magic items if you bring him combinations of jewels and magic items. He also gives you a book that lists all the possible combinations. Here's the list, for those of you who might want to plan ahead. Please offer any corrections, as I've already found a discrepancy between what the game says and what reality creates. Each item uses a magic version of it's namesake and the component listed: Chromatic Breastplate: Diamond. Base AC 6 Scales of Truth: Holy water. Base AC 5 Leather Whitebone Armor: Gargoyle skull. Base AC 3 *BUG ALERT* This recipe actually creates magic half plate armor, base AC 7, with a +2 magic bonus, even if you use magic leather armor in the recipe like the name suggests) Sentinel battleaxe: Adamantite Double axe of the Tall Kin: Adamantite Stonefire great axe: Adamantite Ice reaver handaxe: Dragon blood Gladiator club: Ironwood Ironwood dire mace: Ironwood Reaver heavy flail: Dragon blood Storm light hammer: Diamond Foundation light flail: Ironwood Mace of disruption: Holy water Drone morning star: Faerie dust Rune hammer: Adamantite Harbinger great sword: Adamantite Sword saint katana: Adamantite Astral blade longsword: Diamond Namarra rapier: Dragon blood Desert wind scimitar: Adamantite Feyduster shortsword: Faerie dust Uthgardt ceremonial two-bladed sword: Ironwood Ravager halberd: Dragonblood Sea reaver scythe: Adamantite Fey spear: Faerie dust Golden sickle: Holy water In the Trade of Blades you can now hire a henchman of almost any class you want. Personally I chose the bard, because she has every skill, especially the helpful attack and defense bonus songs, as well as pick locks and melee. Here’s a breakdown of the henchmen you can receive: Tomi Undergallows: Rogue, and very good at it. Fights well enough, but best serves you in melee, not ranged combat. He gets sneak attacks, and they pack one hell of a wallop as long as you’re tying up the enemy so he can flank. You can get him in the Hall of Justice where Aribeth is at, right by the door going out. Grimgnaw: Lawful Evil monk of the long death. Nasty little guy who hits like a truck, especially at higher levels. He’s almost as good to have around as the barbarian, sometimes better considering he has stunning fist. Daelan Red Tiger: The Red Tiger part means he’s part of the Red Tiger Uthgardt tribe. This is one tough customer, and quite smart for a half orc. He’s not very useful other than for combat, but worth it for that. Sharwyn: Moderate in a fight, certainly not the combat equal of Daelan or Grimgnaw, but not a pushover either. Her real bonuses come from the spells she’ll cast on you (bull’s strength, etc.) and the ones she’ll cast on the enemy (nothing nearly as nice as what she’ll cast on you ;) She can pick locks and sing bard’s songs (they give you higher attack rolls and things like that, depending on her level). Linu La'neral: Not very tough in combat, but can heal and cast bless/aid which is helpful. Her real bonus is turn undead, which she’ll do automatically if undead are around. It can take out or at least hinder an entire room of undead quite quickly, making places like Helm’s Hold or the Beggar’s Nest quite a bit easier. Boddyknock Glinckle: Gnomish sorcerer. (someone feel free to give a little info about this guy before I choose to use him and find out myself) You get two quests as you hire a henchman, one just tells you the basic rules and what happens when your henchman dies (you can never complete this), another is the story of your henchman, each henchman has a different background story and will eventually tell you the whole thing leading to a quest. (You need to be level 5+ before they will tell you the whole story and the quest goals become clear)When you picked your henchman you can buy a ticket for the gauntlet, a fighting pit type thing for 50 gold, the gauntlet is located in black lake. (more info in quest section) You can now go around exploring the town, picking up odds and ends, please keep in mind you have many choices ahead of you right now, you can head to Blacklake, you need to collect all four components for the cure, as well as the four tombs if you accepted either the good or bad artifacts quest. I suggest the Peninsula District first because it has the book that tells you the locations for the temples (Look at artifacts quest) even though in my opinion it had the hardest boss. Remember you can do the districts in any order and complete the quests in any order but I will list them in the order of "easiest" to "hardest". Peninsula District _______________________________________________________________________ There isn't much to do here, the guards tell you to report to the person in charge, which is on the other side of the district. You don't really need to do this as she just tells you the blatantly obvious, and you can get the quest completed and pass on without visiting her. Your goal here is to get inside the prison and stop the revolt. There are two ways to do this, one you can go through the underground tunnels directly into the prison, and another way is to go into the sewer system kill the gang of thugs and retrieve the key to the front door. Each involve a quest which aren’t listed at the bottom because it’s basically just your access of getting in and no thought is involved. To be able to access the underground tunnels you need to talk to one of the two servants of the queen. They will tell you that a key is hidden under the mat and that they want you to check and make sure she's ok. The girl who tells you this is on the west side, and the man is somewhere close to the middle north-eastern part. I suggest going to the girl on the west side because that is where the tomb that Olef/Gil gave you (see quest section below for more information) Once you get in the prison you can choose to release a guard that is in one of the cells, you don't gain any experience or quests but he tells you what is going on. Make your way to the second floor, collecting items if you want and a man will whisper for you to follow him. You may be hesitant but don't worry, he will tell you more about what is going on and describes the basic layout of the prison. Again just explore the level and head downstairs. This is the final floor of this dungeon and when you get to the end (a lot of locked doors) you see the chief of the prison run downstairs leaving a half-orc to kill you. Mini-Boss: Half-Orc This guy packs quite a punch with his double axe. Just keep using healing potions if you need to and he will eventually give up. If you have a lot of trouble you might want to consider wandering the peninsula and trying to level up. Once he gives up you can kill him, get some more information and then kill him, or get some information and let him go. Choice is totally up to you. No matter what you choose you can now head downstairs and prepare yourself for a most annoying boss fight. Boss - Intellect Devourer Definitely the most annoying boss in the first chapter. Once you go downstairs the head of the guard will attack you. He blabbers on as you fight hits very hard and has a decent amount of life. After he falls a little bug thing will pop out and attack you. Do as much damage as you can before it runs to a nearby body and jumps in. Fortunately all the guards he can possess are much weaker than the head gaeoler, so they'll fall quickly. You now have to go through the process of killing all these guards, fighting the bug in between, and each time he comes out of a body his life is completely restored! There are maybe 4 or 5 bodies for him to take, and when he runs out of places to run he will finally fight you. He hits just as hard as the guard captain, and has a little bit more life. After you kill him take the 1/4th cure and use your stone of recall to go back to the Hall of Justice. You can give the 1/4th cure to her and you will get some gold and experience, you can also give the artifact to whoever you accepted the quest from. Strategy hint by Kev: You can also persuade the guards down here to leave before fighting the brain eater, therefore giving him no place to run, you can do it with little persuade and it makes the fight a lot easier. Note by Sorial: It’s sometimes worth it to take a few hits from the Gaeoler to do your persuading, so the devourer has nowhere to run after you kill the his current host. The easiest way I’ve found is to pause when you enter the room, then run to the west (left as you’re facing away from the door) and circle the room, persuading guards as you go. The last guard usually hovers reasonably close to the Gaeoler, so try to save that one for last. If you're playing a rogue, tell your henchman to stand their ground by the door and use stealth to talk to the guards. Make sure you don't talk to a guard in full view of the head gaeoler, since when you talk you disable stealth mode and he'll see (and attack) you. Strategy hint by Sorial: This is a terrific place to make use of skills like knockdown or stunning fist. They will make the battle much more simple, and keep you from getting your head ripped off by the Gaeoler’s halberd (which you can get from his corpse, along with a piece of ironwood that’s one of the components you can get the dwarf in the back room of the Shining Knight to make into a better item). Beggar’s Nest _______________________________________________________________________ In the Beggar’s Nest, the guards will inform you that the dead are rising from their graves. The entire district is packed with zombies and the like, so stay on your toes. Your ultimate goal here is to stop the zombie infestation. Again there are two ways to do this, one is shorter and the other longer. You can also do both ways if you want to fight more and get a lot of experience. Head to the inn to gain more information and quests. Go meet with the two people the person in charge instructed you to, to gain the information and item needed for each of the two ways. Jemanie will also give a quest. Now you can either go in the secret clan's hideout (long way) or the factory (short way). They all lead to the same thing and each have a mini boss along the way. You can go through the clan's hideout and instead of going out into the cemetery continue the other way to go through the factory part if you want to do both ways for experience, but you cannot go through the factory and do both, because you will encounter a barred door. Either way you go you will encounter a similar mini boss, either the leader of the gang of thieves, or the leader of the mysterious clan. These guys can be annoying, and all depends on luck of the dice. They can disarm and knockdown so it can really be aggravating. They also hit pretty hard and if I remember correctly the head of the cult can cast spells. Eventually you'll come to the Graveyard where you can enter a tomb to get the 2nd artifact for the Never's Tomb quest (see quests) and then enter Warrens of the damned. There are a lot of traps so be careful, you'll also find the body of Jemanie's brother, and eventually you'll meet up with... Boss - Gulnan the Yuan-Ti This is the creature that gave the gang's boss the power to summon the dead. She is also what the mysterious clan is worshipping. Make sure you break the altar first (right click smash) to weaken her power, or when she summons her minion he will kill you very easily. Also, if you run past all the undead and go straight to altar-smashing, all the undead will be destroyed, leaving you only Gulnan and her summoned shadow to fight. Without the alter giving her power she is pretty much an easy boss to fight. Heal if you need to and loot another 1/4th of the cure. Now that a lot of your quests are done, you can go back to the Shining Serpent inn and talk to the halfling to get a reward, and return the information to Jemanie and Krestal, and do any quests you want to finish in this sector then head back and give the 1/4th cure to Aribeth in the Hall of Justice. Docks District _______________________________________________________________________ This is where things get interesting. Instead of just entering and killing, you start getting more stories. The gate guards inform you that this part of the city is run by muggers and thieves and pirates. I suggest you make sure you go around the entire place getting their coins because you can trade them for magic items a little later. Make sure you go on the big boat and kill the pirates to get a uniform. Also note that the "locked house" has two entrances, back and front, both having different items to get. In the front entrance you'll find a key, which you can use to get into the pirates hideout. When you’re done exploring head for the tavern where the auction is supposed to be held where you can get drunk with a pirate, and buy some items from the auctioneer, also trade for the special coins. Now go into the back room and either persuade or pay off the guy guarding the door and you can also get the password from the guy in the sauna upstairs, don't worry about the key you have it from the locked house, or from the drinking contest with the pirate. Make your way through until you find a group of pirates tormenting some girl. Talk to her and learn more about the revolt, and where to go next. Make sure you take the instructions from the pirates so you can open the door. She also gives you an amulet for you to get down to the sewers by way of the silver sails trading company. You can take a quick detour to enter the mansion to the north of the aqueducts to acquire one of the stolen arts, see quests below. Now head to the aqueducts, kill the pirates and talk to the man by the boat, who'll take you upstream. You can also enter it by way of the Silver Sails trading company.(you must talk with the girl first)You can find a tomb here to the west(thanks to Porphyre) that will show up as an "exit" on your mini map. After a short walk you'll encounter the two opposing sides of this conflict. You don't really get a choice because the man on the other side will say that you are there to kill the man on your side, and you will be attacked. Boss-Callik w/ guards This is a tough fight for many reasons, first his guards are pretty tuff, second he is very tuff, and he can disarm, and does quite a bit of damage per hit. After you defeat them, make sure to loot the amulet (for a quest) and head around to talk to the other man, Vengaul. Vengaul thanks you and then tells you to take the feathers. You can let him go or kill his guards, it’s up to you. He'll "flee" at any rate. At any rate you can now take another 1/4th of the cure back to the Hall of Justice. Finish up anything you want to finish up and then its time for the final district. Blacklake District _____________________________________________________________________________ This is the final and most challenging district. It is also the only one that you have to pass through a monster infested area to get to, but in retrospect, the only district that doesn't have enemies or body's all around. You start off in No Man's Land, you can talk to the person nearby to get a quest, and head through to a guard post. Now that your in town you see a loud girl in the town square (you can't miss her) once you talk to her you learn about the situation. This is not an optional quest; you have to do this to get the final part of the cure. Say that you will kill him and bring the key back, even if you don't want to kill him, and head up north to his estate. Note: the Hodge and Rumbottom estate are good places to make fast cash and experience, and also the places where you get the other two stolen art. Also in the southwestern house you can persuade the woman there to tell you about her bookcase, which leads to the last artifact. Also note in the nobleman's residence you can persuade the woman inside then force her to pay you therefore moving your alignment 3 points toward evil, a good way to lose alignment if you want to be evil. You either can persuade the man at the gate to let you through, or you'll have to pay. There is another way to get in submitted by Lord Shitzu: Find an old woman named Milly, and if you can persuade her to talk to you about the wizard she will give you a key to her house and open a portal to the bedroom of his home. Thanks Lord Shitzu! Note from Sorial: If you can’t persuade Milly, you can always tell her to talk or she’ll be cleaning without hands... Keep in mind that this is an evil act. Once you get inside a dumb orc will ask you who you are, you again can persuade and he will open the door, or will have to fight/pay him. Alternatively, you can walk right past him and pick or blow down the door to his right (as he's facing you) and just walk through. Do the usual things, make sure you search around for items and watch out for traps, and also make sure to rescue a man in prison for some easy money. When you get to a big room with a cage in the corner save. When you move close to the cage the prisoner will scream that he is near and he will magically appear behind you, near the red symbol on the floor. Boss - Meldanen He's pretty tuff but luckily he doesn't hit that hard. His magic can kill though; in fact his ice storm spell thing will kill your hireling and possibly kill you. Again, it comes down to luck; which spells he casts at you, how often and how fast you can get his life down. Like the head Gaeoler, stunning fist and knockdown are terrific feats to use in defeating Meldanen. Eventually he will surrender, you yell at him for taking the dryad and he begs for his life, bribing you with 500 gold. Make sure you get the key and his tooth as well as the 500 gold, so you can get 500 gold for "killing" him from the young woman speaking outside, near Meldanen’s warehouse. Now free the Dryad and either be nice or mean to her depending on your alignment and you will get the last part of the cure. Note from Sorial: You can get all the same rewards for killing Meldanen outright, from the tooth you rip out of his head to the gold, and his staff, which you can’t get otherwise. It’s a pretty nice staff for a sorcerer or wizard, giving some bonuses you’ll have a hard time beating. Killing him is not an evil act, since he is evil himself. Alternatively, if you're feeling mean, you can talk Meldanen into telling you about Formosa (the loud half-elf woman talking to the audience in Blacklake). He'll pay you handsomely to kill her, in which case you'll get the reward she would have given you for killing Meldanen, plus a few extra goodies. If you're a wizard or sorcerer, I'd suggest killing Meldanen for his staff. Otherwise, kill Formosa for what she's carrying. Go back and report to (or kill!) Formosa outside Meldanen’s warehouse, give her the tooth and the key and you will get your reward. If you're feeling exceptionally mean and nasty, you can kill Meldanen AND Formosa. If you take Meldanen's money in exchange for killing Formosa, you end up with a bit more money than what Formosa would have given you, AND you get Formosa's money from her body. If you kill Meldanen and then kill Formosa on your own, you'll get Meldanen's staff, which is worth more money than he'd give you to kill her (killing Meldanen and taking out Formosa just because you're mean is the more profitable way to go, but isn't exactly going to make you good aligned). Do any remaining quests in this area you want to do and head back and give the component to Aribeth, but remember once you agree to go make the potion all your quests waiting to be completed disappear so make sure you’re ready! Quests are an easy way to make money and experience. Relief at last? _____________________________________________________________________________ When you’re ready you are taken to a special room where you see Aribeth, Desther and Fenthick performing a ceremony to make the cure. Talk to the characters with names and the ceremony will start. Watch this disturbing but predictable event take place, and kill the enemies. You don't gain anything extra by keeping all the Tyran priests alive, but it's quite a challenge. Now you must go to Helm's hold, through the open portal. Helm's Hold _____________________________________________________________________________ This place is pretty straight forward. There are three ways to enter, through the cave, through the front, and through the side. The cave is to the west as soon as you enter, and will lead to lower prisons, where you can talk to a prisoner and learn about what’s going on. You can also buy/sell from a little boy in there. If you choose to enter this way just go north to see the spirit first. I found the way to get through the front door the 2nd time through (although I fought the actual monsters first then realized how to do it), There is a gem you find in the courtyard on a body, that will go on the altar. I got 50 exp for doing this after the guardians inside the front door were dead and according to Ketzer they all run away, at the time I got over 200 exp for each of them though. Keep in mind they are VERY HARD. Sorial's note: The guardians do not simply "run away" when you put the gem on the altar. They instead teleport to locations inside Helm's Hold and begin fighting all the skeleton mages and priests (and other creatures, depending on your average party level when you enter the Hold), and will appear as allied with you when you run into them next. Take care not to use area-effect spells that might harm them, or they'll attack you too. You might have realized already that using the gem is the easier but less XP method - if you kill the guardians (yes, they ARE tough) and then clean out the Hold, you'll end up XP ahead, but perhaps dead.:) The side entrance will lead you up near the only real quest you have in this area. You can either free a demon or banish the demon and resurrect the good god. Read quests for detailed information. All three lead to the same place so you can enter either through the cave or through the side and do everything there is to do, although there isn't much in terms of loot in here. When you’re done with the quest and ready head upstairs...there’s no turning back! The door now locks behind you and you have to fight the traitor! The bad news is there are about 10 other zombies in there, the good news is that he won't run and fight you with them. There are a bunch of zombies in a pentagram pattern with him in the center, with magic energy running through him, so take care of all the zombies before you start on him. The magic-channeling constructs are very easy to take out, and it only takes destroying 3 of them to ruin Desther’s power. He’s only a cleric after that, though he’s still incredibly tough for most characters, so be wary. Boss - Desther the traitor! Desther is tough, and very scary. First thing you HAVE to do is kill at least 3 of the constructs that surround him. If you don't then he will be immune to all your attacks. Once you do this you have to fight the hardest boss in Chapter 1 (ironically the last one!). He is a mixture of very hard hitting, and very powerful magic. Sorial's note: Watch the spinning lights over his head - they're an indication of his relative immunity to your attacks. While you can attack and do damage while he's "lit up" like that, he absorbs quite a bit more under it's effects. As a rogue, run run away and go into stealth mode (if you can - haste helps a lot there) and wait for his spell to wear off (also note that the guardians must be dead or it won't wear off). Other characters have alternatives, such as invisibility for arcane spell casters, sanctuary for divine spell casters, etc. Like the last boss his ice storm blocks can kill you and your henchman, and he usually does 10-20 damage in melee combat. Luckily he doesn't disarm or knock down, but he does stay alive for along time. Eventually he will give up (at barely wounded sometimes) and you can talk to him. Make sure you tell him that you’re going to look around first, or make sure you look around before you talk to him, because you can find some nice items in this area, as well as books. When you’re ready to leave talk to him again and take him back to Neverwinter, and enjoy the sequences! Congrats! You just completed Chapter 1!! Quests: _____________________________________________________________________________ Proof of a secret cult/Proof of a traitor During your collection of the 4 cure components you wil