Starting again (again) [poss minor spoilers]

[the_limey]

Hello, I am the_limey and I am addicted to starting over in CRPGs. They say admitting you have a problem is half the battle. Doesn't make the rest of it any easier though...

I bought NWN2 about a fortnight ago and I still haven't decided what character to to play. That's not to say I haven't played it at all but have yet to settle on anything.

My first character I intended to be a pure Aasimar paladin but this seemed a little to similar to the charceter I'd just run through Dark Messiah with (I am very much a role-player), so this one got dropped before the end of the tutorial.

Second, I tried a Tiefling warlock. Couldn't really justify the whole "infernal power" thing with a good PC. Abandonded within minutes of starting.

Next up was an archer ranger. Managed to get him all the way to the graveyard near Fort Locke. He seemed to struggle to do any damage here and Khelgar did most of the work for me. Not sure if he would have played like this for the rest of the game but I dropped him without trying to find out.

Having become enamoured witht the "musketeer" concept of the duelist, this was my next character. A few stupid decisions resulting from not reading the duelist description properly spelled the end of this concept at the bandit camp.

An Aasimar monk was my next attempt to play. He did *very* well. With great cleave, FoB and circle kick he had massive attacks and really pulled his weight. Unfortunately, just as I reached the lizard caves i was struck with the thought that playing someone in heavy armour was the way to go. So..

...I started a Cleric of Chauntea/Warpriest concept, which I got bored with at the Weeping Willow.

A couple of chaotic good characters had led me to reconsider my position on good warlocks so I began on of those. Got him all the way to Neverwinter (yay!). More poor choices of feats/invocations led to the whole party being slaughtered in Moire's warehouse. In a fit of childish tantrum I deleted all the saves relating to my warlock and swore to start again.

I did so. Twice. With the same character. A reprise of the paladin/sorcerer/RDD build that I first took all the way through SoU and HotU. First build was knackered. Second build bored me so I stopped.

So there you go. I suspect that restarting so many times has caused me to become disillusioned with the game (gee, professor, you think?), but I've been waiting years for it and it cost me £60 (US$100?), and after a few days' break I am determined to play it through. But as what? This is where I was hoping fellow forumites could help. I've been tossing a few ideas aroubd but I don't want to just jump in- that's half the trouble.

I thought maybe an arcane archer despite the failure with my ranger. I've since seen conflicting reports about this. Some say ranged damage is bugged and few (if any) enhancements are made to bow damge. NWN2Wiki directly contradicts this though.

I also considered playing a warlock again. I did enjoy the class but it ust didn't work. With better planning is it a powerful clas as some claim, or is it never really more than a support character?

My monk really kicked buttock and I hear there's a monk specific quest line. Is this worth persuing?

Pehaps a new route: Eldritch Knight? Is there any point in taking more wizard levels once you qualify for EK give that class improves your spelcasting at every level.

Other thoughts/comments welcome. My only "stipulations" are that I only really play (half) humans, and I want to be good my first time through.

Cheers and sorry for rambling on...

[kyle]

Sounds like you get bored with characters whose power tapers off, and that's certainly the case with Warlocks; they won't be doing substantially more damage at higher levels than they did at the middle levels, while the damage from a sorceror or mage consistently improves.

There are some great Eldritch Knight builds out there, even if I find the class a little boring. I've posted this before that my favourite (and only complete)
playthrough was as a Lawful Evil Aasimar Cleric (Air, Fire) patterned after Magneto; he was fun to roleplay, even though I normally play good characters. I think for this game you actually have to care about your character if you're going to stay interested. If it's just some paper avatar you create, prepare to continue restarting over and over again.

[the_limey]

Sounds like you get bored with characters whose power tapers off, and that's certainly the case with Warlocks; they won't be doing substantially more damage at higher levels than they did at the middle levels, while the damage from a sorceror or mage consistently improves.

Not completely accurate, after all, my monk got substantially more powerful as he improved, and many of the other builds were weak because of poor planning.

There is a kernel of truth to what you are saying though. When I play games there ae two things on my mind: first, the story, plot development, characterisation are all paramount to my gaming experience- if I'm constantly worrying about tactics and strategy then I'm not enjoying the game- not the fight but the reason behind is what is important.

Second, I play games to escape the mundanity of everyday life. I play games to play powerful people. Standing at the back, trying to avoid the enemy, occasionally casting something that helps *other people*, is not conducive to good gamelay for me. I like to reduce enemies to mounds of ash or pulverise them into bloody chunklets.

I'm sorry if there are those who feel this makes me a power gamer but, quite frankly, if I wanted to play someone "normal" I'd play the Sims.

[Fljotsdale]

Like yourself, the Limey, I am a chronic restarter! I get bored with chars who don't deliver, or who don't deliver until very late in the game.
For which reason I have decided NEVER to multiclass ever again. AND not to go for Prestige classes. You have to spend far too much time as a half-baked neither-one-thing-nor-the-other while aiming for your Prestige class, and if simply multi-classing your power in the selected classes is vastly inferior to a single class char of the same overall level.

Anyway... so far I have found the most effective class to be Rogue; and, no, she doesn't do much lurking in shadows in the background! With Weapon Finesse and Two-Weapon Fighting, and with her Dodge feats and Tumbling skills, she is right up front with the tanks... though I DO have her hit the toughest enemy from behind, in Stealth Mode, before letting her melee. And even in general melee, she gets a surprising number of Sneak Attacks!

I always give my Rogue the highest INT I can, after maxing out her DEX, so as to get a lot of points for her many skills. She gets by very nicely starting on just 8-10 each on STR and CHA, and 8 on WIS, with a minimum of 10 on CON. Lack of STR is not an issue, since there are plenty on your team to carry stuff, and she uses DEX to fight.

Imo, Rogue is probably the most effective and powerful class, even though there are no fireworks!

[GBEAR]

Starting Again

I'm on my third go around with the game. This time I went multi-class. Started as a rogue, leveled to 3, then switched to fighter for two levels, then continued as a sorcerer. Versatility in weapons, disarming traps, opening chests & careful selection of spells & feats make this an interesting character to play. Went head to head with Lorne in melee & dropped him first time. Really surprised me. In previous games my main character got killed quite a few times.

Enjoy

[Mordraken]

LOL @ OP. Nicely said Limey.

I had your problem when I played Guildwars, and it really wore out the game for me. I think I had about 40 hours logged before I got out of the newbie area.

I think you can expect the story to "get going" once you get into NeverWinter. Your one complaint can be addressed by just going further into the game.

As for roleplaying, I suggest making a build and playing through it. Paladin/RDD is what I'm doing because it's quite easy and has a nice ring to it. I expect it to be quite powerful (currently I think I'm around Pal 6/Sorc 1/RDD 3). Playing a Thief could also be really good (esp. with a very high use magic device skill for that flexibility).

The other thing that you might consider is giving that Thiefling Warlock a shot, but roleplay a bad guy. I know it can be hard for a person who normally role-plays a good guy, but this story does have two sides to it, so you will get your money's worth from a bad-guy PC. Then if your mood strikes you, you can re-play the game with a good PC - perhaps trying that Ranger build (for a challenge). I suspect that you will need your ranger to have some good hth skills (not only relying on bows) because of the awkward positions you're often put in (moved to the front for example).

Anyway, that's what I can suggest - go through the campaign after you decide on a character. At least you've tried half of them so should have a good idea of what you'd like .