Rank n00b questions...
Marshall
basic game mechanics:
1) Items with 'spell resistance'- what does that mean exactly, and do such items
stack for extra resistance?
I have three such items on my char, with 10, 12 and 14 spell resistance... but my
stat screen shows only 14, so I'm presuming they don't stack, and only the highest
one takes effect?
My mercenary comes stock with a buff listed in her stats for 'spell immunity'... does
this mean she does not need any 'spell resistance' items? Are they simply unnecessary
to put on Mercs?
This spell resistance number does not appear as a percentage, so what does it stand
for? Does the spell resistance stat affect the likelihood of an enemy's spells to 'hit'
or take affect on you? Or is it a fixed amount of spell-damage that you resist/do not
take, when hit by a spell?
Is spell resistance therefore only good for resisting spells that do actual physical
damage, and not all the other dozens of mind effect, stun, etc. spells? And does it
provide any sort of resistance to elemental spells? (fire, cold, electrical, etc.)
2) Is there a good primer out there somewhere, that explains in layman's terms
how Strength, Dex, weapons' stats, etc. all work together and affect each other, so
I can make an intelligent decision on which types and versions of weapons to go with,
and which weapons' stats are 'better' than others, for a particular character build?
I'm sure there will be more of these n00b Q's soon- so TIA,
-Marshall
Barry Scott Will
> Been playing NWN Gold for coupla weeks now, and have several questions about
> basic game mechanics:
>
> 1) Items with 'spell resistance'- what does that mean exactly, and do such items
> stack for extra resistance?
Spell resistance is sort of "armor class" against spells. The attacking
mage has to "beat" your spell resistance in much the same way a
swordsman has to "beat" your armor class in order to have any affect on
you. The opposing mage makes a d20 roll + level of mage + any
adjustments and compares that to your SR. If your SR is greater than the
roll, the spell has no effect. AFAIK, this is for *any* spell, including
spells that do elemental damage.
And, no, items with SR do not stack.
> My mercenary comes stock with a buff listed in her stats for 'spell immunity'... does
> this mean she does not need any 'spell resistance' items? Are they simply unnecessary
> to put on Mercs?
Err...I'm not sure what you mean. Perhaps your character is an elf?
Elves have Immunity to Sleep, but this only works against the "Sleep"
spell. In any case, I doubt you have anything equipped or inherent in
your character that offers blanket spell immunity to all spells. Such a
thing is possible, but only actually used by munchkins.
> 2) Is there a good primer out there somewhere, that explains in layman's terms
> how Strength, Dex, weapons' stats, etc. all work together and affect each other, so
> I can make an intelligent decision on which types and versions of weapons to go with,
> and which weapons' stats are 'better' than others, for a particular character build?
You probably want to read the base d20 rules,
http://home.earthlink.net/~teluial/OGF/
to get a more thorough understanding of the rules on which NWN is based.
--
Barry Scott Will
Pyric RPG Publications
http://www.pyric.com/
If you insist on emailing me, remove all the **JUNK** first
Kish
> My mercenary comes stock with a buff listed in her stats for 'spell immunity'... does
> this mean she does not need any 'spell resistance' items? Are they simply unnecessary
> to put on Mercs?
No. It means she is immune to at least one spell, by innate ability or
by item (I'll guess, as Barry did, that she's an elf)--but that won't
help her if any of the many spells she is not immune to is cast on her.
Marshall
"Barry Scott Will" <nwn**JUNK**@cavecreations.net> wrote in message
news:nsPpc.61175$iF6.5446213@attbi_s02...
> Marshall wrote:
> > Been playing NWN Gold for coupla weeks now, and have several questions about
> > basic game mechanics:
> >
> > 1) Items with 'spell resistance'- what does that mean exactly, and do such items
> > stack for extra resistance?
>
> Spell resistance is sort of "armor class" against spells. The attacking
> mage has to "beat" your spell resistance in much the same way a
> swordsman has to "beat" your armor class in order to have any affect on
> you. The opposing mage makes a d20 roll + level of mage + any
> adjustments and compares that to your SR. If your SR is greater than the
> roll, the spell has no effect. AFAIK, this is for *any* spell, including
> spells that do elemental damage.
>
> And, no, items with SR do not stack.
Ah, thanks for the info and explanation. So it's just a check-roll to counter spell
attacks, then. Hmm, I would think that even a spell resistance of 14 wouldn't amount
to much then, since any mage/wizard/spellcaster worth a dang would likely be able
to beat that most of the time, with d20+magelevel+bonii (please correct me if this
assumption is in error :). But even just an occasional SR-save is better than none, I
reckon. How high of a SR can you get on items? Is 14 the max? It's the highest I've
seen yet, but I am admittedly a RN (Rank n00b ;).
> > My mercenary comes stock with a buff listed in her stats for 'spell immunity'... does
> > this mean she does not need any 'spell resistance' items? Are they simply unnecessary
> > to put on Mercs?
>
> Err...I'm not sure what you mean. Perhaps your character is an elf?
> Elves have Immunity to Sleep, but this only works against the "Sleep"
> spell. In any case, I doubt you have anything equipped or inherent in
> your character that offers blanket spell immunity to all spells. Such a
> thing is possible, but only actually used by munchkins.
Wasn't referring to my character, but to my NPC/sidekick mercenary. It's Linu the
bumbling elf cleric, and now that you mention it, it is no doubt her elven immunity
to sleep that accounts for the 'spell immunity' listing in her stats. I'm still just learn-
ing what all these things mean, and some things listed in the character screens can
easily be misread or interpreted incorrectly by the ignorant (that's me!).
Linu is a darned good fighter when equipped nicely, and I'm not at all sorry I've
stayed with her on into Act2 (I'm done with everything except the road north to
Luskan). I'm rather disappointed in her 'healing' skills though, as I end up feeding
her far more potions than my character or our summons. She hardly ever heals
herself even when she's down to 'near death' after a combat, even though she still
has potions in her pack. Go figure. Major shortcoming in that she has a 'heal me'
command, but no 'heal yourself' command (which she REALLY needs). Pain in
the bum keeping her healthy.
And sometimes, even when she's perfectly healthy and I've repeatedly commanded her
to either attack nearest or guard me, she'll just stand there a short ways behind me and
our dire wolf (even when there is plenty of room to come up and join the fight) picking
her nose while we do all the fighting and dying.
This happens even when there are no enemy spellcasters involved in the fight, so I doubt
it's some unknown spell making her act that way. Doesn't happen often enough to force
me to drum her out, but often enough to be annoying. Probably just a bug in the game
engine, I imagine.
BTW, what does 'OC' stand for? I'm guessing 'Original Classic'?
-Marshall
Loren Pechtel
wrote:
>Ah, thanks for the info and explanation. So it's just a check-roll to counter spell
>attacks, then. Hmm, I would think that even a spell resistance of 14 wouldn't amount
>to much then, since any mage/wizard/spellcaster worth a dang would likely be able
>to beat that most of the time, with d20+magelevel+bonii (please correct me if this
>assumption is in error :). But even just an occasional SR-save is better than none, I
>reckon. How high of a SR can you get on items? Is 14 the max? It's the highest I've
>seen yet, but I am admittedly a RN (Rank n00b ;).
But it's d20 + *SPELL* level + bonii.
>BTW, what does 'OC' stand for? I'm guessing 'Original Classic'?
Original Campaign
Barry Scott Will
> But it's d20 + *SPELL* level + bonii.
Nope. It's *caster* level, not spell level, see the NWN manual under
Effect Descriptions in the Spells section (page 120 in the US original
manual). If you think about it, an SR of 32 (max item SR with HotU
installed) would be almost unbeatable even for a high-level mage with
Epic Spell Penetration.
Barry Scott Will
> Ah, thanks for the info and explanation. So it's just a check-roll to counter spell
> attacks, then. Hmm, I would think that even a spell resistance of 14 wouldn't amount
> to much then, since any mage/wizard/spellcaster worth a dang would likely be able
> to beat that most of the time, with d20+magelevel+bonii (please correct me if this
> assumption is in error :). But even just an occasional SR-save is better than none, I
> reckon. How high of a SR can you get on items? Is 14 the max? It's the highest I've
> seen yet, but I am admittedly a RN (Rank n00b ;).
As you said, 14 isn't much, but it's something. The highest available in
the NWN Original Campain is 16. With Hordes of the Underdark, you can
get items giving SR up to 32.
Barry Scott Will
> Loren Pechtel wrote:
>
>> But it's d20 + *SPELL* level + bonii.
>
>
>
> Nope. It's *caster* level, not spell level, see the NWN manual under
> Effect Descriptions in the Spells section (page 120 in the US original
> manual). If you think about it, an SR of 32 (max item SR with HotU
> installed) would be almost unbeatable even for a high-level mage with
> Epic Spell Penetration.
>
Err...addendum: if SR were based on spell level: 9 (max spell level) +
20 (max from d20) + 6 (ESP) = 35, a success rate of only 20% (4 out of 20).
Hans Wein
Almost every henchman is equipped with an innate property which gives
immunity against some spells like "Charm Person". These abilities are
indicated in the Character Sheet as "Spell Immunity" without further
specification.
Hans
Marshall
> Marshall wrote:
> > Ah, thanks for the info and explanation. So it's just a check-roll to counter spell
> > attacks, then. Hmm, I would think that even a spell resistance of 14 wouldn't amount
> > to much then, since any mage/wizard/spellcaster worth a dang would likely be able
> > to beat that most of the time, with d20+magelevel+bonii (please correct me if this
> > assumption is in error :). But even just an occasional SR-save is better than none, I
> > reckon. How high of a SR can you get on items? Is 14 the max? It's the highest I've
> > seen yet, but I am admittedly a RN (Rank n00b ;).
>
>
> As you said, 14 isn't much, but it's something. The highest available in
> the NWN Original Campain is 16. With Hordes of the Underdark, you can
> get items giving SR up to 32.
Thanks. So are items with >16 SR attainable in OC, or do I have to progress on into
HotU before such will be available? I've installed NWN Gold, with OC+HotU.
And are items >16 SR fairly common to find then, or extremely rare? Particularly
for a pure-solo offline player who doesn't trade with other players?
And lastly, I'm playing an Elven Rogue specializing in longbow- best I've found so
far (at a merchant) is a composite longbow +2. Nice little piece, but I was wondering
if longbows come in even more powerful versions, farther into the game? What is the
most powerful longbow available to buy by the latter stages of OC?
And what is the best top-end unique longbow that can be found in OC? Or are there any
unique longbows? (and is 'unique' the proper term? or are they 'special magicals', or some
such? I'm an old Diablo player :) So far, I haven't seen *any* kind of unique bow, in
shops or drops. Uniques of everything else, but no bows. At least one unique heavy
crossbow has been spotted, though. Just wondering what I should be watching for.
-Marshall
Marshall
"Hans Wein" <hwein_...@gmx.net> wrote in message news:c8ankm$tso$07$2...@news.t-online.com...
Got it, thanks.
-Marshall
Barry Scott Will
> Thanks. So are items with >16 SR attainable in OC, or do I have to progress on into
> HotU before such will be available? I've installed NWN Gold, with OC+HotU.
>
> And are items >16 SR fairly common to find then, or extremely rare? Particularly
> for a pure-solo offline player who doesn't trade with other players?
AFAIK, nothing with more than SR16 is available until you get to HotU.
The top item in the OC is the Ring of the Wood Elves and I don't recall
if there's a specific place you find it or maybe it's a random drop, so
you'll be lucky to find it. In HotU, there's a Cloak of Epic Spell
Resistance (SR32) that is one of the creature drops late in the game.
Edit: There's a rind with SR18 near the end of the OC, but only if you
kill a particular person.
> And what is the best top-end unique longbow that can be found in OC? Or are there any
> unique longbows?
You've got an Elven Court Bow (attack +3, mighty +3), Longarm (STR +2,
attack +2, extra bludgeoning damage), North Wind Bow (attack +3, mighty
+3, cold resistance 20/-), Ripper (attack +3, might +4, immunity to mind
affecting spells) and Taralash (attack +4, mighty +4, Spot +4, Haste) to
look for. You probably won't find them in a store and will have to hope
for a good random treasure drop. In HotU, you can try out a North Wind
Bow +8 (attack +8, mighty +8, cold resistance 20/-, unlimited Ice
Arrows) or a Forever Bow (attack +6, mighty +5, unlimited Fire Arrows,
only useable by Arcane Archers).
Alternatively, you can always learn the rudiments of the toolset and
create your own special bow for your character. These days, all my
characters wear custom armor and use custom weapons. It's the only way
to play. :)
Marshall
>
> Alternatively, you can always learn the rudiments of the toolset and
> create your own special bow for your character. These days, all my
> characters wear custom armor and use custom weapons. It's the only way
> to play. :)
Erm, at the risk of sounding like a Rank n00b(TM), isn't that kinda like
'cheating'? <grin>
-Marshall
Barry Scott Will
Only if the items I created were "munchkin" super-powered stuff. But
everything I create is appropriate for my character and equivalent to
what's available in-game. (Well, with the exception of a little thing I
call "The Adventuerer's Finger", which is meant to ease the burden of
dealing with all the locked/trapped stuff in Bioware's campaigns.)
Xocyll
the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs say:
Surely that depends on what the armor is.
Super leet +10 armor of protection vs everything might count as
cheating, but some of us just take existing items and change the look of
them (with addons such as lisa's clothing hacks) so your robes of X
don't look like all the rest.
Xocyll
--
I don't particularly want you to FOAD, myself. You'll be more of
a cautionary example if you'll FO And Get Chronically, Incurably,
Painfully, Progressively, Expensively, Debilitatingly Ill. So
FOAGCIPPEDI. -- Mike Andrews responding to an idiot in asr
Marshall
"Xocyll" <Xoc...@kingston.net> wrote in message news:3fvja0ton08c3pt1v...@4ax.com...
> "Marshall" <Mars...@nospam.com> looked up from reading the entrails of
> the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs say:
>
> >
> >"Barry Scott Will" <nwn**JUNK**@cavecreations.net> wrote in message
> >news:bf7qc.68848$z06.9078733@attbi_s01...
> >>
> >> Alternatively, you can always learn the rudiments of the toolset and
> >> create your own special bow for your character. These days, all my
> >> characters wear custom armor and use custom weapons. It's the only way
> >> to play. :)
> >
> >Erm, at the risk of sounding like a Rank n00b(TM), isn't that kinda like
> >'cheating'? <grin>
> > -Marshall
>
> Surely that depends on what the armor is.
>
> Super leet +10 armor of protection vs everything might count as
> cheating, but some of us just take existing items and change the look of
> them (with addons such as lisa's clothing hacks) so your robes of X
> don't look like all the rest.
True, and that is a cool capability to have, if used with restraint and within
the reasonable bounds of whatever quests you are playing in. The game
obviously has quite a few different capabilities in the customization department,
from what the Diablo series has. But I'm just interested in getting the raw
first-timer experience out of it, at least for now. If it holds my interest on
past the completion of my first character or two, then maybe I'll think about
customization.
-Marshall
Xocyll
It's really dependant on the characters you play, and the modules you
play.
Don't judge the game solely on the original supplied campaign.
I, for one, only ever took 1 character through the original NWN campaign
because it bored me to tears.
On the other hand i've run several through both the Shadows of
Undrentide and Hordes of the Underdark expansions, as well as numerous
characters through user made modules.
Plus there's other tools to edit a character if you want something that
is slightly non standard, like the Half-Elfling Monk I played (Half-elf,
but elf/halfling instead of elf/human). I made the character as a
Half-elf and used the Leto editor to change the character's appearance
to be halfling (which changes the size and damage).
For that character I used lisa clothing hack to make a special set of
robes for her.
Result; Cute little redheaded monk in a black minidress (sort of
anime-ish) kicking monster butt.
Ther robes were just robes of the dark moon with altered graphics, but
they added so much to the whole look.
Maxon
"Loren Pechtel" <lorenp...@removethis.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:b9dga0ht4iea94c8u...@4ax.com...
Kharsis
Kharsis
Maxon
in,
"If you buy a Holy Avenger TODAY, you get THESE bonii for free ..."
I don't know, perhaps I just like made up words.
Best
Maxon
"Kharsis" <kha...@ihug.co.nz> wrote in message
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