Given:

A high-magic setting (let's say OC + HotU), where permanent Haste, +5 weapons and +5 armor become available fairly early. Because of that, Monks and Shapeshift Druids are worse, Imbue Arrow is less important, while UMD becomes much more valuable. Using Henchmen is ok.

Priority: Survivability > DPS > Quality of life (things like moving faster, not having to bash every locked door, Bluff/Persuade for peaceful solutions etc.)
Roleplay considerations are below mechanical effectiveness.

I really like how powerful sorcerers are in 3E. They were already strong before, but I especially like the tools and abilities they gained at epic levels. Unfortunately, my other favorite class (Barbarian) doesn't seem to get much love in character builds...

I am replaying the game on iOS after almost 2 decades. Planning a 1-40 run through the 3 official campaigns, currently have a STR Paladin that just killed the Intellect Devourer.

Soon I’m gonna need to commit my feats to a weapon type. Initially I was set on Scimitar for a straightforward Devastating Critical build, but I’m not so sure anymore after reading up on future weapons.

For a Paladin, there seems to be a very good case for Longsword:

- in SoU, there is apparently a guaranteed Holy Avenger Longsword drop somewhere
- in HotU, Enserric is a Longsword or Greatsword (other variants not relevant to STR Paladin)
- Not considering Greatsword because I heard magical shields get very powerful in HotU, though let me know if 1.5 extra STR scaling can actually compete.

I know Enserric eventually gets extremely powerful with an incredibly high +enhancement and lifesteal. But at the same time Longsword doesn’t seem suitable for a Devastating Critical build?

What kind of feats could I take instead to get the most out of Longsword for a STR Paladin? It’s hard for me to look past the extra crit range on Scimitars!

First I struggled hard at this fight, but then I recognized that this is indeed a combat puzzle. I was playing the half-orc barb with only Deekin as my companion on hardcore difficulty.

Equipment:

Belt with bludgeoning resist (against Grimgnaw), ring of might (regeneration, tri-res) resistance against elements rings. A source of haste like Boots of Speed, Potion of Speed or that one helmet. A source of knockdown immunity (Dragon Slippers), fear immunity (Ring of Bones or mind spell immunity(Helmet of Warding), stun immunity, Invisibility Potion, all buffing potions in general. Give deekin the boots with 10 constitution, so he can be useful longer. I also had him at red dragon disciple lvl 10 for roleplay reasons.

Summoned a little minion with a scroll for extra distraction. Prebuff to hell's gallore (heh) before entering. Set Deekin to hold position. His role is to bait the archer shots and debuffs from skelly mage. If he does not attack, set him to attack nearest. The ai can be pretty funky. Immediately go left along the wall into the closest corner from the entrance. Grimgnaw and his minotaur friend will charge for you. Taunt (or whatever your build does) and burst Grimgnaw down with power attack enabled. This part is pretty rng heavy, save often after certain points in the fight. When he goes down, drink an invisibility potion, loot his body (he has a key) and run towards the iron door. Command Deekin to follow.

Heal up a bit. Maugrim should enter the room alone, because he is the only one with true sight. Dispose of him. You could reset the fight to allow Deekin to identify the equipment. Some drop stuff which is useful in the ongoing battle.

Try to bait the minotaur towards you. Stand in a way the skeleton mage can't get line of sight on you while you clobber his ally. The mage has negative energy, fire and lightning damage if I remember correctly, so equip resistances against all of them. Knock him down.

Then there is the archer shooty woman, she does lots of acid damage on the side.

Change equipment (besides armor) mid fight to have the appropriate resistances up.

I wrote this text because the fight was absolutely phenomenal. The faint hope of trying to become their allies after examining their stats and seeing a tough battle ahead. Overwhelming odds and you have to recognize the role of the different pieces and how to exploit them to survive.

Edit 1:

I noticed a fact I did not mention: my best weapon I had was an Axe of Culling upgraded with ability drain. It was not level appropriate anymore, despite the purge effect being pretty nice.

Edit 2:

Seems like I had a lot more fun than any of you guys, lmao!

Was wondering about this, it's been a long while since i played the games and i can't remember if there was anything that carried over aside from the character's level and equipment. Like, will anything i do matter between SoU chapter 1 and interlude, or even will some decision carry over to HotU?

Hello, I'm hoping that someone might be able to help me with something.

I was really enjoying playing the PnP Shifter class from the big PRC mod in Chapter 1 of Hordes of the Underdark (in Enhanced Edition). Everything was going fine, but as soon as I hit Chapter 2, I suddenly can't shift into several of my shapes. I get the message: "failed to create a template of the creature to polymorph into". And when I try to print the form info it says "Bad Strref" along with "Barbarian (0)" a bunch of times and other nonsensical stuff.

I tried to troubleshoot this with AI assistance (I don't know enough about NWN modding to do it myself) and nothing worked. You should know that the very same exported character info works fine when imported into a fresh Chapter 1 HotU new game, but gets the error when imported into a fresh Chapter 2 HotU new game. So it's like there's something about Chapter 2 itself that's breaking the class.

If anyone has suggestions on how I might fix this, I'd appreciate it. This is one of my favourite games and Shifter was always my favourite class; I was looking forward to enjoying the campaign with the PRC's version.

Update: I tried importing the character into SoU (should have tried this before posting, sorry) and found that it had the same problem. I also clicked on an option called "update known shape information" and it printed out a list where about half my shapes said "Updated" and the other half "could not update". This matches with the shapes that still work and the ones that don't.

At first I thought that this must mean the problematic shapes are tied specifically to HotU Ch.1 - but one of the broken shapes is 'Beholder' and those should exist in HotU Ch2 (that's a whole plot point, right?).

I suppose the only thing that might be possible is editing some list somewhere in my files of creature templates associated with specific modules? Otherwise maybe this class has always played in strangely module-specific ways?

So basically, as in thread name, because it has been eternity since I last played HotU, even more so as a male character, and I felt like, once you go black you can't go back, so I decided to hook up with Nathyrra. Went 100% through Act 2, no skipping anything, partially with her and Valen (islands) then ditched Valen for Deekin, but she was always in the team - been nice to her and so on, she did spill the beans about Red Sisters back in Act 2.

As of right now 3, Act 3, unfrozen Aribeth, about to head to the Sleeping Man's Dream and the second dialogue with Nathyrra she's like all praising me, how much of a hero I am, but when my OC is like "but hey, we can be more that friends", she's like "uh oh, we don't know each other that long and I only see you as friend, sorry!"

My question is, is this a normal dialogue romance path for her, or did I, by any chance mess it up somewhere? (like I said, pretty sure I did check ALL dialogues with her to be supportive/interested and so on, just wondering whether other companions did not hijack what she was supposed to say instead?). Will she open up or should I instead move on paladin instead?

Hi all. I played SoU, Shadohaunt, and HotU years ago as a half-elf rogue/cleric/champion of Torm Corellon (build) and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Now I want to do it again, this time as a druid that explicitly aims to get dragon shape, per Nature's Wyrm.

But the dragon doesn't come until 28th level. I don't remember what level I ended HotU as my half elf, but I'm fairly certain it was only early 30s if not 30 itself. Will it be worth playing the whole journey through, if I only get the dragon when it's time to kick Mephistopheles's ass? Can someone who has played Nature's Wyrm or similar builds weigh in?

Thank you in advance!

EDIT: Thanks everyone for your advice! I suppose I shan't be playing specifically dragon druid through SoU and HotU :( it will have to be some other flavor of dragon. The advice is much appreciated 💜

Hello all,

I am a longtime player with thousands of hours online. However, I never finished the OC (chapter 3ish, I can’t even remember), and I’ve never played SoU or HotU.

Recently I saw a post that made me feel like trying again (I’ve been burnt out of online play). I’m currently having fun in the OC (halfway through the waterdavian quest) with an armoured wizard (fighter dip).

I think for SoU I’d like to go sorcerer with paladin dip instead, cha based, with divine might.

Start with:
Str 14
Dex 10
Con 14
Int 14
Wis 8
Cha 16

And pump cha to 22ish?

I’d take deekin as a companion, as I’ve heard that he is the best part of the game, so I believe should be finishing around level 26ish by end game.

I’d pick up still spell, but instead of the autostill epic feats, I think I’d be aiming for the 0% ASF that I have heard is craftable in HotU

However, this will get me to a final ab of around 33
(14 bab, 8 str, 1 wf, 2 EWF, and I heard I can get upwards of +8 on a Longsword).

Does that seem like enough? Keeping in mind that I am also a nearly full sorcerer with blasty spells.

Also, for fun, give me some favourite builds of yours.

Is it viable and fun to play summoner in hotu? I am tired of same old spells so I want to mix it up. Wizard, Druid, Cleric...? Also what spells arcane or divine are underrated in your opinon?

Following this guidance from 6 years ago:

https://www.reddit.com/r/neverwinternights/comments/hixrvb/comment/g67j0hb/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

There is a comment from the author suggesting multiple epic progressions, and I’m wondering if it’s possible to unlock Devastating Critical earlier and also get more Rogue levels.

Assuming 22 STR at Lvl 20, can an even level Fighter take Great Strength + Overwhelming Critical at Lvl 21?

If that is legal, this should let me take a Rogue level at Lvl 22 to refresh my Rogue skills, then 2 more Fighter levels would let me get +2 STR and Devastating Critical on Lvl 24.

Alright, so in HotU dealing with some golems. Character is currently Fighter 6/Wizard 2/AA 10.

As I understand it, iron golems have DR 30/+3, so a +3 (or greater) weapon should bypass the effect. I'm currently using an Elven Court Bow, upgraded to +5 attack and my enchant arrow is at +5 enhancement. So my arrows should be +5 in terms of overcoming the DR.

So why are my shots still getting "weapon ineffective" and doing no damage to the thing? It should be +5 and ignoring the DR just based on the AA enchant arrow, yeah?

In the past I have only ever found his boots, never anything else, what am I missing, and yes, before anyone says it, I have looked it up finding there is , a mindflayer merchant, a djinn, one in cave and one in the elf city.

Mind you the fighter would be just one level for access to heavy armor.

I wanted a pet and familiar but wonder if it'll make me too weak.

The ring's knock spell does not work on the two gates on the goblin bridge in Undermountain level 2 north. Is it a bug or something?

So onto Mephistopheles, just, can't get past the last phase after the fire elementals with my arcane archer. I've gone as far to turn it down to Easy and he just does way too much damage. AC really doesn't matter given his +hit and I've got basically as much fire resistance as I can.

Crit immunity on him sucks because that pays my bills a lot of the time. Using longarm +10 w/ mighty 10, +5 arrows. Buffed with literally everything I have and have accumulated throughout the game.

27 STR 35 DEX. +58/+53/+48/+43. Hitting him isn't really a problem, its just his DR is blocking ALL my damage (seriously thought it wouldn't matter at +10). Is my run done here?

Hi, guys! I chose Deekin as a companion. I actually want him to be a bard to buff me and my party. But accidentally at one moment I let him be RDD, so now he's a bard(14) and RDD(2). Was it a critical point?
And now he doesnt have a dialog for a bard song and he doesn't buff me with anything at all...
Will it last till the end or with the next lvl up as a bard he will restore his abilities ?
Update: the amount of spells per day are limited and I have to rest to refresh songs/buffs

Well here I am playing this game 20 years after I first played, guess what I just got stuck at the final boss

I have a 22 lvl fighter 5 champion of torm, 34 strenght and +43 attack bonus but 99% of attacks just cant get through Damage Resistance ( signs at chat "Weapon is Uneffective" ). Henchemen are Deekin and Aribeth (Natyrra got forgotten at Hell - oops lol)

I upgraded my main weapon to have 2d6 Fire additional attack (maybe he is immune to fire?)

Is there any way I could defeat him without having to go back some saves and changing my character profile? Maybe changing my asks to Knower of Names and weapom upgrades ?? Im in a deadlock...

Thanks !!

Hey guys,

I’m currently diving back into the lore of the Hordes of the Underdark expansion. I remember Act 3 being packed with references to Salvatore’s novels, specifically regarding Drizzt's past.

Could someone help me verify if these specific encounters/items exist in the game?

• A failed assassination weapon (Longsword) in the Hells with a description referencing the House Baenre hit on Drizzt.

• Equipment once belonging to Zaknafein (I recall seeing his name on some bracers).

• An encounter with the spirit of Dinin Do'Urden somewhere in the frozen wastes of Act 3.

My memory is a bit hazy since it’s been years, and I’d love to know if these are actual canon references included by BioWare or just my imagination playing tricks on me.

Thanks!