SOU what's the verdict?

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Speaking of NPCs and overall satisfaction with the game, I must say that I was a bit disappointed (OK, quite disappointed) that Mischa is not a joinable NPC.

While I thought Deekin was an absolute riot - his Doom Song cracked me up - none of the henchmen available are melee types. Having a paladin as a henchman would help out anyone wanting to play, say, a sorceror or wizard.

I know you can have both Dorna focus on cleric and Xanos focus on barbarian, but Dorna is too weak to be effective in combat (especially without her sneak attack), and Xanos, well, Xanos is just far too annoying to keep around for long.

 

> While I thought Deekin was an absolute riot - his Doom Song cracked me up - none of the henchmen available are melee types. Having a paladin as a henchman would help out anyone wanting to play, say, a sorceror or wizard.

Just on the face of what is still included, I strongly suspect that Mischa was originally going to be an available henchman in the basic design, but quite early on had to be eliminated to keep the expansion segments from being too easy.

There is one weak spot introduced into the game engine by the expansion that is just too silly not to have been caught before now. The henchman AI has been changed in some way that creates a ridiculous inability in that code to stick to any decision.

Compared to Linu, Dorna seems struck by stupidity. She will run back and forth between two different enemies who are long distances from each other, and never take time to swat either one a solid blow. That is just plain idiotic.

 

She must just be trying out her cool new tumbling ability to avoid all those attacks of opportunity that she generates with all that running around.

She also has trouble switching between melee and ranged combat still. Although I must admit, at least now she'll switch from ranged to melee when the enemy is close.

 

Tumbling rocks, period. I have a lvl-4 rogue, lvl-5 fighter with high dex, high tumble and dodge, mobility and spring attack. She can run through a *horde* of enemies swiftly without getting scratched.
A cool feat for ... paladins is zen archery - with a crappy dex it's nice to use the high wis modifier for archery.
All in all I tink the game's overall pretty improved.

Only real drawback IMO is that you level up slow in SoU - it's unlikely that you'll be able to play out the new prestige classes to the full - it takes a while to get there and it takes a while to develop them. Even though it takes away a part of the difficulty I'm glad I used a lvl-4 char from the start of SoU.

 

Maybe someone should do a mod that allows you to start with characters of whatever level you want and increases the difficulty of the enemies accordingly. That way you'd be able to use all the high level abilities in the game without making it too easy.

 

Dull... And even worse in the aspect of hencmen than the original... The story is better though... Boring Prestige Classes, and now I wish I didn't buy it... Bought it monday, and I've already gotten tired of it...

 

I have a suspicion that Hordes of the Underdark will allow you to import characters from SoU (or start you around level 13, like BG2) and advance through level 20 and into the epic levels.

 

Well I finally went and got the game (not quite sure why I bothered since I wasn't a big fan of the first one) and after just a day of playing I'm getting pretty bored already.

It seems to have slightly more depth than the first game but the gameplay is still slow going and tedious, you're still stuck with a single player and the big talking point about the game - the prestige classes - aren't even available right at the start.

Does it get any better than this or shall I just give it up as a bad job and keep on praying for BG3?

 

Quite good... Better than the original anyhoo... A little bit hard in the beginning IMO...

 

A bit too short really. I thought the prestige classes were only really useful for rogue type characters - fighters and wizards suffer in terms of prestige classes. I played through as a fighter but I imagine the game would be very difficult as a mage as there is no obvious fighter henchman and also no good prestige classes for them.

Also a lot of the challenges required having the right equipment - I suppose a rogue could probably dodge most situations and a wizard protect themselves magically but as a fighter there were places where certain equipment was necessary.

The new feats and skills were nice though and there should be enough new material to allow mod makers to come up with some more varied mods.

Overall not really anything exciting and a bit short but still good fun

 

I haven't tried it as a mage till now, but you can tell Xan that he should only be a barbarian.
I liked the expansion much better than the orginal game, although, like many others said, it's much too short. My Paladin/Fighter only got lvl. 13. The game is a little harder than the orgial campagne, but that's only good.
Overall I really like it, but I will test the prestige classes in the orginal campagne.

 

Really short and I couldn't found any good Shadowdancer stuff,but there are a billion of Blackguard items, greatswords, shields,hue armors, elven court bows...

 

I've noticed that the rogues are the most left out classes in the game! Very few quality items for them!

 

The story lacks depth as that the original nwn has (which I think was a very good storylie), although the world around is more alive due to henchmen comments and more freedom in moving around.

a big plus is the xp change, which was severely needed in NWN. Seems like they fixed somewhat more to the tables of the books.

game mechanics have gotten a boost, thank god

overall I think it's a worthy expansion followup, although as stated, it's short.

 

I play a lvl-4 fighter/ lvl-9 rogue/ to-become-a-shadowdancer-soon and I'm amazed that I get along solo that well. The shadowdancer indeed is powerful and as soon as I get it I'll get myself blind fighing and improved critical.

I originally made my shadowdancer use a katana but now I consider exotic weapon to be a luxury for fighters only. Now she's using a longsword, freeing one feat for quicker gaining access to the shadowdancer levels.

One hint, do not invest a feat in spring attack when you have a high tumble - spring attacks makes tumble obsolete!

 

From what I have seen so Far(I am now in the interlude) it is worth it.

 

I finished SoU last night, and I'm starting to think that anything I buy from Bioware from now on is going to be Diablonated.

What happened to the team that made Baldur's Gate?

Personally I think this game is equally as bad as the original campaign, only its half as long, so you don't get quite so bored of it by the end.

I did enjoy the final chapter more than the rest, but the focus on "level bosses" really reminds me constantly that its a computer game.

The whole, "run around the level to find the bosses weakness" routine *really* does me wrong.

I can't wait to see what player-made content comes out of it though, there's a few really good builders out there.

 

I'm somewhere in the middle of this game and have enjoyed it thus far. Not a d&d purist in any respect, my expectations were only moderate -- to spend some hours in a new world, go on some interesting quests and, in general, have some fun with a familiar diversion. The game has fulfilled all of that and more.

(Also, the shortness of it makes it easy to go back and play it with different classes, so I can see the differences.)