Neverwinter Nights Forum News

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(Originally posted by Veldrin)

Here are today's Neverwinter Nights forum highlights. Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context. Bear in mind also that the posts presented here are copied as-is, and that any bad spelling and grammar does not get corrected on our end.

Georg Zoeller, Designer

Epic Spell Selection: Epic Spells are selected like you would select any other epic feat. You need to meet the prerequisite for those spells, which are usually a certain rank in spellcraft (Items and skill foci do not count). Only certain classes can select epic spells: Wizards, Sorcerers, Pale masters, Clerics and Druids. Epic spells are not divided into Arcane and Divine magic, but Wizards, Sorcerors, and Pale Masters have a slightly larger list to choose from. Epic spells are not subject to casting failure and they cut right through spell resistance.

HotU: Caps
We have to stay true to the book when it comes to capped spells. However there is a good number of spells that do not have any artificial cap on their damage (i.e. flame arrow). I expect these spells to become more popular.

Feats
There are some interesting feats for spellcaster's to make sure their spells are something to be feared.

Spell Saves
Usually your primary casting ability modifier is taken into account for saving throws. Since you have access to the Great Ability Score feats, you can influence your saving throws

Epic spells
Epic spells ignore spell resistance, can not be interrupted and have "epic" saving throw requirements (where applicable)

Plus
The fears you are voicing in your post are clearly aimed at Player vs Player situations. The majority of modules and worlds that offer PvP have their own set of rules and their own "balancing" by their creator's anyway.

As for our campaign, you can be sure that you will have a good and challenging time as a caster ... as with all the other classes.

Features: There is so much time and there are so many features to pick from. The featurelist for Hordes has been finalized for quite a while and the abovementioned functions are not on this list. That's all information you can get from me on that topic, because there is no more. We got about 140 new script scripting commands with Hordes, so I think that scripter's get quite a lot of bang for their buck in this expansion pack. It's always hard to accept that your favourite feature is not on the list of features that made it in, but that's the way it goes. Given infinite time and budget, we could implement them all, but this is the real world, and there are milestones, budgets and deadlines. Will these features ever be in NWN? I won't rule it out completly but given the already huge list of things that the live-team could do after the release, I think the chances are lower than low. Same goes for subraces. Please take this answer as universal explaination for any No or Won't happen you read from me on these boards. If you need more information on this topic, I recommend a search for 'dead kitten'. (don't ask). As a side note, the customize character feature in Hordes allows you to change the appearance/portrait of an existing character before joining a game.

David Gaider, Designer

GetAppearance: Actually, as I understand it there is simply no information retained anywhere in the engine based on what body part types have been selected for the PC. This is according to one of the programmers on the expansion. Be it an oversight or whatever, there was never any need for that information before and so the information is simply not there to get... which is why we have SetAppearanceType and not just SetAppearance. So that's why you won't get a GetAppearance for body parts anytime soon. There is no information there to get to identify that part. I have no doubt that they could add that info in if they really wanted to... but it is not a situation of using data that already exists, and so would be a major endeavour to say the least.