Rob Bartel of Bioware on NWN issues about Climbing, Swiming and Flying

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(Originally posted by Sylvus Moonbow)

1) Levitate - No, at present, the Levitate spell is not on the Neverwinter spell list. However, according to the 3rd Edition rules, Levitate does not allow for lateral movement. In other words, you would not be able to use it to cross a canyon as you suggest.

2) Swimming - Swimming will also have to wait for a future expansion or sequel. The additional animation required to allow all creatures (including monsters) to swim was simply too much to accommodate within a realistic time frame.

3) The Look of your Character - Here's where the good news starts. There will be literally billions of possible armor and clothing looks in Neverwinter and that's not including the wide range of color variations that will also be available. All of these unique looks will be apparent, both in your inventory and within the actual gameworld. Also, unlike Baldur's Gate, your class no longer determines the look of your character - you do. This allows for a much freer roleplay environment, where you dictate the nature of your character, not us.

4) Ring Mail Armor - Yup, we've definitely got some. In fact, we've got plenty. The textures the artists are working on look great and the reflective environment mapping is as sweet as ever. We'll be creating plenty of magical versions and you're more than welcome to create a few of your own as well... Elven chain anyone?

5) Climb Walls - The issue is more complicated than simply pathfinding. As with swimming, animation was an important factor in our decision. This includes animations not only for climbing but also for falling, for combat while climbing, for window entry and exit, etc. Also, players need visual feedback to determine which surfaces are climbable and which aren't and the module designer needs
to have specific control over that within the toolset. In short, it was a big task and one that we ultimately decided we needed to back away from, at least for the initial release.

6) High-Level Druids - We've made a few interface tweaks, such as splitting off their high-level Wild Shape abilities (where they can finally polymorph into powerful elementals) into a separate ability called Elemental Shape. The effect is the same but things fit around the radial menu a little more easily. The Timeless Body ability they gain at 15th level doesn't really hold any bearing on Neverwinter, so that's been removed but we've made up for it with some minor enhancements to Wild Shape as a whole. If anything, Neverwinter druids are currently slightly more powerful than their pen-and-paper counterparts. There will be further tweaking and balancing during the testing phase but we're committed to keeping the classes as true to 3rd Edition as feasible."