This is now an old game but I need to move on to it, maybe to complete the circle and go back to BG2 in the Aurora engine. Over the summer of 2014, the NWN Vault, the community repository for Neverwinter Nights has just shut, and closed, the seemingly best alternative for user authored content is the new Neverwinter Vault, and this is supplemented by NWN2 at wikia.com. This page talks about character builds.

This page relied heavily on the bioware site. In Sept 2022, I moved a number of build model references to the comments.

5E

I made some comments on 5e character builds at the Dungeons and Dragons article on this wiki.

About Character Builds

http://nwn2db.com/ is one of the community resources for character building.

On the bioware forums, was a bible on building a character, How to build a decent character in NWN2, written by Thorsson64., it was rescued and is now on this thread.

Outside the bioware community domain there is a character build repository, called the NWN2 Character builder. I came across this awhile ago, and mentioned it in my post “NWN class builds” which points at an alternative repository  which itself was a mirror of the original bioware epic build thread. I should look through this, using keyword finds.

In 2022, I found a revised version the database together with its search form.

Druid/Barbarian

I am thinking about either a Druid/Barbarian which ought to be fun and should reinforce each other well, or maybe some sort of super-Bard. Thorsson reckons the Bard & Druid are about 4th in terms of effectiveness while he has the Barbarian and Paladin as least effective (9th rank). Common opinion is that the Druid & Barbarian do not complement each other enough. Interesting in that last time I read the PnP rules, I felt the Paladin was the best fighter in 1st Edition although they eviscerated it in Unearthed Arcana, and that the Barbarian was pretty much No. 1 in the UA rules in which it was first published.  Bottom line is I like the Barbarian and Paladin classes.

My NWN experience as a pure play druid is pretty “meh!”. Am I doing it wrong? I have written up my thoughts at “NWN Playing a Druid”, he is now Druid/Barb/Shifter (9/1/1), the shifter is a wyrmling (really?) and at every level choice I am always inclined to increase the Druid for better spells.

I suppose I am inspired by the werebear stories, but making an effective one is hard as the wildshape forms do not scale and as mentioned above, more and better spells always seem a better choice. but was particularly interested in this, the Viking Berserker (Bear Warrior) – Barbarian (23), Druid (12), Harper Scout (5), gotta love Bears, mind you it’s straight Barbarian to 20. Fortunately I have mirrored the page here….

On complementary classes.

One important factor is that they use the same prime attribute, or they compensate for class weaknesses either by innate definition such as a Monk/Wizard and armour or by allowing access to especially desirable non-class feats by taking a couple of levels of fighter to get say exotic weapons, or one level of shadowdancer to get enhanced hide in shadows.

Keadrin’s Class Pack

A community extension pack, a bunch of extra, mainly prestige classes; see Keadrin’s Wiki here.

Dave Games, NWN , , , ,

3 Replies

  1. I decided to revise the page as so many links have been lost. I originally said, “So advice is don’t combine the Barbarian and the Druid. The big problem is that Druid’s need WIS to act as a caster, and Barbarians need CON. However, I found these builds at the nwndb, some of which look fun.”

    • Feral Guardian, uses the Nature’s Warrior prestige class to enhance the wildshape form’s capability, & 1 level of Barbarian, could be fun, but read the ‘Cons’, still hard to play.
    • There are two versions of a build called a Holy Forest Druid, and this is one of them, based on Druid, Hospitaler & Forest Master. (10/10/10) The Forest Master doesn’t get the elemental polymorphs, so the build might be a bit light on the druid levels. These are three divine spell casting classes and so reinforcement should be very high.
    • This is called Raging Druid, it’s only 20 levels, and is Druid/Barb (12/8) only. It is heavily criticised in the comments, the view being that you shouldn’t take the Druid unless you max it out. One of the comments suggest using Stormlord or Sacred Fist for melee prowess.
    • One called “Raging Elephant”, only 10 levels, including the Frenzied Berserker and a Dinosaur companion. Druid/Fighter/Frenzied Berserker/Barbarian 5/2/2/1.
    • Raging Bull by Thorsson64 is a pure class Barbarian, documented to level 30.
    • Here is the Wild Rager 2, Druid/Fighter/Barb (18/8/4), looks pretty buff to me. If I do it, perhaps this is it!

    I also checked out the old forum mirror and found these,

    • Rage Takes a Form Barb/Druid/Shifter (17/6/17)
    • Another Raging Bull – Druid (11), Shifter (13), Barbarian (16), based on Duergar
    • And this, Viking Berserker (Bear Warrior) – Barbarian (23), Druid (12), Harper Scout (5), gotta love Bears, mind you it’s straight Barbarian to 20. Fortunately I have mirrored the page here….
    Reply

  2. And now the Bards,

    and then from Epic Guilds

    • The Skilful Minstrel (no Dev Crit): – Bard 24 / Fighter 6 / Red Dragon Disciple 10
    • Empyre’s “Pure” Shadowdancer II: Monk 10 / Shadowdancer 30
    • Mage Bane: Monk 38 / Bard 1 / Shadowdancer 1, a PvP, basically a pure play monk with 1 level each of Bard and Shadow Dancer, spell resistance is pretty much maximised
    • The Cursed Minstrel (Bard 21, Shifter 10, Druid 9), found while clearing out the house. I didn’t know a Shifter had an undead option, and not sure if I did this it’d be so cursed but a fun combination

    And finally, this class, called …. is Bard (14), Ranger (8), Elemental Archer (5) and Shadow Dancer (3),oddly Human and WIS 8, starts with Ranger

    Reply

  3. Some Monk based builds,

    • Fire breathing Friar/Fryer Monk (19) , RDD (10), Sorc (1). There seems to be some weaknesses in this build and misses out on the Monk’s 20th level boosts. I also think it’s slow to get the higher level Monk abilities.
    • Nirvana Monk (20), Sacred Fist(8), Cleric(1), Shadow Dancer(1) the Sacred Fist route is popular with the Monk and so mandates the Cleric level, Shadow Dancer for HIPS; this build is human but starts with a Charisma of 8 and thus a CHA modifier of -1. (A bit mini/max for me.) It does have 20th level of Monk.
    • Slightly Sacred Fist Monk (16), Fighter (12), Cleric (1), Sacred Fist (1) What it says on the box, uses Fighter levels after to 20 to get Fighter feats to augment unarmed combat.
    Reply

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W8 Virtual Memory
VIKING BERSERKER (Bear Warrior)