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

Shifter: You are wrong. A level 40 character is by default more powerful than a level 30 character. The level 40 druid will have 3 or 4 more feats (or whatever number) he could have invested into epic spells, Epic Metamagic Feats or any other epic enhancement feats or higher ability scores or saves, 100-200 more hitpoints, a better attacks, better saves, more powerful animal companions... I see a real power advantage there. Level 30 Druid shifter = 10 Druid / 20 Shifter.

Advantages over any other build: Construct Shape, Outsider Shape, Undead Shape, maybe dragon shape, but you need to put feats into "Great Wisdom" to qualify for that at 30.

Disadvantage: Only druid spells up to level 10

The remaining 10 levels you could dump into druid to get the remaining spells, which would probably make sense, or you could put 10 more levels into shifter, you would get no new forms for that (if you already have dragon shape), but your shapeshifted abilities (like the dragon breath) would still gain power and you could pick feats from the shifter's list of epic bonus feats.... Its your choise. Sure, from a powergameing point of view, there will be an "optimal build", but that's ok, DnD isn't really balanced in higher level's anyway...(And please do not take any number listed above for final or given, they are used just as examples)

No spellcasting in shapeshifted form, only use of creature special abilities like breath weapons, mind blast, petrification gaze, etc.

Don't get too excited as it's still being tested, but I think SetCreatureAppearanceType has been successfully altered so that when used on a PC and used to change to the PC's base race model, it automatically resumes the body part choices that PC had. If this turns out to do everything it's supposed to, I believe the shifter's humanoid forms may be updated to keep equipment and spellcasting abilities if there is enough time (as changing the appearance does only that, unlike polymorph). The other forms generally have been balanced to make up for the lack already, and there likely won't be time to re-create every form over again... but as you asked for, if SetCreatureAppearanceType does work, you will be able to Hak away to your heart's content. This also opens up SetCreatureAppearanceType to be much more useful in general. Again, however, it's not a guarantee at this point... we're just trying to make you folks happy, and we'll see if we can make it work so even if we can't re-work everything about the shifter you might have the ability to do it yourself.

Epic Levels: Don't get me wrong, I think Epic Levels are a great addition to NWN, contribute to its longevity, open many new possibilites for epic adventure and character development and sell the game. After all, a great majority of our fanbase wanted that feature. You should not, however, expect a complete balance of power between classes. This is not given in non epic levels, and for some classes the gap between the "optimal build" (how I hate that phrase) and the other possible ways to build your character widens - but this is part of the rules and we can not do much about it. For most singleplayer modules, Online Campaigns and the Official Campaign, you won't have any trouble, but I for PvP settings I can see some potential imbalances. (Nothing a server operator/builder could not change to his vision however, that's the beauty of NWN). Its always a question of your campaign's setting as well. When playing on a low or medium magic world, the shifter will certainly be a very powerful and competetive class, because his flexibilty in combat is unrivaled among all classes in NWN/Hordes - In a high magic setting he might have a slight disadvantage against other classes(but nothing you could not fix with a well placed petrification gaze or mind blast I guess). And roleplayers will find the shifter a very interesting class that can offer them a wide range of actions and possiblities.. I am pretty sure we will see some more druid/shifter centric community made mods a while after Hordes is out.

Patch 1.32: 1.32 contains security and stability fixes only, no new scripting functionality has been introduced. If you used the Updater, you most likely saw the message about the new scripting commands introduced in 1.31. You can find out more about them in the 1.31 readme file in your NWN directory as well as in the toolset's function information window.

Quote: Let's pretend I don't know what this "SetCreatureAppeareanceType" thing is. could you explain it and, more importantly...tell me if it can be used in-game to make the player character look like, oh say...an illithid?!?!?

Using the SetCreatureAppeareanceType command you can change the appearance of any creature in the game, including Player Characters, to look like any predefined appearance you want the too look like without modifying the creatures stats, attacks, equipment, items and whatever. It does not allow to change individual body parts on a creature. There is a more detailed explaination about this command and some sample scripts coming up from the Web Team - its definitly one of the most requested scripting commands by the community.

David Gaider, Designer

Quote: If your saying that some of the things are too complex to be added due to the lack of time does that mean that some of the changes may still take place via the Live Team's updates?

Unlikely. A lot of time has already been spent by Georg balancing the various forms so they are useful and powerful enough in their own right... there just isn't enough time to go back and start changing parts of it now, especially since the SetCreatureAppearanceType change isn't guaranteed. (The problem being that SetCreatureAppearanceType does not work like an effect as EffectPolymorph does, and it would require a lot of funky scripting and testing to make it emulate an effect.) But the Shifter class will still be good, based on the work Georg has already done, if not the implementation that some would like. As he's mentioned, and especially if SetCreatureAppearanceType successfully works on PC's, this will allow those who want to change the Shifter class to their own specifications to do so.