Please help me understand something about Neverwinter Nights

[tuluse]

Devil's advocate: What if combat difficulty and combat power isn't how the game is meant to show you your progress? What if it has other progression elements instead?

Then why even have levels in the first place?

 

[Infinitron]

Devil's advocate: What if combat difficulty and combat power isn't how the game is meant to show you your progress? What if it has other progression elements instead?

Then why even have levels in the first place?

Well, you need some way to gain more attacks, special abilities/feats, spells, etc.

The combat difficulty can be fixed or manipulated via level scaling, but that doesn't mean it can't become more complex as you progress.

 

[aris]

Why do RPG developers feel the need to level scale shit!?

Why? Why do they fucking do it WHY WHY YOU FUCK NUTS WHY GIVE ME LEVELS IF YOU"RE GOING TO JUST ADJUST SHIT SO I FEEL LIKE I MADE NO PROGRESS

WHY GOD FUCKING CUNTS

The motivation behind level scaling isn't difficult to guess at all: Simply, in an open world such as Skyrim, it is done to not restrict you to any certain path, within a normal difficulty of the game. If you play an open game without level scaling, then you invariably have to follow the paths that the game designers made to have a normal difficulty, that is: with monsters about the same level as you. You can make different routes and varying your difficulty by encountering monsters that are both very difficult (higher level) and easy (lower level), but you invariably are going to lock yourself out from some area at any given point because it easy either too grindy (monsters are much higher level), or too boring (monster are at a much lower level). Now I happen to think that the latter solution, is still the better, though level scaling isn't always bad: The arch type of really bad level scaling is Oblivion, were every monster at every time has the exact same level as you, and even bandits started all wearing glass armor (!) after you had reached a certain level. Skyrim did it better, there you have areas with level ranges, where the level only scales after you have reached the minimum level, which means that you can't take on the most powerful monsters of the land on lvl 1 (except for dragons, which was really stupid).

 

[Volourn]

"Oh... and a horrid other thing I couldn't keep blocked out of my mind: NWN has level-scaling, not the BG2 kind where you go here at level 15 and there's a mummy and go at 25 and there's a lich (which is only in selected areas and mainly for undead/casters), but full on, no-holds-barred, Oblivion style trashmob level scaling..."

Idiocy continues.


"Some of the bad design made the game excessively hard at times, too, like who remembers the charming bloated dire spider in the Beggar's Nest?

If you were naive enough to follow Aribeth's suggested progression (that is, Peninsula, Beggar's Nest, Blacklake, then Docks) - and why wouldn't you be, why would a she-pally steer you wrong? - you'll be around level 3, maybe 4 by the time you get there, just to get repeatedly ass-raped for what seems like forever by huge venomous spider fangs, which might as well have come from a Bebilith, for all the hope you have of surviving the ordeal...

Its just so rage-inducingly rude to be playing a game that's been nothing but a deep snoozefest up to that point, and then all of a sudden you're frantically recalling back and forth to heal at 50gp a pop, just because Bioware have no conception of good game design."

You are retarted. You whine the game is too easy in one post and in another post you whine the game is too hard. LMFAO


"Come on, Volly, give us a detailed breakdown of quests in NWN. Which ones aren't full of boring trash mobs? Which aren't FedEx quests? What is the precise ratio of "good" to "bad" quests? What about examples of the excellent, definitely-not-retarded companion AI? The difficult, well-designed combat encounters?"

Do a fukkin' search. NWN has been discussed a lot. Stop beings o fukkin' lazy.


"nobody gives a crap about and whose shtick got old years ago."

The evidence suggests youa re lying so the question is why do you lie?



"On second thought, I do agree that NWN OC, while not quite a clone of Diablo, is certainly far more similar to Diablo than Icewind Dale was. Yet it's the latter that is more often compared to Diablo."

Neitehr ons is Diablo like. Only idiots think so.

 

[DragoFireheart]

Why do RPG developers feel the need to level scale shit!?

Why? Why do they fucking do it WHY WHY YOU FUCK NUTS WHY GIVE ME LEVELS IF YOU"RE GOING TO JUST ADJUST SHIT SO I FEEL LIKE I MADE NO PROGRESS

WHY GOD FUCKING CUNTS

The motivation behind level scaling isn't difficult to guess at all: Simply, in an open world such as Skyrim, it is done to not restrict you to any certain path,

So the game is watered down so I can go where ever I want and lose all sense of danger and adventure? What's the point in exploring if there is no fear from dying to a overly powerful enemy?

Let me tell you the real reason: laziness. It's easier to level-scale shit rather than balance the game with hand-placed enemies.

 

[Cool name]

And of course level scaling is needed, how else could the same content in that chapter be playable with a level 2 character as it was with a level 6 character?

Do make encounters that will be a nightmare even for a level 6 character who can't into tactics but manageable for a level 3 character who does think outside the box. Do give alternate paths and solutions around things that may be too hard. Do make low level enemies that are still dangerous for a level 6 character by means of status effects, control spells, etc. Do make it so whomever is behind it all does notice your actions and does begin to try to stop you by sending in assasins while you are occupied with the low level mooks, trying to ambush you, placing traps where they do expect you to appear, etc, so that the first two areas would be their standard form but the later two areas would be harder as the baddies are not amused.

The motivation behind level scaling isn't difficult to guess at all: Simply, in an open world such as Skyrim, it is done to not restrict you to any certain path, within a normal difficulty of the game. If you play an open game without level scaling, then you invariably have to follow the paths that the game designers made to have a normal difficulty, that is: with monsters about the same level as you.

The player should not be expected to be able kill everything in a given area. If your game is open world or partly so and the player does have to visit a certain location for a quest where's the problem with the nearby camp of bandits being much stronger than the player will be at the time that quest is given? The quest is not 'kill some bandits' but 'reach this location.' Let them evade their patrols, hide until it gets dark in a safe place, and die like idiots if they do somehow decide their lowbie should be able to take in a full camp of rough bandits. If the game is 'open world' there are several ways to reach that location anyway: Force them to be smart and benefit from the geography in creative ways for example.

To give a level one character a quest to kill a huge hardcore monsters is messed up, but to give a level one character a mission in a region where hardcore monsters do live is pretty cool. That part in Gothic II where you do have to go to the mine valley for the first time and the only way you are going to survive is by evading the orc patrols is probably one of the few things I did like from those games. At first it was bloody frustrating. After a while it was totally awesome to be evading patrols, exploiting the geography to move around, etc. Immersive as hell as well.

 

[Average Manatee]

And of course level scaling is needed, how else could the same content in that chapter be playable with a level 2 character as it was with a level 6 character?

Do make encounters that will be a nightmare even for a level 6 character who can't into tactics but manageable for a level 3 character who does think outside the box. Do give alternate paths and solutions around things that may be too hard. Do make low level enemies that are still dangerous for a level 6 character by means of status effects, control spells, etc. Do make it so whomever is behind it all does notice your actions and does begin to try to stop you by sending in assasins while you are occupied with the low level mooks, trying to ambush you, placing traps where they do expect you to appear, etc, so that the first two areas would be their standard form but the later two areas would be harder as the baddies are not amused.

Need forum feature to tag posts as sarcasm in a discreet manner.

 

[Cool name]

Need forum feature to tag posts as sarcasm in a discreet manner.

My bad then.

Do please forgive me for the misunderstanding.

 

[waywardOne]

Allow me to invent better phrasing for 'level scaling'. Let's call what BG/2 does "threshold scaling". For a game with a character level spread of about 7 to 20 (BG2-SoA), some set encounters are threshold scaled, meaning that if you are below level X, you get one set of monsters; and if you are =>X, you get another set of monsters (which may simply be more monsters, the addition of a leader-type, etc). Certainly it doesn't have to be either/or; a game could have more than one threshold in an encounter. Now we can leave "level scaling" to describe what a game like Oblivion does, where monsters are directly adjusted by the character's level; i.e. if you're level X, the monster will be X+Y.

Personally, I would preclude any game that didn't use threshold scaling -- if any had to be used at all -- from qualifying as an RPG. Call me old-school -fashioned, but monsters need to stay in a very constricted level range. It's homogenizing bullshit to make an orc shaman an actual cleric with cleric levels, instead of just saying an orc shaman is analagous to a 5th level cleric with tons of exceptions and restrictions.

 

[aris]

BG2 has a much better scaling system, and level scaling is mostly a lazy poor-man's solution.

 

[Lilura]

I think Oscuro might have used the term "threshold scaling" for OOO, or maybe it was someone in FONV dev, sometimes they used "offsets", too.

The way "threshold scaling" works in BG2 it sort of felt handcrafted, and I only really perceived two different encounter sets, but maybe there were variations I didn't detect, I dunno?
It only ever - from what I recall - involves a variant on the type of enemy, normally a different sprite, a more powerful version.
So for argument's sake I'm PC lvl <15, well then I get the base set. But if I'm PC lvl >=15, the game asks:
Is this a golem encounter? well, we'll throw in an adamantium, too. undead encounter? throw in a lich, too. Lycanthrope? greater werewolves. eyestalk? Hive mother. Troll? spirit troll. And so on.

This seemed be the limit of it, I don't recall the game ever throwing in yet another adamantium or hive mother even if I doubled my level to 30, or maxed it.

 

[Infinitron]

Infinitron's Law of Level Scaling: If you don't notice it exists in a single playthrough of the game, it's not bad.

 

[Volourn]

Infinitron is wiser than his status as codexer would suggest.

P.S. PNP has had 'level scaling' since the beginning. Fucking losers who think level scaling is not a aprt of rpgs. of coruse, like anything, there is GOOD level scaling and BAD level scaling.

R00fles!

 

[sea]

I'm still trying to figure out my favorite part of Neverwinter Nights. Is it:

1. The random loot system means that there are no guaranteed good items to be found in a single play-through. Since almost any class is going to basically be forced to master 1 weapon type, if you get unlucky and don't find a weapon that is suited to you, you are fucked. Later in the game there are high level enemies and bosses that literally cannot be damaged by lower-level weapons, so if you only ever find a +1 greatsword, fuck you asshole, either you've got to cheat or spend hours walking in and out of shops or reloading the game to rejigger the random number generator so you get something you can actually use.
2. There are enemies in the game, particularly mages, who are capable of doing things that are impossible for a human player. One obvious example is being able to use 5 or 6 stoneskins in a row, with one stoneskin instance being applied immediately when the last falls, with no casting delay whatsoever. This means the only reason enemy mages are even remotely challenging is because they literally cheat to mitigate 500 points of damage in the hope they can get their big nukes off in time to assfuck you. Good developers usually mitigate the squishiness of mages with something called "good encounter design" but BioWare won't have any of that nonsense!
3. If you die, you lose XP if you choose to respawn. Since XP sources in the game are limited, if you just so happen to suck at it (I don't), you will be further punished by the game, and be forced to either load an old save (possibly inconvenient) or waste time grinding for hours in the few places enemies do respawn. 80 hours of revolutionary gameplay!
4. Companions actually get less useful as they level up in many cases. Because some of them gain more spells, instead of just directly attacking enemies with their magic +5 weapons they pull out of their asses when they level up that are capable of bypassing all the damage resistance problems etc. that the player has to deal with (see above), even if they are monks and attack with their bare fists of all things, they decide to cast spells. Casting spells, of course, often does significantly less damage, takes longer, opens them to vulnerability, and generally just makes them less effective. No, their AI does not improve to compensate.
5. Boss fights which are nothing but waiting games against enemies with ridiculously inflated health bars. These fights are invariably extremely easy because the enemy damage output is pitiful, but because they are so hard to hit and have so much health, it amounts to sitting at the computer, watching your dude auto-attack for 5 minutes straight, while you press the potion hotkey every 30 seconds. Bonus points if the boss pulls a "Potion of Heal" out of his ass and regains all his health just before you strike the killing blow.
6. It's interesting how plot NPCs will reveal plot details to you that are important and critical to the story, yet you can't even mention them to NPCs when they bring up the relevant topics. Everyone wants to "unlock the magic of the Words of Power" even though it becomes very obvious they are used to open the Source Stone, for instance, and it'd be much safer to just not use them at all. Then Lord Nasher is talking about "someone more sinister behind the scenes" and we can't comment on it... even though we have met Morag before, and learned that she is the one who is pulling the strings. It's like either the writers weren't on the same page as each other and didn't know how much the player would actually have revealed to him/her at each part of the story, or realized that giving the player agency over the story would expose even more holes so just made everyone in the game a mega-retard, including the player.

Truly the masters of the RPG genre right here. I am in awe.

 

[racofer]

Oh boy

This thread delivers.

Keep on Vollying, Volly.


Also: newfags gonna keep on newfagging.

 

[Xavier0889]

NWN must have the award to the dullest boss fight ever, in the form of the intelect devourer.

 

[Volourn]

"The random loot system means that there are no guaranteed good items to be found in a single play-through. Since almost any class is going to basically be forced to master 1 weapon type, if you get unlucky and don't find a weapon that is suited to you, you are fucked. Later in the game there are high level enemies and bosses that literally cannot be damaged by lower-level weapons, so if you only ever find a +1 greatsword, fuck you asshole, either you've got to cheat or spend hours walking in and out of shops or reloading the game to rejigger the random number generator so you get something you can actually use."

Bullshit. You obviously don't know how the NWN random loot system works and are psoting out your fukkin' azz.


"There are enemies in the game, particularly mages, who are capable of doing things that are impossible for a human player. One obvious example is being able to use 5 or 6 stoneskins in a row, with one stoneskin instance being applied immediately when the last falls, with no casting delay whatsoever. This means the only reason enemy mages are even remotely challenging is because they literally cheat to mitigate 500 points of damage in the hope they can get their big nukes off in time to assfuck you. Good developers usually mitigate the squishiness of mages with something called "good encounter design" but BioWare won't have any of that nonsense!"

Are you on fukkin' crack? Which enemy is this because until youn tell me what enemy is, I'm gonna assume youa re fukkin' lying.


"If you die, you lose XP if you choose to respawn. Since XP sources in the game are limited, if you just so happen to suck at it (I don't), you will be further punished by the game, and be forced to either load an old save (possibly inconvenient) or waste time grinding for hours in the few places enemies do respawn. 80 hours of revolutionary gameplay!"

FFS If anyone who fukkin' chooses to use the faggy respawn option theyd eserve everything they get - espicially if they fukkin' so many times they can't even level. there's PLENTY of experience to get you to level 16+. FFS If you die, which shouldm be rare unless you are complete moran, just fukkin' reload. FFS BIO was lame to put in the lame azz respawn/portal/evererest shit to make the game easy onn losers like you and now youa re still whining that somehow those options make the game tougher. WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK


"Companions actually get less useful as they level up in many cases. Because some of them gain more spells, instead of just directly attacking enemies with their magic +5 weapons they pull out of their asses when they level up that are capable of bypassing all the damage resistance problems etc. that the player has to deal with (see above), even if they are monks and attack with their bare fists of all things, they decide to cast spells. Casting spells, of course, often does significantly less damage, takes longer, opens them to vulnerability, and generally just makes them less effective. No, their AI does not improve to compensate."

Whya re you lying? While, it is true, that NPC casting is not great, you are full shit. For starters, there is one monk npc in the game... what fukkin' spell is this SINGLE CLASS MONK casting? OMFG OMFG OMFG


"Boss fights which are nothing but waiting games against enemies with ridiculously inflated health bars. These fights are invariably extremely easy because the enemy damage output is pitiful, but because they are so hard to hit and have so much health, it amounts to sitting at the computer, watching your dude auto-attack for 5 minutes straight, while you press the potion hotkey every 30 seconds. Bonus points if the boss pulls a "Potion of Heal" out of his ass and regains all his health just before you strike the killing blow."

Sorry, dude, this isn't DA2 where your gripe actually would make sense. Most bosses don't have 'tons' of hit points. Even the dragon ones don't have more than a few hundred (except the ancient red for obvious reasons). Also, which bosses mspam heal potions? Heck, which bosses even have a single heal potion. FFS Your so full of shit.


"It's interesting how plot NPCs will reveal plot details to you that are important and critical to the story, yet you can't even mention them to NPCs when they bring up the relevant topics. Everyone wants to "unlock the magic of the Words of Power" even though it becomes very obvious they are used to open the Source Stone, for instance, and it'd be much safer to just not use them at all. Then Lord Nasher is talking about "someone more sinister behind the scenes" and we can't comment on it... even though we have met Morag before, and learned that she is the one who is pulling the strings. It's like either the writers weren't on the same page as each other and didn't know how much the player would actually have revealed to him/her at each part of the story, or realized that giving the player agency over the story would expose even more holes so just made everyone in the game a mega-retard, including the player."

HOLY FUKKIN' SHIT!!! It takes your 6th point for you to actually say something that makes sense. I fukkin' agree here.

Fuckin' Codex morans.


ANOTHER IDIOT ALERT!!!


"NWN must have the award to the dullest boss fight ever, in the form of the intelect devourer."

No.

 

[sea]

Bullshit. You obviously don't know how the NWN random loot system works and are psoting out your fukkin' azz.

Playing as a character who specialized in scimitars, I never found a scimitar better than +1 throughout the entire game, and I explored pretty much everything.

Are you on fukkin' crack? Which enemy is this because until youn tell me what enemy is, I'm gonna assume youa re fukkin' lying.

A large number of various (human) mages throughout the game do this.

FFS If anyone who fukkin' chooses to use the faggy respawn option theyd eserve everything they get - espicially if they fukkin' so many times they can't even level. there's PLENTY of experience to get you to level 16+. FFS If you die, which shouldm be rare unless you are complete moran, just fukkin' reload. FFS BIO was lame to put in the lame azz respawn/portal/evererest shit to make the game easy onn losers like you and now youa re still whining that somehow those options make the game tougher. WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK

I'm not saying that you shouldn't be saving frequently or relying on the respawn option. I'm saying it's a dumb design choice even if the actual impact on the game is very minor.

Whya re you lying? While, it is true, that NPC casting is not great, you are full shit. For starters, there is one monk npc in the game... what fukkin' spell is this SINGLE CLASS MONK casting? OMFG OMFG OMFG

Of course non-spellcasting companions don't do this. The ones who do use spells, however, do tend to get worse as it goes on. I used the bard early on because I liked her buffs and lockpicking, but she became utterly useless when she got more spells because she spent all of combat buffing me and herself over and over, often using the same buffs that were already applied. I used the sorcerer guy and he wasn't much better. "Must use dumb melee brute to get use out of companions" is not a point in the game's favor.

"Boss fights which are nothing but waiting games against enemies with ridiculously inflated health bars. These fights are invariably extremely easy because the enemy damage output is pitiful, but because they are so hard to hit and have so much health, it amounts to sitting at the computer, watching your dude auto-attack for 5 minutes straight, while you press the potion hotkey every 30 seconds. Bonus points if the boss pulls a "Potion of Heal" out of his ass and regains all his health just before you strike the killing blow."

Okay, not a lot of them do this, I think only a couple, specifically Maugrim, who was super-easy but took me 7 minutes to kill because he had such a huge amount of HP and then healed himself twice using potions that restored his entire health bar each time.

By the way, started Shadows of Undrentide and played through the intro + town area. It's hard to believe this was made by BioWare after suffering through the original campaign. Writing that's actually fairly good and entertaining? Skill checks that matter? Varied quests with non-combat options? Even if it's not great by some standards it's refreshing to play something not horrible again.

 

[Volourn]

WARNING: Thanks for being polite in face of wrath.

"Playing as a character who specialized in scimitars, I never found a scimitar better than +1 throughout the entire game, and I explored pretty much everything."

See, I have a hard time believing this because that's just not how NWN OC random loot works. The campaign is full of chests thata re literally scripted to search the players feats for any weapon theya re focused on and have that weapon drop. Chest random drops are often based on class, weapon feats, SKILLs, and low/med/high magic based on character level.

"A large number of various (human) mages throughout the game do this."

Nah. You gotta be reading that situation wrong b/c no way this happens. just find it unbelieveable that you've experience a human mage spamming the stoneskin automatically with no casting.


"I'm not saying that you shouldn't be saving frequently or relying on the respawn option. I'm saying it's a dumb design choice even if the actual impact on the game is very minor."

Please don't put me in a position to defend the respawn thing as I loathe it but the way it works works fine and works eprfetcly as designed. You get the option to respawn for a small cost of xp and gold. Not a complex thing. I'd rather they not have it all but thankfully one cna just ignore it all together.


"Of course non-spellcasting companions don't do this. The ones who do use spells, however, do tend to get worse as it goes on. I used the bard early on because I liked her buffs and lockpicking, but she became utterly useless when she got more spells because she spent all of combat buffing me and herself over and over, often using the same buffs that were already applied. I used the sorcerer guy and he wasn't much better. "Must use dumb melee brute to get use out of companions" is not a point in the game's favor."

Thenj why did you mention monks? Monks don't have spells. Like I said above, no doubt spellcaster AI could be much improved but I played with the abrd and I have never seen her spam buff spells like that. But, it should be pointed outt hat bards don't have too many pure offensive spells so it dpends on what her selection is. mayhaps you guys ar ebeing dispelled? But, I just don' beleive she'll cast Bulls Strength on you if she alreayd did and it is stilla ctive. That said, much better in expansions espciially HOTU where you can actually ask them to pre buff you. You cna even get them to stop with the big annoyance - wasting pwoerful spells on weak azz enemies. L0L


"Okay, not a lot of them do this, I think only a couple, specifically Maugrim, who was super-easy but took me 7 minutes to kill because he had such a huge amount of HP and then healed himself twice using potions that restored his entire health bar each time."

Why shouldn't a powerful and presuambly rich wizard like Maugrim have access to heal potions - espciially since I bet you have a basic unlimited suplly. It's supposed to annoy you. That's why if you are awarrior knock him down when he gets low. be thankful he didn't have tons more. That said, a better compalint to have is why have so many heal potions in the first place. They should be iether non existent or extremely rare. rather bogus to complain about a handful of enemies having them while you likely have 10+ minimum.


"By the way, started Shadows of Undrentide and played through the intro + town area. It's hard to believe this was made by BioWare after suffering through the original campaign. Writing that's actually fairly good and entertaining? Skill checks that matter? Varied quests with non-combat options? Even if it's not great by some standards it's refreshing to play something not horrible again."

SOU does soem things well like the skill checks early on but ultimiately blows it. The final boss is one of BIO's top 3 worst ever.

 

[Shadenuat]

See, I have a hard time believing this because that's just not how NWN OC random loot works. The campaign is full of chests thata re literally scripted to search the players feats for any weapon theya re focused on and have that weapon drop. Chest random drops are often based on class, weapon feats, SKILLs, and low/med/high magic based on character level.

This is true, I always found weapons which mirrored my chosen feats. Sometimes it gets just weird as you try to find components for crafting a weapon, but then next chest just gives you +1 weapon you have a feat for, and then another one and another... maybe Sea is just that unlucky or did't pick right feats? And you can always craft some in act I and replace those is act III and IV I think.
It's not even such a problem however. Unless you play a Weapon Master with all the feats, there's nothing wrong in sacrificing +1 to attack and +2 to damage for another +1 multiplier, even if you have feats for criticals. Just take better weapon, that's it.

Nah. You gotta be reading that situation wrong b/c no way this happens. just find it unbelieveable that you've experience a human mage spamming the stoneskin automatically with no casting.

I believe they do that sometimes. It seems like mages skip casting animation for stone skins. They just wave heands and green rays of light come from them. It could be a glitch, not a design decision. I remember my character (I play as druids usually, if possible, so I had all types of defensive spells) actually did the same. It happens when you move or order to attack, and animation skips... I'm not sure but it's something I have a distant memory of.

Boss fights which are nothing but waiting games against enemies with ridiculously inflated health bars.

I'm pretty sure most of them have the same amount of health as their relatives from Monster Manuals. It's not NWN fault, the truth behind D&D and high level 3.0 D&D is that you can chunk high level enemy for hours of real PnP time.

 

[Volourn]

"I'm pretty sure most of them have the same amount of health as their relatives from Monster Manuals. It's not NWN fault, the truth behind D&D and high level 3.0 D&D is that you can chunk high level enemy for hours of real PnP time."

In fact, one of the worst things about basic NWN is that enemies/npc tend to have crappy HP% comapred to normal. ie. A monster with had 10d8 hp + 3hp per HD for con giving a possible max 110hp will often have 50-60hp dramatically making it easier. hence, why for mod, I don't use any basic monsters. Not to mention basic NWN (or even pnp versions) monsters have crappy feat seelction. L0L


"I believe they do that sometimes. It seems like mages skip casting animation for stone skins. They just wave heands and green rays of light come from them. It could be a glitch, not a design decision. I remember my character (I play as druids usually, if possible, so I had all types of defensive spells) actually did the same. It happens when you move or order to attack, and animation skips... I'm not sure but it's something I have a distant memory of."

It has to eb some sort of bug. I never noticed mages spamming stoneskin , and most mages will drop rather quick if you get in melee with a warrior.

 

[halflingbarbarian]

Make they have a feat that does that insta-cast thing? I forgot the name.

 

[Shadenuat]

Make they have a feat that does that insta-cast thing?

It is impossible to Quicken Stoneskins unless you can cast level 9 spells (and NWN1 did't have Arcane Scholar of Candlekeep). And any epic feats are out - Sea played regular campaign, which BARELY caps at level, like 18 maybe.

As for shear amount of these - maybe their inventories are just full of scrolls which are tagged as undropPopamoleable.

 

[Shadenuat]

Yes it does. NWN1 has Quicken spell. Enemies in main campaign do not use it for sure however.
Haste? Maybe. But I checked on game files and most mages seem to only have one Stoneskins memorised. Enemies like Old One sorcerers or even Morag only have one.
They *do* have sets of potions which are not dropable, but generally there is only one Heal potion there.

 

[Infinitron]

By the way, started Shadows of Undrentide and played through the intro + town area. It's hard to believe this was made by BioWare after suffering through the original campaign. Writing that's actually fairly good and entertaining? Skill checks that matter? Varied quests with non-combat options? Even if it's not great by some standards it's refreshing to play something not horrible again.

About time. Have fun.