Make your character in your own image...
First off, when you boot up Neverwinter Nights 2 for the first time, you’ll be greeted with the character generation screens. Now, just like all those times you’ve agonised over a character in D+D, you can spend just as much time tearing yourself in two over your character for the realm of Neverwinter. For those of you familiar to D+D, Neverwinter Nights 2 is based on the D+D 3rd Edition rule set, with a few h’officially approved upgrades and rule changes, so in effect its more like ‘D+D 3.5’.
Click for larger imageYou’ve got the 7 basic races here, from Human and Half-Elf to Dwarf and Gnomes and, with a couple of minor exceptions, all the sub-races are in here too, giving you a total of 17 sub-races to play. Each of the sub-races has a speciality or two, though these are levelled off by how many experience points they need to go up a level. So if you pick a Drome, which is pretty powerful even on a low level, it’ll take more time to level up as the experience points step is higher.
Click for larger imageAlignment is used to more effect in Neverwinter Nights 2 and is also used more sensibly too. So you can’t end up with a party of good characters and have an evil character join them. Likewise, the way you play affects your overall alignment. Start off neutral and do good things and you’ll gradually align to good. If you’re a paladin and you start slaughtering everyone in sight, you’re alignment will change as well. This will be evident in how you’re treated by NPCs in the game and depending on your alignment and reputation, you might find access to shops and towns to limited, or given, depending on how you’re aligned.
Click for larger imageThe reputation system has been added to give a more realistic feel to how you interact with NPCs. So if you’re alignment is good and you go around slaying bad dudes, you’ll get a warmer greeting and more helpful conversations with NPCs that may not necessarily be good themselves, but be inclined to like you more depending on your deeds. In Feargus’ own words, “there’s like, a bazillion classes”, and he’s right, given all the races and sub-races, there are like, a bazillon classes to play but it’s worth noting that a few of the classes are attainable ONLY as part of special quests built into the Neverwinter Nights 2 story. Of course, if you’re just itching to get on and play, there’s always the ‘recommend’ button, which will allocate attribute points based on the race and class you’ve chosen. Of course, if you’re an experienced D+D player, you can still muck around as much as you fancy, tweaking your character to your heart’s content.
Click for larger imageIn fact, you can now add a whole new depth to your character with the ‘Background’ section. This allows you to add a bit of ‘back story’ to your character, giving one of dozens of ready made histories. So say you’ve picked to play a righteous knight type, then you’d then select a background that would steer him towards the character and class he now is. This isn’t just a bit of frippery for the detail-philes, your Background actually serves a function in giving an attribute benefit and skill focus to your character. Of course, for the impatient, you can just hit the ‘Quick Select’ button and let the game choose an appropriate Background for the class you want to play.
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