as a kid, I played a rogue who diligently kept disarming and keeping all the traps I encountered in the game. used them when I knew I would prep for something hairy. It was when I encountered the red dragon where, on the bridge, I must've set up about 20+ (prolly more) of the deadliest traps I had on hand. No joke, when I led the red dragon into the traps, they walked quite a few, but in less than 3 seconds he died, and I even had leftovers to pick back up again. My kid brain had so much elation from that forwards prepping.
Killing dragons with traps was also a big thing in Baldurs Gate 2. You didn't have to carry them around though, it's just a class ability. But yeah, traps were hugely useful there too.
I roleplay on a NWN server called Arelith and used to be in the Druid community when another player roleplayed a character called Burin. He is largely regarded as the greatest Archdruid in the history of the server, and he even became the loading screen artwork for the Druid Grove areas. To have such an impact on RPers and the server itself is just so cool, and the fact that such communities are still active to this day is amazing. In terms of RP, no other game can offer the same amount of depth or immersion as NWN, especially with servers like Arelith. Sure it has its drama with players or jerk DMs, but that's just D&D for you unfortunately. For a game to be over 20 years old to still have such impact and authenticity is incredible, no other game can touch Neverwinter Nights!
I used to play on Arelith, but I had some issues with the cliquiness of the people running the server. It very much had the energy of "You're just a side character in our world", and I wasn't entirely keen on it. I remember there being an issue in which I had infiltrated the guard as a character who was a secret cultist antipaladin of Bane, and the DM/DMFG person who was in charge of the faction metagamed this almost immediately, and when I protested OOC, my character was killed. It left a really sour note. I'm glad you enjoyed your time there, I did not.
@@KindaJewish Yeah that's definitely the server's biggest problem, the cliquiness of it. Especially being so old, there are many players who have been in positions of power for literally years and they're never going to leave. Particularly with the Halflings and Elves. I don't know the full story of why the player of Burin left, all I know is that a DM was being shitty, which is another problem the server has. But the fact he's still the loading screen for the grove speaks to his influence. I miss the nature RP a lot! Despite shitty players and even shittier DMs, the best fun I have is staying small scale and avoiding the big stuff. Like you said, it's hard to get involved anyway.
I played on Prisoners of the Mist like 20 years ago. My friend an I both played cannibalistic druids, viewing the city people as cattle that herd themselves into their city walls. We actually did this thing where we cursed the local temple, causing the NPC's to die. The DM that was watching all of this actually KILLED the NPC's permanently in the next server update, and started an entire story (with custom NPC dialogue and in-game quests) about the curse that other players had to eventually deal with over the next several MONTHS of RP. It is to this day the best RP experience I've ever had in any video game.
It does have quite the mystic ring to it doesn't it? Like a journey that ran before yours or parallel even sometimes but you know waiting and earning it later down the road is so satisfying listening long enough to hear said other tale
@@ViktorErikFade I remember playing Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance back in the day as a kid pretty soon after it had come out. And the ending narration of "But that is a tale for another time" gave me chills.
I just read Lord of the Rings for the first time and this phrase was used a couple times. It made me run l entire side stories through my head that could be told, it’s a great phrase.
That's the Session Zero D20! That's the die that gets thrown into the crowd for their stage show. This is actually the second D20 as Josh traded his Blue D20 for the red D20 a fan brought. Sorry for the random info comment dump, but seeing Josh do this makes me miss SessionZero. Can't wait for the next one.
Pedantically explaining DND, and also describing very standard game mechanics like it's some beautiful-mind move of game design. Along with also describing moments where he has to cheese the hell out of encounters because he is choosing to play the game solo, but not regarding those moments as negative when he talks about how he has barely any criticisms. Wouldn't expect any different from him lol. At least it's good background content while I'm working.
@@synthetic240 That could be it, right. I forgot the Undermountain is right there. Was just a strange moniker to me, you don't call a Succubus inside Baldurs Gate a "Baldurian Succubus". Maybe Waterdeep is just very pretentious and they slapped their branding on there.
ok..... i dont think there are many 3 hours videos out there that made me sit for its entirety paying attention to it. This one tho..... yeah this one did... Thanks for this one in particular Josh, i can only start to imagine how much work you had to put into this and so here i am because i feel the urge to tell you i have watched it all, and it is an incredible tale, and you managed to keep me hooked up in your narrative for the entire video. Absolutely stunning! Thanks again for your hard work!
29:38 - it is actually possible for Pavel to survive here! It might require healing him/killing the mage more quickly but yeah, he can survive and will accompany you into the barn. You get some extra dialogue with him but ultimately he decides he's not cut out for this and leaves. Kinda neat.
Yeah, but he's still a trope of Bioware tutorial character who leaves like Trask to fight Sith on Endar Spire or parents in Dragon Age Noble origin or like Corporal L. JEEEEEEEEEENKINS.
I have never been more hyped for a game pre-release than NWN. I was active in the old Bioware forums, learnt the scripting language and planned out campaigns before the game had even launched. Smashed through the campaign and then spent years making modules and addons. This was such a great part of my life for 5 years or so.
This game has had the biggest impact on my childhood as a PC gamer. I was 9yo and I was playing a definitely-legal version that used to crash after prelude or somewhere 10-15% through Act 1. I played it on repeat, explored classes, read about them, tried to understand the mechanics and all the numbers (I knew nothing of D&D until much much later), learned English by reading all the damn dialogue and grew a fondness for fantasy storytelling. What a beast of a game.
Are you me? I bought the game legally (in Polish, though) and installed English dialogue file so I could have easier time online and with English mods. Learned a LOT of words and phrases just from this game and Diablo 2.
There's so much time you can put into this series, and it's like a multiplayer RPG with the ability to be MMO esque among other things - let alone NWN2. People have put thousands, some maybe tens of thousands of hours into these two games that are like hundreds of games within an engine/toolkit.
3 hour video on an awesome game… Thought I’d watch an hour while my wife and daughter get ready for our trip… it’s now been almost all 3 hours and I’m still waiting. Thanks Josh!
Point of order, henchmen have their own questlines. Complete these questlines and you can get some really powerful gear that upgrades in later chapters by furthering their questlines. But you can only continue the questline if you have done it in the previous chapter, so if you miss a questline, it's gone. And yeah, the gear is POWERFUL. You don't have to travel with them constantly to unlock it, but pick them up, do what you can and dismiss them.
Not using henchmen is skipping over a MAJOR part of the gameplay, in other games it would be akin to not engaging with crafting systems or ignoring your skills page on levelup. I cannot comprehend why he would choose to do that for a "review" play through. A challenge run possibly, but for this kind of video he should be going for the "intended" method of play which includes henchmen.
@@HeyHedgehog He does mention not being able to change the henchmens equipment during that topic. So they wouldn't have helped with the loot being mostly useless and boring. They also wouldn't have helped much with the character advancement system being a little bit weak for a single character, since you don't make any choices regarding their levels.
@@Sotanaht01 Yet another thing they improved in the expansions. As I recall, in the expansions you could adjust your companions' equipment, use them to carry extra stuff, and (through dialogue) could influence their leveling a bit to better fill gaps on the team.
"Heal my wounds! Now! "All right dear, I'm getting to it." (Casts Flamestrike) "Heal my wounds! Now! "All right dear, I'm getting to it." (Casts Flamestrike) You have died "Takasi! Excuse my Elven"
54:41 Little info about that intellect devourer boss fight: You can also persuade the guards to leave, removing the number of hosts it can get. Successfully making a guard leaves awards with some exp.
Yeah, me and my wife had a routine each time we played where one would drag away the host and the other spammed persuade till they're all gone. Good times.
NWN was my first serious D&D RPG, I spent countless hours playing not only the campaign, but also in its online modules. It boasted an amazing community of module builders and online adventures - all created and ran by fellow players, mostly for free. It was amazing.
You can tell that despite the game's problems, Josh can really appreciate the genuine, whole-hearted *fantasy* displayed in this game, and the way he talks about it always sweeps me away with that feeling too. I got genuinely excited hearing him start to talk about the expansion and his new character
This game is still INCREDIBLY active online, with big multiplayer servers that have their own communities and cultures and ecosystems that have been cultivated over the last 22 years!
@AFndjdj7373your comment made me laugh outloud😂😂lmao it really seems like every long running server community ends up being weirdos usually of the furry variety
I like the idea of naming the great scary dangerous demon queen Morag, because that's a very common Scottish Gaelic girl's name.. essentially the equivalent of naming your bbeg "Emily" or something equally basic
I played MotB for the first time last year and yeah, it holds up stupidly well - and the writing is fantastic. It even got me reading some of the Forgotten Realms novels, the lore was so good.
It's a miracle that Larian could do all they did with BG3. Maybe Sven manage to get some kind of creativity clause. But then, we were denied DLCs because of Hasbros's greedyness, so I guess that evens out.
WotCs behaviour is so shortsighted, they're burning bridges at an alarming rate and I jumped ships TTRPG wise and I'm not going back... As for BG3 I'm really excited for the modding tool being released, it's the kinda thing that'll keep me enjoying the game for a long time@@DarkErrant
@@chloetherainbowqueen3025 Yeah. I think Larian knew they needed a modded tool so the community could create what they couldn't. I'm really looking forward to that.
@@DarkErranti dislike wotc as much as the next guy but larian has never ever done dlc for any of there games. i dont think they would have made dlc even if hasbro begged them to
1:54:40 they're not using polymorph potions, they are wererats. Wererats in D&D are based on the "Swords of Lankhmar" (Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser) book series by Fritz Leiber, in those books they are basically a clan of shapeshifting thieves who live in the sewers underneath Lankhmar (the main city in the books and inspiration for most of your typical D&D major cities, also famously parodied as Ankh-Morpork by Terry Pratchett.)
God, what a wild trip back. I played a ton of NWN and NWN2 on persistent world servers. Roleplaying in those anonymous spaces really helped me find myself and decide who I wanted to be. Thanks for this, Josh, I might see if some of those old places are still running.
Holy shit. Another one of my favorite youtubers made a 3 HOUR retrospective on my favorite game ever made? I'm as locked in as I will ever be. You are doing the lords' service Josh!
There is so many hidden XP multiplier pentalies in this game. Multiclassing - less xp, Party member - less xp, Animal companion? - less xp, Summoned creature? - less xp, Playing barbarian or fighter? - less xp for first 7 lvls, 21:45 There is a "Defensive casting stance" which prevents extra attacks of opportunity but requires more concentration. irrc game doesnt explain it much, i randomly found it in one of menu's. 22:56 Get a "Cleave" feat, it speeds up combat a lot. Using shields & lower dmg weapons will prolong combat as you trade dmg output for survivability. 20:38 Thats not true, all weapons attack at the same speed unless you have pentaly or bonus for using specific weapons 35:04 Early game as cleric is very easy bc cleric got assigned tons of bonus xp multiplier for first 7-9 lvls. 45:13 Two handed scale better than dual wield because you dont have heavy attack roll pentalies, its not a noob trap, it a playstale. Dual wielding requires spending 3 Feats to be any good, 4 if you want to use optimal weapon which are double headed weapons,which are all under "exotic weap" feat, otherwise you need to use medium&light weapon which lowers your dmg 1:00:06 There is a search mode on your VERY hotbar under F2, it greatly increses chances of finding traps I will be back with more once i get in game to the later point than possible spoilers 1:03:23 Avalible much earlier in main trader in docks. You been there 1:05:15 You can use more than single tier of spells at the same time, some of early spells are useful through the entire game, like bless & aid to boost rolls by a fair bit. Same with stacking multiple weapon buffs, you can puth both fire & bonus enchancement on the same weapon. 1:09:11 using programs like Cheat engine can help a lot when replaying older rpgs, they needed to artifically prolong playtime & chapter 2 is sad example of that, very long paths to waste much time
Honestly I never considered cheats until now - I've reached a point in act 3 where I simply cant handle the dragons. It feels like the obtuse systems in the game have worked against me to the point where I can't really hit them and they hit like trucks. Heavily considering this now...
My bad wording here, what i mean by using cheat engine was speedhack to run game at faster speed so walking, resting and breaking chests take less time. @@broshmosh
@@broshmoshmost classes have Access to summon spell and they are really overpowered. If you dont multiclass, your spell tier of summons can easily kill everything. You could try using them to waste most of enemy spells/power. You could also stack bonus dc, Aliagment based dc is really easy to find on capes & usually quite strong ~4, and stacking with other types of bonus ac
Thank you! This game is simply one of the GOATs in the genre. I never had any trouble beating it either in spite of often playing Fighters or Barbarians. Single class magic user is also wonderfully OP, I think at one time I had like 7 different summons, companions and other adds including that Golem you can pick up and load with spells.
"AYE IT'S DONE" - Tomi Undergallows btw the Aielund Saga is a great campaign mod to play through. Classic fantasy and takes you from levels 1-40 with a classic oldschool feeling story.
Ahh, i see you are a man of culture as well. The Aielund Saga was definitely one of the best player made module series to come out. Last i heard the creator was turning it into a series of novels.
A game like Neverwinter Nights would *never* be made by today's AAA gaming companies. Free multiplayer connection service to player-owned persistent world servers. Player-made skins, maps, assets. Free toolkit provided by the developer for players to build and share their own game worlds, with custom scripting events that can completely change the game's mechanics and were only limited by your programming knowledge. The only way that the game was monetized beyond the initial purchase price was by buying expansions and premium modules, which were essentially miniature expansions with additional story lines to play through.
thats cause the gaming community opened their wallets and told them buying skins for 20 bucks was more important to them than player crafted and player hosted content. People are even buying the 430 dollar skin for League of Legends (no i didn't forget a decimal)
Ironically enough they tried to make something like this about 8 years ago and it almost succeeded. It was called Swordcoast Legends (which actually had a terrific main story). But as is often the case the game was rushed out by WOTC's behest and the DM toolkit was far too barbones (no ability to do branching quests, at least not outright, I managed to cheat it with a few modules I made) and hilariously the dungeons and dragons game had no dragon you could use as an asset. And the game never allowed you to import your own art until the very end. The promised expansion was released, and given to use for free because of broken promises, a nice gesture but the result was the studio went under and not long after the parent company assumed control and no long after shut the game down, meaning the game we spent money on was no even accessible unless you played your own modules. Its a cautionary tale about understanding the scope of a project but also in having patient backers. It makes you wonder what could have been if a studio like Larian had been given this project instead of a new studio in Florida with no support structure around it. For the record the toolkit as lacking as it was still allowed me to make several amazing modules that I was still very proud of. I learned to work within the confines of what it could do to achieve things that seemed impossible. But the game sadly had some terrible design decisions. First among those making loot something akin to Diablo. Everything was randomly generated and had crazy stat bonuses that made no sense in D&D.
@@rainzerdesu "the gaming community" "the tv watching community" "the book reading community" really puts into perspective how stupid it is to lump everyone who plays games into one group
Josh this was truly wonderful to watch. So much nostalgia put together with modern views made it a pleasure to watch. I hope you do both expansions as well and keep doing these long video formats as well, THANK YOU
One of my favorite CRPG alongside Neverwinter Nights 2 + Mask of the Betrayer. Aribeth's romance and being able to carry that over in the Hordes of the Underdark expansion is something that I will always remember fondly.
This brings lot of memories. Watching this i have no idea how me, as non-native english speaker child managed to beat this and baldurs gate games without any modern tools to help out. No wonder my english grades skyrocketed and i always found the classes way too easy.
This lol. Everyone I know went to paid English courses while I was correcting teachers and can actually speak it freely because of Black Isle and Bioware games.
This right here serves as a strong reminder that immersion is the best teacher for a language. You'll never learn any language better than just jumping in and taking a serious effort to learn it! Glad to hear this ol' game helped folks learn this absolutely convoluted language, on top of just being a delightful little game!
@@nintendork9207 Well i was in elementary school back then when it released :D ofc we get taught the basics of english, but understanding more nuanced elements of language does take a literal child some head-pounding to understand. I remember there wasn't any internet site or even magazine i had so i could've searched for info. Only way back in the early 2000's was to ask from your friends if they've beaten it.
@@nintendork9207 Also the game felt amazing to me as a kid. I was already reading Dragonlance series about the mage Raistlin by Margeret Weis & Tracy Hickman in english, because there wasn't any translated versions in my library. I was 10-11y old back then
This game is my childhood and still something I play everyday! I proudly help develop for one of the servers and it is an experience you cannot get anywhere else. The whole community is fantastic.
I bought a boxed copy of this at a local fair back in the early 2000's that came with a cloth map and ringed handbook - I think I paid $5 for it. I did not at all understand what D&D was at the time and I think I never made it out of the first area. I barely remember anything other than constantly making new games, fighting wolves, and moving items around in the inventory. Was super cool to see a full in-depth playthrough of the game!
yes. AC is your ability to dodge, deflect or absorb a hit via armor, shield, or movement effortlessly. Hit points are your ability to dodge, deflect or absorb a hit with effort. hit points are thus, more akin to a fatigue system. you are only actually HIT directly, mortally when you hit 0 hp, and are unconscious and making death saving throws. Dm can thus flavor attack rolls accordingly. like high roll versus high AC, the armor did its job. low roll versus high AC, was just plain a missed attack. and again, when flavoring your attacks, remember only the LAST hit, actually hits. example, "I sneak behind the enemy, stab him in his face with my dagger" roll to hit. hits. sneak attack, I deal 20 points of damage. the boss still has 78 hp. so.. no you didn't. if you stabbed him in the face, he would be dead. HP represents his ability to NOT get stabbed in the face. so this should be flavored as the guy with great effort avoiding it. his cheek was cut, his hand came up and blocked it, getting stabbed in the process, etc. character levels ARE experience. Experience in dnd is literal. this is why your HP, and proficiencies go up. you are getting more skilled at not getting stabbed in the face. and are more prepared for rogues to sneak up behind you and stab you.
@@solandri69they changed that apparently to galaxy of games since they don’t limit themselves to only old games these days. So I guess you learned something new again
@@KingLich451 they wanted to change their name but not their abbreviation as to not be associated with only old games so there are only so many word they can use. And tbh everyone still calls them by their old name anyway
For people who want to do the campaigns co-op with friends: learn DM codes (spawn items, give XP, etc), because you will hit many bugs that require them. Some of my weekly game sessions are half-spent figuring out what went wrong with the save file or why we can't transition to the next chapter, etc etc. ironically nwn1 is still officially updated while the more modern (relatively) nwn2 isnt
The rights to NWN2 are in limbo. Beamdog has tried many times to get them but have been denied multiple times. Which is probably for the best. all the 'original' content they have made for BG and NWN is not very good. I would have liked a remaster of NWN2 by obsidian, but that was years ago, literally a decade at this point. Since then Owlcat games have picked up the torch. If we ever see a NWN3 that uses 3.5 done by Owlcat we'd be blessed.
@@TheRealCaptainLavender lmao Owlcat are russian, so good luck ruining another franchise by making Kremlin take it hostage and tryna get D&D stuff boycotted in Ukraine... NWN2 needs a bugfixed re-release with decent modding support, like a way to update animations and manage mods apart from dumping into override. Not outsourced to katsaps.
@@KasumiRINA Point at the oblivious racist and laugh. Not only are Owlcat based in Cyprus (as of 2018), they have employees all over Europe. And if their founders are Russians, so what? A third of the world's Russians don't even live in the Russian Federation. All that matters is whether or not they can make a solid game with a powerful level-creation toolset, which Owlcat has the skillset to attempt, although they need to get a better engine and get a better QC department. If D&D stuff is subject to boycott in Ukraina by UKROP supporters, who cares, it's their loss.
This game was pretty much all I played from 2002 to 2008, it's been one of the few games that has been installed in every single one of my computers. I like BG more and replayed the BG trilogy almost religiously every 2 years, but NWN will always have a place in my heart. It's definitely one of my comfort games.
I have build sheets for all my major character designs, handwritten from 2003. They stay with the install disks for whenever I play the game.
2 месяца назад
Dude! Respect to your ability to create a narrative - over a narrative - while experiencing the narrative - and having the stones to upload longform. I enjoyed every minute b/c I too, now in my upper middle age, previously quit that game in act 2. But I can easily listen to a 2 hr narration by Josh any day while at other business vs slogging myself. Cheers mate!
A long video? By one of my favorite youtubers? About one of my all time favorite games? Who hasn't played it? Who's theorycrafting his own build? Christmas came early boys.
I really enjoyed that Video! I watched it over the last 4 days like half an hour at a time, was always a blast! Your naration makes the most monotone situation sound exiting and catching! Would 100% love more of that
Just watched this whole thing, amazing work! I don't know if people appreciate the amount of recording that had to be done for these long-form videos, let alone the editing of hours of footage just to get specific scenes as you narrate through the world. There's definitely an art to what you're doing, and I hope to become a supporter soon if it helps support more videos like this. Thank you!
The starting campaign is pretty whatever... but Shadows of Undrentide and Hordes of the Underdark are some of my favorite expansions ever. And the Modules, my god. Tales of Arterra, Honor Amoing Thieves, the Diablo 1 remake module... endless list!
36:10 Absolutely agreed! And BG3 somehow doesn't have that feature, while having all those small animations for specific situations. Such a small touch, but very much affected me enjoying the combat in both games differently. It made me enjoy dodging in DND setting.
BG3 also for some bizarre reason only uses one animation for normal attacks depending on weapon/size combination. NWN to this day probably has the best combat animations, which is sad because KOTOR had good saber on saber stuff but limited variety of weapons (three melee styles), NWN2 doesn't even animate cleave and had like 5 animations for all single hand weapons for entire game, so when making a swashbuckler with rapier she swung it same way as my paladin of Kelemvor with her bastard sword, and I just dropped the second run. Dragon Age had decent combos but again, limited weapon styles and not really clashing/dodging animations.
I remember playing this when I was 10 and being simultaneously overwhelmed but also enthralled by its possibility space. I'd never played DnD or even an immersive sim, so fiddling with locks and doors and breaking chests was so exciting that it gave my brain tingles. But then I was telling a friend about it and they started talking about this game called Morrowind...
@@Jarrych83I loved oblivion but I was like 14 when I played it and absolutely understand how it doesn't hold up. Skyrim was a coming-of-age moment for me since I found it truly disappointing. They haven't been the same since they got super successful.
Noah Caldwell-Gervais did a thorough look into Neverwinter nights, the sequel and the expansions as well as many premium modules for the first one. Highly recommended
Lovely Josh Lore moment around 1:51:30 -> You can try to hide your doggos from your youtube audience, but you cannot silence them completely. To hear it you have to listen very closely and turn up the volume really hard. And btw: Thank you for being my LotR substitute this saturday, Josh! ^-^
Wow, first video of yours that I've watched. This was amazing! I love D&D, but was never able to power through NWN. Great to see and understand the story!
Look up SessionZero. It's the live D&D show that Josh is the DM for. It's Josh, RageDarling, BillieTrixx, Callum Upton and a few special guests including one vampire twink. 😂
You even took into account that spring (morning) is right before summer ( a normal day), and autumn is before winter just like evenings are before night time. This is the best comment in this video
I remember playing this as a kid and giving up on it during Chapter 2, just like you said many people probably did. However, as soon as you started describing the side quest in Charwood, I had such vivid memories come flooding back to me. This side story is so good I shoplifted it to run for my own D&D group years later, and I still remember it as one of my favorite story experiences in a video game. It was probably my first experience ever in a game of a multiple-choice ending to an event with so much interesting detail in the between spaces. Cheers for stoking my nostalgia, JS.
One of my strongest memory impressions of NWN will always and forever just be Aribeth's voice actor saying 'Waterdavian' in that incredibly crisp, cultured, and dignified way lololol
@@Blisterdude123 I can still hear her voice going "Let me introduce myself properly. I am lady Aribeth de Tylmarande, paladin in the service of Tyr and right hand to Nasher Alagondor, lord of Neverwinter."
Never finished OC. My last attempt at Wailing Death campaign was on release of Enhanced Edition and I got save corruption that made every save made AFTER some early point damaged goods (it loaded, but on second attempts, so I couldn't transition to chapter 2 prelude). But Shadows? Deekin alone carries it through. Only problem with it was low exp amount so entering Hordes of the Underdark I was too weak.
NWN , homm 3 , bg1&2 and gothic... the giants that raised us all. This has one of the best coop experiences i had with my 2 brothers, we would play it nonstop for days and we still comeback to this game each year for a few weeks to play a new community module. I am jelous of people who are yet to experience it and i hope their first time experience is atleast half as good as mine ^^
Thanks for playing. I remember playing this as a teenager all those years ago, with my druid, her animal companion, summoned creatures and Tomi Undergallows along for the ride.. It was great seeing it again, I remember it being a lot better than it seems now, but I had alot more time to game so I guess all the padding and repetition didn't bother me.
Kevin Sorbo was the VA for Hercules in GoW 2. I just remember that because I was a huge fan of "The Legendary Journeys of Hercules" so him coming back to Voice a very different version was some pretty effective fan service.
My Neverwinter Nights main campaign run was as a wizard rogue who would stack buffs, disappear into the shadows, and deal some nasty sneak attacks constantly. All of the bosses in the final part of the campaign are completely immune to sneak attacks.
Almost the same here. Wizard with a panther familiar and Tomi. Double sneak attack with buffs was vicious until it simply stopped working. I lost all desire to play at the 10 minutes left in the video mark. Based on chapter 3, I thought I was less than a quarter thru chapter 4. Near the end of chapter 3, I figured out that my familiar was reducing my XP gain. I'd assumed that left me underleveled and I was royally pissed a class feature reduced XP. Looks like I've been wrong for 2 decades and the game level scales.
@@Skandraken There might be a difference between the original gameversion and what was available sicne the expansions though. I own a book guide from when the game released and it has actual statblocks with HP, AC and all that stuff for strong enemies and bosses. Never mentioned in there any variations based on level, so it may have been added retrospectively with the expansions. Prestige classes (Champion of Thorm, Dwarven defender, etc.) were also not available as far as I remember in the original gameversion. I could be entirely wrong though of course as I was a child when I played the crap out of the game and I honestly never bothered trying to count hitpoints or anything on enemies and they always seemed to be getting weaker and weaker the more XP and sidequests I ended up grinding. At least their pwoer rating went down and most enemies were not that big of a deal for my Fighter or Paladin I used to play.
@@KonaFanatiker As someone who used HoU freshly created chars in the original campaign (just to mess around) I can confidently say there were no level scaling. Maybe it's another Enhanced Edition change?
@@Skandraken I think it's Josh who is wrong here, because I exported high level chars to the original campaign and I here were no level scaling. Enhanced Edition feature perhaps?
I love how accessible BG3 seems to be compared to other D&D style RPGs. Seeing the actual dice rolls makes the system far easier to understand to those new to table top RPGs.
Yes, it was amazing. Maybe not as good as Baldur'sGate or Planescape: Torment but still. And the Toolset which let players create new mods easily made this game immortal.
I played hundreds of hours of nwn back in the day. I think i played about 2 hours of the campaign. I couldn't get through it. But the multiplayer servers brought a community that was incredible, and countless curated, player driven adventures for years. I love this game so much. I may even revisit to see how active it truly still is! Loved this video!
Josh I know this is completely unrelated. but my friends and I (about 4 of us OG players, and 3 new) are all replaying Guild Wars1 and I credit your video on it as a big reason for why I remembered it and dragged them all back, tysm, we're having a blast. time to make some tea and strap in for this one (I also never played but I have a friend who talks it up a lot)
this was my introduction to anything set in the forgotten realms universe. it's amazing how over decades of lots of different games this universe has expanded and lore been added from neverwinter knights to baldurs gate 3.
as a kid, I played a rogue who diligently kept disarming and keeping all the traps I encountered in the game. used them when I knew I would prep for something hairy. It was when I encountered the red dragon where, on the bridge, I must've set up about 20+ (prolly more) of the deadliest traps I had on hand. No joke, when I led the red dragon into the traps, they walked quite a few, but in less than 3 seconds he died, and I even had leftovers to pick back up again. My kid brain had so much elation from that forwards prepping.
Killing dragons with traps was also a big thing in Baldurs Gate 2. You didn't have to carry them around though, it's just a class ability. But yeah, traps were hugely useful there too.
This was my strategy when playing KOTOR.
Yep! I did the exact same thing. Really, playing as a Rogue was so fun in this game, because of how tactical you needed to be. It was amazing.
You have my respect, you dastardly rogue!
@@johnathanmcdoe😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😮😊😊😅😅😮😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😊😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😊😅😅😅😅
The brazilian aviation industry now can grow stronger with a 3 hour long video.
As a Brazilian, I approve this message
INFRAERO thanks you for your service
We have to talk about your sister dude
Guarulhos is at peace, once again.
there is no brazilian aviation industry and we all know whos at fault
58:25 "That's a question for the scholars. Brother Hammerbane is a cleric. He has a hammer. Therefore, every problem is a nail"
Poetry 😂
I roleplay on a NWN server called Arelith and used to be in the Druid community when another player roleplayed a character called Burin. He is largely regarded as the greatest Archdruid in the history of the server, and he even became the loading screen artwork for the Druid Grove areas. To have such an impact on RPers and the server itself is just so cool, and the fact that such communities are still active to this day is amazing. In terms of RP, no other game can offer the same amount of depth or immersion as NWN, especially with servers like Arelith. Sure it has its drama with players or jerk DMs, but that's just D&D for you unfortunately. For a game to be over 20 years old to still have such impact and authenticity is incredible, no other game can touch Neverwinter Nights!
Arelith is still around?!?! Woah. That makes me want to boot this up and play it again.
Tty divinity original sin 2
I used to play on Arelith, but I had some issues with the cliquiness of the people running the server. It very much had the energy of "You're just a side character in our world", and I wasn't entirely keen on it.
I remember there being an issue in which I had infiltrated the guard as a character who was a secret cultist antipaladin of Bane, and the DM/DMFG person who was in charge of the faction metagamed this almost immediately, and when I protested OOC, my character was killed. It left a really sour note.
I'm glad you enjoyed your time there, I did not.
@@KindaJewish Yeah that's definitely the server's biggest problem, the cliquiness of it. Especially being so old, there are many players who have been in positions of power for literally years and they're never going to leave. Particularly with the Halflings and Elves. I don't know the full story of why the player of Burin left, all I know is that a DM was being shitty, which is another problem the server has. But the fact he's still the loading screen for the grove speaks to his influence. I miss the nature RP a lot!
Despite shitty players and even shittier DMs, the best fun I have is staying small scale and avoiding the big stuff. Like you said, it's hard to get involved anyway.
I played on Prisoners of the Mist like 20 years ago. My friend an I both played cannibalistic druids, viewing the city people as cattle that herd themselves into their city walls. We actually did this thing where we cursed the local temple, causing the NPC's to die. The DM that was watching all of this actually KILLED the NPC's permanently in the next server update, and started an entire story (with custom NPC dialogue and in-game quests) about the curse that other players had to eventually deal with over the next several MONTHS of RP. It is to this day the best RP experience I've ever had in any video game.
I have a deep fondness for the phrase "But that is a tale for another time." It just feels so evocative to me.
It does have quite the mystic ring to it doesn't it?
Like a journey that ran before yours or parallel even sometimes but you know waiting and earning it later down the road is so satisfying listening long enough to hear said other tale
@@ViktorErikFade I remember playing Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance back in the day as a kid pretty soon after it had come out. And the ending narration of "But that is a tale for another time" gave me chills.
@@Warhammerdude299 I never personally played but I Ike dnd and fantasy so I can imagine
That’s how Fable ended, and it sounded great there too
I just read Lord of the Rings for the first time and this phrase was used a couple times. It made me run l entire side stories through my head that could be told, it’s a great phrase.
Josh pedantically explaining dungeons and dragons while holding a giant d20 and mugcrophone is so great
mugcrophone... Nice one.
That's the Session Zero D20! That's the die that gets thrown into the crowd for their stage show.
This is actually the second D20 as Josh traded his Blue D20 for the red D20 a fan brought.
Sorry for the random info comment dump, but seeing Josh do this makes me miss SessionZero. Can't wait for the next one.
@@DM-MilkMannah, I appreciate the random lore dump commenter.
I don't know what it's from but now I know why he has a red D20 and that's pretty neat
@@DM-MilkMan yeah cheers I had no idea
Pedantically explaining DND, and also describing very standard game mechanics like it's some beautiful-mind move of game design. Along with also describing moments where he has to cheese the hell out of encounters because he is choosing to play the game solo, but not regarding those moments as negative when he talks about how he has barely any criticisms.
Wouldn't expect any different from him lol. At least it's good background content while I'm working.
In case anyone is confused 'Waterdhavian Creatures' means 'Creatures from the city of Waterdeep'
Well not really. You have "Nazi soldiers" coming from the country of "Germany" IRL.
@@janaussiger4111 ? "Waterdhavian" is the term for someone/something native to Waterdeep.
That also made no sense to me cause the creatures were shipped from Waterdeep. I doubt an Intellect Devourer or a Yuan Ti are native to Waterdeep
@@Maiden.less. Perhaps they were captured in the Undermountain or taken from someone's menagerie?
@@synthetic240 That could be it, right. I forgot the Undermountain is right there. Was just a strange moniker to me, you don't call a Succubus inside Baldurs Gate a "Baldurian Succubus". Maybe Waterdeep is just very pretentious and they slapped their branding on there.
"Attack! ah SAYYYYY~ attack!!" High Strung Evangelist's voice has forever rang in my brain years later.
I loved that voice. lol.
"Not even a dent?! This weapon is useless!"
Here comes halfling death!
game was so weird. some aspects have absurd ammount of flavor, while others are completely bland.
I love you all, so much.
1:18:00 - "Nothing to be done now. Best to loot the place."
That's it. They captured the essence of D&D
ok..... i dont think there are many 3 hours videos out there that made me sit for its entirety paying attention to it.
This one tho..... yeah this one did...
Thanks for this one in particular Josh, i can only start to imagine how much work you had to put into this and so here i am because i feel the urge to tell you i have watched it all, and it is an incredible tale, and you managed to keep me hooked up in your narrative for the entire video.
Absolutely stunning! Thanks again for your hard work!
He's really good at what he does man
29:38 - it is actually possible for Pavel to survive here!
It might require healing him/killing the mage more quickly but yeah, he can survive and will accompany you into the barn. You get some extra dialogue with him but ultimately he decides he's not cut out for this and leaves. Kinda neat.
I didnt know he could die. Ive never had him killed.
Yeah, but he's still a trope of Bioware tutorial character who leaves like Trask to fight Sith on Endar Spire or parents in Dragon Age Noble origin or like Corporal L. JEEEEEEEEEENKINS.
@@chrisyaworski2080 Same :D first time seeing him died
Neat. Never knew he could die.
Played it with various characters. So, yeah, seen him KOed, saved him other times.
This game was my jam back when I graduated from BG2.
I have never been more hyped for a game pre-release than NWN. I was active in the old Bioware forums, learnt the scripting language and planned out campaigns before the game had even launched. Smashed through the campaign and then spent years making modules and addons. This was such a great part of my life for 5 years or so.
I *still* make modules - and have worked on Persistent Worlds in Multiplayer as recently as last year. Lol
This game has had the biggest impact on my childhood as a PC gamer. I was 9yo and I was playing a definitely-legal version that used to crash after prelude or somewhere 10-15% through Act 1. I played it on repeat, explored classes, read about them, tried to understand the mechanics and all the numbers (I knew nothing of D&D until much much later), learned English by reading all the damn dialogue and grew a fondness for fantasy storytelling.
What a beast of a game.
That's basically what I did for Baldurs Gate 1 haha
nice story. i learned english and the meaning of terror in diablo 1. "fresh meat" still frightens me
Likewise. This game was just... amazing. Even to this day its so good!
Are you me? I bought the game legally (in Polish, though) and installed English dialogue file so I could have easier time online and with English mods. Learned a LOT of words and phrases just from this game and Diablo 2.
Such a good start to a series!
Very much looking forward to seeing you play through the expansions!
There's so much time you can put into this series, and it's like a multiplayer RPG with the ability to be MMO esque among other things - let alone NWN2. People have put thousands, some maybe tens of thousands of hours into these two games that are like hundreds of games within an engine/toolkit.
3 hour video on an awesome game… Thought I’d watch an hour while my wife and daughter get ready for our trip… it’s now been almost all 3 hours and I’m still waiting. Thanks Josh!
Plays cleric in NWN. Does not cheese. Ingame spells heal and harm , they leave enemy with 1d4 hitpoints,
Point of order, henchmen have their own questlines. Complete these questlines and you can get some really powerful gear that upgrades in later chapters by furthering their questlines. But you can only continue the questline if you have done it in the previous chapter, so if you miss a questline, it's gone. And yeah, the gear is POWERFUL. You don't have to travel with them constantly to unlock it, but pick them up, do what you can and dismiss them.
Not using henchmen is skipping over a MAJOR part of the gameplay, in other games it would be akin to not engaging with crafting systems or ignoring your skills page on levelup. I cannot comprehend why he would choose to do that for a "review" play through. A challenge run possibly, but for this kind of video he should be going for the "intended" method of play which includes henchmen.
Refuses to engage the henchman system. Complains about not having party members. 💀
@@HeyHedgehog He does mention not being able to change the henchmens equipment during that topic. So they wouldn't have helped with the loot being mostly useless and boring. They also wouldn't have helped much with the character advancement system being a little bit weak for a single character, since you don't make any choices regarding their levels.
@@Sotanaht01 Yet another thing they improved in the expansions. As I recall, in the expansions you could adjust your companions' equipment, use them to carry extra stuff, and (through dialogue) could influence their leveling a bit to better fill gaps on the team.
You can duplicate this gear by dropping the un-upgraded version mid dialogue. Can get two rings for +7 cha and +2 hp regen in total.
"Heal my wounds! Now!
"All right dear, I'm getting to it." (Casts Flamestrike)
"Heal my wounds! Now!
"All right dear, I'm getting to it." (Casts Flamestrike)
You have died
"Takasi! Excuse my Elven"
If you read through her dialogue to recruit her, you knew EXACTLY what you were getting into.
@@jj48 That's fair. LOL
it's not her fault, she just wanted to....
Lady Aribeth was my first crush in gaming
"RIP Londa, atleast you can go and see your children now", BRUH THAT WAS COLD ASF.
54:41 Little info about that intellect devourer boss fight:
You can also persuade the guards to leave, removing the number of hosts it can get.
Successfully making a guard leaves awards with some exp.
Was about to say this too. If memory serves me right, that gives you some good points for alignment purposes too.
Also it seems Josh didn't free Uncas so he had to fight his way through Utghardt and kill the chieftain... which is shame
Yeah, me and my wife had a routine each time we played where one would drag away the host and the other spammed persuade till they're all gone. Good times.
Actually, I only persuaded at the end. I did not understand that I needed to do it during battle so I quickly killed it before it jumped for new body.
"Put down the pitchforks." Pitchforks? Brother, I mobilized all armies of the Empire of Men.
Josh: I never played this game.
SUMMON THE ELECTOR COUNTS!
*Stops lighting a torch mid sentence* wha? Are we rioting or not?!?
lmao
i hope you prepared the pipe organ rocket launcher
@@Noblesix84 FORM A RING OF STEEL! (around josh)
NWN was my first serious D&D RPG, I spent countless hours playing not only the campaign, but also in its online modules. It boasted an amazing community of module builders and online adventures - all created and ran by fellow players, mostly for free. It was amazing.
i realy enjoyed the DOTA Type Module :> War of Dragons or what was it called?
NWN Persistant World Servers was where I learned about D&D and Roleplaying. Best experiences of my childhood.
They are still there, and better than ever.
@@Fanther you stole my words! I'm back to NVM and there are TONS of custom servers offering lots of adventures
It was also my first DnD game back in the day. Though I had no idea how the systems functioned so I never got very far.
Please, make more videos about Neverwinter Nights!!!!
Awesome work, mate!
You can tell that despite the game's problems, Josh can really appreciate the genuine, whole-hearted *fantasy* displayed in this game, and the way he talks about it always sweeps me away with that feeling too. I got genuinely excited hearing him start to talk about the expansion and his new character
This game was my childhood. Hell, the module editor is FANTASTIC and the scripting in it was the gateway to me learning how to code. 10/10 Deekin
I taught game design at a university and this game was literally the textbook
And Tomi Undergallows
Deekin is the best boy
"You can tell the difference because that one Beckons, and this one Wails" I appreciate you please keep doing what you do 😂
This game is still INCREDIBLY active online, with big multiplayer servers that have their own communities and cultures and ecosystems that have been cultivated over the last 22 years!
And the mod community
And single player modules, high quality ones too.
Ahh really? I used to love the online on this years ago with DMs! Have you any details?
@@thewaryfiend4326Google either Sigil Planar Legends or Golarion Chronicles (still in development)
@AFndjdj7373your comment made me laugh outloud😂😂lmao it really seems like every long running server community ends up being weirdos usually of the furry variety
I like the idea of naming the great scary dangerous demon queen Morag, because that's a very common Scottish Gaelic girl's name.. essentially the equivalent of naming your bbeg "Emily" or something equally basic
Great freaking video. Very detailed and not boring at all. U know how hard that is!!
Neverwinter Nights and Neverwinter Nights 2 + Mask of the Betrayer defined a lot of my childhood gaming alongside Runescape.
Same
I played MotB for the first time last year and yeah, it holds up stupidly well - and the writing is fantastic. It even got me reading some of the Forgotten Realms novels, the lore was so good.
I relate to this so much.
I played nwn2 so much online when i was kid, if I remember correctly there were 3 expansions, that games was epic
I 100% agree with you on MotB. I don't think an RPG story has hooked me like that since.
Moral of the story: WotC will forever be a menace to creative freedom.
It's a miracle that Larian could do all they did with BG3. Maybe Sven manage to get some kind of creativity clause. But then, we were denied DLCs because of Hasbros's greedyness, so I guess that evens out.
WotCs behaviour is so shortsighted, they're burning bridges at an alarming rate and I jumped ships TTRPG wise and I'm not going back...
As for BG3 I'm really excited for the modding tool being released, it's the kinda thing that'll keep me enjoying the game for a long time@@DarkErrant
@@chloetherainbowqueen3025 Yeah. I think Larian knew they needed a modded tool so the community could create what they couldn't. I'm really looking forward to that.
@@DarkErranti dislike wotc as much as the next guy but larian has never ever done dlc for any of there games. i dont think they would have made dlc even if hasbro begged them to
@@isaacspeilman700 unpopular opinion: i think larian should've done their own game and gb3 should've gone to obsidian or owlcat.
1:54:40 they're not using polymorph potions, they are wererats. Wererats in D&D are based on the "Swords of Lankhmar" (Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser) book series by Fritz Leiber, in those books they are basically a clan of shapeshifting thieves who live in the sewers underneath Lankhmar (the main city in the books and inspiration for most of your typical D&D major cities, also famously parodied as Ankh-Morpork by Terry Pratchett.)
5th edition zoomers never seen wererats before? Weird.
Fritz hardly ever gets mentioned. He wrote adult fantasy as opposed to Tolkien's child fantasy
Fascinating. Now I know what inspired Wererats in both Planescape: Torment and Lionheart: Legacy of the crusader.
Wererats are actually no 1 enemy in D&D 2.0 and onwards, only if environment changes to caves or forest it is usually kobold or goblin
That series had some genius ideas and concepts.
God, what a wild trip back. I played a ton of NWN and NWN2 on persistent world servers. Roleplaying in those anonymous spaces really helped me find myself and decide who I wanted to be. Thanks for this, Josh, I might see if some of those old places are still running.
Holy shit. Another one of my favorite youtubers made a 3 HOUR retrospective on my favorite game ever made? I'm as locked in as I will ever be. You are doing the lords' service Josh!
There is so many hidden XP multiplier pentalies in this game.
Multiclassing - less xp,
Party member - less xp,
Animal companion? - less xp,
Summoned creature? - less xp,
Playing barbarian or fighter? - less xp for first 7 lvls,
21:45 There is a "Defensive casting stance" which prevents extra attacks of opportunity but requires more concentration. irrc game doesnt explain it much, i randomly found it in one of menu's.
22:56 Get a "Cleave" feat, it speeds up combat a lot. Using shields & lower dmg weapons will prolong combat as you trade dmg output for survivability.
20:38 Thats not true, all weapons attack at the same speed unless you have pentaly or bonus for using specific weapons
35:04 Early game as cleric is very easy bc cleric got assigned tons of bonus xp multiplier for first 7-9 lvls.
45:13 Two handed scale better than dual wield because you dont have heavy attack roll pentalies, its not a noob trap, it a playstale. Dual wielding requires spending 3 Feats to be any good, 4 if you want to use optimal weapon which are double headed weapons,which are all under "exotic weap" feat, otherwise you need to use medium&light weapon which lowers your dmg
1:00:06 There is a search mode on your VERY hotbar under F2, it greatly increses chances of finding traps
I will be back with more once i get in game to the later point than possible spoilers
1:03:23 Avalible much earlier in main trader in docks. You been there
1:05:15 You can use more than single tier of spells at the same time, some of early spells are useful through the entire game, like bless & aid to boost rolls by a fair bit. Same with stacking multiple weapon buffs, you can puth both fire & bonus enchancement on the same weapon.
1:09:11 using programs like Cheat engine can help a lot when replaying older rpgs, they needed to artifically prolong playtime & chapter 2 is sad example of that, very long paths to waste much time
Honestly I never considered cheats until now - I've reached a point in act 3 where I simply cant handle the dragons. It feels like the obtuse systems in the game have worked against me to the point where I can't really hit them and they hit like trucks. Heavily considering this now...
My bad wording here, what i mean by using cheat engine was speedhack to run game at faster speed so walking, resting and breaking chests take less time. @@broshmosh
@@broshmoshmost classes have Access to summon spell and they are really overpowered. If you dont multiclass, your spell tier of summons can easily kill everything. You could try using them to waste most of enemy spells/power.
You could also stack bonus dc, Aliagment based dc is really easy to find on capes & usually quite strong ~4, and stacking with other types of bonus ac
Thank you! This game is simply one of the GOATs in the genre. I never had any trouble beating it either in spite of often playing Fighters or Barbarians. Single class magic user is also wonderfully OP, I think at one time I had like 7 different summons, companions and other adds including that Golem you can pick up and load with spells.
tbf when you can bring your character from one campaign into another it kinda adds up anyway.
"AYE IT'S DONE" - Tomi Undergallows
btw the Aielund Saga is a great campaign mod to play through. Classic fantasy and takes you from levels 1-40 with a classic oldschool feeling story.
I love Tomi more than my own family
"Eh? What can Tomi do for ya?"
Ahh, i see you are a man of culture as well. The Aielund Saga was definitely one of the best player made module series to come out. Last i heard the creator was turning it into a series of novels.
"''ERE COMES HALFLING DEATH!!!"
The companions in the Aielund Saga were amazing. Solid well-written backgrounds that made them feel like proper three dimensional people.
A game like Neverwinter Nights would *never* be made by today's AAA gaming companies.
Free multiplayer connection service to player-owned persistent world servers.
Player-made skins, maps, assets.
Free toolkit provided by the developer for players to build and share their own game worlds, with custom scripting events that can completely change the game's mechanics and were only limited by your programming knowledge.
The only way that the game was monetized beyond the initial purchase price was by buying expansions and premium modules, which were essentially miniature expansions with additional story lines to play through.
Can't let players connect to private servers, they might host naughty content on them.
thats cause the gaming community opened their wallets and told them buying skins for 20 bucks was more important to them than player crafted and player hosted content. People are even buying the 430 dollar skin for League of Legends (no i didn't forget a decimal)
Hear me out, what if they have to pay for player made stuff? $_$
Ironically enough they tried to make something like this about 8 years ago and it almost succeeded. It was called Swordcoast Legends (which actually had a terrific main story). But as is often the case the game was rushed out by WOTC's behest and the DM toolkit was far too barbones (no ability to do branching quests, at least not outright, I managed to cheat it with a few modules I made) and hilariously the dungeons and dragons game had no dragon you could use as an asset. And the game never allowed you to import your own art until the very end. The promised expansion was released, and given to use for free because of broken promises, a nice gesture but the result was the studio went under and not long after the parent company assumed control and no long after shut the game down, meaning the game we spent money on was no even accessible unless you played your own modules.
Its a cautionary tale about understanding the scope of a project but also in having patient backers. It makes you wonder what could have been if a studio like Larian had been given this project instead of a new studio in Florida with no support structure around it.
For the record the toolkit as lacking as it was still allowed me to make several amazing modules that I was still very proud of. I learned to work within the confines of what it could do to achieve things that seemed impossible. But the game sadly had some terrible design decisions. First among those making loot something akin to Diablo. Everything was randomly generated and had crazy stat bonuses that made no sense in D&D.
@@rainzerdesu "the gaming community"
"the tv watching community"
"the book reading community"
really puts into perspective how stupid it is to lump everyone who plays games into one group
Josh this was truly wonderful to watch. So much nostalgia put together with modern views made it a pleasure to watch. I hope you do both expansions as well and keep doing these long video formats as well, THANK YOU
27:40: while barely qualifying as romance, there is also a dialogue choice late in the game to be "more than friends" with Sharwyn.
One of my favorite CRPG alongside Neverwinter Nights 2 + Mask of the Betrayer. Aribeth's romance and being able to carry that over in the Hordes of the Underdark expansion is something that I will always remember fondly.
Mask of the Betrayer is my fav rpg of all time. Would love a remake.
This brings lot of memories. Watching this i have no idea how me, as non-native english speaker child managed to beat this and baldurs gate games without any modern tools to help out. No wonder my english grades skyrocketed and i always found the classes way too easy.
This lol. Everyone I know went to paid English courses while I was correcting teachers and can actually speak it freely because of Black Isle and Bioware games.
This right here serves as a strong reminder that immersion is the best teacher for a language. You'll never learn any language better than just jumping in and taking a serious effort to learn it! Glad to hear this ol' game helped folks learn this absolutely convoluted language, on top of just being a delightful little game!
@@nintendork9207 Well i was in elementary school back then when it released :D ofc we get taught the basics of english, but understanding more nuanced elements of language does take a literal child some head-pounding to understand. I remember there wasn't any internet site or even magazine i had so i could've searched for info. Only way back in the early 2000's was to ask from your friends if they've beaten it.
@@nintendork9207 Also the game felt amazing to me as a kid. I was already reading Dragonlance series about the mage Raistlin by Margeret Weis & Tracy Hickman in english, because there wasn't any translated versions in my library. I was 10-11y old back then
This game is my childhood and still something I play everyday! I proudly help develop for one of the servers and it is an experience you cannot get anywhere else. The whole community is fantastic.
I bought a boxed copy of this at a local fair back in the early 2000's that came with a cloth map and ringed handbook - I think I paid $5 for it. I did not at all understand what D&D was at the time and I think I never made it out of the first area. I barely remember anything other than constantly making new games, fighting wolves, and moving items around in the inventory. Was super cool to see a full in-depth playthrough of the game!
Half way through my second watch. This may be my favorite video this far. Thanks Josh
17:51 This is the best explanation I’ve ever heard explaining the nuance of “armor class”. Simple, and effective.
yes. AC is your ability to dodge, deflect or absorb a hit via armor, shield, or movement effortlessly.
Hit points are your ability to dodge, deflect or absorb a hit with effort. hit points are thus, more akin to a fatigue system.
you are only actually HIT directly, mortally when you hit 0 hp, and are unconscious and making death saving throws.
Dm can thus flavor attack rolls accordingly. like high roll versus high AC, the armor did its job. low roll versus high AC, was just plain a missed attack.
and again, when flavoring your attacks, remember only the LAST hit, actually hits.
example, "I sneak behind the enemy, stab him in his face with my dagger" roll to hit. hits. sneak attack, I deal 20 points of damage. the boss still has 78 hp. so.. no you didn't. if you stabbed him in the face, he would be dead. HP represents his ability to NOT get stabbed in the face. so this should be flavored as the guy with great effort avoiding it. his cheek was cut, his hand came up and blocked it, getting stabbed in the process, etc.
character levels ARE experience. Experience in dnd is literal. this is why your HP, and proficiencies go up. you are getting more skilled at not getting stabbed in the face. and are more prepared for rogues to sneak up behind you and stab you.
Nearly 25 years later, I finally learn what "A splinter in flight" means.
LOL - I learned that gog stands for Good Old Games.
@@solandri69they changed that apparently to galaxy of games since they don’t limit themselves to only old games these days. So I guess you learned something new again
@@philritter9042Really? Thats a lame name
@@KingLich451 they wanted to change their name but not their abbreviation as to not be associated with only old games so there are only so many word they can use. And tbh everyone still calls them by their old name anyway
Bing stands for "Because it's not Google"
Every time I see see the microphone in the mug I can't help but laugh.
I love this channel, Josh! It is one of the best things out on youtube!
Ready for the dlc video.
Growing up nwn was formative
For people who want to do the campaigns co-op with friends: learn DM codes (spawn items, give XP, etc), because you will hit many bugs that require them. Some of my weekly game sessions are half-spent figuring out what went wrong with the save file or why we can't transition to the next chapter, etc etc. ironically nwn1 is still officially updated while the more modern (relatively) nwn2 isnt
The rights to NWN2 are in limbo. Beamdog has tried many times to get them but have been denied multiple times. Which is probably for the best. all the 'original' content they have made for BG and NWN is not very good. I would have liked a remaster of NWN2 by obsidian, but that was years ago, literally a decade at this point. Since then Owlcat games have picked up the torch. If we ever see a NWN3 that uses 3.5 done by Owlcat we'd be blessed.
@@TheRealCaptainLavender You want NWN with crazy stat bloat, bugs and pointless side activities(which grind the story to a near halt)?
NWN 2's construction kit was MUCH harder to learn in my opinion, which didn't help its longevity.
@@TheRealCaptainLavender lmao Owlcat are russian, so good luck ruining another franchise by making Kremlin take it hostage and tryna get D&D stuff boycotted in Ukraine... NWN2 needs a bugfixed re-release with decent modding support, like a way to update animations and manage mods apart from dumping into override. Not outsourced to katsaps.
@@KasumiRINA Point at the oblivious racist and laugh. Not only are Owlcat based in Cyprus (as of 2018), they have employees all over Europe. And if their founders are Russians, so what? A third of the world's Russians don't even live in the Russian Federation. All that matters is whether or not they can make a solid game with a powerful level-creation toolset, which Owlcat has the skillset to attempt, although they need to get a better engine and get a better QC department. If D&D stuff is subject to boycott in Ukraina by UKROP supporters, who cares, it's their loss.
Ahh, the nostalgia. I played this as a kid and still remember the awesome spell chants... "Obidie! Bedua! Val'kat!"
Miku! Soleno! Samazka!
Fortano! Fortisima!
I hate how NWN2 took stuff from 1st game and somehow made it worse.
This game was pretty much all I played from 2002 to 2008, it's been one of the few games that has been installed in every single one of my computers. I like BG more and replayed the BG trilogy almost religiously every 2 years, but NWN will always have a place in my heart. It's definitely one of my comfort games.
I have build sheets for all my major character designs, handwritten from 2003. They stay with the install disks for whenever I play the game.
Dude! Respect to your ability to create a narrative - over a narrative - while experiencing the narrative - and having the stones to upload longform. I enjoyed every minute b/c I too, now in my upper middle age, previously quit that game in act 2. But I can easily listen to a 2 hr narration by Josh any day while at other business vs slogging myself. Cheers mate!
This video is one of the best sleeping aids I have ever watched. I mean that in the best possible way
Following you for a long time, never commented, but when you play my all time favourite game I can't help it as I just have a massive smile on my face
I have the Eye of Neverwinter tattooed on my leg
dude. this was awesome. youre awesome. can't wait for the expansions!!!
A long video?
By one of my favorite youtubers?
About one of my all time favorite games?
Who hasn't played it?
Who's theorycrafting his own build?
Christmas came early boys.
So did you, by the sound of it
@@Elearenon you
I really enjoyed that Video! I watched it over the last 4 days like half an hour at a time, was always a blast! Your naration makes the most monotone situation sound exiting and catching! Would 100% love more of that
Just watched this whole thing, amazing work! I don't know if people appreciate the amount of recording that had to be done for these long-form videos, let alone the editing of hours of footage just to get specific scenes as you narrate through the world. There's definitely an art to what you're doing, and I hope to become a supporter soon if it helps support more videos like this. Thank you!
The starting campaign is pretty whatever... but Shadows of Undrentide and Hordes of the Underdark are some of my favorite expansions ever. And the Modules, my god. Tales of Arterra, Honor Amoing Thieves, the Diablo 1 remake module... endless list!
Deekin. Freakin Deekin. He alone made the entire game worth it.
The aielund saga is iconic too (free mod)
@@rcslyman8929 Deekin is to this day still my favourite crpg companion.
Shadows felt like whatever to me, the last dungeon was painful to run through. But Hordes is insanely good
This was one of the most engrossing "Was it Good?" videos so far. I'd watch you do all of that series for sure.
36:10 Absolutely agreed! And BG3 somehow doesn't have that feature, while having all those small animations for specific situations. Such a small touch, but very much affected me enjoying the combat in both games differently. It made me enjoy dodging in DND setting.
BG3 also for some bizarre reason only uses one animation for normal attacks depending on weapon/size combination. NWN to this day probably has the best combat animations, which is sad because KOTOR had good saber on saber stuff but limited variety of weapons (three melee styles), NWN2 doesn't even animate cleave and had like 5 animations for all single hand weapons for entire game, so when making a swashbuckler with rapier she swung it same way as my paladin of Kelemvor with her bastard sword, and I just dropped the second run. Dragon Age had decent combos but again, limited weapon styles and not really clashing/dodging animations.
I appreaciate a long, thorough video a lot. Thanks Josh
Thoroughly enjoyed watching this while killing time for work to finish. I loved NWN, so it was a blast for me. Thanks.
I remember playing this when I was 10 and being simultaneously overwhelmed but also enthralled by its possibility space. I'd never played DnD or even an immersive sim, so fiddling with locks and doors and breaking chests was so exciting that it gave my brain tingles.
But then I was telling a friend about it and they started talking about this game called Morrowind...
I'm still disappointed by all Elder Scrolls games after Morrowind. Other than Morrowind combat jank, of course.
@@Jarrych83I loved oblivion but I was like 14 when I played it and absolutely understand how it doesn't hold up. Skyrim was a coming-of-age moment for me since I found it truly disappointing. They haven't been the same since they got super successful.
Noah Caldwell-Gervais did a thorough look into Neverwinter nights, the sequel and the expansions as well as many premium modules for the first one. Highly recommended
His video convinced me to get the game, this video just solidifies why it's so good
noah smashed that video on baldurs gate, hes a G
who
@@Ninjujitsu noah caldwell gervais
That is a LEGENDARY video. One of the best on this platform imo, Noah outdid himself with it.
Lovely Josh Lore moment around 1:51:30 -> You can try to hide your doggos from your youtube audience, but you cannot silence them completely.
To hear it you have to listen very closely and turn up the volume really hard.
And btw: Thank you for being my LotR substitute this saturday, Josh! ^-^
CW: Doggo
Wow, first video of yours that I've watched. This was amazing! I love D&D, but was never able to power through NWN. Great to see and understand the story!
This gotta be one of the best if not the best video you uploaded so far, dude is still improving danm
Now we need a video of Josh doing a DnD session, doing every roll with his giant D20 dice.
Look up SessionZero. It's the live D&D show that Josh is the DM for.
It's Josh, RageDarling, BillieTrixx, Callum Upton and a few special guests including one vampire twink. 😂
Absolutely LOVE the length of the video
We need a sequel called Alwaysummer Days, followed by Sometimespring Mornings and Oftenautumn Evenings.
"Write that down!"
Ha!
That is true
You even took into account that spring (morning) is right before summer ( a normal day), and autumn is before winter just like evenings are before night time. This is the best comment in this video
Isn't Alwaysummer Days that one sitcom where all the memes are from?
Neverwinter nights 2 has one of the best campaigns ever, you're gonna have fun playing that. I played it recently
Hopefully with MotB, one of the best expansions of all time.
Good gameplay, weak narrative.
This was like the best 3hr movie that I've watched in a while. Beautifully done!
NWN basically kickstarted my love for RPGs, both tabletop and digital.
2:41 turn subtitles on for GAY KNOWLEDGE 💯
What are the odds I pause at exactly this time stamp and the comment preview scrolls to this, fantastic story telling
I'm here to answer with a huge, Yes. And then watch the whole video. Thank you Josh
I hope someday you cover the two sequel modules.
Lovely burst of creativity, fun, and story!
I remember playing this as a kid and giving up on it during Chapter 2, just like you said many people probably did. However, as soon as you started describing the side quest in Charwood, I had such vivid memories come flooding back to me. This side story is so good I shoplifted it to run for my own D&D group years later, and I still remember it as one of my favorite story experiences in a video game. It was probably my first experience ever in a game of a multiple-choice ending to an event with so much interesting detail in the between spaces. Cheers for stoking my nostalgia, JS.
Oh shit. This was my childhood. I miss Aribeth and Sharwyn. I still remember my weapons master build.
One of my strongest memory impressions of NWN will always and forever just be Aribeth's voice actor saying 'Waterdavian' in that incredibly crisp, cultured, and dignified way lololol
@@Blisterdude123 I can still hear her voice going "Let me introduce myself properly. I am lady Aribeth de Tylmarande, paladin in the service of Tyr and right hand to Nasher Alagondor, lord of Neverwinter."
Deekin
Never finished OC. My last attempt at Wailing Death campaign was on release of Enhanced Edition and I got save corruption that made every save made AFTER some early point damaged goods (it loaded, but on second attempts, so I couldn't transition to chapter 2 prelude). But Shadows? Deekin alone carries it through. Only problem with it was low exp amount so entering Hordes of the Underdark I was too weak.
NWN , homm 3 , bg1&2 and gothic... the giants that raised us all. This has one of the best coop experiences i had with my 2 brothers, we would play it nonstop for days and we still comeback to this game each year for a few weeks to play a new community module. I am jelous of people who are yet to experience it and i hope their first time experience is atleast half as good as mine ^^
Add Diablo 2 to that list and you named basically all my childhood timesinks, good times! :)
Even today haven’t played gothic 😂 I grew up on Warcraft, age of mythology and homm 3, regretting not trying rpgs I really enjoy them now
Homm3 is still a treasure. HD mod ftw.
Thanks for playing. I remember playing this as a teenager all those years ago, with my druid, her animal companion, summoned creatures and Tomi Undergallows along for the ride.. It was great seeing it again, I remember it being a lot better than it seems now, but I had alot more time to game so I guess all the padding and repetition didn't bother me.
I'm up to the second Expansion now! Really Appreciate you making this video, I'd never have gotten this game otherwise.
Played this with my nephew on release and he absolutely loved it. HAD great modding tools!
Your nephew is a lucky man. You are a scholar and a gentleman. Very big 🌈
@@robertschnobert9090 😁
Kevin Sorbo was the VA for Hercules in GoW 2. I just remember that because I was a huge fan of "The Legendary Journeys of Hercules" so him coming back to Voice a very different version was some pretty effective fan service.
Kevin Sorbo voiced Hercules in GOW 3. Cam Clarke was credited for Hercules in GOW 2 but I don't actually remember him in the game.
🤓 umm, actually...
🤓 errmmm, ackshtually...
Jk 😜
Nerd on! 😎
@@monsieurdirte1714 hercules was cut content in gow2, never made it to the final release
@monsieurdirte1714 you're right. I was just thrown off since he used the GoW 3 footage then mentioned GoW 2. But Kevin Sorbo stuck in my head XD
@Heklr7 Same. I didn't even notice he said GOW 2 the first time I heard it, haha.
My Neverwinter Nights main campaign run was as a wizard rogue who would stack buffs, disappear into the shadows, and deal some nasty sneak attacks constantly.
All of the bosses in the final part of the campaign are completely immune to sneak attacks.
I absolutely hate it when games give you things like 'build around poison' and then make the bosses immune to your entire playstyle.
Almost the same here. Wizard with a panther familiar and Tomi. Double sneak attack with buffs was vicious until it simply stopped working.
I lost all desire to play at the 10 minutes left in the video mark. Based on chapter 3, I thought I was less than a quarter thru chapter 4.
Near the end of chapter 3, I figured out that my familiar was reducing my XP gain. I'd assumed that left me underleveled and I was royally pissed a class feature reduced XP. Looks like I've been wrong for 2 decades and the game level scales.
@@Skandraken
There might be a difference between the original gameversion and what was available sicne the expansions though. I own a book guide from when the game released and it has actual statblocks with HP, AC and all that stuff for strong enemies and bosses. Never mentioned in there any variations based on level, so it may have been added retrospectively with the expansions.
Prestige classes (Champion of Thorm, Dwarven defender, etc.) were also not available as far as I remember in the original gameversion.
I could be entirely wrong though of course as I was a child when I played the crap out of the game and I honestly never bothered trying to count hitpoints or anything on enemies and they always seemed to be getting weaker and weaker the more XP and sidequests I ended up grinding. At least their pwoer rating went down and most enemies were not that big of a deal for my Fighter or Paladin I used to play.
@@KonaFanatiker As someone who used HoU freshly created chars in the original campaign (just to mess around) I can confidently say there were no level scaling. Maybe it's another Enhanced Edition change?
@@Skandraken I think it's Josh who is wrong here, because I exported high level chars to the original campaign and I here were no level scaling. Enhanced Edition feature perhaps?
That’s a fucking best video ever produced. I was engaged into the story every fucking second! Love it!!!
I love how accessible BG3 seems to be compared to other D&D style RPGs. Seeing the actual dice rolls makes the system far easier to understand to those new to table top RPGs.
I loved this game - genuinely my introduction to RPGs.
Such a great module editor and multiplayer still is amazingly deep with mods. Deekin is also one of my favourite characters in the forgotten realms.
Yes, it was amazing. Maybe not as good as Baldur'sGate or Planescape: Torment but still. And the Toolset which let players create new mods easily made this game immortal.
Arelith server is still doing really well.
I played hundreds of hours of nwn back in the day. I think i played about 2 hours of the campaign. I couldn't get through it. But the multiplayer servers brought a community that was incredible, and countless curated, player driven adventures for years. I love this game so much. I may even revisit to see how active it truly still is!
Loved this video!
Josh I know this is completely unrelated. but my friends and I (about 4 of us OG players, and 3 new) are all replaying Guild Wars1 and I credit your video on it as a big reason for why I remembered it and dragged them all back, tysm, we're having a blast.
time to make some tea and strap in for this one (I also never played but I have a friend who talks it up a lot)
Dawn of war 2 when
this was my introduction to anything set in the forgotten realms universe. it's amazing how over decades of lots of different games this universe has expanded and lore been added from neverwinter knights to baldurs gate 3.
this video is the best dose of nostalgia, cant wait for you to cover the expansions!
Enjoyed the ride; Looking forward to hearing about the next couple of modules!
Thanks for doing a deep dive on another game from my childhood!