Beginners' Guide to NeverWinter Nights

This document is to help beginers play Neverwinter Nights, the AD&D game on
America Online keyword "ADD".


BEFORE YOU PLAY

Go to keyword "download games" to download the game software. Then go to
keyword "add" and under "upgrades & documentation" get the following things:
The Adventure's Journal in zip format (which is the whole journal as a
zipped text file), the Data Card and the Rule Book (which tell you how to
use the software). These are all out of date, so be wary of the information
you find there. Under "The Adventures' Journal" get the known bugs & the
area descriptions of Windycliffs & Westbridge, which are missing from the
big zipped text file. You should also read the known bugs & documentation
errors which you can get from keyword ADD => the NWN help & information
button => known bugs & documentation errors. The game requires 1.5 M space
on your hard disk and cannot be run off floppies.

For purposes of learning the game I suggest you become an elf f/mu
(fighter/magic-user). GET A GOOD SPIN! Rerolling takes very little time, so
keep at it till you get a good one! Once you start the game you will have
200 gp. Buy yourself the best one-handed weap for your class and a shield
(see below). When humans spin the computer automatically lists what they
will be able to dual to. Be careful when dualing! You will only regain the
advantages of your first class after you have reached the level ABOVE the
one you left off, so if you are a fighter that wants to become a mage, don't
go to 15th level before dualing, go to the 10th level.

About Neverwinter Square & Surrounding Areas

NW Square is where you first start the game. There is no fighting in this
area.

To the west of the square proper is Lord Nasher's Palace. In here you can
find out what Nasher needs done in the realms. Despite what is said in the
Journal, Nasher does not give you rewards for completing the quests you find
here. He gives rewards for certain things that are fixed, such as bringing
back a brass button from the Gallant Prince. On the north side of the palace
you can gain enterance to the great hall, not to be confused with the chat
room where NWT Cayne gives out prizes. Next door to the great hall you find
the enterance to the sewers. SIDE NOTE ON SEWERS: The gaurds will not let
you in to the sewers unless you have a sewer worker's badge. These badges
can be gotten on the Islands. You can try fighting your way past the gaurds,
but they are very tough (see my guide to sewer crashing).

North of the center of NW Square are the vaults. You can keep up to 16 items
in the vaults at one time, and many thousands of gems & jewels (something
like 35,000. Pray you have the problem of not being able to keep all your
jewels in there :) ). An important feature of the vaults: you keep yours
when you re-roll (kill your char and start over)! When you want to re-roll
put all your stuff in there first. The Vault Row is a very convienent place.
At the west end you have shops, and at the east end a training hall.

East of the Square lies the Wharves. This is where you should start
adventureing. There are no secret passages here. On the west of the river
you usually find the easy fights, such as a single kobold. Use these to
learn how to fight. You should learn how to use a bow, throw weapons, and
melee weapons. Everything you find here should be sleepable. There is one
fight of note, the Royal Guard fight. Find a locked door on the west side of
the river. Behind it you will find four of Lord Nasher's finest, with over
500 xp for a single class charecter. This is the only place in the game you
can find them.

North of NW Square lies the Wharehouse District. There are no secret
passages in this area. This area is divided up into two parts, the wood
buildings and the brick buildings. In the north part of the brick buildings
you can find skeletons (Clerics take note). A new cleric can turn the
skeletons and take a swipe at them as they try to flee. NOTE ON FLEEING:
Just like you, skels can't flee if they are withing line of sight of their
enemy (you). If you don't want them to flee off the board stay within line
of sight. If they flee you don't get the xp. END NOTE. In the south part of
the brick area you can find an oger and an electric spider, and lots of
other not-so-nice things I'm sure. The potters guild is hard to explore
because it's made up of rooms that have the same shape that look like each
other, which is confusing when using the regular 3d view. If you use the
area view, you can't see the doors. You just can't win in the potters guild.

South of the NW Square is Southwall. There are secret passages there. In the
west is a secret passage where you can fight a minotaur wielding a
battle-axe +1. This fight is very popular for starting fighters looking for
a magic weapon. In the east you can find a troll. Be weary of trolls. They
regenerate their wounds. If you hit a troll, then decide to take care of
some pesky lesser creatures first, you will see the troll gain hp. Even
though they are not supposed to regenerate wounds gotten from fire, they do.
They can even come back from being all the way dead. (Other creatures seem
to do this also sometimes, but that's just a bug in the game. I notice it in
Windycliffs a lot.) There is a special secret passage system in Southwall
that you can only find the enterance to if you have defeated the band of
theives found in the eastern part. After you enter this system, you will be
asked by a gaurd the secret password. The theives gave you a hint to the
password, after you figure it out you must type it BACKWARD so the gaurd can
read it (are these game designers sneaky or what? Most people never find
these passages at all, let alone figure out to type the password backwards).
NOTE ON DOORS: In the realms doors can be in the middle of nowhere, and when
you enter them you will be transported to another area on the map (like the
well in Floodblest). Secret passages are no different; do not only look for
them on walls that you have never seen the other side of.

Windycliffs is north of the wharehouse district. There are LOTS of secret
passages here. There are even two areas that I couldn't find enterance to,
and can't find anyone else that has either. There's even a secret passage
withing one of the secret passages (I told you these game designers were
sneaky!). Follow the road north out of NW. This road is infested with pyro
snakes in the company of lizardmen. Sleep works on both snakes and
lizardmen, & clerics can use snake charm on the snake. NOTE ON
FIRE-BREATHING CREATURES: As you gain experience (real, not xp's) you will
know how to use fire-breathers to your advantage. In their haste to kill
you, fire breathers will often kill their own allies. END NOTE. As you get
closer to town you will encounter packs of theives accompanied by the
walking trees (giant kampfluts). Fireball will work wonders here, and sleep
can also be very effective (sleep will effect those who inhabit the squares
touching the square at which you aim, so you can put 9 theives to sleep if
they are standing close together. If you are trying to sleep something which
is on the square next to you do n't aim at him or you will sleep yourself
(unless you are of a high enough level to be immune). Instead use manual aim
to aim at the square on the other side of it unless there's a wall there, in
which case you can sleep yourself and hope you wake up be4 he does :) The
journal claims sleep can be aimed at 16 targets. This might have been true
for the version of the software running at the time the journal was written,
but it's not now.) The road will pass by the town briefly and continue
north. To enter the town you must enter the street between the i nn and the
shops. On the streets of the town you will meet the theives mentioned
earlier, and inside the buildings you will encounter much more dangerous
foes. Don't go into the town hall unless you are powerful of have lots of
help! On the road north of town you will meet wolves in the company of a
single great vilstrak (can be slept). After you pass into the Port Llask map
you will meet packs of boars & giant rats (fireball again is most
effective). Like I said, there are lots of secret passages in Windy.
Creatures encountered in this map area include: harpies, cloud giants, giant
lizards, rock lizards, carrion crawlers, basiliks, umber hulks, purple
worms, banshees, ogers regular and the shaman and mage varieties, minotaurs
(like encountered in southwall, but four of them each with a battleaxe +1
and accompanied by two poisonous snakes), owlbears, greenhags, and dracolith
(undead dragons, good for a lot of xp but don't even think about taking them
on alone!).

North of Windy lies the Port Llast. East of Llast lies the harbor & the
Gallant Prince. North lies the Luskan Outpost & Luskan (not reachable). East
of the wharves lies Floodblest, east of which lies Nightsedge, north of
which lies the Nightsedge Carvens and east of which lies the woods. The
woods are divided into six parts: Northwest, West, Southwest, Northeast,
East, and Southeast. They all connect to each adjacent section. Enter from
Nightsedge to the West woods, cross over to the East woods, and go from
there to Longsaddle. Longsaddle has an underground map called Longsaddle
Under. South of Longsaddle is Berun, south of which lies Triboar. South of
Triboar lie Westbridge and South of which lies Red Lark. Triboar has an
under & Westbridge shares an under with Red Lark. South of Southwall lies
Vilnask, south of which lies Crossergate. There is no area south of
Crossergate as of version 2.22. East of Crossergate lies the lost hills,
east of which lies Triboar. The northwest corner of the Triboar map is not
connected to the rest of Triboar, much like the Gallant Prince & Port Llast
harbor. Triboar is an interesting place. There you can get tickets to the
islands. To use the ticket, bring it and 1000 Plat to the docks in NW. You
must also know the password, which can also be found in the triboar map
(watch out!! The password changes biweekly!). Triboar and Triboar Under
compromise a 3D maze. In Triboar Under (like all unders) you do not get to
view coordinates or compass directions. There is a special place in the
Triboar Arena where if you die you lost your charecter. There is a teleport
to Triboar in the sewers.

COMBAT

To fight, move into an enemy with a melee weapon. To use a distance weap
ready the distance weap (such as darts, hammers, and bows) and use the aim
menu to aim it. You will only be able to target the enemy if he's in range
and within line of sight and you are not standing next to an enemy. Learn to
go diagnally by using the PgUp, PgDn, Home & End keys (look at the numeric
keypad to see which is which). If fighting together, try to hit the enemy
from behind, even if you aren't a thief. Theives can backstab, fighters can
hit from behind, but clerics & mu's can only hit. However if you are a
cleric or mu you can set up the other guy to hit from behind by moving
opposite him. Pressing any of the movement keys except the left & right
arrows will automatically move you in that direction without pressing
selecting "move" first. In the aim menu it works the same way except after
you press it the cursor appears over you.

When fighting outdoors, you can't move through the tops of trees. You can't
see through them either, so take that in mind when aiming & fleeing. When
you are outdoors, if you move over rocks or pubbles, you may take up 2 moves
moving over them as if you moved diagonally. If you move over a stream it
will take up 4 moves.

Fighters use a long sword and a shield, and keep a bow ready. Clerics use a
shield and a flail, and keep a staff sling ready. Mu's use a qstaff and keep
some darts handy. Once you get an enchanted weap DON'T UNREADY IT! If you
die anything that isn't readied might be taken from you, thus don't carry
range weaps in case you lose control of yourself (banshees do this), because
the system might unready your melee weap in favor of the range weap.

Fighters can sweep, that is attack more than one creature in a single turn.
The higher you go the more you can sweep. If you attack a low-level
charecter like a kobold while you are standing next to other kobolds, you
will first attack the kobold you attacked and then procede in a direction
the computer chooses.

Human mages can't cast in combat with armor on for some reason, though other
races can. If you want to be able to cast mage spells while wearing armor,
you can via the auto feature, but the computer fights really badly. Since
mages can't use armor, they seek bracers. The mages in Port Llast are good
for those. You want AC3 bracers, which make 3 your base ac, and any bonuses
you get after that will lower it still further.

Don't expect to get magic treasure unless you are battling some firce
monsters. A banshee or a greenhag might get you a scroll or a potion, but
you need to battle some big stuff if you expect to find enchanted armor (the
dracs in Crossergate are known to be generous). Items used by the enemy will
show up in your treasure, as well as some other items the computer throws
in. If all you get are the items the enemy used against you don't even
bother looking to see if they're magical.

CAMPING

In the three areas surrounding NW Square the computer will not let you camp
outside. Once you leave these areas the computer will let you camp, but you
won't go more than 5 minutes without triggering a fight. This leads to "gate
fights" where a newbie dies, gets sent to the gate, and decides to camp
there to heal. This immediately triggers a fight which keeps anyone else
from using the gate. Only camp inside.

If a cleric fixes he will gain a lot of hp at a time. Others however, will
have to rest a full day to fix 1 hp. If you have just have won a fight you
might fix 5 at a time. If you are in an inn you always fix 5 at a time (I
found a spot which you can always fix 5 at a time on in Windy, but I'm not
telling :P). Mage's can memorize their spells while fixing. Clerics will
have to rest seperately though. The computer automatically puts in the right
amount for you to rest. To mem your spells if you're not hurt, go alt+E
alt+R alt+R alt+E (encamp, rest, rest, exit). Mu's come with some spells in
their grimore. To see what they are go to camp then memorize. If it asks you
"memorize these spells?" say no, which will bring up all the spells you can
memorize and at the bottom how many of each you can memorize.

STORES

When you appraise a gem or jewel, sell it even if you don't like the price.
You will only get half of the appraised price later on. Don't carry too many
arrows because you don't need a lot and they are heavy when you have a lot.
Short bows are good enough, I have never found that something was out of
range of my short bow. Remember to take all your jewelery after you buy it!
If you come up against undead you might need a silver or enchanted weapon.
Banshees can be found in the Vilnask map (south of Southwall) so if
travelling that way bring a silver weap.

On general shops: they sell three itmes: oil, holy water, and mirrors. Oil
is a throw weapon only good on frogs. There isn't much point in using it
since frogs are easily killed with melee weaps. Water is used on the undead
for 2-9 points of damage (if I remember correctly. An NWA told me that).
Usually if you encounter undead you are facing skeletons which are easily
killed with melee weaps, or you are in an advanced area by which time you
have gotten an enchanted weap which you don't want to unready to get a throw
weap (see note above). They are heavy and do little damage so don't bother
to lug them around. Mirrors are used as shields. You must unready your
regular shield before you can use the mirror. They do not help your ac at
all. They are used to reflect the gazes of dracolith (windycliffs and
vilnask), medusa (Gallant Prince), and basiliks (Windycliffs) as well as
other creatures.

TURNING & MAGIC

Low level clerics can cause minor undead to flee, higher level clerics will
kill them outright. To see what's on a scroll it must be id'd with a first
level mu spell read magic or at a shop. If it's id'd it will say CL/MU
SCROLL WITH x SPELL(S), if it's not it will just say xx SCROLL. To see
what's on a scroll ready it, then in the view menu select use. If you can't
ready the scroll you can camp => magic => scribe, but that will lump all
your spells together in order they appear on the scrolls. The stinking cloud
magic-user spell will create a cloud 2 squares on a side, with the targeted
square being the upper-left corner. Therefore, don't target anything just
above you or or to your above left or you will be enveloped in the cloud
too. Instead use manual aiming. The spell will take effect anytime you (or
an NPC) moves in the cloud. If you only cough don't move in the cloud. Keep
this in mind when targeting, try to make it so that the NPC you aim at has
to move through the cloud to get at you.

When a banshee or yeti frightens you, you lose control over yourself and go
into auto for two rounds. Pressing escape will not get you back to manual,
but it will keep you from acting if you don't want to use your invis.
However, when you have fear cast on you you can escape out of it, and in
fact you must or you will be in fear forever, even after you die and get
into another fight.

ON YOUR FELLOW ADVENTURERS

People get annoyed if you barge in on their fights, so ask first. There are
exceptions to this. Fights you have to fight, such as the mamouth/strige
fight in Vilnask, the theif fight in Southwall, or if the road is blocked by
fighting on two adjacent squares (but ask if anyone is almost done before
barging in). If someone gets annoyed that you barge in in these conditions
that's their problem. Which brings me to my next point, that PVP areas are
not enforced. There is nothing built into the game which keeps players from
attacking each other in non-PVP areas.

CHAT

Just typing anything will send it out to anyone on your square & anyone on
the 4 adjacent squares (unless there's a wall in the way or something). Some
chat hints:

`~!@#$%^ cannot be use in chat because if you press them a different
pictures comes up, like a heart, a knife, or a smiley or sad face. Ctrl+E
will put a solid block. When chatting use the following notations :

Notations commonly used in NWN:

<==
     to describe yourself, for example if you type: <== Is in fightthis will
     appear:
     YOURNAME: <== IS IN FIGHT.
AI :
     All In
AFK :
     Away From Keyboard
ANY1
     Anyone
B4
     Before
CAD
     Ctrl+Alt+Delete
DRAC
     DRAColith (undead dragon)
ICx
     I see x (number of people)
LOL
     Laughing Out Loud
NH
     Need Help
NI
     Not In
NIBL
     Not In, But Late
NT
     No Thanks
PPL
     People
QTS
     Quit To System (some fights are triggered by quitting & then coming
     back in).
ROFL
     Rolling On The Floor Laughing
RTFM
     Read The <beep> Manual
R
     Ready
Nasher itmes/Nasher quests
     There are certain items in the realms that if brought to Lord Nasher,
     will earn you a reward. These items can be gotten by completing a
     "Nasher quest". For example, if you solve the mystery of the Gallant
     Prince, you will earn a brass button to bring to Lord Nasher who will
     reward you with 100 gold and a misc. magic item. Often Nasher items can
     be readied to you don't have to risk losing them. An exception is the
     dagger of striking that Willo gives you for rescuing him, because that
     is a weapon too (Lord Nasher will give you 5 gems for that!).
role playing
     That's where ye talk as if ye were still in da middle ages.
punt monster/punting
     "Punting" refers to the game crashing. It can be a normal system crash
     or more often connection problems. When a person punts in a
     multi-player fight the rest are made to wait until the system realizes
     that the person has punted. There is a special type of punting where
     the game doesn't realize it has punted, see the documentation about
     vaults for more on that. If you are in your vault and your modem hangs
     up, DON'T LEAVE THE VAULT. Just reboot/reset your computer.

THE ADD FORMUM, THE GOH, & NWA'S

Lord Nasher's lounge is usually staffed by a NWA or NW. They also stay in
the game in front of Lord Nasher's palace in NW Square proper. Their
schedule can be found somewhere in the add forum, I disremember where, and
also in the free area somewhere (go to "download games " and look from
there. There is a special chat room for technical problems. You can access
it by choosing Lord Nasher's Lounge from the add forum, and then clicking on
the "PLAY NWN" button. NWA's were regular players who became staffers (there
is an application in the goh). They have no knowledge of the game other than
their personal experience, so if you would ask them a detailed question they
might not be able to answer it (they probably won't answer it anyway since
they want you to find out for yourself). You can find maps in the goh, but
they are not 100% accurate and sometimes reflect an older version than the
one that we are playing now. Instead try the KORT web site, a link to which
can be found on the main page. In general, if you are offered pearls or goh
access, take the pearls. All that's in the goh are 2 booths a month which
are hard to get into anyway, and a monthly writing contest of short stories
or submit questions for WWAI.

TSR BOOKS

Neverwinter Nights is taken from the Forgetten Realms book series published
by TSR, who also publish DragonLance and RavenLoft. If you want to learn
more about the realms I recommend "Once Around the Realms" by Brian Thomsen
ISBN 0-7869-0119-5. It isn't that good of a story, and you get less for your
money because they put the words in big type, but it's great for learning
about the realms. I strongly recommend the Dark Elf books by R.A. Salvatore.
As yet I have not found any books about NeverWinter, but one of R.A.
Salvatore's books takes you through Longsaddle and Waterdeep (I believe it's
"Streams of Silver" but I'm not sure, it might be another one of the books
of the Icewind Dale trilogy).

MISC

You can speed up the game at certain times by pressing enter very fast, for
example when memorizing/scribing, and when casting on a large group of PC's.

The journal incorrectly states that if you choose LOOK from the main menu
and you look at an adjacent square it will be the same as moving onto that
square with search on. All it will do is list the players standing on that
square. LOOKing HERE will be the same as moving onto the square with search
on (and may trig a fight).

NWCHK22 can be used to help diagnose problems. You can get it from keyword
DOWNLOAD GAMES => Helpful files library.

If you are in a vault and your hear your modem hang up, don't exit the
vault! Instead CAD immediately. When you re-enter NWN your vault should be
the same as before you left it.


Questions, comments? Please email me at jks2557@is4.nyu.edu.
This page was written by Joseph Shraibman. Some terms I have used in this
document are copyrighted by AOL, SSI, & TSR. Last updated Monday, January
20, 1997.