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Neverwinter Nights Playthrough: The Thug

Tags: #Dragonborn1721  #NWN 
  • April 10, 2018

    I wanted to finish off one more build before buying Neverwinter Nights - Remastered that Beamdog has recently released. Basically, I want to finish off the last idea (that's pretty simplistic overall) before getting my fancy new game, that I really think will end up getting DLC, better (or at least more consistent, easier to download) mods and all that fun stuff. The Thug is rather simple, the idea behind it is for me to try and play a properly evil character but trying to get a (somewhat) natural progression going. Now, it's sort of difficult to actually change your alignment in NWN, so I have to start off as Chaotic Evil, but my character's going to be more...Neutral Good, or maybe Chaotic Good to start. He might have a few selfish moments, a few times where he's thinking of getting paid rather than helping people but he's still a generally 'good' person. I don't know exactly where he's going to change, just that the end goal is a Chaotic Evil character, who's basically...well a glorified thug.

    Core of the Build:

    Race: Human

    Classes: Fighter (2), Rogue (1)

    Alignment: Chaotic Evil (but closer to Chaotic Good right now)

    Skills: Discipline, Tumble, Persuade, Intimidate, Open Locks, Disable Traps

    Feats: Dodge, Weapon Focus (Warhammer), Mobility, Thug

    Abilities:

    Strength - 14

    Dexterity - 15

    Constitution - 12

    Wisdom - 8

    Intelligence - 14

    Charisma - 14

     

    Arc 1 - The Academy

    The academy was an intensely easy situation because I had better luck on damage rolls than I'd ever had before. At one point I'd managed to get six 10 damage hits in a row (note: at the moment I do 1d8+2 with a Warhammer meaning 10 is my highest output) and slaughtered just about everything through the Academy. The fights were easy, and honestly, for some reason, my hardest fight was against the Training Dummy...I know that's weird, but it took me a good 5 attacks just to hit the damn thing. My set-up is rather simple, at the moment I'm fighting with a Large Shield (won't upgrade to Tower Shield at this rate), wearing Studded Leather and wielding a Warhammer. My support equipment would be a Ring of Fortitude and the Discipline Gloves who's name I can't remember at the moment. I have sold all of my stronger armour, because honestly, in the long run, I'm going to get more benefit out of the lighter armour with the high Dex + Tumble that I'll end up with. And as a quick note. Tumble probably won't be that effective because of how a Fighter generally fights (and essentially that's what I'll be) but in NWN you get a +1 armour class per 5 ranks of Tumble, so by the end of the game, I should be getting around 4 AC from the skill. It might end up more since technically I can enter Epic Levels but the main campaign is meant for Level 20, so I don't see myself getting further. I will, however, be completing Hordes of the Underdark with this character, which (yes) isn't canon, but it's an interesting little change IMO.

    So as for how he completed it, well he's not stupid, any attempts to be evil or greedy are going to be bad signs here, so Jerall is going through the Academy (looting everything he can obviously) with the intent of simply doing what he's told. Arguably, he knows that it's the right thing to do and all that, and there's no real option for doing otherwise so he's not going to be 'Stupid Evil' and just be greedy and an outright dick. His general conversations with Aribeth, Fenthick and all the others are going to be designed to paint him in the best light possible, a righteous defender of Neverwinter who's simply in it to help people. Of course if he thinks he can get away with it (for example...in the Beggar's Nest) he might end up swindling people, stealing from them and being a general menace, but in the Core, and any of the more populated areas he's going to be as 'good' as possible. He's an opportunist at heart, and he knows that being a dick isn't really going to end with him being rich, but being nice, good and polite to the important people will really be beneficial in the long run.

    Arc 2 - The Plauge-Born City

    Just starting this now, so we'll see. The initial conversations with Aribeth and the Devilish Duo have been completed, I'll most likely do the quest for the Temple of Tyr but he might think about keeping some of the items that he eventually could get from the final area. Other then that I'm not really sure what I'll be doing quest wise, I know I'll only be taking two followers for this playthrough, and those are going to be Sharwyn and Linu, with the latter being my main follower because if there's anything I'll need, it'll be a Cleric.