Hi. Title says all. I have no prior experience with D&D, and I'm a little overwhelmed by all the stats. If I want to play some kind of caster, can I safely grab one of the presets that looks like what I'd want? Or would you recommend researching the stats and building my own?

Thanks :D :D :D :D

That's what the presets are there for, it's not a trap. :)

I'd recommend building your own however, that's a big part of the fun.
(but each to his own, if you feel fiddling with points is a horrible effort, avoid it by all means)

You can take a look at the guides here and there, but I'd avoid "the most powerful build" types, those tend to actually make the gameplay really hard and rely on you doing something specific here and there to get by, only to have that perfect build at the endgame.

Character generation itself gives you enough info to get by, like wizard = high intelligence, sorcerer = high charisma and so-on. You really can't go completely wrong! Even if you make the worst wizard possible, you can just start taking barbarian levels instead and still get by, or whatever. :)

I'd say avoid at all costs. It generally gives you useless feats and skill point allocations, not to mention possibly the wrong attribute scores. You'd do better posting the type of character you want to play and getting suggestions of how to build it. Or just do what you feel like based on the ingame descriptions of feats etc.

Have fun :)

lol! such contradictory advice! I appreciate it nonetheless.

It sounds like it presents the same dilemma as character creation in any other PC rpg. I might wind up with some useless abilities, but it won't ruin the game.

Sounds good. Thanks guys :D

Well, we do both say, building your own is best, no? *grin*

Basically, with casters, increase only the relevent attribute score, get the metamagic feats (essential if you are sorc) like silent, extend, empower and maximise (not quicken). If Sorc you need to decide if you want to focus in one type of spells (my usual preference) and so get spell focus OR get feats that help you beat spellresistance, OR get RP feats. A wiz gets 1extra feat / 5 levels. I also wouldn't multiclass too much while you are learning, tho 1 level of something else before lvl20 with wiz is a good idea as it moves your lvl20 bonus feat to 21 when you can choose epic feats. (save that for your SoU/HotU game tho. nwn oc doesnt get past 20)

Have fun :)

Thanks!!!! I will now build my own sorcerer and he will be AWESOME :D :D :D :D

I think my first playthrough was with some strange fighter-thief-ranger mismanaged mess.

First getting weapon focus on 2-handed swords, then noticing you can dual wield weapons! So got two weapon fighting as a ranger feat, later noticing the feat goes off when wearing heavy armor and ended up getting the feat a second time. Then finding a neat shield and spending most of the game fighting with sword+shield, definitely not with any exotic weapon for which I also got a feat.

A mess, but a fun mess to play with.

Getting the right feats helps, spellcasters definitely can use something to overcome the spell resistances of some opponents... but it's not such a hard a game or campaign that you'd really need to make all the right choices. Companions help, lowering the difficulty helps more, if necessary. (Although I usually play with easy anyway.)