Hi There,

I have just wandered into a cave where there is a well (underwater passageway) that leads to a room with a chest in the middle. It is lit by a beam of light over it. Not sure what the cave is called, but I believe this is in Chapter 2 of 'Neverwinter Nights'. Anyway, I cannot open this chest and my side-kick doesn't travel through the well with me. If I try to bash the chest it says my weapon is ineffective. I believe that maybe my weapon requires a magic enchantment or something but unsure what.

Has anyone done this part and any clues please as to what I could use to open it with. I am a warrior btw.

I don't fancy buying a weapon, trying it.. find it doesnt work then load my saved game.. rinse and repeat :)

Hope someone can help!

I'm not sure exactly where you are in the game, but it doesn't really matter: it sounds like you're just trying to bash a chest open, and most (all?) objects you can break work the same way, following the DND rules. In addition to hit points, each object has a "hardness" value which acts as damage reduction. If you're not familiar with DR, it just means that any damage the person/object takes is reduced by that amount. Assuming things didn't change between NWN and dnd 3.5, the hardness of wood is 5.

This means that 5 damage will be deducted from any physical damage you do to the chest. If a hit does 5 or less damage before the deduction, it will have no effect and you'll get the "weapon is ineffective" message. In order to destroy the chest, you'll need to deal more damage per hit. Your strength modifier (the number next to your strength score in your character sheet with a + or - beside it), and your weapon's enhancement bonus (eg +1 if it's a +1 sword) add to your damage. However, the easiest way to improve your damage is to get a bigger weapon. It doesn't need to be enchanted, just an ordinary greataxe or suchlike will do. Equip it, and you should be able to smash the chest. If you were a caster, then a spell like melf's acid arrow will bypass the hardness and so can easily destroy the chest.

Incidentally, if your hireling doesn't follow you somewhere, you can save the game and reload it. Your hireling (along with any summons, familiars, etc) should appear right next to you. That may be easier in this case, judging by what you've said.

Or drink a potion of bull strength. That might give you the needed dmg. If you're a fighter, Power Attack usually helps, too.

I have tried this but it doesnt work. Keeps telling me this is the wrong weapon. I made a few notes while I was in game... It's a cave on the south road / chapter 2.

The well in the cave is near a large area of water. You enter the well (if constitution is high enough I think) but your henchmen does not follow and cannot find a way to make him travel with me.

You appear in a room on the other side with a statue and a door which has a trap set. Beyond the door is a room...In it is a coffin (not a chest as I thought). If you highlight your mouse pointer over it, it gives you the message 'Remains of Maegel', and a shaft of light beams into it from above.

So, clearly this weapon is insufficient (long sword+1) and because I cannot get my henchmen to follow, I feel quite stuck. Not really clued up on d&d rules. Was just hoping something might ring a bell with someone or they can give me a clue. I assume it might be a magic weapon needed because a regular longswrod isnt doing jack (even with a bull strength potion) and there seems to be a magical glow with it.

Thanks anyway :)

I don't remember that place either, but in general there are two reasons why bashing won't work: either the chest is too tough, or the chest is invulnerable and you need to find a key.

I suspect it's the latter. Glowing chests usually mean something special is happening. Having a magic weapon won't make a big difference when bashing a chest, but there are few chests that can't be damaged at all by a strong warrior.

If you want to be sure, equip the most damaging weapon you can find (a greatsword or greataxe, preferably. Definitely something two-handed) and enable power attack if you have it. (you probably do if you have a default fighter.) Hit the chest a few times, then read the combat info in the chat-box.

It should say something like "Fancy chest absorbed X points of slashing damage." Now, the question is, how much damage did it absorb? If it only absorbed 5 (or sometimes 10, but either way a round number that is less than your normal max damage output) then the hardness is -not- the problem. The chest is just invulnerable and you need to start looking for a key or a chest-opening lever.

If the chest absorbs different amounts of damage and never more than your max damage output, then you indeed need to be stronger. Or hope for a critical hit. In this case you can set your warrior to bashing and go make yourself a drink, and by the time you're back he'll hopefully have scored enough crits to break the chest.

Also worth trying: attempt to lockpick the chest. Now, you're a warrior so you can't, but you'll get a feedback message. Either it says "success will never be possible," which means the lock -can- be picked but you don't have the skill, or it'll say something about needing a key. If so, you know enough.

Edit: Or, even better, you can google it. I just did and apparently there is a chain you need to pull somewhere.

Ooh thanks very much. Didn't think to google it! duh! :/ I never knew the 'success will never be possible' message meant it IS possible just not yet without skill. I have pumped a few skill points into chest opening and picking and have a few items with bonuses relating to that as well. Anyway, thanks for your reply... appreciated!

You're welcome.

Oh, and one further thing: just because you get a message "you need a specific key" doesn't mean there -is- any such key in the game.

There are a -lot- of doors, mainly in cities, that just don't have anything behind them. So the designers put a plot-invulnerable locked door in there. After all, a default NWN city street has anywhere up to a dozen houses in it, and nobody wants to build a dozen pointlessly generic commoners houses. (The OC actually does put quite a few of those generic houses in, but other (premium) modules and worlds do not.)

hah, yeah I missed the pullchain the first time around too. it was when I went back there the third or fourth time and my pointer just randomly went over the chain, that I found it.

In the future, get used to using the tab key. tab will highlight anything interactive and you will be able to easily spot stuff you can manipulate, like that pullchain. zoom your camera out and hit tab in the future.

Johnny, what a fantasticly helpful post. Will be using the' tab key' religiously from now on!

I have noticed that many many buildings you enter are the same.. furniture is in the same place as is any other things. Almost like a carbon copy. Even the bookshelves are in the same place. Shame really as that kind of thing I love in games when they take the trouble to make it non-generic.

Eitherway, I love the game.. even down to the funny voice acting when you try to open something impossible,,,, "my weapon... it does nothing!" in a voice that to me sounds like manuel from 'Fawltey Towers' TV show lol

This game is only tolerable if you pick a voice-set at character creation you can bear listening to for hours and hours on end. Pity those who picked "manic" and now shudder every time their character says something.

But yeah, NWN is the opposite of custom-crafted. That's because it is primarily a toolset for people to build their own adventures with. The official campaigns are just the adventures the game-creators came up with, and they're not even necessarily the best out there. (Not by a long shot, actually. Especially the OC is very weak on story, gameplay and area design both.)

So everything is made with "tilesets" that tend to look very similar-ish. Boot up the toolset sometime if you feel like it and try building a small house. It's very easy, and you'll see what I mean. A lot of the features of rooms just automatically appear when you create one. Others are hand-placed from the "placeables" menu. But it's still hard to create something unique looking.

Now, mind you, some of the people creating custom adventures have done a great job using custom content and very careful placement of all kinds of little doodads to make everything look unique and interesting. NWN can look a -lot- better than the OC does. Try to download the "Almraiven" module sometime after you're done with the OC to see what I mean. It looks like a different game altogether. (And plays like a different one too, since it has very little combat and is more about exploring and talking to people and investigating a mystery.)

Instead of +1 etc. weapons, try any weapon with elemental damage (fire / cold, etc). It might help.

On another note, I have difficultrty getting into the mentioned area, I am running a build which doesn't focus on constitution and I only have 10 in that stat, by what I read you need a stat of 16, is there any way I can up my stat without leveling constitution?
Endurance Potion only gives 2 and I don't think it stacks with the spell Endurance and even if it does, I still lack 2 more points, I don't want to dump points into Constitution just for this small trivia but I am kinda curious what lies within there as I am a completionist.

Ironically with this thread being resurrected 7 years later, there's a chain you can pull and skeleton rises from the dead and asks you some questions (he can attack you or give you some rewards... nothing really outstanding though).

May I ask where this chain is? I have replayed the OG camopaign many times and I don't think I met that scenario before.
Also I love this game so having it revived warms my heart.

The chain is right next to a glowing light (the chain does not have any light). Maybe you have to move the camera to see it since it's hanging from the ceiling. It's near the center of the area, with a sarcophagus/big chest if I'm not mistaken. I always played with isometric view for what is worth (easier to see things except in the forest areas where the Enhanced Edition simply refuses to hide the trees...).