Posted October 28, 2010
If you want to give multiplayer NWN a try, you should definitely try out Higher Ground Path of Ascension: CEP Legends. In short: HG
HG is an action packed party play module that provides great, awesome and very interesting challenges.
you can find instructions on how to get started in the wiki that accompanies HG: http://wiki.hgweb.org/wiki/Getting_Started (I can really recommend ARF2 for automated downloads and connecting to the servers)
if you take a look at this page on the vault, you see that HG is one of the most popular NWN gameworlds out there.
The community is still active and the developer team is still working on improving balance and adding new awesome stuff. The server has been up and running since 2004 at least, perhaps even before that.
So, what makes it so great?
-party play: most areas are designed with a party in mind, which is definitely not a bad thing. good teamplay makes for a lot of fun and can greatly decrease the difficulty of some areas (some areas are really, really tough)...
-interesting monsters: nearly all monsters have some form of special attack; every character has it's weakness and there's always a monster that exploits that very fact. of course, every foe also has it's soft spot... and you are fully able to make use of that
-Legendary Levels 40-60: your character doesn't stop gaining power at level 40. A full 20 levels have be added, providing new feats, higher skill ranks, additional Ability increases, improved casterlevels, hipoints, attack bonuses etc; everything you would expect from a new tier of levels.
-Subraces: I forgot the count, but there are close to 80 subraces you can choose for your characters. These range from Open subraces (available to anyone) like Drow, Troll and Arctic Dwarf, to Secret (you will need to complete a quest to obtain these) like Pixie, Illithid and Minotaur, to UltraRare (found in Legendary Level areas) like Treant, Doppleganger and Fallen Angel, to BeyondUltraRare (found only in the hardest areas) like Wemic, Brownie and Maelephant.
-HGEnhanced: if you want the full experience, you should download a completely optional hakpak that allows you to pick up new feats (Greater Weapon Focus, Extra Spell Known) and spells (Disintegrate, Polar Ray), see additional visual effects and the modified descriptions of items and spells. In the future, even new base or prestige classes might be added.
-class customisations and quasiclasses: become a large-sized Half Dragon at 30 levels of Dragon Disciple (not necessarily Red!), gain additional attacks with a quarterstaff as a high level Monk, choose from over 30 shapes as a Shifter, use called shot on your enemies as a Ranger to instantly slay them, inflict Mortal Strikes as an Assassin or use Shadow Step as a Shadow Dancer to instantly jump to a nearby creature; crush your enemies using an enchanted staff as a Staffmaster (wizard/weaponmaster), cast both divine and arcane spells as a Theurge (cleric/wizard), become a hulking abomination of rock and stone as an Accursed Pariah (barbarian/sorcerer) or unleash fiery doom as a Bloodfire Mage (sorcerer/red dragon disciple).
-spell customisations and epic spells: cast the cleric epic spell Miracle, resurrecting the entire party and temporarily dazing all your foes; teleport yourself across the map using a modified Gate spell as a wizard or sorcerer; reduce your enemies to quivering jelly using Greater Ruin; increase your movement speed by casting expeditious retreat and freedom of movement (both stack with haste!); summon a massive wall to keep your enemies away from the party using the arcane epic Transmute Barrier.
-feat customistations and legendary feats: obtain Legendary Spell Penetration, Legendary Weapon Focus and Legendary Skill Affinity (grants a skill as a class skill, but requires a level 1 feat) among others. Increase your critical threat range and multiplier using Overwhelming and Devastating Critical, increase your base movement speed by picking up Blinding Speed.
-skill customisations: increase your attack and defense by putting ranks in craft weapon and armor, raise listen to become more adapt at fighting concealed enemies, use bluff to lower your targets attack bonus, reduce the damage you take from critical hits by putting ranks in parry.
-random loot: with the exception of items from an area specific set, items are randomised, allowing for increased (or decreased), added (or removed) properties; randomized items can be augmented to further improve their quality to suit your character's perfect gear set-up.
-building: a badly built character will not be fun to play in the hardest areas of the module (though player skill can make up to that for a bit). but do not despair if you are not into building! a lot of players post their builds, receiving criticism from the community, allowing them to improve their characters and you to try them out by yourself. new players are advised to follow the detailed Open Subrace builds, specifically designed for new players.
-huge amount of areas to visit
there's probably quite a few things I forgot to mention, but I think I succeeded at painting the general picture.
HG is an action packed party play module that provides great, awesome and very interesting challenges.
you can find instructions on how to get started in the wiki that accompanies HG: http://wiki.hgweb.org/wiki/Getting_Started (I can really recommend ARF2 for automated downloads and connecting to the servers)
if you take a look at this page on the vault, you see that HG is one of the most popular NWN gameworlds out there.
The community is still active and the developer team is still working on improving balance and adding new awesome stuff. The server has been up and running since 2004 at least, perhaps even before that.
So, what makes it so great?
-party play: most areas are designed with a party in mind, which is definitely not a bad thing. good teamplay makes for a lot of fun and can greatly decrease the difficulty of some areas (some areas are really, really tough)...
-interesting monsters: nearly all monsters have some form of special attack; every character has it's weakness and there's always a monster that exploits that very fact. of course, every foe also has it's soft spot... and you are fully able to make use of that
-Legendary Levels 40-60: your character doesn't stop gaining power at level 40. A full 20 levels have be added, providing new feats, higher skill ranks, additional Ability increases, improved casterlevels, hipoints, attack bonuses etc; everything you would expect from a new tier of levels.
-Subraces: I forgot the count, but there are close to 80 subraces you can choose for your characters. These range from Open subraces (available to anyone) like Drow, Troll and Arctic Dwarf, to Secret (you will need to complete a quest to obtain these) like Pixie, Illithid and Minotaur, to UltraRare (found in Legendary Level areas) like Treant, Doppleganger and Fallen Angel, to BeyondUltraRare (found only in the hardest areas) like Wemic, Brownie and Maelephant.
-HGEnhanced: if you want the full experience, you should download a completely optional hakpak that allows you to pick up new feats (Greater Weapon Focus, Extra Spell Known) and spells (Disintegrate, Polar Ray), see additional visual effects and the modified descriptions of items and spells. In the future, even new base or prestige classes might be added.
-class customisations and quasiclasses: become a large-sized Half Dragon at 30 levels of Dragon Disciple (not necessarily Red!), gain additional attacks with a quarterstaff as a high level Monk, choose from over 30 shapes as a Shifter, use called shot on your enemies as a Ranger to instantly slay them, inflict Mortal Strikes as an Assassin or use Shadow Step as a Shadow Dancer to instantly jump to a nearby creature; crush your enemies using an enchanted staff as a Staffmaster (wizard/weaponmaster), cast both divine and arcane spells as a Theurge (cleric/wizard), become a hulking abomination of rock and stone as an Accursed Pariah (barbarian/sorcerer) or unleash fiery doom as a Bloodfire Mage (sorcerer/red dragon disciple).
-spell customisations and epic spells: cast the cleric epic spell Miracle, resurrecting the entire party and temporarily dazing all your foes; teleport yourself across the map using a modified Gate spell as a wizard or sorcerer; reduce your enemies to quivering jelly using Greater Ruin; increase your movement speed by casting expeditious retreat and freedom of movement (both stack with haste!); summon a massive wall to keep your enemies away from the party using the arcane epic Transmute Barrier.
-feat customistations and legendary feats: obtain Legendary Spell Penetration, Legendary Weapon Focus and Legendary Skill Affinity (grants a skill as a class skill, but requires a level 1 feat) among others. Increase your critical threat range and multiplier using Overwhelming and Devastating Critical, increase your base movement speed by picking up Blinding Speed.
-skill customisations: increase your attack and defense by putting ranks in craft weapon and armor, raise listen to become more adapt at fighting concealed enemies, use bluff to lower your targets attack bonus, reduce the damage you take from critical hits by putting ranks in parry.
-random loot: with the exception of items from an area specific set, items are randomised, allowing for increased (or decreased), added (or removed) properties; randomized items can be augmented to further improve their quality to suit your character's perfect gear set-up.
-building: a badly built character will not be fun to play in the hardest areas of the module (though player skill can make up to that for a bit). but do not despair if you are not into building! a lot of players post their builds, receiving criticism from the community, allowing them to improve their characters and you to try them out by yourself. new players are advised to follow the detailed Open Subrace builds, specifically designed for new players.
-huge amount of areas to visit
there's probably quite a few things I forgot to mention, but I think I succeeded at painting the general picture.
Post edited November 10, 2010 by MightyKhan
